72. From $0 to $1000/Month: How to Start a Successful E-Commerce Business with Julie Berninger

Summary

Built Online Podcast Summary

Episode: 72. From $0 to $1000/Month: How to Start a Successful E-Commerce Business with Julie Berninger
Host: Cody McGuffey
Guest: Julie Berninger
Release Date: October 22, 2024

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1. Introduction

In this episode of the Built Online Podcast, host Cody McGuffey welcomes Julie Berninger, a seasoned entrepreneur and founder of Gold City Ventures. The conversation delves into Julie’s transition from a corporate tech career to building a successful e-commerce business, specifically on Etsy, and how she has empowered thousands of others to achieve similar success.

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2. Julie Berninger’s Journey to Entrepreneurship

Julie shares her background as a tech professional juggling a corporate career while nurturing a side hustle on Etsy. The decision to leave a stable tech job in 2021 was driven by the desire to prioritize family and pursue her passion for entrepreneurship.

[03:00] Julie Berninger: "Once I had my daughter, I realized I couldn't live both lives at once and also have a family. So I took a chance and I left my corporate job in 2021 and I haven't looked back."

She discusses the financial strategies that supported her transition, including paying off substantial student loan debt and initially aiming for early retirement. However, her passion for entrepreneurship led her to extend her retirement plans as she became more engrossed in building her business.

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3. Defining Retirement and Balancing Family Life

Julie and Cody explore the evolving definition of retirement, emphasizing the importance of flexibility and aligning work with personal passions. Julie describes retirement not as ceasing work but as having the freedom to engage in fulfilling activities.

[04:19] Julie Berninger: "For me, I like having the ability to work on mission-driven things that make me feel like I'm helping the world and make me very passionate."

Balancing entrepreneurship with family life is a central theme. Julie highlights how an online business allows her to integrate work with her role as a mother, providing the flexibility to be present in her children’s daily lives.

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4. The Etsy Success Story and Transition to Digital Products

Julie recounts her initial foray into Etsy, focusing on profitable niches like bachelorette party supplies. She emphasizes the importance of selecting a niche that allows for bulk orders, which maximizes profitability while minimizing time investment.

[14:00] Julie Berninger: "Picking a low-pressure niche like a bachelorette party is good... I wanted to be making these large orders and I was selling temporary tattoos because I was living in an apartment and I needed something that would fit in a closet or under the bed."

Her journey evolves as she shifts from physical products to digital offerings after attending a conference and networking with successful digital product sellers. This pivot significantly boosted her business, leading her to specialize in digital bachelorette party items.

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5. Founding Gold City Ventures: Helping Others Succeed

Recognizing a demand for guidance among Etsy sellers, Julie launched Gold City Ventures alongside her business partner, Cody Berman. The platform offers comprehensive coaching, video tutorials, and a supportive community to help aspiring entrepreneurs launch and scale their Etsy shops.

[20:11] Julie Berninger: "Gold City Ventures is about how to start a digital products Etsy shop, both from the Canva design side and then also from the keyword research and market point of view."

Gold City Ventures distinguishes itself by employing successful Etsy sellers as coaches, ensuring that members receive practical, experience-based advice. The community aspect, including Facebook groups and live training sessions, fosters accountability and continuous learning.

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6. Key Strategies for Etsy Success: Listings and Advertising

Julie provides actionable insights on optimizing Etsy listings and the strategic use of advertising. She debunks the myth that a high number of listings is essential for success, highlighting that quality and market alignment are more critical.

[26:25] Julie Berninger: "The more listings give you more practice reps, and the more reps, the better you get. But you can't let that intimidate you. You got to do it just one listing at a time because you never know which listing is going to be your hit."

Regarding Etsy ads, Julie advises that beginners often benefit more from refining their products and understanding market demands before investing in advertising. Ads are portrayed as an advanced strategy for those who have already established a solid foundation.

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7. Realistic Financial Goals and Growth Pathways

Setting achievable financial goals is essential, especially for those balancing business with other life responsibilities. Julie recommends aiming for $1,000 per month as a practical and impactful milestone.

[30:28] Julie Berninger: "If you are in that situation of life where it's like I would love to be a six-figure seller but the hard truth is that I don't have six-figure seller time on my hands, then getting your shop to $1,000 per month is like the best goal."

She emphasizes that reaching this goal provides financial stability and the freedom to decide whether to scale further or maintain current operations, offering flexibility based on individual circumstances.

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8. Utilizing Data with EverBee for Business Decisions

Julie underscores the importance of data-driven decision-making in e-commerce. Tools like EverBee are pivotal for understanding market trends, customer preferences, and optimizing product offerings.

[34:27] Julie Berninger: "You need the best return on your time. And I use tools like EverBee to get ideas of what the market is demanding about certain products and what they like."

By analyzing data, sellers can align their products with current trends, enhancing their chances of success and ensuring their offerings remain relevant and appealing.

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9. Rapid Fire Insights: Personal Favorites and Lessons Learned

In a rapid-fire segment, Julie shares personal insights and experiences that have shaped her entrepreneurial journey:

• Favorite Business Book: The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, which inspired her to set up efficient systems and delegate tasks effectively.

  [35:45] Julie Berninger: "Everything has a process, everything has a place. And it all started with Four Hour Workweek."

• One Thing Wished to Know Before Starting: She wishes she had started her business earlier, recognizing the freedom it now provides.

  [36:19] Julie Berninger: "I wish I went forward earlier... I would have had that freedom earlier."

• Worst Advice Received: Julie criticizes the common advice to “quit your day job” without ensuring financial stability, highlighting the importance of an abundance mentality and investment in business growth.

  [36:55] Julie Berninger: "A lot of people are like, quit your job. But then it hampers you because you don't have the funds needed."

• Work Hours: On average, Julie dedicates about five hours a day to her business, though flexibility is key due to family responsibilities.

