Etsy Sellers: Don’t Put All Your Listings In One Basket | ft. Jessica James

Summary

Podcast Summary: Built Online with Cody McGuffie

Episode Title: Etsy Sellers: Don’t Put All Your Listings In One Basket | ft. Jessica James
Air Date: January 27, 2026
Guest: Jessica James (Co-founder of Madeline James)
Host: Cody McGuffie

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Main Theme

In this episode, Cody McGuffie sits down with Jessica James, the co-founder of Madeline James, a new e-commerce marketplace. They dive deep into Jessica’s entrepreneurial journey, balancing family and business, strategies for sellers (especially Etsy sellers) to diversify sales channels, the core vision for Madeline James, and practical insights on building a community-first platform for creators and resellers. The conversation offers motivation for aspiring entrepreneurs, advice for multi-platform sellers, and a peek behind the curtain of launching a new online marketplace.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Entrepreneurship in the Family Context

• Both Cody and Jessica open with reflections on raising children and noticing entrepreneurial traits in them.
• Jessica describes her two sons as having starkly different personalities—one more collaborative, the other fiercely independent.
  • Jessica on her youngest:

    “He gives me all the trouble...but he's incredibly engineer minded, very smart, can create anything from anything. Um, so I laugh and am amazed by him daily while also just, you know, nursing my headache.” (03:00)

2. The Motivation Behind Madeline James

• After selling a previous business, Jessica and her husband wanted to build something leveraging their experience while offering flexibility for families and creators.
• Purpose of Madeline James:
  • A marketplace for a wide range of sellers: decluttering individuals, resellers, and creators (artists, designers, etc.)
  • Identified the gap that current platforms often pigeonhole sellers or come with ongoing costs and management burdens.
  • Jessica:

    “Why can't we...create a platform that is great for various users?...because I truly believe everyone can be their own entrepreneur.” (06:38)

3. Belief in Universal Entrepreneurial Potential

• Both Cody and Jessica express strong conviction that everyone can be entrepreneurial if given accessible tools and low-risk opportunities.
  • Cody:

    “I think we're all entrepreneurial, like in our heart, like deep down, even at our roots...” (00:10, 06:52)

  • Jessica:

    “It’s amazing to take your survival...and put it in your own hands...the beautiful thing about providing this platform [is]...they can just get on and try it and there’s absolutely nothing to lose.” (07:26, 08:32)

4. What is Madeline James? Who Is It For?

• Type of Marketplace:
  • Two-sided: Sellers (from casual declutterers to established creators) and Buyers (from high-end collectors to thrifty shoppers)
• Diverse Inventory:
  • Pre-loved clothing, luxury items, art, fashion collections, and new goods.
• Sellers’ Pain Points Solved:
  • No upfront costs, transparent commission (7.5%), buyer covers shipping unless otherwise specified, direct human support.
  • Jessica:

    “Everything seems so complicated and the hidden fees that you try to uncover...so the other thing was just keeping it really black and white, really simple.” (18:41)

5. Building and Funding the Platform

• Jessica and her husband (now co-founders) self-funded Madeline James after selling a previous company.
• Assembled a global developer team for fresh perspectives.
• Officially launched about a month prior to recording (late 2025), with a full app release imminent.
  • Jessica:

    “We went live...about one month ago now. And the app...the official app will be launched in about two weeks.” (14:25-14:44)

6. Marketplace Dynamics: Supply vs. Demand

• Early focus is on seller acquisition:
  • “We want the inventory...let’s make a big push to get our inventory up and attract the sellers...then from there, I think the buyers will come.” (16:54)
• Importance of variety and quality to attract buyers.
• Community-first approach: direct support, personal interactions, and openness to feedback.
• Jessica on support:

  “There’s also a phone number, there’s email addresses...They can email and they will get a live person...or they can call the number and actually be transferred to my phone directly.” (23:47)

7. Etsy Sellers & Multi-Channel Strategy

• Cody advocates not to put all eggs in one basket:
  • “You absolutely should open up sales channels...Etsy being one of them, Amazon...Madeline James...there’s not really any downside to it.” (17:53)
• Jessica highlights the minimal risk and opportunity for early adopters—fixed low commission, no other seller fees.

