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$1.1M Etsy POD Seller Reveals The #1 Mistake New Sellers Make | ft. Taylor "POD" Posada
00:50:12
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- [00:00]
A
Whatever feels easy to you is probably the thing that you're really good at that somebody else isn't. And the reason that you don't think it's a gift or a talent is because it just feels so easy to you. And I thought that was the best way of putting it because it's so true. There's a lot of things where you do them so effortlessly, naturally, and you think, oh, everybody knows how to do that. And no, not everybody knows how to do that.
- [00:22]
B
Hey there. I'm Cody McGuffey. I'm a husband dad of three and I'm the founder of Ever Be. Ever Be Everbee. Ever Be, where we serve over a million creators across the globe, helping them grow thriving online businesses. I believe every single human is a creator, and I believe every single creator should own a business. The business that gives them the freedom to build the life that they dream of. Built online is where creators, entrepreneurs and leaders get real insights, real stories, and the edge to build something that actually lasts. This is where the next generation builders get built. Taylor, what's going on? Nice to see you.
- [00:59]
A
It's nice to see you. Happy to be back.
- [01:01]
B
Happy New Year. We're recording this on January 13th. I'm sure it won't go live for another like two months from now, but how was your, how was your holidays? How was everything?
- [01:10]
A
They were good. They were good. We kept things quiet. I have a six year old, so it's kind of the most magical time of the year when you're around that age. So it was fun. Stayed home, hung out with family and good times.
- [01:26]
B
I didn't know you had a six year old. And that means. Okay, so. Because I have a, I have a six year old too. He's turning seven next month, but.
- [01:33]
A
Oh, okay. Mine's turning seven in April, so. 2019, baby.
- [01:37]
B
Very cool. Are you gonna have any more or just, just one?
- [01:41]
A
I don't think so. We love R1 and we love our dogs. I think we would get another dog before we would have another human.
- [01:51]
B
Okay, deal. And that makes sense. Yeah. We have three and it's, it's a beast. So we have year old, a five year old, just turned five and a one year old. So we're still kind of in that.
- [02:02]
A
Oh my goodness. Yeah, I, I think about it in the terms of almost like you're beating video game levels and I feel like we've come so far that I, I don't know if I want to reset the video game and go back through potty training and, you know, all of those things.
- [02:18]
B
It is a beast. I, I would say. I, I'm curious and this is probably a whole another conversation. You being. We talked a little bit before that we hit record. But in your second year of full time entrepreneurship, how has that been for you? I know I'm skipping ahead a little bit, but how's it been for you to be a mom as an entrepreneur, full time entrepreneur versus you were also, I think you were working full time before you were a full time entrepreneur, right? Being a mom also. So you have this like experience of both. How's it been for you?
- [02:46]
A
It's been good. I, prior to me going fully self employed, I for one I'm a natural early riser. So that's always been kind of part of my framework. When I still worked a full time corporate job, I was waking up like 3, 4 in the morning and working on what I was looking to grow with my business before going to my nine to five. So it was like working super early, drop off at daycare at the time and then going to work and repeating that every single day. So to be very honest, it's very, very simple now because I still get up early, but I don't get up at like 3am early where you know, that's a little drastic. I, I used to tell people that and they're immediately shocked. So now I'll wake up at like 5, 6 and then I can have a morning. Now my son, he's in first grade so it's you know, breakfast, get to the school bus and then I can come home, work and I don't have much of that work after he gets home because I'm be able to use my time during the day.
- [03:52]
B
Do you feel like you get to show up better or, or even, or worse as a mom? Meaning like, because it could be worse. And some people would say that was like, well, the business consumes my mind, you know, all day. You seem like a very disciplined person that I don't. I, I picture you compartmentalizing pretty well. But I'm curious of like, or if or does it help do you actually become show up better to be a mom because you have more time, a little bit more time or a little bit more creative energy or what has it been for you?
- [04:19]
A
I would definitely say that I'm glad that I give off that I compartmentalize really well? I wouldn't say that. I always do. I definitely, I think that's one of the biggest struggles I've had being an entrepreneur is that I'm just always Thinking of things from a growth perspective and, oh, that's an idea. Or this is a solution to this problem I was facing last week or whatever the case may be. But I will say that the. I. I've been very, very fortunate. I'm very grateful for the success that I've had in entrepreneurship. And so I think more so the financial layer and what I've been able to create for my family, I think that has made me a better mom and a better partner and just better friend in life, which I always hear the phrase when people say, like, money doesn't buy happiness, but I feel like it does to some extent because it takes off so many different weights that you have on you. And I feel like I had a lot of weight on me before with trying to pay for daycare and, you know, car payments and just every life expense that there is, especially being a parent, I feel like that's been lifted, which has made me more present.
- [05:33]
B
I love that. I completely agree. Yeah, I think it's. Money doesn't buy happiness is typically someone that says that is typically someone that doesn't have money.
- [05:44]
A
It's like a. Like a justification, you know, it's like, okay, well, I'm gonna just like it. Money doesn't buy happiness. So, like, I'm gonna just keep telling myself that so that I feel better. And then if you have some money, then you feel lighter.
