We recently connected with Kenny Donato, Ryan Lehnau, and Simon Madolid and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, hanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
Growing up, my parents always taught me to work hard, sacrifice and do the best you can in anything and everything that you do. With that being said, whether it was school, sports, work, or hobbies I was always giving it my all with the upmost request and professionalism as well. I also tend to learn from others such as previous bosses or experts in the current field. To relate this in my current team of DripTrioTCG, associating with Pokemon vendors that have been selling for years, learning from their etiquette, to work ethic, to selling techniques and to personality overall.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Our group DripTrioTCG consists of myself and two of my closest friends. Together we stream, trade, and sell Pokemon TCG products both online and through in person vending. We started in March 2024 and have been loving it ever since. Initially it started with the three of us opening a trading card game (TCG) known as Yu-Gi-Oh, playing against each other, collecting cards and living the nostalgia of our childhood. It wasn’t until we visited a local card shop in search of Yu-Gi-Oh cards where we found a Pokemon product in a sealed case worth $1,000 and realized we had the product at home. From there it was all down hill. We searched our houses for our childhood Pokemon card collections and decided to shift our interest from Yu-Gi-Oh to Pokemon. We went through the stages of buying cards to open and collect, going to vending shows to buy cards we needed to complete full card sets, to eventually learning how to play the card game and playing in local Pokemon tournaments. Along the way we made a ton of friends in the Pokemon community and eventually realized that we want to take this a step further and make a group to stream Pokemon on the app WhatNot. To this day I remember having a brain storming meeting with my two friends/collegues in my basement and trying to come up with a name for our group. And that day DripTrioTCG was born. We slowly streamed on WhatNot, showing our personalities and not only selling Pokemon cards but making a space/stream that was fun to join, had music playing, interactive chats with the people who joined to watched, and ended up being a fun hangout space where we sold cards every now and then. Eventually more people would join our streams, we would film content for social media, grow a dedicated following and got our own logo to show originality and that we meant to take this further. Now we not only stream on WhatNot but we have vended in person for 3 shows, have 3 more vending shows lined up, are recognized in the Pokemon community, went to New York Comiccon dressed as our logo and got the attention of famous Pokemon influencers, attended multiple local Pokemon TCG tournaments, have grossed over $10k in sales on WhatNot since March, and have sold 1.8k products on WhatNot. Our next short term goal is making DripTrio merch. The best part about this is not only am I doing this with two of my closest friends but the money behind it is secondary. I’m having the time of my life, I love the community we’ve built, the name we’ve made and seeing the smiles of the people we’ve interacted with makes my day always. If this were free I would definitely still do it. Just recently in our last vending shows, one of our customers asked if we had an instagram, I noted that we are DripTrioTCG and he with wide eyes said, “wait….wait….. YOU’RE DRIPTRIO?!?! You guys pop up on my instagram all the time, I LOVE YOU GUYS!! YOU GUYS ARE GREAT!!” and that was the most endearing moment that really touched my heart. What started off as a thought, became a reality and I can see my friends and I doing this for a very long time
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I would say the three skills that were most impactful were us three being able to be ourselves in front of the camera when live on stream, being able to network and connect with other vendors or Pokemon players we havent met yet, and being able to find inventory since distributors are unavailable for any non brick and mortar store. For any folks beginning their journey as Pokemon streamers/sellers, being personable is key. I love talking to people, making them laugh and just having a genuinely good time making great conversation. I’ve seen streamers that are unenthusiastic, show no emotion and seem as if they are only in it for the money. That’s not the way to do it. I put money aside and solely enjoy the love of Pokemon, the interactions and the atmosphere of having people like you with the same interests together. Working on your social skills by simply having small talk or getting to know someone goes a long way. “What’s your favorite pokemon” “do you have a trade binder” “what set are you collecting” are simple questions that can impact or spark a new friendship in the Pokemon community and can be a stepping stone in becoming a successful streamer/vendor.
Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?
I would say that my ideal client is anyone that loves Pokemon and is not in it for the money. Being a vendor, I have seen and met all types of people. Kids collecting Pomemon cards with their parents, people that play the card game competitively looking for a specific card to improve their deck, fathers getting back into pokemon trading after years of not opening a card pack, etc. I have sold cards to entire families that collect together, a couple that is completely a set together, so many people I’ve met, interacted and befriended, these people are my ideal clients. I have however met the other side of Pokemon. The other side being the people that only care about the money aspect of it. Starting out as a new vendor, my first show a guy (also a vendor that I have never met) tried taking advantage of me as a new seller. He tried selling me a card that seemed off for $4.5k. He essentially knew that I was a new vendor and thought I would buy that card at $4.5k because it was “half off.” I have also experienced people trying to buy out my whole inventory for a small percentage compared to the actual market price to potentially resell my stuff for significantly higher then what they would have paid me. These people are the ones to look out for and to me ruin the experience for others to enjoy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.whatnot.com/s/r0hk77t4
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/driptriotcg?igsh=dm81cm5hc3MzbmMy&utm_source=qr
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
