← How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy
How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy
Ep 153 | How to Get Your Etsy Products Featured in the Media-- with PR Expert Gloria Chou
00:43:03
Having your Etsy products featured in Gift Guides can literally 3x your sales this holiday season! Did you know that journalists are literally searching for Etsy products to add to their lists? On this episode, learn how to get you products featured...
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- [00:01]
A
Hey, my name is Lizzie Smiley and I absolutely love helping people connect with their calling and all the tools they need to kick roadblocks and excuses right out the door so they can cultivate the life they dream about. If you want to launch, grow, pivot, or scale your Etsy shop, or you've always wanted to develop the mindset and skills to run your own business, then I'm your girl. I've had that entrepreneurial spirit going strong since my very first lemonade stand. And now I'm a work at home mama with multiple online companies and a full time Etsy shop, all while being present with my kids for the everyday chaos and most important milestones. On this podcast, we'll talk about all things business, mindset, Etsy creativity, dazzling our customers, and so much more. There's plenty of room at this table for you, so scooch on in and let's go. I'm holding nothing back. Welcome to how to sell your stuff on Etsy. I'm so glad you're here. Hey, my friends. Welcome back to this week's show, the podcast. I'm so excited to be here. I'm really like, fired up because I just got off from speaking to this guest and I just hope you're like, your mind is going to be spinning in the best way at the end of this. I'm so, I'm like, I almost can't talk. I'm so fired up. One little piece of Just Housekeeping. We have an FAQ episode coming up, so if you have E commerce questions, Etsy questions, anything like that, go ahead and put them in the link down below in the show notes and submit your question. And I will try to answer as many of them as I can get to on that episode. I don't know how much you guys love those. They're always so filled with like just details, answers, question, just FAQs. So good. So make sure you do that. Let me tell you about Gloria Chow. Holy moly. She reached out to me on Instagram. There was some commonality, there was some, and I can't remember what it was now, but she's just like, oh, I do PR for like product, you know, product companies and product people. And what I'm trying to do is like teach people how to do it themselves. Because a lot of times these smaller entrepreneurs, there's just not a lot of inclusivity or they just don't think it's for them. It's like for Big, her names and whatever and she's just like, I'm trying to break that ceiling. And oh my gosh, she is so breaking that ceiling. So if you are ready to get on gift guides this holiday season, even in the beginning of the year, if you are ready to be featured in articles potentially on TV all over the place, wow. Like you could just be the biggest introvert ever and have your product featured in a gift guide and have your Etsy shop blow up and then Etsy's algorithm will take it from there. Like, this is so fun. It is for every single one of you. Whether you sell physical products, print on demand digital products, there is an angle for you to leverage this and not have to spend forever building a social media. You don't have to do any social media. So Gloria is an award winning PR coach for product based biz that's helped founders three times their sales and SEO and I. And she loves sharing the things that you can't Google. That is the truth. Like how PR can be more effective than social media influencers and paid ads. How to pitch without media connections or PR experience, How to find gift guide editors and tips directly from gift guide journalists on what makes a good pitch. This is a fascinating conversation, completely unstructured. I didn't even write questions for this because I didn't know what to ask this brilliant woman. And you're just going to hear us, like, we're just sitting by the fireside chatting away and it's going to be like, what trait of consciousness, stream of consciousness kind of conversation. I hope you love it as much as I did. Please, please help me welcome Gloria to the podcast. Gloria, hi, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited for this chat.
- [03:25]
B
Well, thank you for having me. I'm excited to dive right in.
- [03:28]
A
This has been a highlight on my calendar for a while because when you reached out on Instagram, like, you're in a world that I haven't explored at all. And actually just like background for the audience, we, we literally just jumped on together and I was like, wait, can we just record? Because otherwise we're gonna say all these things. So you guys are getting it raw. Like we're literally just meeting each other. But okay, Gloria, let's do this. Just this one little formality. Tell us, like, tell us who you are, what your background is, how you ended up in the PR space. That's a great starting point.
- [03:56]
B
Oh, it's a great story. So my name's Gloria Chow, pronounced C H O u. I came into the PR space without any agency experience. So my whole thing is about disrupting the space and making it accessible for 99% of the rest of us. So Etsy sellers included. Here's what I found. Is that traditional pr, right, it's very much clouded in mystery, prestige, privilege. And I'm all about making it accessible and how do the rest of us get seen and without having to pay Apollos, I don't know, $10,000 a month for six months, which is really not accessible for the rest of us in terms of product owners. I realize that like, you know, most of us do like social media, there's ads. But PR for the large part has been inaccessible for Etsy sellers. And I'm here to make it accessible because getting into one gift guide, like Oprah's Favorite Things or a Buzzfeed, it can be absolutely game changing. It can not only SEO and searchability, but give you that confidence to realize like, hey, this is not just a side hustle, this is legitimate and I am an authority in my space, so we'll dive into it. But that's really kind of my mission and why I do what I do. So yeah, this is totally untraditional PR stuff that you're not going to hear anywhere else. And hopefully it'll have you rethink about how you can get seen and market your business in a way that largely was told, you know, told to you that was not accessible. We're going to break all those beliefs now.
