Vintage Jewelry Addicts: How She Started a Jewelry Reselling Empire! - Episode #53

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Jewelry Resellers Podcast, your go-to source for all things shiny, sparkly,

[00:00:06] and of course profitable.

[00:00:08] I'm your host Desiree, and I'll be your guide on this dazzling journey through the

[00:00:12] world of reselling jewelry.

[00:00:15] We'll be diving deep into the art and science of reselling, uncovering valuable tips,

[00:00:20] insider secrets, and sharing stories from successful jewelry resellers.

[00:00:26] We'll explore market trends, industry news, and even discuss how to find those hidden

[00:00:31] gems just waiting to be discovered in thrift stores, estate sales, and beyond.

[00:00:37] So if you're dreaming of turning your hobby into a hustle, or if you're a seasoned pro

[00:00:42] looking to stay at the top of your jewelry reselling game, join me each week for

[00:00:47] insights, stories, and more on the Jewelry Resellers Podcast.

[00:00:55] Okay, so we are now recording.

[00:00:58] Hello, Samantha.

[00:00:59] Hello, beautiful Desiree.

[00:01:00] How are you?

[00:01:01] I am fantastic.

[00:01:03] How are you doing?

[00:01:04] I'm great.

[00:01:05] It's a warm day here in Baltimore.

[00:01:07] I think we're like 85.

[00:01:08] I don't know how hot it is yet in Vegas, but it's pretty hot for us here.

[00:01:13] Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic.

[00:01:14] We've been having some weird weather here in Vegas.

[00:01:16] It's been kind of windy and cold and all kinds of stuff, but for the most part

[00:01:21] the heat will be kicking in very soon.

[00:01:23] Oh, it will.

[00:01:24] I know, I know what that Vegas like.

[00:01:27] All right, so I am so excited and so pumped to talk to you today because I know we've only

[00:01:32] connected not too long ago, but I'm already so impressed by everything you're doing

[00:01:37] and how you're doing it.

[00:01:38] So I think we should start there by you introducing yourself and letting us know

[00:01:43] who you are and what you do.

[00:01:46] Thank you so much.

[00:01:47] And I'm so impressed by you.

[00:01:48] So I want to hear more about you.

[00:01:49] Oh, thank you.

[00:01:52] So my name is Samantha Sammy Davis.

[00:01:54] We were just chatting earlier about what I go by.

[00:01:58] If you Google Sammy Davis Vintage, you'll find stuff about me.

[00:02:02] If you Google Samantha Davis, you might find other Samantha Davises, but somewhere

[00:02:06] I'm in there.

[00:02:07] But essentially I have built two unique brands that are called Vintage Boss Babes

[00:02:14] and recently Vintage Jewelry Addicts.

[00:02:17] And what these brands are, are buy sell social media marketplaces.

[00:02:22] So what that means is that you enter a admin run community on Facebook.

[00:02:28] So a Facebook group and to sell there, you actually have to pay to sell.

[00:02:35] Now some people go, I shouldn't have to pay to sell on Facebook.

[00:02:39] Well, did you know that if you sell something on Facebook and ship it, they charge

[00:02:45] you a commission?

[00:02:47] If you sell on eBay and ship it, they charge a commission.

[00:02:50] If you sell on whatnot and ship it, they charge a commission.

[00:02:55] So what I have is actually, I call it a pay to play, which I know is like kind of an awkward

[00:03:00] way, but it makes sense to a lot of people where it's like, oh, like I'm paying an advertising

[00:03:04] fee so you can post as many items as you want and you can sell as many items as you

[00:03:09] want.

[00:03:10] And you're only paying that monthly subscription or because we host live sales, live

[00:03:15] sale fee.

[00:03:16] And this has been really a game changer for, I want to say hundreds of sellers.

[00:03:22] You know, these, these are men and women, mostly women who found me beginning around

[00:03:27] 2020.

[00:03:28] So pandemic, I actually started my first community pre pandemic, but once we all

[00:03:34] were at home, we all had a reason to be online and my communities grew.

[00:03:41] We started live, live sales.

[00:03:43] And from there I learned really how to be the best admin and leader possible and create

[00:03:50] a positive environment.

[00:03:52] Now, I don't want to be negative about anything, but I think we've all entered

[00:03:56] spaces where it's like, I'm kind of scared.

[00:04:00] I don't know if I want to post here.

[00:04:03] And it's unfortunate, right?

[00:04:04] Because I want people that are beginners to feel like they can be beginners.

[00:04:09] I don't want them to feel like they're going to be criticized or ostracized.

[00:04:14] And of course, quality is important.

[00:04:16] But again, that's up to the admin to just foster that relationship with the seller

[00:04:21] so that if they need support, they can get support.

[00:04:24] So in addition to running these communities, I've offered workshops.

[00:04:28] I've sold a few courses like do at your own pace, coursing.

[00:04:32] I offer coaching.

[00:04:35] I also now have someone on my team who does jewelry coaching because having launched

[00:04:40] Vintage Jewelry Addicts, I'm not a jewelry expert.

[00:04:44] So I'm just going to like I'm a lover.

[00:04:48] And so when I launched the group, the whole angle was vintage jewelry for the

[00:04:52] fashion lover.

[00:04:54] So that also again, people that are beginners or intermediates feel like it's a safe

[00:04:58] space to learn all the things because there's a lot of things and to also be able

[00:05:04] to get support.

[00:05:05] So one of my colleagues, she offers coaching through that community.

[00:05:09] It's super reasonable and she helps you not only with identifying but also with

[00:05:13] how to sell it.

[00:05:15] And again, why I'm so passionate about running these communities is because one

[00:05:21] of my missions for a very long time, I'm 38 years old, but I've been self-employed

[00:05:25] since I was 23, is to help women be more financially empowered.

[00:05:31] And we're not here to like wax poetic about obstacles, but there's always

[00:05:37] opportunities.

[00:05:39] And so where I have found a desire to get out of bed every day is knowing that

[00:05:45] I'm helping other people.

[00:05:47] I've done a lot of other things in resale.

[00:05:49] I have a YouTube channel.

[00:05:51] I was a very early YouTube influencer.

[00:05:53] So that was 2009 to 2011.

[00:05:55] I had a website.

[00:05:57] I ran a vintage store.

[00:05:59] I worked for eBay as an influencer.

[00:06:01] But when I discovered Facebook groups, it was like that light bulb switch went

[00:06:07] off.

[00:06:09] And so now we're just really moving toward how do we as communities continue

[00:06:13] to make buying and selling easy, safe and fun?

[00:06:17] And so, and I'll end on this, and this is where I met Desiree.

[00:06:21] I recently partnered with a software called District.

[00:06:23] And District is a commission-based platform.

[00:06:25] So it is different than what I've built.

[00:06:28] But it's an amazing opportunity for anyone, including Desiree, who is a leader

[00:06:32] who has a following to build a marketplace and to foster a culture of

[00:06:38] buying and selling.

[00:06:40] And to basically create community for people who want to be involved as a

[00:06:44] buyer or seller in that community.

[00:06:46] I have so much respect for District.

[00:06:48] They are fairly new as a startup.

[00:06:50] But the same investors that invested in whatnot, which many of us know,

[00:06:54] invest in, they're very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very

[00:06:56] exciting.

[00:06:58] And it's been a really awesome experience for me to be able to invest in

[00:07:00] what some of us know, invest in District.

[00:07:02] So I always suggest to people like watch this space.

[00:07:04] Because I have a feeling in the next few years, it's going to girl

[00:07:06] leaps and bounds.

[00:07:08] And it's really exciting to be at the forefront of that.

[00:07:10] Yeah.

[00:07:12] I had no idea that the people who invested in whatnot also are

[00:07:14] investors in District.

[00:07:16] So that's very promising and very exciting.

[00:07:18] Yeah.

[00:07:20] Yeah.

[00:07:22] So yeah, because that's how you and I connected.

[00:07:24] community on district and was so excited because I said vintage

[00:07:31] jewelry addicts. Oh my god, these are my people. So

[00:07:36] obviously I joined and then because I love live selling.

[00:07:40] Obviously I applied to do a live you know, a live selling

[00:07:43] show. Yeah, I love I love doing live selling as a matter

[00:07:47] of fact, that is the only way I sell my jewelry right now I

[00:07:51] do live live shows on Poshmark, whatnot and district.

[00:07:56] Awesome. Yeah, yeah. How many live sales do you host a month?

[00:08:00] Well, right now I'm doing a challenge on whatnot where I'm

[00:08:03] doing a show every single day. So for the month of May, I'm

[00:08:07] doing 31 shows.

[00:08:10] I need all the results. So it's May 8. You've done eight

[00:08:13] shows. How have this eight shows?

[00:08:14] Well, I've done seven I haven't done tonight show yet.

[00:08:17] I do a show every night at 7pm Pacific time. Some one day I

[00:08:22] had to go early because I had something to do but for the

[00:08:24] most part, it's every day at 7pm. And it's been great.

