Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 15:09
Well, I think it makes sense because it’s like you’re already there, right? I went to a small card show in Wisconsin, right? Like kind of like that setting that you’re talking about. It’s like some I don’t even know where it was. It was like an old church grounds and you’re just putting in, but you only get the people who are within usually 30 to 60 minutes from a random suburb of Wisconsin.
And so this is really, I think, cool because it highlights that. And then some people who aren’t doing that come and observe and learn. It was like, wow. It’s not just the people at the show, but it’s like, how do I go live in front of more people and leverage that, right? So I’d love for you to talk about some best practices that you’ve learned from a live selling perspective that maybe mistakes and what’s worked, what are some live selling tips that people who come to the show or not can use?
Chad Collins: 16:11
So when we think about live selling at LiveBuys and specifically right now for Coin Krewe, which is the channel we’re all focusing on and building, it may sound kind of like the opposite of what you might think live selling is because anyone that thinks about live selling today, what are they thinking about? They’re thinking about what can I buy for one price and sell for a higher price? And how can I do that as many times as possible? Okay. And that’s the right way to think about things. The way we think about things is you lead with entertainment because you’re providing good entertainment. You’re able to build a community. And once you’ve provided good entertainment and you’ve built a community around that.
Sales becomes a byproduct of doing both of those things the right way. And what we’ve been able to see on our channel is that we, our hosts, aren’t salespeople, our hosts are entertainers, and it’s our job to entertain and keep a room. And not only do we do that with the words that are coming out of the mouths of our hosts and their antics, but we also do that with the type of visual effects and sound effects we have on our stream, right? So we come at it from a full circle. We have a digital media team, and the digital media team is responsible for making sure our shows are high energy, that they’re visually appealing, that we can have some interactivity with our community while we’re live.
And these are things that we’ve done that we haven’t seen done a lot. They’re done more often in the live streaming, video game watching Twitch way to engage and interact with hosts. And we’ve kind of taken some of those best practices and merged it with live selling. And I know that’s what makes Coin Krewe different, and any other channel that we decide to stand up will have similar elements to that, where we’re going to make sure it visually looks a certain way. The energy is a certain way. The hosts that we bring on know how to entertain a certain way. So they build a community. And if we’re able to continually do that, then you’ll see LiveBuys continue to grow in different categories. And who knows, you might see different events pop up that are companions to those categories as well.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 19:15
Yeah, it’s less about live selling, you know, items. It’s more of content, best practices, really what it comes down to. And it kind of does best practices. I’m wondering, you know, how you think of the framework of the content best practices. If there is one, like, hey, you’re going live, you know, obviously it goes into who you’re hiring. Who’s doing it in the first place? But I remember Chad, like from Groupon days and, you know, the Groupon days and it started in Chicago.
So I was like one of the first, you know, my, my actual clinic was one of the, the first group of businesses that was actually on it. And I remember them talking about who’s writing up. They didn’t hire professional like writers. They actually hired like comedians. And for the descriptions and the emails and things like that because of the entertainment factor, right. So what kind of framework do you think of like, let’s say someone’s like, you know, I want to start doing this. Or when you bring on someone who’s an entertainer. What, what do you think of as a framework for going live?
Chad Collins: 20:28
Well, engagement is paramount when it comes to going live, right? It’s, you know, one of the other things we talk about with our hosts. Is every comment that someone writes in the chat, you. Have you read that comment and acknowledge the person and you know. One thing that I keep with me and that I share with our hosts is the. Most beautiful thing a person can hear is the sound of their own name. And when they have their screen name, whatever it is. And then sometimes they’re really funny and sometimes they’re inappropriate or whatever they are, you address them by their screen name.
Or when someone wins an auction that you’re running, you congratulate them by their screen name. And it gives them, you know, a little bit of status in the room, right? Especially if they keep winning more things. And the other thing that we do is we will, we’ll even create sound bites that are for some of our community members that are frequently engaging in the chat and that are frequently winning auctions, and that creates a very sticky, entertaining, engaging vibe to the show, which, you know, which keeps people coming back and people know kind of what our greatest hits are. You know, like there are certain segments that we do during different shows and people will ask for them or their different visual effects that they could trigger by typing certain things into the chat. And, you know, they’ll, you know, hit those over and over again. And it makes the show. There’s just as much as it is ours.
