Ep 188 | Scaling a Handmade Etsy Business, Working Full Time AND Raising a Family – with Tatiana and Matt Leach

Summary

Episode Summary: Scaling a Handmade Etsy Business, Working Full Time AND Raising a Family – with Tatiana and Matt Leach

Podcast: How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy
Host: Lizzie Smiley
Guests: Tatiana and Matt Leach
Release Date: July 3, 2025

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1. Introduction to Tatiana and Matt Leach

Lizzie Smiley welcomes listeners to Episode 188, featuring Tatiana and Matt Leach, the dynamic husband-and-wife team behind Tailored and Treasured, a personalized laser engraving Etsy shop. Tatiana shares their recent move to their summer home in Wisconsin to escape the Texas heat, highlighting the adaptability required to balance business growth with family life.

Notable Quote:
Tatiana Leach [00:58]: “It is so meaty. Like for the handmade seller, whether you want to go into laser engraving like this adorable couple or not… you’re about to just take away so much.”

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2. Transition from Print on Demand to Handmade Laser Engraving

Matt and Tatiana discuss their initial foray into print on demand (POD) and their decision to pivot towards handmade laser engraving. Matt explains his preference for creative control and higher quality products, which led them to invest in laser engraving equipment despite the increased time and effort required.

Notable Quote:
Matt Leach [05:51]: “I want to have more control over the timelines and the end product and the quality…”

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3. Balancing Full-Time Jobs and Family Responsibilities

The Leaches delve into their daily routines, illustrating how they manage their Etsy business alongside full-time employment and parenting two young children aged 5 and 10. Tatiana emphasizes the importance of setting boundaries and prioritizing family time, while Matt describes the logistical challenges of late-night production and fulfilling orders.

Notable Quotes:
Gloria [15:33]: “We really do the best, best that we can.”
Matt Leach [15:59]: “We both work full time. So we're doing this, like as a side hustle.”

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4. Operational Workflow and Handling Orders

Tatiana and Matt provide an in-depth look at their workflow, from creating and engraving products to packing and shipping. They discuss their use of multiple laser engravers to increase efficiency, the importance of quality control, and strategies for managing high volumes of orders during peak seasons like holidays and back-to-school periods.

Notable Quote:
Gloria [28:33]: “With two of those lasers, we've been able to operate very, very efficiently… our last holiday season we didn’t get behind and we had tons of orders.”

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5. Marketing Strategies and Scaling the Business

The couple shares their approaches to marketing, including leveraging Etsy ads and public relations to boost visibility and sales. Tatiana highlights the effectiveness of Etsy ads once a shop has established sales, while Matt mentions exploring Instagram and Pinterest to drive traffic to their upcoming Shopify store.

Notable Quote:
Tatiana Leach [04:00]: “Once you’ve got the basics down, you can flip on ads and really, really kick your sales into like it was…”

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6. Product Development and Design Choices

Tatiana discusses their design process, emphasizing the importance of data-driven decisions and staying attuned to customer preferences, especially those of children. They utilize software like Canva and Kittl to create SVG designs and continuously experiment with different fonts and motifs to ensure their products remain appealing and relevant.

Notable Quote:
Matt Leach [36:00]: “I truly believe in making database decisions. So I use E ring. I mean, the data a lot. So I'm always looking at the trends.”

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7. Overcoming Challenges and Continuous Improvement

The Leaches candidly address the hurdles they've faced, such as managing production during high-demand periods and fine-tuning their laser settings for different products. They stress the necessity of trial and error in optimizing their processes and maintaining high-quality standards.

Notable Quote:
Gloria [34:02]: “There's no quick, easy, hey, how do I engrave this. It really comes down to figuring out your settings and what works for the material that you're using.”

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8. Advice for New Etsy Sellers

Towards the end of the episode, Tatiana and Matt offer valuable tips for aspiring Etsy entrepreneurs. They encourage new sellers to "just get started," emphasizing the importance of research, understanding demand, and learning from successful shops. They also recommend starting with affordable equipment to test the waters before making significant investments.

Notable Quote:
Matt Leach [49:05]: “I would say just get started. … Find the product that you enjoy making and make sure there's data behind it.”

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9. Future Plans and Closing Thoughts

The episode concludes with Tatiana and Matt discussing their plans to expand beyond Etsy by developing their own website and exploring additional marketing channels. They express gratitude for the opportunity to inspire and assist other sellers in achieving their business goals.

Notable Quote:
Matt Leach [55:50]: “We're also on Instagram. Our handle is aileredandtreasured. And, you know, just come say hi.”

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Key Takeaways

• Quality Control and Creative Control: Transitioning from POD to handmade laser engraving allowed for greater oversight of product quality and customization.

• Efficient Workflow: Utilizing multiple laser engravers significantly enhances production capacity, especially during peak seasons.

• Data-Driven Design: Leveraging sales data and customer feedback is crucial in developing products that meet market demand.

• Balancing Act: Successfully managing an Etsy shop alongside full-time jobs and family requires stringent scheduling, delegation, and flexibility.

• Marketing is Essential: Combining Etsy ads with effective public relations strategies can substantially boost sales and shop visibility.

• Start Simple: New sellers should begin with affordable tools and focus on understanding their niche before scaling further.

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This episode provides a comprehensive roadmap for Etsy sellers aiming to scale their handmade businesses while maintaining a balanced personal life. Tatiana and Matt's firsthand experiences and practical strategies offer invaluable insights for both novice and seasoned entrepreneurs.

Transcript

[Lizzie Smiley]

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.

[Tatiana Leach]

Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. It's looking a little different behind me. We have migrated north to our summer home. The Texas heat was just getting up there. It was time. And so we are in Wisconsin until November. I am a very, very happy human. So we've got a different set. It's not as sexy, but my view is much better. So here we are. I'm so excited you press play on this episode. It is so meaty. Like for the handmade seller, whether you want to go into laser engraving like this adorable couple or not, if you are just like struggling with how are you going to balance this with your schedul? If you're wondering how you're going to work together with your spouse, if you're just wondering about how to kind of structure all of it. And like I said, laser engraving or not, you're about to just take away so much. These guys are so charming and they're sharing so much information, so I'm going to introduce you to them in a second. But in case you have not heard this before, I wanted to talk to you for a second about how powerful Etsy ads can be, especially for a handmade or giftable business like this. I'll tell you what, I use Etsy ads in my print on demand shop when I had it open and also right now in my digital product shop. And here's why. Listen to me. Because some of you are like, oh, ads. I'm not into ads. It's not my thing. The reason I want to talk to you about it is because when I had my sign shop, it took me about four to six months to kind of figure out what I was doing. And I scaled from $25 a month to about 6,000 to 8,000amonth. Okay. That was when I finally figured out like SEO and I just learned how to set up a listing and I had better pictures and that got me to where I was in the algorithm. I was making sales, adding new listings and I'm making like 6,000 plus a month. Then once the next thing I learned after figuring out how to set up my listing price, my listing, get good pictures, SEO. The next thing I started playing with was Etsy ad because I had a proven concept. So I recommend ads only when you've got stuff that's already selling because otherwise you need to be figuring out how to set up your listings better and learn the SEO and get a better product, whatever all that is. That's what you need to do first. Once you've got sales coming in, what I want you to know is that my 6 to $8,000 a month turned into 10 to $13,000 a month just by turning on Etsy ads. So you've got that. Once you've got those basics down, you can flip on ads and really, really kick your sales into like it was. It went from a aggressive part time income to a full time income. For me, if you don't know anything about ads, you want to start learning about it. There is a free ads masterclass. I'm going to be linking in the show notes. It was done by Hannah who is so, so good at the data. She's so good at ads, she's really good at breaking it down way better than I am. And so I just want to invite you if you want to start learning about this and you want to really like pour gasoline on, on the fire of your Etsy shop, you're going to want to go take that free masterclass and do it now during summer because then you're already going to have everything in place and you're going to know what to do in the fall when we're going into Q4 and everyone's sales are going are like growing, you're going to be able to take full advantage of that like at full speed. It's free. There's literally no catch. So check it out. Watch that free video and start learning about ads because it's going to be a really big deal for you down the road a little bit. The other tool that I wanted to kind of Put a bug in your ear about if you didn't listen to episode 177 with Gloria about public relations. I can't tell you how many of you guys have reached out to me because you've actually gotten media spots from the free advice on that podcast and from her. She's got a free masterclass on PR as well. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to have social media or anything. A lot of media outlets are looking to put together gift guides, like, you know, for, for different holidays. It'll be like back to school gift guides. There'll be Halloween gift guides, There'll be all of these things happening in the fall. Or they're looking to like, feature small businesses. And they love Etsy shops because Etsy stories are usually just so charming and a lot of handmade and all of that. And you can get your shop featured in some amazing places. Back in the day, I was able to get onto BuzzFeed and Huffington Post and I got a crap ton of sales from that. Okay. Like, it didn't cost me anything. I didn't have to do anything. You, like, send an email. So check out episode 177 to learn more about PR. If you want to start, you know, leveraging some of that without having to build social media without having to do anything special, it's literally just knowing who to email. And our girl Claudia can tell you, like, go through her free masterclass. She can tell you where to go. So just wanted to make sure you heard about that in case that wouldn't have been an episode that you would have automatically clicked on. Let's talk about Tatiana and Matt and get into their incredible story. So Tatiana and Matt Leach are the husband and wife team behind Tailored and Treasured, a personalized laser engraving Etsy. I cannot read laser engraving shop on Etsy. What began as a print on Demand experiment in 2023 quickly grew to a thriving business run out of their garage where they work late nights after putting their kids to bed. With no prior experience in design or business, they've learned everything along the specialize in heartfelt customized tumblers, water bottles and keepsakes. Nearly 4,000 sales and hundreds of five star reviews later, they credit their success to a deep love for meaningful gifting, a shared entrepreneurial spark, and a whole lot of caffeine. Oh my gosh. I love these guys so much. Please help me welcome Tatiana and Matt to the podcast. Hey, guys. Welcome to the podcast.

[Matt Leach]

Hey.

[Gloria]

Hey, how are you?

[Matt Leach]

Thanks so much for having us.

[Tatiana Leach]

I'm so Excited. And I get both of you. How did I get so lucky? This is so fun. Yay. I feel like you guys have it made, though. You've got this down to a science. And one of the reasons your story is so fun is that you're handling different parts of the business together. You're doing this as a team, and I can't wait to dive into it. So let me just. I'm just gonna lob questions at you, and y' all decide who's gonna answer. Like, in a time where so many people are gravitating towards print on demand and digital products and everything, that's a little more passive, you guys have gone hard on the handmade space. And I just wanna know what you love about hand made on Etsy.

[Matt Leach]

I think we initially. Well, my idea was to have a pod shop because I wanted to do the creative, the fun stuff, the designing. And when I discovered that somebody could print the products and ship them to the customer and that the tracking would be linked on the back end, and all I had to do was a customer service. And the fun part, I'm like, sign me up, you know? But then once he decided to join me, he was like, I want to have more control over the timelines and the end product and the quality. We kind of had different opinions, but he wanted to have more control over the quality in the whole process. And I think we've enjoyed doing that.

[Gloria]

We have. I think people. We live in an era where people want things and they want it quickly. Right. So not that we're. Our turnaround is like Amazon prime or anything. We're quick. But, you know, I think having full control over the handmade products that we provide really sets us up for good customer service. And really, I think the customers really expect that, number one. And I think doing your own handmade products, not that there's anything wrong with print on demand. We still try to do that and do quite a bit of it. But I think definitely having full control over everything is really important with. With the items that we sell for. For the majority.

[Tatiana Leach]

Yeah, I loved that feeling with my own handmade shop of just like, I know what I'm shipping out, I know what's going to arrive. I can't control the shipping piece, but, like, I know the quality. And I'm so with you, Matt. I love that as well. It just kind of gives you this extra confidence. You, like, feel really good about what you're sending out, and you feel like, wow, something I made is going to be in somebody's Home. This is so it's like there's a bit of a magic, a magical spark to it, but. Tatiana. Okay, so did you have to abandon your print on demand, like design dreams or what happened with that?

[Matt Leach]

I didn't completely, but I have kind of put that in the back burner a little bit. Just because, as you know, you've had a handmade business that takes up so.

[Tatiana Leach]

Much of your time.

[Matt Leach]

You know, the making, the shipping, the, you know, driving to the post office every day or, you know, messaging customers. You know, a lot of what we do is personalized. And I always send people like a free proof because I never want. For you.

[Tatiana Leach]

Yes.

[Matt Leach]

To get something in a font that you didn't like. Like, a lot of people will request a font and then once they see the name on it, they're like, oh, I don't like how the tea looks in that font, you know, so I always want to get people's approval. And that's probably what takes up the bulk of the time. It's just creating that proof and sending it to the customer and getting them to say, yes, that looks good or no, let's switch it just for lack of time. You know, we have two kids, two little kids, a 10 and a 5.

[Gloria]

Year old, and we both work full time.

[Matt Leach]

We both work full time. So we're doing this, like as a side hustle.

[Tatiana Leach]

Oh, my gosh.

[Matt Leach]

So, yeah, so I wish I had more time and I could do both because I see advantages to both. But, yeah, we're mostly focused on our handmade business right now. On the laser engraving.

[Tatiana Leach]

I have so many new questions for you that I did not even warn you about. First of all, Tatiana, did you this. I know a million people are thinking this. Did you open up a new shop when you started the engraving or did you add it in the same shop?

[Matt Leach]

I added the same shop. I switched the name because the initial name was very easy. And we'll just keep it at that. I won't tell you what it was, but we switched the name and switched the banner, the logo, everything, and we just kept going. I didn't have too many listings on that first shop anyway, but we just kept the same.