- [05:13]
A
Okay, so exciting. So tell me a little bit like on the personal side, like where do you live? What like. And like what did you study in college?
- [05:20]
B
So I never did pr. I actually used to be a US diplomat, so I studied international relations and I grew up bilingually, biculturally, and I just love traveling. So I studied abroad in South Africa in 2007 and so traveling was a big thing for me. So I always thought my career was going to be, you know, international. And so I did. So I, you know, I got a scholarship to go to Columbia University for my master's and I was pre selected to be a U.S. diplomat. And so I did serve one tour and I realized like this very quickly that this was not for me. Bureaucracy has great benefits. I will always miss those insurance benefits. But I just think I am a creator and I'm someone who likes to kind of make my own rules and that's very hard right, when you're in bureaucracy. So I made the hard decision to kind of abandon that career, which honestly would have set me up for like 25 years with attention and start over. I do miss the insurance benefits though. And I got into PR just by cold calling. To be honest, I applied for like a thousand PR agency jobs. I love to be, here's the thing, I love to be everyone's unofficial hype woman. Like, I'm that person on stage, like hyping you up. Like, I just love to see people be seen. And so I thought naturally PR would be a thing because I was a very strong communicator. And I always loved kind of like pitching my friends for different opportunities, like unofficially. And no PR agency would hire me. I think I sent out like a thousand job applications. I have the LinkedIn receipts to prove it. And they all said, well, you, you need like traditional PR agency experience. And that's when I realized that this industry was very traditional and it was very kind of closed off to anyone who did not come from that kind of background. And so me being the shameless person I am, I was like, you know what, I'm just going to do it my way. And so I got this one client a very early stage and they're like, yeah, we'll pay you like a couple hundred bucks if you can get us on tv, right? They did this really complex AI fintech financial crime compliance tool. I had no idea what any of those things meant, but they gave me a shot. And because I didn't have any contacts, I never worked in pr, so I didn't have like a book of contacts to like call up the operator, the newsroom. I had to Google. I literally typed in the Google search box, New York Times newsroom. And so from download the operator like zero. And perfecting my cold pitch and getting phone slammed on my in my face thousands of times, copy and pasting random email addresses like trying to like get through to journalists. I cracked the code on how do you cold pitch someone and actually get someone on tv? So I actually got my client on CNBC like abc, Financial Times or Wall Street Journal. And I actually was able to get a very, very early stage unknown client, like, you know, with a meeting with the imf. Right? So I realized like, okay, there really is a way that you can position your message to get through to that editor, to get through to that TV producer, even if they have no idea who you are. And so that's. So from that now I teach my CPR pitching method. And I've really focused on female product owners. So that's helping them get into like, you know, Oprah, Buzzfeed, you know, best of lists. And I realized that like just that one yes can be absolutely game changing, not only for their business but for their life. Because what it does for their confidence.
- [08:28]
A
I randomly back in like I don't know what year it would have been. 2016, 2017, both Buzzfeed and HuffPost picked up one of my products off of Etsy and it totally like shot my, shot my sales to the roof. Now what I will tell you as a amateur beginner at the time was that it was products based off of the Gilmore Girls re like when they redid it and they made the new thing. So I was breaking every copy copyright trademark law on the planet and I immediately, my dad told my dad, he's like, you're going to get sued. So I pulled them down real quick. But for, for a brief week there, Gloria, I was living the high life and get a taste of exactly what you're talking about.
- [09:07]
B
It's. Yeah, it's absolutely game changing. So. But again, it's like we're not taught to pitch ourselves as business owners, right? We're not taught that. So it's unnatural act. And trust me, I'm a five foot tall daughter of immigrants. People still wonder if I speak English. So for me to be teaching people how to be seen like it is an unnatural radical act. But we need to, we need to advocate for ourselves. We need to understand that it's not just creating endless content on the content machine. Like there's got to be a better way. And so for a lot of people who look at these magazines and they're like, how the hell do I get onto like a birdie or a well and good like, like this episode is for you because this is what we're going to talk about here. We're going to talk both mindset and then actually like the nuts and bolts of how do you get featured and how do you connect with a journalist.
- [09:47]
A
And you said something a little earlier that, that really caught my attention as an Etsy seller. Your story of courage going from after, after literally getting this expensive education, moving into a very safe, secure, kind of high powered job, being a US diplomat and then literally throwing it out the window when you realize it wasn't a good fit and going towards something that felt more creative. And I think like as Etsy sellers we can really identify with that. Like you are us, you know, you know, just in a different, in a different genre. So I feel like we can really relate to you. And the other thing that you said that kind of caught my attention that I think people need to really hear is that you had to get the phone slammed on you a lot. And I don't know if you have. As a. Just a practical, like, discussion point, I think. I think Etsy sellers, a lot of times, it's our first foray into being an entrepreneur, and we're very scared of what people will think. We're very scared of being judged for our product. Like, I get that a lot when I do little surveys and things like that. How did you kind of develop thick skin? Because you're already taking this huge. I can't imagine how your family responded to you walking away from your, you know, your career. You've got. So my point is, Gloria, you're the poster child to tell us how to navigate that. How did you. How did you handle all of that rejection?
