← How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy
How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy
Ep 208 | Turn Your Embroidery Designs Into Passive Etsy Income -Lori Thompson
00:49:55
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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.
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B
The life they dream about.
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A
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. We are going to have such a fascinating time today learning about a totally new type of digital product that I have never talked to anyone about before. Didn't know anything about. Holy cow. Like buckle your seatbelt for just like, oh, I mean, Lori does the work, let me tell you. I'm super excited to introduce you to her just in the last me see. What week is this? We're this easy just at the beginning of November. So just like a week and a half ago, the template Drop membership went live. I got an overwhelming resounding response from you guys that yes, you would love for me to give you a digital template every single Monday that then you can turn around and repurpose and use for commercial purposes. So we're going to do the heavy lifting and create the templates for you. You're going to get them inside of the template drop membership and then everything from just like trackers and planners and classroom activities and gift tags and let me just. There are so many templates out there that you can sell on Etsy. And you know me, I love a digital product. But a lot of times the complaint about templates is that they take some time to create. So we are giving you the base product and then you can go ahead and turn around and you can tweak colors and fonts and make it specific to your niche and add elements that are relevant to you, like your kind of style, but the actual format, the basic template, is there and created for you. Just I'm looking for ways to make this easier for you to help you get there faster. So right now it is just $20 a month. You get four templates. A template? Well, actually sometimes more. Right. Because sometimes there's more. Mondays in a month. Every single Monday you'll get a new template and it'll get emailed over to you. So if that's of interest, make sure that you go and grab the link down in the show notes and we will get you set up in the template drop, which we're just like having a blast with. So join us if that's a good fit for you. Let me tell you a bit about Lori as we get into talking about how you make embroidery designs and sell them as digital products on Etsy. Lori started selling embroidery files on Etsy just three years ago and since then her shop has grown to over 3,500 sales. When she's not designing digital embroidery files, you can find her showing off her work on TikTok where she sells physical items in TikTok shop as well as at vendor shows and local boutiques. Like everything embroidery, which is the thing right now. By day she works full time as a food safety manager for a large pet company while also finding time to spend with her family on their compound and little farm. I would like this girl. She is. We are kindred spirits and our little are living our best farm life. So let's dig into it. I can't wait for her to just teach you all about this and share what the story has been like for her. Please help me welcome Lori to the podcast. Lori, hey, welcome to the podcast.
- [03:39]
C
Hi.
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B
I've been so looking forward to this and hearing all about your incredible Etsy journey. This isn't. I don't think we've covered this exact topic before. I may be wrong. There's been a lot of episodes now. But please, like, we have to get right into it. Tell me, like, how did you become such an impressive embroidery designer? Like, you're not even just selling embroidery, you're selling the designs. Like, talk about being ahead of all of the trends. Like, tell me everything. Lori.
- [04:02]
C
Well, so a lot of trial and error and a lot of, a lot of redoing things over and over again. And most of what I learned I learned through what I call YouTube University because I'm not really good at following instructions or things like that. I have to try several times and then if it doesn't work, I go find the shortest YouTube video I can to tell me how to do things. But I've always Liked computers. And when I started doing embroidery, I realized that I kind of liked the design part more than I did my machine. And at the time I had a single needle flatbed machine, so you're limited to what you can do. And it only had a 4x4 hoop, so I had hoop envy because I couldn't do anything big. And so I started designing and then I did do both on Etsy for a little while. And about three, three, maybe three and a half years ago, I just realized that I enjoyed the designing a lot more. The, the one offs, the doing one of something. It just, it took so much time. It, it really wasn't scalable. And then also sometimes doing the same thing over and over again would bore me. So I thought I could just do the design and make it one time and then I can put it on and sell it. And, and so I bought some software and I made some horrible designs. I did test them. I didn't sell any of the horrible designs. And eventually I'd say it was probably three or four months after I got the software, I got to where I could start selling them. But the thing with embroidery designs is one, you have to create them, you have to test them. And the machines don't all take the same file types. So like if you buy a design from me, you're going to get 14 file types and sometimes three or four different sizes. So it takes a minute to do it. It's not, it's not as, it's not super quick.
- [06:10]
B
So I'm really surprised that hasn't been standardized by now. Like, I know nothing about this. That's crazy.
- [06:15]
C
So my software does, I can go through and once I design something, I can tell it, hey, I want you now to convert it over to these types and it will do that. But then you have to put it into like a zip drive because Etsy doesn't recognize those. So you sell those as individuals.
- [06:35]
B
Yeah, that makes perfect sense.
- [06:36]
C
Yeah. And then people buy it and they don't know what a zip drive is, and then they email you an email that says they didn't get what they were trying to get. So then you have to talk them through how to do a zip file, which I should really make a video on how to do that and put that on YouTube. That would have been a good idea.
- [06:51]
B
You should do that. And then the other thing I would do is like, you know how you can upload five files on the back end? I would do one if you haven't already. That's like a PDF with instructions and then link your video to that.
