← How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy
How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy
Ep 156 | What happens if you don’t give up on Etsy? --With Preston Cox
01:08:40
SO many people give up on their Etsy business far too soon! I can’t wait for you to hear my student, Preston’s story! He persevered, built his skills, and now his Etsy shop is taking off! No matter what you sell, this conversation will encourage...
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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 you guys, welcome back to the show. This week I am still buzzing from talking to Preston. This was such a great conversation. Kind of a different style. You'll have to let me know what you think but like talk about just pulling up a chair around the fire and just talking all things Etsy and the process and the journey and what's going on. Such a fun chat and I just, I can't wait for you to hang out with us. I have a few things I want to share before we get into it. The first one is a ton of you expressed interest in an AI workshop for PNGs and Tumblr reps. Everything. I'm now in my new shop that is going to take place live on Wednesday, December 11. So make sure and sign up now and reserve your seat. I'm going to be just teaching you everything that I have been applying for this new Etsy shop I started. So little update. The last time I gave an update was you're hearing this like two weeks later. But so I'm recording on November 11th so check Instagram at how to sell your stuff in the highlights for the most recent update on the stats. But I launched a an etsy shop on October 12th of 2024 and since then I am at 35 sales. I've doubled sales in the last week since I since I recorded the holiday trends episode. I have 61 listings. It's about 30 products. I do usually two products, two listings per product, doing a different thumbnail, some different SEO. I have an 8% conversion rate. One product is in over 20 in 20 carts. It's sold 22 times. I'm surprised to say it does not have a bestseller badge, which I was expecting by now. In the past I would usually have one at this kind of rate. But that's okay, no big deal. It's still selling great. I have eight different listings that have sold, which to me is spectacular considering there's about 30 products that's almost, that's just a lot of them that sell, that are selling. I have two five star reviews. So I'm really excited because this is like some of the fastest success I've ever had. I'm doing great things. It's just like understanding the micro niches, combining trends, just going hot. So if you want to learn everything I'm doing, I will walk you through it in that AI workshop on December 11th. Of course there'll be a replay available, but go ahead and grab it now with the link in the show notes and then the next thing is. A ton, ton of you took me up on the six Figure secrets to getting started on Etsy mini course. There was a launch discount that was going on for like a little more than a month and I don't know, like 100 of you are in that course now and I want your feedback. Okay. I very strategically put it together to teach you what you would need to know to have fast success on Etsy. And I want to know what your, what your thoughts are. I'm going to put a link in the show notes for you to provide reviews and testimonials that I'm gathering and I'm doing a gift card giveaway. Okay. So everyone who submits a like an authentic review testimonial will be entered into a drawing for six gift cards. So I'm giving away two $100 gift cards, two $50 gift cards and two $20 gift cards. And I'm gonna send them out after I draw names on December 1st. So get your testimonial and your or your review for either Six Figure Secrets or if you're in the trend spotting membership. I'm looking for feedback on that as well. So if you're in either one of those programs with me as a student, submit a testimonial and there's a good chance you'll win a gift card kind of a little secret. Amazingly, most a lot of people do not participate in these things because they think so many people are gonna participate that their odds of winning are really low. But when it comes to this kind of thing. A lot of people don't submit a review because either they don't have great results yet or they haven't gotten through the whole thing yet. But if you have something to say about it that could genuinely help someone else, either you have any results yet or you have any thoughts about it that are like more than just, you know, it was good if you have something genuine to say, like share one, because there's a good chance you could win one of these gift cards and it would be really helpful to me. And actually if you criticism too, submit that. I'll still enter your name in because that's valuable feedback for me. So let me know. And if you haven't gone through it yet, it's less than three hours. So you could do it before December 1st and get something submitted and then the final thing I wanted to share and I need to go into this more when I have more time. I don't want to like talk your ear off butter right now, but how do I say this? So in May, my husband and my kids and I moved to a farm in the middle of nowhere. The we are about like an hour and 10 minutes outside of San Antonio, Texas. And where we are, there are not like even in our town, there's no fast food. There's maybe a Dairy Queen. I don't know. We're in a bit of like a food desert kind of a situation. Like, there's nothing nearby. We don't go out to eat here. There's not doordash and all of that. And what's hard for me as a mom, I'm a busy mom. I'm homeschooling. My daughter, she's an online school, but like, she's home. I have a toddler. I'm running these businesses household. You know how it is. Planning my meals for the week, food prepping, grocery shopping, all of it is really hard. And the fact that we never go out is difficult. And so over the summer, my best friend in Wisconsin, she runs a spa. She's very healthy. She's very, very healthy. She inspires me. And she was always telling me for years she's used because up there we're kind of in a bit of a food desert too. She's like, I've used Sun Basket for years and they send you organic food all in whole food format, so you're not using processed stuff. And you can pick your menu and you put together the meal and it's anywhere from like 10 to 30 minutes of prep. And then you can have a fresh Meal that you didn't have to shop for, you have to plan for. You have to come up the recip recipe. And so we started using it in August and now it is November and I get a basket every week. I will tell you it is not the cheapest, but I think we're spending about the same, if not less than when we were in the city, San Antonio, and eating out a couple times a week or bringing in takeout. So I'm getting fresh whole food, like no chemicals, organic food recipes. The other thing that's for me, I get bored with the same menu. So like when if I have to repeat the same menu with my family, like week after week, it drives me insane. I can't stand it. So I feel like I'm eating in a restaurant. I did have to cook it, but it's not hard and it's really, really elevated. So I just wanted to tell you about this because I know someone else out there is a busy mom like me. So sick of the meal planning and the prepping and the shopping and all of this. It's all pre portioned. And so I wanted to tell you about Sun Basket because right now I reached out to them because I'm just like, you need to know I'm obsessed with you and I want to tell my listeners about you. There's a special going on where you can get like a pretty decent discount off of your boss because they're doing like a. What is that? Black Friday special right now. So I'm gonna go ahead and link that in the show notes. I wanted to tell you about it because I know especially over the holidays, there's a lot of activities going on and the last thing you need to do is worrying about meal prep and planning. So if you can spend a little more on food, you're not on a super tight budget. This could be a great solution for you and I just wanted you to know about it. So now let me introduce you to Preston because we got to get into this amazing conversation today. This is so fun. I'm going to save the punchline for when I bring him on the air, but let me just tell you about him. Preston's a small town kid who swore he'd never move back home. But after 15 years away, where he built a diverse resume as a minister, petting zoo, marketing manager, and a freelance social media manager who lived on the road, Preston is back in his hometown of Stamford, Texas. He's the husband to Sarah and fur dad to three dogs and a cat. In the past three years, he's become a passionate about the local economy and business development, serving as the Chamber of Commerce manager in his hometown. He and his wife also manage the historic single screen movie theater on the square downtown. He got started in Etsy in 2020 with hopes of turning his Canva design skills into passive income with a small but successful printables side hustle. He now runs a fledgling laser engraving business with a niche in making locally themed leather patch hats. And he's recently carved out a slice of the Etsy market selling DIY leather patches as well as his designs where he is on par to make back, back to back hunt or thousand dollar months. Super, super fun Etsy success story. Kind of in the beginning stages, but there's more. You'll find out in a minute. So please help me welcome Preston to the podcast. Preston, hey, welcome to the podcast.
- [08:46]
B
It is like, seriously, this is the best part of my week so far. So I'm so excited to be here. Ah, that's awesome.
- [08:53]
A
Well, a week is not complete without a DM convo with you anyway.
- [08:57]
B
Well, I appreciate that.
