← How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy
How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy
Ep 198 | From Hobby Shop to Full Time Handmade Etsy Seller – with Preston Cox
01:11:13
Remember Preston?! He was one of my very first Etsy students and he recently went full time on Etsy with a handmade shop. Tune in to hear his story of gradually figuring out his product and niche—and scaling from a hobby shop to replacing his 4 jobs...
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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. This week I am so excited to have Preston back. You're not going to believe like since the last time we've talked to him, he was already on this upward trajectory and now he is crushing it. He's going to unfold the whole thing for you. As we get started. I want to make sure that you have tried Profit Tree's new Etsy Radar tool. They have literally pulled out all of the stops and created a product research tool. And I'm excited about this because it means you can cancel subscriptions if you are feeling really tight on all of the subscriptions. If you know that you need product research, you know that you need profit tracking. You want to know your. You want to be Shark Tank ready with your numbers. You know that you need a tool to help you with this, but it can get really cumbersome to be paying month after month after month. And so I just want to make sure you know about Profit Tree because it's a one time fee of $67. That's it. And then you're going to have access to running the best Etsy ads ever because you can see the return on ad spend. Like the stats are so much more detailed than what you can get from just your Etsy shop. It's going to integrate into your Etsy login to be able to tell you all kinds of information about your shop. But now with Etsy Radar, the game is completely changed where you can go into the Etsy search results and you can see so much data about who you're competing against and you can see what the demand is on that product. You can see what they're making on the product. It's an extremely helpful tool for a one time fee of $67. So make sure you check that out down in the show notes. And if you really want to learn more about ads, I'm obsessed with with Hannah's completely free Etsy Ads masterclass and I will link that below too and she will show you how to use Profit Tree within that while teaching you how to make money using Etsy ads. Because it's like a, it's like a, a learning curve there, right? So that is my favorite tool. The other thing I want you to know is that coming up on next Monday, depending on when you're listening, September 15, 2025, we are launching new trendspotting bonuses. So my monthly membership where I give you trend reports every single Monday including a list of products that you can immediately create like opportunities with the SEO to use with them. You can join for just $17 for your first month with the code Keep20 Details will be below but I like to a few times a year roll out some bonuses in addition to your weekly trend reports that are already like packed with value. So Monday, September 15th, you're going to get a free niche bundle. It's going to come with a course on how to use niches, how to niche down, and then also a a tool that's going to help you make choices on products to create. So it's going to help you really understand how to niche down. As you always hear us say, the riches are in the niches. I like niche better. I gotta say it the French way niche. But the riches are in the niches. I'm going to teach you how to do that with a free niche bundle. Monday, September 22nd is going to be double opportunities. So that week you're going to get 10 product ideas to create immediately instead of just five. September 29th, you're going to get a bonus Christmas trendspotting video so you can see what's really happening for Christmas and get those final listings up for Q4. October 6th is going to be five free design templates. So I literally give you a Canva template link to designs I've already created that you can use for commercial purposes and you can just edit and tweak what I put there. Like make it your own, reuse it as much as you want and that will help you get listings up. And October 13th is going to be a Mindset Visualization Audio. So I am going to encourage you. I'm going to help build you up on the hard days. I'm going to help get you going when you're feeling tired with that, with that audio. I've gotten good feedback on those in the past. So if you've ever been curious about trendspotting, if you like learning about the trends but you don't necessarily have the time to do the research, if you want a library of over 200 products that you could just go create right now that are in demand with the SEO provided to you, try transpotting for just $17. And if you stay active through the 13th of October, you're going to get five free bonuses in addition. So it's pretty spectacular. Deal. I didn't even mention I do a monthly coaching call so you can get on with me, live with the group and get a shop audit, ask questions, get some personalized help. So maybe one of those things will be good for you. We'll see you in there hopefully. But let me tell you about Preston so we can get into this interview. I love it when he comes on the podcast. Preston is a small town kid who loves supporting the local economy. He lives in Stamford, Texas and his husband to Sarah, he and fur dad to three dogs and a cat. In the past three years he's served as the Chamber of Commerce Manager in his hometown, helping small businesses, small and local businesses grow and succeed. Also like spoiler alert. He's literally leaving that job now. I can't believe we got to we got to update this bio. He has also he has a rapidly growing laser engraving business with a niche and making locally themed patch hats. Since we last spoke to him about his shop In November of 2024, his Etsy shop now has over a thousand sales. He's gone from like 200 to over a thousand in nine months. That's crazy you guys. He's grossing at least 3,000amonth in average sales. That was even during the slow summer months. He's now transitioned to working from three to four jobs to focusing on Etsy full time. He acquired also a small local embroidery company shop to add to his ever growing product line and he's testing his skills with some print on demand. So this episode for you is for you. If Etsy feels like it's taking a long time, it is for you. If you're an the handmade space and you want to hear about like some shipping and how we deal with some of those logistics, it is for you. If you just like Good vibe, people. I am really, really excited to share this episode with you. So please help me welcome Preston to the podcast. Yay, Preston. Welcome back to the podcast.
- [06:33]
C
Thank you. It's good to be back. It is always a pleasure to get to sit down and chat.
- [06:37]
B
I think our. Our riffs. Our chats are some of the best. Everyone loves them and you can totally keep up. I actually have to keep up with you a lot of the time. Well.
- [06:49]
C
Being nice for me.
- [06:51]
A
It's nice.
- [06:52]
B
It's. It's less work. Right. I don't have to be the only one bringing the energy. We're so. We're, like, so lucky around here. But anyway, you are one of my favorite people to talk to. And so when I got your. Where's my phone? When I got your DM the other day, here it is. I'm like. So we're recording next week, right? Let me see if I can find this.
- [07:12]
C
You interview me again? I told you last time that I'm trying to be the number one guest on the podcast.
- [07:18]
B
No, like, one day we. One day we really need to figure out how to, like, make it a series. Okay, wait, I get. Okay, so I probably should have looked this up beforehand, but this is classic. You and me. Okay. No, your. Your thing isn't here. You're. I have. Where I said let's. Let's record, but I don't have. Do you have the DM that you sent me? It's. I don't know. It, like, Instagram ate it.
- [07:39]
C
Oh, I think it was a. I think I just sent you a text message. Are we talking about when I told you that I made my. All my. My sales goal that we're talking about?
- [07:47]
B
Yeah. So, okay, just tell. Tell them I'll see if I can find it and text then. And so tell them what? Okay. No, yeah, here it is. I don't know why I didn't just text you back. I sent you a dm. I literally get this text from Preston. It was your birthday.
- [08:01]
C
Yeah.
- [08:01]
B
This is. This is a different date. This is Monday, August 25th. I got. I hit a thousand today. A thousand orders in my Etsy shop. It will likely be my biggest order. And it's my birthday. How about that?
- [08:12]
C
It was a huge win.
- [08:13]
B
That's a huge win. But wasn't there another DM you sent me, or is that it? That's like. I mean, a thousand sales. The last time we talked, Preston, where were you at the last. Not the last time we talked, but when you came on and we did the hey, this is what happens when you stick with Etsy.