- [11:00]
B
You know, it's. My mom actually stopped talking to me, and that's for a different story. But, you know, there's other generational stuff there that. And since then, we've healed a lot of it. I think I realized, like, being in that situation where, like, on the outside, my life looked so good, right? But I was so utterly unfulfilled. It's literally like, I realized, like, we're all gonna die. Everyone we love, we're all gonna die. And we have this one life to live. And what is the worst that's gonna happen? Like, am I gonna be homeless on the streets? Like, what? Like, I had a little bit of a cushion, right? So if you think about, like, what's the worst that can happen and the upside of it, you just realize, like, if you just have a little bit of self love and just a little bit of self trust, then you can make that decision. And I think. And I think a lot of times, like, you know, it's hard because we're wondering what our high school person is going to think about us, right? Yes. But then, yeah, but then, like, but then you can spend all your time doing that, or you can start to, like, take back the power and be like, I can spend my time actually, like, creating content instead of consuming content. And little by little, you start to, like, get the power back into your own basket. Not to say that I'm 100% on that level because I still care about what people think. I mean, you know, like, even Oprah says, anyone that's coming onto her show, the first thing they ask Oprah is, how did I do? Like, even Beyonce. So everyone's gonna have that imposter syndrome. But as Etsy sellers, like, it is already so difficult for us to do this. Like, you gotta be all in, right? Because, like, I know that what we think about our family is like, oh, this is just a side project. And I think there's no more radical, courageous act than to be like, not only is this not a side project and I really, truly believe in this. I believe in it so much that I'm going through the media to actually tell my story and leverage that. I mean, that is a very courageous act. And it's scary, but once you know how to do it, it's like, oh my God, why didn't I do it earlier? And I also think it's like the thing about PR that I love and it's earned pr. I'm not talking about those pay to play, like get a free logo. No, about real PR is that you learn how to become a better writer. Like you learn how to become a better communicator and you learn how to position. Not just like, here's my benefits and features. Because the journalist doesn't care about that. It's like, what is the deeper mission about what you're doing and the story. And so once you tap into that, well, it doesn't seem like you're pestering the journalist or you're like selling like an old, like a used car salesman. But it's like, hey, this, this thing is going to actually change lives. Like, this is a problem that I saw and this is how I'm solving it. The more we can lean into that, the better we become. And so that's really why PR is so great, is because you're not just selling your products and features, but the holistic picture of what you're doing.
- [13:27]
A
We just did an episode on storytelling and this is like the perfect follow up. I'm so glad you're bringing this out again. Also, I love that you said because I think again, these are baby entrepreneurs a lot of times and they grow into, I mean, it's amazing. I created a multiple six figure business out of being a baby entrepreneur. Painting at first the ugliest wood signs you've ever seen in your life. I'm serious. But you're, but what you said, that really caught me. I've been on this journey. I don't know, I like the, I don't know if it was the pandemic or like approaching my 40s, but I started like kind of a midlife crisis super anxiety space, I think also, you know, pregnancy didn't help hormones. The point is I've had to navigate from being very anxious, trying to pull myself out of it because I refuse to live that way. And I. This is just like a, this is related. I promise it. It doesn't happen all at once. We want to be like, set free. We want that breakthrough moment. And instead I'm stacking up tin little pebbles, building a mountain. And what you just said about becoming comfortable with what people think and hearing no. And the phone slamming and the shut doors and just not. And all of that worry, you described it as something that over time it gets easier. And so I just, I just want the listeners to really, like, settle with that. Like, if it feels way too big right now, don't worry about it. Carry a pebble. Like, take that next best step. So, Gloria, I don't know a thing about pr. I think pr. And I'm just like, oh, yeah, like Julia Roberts has a PR team. Chip and Joanna Gaines. Like, if someone has a scandal, they need PR help. Or then. Or I think about glam like Tati Westbrook on, on YouTube and I'm like, oh, she gets a PR kit. She gets. Or she gets PR in the mail, they send her free stuff. Or I think about like my media kit, where if someone goes to my about section or whatever they can. So those are the only contexts I have. And you're talking about gift guides, you're talking about media spots. Tell us how you would describe pr, especially as it relates to an Etsy seller.