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A
Okay, so I, we. I started talking to you before I hit record and then we were like, no, we gotta stop right here. Cause all this good stuff's gonna happen before I. So guys, like I mentioned in the intro, we are freestyling this today and I hope that you enjoy it. But Preston, I want to, I want to have you share your story and your background, but like contextually I've got to tell you. So I turned off my Etsy shop, my big sign shop where we were hand making reclaimed wood and new wood signs. It was grueling, but it made us hundreds of thousands of dollars. But we were getting ready to start trying for another baby. And for me, I'm a Christian and literally I felt God say to me, it was Thanksgiving week of 2021 and this is one of our main sources of income. Okay. Like Christmas months, we bring in 13k a month. It was nuts. And I feel in my spirit, turn off your Etsy shop and I'll tell you what, I think like an older Lizzie would have been like, sir, no way. Because I would have been so scared of what was going to happen financially. But something in me felt good about. I was just like, yeah, yeah, I. Okay, like that's scary because that's a lot of money, especially right now. But yeah, let's do it. And so I did it. And the whole point, the whole reason was I was about to get pregnant and it would have been so dangerous for my Baby, if I was dealing with all the sawdust and the fumes and all of this stuff and the physical labor, I was already high risk. So 2021, that's what happens. I start January, I start working on. Am I having this date wrong? No, that was. Okay. So a few months prior to that is when I started the podcast. So it was like, God set me up. Like, you started the podcast in January is when it hit. Is when it. The podcast blew up.
- [10:41]
B
Wow.
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A
So, yeah. So, okay, so shop goes off November, right? Am I thinking. Because I want to say. I want to say I started the podcast before I turned the shop off. I got the months. Okay. But the point is, I opened an Instagram account, and within a few days, Preston, you DM'd me.
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B
There's no way. I can't believe that.
- [10:59]
A
Yeah. So the podcast have been out. I was starting to market it. You DM me, and you're like, hey, I found your podcast. I want to know about your coaching services.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And you. And I had. You were my very first coaching client ever. January 12th of 2022. And I just had to lay that groundwork because literally, so, like, podcast has been running since past August, blows up literally that month that I talked to you. Shop. Shop turned off that previous October. So I had a couple months there. Wasn't, you know, wasn't really making money from this yet.
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B
Right.
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A
But that's where our story together starts. So I need you to take it from there. Tell us your background, who you are, what if you even remember how you found me, how that ended up happening, because I don't even know if you knew that. I don't know that you knew that.
- [11:44]
B
No. You faked it so good. Like, I have no idea. That was your first client. That's hilarious. No, no. No clue. Wow. Yeah. I don't even know why I came across your. Your podcast. The just kind of background of my story, the short origin story version of Preston. I started off my career, I was trained as a minister. I thought I was going to enter church work and couldn't find a job that I really liked or wanted. And I was young, no one really wanted me, right out of college, I guess, and ended up working in a music studio in Abilene, just north here or south of where I live now in little town in Texas, and did that for a while. Got a ministry job, moved to Austin, worked there for, let's see, about five years. And just things kind of changed. Didn't feel like that was my direction anymore. And so I decided to end that part of my career and try something different. And I took a few months off trying to figure out what I wanted to do, and figured out at one point I wanted to work with animals. I told my wife one day I sat down at a computer and said, I would love to work with animals. I grew up on a farm, and I always loved, you know, dogs, cats, livestock, animals, and found this wonderful little petting zoo in Austin that does, like, training, like school education programs, birthday parties, you know, bunnies, guinea pigs, hedgehogs, that sort of stuff. And just absolutely fell in love with the idea, messaged them, had a return email the next day to. For coming for an interview. And about three years later, I had worked there and became their marketing manager and their training manager. And I kind of grew into a marketing role that I was already doing some marketing, you know, for church work. And when I was running my own business, the recording studio had already kind of tinkered. Facebook was still a little bit in its fledgling era, so it wasn't quite to the business point, but we were using it. We were, you know, doing streaming before. Streaming was cool. And so I kind of had that and websites and all that sort of stuff kind of in my back pocket. And then March 2020, the pandemic hits. We're living in Austin, and my wife is a social worker. And basically social workers got cut off from the hospitals, and she had to do everything by phone. And we both kind of had this moment where we realized we've always wanted to travel and what would that look like? We were already living in a tiny house. And so we were. We had downsized quite a bit. We're like, well, let's go smaller. Let's buy RV and travel. Everybody else is doing it, so why not us? So we ended up moving into a trailer for the next 18 months. And during that time, I worked as a marketing manager for technically freelance. But it was working with a. Like, a boutique marketing agency where the owner was very generous to let me work online remotely. And so I really cut my teeth in social media marketing at that point and started adding tools to my toolbox. Just tons of different skills and kind of the idea. I have talked to a friend the other day who was in marketing as well, and he says I had to make myself essential. And that's kind of what I've. How I've always viewed my work. I try. I am a jack of all trades, probably a master of none in a lot of those regards. But I do have a lot of tools in my Toolbox. A lot of them just kind of like school. Hard knocks. I didn't go to school for marketing, and so I'm making it up as I go. There's a great Nate Bergazzi. He's the comedian that's real popular right now. He has a bit where he's like, you know, if my wife hires somebody, you can guarantee that guy doesn't actually do the thing we hired him to do. That's kind of my mantra. I always answer, well, how hard can it be? Can you build a website?
- [15:33]
A
Sure.
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B
How hard can it be? That's kind of the mentality. All that to say I started looking for some passive income. I believe, strongly believe in diversification of income.
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A
Yes.
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B
If anything, the pandemic taught me, do not rely on just one income, especially when you're in a business that's kind of fickle. So freelancing really freed that up. It's. It's still fickle because you can't really guarantee anything month to month a lot of times, but it granted me so much more freedom. It let me use skills that I didn't have. I get. I'm one of those serial entrepreneurs. I get a little bit bored. I can't keep a hobby because I turn it into something to try to make money. And so all that to say, I found my way to Etsy. Love Canva, by the way. Like, I. My wife calls me the Canva wizard. I don't know if I would call myself the Canva wizard by myself, you know, for my own good. But I do love Canva and I've been with Canva since its infancy. And so I wanted to. I started seeing people do printables and stickers and I was like, you can sell that stuff on Etsy. Like it had. I had no idea. And I. I'm guessing, Lizzie, that I found your podcast, probably looking for something related to printables or something along those lines, and that. That led to a phone call with you or a video call. It really kind of set me on a trajectory that I didn't think I was going to be on in terms of, you know, Etsy sales. It became a nice. I never want to turn it into a career at that point. I always wanted to kind of side hustle it. You woke me up to passive income, to utilizing those skills that I had with Canva, Printables, print on demand, that sort of thing. Had no idea that stuff existed. And so I guess that's a very long story to say. I'm extremely grateful that you gave Me Gave me the time of day as your first client. I was so thrilled you gave me.
- [17:38]
A
The time of day, Preston. This is reversed, sir. I cut my teeth on you. I don't even know. I feel like now I need to give you another session because now we could really. We could really do something.
- [17:48]
B
Yeah, for sure.
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A
But wait a second. Okay, first of all. Okay, no, this is great because I feel like you're ADHD too. Did you. Have you tried Canva's new AI thing yet? I just tried it yesterday.
- [18:00]
B
Which. Which one are you talking about?
- [18:01]
A
It's where you like. I needed a graphic. I was trying to do some kind of cot something or other, and so I put like my prompt in there for a graphic and then it spit out pictures.
