Ep 219 | How to Think Like A Full Time Etsy Seller – with Preston Cox

Summary

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Podcast Summary

Podcast: How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy

Episode: 219 – How to Think Like A Full Time Etsy Seller
Host: Lizzie Smiley
Guest: Preston Cox
Release Date: February 5, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this engaging episode, host Lizzie Smiley welcomes back Preston Cox, a thriving full-time Etsy seller, entrepreneur, and local business enthusiast. With over 1,500 Etsy sales and a $3,000+ per month average, Preston has transitioned from juggling multiple jobs to focusing solely on his Etsy businesses. Drawing on his journey from side hustles and failed products to full-time success, Preston and Lizzie dive deep into the mindset and practical habits needed to operate an Etsy shop like a true business.

Listeners can expect a blend of relatable anecdotes, actionable advice, and candid reflections on belief, identity, consistency, and business growth. Key takeaways center on mindset shifts, scheduling, perseverance, and doubling down on one’s strengths—dispelling the “little hobby” narrative that sometimes surrounds online selling.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Evolution of an Etsy Seller (02:26 – 10:42)

• Early Days and Mindset Shifts:

  • Preston started his journey in November 2021 as Lizzie’s first coaching client, struggling with a “sweary wall art” Etsy shop.
  • Iteration and patience were essential—Preston shifted from products that didn’t work to handmade items that gained traction.
  • Quote:
    "I was like, I'm gonna slow burn this. And you worked three jobs and ran the Etsy."
    — Lizzie (04:32)

• Hobbies vs. Businesses:

  • Preston reflects on not initially seeing Etsy as a full-time path, assuming its potential was limited to supplemental income.
  • Exposure to success stories on the podcast shifted his belief: “Okay, this could be a full-time job if I want it to be.” (10:09–10:40)

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2. Overcoming Perceptions & Claiming Your Professional Identity (10:42 – 16:55)

• Dealing with Skepticism:

  • Both Lizzie and Preston discuss the sometimes condescending attitudes toward online selling (the "little Etsy business" smirk).
  • Quote:
    "People want to be kind of patronizing about… you know, I'm like, oh, I don't know, it's just making more than my husband's full time job."
    — Lizzie (10:45)

• Reframing Identity:

  • Preston began owning his role as a “manufacturer” rather than “just an Etsy seller”, which boosted his confidence.
  • Embracing the value of his work combats internalized embarrassment, especially in tight-knit, rural, “hard-working” communities.

• Cultural Differences:

  • Lizzie notes suburban and urban settings may view e-commerce with more legitimacy, whereas in small towns, hands-on jobs earn more respect (15:39).

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3. The Full-Time Etsy Seller Mindset (20:19 – 36:54)

a. Dedicated Work Time

• Scheduling:

  • A full-time seller treats business tasks as non-negotiable—work times are scheduled, not optional.
  • Quote:
    "It's like feeding your pet. It's a non-negotiable. You're gonna do it every day."
    — Lizzie (20:16)

• Balancing Making vs. Improving:

  • It’s easy to get busy fulfilling orders and neglect creating new listings; intentional time must be reserved for growth.

b. Reasonable Expectations & Emotional Resilience

• Don’t expect instant riches; maintain a calm, steady approach.
• Prepare for the inevitable bumps, like slow seasons—e.g., January is always slow after the holidays. Use these times for creativity and planning.
• Quote:
  "If you don't, it's going to hit you like a Mack truck. But if you do go into it this way, if you face some issues, you'll have the capacity for it…" — Lizzie (24:41)

c. Taking Your Business Seriously

• Focus on the value that even “extra” Etsy income brings—may cover mortgage, loans, trips, or fun money.
• Shift language from “my little hobby” to recognizing the genuine impact on household finances.

d. Investing in Yourself & Your Business

• Earnings are reinvested—into tools, courses, mentoring, or more advanced machines.
• Research and tested small before making big purchases.
• Quote:
  "There's a difference between purchasing something and investing in something. And my full-time mind now: I'm making investments in my business, not just purchases."
  — Preston (50:15–51:58)

e. Networking & Visibility

• Talk about your business openly; mentioning what you do leads to more business and community.
• Don’t dismiss opportunities by being shy or secretive about your shop.

f. Evaluating Strengths, Weaknesses, and Delegating

• Know your limitations; delegate or outsource areas outside your zone of genius (e.g., hiring an accountant).

g. Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

• Growth comes from stretching; push yourself to try new products, strategies, and even public opportunities (like podcast appearances).