- [08:26]
C
That was. I mean, we were just breaking 100. It was almost. Almost. Yeah. Cause it was. It was like nine months ago. I looked the other day and we. I think we did that in middle of November is when we did. Went to that interview, and I had just crossed a hundred sales. Like, not. I was. I mean, it was in the rearview mirror, but I couldn't see it. So.
- [08:45]
B
Yeah, before that, you'd kind of been. We'd been working together for a while in the DMs. You were my first coaching client, figuring out what the sweet spot was going to be. And at that point, you were just starting to really see, like, wow, I fit. Because you stayed in the handmade space. You. I know we played in printables for a while. You and your mouthy printables.
- [09:05]
C
Yeah.
- [09:06]
B
But then you were like. You started with these patches, and all of a sudden it started going like last. Last November. Did. How was Q4 then? Was Q4 incredible last year, like the end of the year.
- [09:18]
C
Yeah. So the end of the year, I think when we interviewed. When we did an interview in November, one of the things that was really hitting was like, name patches for stalking. And that's kind of what. I think that's kind of what turned the wheels a little bit when we were working. And then December went bananas. And so I was sending out like, crazy amounts of, like, name patches. And then things just kind of started rolling at that point. Doing the majority of the stuff now is business logos, and I still do names and that sort of thing, but, like, we've expanded the palette a little bit on, you know, what we're offering and what people are wanting. And a lot of that came from just, like, a little bit of coaching from you about what do people want and what do they need. And I think the name patches came out of a necessity. I'm pretty sure you and I were talking like, like, hey, just make a listing for the name patches if that's what people are asking for. And that went really well. So I'm really hoping it's on my calendar to do list this week to get some, like, new stocking styles mocked up. Because I only have like one stocking listing, but I'm at time to get those up now. And so. And I actually, like, have physical product now, like stockings that I can mock up on my cute little mantle that I have and take some, like, real life pictures without burning a bunch of product. I can actually create stuff. And then I have some, you know new ideas for what to do this year that's a little bit. Add a little bit of different value and look to what happened last year. I just was too, I was too late last year. I got lucky because that one started hitting. It didn't go bestseller or anything like that, but people were buying the kind of like generic business logo patch and asking if I could put names on it. So the listing didn't really take off. I. But I think this year it will. I have a good feeling that I'm gonna do a bestseller with it if I can get it, get a couple that look really good. So I'm excited. I think Q4 is gonna be great.
- [11:14]
B
Now's the time to get those up for sure. I love that you're doing that this week because we're, you know, it's early September, we're moving into Q4. People are already shopping for Christmas stuff like you wouldn't believe. So I'm really excited. But when I'm thinking about the math and this, I'm not a good mental math person, but you're easily selling over 100 patches a month.
- [11:32]
C
Oh, more than 100 patches for sure. Not 100 orders yet. I've not done. I've not broken the 100 order mark. Well over 100 patches. I mean, I did, I did 150 patches in an order the other day. Like, so that's been one of the cool things and just the exponential growth that has happened. It's been. I heard Cassie Johnson talk about this the other day, listening to her podcast on Print on Demand and just making some things that can be bulk ordered. I, I hadn't expected my patches to be as bulk ordered as they are. I've set up some bulk pricing that gives people like a 10, 15, 25 discount depending on where, how many you're ordering. And the connections that I've made now with other people who are like me that sell hats locally, that are working with businesses, they don't have a laser, but they want to create leather patch hats like I do. And then those people keep coming back to buy. Like, I have so many repeat buyers because they're ordering custom patches for companies and then their local folks are seeing those or they're posting them online or whatever. And so I'm making patches for them now. They are expanding into the hat patch market. So that's cool. Like, I don't, I have no problem being a manufacturer now. Like, I love selling my hats and I'm going to continue to sell hats here locally. And I'll probably sell some stuff online, but I mean, I'm just happy to provide the patches for people's too. Like that's totally fine because they're, they're paying me to do that. I'm still making money on the deal. It's an easier product. You know, it only takes about this much space rather than a whole closet worth of space, like what I have now for hats and stuff. So, yeah, selling bulk orders has been a huge win for me. So, like that one the other day was 150 patches that I sold and I've got one coming up that'll probably hit this week. That's 200 patches. You know that those have been huge wins for me and have helped my business grow exponentially, for sure.
- [13:25]
B
Are you pushing the local sales through your website as opposed to through the Etsy shop?
- [13:29]
C
No, I would say I'm mostly on Facebook with those where our, our town lives and dies on Facebook. Like there's nobody gonna be visiting my website. Like I have a website, but there's not very many people in, in the area looking for it. If they're looking for something, they're going on Facebook. So luckily the rules are pretty loose in our Facebook community groups around here. So, like there's like, we're surrounded by towns all about 15 minutes away. We're kind of the center hub and then there's 15 minutes. Any direction is another town. And so all of their little Facebook groups are pretty loose about what you can post. And so I share regularly in those groups. You know, hey, I have hats this week for, you know, our sports teams or for businesses or whatever and usually get several sales based off that. But with football season kicking off here, the football team is being good. Hopefully I'll sell a lot of football hats. You know, I'm wearing one right now that's a town just north of us. My nephew plays for. And so I go to their football games, I wear my hats and promote and I hand out business cards when people ask. It's not, not as many sales as Etsy for sure, but we're gonna, we're gonna do well again this year. I had a banger year last year, but a lot of that had to do with my team going to state. So we went many, many rounds into the playoffs. And so you sell a lot of hats when town pride is at, you know, 100. And so hopefully we'll have that again. You know, hopefully we, we'll have that kind of energy for other towns. So I certainly don't mind making hats for Other towns. But yeah, it's been really cool to kind of grow that market locally too.
- [14:58]
B
Well, and I think, you know, if it's not adding stress or work to you, like all you're just going about, you're going to your nephew's game and it's a natural thing to be able to sell there. It's really easy. In the Facebook group. What are you, when you post in the Facebook group, you know, I think it was great that you paid attention to, you know, what are the rules? Because different groups have different rules. They're fine with it, they love it. So what do you include in that post?
- [15:20]
C
It's really simple. So I usually just share one of my Facebook posts that I've posted that week and if I feature, you know, a town or zip code or a team or a business that I've worked with, I'll share it to that town's page. So, you know, like if I worked with a business here in Stanford, I'll share it to our online garage sale group that's in town and just say like, you know, hey, did these hats for this business. If you would like that, you can message me and we go from there. I don't have like a big order form type thing yet. I don't do enough business quite yet locally for a formalized ordering process. So I'm doing most of it by hand and then invoicing, you know, with my invoicing software and keeping track of it that way. But yeah, I mean, actually that's kind of a funny transition. I mean the one thing that I've learned like moving into more professionalized business is the complexity that goes behind the scenes, like books. Man, I hate math. Like I think I may have said it on a podcast before. I took three hours of math in college and that was the senior year of high school for me. And so I haven't taken an algebra course or anything since then. So all the math that I've learned is school of hard knocks. And so learning how to do like QuickBooks, how to invoice well, how to, how to track profit, loss, margins, learning some of the lingo, bookkeeping wise that you have to do as a solopreneur has been a huge like grind for me. I'm finally got some things worked out and I have, luckily I have connections with a bookkeeper here in town where she's been very grateful to offer me, you know, services she works with, with my old job, she had worked with me and so she's said, I'll help you out as much as I can, so that helps. But when you're dealing with more income and I'm having to buy more stuff now, more product, especially in the embroidery business. Buy more product now. You got to keep track of that, of those books, man. Like, you can't just let. You can't just be like, well, I have more money in the bank this month than I had last month, so I must have had a good one. I'm having to really pay attention to, like, okay, how much profit did I make? Because this is my job now. Like, I'm working eight hours a day in my hat shop, making patches and hats and shirts and everything else. You know, focusing on those things has been really, really important. And trying to figure out what. What the heck's going on with my finances and making sure that I know what money's coming in and out has been super important, and that's been a huge growth point for me, for sure.