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B
Gotcha. I mean, I've used their magic media stuff and I use it semi regularly. You know, I've not used it as much probably as some other people tend to use it, but I'm gonna try.
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A
Do you know. Do you know how long it's been in there?
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B
The AI Magic media? Yeah. Yeah. For a while. Yeah. At least a year or maybe more.
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A
I just tripped over it yesterday. So that's. That. That makes. That tracks, though. That's like peak Lizzie. Okay. So, Preston, though, when we first talked, you were selling principles. Like mouthy foul principles.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Also, I, like, I have to be. I have to be personally entertained that we go from being in ministry to writing a lot of F words.
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B
Oh, my God. Naughty. Yeah, I'm. I'm definitely on the naughty list. And that's another thing. Like, you were so kind. Like, you know what it was. I saw this niche. Like, I was already a little sassy anyway, but I saw this niche and you helped me kind of break into it, surprisingly. Like, I. I didn't know we were going to find something I was just kind of doing just because it was funny and. And it actually happened.
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A
What happened with that one? Could you still have that shop or. Because you've pivoted.
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B
Yeah, it.
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A
Okay.
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B
I don't feed it as much. If I really devoted some time to it, it might do really well. I had one piece that did really well. And this is just a lesson for new sellers.
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A
Exactly.
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B
Stuff. Because I got an alert that that thing was copyright infringement because somebody. But. But from when I made that font or made that saying to whatever it was, two years later, someone had copyrighted it at one point and I guess. So I got a. Basically a cease and desist from Etsy to cut it off. And so idea it was my Best seller and it did really, really well. But now I have a bundle. What, what originally started off, I don't know if you remember these, they used to sell Instagram story stickers, basically transparent background jpegs that you could drop into your stories.
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A
Yep.
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B
And that was the thought behind it. And then it turned into people are using them as SVGs to put on cups and mugs and shirts and all sorts of stuff. That thing still sells. I haven't touched that shop in probably a year and it still sells. I'll probably sell two or three of those bundles a week. You know, not very much, but I probably get 20 bucks, you know, out of the, out of it. But if I was really put something into it, I bet, you know, I bet it would do well. But I have, I've kind of graduated. You know, I've used the skills that we've used to do other things. And I think that, you know, that's kind of what prompted me to reach out to you this last time, is because I've been sharing some stuff with you. Like, man, I got some, some good success happening right now and I definitely would love your takes on it. And it was really, you know, it's really cool to see kind of how far we've come.
- [21:02]
A
Are you a print on demand or digital product Etsy seller who's tight on time or still learning all of the Etsy secrets? I totally remember the days of having no idea what product to create next before I learned how to make those informed decisions. So I can really identify with where you're at. I know how stressful and frustrating it can be to just create listing after listing and see little to no results. You wonder what you're doing wrong and just you just want someone to tell you what to create that's actually going to sell. Where are those opportunities? So let me give you a leg up with my weekly trends and opportunities report. You just join my membership and every Monday I'm going to send you an email with a list of exactly what is trending right now, with a video tutorial showing you how I found those trends and how to apply them in your shop. We're taking guesswork and time expenses, extensive time off of your table. I'm also going to send you five print on demand and digital product opportunities that are growing in demand right now, helping new shops make sales and still have very low saturation in the marketplace. So your tight schedule, your newbie status doesn't have to hold you back anymore. I'm going to help you earn while you learn. You can grab my free demo to start and see an example of what the weekly trends and opportunities email looks like right from the show Notes. See what you're going to get and I will see you on the inside soon. Yeah, and I mean, if you've graduated, so you've moved to a physical product, if you graduated, then I don't even know what I'm doing because I'm back in the. I'm starting over with the PNGs right now. Do you know what's so funny though? Again, Peak Lizzie. I only figured out I could make Instagram stickers like last month. And you're like, oh, it used to be that's what we did.
- [22:37]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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A
Oh, I'm just gonna stay in my lane. I know how to do. I, I'm, I'm an Etsy wizard. I really am. And, and now with this new shop and having it hit, so it's like every new shop that I start, it's better, it's faster, I get it more and it gets, it gets really, it gets really exciting. Okay, so what are. Tell them, tell them what we're doing now, what you're doing now, because I think it's freaking awesome. And it's, I won't like, let's get. Do you know your kind of stats, where the shop's at?
- [23:04]
B
So I just have to back up just a tick from launching the shop this last year. Maybe a little bit before that, we moved into a house. We're back. I'm back in an actual real life house. I have a little garage shop now I can look. Basically, I sit behind a computer 90% of the time doing my job. And at one point last year, I decided I really wanted to do something with my hands. So I decided I was going to get into woodworking. And I realized that woodworking is really hard and it's fun and I enjoy doing certain things, but I also suck at math. And so that makes woodworking tough for me. And so I still do some woodworking, but from that I came into the world of CNC woodworking, which is for those of you who may be uninformed. It's basically you're running a computer controlled robot to cut pieces using a motorized router. You know, like the, you know, the ones with the big drill bit on the end and you can make signs, shapes, those sorts of things. So I bought me a used router, our used CNC machine from a lady here real close to us. And it was a little bit older model and set it up in the shop and really enjoyed it because it melded the two passions that I had at that moment, which was making stuff and running something with a computer. I learned how to add Canva into that. So I would design on Canva, drop it into the software, and then create, you know, signs. And I had a really big year last year selling these football helmets that I would cut with, with our local school logo on it. And those sold like crazy. They're just a little wood MBF style helmets that I hand painted. Well, the woodworking stuff, the CNC first of all, is super big. It's crazy loud. And I, I don't have like an offset shop. I, I work in a garage shop, one car garage shop that is right off of our living room. So this router is just wailing. And so it really limited me to being able to work. You know, I can't work early in the morning, can't work late at night. Can't really do stuff when my wife's home because it's so loud. I have to wear ear protection. I have to wear a mask. The particles are nasty. It was making my shop nasty. I started looking around and I've always wanted a laser. Laser engraving would be so cool.
- [25:36]
A
That's what we're about to do. I'm about to buy one. Keep going. I'm so excited. Yeah, yeah.
- [25:40]
B
And so, yeah, I started looking and, and there was a couple folks here in town that were doing it as well. And so I got to see them doing some stuff and I was like, I think I can, I think I can do that. And I think I could do it well. So I twisted off and bought one on Facebook marketplace for like 300.
- [25:56]
A
No way. Okay, 300. You said 300?
- [25:58]
B
Yeah, brand new.
- [26:00]
A
Five grand. That sounds like a big improvement.
- [26:02]
B
Yeah, yeah. Well, this is just a little guy desktop hobbyist, laser, open frame. And so I started making signs and stuff like that and making some wood crafts. I still do that a little bit, but my wife last year said, hey, you should make some leather patch hats and do it with our town's name and zip code on it. And I said, cool. They sold like crazy.
- [26:26]
A
Really? Wait, how? Where? And locally, Right?
- [26:28]
B
Like, I live in a little town called Stamford. About 3, 000 people. Deep, deep hometown pride. Rural people. Love the school. You love your town. A lot of people grow up here. They stay here five hours.
- [26:44]
A
We're five hours apart. Preston. We gotta like meet in the middle. Keep going.
