← How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy
How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy
Ep 196 | Your Next Stream of Passive Income (Etsy Alternative) – with Erin Kendal
01:14:23
If you’ve been looking for an Etsy alternative, this episode is for you! This week I’m joined by Erin Kendal who built a full time passive income on Spoonflower by designing aesthetic digital patterns to be sold on wallpaper, fabric and more....
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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.
- [00:59]
B
Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited for you to hear this one. If you're in the digital product space or you are a handmade seller, even if you're in print on demand, this is just such an exciting conversation about a whole different platform that we can be selling the same products on the same art, that we're creating, the same patterns we're creating, we can be selling on this whole other platform. And I have just the best guide to introduce you to. I have a few announcements before I introduce you to Erin because we have really fun things coming up. I mean it is fall, we are approaching Q4. So to help you have the best Q4 possible, I am hosting a live SEO workshop. These always are extremely popular when I hold them because I show you my most recent and current SEO strategies, like the tools that I'm using, how I am using them, the best ways to get the best SEO so your listings get seen and sold and I will be just diving into all of that in a detailed workshop that's going to be on Thursday, September 25 from 7 to 8:30pm Central Standard Time and it will be recorded. If you can't make it live right now, there is early bird pricing for the next seven days. So if you want to get the best possible price on it, you're going to want to go down below in the show notes and click and get your ticket for that live workshop now and I'll see you on the 25th. The other exciting thing coming up is another round of trend spotting bonuses. So if you are not in the trend spotting membership and you've thought about trying it, you know, but maybe like summertime wasn't the right time but now, now you are, you know, hot and heavy in your Etsy shop. Starting on September 15th will be the first of five weeks of bonuses that week where I'm going to give you a niche bundle which is extremely valuable. It's going to teach you all about niches, it's going to help you decide what products to create next. It's just going to, it's just going to deepen your understanding of how Etsy works and how you can layer additional income by understanding the niches. Um, the next week we're going to do double opportunities. So every week right now, in addition to the trend report, I provide five products that you could create immediate. It's a mix of print on demand and digital products. Both the concept that you should create with the SEO to create it with. So for that week too you're going to get 10 of those instead of just five. So like actually over in the membership right now there are, gosh, I would say a few hundred opportunities already created ready so you get access to that library right when you get in there. Week three is going to be a Christmas specific trendspotting video. It'll be a bonus video in addition to the normal trend spotting. The next week will be five free design templates. So I will pick five designs that are trending that are being, they're starting to show up in different niches that you can go use that template to create, you know, for other niches, for other design styles. I'm using the templates and then the final one is going to be a mindset visualization audio. So so many of you guys love mindset content and I am just going to encourage the heck out of you with a visualization to help just bring your spirits up when you need it. So if you want all five of those bonuses, you are going to want to get into the Trendspotting membership before September 15th. That's the date that they will start and they will go out via email. And you can get your first month for only $17 when you use the code KEEP20 to sign up. So if you're in the membership you're going to want to stay in with these bonuses coming up. If you're not yet, you haven't tried it yet, this is the time to try start for your first month for 17 and get these bonuses. It's going to Be so much fun. The last time you did it, you all went bananas. So I'm really excited to do it again. Okay, now that I've just talked like a freaking auction announcer so fast, let me tell you about Erin because this conversation is a great one. You can probably tell by how long it is. Erin Kendall is an Aussie mama of two who recently moved her family to Portugal after building a thriving location independent career as a surface pattern designer. And now she's teaching others how to cultivate the creative success and freedom they dream of. Also, she spent 10 years testing different side hustles while stuck in an uncreative corporate 9 to 5, including running several Etsy shops before accidentally discovering Spoonflower and using it as the springboard to a business that transformed her family's life. Pattern and color obsessed, her work is used by brands worldwide, from wallpaper at Australia Zoo, to pet accessories, kids clothes, cloth diapers, swimsuits, and even gracing the pages of a quilting book. Girl, that is so cool. Through her Power Sellers Academy membership, Erin teaches practical buyer aligned strategy, equipping designers to build revenue streams they control. So we are going to talk everything Sunflower. We're going to introduce you to this amazing marketplace where you can sell your digital pattern designs on wallpaper and fabrics. And the options are amazing. And so. Okay, yeah, I just said all that. So please help me welcome Aaron to the podcast. Aaron, hi. Welcome to the podcast.
- [05:41]
C
Thank you so much. I'm excited.
- [05:44]
B
I am so excited. And everyone needs to know. We have to shout out to Leila Simon Hayes who came on episode 192 and mentioned you on and was just like, you know, who you need to talk to is Erin Kendall. And I'm just like and done. How do we set that up immediately? So shout out to Leela. Do you know her personally? How did that happen? What happened?
- [06:03]
C
No, she's a member of my Power Sellers Academy memberships. So she's a designer. And yeah, she's kind of joined it to learn from me. So yeah, I was, I was very excited to hear the shout out. She messaged me the next the next day and said, oh, I gave you a shout out.
- [06:18]
B
Okay. I was just like, I'm sure you're not listening to the podcast so she must have let you know.
- [06:22]
C
She did, she did. And now I'm a listener.
- [06:25]
B
Oh, that's awesome. You know what, she must be one of your star students because especially, I mean, I've only looked at her like Etsy stats, but she's crushing it. Like she is so Talented. Also, she's like, you'd. Okay, now that I know you, you would really like her. She's extremely cool. So. Okay, lots of love to Leela.
- [06:40]
C
I need to. I need to say, though, I can't take credit for her Etsy stuff. Like, I mean, some of it. She took my course, but I'm absolutely not taking credit for the hard work that she has put in.
- [06:49]
B
Oh, I love that you said that. Like, she. You know what? She's got a talent that is on a level we don't see every day. For sure.
- [06:57]
C
That's true.
- [06:58]
B
For sure. Okay, so we might need to have, like, a little. A little bubbly zoom date at some point if we all feel up to it. But. Okay, so this is way, way cool. And before Leela, I'd never even heard of Spoonflower, which you're going to be informing us about today. But I just want to start. What do you like? Let's just. Let's just start with, like, a hook, because that's our job in, in this industry. What do you want the whole world to know about Spoonflower? And you're speaking to people who've probably never even heard of it.
- [07:26]
C
Yeah. So Spoonflower is a. It's an online platform where independent artists can. Can go and upload their seamless pattern designs, which a lot of those are sold on Etsy. Seamless pattern designs. They can go and upload them there, and everyone can go and buy them on fabric. There's like 30 different types of fabric, home decor items which are all sewn by Spoonflower and wallpaper. So it's used by a lot of small businesses as a supplier. So if you've got, like, handmade businesses on Etsy or just on their own websites, they will go and buy Spoonflower fabrics because they're really unique. So Spoonflower has a saying, something along the lines of, there's a design for everybody if you want, I don't know, iguanas wearing sunglasses. You'll probably find that on Spoonflower. I probably should have checked that before I said it. But no, I love it.
- [08:15]
B
Someone will create it.
- [08:19]
C
One of my members can go and create it. But yeah, so it's, it's, it's funny because you sent me some questions, some talking points beforehand and you said, what do you want the whole world to know about Spoonflower? But I also want to talk to seamless pattern designers, because a lot of sellers, a lot of designers on Spoonflower think that the whole world already knows about Spoonflower. And so they often think, why would I Sell on Etsy. I've got a Spoonflower shop. It's a whole other audience and there is a whole group of people out there that does not know about Spoonflower. So it's funny that you say I've never heard of Spoonflower.