[00:08:30] It's been fantastic. It's kind of a challenge I'm doing for

[00:08:33] myself because I've kind of been neglecting whatnot for a

[00:08:36] little bit. And so I wasn't growing over there because I

[00:08:40] was doing so well on Poshmark. And then when I

[00:08:43] went to district, I was doing really well on district. So I

[00:08:46] kind of focused my time and energy over there. But then I

[00:08:50] interviewed like one of the top jewelry sellers on whatnot a

[00:08:55] few weeks back and she got me all excited about, you know,

[00:08:59] jumping on the whatnot train again. So I said, Okay,

[00:09:03] maybe I need to spend some more time over there because

[00:09:06] there's people having some huge success. So that's kind of

[00:09:09] why I decided to do the challenge just for this month

[00:09:12] and I'm going to see how it affects my numbers. I'm going

[00:09:14] to see how much I grow, what kind of sales I'm having

[00:09:18] because I think 30 days is a good gauge for me to figure

[00:09:21] out do I want to continue putting time and effort there,

[00:09:24] especially when you know, you only have so much time in

[00:09:27] the day. I don't want to. It's like I want to make

[00:09:33] sure I'm getting the most return for what I'm doing. And

[00:09:37] I'm still not quite sure where that is yet. Yeah, I

[00:09:40] think it could be district. I think it could be posh mark, but

[00:09:43] now I think it could be whatnot. So I've got to figure

[00:09:47] that out.

[00:09:49] I mean, that is first of all, I commend you for committing to

[00:09:52] a challenge. Thank you. Yeah, no, seriously, because a lot

[00:09:57] of people will be like, this just didn't work for me. It is

[00:10:01] hard. He didn't put in the time to really see if it's

[00:10:06] going to work for them. I have dabbled with whatnot and

[00:10:09] I decided that it's not a priority for me because I have

[00:10:13] built a Facebook community and it's ready for me to put my

[00:10:17] time there. But if I had the time, I would love a 30 day

[00:10:20] challenge and whatnot. And I know I would build a great

[00:10:24] audience. But the question like you said, does raise like

[00:10:26] do you have the time so I always support people in

[00:10:30] selling in as many places as possible. Especially if they

[00:10:34] feel that they have the inventory to do that because

[00:10:37] there will be crossover, there will be people that follow you

[00:10:40] from place to place.

[00:10:41] Yes. And that's been the challenge is the inventory

[00:10:44] management. That's something I found out real quick. I was

[00:10:49] like, Do I have enough? Because remember, I did your

[00:10:53] show too last week. So yeah, I was like, do I have

[00:10:57] enough stuff to do daily shows? So

[00:11:02] so true. But the beauty of jewelry. I mean, let's just

[00:11:05] let's talk about jewelry and why I launched this group. And

[00:11:08] probably why you love selling jewelry is that the well,

[00:11:12] let's just storage much smaller size free collectors. So there

[00:11:20] are collectors with with vintage clothes. But I think

[00:11:23] there's a larger collector's base with vintage story. It's

[00:11:26] a theory. I don't know. But I think because it's size

[00:11:30] free, so you can be a size 16 and you can be a size six

[00:11:33] and you can wear the same necklace. And then I think it's

[00:11:39] a little bit easier to buy wholesale. This is I mean,

[00:11:44] maybe not 100%. But I have bought clothing wholesale. And

[00:11:48] it's not good or there's only a few good pieces in it. I

[00:11:53] think with jewelry, it's a little bit less of a risk. You

[00:11:55] can always kind of find some things they might not be

[00:11:58] signed, right?

[00:11:59] It's kind of the same sometimes both buying and

[00:12:02] when you buy those bulk jewelry boxes, lots, whatever.

[00:12:08] Unless you can see like everything that's in it,

[00:12:11] sometimes you can, you can buy some bad, bad one. I mean,

[00:12:17] because I've had some really good ones and I've had some

[00:12:20] ones where I feel like I just wasted my money. Right? So

[00:12:23] but again, the more knowledgeable you are, you get

[00:12:25] a lot more discerning when you are sourcing, right? And

[00:12:30] you start it's all about where and I guess how much you know

[00:12:36] about the type of jewelry that you're looking for and that

[00:12:39] type of thing. So I guess it's a lot like clothes where you

[00:12:43] just need to know your brands and know your materials and

[00:12:46] your fabrics and that type of thing. Very similar with

[00:12:49] jewelry.

[00:12:50] Absolutely. But with clothes, clothes disintegrate, they get

[00:12:53] holes, smells, smell. And or you come home like I bought

[00:12:58] these great pants the other day and they were Christian

[00:13:01] Siriano who is one of the project runway like first

[00:13:04] designers. And they were so cool. But then like I turned

[00:13:07] around the crotch and I'm like, Oh my gosh, it's so no. So

[00:13:11] I washed it and I shaved it with like one of these

[00:13:14] fabric shavers. So like they actually look much better. But

[00:13:17] I was like, I didn't do a 360. I was like this is my

[00:13:21] my rule of thumb is to look all around the clothing

[00:13:24] item. And I feel like with jewelry, it's just a little

[00:13:27] bit faster. So much like a let me turn it inside out and

[00:13:31] make sure that there's not a stain on the inside or right

[00:13:34] something that I just don't notice at the store. So I'm

[00:13:38] really enjoying you know, myself being a student of

[00:13:42] vintage jewelry. How did you get started in it?

[00:13:45] Oh, gosh, that was years ago. I want to say it was the

[00:13:49] end of 2019. I was doing because I've been doing eBay

[00:13:54] off and on since 2007. That's awesome. And

[00:13:59] it was like the end of 2019. And I was leaving my corporate

[00:14:02] job and I needed some money. So I had had a lot of jewelry

[00:14:08] in the past like, like I had a lot of jewelry of my own.

[00:14:14] So I needed money. So I said, Well, let me just sell

[00:14:17] sell off my personal jewelry. And I sold it really, really

[00:14:21] quickly. And I got really, really good money. And I said,

[00:14:24] Wow, maybe I should do this. So that's how it started for

[00:14:28] me. It started with me selling my own jewelry. Yeah. And then

[00:14:33] doing so well with that, that it made me decide to sell

[00:14:37] jewelry like all the time I said, because back then it

[00:14:42] was really easy to find jewelry at Goodwill, Salvation

[00:14:46] Army, that type of thing, because I don't think people

[00:14:48] were as into it as they are today. And so it was easier

[00:14:52] back then for me to find really good pieces for like

[00:14:55] three, four or $5 maybe. And then I was able to sell them

[00:14:59] for 30, 40, 50, 60 and on, you know, on up, because

[00:15:03] people back then they didn't know the brands, they

[00:15:05] didn't know about vintage jewelry, like how people

[00:15:07] know today. And so that's how I started. But I wasn't

[00:15:11] only a jewelry seller. I was also kind of an everything

[00:15:15] seller. And so as I started to kind of do more and more

[00:15:20] eBay, I realized that I just didn't have the space to

[00:15:23] sell everything and anything. And I said, Well, the

[00:15:27] jewelry definitely fits because I could have 2000

[00:15:30] pieces of jewelry in four feet of space. So that's when

[00:15:34] I decided to niche down. And then I started learning

[00:15:37] about reselling and you know, following people who were

[00:15:40] really, you know, big and successful and reselling. And

[00:15:43] that's when I learned to really niche down. And then

[00:15:45] that's what I did. And so I've been full time jewelry,

[00:15:50] mostly since 2020.

[00:15:53] Wow, that's incredible.

[00:15:55] Yeah, I love it. I absolutely and plus I love jewelry. I

[00:15:59] know I don't wear a ton. But I just love it. It's so

[00:16:02] beautiful. And there's, there's always a story, you

[00:16:05] know, that goes with some of these amazing pieces. And

[00:16:09] people just like people get excited, you know, people

[00:16:12] are like, Oh, my gosh, it's a sparkly or so beautiful

[00:16:15] or whatever. You know, and then with vintage jewelry,

[00:16:19] people have a lot of their own memories and nostalgia.

[00:16:22] They go, Oh, my grandma had this or Oh, my mom used

[00:16:26] to wear these pearls or you know, whatever it is. So

[00:16:29] it's just it's just, it's just so much fun for me. I

[00:16:33] absolutely love it. I plan to do it from now until I

[00:16:37] can't anymore.

[00:16:39] Amazing. And I hope you host many sales with vintage

[00:16:43] jewelry addicts.

[00:16:44] Oh, of course.

[00:16:46] We are growing faster than a Chia pet. You know, we

[00:16:49] launched January 1 and it's at 12,500 members.

[00:16:53] I saw I saw I was like, Whoa,

[00:16:57] I was like, you are on fire with this group.

[00:17:00] It's like Facebook was like, Oh, cool. Here you

[00:17:03] go.

[00:17:04] Oh, thanks. Thank you so much.

[00:17:08] And I think that's part see, I think too, you have

[00:17:12] filled the need because there are a lot of people who

[00:17:15] sell vintage jewelry, but they don't feel comfortable.