- [26:49]
B
These hats so, like, crazy. And I, for my, my real life Job is I work as a chamber of commerce manager here in town. And so I help small businesses and our local businesses grow. And one of the major features of that this last year or two years now, has been setting up a monthly market on the square to help my vendors, their local basically incubate new businesses and turn into full fledged businesses. And so I started selling at my market that I made and have done really, really well. I started thinking about, okay, I want to move this to online sales now. And that's how I've ended up with this new Etsy shop. And we can talk a little bit more about like what I what hit. But I started loading hats in there. I have a few hat designs that I think are just kind of like generic. Let's buy these hats. And then just kind of as a side thing, all my patches are heat pressed patches and I have, you know, one color that I really like in one style. And I did some logos for my sister in law who runs a real estate business just up the road and took a picture of those mocked up, some different ones with some different business logos. And about two and a half thousand dollars later, I've sold over a hundred orders of patches on Etsy. People buying their own stuff to press at home and I haven't sold any hats online. I sell all my hats locally. And so people are buying the patches, which is the greater profit margin for me and the easier profit.
- [28:25]
A
You say 200 in a month?
- [28:27]
B
I've sold 100. Yeah, I did over 100 sales last month and that was just starting. I started this shop, opened in September, it's now what, November 13th?
- [28:37]
A
13Th. Holy moly.
- [28:39]
B
125 sales right now. Something like that.
- [28:42]
A
Uh, are they buying a bulk? Are they buying them individually or in bulk?
- [28:45]
B
Yeah, that's kind of the cool part is I have people order. One patch. I have people order. I had, my biggest order was 85. So it's, it's crazy. I didn't ever think that was a product to sell.
- [28:57]
A
Oh my gosh.
- [28:58]
B
But because of stuff like what you say about diversifying your listings to get as many listings as possible, that was just kind of a throwaway listing. Like let's just put it up on there and see what happens. And it turns out to be the hit. And I have a, I have a theory. Do you want to hear the theory of what?
- [29:13]
A
I want all the theories. Yes.
- [29:16]
B
You know, I, I would like to think that it's the SEO. I like to think that it's my pictures, my mockups, everything like that. But I think what happened, and I think what it is, is at its core, I think Etsy still is a DIY site.
- [29:29]
A
Yes.
- [29:30]
B
I think that people still want to buy things that they can make or that they, you know, that that's unique, not generic, that they can put together themselves. That's my theory.
- [29:45]
A
That feels kind of crafty and earthy, not like mass produced. They want to feel like you in your garage made it. Yes, Preston, I have so many questions. I completely agree with you. Supplies. I was just coaching someone yesterday. Who? She was incredible. Shout out to Dana. She is in embroidery, which is another thing that I want to do. Okay, wait. With your engraving. Quick tangent. Have you. There's this guy named Matt on YouTube and let me see what his channel is, because I'm curious if you've seen it, if you've watched his stuff, because he does engraving and. What is it? Engraving and. Oh, embroidery. Hello. Duh. Let me see. He's coming on the podcast in a. In like a few months or so.
- [30:29]
B
Uncool.
- [30:30]
A
But what is it called? Liked videos. Where did I save it to? Maybe I should look at my history. Sorry, guys. I told you this was going to be a Fireside Chat today. And you're getting what you paid for. I have gotta. I've got to give him a shout. Oh, yeah, here we go. Laser engraving with Matt. Do you know who that is?
- [30:51]
B
I. I don't know if I've. I mean, I've watched a ton of laser content on YouTube, so I'm sure I've ran across it. But yeah, I have to check it out.
- [30:58]
A
He's our speed, like, super down to earth. Just wants to help everybody. Like, really, really good guy, small town. Okay, so. But are you. What kind of machine do you need to make patches?
- [31:07]
B
That's a great part. Okay, so my. My big CNC machine that did the wrap the signs used was about 1500 bucks. It was a pretty big investment. I mean, I. I had no money and no money like business money, because this was just me just buying it as a hobby. The laser, much lower point of entry. I'm. Like I said, I got in on Facebook for about 300 bucks. Now, is this the best laser in the world? No, it's not. It's. It's a desktop hobbyist laser. It's definitely not the safest laser because it's an open frame. There's no like, exhaust or anything like that. My system now is boxed, and so it has an exhaust, but you have to wear. You know, you still have to wear the goggles and things like that. Like, I had to do it near the window in my shop to vent out the toxic fumes. So I'm in a much safer position now than I was before. But that 300 machine has paid for itself seven or eight times over in the eight months that I've used it. Because I just found this niche that, you know, there's a lot of people that do tumblers. There's a lot of people who do slate coasters in the engraving world. Lots of little like, you know, crafty things which are cool earrings, wood crafts, that sort of thing. I really like hats. Like, I, I'm a hat guy and I live in a world where people love wearing the hats that I like to sell. These retro, not trucker is the wrong word, but they call them truckers, but, you know, like I call them the farmer style hat because every farmer around my area wears them. Just a solid front, mesh back. Richardson112 Yupong6606 I buy them in bulk in school colors, colors that people like. Like I said, one style patch I'm not. I've not diversified into different color patches. I tried to keep my product line as simple as possible and man, they've sold like hotcakes and just would have never guessed that that would have been where I did. I wouldn't know that I was going to sell that many and make, make the profits that I have selling these hats and patches. It's crazy.
- [33:19]
A
I think when I was looking into laser engraving, I expected it. You know what though? I'm seeing this everywhere now. Ever since I started the trend spotting report and it's put me like in the data more every single day. I am. My eyes have been opened like they're really the second you know how to find the micro niches. There's really not saturation on Etsy. But going into engraving, I was like, oh, what are we going to do? And I kind of wanted to do tumblers because I knew they wouldn't have the breakage in the mail so much.
- [33:44]
B
Yep.
- [33:45]
A
We've decided on a different product though. There's. But to your point, I think laser engraving, the cost to enter is a little higher and so the competition is less than you'd think. And there are hundreds if not thousands of product possibilities that, I mean, you could scale it to any level that you wanted and add more machines. But I thought the patches were just so clever and so easy to ship and so easy to customize. And even if 30 more people joined the market, you'd still have plenty of corner to take. There's just too many ways that you can micro niche it that people would buy it.
- [34:24]
B
Well, and I don't, you know, I think you talk about it too. I don't really buy the saturation thing in a lot of ways. I mean. Yeah. Is it going to be harder to break through if there's a lot of products in that world? Yes, absolutely. What I decided when I started in my Etsy shop and selling around here too. There's other people that sell leather patch hats around my area.
- [34:43]
A
There are or no?
- [34:45]
B
There are. Yeah. Okay. My mentality has, has been I want to make better designs and I want to have impeccable customer service.
- [34:57]
A
Yes.
- [34:58]
B
Just like I think that's the thing that might set me apart as I get reviews in on Etsy. I've gotten several about like, hey, this, they were so helpful. One of the things is free design services. I'm not going to charge somebody for to fix their logo. The great part about laser engraving as opposed to things like sublimation or even embroidery, I don't have to mess with colors like, yeah, the laser grabber can only read white, black and gray. That's basically it. And so somebody sends me. This has kind of been my. I told my brother the other day, I was like, this is kind of like a weird skill that I'm developing. I'm taking people's really crappy pictures of their logo and being able to turn them into leather patch hats. Like, I had some lady send me a picture, like a blurry picture of like on a weird angle, a picture of their business card. And in about five minutes, using Canva, I turned that picture into a usable file, PNG file for my actual machine and had patches sent out in that afternoon. I mean, it can be that fast. And so this is fun because I like, it's kind of, that's kind of a fun challenge to be like, okay, so somebody sent me this really crappy logo. How can I remake it or make it usable in the next five minutes?
- [36:19]
A
How is it not distorted on the angle? How did you fix that part?