[Tatiana Leach]

And did you, did you take out the print on demand stuff or did you just leave it there and add to it?

[Matt Leach]

I left it there and I added to it. I did remove some of my initial listings because as you know, like, when you first start, your stuff is pretty bad.

[Tatiana Leach]

See, that's pretty rough.

[Matt Leach]

Some of the things I had in there, I was Like, I don't even know if I would buy this myself, you know. So yeah, it was more like experimenting, practicing how to create the listings. You know, there's so much to it. It was definitely good practice. But I did, I did remove a lot of my initial listings.

[Tatiana Leach]

Okay. I knew, I know people are thinking that. So I'm just like, we have to find out what she did because people get really worried about do I need to start a new shop, do I need, do I do this in the same shop? And I think that we overthink it. So I just having, you know, a practical example is really helpful. The other thing I want to ask the two of you is why you choose to do this when it takes so much work and effort when you have full time jobs and two kids.

[Gloria]

I think it started for her wanting to start an Etsy shop with the pod type materials. But I think we just, we both. She's very creative. I like to think I'm a little creative. You know, I just think it just sounded fun. It started probably more as a hobby. Hey, let's see what happens. And I think after we start doing the laser engraved items, it quickly turned into, you know, more than that. You know, I think just like anybody else who's trying to, to do an Etsy store, trying to make some side money, that's just kind of how it started.

[Matt Leach]

Right.

[Tatiana Leach]

Okay. So creative outlet plus more additional income.

[Gloria]

Sure, absolutely. Yeah.

[Matt Leach]

Summer camps and you know, little weekend trips. Yeah, we were never looking to like quit our jobs.

[Gloria]

Yeah, I don't think that's what was the intention. Although it's, it's, you know, eventually, you know, likely we'll come to a crossroad, at least for one of us, you know, because it is very demanding more on her part. But you know, when you get tons of orders in the queue and people want their items put out, you know, usually that means we're, she's out there packing items, I'm out there engraving items at 11:12, 1am at some times. Yeah, weekend. So it's just really trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together to make it all work. But it, you know, we quickly kind of realized this is more a hobby at this time. You know, fairly quick.

[Tatiana Leach]

Wow. Or even like bringing in someone for some part time help to take some of that off of your plate. Can you guys talk about something I hear a lot about from people who want to sell or who want to grow is. And you're going to, you guys are about to just debunk this whole Thing is, I don't have the time. And of course, it is a sacrifice, you know, like, we're making choices here. We're wanting to go on the trips, we're wanting to do the summer camps. We're going to make a sacrifice for it and then find joy along the way. But what, what does the schedule look like for you guys? You know, like, how many orders are you processing in a month and how are you getting them out? Like, talk us through your schedule.

[Matt Leach]

I think for some of the busiest months we've had, we've had around between like two to 300 orders in a month. You know, right now it's been kind of slow. But June, June is usually a slower month for us.

[Gloria]

And we just took about seven, eight or ten days off so that the store was closed. So there is a little bit of a lag. But generally, like she said, the higher months are extremely busy. You know, few hundred orders. I'm not sure what a. What would a kind of a mid month look like? I'm not sure.

[Matt Leach]

Right. I'd say about 100 orders.

[Gloria]

100, 150 orders.

[Tatiana Leach]

Okay.

[Matt Leach]

Yeah.

[Gloria]

And those are handmade items for the most part.

[Tatiana Leach]

So it's things that you're. You've got the base item and you're using the laser engraver to. To make it something special. So. So yeah. So what happened? Like, oh, my God. So are you doing any work in the morning? First of all, do you try to get anything done in the morning for the shop?

[Matt Leach]

Yes, we usually have to. So I have the, I guess the advantage that I work from home. I work remote. So not having to drive into work each morning saves me a ton of time because we kind of live out in the. In the country, you know. Yes. In the morning he takes our daughter to school, and then he goes to work. And then I take my son to his preschool, and then I come home and I usually have to finish packing orders for the day. I have all the labels printed off the night before, and I finish packing so I can put everything out so the postal service can come pick them up. And then around 8:39am I start my day and my regular job. And then around lunchtime, I just eat my lunch real quick. And then, you know, I check my messages. I'm responding to customer messages. I'm sending people proofs, you know, so when he comes home at night, he has stuff to engrave, so I have to have things ready. And then once the day's over for us, once. Once our work day is over, I guess we gotta, like, then we try.

[Gloria]

To, you know, feed the kids, enjoy the kids when, when they're up, you know, they're little, so they go to bed eight, nine o' clock, Ish. And then I think after that it's back at, you know, whatever house duties need to be done and Etsy stuff. Yeah, it's really just about finding all the, We've poured a lot into just any free time that we have into this. Doing our best to not try to do this during time when family's around, when the children are around, that sort of thing. To try to keep things separate the best we can.

[Matt Leach]

He's a lot better at that than I am, you know, setting boundaries. Because sometimes, like, if the kids are preoccupied, they're playing together, not killing each other, I'm like, okay, maybe I can just sneak in, you know, get on my laptop and, you know, do a couple of these designs and send them to people. And then he's like, nope. I try to give him stuff to do, he's like, nope, not until they go to bed. It's just a balancing act, you know.

[Tatiana Leach]

Do you take turns putting them to bed?

[Gloria]

We do, yeah. It's. Our oldest is 10, youngest is 5, so needs a little more assistance with things. But we, we try to kind of switch off and make sure we spend the time with them. We really do. It's important. We don't want anything to interfere with, you know, time with our kids. It really is important. So we, we do the best, best that we can. Now there is times that the little one will wake up and, you know, come into the garage and we're out there working. That happens quite often, but it is what it is. It's like, hey, man, you should be in bed. But they actually, they like to be helpful too. You know, on the weekends he enjoys taping boxes for us and he likes to do the little test. Yeah, he actually enjoys the five year old. Yeah, he feels like he's a part of it.

[Matt Leach]

And he likes the manual labor. Like he fights out him, like, sit here, put these boxes together for me. You know, the Tumblr boxes.

[Gloria]

He's like, all right, he'll do 20, 30 boxes. And then, hey, what, what else can I do?

[Tatiana Leach]

That is so cool. So you know what, though? I hear that again and again and again. Okay, so someone's putting the kids down. The other one's going out to the workshop slash garage. And Matt, that's when you're laser engraving. It's. It's in the evening and you're not even starting until after dinner, after the kids are in bed. You're not running that thing during dinner?

[Gloria]

Well, it depends, you know, if I'm doing items that might take a little longer.

[Matt Leach]

Like a wrap.

[Gloria]

Yeah, a wrap would take longer than just a simple design. You know, I might come home and set, you know, a couple of those up and come in the house.

[Tatiana Leach]

Okay.

[Gloria]

But if it's just simple, you know, one sided, two sided type things that really take, you know, because they, they're pretty quick. So it really doesn't help to, to start something that would only take a few minutes. So really, if it's only going to be anything that would take any amount of time that I would do that. But typically, no. No.