Like we’re putting the show on for them. And that. Let me ask you about frameworks. Like it really it’s a mindset, right? Who are we doing this for? We’re doing it for them. And we wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for them. They’ve got to show up. If we if we go live and no one shows up. You know, we can list as many auctions as we want. We could have the best inventory on the planet if no one’s showing up. It’s like you have a grocery store, but no one’s walking through to buy any groceries. And, you know, we’re at a point now where, you know, we’re able to go live and we’ll know we’ll have, you know, 100, 200,000 people show up in our room.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 23:09
It’s interesting because I watched one of them that you guys did. And I, I can’t remember the name on it, but it was definitely an inappropriate name. And like you said it. And then someone else commented, like, why are you saying that? You’re like, that’s the person’s screen name. I’m, I’m reading their screen name, I don’t remember.
Chad Collins: 23:25
Oh, I know what you’re talking about. You’re talking about tasty taint.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 23:28
I don’t remember.
Chad Collins: 23:30
Maybe you are, I don’t know, maybe it was too much for this audience. But yes, there are. There are some wild screen names and we lean into it. You know, and it’s okay if the content is a little bit, you know, PG 13 or R at some point. That’s what that’s what makes, you know, the type of shows that we put on stand out and kind of cut through.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 23:52
Yeah. I mean, listen, I mean, that’s great too. It’s like thinking of the person in mind and the, the people want engagement. They want the acknowledgement and appreciation. And that’s baked into kind of your philosophy. What were some of the mistakes that you made or have seen made early on? Because you’re always experimenting, I’m sure, and you’re like, oh, this is going to work. And then maybe it doesn’t work. What are some things that you experimented with? You’re like, oh, this is going to work. And it just doesn’t.
Chad Collins: 24:18
You know, it’s kind of funny. We tried a beauty channel early on that had to do with like, you know, press on nails and, you know, powder dip nails. I know more about fingernails now than I wish I ever knew. Right. And we launched this channel and it just no matter what we tried, we, we couldn’t get it to click. And what and what’s interesting is the brand that we were working with, you know, I went back and I was like, hey, listen, like we have, you know, we have great hosts. We have it looks good. We just can’t get it to stick. Like we can’t get any traction whatsoever. And I was like, but you know, if I were you, here’s what I would do.
Right? And it wasn’t give up. It’s not going to work.
It was, you know, we don’t have the local like, we don’t have the knowledge that you have about the product. Right? Or it hasn’t been like, we didn’t extract it well enough to be able to describe it the best way or showcase it the best way. And then they decided to go live on their own with the founder of the company, who was a woman who was very passionate about it. And they became one of the biggest press on nail channels on whatnot because of that. So the product wasn’t the issue. The issue was the presentation. Right. Our presentation of their product. And what’s interesting now is one of the hosts that we had to showcase. That product is one of the best hosts we have now on Coin Krewe.
So we knew like we had the right talent, we had the product has proven to be the right product. It was the presentation of how we decided to to go with it. And what I would just tell people is switch up how your live looks and feels, who is the market that you’re trying to reach and try and meet them where they are. Because what you’re what you believe might work, right. And what we believe might work like didn’t work. But as soon as the proprietor did it the way that they believed that it would work, it, it completely took completely took off. So what I would have done is gone. What I would do now if I was launching another product and I wasn’t getting traction right away, is I would I would test many different looks and feels of the stream until I found one that worked.
It’s no different, Jeremy, than ad copy. It’s no different than what you’re going to, you know, say in a text message that you send or put in an email that you’re going to send or what the graphic is or what the video looks like. The creative part, right? Live shopping is part art man. It is part art and that creative element, that’s what’s going to get people to stick and watch. It’s what’s going to get them to engage with the community. And once you have that, once you have just a little bit of that, then it snowballs and grows into something bigger. And it’s worth testing and trying over and over again until you finally find that look and vibe that sticks.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 28:00
Are there any resources mentors that you’ve learned from on this? And it’s funny, like I was thinking who’s, who’s actually been an interview that relates to this. And I didn’t think of it until right now. So I had Ron Popeil on the podcast. If people don’t know Ron Popeil is he sold Ginsu knives, Chop-O-Matic. But wait, there’s more. I think he coined that phrase, actually. But wait, there’s more. And so I think of the old school. I mean, now it’s like Home Shopping Network, right?