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4. Practical Habits of Full-Time Etsy Sellers (43:42 – 59:01)

a. Consistent Effort

• Show up regularly, stick with it, and put in the reps—success is unsexy but reliable for those who are consistent.
• Iteration of listings and business structure is key.

b. Data-driven Decision Making

• Create what the market wants, not just what you’re passionate about. Love the process, but don’t make products just for yourself.
• Quote:
  "I'm not the everyman in this situation, I gotta design what is marketable, what's trendable, and what people are actually gonna buy."
  — Preston (46:09)

c. Setting Reasonable, Long-term Goals

• Understand achievable milestones over different timeframes—what’s feasible in six months vs. five years.

d. Calculating Investments in Tools, Coaching, and Community

• Budget for new equipment and mentoring—don’t always buy the cheapest, but don’t overspend early.

e. Quarterly Assessments & Strategic Planning

• Regularly review what’s working, what isn’t, and where to improve or pivot.
• Constantly look to streamline, automate, and iterate.

f. Doubling Down on What Works

• Once a profitable, sustainable lane emerges, focus and scale it—don’t scatter efforts on distractions.
• Learn to say no to requests/products that move you off course.
• Quote:
  "If you find your lane, double down on that lane. Invest in it and try not to veer too far off of it."
  — Preston (56:06)

g. Testing Widely, Then Focusing (59:01–61:58)

• Early stages are for experimentation; over time, double down on the products or strategies that deliver results, then consider testing again when ready for new expansion.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Mindset:
  "Believe and know from the discussions happening on this podcast that there are a lot of full time Etsy sellers. It's a, it is a total thing."
  — Lizzie (10:42)

• On Confidence:
  "I'm a manufacturer now who just happens to sell on Etsy… I work in apparel manufacturing. And that's part, I mean, that's kind of true, I guess, but it's basically what I'm doing and it makes me feel more confident. I pop a little bit more…"
  — Preston (12:10)

• On Consistency & Growth:
  "It's so unsexy. It's so put in the reps. Like, it's crazy."
  — Lizzie (08:18)

• On Saying No & Focus:
  "Would a full time business do this? If the answer is no, I don't do that thing."
  — Preston (55:10)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Preston’s background & journey: 02:26 – 10:42
• Reframing Etsy as a real job / confronting stereotypes: 10:42 – 16:55
• Mindset principles of a full-time seller: 20:19 – 36:54
• Tools, investment & reinvesting profits: 32:11 – 36:54
• Consistency & sticking with it: 43:42 – 46:09
• Market-driven creation: 46:09 – 48:38
• Doubling down on strengths / learning to say no: 55:10 – 59:01
• Guidance for beginners: Test, then focus: 59:01 – 62:00

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Final Takeaways

• Mindset is foundational: treat your shop as a business, not a hobby, and don’t be swayed by other people’s assumptions.
• Consistency, grit, and data-driven iteration—which sometimes means stretching beyond your comfort zone—are what separate thriving full-time sellers from hobbyists.
• Invest in yourself and your business wisely, doubling down on what works and regularly assessing for improvement.
• Have pride in your work, network naturally, and never underestimate the value of what you bring to your customers and your household.

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For further support and details on resources/coaching referenced, check the show notes or visit howtosellyourstuff.com.

Transcript

[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.

[B]

The life they dream about.

[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.

[B]

Welcome back to the podcast my friends. We have such a fun chat coming up for you today. Keeping the intro short because we are just getting right into it with Mr. Preston. You know him, you love him. He's been on the podcast a bunch of times before. Preston is a small town kid who loves supporting the local economy. He lives in Stamford, Texas and his husband to Sarah and fur dad to three dogs and a cat. In the past three years he has served as the Chamber of Commerce manager in his hometown, helping small and local businesses grow and succeed. He also has a rapidly growing laser and grid business with a niche and making locally themed leather patch hats. Oh, we have spoken to him so many times. Okay. His Etsy shop now has over 1500 sales. It's grossing over $3000 a month on average. He's now transitioned from working three to four jobs to focusing on Etsy full time. Last year he acquired a small local embroidery shop to add his ever growing product line and testing his skills with a print on demand side hustle, guys. In Q4, Preston broke records for himself and cleared $15,000. Things are going so well and so I thought how perfect would it be to bring him back on the podcast to have a chat and he suggested let's talk about how you think like a full time Etsy seller. So this is part mindset, very practical. We are digging into all the things I love, the twists and turns that conversations with Preston take. It just never disappoints. So please help me welcome Preston back to the Podcast. All right. Hey, Preston. Welcome back to the podcast.

[C]

I'm back again.

[B]

Well, I can't get enough. I think it's a good vibe when you're here. Everyone loves when we chat.

[C]

You can't keep me away. People are going to be so sick of me. I'm glad that some people are still getting benefits of me visiting with you, because I certainly do. We get so much done and so many ideas churning when I come talk. So I'm always happy to be here.

[B]

I think it's good to have the mind meld. Like, it's great to bounce ideas off, but I don't think anyone's ever going to. Sick of you because, a, you always are thinking of insightful things to share and you're just at that perfect part in the journey. Like. And what I love about you for people to hear over and over again is how patient you've been. You know, like, you came in to Etsy, like, with big goals but very reasonable expectations.