- [07:04]
C
Oh, yeah. See, I do have instructions on one of my photos because there's only so many photos you can take of, you.
- [07:12]
B
Know, and it's like a lot of pictures. It's on the listing. It's like before they buy that they see it, right?
- [07:16]
C
Yeah, but I don't know that they actually see that, because I have also had people. I had a lady not long ago message me and say she never got her order. And she had ordered it a month ago. And I said, oh, it was instantly downloaded. And she said, well, how would I download a patch? And I was like, you. I don't sell patches. It's a design. Were you going to use it as a patch? Because this particular design would not have worked that way. And she said, no, that she had ordered a patch. And I. I looked and I said, okay. She just thought it was a patch by the picture, even though it says digital download. So I refunded her money, and she was apologetic after she realized what happened. And I was tempted to make her a patch, but then I thought, no, I don't know if I know how. So. But. But, yeah, so. But anyway, that's kind of how I got into it. I just kind of make whatever. Well, I listen. I listen to your podcast, of course, and then I also use Everbee and some of the different tools to try and see what's trending. But I also go, like, to Target and places like that, and I walk around and see what they're selling. And with embroidery files, you can pretty much make them. I mean, you can post them right away because people are buying them at that time to use, so I don't have to really get too far ahead of, like, the holiday season. So that's kind of how I decide. I usually just make whatever I think I want. I feel like everybody says you have to, like, think of your ideal customer. I am my ideal customer.
- [08:51]
B
Yeah. Sometimes that works out. Sometimes it does.
- [08:54]
C
I like to buy a lot of things. So I feel. I feel like I'm my ideal customer, and I know me better than I know anyone else.
- [09:00]
B
I mean, yeah, I think, like, sometimes it'll get people into trouble because they are so kind of niched down, really, really unique. And then it's not that there's not other people out there that'd be interested, it's just that the pool is too small on Etsy to make it profitable for somebody. Right. But a lot of times, yeah, we can be our ideal customer. Can you? Okay, so, Lori I know nothing about embroidery. I'm actually super intrigued by it. Robbie and I have been like, should we get an embroidery machine? Like, chewing on all of this, but I literally don't understand anything about the, the file types. You said there were 14 different ones. So, like, someone can't just go into Canva and create these designs. Right. They really have to have a special kind of software.
- [09:36]
C
Yes. So there's several different softwares that you can get and all of them pretty much work the same from what I've seen. I'll be honest, I chose the software that I had because it was one where you didn't have to buy it all up front. You could, like, finance it. And my thought was I could use the company to pay for the company and not really have to invest anything.
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B
Yeah.
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C
And so, and, and, and it did. But you. And most of them will do a little bit of what they call automated digitizing. And you will see. I see a lot of this on TikTok, and honestly, it's actually hurt the embroidery file business on Etsy because a lot of people will say, oh, you buy this software and you just upload a picture and you tell it to digitize it and it does it automatically. And it kind of does. It looks like it does. And they'll even tell you you don't even need an embroidery machine. But if you don't test it, you won't realize that it has too many jump stitches or even though there's only four colors, you're actually going to change your thread 10 times because it's not set up correctly or, you know, the stitching is too thick or whatever. So what I normally do is I may auto digitize a few things on a design, but then I go in and tweak them. But I test, clean it up. Yeah, because you'll have random stitches or you may have. Once it stitches out something's really, really thick or it's see through, it's too thin. So the auto digitize is a good helper, but you need to actually be able to follow through. Now, of course, I only have two machines, so I can only test two file types. And for the most part, I have not had an issue with things not working for people. There's just no way to test them all.
- [11:42]
B
But yeah, no, but you're doing your due diligence, right? You're doing your, you're checking it, you're seeing, you know, you're making sure that it'll work. This is, that is so interesting to me. So you're generally starting with some kind of image. Are you. Do you use AI at all to be creating your designs or.
- [11:57]
C
I do a little bit. I use Ideogram. Yeah, I have. I have Ideogram. Make me a coloring page, and then I use that coloring page as a guide to make my design. And then you have the coloring pages, black and white.
- [12:14]
B
Yeah. So then you could. Okay, so I can't even envision what it looks like in there. So you're pulling it up. And I mean, I know, like, I've taken. I've like cracked. You know what I do if I need to get something to look like embroidery is I put it. I go into Printify. Like, I'm going to be creating an embroidery shirt. And then it. I have a. I have a YouTube tutorial on this, guys, if you want to see the steps of it. But I literally, like take the design into Printify, like I'm creating an embroidery shirt, put the design on it on a white shirt, and then export that mock up and then remove the background of the shirt. And that's how I make it look like I've got. You know, I've created a PNG that looks like embroidery. You know, I mean, now we can kind of do that, right in Enneagram. But so for you, though, you're using a coloring page that you're importing into. And actually, by the way, Lori, do you mind telling us what software you recommend?