  [38:53] Julie Berninger: "I have it right now in my schedule that I'm working like five hours a day."

• Character Traits: Friends and colleagues would describe her as calm, system-focused, and highly organized, reflecting her commitment to providing an exceptional experience for her community.

  [41:26] Julie Berninger: "We're sending people gifts in the mail. We're trying to make this fun. We're doing the challenges. Like we just, we get it."

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10. Conclusion and Where to Find Julie

Cody wraps up the episode by thanking Julie for her invaluable insights and contributions to the e-commerce community. Listeners are encouraged to connect with Julie and Gold City Ventures through the following channels:

• Website: goldcityventures.com
• Instagram: @goldcityventures
• Email: Email Julie

Julie invites listeners to join their thriving community, participate in workshops, and take advantage of the resources Gold City Ventures offers to accelerate their e-commerce success.

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This episode provides a wealth of knowledge for aspiring e-commerce entrepreneurs, emphasizing the importance of strategic niche selection, data-driven decisions, and the value of a supportive community. Julie Berninger’s journey serves as an inspiring blueprint for balancing personal life with business ambitions, offering practical advice for achieving sustainable growth in the online marketplace.

Transcript

[Cody McGuffey]

It's compounding, right. Success on anything. But definitely with Etsy selling and selling online in general is you compound all these skills. It's not like linear growth. It's like sometimes just like one little puzzle piece falls into the perfect spot and then all of a sudden it completes the entire picture for you and then you have to figure out the next puzzle piece that's missing and then you break it open again over time. Hey there.

[Julie Berninger]

Welcome back to the Built Online podcast where we talk about all things online business, from E commerce to digital marketing, to building your dream life and your dream business. I'm your host, Cody McGuffey, and if you've been with us for a while, you might remember us as the Etsy Seller podcast. Well, we're expanding, expanding our horizons and transitioning from just talking about Etsy businesses to covering all types of online businesses because we believe the opportunity is so massive that we should be covering so many unique businesses online and at ever be. We believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to pursue their passions, live life on their own terms. And we believe in making E commerce accessible to everyone in the world, no matter where they are, and be using it to make a positive impact in our families and in our communities. We believe that anyone who truly commits to something, truly pursues it with undeniable force of will, that they will succeed. Let's jump in to today's show.

[Cody McGuffey]

Julie, what's going on? How are you?

[Julie Berninger]

I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.

[Cody McGuffey]

Super happy to have you here. We just did a podcast exchange, kind of. I was on your podcast, you know, a week ago before this, and happy to have you on Built Online.

[Julie Berninger]

It's been a long time coming for both, both of us. So, so excited.

[Cody McGuffey]

Totally. We've. When, when did we meet each other? We met each other probably like a year and a half ago, right?

[Julie Berninger]

Something like this, I think a year half ago. And we didn't realize that we were both serious business owners until we ended up in the same business membership mastermind. So that's been fun.

[Cody McGuffey]

Totally. We're like nerds. Business nerds, I guess you could say.

[Julie Berninger]

Yes.

[Cody McGuffey]

And we get to talk about Etsy, which is kind of another like sub niche within the business world. Sub, sub niche. Crazy. I'm excited to have you on to talk with. I want to learn selfishly from you. But two, I'm excited to have you on to like, for all of our audience to kind of be in a fly on the wall in the conversation too. So for them who don't know you who are you?

[Julie Berninger]

I'm Julie Berninger. I'm a mom of two from Massachusetts, although I've lived all over in the past decade and recently migrated back to New England. I used to work in tech, so I was climbing the corporate ladder, working in big tech, worked in California, Silicon Valley, worked in Seattle. And then once I had my daughter and I realized I was living two different lives at once. I was selling on Etsy, I was podcasting and blogging at night and on weekends. And then during the day I was in back to back meetings. I was starting to kind of rise up career ladder in tech. I realized I couldn't live both lives at once and also have a family. So I took a chance and I left my corporate job in 2021 and I haven't looked back. It's been an incredible ride and this is really what, where I was meant to be.

[Cody McGuffey]

Wow, that's amazing. So two. Two daughters. You said two daughters.

[Julie Berninger]

Yes.

[Cody McGuffey]

And you left your current staple job. Two. What did you pursue? Like, how did you bridge that gap of financial. You still have finances, right?

[Julie Berninger]

You still have money? A long time ago, my husband and I found a student loan payoff blog and it put us down the rabbit hole of this debt journey where we married for love and not money. And somehow we ended up in 100k of student loan debt between the two of us. And then once we paid off that debt, we were thinking, okay, well, what's next? And we already had good habits and we were kind of making the moves. The reason we moved so much is because we were trying to make more money and get better jobs and all of that. And so we started putting our funds towards early retirement. So our original goal was to walk away in our 30s, which we're in now, and never have to work again. And we met all of these mentors and incredible people who had made that a reality. So we, we saw, oh, this could work. But I caught the bug of entrepreneurship and I actually never want to start working. And the two of us keep bumping our retirement date. We just bumped it to 50 and 53 because we're like, hey, we're just getting started. We're not ready, ready to stop working.

[Cody McGuffey]

So how do you define retirement? That's super interesting because I have a similar, very similar journey with my wife. Well, how do you define retirement today? Because I'm sure it's different definitions than when you first started thinking about retirement.

[Julie Berninger]

Yes. And my husband has many hobbies. He's one of those guys that he has all the equipment for all the hobbies. So for him, retirement means he has his free time to do whatever he likes to do. He likes archery, he likes all these different outdoorsy things. Fishing. That's what he was hoping to do. For me, I like having the ability to work on mission driven things that make me feel like I'm helping the world and make me very passionate. I guess I'm more of like an enthusiastic person. I like to work with other people, collaborate, and kind of spread my enthusiasm for things. So right now as a business owner, I want to help other small business owners. I want to help other women business owners. And the fact that I found that through my company, Gold City Ventures and Etsy, I feel like I've already done it. That being said, we have little kids, so even if we were retired, I mean, I still have to wake up and maybe I don't have to attend a meeting anymore, but you know, I'm dealing with all the kids stuff that comes to it. So I never really could feel retired. I think at this stage in our 30s, that's crazy.