- [36:22]
B
Man, I don't know. It's, there's, there's just some like there again, I'm working the Canva wizard. Yeah, I work some little wizardry magic on it. Canva tools have gotten really good. Their magic media stuff has been really good. Background remover. There's some new apps I stayed away from Canva apps, like the little apps on the side.
- [36:42]
A
Oh, they're cool.
- [36:44]
B
But man, there's so many cool ones that you can use. And so recreating stuff, making stuff, you can do it, you can do a lot with it.
- [36:52]
A
And you should do a YouTube channel, Preston, on all these little hacks.
- [36:56]
B
Okay, so that's. That's the next. That's one of my next things.
- [36:58]
A
So, like, have you started it yet?
- [37:00]
B
No, I don't have time, Lizzie.
- [37:01]
A
That's the problem. I know, I know.
- [37:03]
B
You were. Had talked to me a little bit before about like, what are the barriers? Yeah, time. Time is the biggest barrier right now. I work, like I said, I work a real life job as a chamber manager. It's two days a week, two and a half days a week, depending on the week. I have tourism events coming up. I got a big Christmas event coming up. It's taken a lot of my time to do that this month, Fall festival month was crazy. So, you know, I'm just kind of doing stuff in between. I also work my wife and I run a movie theater here in town. This little old historic theater on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. That's another job. I run social media accounts. I build websites. I told you, I'm just doing like, I got my hands in a lot of different things and I don't feel overwhelmed by any of it. But I have to be selective about how I'm doing my things and making time. So I'm cutting patches. You know, on my days off, I am designing. That's why I've learned how to design super fast and try to get things when orders come in, I try to get them in, get them out, and no waiting around on those things to try to turn them out. And so, yeah, time. I would love to do like YouTube videos and training because, like, I would love to train laser engravers how to use Canva because it's a untapped tool. People become overwhelmed trying to use softwares like Lightburn or XCS or, you know, the laser peckers software. You know, they get frustrated because it's not intuitive. If you're not used to working those types of those units, you're not used to designing in a design software like that. But you can design on Canva, okay, Or as a PNG and throw that bad boy onto a laser and you're. You're golden. In fact, I found out that it. I found that it works faster if I'm using PNGs.
- [38:54]
A
You know, you just saved me 20 hours, Preston, with that one information. I love Canva. Right hand. Yeah.
- [39:03]
B
Why waste your time trying to learn another software when Another software works great.
- [39:06]
A
So you just import a png. This is an interesting nuance about you. None of this seems to be income driven. Like, what if your. What if your patch shop starts making you 100,000, 200,000 a year?
- [39:18]
B
Oh, man, I would love that.
- [39:20]
A
You would. So what would you change though? What would change your. What would you adjust then?
- [39:24]
B
Yeah, it was funny, I was telling Sarah, my wife, the other day, where we were talking about this interview coming up, and I said, Lizzie said something the other day that blew my mind. She said that somebody was making like $40,000 a month. I was like, can you imagine? I was like, I would, I would take $1,000 a month, you know, and I'm kind of at that right now, which is cool. Listen, I would love to do this full time, and I think that's the goal and that's kind of where I'm at right now, is taking this thing to the next level. And you and I have talked a little bit about how this is kind of like a fledgling shop. And so I'm trying to not put too many eggs in the basket before the eggs hatch. You know what I'm saying? But I also feel that need to be. That some things may have to get cut in order for me to take a risk, you know, like, I may have to trim down other work to be able to commit some time to this. Because I'll tell you what, like, I would love to be able to sell PNGs that I create. And I've, I've teased it in my shop. I have a few bundles that I've made that have sold really well. But laser engraving folks, like, like I said, if you're not used to design work, you just buy a laser engraver and you want to get into it. You can buy files online on Etsy otherwise and just drop those files into, you know, to your project, add them to a cutting board, a cup. I make these little. The ones that I made recently are kind of like a rustic American flag with first responder logos on them. A variety of those. Those sell pretty well because people love that stuff. And so, you know, I would love to be able to create more of those to add as a second prong to the 277 creative designs and see what happens because, and let, let them kind of carry the weight while I'm creating physical product on the side with it. Because again, I want to diversify the income. I want to change it up. I want to make sure that I'm not putting too many eggs in One basket. Because we all know how, you know, one bad month, my. You know, we're kind of at the hands of the Etsy gods in a lot of ways. Like, we can do everything we can to position ourselves to win, but it's fickle. Everything's. You know, all this is kind of fickle. And so you just kind of have to just position yourself in the best way you possible. And so I think that that may be the next step for me is cutting some things to be able to add margin for me to really pour into this, because I think it has potential, you know?
- [42:03]
A
Do you tend to get. I know this is. This is me. And I've had to kind of dissipate myself. Do you tend to get, like, shiny objects in there? Like I said, multi passionate entrepreneur. Do you tend to move on to the next thing before you've really put your all into one thing to see if it'll work?
- [42:17]
B
I would say that probably doesn't define quite what. What.
- [42:21]
A
So because you said you don't want to put all your eggs in the basket until they start hatching, but now you're getting hundred order months.
- [42:26]
B
Yeah, well, yeah, it sure feels like the eggs are hatching. Right? Like.
- [42:30]
A
Yeah, I was gonna say. I was gonna say you got a lot of chickens right now.
- [42:32]
B
Yeah, well. And that's what I've been. That's kind of what I've been wrestling with. I. I am not a risk taker. And it's. When I tell you my. When I tell the story, you are, though.
- [42:43]
A
Do you know that? You are. That's such. That's such. I'm sorry. I'm calling B. I'm calling mindset. Yes. Because, Preston, you left everything and went and lived in an RV for a year and a half with a cat. I remember DMing you being like, I need to know where that litter box is right now. Because, yeah, I was just like, d. And then I. And then you, like, pick up and go to Austin, and you. You are such a risk taker.
- [43:07]
B
Well, I appreciate that. It's. It's definitely something that I've had to grow into. I don't come by any of those decisions lightly, and my wife can attest to that.
- [43:16]
A
I was gonna say. Is this Sarah? I need to know if this is Sarah's influence that's dragging you all.
- [43:20]
B
Sarah is very influential in us taking those steps. She is definitely the leader.
- [43:26]
A
Okay. Really, y'all?
- [43:28]
B
Yes.
- [43:28]
A
Oh, my gosh. We got it. We're getting it on the calendar. I gotta meet her.
- [43:31]
B
And so she's my, my. There's a lot of things in my life that I wouldn't have done if it wasn't for my wife encouraging me and pushing me to do the next right thing.
- [43:39]
A
Okay.
- [43:40]
B
You know, her intuition is impeccable, so. Which is why I think this is a good thing. Because she's the one that came up with this idea for me to, to sell hats and stuff like that. She's the one that says you can take the next step if you want. We're, we're, we're very lucky, very privileged in a lot of ways. Because I live in a small town, my expenses of living are very low here because it's small town rural Texas. Not a lot to pay for. We've made some good financial decisions in our life. Things like getting your house paid for and our college paid for and a car paid for, that sort of thing. And so we've done a lot of work to get to this position where I have that freedom that a lot of people may not have otherwise. And so I don't take that that lightly. But it does afford me some opportunities to try things, to do some different stuff. So go back to your original question. Do I, do I kind of have that shiny object syndrome? Yeah, a little bit. But it's less shiny object and it's more like turning the knobs to try to tune the radio to the right thing.
- [44:38]
A
That's me. Yeah, yeah. Like refine, refine, refine, iterate until we get the sweet spot. Yeah. And then pivot as necessary.