- [13:00]
C
So there are several different ones I have used in Bird, which. Oh yeah, to me was a little. It has a lot of features. It was harder to learn. Hatch, to me is easier. Was easier to learn because Hatch has They. There's a Facebook page called Hatchlings and they help you.
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B
Oh, okay, cool.
- [13:21]
C
But the only thing is that one doesn't really do. So you can do fonts, but you can't do the true type fonts. Okay, there's another one, and the name of it just slipped me or slipped out of my head. But the hatch is the one that I use right now. And to me, I like Hatch too, because with Hatch, once you're done with your thing with your design, you can choose to look at it by stitches, where it has the stitches laid out so you can see exactly where the stitches are going. Or you can have it look more like a photo so you can see what the end result is going to be like, not necessarily how it's being stitched. And from that you can. There are certain ways you can save it so that you can use that on your listings to show People what it's going to look like.
- [14:10]
B
So. Oh my gosh. I have. So this is like so new to me. I have so many questions and it sounds like Hatch is a bit of an investment though.
- [14:18]
C
It is. So I don't remember how much it was that I paid every month, but it took like two and a half years to.
- [14:27]
B
Oh, wow.
- [14:28]
C
To pay off. It was maybe $30 or so, $40 a month.
- [14:33]
B
I don't remember. Yeah, yeah. But I like what you did there. Like, especially if the interest wasn't too crazy. I like what you did there because then you let your business pay for it rather than putting it on your family. You know, I think that was actually a really, really cool. I'm trying to see if I can.
- [14:47]
C
Find on Google with Buy now.
- [14:49]
B
They always.
- [14:50]
C
And they've come out. So they were at Hatch one whenever I started. I'm at Hatch three now. I think I did have to pay like a hundred dollars to upgrade to Hatch three. When it went from one to two, there was a window where you could upgrade for free if you already had one. But for two to three, I think I did have to pay just a nominal amount to upgrade.
- [15:11]
B
So the digitizer, which is the biggest one, is about $1,000, $1,099. I guess there's. There'll be some interesting Black Friday sales on this kind of stuff. But that's, I think, where. What you were talking about with all the digitizing, then there's a step down that's called the Composer. And I think it doesn't have the digitizing, but it has other design stuff that's 5.99. Just to give you guys a sense of like what we're, what we're talking about.
- [15:38]
C
And I think with the Composer you can change sizing on some where you can't with other softwares. So it is helpful because you can't. If, if you buy a file for me and you change the dis. You can size stuff on your machine as well. But if you size it very much, it starts to distort. So you really need a software for sizing. I normally tell people that I'll size stuff for them.
- [16:03]
B
Okay.
- [16:04]
C
That way they don't mess it up.
- [16:07]
B
Yeah, no, you're keeping people from that. And so that was exactly what I was going to ask. If someone buys the. So you're getting. They're getting all of these different file types they buy. They buy it from you and then they're going to put it in their own embroidery machine. Like you have it you were telling me you were able to look at it, like, where the specific stitches go, but I'm thinking, whoa, if they need to make it bigger for, like, I mean, what it would look like on an extra small sweatshirt versus a, you know, double XL sweatshirt. I love to work an oversized, cozy sweatshirt. My design is going to be bigger. It's going to need more stitches. So you're saying their embroidery software might not do that. You'd have to resize it for them and hatch.
- [16:42]
C
Right. So normally most of mine, I sell at least three different sizes. And unless it's hat embroidery, which is a whole other thing. And that way they can choose from the three. And I do have those listed in my listings so they know what they're getting. And then if they buy it and they realize, oh, I needed something bigger or something smaller or whatever, they needed something changed, then I usually will just email it to them. And then since I'm having to get their email address, I also ask if it's okay if I put them in my email list, so.
- [17:20]
B
Oh, interesting. Okay, well, let's like, take a detour there. Tell me, tell me about that. Like, how's, how's the email list going and how often do you email them and what do you say?
- [17:28]
C
So, so far I've not emailed them, but. So I did not start building my email list as quickly as I should have.
- [17:40]
B
But I've got a little over a.
- [17:42]
C
Hundred people on my email list and my plan is I don't. So I love Etsy, but I don't want to have all my eggs in one platform because you just never know. And so I have built a website that has all the same files in it, and I'll be adding more files to that one. And eventually, you know, I want to have subscription service and things like that to those, to my website. So my plan next year is to start using my email list to tell people about the website so they can come there, give them some freebies. My thought is I'll probably email them once a month, a free design, something just small and kind of, you know, like something with hearts around Valentine's Day or something like that, and try and start getting people to my own website as a, As a backup.
- [18:43]
B
No, I mean, it's not even a backup. That's just a scaling technique. Like, I think that's. I mean, you'll have to look into then how you're going to. Yeah, I don't know. You're already doing some social media. I haven't actually looked into that much. But do you find that social media is working to push to drive traffic for you?