[Cody McGuffey]

Yeah, I totally agree. So at this point, you're bumping retirement to 53. Your husband works full time. Does he have his own business? What. What does he do just for kind of everyone to understand kind of what the family.

[Julie Berninger]

He works full time as a strength and conditioning coach. And we're like the same person, but we're on two different missions. So health is his ultimate driver. Health is wealth. And he's one of those people, like, he truly eats healthy. He works all the time. That's him. For me, I like business. That really, really drives me. So that's kind of my ladder. And then we come together with family. We both have the same values when it comes to that. But for, for him, he's working full time and he's working with people that get him jazzed every day about. They also care about this stuff too, and it makes him happy.

[Cody McGuffey]

How many kids do you have now? Does it sit through?

[Julie Berninger]

We have two kids. We're talking about adding the third. I think that's what everyone does. And you know, it's tough. There's the pros and cons list of just when you feel like you finally have everything managed. It's like, let's just throw another kid into the wrench and see how that happens. But you know, more kids, more fun.

[Cody McGuffey]

I think totally the same. We, we were done at two and now we have one on the way in December. So it's like next few months we're going to Be right back in it. It's crazy.

[Julie Berninger]

Yeah. Congratulations.

[Cody McGuffey]

Thank you. I know it's a blessing for sure. It is hard as you know. I think it's harder for, for moms. It's obviously it's harder for women. Like I see the stuff that my wife deals with and then she. If you throw a business on there, if you throw like ambitions on there too, it's like you're getting pulled in different directions. Then you have this like guilt that comes in there like a mom and you know, like spending any time away from your kids and you're thinking about the business and like how do you think about that? I know as a dad I feel those things, but I believe as a mom it'd probably be like next level. Do you have any relation to that?

[Julie Berninger]

Cody, you're speaking my language here. Story of my life. So one of the reasons I left corporate is because I got promoted to a management position and all of my peers had stay at home wives, which was fantastic. But I'm like, well, where's my stay at home wife? And my husband, he loves what he does. And it didn't, it doesn't really make sense because sometimes, at least in our family, the mom has a different role than the husband. So I feel like with online business and why it's so important for people to have a, have a successful online business, whether it's a small Etsy shop, whether it's a course, whatever, that will give you the flexibility at a particularly vulnerable time in your life to just choose your own adventure. So for me being a mom, the fact that I can work online means I did bus stop this morning. I'm going to do bus stop this afternoon. I see my kids for lunch. I have the 18 month old, she's running around upstairs with our nanny that we love. But I can kind of be a part of their day and keep things moving in the home. But then I can also still be making money and enjoying what I do online. So every day I kind of feel like the luckiest person because I think this, I just think it's amazing how it worked out for me and it didn't, I guess it didn't really just work out. I had to learn a skill. So, you know, if it hasn't happened for you yet and perhaps choose Etsy as your thing and just like go for it and maybe that might not be your ultimate end destination, but you have to learn how to run a business. And Etsy is like the perfect small business owner, MBA startup that there ever was. So I, I really feel strongly that it's a great first step for people that do want to create that flexibility.

[Cody McGuffey]

Totally, completely, 1000% appreciate this because the idea is, for me, it's like integrating business into your family life is what you kind of were describing just now. Like, you went and dropped the kids off and then you, like, you went to work probably for a little while, then you had lunch with the kids and like you did all these things intertwined throughout your day versus just like working for the eight hours and then coming home and being a mom. It's like you can be both at the same time. And it's not always easy and clean, but you can be those things. When you have like an online business, which is, I think it's the most special part about it, it gives you that like, freedom. Life freedom, financial freedom, time freedom, location freedom. You have a lot more choice in your life, it seems like.

[Julie Berninger]

Right. And it's really, it's about choices because not everyone wants to make the same decision. I mean, I have friends that they, they love what they do and they want to go to work, and that's fine. But if you're someone that, that isn't the choice that you want to make, an online business can help you kind of piece together the lifestyle that you ultimately want.

[Cody McGuffey]

I wrestle with this question in my head a lot is do you really believe I'm asking myself this? But I'm also kind of asking you that every single person should be an entrepreneur to some degree.

[Julie Berninger]

Okay, I'll tell you hard. No, absolutely not. And how I know this. So back when I was pursuing the early retirement, my podcast co host, because we had a podcast about early retirement in which we interviewed over 200 people in the span of a couple years about how they did it. And we had people living on boats and we had people that were living in RVs. And it's almost before I had kids, I kind of interviewed everyone to figure. Figure out what life I actually wanted to go for. It was just a blessing in disguise at the time to kind of get that experience, to ask people whatever questions you want about their life. And my co host, she actually thought she wanted to be an entrepreneur and I thought I wanted to stay in my job. And she left her her stable job and tried. And I watched her like flail basically. Not that she wasn't going to be successful, but just some people, it's just not for them. Like, there's just nothing, Nothing in life is without stress. And the stressors and not knowing where your paycheck is going to be and also realizing you're not going to get paid as an entrepreneur unless you go out and do the things, particularly at first, to help you get paid. That doesn't work for everyone. So now she is perfectly happy back in a corporate job and then I'm the one that ended up being entrepreneur. So yeah, I think for everyone. It truly isn't for everyone. And for me, I know it's for me. Like, I just know I'm, I'm never meant to work for anyone else. And even if an online business didn't work out, I'd be buying, you know, the laundromat down the corner or a pizza shop or whatever. Like I'm going to be an entrepreneur until I die. Unless, you know, it doesn't work out for me for whatever reason.