- [08:54]
B
Well, I'm feeling a bit dumb because literally I'm in the e commerce marketplace space and this could be me. You know, I am very tunnel vision. I'm very much like focused in my. But I sell digital products myself. And I can't tell you how often Etsy sellers are saying, is there somewhere else we can sell? And I'm just like, you know what, maybe one day I'll create it. And we're talking, you know, we talk about creative market, which is a little more, I think, fonts. That's always what I bought. There was fonts. But I know they have other digital products, but it's limited. And then we have other kind of competitors to Etsy, you know, Michael's maker place and go, imagine there's a few out there, but they're just for handmade. So then kind of the digital people are kicking. So it's really, really fun to. To know there's this whole their space. And can you help me understand more like who's shopping on Spoonflower? You did address this, but I just want to go deeper into it because I don't get it. I'm like, I'm thinking interior designers. I'm thinking like, who are these people?
- [09:51]
C
Yes. So let me.
- [09:53]
B
How many of them are there? Like, how big is the audience too? Like, that's the other thing is like, how many, you know, what's the reach happening?
- [09:59]
C
It's good, it's growing. So let's backtrack a bit to the types of designs. Let me take control of the injury now.
- [10:08]
B
Please do. I love it.
- [10:10]
C
So it is for seamless patterns. So it's not just for any digital art. On creative market, you could be selling clip art and things like that. And on say, Society 6, another print on demand platform or Zazzle or Redbubble, you can sell kind of spot prints, which is like just an illustration or something. But on Spoonflower, it has to be a seamless, repeating pattern. Okay. So the people who are buying those, lots of end consumers use spoon flower. So they might just be buying for themselves. They might be buying fabric for a project. A lot of soloists, obviously. But the best thing about Spoonflower is they do have a lot of small businesses shopping on the platform, which is how us designers can create a monthly, like a Sustainable monthly income.
- [11:03]
B
Okay.
- [11:03]
C
So because relationships with them. So there are, like you said, interior designers coming to Spoonflower to buy wallpaper. And they have a lot of commercial fabrics and interiors fabrics, like upholstery fabrics. And like I said, because the prints are so unique. And the point of difference from with Spoonflower, as opposed to going to a big wallpaper brand like Schumacher or something like that, is that you can get in touch with the artist. You can get designs resized. You can get them. You know, not every artist does it, but there is that option to get in touch with the artist and so get things. Maybe even request a design, request to scale, request a color. So it's a lot more customizable. And they have lots of substrates. And also the pricing is really good for the interiors market. But then, like I said, there are also a lot of Etsy sellers and handmade businesses that buy the fabrics from Spoonflower and turn them into, like, baby headbands and kids clothes and makeup pouches and anything that you can think of. Little kids shoes, swimsuits. Yeah. So really, there's a broad spectrum of buyers coming to Spoonflower, and then I can't tell you how much traffic they get, but in 2021, Shutterfly actually acquired Spoonflower. I don't know if you've heard of Shutterfly.
- [12:23]
B
Yeah, absolutely. The photography where you can get your prints, right? Photo prints, yes.
- [12:28]
C
Yes. So they acquired Spoonflower. Spoonflower had been operating for, I think, 12 or 14 years. I think before then, they were a startup, but they obviously needed a bit of a cash injection to really take it to the next level, I think. And it's been a tricky transition for a lot of artists because the old Spoon Flower, as we might refer to it, was very intimate. You know, it's kind of like a family. And Shutterfly, it's a bit more of a corporation. So anyone who's worked in the corporate world myself, we know it's a little less intimate. So it's been a bit of a transition for a lot of designers, but a lot of great things have happened since the acquisition. You know, the whole. The website has just been improved for the customer experience. And, yeah, a lot more traffic, a lot more money to spend on marketing, I think. When I looked at ubersuggest. Have you ever heard of. Do you use ubersuggest?
- [13:23]
B
I haven't used it. I've heard of it. Yeah. I don't know how it works at all.
- [13:27]
C
You can. It gives you an idea of the organic traffic, going to a site. So I think Spoonflower, last time I looked was around 3 or 4 million, which for great competitors, I guess, which are kind of smaller print on demand sites. It's, it's pretty good and obviously they're always trying to grow it.
- [13:46]
B
Are you having your students like as part of their business plan, actually do their own marketing as well? Not just depend on what's happening on Spoonflower, but be doing social media, email outreach, all of that kind of thing?
- [13:57]
C
Yeah. So you can again, like Etsy. So I have been an Etsy seller. Like Etsy, you can sort of rely on the platform a bit and you will get some sales because they bring the traffic there and it's a search based discovery platform. So customers come to the platform, enter in a search query into the search bar and then all our designs are returned. But obviously you're going to find you're going to generate your own success, really if you are doing your own marketing outside the platform as well and trying to drive your own sales and build relationships and things like that. But you can still make sales just relying on the platform. But if you really want to get your business going, you want to be doing your own marketing as well. So yes, I teach all of that.
- [14:40]
B
I think that's so, I think that's so cool. I love though that there is a bit of that organic traffic that you can sort of build off of because in the beginning these sellers tend to be very overwhelmed with like all of the, all of the pieces they have to figure out. Do you know what's so fun, Erin? A lot of my listeners create seamless patterns for Tumblr wraps and they sell it as a PNG file on Etsy. And that's such a natural transition into what you're talking about. Tell me about like, okay, so we have an idea of what they will, the products they'll produce. What's the quality? Like, I mean, when I'm thinking of print, like print on demand for us, we, we use Printify most often and you can get a really high, you know, high quality comfort colors T shirt or you can get kind of a mint kind of more generic T shirt and you have a choice. And of course the price is going to be. So talk to me about like the what that looks like on Spoonflower and what they're creating.
- [15:32]
C
Yes. This is a contentious topic as well and I love it. Okay, good too. I love, I love kind of talking about all this stuff because these are things that designers can get, in my opinion, too caught up in. Yeah, it doesn't matter too much. What we, in my opinion, so not everyone has to agree with this. I feel if you are looking to grow a creative business, this is coming from me, who is someone who was stuck in a corporate career desperately wanting a creative day job. So I really pushed aside my ego on a lot of things to make that happen. So I didn't sell out or sell my soul to do this. But there are some things that I don't really concern myself with. So I actually started out as a maker and using Spoonflower as a supplier for my fabrics. And I know that there will be some people in the camp of Spoonflowers. Fabric quality is no good. And then there are other people who think it is just fine. And if you. They have Etsy stores as well, Spoonflower. So they have massive Etsy stores that have had, you know, over a million sales. And you go and read through the reviews and there are a lot of five star reviews. So who am I to say that the fabric quality or the wallpaper quality is no good when there's a whole bunch of people out there who are happy enough with it? So. So print on demand is a bit tricky because you know the quantity that gets pumped through you. There's a lot of quality control that I imagine, like with colors, it's a bit tricky to keep them consistent all the time because you don't have with a pantone deck, it's just not viable. So that is something that designers, they get like some samples printed of their designs and they think, oh, I don't love the colors, but no one has anything to compare to. So it's. It's really a bit of a mindset. So I would say there is nothing wrong with the quality. Quality is obviously subjective and they have a lot of customers who are completely happy with the quality. So I say it's none of my business. I just create the designs. And if people are happy with the quality, then that's up to them.