[C]

And.

[B]

And that's rel. That's common. Ish. But what happened was you went through a really long period of it not working in the way that you wanted to, and you just stopped stuck with it, dude. Like. Like, wow. For those of you, most of you know because you've heard Preston before, but he was my first ever coaching client. In fact, weren't you. Did you not. I think you texted me the other day. You, like, had pulled up those original conversations when we were emailing. Do you remember what we. What. What it said?

[C]

It was from, like, okay, so I think originally you and I had said in our first interview. It was like, January of 22 is when we thought was right, but I was like, that doesn't feel right. It was more like November. So I went back and looked and it was November of 21 that you and I talked that first time we met.

[B]

Wednesday, November 10, 2021 at 10:00am I.

[C]

Was at a Panera Dallas because I was living in.

[B]

You know what? I don't. I don't know if I've told you this or not. Until we came on video, I thought you were a girl.

[C]

You had a lot of questions named Prestons that are girls.

[B]

I guess, kind of.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And one. I also just didn't occur to me that, like, a guy had found the podcast and was like, wanting one on one coach. I ended up being you. I mean, like, I had to play it so cool when you showed. You came onto camera because I literally didn't know until that meeting. Okay, but back then you were doing sweary sweary wall art and it wasn't working.

[A]

And, And.

[B]

And at that point, I had. I really only knew handmade, so I didn't even really know how to help you make it work. But we did some stuff. You got some sales going, but then you've pivoted into. Into handmade, which has been a good fit. But what I love is you allowed yourself to iterate. You weren't like, I have to make $300,000 in my first year or I'm out. You were like, nah, I'm gonna slow burn this. And you worked three jobs and ran the Etsy. I don't know. You're a freaking machine and over time replace the income of all of them until you got full time. So that's just cool.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah, it was really funny just reading my initial email and like, I, like, I was like, I know who my. My audience is. It's basically me accepting girl form, which I guess is probably true, you know, and like, I certainly wasn't like, arrogant about it, but I was in marketing and had a kind of a marketing idea. And it's just funny to. To say, like, wow, that. That Preston came a long ways. And then I think I texted you too, like, hey, I've been listening to like, the really early podcasts when y' all were making signs. Like, I'm talking like, episodes one through ten. I'm back in them.

[B]

I don't even want to know. Woof.

[C]

It's not bad, really.

[B]

Well, you know, like, give me some feedback though, because I can't even imagine what Lizzie back then sounds like. She knew next to nothing than what she know compared. I can't.

[C]

Well, it's true, like, not next to nothing. You knew plenty. But, like, the episode I just listened to was like, how to use Pinterest. I think you were doing a more like, blog post at that point. And. And it's. It's really nice to. To just see how far we've both come. But like I. I told you once a couple weeks ago, like, it may be an ego thing. Maybe. I don't know, maybe I'm a narcissist. I like watching our interview, like, every. The interview that you and I have done over the past, you know, on the podcast, I'll go back and listen to it every couple of months just because I like to see little Preston from a year ago, like, processing, making a hundred sales, like, and. And what I was learning then and being like, don't forget those things that you learned early on because it's important now. Like, yeah, we're, we're. We're well beyond 100 sales now. But the stuff, the. That was the building blocks of how I got here. And so I do like to go back and listen to our podcast and I still pick up, you know, things where from that one and then the one we did a couple months ago, I'm still gleaning things from that, which is really fun and kind of cool and different.

[B]

All of our past episodes guys are going to be linked below. I'm actually, I'm surprised you're calling yourself Little Preston from a year ago because I feel like that was actually a really powerful moment for you. You really hit your stride and began to see exactly how you could move forward. Like, it wasn't just, okay, I've had success, I've made this many sales. It was like, I know exactly what I'm doing. Let's go. And I don't know, that was really cool for me to watch for sure. It's so interesting, like, what you said about getting those good reminders from how you thought back then, because I don't know if anyone else does this. This is something I observe about myself. I can really overthink things. You know, I can really overthink or almost philosophize. Is that. Is that a word? B. Yeah.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay. Philosophize. What it means to grow a business. Like, I. I'm just open this scaling society. So with my team and I have been talking about this a lot. How do we frame scaling for people? Because they're looking for this, this just like, profound moment where things just grow. And I'm like, yeah, that happens, but it's really unsexy. Like, it's really putting in the reps and doing the same thing over and over again. And that same aha moment that you had a year ago is literally the same thing that's gonna take you now from 1500 sales to 10,000 sales. Do you know what I mean?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

It's so unsexy. It's so put in the reps. Like, it's crazy. Okay, so you were, you texted me, you were going through old episodes. I cringed my face off. But then you came up with a brilliant idea for this episode, which was, what if we, like, talk all over again about how to think like a full time Etsy seller? And I'm just super curious, why did that just go off in your brain like, oh, wow, we should revisit this.