- [17:50]
B
How are you? So I, I completely relate to this. How are you learning about that? Are you, like, watching YouTube videos? Are you. How are you learning? Just. Yeah, tell me. What are you doing? Asking.
- [18:01]
C
Yeah, yeah. School hard knocks. I ask. Chat GPT. I check on Google. I watch. There's a really helpful gal on YouTube. I can't remember her name for life of me, but she has these really helpful videos for QuickBooks. And so. But, you know, like, the biggest thing, I mean, having a accountant resource is really important. She does my taxes for me at the end of the year. And so I wanted to make it easier for her because it's probably going to save me money, her not having to do all my taxes, you know, having to go through everything for me. So now it's. It that's a money saver for me, is to kind of take the lift and figure out my book situation so that it's easier on my accountant at the end of the year. But, yeah, it's been definitely a grind trying to figure it all out. Not as a. As a math person, not a. You know, I'm not a math person. I'm a creative person. So it's been tough, but the money's coming in, which is good.
- [18:53]
B
Well, and I just think. I think it's actually helpful to hear you, as not a math person, say that, that you're figuring it out, you're finding the resources. I mean, I honestly, Chat GPT would make it so much easier. You could be like, act like my accountant and tell me, you know, like, that's. You say that. Yeah. And then. Okay, so. So I actually think it's really helpful and maybe a de stressor for people to hear you say, like, yeah, I'm working this out. You know, I'm. It hasn't been impossible to hire someone, a professional. Like, obviously, if you, as a small business can pay for that more. A lot of us probably don't even ask the question of how much would it cost or contacting a bookkeeper because it feels so. It feels unaccessible. It feels far away. And you're. You're totally breaking that for us. I want to go back to the Facebook post because I noticed you said you're using an invoicing software. It sounds like you're not just putting in an Etsy link. How are you providing a link for them to check out?
- [19:43]
C
Uh, yeah, that's a great question. So really, any POS system that you use as a market vendor and you know somebody who does retail locally, I have used things like Square Stripe. You know, the one that I use now is called Auto Books. It's connected to my bank account here locally.
- [20:01]
B
Okay.
- [20:02]
C
They. They usually have some sort of payment link. QuickBooks does the same thing. You can just create the invoice and then send a payment link, and then people can pay with credit card. I mean, you can do Venmo. Venmo works. You gotta be careful, I think, a little bit with it because there is like an expectation that you set up a business account with them. They want you to pay more fees for business stuff. I don't know how closely they guard that. So please don't take that as. As right, you know, legal advice from me. But, you know, I've used Venmo. People like, oh, you have Venmo or Cash app. And I say, yeah, I can do that. But I try to keep it. It's much easier for me to do it through my bank account through their Software or through QuickBooks because it tracks it all. And most of those now, I think probably your bank, if you have a business account with your bank, they likely have some sort of payment system built into their bank account now because they want to compete with companies like Stripe or Square or whoever. But Square's free. I mean, you're just paying a vendor, you're paying the 3% credit card fee that everybody else pays in the entire world. It's just a cost of doing business. So just start a free Square account and start taking payments. That way if you're taking stuff locally.
- [21:06]
B
And that way you can avoid the Etsy fee. Right? You can kind of yeah, yeah. Avoid some of the fees and I.
- [21:11]
C
Don'T love doing that. Anybody outside of my city limits, I usually send them to my seat store because Etsy is going to handle all those tax and stuff like that. So I'll make a custom listing for them or, you know, especially if I'm having to ship something, you know, to a couple towns over, I don't want to deal with somebody meeting up with me here in town or me delivering to another town. So I just set it up on Etsy so that they handle all of the extra stuff. I've, I've simplified that way. That was a hard thing to learn. Like I have people who want to take business off of Etsy and they're like, well, I want to do it so. So you don't have to pay the fees. Well, dude, my dude, I'm paying the fees regardless of where I go. You know, Etsy is going to maybe take a little bit more than Square does. But also they're handling my taxes, they're handling the shipping stuff for me. Like everything's in there. And so it's worth it for me to do it on Etsy and pay a little bit extra to take a little bit of hit for my.
- [22:02]
B
And if you use that share and save link, you're getting a lot closer down to. Because they knock off some of the percentage. You're getting a lot closer down to what just a payment processing fee would be. It would be a little more, but still it's not going to be 6.5%. It'll be like, I think they take off two and a half percent or at least 2%.
- [22:16]
C
Yeah. And I know there's some integration that happens with Square. I messed with that one time and I haven't dug back into it.
- [22:23]
B
Oh yeah.
- [22:24]
C
But I would like to do that because I've heard that it actually goes towards your sales on Etsy account.
- [22:29]
B
Yeah. So if you. Okay, here's what Preston's talking about. If you go to your shop, Dashboard down on the bottom left hand side, the place where you can actually click to look at your shop, there's a place where it says like sell, sell in person. And that's where you can create a Square account through your Etsy account. And you would be able to basically sell through your Etsy shop, but in person via Square. And when that happens you can like your order count goes up. So talk about that social proof. Yeah, it would actually. So like if you were at a farmer's market selling, you know, Beeswax soap and you were doing it through your Etsy shop there. They would process. You'd be able to process it on your phone through that Square account and your Etsy order count would go up. I don't know if they can write reviews or things like that. I don't have looked into it that much, but that's what Preston's talking about and that'd be so nice to integrate it. If you're going to use Square anyway.
- [23:24]
C
I need to actually guinea pig that and kind of see how it works and just do early beta test because right now is a perfect time for me to do that. So I am selling a lot locally and man, if I can boost those numbers in Etsy and get more draw to the patches, that's great. I would love that.
- [23:40]
B
So long as you can use the share and save. I don't want you paying six and a half percent doing that.
- [23:44]
C
Yeah, exactly. But you know, it would be nice to be able to, to add some more social proof like what you're saying. So yeah, that's been.
- [23:53]
B
If you do it, we'll talk about it next time. I'd love to hear the experience. But no, no pressure, but it would be super interesting to hear because you always like have such a good way of talking through what happened. Do you know like you're. I know you order your patches on Amazon, right? Are you going to be affected by the, the tariffs?