[Tatiana Leach]

Okay, and so then what, what are you doing during this, Tatiana? He's, he's engraving. You don't. You're like me. We don't even know how to turn that thing on. I'm kidding a little bit, but not. But not. But actually not. What happens for you during that time? You've already worked during the day. I'm just like, give the girl a break. She needs a margarita. But what do you do at that point?

[Matt Leach]

We really try to do just whatever we can around the house. And it's funny because I don't believe in balance. I feel like there's periods where our business is doing super well and our house is a wreck. Our kids are walking into the laundry room like, I need underwear. And then there's times where the house looks, looks okay, but, you know, the business is not as busy. So we just try to do the best we can at the busy times and the slower times. So if he's out in the garage lasering, I'm usually making the kids lunches. I'm cleaning up the kitchen, I'm doing a little bit of laundry, just doing whatever I can. And then once he starts getting caught up, he's like, all right, give me more, give me more. Then I have to get on the computer and I'm making sure that the customer that I'm sending the proofs to live in California. I'm like, okay, it's 10 o' clock here, but it's only 7 o' clock there, so they're not gonna be alarmed. Like, why is this person messaging me at 10 o' clock at night? You know? So I try, I try to send people proofs at night sometimes, even though I feel like I shouldn't be doing that, but I try to be mindful of their time zone at least.

[Tatiana Leach]

So, yeah, you're nicer than me. I have. I'm cranking it out when I can. You turn off your notifications if you don't want to hear it from me.

[Matt Leach]

That's what I said.

[Gloria]

Hey, you don't have to. You don't have to have your notifications on. Right.

[Tatiana Leach]

I know. Yeah. I mean, not to be. I'm. I like to be super considerate, but it's an international business. A lot of the times, you know what I mean? We have to just go, so. Tatiana, I love your heart. I feel like we would be friends. You're absolutely precious. When are you boxing stuff?

[Gloria]

She'll be out there, you know, when we're busy. We're engraving and packing at the same time, too.

[Tatiana Leach]

I mean, that's what I was wondering.

[Gloria]

Yeah.

[Matt Leach]

Yeah. And I. I'm kind of particular about my packing. Like, I don't.

[Tatiana Leach]

I was hoping. So please tell us all about it. We need to know.

[Gloria]

I'm not allowed.

[Matt Leach]

He can take boxes. He can close the boxes for me. But I like, I do the wrapping. You know, I wrap the tumblers in tissue and I put little stickers and, you know, nice little handwritten notes when I have the time. So I like to do that. I feel like I'm repping a special gift for somebody, you know, and then.

[Tatiana Leach]

Okay, so the stickers, are they for the. Are they like, branded for your business?

[Matt Leach]

I'm working on that right now. Right now. They just say thank you for supporting my small business.

[Tatiana Leach]

That's so sweet. Okay. Okay. Okay. Did you guys find boxes that tumblers fit perfectly into to ship in?

[Matt Leach]

We somewhat. We are very scrappy, and we do keep the boxes they come in. Unless they're in, like, horrible shape.

[Tatiana Leach]

Yes.

[Matt Leach]

I've been trying to look into sourcing.

[Gloria]

So the actual tumbler boxes, they're somewhat hard to come by, if that's what you're referring to or you're referring to the shipping box.

[Tatiana Leach]

All of it? I want to know all of it.

[Gloria]

Yeah. So we double box for as much as we can try to. To find the. The, you know, tightest fitting boxes for the shipping box and whatnot. We. Those are. Those are. We got pretty good at that, I think. Yeah. It's the actual tumbler. Tumbler box itself. Now, when we sell the brand name tumblers, they come obviously with real nice boxes.

[Matt Leach]

Usually we save those two.

[Gloria]

Yeah. But the. Yeah, the. Some of those boxes, the. The white, you know, kind of cardstock boxes, they're. They're kind of hard to come by in that particular size.

[Matt Leach]

Yeah. That's something we're working on currently. Just sourcing boxes now is even looking at putting some branding on them.

[Tatiana Leach]

Yes, cute. But then we're always watching the cost. Right. Like all of these little things add up but every, every inch of shipping box that you can like minimize, like get the right size, it just changes everything.

[Matt Leach]

Sure. Exactly.

[Tatiana Leach]

Oh my gosh. Okay, that's. So you have a full day and so those busy months, sometimes you're working really, really late at night and then getting up and doing it all over again.

[Gloria]

Yeah, I would say definitely back to school's very busy Mother's Day and obviously starting in November through the new year's extremely busy. Yeah, those are some late nights.

[Matt Leach]

We got really busy around the end of school year now with like teacher tumblers and maybe some graduation.

[Gloria]

The wine tumblers, the teacher 40 ounce wraps. Yeah, yeah. They sold very well.

[Matt Leach]

Just a lot. Yeah. And right now it's wedding season so we've been selling like bridesmaids and Mrs. Last Name, you know, with wedding dating grade, things like that.

[Gloria]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Smiley]

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[Tatiana Leach]

It sounds like you've done a really good job of diversifying to be able to hit different parts of the year. I could totally go down that. But I do want to ask you, I want to ask you about the weekend too. And I know, I know I'm getting into the nitty gritty and this sounds really mundane, but you wouldn't believe how many people sit there and they, they can't. They're not sure how to, how to set their schedule. They're not sure how they can make it work. And hearing you guys talk about it very practically. And this, by the way, the way you're talking is exactly what my husband and I did in the sign shop. Like we literally, y' all, we could be the same couple. Like, it's so funny to hear how you're talking through. You know what I mean? Just like how that trade off that. And it's even how we work now, even though we don't have a physical product shop. But me, you know, having our farm and having like living in two different locations and having the little kids and he's working a full time job and I'm, I've got the kids all the time because they're both homeschooled. But then I'm also running a very big business. Do you know what I mean? Like, it's, it's a lot. And so the way that you're talking, it's hard for me to talk through that for people because I'm not talking about the practical physical products. You know, it would be harder for people to conceptualize. Oh, I'm like, now I'm editing and now I'm doing Instagram content and now I'm writing show notes and now I'm doing, working on my Etsy shop digital and now I'm running the AI and now. You know what I mean? It's more practical here. Okay. We're running the engraver, we're boxing the things, we're doing the wrap, you know, these, this is so super helpful. Tell us about the weekend too. How do you structure that? And I mean, do you ever feel like the business is swallowing you whole in your down, in your personal time?