[00:17:18] Like so not everybody wants to do eBay. Not

[00:17:20] everybody wants to do Poshmark or live shows on

[00:17:23] whatnot, right? A lot of people are still very

[00:17:26] intimidated by those platforms. So you've kind of

[00:17:29] created something where people already trust Facebook,

[00:17:33] and they already know how Facebook groups work.

[00:17:35] Yeah, so I think you've really kind of, you

[00:17:38] know, meshed that with the people who are looking

[00:17:41] for an alternative, you know, to sell their to

[00:17:44] sell their jewelry.

[00:17:46] Exactly. As well as just people that are their

[00:17:49] hobby, their hobbyists. They're not full time

[00:17:51] like you. We absolutely welcome full time sellers,

[00:17:56] but also, you know, we have like an open, open

[00:17:59] embrace for someone who's like, I'm just getting

[00:18:02] started. And I'm like Desiree in 2019. And I

[00:18:05] just like want to sell my collection and I'm

[00:18:07] like, right, like, let's go and then you know,

[00:18:10] they might get hooked, right? But the other

[00:18:13] idea is that and it's not even an idea. This

[00:18:16] is a manifestation is that within that

[00:18:18] community, if you're a participant, it's a

[00:18:22] little bit easier than other platforms to

[00:18:24] actually make friends. And that's just because

[00:18:26] the functionality of Facebook is there to

[00:18:30] communicate. Now, I know a lot of people don't

[00:18:31] like Facebook for whatever reasons. Right? I'm

[00:18:34] a millennial. I was on Facebook in oh, four

[00:18:36] whatever. So it's hard for me to like ever

[00:18:39] get off of it. But the advantage is that,

[00:18:44] you know, you can message you can friend

[00:18:46] you can kind of keep in touch with their

[00:18:47] lives. It's you know, it's just like a great

[00:18:51] touch point to keep in touch with people

[00:18:53] versus I think on Instagram and TikTok, we

[00:18:57] follow more influencers, right? Then like,

[00:19:00] it's not all our friends. So I've lost a lot

[00:19:03] of friends in those platforms. I don't not

[00:19:05] like we've unfriended. I just don't see

[00:19:06] their stuff. I don't really right, right.

[00:19:09] This touch point. So I've really enjoyed

[00:19:12] and this has happened in my other Facebook

[00:19:14] group, which is for vintage clothing. But

[00:19:17] some of those women have become friends in

[00:19:19] real life and they've met up, you know,

[00:19:22] they're in completely different states and

[00:19:24] they've met up or they've gone to visit

[00:19:27] because or like they were like going to

[00:19:29] the area anyway, and then they reached

[00:19:31] out to that person. I think we even once

[00:19:35] almost it almost happened someone was

[00:19:38] selling their, their van converted on a

[00:19:41] van, it's a bus converted into a mobile,

[00:19:44] mobile boutique. And she's really

[00:19:47] Florida and she met up with someone from

[00:19:48] Miami. They're both in the group to look

[00:19:52] at this converted bus.

[00:19:56] That's so cool.

[00:19:58] $1000 vehicle to someone else in the

[00:20:01] group. And so you know, these are the

[00:20:04] advantages which is you know, it's up

[00:20:06] to you if you if you want to take

[00:20:08] advantage of them but you know a lot

[00:20:10] of times we're very busy and it's hard

[00:20:13] to meet like minded folks. So to have

[00:20:17] access to those people, you know,

[00:20:19] whether they're people you normally

[00:20:21] would be friends with or not I

[00:20:22] think that's the other beautiful thing

[00:20:23] about these social media groups is like

[00:20:25] I'm friends with people that yeah, maybe

[00:20:28] I'd be friendly but like, you know,

[00:20:31] maybe it's the age difference. Maybe

[00:20:33] it's it's the fact I don't have kids,

[00:20:35] they have kids, you know, things do

[00:20:37] unfortunately separate you right in

[00:20:40] the real world when you come together

[00:20:42] with this mutual interest. It's like a

[00:20:43] lot of that just gets like pushed to

[00:20:45] the side and it's like, you're you're

[00:20:47] my person, you know, and all of a

[00:20:49] sudden you have really good friends

[00:20:51] that are hundreds of miles away. And

[00:20:55] that's what I've experienced, but I've

[00:20:56] been online for a very long time. So

[00:20:58] that's kind of been how I've developed

[00:21:01] some of my like adult friendships is

[00:21:04] by meeting people online and then you

[00:21:06] know, you know, we eventually meet up

[00:21:08] real life and I hate saying in real

[00:21:10] life, but that's kind of what what

[00:21:12] you have to say. Right. But yeah,

[00:21:15] you know, with with the group, I

[00:21:16] have a lot of visions that I don't

[00:21:19] think other groups have done, you

[00:21:21] know, and so I'm going to put it out

[00:21:22] there because maybe you know someone,

[00:21:24] I'd like to do more sponsored

[00:21:26] activities. So what that looks like is

[00:21:29] like, you know, maybe there's like a

[00:21:30] giveaway or there's some sort of

[00:21:32] competition and then people win

[00:21:35] something or there's a brand that

[00:21:37] comes in and does some sort of

[00:21:38] special training or has a special

[00:21:40] offer. The group isn't big enough

[00:21:44] yet, but I think it can hit 100,000

[00:21:48] within the year. And so that's when

[00:21:51] kind of like a YouTube channel, I'm

[00:21:53] like, hey, how can I, you know,

[00:21:56] create even more value for people

[00:21:59] that are here? And they're really

[00:22:01] giving it like in an exclusive way.

[00:22:04] Oh, I think that's an amazing idea.

[00:22:06] And I think, yeah, you definitely

[00:22:07] can do that because I'm like you.

[00:22:10] I started I started back in 2009

[00:22:13] with the whole social media thing.

[00:22:14] I used to be a mom blogger.

[00:22:17] No way.

[00:22:18] Yeah, so I used to do that.

[00:22:20] So like you, I've been in the

[00:22:22] online space and the social media

[00:22:24] space for over a decade now.

[00:22:27] You know, everything was like,

[00:22:28] I don't know, there was no

[00:22:30] Instagram.

[00:22:31] Right, right.

[00:22:33] And I remember when Twitter

[00:22:36] was still brand new.

[00:22:38] Yeah.

[00:22:39] And I remember I got my first

[00:22:41] follower on Twitter and it was so

[00:22:44] exciting.

[00:22:46] You know, but that's how long it's

[00:22:48] been like I remember when Twitter

[00:22:49] was brand new.

[00:22:51] Yeah.

[00:22:52] People are like, what?

[00:22:53] What's Twit?

[00:22:54] Like, what?

[00:22:55] Yeah, nobody knew what it was

[00:22:57] and all that stuff.

[00:22:58] But now going back to your

[00:23:00] Facebook group, the other thing I

[00:23:01] want to mention too is a lot

[00:23:04] of people are nervous about selling

[00:23:06] their jewelry because of scammers

[00:23:08] and the way you set your group

[00:23:10] up because people do have to pay

[00:23:11] a fee in order to sell there.

[00:23:14] Obviously, you're going to

[00:23:15] eliminate people who are trying

[00:23:17] to scam because the scammer is

[00:23:18] not going to pay, you know,

[00:23:21] to scam people.

[00:23:22] At least I would hope they're

[00:23:23] smart enough not to do that.

[00:23:25] But I think that's really good

[00:23:27] because that's another layer of

[00:23:29] vetting as it relates to your

[00:23:31] sellers, which gives people

[00:23:33] more confidence to shop there

[00:23:34] and buy there.

[00:23:35] Yep. Yep.

[00:23:36] And and it's it's really great

[00:23:39] what I have going on.

[00:23:39] I have a software where you you

[00:23:43] do put in your payment

[00:23:44] information, but you're not

[00:23:46] charged for 30 days and you can

[00:23:48] cancel. So I do that because

[00:23:51] I recognize people just might

[00:23:53] not want to jump right in.

[00:23:54] They're like, well, I don't

[00:23:55] know. Am I going to sell?

[00:23:56] Is this going to be worth my

[00:23:57] time? Right.

[00:23:58] But they do have to manually

[00:24:01] input their information.

[00:24:03] And so I think for the for

[00:24:05] the wrong people, that is kind

[00:24:07] of like a barrier where they're

[00:24:09] like, I don't want to.

[00:24:10] Yeah, I don't want to.

[00:24:11] I don't want to pay that to

[00:24:12] scam.

[00:24:14] I just brought four people

[00:24:17] onto my team to help content

[00:24:18] moderate, and that is my

[00:24:21] commitment to try to keep the

[00:24:23] place. I saved the place,

[00:24:24] but this digital physical

[00:24:27] space as positive and safe as

[00:24:29] possible. I know things are

[00:24:30] going to get through.

[00:24:32] You know, people try to come

[00:24:33] into the group and say that

[00:24:36] they've like bought a new

[00:24:37] MacBook and they're giving

[00:24:39] away their Mac.

[00:24:41] And they're just charging

[00:24:43] shipping. And I'm just like,

[00:24:44] oh my gosh.

[00:24:45] And it's it's it's unfortunate,

[00:24:47] but like not everyone

[00:24:48] recognizes these scams.