- [24:08]
C
I haven't yet. Most and most of my stuff that I order is like warehouse based and so I don't think it's affected them quite yet. My pricing has still remained the same. All my, like the leather that I get that I cut like into shapes and stuff I buy from a guy here in Texas, which is cool. I found a nice vendor that sells. What I've learned is all of these like leather patch companies all sell the same product. It's exactly. They're all the same. They just brand it differently. So they're, they're probably all the same manufacturing source. So you're just picking your poison about which one that you want to use. I decided that I wanted to work with somebody in Texas if I could find them. And I found this guy down south and he has been so helpful for me. And plus, stuff gets here super fast. It's not coming from California. Like, I love the company. There's a company out in California that makes some great products. They have stuff that I can't necessarily get from this guy, but it also, this stuff that I order in Texas gets here in three or four days. As opposed to like a week, a week and a half. So I don't hold a lot of stock. Like these rectangle patches that I'm wearing right now, I have boxes of those. Like, I order those 50 at a time and just have stacks of them. But like my sheets of leather, which I don't sell as many, I just hold as much stock as I can. I don't really want to, you know, buy every color of everything and then go from there. So maybe that's another thing that I've learned is. And I learned this from when I started doing more and more patches. I actually got hooked up with a guy that was a, like, promotional advertiser. They, they created. If you could put a logo on it, they created it. So everything from pins to hats or shirts or whatever. So he hired me to make some patches for hats for a customer that they, that they got. And just in passing conversation, he's like, I never carry stock. I basically have a computer and an office and I outsource literally everything. And they make probably millions of dollars a year doing this, hiring people like me to make the things for them. So they literally ordered hats, shipped them to my house, I put patches on them, and I shipped them to the customer blind so that it looked like it came from their warehouse. And so I'm taking that into to my own business as well. I carry hats. I have probably close to 100 hats in the closet right now. One, because I bought an embroidery business. I think we talked about this last time. And so I bought a lot of stock that came with that. So I have a lot of hats just from that era from, from their business before that. I'm going to use selling at markets and stuff like that. But I only order, like, I only order patches and hats when I need them. You know, I'm not with Amazon. I can get stuff here in two days with the other guy and get it here in a couple days. So learning just how to maximize my space, which is not very big, I'm still operating out of my house. You know, I have one, basically one closet space and some shelves to be able to not have 7, 000 hats and 800 different colors of patches is good for me. It's also good for the customer because I don't want to create, create too much, too many options for my customers. I want them to focus on the things that I do have. And then if they have a request like, hey, can you do a patch that's red? Sure, I can get some red patches for you. Let me mark that up for you. But I try to say like, hey, here's my options. I have these today. You can get them. You know, I'll get these done today and ship them out. So simplifying your process has been super huge. And the same goes for like shipping. Shipping was a huge issue for me early on. One because I couldn't really figure out, I really wanted to send the patches free, you know, like not free but like the flat, like a sticker. Because I had a lot of people ordering singles and so I tried to ship them in little envelopes. I was like, well it's about the size of a gift card so surely I can ship it like in a greeting card. So I've got some, a whole pack of like thank you cards and would write this really nice note and then put a, put it in the greeting card. And I bet 90% of them got sent back to me because they were too fat, which they're not, they're not much better. And so I've changed, I've simplified my shipping too. I have basically one size box that I use and it's, it's too big for one patch. Honestly it's a four by six. But I have people who order patches who only order one. In my shipping. I do a flat $4.50 on shipping. I'm still paying a little bit out of pocket for shipping but it's worth it for me to pay a little bit extra because it's like, usually it's like anywhere from 450 to $5 to ship pretty much anywhere in the US with this little box. But you know, I had, I had a few customers say like, hey, why is shipping $4 and 50 cents on a patch that's $4? Like well, it's going to get to you. I'm going to have tracking now. I can. The boxes in theory in my mind are less easy for the USPS to lose. You know, I think envelopes and flats can get tucked away or sent into the wrong box or whatever, you know. So I'm trying to, to alleviate some of those issues. So people have started paying the shipping on it. I think last time I was here with the, the first one I was not, I was out doing free shipping. And then when those people were doing those one orders I was getting screwed because basically I'd sell one patch for $4 and 50 or for $3 or whatever and then have to pay $4 shipping on it. So you'd suggested, hey, just let them pay the shipping, see what happens. It's been a life changer for me. Like they're paying 98 of my shipping costs for me which. So if I could say anything for like physical sellers. Find a packaging that works for.
- [29:50]
B
Standardize your product.
- [29:51]
C
Standardize that thing, man. Like if it's, if you have multiple different products but they can all fit in this same size box. What I've realized is if it's roughly the same size and the same weight, the price doesn't go up on, on USPS. Like right?
- [30:08]
B
Yeah.
- [30:09]
C
For one patch it's 450. Up to like 30 patches it's 4.50. The price doesn't jump until like I don't know like a pound which I really, you know, rarely sell a pound of patches. And so learning those things has been been really helpful for me because I don't, I don't stress so much over like shipping. It's all standardized now and I can work faster and more efficiently with having that stuff already standardized with shipping profiles. And I don't have to worry about it, man. Just like just make stuff and send it out. Let UPS or USPS handle it from there.
- [30:48]
A
Are you a print on demand or digital product Etsy seller who's tight on time or still learning all of the Etsy secrets? I totally remember the days of having no idea what product to create next before I learned how to make those informed decisions. So I can really identify with where you're at. I know how stressful and frustrating it can be to just create listing after listing and see 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 extended 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.
- [32:04]
B
I love how you verbally process this stuff because this is exactly what keeps people from even trying and testing things. And I want people to feel more fluid. Like, I want people to feel more. I don't know, like, less boxed in. Like, it was the exact same for me, Preston, especially in the handmade space, you have to get your hands dirty.
- [32:27]
A
You.
- [32:28]
B
You can't have everything ready to go. You just cannot. You have to just trust that you're gonna figure everything is figureoutable, and you're gonna figure it out as you go, and you're gonna do your due diligence to start. You're gonna listen to the best advice, but you don't need to just sit on it for six months until it's perfect. Because I guarantee you, just as Preston over the past couple years has literally just iterated and iterated and iterated and tested, like, you're gonna learn as you go. Like, things are gonna come up and it's gonna force you. And here's the other good thing. For 99% of us, there's going to be a few people who are going to take off so fast that it's going to just. It's going to be really hard, and you're going to have to figure it all out, but you're not going to be too upset about it because you're going to be making a lot of money. Most of us are only going to tackle these kind of things that maybe feel like a lot or overwhelming or we're not sure what to do about them. Most of us are going to tackle those one at a time. You know what I mean? And so I just love. And then I love how you said I didn't know what to do about shipping. And so I just tested it as not free shipping just to see what happened. It's not going to be like, okay, try it for a month, try it for two weeks, and if people won't buy or you're getting hate mail or whatever, that will not happen, by the way, then stop. Go back to what you were doing before. You know what I mean? Just feel like you can test stuff. It's just like people just get so freaked out. So I love how you just. It's okay. It's all okay.
- [33:47]
C
Yeah, you gotta. You're exactly right. You gotta get your hands dirty on.
- [33:51]
B
Yeah.
- [33:51]
C
On these things, especially in the handmade space. That was the most. Honestly, shipping was the most daunting. Thing for. Yes, it really was like, because it was just hard to figure out like okay, how much if I'm charging a flat rate, how much do I charge or you know, what size box do I use and where do I order boxes and how do I print shipping labels and how do I know if I put the shipping label on correctly? The great part about it is I live in a small town and we have a post office in town and some very nice postal workers who I see about four times a week now. They are just like if I could tell starting out, handmade sellers, anything. Go make friends with your postal service workers, get to know them by name and work with them. They are there to help you, they're not there to take advantage of you. And I think that's one of the things that I've, I always thought it's like, well the mail system is the enemy. They're, you know, like they're gonna overcharge me for everything. No, they're, they're just trying to make ends meet like the rest of us. You know the postal service is a business. It's like yes, it's a government entity but it is a business and it's a really struggling business right now.