[Gloria]

Best way to describe it would be like a organized chaos. You know, that's, that's seven days a week. Weekends are nice. We have little kids, as we, you know, said, so they're involved in sports and activities. So you know, we have one child that does a competitive sport. So there's some travel involved with that. So there is a lot of Just life demands. I think that, you know, I think we. We don't necessarily set like a regular schedule, that it would never happen. Our weekend especially our weekends are just so different. But I think typically, as we lead up to those weekends, we'll usually kind of come up with a plan, like, we're gonna do this. We got to go here. Then we'll, you know, she'll say, I need time to pack some boxes or ship some orders, that sort of thing. So it's usually like more of a. I don't say last minute, but usually right before the weekend kind of come up with like, plan with. With the orders that we have and how we're going to handle them and how we're going to get everything out and who's going to do what with the kids and, you know, that sort of thing. And when are we going to engrave these 28 tumblers? We got to put out by Monday, that sort of thing.

[Matt Leach]

Yeah, and that took some trial and error, you know, because there would be times that we were so busy that, like I said, like, if we noticed that the kids were entertained, they're jumping on the trampoline outside. We're like, all right, let's get on the laptop. But then it's like they have these like, sixth sense. They know you're working, so they come inside and we're like, okay, we cannot both be working on this at the same time. Like, one of us needs to be with them. Even if you're not physically playing with them, even if you're just watching them play, you know, one of us needs to be outside with them while the other is doing something else. So we're usually like, taya, you're it.

[Gloria]

Yeah, that's a good way to put it. And then we just kind of calculate, you know, whatever travel we may have or just other obligations and just try to work around it again. It usually amounts to in the evenings, you know, that's usually kind of a time that's pretty safe, right?

[Tatiana Leach]

Do you, either of you travel for work?

[Matt Leach]

No, thankfully, no.

[Gloria]

No.

[Tatiana Leach]

That's nice. So let's talk about. We've already already shared that you make tumblers. What kind of machine are you working on? What do you talk to us? Give us the stuff. Matt, what do you guys use and what engraver do you have?

[Gloria]

So we're actually still using xt, Started with X tool, more of a hobby grade, just a little 10 watt laser when we just got started. I think that's probably what most people do. Not a huge investment. And I think that was 20, 23 summer time. Yeah. And that's when we really, you know, the tumblers really took off. So then I bought two more of them. Yeah. Because just the settings on those again, they're, they, they did the job but, but very slow, not very powerful, not much speed, that sort of thing. So ended up buying, you know, running three or four of them I think at one time.

[Matt Leach]

Yeah. And there was a, a specific Tumblr rep that we did on those lasers that took eight hours.

[Gloria]

Yeah, on that laser. Yeah, eight hours.

[Matt Leach]

So we would like set it in the morning. Set it and forget it.

[Gloria]

Yeah. Again this, this all happened very quickly for us. So we, you know, we bought a laser and like, like August and then by November we were having hundreds of orders a week at that time in November, like around Thanksgiving, going into Christmas and we definitely were not prepared.

[Matt Leach]

That was the craziest holiday season, which.

[Gloria]

Was good and bad because we like getting the orders. But during those times we were up to like two in the morning every night trying to fulfill them. So quickly realized we needed to upgrade the equipment. I actually stayed, you know, was looking at, you know, thunder lasers, that sort of thing. So we ended up getting two Xtool S140 watt lasers which are pretty equivalent to like a mid range CO2 laser. So that really did the trick for us. I mean two of those, you know, they're not sure what you'd know about the settings on those, but I mean they can engrave up to 600 millimeters a second versus the equipment we were using prior. I might have been operating at like 60 millimeters per second. So a cup that took 30 minutes before now takes like four minutes. So that's just.

[Tatiana Leach]

Oh my gosh, that's crazy.

[Gloria]

So with two of those. Yeah. We've been able to operate very, very efficiently. Even with hundreds of tumbler orders operating two of those lasers. I know you hear a lot about the higher end lasers which we, we definitely looked into right about, about this time last year, but just kind of decided, you know, what we have is it's working, is working for us. You know, obviously anytime you buy equipment, there investment involved.

[Tatiana Leach]

Yeah, yeah. How much was it Matt? How much do those run with the.

[Gloria]

Two that we have with the setups and everything that we, we have for two of those. I'm at, we're probably in the five to six thousand dollar range for two of them, which is what you're. Yeah, it's really not. And then obviously, you know, you look at higher end lasers, they go anywhere from 7, 8 to 30 grand depending on what you need. We don't do a lot of cutting. We don't really cut anything. But maybe just a little birch wood, three, four mill birch wood. We're not cutting metal. We're, you know, we're not fabricating anything. So certainly what we have, we don't do acrylic. Yeah. And that's the other. They're diode lasers, but they certainly operate power wise as well as a CO2. Unless yeah, you're looking at different materials like acrylic metal, thicker wood, you know, then you would probably definitely want to look at a higher end CO2 laser. And we still May next year. But certainly what we have works just fine for us. We've been efficient. I don't think even in the last holiday season we didn't get behind and we had, I mean just tons of orders and we stayed, you know, on track with everything.

[Matt Leach]

So I also, I want to give him credit because I feel like he's done a lot of testing on these cups and he's figured out that every cup, every brand, every color, even engraves different.

[Gloria]

Sure.

[Matt Leach]

So like he has different settings for a Stanley cup in the azure color for then like a rose quartz or black. They all engrave differently. So every time he does a cup, you know, I'm quality control. I make sure I'm like this one didn't come out as shiny. So we adjust the settings as we go and I feel like he's done great at that. Like if you see our cups, they're like very good quality. Unless we're doing like a completely new. Which happens.

[Gloria]

Which we would test if we. Yeah. So anytime there's a new color that comes out, typically it's going to be the same setting as another setting I use. But that's the thing about those materials, you know, that's. And I think probably somebody new that's getting started. One of the, you know, whether you're on a chat room or YouTube, people ask what's the setting for this cup? You know, nobody could give you that answer. Everybody's machine's different. I have two 40 watt waves. There's. They're even a little bit different and they're the same machine. You know, one of them has I don't know how many hours on it, but probably six months more of use than the other one. So.

[Tatiana Leach]

Okay.

[Gloria]

There is no quick, easy, hey, how do I engrave this? It really comes down to figuring out your settings and what works for the material that you're using. And as she was saying, what we found out very quickly, even a couple years ago, is it is not one setting for everything. Every. It could be a Stanley Cup. They could be different colors, they're going to be different settings, at least for. From my, you know, experience. But we've got them all dialed in, so they all come out great. There's a new cup we want to, you know, look into. Like, when the wallets came out, a lot of them were very similar. But yeah, it does. It just unfortunately, you gotta. You gotta pay to play. You know, you gotta. You gotta do some testing to really make it come out. You know, at least on these tumblers with that mirror finish, you really do got to play with the settings if it's something new. Unfortunately, just there's no easy, you know, one setting for everything. But it just takes time. And that's what I would tell somebody who's starting is you. You gotta. You gotta play with your settings and test, you know, your different materials. You can't just look that stuff up.

[Tatiana Leach]

Is there anyone on YouTube that you watched to kind of get a sense of things also? I'm just gonna prophetically say, matt, I feel like you need to start a YouTube channel talking about this stuff.