- [05:58]
B
You definitely feel lighter. I mean, yeah, I guess you could say, like, of course, if someone's like, well, money. Cody doesn't. I've heard this before. Like, Cody, money doesn't buy happiness. It's like, who the hell says it does? Like, I don't understand where that came from. Like, I never once said, like, I have more money equals I will be happier person internally. It's like, no, it. But it will certainly alleviate.
- [06:18]
A
Yeah.
- [06:18]
B
The financial struggles that are causing me a lot of not happiness. Right. It's. It's. It's definitely helps it to where I can not stress about buying someone dinner when I look forward to, like, I wish I could treat my family to this dinner like that. That makes me happy in the moment. So it makes me joyful in the moment. Does it, like, cure my internal, you know, my internal happiness? Short term, you know, that's fleeting, but, like, yeah, it certainly helps, you know? Of course.
- [06:44]
A
Yeah. Yeah. So I would say that that I think is what makes me more present. I. I still have thoughts. I still have, you know, ideas and things that populate, but I've kind of gotten to, in a really Good habit with. I have a text message thread with myself, and so when I have random thoughts, ideas, I'll text it to myself. So I. I think in some way that helps a little bit. Where it's not. I'm not coming up to my office and sitting behind my computer. I'm just sending myself a text. And then, for example, this morning I went through my text thread and I'm like, oh, let me add that into my. My planner. Let me add that to my to do list. And I have all of those things ready for me so that they're not lost.
- [07:21]
B
Yeah, I. Super cool that you share that. So thank you for sharing that. Cause I actually forgot that that's like a thing too for me too. I do that. Absolutely. Can I challenge you a little bit on that? You mentioned the word struggle with those thoughts. And then you've also mentioned, like, I'm working on this, like, as if it's like, almost like a negative thing. Um, but to me, I feel like that's actually so positive and such as like a superpower. That's so. I almost wonder if
- [07:47]
A
it can be good and it can be bad. I. I think. I think if. If you have the type of personality where it becomes almost addictive and then you let it impact other areas of your life, I can see where that can be really negative. I have never struggled with coming up with ideas, which I know a lot of people do. And for that, I'm very grateful that my mind works that way because it's. It's not always that easy, I think, for most people. Um, but if it's ever so consuming that. And I've been that way. When I first started my print on demand business, I was very, like, locked in almost, you know, kind of scary to get near if I was in the zone and I was focused. So that's where it can, I think, be negative. But I agree, it is a positive thing to have.
- [08:36]
B
Yeah, you do need that. I think there's sprints where you need that. Right. There's certainly sprints. And then of course, like, it could damage relationships eventually over time. Certainly will. I can't be, like, thinking about business. I tried. I need, with my three kids, like, I need to be present with my wife when we're talking. Otherwise it just won't be a good relationship. Right. So there's certainly things that need to be done, but also, like, that is part of who you are in your nature, and that's why you're even here. So it's like, it's one of those things. You don't want to like suffocate, but you do want to like systematize, I think compartmentalize and like do figure out your systems, like texting stuff to you. Like, I think that's great. I do the same exact thing. And that helps me like, okay, I could be more present now. I'm not gonna forget that I had that thought, you know.
- [09:17]
A
Yes. Yeah. No, and you, you mentioned the word sprints. I feel like that's the perfect way of putting it. It's like you're not always in that crazy, like, almost like hyper fixation mode. It's okay. Here's a little bit of a season, a little bit of a sprint of, okay, I need to really work towards this outcome, this goal, and then you can rest a little bit and you kind of toggle between the two. That's what I find myself doing.
- [09:40]
B
Absolutely. Totally. I want to shift gears a little bit just to give some context for, for who Taylor is, because we just kind of like jumped right in, which is great. But Taylor came on. You came on the podcast in October 12, 2023, episode number 40, which is crazy. We were just like reminiscing. I'm like, wow, that's over two years ago.
- [10:00]
A
Yeah, I, I really think that time has felt like a dream in the last few years. I just, I mean, I'm getting older and they say when you're getting older, time goes by faster, but it feels like that scary.
- [10:15]
B
It is. And giving a snapshot of the business, then you were, I think, just a. Just starting your full time entrepreneurship, like, and your main revenue source was your Etsy shop. At the time it was print on demand Etsy Shop and you were crushing it. And fast forward now to two years to where we are today. Over two years or about two years. Where are you at today? Can you give us an update of what has changed, what is the same and revenue numbers that you would, you're happy to share? We, we. I always, our audience always loves like hearing actual inspiration of real numbers. I personally do. I live off of that stuff.
- [10:50]
A
So sure, I totally get that. I, I used to hunt for numbers when I was first starting. I'm like, let me just see somebody who's doing something that I want and I can model after. Yeah. So last time I was here, I was coming up on my first year of selling print on demand products. I started my shop, my first shop, in October of 2022. So in that first year when we last spoke, I had just reached about $80,000 I think it was. And I ended up hitting a little over a hundred thousand in revenue. That's not profit, but revenue for that first full 12 month cycle. Today I have two shops. I started a second shop in 2024, late 2024 and all time. I'm a little over $1.1 million in revenue across two shops. I'm really close to 1.2. I'll probably hit it if I, if everything keeps going the way it's going, projection wise, I should probably hit that by like March, maybe April at the very latest, depending on what Q1 looks like. But crazy amazing.