But old school infomercials, essentially. So this is, you know, and unfortunately, he’s passed away. May he rest in peace. But, you know, he had some amazing thoughts from a direct selling and he sold hand to hand combat, like on the streets, like just with slicing veggies. And he talked about going to the market like 4 a.m., getting the vegetables and then like, so he can present it live. But who are some of the people that you’ve learned from? It could be in collectible space or live selling space.
Chad Collins: 29:19
You know, it’s interesting. There’s not a ton of content out there. When we launched LiveBuys, we did a deep dive on, you know, who’s talking about it the most. And everyone knows Gary V, you know, talks about it the most.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 29:35
I mean, you were in his book too, weren’t you? Yeah. One of his books.
Chad Collins: 29:39
He featured Jordan and I in Crushing It. You know, he put out basically a call that was like, hey, if you read Crush It! and you actually are like crushing it, like, I want to know. So we let him know. And then he was like, that’s awesome. We want to talk about it. So, so that was kind of like the breakfast story where it was like, you know, we hit it hard on YouTube. YouTube turned into breakfast, live, breakfast live turned into this big thing. And yeah, so he highlighted that in the book.
But now, interestingly, how like the, how, like what he’s working on and what we’re working on have are beginning to merge. Because now with VeeFriends, his universe of characters that he created, he launched trading cards with them. Well, you know, first it started with NFTs. Then he licensed it out to a, you know, a bunch of different people, but trading cards. So there’s Topps trading cards of Veefriends. And later this year, I think next month they’re launching collectible coins for VeeFriends, and Coin Krewe is going to be one of the. Oh, there you go. Coin Krewe is going to be one of the key places you’re going to be able to get, you know, get these coins on, tick tock.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 31:01
Did he partner? So is Topps like, so is is Topps Chrome.
Chad Collins: 31:06
Topps Chrome. Yeah. So Topps Chrome is, is releasing and they’re out now the Veefriends cards and then the coins are coming out next month.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 31:16
So they comics, they have cards and oh, there’s a, there was a coin I think on that. So they’ll come out with coins too.
Chad Collins: 31:23
Yeah. They write pins, comics, cartoons like, like he’s leaning all the way into collectibles, right? Like every collectible that is, that is popular. VeeFriends has something for that collector. So it’s going to be, it’s going to be fun to highlight VeeFriends not only on Coin Krewe, but at Chaos as well.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 31:46
Why do you think, Chad? I’m curious some insights into, okay, he’s got cards. He can just go all in on cards or comics. Like, why do you think he’s launching coins?
Chad Collins: 31:57
Also because he sees what’s happening. You know, he has been on Whatnot for a long time. And one of the biggest categories on Whatnot was coins and currency. And it was only like three months ago that TikTok began and opened up the coins and currency category. And of course, TikTok, you know, recruited a bunch of people over. And I know, you know, Gary, here’s his finger on the pulse of collectibles, saw the momentum with coins and, you know, jumped in. We’re excited. We’re excited to, you know, to have an allotment of coins coming and we’re getting our audience hyped for it as well.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 32:42
I mean, here’s, here’s some of what looks like maybe some of the coins, but you become kind of like a celebrity, right? And I’m curious who in the collectibles space, and I know you’ve met a bunch of them. Know some of them. You, you know, from the, the at least the one in Chicago that, that you look has really built a following on this. I remember Gary had a booth, I went up and there’s just people. He’s a celebrity, right? I mean, he’s more a wider spread entrepreneur personality, but there’s people there that have a big following. They’ll come just to meet the person. Right? Who are some of those that have built up a following personality in this collectible space?
Chad Collins: 33:26
I’ll tell you. One of the people I’ve been most impressed with and and Pat and I go back many years, but Pat Flynn, who have you ever had Pat on the show?
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 33:39
No.