- [44:45]
B
Exactly. And my whole life's been a pivot. Oh my gosh. Like I've pivoted a hundred times. And so that's kind of what I'm doing. I'm not, I've not changed anything other. You know, I'm still doing a lot of the same stuff, still designing on Canva. I'm still using, you know, I'm using computers to control the tools that I'm using. It's just tweaking. What, what are. It's, it's like we always talk about going on and looking for the right, the keywords, the niches, the trends, those sorts of things. I'm not trying to chase those things. I'm just trying to, to turn the knob ever so slightly to see if we can hit one of the stations, you know, on the money. And so that's kind of where I'm at right now is I feel like I found one. And it's been a lot of fun seeing it grow and succeed. But, yeah, there's definitely, I think in the next few months there's, there's some growth that's going to happen and I'm really excited about it, but also scared on my wits for it. You know.
- [45:40]
A
Are you brand new to Etsy, about to get started, or struggling a bit to find your groove? What I'm about to say is just for you, okay? I can completely relate to where you're at because I think I can help you achieve success faster. When I first started my Etsy shop, it was not one of those success stories that we hear, you know, on the big YouTube channels, even on this podcast where I just had crazy success and it took off right away. All right, I all but failed for my first six months, just like a lot of new sellers. And so it's very relatable. And the issue for me was I didn't understand demand for one, I didn't understand SEO. I was way too broad in my search terms and I didn't know how to position my product so that customers just couldn't help but click add to cart. And so once I learned those things, I went from making about $25 a month in sales to $6,000 a month and up. And in the holidays, I would even have $13,000 a month like at my shop's peak. And the thing about me, if you've been here for a minute, you already know this. I'm a terrible gatekeeper, okay? When I figure something out, when I crack a code, when I get excited, I cannot help but tell everybody who wants to listen. It's like either my, my best asset or my toxic trait. I can't decide. But I put everything that you need to know to fill that beginner knowledge gap into a low ticket. Just under three hours beginner course that I have called Six Figure Secrets to getting started on Etsy. In it, I'm teaching you how to find what's in demand for your niche, how to find and use trends, how to start your shop. If you're worried about that part, SEO strategy to find the micro niches where the opportunity is how to understand the Etsy algorithm and a ton more. The whole thing is bite sized videos. Not long form, just small bite sized videos. Zero fluff and to the point. You could get the course today, go through the less than three hours over the next couple days, launch your shop this weekend and have sales coming in as soon as Sunday. So let's get you the few missing pieces of the Etsy success puzzle. Those little tweaks you need to make so you can start making the sales that you deserve. Because I have never been more convinced that there is room at this table on Etsy for everyone. And the opportunity is so ripe right now. I am in the. In the numbers in the data every day, and my mind just keeps expanding on the possibilities. Okay? So as a special treat, use the code save50 to save $50 on the six figure secrets course today. That's $50 off with a coupon. Save 50. And by all means DM me or shoot me an email when those sales start popping, because I want to celebrate with you. How many listings do you have?
- [48:07]
B
Let me look real quick. I got my phone pulled up.
- [48:09]
A
It's not many. Not many.
- [48:12]
B
No.
- [48:13]
A
I'm just thinking, like, you could do. You could do Girl Scouts, you could do Boy Scouts, you could do camps. Like, I was a big. I'm still really big proponent of summer camp. In fact, if you're listening to this while Preston's looking up his numbers, if you're listening to this and you have a daughter and you want her to have the most incredible summer camp experience, I grew up going to Camp Nicolay in Eagle River, Wisconsin. I'm still super active. Like, if your daughter went there, she'd meet me. Super active. It was so formative in confidence building and trying new things, in social adjusting. It was the one place because I was really made fun of in school. And when I went to camp, I was like. I felt like royalty. I was friends with everybody. I was. So I just lived all year to go to camp. So Camp Nicolay, Eagle River, Wisconsin. Tell them Lizzie sent you. It. It's like the best experience ever. I'm hoping my daughter can go this next year. She's not. Maybe not quite ready yet.
- [49:07]
B
That sounds fun.
- [49:08]
A
She's very. She's very mama's girl. Like, very very. So we'll see. She's gonna be 10. Okay. Preston, how many listings you got in that shop?
- [49:16]
B
14.
- [49:17]
A
No way.
- [49:18]
B
Yeah. So, yeah. So how I've done this, and this is something that I wanted to talk to you about because we may run out of time. We have to do a second version.
- [49:28]
A
No, you got. You keep. I gotta know.
- [49:30]
B
Okay, so I started with hats. I have five or six listings of patched hats that I would make at my house. Like, if someone ordered a hat, there's a. There's one with some dad logos on it. There's some with American flag, some that are customizable with an American flag and your zip code. Those. Those sell well here locally. Kind of wanted to see if they'll sell local so well online. Haven't had any hits on the hats yet. Have also added a few of my designs that I'm doing as a drop ship through Printful. And so print on demand. Those haven't hit either.
- [50:09]
A
And what do you mean, like, you're a Printful provider?
- [50:12]
B
I uploaded my design to, well, Printify, I guess, is what I use. You know, just doing hat designs. I. I have a, you know, one specific design that I've. Or two that I've added to Printful. I've already made all these designs in, you know, in that or in Canva.
- [50:28]
A
Oh. So people can order them from there directly. It's like. It's like you've got your. It's sort of like a red bubble, but you're on. I didn't even know that was an option.
- [50:34]
B
Yeah. And so I've added those. Those print on demand hats, a couple of first responder hats, just to see if they hit. Like, I was just trying things. No hits yet. And then patches. This is the crazy part. I told you I had one listing for patches. Guy blew up. I think I sent you a screenshot of like, oh, my gosh. I had this this week where I sold, like, 85 to this one person, 20 of this person, 30 this person. And I said, okay, Lizzie, what do I do now? You know, things. Things are good. So what do I do now? And you said, let your customers tell you what they want. And I thought that was genius. So what I started noticing was people started ordering patches not with logos or designs on them, but with just names, just people's names on them. And so I was like, well, I need a name listing. So I've created a listing of just. Okay, here's. Here's one with just your names for your kids, for bags, backpacks. The one that's really hit here recently, the listing hasn't hit, but the. The product has hit is people buying patches to put on stockings this Christmas. They personalize their stockings with these cute little leather patches. They can do that at home because they can use a regular household iron. There's no press needed. Just set your iron to medium heat, press this patch in, boom, you have a personalized stocking ready to go. And, you know you're spending $4 in my shop buying a patch with a name on it.
- [51:59]
A
So for next Christmas, you need a listing that advertises that.
- [52:03]
B
Exactly. And that's kind of what I was like. I was like, oh, man, I'm behind. And this is kind of How I feel. I've always feel behind the eight ball in everything that I do anyway.
- [52:13]
A
Stop it. Well, not anymore.
- [52:15]
B
Well, not anymore. And so, and the great part about it is like, okay, so in the printable shop that you and I set up, I have a really naughty sweary Christmas themed SVG bundle going out. It's been up for a year, didn't make a sale and it's making sales this year. You know, and so sometimes you gotta wait to just let things. And that's kind of what I'm thinking. Like, okay, the dad patches will probably hit about April, you know.
- [52:41]
A
Yeah.
- [52:42]
B
Okay.
- [52:42]
A
But I'm gonna tell you what to do. Are you ready?
- [52:44]
B
Let's go for it. Last time you made me so much money when you gave me advice. So I'm gonna write it down.
