B (2:57)

Yeah, I mean that happened to myself too and it happens to probably most without guidance.

A (3:03)

Yeah, yeah.

B (3:04)

So market research is so important, especially for Etsy. One of the biggest ways to do market research is just using Etsy itself. So going in there, using the search bar, start typing in things you have ideas about and see if people are searching it. You can also look for bestsellers. You can look for items that are in 20 plus carts. That is a really great way to use Etsy. There's also a lot of Etsy market research sites like Erank, Marmalead, there's so many more. Just Google it and you'll have a ton pop up for you. But yeah, definitely check those out. Start typing in your keywords you can look for. You want to look for things that have low competition and high searches. So that's the key. You don't want to be going up against like a thousand other shops that all have been selling for years because you're never going to get seen.

A (4:01)

So let's get tactical here. So let's pretend. So my business partner Julie, she's about to have baby number three. Let's pretend you want to create a baby shower invitation, right. Would you just type in baby shower invitation to the Etsy search bar or to Erank or to Marmalead and then see what the results look like. And then maybe you make a slightly more niche down version based on keyword research and competition or how do you do it?

B (4:25)

I mean for sure you can definitely start there. But if you start there you're going to see a lot of competition but you're also going to see a lot of searches. So definitely start searching for like you can start niching down like baby boy baby shower invitation and, and then take it even further from there like dinosaur or, you know, one of those cute baby shower invitation themes. Um, and then that will really help you narrow it down to the exact product to create love that.

A (4:57)

Yeah, the riches are in the niches. The. The weirder you can get with your keyword variations. As long as there's people searching for it, the more likely you are to get those sales.

B (5:05)

Exactly.

A (5:06)

All right, do I. Do we want to do the screen share and start to mess with some fun Canva tools? So you sent over five Canva tools for digital products, and you said you have examples for each of them. So I think we're going to have some fun in Canva. All right, People should see the screen share popping up momentarily. There we go. I can see it on our screen. Confirmed. Awesome. All right, so what is. What is tool number one you're going to be showing us?

B (5:32)

So tool number one is just a couple ways to do some quick edits. When you're working on your digital products, you have everything done and you want to go back and make some changes. So I have just a template here for a course workbook, and the first thing we're going to do is change the color. So I have this, like, cream color down here that's also here, and it's throughout the whole workbook. So if you want to change that color and you don't want to go through page by page to change it, all you're going to do is click on it. You see the color menu up here, and then I'm just going to choose my new color. So maybe I want to make it just a really light pink color. And then down here you'll see change all. And you'll see that it's going to change that cream color to the light pink color. Just hit change all. And now it's changed it throughout the entire guide. And you don't have to go page by page. So that right there is going to save you so much time. You can also do the same thing with fonts. If you want to change the font for your titles or anything like that, all you do is come up to the font, choose your new font. So I'm going to choose the Play Fair display, and then you'll see it's going to change every occurrence of the seasons to playfair display throughout the entire guide. So just double check and make sure that you want it to change throughout the whole guide before you hit change all. And then it changed it up here and throughout the whole guide.

A (7:16)

I was going to ask, are there any gotchas to watch out for like maybe there is one piece of text that you don't want the font changed. Is there a way to unselect that? Or you just maybe do them all and then you change that one back. Or what's the best practice here?

B (7:30)

If you're using change all, you would have to go back and change that. Just that one.

A (7:36)

Okay.

B (7:37)

But I do have another one I'm going to show you real quick that may be able to help you.

A (7:42)

Alrighty. And what's this one called?

B (7:44)

I'm just going to undo those changes real quick. We are going to scroll all the way down here. So I have some graphics. So if you're creating printables or whatever digital product you're creating and you want to add some graphics like, like this and you love these three, but they obviously don't match each other. You want to make them match. So what I'm going to do is choose the one I love. I'm going to choose these neutral colors here and go up to this paint roller here. Not a lot of people know about it, even though it's like right here and it's a copy style tool. So you'll click the paint roller and then you'll click the graphic you want to match. So I'll click the flowers and it changed it and made it match that one and I'll do the same thing for the hearts and now all three graphics match. You can do the same thing with font. So like we just said, if this font here was bold and it's also all uppercase, if I wanted to change this text box to match it, all I have to do is select the one I like, hit copy style, select the new one and it's going to make it match. It'll change the size, the font, the formatting, all of that.

