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- [00:00]
A
If I were to make a person and I fit them to this SEO or these keywords, do they match and are they matching consistently? So are a lot of you may be female buyers. You can see their names when they order. Like maybe I have a lot of female buyers and they're buying this particular product and it's for a man, then I would know, oh, maybe moms or sisters or aunts are buying this for their loved ones. And so that would be a good product market fit. It's a good gift for a female to buy for a male. And so you can kind of depending on your niche or if you're a general store, it could just be as simple as a high rate of favorites and sales and a high rate of conversion.
- [00:39]
B
Welcome back to Built Online, the podcast where we dive into everything online business. Here we explore the minds of creators who are building online businesses to power their dream lives and ultimately transform economies. I'm your host Cody McGuffey and if you're new here, I the founder and CEO of Ever Be, a Creator commerce platform where we believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to pursue their passions and to live life on their own terms. We're on a mission to make creator commerce accessible to everyone throughout the world, no matter where they are, and to make a positive impact in our families and our communities. And we believe that everyone that truly commits to a vision and pursues it with an undeniable force of will that they will ultimately succeed. I'm really excited about today's show. Thank you for sharing your time with us. Before we jump into today's episode, I'd like to ask a quick favor for anyone that's listened to the show before. If you haven't already, please let us know if these episodes and these conversations are are helpful or not. Share your feedback in the comments and review it if you if you would. It truly helps the podcast, it helps our team, it helps me personally understand what types of guests that we should have on the podcast that really just helps us improve the show to make it better. We need your feedback. We would not be able to operate without your feedback. So be sure to follow the podcast. Subscribe to the channel wherever you're watching this. So you really never really miss out on that. That one nugget that can really change your business and change your life. Enough of that. Really excited to have you here. Let's jump into today's show. Sweet. Carla, what's going on? How are you?
- [02:10]
A
Hi Cody. I'm doing well. How are you doing?
- [02:13]
B
I'm doing Great. Thank you so much for coming on. I'm excited to learn more about you. You're crushing it on Etsy right now and you're also an ever be customer and I like to personally learn from you there on how you're succeeding and also just hear about your story.
- [02:31]
A
Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. This is pretty exciting. I absolutely love, I love everbee. It's the only tool that I used when I first started on my Etsy journey. You hear a lot of times look for some type of keyword software to help you out, you know, because the, the freeways just don't always cut it. They kind of leave you shortchanged and it just made sense and I, I don't see another way that would be any easier, especially for a newbie. Yeah.
- [03:01]
B
So cool. I want to dive into like your story. You have a very interesting story and a unique one. And I specifically want to start high level with maybe like some stats just to give some context for anyone listening and also for myself is you have over 40 approaching 4,500 sales on Etsy now. Is that correct?
- [03:20]
A
Yes.
- [03:21]
B
When did you start?
- [03:23]
A
I started last year, but I didn't consistently work in my shop until January of this year.
- [03:29]
B
This year. Wow. So we're like 10 months in of consistent work essentially. And you have over 4,500 or approaching 4,500 sales.
- [03:39]
A
Yes, and I have two little ones. So I, when I mean like consistently posting, it was two hours a day. I started doing that in January.
- [03:47]
B
Wow.
- [03:48]
A
And that's it. I had to have a cut off because I have a four and a two year old and they just entered school this September. So as of September, I'm now actually working in my shop, you know, more full time.
- [04:02]
B
I love this. You're like legit walking proof of. You can be time constraint. You have time constraints. You can start from nothing and have over 4,000 sales in a fairly short period of time, relatively speaking and with very limited amount of time again to work on your shop like you were doing it.
- [04:22]
A
Yeah. I also had five surgeries and I had a newborn. So my baby now is, he just turned 2. So when I opened the shop last year I had a newborn. So that's kind of why all the first year was just kind of me learning about Etsy, learning about the platform and knowing I wanted to do it full time eventually. And so I spent basically a year of just learning. I'm the, I'm the weirdo that reads the Etsy seller handbook and the fine print and I like to know things and study them. So that's kind of what I did the first year. I had a lot of surgeries. Two were emergency surgeries. And I just, I call it working in the margins. So if I had 10 minutes, I could get all my mockups done. If I had 15 minutes, I could do the SEO, plug it in and list. Right. And post that listing if, you know, if I had a 30 minute window. I just always constantly think in these time blocks and it's like, what can I do to make the most change or cause the most effect or make a dent in my to do list if I just maximize those little windows that I had. So that's how I, that's how I survived the first year just of learning and figuring out how to do things. I would just do those 10, 15 and 30 minute windows that I had with a newborn and several surgeries and trying to recover. And a toddler who was two and a half at the time.