- [12:01]
B
First of all, congratulations. That's incredible. And that's, that's amazing and I'm so happy for you and you deserve it and you know this. And we're for people that have not got there. So like Taylor, maybe like three years ago or four years ago, right where it's like you wanted to be Taylor. Today, can you give us a snapshot of what, give us some sort of like glimpse into what that actually looks like from a numbers perspective. So in 2025, how much revenue did that look like? What? And then if we could break that into monthly and then even daily, I think would be a cool way to like, almost like look at it. Like what's like your. An average day of revenue and if it doesn't hit that average, you're like, huh, that was a down day. Just because I think that that was really important for me. When I was first starting like 10 years ago in like online business, I for, I remember the first time I saw like a, I think it was a thousand dollar day from a friend of mine. It wasn't even mine, it was a thousand dollar day. And I'm just like, you made that today. Like I don't get it, you know, so can you share that?
- [12:55]
A
Yeah. So 2025 I did across two different shops. Those two shops were open for the full calendar year. I did a little under $650,000 total in revenue. So shop one did around like 240. So in revenue, shop two did around 4, $400,000 in revenue. I was just putting all of that together. It's, you know, tax season, so I'm like getting all of my CSVs and downloading them and getting them to my bookkeeping team, my accountant. But of that I generally see between like 25 to 30% profit margins over the entire year. So in total I had about $182,000 in profit across the two shops month to month. Honestly, it's. I Don't get so caught up in the daily numbers anymore. That's something that I used to be probably that one of those things that I would hyper fixate on in the beginning. Taylor 3 years ago Would be looking every single day refreshing even, you know, hour by hour. I try not to do that anymore. I actually, I don't even have like the Etsy app on my phone, the Etsy Seller app on my phone anymore. I try to make it very just come into my office and that's when I'm focusing on it because you know, at 2 in the morning it really doesn't matter. But monthly I'm generally seeing around 10 to 15,000 in revenue or in profit in some months depending on if it's Q4, you know, January through September and then weekly generally I would say on average I'm seeing like 2 to 3,000.
- [14:30]
B
Amazing. And then daily we're talking like in the hundreds. I know you don't look at it anymore but like, yeah, I wanted to like emphasis on that. So that means daily they'd be in the multi. Hundreds would be like an average day.
- [14:42]
A
Yeah, I would say somewhere between 300 and 700. I, I, the lowest days that I typically see are like high 200s.
- [14:49]
B
Amazing. So cool. And I'm so happy for you. Congratulations again. That's incredible.
- [14:53]
A
Thank you. Thank you. It's, it's very strange. I, I, I kind of have this weird thing where I try to really, I don't try to hyper fixate on like the numbers and, and whatnot. I feel like those are kind of just like a result of what actions you're taking. So I try to more so focus on my implementation what I'm doing in like my task load and not get so consumed by the numbers because I have had periods of time where I was very consumed. Like I said, you know, three years ago, Taylor would be refreshing and looking at everything and you know, it would be a meltdown if I felt like things were slowing down. And so I try not to focus on that as much. As strange as that sounds, I, I feel like no, it doesn't very into it.
- [15:36]
B
It might sound strange, but to me it's absolutely not strange. I mean it's, I think it's the evolution of us as a business operator. As like an operator. Right. It's like you rec, we understand now that the numbers are the output and the input is, we can't control outputs, we can only control the inputs. And inputs are, you know, our listings, our creative, our designs, our, our ads, our, you Know like whatever these things that create the actual output. So I think it's actually, it's important to like almost like zoom out and look at the numbers which is what you, what you literally just described. But like understanding that we are focus of on the input actually produces the output. I think that's where I think all creative operators, all these like full entrepreneurs, you all have to go through this process of, of learning that I think, you know, I'm, I'm still learning myself. Like I haven't figured it out fully either.
- [16:29]
A
No, I completely agree. I feel like in the beginning I think why I hyper fixated on it so much was because I was so used to trading time for money and just you know, you go to work, you work an hour, you make X amount of dollars and now I, I've had to have a really big perspective shift of there's sometimes there's things that I'm doing and working on that I'm not necessarily going to get paid back or like get paid for until weeks or months sometimes depending on what, what it is. And so I think that's really helped where in the beginning I'm like, wow, I just, I woke up at 3am why am I not, you know, making this amount of money? I feel like my efforts are this level and if those types of efforts were put into a traditional type of, you know, work an hour, get paid for an hour type role, you would see the fruit of that effort right away. So I think that's why I've kind of shifted as well.
- [17:24]
B
I love this more specifically when you, because a lot of people are wondering this right now, specifically if they sell on Etsy, they question whether they should open another shop or not for you, just a high level breakdown. Are both of them niche specific? I'm assuming yes. But like are they in their niches like a print on demand shop, this has a specific niche and then another print on demand shop that has a specific niche. Is that correct or are they more general or.