A (9:03)

Awesome. And it looked like with the elements one, like if you wanted the hearts to be in a different orientation, if you wanted the, you know, black heart to be in the very left or something, you can click into that and then you see the color palette at the top of the screen, right?

B (9:15)

Correct. Yep.

A (9:17)

Okay, awesome.

B (9:17)

So yeah, I know.

A (9:19)

We'll just. It just kind of randomly assigns the colors in whatever order, but it looks like you can very easily change them around and make the element look exactly as you want.

B (9:27)

Yes.

A (9:27)

Cool. All right, I love those. So quick editing with apply and then the copy style Tool. That's. That's tip number one.

B (9:36)

Correct. So next we are going to move on to using your Brand Kit. Brand Kit is a pro canva Pro feature. But it sounds like saves me so much time every time I'm creating graphics, creating digital products or anything. So I definitely recommend it. So once you have your brand kit set up, it's going to be over here on the left, right in the editing area. And you can add everything in your brand kit from your logos to your brand colors. You can create other color palettes. If you have color palettes for different products, you can save your fonts in here, your brand voice, photos, graphics icons, and even templates that you use a lot, which I use that all the time. So if you want to change the color of whatever you're working on to match your branding, say your brand colors, all you're going to do is click on the palette that you want to use. So I'll click here and it'll change it, but you're like, I don't love this color combination for this product. So just click it again and click it again until you find one that you love. It'll keep going through to help you find colors that you love. And if you do find a color combination that you love, you can come down here and apply it to all pages if you want.

A (11:04)

Love that.

B (11:05)

So you can do the same thing for fonts. If you want to add a text box to add new text to your page, all you do is come in your brand kit, click here. And then it already has the exact font size and formatting, so you don't have to change anything and you can just start typing.

A (11:25)

Makes things easy. I'm sorry, what's that makes things easy?

B (11:29)

Yeah, yeah.

A (11:30)

When it's all here, just saves you so much time. Like, I'm such a believer in building systems that make you work faster. Like, even if this saves you 20 seconds every time, you're going to create something that adds up over years and years. Like, it really makes a difference.

B (11:44)

Yeah, it really does. Even just like, five products, like, you're just saving a lot of time throughout. You can also make it generate in this in your brand voice, all you have to do is type in what you want to say, and then it'll write it for you in your brand voice. So instead of going out to ChatGPT to help you, it's all right here in Canva. So definitely recommend setting up your brand kit.

A (12:07)

And the first tip we shared here was Canva Free. This is Canva Pro. Just to be.

B (12:13)

This is Canva Pro. Yes.

A (12:14)

Okay.

B (12:17)

All right, so next we are going to move on to Magic Resize. This is also a Canva Pro. Feature. This is really great to use for planners. So if you want to create different sizes of planners or really any digital product or printable that you're creating, if you want to create different sizes, check this out. So we are just going to open your design and I currently have this in US letter size 8 and a half by 11, but a lot of people like to use different size planners. Different countries use different size planners. So I'm just going to come up here to resize and then I can start typing in whatever size I need. So I'm going to create this in A four and it's going to suggest different options for you. We're going to come down to a four portrait and then you're going to choose copy and resize. Don't choose resize this design because then you'll lose your original design. So choose copy and resize and then it'll think for a little bit and create your new product for you. And then you can click open A4. So now we have this planner. We can check up here. We it's an A4 size and you can scroll down and there's going to be very little that you need to go through and, and double check and edit. Like, it all looks pretty perfect. There might be a couple things like the spacing here. You might just need to adjust that, but everything else looks pretty good.

A (14:06)

And something I noticed, Jen, when you click the resize is you can actually let's say you knew you created in letter size, but you knew that you wanted to convert it to a four, a five, a three, maybe even like half letter. You can select multiple resizing options at once. So you could create four different sizes with the click of one button. That's why it's called Magic. It literally, literally is Magic. Magic Resize.