[Gloria]

If I had time, you know, if I had time because I am on, you know, some Facebook groups and. And I always say, you know, the question comes up and I tell her, people say, how do you. What settings do I use for this cup? You know, and it's not that easy. It's just not that easy. Unfortunately, you could have the same exact machine as me. You could live in a different climate. Your. Your laser is probably going to work a little differently than mine. So it just ultimately comes down to trial and error. That's what we did at first. And then when we got the new lasers, everything was different. I had to really do it again, obviously. So. But. But yeah, once you get everything dialed in, it's just a smooth operation, to tell you the truth.

[Tatiana Leach]

You just have to really have the patience to do that piece. But I feel like if you can get at least someone pointing you in the right direction, then you can play with your settings from there. So when you go full time, Matt, when you leave your job and you go full time in the engraving business, it would be her add YouTube as. Sorry, Tatiana, I was not trying to. I was not trying to make him say that. Let's actually. Tatiana, let's talk to you for a second because clearly, and we were talking before we even hit play, you guys should see if you're not watching this on YouTube. They're. They're staged in such a sweet area of the house. And, like, it's not like they do stuff like this every day. They literally probably had to take the day off of work to. To meet with me, but they're set. And I'm just like, yeah, but the aesthetics, like, Tatiana clearly has an eye for aesthetics. So talk to me about how you choose what to create. Like, design wise, how are you making these designs? How are you keeping it so relevant? Because the other thing that you've said, I mean, sure, there's slow times, but you've shown growth over the past couple of years. Like, you're clearly doing something very right. And I'd love to hear your insight on how you're making these choices. Yeah.

[Matt Leach]

So I.

[Tatiana Leach]

So cute.

[Matt Leach]

I truly believe in, like making database decisions. So I use ever be. I use E ring. I mean, the data a lot. So I'm always looking at the trends. You know, I also do things I enjoy. I love florals. I'm wearing a floral top right now. So we like to engrave florals on cups and those. Wow. Those sell well. I don't know if you can see that one. Yeah.

[Tatiana Leach]

Yes, it's beautiful.

[Matt Leach]

But I also love doing like kids water bottles. And my kids tell me, you know, the things that they like. My son saw like the new green Meadow Stanley and he sled that would be perfect for a garbage truck. And I was like, all right, let's do it. You know, we got him like a red yeti cup and he said, let's do fire trucks. You know, they tell me the types of things that they want on their cups and having kids, you know, what kind of fonts kids like and what's in. And we're just very careful not to use things that are trademarked and copyrighted.

[Gloria]

You know, people ask us.

[Tatiana Leach]

Sorry, we don't want to keep my house, but thanks.

[Matt Leach]

Yeah. So it's just, you know, I spent. I spent some time on Etsy looking what's selling and I spent some time in the data too, looking at how many sales, how many people are searching for that product and what's the competition like? You know, if there's a lot already hundreds of people selling this type of cup or design, then maybe that's not something that I want to get into.

[Tatiana Leach]

Are you creating SVGs or PNGs?

[Gloria]

We on the laser. I like SVGs. Obviously it's going to be your clearest image. We can convert things. So what happens A lot of times we get messages all the time with a customer that might say, hey, can you put this on a cup for me? You know, and. And it'll be the worst quality image you've ever seen. So, you know. Yeah, we really desire the SVG image. We can convert, but sometimes images are. You can only do so much with them. But when we create our own designs. Yeah, certainly we use SVG image.

[Tatiana Leach]

So what. What software are you using for that to create that?

[Matt Leach]

We do.

[Tatiana Leach]

Okay.

[Matt Leach]

My stuff in Canva, I signed up for kittl, but I'm still learning how to use that.

[Tatiana Leach]

Yeah, no, Canvas Canva is still my total jam. So. Okay, are you doing. Do you just create it in black and white then. And then export it as an svg?

[Matt Leach]

Yes, yes. And we found that there's certain designs that engrave better than others, you know.

[Tatiana Leach]

Okay.

[Matt Leach]

We kind of have an eye for looking at something and being like, oh, this is not going to engrave. Yeah.

[Gloria]

I think what you mean by that is how it looks on the tumbler after you engage engrave it, it'll engrave it exactly as it's presented. Just some things just don't look good on certain tumblers. I think that's what you're trying to say, certain fonts, you know, and that's a matter of opinion, I think, really. But I think more or less there's certain designs that don't look great on certain color cups too.

[Matt Leach]

There's also, like certain design elements that engrave very heavy. You know what I'm saying?

[Gloria]

Yeah, yeah. And then that's. I think over the. Over time, we've figured out if I'm. If we're doing this type of font, we need to adjust the settings a little bit. Again, that's just knowing how to use your laser effectively, though.

[Tatiana Leach]

I think this is so random. So if you. If you're testing things, Matt, do you just like. Do you have like a tester, a tumbler, and you just test a little bit of it and then you test another part of it over here and then. So. Or are you literally going to run the whole thing to see how it goes? I know that's such a ridiculous question. I'm so cur.

[Gloria]

I honestly haven't had to do that in a long time. But, you know, back when we were trying to figure certain settings out, basically you scrapped the cup at that point. So now instead of just doing the whole thing, not to waste the rest of the cup, I'll just do maybe one part of the design or one letter until it comes out the way I like it.

[Tatiana Leach]

That makes so much more sense, doesn't it? Like, it's, I'm sitting here thinking you're going through thousands of dollars of tumblers with this testing.

[Gloria]

No.

[Tatiana Leach]

You're just doing a little.

[Gloria]

No, we've, we've gone through some and you know, when we started. Yeah, we definitely went through some.

[Matt Leach]

And that was painful.

[Gloria]

It was, yeah, it was very painful. Unfortunately, there is no golden rule with settings. It's really unique to the, the laser, it's unique to the material color, that sort of thing.

[Tatiana Leach]

How did you guys come up? You really focus on like the giftable types of products. Obviously a lot of personalization, but giftable, have you found that to be a real sweet spot? What do you, what are your thoughts on that, Tatiana?

[Matt Leach]

Yes, I, I just love it. I love, I love Etsy. I love working with customers. I love that they have the ability to message me and let me know exactly what they're thinking, you know, and I just love how thoughtful some people can be and I love working with them to create exactly the perfect one of a kind item that they're looking for. On the other hand, you know, the personalized things are very time consuming. So we're also trying to get into, into more of the like B2B engraving logos, logos on cups, because that takes no time.

[Gloria]

Yeah. Which we've, we've done a lot of. Even in the early times, we, you know, that's the cool thing about Etsy. A company can reach out to you from Tennessee and want 50 tumblers for their air conditioning company. You know, we've done that and we've done that a bunch of times. And that's, I think, really something. Yeah. That we, we want to try to do more of. You know, we've done a bunch locally. I won't name the business, but we, we've done quite a few locally here.

[Matt Leach]

Yeah.