- [05:39]
B
Wow. Yeah, that's very impressive because so many people, that's their biggest pain point is like, I don't have time. I don't have time. I don't have time. And it's usually always because they have kids and they have a full or they have a full time job or some other life demands. That life is crazy. That's what happens. So you're. I, I want to dive in more. Deeper. Dive in deeper with you there. Before that. This year, again, over 4,000 sales, 45,000 in revenue. Congratulations on that, by the way.
- [06:09]
A
Thank you.
- [06:11]
B
That's insane. And again, time constraints, full time mom. Let's jump backwards a little bit into maybe your story and share kind of like your fam. Family dynamic a little bit because I think that's unique and could share a lot of perspective. You've already talked about you having two kids. What else is going on in your life and tell us that.
- [06:31]
A
Yes. So I got out of the Marine Corps. I was a Marine Corps officer since I was 17. I was in the Marine Corps, the military. And I got out in 2021. My bash is also. Thank you. My spouse is also. He's still active duty. He works in special ops for the Marine Corps. So he just hit 22 years this past July and we moved a lot. So when I got out, I was given 100 disability within 30 days. That's how many injuries or service related conditions I had. And so I immediately was on disability. And you know, that, that was really hard to digest. I guess at first it's kind of, you Kind of feel bad and it's like, why do I. It just, it's a lot of history there to kind of unpack because it was unexpected. So, you know, everybody kind of puts in and they see what they get when they get out based on all their medical records. And it's a whole process and a full physical and you just get examined top to bottom to see what you rate in terms of disability. So I wasn't, I didn't go into it expecting that much, but I guess I had a whole lot of history there. So immediately I was like, wow, maybe I should start working on these surgeries and start working on all this if I want to have a family. We didn't have children when I got out, and so that's kind of where I wanted a family and figured it would be the best time to both heal and start growing a family. Because, you know, now at that time I was, know, 30 and I figured, better start now. So.
- [08:05]
B
And you did. And where did this online entrepreneurship type of mindset come into the picture?
- [08:12]
A
Yeah, I just figured, you know, when you have children and, and you were in the military, you know, anything can happen. Your spouse can get deployed. The worst case situation, worst case scenario can happen. And I was just looking for a way to kind of make my husband feel like he didn't need to stay in longer just to take care of us, you know, that we could have an alternative. And, you know, he's at the retirement point so he can retire in two years. So in 2026 he could be set to retire. And I just didn't want him to feel like we were at a loss, you know, because I was staying with the boys and you know, I could easily go out and get a corporate job or do something else, but I never. That's kind of one of the reasons why I went officer, right, Is because I liked the leadership challenge. I really enjoy the leadership challenge. I love being able to be paid for problem solving and, you know, making decisions for worst case scenarios. I enjoy that challenge and I'm pretty good at it. So I was like, what else can I do? And the first thing I thought of was a business and a lot of vets get out and they start businesses for that reason. They're just so used to being able to make those hard calls and have hard conversations, which a lot of people just don't want to do. So this felt natural, it felt normal to go ahead and look for an alternative. But because I have so many health issues and because I have little ones, I Thought maybe I could start with the online front and see where that would take me.
- [09:40]
B
And how's it. How's it going so far? How do you feel about it? Are you proud of it? Are you struggling with it? Where are you at with it mentally?
- [09:47]
A
I think I'm. I. For the little amount of time that I put in the two hours consistently per day of, like, uninterrupted deep work, I think I'm doing pretty well. You know, I. You see a lot of the success stories, you know, that get magnified, and they're always, you know, six and seven figures in your first year. And for someone else, that could be really deflating. But for me, I've always not looked at my competition. I'm the person who's like, if I did better than yesterday, well, that's success for me. And in my book, and you're only as good as your last best metric. And that's just. I just think that's awesome to be able to push other others up and appreciate their successes and learn from them. Like, what can you glean from that person's success and then apply to your business? And so there's room for everybody to grow. And I just. I never found that deflating. I felt that was so encouraging. And it's like, oh, I have somebody I can look up to, and I always appreciate it that way. But a lot of times I can see where a lot of other sellers could potentially see that as kind of deflating or demotivating that they maybe not be. Are not getting those sales so quickly. Um, so I'm excited. I'm excited to now be able to have more time and to be able to focus working in my business and not just on my business and move forward.