B (14:28)

It really is. And then you have five new products in like 30 seconds.

A (14:34)

Yeah.

B (14:35)

You don't have to spend time copying and pasting and resizing and doing all that.

A (14:40)

And I guess the only thing with Magic Resize is when I have what I've noticed is when I change things like change to a drastically different shape. If I'm changing something from a letter size to a square, for example, you'll definitely want to check out the square and make sure that things don't look crazy funky like letter and a 4 and a 5 are like similar enough where things are going to be in the right places on the page. But if you start like really messing with the shapes, just go and double check those designs and move things around accordingly.

B (15:05)

Yeah, Those you might have to play around with a little more than this one, but it still does it. Pretty. Pretty good.

A (15:12)

Pretty good. Yeah, it is very. Canva's getting smart. Like I said, Since 2017 when I first started creating, it has come a long way.

B (15:19)

Yeah.

A (15:20)

Okay, what is tool or tip number four?

B (15:24)

So tool number four is bulk create. So the example here I have is to create a guided journal. I'm going to create a 30 day guided journal. I just created my one journal page. So far I don't have a cover or anything else. So I'm going to come down here to a blank page, add some text and we are going to type in write 30 self care guided journal prompts for busy moms. And this is just a basic one. You know, if you have a very specific one, get more specific with your prompt. The more specific the better. You'll get better results. So I'm just going to highlight that and then we are going to use Magic write to help us create 30 prompts. I'm going to go to continue writing and then it's going to list out 30 prompts for us. And then you definitely want to go through these, make sure they fit your goal of your guided journal and they're exactly what you want. You can also of course write your own. But we are going to click insert.

A (16:46)

And Jen, can you just in that box actually make direct edits? Like if you wanted to change number four before you hit insert there, do you make the edits there or do you make the edits? If you want to change say number four of these prompts, I believe you.

B (17:00)

Can, but you can definitely make them here.

A (17:04)

Okay, either one. And then results may vary.

B (17:08)

Yeah, and then I'm just going to turn those numbers off. So from here I'm just going. I already double checked them. I love all the prompts so I'm going to just copy them all and then I'm going to delete this whole page because we don't want the page in our journal. It will end up copying this page too. And we don't want that. Next we are going to come over to apps and we are going to search for bulk create and it'll be this one right here at the top. And then you can either enter your prompts manually, which is why we just copied them, or you can put them in an Excel or a Google sheet and upload it here. I'm just going to select enter manually and I'm going to clear the table and just title the column here and then I'm just going to paste all of the prompts. And it pasted all 30 prompts for me.

A (18:18)

Awesome.

B (18:19)

We'll click Done and then it's going to tell you up here what you need to do. So you need to connect the data to your elements. So this is where we want the prompts to go in this text box here. So we'll go to the more menu and select Connect data and we'll select the column that we want, which is the self care prompts continue. And then we want it to generate all 30 designs. If you don't want all of these, you can unselect them, but we're going to keep them all selected. And then it created your new design. So now we have 30 pages down here and one new prompt on each page. And you can go through, make sure it's spaced where you want it. This one you might need to adjust a little with the lines, but just go through and you can add from there. You want to add your cover page and any other pages you want in your journal. You don't want to add that beforehand because it will end up copying the COVID page and you'll have 30 cover pages as well.

A (19:32)

Okay. Yeah. That's why you deleted that extra page with all the words on it. You just want the main page that you're bulk creating from.

B (19:37)

Right? Right.

A (19:38)

Are there any other oopsies or gutches that people should watch out for when they try the bulk create feature?

B (19:43)

Just making sure you're selecting the right place to connect your data. So the right text box or wherever you're going to connect it, make sure that's right or you'll just. I mean, it's not hard to fix, but that's just a common mistake as well.

A (19:58)

Okay, pro tip. All right, moving on to the last Canva tool for us today. What is number five?