- [52:48]
A
No, you made yourself money. We just get to. We just get to put our heads together. Everybody listen up. I'm about to tell you exactly. I'm going to give use Preston's example. But you're going to apply this to whatever you sell. Here's what you're going to do. You found something that's kind of working. The next part is to expand on it, right? So what you're going to do is you're going to go to Etsy.com, you're going to type in the word patch. This is just for Preston. But whatever your thing is, you're going to type in the word, you're going to filter by best seller and then you're going to scroll through the bestsellers and find the ones where if you're looking at the Etsy search results, the it'll show you how many reviews that shop has. And right underneath the listing in the in the feed, look for ones that have under a thousand reviews because those are most likely new shops or shops that are now hop popping with a bestseller. And that is going to inform you what to create next. Because if a new shop or a slow shop is popping with a bestseller on a that particular particular patch, you need to create your version of that because it'll pop as well.
- [53:52]
B
Yeah.
- [53:53]
A
If you have ever be you can go which by the way, I'm like done with Sales Samurai. Basically I need to redo everything. Sales Samurai is still fine. I've just cracked ever be. And if you're in the trend spotting, you're seeing this video. If you're in the six figure secrets course you've seen how I'm doing this. It's everything you need. You click on the little b Which, by the way, you can get a free version of Everbee. I have a link for it. You guys can. Everyone should at least try it. You're gonna have to upgrade to get some of this, the bells and whistles, but it tells you everything. So you click on the B, you're gonna look at the tags that that listing has because you've already seen. I look for the newer shops. I look for the shops with like less than 500, less than a thousand for sure. Ideally less than 500 reviews. Look at their tags. You can now, now it just updated. You can filter them so you can see how many like competing listings there are and how many searches there are for each tag term. That is insane data. Because the second you know that, you know, demand, you know how many searches there are a month for it. You know how many competing listings there are. I'm looking for ones that have at least a hundred searches a month but have under 10,000 competing listings. You guys, I'm literally giving you the entire strategy right now. Kudos to you for hitting play on this episode. But you can. So that way, even if there aren't, you look at the bestsellers. There aren't any new shops. Go look at the tags because they're ranking for something. There is something in that list that's going to show up green and it's going to tell you this is the one with the least competition, that those are your micro niches. That's your endpoint. Does that make sense? Preston, I don't know if I got too technical. Will you tell me, restate it for somebody who's new, who doesn't know what I'm talking about.
- [55:25]
B
If you want to, yeah, shop, shop around on Etsy. I like to use incognito mode on mine.
- [55:31]
A
But you can't use Everbee. You can't use the extension just kind.
- [55:35]
B
Of as an initial thing. I like to use incognito mode to. Because I don't want my search history to influence what Etsy shows me. Look for your niche. What I realized too is when you search stuff on Google like that, like Etsy patches, it will, I think I messaged you about this one time. It brought up search categories for me. Like, you know the listings on Search Engine where it said patches, American flag patches, school related patches, kids. And so I'm like, okay, that tells me those are things people are searching for. It's, you know, I'm using Google in that regard because it's categorizing those things for me in Google. You know, What I'm saying like yes. And so yeah, I love using Everbee for stuff as well. I don't have the paid version. I use the cheap version. It has helped me. I still don't know quite how to crack through certain things. I know how to look for the best sellers. I know how to look for the star sellers. I know how to what you're talking about looking for the shops that are popping and using those as inspiration. I would love to be able to dig in a little deeper to really kind of hack it because I love that stuff.
- [56:52]
A
I think after this I owe you a complimentary one on one. So we'll book that and then if you guys if you need to do it for you, sign up for a one on one with me. I will literally sit there for an hour and show you everything. What by the way I work out so hard. It's so. Yeah, I mean well, we'll see what Preston has to say about that. Also being my first one. Man. You really got the rough version that's sort of like first child like you man.
- [57:13]
B
Were those tools even available to us is back then. Were you using sales?
- [57:16]
A
I didn't know about them until a few months later. I was coaching someone else. Hannah at home is her. I think she's back up now. She moved to Alaska. She's another one of my early early ones. It was you first then Jamie. Shout out to Jamie. I love you so much Hannah. Is she back up on here? Yeah. Okay. Hannah Dot at home. She isn't even. I think she's gone to Stan store. She's awesome. She's the one who told me about was it Marmalead or whatever at that point? I don't know. They all started my show got big enough where they reached out to me. So like ever became to me sales samurai came to me. But yeah when you and I talked it was just raw Etsy. And P.S. i'm going to say this because I use incognito mode when I'm looking for trends because I don't want the way the Etsy algorithm works. You guys, Preston already explained this. I'm just going to restate it is that it tries to show you what you've looked at before because there's a higher likelihood you'll buy it. So if you go to incognito mode or a private browsing window you can do that. Go to the upper right hand corner of your browser. There's usually like three buttons or something. Click it and then right there it'll say like Incognito or private browsing window. All that's going to do is open a new browser where Etsy can't read your search history and you'll get fresh results. But if you are filtering by bestseller, you don't need that because you're only going to have so many pages of bestsellers anyway. And then you can use your tools. So you could skip. When you're doing this kind of research, you could skip that whole step. Now if you're going to filter by bestseller.
- [58:35]
B
Well, and I would say too on. Especially in the laser engraving side of things. Just when CNC too. People who do the. Who starting off on CNC work, I heard, I had a friend that told me online, you know, you want to be first, you want to be best or you want to be. I forget the other one. There's three but with like CNC and laser.
- [58:53]
A
Right. First, best or cheapest. Yep.
- [58:55]
B
There's a lot of people that sell files for like CNC work. Whiskey smokers are huge. It's like these little things that you set on whiskey glass. You put wood chips in them, you fire it up. It adds a little smoke to your glass. Everybody. It's kind of a rite of passage for a CNC worker. Everybody sells those files. If you go and search, there's going to be a seven bazillion of them online.
- [59:16]
A
It's a png. It's just. You're selling a png?
- [59:19]
B
No, it's a file. It's like a, it's like a cut file for. For those. But everything the file type. Yeah, most of the most cut files like that are SVGs.
- [59:30]
A
An SVG. Okay.
- [59:31]
B
Yeah.
- [59:31]
A
So you could convert to that. Okay, keep going. Sorry, my technical brain needed to catch up.
- [59:34]
B
I guess the point I'm trying to get at is you're going to have a lot of people online like YouTube especially products that sell at the market. Products that sell on Etsy. See, and I love those people to death. Like I love their content. But a lot of times people are just saying like these are easy products for you to make. You cannot guarantee 100% they're going to sell. I made a butt ton of whiskey smokers when I first started out. I probably, I probably have 30 or 40 in the shop right now. I gotta see what this is and haven't sold a one given away as.
- [60:05]
A
A gift because I wonder, that's an SEO. We could. Oh, we could geek out so hard on that. Yeah.
- [60:11]
B
And, and what I'm trying to say is like, you know, again Everybody's gonna be doing tumblers. Everybody's doing cutting boards. Everybody's doing. And it goes back to the saturation thing. I don't believe fully in saturation. You know, obviously the market's gonna be competitive, but how do you. How do you. How do you undercut it? How do you get your designs to break through? There's. There's a ton of people selling patches and patched hats. Yeah, that's them.
- [60:36]
A
So if you're looking at the screen, this is what a whiskey smoker is. I had to know because I love whiskey and I love it.
- [60:40]
B
Super cool. Yeah, they're super cool. And, you know, with the cnc, it was super easy to make. But how can you personalize? Obviously, personalization is a huge thing for laser engraving every day. That's my next. My next.