- [17:50]
A
So one is more general. My first one is more general where I have tons of different niches. But I would say that one is more product specific. I'm mainly selling just apparel, tote bags and phone cases. I kind of consider the phone cases always catch people by surprise. They're like, wait, what? Like that sounds so random but my mindset with it is that they're all kind of like accessory pieces in a sense, like wearables. Like even though you don't wear your phone case, it's almost like part of your you know, aesthetic to some people. And then the other one is what I consider more niche specific. So it's focused around one main core topic, and I'm much more diverse with the product types in that second shop.
- [18:31]
B
Cool. I'm curious about both because there's so many ways to win on Etsy, but also just in commerce in general. So that's why it's like, so cool to like, dive in for your general stock, general shop. How do you end up actually, so that means to me, general. When you're like, more general, you can. You kind of like you're jumping on trends, you're identifying patterns early on, and so that's kind of the game. Correct. Um, is that okay? True. And then for the niche, you don't really have to jump on the trends. I mean, you certainly need to be on them. But it's mostly about, like, really kind of like leaning into it. For example, if you do nurses, you know, nurse moms, for example, like, you can just craft a bunch of different types of products and designs that appeal to that specific nurse mom. Or is there another process that you have that I'm not really bringing up?
- [19:20]
A
Honestly, I would say that it's to some extent. I. I think the word trend sometimes gets a bad rep. I feel like there is almost these, like, eras on Etsy, so to speak, where three years ago, people loved cheetah print mixed into things like cheetah print in letters and certain graphics and whatnot. And I don't think designs and things that are actually working change that drastically. But I think kind of those aesthetics change a little bit. I think of it almost like fashion or music where a lot of times you'll listen to certain songs and we kind of go to songs that sound more like what we're popular in the 80s or popular in a different era, and then they kind of circle back. Same thing with fashion. I think that's kind of even more funny when we look at some things because now there's a lot of fashion that's coming back from the early 2000s, which can be a jump scare to some people, you know, that were part of them and originally wearing them in certain time periods and to see a younger generation wearing them. But I think the designs do the same thing where it's almost like they're not that different in terms of format. Just what is inserted into them slightly changes. And I. And I don't find that that changes as frequently as what the word trend sometimes make it seems like. I think you hear the word trend and it sounds like six months urgency. Yeah, it's like oh my gosh, if I don't do this right this second then I'm out. Like I'm not going to see the results from it. So I feel like, like defining what a trend is in a sense and that's what I find in, in both because there's certain themes that work really well in certain design styles for apparel, for you know, tote bags, phone cases, really a lot of them are very similar and can go from product to product. And then in my other shop that's more niche specific, the themes change as well. So I do a lot of like event based things in that shop. And if you think about you know, birthday themes, for example, we talked a little bit about this prior but we both have six year olds turning seven and so I don't know if your six year old's doing the same six, seven thing that kids do.
- [21:37]
B
Yeah.
- [21:38]
A
Okay. So if, if you, if you know, you know what that, But for example that it's funny that that's actually like a theme and that wouldn't be a theme two years ago. Right. And but it has had some shelf life. I'm seeing people are selling teacher products right now for Valentine's Day, you know, because the teacher's going to wear that, the kids are going to laugh and it's going to connect. So I think they have a longer shelf life than what you might traditionally think when you hear the word trend.
- [22:12]
B
Very interesting. Okay, cool. What transitioning a little bit more is because it's already we're 21 minutes in and I want to make sure I get the gold, continue to get more gold. What is Taylor's play here? What's your long term plan for your business? Do you have one? Is it more just like I'm just enjoying it. I'm living this like lifestyle like business that I'm just going to like keep on doing and I'm going to keep on growing or like do you, are you type of person like thinking of like I wanted a specific outcome, I need to be hit a certain number. I'm going to drive, continue to drive to that however long it takes. How do you typically think about your life planning but also business planning?
- [22:49]
A
I don't think too far. I of course I have goals like any person does. I think more of my goals are more personal related. Like my husband and I, we want to build a house. So of course a driver there is what we're doing in our careers to get to that goal, to build the House that we want. But honestly I take a really simple approach and I just do what feels good and, and what feels good to me today probably would've not felt fun or good for me three years ago. And what, I don't know what will feel good to me to do in three years from now. Um, that's a very privileged thing for me to be able to say that I'm in a place where I can kind of just do what feels good. But that's honestly what I just focus on. Um, I think that in a. Not to get like woo woo weird way, but I just think that when we're doing something that feels good to us, we just put a little bit more love into it and we usually get a better result anyway. So if I'm trying to fit, you know, a triangle in a circle hole, it's not ever going to work. So I try to just avoid things that feel hard.
- [23:59]
B
I love that it sounds like there's some like universe stuff that you probably manifestation you probably sounds like you kind of like you believe in a lot of that stuff and it served you. Am I, am I by saying that? Cause like, certainly that's where I kind of like lean is to like do things that make you feel good. It makes you feel like you are contributing. That light you up and tends to like it's taking inspired action versus like forced action I think is the key. And it sounds like you kind of like really in tune with how you're feeling. So therefore it takes less energy to.