- [15:14]
B
Yeah, so PR is the best way, the single best way to simultaneously get sales, traffic and searchability. So we're talking about SEO. We're talking about, you know, anything that's online. It could be print or online, but it's media that you earn, not like paid media. So how do you convince a journalist without paying them, which is, you know, influencers. How do you convince them that your product is so good or that you are an authority so that they are writing about you? So that's what I mean by earned media. And so that's really kind of the creme de la creme, Right? Because it has the authority and it's not advertising, but it's editorial content. So it could be anything from a TV spot, right? Like you be on TV talking about your creations. It could be local news, it could be about you appearing on a podcast. And it could be gift guides, product guides, best of lists, shopping recommendations, all of those things that you earn. You're not like, technically paying to play. That is really what I talk about. And so that has the most credibility and searchability. So there's so many different ways that a lot of people think, well, I'm a behind the scenes gal. It's like, well, you don't have to be on tv. Most of these interviews are just through email. Right. And like, you don't need to even ever be on the phone with a journalist if you want to get into a gift guide, for example, they don't really need to interview you extensively. It's just like, tell me the product, tell me the price point, tell me whether or not it's available to ship by Christmas, and then they will include you. But it all, it all starts with a pitch. And usually what I, what I say is like, you know, you have your written pitch, so you have an email and then a DM follow up. And you know, we teach that in our program. But it all starts with the cold pitch. And it works because journalists don't want to talk to PR reps like, they want to talk to you, the founder. So let's remove that middle layer. And as long as you understand that this is how the news cycle works, you'll realize that journalists are so used to getting cold pitches. That's how it gets made. And right now, arguably in Q4, it's the best time to pitch because they are writing, like churning out these stories, so they're monitoring their inbox like a hawk and it's time for you to just put your name in the hat. And no, it's never too late. I always get like, oh, well, it's September or October, it's too late. And it's like, no, like, people can churn out last minute Christmas gift guides one week before Christmas and even after Christmas, there are gift guides, I kid you not. Gift guides on how to spend your gift cards. So there's an opportunity for you. Yeah, there's an opportunity for you as a product maker to get featured all year round. But you just have to know that that's available to you. And once you know that, then we can talk about, like, what are the angles, what are the relevancies and the holidays that we can pitch around?
- [17:40]
A
I'm sure Q4 is for sure the biggest, but I definitely want people to be thinking about. Like, when I was a blogger, I did gift guides for every giftable holiday. Like Valentine's Day, for sure. Easter. I did Mother's Day, Father's Day. Yeah. So it's like all year round. Okay, my, my mind is spinning. Gloria, where do we even start? I don't even know what to ask you. Where do we even start with that? Like, I guess we need to know, how do you write a pitch that stands out? How do you find the people to contact I mean, just like, coach us.
- [18:09]
B
Yeah. So, I mean, a lot of people will make. Make PR very complex so that they can charge you a lot of money. Right. But PR at its core, like, for me, the way I teach it is it's very simple. It's just writing a good pitch and knowing who to send it to. So let's talk about who to send it to. It's not going to be infoorbes.com it's not going to be me. Like, it's not going to be some. You need a very specific person to send it to who's either the shopping editor or the commerce writer. Or if you're in health and beauty, maybe the beauty and wellness editor. So you need, like, specific information about the writer who's covering your beat, whether it's fitness, whether it's whatever. Right. Or do that. And then you want to have their email, and then you want to have a pitch. So the pitch will be very specific to what you're pitching. So it's not going to be buy all of my products. But, like, what is the one or two standout products that work for that season? So if you have more than one or two products, don't pitch all of it. You want to pick the standout item for that thing. So let's say you make skincare, right? You might make bath things. You might. But what is the best thing for. I don't know, for Q4. So I'm thinking like moisturizing dry skin, eczema. Right. If you have teas or if you have something like, it's going to be something about coziness and warmth and cinnamon flavors. So you want to pitch with relevance to the season, not just sending the journalist your whole order form, because the journalist is not your customer. And you need to do the work of, like, pivoting your marketing pitch into something that's very specific for the season. So that's really the first thing is figuring out what is the season you want to pitch and what are the items for that. And after you have that, I have my cpr, like, winning framework, which is developed from me pitching thousands of times. And CPR stands for credibility, point of view, and relevance. And it's the three parts of your pitch that's going to get it really solid so that the journalist can be like, okay, tell me more. Your pitch is not writing the story for them. It's just simply getting the journalist to respond. And a lot of times we get tripped up because we're like, oh, like, I don't know. How to write a pitch. I think they need to know everything. So we stuff everything in there. Right. And we don't want to do that.
- [20:09]
A
Yes, always at the end of the.
- [20:11]
B
So we want this. Yeah. So we want to start with the subject line. The subject line is very important for your open rate. So your subject line is not going to be your name, your company name, please feature me or pitch because they don't know you. They're going to just put it in spam. You want your subject line to read like an article title. So best gifts, best eco friendly gifts for the bath loving mom in your life or best stocking stuffers for, you know, kids. Like, do you see what I mean? You want it to be very specific. For gift guides, it's really important, you know, is it a stocking stuffer or a luxury gift or a bundle? Because that's how they kind of write those things. So if it's a stocking stuffer, put that there. If it's under $20, put that there. If it's a luxury gift, put it in the subject line. So that way the journalist is already categorizing what that is. Right. You want to do that after the subject line. You want to start with the relevance. The relevance is so important in CPR because the relevance tells a journalist why it's for right now and not five years later or five years into the, into the past. The relevance is what gets them to keep going. So I usually start my email with something like this. Now that it's back to school, parents are looking for X, Y and Z for their kids. You see how that's relevant, right?