- [11:01]
B
I love that. I. I do agree, though. I think we can all relate to that. I mean, even. I think it happens at every level. You. You always. You always see someone else ahead of you, doing bigger things, and they did it faster or maybe they were younger when they did it, or they have something that you don't have and it's not the right thing to do. We know that this doesn't make us feel good when we. When we watch it. And that's why, personally, from. I'll speak for myself, like, I deleted social media, my app, off my phone. I deleted Instagram off my phone, I deleted Twitter off my phone because I found myself, like, comparing myself, my journey to someone else's journey, and it didn't make me feel good after I read that thing. I'm like, Ah, why? I felt less than I felt like, what am I doing wrong? Even though I'm having like mart, like pretty good success over here. But somehow I just felt I read this one thing that made me feel worse. So personally I made a choice of kind of removing myself from that. But at the same time it's interesting because you said it kind of can encourage you to. And so I think it's like this balance of that's really inspiring and amazing that there's a possibility and potential for this. But like leave it there. Don't compare yourself to it, if that makes sense.
- [12:14]
A
Right. And there's always like that saying, like, don't compare your year one to someone else's year 20. And so you could be seeing the third business. You could be seeing after the fifth business. Maybe the first four failed. You don't know someone else's circumstances. So I just take what, what I can use from it. If they did this successfully, then I can be like, oh, what's their business model? If they sell this during the season? Oh, that might be a good thing to look into. So I kind of glean whatever I can that's positive. And I think that there's so much room for everyone to win that it really, it never really bothered me. I just always saw that as a motivation and that it can be done right, that it's possible someone has already paved the way so that therefore it's already tested and trued. I'm a big numbers data person and I love crunching the numbers and analyzing everything, which is probably why I like to ever be the analyze button. And you know, I, I really enjoy it. And so I like looking into my shop and dissecting it and seeing what's working and again on a time crunch. So it's like, what can I do to move the needle forward in these 10, 15, 30 minutes?
- [13:22]
B
That's incredible. Let's talk about that. You have actually only 200, 250 listings. So it's like, it's funny I say only because a lot of times people have 2,000 listings and it's like fairly normal now. But I mean, Considering your success, 250 listings is not that many compared to having 4000 sales in 10 months of time. But then again, it's also a lot of listings when it comes to time constraint that we Talked about only 10 or 15 minutes a day too. So yeah, point is, let's talk about how many you list. What's your process? How are you even getting those things up considering the time constraint? That you have, right.
- [14:05]
A
So it could take me three months to design one product because I'll sell, let's say, a planner or a workbook or something that, you know, takes a long time to write and to get down and get the formatting. And it could be upwards of 400 pages, for example. So I've done that and it's taken me about three months to build. And so the listing, yeah, it could take me 15 minutes. But the creation of that product, it's a physical product that I get manufactured, you know, that could take. And then ordering samples and the binding and the paper quality, all that can take a long time. So my process is I don't let shiny object syndrome get in the way. I think the death of your business is distraction. And so if you're not able to focus with the time you have, you could very well be working during work time, but you're not actually working. You could just be doing busy work. So the way I've planned out my sales, I actually planned them out for the year. So I know what I'm doing on what day of the week and how long it's going to take me. And it's down to a science, right? And everything else I build in. So at the beginning of or at the end of last year in December, I sat down with my calendar and I just got a dollar store blank calendar. And I just went in and put all my Shiny object syndrome. I was like, I would like to make this long laundry list of all these things. These are all my ideas. And then I just worked backwards and I was like, okay, is there a season that this would sell better in? Go ahead and put that on the calendar. This is when I want it to be listed, right? A good eight to 12 weeks before I want it to be listed, I will start, you know, getting it all ready to go. And then I would backdate that. Okay, how many weeks will that take me to make? And then I'll start that. And so I basically built out my sales plan for the year and it was all based on my, you know, I got my fix of my shiny object syndrome out of me, and I was able to get it all out on paper. And then I just stick to it. It's already. I did the research, I did the R and D research and development. I've already done all the homework. And then that's all I do right before I need to list that or work on it that week. That's all I'm doing is getting the SEO, the designs, ordering the Samples, everything I need to get that listing up and going. And at first you don't have product market fit. So as I would see product market fit and what was selling, I started iterating on that. So maybe remove the thing from March that I was going to build because it's not going to work.