- [24:33]
A
Yeah, no, I agree. I, I definitely lean that way. And like my husband and I, I would say like on a woo woo scale, we're probably of 10. But I also am a very practical person and I understand that a lot of people need things to feel practical. They, they don't want to hear, oh well, if you just believe you can do it, you will. I think that the practical. By the way, I agree, I agree it is 100% true. But from a practical perspective, I also, I'm also a very analytical person, which I think woo woo and analytical, it's like, okay, I'm trying to figure out the whys of the universe, which also feels impossible. But I think what I've learned or what I've felt that I've learned is that from a practical standpoint, when you feel good about what you're doing, when you are believing truly in your heart that you can do something, you're going to have such a different output and input really to what you're trying to achieve. You're going, your actions are going to be different. You know, if you don't really believe what you're doing is going to work for you, it's, it's not. Not because it's just woo woo magic, it's not gonna work, but because you're probably not putting the level of effort of somebody who truly believes that they can get there.
- [25:50]
B
That's right. I completely, 1,000%, I would say on the woo woo scale too. I don't know, I didn't know that was a thing. But if I have to place myself there, I'm probably a 12 out of 10 too. Like I'm, Yeah, I'm pretty into it. Yeah, I, yeah, it's cool. It's like if you, like, I know we're just using woo woo, like that word, I've never even used that word so many times. But for the sake of conversation, you, if you do that and you back it up with like so much action, it almost like makes the outcome that you're trying to achieve inevitable.
- [26:19]
A
Yeah, it's like a hundred percent because
- [26:21]
B
it's really belief and if you just back up belief with so much action, action, action, it's like it's just a matter of time. It's just that time is the only component now, a variable that we're, that's, that we're, that we're changing there.
- [26:34]
A
So
- [26:36]
B
next question. For your Etsy shops, because you are, you are highly successful on Etsy, how much do you get concerned about like platform risk of just like Etsy, just algorithm changing or somehow like shop suspension? I don't want to like take us down like a fear hole, you know, if you're a rabbit hole. But it is certainly something like comes up and we do see it. Right. So how much, how much do you think about that? Maybe you don't maybe, do you worry about it at all? Are you leveraging against it somehow, like maybe with like your educational piece of, of, of your, of your strategy or like, how do you, how do you feel about that?
- [27:13]
A
I, I don't like to think, of course, you know, of the worst case scenario, especially if there's no sign that the worst case scenario should or would happen. But I, I don't maybe I am saying skeptical, but I don't think that Etsy closes the shop for no reason. From my experience, anytime I've seen that happen to someone, there was a reason and maybe they genuinely didn't realize that that was an actual reason that their shop could be shut down. But I would say Majority of the time that's typically what happens. So you know, follow the rules and you don't have a problem. And I follow the rules so I don't feel concerned. Of course there are sometimes there's things with a lot of frivolous trademarks where, you know, people are able to get these trademarks for the craziest things. I had a student who, they had a item that had the word bruh on it like B R U h sure didn't, didn't think anything of it and had their listing taken down because that was something that is trademarked. I'm sure Six7 will be trademarked next. But sometimes there's those like frivolous trademarks that don't. You don't really think so in some sense I think about those types of things, but I also just what will be will be. And I, I really don't stress about it.
- [28:47]
B
Cool. I love that. I mean that's, that's obviously we, we're trying to create businesses to not have stress. And the fact that you're not feeling stress is, is amazing with that. What is the plan or the strategy or I guess the ideal outcome for. Because you also have this like, which we didn't even talk about. Like you have this like awesome YouTube channel where you're teaching other creators and other Etsy sellers how to like create and like be successful on Etsy as well. So like what is the, the goal? Is there a goal with this as well? Or is this something that you, you love and it's just like another creative outlet for you? How do you approach that?
- [29:17]
A
I would say it's a combination. I mean that, that part's a business as well. You know, of course, I think everybody knows that people, of course they create content because they enjoy it. You have to enjoy it to make videos. But we also transparently we create content because it's another income stream. I don't think that's a secret to anybody. I enjoy it and I honestly, I don't, I wouldn't say I have like a direct goal. There's, there's cool things that, you know, hit 100,000 subscribers, like little things like that, that would absolutely be cool. But I don't necessarily have this like crazy long term vision. When I first was transitioning from corporate world to what I'm doing now, so I used to work for a franchise and so what I did, just a quick little backstory. I won't give like the whole roundabout, but I worked for the franchise in a franchise location when I was just getting out of high school and while I was going through college, I worked my way up and I was very successful in that franchise. Became a manager of one of the locations and did a lot of really great results with that location. And so then I started working for their corporate office to teach other franchise owners how to do the same thing. And so I, when I was transitioning to full time self employment, that's kind of what I do now. I have my print on demand businesses that I've scaled and I enjoy and I do them really well. They really don't require a lot of my time where I've gotten them to today. And so I have a lot of free time and I genuinely love education, teaching, you know. And so what I'm doing now is literally the exact same thing that I did when I worked for my corporate job. I'm just doing it for a different industry and myself.
- [31:13]
B
That's so cool. It's so cool. You recognize that pattern too. And that makes total sense to me. Yeah. And you're also doing it in a much cooler and more exciting and unbiased, of course, just in a new, like a better industry. Right. It's like your online businesses. You're teaching people how to like be financially free. You're helping like the smaller guy who doesn't necessarily own a franchise, which those guys are small businesses to respect. It's more like it's very cool what, what market we get to play in.