[Cody McGuffey]

Yeah, I, I can totally relate to that. I completely agree and I think, I think I agree with everything you said with maybe an asterisk of like, I still feel like your friend and I don't know your friend, but I'm just assuming she probably learned so much more about herself doing that entrepreneurial journey than she did working for the full time job. Nothing wrong with full time, full time job by the way. It's an amazing thing. We, we need people. Like we have an incredible team here at Everby too. And I know you do too at Gold City Ventures. But I think you just learn a lot about yourself, whether it's a full time entrepreneurial journey or it's even just like a side hustle of just like I'm trying to sell something online to make like an extra car payment. You still learn so much more about yourself during that time. So I kind of, that's, that's the argument I make in my head of like, I think everyone should be some sort of a business owner to some degree.

[Julie Berninger]

Oh yeah. And you never know until you try. And I think life is all about chapters. And when I look back, I mean we, we truly lived in three different states in the last decade. Now we're pretty permanently settled here. This is where we want to raise our kids. But I'm so glad that I had those different experiences, those different jobs. I've never regretted giving something a try because you just, you never know until you go for it. And best case scenario, like myself, if I didn't go for it, where would I be now? I wouldn't be sitting here having told you that. Did the bus stop. I'm going to do lunch later with the 18 month old. I'm going to do the bus stop on the way home. I'm going to drive them to whatever activity we have this afternoon and I'm kind of going to get to live two different lives at once. Whereas before I felt like I would have to pick one or the other.

[Cody McGuffey]

Yep, I totally agree. Switching gears a little bit to the Etsy journey a little bit more, diving deeper there. How did you get into, I understand like how you got into Etsy, but like how did you choose what worked for you in building an Etsy shop and all this stuff? Because you obviously were successful enough to where you could be a full time mom at the same time by being like a business owner, what did you go into? Was it print on demand? Was it handmade products? Was it digital products? Let's talk about that.

[Julie Berninger]

So for me, I, because I was doing this as a side hustle, I was all about going for what would be the most profitable. And I wasn't necessarily a talented person, like a talented maker in any sense of the word. So at the time I was going to bachelorette parties and what I liked about that niche is that 15 to 20 women would order the same thing at once and then they'd have to Venmo, the maid of honor or whoever organized it, a ridiculous amount of money for throwaway doodads. And as a business owner, owner, you were like awesome. And then from a design perspective, bachelorette parties are somewhat tacky. So if you're, you're coming into it and you're a little bit nervous about your own skill set, getting started as a seller, then picking a low pressure niche like a bachelorette party is good. Whereas, you know, wedding, they're higher design standards, there's higher quality standards for every element of the piece. For me, that is what made the most sense. So my average order size was very large or 15 to $20 per order. Which as someone with a good full time job, I didn't want to be doing things to make like four or five dollars. I wanted to be making these large orders and I was selling temporary tattoos because I was living in an apartment and I needed something that would fit in a closet or under the bed. So that was my whole thing. And now then when there are physical.

[Cody McGuffey]

Products, like you were legit, like making these at home and then shipping them out after you got these $20, I.

[Julie Berninger]

Was, I had a production partner and I was in the design piece of it. So Etsy allows you to kind of say who your production partner is. And then I was more designing and I realized how important the niche was because sometimes my designs would get crossed with kids, birthday parties or other elements. The birthday parties were good because I got large order quantities. But then sometimes I would get an order where someone wanted to buy something for themselves and they would only buy two. And I get so frustrated. I'm like, oh, I just had to package this, go to the store, worry about all this for just two sales. Whereas if I stay in the bachelorette, I'm going to get an order of 15 to 20. So that was a huge learning lesson of the niche that you pick is important. Bulk orders are really important to making a lot of money with little time. And that was before I got into the digital products, but that was my primer on Etsy.

[Cody McGuffey]

That's interesting. So this got you into the game and then let's dive double tap on the digital products because that's kind of where you ended up going, like really further, right?

[Julie Berninger]

Yes. So I ended up going to a conference completely by myself, which I'm. I guess I'm somewhat extroverted but very intimidating to do that. But I just knew, okay, I need to learn more about business stuff. So went to a conference. I was living in Seattle, drove down to Portland at the time and ended up meeting a girl awkwardly in line for tacos. I'm like, hey, I'm not going to not talk to anyone for like three days, so I better just talk to her. And she sold digital products on Etsy and was making six figures selling planners. And I'm thinking the whole time, like, what am I doing with physical products? Which, by the way, I still, I love supporting handmade sellers. We have them in our community. I buy all of my birthday gifts for people, Christmas gifts on Etsy. But for me personally, the digital side just made a lot more sense with where I was at in my life at the time. So I switched to digital bachelorette party things. And once I got my first sale there, I'm like, yes, this is, this is where it's at for me. So I switched my shop to that.

[Cody McGuffey]

I'm saying, when you made that switch, what was the journey like after that? Did you immediately take off? Did it take some time, take some learning? And eventually you started crushing it? And then how'd that transition look, how that transition look like for you?

[Julie Berninger]

So one of the first products I chose was a bachelorette party bar scavenger hunt, and it did take off pretty quickly. I tried other ones, like anyone, and I did get lucky in that because I had already went through the process of better understanding my Niche. It wasn't like I was brand new. And I already kind of understood to look to see what other products are selling on Etsy and what did customers like about them, and what could I offer in my product. Like, for example, gold and rose gold were the aesthetic color scheme that people wanted in bachelorette party stuff at the time. So I made one of the first bar scavenger hunts that were that color. And then over time, actually my bestseller started to lose its steam because I realized that people somehow saw that people wanted the scavenger hunts to be hung in lanyards around people's necks when they were going on the bar crawl. So then I had to do five by sevens, because originally I did letter size, which it does make a lot more sense. But I mention that because sometimes I hear people say, oh, my bestseller is not selling anymore. But then they don't really look at, well, why isn't it selling anymore? It's because it's. The market has changed, and culture and art imitate each other. So you got to go and see, well, what are people doing now for bachelorette parties? And you need to update your stuff. So I had a little bit of a journey to figure out where I was going with that. But once I did, I thought, oh, wow, there's something here. Like, this is an incredible side hustle.