- [17:46]
B
Well, I think as an artist and a creator, we have a decision to make. It's just. And you articulated it so beautifully. It's. Are we going to get caught up in all the reasons why we can't make it work, or are we going to find a way, a path forward to how we can make it work? And if you're just simply someone who gets a sample and doesn't like it, go use something else. You're going to have more steps, you're going to have to go do a lot more manual work. But if that's something that feels really connected to Your brand and your vibe. There's a place for that. There are people who shop at the most expensive boutiques and they don't buy a shirt that's less than $10,000. And there's me, who very happily bought a T shirt at Walmart last night for 497 and. Right. And so I'm just like, there's no right or wrong. Just decide what's right for you. But if it is, if the problem is between your ears and you are just looking for ways to self sabotage by coming up with excuses and reasons why you can't make it work, we have a different conversation to have. And as your coach, that's my job, to have it with you and let you decide. Because I don't need to control your choice.
- [18:46]
C
Yeah, I want to. I teach in a very similar way. I will give you the information, but I'll never tell you what to do because our businesses are different and I just want you to have the information. I'll kind of try and get you to think in some different ways rather than, like you said, all the reasons why not to do it. Okay, well, here is the opposite view to that.
- [19:07]
B
Well, you know what it sounds like to me, and again, I'm someone who, I am not familiar with Spoonflower at all. I will say that Leela, who I trust because I ordered several products from her, I'm very happy with the quality. I did just say I'm happy with a 497t shirt from Walmart, but I have, like, there's also a time I also, it depends on the, on the application, you know, that's not what I'm wearing to a wedding, you know, so I thought, I thought, I didn't order anything. I think that came from Spoonflower, but her products were very, very good quality, like extremely good quality. And she, she said on the podcast that she thought that it was really good. And I will say this, it sounds like, as someone who doesn't know, it sounds like you go to Spoonflower for a bit of a more unique artistic expression. Maybe you go to a different supplier if you want a different texture or. You know what I mean? Because we're talking about wallpaper, we're talking about the fabric on your chairs. I mean, durability is going to be the most important. You know what I'm saying? So I'm just saying, like, maybe Spoonflower is where you go for the more creative artistic expression, which objectively is the better place for us as well anyway.
- [20:07]
C
Yeah, but I mean, I will say that I think the quality is really good and I do read a lot of reviews about the wallpaper and stuff from interior designers, and even they say the quality is really good. So it's just so objective or subjective. But I do like to have that conversation because. And like what you see on screen as a designer with your colors and things.
- [20:29]
B
Yes.
- [20:30]
C
Yeah. And they have just gone through a color printing upgrade and so the colors have changed. And this can happen from time to time with print on demand. And so people who are already buying from the platform, which was small businesses, the colors are printing a bit differently, which does make it difficult for them because now the, you know, when you're selling on Etsy, you're taking all these photos of your handmade products and if you've got to go and take them all again because the colors have changed, but that doesn't happen all the time. You know, that did happen maybe five or six years ago and now it's happened again. But ultimately I think you would say that the resounding results, or what most people would say is it's good quality.
- [21:08]
B
When there's, you know, so many different applications of this on Etsy where a. You're literally putting a graphic in your photo gallery saying, like, colors may appear different on different devices, different screen, you know, like, however much light you have, the brightness. Oh, see. Okay. So we, Aaron and I were talking before we started recording about how we both lose our train of thought due to ADHD undiagnosed. And that literally just happened. Oh, I was going to ask, do you. Does Spoonflower specifically give you a suggestion about, like, design in, like, cmky? Did I say that right? Or, you know, which, which, which one should we use?
- [21:41]
C
No, it has to be RGB and they recommend 150i, but you can upload higher. But yeah, anyone who is creating a seamless pattern for any product, if it repeats on all four sides, you can upload that to Etsy and you can get more out of your design that you've created for these. Why not give it an opportunity to make, you know, sales on other products?
- [22:05]
B
Absolutely.
- [22:06]
C
And you handle nothing to do with the transaction. So unlike Etsy, Spoonflower handles the whole transaction. All that you do is upload the design to your shop, add your title, add your keywords as you do on Etsy. Yeah. Go and do your own marketing. And then Spoonflower does all the handling of the transaction.
- [22:22]
B
So that's really for people listening who may have more of a grid that's really more like a red bubble where you're just putting your design on products and the customer is Redbubble's customer. They're dealing with all of it. They're just using your art and giving you a cut, as opposed to print on demand, where it's your customer via Etsy. But Printify is just producing the product for you. Just like if I was making furniture, but I had a manufacturer who was building it for me. So that's really. That's actually really interesting. So talk about, are there then, are there fees and things like that? Like, are there setup fees? Are there transaction fees? How does that work for Spoonflower?
- [22:56]
C
No, there used to be. So you used to have to pay to proof each of your designs. And the idea was you would check the colors, you would check that your pattern repeats properly, but really in the small swatch of fabric that you got, you couldn't really check those things. So now, recently, one of the big changes has been they've moved to digital online proofing in the site. So you can check that your pattern repeats properly, check for issues and things like that. So that has removed that kind of barrier to entry. Really the only thing now is they cap you to 50, making 50 designs for sale a week, which is a lot. That is a lot.
- [23:36]
B
That's actually.
- [23:38]
C
But people do. But it's not necessary to do that many. But that's kind of how they're trying to manage it. So when they first brought that in, they capped it at 25 designs. And we were all like, whoa, that, that is not enough. And then they doubled it. So 50, that is a lot of leeway.
- [23:56]
B
That's pretty great. So she's, she's saying, guys, that you can only add. Like, if it was Etsy, you could only add 50 new listings a week, which most of you wouldn't do anyway. But that's okay. I think that's a perfectly reasonable. And then, so what is. How do they determine, Are there, like, tiers for how you. How much commission you would make per purchase?
- [24:13]
C
No. So everyone starts out with the base commission of earning 10% of what the customer paid at the checkout, minus shipping. And then there are bonus tiers. So As I said, 10 on what the customer pays. And then Once you've earned $300 in commissions, you hit the first bonus tier. So then you get paid 11% on everything within that month. And then the next one is a thousand dollars. And then you get paid 13%. And then once you hit the top commission, bonus commission tier, that's you get paid 15% of on every purchase. Made within the month. And it means that you would be earning a minimum of $2,250 for that month.
- [24:55]
B
Okay, that's such a nice. Because guys, remember you. All you do is design and maybe some marketing, which is suggested you, you are not dealing with. Did this ship out? Like, did it ship out with a problem? Did you know customers not DMing you like, where's my package? Or they're not telling you there's a problem. You know what I'm saying? They're. Spoonflower is dealing with all of that. So you are literally just getting paid for your art.
- [25:18]
C
Exactly, exactly. So I want to say it's passive income, because you can get to a point of passive income. So at the moment I would say, I would say that that is where I am at because I have this membership and really all of my energy and time goes into the membership. I'm not really actively designing anymore. I'm not actively marketing. I'm not actively seeking out new customers. Whereas if I didn't have, if I wasn't teaching, that is what I would still be doing. So you wouldn't really call that passive. But I have basically stopped everything and I'm still earning a very healthy sum each month. So you can kind of set it up, invest, you know, that took a few years to build up, but invest some time building it up and then once that's ticking over, you go and do other things, you know, you go and seek out other income streams. Or you can do it concurrently, if you can see, set up a bit of a workflow to do your Etsy listings, then take that same seamless pattern, upload it to Spoonflower. You've already got your Etsy keywords. You can use a lot of those same keywords on Spoonflower.