- [21:17]
A
Yeah.
- [21:18]
B
And as they're doing that, I'd like to, you know, I like to introduce you to like our product which solves these three problems for, for kids going back to school. It could be a pencil case holder, it could be whatever it is. Right. And then you would talk about like three trends or three problems that your product solves. So that's point of view. So you start with the relevance. And then you do three bullet points versus point of view. So it could be tips, tricks, things. And then you conclude your email with the credibility part, which is very simple. Like I am a mompreneur who saw this problem firsthand and that's why I created this product. Right. This is, I've been featured X, Y and Z places. You don't have to be featured, but you can say, you know, you've, your product is loved by teachers in your school district. And here's how I here's how I can be contacted. Let me know if you want to find out more. That's it. That's really it. You don't want to put your autobiography about how you started your business and go way into detail. I like hyperlinks because a lot of times like we have photos. So I like to put one high quality photo, just one, and that photo could be like a mashup of two product photos and then have a link that's like, here are some more information about my product and they can go to that website. But you don't want to attach big files. It's going to trigger their spam filter. So no, you don't need to attach a media kit. A lot of times it's just the pricing, how it's been shipped. So you want to put like this product is available on my website or available on Amazon for X dollars, available to ship in the US you want to have all those things so that the journalist understands, is it going to be, you know, backordered? Is it available? Is it on Amazon? You want to have all those things. And so that's really the nuts and bolts of how a pitch gets written and how it should be looked at when you're thinking about getting into a product guide or a gift guide.
- [23:01]
A
Hey. Hey guys. Today's episode is sponsored by Profit Tree, which is a new and incredible tool that will massively help your Etsy shop grow. My friend and fellow Etsy coach, Hannah Gardner, she's been on the podcast and you may know her from her massive, incredible YouTube channel, Ecom Hannah. Highly recommend. She's a seven figure seller who's obsessed with data tracking. This is like her superpower. I love it. Profitree is a service that's going to seamlessly integrate with your Etsy shop to give you automated real time profit tracking for your store. So for the first time ever, you can now obtain meaningful, actionable insights on core metrics of your Etsy shop. No more Excel sheets. Vlookups. I don't even know what that is. Or exporting reports. Y'all have been asking for this and Hannah and her team have over delivered. This is like one of those new tools that I'm so stinking excited about. With Profitree, you can spend less time playing catch up and more time growing your shop. So the integration will allow you to easily import and track your business expenses and product costs, which means that you can maximize sales of each item in your collection by seeing the true profit breakdowns in the blink of an eye. Forget about Hours of manual work to only get outdated data. No kidding. Not to mention if you're like me and you don't even try because the numbers make your eyes bleed. So embarrassing, but it's true. But Profitree is going to do the work for you so you can get clear insights of all of your unique product variations, which is so helpful. Additional features to Profit Tree include real time calculations, low stock alerts, one click print on demand integrations, trend spot your product. That's helpful. Track duplicated products so you can see which one's doing better and why. Add custom expenses, optimize listings profitability and identify listing issues like missing skus and cogs. Right now, when you sign up, you can start with a seven day free trial and make sure to use code Tree10T R E E10 to save 10% on your membership. And as someone who knows how important the tracking piece is, you guys. But I don't feel like it's a strength of mine in that area. I am so super excited about this service because it's going to take the piece off of my plate that I'm not good at, but still give me the benefit of having that work done. Super stoked. So check it out. Start gathering the best possible data for your shop, for your listings and it's going to help you grow and scale your business. So thank you so much, Hannah and Profitree. You guys are lifesavers I really took away. And it's so interesting because I get pitched for my podcast all the time and I never even really thought about it this way. You're, you're, you're, you're teaching me so much right now about how they're coming in at me. That first sentence in that email, you made it about them. Usually, you know people, we always be like, hi, my name is Lizzie Smiley and I'm this and I'm this and I'm this. And I started. No, no, no, no, no. You said, you said now that kids are going back to school, parents are looking for it. They're telling. The first line is about what the, what the reporter would information the reporter would want to know.
- [25:58]
B
Relevance. And you can still put who you are. Right. But I would start off with the relevance and then put like, you know, I am so and so. And that's why I founded this. But you want to capture their attention right away so that they're not just, you're not losing them every sentence. And so that's why I like to have the relevance at the top. So if it's for A seasonal item, let's say springtime. You can say that people are looking for, you know, like allergy, you know, alleviating things, or people are looking for citrus and fresh scents, whatever. That product that's going to reflect the consumer taste of that season. You need to put it like first or second sentence.