- [35:00]
B
Right.
- [35:01]
C
They're doing everything they can to get more customers to try to beat The Amazons, the UPS's, the FedEx's, that sort of thing. So they're there to help you and so go take advantage of them and learn from the people there. Go during a non busy time if you're in a busier city, you know, try, try to find a non busy time to go talk to them and just say like hey, this is what I make. What, what do you suggest shipping wise and they'll help you out. I mean they're, they're there to help you figure it all out and ask them what you need to figure out. Things like where do I put a shipping label, how do I know if I put it on correctly? You know those types of things are what they're there to do. They're there to help you. So hopefully your, your postal workers are just as nice as mine. I know it's not the most thankful job in the entire world, but go be nice to them. I bet you'll be surprised what you learn.
- [35:44]
B
You know, I love. Okay, so San Antonio is obviously a lot bigger than Stanford. Now I'm, now I'm living like you, right? And our, at our farm but in the city we had our local post office, the one connected to our zip Code. So it was a carrier from there that came out to my house every day for pickup. And those guys became like family to us. We, you know, we were saying, hi, Miguel. I still. I still were friends on Facebook. I like keeping up with his family. We were such good buddies. And we would chat outside and, you know, how are the kids? And it was so nice because I couldn't leave. I couldn't just leave my stuff on the doorstep to get picked up. We'd have the porch pirates come steal it. So I had to have him knock on the door and come, you know. And he always took care, like he sometimes had. I remember during COVID he was so full that he'd have to come back at the end of his route to pick up my boxes because he couldn't fit them in. But he texts me. I mean, these guys. And then we became friends with the guy who took. Who was there on Miguel's day off. And gosh, his name's escaping me, but he was precious as well. But if he had to go to the physical location, the one connected to our house, our address that Miguel worked out of, they weren't nice, so we knew they wouldn't be helpful. We knew. But there was another one few miles away in the medical center where they were great. And they would take great. And so you can. That's the other thing. You can't control who's coming to do your pickups, right? And I could tell you stories. We had one guy for a while, and I dreaded it every morning, but that was because he was a bit of a dirty old man. And I'll leave it at that. And I felt. I felt really, it was not okay. But I just prayed and he retired, ended up okay. It was. That was. That was rough, but otherwise they were great. But. But you can find the place that's nearby. That's where they're wonderful. But, yeah, you're right. Make friends with them. They will do. Miguel would have done anything for us. And I highly recommend, especially in the busy season or if you've got stuff regularly. I put cooler outside. I still do this now, even at the farm. I put a cooler at the end of the driveway with treats and drinks and stuff like that for everybody. Delivering and taking packages. And that buys you a lot of goodwill. You guys, I will tell you what. Having some sodas, finding. Okay, so anyway, we've beat that dead horse. Do you know what, Preston? There's two other things I really want to talk about. One of them is how much your life has changed because you've got a story that just, it really sends it home and someone's like, I don't handmade. This is so much work. And I don't know, wait till you hear how this has changed Preston's life. And then the other thing I would love to do is get a, get a bit of a, a brief on how the embroidery stuff is going, if you're playing with that at all. So tell us what life was like before your day to day and what it's like now. I can't.
- [38:28]
C
Yeah, I can't hardly either. When, when I was last doing the podcast at 100 sales, working, let's call it three extra jobs on top of this, I was, you know, chamber Commerce manager here in town. My wife and I were managing a movie theater, historical movie theater in town. I was running social media for several businesses as well and then building websites on top of that. I would say about six months ago it got really, really heavy. And what triggered it was the taking off of the sales on Etsy. So I wasn't planning on exponential growth like I had. And I honestly, I did get a little bit lucky. Striking rich on like name patches and stuff like that. In that Q4 it was the wake up call that I had was, okay, I'm making more in the Etsy shop net profit than I am making my other two jobs, which are two part time jobs. I don't want to make it sound like I'm making like $10,000 a month on, on selling stuff like I was working two small town part time jobs. And so my Etsy shop met or exceeded that like three months in a row grow. And so I had to start having some real serious conversations about what I'm capable of because I am a little bit of a serial entrepreneur. I like to have my hands on a lot of things and I've done that as a freelancer. You train your brain to handle lots of different plates at once. There was a season like last February, March, we were turning over a year at the Chamber of Commerce and, and I caught myself behind like super behind at the Chamber and started reflecting on it. I was like, well my, my interest has changed. The, the pat shop was a side hustle and those other jobs were my, were my primary jobs and got, were rightfully so getting the primary focus that switched in my brain when I started making more money at the Etsy shop. Then the movie theater and the chamber job became my side hustles and I started treating them as such and that's not fair. To them, the my community, my businesses deserve better than that. And so started having conversations at that point about, okay, I need to transition some point. This is about March of this last year. So I made it through the summer. My wife and I decided we didn't want to do the theater anymore. We made a transition plan, got someone else to cover that for us. So that freed up in the weekends. This is like our first like where we've not done anything like, you know, we've actually had free time, gone to football games. We've done stuff that we want to do rather than what's required of us at a job. And then starting this month, I'll roll off as we hire a new Chamber of Commerce manager. And so this last month, August, I had my, what I think is my best month on Etsy. I need to go back and double check because I had a pretty good month there around Q4 for this last year. But I think this was my most profitable month for sure. That all came from, I feel, and I truly feel that focusing down, just saying, okay, I'm going to commit to this, I'm going to do it. And I work eight hours a day at my little shop. It's not like I'm living some cushy life now. I mean, it's handmade. Handmade goods are work. And so I work starting at 8 and I work to my wife, get home, you know, take about an hour lunch break four days a week. And then on Fridays I try to work a half day. And so, you know, we've, we've really tried to focus on that. And that's with everything now. So that's the patches and the hats locally, that's embroidery. And so I'm grinding right now, but I'm doing it as a work day. I'm not, I'm not working. I'm not going to work at night. There's no way. First of all, I'm not a night owl. I'm falling asleep by like 8:30 anyway. So you're never going to find me like grinding it out after work. But you know, I'm working, I'm hustling during work hours. And it's all because I'm able to focus on these things now. And I don't feel guilty dividing my conscience between several different jobs anymore. So that's been a huge change for me. And a lot of that had to just, just came from committing to it and the last several months saying like, okay, I'm making an effort at this. We're gonna, we're gonna drive sales and we'll see what happens and just kind of let things come. And I've had really good months on Etsy, meeting or exceeding my paychecks every month, which is perfect.
- [42:50]
B
So in the summer when nobody gets any sales, apparently.
- [42:54]
C
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I'm really excited to see what's coming up next. Yeah, I feel, I feel really excited. It may be, it may be a lot, but I've had to do some growth too. Like we talked at one point, like, hey, you got to learn how to make some more patches.
- [43:06]
B
Like.