B (20:04)

Number five is Canva Sheets. So this is brand new. This year in Canva on Etsy, especially Excel spreadsheets really took off with creating things like budget trackers, habit trackers, all that kind of stuff. And then Google Sheets came out, those took off and have huge sales on Etsy. So Canva Sheets is brand new. It doesn't have a lot of competition. So I'm not saying it's like a huge high seller, but just something you might want to think about and keep an eye on. But I have this family budget tracker here and you don't even need to know, like be an expert at formulas and spreadsheets to be able to create these because Canva has made it so easy. So I already created this. But if you want to create your own, you can come up here with actions and this is where you're going to do most of the stuff. So you can insert dropdown menus and that's how I did these here, here for the categories, you can insert people if you're having someone help you on a project. Dates, links. If you're creating a social media planner, you can come in and link your Canva design. So whatever you're going to post that day, you can link it and then Magic Formulas. So that's why I was saying you don't really even need to be an expert in Excel formulas because Canva will do it for you. So say I wanted to come over here and total my total expenses for the whole year. I would just click on the cell I want, come to Magic Formulas and type in total the annual expenses and then it will create a formula for me. You just want to double check. So it's saying that it's going to add up O, which is here six, which is that. Oh, I lost it. Oh, six through 12, I think it's. Which is the last one. Yeah.

A (22:29)

So maybe you would change that, like if it's O6 through 12, maybe in case 13 through 16 got some data in it in the future, would you change that formula maybe to be like 06 through 16, whatever that cell is.

B (22:41)

Correct. Yeah. You can go and edit that out in there. It would have grabbed it, but since it's just zero, that's why it's not grabbing it.

A (22:48)

Okay.

B (22:49)

So if it's correct, you can, you can copy it or you can just click insert it right there and you can also double check it and it's showing the sum up there. So it is the correct formula.

A (23:03)

Perfect.

B (23:05)

But so basically you just have to tell Canva what you want it to do and it'll do it for you.

A (23:09)

If you want to create a Canva sheet from scratch, are you just going and clicking Create New Design and then you select Canvas Sheet or is there something special you need to do?

B (23:17)

Yes, yes. When you create a new design, Canvas Sheet is an option. So you would just open it and it would be a blank spreadsheet without all of this stuff on there.

A (23:27)

And you can just mess around with all of the cool features in that little actions tab right on the top left.

B (23:31)

Right, right. And it will also create charts for you. So these charts, I didn't create them. You can just use Magic charts. All you have to do is click on it and highlight the data you want to use and it creates the chart for you over here, and you can choose different ones and then add them into your sheet.

A (23:55)

Awesome. Yeah. Canva sheets is. They're taking everybody's lunch, huh? They're. They're coming after Excel. They're coming after the Adobe suite, like Canvas. Canva just continues to iterate and add cool stuff, which I'm not complaining about at all.

B (24:08)

Yeah, for sure. It'll also analyze your spreadsheet. So if you want to see, like, trends in your spreadsheet where you're spending a lot of money or anything like that, it'll analyze it for you too and tell you so.

A (24:20)

And if you're giving this to someone as a buyer, someone purchases a Canva sheet from you, which I'm guessing are definitely going to gain popularity as people start to learn about these things. How do you deliver that? Is it via a special link to a customer on Etsy or Shopify or wherever you're selling?

B (24:35)

Yeah, you can deliver it as a template link and then they'll be able to have access to it.

A (24:41)

Awesome. Well, these were some great tips today, Jen. Thank you for screen sharing and showing us all your Canva wizardry. If you want to unscreen share, we can tell people where the best places are to reach you, what you have going on. You were very prolific creator. I am quite jealous. I was scrolling through all of your Instagram reels this morning and you just have so many Canva tips on there. So this is just a small sampling of what you have going on. Where do you want our listeners and watchers to go?

B (25:10)

Yeah, you can find me at. I'm JenMichelle on Instagram. I'm also on Facebook. I have a page called Made by Jen Michel, but my main focus is on my Instagram.

A (25:22)

Awesome. Well, we will be linking everything up in the show notes on YouTube for the podcast everywhere. Seriously. Thank you. This was awesome. I learned a couple of new things today and I love Canva. I'm in Canva every single day, so it was really fun to talk to a true Canva expert. I can tell you are very much in the weeds.

B (25:39)

Yes. Yes, for sure. Thank you so much for having me. It was so much fun.

A (25:43)

Thank you.