[00:24:50] I was scammed actually by a

[00:24:53] USPS scammer.

[00:24:56] Yeah. So I put my phone number

[00:24:58] in to get a delivery text

[00:25:00] because something was very

[00:25:01] late for a customer.

[00:25:02] And I guess they they're able

[00:25:04] to scrape the site of

[00:25:05] people's phone numbers and

[00:25:08] inputted. They sent me a

[00:25:10] text. I thought it was USPS

[00:25:12] and I'm 38 freaking years

[00:25:13] old. And they were like, we

[00:25:14] need you to input 30 cents

[00:25:18] to get it redelivered

[00:25:19] because it came back

[00:25:21] because the shipping label

[00:25:22] wasn't clear.

[00:25:24] Oh no.

[00:25:25] Well for it. It takes took

[00:25:27] me to a site looked like

[00:25:29] USPS.gov.

[00:25:30] Mm hmm.

[00:25:31] Everything was this and I

[00:25:32] and I finally realized

[00:25:34] that been scammed because

[00:25:35] I was putting in all my

[00:25:36] payment information correctly

[00:25:38] and it wasn't going through.

[00:25:40] No, no, no.

[00:25:42] I was like, I just got so

[00:25:43] I like called my credit card

[00:25:44] immediately.

[00:25:45] So like this is the

[00:25:46] scary conversation, which

[00:25:48] is that people are

[00:25:49] vulnerable because we

[00:25:50] haven't seen the tactics

[00:25:52] before. But you know, my

[00:25:54] intention and my goal is

[00:25:56] obviously, you know, I'm

[00:25:56] making money from managing

[00:25:58] this is to is to manage

[00:26:00] it. And you know, the

[00:26:02] other thing that that we

[00:26:03] do, which, you know, it

[00:26:04] might seem a little harsh,

[00:26:05] but you know, we don't want

[00:26:06] people to be claiming and

[00:26:08] then not buy.

[00:26:10] Right.

[00:26:11] We call them gosters.

[00:26:12] And with platforms like

[00:26:14] Poshmark Live and whatnot

[00:26:16] in district, you actually

[00:26:17] pay when you like push

[00:26:19] a button to claim

[00:26:20] something. But our live

[00:26:23] sales that are on Facebook,

[00:26:24] you're actually almost like

[00:26:25] verbally agreeing that

[00:26:26] you'll pay the invoice

[00:26:27] later. I do have like

[00:26:29] a reporting document where

[00:26:32] if people are reported

[00:26:33] two, three times, I just

[00:26:35] remove them from the

[00:26:36] group, block them from

[00:26:37] the group. I mean, I've

[00:26:38] had to do this in my

[00:26:39] other group from people

[00:26:40] that like they're

[00:26:42] perfectly fine. They're

[00:26:43] great people. They're

[00:26:44] just kind of not, you

[00:26:46] know, thinking through

[00:26:47] their claims and the

[00:26:49] commitment that I want

[00:26:50] people to make is like

[00:26:51] if I'm going to actually

[00:26:53] say sold, I'm going to

[00:26:55] say that I'm going to

[00:26:56] buy it, that I'm going

[00:26:57] to buy it.

[00:26:58] Right, right.

[00:26:59] So, you know, that's

[00:27:00] that's that's the other

[00:27:01] part of it, you know,

[00:27:02] which is really just

[00:27:03] trying to ensure that

[00:27:06] the buyer group, the

[00:27:10] buyer populace of the

[00:27:11] group is committed to

[00:27:13] buying.

[00:27:14] Right. And people are,

[00:27:16] you know, doing what

[00:27:17] they say they're going

[00:27:18] to do. If you say

[00:27:19] you're going to buy it,

[00:27:20] buy it. Right. Because

[00:27:22] that is a huge problem

[00:27:23] in Facebook groups that,

[00:27:25] you know, not yours,

[00:27:26] but I'm saying I've

[00:27:27] been in other Facebook,

[00:27:28] you know, buy sell

[00:27:29] groups. And that's always

[00:27:31] that's always been the

[00:27:32] issue where people say,

[00:27:34] oh, sold or, you know,

[00:27:35] invoice me whatever.

[00:27:37] And then they never pay.

[00:27:40] It's like a high, I

[00:27:41] think for saying sold.

[00:27:44] But then when they go

[00:27:45] to pay the high wears

[00:27:47] off. Yeah. Like they

[00:27:49] enjoy the shopping

[00:27:50] experience, but the

[00:27:51] actual buying experience

[00:27:52] is like, yeah, I don't

[00:27:55] want to do it. And

[00:27:57] it's interesting because

[00:27:58] a lot of people are

[00:27:59] like, oh, there's not

[00:28:01] enough disposable

[00:28:02] income and blah, blah,

[00:28:03] blah, blah. And I always

[00:28:05] fight back with that.

[00:28:05] Yes. A lot of us don't

[00:28:07] have disposable income.

[00:28:09] A lot of us do.

[00:28:10] There's a lot. I've

[00:28:12] just noticed as admin,

[00:28:13] you know, there's a

[00:28:14] lot of people. This

[00:28:15] might sound strange,

[00:28:17] but they don't really

[00:28:18] have a family that

[00:28:19] they have to support.

[00:28:21] So they they have

[00:28:22] extra income. And I

[00:28:24] will be honest, the

[00:28:24] way I see some of

[00:28:25] these, you know, buyers

[00:28:27] interact with the

[00:28:28] sellers like they just

[00:28:29] want to support them.

[00:28:31] You know, it's not

[00:28:32] even necessarily like,

[00:28:33] oh, I need all of this.

[00:28:35] Like, do we really

[00:28:35] need it? It's yes.

[00:28:38] It's like a connection.

[00:28:40] And so that's the

[00:28:41] other beautiful part

[00:28:42] about Facebook.

[00:28:43] I mean, I would say

[00:28:44] any live selling

[00:28:44] platform is that

[00:28:46] if you're open to

[00:28:47] being who you are,

[00:28:50] right, which is just

[00:28:51] authentically you,

[00:28:52] the right people

[00:28:53] will be attracted to

[00:28:54] that. And they

[00:28:55] actually just want to

[00:28:55] buy from you because

[00:28:57] they like you. And

[00:29:00] so I see that a lot.

[00:29:02] And and I think

[00:29:04] that that's, you know,

[00:29:05] one of the more

[00:29:06] advantageous ways to

[00:29:08] sell if you feel

[00:29:09] like you're a people person.

[00:29:12] If you don't feel

[00:29:13] like you're a people

[00:29:14] person, but you're

[00:29:15] a computer person,

[00:29:16] then the Facebook

[00:29:17] group, you know,

[00:29:18] back to what you

[00:29:19] were saying, you're

[00:29:19] you're posting items

[00:29:21] for sale and you're

[00:29:21] able to comment and

[00:29:23] chat with people you

[00:29:24] really. I mean, Posh,

[00:29:25] they have like the

[00:29:26] great little sort of

[00:29:27] chat chat thread

[00:29:29] below the item, but

[00:29:30] it doesn't do that

[00:29:32] back and forth.

[00:29:33] And I've tried it

[00:29:34] with. Yeah, it's not

[00:29:35] very engaging at all.

[00:29:37] It's not, you know,

[00:29:39] and you can't click

[00:29:40] over and see a photo

[00:29:41] of their dog and say,

[00:29:42] Oh, I also have

[00:29:43] a German Shepherd.

[00:29:44] That's so cool.

[00:29:46] And now we're connected.

[00:29:47] So so it's really special.

[00:29:50] It's really powerful.

[00:29:51] I'm really grateful

[00:29:51] to Facebook for having

[00:29:53] Facebook groups.

[00:29:54] I have visited

[00:29:55] the Metta offices

[00:29:57] in New York.

[00:29:58] I actually did an

[00:29:59] informational interview

[00:30:00] to work for Metta

[00:30:01] when I was debating

[00:30:02] going back to work

[00:30:04] and I'm like,

[00:30:05] I can't do it.

[00:30:07] I like my little

[00:30:09] my little, you know,

[00:30:11] I like being an entrepreneur.

[00:30:12] And, you know,

[00:30:13] I'm not a little,

[00:30:14] but, you know,

[00:30:16] that is a beast.

[00:30:17] And, you know,

[00:30:18] there's a lot of opportunity

[00:30:19] there. But, you know,

[00:30:21] I would much rather be

[00:30:22] on the receiving end.

[00:30:24] So I hope that they,

[00:30:26] you know, come up

[00:30:27] with some other ways to create,

[00:30:29] you know, better ways

[00:30:31] to protect people.

[00:30:33] There has been a lot

[00:30:34] of improvement.

[00:30:35] So if anyone's listening

[00:30:37] and I thought about actually

[00:30:38] making YouTube videos

[00:30:39] about this and they're like,

[00:30:40] oh, I'd like to start a

[00:30:41] buy sell Facebook group.

[00:30:43] That's a membership community.

[00:30:45] You need a to get

[00:30:46] the right software.

[00:30:47] And there's a lot

[00:30:48] of software out there.

[00:30:48] There's Kajabi.

[00:30:50] I use something called Sam Cart.