- [43:07]
C
So I upgraded from. I was listening to that old podcast that we did. It's so funny talking about my little machine that I had. I had the little. I have a little open frame machine. It was slow as Christmas, but it was making it. I was making it work, man. Like I, I turned out like 75 patches at a time on it. You know, I could do some work, but I've upgraded to two different machines now and I need, I really need to add one more because of how fast they are of these little X tool printer machines. If Xtool is listening, maybe they are. You can share this snippet on Instagram. Xtool, I would love to talk about another F1 Ultra or, you know, F1 Lite. I'll give you my address if you want it. So I would another one of those machines because I've got it now where I can turn out sheets on my big machine and then little patches. I have a grid that I make those on and I can do 10 at a time, send them through. And while machines are working, I'm doing other things. And so that's what's opened up now with the embroidery studio. So I ascertained that in July is when I started, like the second week of July I started that and it's been pretty steady just making hats and stuff like that. So I've done some big orders for businesses here in town, made some shirts, worked on some bags and stuff like that. And so that's going to take some time to grow. It was never meant to be the main thing in my business.
- [44:25]
B
It's.
- [44:25]
C
It's always going to be like a side thing. It's just an opportunity that got presented to me and because of the success I've had in Etsy, I was able to make that purchase and level up my, my business. And so now I have two embroidery machines that allow me to make hats and stuff like that. Hats and embroidered patches. And so it's been an ad to My business, it's not, it's not replacing anything that I'm doing. It's just an extra thing, especially here locally. So I'm excited to see where that goes too. Especially you watch folks like I mentioned Cassie Johnson before. Cassie Johnson. I listen to a lot of Kate Robb too on, on Instagram. These are POD folks. But they're talking so much about embroidery. Like yeah, everybody's brought it and then you and I have talked about it and it's one of those evergreen things that just, it's out there. I have not quite cracked the code on, on embroidery on Etsy yet. I would like to, I surely would like to because there's, there's some products that I have that are very similar to what's like trending and best selling right now that I can do very easily on my embroidery machines. That would not take a lot of extra work on my part. It's just trying to get the listings to hit. And so I'm hoping that maybe Q4, I'll have more of those listings up embroidery wise and go from there.
- [45:38]
B
You should post those on the peer review in the, in the coaching group.
- [45:42]
C
Yeah.
- [45:44]
B
And just tag me so I can see them too. But yeah, that's something, that's something you guys in the, in the coaching group. Preston's one of our experts in there because I trust any advice he'd give you. And people can post listings or shops or whatever they need in there. And then we also have a coaching call where I can take a look. But that would be really interesting because I don't see why we can't get you, we can't get you embroidery bestsellers.
- [46:04]
C
Yeah. And I would love that. The, the other thing that I'm working on now is I've talked before about just like having some faucets that I can turn on and off as I need to. So with the hats or with the patches and the custom embroidery, it obviously very hands on. I'm the only person doing them. I have to be here to do those things. So, you know, I took a five day vacation to Florida this summer. It was really hard for me to. I didn't turn my shop on vacation mode, but I did. I extended my, my, what's it called?
- [46:39]
B
You're like turnaround time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [46:42]
C
You know, I put it out. I had a discussion with my wife and we drove to Florida from our house, which is like 20 something hours. And so I said, hey, I do not want to work. And she did not want me to work, which rightly so I do not need to be working on vacation. What we said was, hey, when we are in the car driving there and back, it's okay to check my messages and, and do some stuff as I needed to. It was totally fine. I was gone for five days. Nothing fell apart. I didn't lose my best seller. You know, no one died on my Etsy shop. I still want to be able though to set that aside. I would love to be able to actually turn it off vacation mode style in the future. There are some things that I can do. Like if we were to travel for multiple weeks, I could take my little laser with me and make these patches that would be fine as long as I have access to a post office. And so I just take my packaging and patches and stuff like that. And we've talked about that but you know, I obviously can't haul my 12 needle or my 10 needle embroidery machine around with me everywhere we go. The faucet that I'm working on adding now is standardized print on demand items. So I've started a sister shop to my current shop where I'm calling it like my mind's 2007 creative. But now it's called like apparel. You know, I'm making hats. I'm still focusing on embroidery stuff and things like that. So making embroidered hats that are the kind of the popularized, like just text trying to keep it real simple, things that, and this is all based on my research, based on what I'm hearing from print on demand sellers and the podcast like that and what's trending right now on Etsy. So I'm just kind of poking around on there. It's a really low cost. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. And so I would love to be able to make a print on demand shop work for me so that can function by itself as more of a passive type income type thing so that I can go on a week long trip and not worry about my income, you know, especially now.
- [48:38]
B
Why didn't you just throw it on vacation mode? What kept you from doing that?
- [48:42]
C
I did that over Christmas last year and it scared me to death when everything day and my best seller badge was gone for several days and then it came back. Okay, yeah, I don't love that. I understand why they, why Etsy does that, but it just, it feels like they're in a lot of ways penalizing your, your good sellers by making the algorithm, you know, basically forget your shop and then we have to relearn it. It didn't take long to get back to, you know, my status. I was only offline for about two days, so I wasn't gone long. But the more and more I researched it and the more and more I asked around, they're like, oh yeah, just extend your production time, you're fine. And so I did that and it.
- [49:27]
B
Was no big, that would just be tricky. Like you still be able to answer those dms right. To keep the star seller.
- [49:33]
C
And I turned on an autoresponder, says, hey, I'm on vacation. You know, thanks for your interest in the product. If you already place an order, know that I'm going to be processing that part on this date. If you're asking questions about it, I will be back to your DM as quick as possible. So still trying to maintain that level of customer service that I set, but was able to go to the beach and spend time with my family and, you know, hang out and not have to worry too much about the shop at that point. So it's, it's definitely been a learning process in that regard. One of the hardest parts about, about this job is setting good boundaries. And we had a really tough conversation the other day, my wife and I, about don't, you're not going to start work at 5:30 in the morning when you wake up and drink your coffee. Like do not give the world your best work first thing in the morning. So I'm making some habitual changes where I have a new lockdown system on my phone, where my phone goes on lockdown at 5:30, where like I have, I took off like Instagram and Facebook and everything off my phone so I have to access it on a desktop computer. I've tried to be better about like reading a book in the morning rather than answering DMS on Etsy because it will consume you.
- [50:44]
B
Yeah.
- [50:45]
C
If you let it. And Sarah, my, my wife is just so much more wise than I am and more disciplined and responsible. And so she said you've got to set better boundaries now because when it does, when it gets bigger like we want it to, you can't have those, those habits moving forward because it'll destroy us. We'll burn out. And so I try my very best to start as close to 8 o' clock as I can and then finish, you know, at 5:30 or whenever I finish up. And so, and then taking those half days because my wife only works a half day on Friday, so I'm trying to work a half day as well, trying to meet that schedule. And we have an understanding that, you know, hey, I may have some, some stuff that needs to get done Friday before the mail goes out. And in that case, I'm going to try to hit some stuff, but if I do that, certainly not working any Saturdays or Sundays if I can avoid it. It sounds admirable, but it's been a bit of a slog, you know, to try to, to learn those new habits, especially somebody who's chronically online. Just, if I could say anything, just set some good habits early on because when it does take off, you want to be able to have a good mental health and a good physical health to take care of, make sure that this thing is a long term business and not just because I've learned a lot about burnout the last couple years. I didn't think I was burned out, and I was. And so setting better degrees and protecting yourself, especially as you're having more success, it's really easy to let those reins loosen up because you're like, if I just make another listing this morning, maybe I'll, maybe I can make another sale on that, make more money. Just focus your time as best you can and go from there.