Chad Collins: 33:40
So he’s he’d be a great get to. And we should we should make that happen. But he, you know, I learned about Pat, interestingly enough, when I was researching how to monetize my YouTube channel right way back in 2012, 2011, 2012, right when it was before YouTube were just kind of like automatically monetized people, right? You had to be invited to have your videos monetized and your channel monetized. And he’s talking about passive income and smart passive income and all this stuff. And years later, Pat and I were both speaking at an event put on by ConvertKit. And yep, here you go in, in Idaho, in Boise. And we got to talking at the reception afterwards and he was like, he’s like, yeah, he’s like, I know all about breakfast.
You know, in fact, like the next time it comes around, you know, to California, let me know. He’s based in San Diego. And a couple of years after that he put out, you know, he got really into Pokémon, and he created Deep Pocket Monster and grew that social media following on Deep Pocket Monster on YouTube and Instagram and whatever to millions of followers. And on the back of that launched an event called Card Party. So now you’ve got someone like Pat who was not in the event space at all. He’s in. He was a he’s an amazing content creator. He wrote books that helped businesses, etc. and he launched an event all about, you know, bringing the Pokémon community together on the back of the following that he built, which was very similar to how we launch Brick Fest Live.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 35:28
Yeah, you look at this right here. He’s got 2.29 million subscribers on Deep Pocket Monster.
Chad Collins: 35:34
Yeah.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 35:34
That’s incredible.
Chad Collins: 35:36
It is. It is.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 35:37
It’s funny. We both spoke it early on. And I both spoke at podcast movement and then a bunch of like kind of early on podcasters years and years ago was in Chicago, went out to dinner. But no, I’ve never had him on the podcast, but I tried to get him on this for, for us today. But he’s a busy dude, so he’s busy.
Chad Collins: 35:56
He’s a busy dude, but what a story. I mean, I would love to talk to him about about, you know, some of the trials and tribulations he’s been through with putting an event together because, you know, the behind the scenes of putting an event together. I mean, that’s the that’s where the magic really happens, right? Everyone comes to the event, whether you’re a vendor or you’re an attendee and you see the finished product, right?
But to talk with someone about how the sausage actually gets made and what it actually takes to, you know, produce a show, secure a venue, deal with all of the, you know, vendors and subcontractors, etc. So when you do open the doors, it just feels incredible. And you’re really the easiest part about producing a show is opening the doors because then the show essentially, you know, runs itself. Is there a bunch to manage? Of course there is. But the hard part is everything you need to do leading up to that day where it’s showtime.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 36:51
I love to hear more people like that. You find it could be niche to like any other people you admire in the the space, or you say, oh, they’ve built a really kind of a loyal following before you answer that. Chad. What I find, even if someone’s not in the collectible coin space, like for me, I feel like this translates to creating the best content, right? And even looking at what you do. I encourage people to just check out Coin Krewe on your TikTok channel. How do they do it? What are they doing? And same thing with Pat’s channel here is like, what does a thumbnail look like? What does the title look like? What are they doing in the description?
What are they actually doing as a content and just learning because like you and Pat have been doing it for decades and just observing what’s going on there, you know, and what works because I’m sure like over time, like this, this video got 7.1 million views. Okay. And I’m sure it didn’t start. He didn’t his first video didn’t do that. I mean, even if you look at MrBeast’s videos, like early on, he talks about it evolved as they learn more. So I think it’s just instructive for content in general. But who are some of the people at some of these collectible shows that you’re like, you know, we were at the Chicago one. It doesn’t have to be there, but that you’re like, you know, they’ve built a loyal following.
Chad Collins: 38:13
You know, the, the brands that have built the biggest social media followings. Live stream. Like it’s that simple. Like if you look at the biggest breakers, the biggest brands in the space, right, you’ve got in the card space, right? You’ve got we the hobby, you’ve got swish breaks, you’ve got on TikTok, you’ve got AC breaks, you’ve got backyard breaks, you’ve got all these, all these channels. And Burton breaks. You and the folks that are the faces of these brands are the quote celebrities at the show. Right? A lot of kids want to, you know, meet the people or even adults want to meet the people that they’ve been conversing with, that they’ve been, you know, buying from and winning auctions from.