[00:30:52] There's Thrive Cart.

[00:30:54] I think WordPress

[00:30:55] has something as well.

[00:30:56] But, yeah, just get to know

[00:30:58] the back end of what

[00:31:00] the like groups

[00:31:01] functionality allows.

[00:31:04] So there's a lot that over

[00:31:06] the last four years, they met

[00:31:08] a being they have built

[00:31:11] into groups that wasn't there

[00:31:13] when I first started.

[00:31:14] Right, right.

[00:31:15] Yeah, yeah, I know

[00:31:16] they're cracking down to on

[00:31:19] third party tools as it relates

[00:31:21] to using them with

[00:31:23] Facebook groups because

[00:31:26] like we're recording on

[00:31:27] Streamyard now and they said that

[00:31:30] you will no longer be able to live

[00:31:32] stream into Facebook groups

[00:31:36] if you're using third party

[00:31:37] software like the tool I'm using.

[00:31:39] So I can live stream

[00:31:41] to a Facebook business page,

[00:31:44] but I cannot live stream

[00:31:46] using a third party app

[00:31:48] into a group,

[00:31:49] into a Facebook group.

[00:31:50] So I'm hoping they do

[00:31:52] something about that, like

[00:31:54] like give people the option

[00:31:55] to stream in a Facebook group,

[00:31:57] because I mean, that's

[00:32:00] if you're trying to like

[00:32:02] build the group and, you know,

[00:32:03] trying to, you know,

[00:32:06] have a community.

[00:32:08] I would think they would allow you

[00:32:10] to do that somehow some way,

[00:32:11] maybe not through a third

[00:32:12] party app.

[00:32:13] Maybe they're going to build

[00:32:14] something on their own.

[00:32:15] I don't know.

[00:32:15] Yeah, yeah.

[00:32:17] Yeah, if they could,

[00:32:18] you know, build something on their

[00:32:19] own where it cross posts

[00:32:22] when you go live on the page

[00:32:24] with Facebook,

[00:32:25] you can cross post to other pages.

[00:32:28] Yes, I can be live

[00:32:29] on five different

[00:32:30] pages at the same time,

[00:32:30] but I can't be live

[00:32:32] in the groups, in the groups.

[00:32:34] Right.

[00:32:35] And usually

[00:32:37] you want to be live in the groups

[00:32:39] because those are the targeted

[00:32:41] people you want, right?

[00:32:42] Like everybody and anybody

[00:32:44] could like your Facebook page.

[00:32:45] But like if I'm trying to target

[00:32:48] vintage jewelry buyers

[00:32:49] and lovers collectors,

[00:32:51] usually they're in a group.

[00:32:53] Right.

[00:32:53] And so I want to be able to.

[00:32:56] Yeah, next with those people

[00:32:57] in the groups as well.

[00:32:59] Right, right.

[00:32:59] Yeah, the way we are able

[00:33:01] to do the live sales, we

[00:33:04] you know, so we use

[00:33:05] district as well,

[00:33:06] which which streams onto our Facebook page,

[00:33:10] which is great.

[00:33:10] Which is good.

[00:33:11] Which shows people that, oh,

[00:33:14] there's a live going on.

[00:33:15] And if it's a buy it now,

[00:33:16] they can actually claim it

[00:33:18] from the live and they get a link

[00:33:19] to check out with their Facebook

[00:33:21] messenger app, which is great.

[00:33:23] Oh, that's great.

[00:33:24] The district live sales

[00:33:25] are mostly auctions.

[00:33:26] So you actually have to like

[00:33:27] go over to district

[00:33:28] to participate with auctions.

[00:33:30] But what we use is a third party

[00:33:31] app called Royal Shops

[00:33:33] for the Facebook reply sold.

[00:33:36] And so that's a third party app.

[00:33:37] So, yes, it has to connect

[00:33:39] to the Facebook page

[00:33:40] and share the Facebook page

[00:33:42] live into the group.

[00:33:44] And then they can click it

[00:33:46] and it takes them to the page.

[00:33:48] And, you know, it takes some time

[00:33:50] to just, yeah, people.

[00:33:52] But I have experimented

[00:33:55] with people just going live in the group.

[00:33:57] The issue is that we don't have software

[00:33:59] to actually get people's claims

[00:34:02] and sometimes things get competitive.

[00:34:03] So if three people want the same item,

[00:34:08] you know, it's nice to have software

[00:34:10] that kind of backs up

[00:34:11] that like Desiree actually won.

[00:34:14] And so, yeah, but that

[00:34:16] that might be something

[00:34:16] that I introduce in the future.

[00:34:19] And, you know, maybe there's someone

[00:34:20] that's like moderating and says,

[00:34:22] oh, you won and you won.

[00:34:23] What I do like to tell people

[00:34:25] that I see a lot

[00:34:26] and I'm not trying to be like a Karen.

[00:34:29] I mean, I don't know if that's right.

[00:34:31] A lot of people do the like auctions

[00:34:33] that are in the Facebook groups.

[00:34:35] And it's just like, hey, starting auction.

[00:34:37] Ten dollars bid in five dollars bid,

[00:34:40] you know, whatever auction ends three hours.

[00:34:44] That's technically not legal.

[00:34:47] It falls under a game of chance.

[00:34:50] Right.

[00:34:52] So using the software like district

[00:34:55] or using eBay or using something

[00:34:58] that has auction functionality

[00:35:00] and you're basically driving people

[00:35:02] to the platform to participate in the software.

[00:35:06] Gives you a lot more protection as a

[00:35:09] I mean, as a seller, but also as like an admin.

[00:35:12] So like I see admins that like allow that.

[00:35:14] And I'm like, you really shouldn't.

[00:35:16] Yeah, I know, because because I think that's in there.

[00:35:20] Terms and conditions that you can't do any type of gambling,

[00:35:23] like you can't have cash giveaways.

[00:35:25] You can't.

[00:35:26] Raffles are.

[00:35:27] Yeah, you can't have any of that stuff

[00:35:29] because it's considered gambling.

[00:35:30] Yeah. And so, yeah, you got to be really careful with that.

[00:35:34] I've seen that, too.

[00:35:34] I've seen people say, oh, you know, enter a number

[00:35:37] between one and 50 and you'll win 20 dollars,

[00:35:40] you know, but that's not that's not legal.

[00:35:43] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:35:44] You to be very I mean, you can do it.

[00:35:47] But the issue is that, you know.

[00:35:51] I guess I guess the issue is like if something goes wrong

[00:35:54] and someone's like really upset about it, you know,

[00:35:56] and then, you know, small business owners like myself,

[00:36:00] you know, like I've been challenged with like names of products

[00:36:03] and I just changed the name of the product because,

[00:36:07] you know, I don't feel like getting

[00:36:09] I don't feel like paying four thousand dollars

[00:36:11] just to clean something up.

[00:36:13] You know, I might have every right to that name

[00:36:16] because they actually haven't like put it under some

[00:36:18] like copyright or trademark

[00:36:21] because they're like, well, that's my Instagram name

[00:36:23] and you named a you know, it's like like you have to be careful.

[00:36:27] The bigger you get is is my point.

[00:36:29] So with Facebook, buy sell groups, if they get large enough,

[00:36:34] it is on you to try to figure out how do I protect myself?

[00:36:38] How do I protect the people that are here?

[00:36:40] Let me follow the rules as much as I can

[00:36:45] because once those groups start to hit 20, 30, 40, 50, 60,000 people,

[00:36:50] you know, it just becomes.

[00:36:53] Yeah. So I saw one public group.

[00:36:55] They grew pretty quickly and they moved to private.

[00:36:57] So that's the other option is like once you reach this amount of people

[00:37:02] and you're like, I don't feel like growing so quickly

[00:37:05] and I feel like this is enough to manage.

[00:37:07] You can move from public to private, but you can never move back to public.

[00:37:11] So Facebook like, like, nope, if you move to private, you're private.

[00:37:14] Now people still find your group when it's private,

[00:37:17] but it's not promoted by Facebook. I think that's the difference.

[00:37:21] I don't think they really. OK.

[00:37:23] So it's like they get suggested the private groups,

[00:37:27] but it's not like Facebook is like.

[00:37:30] I mean, because I had one week Desiree,

[00:37:32] I mean, we must have had two thousand people join the group.

[00:37:35] I was just like, oh, my gosh,

[00:37:38] what is going on?

[00:37:40] But we also had a lot of engagement and engagement helps.

[00:37:43] And and yeah, so there's you know, there's a lot to Facebook group management.

[00:37:47] But I do believe that for a small business owner,

[00:37:50] it can apply to a lot of different categories.

[00:37:54] Yeah, because there's a lot of jewelry resellers

[00:37:56] who have their own Facebook groups where they sell their own stuff.

[00:37:59] Right. Yeah, yeah.

[00:38:02] Like, so I guess that's a good idea we can throw out there

[00:38:06] that if you wanted to start your own group and sell your jewelry,

[00:38:10] maybe you just have 20, 30, 40, 50 people in your group.

[00:38:14] You can totally do that, too.