- [26:26]
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.
- [26:40]
B
With where you're at.
- [26:41]
A
I know how stressful and frustrating 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, 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.
- [27:41]
B
So tell us a little bit about your story. How did you find out about Spoonflower? What did those early days look like? I would love to just get get that background because now you're like the og but what, what was it like in the beginning?
- [27:53]
C
Yeah, well I do, I do love my story because I from when I was little I always dreamed of having a creative life. I just didn't know how I was going to do it. And I was terrible at school because like I said, I think I have undiagnosed adhd. So I did terribly at school, was terrified of failure so wouldn't even try things. Didn't study art at school or anything like that. Anyway, I ended up working at the Australian Taxation Office, which is as uninspiring as it sounds, so nothing creative. But my mom had taught me to sew like very basic sewing when I was like 8 and got my first sewing machine and I, I found this book of how to make your own softies. And so this is like 2010 and so this was a big thing, one of a kind softies. And so I started making them from fabrics that I'd gone down to the local store and started making these. One of a kind softies. So terrible business model. One of a kind handmade, not really scalable and started selling to my friends. And then somehow I've come across Etsy. This is back in the days when Etsy was all handmade and people would flag you and you almost had to, I think some people had to show receipts that things were handmade. It was full on before it went public. So I started selling my little softies on Etsy and that's kind of how I learned a bit about, you know, a search based platform and titles and keywords and tags and things like that. And then by Chance. I can't really remember how I ended up. I think, oh, that's right. Somebody had. People were requesting that I make because owls were all the rage back then. They really wanted me to make our heat packs. I know, I know. Owls and chevron, that's what it was all about back then. So they really wanted me to make these owl heat packs. And I didn't know how I was going to do the, like, the owl face. And so I was googling and googling and googling and I came across this blogger website, good old blogger. And it happened to be another Australian woman who was an upholsterer. And she had a little in the side of her blogger. She had a link to Spoonflower by my fabrics. And I was like, what? And so I clicked on it and it took me to Spoonflower and I discovered this whole site where I could design my own fabric. And I was just. I couldn't wait. I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it. I was it just a whole thing for me. And so I got to work and I started designing them. And I ordered place my first order with spoon flour. It got lost after five weeks. I said, where's my order? So they shifted again and it arrived and I opened my order and everything was half the size it was meant to be. It was miniature because I hadn't. I didn't understand like how to size everything properly and I didn't know what DPI was and all this stuff. So I made baby rattles. And they. They actually sold really well, but I just couldn't. It was a good little handmade business, but I just couldn't scale it. And Instagram had just kind of started, but it was all about taking photos of your breakfast. And then I went through a big change in my life. Lost my mojo for three years. Came back and Instagram. Instagram was all about businesses. I felt like I was getting left behind. Started up my Etsy store again and I was actually making handmade jewelry as well. Laser cut jewelry, that was all the rage. But then I slowly transitioned. So I started my handmade business up again. Slowly transitioned from just creating fabrics to use myself and started marking them for sale on Spoonflower. And people started buying them just by randomly finding them on Spoonflower. I wasn't marketing them. I actually didn't want to tell anyone about them because I wanted to use them for my business anyway. So I started to see some little commissions come in. And then one month I hit the first bonus commission. So I actually think I went quite a Bit over it. I was like $435 or something. And so I got paid US$43, which as an Australian, it's, it's, I need to clarify. US dollars is almost double Australian. So earning 45 US dollars, I was like, oh my goodness. I was telling my boyfriend I just got this money for nothing. And that's when I really learned about passive income. Because I was at my sewing machine making everything by hand. I was taking all the orders through Shopify and Etsy and oh my goodness, I hated going to the post office. And I just said, whatever this is, this is what I need to turn my focus to. And then in a full circle moment is on, you know, I started to really focus on it, started marketing it. Full circle moment. The woman, the upholsterer who I found spoonflower through now buys my fabrics from time to time off spoonflower to upholster her chest. And I've interviewed her for my membership and everything. Like full circle moment played out over 10 years because all this took about 10 years with a 3 year sabbatical. Lost my mojo. And I just, I just love the story because it's just so cool to have those full circle moments. And you know, things happened like iPads came out. You never know what there is to come. So like I didn't know that iPads were going to be invented and make the whole process easier and things like that. So those things that I didn't even know were going to happen really changed the trajectory of my life and completely changed my family's life. You know, I was able to retire my husband from what I was earning on spoon flour and then started teaching about it, which I absolutely love. And yeah, it's just, I still can't believe it. So because I worked for 15 years in a corporate job, I just to wake up every day so thankful for what I have and just going, I can't believe this has happened. I mean I can because I worked my butt off.
- [34:00]
B
Yeah.
- [34:00]
C
But yeah, now I want to help other people do it.
- [34:03]
B
That's. See and that, that was me too. It's always just like as soon as you master something, I'm always looking like, how do I pull especially like more women up with me? There are, there are too many others who feel the exact same way. We were not. I believe that like when I think about like the, even just the hormone cycle of a woman, not to go totally, but off of the reservation. But when you talk about, you know, adhd, a lot of it can be like, you know, perimenopause you look way too young right now. But I'm in that. I'm 43.
- [34:31]
C
I'm 45.
- [34:32]
B
No, you are not. You guys, she's a. She's a goddess in December. You're about. When's your birthday?
- [34:40]
C
December 18th.
- [34:41]
B
I'm the seventh.
- [34:43]
C
No.
- [34:44]
A
Yeah.
- [34:44]
B
Are you a Sagittarius or are you.
- [34:46]
C
Yes. No, I'm Sagittarius.
- [34:49]
B
Oh, my gosh. Okay. I'm. I'm just like, chills. Okay. But this part is all making so much sense. Right? Okay. Sorry. I just made you share your birthday.
- [35:04]
C
It's so funny, though.
- [35:07]
B
I have no filter. Can you tell?
- [35:10]
C
I'm very candid. Don't worry.
- [35:12]
B
Perfect. Yeah, you definitely could have said, I prefer not to share that publicly. I just have no. I have no filter. Elizabeth. Claire.
- [35:21]
C
I don't even.
- [35:22]
B
And I don't know what I was going to ask you. It was going to be so great.
- [35:25]
C
Hormones. But it's funny because hormones do. They do play such a part. Even now I know when I'm. I'm guessing most of your audience is. Is female.
- [35:35]
B
I would say like 70%.
- [35:37]
C
Okay.
- [35:37]
B
Because the week before anyone else listening, it's. They'll help with their wife or their daughter. They'll get. It'll help them. So still talk about it.
- [35:43]
C
So, you know, the week before things are meant to happen, I'm always mega depressed. I'm like, that's it. We've got to go and get jobs. And just completely irrational. And then I know I've just got to get through this week because I think I know it's going to happen next week and we'll all be back to normal. Everyone, it's okay. Just ignore everything I'm saying.