[C]

It was really interesting listening to that old podcast. I think it was like five or six, maybe. It's in that low level number.

[B]

I want to be like, guys, don't go back. Don't do it. Don't go back.

[C]

It's funny because y', all, I don't know how, how far into the sign making y' all were at that point. I mean, you were obviously doing. Oh, yeah. And I don't know how long you were doing it full time. You were doing it more than full time, I think. Right.

[B]

It was a $13,000 business. But P. You know what? We were. Oh, easily. And my husband too, outside of his. His full time job. But what's crazy is 2021, was it. Or 2022, we were getting close to folding it up. Yeah, yeah, no, 2021. We closed that shop November of 2021. Right when I was talking to you was when I was turning it off. So I'd been full time for years.

[C]

Yeah. And so, I mean, it was interesting hearing you talk about that because I, at that point, I had not considered Etsy as something that could be full time. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's really. No, because, I mean, here I was thinking that I was going to make little printables that go on the wall, and then I started listening to the pod and like, there was an episode that I was into. You had talked to a girl real early on about selling digital things, and I think she was selling Canva templates. And I was like, oh, I can sell Canva templates. I work in Canva every day. And so I kind of started thinking about that and I was like, but I had not thought about this as a full time gig. Like, I always thought about it as Etsy's only going to be just like a, like a supplemental thing. Like, I didn't think that it could do it. And so listening to the pod and seeing you grow into digital designs and then us having more and more conversations with folks about handmade full time selling, I was like, okay, this could be. This is a full time job if I want it to be. But that didn't happen. Like, yeah, until that podcast that you and I did in October of last year. You know, I had not even considered that.

[B]

October of 2024.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah, you know what? Okay, this is literally point one. And it's not even on our list. I think a lot of people, because I don't know if anyone ever said this to you, but they're like, how's that. Hey, Lizzie, like, how's that little Etsy business going? You know, Kind of with that little smirk on their face. And I'm like, oh, I don't know, it's just making more than my husband's full time job. No big deal. You jerk. You're not really, like, I said it with a. I'm like, I would be charming as I'll get out, but people want to be kind of patronizing about. You know what I mean? So, like point number one of how to think like a full time seller. Believe and know from the, the discussions happening on this podcast that there are a lot of full time Etsy sellers. It's a, it is a total thing.

[C]

Yeah. And if that's uncomfortable for you, you like, if you're. I know there's some people that probably embarrassed to say, like, oh, I'm an Etsy seller. I sell, I just sell like T shirt designs on Etsy, you know, it's not a big deal and you're churning out like $5,000 a month or whatever. You know, I, I can, I can hear that some people. And part of my mind transmission transformation has been, is I'm a manufacturer now who just happens to sell on Etsy, you know, like, Etsy. Etsy is my primary platform. But when somebody asks me now what I do, I like to tell people I'm a, I'm an apparel manufacturer. I work in apparel manufacturing. And that's part, I mean, that's kind of true, I guess, but it's basically what I'm doing and it makes me feel more confident. I pop a little bit more like, yeah, I'm in manufacturing now. I manufacture things. If you sell designs, I'm a designer, I sell T shirt designs. It's just funny that, you know, that mind shift from, oh, I just sell on Etsy, I have an Etsy shop or whatever to no, I. This is my job and I treat it like, I treat it as such. And it's doing pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.

[B]

Preston, I know we're all different. Like, I get that our brains are different, but I need a mini therapy session with you right now because I'm serious and some. This is gonna help someone. And then we're gonna get into like the mindset slash practical list that we've got. But this is. I'm so glad this came up. Back in the day, one of the side hustles I tried was network marketing, and there were elements of that that I loved. Do you know the biggest gift that network marketing gave me was introducing me to business books and continuing education, making your car a rolling University. I loved the community. I grew so much from hearing other people's stories. I learned so much from it. But slash and, and no shade because I actually, one of my best friends is a full time network marketer. She makes 500,000 a year. She's incredible. I have so much respect. But for me personally there was a cringe factor and I think it was because of my people pleasing and like not, and like not liking rejection. And so when you would talk to people there'd be so much skepticism and they'd kind of be like, ew. You know, and it wasn't really about how I felt about the business, it was how it was being received. Okay, so I experienced that in that space, like direct sales, network marketing, again, totally support it. No shade. It was just what my brain, how my brain was wired. It does not compute at all that someone feels that way saying they have an Etsy shop. Can you? Like, why, why would someone feel that way?