- [18:57]
C
So TikTok has worked for me pretty well. And Pinterest, I don't do very much on Pinterest. I probably don't even post once a month to Pinterest. But I get sales from them every week. So I don't.
- [19:10]
B
What.
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C
I don't know why I'm. Yeah, I don't know why I'm not there, but I need to be. But I like TikTok, so that's what I've been using. And the way I started doing that was we actually had a. Another physical store outside of the embroidery doing stickers. And I thought, hey, we had just opened the store and I thought, hey, it would be fun to post a TikTok of me putting these stickers on. They were little stickers that cover your credit card to make your credit card cute, you know, because the numbers now a lot of times are on the back. So it didn't cover anything important. And so I made a little TikTok and it went viral. We ended up with like 600 sales that month from that TikTok.
- [19:54]
B
Oh.
- [19:55]
C
So, yeah. And so I do now. We ended up. And this was right before we moved. It ended up not being very scalable because we did a lot of custom. Like you could send me a picture of your dog and I would put it on your credit card for. Or your sticker for you. It was very cumbersome and we got a little overwhelmed so we just put the store on vacation and stopped doing that. And then we ended up moving. I do still have some of those in a TikTok shop, but I don't really promote them a whole lot. But what I learned from that is people will go from TikTok to your Etsy.
- [20:32]
B
I wanted to know that. That's so interesting.
- [20:35]
C
Yeah. And you don't have to go viral because that. So that video that had the 600 sales, it's now at the time it had a little over a million views. It still gets views. It's like, like 2.2 or something. Million views right now. And it's really silly. It is somebody putting a sticker on a credit card and it doesn't even have sound anymore because the sound wasn't commercial. But anyway it was at the time, but then it wasn't anymore. So tick tock. Took it off. But so now when I test designs, I just post that on my TikTok and then I put a link to the Etsy underneath it in the comments and sometimes nothing happens. The one I did last week, I had, I think seven sales from. But seven is, I mean, my stuff is really cheap. But seven sales that. Seven people who are potential customers because I do get a lot of repeat customers. So it could become a lot more than seven.
- [21:33]
B
That was for embroidery designs. Oh my gosh. Okay, Lori, this is because you're in such a hot space like this, like embroidery is on fire. People want. This is absolutely insane. And you're so chill about it.
- [21:46]
A
Like the way I want to shake.
- [21:48]
B
You and be like, this is so cool. Like you're just like, yeah, you know, I just, it's whatever. And I.
- [21:58]
C
I. Yeah, but I do. Yeah, I don't know.
- [22:02]
B
No, you're good for my nervous system. It's. It's totally great.
- [22:08]
A
Are you a print on demand or digital product Etsy seller who's tight on time or still learning all of the Etsy secrets? I totally remember the days of having no idea what product to create next before I learned how to make those informed decisions. So I can really identify with where you're at. I know how stressful and frustrating it can be to just create listing after listing and see little to no results. You wonder what you're doing wrong and just you just want someone to tell you what to create that's actually going to sell. Where are those opportunities? So let me give you a leg up with my weekly trends and opportunities report. You just join my membership and every Monday I'm going to send you an email with a list of exactly what is trending right now with a video tutorial showing you how I found those trends and how to apply them in your shop. We're taking guesswork and time, extensive time off of your table. I'm also going to send you five print on demand and digital product opportunities that are great. 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.
- [23:23]
B
How do you create mockups for embroidery designs?
- [23:27]
C
So I used to take a picture of the design after I did it. So I normally test my designs. If it's a flat design or just a regular design, I test it on a piece of Felt just because it's cheap and easy and I can put several designs on one piece. So I would take a picture of those and put them in Canva and then delete the background and then put them on a sweatshirt as like a mock up. I still do that a little bit, but it didn't seem to make a big difference if it was actually shown on a shirt or a bag or if it was just shown with just a clear. But I mean, like a blue background or whatever. So what I've been doing recently is I changed the thread color to. So people can see it in different colors and I may change the background so they can kind of see how it's going to look. For example, I try and have on my. So on my page, the very first design is usually black thread with a white background. But for example, I have several hunting designs. So I'll put those in orange thread with a green background, like hunter orange. And just to show people different, different types. But I do, Yeah, I do have some still that I've just in Canva put onto like a sweatshirt or a bag so people can see what they look like.
- [24:52]
B
But there's no way to do it digitally like you. You have to create the design, put it in your own embroidery software, embroider a test, and then take a picture of that. Wow.
- [25:05]
C
Now technically you can. That's how I've done it in the past. You could, you can. The design software itself will let you download a picture of what it looks like.
- [25:21]
B
Yeah.
- [25:21]
C
And you probably could also put that one in Canva and take the background out and do it the same way. I haven't ever done that though.
- [25:30]
B
Is it good enough though? Does it really look good enough to do that? Your face says no, probably not.
- [25:36]
C
It would probably look photoshopped, really.