[00:38:16] You know, there's so many ways to do this whole reselling thing.

[00:38:20] And you can do it with a big, big group like yours.

[00:38:25] Or you can do your own thing where you just sell to a handful of people.

[00:38:30] Or maybe you do both or, you know, whatever.

[00:38:33] But I think that's really important to remember is like,

[00:38:37] we really can create this business and set things up

[00:38:41] to fit our lifestyle, our personality,

[00:38:45] what our, you know, our tolerances for dealing with people, because.

[00:38:49] Yeah. Well, not everybody can deal with 12000 people every day.

[00:38:53] Right. So, you know, I just want to

[00:38:57] want to, you know, put that out there that if you're listening to this

[00:39:01] and you feel like, oh, well, I could never do what, you know, Samantha's doing.

[00:39:04] Well, you don't have to, you know, but I think that you

[00:39:08] you provide a good example of what's possible, you know,

[00:39:11] if you do want to take this to the next level, if you do want to do something

[00:39:15] big and major and and, you know, for serving thousands

[00:39:19] and thousands of people, right? You don't have to do that.

[00:39:23] You don't. You don't.

[00:39:25] I like the idea of being a member of a ton of a ton of the Facebook groups.

[00:39:30] As you know, back to my whole thing about like making friends and

[00:39:34] just developing these relationships, you invite them to your own like VIP group.

[00:39:39] Right. So then, you know, and that's again, that's one of the services

[00:39:44] like I'm not promoting it this way, but it's like you guys are

[00:39:47] forming relationships with customers that can be with you for a lifetime.

[00:39:52] And so it's up to you how you want to continue to cultivate.

[00:39:56] But I have a lot of sellers who sell with me two, three times a month,

[00:40:00] and they have their own Facebook groups and they go live in their groups.

[00:40:04] You know, I have, you know,

[00:40:07] and this is something I've been thinking about doing.

[00:40:08] I'm friends with other platform owners.

[00:40:11] So we call ourselves platforms on Facebook.

[00:40:14] So, you know, sometimes they sell in my group.

[00:40:18] And so I've thought about doing like a like a free like, hey,

[00:40:22] let's have a ton of platform owners like selling the group

[00:40:25] and then we can cross promote, you know.

[00:40:27] So that's a great idea.

[00:40:28] You're joining that group. Yeah, yeah.

[00:40:30] And it's something I've been, you know, because I try to give back.

[00:40:34] You know, it's like sometimes I'm like, OK, I feel like I'm on a hamster wheel

[00:40:38] and I have to slow down here.

[00:40:41] I know that feeling. Oh, my God.

[00:40:43] But but yeah, it's a lot more fun when you're working with,

[00:40:46] you know, other people.

[00:40:47] And I think, you know, like like you said, if you want to take it

[00:40:51] to this level, like what I will share with people is like

[00:40:54] I average between both of my groups about three thousand a month.

[00:40:58] So I have like a great foundational base of income.

[00:41:02] And then my resale income, you know, is on top of that.

[00:41:05] And it's been a lifesaver at different cross points in my life.

[00:41:10] You know, I bet I went through a big break up three years ago

[00:41:13] and I had to move out.

[00:41:15] I had nowhere to live.

[00:41:17] And at least I knew that I had something, you know,

[00:41:20] that I could lean on because I was self-employed.

[00:41:23] But I was like in breakdown.

[00:41:25] You know, you're always kind of in breakdown

[00:41:27] for like the first two weeks.

[00:41:29] And so, you know, again, back to just like empowering women,

[00:41:33] I mean, empowering people because we all struggle,

[00:41:35] but like empowering women in particular to have passive income.

[00:41:40] I think resale, you know, let's just like

[00:41:44] let's not include the fact that you can build a group like mine,

[00:41:47] but just resale in general is something that like if you

[00:41:50] need to stop it or you need to, like you said,

[00:41:53] like change how you integrate it into your lifestyle

[00:41:56] because you're having a life change.

[00:41:59] Right.

[00:42:00] And versus a full time job where, you know,

[00:42:03] maybe you'll be able to get like two weeks off,

[00:42:05] but then, you know, it's kind of back to business.

[00:42:08] Yeah, but sometimes you need more than two weeks.

[00:42:10] Right. Because when my that's kind of why I really got into eBay

[00:42:14] full time because my son, when he was a baby, he was sick a lot.

[00:42:19] You know, and I couldn't keep calling out from work.

[00:42:22] I couldn't, you know, sometimes I mean, I wasn't sick,

[00:42:25] but my son was sick, which means I had to stay home too,

[00:42:28] you know, because he was a baby.

[00:42:30] And yeah, that's kind of, you know, I think as women,

[00:42:35] we really need that flexibility, you know,

[00:42:37] even if you don't have children for whatever reason,

[00:42:40] maybe you're taking care of a sibling or a parent or maybe yourself.

[00:42:44] Maybe you've got some your own issues that you need to address

[00:42:47] and you need time off or whatever.

[00:42:49] So, yeah, I think that's a really good point that you say

[00:42:53] you really can make this what you want or what you need it to be,

[00:42:57] depending on where you are in your life, you know, what what you can manage,

[00:43:02] what you want to manage and what you want to do.

[00:43:05] So tell me a little bit about that then, because you've got

[00:43:08] your groups, obviously, but then you're still a full time reseller.

[00:43:13] Is that? Yeah, I know.

[00:43:16] I'm taking I'm taking May off because I need to be more focused on like some systems

[00:43:23] and just some things that I'm putting in.

[00:43:25] And that's nice that you have the flexibility to do that.

[00:43:28] Thank you. Thank you.

[00:43:30] This hosted two live sales on Friday, so, you know,

[00:43:34] I was able to, you know, kind of just like stack some money.

[00:43:37] I rent a space here.

[00:43:39] So I'm in Baltimore.

[00:43:40] I was in New York City for 16 years.

[00:43:42] And then I reconnected with a friend from college

[00:43:48] two years ago.

[00:43:49] Yeah, this is our anniversary month and fell in love.

[00:43:53] Congratulations.

[00:43:55] We're, you know, doing all the things

[00:43:57] that we're probably going to go to City Hall this summer.

[00:44:01] Yeah. So he got me out of New York and I'm happy.

[00:44:04] I was on Super Hustle.

[00:44:05] Wonderful. Thank you.

[00:44:08] So now I can afford to actually have space, which back to what you're saying,

[00:44:12] Nazarene, it's funny because with jewelry, you don't you don't really need to rent storage.

[00:44:16] Right. Right.

[00:44:17] Put it in a cabinet, whatever.

[00:44:19] But I do love clothing like and I'm still, you know, buying it basically.

[00:44:28] What I I'm sorry, what was what was the question?

[00:44:31] We were talking about like you're you're a full time reseller.

[00:44:35] Yeah. You're doing your groups.

[00:44:37] Yeah. I'm trying to figure out what all what all you're doing

[00:44:40] as it relates to, I guess, work.

[00:44:43] Got it. Got it.

[00:44:44] Yes. So, you know, with with the group management,

[00:44:47] I mean, it's a lot because it's a lot of communication with people.

[00:44:51] But in addition to just creating like better systems like so,

[00:44:55] like as a quick example, I'll I'll talk through this with you.

[00:44:59] I mean, this is very nitty gritty, right?

[00:45:01] So I had a free trial website

[00:45:06] with my software, with my other group for vintage clothing.

[00:45:09] And I copied it for vintage jewelry addicts.

[00:45:12] And I redesigned the landing page,

[00:45:16] but I didn't go through the automatic emails.

[00:45:19] So these are automatic emails.

[00:45:21] Well, I went through the one when you first sign up.

[00:45:24] But if you cancel, if you if you get a refund,

[00:45:29] if you if you're charged, because I always send,

[00:45:31] you know, like a email if you're charged,

[00:45:34] it all it all said vintage boss babes.

[00:45:38] It was all vintage. So this morning I woke up very early.

[00:45:40] I mean, I'm up at seven a.m.

[00:45:43] Rewriting. Oh, you know.

[00:45:46] And so like that's an example of something I'm like,

[00:45:49] you know, it's not priority, but it's a detail that relates to the brand.

[00:45:53] I just launched a website

[00:45:56] last September and I'm still building content for it.

[00:46:00] I worked on that this morning.

[00:46:02] I interviewed two people

[00:46:06] because I'm bringing more people onto my team to run the live sales

[00:46:10] because I'm introducing more live sales.

[00:46:14] What else did I do?

[00:46:16] You've got a lot.

[00:46:17] Plus, you're you're a content creator, right?

[00:46:21] Because you said you have a YouTube channel you post on Instagram.

[00:46:25] I don't do YouTube.

[00:46:26] So YouTube is like the thing.

[00:46:29] It's like the shining ball that I want so bad.

[00:46:31] But I keep having.

[00:46:32] Old. I like YouTube.

[00:46:36] I mean, I'm so glad I met you because I'm like, she's doing

[00:46:39] like this is so smart of you to interview people.

[00:46:44] Thank you. Yeah.

[00:46:46] How did you come up with this idea?

[00:46:47] Was it like done?