[C]

I think there's some of us who have started it as a side hustle that view it more as like a fun hobby or. It's been ingrained in us that a, a real job is a place where you go and sit down at a computer in an office and you do work or you, you're in sales and you're selling something or you're repairing something with your hands. And you know, it's the. I live in a very rural area, which is a very tough guy. You know, I do stuff with my hands, I'm, I got dirt on my boots sort of thing now. I really admire those folks. A lot of them are in my family and they do a lot of hard work. And so there's a little bit of like I sell patches on Etsy, you know, for a living when, you know, when other things are going down. And I think there is some just like internal embarrassment sometimes from people like when especially not just for Etsy, but like online jobs. Or you're like, maybe I'm not doing a real job, quote, quote, unquote, you know, I'm just kind of doing a job. But I think the COVID times helped us significantly with that when we all. Yeah, and so I was less leery about telling people that I worked online or that I had, you know, a digital business or whatever around that time. But yeah, I think there's there's just some, some internalness of like, you know, Etsy's not a real job for me because I'm not going to a business. I don't, I don't Have a brick and mortar store, you know, I don't have, like, this amount of income or whatever. It could be a mental block for you if you kind of let it handle. If you handle it that way in your brain. Which is why I have started making some mental jumps now of how I define myself in the work that I do.

[B]

Okay, this is actually really eye opening because I was wondering why you took pride in the manufacturer label. Why that kind of gave you that. You almost, like, carry yourself different when you say it. So part of it is it's like where. It's like the community that you're in. So I grew up Chicago suburbs. So with a lot of, like, my best friend's dad was the CEO of AT&T at the time. So, yes, still, Etsy would be perceived differently. But I'm in E commerce. Like, I think I'm like, I'm in E Commerce. And people are like, oh, wow, like, can you teach me how? You know, I mean, like, I get a lot of respect out of it, but I totally get now that I live in a small town where everyone's hands are dirty and they're wearing their work boots. Yeah, they could totally be like you and your little piddly Etsy shop or whatever. I mean, they wouldn't dare say it to me now, but. So, Okay, I get that. But you know what occurred to me when you were talking too? I wonder if, because again, I came from more urban suburban. We wouldn't. People didn't have. They were at. They were potentially in E commerce. I wonder if it's. The association with Etsy is like, for crafts and art. And so it's like almost the starving artist mentality. Like, you can't possibly be making any real money because you're in an art. You're selling on an art site, which we all know it's so much more than that, but, like, wow, I just hadn't really thought about that way before.

[C]

Yeah, it's funny that you mentioned that because I do have some. Sarah and I, my wife have talked about it before. That it's. It is fun. And I don't care to share my finances with everybody who come up to me or how successful things are. That's just not my jam. But, you know, it is funny to be like, you know, you should really do this. You know, like, make. You should really market it like this from people in town or whatever. Or like, you know, people ask me, well, can you make. You know, you have a laser. Can you make this? And I have to tell People. No, you know, because it's not my lane. But also I think some people are just like, being nice. Like, we're going to throw Preston a bone to make some more money. You know, he needs some. Can you, can you make us a door sign, Preston? And I'll be like, I would love to make you a door sign. I have no time to do that with my current workload. Like, they don't understand the amount of things that I'm putting out. I had somebody because. Because my embroidery business is more localized. I had somebody say, like, well, you should be really advertising your embroidery stuff more. And what I want to tell them is you don't see the books at the end of the month. I'm doing fine. Like, I'm hitting the goals that I want to hit. I don't need to do any more marketing than what I'm already doing. It's. And so it is kind of like a fun little secret that I get to keep, you know, that things are really good for me right now and I'm really happy with where I'm at. And I think what put that into perspective with my close friends that I talked to when. When I was working the two other jobs on top of this. Or three, if you count some of my social media stuff that I was doing when I started telling them, oh, yeah, the Etsy shop. It actually made this month what my three other jobs make combined. And they go, oh, okay, well that makes more sense now. Like, and then they would follow up with like, you're selling the hat patches and making a full time income. I'm like, yeah, sure am. And so that's it. It helped. It helped making some of those transitions a little bit easier. I think I'm starting to ramble now and so give us another point to talk about. I'm just kind of like word vomiting.

[B]

No, you're not. You're not at all. Do you know what? This was such magic, what happened here, because it wasn't on the. It wasn't even what we were going to talk about. And yet I actually think it couldn't have been a more perfect lead in to how to think like an Etsy seller. We just overcame objections that I think are, and I think clicked into, even for me, a different place in my brain to have this conversation. You didn't ramble a bit. Stop it. It's also such a good thing that you have no ego and you live in that town. Okay, so we broke this down. We want to talk about how to think like a full Time Etsy seller. And we're going to do, we're going to approach it from the mindset perspective first. Then we're going to focus for, then we're going to come in from the practical. So those of you who love some woo, we're gonna, you're gonna get it. For those of you who are like just tell me what to do, you're gonna get that too because they go hand in hand. So first we're gonna talk about the mindset. How does a full time seller think? And then we're gonna talk about the practical. What does a full time seller do? So for how does a full time seller think? The first thing that I think about is creating dedicated work time. So it's not getting the leftovers. It's not if I have time to get to it, it's not if I feel like it. It's like, this is kind of funny, but it's like feeding your pet. It's a non negotiable. You're gonna do it every day.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Did you, what do you think about that, like dedicated work time, Was that something you had to kind of click into doing?