- [25:39]
B
Okay, so. Okay. This is also awesome. So, like, this to me tells me you're going through a lot of steps, Lori. You're having to create all these different file types and after you design it, the creativity of it, editing the file, you're not just getting an AI image like we can do with PNGs, and then like cleaning it up a little bit, upscaling it and moving on, you are having to go through the steps. I think that's really great. I think it's extremely hard to copy a shop like yours, which tells me it's a great opportunity for other people who want to tackle other niches. Because people don't want to work this hard.
- [26:09]
C
Yeah, it's. And, and I don't. I don't know, there may have been someone who's copied me, but I have not seen where I've been copied. And, you know, since you can. I mean, you can download, you could get designs like coloring pages online and digitize those into embroidery. But those. I have seen other, you know, several people have the same design. So that's why I get mine, like, from Ideogram. Now also, in Hatch, you can just draw and make your own. I can't draw.
- [26:42]
B
Me neither.
- [26:44]
C
My. One of my daughters can draw, so I've had her draw and do some things like that. And so you can just draw your own. But I'm not that creative. I need AI to make me a coloring page.
- [26:57]
B
That's so wonderful too, though. Like, I mean, you're. You're still able to leverage the tools. You're still able to be utilizing, you know, the cutting edge of what's happening right now, even though you have a more cumbersome prod product to create. What is a typical embroidery design file sell for?
- [27:13]
C
Not very much. About $3, about 350.
- [27:16]
B
Okay.
- [27:17]
C
So every time I have some that are simple, they're just a little bit less. But it's really funny because every time my phone goes cha Ching, Everybody goes, Ah, 350.
- [27:28]
B
So. But.
- [27:32]
C
But I do. And. And some of the things I test out, like hats, have to be tested on hat. Hat designs have to be tested on hats. So because they're digitized differently, so those I then will sell the okay. Or someone in the family takes them. But.
- [27:48]
B
Yep. You mentioned when we first jumped on the call that you just launched a fair shop.
- [27:54]
C
I did, I did.
- [27:56]
B
So you're. Yeah. You're moving into wholesale, but they don't do digital products. Right. Tell me all about that project.
- [28:02]
C
So that started kind of by accident, so I started selling. Well, I had a lady here in town ask if I would put some hats in her shop because she has a little boutique. And since I have to test my hat designs on hats, why not? So I did that. And then another lady down the street asked if I would be interested in just selling wholesale to her. And I thought, well, sure. So I did that. And then I started thinking after I did the wholesale hats, they. It's just easier. It's the same thing. I just load a new hat on, and it's already programmed, and it does it for me. And so I don't have to keep redesigning or, you know, resetting stuff up. So I thought, man, maybe wholesale is the way to go. So my oldest daughter, who's a natural salesman has kind of gone around town and gotten us a few other clients around town. And then I started thinking maybe I should try fair. And so we applied for fair and our shop went live just yesterday. But I'm pretty excited to see how, how the journey goes. I'm thinking I should maybe start a tick tock about my fare journey. But yeah, I'm. I'm thinking that might be, you know, I'm looking for a way to work from home, be here more and give up the nine to five. And so I kind of think between the digital files and if we get some more wholesale customers, that would be the way to go. Because the markup is much bigger, of course, in physical items than it is in a 3.50 digital design.
- [29:45]
B
Yeah. When you're not doing print on demand, you can definitely make more of a profit, but you're just doing the work. So are you going to be doing mostly hats? Is that what you're going to sell wholesale?
- [29:53]
C
So right now in our wholesale we have hats and then we also. My, my husband also does laser engraving.
- [29:59]
B
Oh.
- [29:59]
C
And so I forgot about him. And so we're putting some of his stuff. We put some of his in the boutique and it went like really fast. So we're putting some of his stuff on the fair side as well, which would make sense because his laser died last night as soon as we went live on fair. So he'll be getting a new one later today or tomorrow we'll be ordering that. So.
- [30:25]
B
Oh my word. That's the hard part, right? You've got to have like the backup.
- [30:29]
C
That's.
- [30:30]
B
I'm so curious to hear. Like, you're going to have to, we're going to have to like catch up in like six months. And I want to find out if you're really. If you want to like throw your embroidery machine through the window because you what, you know, playing with the handmade stuff. But I think in these times that's going to be like those handmade products is the way to go to really, you know, differentiate.
- [30:51]
C
Yeah. I think people, I think people feel more of a connection.
- [30:55]
B
Yeah.
- [30:55]
C
Whenever something's handmade and, and it's really neat. Even, even with my digital designs, I sell them all over the place. I sell a lot in Germany and France for some reason I, I don't know, but especially Germany. It's just neat to me to think something I designed somebody else is wearing on a shirt or a hat or a bag or, you know, I mean, because you think about that when you're doing handmade stuff like, like even your signs that, that you had made, you know, those hung over someone's kitchen. So your signs are in someone's core memory of a child of things that they, you know. So it's kind of cool.