- [60:51]
A
Next thing is personalization and trend combining.
- [60:54]
B
Yep. I would love to be able. I love the market stuff. Like, I, I know this, but I've loved going to the farmers market or in my little vendor market that I've created. It's. There's something just kind of like fun and nostalgic shopping downtown. I love that stuff. And so I would love to be able to go and do vendor markets. And they make these. There's a company makes this great little laser. It's literally like a computer size small thing where you just pop it in and boom. You can personalize things in, like, on site. I could do. Wow.
- [61:27]
A
Wow.
- [61:27]
B
I could do patches. I could do like, somebody brings me a wallet, somebody brings me keychain, like, or pick a keychain out and we'll. We'll do this. And if I have a power generator where I can run my hat press, you know, go pick your hat. Go pick your patch. The hat bar thing is really taken off down here. That's. That's kind of what I would like to do as an extension of this kind of like the live action version of what I'm doing to make a hat bar to sell it. You know, conventions and around here, it's like stock shows and rodeos and football games and those sort of things, like, be able to set up at stuff like. That would be super cool. But I would. I think what would really set me apart because no one else is doing it is personalization on site. So I could take some of that Etsy stuff that I get to do, but turn it into like, hey, come back in five minutes. I'll have you a hat ready.
- [62:13]
A
You know, that is. I love that. I actually. So first of all, Stanford Sounds like the Stars Hollow of Texas.
- [62:19]
B
I like to, I like to frame it that way. That, that's very generous of you to say that. It's a great little town. Like, I really do love it.
- [62:28]
A
Our, our small town that we live in now. It's like, I, I don't want to say it on air, I'll tell you later, but it's too small. And I'm, I'm too well known now to, to be telling my hometown, but when it's that small. But like, you go down the, you go down the town main street, and it's like there's like only two businesses that are open. Like, everything else is like, barred of it. So it's like really? Really. And I, and I think, I think to myself, like, you know, I could, I could, like, we could totally Chip and Joanna Gaines this place, but I think they, I think they'd run me out of town. I think they'd, I think they like it to be sleepy.
- [62:59]
B
Yeah. We could do a whole podcast on local economy. I actually almost wore my shirt. Our mayor is one of my good friends. He wore, he made these shirts for his last campaign that says make economies local again. I love it. It's in our, it's in our blue and white school colors. So I wear it to all of our events that we do. But we're very passionate about local economy here. I, I, that was not something on my bingo card to be passionate about, but.
- [63:20]
A
Right. No, but I love that for you. You're the perfect personality for that.
- [63:23]
B
I appreciate that. I really.
- [63:25]
A
Yeah. We gotta see. I don't. Preston, I feel like we could do a whole other episode. Like, we've just talked so easily for almost an hour and we didn't even hit a bunch of this, but I feel like it's still been super valuable. Would you be willing to come back again?
- [63:36]
B
Oh, 100%. I'll come back.
- [63:38]
A
Okay.
- [63:38]
B
I'll come back every week.
- [63:40]
A
I know this is a ride. I'm kind of like, you'd be a really good co host and maybe it needs to turn into something else right now. Like, maybe it needs to be. I don't know, like, maybe we need to stream live doing something once a week or something. You know what I mean?
- [63:53]
B
I probably talked way more than what your listeners want me to talk.
- [63:56]
A
No. Well, you know what? We'll see what the feedback is. But I sat here and it felt really good. Like, it felt like, wow, this is like I was telling you before, and I mean, like, love them or hate them, the content style is very engaging, but, like, Joe Rogan just sits and talks with, you know, and like, people listen because you get the real. You get the real stuff when you can just sit and talk. And it's not super scripted and planned for sure. So. Okay, so we'll have to. We'll have to think about that also, guys, send us your ideas. Like, where would be cool? Like, where should. Should we stream somewhere? Should we have like a. Should we have like a once a month special? I don't know. Let me. Tell me your ideas. And Preston will send me 30 later as well because he's. He's like an ideator. Like that. I love it so much. All right. I'm a little sad. I'm a little sad. There's, like, so many things we didn't hit on. But. But I want to tell you thank you so much for being.
- [64:38]
B
For.
- [64:38]
A
I guess I could get really. I could get really emo about this. Thank you for believing in me and trusting in me to help you in the beginning. And thank you for. I mean, you didn't come out of the gates and hit six figures right away, Preston, but you stuck with it. You're like the perfect example of an Etsy seller where we're all coming to the table with different ideas, different levels of experience, different levels of skill. And it's. What do they say about a squirrel? Even a. Even an old blind squirrel finds a nut.
- [65:04]
B
Yeah, that's kind of.
- [65:05]
A
He goes up if he looks long enough, doesn't quit. And here you are. It's been three years almost.
- [65:11]
B
That's crazy.
- [65:12]
A
More than two and a half years. And you just kind of stuck with it. And I mean, yes, you had successes along the way. You're mouthy printables. You'd send me screenshot. We're selling.
- [65:21]
B
Yeah.
- [65:22]
A
Also for people listening, you can sometimes work with an attorney when you've had something that was. That predated a trademark and get an exemption to be able to sell it. But it's a little. I just want people to know that's not hopeless. If someone goes and trademarks it after you've been doing it, Call Paige Hulse. She'll help you.
- [65:37]
B
Yeah.
- [65:37]
A
But thank you. Thank you so much, Preston, for believing in yourself, for believing in me, for being my very first coaching client, for sticking with me all this time, and for sharing so vulnerably today.
- [65:47]
B
Oh, I love it. It just. It really just made my day to know that I was the first one because I did some coaching, you know, in the Interim. After I left ministry, I did a little bit of personal coaching training and stuff like that. So I know how daunting that is. And that first call is crazy because you're like, how all of a sudden, you know, I'm not supposed to be the expert, but people are asking me advice. It was invaluable. You were so easy to talk to. If I could give you. Can I just do a commercial pitch?
- [66:19]
A
Hire.
- [66:20]
B
Hire Lizzie. I share. I comment on random people's threads every once in a while. Hey, contact Lizzie from. Or go listen to the podcast. Even if it's not directly related to the niche or the industry that I am in, I tend to find gold nuggets along the way that I can apply. I love listening to it on the run, you know, while I'm out. It's definitely a good running and jogging podcast for me because I'm constantly ideating like you talked about on the runs. And so I'm. I can come up with a thousand different ideas. When you start talking to these. These folks, I love hearing people's stories about how they've grown from either small business, like I'm doing, or those folks that are hitting it hard. So thank you. I think this is. It's just. It's really nice to have you as a resource, and I so appreciate it. You know, it really has, like, your advice really launched something for me. And now what? Maybe. Maybe this conversation will launch it into the next level. That'd be so awesome. Come back in a year and talk about, you know, how much different it is now.
- [67:26]
A
I give it three months. Preston, let's go. Well, let's go.
- [67:31]
B
I can't say the bad words on here, but let's go.
- [67:34]
A
That's right. That's right. There's too many little ears listening. But. But thank you. I appreciate you. And you guys, thank you. Thank you to all of you for being here. So many of you. I get emails all the time. I've been there since the beginning, and I'm just like, oh, my gosh, you're gonna kill my mascara. But I love you guys. Thanks for being here. I hope I need feedback about today because to me, this was a vibe. I'm here for it. So let me know what y'all think. Until next week. You guys go make something awesome. I love you so much. Bye. Bye. And that's a wrap on this episode of how to sell your 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.