- [31:41]
A
Yeah. And I get to be so much more creative with it, which I never thought of myself to be a creative person, but I've learned that you build creativity, you, it's just a muscle, you just have to make it stronger. And as I've made my creative muscles stronger, I've come to really love the creative aspects of print on demand, but then also the creative aspects of creating content and editing things and putting them together and like having this vision and watching it come to life and being able to have that creative control where before when I was teaching, I was given, okay, teach this. And this is exactly how it has to go. You can't deviate from it because it has to be consistent. It has to be the exact same for every single person. And so to have that creative freedom in how I'm teaching and what I'm teaching, I think it just takes it to another level where I'm like really able to just enjoy what I'm doing.
- [32:33]
B
I love that. And I think too, I think you said you sparked something in my mind too. Like we think of Creative stuff. And we think about designs typically, right? We think about colors, and we think about, like, fonts and, like, these things. Because I'm not. I would not consider myself like a creative person either, inherently, like in the past. But now I'm recognizing too, like, creators. We're all creators. All humans are creators. We all get to create our lives. We're creating our lives right now as we speak. Right. With our thoughts. And the reality is there's so many different ways to be creative. Meaning for me, I'm not like, a designer. I don't really. It doesn't light me up. I'm not really good at it. I tend to, like. But I'm really. Lights me up. And I'm really good at, like, designing business systems. I can, like, just create a business model very quickly. It's very intuitive for me. And, like, that I recognize now that, oh, that's my creativity. Like, that's what. Like, that's my creative juice. And other people right now listening to this, thinking that not a designer. I, you know, I can't be like Taylor. The reality is, like, there's different ways you have different gifts, and you just have to, like, kind of, like, look internally, kind of just try things. And you do have lots of different tools and gifts inside of you. All you have to do is just take a lot of action, of course, and believe that you can do it.
- [33:49]
A
Yeah, I. I heard this thing recently, and it was talking about how whatever feels easy to you is probably the thing that you're really good at that somebody else isn't. And the reason that you don't think it's a gift or a talent is because it just feels so easy to you. And I thought that was the best way of putting it because it's so true. There's a lot of things where you do them so effortlessly, naturally, and you think, oh, everybody knows how to do that. And no, not everybody knows how to do that, but I will. I. In the name of challenges, where you challenged me earlier, I will challenge you back on one thing, and that is that I. When I consider myself not to be creative, something that I've always been good at or have enjoyed, and those who are saying that they're not creative might align with this because, you know, birds of feather flock together. But I'm very good at systems and patterns. And what I've learned is how to systematize creativity and systematize a design. If you look at enough designs in front of you, you'll start to see patterns. And it, like, okay, Text here, graphic here, text here. Oh, I see that five times over with these three different fonts and these three different elements. And I think when you look at it from the lens of what you're maybe good or better at, I'm really good at recognizing patterns and systems. You can find that if you look at it through a different lens. I think sometimes it's like when you're looking at a design, for example, you're looking at it from this lens of like, okay, like how. How do I create something that's unique and different? And a lot of times you don't need to recreate the wheel. You just need to find the system that's working. I recently, this is. Not everybody's gonna, gonna like this, but I recently listened to Kim Kardashian's masterclass, which I, you know, love, hate whatever you feel towards any type of person that you can learn something from everyone, right? So she made a statement in one of her modules that was find what's working and perfect it. And that I think is so true to, I mean all types of businesses just find what's working and perfect it. You don't need to recreate the wheel. It's just like music and fashion are recirculating. When we talked about that earlier, the same thing. There's not really necessarily anything that's drastically new. I think we're kind of in the age where it's like not, not a lot of things are going to be completely original or completely new ideas. It's just going to be packaged up and presented differently.
- [36:24]
B
That's right, yeah. I mean, honestly, ever be research, like our research tool was built on, on literally this fundamental of just hey, analyze what is working and improve upon it. Like, do it over and over again. Like there's nothing that needs to be. And the, the cool thing about it is the things get invented. The really cool things that we appreciate in life that we think are super novel inventions, they're actually just the hundredth or one thousandth iteration of the other thing. Like there's like, we just think that they're just like novel. Like this coffee cup. It's like, oh man, it's so like creative. It's like, no, that thing was like done over and over again millions of times and, and, or this microphone, right? It's like no one just came up with like a better microphone. It was, there was so many other microphones that were kind of copied, improved a little bit, copied and improved a little bit and eventually like turned into this thing. And I think that's, that's a really important thing that you mentioned there. I agree with that.
- [37:19]
A
Yeah, it, it's, I think the biggest hang up that people get stuck on is they think that they have to come up with this completely unicorn of a concept or an idea. You know, relating back to the master class where Kim Kardashian said that she has skims and she always wore shapewear, hated that it left lines under her clothes and that people could see it. And that's all she eliminated that. She just found a way to make it that you don't have those indentations and those lines. So it's, it's really something so, so simple. We just, we overthink things. We really do.