[Cody McGuffey]

That's so cool. And then Gold City Ventures comes into the play. When did this. How did this come about? And where did this come from?

[Julie Berninger]

So at the time, I had the podcast about early retirement, and I'm also selling on Etsy, and anytime I had a podcast episode about Etsy, I always had download numbers that were like, double the other download numbers. And I noticed that people listened longer. I got more emails. People were very interested in it. And could it be that I was more passionate about it? So I'm making a better episode. Could it be that just for whatever reason people were interested in being Etsy sellers? I didn't really know, but as a business owner, I knew enough to kind of lean into that. So one thing that I did is I offered a mastermind to my listeners, saying, hey, at this point, I'm like, I'm not an expert on Etsy. Yes, I have more sales than you at this time, but why don't we meet? Why don't you pay me almost for the accountability of us meeting for six weeks? And let's see, like, can we get our Etsy shops off the ground? And one of the guys that was in our group, he was interested in personal finance. So he made a personal finance Etsy shop. His name is Kevin Jones. He's still working for me as a coach today. Like one of my very first people that paid me to be in the Mastermind. So I think it's just so cool. Like, I've been able to. He's an architect, so he is no interest in doing this as more than a side hustle, but he's just been with me the entire time. Now he has 9,000 sales on Etsy. It's just been incredible. So that's kind of where it started, where I realized I'm not the only one here that thinks this is just cool and incredible. And there's. There's a community and a market for this information.

[Cody McGuffey]

That is so cool. What is so for anybody listening to this right now and for myself, what is exactly Gold City Adventures do, like, what's the, what's the main thing that you do inside of Gold State Adventures? And like Kevin does, like, as a coach, what does that look like?

[Julie Berninger]

Okay, so now and I have a business partner, Cody too, but it's myself and Cody Berman, and it's a great name. And the two of us recorded a series of video tutorials which we update all the time. Canva just launched a new ui, so we're updating them again. Just keep everything perfect for people and easy to follow. But it's how to start a digital products Etsy shop, both from the Canva design side and then also from the keyword research and market point of view. So the things I mentioned, like how to get bulk orders, how to run sales in your Etsy shop, how to find and spot good opportunities where there's less competition for your product, what aesthetic your product should have. All of that is included in a series of over the shoulder and then also talking video tutorials to help you understand the strategy. But that's where we started. And then really what sets Gold City Ventures apart from the other kind of Etsy gurus that are out there is that it's not just me and Cody. We hired these six coaches. So Kevin is one of the OG coaches, but our newest coach was Emily, who was on your podcast that has made almost $400,000 on Etsy. We've attracted these incredible Etsy sellers. We have six of them right now. And then my entire staff, they sell on Etsy. So the people that do every. Every single piece, they do media outreach, all of that, they all sell on Etsy social media, because we hire from our own community. So I've got these incredible. So Cool, talented people. A lot of them are moms, right? So they're looking for, you know, some part time job. And I think it's just been incredible. We've been able to build this community. So we have the coaches and then we have a community, a membership community on Facebook where you can ask any questions you want any day. We have live trainings, we have weekly audits, 30 day printable challenges. And then our claim to fame is that Once you reach 100 sales on Etsy with us, we send you a gift in the mail and you join our hundred sales club in which you no longer have to pay for the community. It's, it's a lifetime. So people, the, that accountability piece is what I learned early on with the Mastermind and that's what gets people actually to achieve the goals that they want with the side hustle.

[Cody McGuffey]

I think that's really, really special and it's very cool. And it's. So we overcomplicate this stuff in business, but really when it comes down to it, if you play a sports, for example, I played, you know, football and baseball and stuff all throughout high school and then play football in college. I was thinking about this and I'm like, I have a, I have a coach literally my entire life, right? You have a coach and they hold you. Not only are they teaching you how to like work out and like how to catch a ball and stuff like this. Mostly it's about the accountability, like making sure that you show up, making sure that you are keeping the promises that you made to yourself to be the best you can be. And for some reason when it comes to business, we like shut that off a little bit and we kind of think that we just have to do it all by ourselves. And you mentioned accountability like three times. Four, four or five times, like in the last, you know, 30 seconds. It sounds like that's probably one of the biggest issues that new Etsy sellers probably have or new business owners probably have when selling online. Is that, would you agree with that?

[Julie Berninger]

That's the number one issue. And we're all human. We have lives outside of selling on Etsy. We have things that happen. Our kids get sick, our parents get sick, we, we have other things, we get sick, we have other things that happen that kind of prevent us from reaching our goals. And to be successful in business, you don't need to kill yourself 24 hours a day, but you do have to kind of stay and stay at the same thing for at least like 30 days. That's what we say. Like Please, like, just give us, give us like your first month where you're not having shiny object syndrome. Moving from one thing to the next thing. Like, you're going to be a successful digital products Etsy seller. Stick with us. We're going to do a challenge so that you don't give up. You're going to meet with these coaches, ask them questions to learn that hard feedback of like, wait, why isn't my listing selling? Those of us that have been, that have thousands of sales, we know why your listing isn't selling. But when you're new, you have no clue. And it just seems like, oh, this is frustrating. I want to give up. Why haven't I made all this money yet? And sometimes it just takes that little extra thing to kind of keep you focused. And then once we'll hear from people, it takes people different amount of times to get to the hundred sales club. Some people, I would say the fastest I've seen three months is from someone starting from scratch. If you already have sales on Etsy, sometimes you'll get this information and you'll, you'll get unlocked and you're like, okay, let's go. But for someone brand new who has not started an Etsy shop before, typically three to four months, that's, that's a good kind of goal. But we'll see people that they'll take a year to get to a hundred sales. But actually, and that doesn't mean anything. So I don't want to discourage someone who's been at it for like two years. One of our best people ever who's a full time Etsy seller now. She was selling digital greeting cards. Now she's moved over to printed greeting cards. I had a call with her, she showed me all her cool printers and all her gear that she has to score the cards and cut them. It's incredible. She's in the uk, her name's Lisa. It took her a year to make a hundred sales and now she's like doing great. So I don't, if someone's listening and they're like, oh, it's taken me so long, like, it's okay. That doesn't mean that you're not going to be a successful seller. But please do not give up yet. Like, you don't, you don't know what's waiting just around the corner for you. And maybe you're just like one piece of feedback away from an unlock that you're not going to have. If you're just like breaks the whole thing up. Free YouTube videos trying to make it work.