[00:46:50] You have to go.

[00:46:51] I don't know if you know, but my background in my my corporate life,

[00:46:55] I was a traffic and news reporter. Right.

[00:46:58] So I was so my background, my professional career

[00:47:01] I was a news reporter.

[00:47:03] So I left that job.

[00:47:06] It was a very toxic situation.

[00:47:08] So I left that job in 2019.

[00:47:11] And at the time I was doing YouTube

[00:47:13] because I was because remember, I had started in 2009 as a mom blogger.

[00:47:18] So I was I was still doing like the mom blogging, the lifestyle brand and stuff.

[00:47:23] I was I was doing all the social media mom things.

[00:47:27] And I was doing really well with that.

[00:47:30] But then I went back to work full time.

[00:47:32] And so I was only doing that part time.

[00:47:34] But then when that corporate job ended,

[00:47:36] I dove all in back to doing YouTube and creating content and all that stuff.

[00:47:42] So enter the reselling era.

[00:47:45] So I was following a lot of resellers online.

[00:47:49] But when I notice most of the resellers that are out there now who are

[00:47:55] sharing information and educating and teaching people,

[00:47:58] most of them are clothing sellers or they're like everything sellers.

[00:48:02] There was no information about jewelry reselling at all.

[00:48:06] I mean, you would see stuff here and there, but there wasn't like a dedicated

[00:48:11] you know, there was no dedicated content strictly for jewelry resellers.

[00:48:15] And I had always wanted to do a podcast.

[00:48:18] I just didn't know what to do it on.

[00:48:21] So

[00:48:22] December of last year, I said, you know what?

[00:48:25] I'm just going to launch this.

[00:48:27] And I went from idea to launch in two weeks.

[00:48:31] Yeah.

[00:48:31] And

[00:48:34] and here we are today.

[00:48:36] Now we are five months in

[00:48:40] the YouTube channels growing.

[00:48:41] And I just found out last week that my podcast is number nine

[00:48:48] out of the forty five best jewelry podcasts out there.

[00:48:55] I know I was so shocked.

[00:48:57] My friend sent it to me.

[00:48:58] It's a list on Feet Spot and it said the forty five best jewelry podcast for twenty

[00:49:03] twenty four and we came in at number nine.

[00:49:07] And it's crazy because nine is my favorite number.

[00:49:10] Nine is my lucky number.

[00:49:11] So to make it so quickly in the top ten of all the jewelry podcasts out

[00:49:18] there, I'm like so blown away.

[00:49:21] Yeah.

[00:49:22] You were going to be number one.

[00:49:23] Well, that's the goal.

[00:49:25] Like just like how you said,

[00:49:27] you know, we're manifesting, we're putting it out there.

[00:49:31] So my goal is to eventually be the number one jewelry podcast on Spotify

[00:49:37] or Apple podcast, you know, whatever, wherever.

[00:49:40] Yeah.

[00:49:41] But yeah, that's what I want because I want because I love jewelry.

[00:49:45] There's so many people passionate about it.

[00:49:47] And I just want to share whoever wants to listen and talk about jewelry.

[00:49:52] Yeah, let's do it.

[00:49:55] I mean, and there's so many things you can do, you know,

[00:49:58] as you go to conventions and which I will be doing.

[00:50:02] There's the there's a big

[00:50:04] loss, the Las Vegas Antique Jewelry and Watch show is happening this month.

[00:50:10] So I will be there.

[00:50:11] Nice. And hopefully I'll meet some more.

[00:50:14] Well, I know I will,

[00:50:15] but I'll be connecting with people who love antique vintage jewelry and watches.

[00:50:21] So, yeah, it's very exciting.

[00:50:24] So I plan to, I mean, like you, I plan to take this as far as I can take it

[00:50:29] and grow it is as much as I can grow it.

[00:50:31] You know, and if there's anything I can do to help you, you know, support you

[00:50:36] and what you're trying to do, I would love to do that because I think

[00:50:40] that, like you said, you know, women supporting women.

[00:50:44] But it's also about really just

[00:50:48] kind of just making those connections and letting people know what's out there.

[00:50:52] It's like if you want to do this,

[00:50:55] maybe not do what I do or not do what you do.

[00:50:57] But I'm hoping we can inspire other women to create their own empires or to do

[00:51:02] whatever it is they want to do, you know, because

[00:51:06] I know when I was starting, there wasn't a whole lot of people out

[00:51:09] there doing what you and I do.

[00:51:12] So I'm hoping that through this podcast, we can inspire more people,

[00:51:17] women specifically.

[00:51:19] I totally agree with you.

[00:51:21] And I always tell people like,

[00:51:23] you know, there's there's some inspiration that might not be for you.

[00:51:27] Right.

[00:51:28] It will

[00:51:30] kind of get you to the next step where like there's been a lot,

[00:51:33] you know, because I've absorbed a lot over the years and

[00:51:37] it's interesting when I actually really get inspired.

[00:51:41] It's like what I least expect it.

[00:51:45] And what inspires me the most is

[00:51:47] when people actually back to your question, people actually share with me

[00:51:52] like how they'd like the granular.

[00:51:55] It's not necessarily like, oh, I did this thing and it was so easy.

[00:51:59] It's like the granular.

[00:52:01] So Katie and her partner, I forget her partner's name.

[00:52:07] Oh, Katie and Vicky and Vicky.

[00:52:09] Thank you. Yes.

[00:52:11] They do a great YouTube show.

[00:52:13] Amazing.

[00:52:14] Yes, I love them both.

[00:52:16] What they sold, what they bought it for, where they got it,

[00:52:21] about photographing it, they go into more granular because Vicky,

[00:52:25] she's hired someone to help her.

[00:52:27] And then she talks about, oh, I switched out the mannequin and this and this

[00:52:30] and like how much she lists per day.

[00:52:32] And, you know, she talked about like I woke up at 6 a.m.

[00:52:35] and I listed until two and and I'm like with that information,

[00:52:40] I'm better able to actually be inspired for me.

[00:52:43] You know, like what you said does right.

[00:52:45] Not everyone might want to do what I'm doing.

[00:52:47] Not everyone wants to do what you're doing, but it's like

[00:52:51] what what is meant for you will feel right.

[00:52:54] And it's important for us all to be as honest as possible

[00:52:58] about the process or else we're just making it seem like, oh, I just.

[00:53:03] I'm just so smart.

[00:53:05] It's like

[00:53:06] it's kind of hard.

[00:53:08] Oh, yeah. I mean, it ain't easy.

[00:53:11] No, it's not easy.

[00:53:14] Do you hire someone to edit or do you do all of the editing yourself?

[00:53:18] I do everything myself now, luckily, because because of my background,

[00:53:24] working in radio and TV news and I was a producer as well.

[00:53:28] So I know how to do all of that kind of stuff.

[00:53:31] But the thing is, is it's a lot.

[00:53:34] It's a lot to do.

[00:53:36] So it does take some time.

[00:53:37] But the thing is, is I love it so much that it doesn't feel like a chore

[00:53:41] and it doesn't feel like work and it doesn't feel like a burden.

[00:53:45] The only thing is, earlier this week, my website got hacked

[00:53:49] and that was a nightmare.

[00:53:52] And then so because I built my website myself.

[00:53:55] OK, so I know how to do web design.

[00:53:59] I don't know how to do.

[00:54:01] I don't know how to code.

[00:54:02] I don't know how to.

[00:54:04] I don't I'm not an IT girl where I can I can patch in security and all

[00:54:08] this stuff. So I had to actually pay someone to do that.

[00:54:13] So I had to hire a security company to remove, you know, to because I couldn't

[00:54:19] even access I couldn't even log into my site.

[00:54:21] It had gotten hacked.

[00:54:22] So yeah, like I couldn't do anything.

[00:54:25] I was completely locked out.

[00:54:26] So I had to call my web host provider.

[00:54:28] Then I had to call the security people to remove all the I don't know

[00:54:32] if it was a virus or malware.

[00:54:33] I don't even know how it works.

[00:54:35] What's your platform?

[00:54:38] I use Bluehost and then I use self hosted WordPress.

[00:54:43] And that's how I built my site.

[00:54:45] Because it's funny because now you don't have to do that.

[00:54:49] But back when I started in 2009, that was the only option.

[00:54:53] So I had to learn how to build a site.

[00:54:55] I had to.

[00:54:56] And so now you don't have to.

[00:54:58] You can you can use like you said,

[00:55:00] Kajabi Shopify Squarespace Wix like you can use all.

[00:55:04] But none of that was there when I started.

[00:55:06] So I just do what I know.

[00:55:07] I know how to build a WordPress site from scratch.

[00:55:10] So that's what I did.

[00:55:12] And what and plus, too, I like having

[00:55:14] ownership of all of my content on my website.

[00:55:20] But yeah, my website got hacked and I didn't know what to do.

[00:55:23] So, you know, after whipping out the

[00:55:25] credit card and making a ton of phone calls, yeah, when they got it resolved.

[00:55:29] But still, that's normal.

[00:55:32] I mean, yeah, that's a day in the life.