8. Fee Structure and Growth Plans

• Current commission: 7.5%, no listing or signup fees.
• Early sellers “lock in” this commission rate.
• Jessica does not have a hard target for seller numbers but emphasizes community support over scaling too fast.

9. Branding and Storytelling

• Jessica’s experience in branding with her business partner has shaped Madeline James’ authentic approach:
  • “My big thing from day one was I’m just not here to sell people something...it was how do we empower people to want to do their own thing and make them realize we're not here to just sell them something?” (21:57-23:03)

10. Platform Features & Forthcoming Opportunities

• Open to print-on-demand sellers and considering support for digital products/downloads.
• On digital products:

  “Yes, that is on the developments to do list.” (26:25)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Entrepreneurship’s Roots
  Cody: “I think we're all entrepreneurial, like in our heart, like deep down, even at our roots. Probably historical, like way historical level.” (00:10, 06:52)

• On the Seller’s Opportunity
  Jessica: “That’s the beauty of getting on the site early while we’re still trying to attract the sellers is you can lock in that 7.5%.” (19:25)

• On Community & Customer Service
  Jessica: “We always answered the phone. We always went above and beyond in customer service...It's about the work you're doing, but it's about that, the customer service and the connection with your clients.” (24:55)

• On Platform Philosophy
  Jessica: “I just think that's the beautiful thing about providing this platform where they can just get on and try it and they're absolutely nothing to lose.” (08:32)

• On Product Diversity
  Jessica: “There's a ton of pre-loved stuff...things that, that are brand new...and then there's a lot of artwork.” (11:24)

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00–05:12 — Personal intro & raising entrepreneurial kids
• 05:13–08:52 — Jessica’s background & the founding story of Madeline James
• 09:18–11:38 — What Madeline James offers; audience fit for sellers and buyers
• 12:27–14:44 — Funding, team-building, launch timeline
• 15:54–17:23 — How to balance acquiring sellers vs. buyers (inventory first strategy)
• 17:37–20:52 — Multi-marketplace selling, early adopter benefits, fee structure
• 21:16–21:38 — The power of focus groups and feedback in platform building
• 21:57–23:03 — Branding, storytelling, and authenticity in business
• 23:47–24:18 — Hands-on customer support; accessibility differentiator
• 24:55–25:58 — Customer service as the brand's backbone
• 25:58–27:31 — Support for print-on-demand & plans for digital products

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Episode Takeaways

• Diversify Your Sales Channels: Even if you’re an Etsy seller, branching out to new marketplaces lowers risk and opens new opportunities.
• Community Matters: Early adopters at Madeline James benefit not only from a simple fee structure, but also hands-on support and a real sense of community.
• Start Simple, Iterate Fast: The Madeline James team advocates for launching lean, rapidly collecting feedback, and iterating features to match users' needs.
• Everyone Can Be an Entrepreneur: With the right support and platform, anyone can try their hand at e-commerce—even with minimal startup capital or technical know-how.

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For more information, visit Madeline James or connect with Jessica on the platform’s social channels. Early engagement gets you the lowest fees and personal support as the platform grows!

Transcript

[A]

It doesn't matter, you know what you want to do because I truly believe everyone can be their own entrepreneur.

[B]

I agree. I think that's kind of probably like a unique take too. I face a lot of this disagreement with that perspective. My perspective is I think we're all entrepreneurial like in our heart, like deep down, even at our roots. Probably historical, like way historical level. But I think we've been trained to not be as a culture for many, many years, especially in the western society. Hey there. I'm Cody McGuffey. I'm a husband dad of three and I'm the founder of Ever Be, Ever Be, Ever Be Everbee, where we serve over a million creators across the globe, helping them grow thriving online businesses. I believe every single human is a creator and I believe every single creator should own a business. The business that gives them the freedom to build the life that they dream of. Built online is where creators, entrepreneurs and leaders get real insights, real stories and the edge to build something that's actually lasts. This is where the next generation builders get built. Jess, what's going on? How are you?

[A]

I'm great. How are you?

[B]

I'm great too. Thank you for coming on. I'm excited about just to. To chat it up, I think before we hit record. You're mentioning you have two boys and they're home because it's snowing outside. Is that, is that correct?