[Gloria]

And it's, it's really, I think as a somebody who's got a small business or Etsy shop, that's a really good way to get into a pretty profitable. Because typically a business is going to do that multiple times a year or they're going to say, hey, I need 54 of those or Christmas is coming, I need these for my employees, that sort of thing. So it's always something good to, you know, treat, you know, when you, when you have a business that's going to treat you good, they're going to come back. So.

[Tatiana Leach]

Yeah, they're usually lower maintenance too. Right. It's easier they're like, here's what I want, take care of it. I mean, you're not going to make as much per tumbler. Probably you've got to give them a bit more of a bulk price, but sure. Yep, no headaches.

[Matt Leach]

Exactly.

[Gloria]

Usually much easier. Yeah.

[Matt Leach]

Not as fun as creating something personalized with somebody, but it kind of offsets the amount of time that it takes to create something from scratch for somebody.

[Lizzie Smiley]

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. 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 six, six thousand dollars a month and up. And in the holidays, I would even have $13,000 months, 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.

[Tatiana Leach]

To start your shop.

[Lizzie Smiley]

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[Tatiana Leach]

How do you send a proof of a Tumblr to somebody?

[Matt Leach]

I can either send just a design, but I also like to, I like to get a picture. If you get a picture of the actual Tumblr and you put it in Canva, you move the background, you know, you can place that graphic or that image like on the table just to give them an idea. It's usually like black or gray, so it's not gonna look like the most realistic. But I just want to make sure.

[Gloria]

Just more for the sizing that.

[Tatiana Leach]

Okay, so I'm just like, I'm thinking, how are you in Canva putting it so it shows the curve of the, you know what I mean? Like the full wrap wraps.

[Gloria]

Yeah, we don't do the full wraps necessarily. I mean, there you, you can do.

[Tatiana Leach]

Like the front eight hours, right? I was wondering like you still do those eight hour wraps.

[Gloria]

Yeah, not anymore. Not anymore. Those don't take that long anymore.

[Tatiana Leach]

Usually when we had the sign shop, we, we sold a lot of like stained signs. They would be stained with like white lettering. And those were the hardest. And eventually I was just like, nope, I'm done. I can't do this anymore. So it's like, yeah, you figure out what works and what doesn't it.

[Gloria]

Yeah, and usually we have, we like to, for the Etsy store at least like to use, you know, real photos of. Not necessarily mock ups, but ones that we've done. So we'll make them as a gift for somebody else and use those as the photos. Unfortunately, our kids probably have about 20 Stanley Cups apiece because of that reason. But in my opinion, nothing better than showing a final product, a real product, versus just, you know, an image on a cup. Nothing wrong with that. But I think when you can show the final product in your listing. That definitely can give you some traction in terms of people not only seeing, hey, they have this design on this cup, but there it is. And that's how. That's how nice it looks.

[Matt Leach]

Yeah. I think it also helps to have that video. You know, we put it on this like rotating device and you can see it. And I think it helps to have a video for like ranking purposes anyways. Right. Having all the photos that you can have in the listing, having a video SEO, all of that.

[Tatiana Leach]

So where did you get the rotating guy for the photos?

[Matt Leach]

That's Amazon.

[Gloria]

Yeah.

[Tatiana Leach]

What is that thing called? Like, if someone was going to search for that, what would they type in the search? Ooh, now you got a little curious. Rotating.

[Gloria]

Rotating. I don't know. It's been so long since we bought them.

[Tatiana Leach]

Yeah, we actually, it would be for like staging. Right.

[Gloria]

Rotating photography. We've done festivals also locally here. We try to do like the fall festivals. Those are nice. They're, you know, very attractive. When you put a wrap on there and it spins and you have a light on it.

[Tatiana Leach]

Cool. Go back in your rotating photography stand for inquiring minds who are sitting there hearing, ooh, I want something that rotates and would not even know what to. I mean, same. We're sitting here like, I don't know what you type in to Amazon rotating photography stand guys products. I think that's so brilliant. I love that you take the time to. You guys, you guys are really special. You're very intentional. You're very thoughtful. You are just high integrity people. And I feel like, I mean, even myself, I'm often. I'm so rushed. I'm looking for shortcuts a lot. And I know we all are trying to be more efficient. I mean, you're looking for efficiencies, but you guys, where it really counts. You don't cut corners and you take the extra time to make it thoughtful and intentional. And it's extremely rare. So I just want to acknowledge that you guys are really a special couple.

[Matt Leach]

Thank you.

[Tatiana Leach]

You guys also, you need to see the way she looks at him. Oh, my gosh. How long have you all been married?

[Gloria]

15, 16, a little bit. Wow. A long while. 15, 16.

[Tatiana Leach]

She looks at him like they're newlyweds, y' all. It's the sweetest thing ever.

[Gloria]

17 years.

[Tatiana Leach]

Okay. Okay, lovebirds, tell us, people who are newer at this. What kinds of, what tips do you want to give them? What do you want to make sure we share?

[Matt Leach]

I would say just get started. You know, some People get so caught up on having the perfect logo, the perfect banner. Some people spend so much time trying to figure out like my shop name.

[Gloria]

Yeah, everything can be changed.

[Matt Leach]

I think you just need to get started, you know, get, get going. Find the product that you enjoy making and make sure there's data behind it. You know, there's demand. You don't want to try to sell something that nobody wants to buy. So make sure there's demand and make sure there's not too many people already selling it. So look at your competition and, you know, just do your homework. You know how they say success leaves clues? That's something that I did in the very beginning. You know, I looked at shops, they were selling just thousands and thousands of those tumblers and I'm like, what are they doing? Not that I want to copy what they're doing, but what, what kinds of designs? You know, what, what do their photos look like, what SEO are they using? You know, what kind of questions are they answering, like within their listing? So all of those things. Just, you know, just doing your homework is very important.

[Gloria]

Yeah. I think it takes time not to get discouraged if you aren't extremely successful right away.

[Matt Leach]

You know, it took us like four months.

[Gloria]

It took us a little while. Yeah.

[Matt Leach]

To, to somebody that was, wasn't a.

[Gloria]

Family member, a friend.

[Matt Leach]

Right.

[Gloria]

Yeah. But you know, in terms of equipment, if, if you're into wanting to, you know, begin, you know, laser engraved items, don't spend a lot of money right away. You know, there's plenty of good equipment out there to get started and just test the waters and see if it's something that you're even interested in. I love machines and tools and equipment, always have. So for me it was like, yeah, let me help you out with this business. I'll go buy a couple, you know, pieces of equipment and some tools and that's probably a little bit for myself too. But I enjoy it. I really do. I enjoy, I enjoyed figuring them out. You know, I enjoyed sitting out in the garage and figuring out why did that turn out like that. So, you know, just, there's plenty of, you know, do your homework, watch. There's plenty of stuff on YouTube, but at the end of the day, you know, learn what you can, but you also have to put in your own time with your own materials and figure it out. You know, you can't, you can't just learn everything, you know from, from YouTube. You can learn a lot from YouTube. I certainly did. But it also comes down at some point testing items and you Know, different materials, that sort of thing. But just do it. Just buy an inexpensive, you know, laser machine and go around with it, you.