[Cody McGuffey]

It's compounding. Right. Success on anything. But definitely with Etsy, selling and selling online in general is you compound all these skills. It's not like linear growth. It's like sometimes just like one little puzzle piece falls into the perfect spot and then all of a sudden it completes the entire picture for you. And then you have to figure out the next puzzle piece that's missing and then you break it open again over time. I love that. I want to ask some, like, specific tactical questions about digital product sellers and listings amongst all of your. The most successful students. I guess you can. You call them students.

[Julie Berninger]

Yeah.

[Cody McGuffey]

Or members. Okay. Because you guys have served, helped over 15,000 students. 20,000. It's impressive. So you've seen a lot of data. You have a lot of data to understand what's working, what doesn't work, all this good stuff. Some rules of thumb that I want anybody listening to this takeaway is how many listings should a successful digital seller have typically?

[Julie Berninger]

Okay, so that's the number one question we get. And usually we get it with people that are opening their shops because they only have one listing done and they're saying, should I list it? And the answer is absolutely yes. This sounds crazy and this is not like a crazy marketing thing, but Etsy is looking at each listing individually. And I will see people get sales on their first or third listing. You don't need to wait till you have 12 listings. Now, directionally, the people that are making a lot, a lot of money have more listings. They'll have maybe like 100 listings, plus to make, I would say, $10,000 a month on Etsy. I think it's challenging to do that as someone that's on the newer side because it's like Pareto principle. 20% of the results give you 80% of the profits or something, whatever they say. And it's true. And sometimes it might take you that long to figure out what you're doing. That being said, we've seen people and we've studied and analyzed shops using tools like Everbee, where you're like, this person has six listings and oh my gosh, they're crushing it. So there's no rule of thumb, but I will say the more listings give you more practice reps, and the more reps, the better you get. But you can't let that intimidate you. You got to do it just one listing at a time because you never know which listing is going to be your hit and then you'll learn from it.

[Cody McGuffey]

You know, I Totally agree with this. I, I have two people that come to mind right away and they have, one of them does well over $20,000 a month in revenue with digital products, by the way, $25 product digital product. They have like I remember when I looked this is last year. So they probably have more listings now. They had like four listings and one listing was just absolutely crushing it. And then all the other listings were just like some somehow just different, you know, like they were the same, I guess you can call it variant of that same listing, like a different type of. And the other one, they do like $5,000 a month in digital product sales and they had like six listings. And so it just kind of goes to show. But I think those are not necessarily. They just got, but they were great listings to be very clear. They were great mockups. They looked very clean. They hit it right on the head with, you know, with it, with their audience. So that's very interesting. Etsy ads, yes or no?

[Julie Berninger]

I would say for the majority of people coming through my program the answer is no because they haven't found the magic sauce yet. So then they're just throwing money at a listing that has, not that it's not performing. Now if you have a listing that your conversion rate's over 4% it is higher priced. So typically running ads to the three to four dollars listing is a little bit tricky. I, for a while I was in the Realtor marketing space within my Etsy shop and I would have a bundle of over $30. And yeah, it made sense to run an ad to a bundle because I'm getting a higher return whenever someone ultimately makes a sale. And it just made sense in that particular use case. But I think for a lot of new sellers they might waste some money on ads. Now once I started this is more of like an advanced strategy. But once I started bringing in more revenue from my shop I had more money to experiment with and I used ads almost to like get to the answer whether this is going to work or not.

[Cody McGuffey]

Faster speed up the feedback process.

[Julie Berninger]

Yes. And so that, but I'm not, I'm not the majority of people, the majority of people should not be focused on ads. You don't need ads to succeed on Etsy. We have five figure, six figure sellers in our community that have never, you know, they might have spend a few dollars on ads, but ads are not a critical part of their strategy. And if you're doing everything right with the, what the product is, that's the most important thing. Picking the right product and Executing it before you even get even worry about Etsy optimization. That's, that's like where the game is lost in one. If you do that piece right and focus on that, then you shouldn't have to run ads to have a successful Etsy shop.

[Cody McGuffey]

What is a successful Etsy shop financially inside in your guys world? Is it like when we're talking like numbers wise? So is it six figures a year is like, is that kind of what people can expect to make if they're like the top tier digital product seller? Or can it be upwards of $200,000 plus? I mean where does the kind of that cap look like?