[C]

Yeah, definitely. The, the handmade shop requires that quite a bit more than what the digital shop does. Because you know, the digital shop, you can spend a block of time, create some things and then maybe not create again, you know, for another week or something like that. In the handmade shop, if I sit down, if I don't do the things that are required of me, I don't make sales, you know, that day because I don't have the order, like I'm not churning out orders, it's not doing anything. And so it's a little less passive and so being able to mindset that. But we can, we can go both ways on this. You, whether it's an hour a week or if it's eight to five every day. Treating this like a job now, like, okay, I work, I'm starting to work at 8, I'm closing up shop at 5, you know, and I have my little workspace back here. I mentally, I go to work and work from my house and then when the time is over I mentally leave. And so yeah, there's, there's definitely a mindset to considering it a full time gig now however that looks for you, you know, like if it's, if full time for you is oh, just a few hours a week right now versus 40 hours a week, then have that mindset and I guarantee you'll start viewing it differently.

[B]

It's Just for me, it's about you set. You, you schedule it. You put it on your schedule. You don't see if I have time. You don't see if I feel like it. If the creative, whatever hits it's. You schedule it. Just like your personal trainer would say at the gym. You're not going to see if you feel like it or if there ends up being time. You're going to put it on your schedule. You know, there's a part b caveat to this that I faced a lot in handmade space. When you have listings that are doing well and you're busy with the manufacturing piece, like I was making the signs, I would sometimes get in the trap of I'd be so busy working in my business, producing the product that I wouldn't make time. I'd have to. I learned this the hard way to work on my business and make sure I was creating new listings. And what would happen is I'd all of a sudden, because you know, every trend, every listing, now some of them last longer than others, but they go through a cycle. They go through a life cycle. A really strong listing. Sometimes it'll sell the day you list it. Sometimes it'll take a few weeks to a few months to actually hit and then it'll peak. You can ride it for a while. It's going to sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. And then it'll start to slow down. So I would reach a point where everything would slow down and I'd be like, well, darn it. Well, if I had intentionally scheduled time to work on my business and create listings earlier, I wouldn't have hit that slump because the next one would have been. Would have been rising while this one was falling. So that's another trap I would fall into. I don't. Have you ever had that happen? I guess the patches are a little more evergreen.

[C]

Yeah, well, I know. I think you're right. One of my business values is idea and iterate. And so regardless of how good the thing is, I am going to come up with a new idea. I try to every day. That does not mean that I put a new listing up every day. But I want to have an idea of something and that goes in the notebook or that gets mocked up on Canva. And then the iterate portion of that is my patches. You know, like I've said before on the pod, they're basically all the same thing. You know, a patch is a patch. But you know, do I. How do I ideate it or iterate it? Do I Do a, you know, different shapes. Right now I'm, I've added custom threading so you know, I'm doing, I've added that as an upgrade now where I can custom thread your, your stuff for you where I wasn't doing that before. So you know, it's that, that business mindset of where making, making space for those things to work on your business. I love that, that concept and I do practice that regularly.

[B]

It's a, it's a big trap when you're with the handmade because you're, you can get so busy working, working in it. What about. I think of this as like the mindset of a full time seller having reasonable expectations. So when I think of someone kind of green just coming in, maybe hasn't ever done any entrepreneurship before, I see, I see a lot of emotional decisions or emotional processing versus data based.

[C]

Mm.

[B]

Yeah. So like, like knowing, knowing that it could take some time and knowing that problems are gonna come up and just that, that kind of calm and steady mindset, sometimes it does just come with experience, but it also just comes with expectations. You know, if. Who was I saying this to the other day? Oh, it's actually a private situation I can't talk about, but a friend of mine is going, is about to go through a bit of a legal battle and I was like, you need to go in with the expectation that this could happen because if you don't, it's going to hit you like a Mack truck. But if you do go into it this way, if you face some issues, you'll have the capacity for it because it doesn't. It's always a surprise. Something you don't expect that hits you like a surprise always takes more out of you than when you're kind of braced for impact. Right.