[A]

Very busy boys. They are glad to be home. They've been home since Friday actually and don't usually get snow days in December. So they're excited. But I think by the third day they're a little bit stir crazy.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So mom is tired.

[B]

Tell me about the, the boys like you mentioned, they're really good boys. There's like 15 year old and 10 year old crazy boys like, you know, strong willed and kind of like very, very active. Where do your boys kind of like fall on that?

[A]

They're polar opposite. So the oldest is the, the people pleaser, helps me with anything I need. Just, just a great child, works super hard in school, he's a great athlete and just really doesn't give me any trouble. And then the youngest is my sweetest. He could be mama's boy, but he gives me all the trouble. Hate school, but he's incredibly engineer minded, very smart, can create anything from anything. Um, so I laugh and am amazed by him daily while also just, you know, nursing my headache.

[B]

Do you think that are you seeing. I'm curious as a, as a. So I have three kids myself. Okay. I have a six Year old boy. I have a four year old girl getting ready to turn five actually. And then I have a one year old boy.

[A]

You are busy.

[B]

Totally busy. Blessed beyond belief, but very busy. Yeah, my wife is busier than me so give her all the credit. But I'm curious as you're ahead of the game, ahead from, ahead from us when it comes to ages. And as an entrepreneur yourself, I'm curious about if you're noticing traits of like potential entrepreneurs. You know, this one will be, this one won't be. Maybe. I, and I don't necessarily think that this is like an accurate thing but it's fun, play a little bit. I'm like, oh, you have some qualities. And you being an entrepreneurial mom, curious of how you view that. Are you seeing any entrepreneurial characteristics in your boys yet?

[A]

In the oldest? No, because I think he loves to work with people and I could totally see him just joining a team and, and enhancing that team. Just, just, just knowing him, I don't think he wants to lead but he just wants to be a part of something. The youngest. Yes. He's stubborn in a way that makes me think he will only work for himself. And the way his mind works, I can, I can totally see him having a team around him that he leads but in the way he wants to lead it. If that makes any sense at all.

[B]

It does make sense and that's why it's a fun conversation. Because like I'm still kind of looking at our kids and I'm like, I don't really know if I see it yet. I mean I see like who's 6 years old, he's super strong willed, like yeah, insanely strong willed to where it's like it's very difficult for us as parents to like.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Corral him.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

But I also see that as like this is going to be a great quality when you're older. Like it's a really amazing quality.

[A]

That's our youngest. So I tell my husband all the time, I'm like, he's going to be great. We just have to get through this stage.

[B]

Totally. And my daughter, I haven't figured her out yet fully because sometimes she shows both like right. And then obviously our one year old is our one year old.

[A]

Two boys and a girl or two girls and a boy. Yeah.

[B]

Older boy and younger boy and then middle girl.

[A]

She'll be well protected.

[B]

Yeah, she will be for sure. She's getting pretty tough though with her strong willed older brother.

[A]

Oh yes.

[B]

Beating her up.

[A]

So my brother has three boys and he has a girl. The baby is a girl. She is tough as nails.

[B]

Yep. Very cool. Yeah. And I'm excited to talk about what we're talking about today. I mean, I love talking about kids and we can kind of. I know that'll constantly be the underlying theme of why we do what we do.

[A]

Absolutely.

[B]

But I. I really want to understand a little bit about your. You, your background and then specifically about Meline James, about what y' all are building, kind of where it started, where did it come from, like all this stuff. Because it's unique, it's new to me. It's new to me. It's new, and it's probably new to our community.

[A]

It is, Yep.

[B]

Maybe let's just talk about that. So you're the founder of the Meline James?

[A]

I am.

[B]

What is this?

[A]

Meline James is an E commerce marketplace or platform for creators. So if I kind of step back a minute, when we sold our. Some companies we had years ago, you kind of step back and say, I'm too young to retire. What do I want to do now? And I kind of dabbled with reselling things, whether it was Etsy or Poshmark. And one thing I noticed was depending on what I was wanting to sell, it would be a specific platform or it made sense to go to a specific platform. So then I said, well, why can't we, with our development background, why can't we create a platform that is great for various users? Right. If you're a busy mom and you're just trying to clean out your closet or get rid of the kids clothes or you're a creator and you want to. You want to show your items to the world, but you don't want to invest in a platform. It doesn't matter, you know, what you want to do, because I truly believe everyone can be, you know, they're on their own, their own entrepreneur.