- [36:06]
B
But try to put that. I just remember in. In a corporate setting, that grind of that schedule against my natural just energy cycle and ability to cope with all of the other responsibilities there. So my point is, when we as women break through to another level of income and freedom, more importantly even than the money, to me is the time freedom. Because I wanted to be home with my kids. You know, I don't. Not homeschooling them. They're online. I have help. I'm not trying to do all everything, but I wanted to be the primary person that raised them. I also wanted to earn income. And I am not someone who can. I almost wish I was, but who can just get lost in motherhood and be very happy with that. Some women just do that so well. I have to be able to step away and Challenge my brain with business. It's just how I'm wired. But there are so many other women still out there. Like who? And they have it in them to find a different way. They have the interests, they have the passion, they have the intelligence, they have the drive. They just need the pieces because they. What they don't have is the capacity to go start from the beginning. Which is why I think it's like, you know, really high integrity. People like you and me need to be willing to share, even though it means, you know, in both of our cases, stepping away from doing as much in the platform as we used to. But we. We can't do it all either. Right. We've got to be able to. We can either serve the audience or we can serve ourselves only. So I literally just went off the reservation again. Wasn't going to ask you. You know what I want to know. This is completely random. Does Spoonflower have a problem with AI generated or the help of AI generating designs?
- [37:32]
C
Well, again, problem is subjective. So AI is really. It felt like it came out of nowhere. Would you agree?
- [37:40]
B
I mean, yes and no, right? Yeah. Yes and no.
- [37:43]
C
So this is not something that I think the platform ever forecast was going to come about with the verocity. Velocity. Velocity. So I think they're really trying to navigate how to handle it. It is allowed on the platform. Anyone who's an artist on the platform will. Tends to frown upon it.
- [38:04]
B
Sure.
- [38:06]
C
So I think they're trying to figure out how to navigate it at the moment. It's. There's no requirement to mark whether it is AI. Like, I would at least like to see some sort of label to disclose. This has been created using AI, But a lot of it is very obvious because it becomes quite generic. Yeah, a lot of it's pretty obvious. But there are people out there who do not want to buy it. So I think they would appreciate labels as well. So they don't accidentally buy it. But it's not allowed in Spoonflower Design challenges. So they have a design challenge. Most weeks you're not allowed to enter AI art or clipart or anything like that. You have to create your own art for the design challenges.
- [38:51]
B
It's actually really interesting you say that. So Etsy. Etsy is fine with the AI, but you do you actually have to label it twice? You have to. When you're setting up the listing, you have to click a button saying, this was made with the help of AI. And I was reading through the fine print the other day. You also need to have it in your Listing description to say this was made with the help of AI and, you know, I think you're right. Some people do it really poorly, but then they typically don't get the sales. You know what I mean? Like, the marketplace pays for value. So, you know. But when you learn how to do it really well and you learn how to do it in integrity, where you're not just copying, you know, actual art that someone sat down like, like Leela who, you know, literally set up hours and hours of work to create, I don't think. I think that those are two completely different applications. Do you know what I mean?
- [39:36]
C
Like, it's tricky because, you know, it's been trained on other people's art. So that's.
- [39:43]
B
Yeah. Right. Depending on which platform you use, because.
- [39:47]
C
Everyone'S got opinions on it. So, yeah, it is allowed on Spoonflower, but not in design challenges.
- [39:55]
B
Okay, well, I'm just going to tell everybody, if you do sell it on Spoonflower, make sure that you put in the description that it was made with the help of AI Because I believe that's actually like a law. Like, I think our attorney has said that we. That that's actually part of. Part of what's come through the legal process, which is still the wild, wild west around the AI stuff.
- [40:15]
C
So I would still. All the laws are still evolving, even they're trying to figure out how to handle it, because it really has just gone boom.
- [40:26]
B
Yes. And I don't think this is just my opinion. I don't think we can put it back in the box now.
- [40:32]
C
Oh, no, no. It's not going anywhere. No, definitely.
- [40:35]
B
Yeah. Like, I don't. There's a way to unwind.
- [40:37]
C
Yeah. I use it every day in my business, just not to create my art. So, you know, it's a tool now for sure.
- [40:45]
B
Tell us about that bit. So you said you didn't. You didn't go to art school, you weren't formally trained. How did you develop your design? Because it sounds like you're not. You don't. You, yeah. You personally don't use AI. How do you. How did you learn how to design?
- [40:55]
C
I was just doing very basic designs to begin with when I was. I was working in a bar and one of the girls there, she had studied graphic design. And so I always. I was. I was using Microsoft Word and I would do, like, the menus and things. So I always. And my bosses were always impressed with what I could do and stuff. But I was not a graphic designer, obviously using Microsoft Word, but I do, you know, I was I could make things look good. So I always kind of had a natural ability with composition and things. Anyway, she said, I'll go to the. We call it tafe, but you'd probably think of it as like a community college and do a night course there. And I learned how to use Photoshop, another program called, called Illustrator. And so I kind of hacked my way through using those programs to create my owls and things that I was printing, and then I was buying some clip art and doing that, and then finally transitioned to creating all my own art. But really, I would not say it's not my art that sells itself, it's my business savviness, which I think naturally I have quite a bit of this. I call it street smarts, because I feel like I kind of hack my way through everything. You know, I never went to university or anything like that. Like I said, I did poorly at school, but I'm savvy with things and I'm very. I've learned about strategy and I just love all that stuff. And I love talking about the business stuff. And that's the stuff that most artists need help with. They rarely need much help with their art. There's always a customer for the art, but they're not great on the business side of things. So that's really what my membership is about, is the business stuff. I actually don't teach them art, so it can be really. So they. I teach them. So everything I teach can be applied to any sort of design, because I'm talking about principles, psychology and things like that, and the strategies behind getting sales and the different ways that you can can connect with customers and find them and build your sales. But it can be applied for any artist and any designer. So a lot of that I did also learn in my 15 years in the corporate world, working in a bureaucratic office. You know, the Taxation office in Australia has something like 20,000 employees, so you learn to. And being there for 15 years, I did a lot of different jobs in that time, but it really made me gain perspective. So I learned how to think from different angles and think strategically down the line. If I do this, how does that affect this? How does it affect this? How does it affect the. The end person at the end of the line? And then a lot of it I've also picked up through observation. So on Instagram, watching successful people, what do they do? How do they share stuff, how do they market stuff? Following marketers, following Etsy sellers, things like that. So I just observe very quietly, very slowly, just incrementally try to implement the things that I learned to improve over time. So you can't. I mean, some people come into my membership and they want to watch every lesson and they think that that's going to be enough. I've watched all the lessons. You can't possibly remember everything to implement. It all has to be done incrementally, which I'm sure that you can appreciate as well. You know, you can brain dump everything, but until you're doing it for some time, it doesn't really click. Like you're not going to be an expert. Even what we teach will accelerate you. It will stop you from trying to figure it all out, but it still has to be absorbed and implemented and all of that takes time.
- [44:43]
B
It's interesting being in our shoes in a culture where I don't know if there are other spoon flower coaches, but people take a different approach. I know that a lot of people who want to come onto Etsy are potentially in a desperate situation. They need to replace a pretty sizable income. They need to do it pretty quickly. There are, there are stressors in their life and I mean, I've totally got a savior complex. I'd love to go save all of them and tell them just because I would not be the person who hid the gold. I'd be like, oh, just do this and it'll fix it. But the issue is, especially if you've never been an entrepreneur before, there are so many pieces that you need to pick up and that are more caught than taught. And I can lay it out for you very clearly, very transparently. No, no holding back. And yet you still have to absorb it into how you execute. You know, I still can't do it for you. So I don't like to make really bold claims and promises. Someone comes to me desperate, they're like, lizzie, just tell me what I need to do to do to do this in the next 60 days. And I'm just like, don't drive for Uber. Deliver food, do you? Can't. You need to do this from a place of creativity and abundance and freedom, a mental, mental space capacity. Because there's too many things to your exact point that you have to absorb over time. And honestly, it probably makes me on the lower end of like income from the. For as the coaches go, because I'm not, I'm not making, I'm not making the big promises that everyone's going to jump on because it's great. It's, you know, it's so. Yeah, I know. You know exactly what I mean.