- [26:32]
A
That is so fascinating. So you work specifically with product focused people. Can you tell us like a story or two about a client who like something really. I don't know. We have no grid for this. Gloria. Like just tell us like they've made, they like made a page. Yeah, someone. Something really cool.
- [26:50]
B
Yeah, I mean we have like so many, we have hundreds of different founders and we also have founders who don't make their own stuff that like curates. Okay, but I'll give an example. So we have someone who does, who does skincare and his whole thing is about like gender neutral, like minimalism skincare. He has like one product and so his, his feature was like, hey, it's like LGBTQIA month or it's AAPI month. And like as a founder, you know, I, I realized that what lacks in the skincare thing is like everything is put into boxes and like what if you just had one serum that works for like melanin rich type skin? And so that's why I've developed the serum and here's why. It's better than some, some other serums and here's how you can use it into your routine. He got featured on buzzfeed and so many other places and he just has one product. We also have someone who. Yeah, exactly. One person. You don't need like a lot of different products. It's not like, we also have someone who has like, like a ton of different products and her whole thing is about zero waste packaging. So she doesn't do packaging and she does like 10% for the planet or something. And the pitch we wrote that got her featured in like Martha Stewart Living, apartment Therapy, like so many blogs, Forbes Refinery was simply around how during COVID like single use PL was everywhere. And so how do we as consumers like pick items that like, are not contributing to landfills? And so in her like, point of view was like, here are three ways for your like next gathering where you can like reduce, you know, single waste plastics. And like one of the items of the three was like one of her items. So you can pitch like three reasons why your product solves the problem or you can lead with the three different trends and maybe one, one of the bullet points could be how you're solving it. So there's different ways that you can go about it.
- [28:26]
A
Oh gosh. Yeah, it seems like. Okay, so, so I think what, what I'm thinking about right now is how, how would an Etsy seller know they're ready for something like this? Like what do they really need? Like, I mean your photography has to be great, right? They've got to have great pictures. At a minimum they probably should have some sales, have a proven product. But I'd just be curious what you'd say.
- [28:42]
B
Yeah, so like you don't need a lot of followers, right? So like that's the thing is like, oh, I don't have a lot of followers, but journals don't care about your followers. You don't need to have a fancy website either, but you need to really believe in what you're doing. And like I always say, if you're ready to take a customer's money for your product, then you're ready to get more eyeballs on it.
- [28:59]
A
I like that.
- [28:59]
B
It's not simple. It's that simple. So you know you don't need a lot. Yes, you should have some photos. It doesn't have to be crazy photos. By the way, that zero waste packaging person makes soap and it's just a photo of this white bar of soap. Like it's not really anything fancy and it doesn't look super polished either. But she just kept pitching. She kept pitching for Earth Day, she pitched for summer barbecue, she pitched for new like new homes. Like what are some of the best gifts for the eco conscious person for their welcome home gift? Like there's one product that you can repurpose for all different angles. And so she's gotten like 12 or 13 pieces of press as well, like since we work together. And yeah, her product is not that interesting in the eye to the eye either.
- [29:43]
A
That's so funny because when I think about the Etsy marketplace, your thumbnail is everything. That picture is everything. Let me ask you this. So on Etsy there's a lot, obviously a lot of product sellers, they make handcraft curate products. But an enormous part of Etsy and I didn't warn you about this, so if you don't know, don't worry about it. But is like print on demand. Are you familiar with that? Where they're designing it and then they're having a third party print it and so there's less of a story there, like a maker story and then a huge one is digital products people moving into more passive space. I mean how could we do PR on those or pursue PR on those or would that be kind of a waste? How would you do, how would you do pr?
- [30:25]
B
You could do PR on anything. What I like those print on demand things because it's not like a shipping logistical issue. So even for like last minute gift guides, right? Like that would be perfect for that because it doesn't involve shipping. So like there's so many different categories and stories written about like last minute gift guides and also like print on demand. I'm thinking like professional services, like career, like, like events. There's a lot of stories about that. And also back to school or like stationary like weddings. So you just got to figure out like what is the occasion and the use for it and then tie a story back to that because there's a need and story for everything. I'll give you another example to bust another limiting belief. A lot of times we think, okay, well we're not doing anything really novel. Like let's say you make print on demand T shirts, right? I'll tell you like we had someone who does is a Pilates instructor and she pitched and she got featured in an article in 2023 called what is Pilates? So just when you think everything has been said and done, like there's always going to be people at different levels. And I'll give you another example is. Do you know of like Liquid Death, like the water company, right?
- [31:29]
A
Yeah. What a name.
- [31:31]
B
Like they are literally inventing, reinventing water. So if you think you have to do something novel to get featured, like think again. You know, you don't need anything new.