- [31:38]
B
Yeah. Yeah. Potentially still hanging in places and people are looking at them and kids come home for college and smile seeing the, you know, it's always a phrase too, right? It's always, it's more. It's not even just an image. It's words which, which are, you know, family are built on the things that we say to each other or those phrases that we. We, you know, that we keep. We hold dear. That's such a. That's so beautiful. You're right. There's just nothing like a handmade, A handmade item. But I love. You've then turned that into, into a digital product as well. What, what would you say is like, been the biggest learning curve for you in the whole, the whole Etsy journey?
- [32:16]
C
You know, some people don't like what I like and I just don't understand. Like, like, I'll make it. I'll make something. I'm like, this. This is my million dollar design right here. And then nobody likes it. My, my best seller that I've had in this. Actually, this is not even a. It's one of the first designs I did and I don't even think it's great. It's a German shepherd's head and it has sold more than anything. And I don't know why. I have other German shepherds that look much better because I have a lot of dogs. That's kind of what I started with. But yeah, so I don't, I don't know. But. But yeah, I think that's the biggest thing because I'll go through and I'll have stuff that has renewed like 10 times and no one's bought it. And I'm like, you know, that's $2. I could, I could have bought a Coke instead of paying that renewal. But. But that's probably my heart.
- [33:13]
B
So the. Figuring out what people will. Will love the. And I mean, honestly, sometimes that, to me, that loop never closes in my brain of the things that I create that then nobody likes. Sometimes I'll go back and look, I'll be like, oh, that wasn't as good as I thought it was. But it's really, it's funny. Like, to me, the, the PNG shop that I started last year, I have things that have just started selling that I listed Like a year ago. And it's like, what, why? It's so, it doesn't make any sense.
- [33:43]
C
Yeah, it's like maybe somebody, just as soon as someone bought it, maybe Etsy's like, oh, hey, maybe we should show this to more people or something. I, I don't know. But yeah, I've had stuff like that too. But yeah, that's, to me, there's been stuff, I've made them like, oh my gosh, this is really funny. Everyone's going to love this.
- [33:56]
B
And no, nobody cares. Nobody cares. That's so, that's so relatable. Do you have some tips for new sellers? Like what you would encourage them or tell them to do?
- [34:05]
C
Yeah, I would think so. The biggest thing, and this is when I started is, is you cannot, reviews are very, very important, but you cannot put your value completely on reviews because. But I, I did a few PNGs as well and I still have a couple in my shop and I have one that has, it's a Halloween themed png. It's done very, very well. I looked, I've actually made over 700 on this little PNG.
- [34:34]
B
Oh my word.
- [34:35]
C
And my very first review I ever got was on this particular png and it was a one star review and it said it didn't work and I'm like, wait, it doesn't do anything. First of all, how would it not work? So I'm like, okay, so now I got to shut my whole shop down. I've had one review, it's one star, it's terrible. I don't know what to do, but I messaged a lady and I said, I am so sorry you're upset with your purchase. Is there anything I can do to help you? Was it a download problem or whatever? And I didn't hear anything back. And then a couple hours later, it was that same day, she messaged me back and she said I was in a hurry, it was my fault, I messed up my printer. So. And it was like the day before Halloween, so she was probably going to a Halloween party or something and she said, I'm sorry about the review. And I said, well, you know, thank you for letting me know. I do believe Etsy allows you to change them if you want to do that. She never changed it. But since then I have sold, I don't know, it's $1.99 and I've made just over $700 with it, so I don't remember how many that is. I've sold. But don't shut down your Shop. If you get a bad review, don't give up, just keep going. Because, you know, I try and answer all of my reviews. I'm not gonna say I don't miss a few, whether they're good or bad, you know, I mean, a four star review, I still thank them because some people will not give five stars no matter what, right?
- [36:08]
B
Yeah.
- [36:09]
C
If I get anything below a four star, I will usually message them and say, hey, is there anything else I could have done? I've had a few people change their review because something else with embroidery files is not everyone knows how their machine works and so they might make a mistake or they're not using enough stabilizer or the fabric they're using or something like that. Sometimes I can help them. And so I have had some people change them, but even the five star reviews, I, you know, I thank them. And especially if they share a project, I thank them. So. So yeah, my tip would be one, if you get a bad review, just move on and try and answer your reviews. Plus, it locks them in. If it's a five star review, they can't change their mind later.
- [36:55]
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.
- [37:16]
B
Right?