- [37:56]
B
We totally do as humans. Guilty of it. Also, I think it's time to jump into rapid fire. Questions? You ready?
- [38:03]
A
I'll get ready. Ready?
- [38:05]
B
Ready. Favorite business book? What is it? Favorite business book.
- [38:10]
A
Oh, right now it is. Ready Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson.
- [38:14]
B
Cool. I've heard that one before. What's one thing that you wish that you knew before starting your businesses?
- [38:21]
A
You will see the best results if you are the fastest implementator.
- [38:27]
B
I like that. What's the worst advice that you've ever received? The worst advice?
- [38:32]
A
Oh, the worst advice. Probably growing up and being told that the only way to be successful is to work a 9 to 5.
- [38:42]
B
Interesting. How many hours do you think you work in a week?
- [38:49]
A
Probably about 30 to 40, I would say across, you know, all of my efforts across print, on demand content, my community, all of those different types of things. But I, I try to keep a very traditional like nine to five in the sense. Which is funny. You know, I'm like bashing the 9 to 5, but then I'm here in my office at home from 9 to 5. But my husband, he works a more traditional job. So I try to just align when I'm working with when he's working and then when our son is at school.
- [39:15]
B
It's funny you say that too. It's. I also kind of do the same thing. Like my wife and I, we have a schedule that I pretty much work 40 hours a week. Also like 45 hours a week. Like sometimes 50, but like 9 to 5 is. Or 8, 8 to 5 for me. Or 8 to 4 30. That's what we do, 8 to 4, 30. But I think routine is also important. That's why it's like when you start to get into like operational mode, like you don't always. I know we, we dream of this life of like I Want to be creative and like float around, like do whatever I want whenever I want. Like that's all true and stuff too, but like actually operations like you kind of need some like routine that you need to get into.
- [39:51]
A
It's like people who retire where they retire and they're, you know, not going to do anything and then they end up getting a part time job at somewhere that they enjoy. I think it's the exact same principle that's interesting.
- [40:02]
B
I think the, the thing that we want is optionality is that's what we really want. We want the option to like if I don't want to work today, I won't work today. And that's, that's the key. I think it's like if I don't have to sit on my desk today or if I don't, if I don't want to, I guess I can get up and leave, you know. That's the important piece.
- [40:17]
A
Yes, 100%.
- [40:21]
B
How would your audience or your maybe not your audience, sorry. How would your friends and family, people closest to you, describe you in like three words?
- [40:34]
A
Oh gosh. I would think that they would say maybe, hope that they would say clever, intuitive and silly. I think that's, that's three. I'm gonna ask my husband that later.
- [40:53]
B
Nice. Yeah. Who do you think should be a business owner?
- [40:58]
A
Somebody who has a good bounce back rate. Somebody who can get punched and get back up the fastest. I think that is probably the roughest way of explaining it. But if, if you are, if you're the person who's very frustrated because the line is long at the grocery store, then you're probably going to be very frustrated with a lot of things in entrepreneurship.
- [41:25]
B
Interesting. So resilience is the bounce back rate. I, I think of, I think resilience. Right. It's like you just get punched in the face and you gotta just like keep moving forward.
- [41:34]
A
Yes. And, and the, the bounce back rate being that how fast you do it, everybody gets back up at some point. But sometimes it takes people years, sometimes it takes people seconds, you know, to, to brush it under the rug. Um, for I, I mentioned the waiting in line because my, my husband, he's somebody who not would not be and knows at entrepreneurship very, very self admitting by him. And we were at Target around the holidays and they had of course a super long line and he was getting frustrated and I'm like if this is our only stressor today that we're waiting a little bit extra long in line for the gifts that we have, the financial ability to afford that. We are living an amazing life.
- [42:17]
B
Totally. And very, very interesting perspective there, I think, about the bounce back rate. I like what you said there. I want to kind of like double click on that. Like the time, it's like the time of recovery is important and it's not something that people talk about very often. And it kind of just brings up a lot of people on my mind right now. And I think about people that got wiped out in the 2008 crash, which we were, we were young in that time. Like we were super young during that time. But like I still know people that are like still hurting from the 2008 crash. Like they still have not bounced back mentally, financially, anything like that. And it makes me feel like. But then there's other people in that same exact that got wiped out completely that like have made way more. Way more successful mentally grow so much and grow so much. And like there's this like spectrum, you know, and that. I think that's what the definition you're talking about is. Like that those people bounce back. These people still have not. And that's interesting, right?
- [43:17]
A
Like, I feel like the word resilience, it, it's such a, it's a, almost like an umbrella to that, right? It's like, okay, like everybody has resilience, but it looks different to some extent, you know. And then like the bounce back rate, I forget where I first heard that. I first heard it on a podcast and it, and it really clicked because I, I've thought of myself in certain situations where I really let something get me down. And it, it prevented me from implementing, from executing, from just getting back on the horse, so to speak. And so I found that to be true is there's so much in the entrepreneurial space. I think a lot of entrepreneurs are amazing at consuming content, whether it's, you know, through podcasts, YouTube videos, books. We love to learn, we love to just get as much information as possible. But the entrepreneur who's going to have that fast speed of implementation and get back on for every time that they have a hiccup because there inevitably you have to have hiccups along the way. The hiccups aren't necessarily a bad thing. They're just uncomfortable. If you can get through them really, really quickly and bounce back and try again, then you're going to completely outperform the person who's just considered just consuming and over and over and over again, 100%.