[B]

I agree. I agree with that.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Yeah. That's scary. I think that's kind of probably like a unique take too. I found that I've got. I face a lot of this disagreement with that perspective. I'm like, I. My perspective is I think we're all entrepreneurial, like in our heart, like deep down, even at our roots, probably historical, like way historical level. But I think we've been trained to not be as a culture for many, many years, especially in the Western society. So curious of, like, why do you think that. Why do you think that everybody should be an entrepreneur?

[A]

Well, I think it's amazing to take your own, you know, survival, like you said it dates way back and put it in your own hands. And then if you are, you know, you hear some people claim they're miserable and things then, then you can change that. Right? So owning businesses previously, and that's what you heard all the time, is how miserable they were and things they wanted to do with their life. And it's like, well then why don't you, why don't you do that? And look, you know, then, and we're talking probably 10 years ago now, the Internet and technology isn't what it was right now. It's amazing. And I think people just need that opportunity or that platform to get out there and do what they need to do. But I think most people, what holds them back is money. Right. Because it's not cheap to get something going. It doesn't have to be expensive. But I think a lot of people think that it is. I'm sure there's some fear behind it. Whether that's, you know, legal fear or again, the financial part of it or just the, the fear of failure. Right.

[B]

And keep going. Sorry.

[A]

No, no. And I just think that's the beautiful thing about providing this platform where they can just get on and try it and they're absolutely nothing to lose. That hopefully people can, can grasp onto that and say, you know, I can do this. And if they don't, you know, if they change their mind or they, you know, in their eyes they fail. They haven't lost anything. Right.

[B]

Yeah, love that. I just wanted for anyone listening to this or watching this, It's Madeline james.com is the main right way to find you guys and would you describe it as like a platform? I'm sorry, I'm like more of a marketplace, like a two sided marketplace. So you're you really. Here's an opportunity for creators, like new creators. I'm not necessarily new, but like creators to come on here and list their items.

[A]

Correct? That's right.

[B]

Beautiful. Who is the right person who would thrive by selling on Madeline James right now?

[A]

That's what I love about it. Because anyone from the closet, clean out or the, the person that says I need to declutter before the new year, you know, you take in Christmas gifts and you need to get, you know, out with the old and with the new again, the creators. And whether that's someone who curates items, they're really into vintage and reselling vintage or they're an actual creator. I go to like, you know, craft fairs and various fairs all the time and tell them about Madeline and they'll they'll look at me and say, that's amazing. I had a website, but I took it down because I couldn't. I didn't want to continue paying for it or I didn't have the time to continue managing it. And so that's who it's for. Right? Just anyone looking for that opportunity to put a little extra money in their pocket if they're just cleaning out their closet or if they, they're truly making a business of it and reselling luxury handbags, which is a crazy market, or, or trying to sell their own creations. I mean, it's, it's truly for everyone.

[B]

I love that. Who is typically the buyer that comes the end consumer on. On Madeline James.

[A]

Gosh, it's, it's a huge net, right? So we have, we actually get calls, we've gotten calls lately of people looking for Hermes bags. Of course. That's a, that's a biggie. And people collecting like Carhartt coats and things. It's really interesting the kind of things you hear Levi jeans. But it's also those people looking for one of a kind, unique items that they don't want to go on your everyday website and find and that they'll see in someone else's home or in someone else's closet. And then it's people looking for a closet refresh that, you know, times are expensive right now and they don't want to spend crazy money and they like.

[B]

Secondhand stuff, like reselling stuff or is it like. Yeah, it's not one. One or the other.

[A]

It's more like there's a ton of pre loved stuff. There's a ton of things that, that are brand new. People have purchased them and they're still in the plastic. They still have the tags on them. And then there's a lot of artwork. We have some.

[B]

You guys are competing directly with Etsy then? I mean, yeah, we are.

[A]

We have some great artists that just joined and then we have a great. A couple of fashion designers that just joined that launched their own lines. So yeah, it really is a big mixture.