- [16:44]
B
A question for anyone that no idea what product market fit is. What, how would you describe that to somebody that's first time they've ever heard that before?
- [16:52]
A
For me, that would be, you know, linking, connecting a product type to the perfect customer. So is there a demand and can I fill that with someone who actually wants to buy this product? So it's like validating your market. I sell something and someone buys it and it's the right person. And so I. So it worked, right? The formula worked. And so that's like a good fit. Your product meets the requirements of a Persona or a buyer avatar.
- [17:18]
B
What's an indication for somebody that's kind of starting out on Etsy their first year, how do they know if they even have product market fit? They've gotten a couple sales here and there. But like what is some good signs that like, oh yeah, you've got product market fit. How would you talk to a person?
- [17:33]
A
Of course. So if there are a niche shop, they could be looking at their SEO and they could be looking at what problem does this solve or what occasion is this for. They could be asking themselves basically, if I were to make a person and I fit them to this SEO or these keywords, do they match and are they matching consistently? So are a lot of maybe female buyers. You can see their names when they order. Like maybe I have a lot of female buyers and they're buying this particular product and it's for a man, then I would know, oh, maybe moms or sisters or aunts are buying this for their loved ones. And so that would be a good product market fit. It's a good gift for a female to buy for a male. And so you can kind of depending on your niche or if you're a general store, it could just be as simple as a high rate of favorites and sales and a high rate of conversion. You can just say it's a popular product writ large because the general shop's a little bit different. So that's kind of what I would be asking myself, like who's buying it and are they buying it for.
- [18:38]
B
So the idea is that you get product market fit. You where you, you try to get product market fit first and then step one, you kind of like got it or you got signs of it and then you basically double down on that same product market. Is that correct?
- [18:52]
A
That's correct. And then I'll iterate on that. So people really like this product and they like this design. What are other ways that I can make it so I can service this individual for four to seven years? So they want to come back to me and it's not just the one sale. And that's kind of why I personally don't have a general shop and I have a niche shop because you know, there's, there's passion in the niches and they'll come back and they'll tell you, they'll refer you by name. And I've had that where someone has taken a photo of one of my, let's say tote bags and then sent me the photo and say where can I find this one? Because my mom bought it and I want it and so I can just send them the listing, you know, through Etsy.
- [19:33]
B
So I love that. I completely agree with you. And you said passions and niches and I think that's interesting. I don't think I've ever heard it really crafted in that way. I do agree like people get really passionate about their, like their niche. If I'm in a hiking then I'm like, I'm like super in hiking. Or if I'm a fisherman, like I'm super into fishing or people collect stones, like they're really into stones. And then if you can. I love the way you think about your market. You mentioned five to seven years. You're probably rare just for even saying those, that, that thing there. Because most people thinking about their Etsy shop or their, their online business is like how do I make a whole bunch of money like in the next three months and quit my job? That's usually the way they think about it. Which is not, I don't blame them for this. It's more just like you make better decisions when you expand the time horizon and you can really go after a market and really make a big difference for yourself, for your family and the market over a five year period of time.
- [20:32]
A
Absolutely. And I measure business in decades, so I haven't even, I don't even have enough of a data sample for myself for my own standards to be able to sit back and analyze where this business is going to go. My background is quantitative economics, so that's what I went to school for. And I like looking at these trends, but I can't look at it until it's enough Time, right. Enough of a data sample. So when I say like, well, I want to cater to them for, you know, these five to seven years, it's where can I, if I, for example, mine is a niche shop, you know, can I cater to them when this milestone happens and then when this milestone happens or maybe when this event takes place and that way they, they feel comfortable and they, I've built that trust with them and they see me as their go to and what a relief, right? You already know where you like to shop and you like what they already have. So you don't have to think about it. You just know you need something and you just go there. And we all like that. We all like to feel like we have that, that brand loyalty and that trust.
- [21:30]
B
Absolutely agree with that. How do you do your research piece of things? Because you mentioned that you kind of built out this list, this shiny thing syndrome list that you had. How did you even get to that list? Because people probably have a lot of ideas and they're all over the place.