- [44:35]
B
I remember particularly, I'm curious if you had a moment like this. I remember particularly in the past maybe 12 years ago, when I was kind of like just getting into the entrepreneurship game. Before entrepreneurship was like a word. It was more like I was interested in, like I was going to like these business meetups while I was working full time, like on Wednesday nights. And like learning from this like, guy we called Coach. And it was super valuable and I learned a lot. But I remember specifically after I like read a bunch of books, did exactly what he said to do, took bought his course for 1500 bucks. Like, I spent the money to invest in myself. And I remember specifically saying this to him. I said, man, I feel like I know enough. I think I just like the execution piece, like, needs to catch up. Like, I need to go and do the work now. Like, the consuming part is I'll learn more. But I, it's. It needs to flip around. I need to be spending 90 of my time executing versus you know, versus the other way around. And that was a big unlock for me. I'm curious if you had a moment like that in the past.
- [45:36]
A
I. I don't know if I've had a, like a definitive moment of that. I think I just. My entire life I've, you know, had tons of different obstacles that I think I just wasn't able to define until now of like, I've just. Okay, I've always been a glass half full kind of person, so I, I don't think I have. Maybe I'm just. I think I'm just a little bit abnormal. I don't think that I have that same like, fear, I guess.
- [46:09]
B
You know what's interesting is you said that, like, I think I'm just a glass half full, half full person. And it makes me. I was having a conversation about this the other day about like, identity and, and I'm not like the most qualified person to talk about like, identity and shifting identity and all this other stuff. But it is, it is definitely who we believe we are, is who we end up being, you know, and so when you say I am a glass, I'm just a glass half full person. Like, you've just, you've like, you identify with that. That's who you are. Therefore it is true. Right? But if you started saying I'm just kind of a negative person, you know, I just kind of like, I've always been that way. I just like, for some reason, like, I got a story like, my, my mom was this way and my grandma was this way. So I'm kind of like this way too. And so you kind of like, that could easily be Tailored that way too. But you just chose to tell the story that I am this person, therefore I do this. It's the same reason of, like, I'm a smoker versus I'm not a smoker. I just, like, I just don't smoke. That's just, I'm not a smoker. I don't have to say, you know, but like, but there's some people that be like, oh, yeah, I'm a smoker once in a while. Like, I don't know if it's a good example or not, but there was
- [47:16]
A
a study on that, actually. I remember seeing it before. I, I, I mean, don't quote me on it, but I'm pretty sure there was a study about people who wanted to quit smoking. And the people who identified that, oh, I'm not a smoker quit faster than the people that still kind of resonated with that title. So there is something there.
- [47:35]
B
Absolutely. I mean, like, you believing that you're a successful entrepreneur now reinforces that identity, which therefore becomes more true on the, in the external world. And you belief has to come, like, the identity shift has to come, like, right before the actual, you know, results show up. You just can't, you can't just be a millionaire before you believe that you can be a millionaire. You know, I just don't think that it happens like that.
- [48:02]
A
Yeah, no, I agree. It's. This is kind of a goofy example, but my, My husband and I, we love playing Mario Party together on our switch, and I, I have to have him listen to this and hear this statement. But, and he knows it. I always kick his butt in Mario Party. I always win the mini games, I get the stars. I do all the things that you have to do. And it's funny, as we're playing, he always seems to land on the bad luck spaces and always seems to, you know, have the worst happen to him. And he sits there and he's, he's like, he's like, this always happens to me. This always happens to me. And I'm like, look, I'm, I'm just, I'm gonna win. I know I'm gonna win. I'm, I'm just an abundant individual. It always works out for me. And I tell him, I'm like, the reason that that keeps happening to you is because you, whether you believe it or not, you're, you're wishing it upon yourself, and it happens every single time.
- [48:59]
B
I'm sure he loves to hear that, by the way. No, no, no one loves to hear that.
- [49:03]
A
I, I literally have, I think, a text message. This was like, last week, and I am texting him and I said, can you just admit. Because he won't always admit it. He. Sometimes he will. But I was like, can you just admit that I'm better at Mario party than you?
- [49:17]
B
I love that. I love that. Tell. This has been so fun. Yeah. Thank you for coming on and sharing so much good stuff. Where can people find you? Where can people learn more from you? Follow your YouTube channel, all that. All that good stuff, like your community. All the good things.
- [49:32]
A
Yeah. So YouTube, Taylor Pod or Taylor Passada on Instagram, Same thing. Feel free to come check out my content. Any of my free courses, I would definitely start there. Um, I. I do have a. A paid community, but I always say just get started with the free content online. There's so, so much that you can learn there. So if you just go to taylorpod.com there's a little tab that has three free courses, tons of hours of material, if you want to learn about print on demand and how to get started.
- [50:03]
B
Amazing. Thank you so much, Taylor. I appreciate you. Talk to you soon.
- [50:06]
A
Thank you so much.