[B]

That's awesome. Very cool. And I'm looking at the catalog right now. If anybody's interested in. And hasn't found it yet. It's app.madelinejames.com specifically where you'll see the actual catalog, product catalog and all these things. I'm curious as a, as a fellow founder myself, I want to kind of hear the founding story of this. Maybe like how long ago did you all found it? You guys co founders, like you have Like a part. Like what did you guys, what did you guys do there? Did you guys raise funds? Did you guys bootstrap this thing?

[A]

So we didn't. We. We owned a company. We started a company back in 05 believe it or not.

[B]

That's Securitax Screening Solutions, right?

[A]

Correct. Yes, that we had until we sold in 2020. 2021. And then again just kind of spent some quality time with the kiddos because as you know, growing a company can suck your time. So I spent some time with the kiddos and then realized we wanted to get back into something. And oddly enough they were asking like what are you going to do next? And so I think they like that. You know mom and dad work and they work hard and we also kind of brought them into this because they're kids are they're so much smarter than I think we give them credit for. And they had some great feedback on sites like Goat and things like that that they, they look at every day. So anyways we, my husband and I, so yes we're co founders and I'm more the creative brain behind things and he definitely is the tech mind, the development background. So we've just been self funding. We hired our. So when I brought the idea to him he was like yes, let's, let's do it. And we had a team of developers prior but then we thought, you know, sometimes it's great to bring kind of just fresh blood to the, to the mix, you know what I mean? So word of mouth and talking to other developers kind of found a great fit. And it's funny because our developers are kind of worldwide somewhere in Canada, France. Great people. And so we built our development team there and yeah and here we are we developing in what are we in December. So I want to say August of last year.

[B]

Okay. And when did you guys go live? Because you guys are obviously in the market and you guys have a big catalog.

[A]

We went live. What is this December about one month ago now.

[B]

Oh wow. It's brand new. Super brand new.

[A]

Yeah, it's brand new. And the app, we have an app but it's more of like a test flight app and the, the official app will be launched in about two weeks.

[B]

Beautiful. As a. I've also being a founder also like before ever be, you know there's a whole closet full of dead ideas, projects and stuff. A marketplace, not a specific marketplace like this. There's more like different types marketplaces was on one of those project list and the roadblock that. Not the roadblock it was More like the big challenge, right, that you. That you know very well and that I ran up against, I'm curious to get your perspective on is, like, cool. You don't just have, like, one customer. You're trying to acquire here. You're trying to acquire two types of customers here. You're trying to acquire the. The seller. And also you're trying to acquire the actual shopper, the buyer, the end consumer. And then not only that, but, like, the fees that you collect on this transaction are substantially small compared to the efforts, you know, that it takes and the money that it takes to actually acquire these. These people. No news to you, I'm sure, but I actually want to hear from your founder perspective, you and your husband's perspective is like, how you. How have you overcome that so far? How are. How are you. How are you tackling that? I'm curious, like, which one's coming first? Chicken or the egg type of thing? Or both.

[A]

Yeah, that's funny you asked that, because about two weeks ago, right before we launched, you know, when you're developing something, you really. You don't get a great feel for it, and you don't until you throw it out there and you start really testing it. It was one of those things it was really hard to test until we went live. So we were fine, like, take it live. We'll introduce it to a small, you know, circle, get feedback and, you know, fixed as we go kind of thing. So that's what we've been doing the last few weeks. And someone just raised the question, maybe, I don't know, in the last two weeks, who are we? The, the. The marketing team was like, who are we really? Who do we want right now? Right. Do we want buyers or sellers? Sellers. And my immediate answer was, we want the inventory. Right. Because you want to attract people. Now, I understand that inventory is not going to stay there if it's not selling. So that's the hard part. And what we decided was, let's make a big push to get our inventory up and attract the sellers. And we want a diverse. A variety of sellers.

[B]

And.

[A]

And then from there, I think the buyers will come. So in our mind, it was, if you build it, you know, they will come as long as the inventory is there. And that's kind of the. The motto I think we're sticking with for right now. Obviously, if we need to pivot, we'll. We'll pivot. But for right now, the big push is to get the. The sellers on the site, find the creators, find the people that that are looking for that, that platform. And again, if you need to declutter your closet, it's for that as well.