- [31:41]
A
No, but you know, it actually just occurred to me. So I do a weekly trend and opportunities report, like a subscription service. So I'm sending like trend report videos and lists right now. Election is huge. But also like randomly strawberries are really big and raccoons are really big. Like those are a couple examples. You could literally like if they're big on Etsy, they're big in other places. You could literally like, let's say you sell print on demand shirt that like you sell a bunch of them and happens to have a funny phrase and a raccoon on it. You could totally pitch that because it's a trend. You could, you know what I mean? Like your whole positioning needs to be like, like, you know, you know, I don't know, something about, something about the current trend. Something about like, yeah, like leverage or here's a product for the Strawberry trend. You could do better than that.
- [32:25]
B
But I'm just, that's a really Good one. So. So, for example, like Taylor Swift and her eras tour. So you can pitch around, like, best swag or best jackets or best glitter things to wear for a Taylor Swift concert. Right. So that works as well, too. And there's also a lot of pop culture things. So we have someone who makes these little boxes. And she since joined our program, got on like 13 different pieces of press, and she curates like a. Like a pantry item, like a biscotti or like a cookie with a. With a novel. And so her whole thing is like snacks and books. And she was able to pitch and get featured so many times because she. She puts it to, you know, she relates it to the trend. So, for example, remember the show on Hulu the Bear? And so that was big.
- [33:09]
A
Yeah.
- [33:09]
B
So she pitched using that and her whole thing was like, you know, here are some, like, hot kitchen reads. Right. Like, as you're watching the Bear. So there's a lot of ways that you can tie it to pop culture TikTok trends, and those are actually really good ways to. To figure out what is your angle for this year outside of just holidays. I actually have a freebie for your audience. And it's like the 10 best angles. And so like, pop culture, seasonal relevance. Get like, I will. I list out all the top 10 ways that you can leverage these trends, so that's. You can access that right away. It's gloriachowpr.com gift guide and Pop Culture Trends is one of the 10.
- [33:47]
A
I will link that. And then I'm going to add the caveat because we're constantly fighting this war on Etsy. Just because you're positioning something for the Taylor Swift tour doesn't mean you make anything that has Taylor Swift on it. You're going to get sued. That's an IP violation. So what Gloria is saying is, yeah, don't create something that has like a her lyrics or her face or anything on it, but it could be something that someone attending that would love to wear. Like something really bright, really neon, really something that's on trend for. For those themes. Would you agree? She's nodding her head.
- [34:14]
B
Yeah, like, like pink. Pink. Girl power. Anything that's unapologetic. Yeah, for sure.
- [34:22]
A
Y'All. I don't know about you, but the legal stuff surrounding business really intimidates me. It's not fun, it's not easy, and I generally just want to shove my head in the sand like an ostrich and hope it will go away and nothing bad will ever happen. But the truth of the matter is that we are business owners now. And that is so cool. And it takes so much courage and effort, and it would be absolutely devastating to lose it all and more like, maybe even our homes or our family's wellbeing because we didn't take a few precautionary steps in the front end to set up our business correctly. So whether you're just getting started on Etsy or you've been selling for years now but never quite got around to the legal setup, I want to make sure you know about attorney Paige Hulse and her creative law shop. Paige used to be an Etsy seller just like us, which I freaking love, because she gets us. She understands the nature of our business and the Etsy platform so well, like, so much better than, you know, some local attorney who maybe understands, like, you know, general law. She's the one person that I trust for myself and that I trust to take care of you guys for, like, any entrepreneurship needs, like, or, by the way, equestrian as well, if you happen to be a horsey person, like she and I are. She's got a specialty there as well. So first off, I want you to know about some free resources. Paige was on the podcast three times so far. So if you look for episodes 36, 61 and 86, great free advice there. You can learn some of the basics from her of how to protect your. Your business, how the way you need to set it up correctly. She's an absolute dollar, and she's smart as a whip. And also, like, you're gonna love the easy way that she breaks down, like, complicated legally. It's like, I can actually. I can actually focus on what she's saying and not go blank because it's so technical. You're gonna love her. And also, this is really important. I want you to know that she's available if you. Especially in the United States, of course, like, if you run into legal trouble or if you need to register a trademark or you have some other issue with your business that requires legal advice. You can just search for Paige Hulse Law. Hulse is spelled H as in horse, U, L, S E. And I'll also have her sites, you know, of course, linked in the show notes for you guys. And most importantly, I want to make sure you know about her creative law shop because it can save you boatloads of money. It's literally like a template shop for, like, legal documents, the kind of things that we need all the time. So in many instances, you can just purchase a legal template from Paige directly from her site that will protect your business for a a fraction of the price that you pay for hiring an hourly attorney. And it's going to be written a million times better than something free off of the Internet. Like the stories she's told me about trying to defend people who grabbed a free like contract of some kind off the Internet because they didn't want to spend the money and then like it cost them everything. Like they thought they were safe. But those templates are not written well and they're not written specific to like the Etsy entrepreneur. So she has so much in there. You can get everything from your LLC contract which is super critical. A multi person LLC agreements for partnerships if you work with more than one person person in the llc. Special provisions for your Etsy Shop policies if you really want to cover yourself there, affiliate agreements, influencer contracts, photography releases and so much more. There's literally over 80 contracts available plus additional free resources. Her blog is incredible and there's a lot of educational tools like some even for purchase if you want to take like a course learning some basic business law stuff. So check it out. If you need to order something from the Creative Law Shop and you want a bit of a break on the price, you can use my coupon code smiley10. That's all lowercase S, M, I, L, E y and the number 10 and you get 10% off and hopefully that will help. So just go to shop creativelaw.com and there are a ton of resources waiting for you. My hope and prayer is that you'll never need to fight a legal battle. But just like we have fire insurance and car insurance for a reason, setting up your business the right way now can save you from a lot of pain later. So I really trust Paige to help you out. Out. Yes. And then I'm thinking I have a digital product Etsy Shop that every year at Christmas I do. I literally recreate some of my listings as like last minute Christmas gift. Like I actually use that se last minute Christmas gift for blank. And then whoever the niche is, those kinds of things could totally be pitched as well as if you sell digital products. You know what I mean? You've just got to position it that way. Gloria, you're a freaking genius. Ma'am, I just had to figure it out.