- [46:14]
C
I 100% and I often say there would be coaches out there telling me that I leave money on the table.
- [46:20]
B
Yes.
- [46:21]
C
But I really try and manage everyone's expectations and like there are members who are seeing growth and who are starting to hit the commission bonuses and I do know that my strategies work. But like no one can promise you anything. And you know, paying $2,000 for a course does not mean that you are going to be any more successful than you are from like taking my being in my membership.
- [46:45]
B
No one can get same information as in my $147 course that I basically. Yeah, exactly, exactly. But hey, I'm, I'm a course junkie. I will, I'll do it every time because I follow the. It's. It's hard. It's hard.
- [47:00]
C
Anyway, I feel good about how I, how I do it. So yeah, I tried manage expectations and I'm all for also, you know, it was always a side hustle for me. I didn't have the luxury to quit my job and just dedicate time to try and grow this business. I had to do it until midnight and you know, I was up with kids and you know, I really and sacrificed so much. We weren't going on holidays or anything like that and I, I didn't know if it was going to happen or not. Like no one can. I desperately wanted a crystal ball and I wish I could give everyone a crystal ball, but there are no guarantees and you almost have to pursue it altruistically and you have to and, and expect nothing. But that's not. That doesn't mean that you're trying for nothing. It just means that like, just keep doing it and remembering that you're doing it because you loved something about it. You know, for us it's for designers, it's because we love creating art and we have to remember to keep the joy in it. And that's why we're doing it. Like, yeah, we have to spend a lot of time on the admin and the marketing and everything like that. But ultimately we got into it because we love creating art. We have to try and balance that out in order to keep going. Otherwise we're just gonna. Just gonna give up.
- [48:15]
B
I will say though, like, yeah, okay, the first, you know, five things I tried as an entrepreneur didn't work. And, and so, so I don't like to promise the sun, moon and stars because I don't know what the listeners thing is going to be that's just going to click and it's going to work for them. But What I will say is that every single step of that puzzle added a new layer of skills and experience to me as a person. And it only meant that the next one went better than the one before. It may not have been the breakaway one that made me the hundreds of thousands like Etsy did, but every single. It's never for nothing. It's never for. Even if it's just for, you know, at the end of your life, you can say I left it all on the field. I tried Ivory Rock. I think that that's an easier way. I don't know. I. So I think it's. I think yes.
- [49:01]
C
And I think my point that I was trying to make was have at least a part time job or something that takes the pressure off trying to earn money. Because that's the bit that's actually out of our control. The sales. We can do everything that leads up to the sales but we can't force someone to buy something. So if you take that pressure off, you know, I know that I have some money coming in to support this even if it's not in a creative field or whatever, even if it is delivering Ubers or Ubereats or something, just something that takes the pressure off so that it is still joyful. And it's not all about making the money. And gradually like I moved from full time to part time to, you know, two days a week and then my partner did the same move to part time. We didn't just go right, we're quitting our jobs and we're going to make this work. I just couldn't deal with that pressure.
- [49:51]
B
I 1000% agree with you. Agree, agree, agree, agree, agree. Don't do it out of desperation every single time. And I wish more people would say it because do you know what? Are there going to be amazing are. There's amazing success stories of people within 30 days hit these crazy numbers, but they are one in 30,000 or more people, one in a hundred thousand people. If I'm at the doctor getting a diagnosis and I only have a, you know, 5% chance of living, I'm not taking, I'm going to take the treatment are you know what I'm saying? Like it'd be one thing if it was you have a 95 chance of making this work within 30 days, then fine, I'd be promising you the sun, moon and stars. But I can't. It's good. It's more the other way around. You have like a 1% chance of that. So anyway, ah, I just feel like I've met my soulmate.
- [50:36]
C
And I have a whole lesson where I talk about and. And really just lay it all out that we all. We're not all starting at scratch at the same point. You know, I came into this after working in hospitality, so I learned about customer service and then working at this corporate environment where I learned about strategy and I learned even how I learned about. Because I used to work on the website, learn about keywords and things like that. So you can't compare even because a lot of people say, how long did it take you? It doesn't matter how long.
- [51:07]
B
It doesn't matter.
- [51:10]
C
It is the same. It's the same for Etsy sellers. It doesn't matter what anyone else has done before you. You are on your journey. You have your own skills that you're bringing into it. And I think a lot of people also don't realize, like you're saying every. Every job adds new skills, and so many of them are transferable. You just have to realize how they can transfer into your new role as an Etsy seller or a spoon flower seller or something like that.
- [51:34]
B
This turned into a mindset episode.
- [51:37]
C
I love mindset, but it plays such a big part in entrepreneurship. I don't think people realize how much mindset is a part of this. You know, you can be the best artist in the world, but if you don't believe that it can happen, if you don't learn how to market yourself, you know your art's just gonna stay. No one's gonna see it.
- [51:57]
B
You are so right. I can't tell you how many artists. I'll go look at their stuff, and it's so gorgeous. And it's getting crickets and they're starting. It's almost like killing their soul, right? Because they know that their expression is powerful. And it's like, oh, my gosh, sweetie, we just. Let's just. There's a few other skills you've got to learn. So. Good.
- [52:13]
C
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [52:17]
B
Where do I. We gotta. We gotta finish up here. But what do you. What are the first few steps someone should take to get started on spoonflower? Like, where's the starting point?
- [52:24]
C
Creating seamless patterns. So, okay, definitely. How to create a seamless pattern. And then after that, it's. I had notes here and in capitals. I wrote mindset because it is. It is so much about the mindset. And especially did hijack the interview. I did. I did. I couldn't help it, though. But it's just. Applicable. Yeah, applicable.
- [52:45]
B
I agree. It's my favorite favorite topic.
- [52:47]
C
Yeah. So creating seamless patterns, but also going into it again without the expectation, but also being willing to experiment. And if you are already a designer, because there are so many incredible designers that come into it and. Or maybe they've taken other courses or something. Selling on Spoonflower or Print On Demand site is very different to perhaps like licensing your artwork. It's different to selling on Etsy and also just getting to know the customers on Spoonflower. So I recommend experimenting because if you have a very signature kind of style of art, you need to check. You kind of need to experiment a bit to see if that's what customers on Spoonflower want. Yes, there is a design for everyone and a customer for everyone, but if you want to grow it into a sustainable business, you need to have broad, you need to appeal to a lot of people so that you know you're making a lot of sales, essentially because you're only earning a commission. So just being willing to experiment, set aside the ego, try some different things, set aside any perfectionism that you might have. My members, one of my members, Jackie, coined a phrase, don't kill your uglies, because a lot of us uploaded some of our first designs, which, when we look back on them, they're so embarrassing. But there's no point taking them off the platform because it costs us nothing to keep them on there. Unlike Etsy, you don't have to pay a listing fee for it to renew or anything. So just leave it on there. And every now and then we still get a sale from them. And so we have this hashtag of don't kill your uglies. And then thinking about the buyers and what they want to buy. And a lot like selling on Etsy. Again, there's trends, so trends, you may not think that you want to design for trends, but trends can be just colors even. And color is often the most appealing thing that draws someone in, whether they want to look and learn more about a product. They're not going to look at it if they don't like the color. So, yeah, learning what colors are appealing and what's trending, because that's what the market wants to buy at the moment. Yeah, just trying a whole heap of things and really just getting started and uploading and learning, kind of learning on the job, learning as you go. Don't wait for perfectionism and don't look sideways. So don't do this looking around and asking, how long did it take you? How long did it take you? Because it doesn't matter.