[Matt Leach]

Know, and there's just so much, like we said, there's, there's so much you can do with a laser engraver. You know, you can engrave glass, you can engrave tumblers, you can do wood.

[Gloria]

You can, you can engrave paper. You know, I mean, it's.

[Matt Leach]

Oh yeah, I did it right.

[Gloria]

Yeah, you can cut paper, you can engrave paper. I mean there's so many.

[Matt Leach]

The possibilities are just endless.

[Gloria]

Yeah.

[Matt Leach]

You know, I see people.

[Tatiana Leach]

We got our second hand on, on Facebook Marketplace. Do you know what I mean? We didn't even like buy a new one.

[Matt Leach]

We. Right.

[Gloria]

I just sold all of our old equipment on there for someone kind of doing the same thing. One of the young, you know, college age kid, hey, I'm just gonna do some weather Pat chats. I said, this is perfect. That's, that's all you need. But it's, it's, it can quickly. Yeah, I mean, I think your, your demand should kind of dictate what, what type of equipment you purchase. Right. So I don't think personally there would be any real reason to spend X amount of dollars if, if the demand wasn't there. Right. So I think you just kind of test the waters and um, I think you have to enjoy it. If it's not enjoyable to you, it's might want to look into another, you know, medium or some other outlet on Etsy, I guess you could say POD or something like that.

[Tatiana Leach]

Do you think you'll pick that back up ever? Tatiana, will you go back to your print on demand eventually, you think?

[Matt Leach]

I think so. I think so. I've done, I've done a couple of designs for like specific niches that have done well and some of them were just kind of like accidental. Like a friend said, oh, can you make me a gymnastics mom shirt? You know, and I did it and you know, I ended up selling like 30 of them. 40 of them. Yeah. And I do enjoy that. Like I said, I enjoyed kind of like the lazy work, you know, doing, creating the design, putting it out there. Not that it's lazy work, because it is a lot of work to create a listing and mock ups and all of that. But once that's done, it's done and then the person purchases it. And some of it has personalized element, but a lot of it doesn't. You know, I had these mugs at one point that just sold like hotcakes. It was like A political design. And it was just the easiest money ever. You know, I would get that sale, be like, yes, I don't have to do anything. I just have to push, approve, and then somebody will make them and somebody will ship them. And I had, like, very little issues with quality with the provider that I had chosen, and it worked out great.

[Gloria]

Yeah, that was a good one. Yeah.

[Matt Leach]

It was almost like passive income, so I enjoyed that as well.

[Tatiana Leach]

After a handmade business where you get the Cha Ching and your work is just beginning, it's like print on demand or digital products. It's like, oh, my gosh, I don't have to do anything. I know.

[Matt Leach]

It's awesome.

[Tatiana Leach]

Yep. Yep. When you got those 200 orders in queue, you're grateful that they're there, but then 201 comes in and you're so. You're a little torn between. Between, like, oh, my gosh. You know, and yay. Like, there. It's. It's a Right. Am I right? It's a.

[Gloria]

We've definitely been there, I think. Where? Yeah. Like you said, you're excited, but you're like, oh, man, when is this gonna stop? Because I don't know how much more you can do. Just. Again, because of our situation, we work full time, so it can get pretty hectic, but at the end of the day, it's. It's. Etsy's been good for us. Yeah, no doubt.

[Matt Leach]

Yeah. Yeah. There's times where he'd be like, take everything off sale or increase the prices, start charging for shipping, you know, because I can't keep up.

[Tatiana Leach]

Yep. Push out. The turnaround time was a big one for me. You guys are amazing. Good job. Thank you.

[Matt Leach]

We're trying. You're so exciting. We love what we do.

[Tatiana Leach]

Where can people find you? Tatiana, I'm so sorry. I've talked over you, like, three times, and I have not intended to.

[Matt Leach]

Nothing is covering my leg, so it's all good.

[Tatiana Leach]

Yeah. Yeah. My Northwoods Internet is lacking a little bit compared to our Texas, so I'm so sorry. Especially everyone else who's yelling at me to stop interrupting. I know I've been such a jerk. I haven't meant to. But where can people find you guys and connect?

[Matt Leach]

So we are slowly moving, trying to move away from Etsy a little bit into our own website. It's TailoredAndTreasured.com. we're also on Instagram. Our handle is aileredandtreasured. And, you know, just come say hi. We're happy to answer any questions that anybody may have. And we're just grateful we get to do this. And if we can inspire at least, like, one person to get started on your business, you know, I feel like this has been well worth it.

[Gloria]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Lizzie Smiley]

How are you going to be driving.

[Tatiana Leach]

Traffic to the new shop?

[Matt Leach]

I think Instagram. Which Instagram? Pinterest. I'm trying to crack the code on Pinterest. I know it works well for a lot of people, and people make it sound like it's almost like you don't have to spend a whole lot of time in there. And I have noticed that I haven't done a whole lot on Pinterest, but I get almost as many visits out of Pinterest than I get out of Instagram, which I spend a lot of time on, you know, creating all those reels and all. But I don't know, the. The fee that we have to pay through Shopify is a lot less than Etsy, obviously. And I feel like once we start getting, you know, if we get big orders for, like, businesses and things like that, it's. It's worth it to just direct them to. To the website versus having to pay the. The Etsy fee and all of that.

[Tatiana Leach]

I think that's really smart for the corporate clients. That's a really, really smart way to handle it.

[Matt Leach]

Right.

[Tatiana Leach]

You'll have to keep us posted. Then when you go blow up your Shopify store, we'll have you guys back to tell us how that went, how that transition went, and how. How you're making that happen.

[Matt Leach]

Right. It may be. It may be crickets. You know, I feel like that's most people's experience, you know, you. You open your own website and nobody comes. So we'll see.

[Tatiana Leach]

Yeah, that. That Etsy Marketplace is. Is pretty magical, but it's. It's still doable. And you're right, you know, for your corporate clients especially, this is going to be great. And if anyone can crack it, it's you, ma' am.

[Matt Leach]

Thank you.

[Tatiana Leach]

You got this. This. Okay. You two are a riot. I love you guys so much. You're so charming. Thank you so much for being willing to come and share and help inspire the next. The next sellers coming on the marketplace. This is an extremely valuable, helpful episode with everything you shared.

[Gloria]

Thank you so much.

[Matt Leach]

It was our pleasure.

[Gloria]

Appreciate it.

[Matt Leach]

Thank you.

[Tatiana Leach]

Did you have fun?

[Matt Leach]

Yeah, it was a lot of fun.

[Tatiana Leach]

You guys are great. Okay, everybody, thanks for hanging out with us. We hope you're walking away inspired and encouraged and ready to start. Like Tatiana said, just start. It's never going to feel like the right time. And until next week, go make something awesome. I love y' all. Bye Bye.

[Lizzie Smiley]

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, 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.