[C]

Yeah. That. You just described my entire like existence and my mental existence. We've talked before that I'm a, I'm a measured risk taker. And so I, because of my, my enneagram number. And what are you? I'm a six. Pretty, pretty sure I'm a six. But I can go through a fearful six and so I can go through a seven bazillion different scenarios in my mind. And then I have the, the investigator wing, the researcher five wing where I will study and analyze things into the ground. But I always have some sort of plan on top of how, you know, if things go badly, I have a parachute. And so there's very rarely do I just jump off into doing something. So I, you know, I've learned courage through business work. And I've learned how to be more of a risk taker. But everything that I do is very measured. And so I think the way that we're framing that now is reasonable expectation of what to happen. I, I don't expect to make $10,000 this month because it is January. People have spent a lot of money already, and I could choose to be bummed out about where I am right now in my Etsy shop because it's January. But my expectation, my reality, my logic tells me last year was slow at this time. Traditionally, across the entire US Economy and world economy, January is slow because the Christmas season just came through. It will pick up. It will be okay, so what are we doing now? What are we going to do in this time? And then you set those expectations. Okay, well, I'm investing in digital designs right now. I'm not abandoning my patch shop. I'm still on track this month to do really well and to meet my goal for January. But it gives me some time to do some cleaning, some of that ideation and that iteration that I wanted to do that I don't necessarily have time otherwise. And it also helps that I have a huge order of embroidery stuff that I have to get done. And so it's nice to not have the Etsy shop just completely blowing up right now because I got other stuff to do. And so I'm thinking about marketing. I'm thinking about. I'm thinking about graduation right now because I know locally graduate gifts are going to be big for me embroidery wise. So I'm kind of thinking about, I'm thinking about May or April and seeing, okay, what are some things that I can. How can I kind of pivot myself and get ready for graduation season? So, yeah, just kind of thinking ahead, managing your expectations, setting reasonable goals. Those are all part of this.

[B]

Yeah, a lot of times. So, like someone just the other day, I think it was maybe in the Facebook group, they said they were like, I'm revisiting all of my listings and trying to make some changes because my Q4 was so busy and now there's nothing. And so I know something's wrong. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no. Don't you dare touch a single listing that's been working. Nothing is wrong. It's January. It's just January. Everything. The whole world slows down. Now, I will say there's two ways to think about it. Number one, enjoy the break because a lot of us worked our butts off Q4. Number two, use the time to clean, to create, to do all the things that you didn't get to work on because you were busy last, you know, last Q4 number three, go into, for these times of year, go into home decor. Because January was always crazy for me in the sign shop after Q4, you know, when was slow was the summer. So it's like you can also pad your shop with things that effectively take over. You know, you, the holiday gifting stuff ends and then the home decor stuff picks up. Yeah, okay, perfect. Reasonable expectations number three. Oh, we already really talked about this. It was the whole like takes their business seriously, perceives the value in what they offer and have the potential to earn. Not my little hobby or my additional income stream. So I like to cast this vision. Part two of this is like you guys, it's about seeing the value in what an extra two to $5,000 a month or even in a few months can do. So for a lot of households, that's paying off some, some debt that's paying for a vacation that's serving as an emergency fund that you otherwise didn't have. And there's a huge value in that. Even though we don't have the flashy thing of being able to say I made $200,000 this year. And I think that like just we need to think about it in the perspective of what does it do for like that's why I love using the framework of like my Etsy shop this month paid for, you know, a vacation. My, you know, my Etsy shop paid off this debt. My Etsy shop covered my mortgage payment because to people that's just as life changing and profound to think about as I made a multiple six figure income. Like no, most Americans having their mortgage covered is life changing.

[C]

Success comes in a bunch of different packages I feel like. And it's all about what you want and what you need. I've never set really a financial goal for my business like until this last year when I was starting to go full time because I needed to, you know, like I needed to say like okay, I needed to make as as much or more than my other jobs were. Prior to that. It was what like my digital shop was giving me opportunity to buy fun things. Like it was my fun money fund. You know, when I was, when the sweary sign shop that did okay, you know, I was making a hundred bucks a month or whatever. That's fun money for me. It was just fun extra money to have. And for some people that may be it. And if that's your goal it's great. You know, right now my goal is like, I would love to buy an RV again. I would love to be able to camp on the weekends. I would love to have a little bit more financial freedom to take some vacations. And from the video, you can see the floofy, fluffy children we have in the back. They're a handful. They don't travel well unless we're going to an Airbnb. They don't like staying. I mean, I can't take my dogs to everybody's house. You know, I can't stay at my sister in law's house every time with three dogs. And so, you know, we want a little bit more freedom. And so we're kind of setting up a goal now. Like, okay, so can we earn enough income to buy a camper again? You know, can we? Or maybe it goes towards an Airbnb a month, so. And then build on that. You know, that's what my stuff went to. It was fun money. Okay, now we're generating income. Okay, now I need to make this much money. It kind of took the pressure off, you know, to start off with, oh, I just, I really want to make some money to buy some fun extra things that I want to buy, you know. You know, you want to buy shoes or equipment or for me, it was like buying some tools that I wanted. It eventually bought me the first laser that I had. You know, I didn't remember that.

[B]

That's cool.

[C]

Yeah, start with that and then go, go do other goals. You know, set higher financial goals for yourself as you kind of transition your mind into a full time position.