[B]

Awesome. There's a pretty good amount of our audience. Certainly all of them are creators, all of them are entrepreneurs. But there's a big segment of probably or a pretty good segment of Etsy sellers. People that sell on Etsy.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

They don't only sell on Etsy, they sell on other marketplaces too. Of course. They sell on every use every store to sell, have their own standalone site and we actually recommend a lot of times to people to, you know, you have a home base of your own standalone store. Standalone site where like you live your business lives.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

But you absolutely should open up sales channels to Etsy being one of them, Amazon being another one and then Madeline James being another one too. Because there's not really any downside to it.

[A]

It's more totally agreed.

[B]

Cool. I love that for people ask, wondering. I know naturally people come from Etsy. They will be wondering. The opportunity is okay, cool. Let's, let's. We're early. We'd be, I'd be an early seller onto a new platform and it just identify with it. The advantage also is that it's probably fairly low risk. Sounds like to me meaning like not a huge amount of investment required. But specifically like how do you guys make, how do you guys make sure you guys are gonna make money? Is it listing fees? Is it transaction fees?

[A]

Of course, just a flat commission for right now. So while we're trying to attract those sellers, that's what we've just decided. Seven and a half percent commission and they put everything else back in their pocket. There's no signup fees, there's no, there's nothing else. The buyer covers shipping unless the seller chooses to cover it. But other than that, that was the other thing. Everything seems so complicated and the hidden fees that you try to uncover right. When you're on some of these sites. So the other thing was just keeping it really black and white, really simple. And so yeah, just a flat seven half percent. And that's the beauty of getting on the site early while we're still trying to attract the sellers is you can lock in that 7.5%.

[B]

That's awesome. And it's super, super, super fair. And as far as you guys is like, again, more founder question for myself curious, like how you look at this for, for me it was like how many sellers am I trying to get onto this platform to make this whole thing work? You know, do you have a target number in your head, is it like 20,000, is it like 100,000 or is it, is it less than that? I don't know.

[A]

No, I honestly, I don't. I kind of use the model we used in our, I guess our previous life was just, you know, whoever wants to come is welcome. And I'm not going to set any goals right now because, you know, If I get 500 unrelated. If I get 500,000 unrelated. Right. And I appreciate every single one of them. The one thing I will say is Madeline James is trying to be very community focused in the sense that you come on and you're not. You don't feel like just another customer. If you need the help, if you need the feedback or the assistance or the marketing help, whatever that may be, we want to be able to assist every single one of them. So I didn't want to be right out of the gate with a million users and then I can't put my finger on or touch base with every single one. So that's our goal right now, is keeping an eye on every single one. And it is a tall order. But I plan on doing that as long as we can.

[B]

I love that. Yeah, I think it's, it's so necessary right when, when you start, you know more than one thing. And people listening to this that have had experience like building something from scratch, like that early feedback, that early community, that's like everything, right? Like being in touch with that one on one relationships. Because usually when one person has a problem, usually everybody else has the problem too. Or a lot of people do.

[A]

Totally. And we like focus groups. We learn so much just from focus groups. Right. And someone asked me what's the, what's the biggest thing we do when we get into anything? And obviously your research, but then your focus groups, I think they're huge. So I think feedback and being able to communicate with people, your wins and your, you know, things that aren't going so well is incredibly important.

[B]

Super cool. I want to transition a little bit to your, like your, I guess your other background. It's your other background. It's probably the wrong way to put that, but more so I'm just curious about like you also are like an expert specifically in like branding and storytelling. Is that correctly?

[A]

Like, I don't know if I'm expert, but I, I have a fantastic team. I partnered with it a great friend now, Jen Dalton, she's, I'm in Southern Virginia, she's in Northern Virginia and she's a just a brand master and she has Taught me so much about branding and storytelling and how that, that authenticity is, is so important because my big thing from day one was I'm just not here to sell people something. I've done it, I've owned a company, I've grown it and I've sold it and I know not only what it takes but how hard it is and that can be a huge deterrent. And so it was how do we empower people to want to do their own thing and make them realize we're not here to just sell them something? Because I mean we're not. If they sell, yeah, we both win. But if they don't sell anything, neither of us win. So it was how do we tell that story of we've been there and done it and we're here to help you do the same. We're not just here to take your, you know, seven and a half percent. Sure.