- [21:47]
A
Yes.
- [21:47]
B
Do you just like create anything that's on your, on your mind or do you validate it first? Like how do you do this?
- [21:53]
A
I do. So when I do my R D or my research and development, I, I actually go off platform so I don't look at Etsy when I start, I look anywhere else that my buyer Persona would look. And I mean you gotta, like, if you're in a niche shop, you gotta know your, your buyer Persona. You've got to know where they shop, what they, what they do during the day. You know, not in a stalker, weird way, but in like, you know this person very, very well. And so you can, you can have good product market fit and you can validate your products. So I know my niche really, really well. I know what's, when they shop, I know when they don't shop, I know what their week looks like. And so it's easy for me to go on Pinterest or go on where I think they would shop. Like maybe they go to anthropology or maybe they sh. Target and I look at those catalogs when they release them and I look at trends. So I may see like, oh, hey, Target launched their spring collection and there's a lot of purples and yellows. So I'm going to take that, right. I'm going to, I'm going to use that as my, as my influence and then I'm going to go to Pinterest and I'm going to look up the Pinterest trends and see that you know, wicker is coming back and bell bottoms are coming back, you know, all just sorts of those kinds of trends. And even though I don't sell apparel, I can glean off of that even the texture, maybe putting it on a notebook or something like that. And so I can figure out a way to capitalize on these multi million dollar companies that have paid so much money to have these trends already analyzed. And I can just use them right to for my marketing, for my marketing research. Because why would I spend any money on that when I can just use them?
- [23:41]
B
I love it. So then you build a list and then what do you do? What do you do from there?
- [23:46]
A
And then I plan it out. So I'll say I'll think of how long it'll take me and when it should be listed and those are the two things I start with right like when does this make sense to release this product. Something might be event based, it could be seasonal and that's where I plan backwards and that's really makes it easy. I know I hear a lot of people that are like I don't know what to work on and I'm so overwhelmed. And I'm like you wouldn't be overwhelmed if you just wrote it out. You know it doesn't have to be that detailed. It could just be this is when it's due. And so you have that forward thinking mentality where you can plan back plan and figure out what you need to do this week so that you can list it during that month.
- [24:23]
B
Love that.
- [24:24]
A
So just cycle.
- [24:25]
B
Do you use ever be for mostly the listing component like of using the keywords or do you use on the product research? Because mostly it sounds like you're doing a lot of the research offline off of Etsy like kind of off of intuition actually which is cool. Where does ever become into your project.
- [24:43]
A
So ever becomes in When I finally when I get back to Etsy right when I'm about when I'm going into listing mode it's now what kinds of listings work well for this product type. So maybe this thumbnail, right this thumbnail works better than the lifestyle one. Maybe the flat layer works better than the all these other types of mock ups. So that's where I use my AB testing So I use ever be heavily for the data for analyzing the data and I will look at let's say the bestsellers analyze the whole I'll scrub, you know, I'll scrape that whole first however many pages and I'll see which types of mockups are working and which ones are not right? Which ones are not seeing the light of day because they're on page 452.
- [25:28]
B
So for example, if like we, let's say we're dog collar, you're seeing that like dog collars are like crushing on target and all this, for example, right. And so then you would put that on the list as dog collar. It's a high level term. It sounds like, so it's not like anything specific, but then you take that and you plan it out and then it's like, okay, cool, dog collar time. You take that, put it in Etsy. Now you're researching specifically what type of dog collars, what the mockups look like, what, what the color of the dog collar is, what titles they're using, all that stuff.
- [25:58]
A
And I also, one of the biggest things I use ever before is identifying gaps in the market, which is what you want, right? You want to stand out, you want to be the first to market with something that no one else has because maybe Etsy's last on the trends list, but you've already gleaned all that from these big companies. So when I now, when I sitting down, I'm ready to list, I'm ready to design and get it done. That's where Everbee comes in. Clutch. That's where I will look for that specific item like that dog collar and analyze what are the colors that they don't have that I've already pulled from all these other shops, what are the materials that they don't have that I've already pulled that are trending and that's how you get to be a market leader in your niche. That's. Yeah. And then I can also go from there. When I'm listing, I can see now the keywords and I can see how many sales and are they recent sales? Right. Because I don't care if this one shop has, you know, 546,000 sales, if they made those 20, you know, 15 years ago. So that all helps me too. So that's why I kind of, I always start off platform and kind of get all the homework done and then come to Etsy and use Everbee to just dial every single little detail. And so when I list, I know it's going to sell and that's such a nice confidence boost. Like, oh, I can't wait to see when this sells, you know, and it's not for every single product, but it works for a lot of my products. So you see that I have like 250 active listings. My shop Is mostly event based. So every six months I deactivate like 100 listings.