- [52:22]
A
Are you brand new to Etsy, about to get started, or struggling a bit to find your groove? What I'm about to say is just for you, okay? I can completely relate to where you're at because I think I can help you achieve success faster. When I first started my Etsy shop, it was not one of those success stories that we hear, you know, on the big YouTube channels, even on this podcast where I just had crazy success. And it took off right away. All right, I all but failed for my first six months, just like a lot of new sellers. And so it's very relatable. And the issue for me was I didn't understand demand, for one, I didn't understand SEO. I was way too broad in my search terms, and I didn't know how to position my product so that customers just couldn't help but click add to cart. And so once I learned those things, I went from making about $25 a month in sales to $6,000 a month and up. And in the holidays, I would even have $13,000 a month, like at my shops 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 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 numbers in the data every day and my mind just keeps expanding on the possibilities. Okay, so as a special treat, use the code save50 to save $50 on the six figure secret score 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.
- [54:46]
B
I will say though, I mean you guys getting your weekends back is life changing. You know, I'm thinking about even some different scenarios, like some parents listening who they, you know, they don't get to go to any of their kids games or do anything with their kids over the weekend because they've got that second and third job. And the way you've done this so wisely, Preston, you have never approached any of this with desperate or urgency energy. You've always been just very open minded and diligent and just you're just like I'm gonna test and I'm gonna trust. I do think, I think it helps when you're like us and we've got kind of that entrepreneurial bug. Do you know what I mean? Like for it is not work for me to test things and have them not work. It is play. And I think that mindset is what makes the entrepreneur able to stick it out. You know what I mean? Because otherwise it's just a grind. You know, if you were in a traditional job that kind of thing will just wear you out. You know, to your point about burnout, you'll just get run ragged. But if you can approach it as play, if you could not make this like, just like Preston, he had a really full plate with all of these different things. But he wasn't trying to make Etsy in a desperate situation solve a financial problem. He let it play its part and grow into that. And he had to wait for that point of tension of this is making more than my part time jobs. I now have less time. I need to let something go and letting the Etsy, letting the business make that decision for you rather than trying to do it out of a desperate. And I mean, don't get me wrong, I understand people have money stuff and that's why I am the first person to tell you, don't use Etsy to solve an immediate money problem. What year is this for you on Etsy, Preston? I mean you've been, you, you've made money along the way. But I mean you and I alone have been working together since 2021.
- [56:36]
C
Yeah, that's. And that's about when I started. So it's, this is year four, but it's iteration number three or four.
- [56:42]
B
Right.
- [56:43]
C
Because yeah, started off as like digital, digital download or printables. And then I was messing around with, you know, wood shop type things when I had my CNC machine that didn't really go well. Then I was doing, you know, started doing the caps and hats like that. That didn't really work until the patches started hitting. So now I have a little bit more leeway where I can, I can let it, let it breathe a little bit. So I'm not, I don't think I was trying to force anything. I think you're right. Looking back, never. I certainly, I, I didn't need it to work. It was always a side hustle until it wasn't, you know, and so that's kind of, I love when you say that, when you say that, don't, please don't do this out of desperation. Like Etsy is not to go make money, make money fast. You might get lucky and, and it might happen for you and that would be awesome for you if you made a billion dollars on coloring pages or whatever. But it's so like so frustrating to see stuff on Etsy on like Threads or Instagram or whatever. People say like I've been on Etsy for three months and haven't made a sale what's going on or Etsy's broken or whatever and I really appreciate the people in our group that are grinding right now in the best possible ways, not in the unhealthy ways like we talked about earlier, but like in a, in a good way. Like just stick with it. Like yeah, it may not work out. Your product may not be what people are looking for. It happens. The best entrepreneurs and business people in the world are light footed and can transition easily. Even those big companies can make transitions on their products. And so that's kind of the mentality that I've had. And honestly I think some of that comes from working in the church because the church is the exact opposite of that thing in cities. The same working in city government. It's the exact same way. It's just so. Everything's so slow. Like there, there's. Because the bureaucracy and the tradition and the stick to itiveness of it all doesn't allow you the flexibility. One of my favorite books the last six months or so that I've read is how to Build a Small Business by Don Miller. He's the guy that wrote storybrand. They wrote this new book, the Analog. The metaphor they use is cheesy. They talk about building a business like a plane and all these different parts of your business are the plane. It's cheesy, but it mean the good thing. The thing about it is they understand it that it sticks with you. And so they talk about. One of the great parts about being a solopreneur or a small business or a startup or whatever is the ability to. You're not flying a jumbo jet yet so it's easier. You're flying a little private plane or a single prop Red Bull trip plane. You know that maybe where you're at and so you can weave and move and try to figure out, you know, mess with the controls and see what happens. It's and but you got to do it purposely or you'll crash the plane. I'm not just doing stuff to see if it sticks, you know, I'm not just throwing random things on the wall. Still doing my research, still focusing on what's trending, still focusing on what people want to buy. So focusing on things that I want to make. What do I like, where do my passions and interest intersect with what's trending on Etsy and kind of poking around in there and seeing what happens. That that's been good. But being being able to be agile and light footed and certainly open handed with it. There's some stuff that I've made that I was certain was going to be like, oh yeah, this is funny. Or this is, this looks great. Or this is the time patch that people are going to want and people don't want it. You know, they want something else. And so making the things that people want has been huge. And that's, that's iterated some new products for me. It's iterated new sales and you start finding out things that you don't really want to do. Like. Yeah, so this, this last week I pressed part of the embroidery studio was I bought a heat press for like shirts. I didn't think. I don't want to get into like screen printing, stuff like that. I absolutely want to stay far, far away from that. But like DTF transfers, those sorts of things I'm cool with. I'll do shirts. I did 25 shirts the other day. Front, like a little front pocket and a back thing that I bought the DTF for and hand pressed them all. It took me all freaking day to press those. It should not have taken me that long because it's only like 10 seconds. But the positioning the shirt and getting the, the transfers lined up and you know, making sure that everything wasn't crooked because once you commit to those transfers, they're on there, you're not. The same thing goes for making like shirts and full front shirts on the embroidery machine. It's just you're committing to that. There's not a lot of flexibility in that. So I think what I've learned is I don't really like doing shirts. Like that's not how I want to spend my day. Uh, so I'm gonna find other ways to do that. I don't mind doing shirts. They were for a family member, so I don't mind doing them. That was not a big deal. But like I'm not gonna do a hundred shirts because I cannot give the time to that. So I wanna order those shirts next time I'm gonna print on demand those shirts. Same thing goes for like I've started a little spirit shop here locally. I've learned that Printful, this is a fun little pod thing for you. Printful has what they call quick stores where you don't sell on Etsy or anything like that. You just have like a URL link to your, to a shop. And if, if my information is correct, I think you can make up to 10 of these on their free software. So I've made a little like big like town spirit shop for my stuff and it's stuff that I can't make. So shirts, some hats that I don't want to carry but people really like. So I'm making, you know, 50 designs that I have and I throw them on the Quick Store. And the Quick Store link is on my Facebook page and said, you know, hey, shop my 277 creative spirit shop. And it's for all the little towns around here and so people can buy on there. But the cool part about the Quick Store is they don't take a fee out of your processing. Like it is pure profit because you're using their software and stuff like that. So, you know, as opposed to like Etsy, if you use Printify or Printful, you're still paying for the base stock. So you sell a shirt for $35. Well, it takes 25 to actually buy the shirt. You have to buy the shirt from Printful and then they print it and then they send you the profit from that on Etsy. With a Quick Store you don't have to worry about any of that. So locally speaking, it makes a lot more sense for me to, to just send people the link to the hey, you want to go buy a mascot shirt? Go buy it here. It'll print. It'll be here in about a week or 10 days. And so I sold a whole bunch of those. So I'm going to explore that a little bit more rather than me making shirts and buying transfers. Yeah, I can do them cheaper if I buy them and make them, but golly, spending all day pressing 25 shirts was ridiculous. Ain't no way I'm going to do that faster though.