[B]

Yeah, I, I could see that. And I think any serious, serious sellers, people that are, you know, they see opportunity, they, it needs, they take it seriously when it's, if you didn't take anything as a commission then it would be like that would be weird. It's, it'd be one sided, it's not sustainable. So like anybody kind of chasing that like free is probably not the right seller on any platform anyway because they're not usually they don't understand how it work. Everybody has to win for this, this whole engine to work long term. Yeah, beautiful. Where can people find out more about you about like your connect with you get, get in touch with the community at Madeline James. Where can people do that?

[A]

So we're on all the social handles right now. LinkedIn, you, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, tick Tock which I'm learning so much about Tick Tock because was not a tiktoker until now. But then our website is full of information but there's also a phone number, there's email addresses. So we are not one of those sites where you, you know, submit a ticket and we'll get back to you. They can email and they will get a live person. They can email requesting me personally or they can call the number and actually be transferred to my phone directly.

[B]

Super valuable I think especially when coming from selling on Amazon. Doing Amazon FBA is one of my first businesses, another one and then, but more and also selling on Etsy in the past as well. Those companies were already big when we were selling on them so it was, it was very much impossible to actually get in touch with a human being that actually cares about you and help wants you to succeed. And I see that as an opportunity for anyone. Just like considering Madeline James is like, it might not. I'm not going to promise for Jess that that's going to always be like this, but I could see it will be that way for a while.

[A]

Absolutely. We again in our previous life that it wasn't that we didn't have competition, but the one thing that made us stand out is we answered our phone every single time. Right. Everyone else would get a, you know, press 1 for this, 2 for this and then, you know, you get more prompts. And we always answered the phone. We always went above and beyond in customer service. It. It really inspired, I guess in me that it's about the work you're doing, but it's about that, the customer service and the connection with your clients. So I said no matter what we do here, we have to have that connection. We have to be reachable. Because yes, as I said, I've sold on many of the sites and when you have a problem, it's so frustrating.

[B]

Yeah, totally beautiful. I was going to ask you one more question. I'm kind of going back a little bit. Do you guys have any print on demand sellers yet? People like doing print on demand stuff. Shouldn't really be any different than anything else, I don't think. Technically.

[A]

Not that I know of yet. But I know that's a huge market.

[B]

Yeah. Do you have any like strong opinions on that either way?

[A]

On print on demand?

[B]

Yeah, like more like some. Because some platforms are like I don't want print on demand and some platforms are like, we don't care. Of course we're working with print on demand.

[A]

Oh, I don't care. Yeah, I like. Yeah, I would work with print on demand for sure.

[B]

How about. How about digital products? Digital downloads? That's a little bit. I know it's going to require a little bit more development, but are you guys considering that?

[A]

Yes. So just about two weeks ago, I was actually with another focus group and someone asked that very question. And to be honest, I hadn't thought about it as, you know, in development you get so consumed with. And I thought it was a fantastic idea. So. Yes, that is on the developments to do list.

[B]

Cool. It's cool. I mean obviously we. Digital analysis is a big opportunity. I would say also there's the downside of Digital products are typically the average cart value is very low on those. So it's hard to like really justify it financially because it's. Most of them are like three dollar products. Yes. You could sell like a forty template, but it's not very often, you know, so like seven and a half percent on a three dollar product is. It's hard to make any money on anything.

[A]

I haven't thought about that structure. My son is actually huge into 3D printing, so he's constantly doing digital downloads. And I need to kind of research what's happening out there with that, but I'm guessing it just has to come out to like a flat C. Right. You know, it's under a certain dollar amount, you know.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Flat fee. And then it becomes a percentage above, you know, a certain amount. But that, it's crazy that, you know, he's 10 and. Yeah, he spends a lot of time downloading digital templates.

[B]

Yep, totally. It's interesting. Creators, they, they create lots of different. We create a lot of things.

[A]

It's amazing. But what I love, I will say about a lot of the sites he uses, if he wants the template modified and he submits a message, he actually gets, you know, replies. So it's very cool.

[B]

Beautiful, Jess. Thank you for your time. Anybody listening to this, watching this, will link to all of Jess's links in the show notes or the description below. But appreciate you coming on. Thank you. I wish you the best of luck with Madeline James.

[A]

Thank you. Thank you so much.

[B]

Awesome. Talk to you soon.

[A]

Okay, bye.