- [55:11]
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, 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 to 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, 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.
- [57:35]
B
Gosh. Is, do people buy seasonal stuff? Will they buy, I guess maybe for fabric. I could see that, right?
- [57:40]
C
Yes. Like Halloween and stuff.
- [57:42]
B
Sure, yeah. Halloween or fall or. Yeah, yeah, Christmas especially.
- [57:49]
C
Especially people who are selling on Etsy. So. Or, or have businesses kind of like that. So handmade market. As soon as I started designing, like, as an Australian, Halloween is not a thing. I mean, it's starting to grow in popularity. But we don't, we don't decorate our homes with fall decor. Like, our house is our house. Our pillows are our cushions are our cushions. We don't turn them over or anything. We don't decorate. We're very laid back. So I've had to really learn about the US market as well as an international, because Spoonflower's customer base is mostly us.
- [58:22]
B
Okay.
- [58:22]
C
And I've learned Halloween is now one of the things that I love designing for the most, even though I had to kind of learn about it. Valentine's Day, even St. Patrick's Day, all of those kinds of events. But seasons as well. Summer, spring, they are huge among makers who have lots of seasonal collections during the year. Pet accessories brands, That's a huge one. And if you were designing for tumblers and things like that, handmade brands use very similar designs. So they love, they love all those kinds of Halloween and stuff like that.
- [58:54]
B
One of my expertise on Etsy is the trends, and so it would be so fun to go look on. But I have to imagine if people want to save time and they want to add Spoonflower as another income to their Etsy shop, a lot of it would just carry over. So we're seeing so much of the grand Millennial, the kind of antiquey fabric, you know, quilted, the quilted looking patchwork. I'm betting that is carrying over absolutely brilliantly. I bet some of the monochromatic floral designs are carrying over brilliantly. We're probably seeing a lot of that, right? The same, some of the same stuff.
- [59:27]
C
Florals is very saturated on spoonflower because everyone does florals. But Grand Millennial, yes. Massive market for grand. Grand Millennials and tripping over that hard to say that word for interiors. It is massive. And like, that's where you make your money. On Spoonflower, yes, you will make a lot of sales to makers, but interiors, they're coming and buying six to 20 rolls, even more rolls of wallpaper. And like, just before I came on here, I made $120 commission on a wallpaper sale of design that I've sold many, many, many, many times. So, you know, I was doing nothing but getting ready, like doing my hair and somebody's bought. It is a grand millennial design, actually a light, a light blue floral, but. Yeah, exactly. And like the geese, I actually saw geese coming on first because we actually have any analytics on Spoon Flower, so we kind of have to look at the other platforms to and just observe on Instagram and stuff like that. So, yeah, I have a monthly trend report for Spoon Flower for that reason. But yes, a lot of them can easily come on over to Spoonflower.
- [60:36]
B
So this is this. Go ahead, please.
- [60:39]
C
Like, like I said, Spoonflower has an Etsy store that they've had over a million sales in. They actually have three stores, but their main one that sells fabric and some wallpapers has had over a million sales. And those customers, there are obviously customers on Etsy who like what Spoonflower sells. So you can obviously like take what's popular on Etsy that's going to be popular on, on Spoonflower as well.
- [61:06]
B
So could Spoonflower selling like your designs in their Etsy shop?
- [61:11]
C
Yeah, yeah.
- [61:12]
B
Okay. And then somehow they've got the back end to track it.
- [61:15]
C
Yeah. So on products, so they don't sell the seamless patterns, they're selling the fabrics by the yard. If you, you look them up on Spoon, on Etsy just, it's just called Spoonflower, their Etsy shop. And you'll see, you'll see what they're selling. And you can.
- [61:31]
B
But you would still get commission for it, right?
- [61:32]
C
We get commissions for them, yeah. But we can't. Like, it's great if you can get your designs into. We call it third party platform. So they sell on Michael's, they sell on Amazon, they sell on ebay, where else? Multiple. They're actually trying to infiltrate more interior design platforms as well. So they're really trying to tap into that market because it's a huge market and it's a huge money maker. Wallpaper is so popular. But we as artists, all we can do is check a box that says, yes, I am happy for you to sell my designs on Etsy or third party marketplaces. But we can't decide which designs they choose or if they choose any. But I am lucky. I have quite a Few designs on there. And so I get sales from Etsy. But also we haven't mentioned this and we're gonna run out of time. But I have been drop shipping so I have another course about drop shipping Spoonflower products. So particularly their wallpaper. So drop shipping them on Etsy because of all these people like you that don't know about Spoonflower, a lot of them know about Etsy and they'll bypass Google and go straight to Etsy. So because we don't get to choose what goes in the Spoonflower Etsy store, I took it upon myself years ago to say, well I'm going to set up my own store and sell on Etsy and drop ship. So they don't have integration like Printful. It's a manual process which is why I created the course to teach how you kind of have to do it, but basically just placing orders on behalf of the customer and. But we get to kind of choose how our listings look on Etsy, whereas on Spoonflower we don't. They just instantly put on their mock ups. But then we have to do some customer service as well. We get to set our own price point. But we also tap into this market of customers that may never have ever found our designs on Spoonflower. So some of my students have more success drop shipping on Etsy than they do on Spoonflower. But they're still growing their Spoonflower shop at the the same time because why not tap into both markets?
- [63:35]
B
This is insane. I, I don't know why I never reverse thought this through of where like yeah, okay, you could have an. You, you could literally sell your spoon flower products in your Etsy shop. It would be the same as print on demand only you're going to go over to Spoonflower and put in the, the. Oh my gosh, that the. This is why we need you. Okay. This is. There are so many reasons, like if somebody wants to add this extra stream of income, which I think especially if you're an original artist and you do this kind of pattern, you know, seamless pattern type of art or you could take what you create and turn it into that, you know, or if you're already a digital art creator and this would be an easy thing to add or learn. It's like this is the most. This is. This I would do. Guys, I would do this before I'd start doing my own social media marketing because this is very adjacent to Etsy. You can carry over your picture, your SEO, you can carry over your designs. You're doing. You're. I hate the phrase, but you're killing two birds with one stone, with what.
- [64:30]
C
You create, we are so. We are so soulmates. I say the same thing. I always preface it with. I hate this saying, but I can't think of another one. But yes, exactly the same. Two birds with one stone. It's just, you know, you would literally have your browser tabs open and do your Etsy stuff and copy it over to your spoon flower and have them do them concurrently.
- [64:54]
B
Like, no one's always like, lizzie, I'm gonna launch my Instagram and start marketing. I'm like, no, you're not. No, you're not. You. Nope. No, you're not. Unless you have, you know, at least 100 sales. You've got at least 100 listings up. You're doing X, Y and Z. No, stay away from the social media. It's going to suck your soul out of your body. Don't do that until you launch your own website, because it's too much. You want to. You want to build the Etsy shop, figure out how to position a product, figure out how to design, figure out SEO. Then you want to build an email list. Then maybe we can talk about Pinterest. Maybe, Maybe. But this is a perfect adjacent thing to do. However, we need you, Aaron, because you're saying there's not analytics, which means that we're going in blind. There are different rules on playing on this. On this platform. We need to be able to understand what the trends are, which you can teach us, and we need to understand, especially if we're really artistic and not so much strong in the business. We need you to hold our hands. So can you please tell me what resources you're. I know you've mentioned a membership. Tell us more about that and anything else you've got for people who want to sell on Spoonflower and do it the right way.