[Julie Berninger]

I think in the digital product space more of six figure. But to be honest, and we don't, the promise of our course is not we're going to make you a six figure seller. Although we'll bring in coaches that are six figure sellers and we'll share stories of people that are. But, but the reality of this situation is that, and we talked about this at the beginning of this episode, 99% of the people taking my course are women. They want to have a side hustle because they have other things going on in their life that are making it difficult for them to commit to full time work and they're going to stop and start. So for example, we'll have five figure sellers that had their second kid and they dropped out of the community for six months. And then I hear them, I'm like oh there she is. She's back, she's back doing things. So you know we're, we get it. Life is busy and we get it. So what I'll say for those people who are in that situation of life where it's like I would love to be a six figure seller but the hard truth is that I don't have six figure seller time on my hands. Then making getting Your shop to $1,000 per month is like the best goal. That's what you should go for. Go for $1,000 per month. That's only $33. It's just over $33 per day which is like when you break it down to that, that's totally manageable. That could be 11 $3 sales. That could be 2 $17 sales. If you have a more expensive product like you, you can do that. And then that thousand dollars you can figure out like is that grocery money for my family? Is that, you know, another awesome vacation? We're going to go to Disney. Like what, what does that do for you? That's a more realistic goal. Now of course we have people come in and I don't discourage any men who are listening. Like, we have guys come in all the time. They're doing great. We, Cody, my business partner, is a guy. Kevin, one of our coaches, but just who tends to be attracted to this product, tends to be someone that doesn't have that much time. That being said, if you have the time or you have the energy and you're like, I'm going to stay up every day till 2am and I'm make this happen, then you absolutely go for it. I can think of those people. There's this one woman, Rachel, she's one of the best people to ever take our course. She made 150k in a year, 77,000 in a year with two kids who are all under the age of three. And the second that she came into the program, I was like, I know exactly who she is. Whereas this 20,000 people, some people, you don't hear a peep from them. She was messaging me, she was like, I just knew the second I saw her she was going to be successful. Nothing was going to stop her. And that ended up being true. So, you know, there are people that they're just going to push through it and they're going to be great. So, you know, it just. But if you don't end up like that, be nice to yourself. Because there are certain stages of life in different seasons. And like a lot of us are in a season where we have to be reasonable about what our season is.

[Cody McGuffey]

Totally agree. And that thousand dollars a month is life changing to a certain degree. And the cool thing about it is when you have a thousand dollars a month in income, you have a thousand dollars a month of an income. And you can decide if you want to take that to 10,000 if you want or you don't have to right now. Like you have that, the freedom of choice. I guess you could say so. Because if you can get to a thousand, you get to 10,000, I believe. Just fundamentally, I think that's. That's probably true.

[Julie Berninger]

Oh yeah. It's almost like you're camping and you got like a little fire starter. And if you have the time like now you know that fire started so you can know what you're doing. Like when we were saying before, would I ever go back to corporate work? No, because I feel like. Because I've had an Etsy shop in this business, I just get how to run a business. Like I had a friend that wanted to sell at the local, like local bakery and we're talking and I'm asking her like, well, what? She's like, well, what would I want to sell? Like brownies? I'm like, well, we got to go and see like, what do customers want what sell the most? Can we look online to see do people want pumpkin spice donuts right now? Like, well, you know, how could we do upsells? I just knew all that from having the experience of running an Etsy shop. So I think just this skillset will serve you no matter what.

[Cody McGuffey]

Thousand percent. You talked about brownings, for example, and like understanding what people are wanting to buy and all this stuff too. And obviously you're a customer of Everby and I know that a lot of students are customers of Ever Be. How should somebody that's coming in listening to this podcast today hasn't really touched Everby too much or maybe doesn't really know how to because they're not really data minded. And I know you have a data mind coming from your corporate world and also your business world. Now how should somebody use data and ever be kind of to make decisions for their business? Do you have any tips for them?

[Julie Berninger]

I think that you should be looking at a data tool like Ever Be before you even touch a computer, touch materials. Like, you need to use a tool like this because you want the best return on your time. And I use tools like Ever be to get ideas of what the market is demanding about certain products and what they like. So for example, when the Barbie movie came out last year, everyone loved Barbie, everyone loved pink. And suddenly every single holiday after Barbie, all the bestsellers you've noticed were pink. So for Halloween this year, we got pink pumpkins, we got pink Christmas trees, pink ornaments. That's important to know because you want to have your design aesthetic match what customers want. And when you use a tool like Everbee and you can see what products you'll be surprised or notice. Hey, this pink Halloween pumpkin product is making so much more sales than the other. Why? Well, because it's hitting up that cultural trend and so maybe you can apply that trend to not copy their product. But can you create, can you use that stored in your brain? And then when you go to make your product, you're going to be better informed when you ultimately decide what that product should look like, what features it should have, etc.

[Cody McGuffey]

Love that. Totally agree. I think this is a perfect time to kind of transition over to the rapid fire questions. Are you ready?

[Julie Berninger]

Yeah.

[Cody McGuffey]

So what is your favorite business book?

[Julie Berninger]

Four Hour Work Week.

[Cody McGuffey]

Ooh. Tim Ferriss.

[Julie Berninger]

Tim Ferriss. That was, that was the start of it all for me. And when we were talking about like how I can have my two kids and have this kind of weird blended work schedule, it's because I've set everything up with systems. I've hired people, really good people to handle certain elements of my business. And I use tech. I use tech for everything. Everything has. Everything has a process, everything has a place. And it all started with four hour workweek.

[Cody McGuffey]

I love that. What's the one thing that you wish that you knew before starting your business?

[Julie Berninger]

I wish I went forward earlier. So I had this idea a year before I actually did anything about it. And I would like that year back. It was a fun year. That was the year before I had kids. Like, think of all the cool things my husband and I could have been doing if we had. If I had this job that I currently have now. I mean, we would have. My business partner, Cody is a little bit younger than me and him and his wife are all over the world and all different places traveling. That's not my season right now. But I'm like, man, I wish I got started because I would have had that freedom earlier.

[Cody McGuffey]

What's the worst advice that you've ever received about business? Worst advice?