- [27:30]
B
Oh, really?
- [27:31]
A
And then I go ahead and add the next line, which is like 50 to 150 other listings. And then they sell for six months, all of them. And then I take them down. Right. And then I do it again and there's gonna be those few that don't sell. But you know, that's how you research and you iterate and you see which one's never sold. And that's where all the testing comes in. That's where Everby helps me out. And it's like this one's not selling, so I'll just pull and replace.
- [27:56]
B
Pull and replace. Yeah. Very, very cool. Are you all print on demand?
- [28:01]
A
No, I just added print on demand. Yeah, recently. So I have a manufacturer that will make a lot of my products for me and so I kind of use them as my print on demand. But they're making it from scratch. So it's like my entire design is from scratch.
- [28:16]
B
Wow. That's. And okay, so it's kind of like print on demand. I mean it is, but it's your own. It's your own. Okay.
- [28:23]
A
Yeah. But instead of like printing on a pre made product, the product is completely yours. Like I designed it. It wouldn't exist if I didn't make it.
- [28:30]
B
Wow. Okay, cool. And are they in US based or are they somewhere else?
- [28:34]
A
Yes, they're US based.
- [28:35]
B
Wow. Special. Okay, cool. I think this is a perfect transition into kind of our rapid fire questions to kind of wrap up the segment. It's already been 26 minutes. I just realized time is flying by. Are you ready?
- [28:47]
A
Yes.
- [28:48]
B
Cool. What is your favorite business book? It seems like you're a reader. It seems like you're a studier.
- [28:55]
A
Yes. I love Traction by. Was it Gino Wickman? That's the one I'm reading. I'm rereading right now, so. Because I'm planning out my next year. So it's like the perfect time to implement.
- [29:07]
B
I love that. It's a great book, by the way. Really great book. What's one thing that you wish that you knew before starting your business?
- [29:14]
A
I would say pay off the ignorance debt fast.
- [29:18]
B
What do you mean by that?
- [29:19]
A
So I'm always, like you said, like a researcher or a reader. And so when I'm starting something new, my only thought is always like, how can I pay off the ignorance debt? How can I learn what I need to know so that I can do the thing faster? And so that can either be by you paying to learn how to do it or by paying someone else to do it or by learning it and it taking a little bit longer. Right. For doing it the free way. So I would say in this business, sometimes you do need to pay off that ignorance debt a little bit faster at a faster rate. So maybe instead of taking the whole year, I could have, you know, subscribed to like a coach or something like that a little bit sooner to kind of pay off that ignorance dent a little bit faster.
- [30:00]
B
I love that. I really love that. I actually, I think, I don't think I use the same words in my head, but I've always kind of agreed with this. Anytime there was a problem, I just immediately go to, okay, what do I need to read in order to just get through the fundamentals of this problem? And I'll just like make a list of books. I go to audible and I would just like type in the problem. There's gonna be like 15 books that pop up. I pick like three to five of them and I literally just read through them and I leave them on like 1.5x. And then at least I've paid off the majority of the ignorance debt and now they can have. Now I can start asking good questions to people. And I totally agree with this.
- [30:38]
A
Right. And there's. It's nothing better than surrounding yourself with people who are so smarter than you. I mean, that is just like the goal of my life is always to surround myself with people who just know much more than I do, that can stand and teach me something or are in a position that I want to be in eventually. I think those are the best kinds of people to surround yourself with when you're in a business.
- [30:57]
B
Completely agree. What's the worst business advice that you've.
- [30:59]
A
Ever received that you can compete with yourself on Etsy?
- [31:04]
B
What do you mean by that?
- [31:05]
A
Someone told me that you can compete, a coach like you can compete with yourself on Etsy. So make sure you, you know, change your SEO or change, you know, you can't sell this. You can't duplicate it and sell the same thing. You know, for whatever reason they said you can compete with yourself, which you can disprove by listing the same product and doing an A B test. Right. With different SEO or switching out the photo and still both listings appearing on page one.