- [38:51]
B
There was a lot of ugly cries and late nights because I just like I am an outsider, right? Like I don't, I didn't know anyone. I'm not in the cool kids club. I don't have journalists on speed dial. I just had to Throw spaghetti at the wall. And. And I just figured out what sticks. And. And I just kind of went with it. And so now I realize, like, my whole mission is just like PR for the people. And so I'm so happy that, you know, we connected. And you say that like, you know, we are aligned because that's really important for me to have to create access.
- [39:17]
A
For people that makes you. Makes us love you all the more, ma'am. Okay, so I'm gonna link that free guide with the. It was like pitches, right? It was like the. How do you describe it?
- [39:30]
B
Yeah, so there's. There's two things you can watch my on demand. It's free, by the way, and you can see exactly example of a CPR pitch word for word. Like, I actually screenshot it so you can. Can understand, like, how to write in this way. And once you learn it, it will help you with all other areas of life. Like, people have used it to get into a wholesaler. Like, pitch to retailers, speak on stages. So that's@gloriachowpierre.com masterclass. And then if you go to gloriachowpierre.com giftguide you'll get the top 10 angles anyone can use to get into a gift guide.
- [40:00]
A
Okay, I will link both of those. One of them was slash master.
- [40:03]
B
And say hi to me on Instagram. I'm Gloria Chow. P R. Gloria. C H, O, U.
- [40:06]
A
You literally just answered my other question. Okay, guys, if your brain is not spinning, then we need to check your pulse because this is so exciting. Like, this is so. I'm so excited for you guys. Like, this is just a whole different angle we haven't considered before. And I hope that imposter syndrome right now is squashed for you. You can literally type a little email behind. You don't have to get in front of cameras. You don't have to be loud and hyper like me. You can. You can be you and you can get. You can send traffic this way. And it doesn't take years to build up your freaking social media. Like, I so excited. Take advantage of her free. Her free teaching things here because that is crazy. And get on it now so that you can enjoy some of it for Q4. Here's the side note that she didn't even mention. You prime the pump by sending a bunch of traffic to your Etsy shop this way. And then Etsy is going to show all your stuff more in the algorithm generally. Like, it's going to boost your. The. The algorithm, SEO the ranking for your entire shop. Oh, my Gosh. Okay, Gloria, thank you so much. You're a very interesting woman. I feel like you are very powerful, very courageous, and you're a trailblazer. You are genuinely paving a new path on this planet, and I really appreciate you. I really value your work, and I want to see you go past the moon. So you just let me know how I can help you if there's ever a time I can.
- [41:29]
B
Thank you. Hopefully, those resources will help them get started, and I would love to come into your community and do a free workshop. Like, anything you need, I'm. I'm here for you. I. I do think we need to spread the word because, like I said, like, this kind of knowledge is not really accessible. And no, traditionally, no one's doing PR this way. So we need to just spread the word and just be like, you know what? This is actually available to you. It's not just for the big brands that can afford PR agencies. These small sellers can absolutely get featured and deserve to be seen.
- [41:59]
A
You know you're onto something when we don't even know to ask the question. So. So thank you for sharing all of your knowledge and experience. And you guys, thank you for hanging out with us today. You know that I love you so much. You guys are, like, just the heartbeat this community is. Beautiful place, and I'm so excited. Please tell me when you pitch, what you pitch, how it goes. I need all the details. And until next week, go make something awesome. Take care, y'all. And that's a wrap on this episode of how to Sell youl Stuff on Etsy. Thanks so much for hanging out with me today. If you're looking for more resources, head on over to howtosellyourstuff.com where you'll find podcast show notes, all the links from today's episode, the blog, courses, coaching, and more. If this episode was helpful to you, awesome. The greatest compliment I can receive from you is a rate, review and subscribe on this podcast. Not only will it allow us to connect again on a future episode, it lets me know I'm providing you with value and helps other people find this content more easily. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your support. Have a great day and see you next time.