- [37:16]
A
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 months, like at my shop's peak. And the thing about me, if you've been here for a minute, you already know this. I'm a terrible gatekeeper, okay? When I figure something out, when I crack a code, when I get excited, I cannot help but tell everybody who wants to listen. It's like either my, my best asset or my toxic trait. I can't decide but I put everything that you need to know to fill that beginner knowledge gap into a low ticket just under three hours beginner course that I have called Six Figure Secrets to getting started on Etsy. In it I'm teaching you how to find what's in demand for your niche, how to find and use trends, how 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 built 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, so ripe right now. I am in the, in the numbers, in the data every day and my mind just keeps expanding on the possibilities. Okay, so as a special treat, use the code save50 to save $50 on the six figure secrets course today. That's $50 off with a coupon. Save 50 and by all means DM me or shoot me an email when those sales start popping because I want to celebrate with you.
- [39:20]
B
I do feel think that we like reviews are very important and I tend to you know a lot of people in the Etsy community disagree with me. I tend to err on the side of just like I'm going to do whatever I can to make that customer happy because it's and sometimes for me that was very costly with this. I mean there were times I refunded a, there was this, there was one lady who had bought a, a sign for over their bed and when we, when, when, when we sold those that were reclaimed wood I could just do real thick chalk paint on them and they'd be great. But if they ch I had to use an oil based paint or the like I don't know, the wood color would change. It wouldn't look pretty. Well as we all know oil based paint can have a bad odor, right? It does not, it does not smell as good. I had to like I would always do chalk paint over it but I would do a base coat of the oil based paint anyway. This lady left me the most scathing review and said that she had to put the sign out in her garage because, like the fumes were going to kill them. Whatever, whatever, whatever. Can you imagine? I know. And I was just like, oh, oh my gosh. And so I refunded that sign. I mean, I was just, you know, I explained exactly what happened. I took, I ate 200, 200 and something dollars, 220 dollars on that one order. But I'll tell you what. And I mean, they're not all going to come back and change it. But she came back and changed it. She was, she, it didn't occur to her that she could have messaged me about it and I would have just taken care of her. And I explained exactly, like, here's, like, here's why we've got to do it like this. I just wanted to get it to you in the shipping window. I couldn't let it sit and aerate for two weeks to make it not whatever. But it was, it was so much drama. But the point is, I tend to err on the side of I just take care of the customer. Why? Because that's what I would want as a person. And I'm a reasonable person. I don't usually demand. I don't leave bad reviews ever. Like, oh, I mean, it has to be like there had to be danger. There had to be something. Which in this case, maybe she would have said there was there. But it takes a lot for me to leave a bad review. I think we all stress about them too much. I think take care of the customer to the degree that you're willing to within your boundaries. I personally just, I will refund something. I don't, I will, you know, move on because I want the next person to see that I took care of them. Even if I just say in the thing that I, you know, refunded them. My point is, I think we put too much stress on it because just like in your case where all you had. What you had a brand new shop, all you had was one terrible review. If you just keep publishing new listings, someone else and you keep your prices really competitive, you're not overpriced, someone's going to come buy that new listing and you're going to be able to move past it. Might it take a little bit longer because you've got that review there? Yes. But I've also learned lately, Lori, I don't know if you've seen this. If you have a lot of reviews, Etsy kind of hides your bad ones. Like, I've had to. I tried to go back in and look because someone gave me one star review on a digital product like a month or two ago. And I even went and looked at that product, you know, in like a different browser, not logged in, and the bad review does not show there. Like, people have to kind of hunt for the bad review.
- [42:10]
C
Yeah, I had the same thing. I thought it was crazy because I had a lady, she gave me a two star review because she said she didn't like, she didn't like the image. And I'm like, why'd you buy it? But anyway, but she said, you know, once it was done, she, she just didn't like the picture. And so she gave me a two star review. And, but, and it's, it's not, it's hard to find.
- [42:38]
B
Yeah.
- [42:38]
C
So. And, and I did. I messaged her and told her if she didn't like it, I would give her a refund. But she. And nine times out of 10, if somebody gives you a bad review and some of them, they're just cranky and they're not gonna even respond, especially if they give you a bad review in stars, but they don't say anything. I, I love.
- [43:00]
B
You're not gonna hear. Yeah, you're not gonna hear anything about it.
- [43:02]
C
Two stars for no reason. So. But whatever.
- [43:07]
B
I love what you said though. We can't put our value on it. We do what we can do and then we move on and we. And sometimes it's hard though, especially in the beginning. You don't know, like, okay, did this just literally just destroy everything? No, just keep going, keep listing new things, keep promoting it. Like, keep your prices really competitive so that at least you can win out on the price. Someone will take a risk on it. The other thing I really wanted to know from you, Lori, is what are kind of your future plans? Like, where do you see your shop a year from now? It sounds like you just, you're mixing stuff up, so I'm, I'm excited.