- [31:32]
B
That is contrary. I agree. I love that.
- [31:34]
A
Yes. Yes.
- [31:36]
B
How many hours do you think you're actually. I don't know this answer. You already mentioned it. But how many hours do you work on your business per week?
- [31:42]
A
Well, since September. Now I'm doing probably like four hours per week. Per day. Per day. Four hours per day. And I only work Monday through Friday.
- [31:50]
B
Beautiful. And then how often do you think that you're. That's in front of a computer? Probably right. Those four hours.
- [31:55]
A
Yes.
- [31:55]
B
And how often are you like thinking about it? You kind of like talking to your husband about it? Talking to people about your business? How often are you doing that?
- [32:02]
A
I don't talk to my family about my business. I lee, I make that separate. I talk to my family and I give them 100 of my time and my focus. And I, whenever I'm not with them or you know, your shower thoughts are out on a walk, then that's when I'll kind of dedicate some of that mental aptitude or bandwidth to that. But otherwise I try to keep it completely separate. I kind of will ask my husband, like, can you bring me a snack? I'm in the middle. I'm like, you know, you're deep work, you don't want to be interrupted. So he's very, very helpful and supportive in that way where he'll, he'll give me my time when I need to and take the boys. He's, you know, he's a pretty good dad.
- [32:37]
B
So I love that.
- [32:39]
A
Yeah.
- [32:39]
B
This isn't actually a question that I have written down, but I'm curious, what does your next year look like for, for your business? And then, yeah, let's just talk about the first next year, next 12 months. Are you expanding on Etsy? Are you doubling down on Etsy or are you opening up your own websites? Are you going to create content for yourself, for your brand? Like, how are you viewing this?
- [32:59]
A
So for next year, my plan is to start with email marketing because I don't even have email marketing going yet. And I'm going to start there. And then I'm also going to be expanding outside of just the US because right now I only sell to us. So people who are international have just been doing mail forwarding to try to get my products. So like they'll ask me like, I'm in this country, could you please send this to me? And so I do a lot of transactions off of the Etsy platform through like Square or I could do it through, you know, business PayPal because a lot of the, you know, overseas see the products that I have and they're asking for them. So I'm going to start doing that next year.
- [33:39]
B
I love that. So it sounds like you're doubling down Neti and you're going International.
- [33:43]
A
Yes.
- [33:44]
B
I love that. Are you. Have you using ever be email yet? Are you going to?
- [33:49]
A
I'm going to. That's the plan.
- [33:51]
B
Awesome. Let. Let me know. Or let. Yeah, let me know. Or our team know, like if you have any problems with that too. But totally could see that being a huge email marketing is such a major lever if you do it. I don't think it's a fast lever, though. I don't think it's like one of those things you just pull and like you're gonna just print money. It's like it's an asset that you build up in your business that eventually overall, like later on it will just start. It just. It's consistent. It prints for you. It's just like highly recommend it. I. Huge fan of email marketing.
- [34:20]
A
Absolutely. And I. And I'm all for not having another subscription. Right. I feel like this is like the one thing that will do it all. I'm all for it, so.
- [34:28]
B
Yep. For sure about it. I love it. If your family and your friends and your customers all had to get together without you and they had to write an honest article about Carla and she, they had to characterize her traits, talk about who she was as a person, pluses and minuses, what do you think that they would say?
- [34:49]
A
I would say passionate. I would say spiritual mom, spiritual wife, and kind of. I always give my whole heart. A lot of people usually describe me with like kind of giving it my all. And I. It's really hard for me to quit something. So. Yeah, I think they would just say that.
- [35:11]
B
Love it.
- [35:12]
A
Yep.
- [35:13]
B
Carla, that's all I had. Thank you so much for your time coming on. Thank you for sharing all your wisdom and your experience and your journey with us. Where can people find you if they want to connect with you and learn more from you?
- [35:27]
A
I'm on Facebook right now so they can find me under my name, Carla Murphy. And that's pretty much it because I'm not really on other social media.
- [35:35]
B
I love it. That's awesome. I will drink. We will drop your Facebook link in the show notes in the description below for anybody listening or watching. Carla, thank you again. And we'll have to have you on again to get an update.
- [35:46]
A
That's awesome. Thank you, Cody. Appreciate it.
- [35:48]
B
See you later.