- [65:56]
C
So obviously you can do it on your own, because I do. But I am here if you want some help. Yes. So I have, like I said, all my time goes into my membership now. So I have a membership that I open up a few times a year for people to join as a monthly member or I offer an annual membership as well. A really amazing community. I'm going to say that I've cultivated it because I've been very particular with the people who have come in it. There are some Facebook groups. Facebook groups can. You can spiral out of control and you're just listening to the wrong people in a lot of Facebook groups. So I am not a blindly positive person either. I'm very pragmatic and I'll tell you how it is that I'm not blindly positive. But yeah, the community is a big factor of it because we all learn from each other, we all share things. You would think it would be very competitive, but because, like I said, I'm not teaching you art. You're not all learning the same sort of art. It's not competitive because you've all got your own businesses and you're all applying things in a different way. So, yeah, my membership teaches you everything about setting up your Spoonflower store, but also growing your sales. So like I said. Well, I haven't said it, but at my peak, when I was really focused on it, I was earning $10,000 a month on Spoonflower. And now, even Now, I'm earning 53. I'm averaging 5,300amonth this year because I'm hitting these bonus commissions. So if I didn't have the membership, I would still be, you know, I'd probably even grow it above 10,000 because I would be actively promoting it and applying these strategies. And so I've even changed my strategy during the last two years. So I was heavily focused on makers then. I don't know if you've noticed the same thing, but I've noticed a lot of the handmade maybe haven't. A lot of the handmade businesses have been closing. Like every time I open my Instagram. Speaking of Instagram, you see another business closing. And so a lot of those have to keep finding new clients, but the interiors market. So I've pivoted to focus more on interiors because that's where the money is. People who can afford interior designers have money to spend. So that's. I pivoted and that's what a lot of my sales are coming from now. Yeah, I teach all of the, you know, all of this thinking how to look for those things, like who has the money to spend, what are they buying? Just everything you can think of. And I also teach about diversifying as well. So I'm a big Etsy fan as well. You know, again, it's. It has changed a lot. It changed a lot when it went public. You know, a lot of us who were on there beforehand, we had to deal with that. It's all about mindset again. And people get upset about the fees, but like, you are paying for Etsy to bring all those people to the platform for you. So I always talk about, yes, you can set up your website at the same time, but you're going to make Sales on Etsy. Unless you already have an audience ready to buy like Leela, it's going to be hard to get sales on your website. So go do Etsy, pay the fees. They're bringing people to the platform and they are ready to buy. So I'm all about teaching other income streams that are within your control. So a big thing as a surface pattern designer is licensing a lot. And a lot of people pursue trying to license with big brands to kind of rent their artwork, but you're relying on a gatekeeper to say yes or no if you can sell your artwork, essentially. So I'm not about that. I looked at Spoonflower and said, right, this puts me in the driver's seat of my business. Same with selling on Etsy. Yes, you're at the mercy of the platform a bit, but it's, it's all a bit of a trade off. But essentially no one's telling you what you can sell or when you can sell it. So I really try and teach all those sorts of different ways to diversify in adjacent kind of things. Like.
- [69:42]
B
Exactly.
- [69:43]
C
Are adjacent. And there are lots of things that you can sell your art on on Etsy, which I'm sure that you teach as well. So like calendars and things like that. It's really about making one bit of art and seeing how far and how many times sell it.
- [69:57]
B
Yes.
- [69:59]
C
Repeating patterns. Pick those repeating patterns apart and, and sell them. It's just, it just comes down to how many hours are you willing to dedicate to building your business and, and really not just uploading. Same on Etsy. It's the same on Spoonflower. Not just being informed and not just uploading and hoping or another classic one is opening a shop and going, why am I getting any sales? I've opened my shop. It doesn't work like that. Nobody cares that you've opened a shop. You need to try and drum up the business or make sure you've got really good keywords.
- [70:33]
B
Okay, so the main way to work with you is in your membership, which we will go ahead and link down in the show notes and then where can people find you to connect?
- [70:42]
C
Yeah, so Instagram mostly. I as I'm terrible at marketing at the moment, all that's gone to the wayside. So I have my wait list for my membership and then I am still on Instagram. I just don't post a lot, but I'm always in the DMS and I'm always commenting on people's posts and things like that. So that's the best way Place to connect. Yeah, I have a website and everything, but, yeah, Instagram.
- [71:04]
B
So people listening. Would they be able to get into your membership right now? Is there, like an opening or. Or how. What is that going to look like?
- [71:11]
C
As an annual member, they'd be able to join, but I'm opening. I'll be opening monthly memberships again in October, but you'll need to be on the wait list.
- [71:21]
B
Okay. So right now we're going to give them a link where they could join, they could go pay for the annual and they could get in right now. Or there'll be, like a separate link where they can join your wait list.
- [71:30]
C
Yes. Yeah. And I mean, even if you look through the. The information page, there's lots of stuff on there, lots of member comments and things like that, you know, social proof. But if you've got any questions at all, I am happy to answer them because I know what it's like to hand over money.
- [71:44]
B
Yeah.
- [71:46]
C
And you can.
- [71:46]
A
I think that's great.
- [71:48]
B
October sounds great because then people could really ramp up to be ready for the new year. And as someone who. My first Etsy shop was in home decor and everyone else went, like, dormant in January, and I blew up, like, I did as much in January as I would do in, like, November, December. So that's a great time to want to be ramped up and ready to go for. For things like fabric and wallpaper.
- [72:07]
C
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I had a good January, too.
- [72:10]
B
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Erin, this was such a treat. Thank you so much. We. I don't even know what we all just talked about, but I know it was enough to tell people so much about Spoonflower, but also a little bit of practical, like, big sister business mindset stuff. Just going into the every. Everything we're doing with the right attitude in a, you know, we're in, like, a fast food microwave culture where we want everything fast. But it's still true that the good things, the things that are worth it take time and cultivation. And I think that we need to just get back to that.
- [72:40]
C
Yeah, it can be so worth it, too. Like. Yeah, it can be.
- [72:43]
B
No, it's always worth it. We always. The worst thing that happens is you grow as a person. That's your worst case scenario is you grow as a person.
- [72:52]
C
Yeah, absolutely.
- [72:53]
B
Mindset junkie. I love.
- [72:55]
C
I think there are a lot of the same views.
- [72:58]
B
I know. I'm completely smitten. It's just been a joy. Thank you so much for being with us.
- [73:03]
C
My pleasure.
- [73:04]
B
Thanks for having me, you guys. Thank you for hanging out with us and listening to all of that. I hope you are inspired. I hope you're going to give Spoonflower a chance. If you want to do it the right way and save it sounds like what Aaron covers in her membership would save you years of time trying to figure it out. There's not going to be as many resources out there as for Etsy, so having an expert guide to hold your hand is so valuable in these situations. But you know, you know me, you do you. I'm just going to bring you people that I love and trust and I like what they're putting out and let you know that this is someone that I feel safe to hand you to if you want to do that. But anyway, thank you for hanging out with us. Until next week, go make something awesome. I love you guys. Bye.
- [73:42]
A
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.