- [43:36]
C
Yeah, Well, I have to have like 400 unrelated things going on at one time to function, so I like to have a lot of irons and a lot of fires. But I'm hoping my Etsy shop will continue to grow. We do want to start adding. My oldest daughter is going to start helping me with some, some things. We want to start adding fonts to that as well, the true type fonts. And then also we're wanting to build our website that's going to have the same stuff that I have in Etsy and it's going to probably have a few more items in it as well. Because eventually what I'd like to do is start a subscription where it's maybe $9 a month and you get a certain number of feet files and then if you want more files than that that month, you would get them at a discount. So I kind of want to go that direction eventually and then hoping the Fair shop takes off. And I'm super excited about that. They fair. I found out today or yesterday I was looking for a podcast to help me with fair because I don't have a Lizzie to help me with Fair. And so Fair actually puts out their own podcast and they tell you how their algorithm works and where their keywords are most important and things like that. So I'm pretty excited about trying that for wholesale for our physical stuff and then keeping our digital stuff growing in Etsy.
- [45:04]
B
So I love that they do that. That's so cool.
- [45:08]
C
Yeah. Yeah, I was pretty excited about that. So. So we'll see. And I'll be interested to see if the things. The designs that are popular in my digital shop are the same ones that are popular on physical items. That'll be. That'll be kind of interesting to see.
- [45:25]
B
It can vary. I'll be curious to hear as well. Make sure if you. I'm sure you already have because you do a lot of driving, but for people listening, because you're saying you want to create kind of like a subscription service, which I think is brilliant to do and I think in your niche that would be. That could do very well. Make sure you listen to that episode 203 with Bailey, who talks about how she literally built like a 45 to $50,000 a month Etsy shop from doing things like that.
- [45:50]
C
Yeah, I, I remember. I remember hearing that one. But I will. I'll go back and listen to that.
- [45:55]
B
No, I'm sure you have. It was more for other people listening. Laura, you're so on top of it. You listen to all of the things.
- [46:01]
C
Well, I don't know. I, I spend a lot of time in my car listening to you.
- [46:05]
B
It's, it's. It's so funny sometimes when I get to connect with you guys in real life and, and I'm just like, so excited to me. And you all are like, this is surreal. I listen to your voice all, all the time. I'm like, I promise. I'm so boring and normal. Like, it's super good. We're just friends.
- [46:20]
C
It's funny to not be in my car driving, so.
- [46:23]
B
But yeah, I remember once when I was interviewing Brittany Lewis, Beowulf biz. She's a Print on Demand expert. And I had been listening to her a ton because I was kind of dabbling in Print on Demand at the time. And I was interviewing her and I forgot. There was a point when I forgot I was interviewing and I'm just like, listening because I'm used to just listening to her. Oh, wait, I have to be part of this conversation. It was such a. Like a mind meld. But Laurie.
- [46:48]
C
Oh, go ahead.
- [46:49]
B
Sorry.
- [46:50]
C
Well, in my car, sometimes I will still answer you because you'll say, hey, did y' all think of this? And I'll be like, oh, my God, Lizzy, that's a great idea. But you don't hear me because I'm in my car.
- [47:00]
B
But anyway, I do hear you. I do hear you. That's so funny. The way I can talk to a wall is I. It's a special kind of a talent. I don't know, girl, but I'm sorry I cut you off. It's like the. I'm. I'm learning how to be better about that when I'm excited. But I was going to ask where you wanted to share with the audience. Like, where are the best places to find you and connect?
- [47:20]
C
I'm on TikTok. And I'm on TikTok. I have two different places on TikTok, but my embroidery and crafty side of TikTok is 426 digital. And I'm on Instagram. Instagram. I'm @426creative on Instagram.
- [47:37]
B
Are you pretty active in those places?
- [47:39]
C
I am. And my daughter monitors Instagram with me because I'm. Apparently I'm old and I'm not good at Instagram. But anyway, that was what she said. I think I'm amazing. But yeah, I'm on both of those every day, so. And usually tick tock around midnight or so I'm still on there going, man, I should go to bed. So.
- [48:03]
B
Yeah, that's very circa 2025 of us, isn't it? Well, Lori, I just want to thank you so much for like, being our.
- [48:09]
A
Teacher today and telling us all about.
- [48:11]
B
Your story and this whole different type of business. I'm really like, I really admire how hard you have to work to get. Like, this is the hardest digital product apart from maybe like planners. Right? Digital planners would be up there because it's just so. It's so cumbersome. But just thank you so much. It's so good to be with you. And, and, and we just really appreciate you sharing with us.
- [48:33]
C
Well, awesome. I was so much fun being here. I was so excited to to be here and get to to talk to you.
- [48:38]
B
Yeah, amazing. Love to keep in touch and I can't wait to hear how fare goes. And also if you find a Lizzie who does fair, I definitely want to hear about that as well because I'd love to have. We've had some people who sell on fair come share on the podcast, but I'd love to connect with another coach. I think that would be like such a fun, like natural place for me to be able to send you guys so well everyone, thank you so much for tuning in and listening to Lori's story and I hope that you are as inspired as I am. I just think it's like so cool to hear these different ways that people are making money from home and making Etsy work and it's just mind boggling the opportunities out there. So thanks for listening and until next week, go make something awesome. Bye guys.
- [49:14]
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 it 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.