And now they get a chance to, you know, hang out in real life and get a selfie or an autograph or all of those things. Like that’s real life. That happens. And it happens because people are choosing to engage and watch people live stream more than they’ll watch Netflix. Because it’s real and it’s live, and you can be part of the show and you might win something and have something sent to you. And then there’s events like the ones we’re going to put on, or the ones that already exist, where now you get to go meet those people that you’ve been watching. Isn’t that cool? And you can’t necessarily do that unless you’re like, you know, you know, signing up for some crazy VIP meet and greet at some event that you have to fly to somewhere, you know, you know, where people.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 40:08
Are very accessible at these shows.
Chad Collins: 40:10
It seems they’re more yeah, they’re more accessible than, you know, than like someone you would, you know, watch on Netflix, like more accessible than Jennifer Aniston, you know, or whoever else is out there. And it’s neat and the community kind of vibes off of it. Like everyone, the when I say the community, it’s like the communities in each of these, you know, subcategories in the collectible space, right? There are folks in the sneaker space that are big. There are folks in pin collecting space that are big. There are folks in the comic space, obviously, that are big.
There’s artists in the comic space, there’s people in sports cars and Pokémon, like in coins, like you name it. Like every one of these categories, there are a group of people that have built a following on social, whether it’s on Instagram, in a Facebook group, on TikTok, on whatnot, on eBay, wherever they have a loyal following. And if you have an opportunity to hang out with those folks or they want to go to an event, then, you know, really events are the best place to go and meet them and engage and ask your questions and, you know, and hang out.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 41:21
There’s no better place than in person, right? We have a few minutes left, Chad. I just wanted to touch on a few things. One is on the Chaos Expo. People can go to Chaos Expo, check out when the next one is, sign up, who should be attending, who should be vendor, who should be sponsoring, like who’s a good fit for Chaos Expo in those categories?
Chad Collins: 41:49
Yeah. I mean, from a vendor standpoint, well, first of all, you could go to Chaos Expo now and apply to be a vendor if you sell or have a store in any of these, kind of like in any of these categories. And there’s a whole bunch of categories listed, or if your category isn’t listed, then tell us your another category. Yeah, you see them right there, right? Comic sneakers.
Pins. Nostalgia memorabilia. Funko Apparel, art, autographs, like you name it. If it can be collected, we want you there. Pez dispensers, I don’t care. Whatever. Come in and sign up and be a vendor. Be part of the Chaos. Right. We’re thinking it’s like one third, you know, cards.
And then, you know, another big chunk is going to be coins and currency and everything else is going to be the Chaos. Everything else is going to be all those other categories that you’ll be able to get to. There’s going to be, you know, as someone that’s, you know, in their 40s right now, but even your 40s, 50s, 60s and you want to see some vintage items from your past to really be like, oh my gosh, I remember that. Like, we’re likely going to have something there for you at the show. Now now’s like insider access, right? We’re on this show insiders in the name of the show. And right now we have insider access for, you know, dealer spots. Now’s the time until I think the middle of next month.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 43:15
It’s funny you mentioned Pez. Real quick. So, like, one of my friends is a major Pez collector, dealer or whatever you want to call it. And he actually wrote the book on Pez. And so I’ll have to tell Jeff if you’re listening. Tell all your friends to come. All the.
Chad Collins: 43:33
Pez people. Jeff.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 43:34
Send them The Ultimate Pez Pal Handbook. And he literally, I think.
Chad Collins: 43:38
He’s signed autographs.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 43:40
He’s one of the expert. I mean, I swear, like, so did like you said, there’s a there’s a niche for there’s people in every niche that’s know so much about this stuff. I love.
Chad Collins: 43:53
It. I mean, look, at the end of the day. Listen, we as you know, we’ve, we’ve produced some massive shows.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 44:00
Yeah.
Chad Collins: 44:01
And, and this is just like the next one, you know, once you’re an event producer and once you’ve had a little bit of success with event production, it’s just, I don’t know. I mean, for me, it’s something that never leaves. You’re always thinking how you’ve got this community. You got all of these communities that are that gather digitally. What can you do to have everyone come together? That’s what Chaos Expo is.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 44:32
Well, I want to encourage people. Chad one check out ChaosExpo.com. Also check out LiveBuys.com. And there may be ways you can work with Chad and his team there. But Chad, as always, it is amazing spending time with you and everyone. Check out those sites and more episodes of the podcast and we’ll see everyone next time. Chad, thanks so much.