[00:55:35] Journey and you're like, oh, shoot, I didn't know I needed that until I needed it.

[00:55:39] And then exactly stuff.

[00:55:41] And you're like, I could have done that myself.

[00:55:42] But the truth is the time for me, I'm always like, yeah, but what I what I

[00:55:46] have made the time so I paid someone to build.

[00:55:49] What is now my third site since oh nine long story?

[00:55:52] I told my first one should never have sold it.

[00:55:55] That was like my I will do a whole YouTube video about this one day,

[00:55:59] which is like you need to keep your digital assets because you know.

[00:56:02] And Google like loves old sites and it loves sites that have authority.

[00:56:08] So it is very difficult to get authority from scratch

[00:56:12] or as quickly as you might want.

[00:56:15] But anyway, I paid someone eight thousand dollars to build my site.

[00:56:18] Now, could I have like figured it out?

[00:56:21] Probably maybe with some fiber help, but like back to the security part,

[00:56:26] like I don't know that part and I know that they took care of everything

[00:56:30] and they have a staging site.

[00:56:32] So you actually edit on the staging site before pushing it live,

[00:56:36] which helps to prevent problems.

[00:56:38] And so there was a lot where I was like, you know, looking back,

[00:56:42] I'm glad I spent that money and I always have them to turn to for for

[00:56:48] work if I can't figure something out and they know my site.

[00:56:51] You know, and yeah, but back in oh nine.

[00:56:54] Yeah, I paid someone five hundred dollars to build the WordPress template

[00:56:58] like just to get the basics and then it was off to the races.

[00:57:03] Yeah, because see, that's the other thing.

[00:57:06] Now I'm starting to think about do I want to build my own website to sell my

[00:57:11] jewelry on like, do I want to have Shopify?

[00:57:14] Yeah, like, do I want to do a Shopify store or do I want to do something else?

[00:57:19] Because people ask me, they say, oh, how they say, you know,

[00:57:23] do you sell your jewelry on your own website?

[00:57:25] Because I'd love to support you there.

[00:57:28] And I always have to say no, because because I don't have that option,

[00:57:32] at least not yet. Yeah.

[00:57:33] So that's another thing, too, is like once you start getting known and once

[00:57:38] people start, like you said, they want to support you.

[00:57:41] They'll go to your website if you

[00:57:43] have one, you know, and they'll buy from you there, you know,

[00:57:46] just because they want to support you or because they like you or because,

[00:57:49] you know, you may have something that they're looking for,

[00:57:52] whatever the case may be.

[00:57:53] So

[00:57:55] now I'm trying to figure out, do I want to do that?

[00:57:59] And if I do, you know, how am I going to fit that in with the other

[00:58:02] eighty five thousand two hundred and eleven things that I'm doing?

[00:58:06] I think so.

[00:58:09] I mean, if I if I were you,

[00:58:11] I would just choose whatever platform you feel you're excelling at and then

[00:58:16] use that as your website, right.

[00:58:18] So like what not, you know.

[00:58:20] Yeah, that's what I've been doing up until now.

[00:58:23] But the thing is, is I would like to kind of be a one stop shop kind of place.

[00:58:27] You know, like if someone says, oh, I really, you know, that's where I was

[00:58:31] talking about, I don't know, these necklaces on our podcast.

[00:58:34] I would like to get one or something like that.

[00:58:36] Then I could just direct them there

[00:58:38] instead of them having to go to whatnot or eBay or something like that.

[00:58:42] But I don't know.

[00:58:44] You know, I mean, we'll see.

[00:58:47] I don't it's not like I plan on doing that like tomorrow,

[00:58:51] but maybe in the near future, that is something I could consider.

[00:58:56] Well, with the right, I mean, if you do WordPress with the right SEO,

[00:59:00] if you hire an SEO team, I think that's more valuable.

[00:59:03] If you know how to actually build

[00:59:05] the site, the SEO team will get the backlinks and you just have to create

[00:59:09] content so you would need to do a blog, you know?

[00:59:11] Yeah.

[00:59:13] But I have that to the list.

[00:59:15] Oh, my God.

[00:59:15] I mean, guys, I'm so behind on this website, like

[00:59:21] where I wanted it to be, it's all self-imposed pressure.

[00:59:24] But like I was thinking to myself,

[00:59:26] I'm like, I think I'm just going to pull a few late nights like I'm in

[00:59:28] college and I'm just going to work from like 10 to two because sometimes

[00:59:32] that's the only and so here's the other like real truth of

[00:59:36] entrepreneurship in general or whatever you're trying to do if you work full

[00:59:40] time job, especially like I hate to say it, like you just got to kind of

[00:59:43] push yourself and not sleep.

[00:59:46] And it's not every night.

[00:59:47] It can't be every night, but you choose when it is and then you're able to get

[00:59:52] to a place where you don't have to do that.

[00:59:56] But there's really no way around it sometimes.

[00:59:59] You know, yeah, like it, that's different, you know, if you do like it.

[01:00:05] But there are some things that

[01:00:07] basically there's things I don't like that I know I have to do.

[01:00:11] Well, that's life, right?

[01:00:12] Even even not work related, there's things in my life that I have to do that I don't

[01:00:17] like.

[01:00:20] All right. Well, Samantha, is there anything else

[01:00:23] you'd like to share before I let you go?

[01:00:25] I know you're a busy lady.

[01:00:28] You are as well. I can't wait to meet in Vegas.

[01:00:30] Yes, yes, I'm excited.

[01:00:33] And you can tell me all about the weather.

[01:00:38] We have we have two temperatures, they say hot and very hot.

[01:00:42] That's the temperature in Vegas.

[01:00:45] Oh, my gosh, I love it.

[01:00:48] So, yeah, I would just you know,

[01:00:50] I have a feeling that most people here are here because they they love

[01:00:54] vintage jewelry. Please support Desiree.

[01:00:57] She's also a seller in my community.

[01:00:59] So by supporting her in my community, it's a win win.

[01:01:02] You guys can visit vintage jewelry addicts.com and then you can join that

[01:01:06] district community. We say district because that's the platform.

[01:01:09] But it's essentially my branded my branded space.

[01:01:14] You can actually chat with me there.

[01:01:16] You can send me a message.

[01:01:18] You can apply to sell.

[01:01:19] It's open to U.S. and Canada sellers.

[01:01:23] So if you're international, you can participate, but you just can't buy

[01:01:29] and you can't sell, but you can actually be a member and like check

[01:01:32] out the live sales and then on Facebook, all you have to do is search

[01:01:36] for vintage jewelry addicts in your search bar.

[01:01:38] And the group has a blue necklace and that's how you know it's my group.

[01:01:43] And I would love to see you guys there.

[01:01:45] Yes, what I will do is I will make sure I will link

[01:01:49] the district group, the Facebook group,

[01:01:52] your Instagram and maybe your YouTube channel to that be OK.

[01:01:57] OK, you've inspired me to get on it and start doing interviews as well.

[01:02:02] So I hope to have you on my channel in the future.

[01:02:04] Oh, absolutely. I'm ready whenever you are.

[01:02:07] You just tell me when I think I think we should do like a show and tell.

[01:02:11] I love show and tell.

[01:02:13] OK, that'll be fun.

[01:02:15] Yeah, I wanted to show you the shot, but I wore this for today.

[01:02:20] Oh, not an incredible.

[01:02:22] It's not signed, but it's heavy.

[01:02:25] Wow. So that's like what is it?

[01:02:28] A pharaoh? Yeah.

[01:02:30] It's probably definitely looks vintage.

[01:02:33] There is I can't remember.

[01:02:35] I've sold something similar to that, but it was marked and I can't remember

[01:02:39] what it was now. This was probably a year or two ago.

[01:02:42] But if you Google lens that, I bet you something will come up.

[01:02:46] I haven't even bothered.

[01:02:46] I bought it from from a seller in my district community.

[01:02:51] So I was just like, I need it.

[01:02:53] You know, it was.

[01:02:54] Yeah, I love that.

[01:02:56] So I love that. That's beautiful.

[01:02:59] Yeah, yeah.

[01:02:59] So I'm really looking forward to building

[01:03:02] a collection of vintage jewelry to go along with my vintage clothing,

[01:03:06] which I wear clothes older than me.

[01:03:08] That's always my job.

[01:03:10] That's fantastic.

[01:03:12] No, actually, no.

[01:03:12] The clothes will still be older than me because I love the 60s and 70s.

[01:03:15] So

[01:03:18] and I hope that you have a great rest of your day.

[01:03:21] Desiree, I look forward to sharing this in vintage jewelry addicts.

[01:03:23] So if you're tuning in and you got you caught this in the group,

[01:03:27] go follow Desiree on YouTube.

[01:03:29] Yes, yes, I am so excited.

[01:03:31] So,

[01:03:33] yeah, I guess that's it.

[01:03:34] Thank you so much, Samantha, for hanging out and sharing your story

[01:03:39] and, you know, sharing what you're doing.

[01:03:41] We're all excited for you and we will definitely be supporting you.

[01:03:45] And thank you for spending this time with me.

[01:03:48] Bye.