- [63:40]
B
I mean, this is like when I was first trying to measure to line up the stencils on my signs to not make them all crooked. And it used to take me forever, you know, a thousand signs later it was like, okay, you know, super quick. But still there's, there's something to be said for, I don't enjoy this. I don't even want to, you know, like, I don't have the capacity to want to figure this one out. And that's okay too, right?
- [64:00]
C
Yeah. And I'm not saying I'm not ever going to do it ever again. I'm going to make some shirts for somebody else. Another business asked me to make a few, like a handful of them. So we're going to keep trying it, but I'm not saying I'm not going to tell anybody I'm a shirt shop yet. We have another shirt shop. He does a great job at shirts. Like that's kind of been his bread and butter is making shirts shirt. I'm gonna let him do that. I'm not gonna fight with. With that production. If there's small runs of stuff, I'll do it. But, like making hats and stuff, I love making hats. I'll make hats all day. And so just. It's been fun figuring out what I like to do, what I don't like to do. And a lot of that comes from not feeling the pressure of having. Having to make it work. Now, though, I. I have to make it work. You know, like, I. This is my job. But luckily, I have enough cushion to kind of let me play a little bit in a different world, which is going to be print on demand, and we're going to see what happens. And I'm really hoping that I can make some stuff churn in. In Q4, because I think that understanding embroidery now and getting a better design sense and apparel, I can create some things that people really would like. It's just a matter of making it sell. And so it's kind of fun starting, you know, a second shop that I think is going to churn out some money for me, which would be good. So we'll see. Maybe I'll come back in six months and it'll be, you know, it's like, hey, I shared it on the Facebook or on our school group and it worked out, you know, all the things that they told me to do, it worked. And so I would love for that to happen. It'll be great.
- [65:28]
B
But that same skill, the same skill that took you from printables to CNC machine to hats to patches, that same skill of having to iterate and being agile and testing, the one that got you here is the same one that's going to let you scale and the same one that's going to keep you in business. My parents ran a traditional. They were in technology, so it's not totally traditional, but brick and mortar company for 30 years. And if they didn't stay agile and they didn't change with what the market needed, that amazing thing that they started with, that amazing thing that made them blow up, was only going to last so long. Right. We have to be able to iterate. If you can't get the skill down to have the staying power to figure out what's going to work for you, you won't be able to stay for the long haul.
- [66:15]
C
Yeah.
- [66:16]
B
I love people like you, Preston, because there's nothing that can stop you taking the timeline off of it and taking the pressure off of it. Chef's kiss.
- [66:25]
C
Well, I appreciate that it's been really important for me to. And I even wrote about it. One of my little new habits is I'm writing some stuff down in the morning, trying to brain dump everything in the morning, doing that artist way pages thing. And it works. But one of the things I wrote down the other day was stop comparing yourself to businesses that are seven years ahead of you. Oh yeah, because there are some hat shops that I love on, on, on Instagram. There's a guy that I like, man, he started where I started. He had two glowforge machines him and his wife started in a garage and now he's got a full blown shop. But that was seven years ago when he started. He's been doing this, he's been doing the Hustle for seven years. And then another company I was comparing myself to, I can't beat their prices. And so I started looking at it, I was like, well yeah, because they're freaking warehouse like they have 14 machines. I have two machines, you know, and so yeah, I'm not gonna be able to sell a hat for $14. There's no way. And so not feeling bad about that now. So getting out of that comparison trap has been really important for me as well. Getting to the, the thousand mark just, I'm on my own timeline. The only competition I have is me right now. And I, I have goals set in mind. And if that's my, that's my competition, I'm not competing with the other shirt shop here in town or the guy that makes hats or the, the gal up the road that makes hats and sells, you know, to the other town up north of me not competing with them. I'm in a different world. I'm going to focus on my lane and make it work for the, the Etsy shop because that's where the energy's at right now. And so that's the only comparison that I have. Like, okay, let's, let's set some goals and let's beat those goals. Let's beat ourselves rather than trying to defeat somebody else. So that's been a really hard mind shift for me, that comparison thing, but really helpful to try to get to that next, the next thousand.
- [68:19]
B
You know, next time you're comparing yourself, just pat yourself on the back for getting your weekends back from going from like six jobs to one.
- [68:30]
C
I'm very, very blessed for sure to be able to do that. And so it's, it's huge to be able to clear my mind and to be able to focus on this, feel very privileged and lucky to, to even make this Thing I was thinking about the other day, like, I enjoy. Not that I didn't enjoy my other jobs, but I like. I enjoy getting up. I love having a creative job. It's never the same. Like, I'm doing the same stuff a lot, but it's like I'm doing different designs every day, so it keeps me creatively engaged. I'm learning some new things. I'm trying some new stuff, and so. And I don't have the man breathing down my neck to try to make me do stuff. Like, it's. It's just me, which is good.
- [69:06]
B
Thank you for sticking with me for, what, four years now? I can't believe that, Preston. And thank you for being willing to so vulnerably just come on and share your experience. I think your whole story is so healthy and so inspiring, and so just I think the way that Etsy was intended to be, and I love that and I love sharing it. So thanks for being willing to come hang out and pass it on to the next group.
- [69:34]
C
I appreciate that. It's been great being part of the community to meet folks that are on the front end of making sales. I know we have folks in the group that are like, hey, I made 10 sales. I hurt my 10 sales mark or 50 sales or whatever. And, yeah, just being really grateful for, like, where we've been and where those folks are headed. It's. It's a cool community to be a part of. I love getting to have known you. And, yeah, let's. Let's sell another thousand and we'll come back and do it again. We'll see where. Where the next thousand leads us.
- [70:04]
B
And we're gonna get that print on demand shop crank. And I can't wait for you to have that story as well. You guys, thank you so much for listening in. I know you love it when Preston comes on the podcast. He's such good people, so I'm so grateful for the friendship. But if you stuck with us for the past hour, just thank you so much. Your time is really valuable to us, and we just love sitting around the fire chatting with you. We love that we get to connect with you in this way. So I hope everything is going well in your world. And until next week, go make something awesome. Take care, guys.
- [70:32]
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.