[Julie Berninger]

I think there are a lot of quit your day job people and I was very, very conservative before I did that because I think the pressure of, I think financial pressure can really stop you in growing in business. And one of the reasons that Gold City Ventures and my Etsy shop has done well is because I'm very. I have an abundance mentality when it comes to money and I'm very generous about it. Like, I've done things, like I said, the experimentation with hiring different people, purchasing expensive software. If I want to run ads, if I want to do whatever, I don't, I don't worry about it. The same way that I see sometimes my peers in both the Etsy seller space and the business owner space, they're very like, they're holding onto it and they just don't want to let it go. And money makes you run faster. There's no other way around it. So if your day job can fund your business and you can do it even for like a little bit, I know it was killer at the end. Like, I was pregnant. I was staying up till 2am I was like, this is, this is truly the worst. I remember going on a business trip. I woke up every single day at 5am which really I couldn't sleep because I was pregnant. But like I was Doing stuff. Now I look at it, I'm like, oh, thank goodness I don't have to do that again. But like, if I didn't, if I didn't hustle in that just very beginning period while also having the day job, I don't think I would have been as generous with the money that allowed the business to grow faster. And I think a lot of people are like, quit your job. But then it hampers you because you don't have the funds needed, whether it's to buy a course, to speed it up. And then now you just wasted, you wasted six hours on YouTube, like trying to read between the lines of what this person is saying. Like, it's just the faster you can get results. And now anything I do is an investment. Like I'll just, I just buy things to, to help speed up my time because I realize how valuable my time is.

[Cody McGuffey]

I totally agree with this. I, we can talk about that all day probably too. But I do agree with this. Generally speaking, for sure. How many hours a week do you work in your business?

[Julie Berninger]

I have it right now in my schedule that I'm working like five hours a day. But also when, so we have a nanny. When you have a nanny and you're not using daycare, like you could get sick, the nanny could get sick, they could get canceled. It's very different. So like, realistically, how often do I get 25 hours a week? Not super often, but that's kind of how I want it. Like, I think it's great. Like if we, my daughter and I have like a little day of us just doing stuff. And what's nice about having an online business is you can kind of, there's nothing like, oh, I had to be at this meeting at, you know, 10:00am you can kind of be a little more flexible. So theoretically, 25 hours a week, not on my Etsy shop. Like running a business to the, with 20,000 students at gold City Ventures, that's a large, very large undertaking. That's, that's what's taking the most amount of time. It's not, it's not the Etsy shop or anything else. That's really what it is.

[Cody McGuffey]

How about thinking about the business? Do you consider that work? Thinking about it, Talking to your husband about the business, strategizing high level stuff at night, just thinking, not necessarily in front of your computer, but like maybe reading about the, about business. Like, do you consider that work or not really?

[Julie Berninger]

I've thought about this a lot. I don't consider it work. Sometimes I think for A lot of us that love online business, this is like our reality TV alternative. Like when people put on Real Housewives, like we just love to put on a webinar learning something new. Like it just where listen, watch YouTube videos. That's just our thing. But I just being in this stage with little kids and I've been listening to a lot of parent influencers who are reminding us about the importance of mental presence. I really, really struggle with that because I love what I'm doing so much and I just see so many opportunities. So actually like sometimes for me, a major source of not being content and happiness is like, I'll get a million business ideas. And then I'm like, wait, I have no time to do any of these right now. And then that causes me the stress. So I've taken vacations from listening sometimes to podcasts and having those conversations. And recently I just started reading fiction again because I'm like, okay, I need to truly give myself a rest. I like this a little too much. So yeah, I do. I consider it work, kind of. I'm working on that as a person.

[Cody McGuffey]

I get that. Last question. If your family and your friends and your customers had to get together without you and they had to write like an honest article or maybe a full on like book about you, characterizing your traits and kind of who you are and how you are and all this stuff, what do you think the general themes are that they would say?

[Julie Berninger]

Well, Gold City Ventures is very well reviewed online. So if you Google Gold City Ventures review, you'll find out what people think of it. And overall, I think we are known to, we really care about getting our sellers to a hundred sales. And every single year I think, how can I get them to a hundred sales faster? How can I eliminate the fluff? Like could I get them to a hundred sales still and not make them watch X amount of videos? Because I know, I just, I feel the weight of people at a time in their life when they're doing 100 things. I really feel the weight of like, hey, I don't want to waste their time because I'm living the same situation as them. I'm busy and I just want to get them to where they want to go without any extra stuff. And like we, my whole team, they really care. They're very generous with ideas. So I think that kind of comes through. Like we're, we're sending people gifts in the mail. We're trying to make this fun. We're doing the challenges. Like we just, we get it and I really think that would come through now, that's work, Julie. Also, when I record my videos, like I'm. People say like, oh, you're very calm. Like, you, you understand people. When, when I'm like, doing my job, that's my zone of genius. So sometimes I bring out. I used to work at Amazon, Apple. I'm very like, system focused. So, you know, if you ask my, my business partner Cody, he'd be like, oh, yeah, Julie's a little type A when it comes to things. But that's because I just want the experience to be so great for people and like, I don't, I don't want, you know, I don't want anything to be a negative experience. So, yeah, I think that's what would come across.

[Cody McGuffey]

I love it. Julie, wrapping up today. Thank you for coming on and sharing all the, all the nuggets. I think our audience got a lot out of it. I personally, a lot out of it also. And I appreciate your friendship more than anything else. So thank you for coming on. I really, really appreciate it. Before we go. Absolutely. Before we go. Where can people find you? About. Go to adventures. Where can people go and if they want to check it out, check you out, follow you, learn more about you. Where can they find you?

[Julie Berninger]

You can find [e-mail] we also have an Instagram goldcityventures. So that's gold City Ventures. And we have an incredible team of coaches. We have a workshop we're running right now with Emily, who has been on the Everbee podcast. Who, how she. She made her $400,000 or whatever she's made at this point on Etsy using Everby. So come check it out and we'd love to see new faces around our community.

[Cody McGuffey]

Amazing, Julie. Thank you again. Talk to you soon. All right, see you later.