[B]

You just teed up the next one, Pete. It's that a full time seller expects to invest in tools, education and advertising. And like you said, you actually took your earnings and reinvested it back into the shop to be able to level up. We did that left and right, I think, a lot of times. And I know, you know what times are hard financially. And so getting started for people and having money for startup costs can be really challenging. But I think it's important to have the mindset of when I make the money, like, yeah, I want to help take some burden off my family. But there's also this piece of, I'm thinking of the long game and I need to use some of this to invest in the tools, education and advertising. Was that a shift for you or were you always just intuitively like, all right, I'm going to pour this back in?

[C]

Yeah, I mean, let's go back to the very beginning the origin story of this, there was a point where I had to, where I said, I don't really understand Etsy, I need some help with it. And that's when I called you and did an hour long coaching session and that. I don't remember what it was back then. $95. $90 or you probably gave me some.

[B]

It was $97 back in. I mean, we don't even do them now. Actually, I'm opening them up for Becca and Caroline. And I know you're going to be coming to help us soon too when we get real busy, you know, just doing that. But yeah, it was, it wasn't too much back then, but now that could be a course or it could be, yeah. Coming into Trendspotting and get a shop audit on the call, you can do that for 17. That's, that's crazy how much you can get for 17.

[C]

Well, and that, that, that $97 phone call turned into like, you know, a couple thousand dollars worth of income eventually, you know, like, because you sent me some stuff. Then we tried it and it, it hit. That's not a guarantee for everybody who has a coaching call or a course that they take. You know, I talk about it all the time in the group. Sometimes you just get a little bit lucky with. You have the skills and the knowledge, you do as best you can and go from there. Now where things get really scary is when you start investing in bigger equipment for handmade sellers and stuff like that. Like, one of the things that I've learned is it's better almost to spend a little bit more money to buy the tool that you need than spending less money and getting a tool that might be what you need. I would much rather have the thing that I know what it's going to do and know that it's going to do it well because it's kind of like buying an old used car. We used to drive old beater cars, you know, and you kind of have to grow into this. We just bought the first new car we ever bought, like two, three years ago. But even then it's, it still has its problems. But you know, I bought some machines that are a little bit bigger than what I really needed at the time because I knew I was going to grow into them. But I was like, well, I could buy this laser, but it doesn't have the specific two or three features that I really feel like I need to be successful and that are going to help me, you know, down the line with time, effort, material. And so I invested in A in a little bit bigger machine. It's a little bit more when I, when I tell people, oh, I have this machine and I do patches on it, it's a, it's a little bit overkill for doing patches, but it does exactly what I need it to do and it does it right nearly every time. That led me to buying another machine that I, I use that's, you know, helps me do fast, real, I do some really fast stuff with it. And all those machines have paid themselves off over time. Like, you know, because of the work that I've done, because of the foresight that I had that I'm going to need this down the road a couple months down the road I had some really good months that paid for those machines multiple times over. But again, I made that decision knowing good and well what I was getting into. I had already tested the waters on my product. I didn't just like shove off and say, oh I'm gonna go buy a fifteen thousand dollar laser right now and start making patches. I started with a 200 laser that I found on Facebook Marketplace Place and grew from there selling, you know, making stuff. And so, and that, you know, I bought a fifteen hundred dollar CNC machine that I ended up selling and losing money on honestly, because it didn't, wasn't what I needed, it wasn't what I really wanted to do. And so if I had a little bit more foresight I probably would have been able to invest that money a little bit earlier in machines that I need. So I'm hoping that the same thing happens for embroidery for me right now because that's what I did this summer, this last summer, invested in an embroidery business and it's paying itself off right now. I'm not, I've not broken even by any means on it but you know, it's, it's added income to my life and value because of the research that I did to lead up to this point.

[B]

You guys know I am constantly testing strategies and frameworks on Etsy so I can tell you what's actually working and what's just noise. And one thing, thing I have noticed over the years is this. Most Etsy sellers aren't stuck because they're lazy or they're not doing anything. They're stuck because they're second guessing everything. What to work on, what matters right now, whether they're even on the right path. I hear this all the time and that feels exhausting. So after years of teaching Etsy sellers through courses and workshops, the trendspotting membership coaching and this podcast I built something that brings everything together in one place. It's called Scaling Society. Scaling Society is my all inclusive Etsy membership for sellers who want clarity and a clear plan without hopping between programs or wondering what to focus on next. Inside, you get my Etsy Seller roadmap so you know exactly what to work on and when with direction on what resources will help you master it. You also get every single one of my courses and my workshops. You get access to trendspotting and the weekly Trend reports my template drop, which means a weekly template that you can resell in your own shop. SEO training a bunch of done for you resources like prompts, SEO and branding templates. You get a coaching group with real support and that's where the magic happens. You also get access to two live coaching calls with me every single month. You'll also get automatic access to all of the new trainings and resources I have planned for this year, including special guests. It's designed to meet you right where you're at, whether you're brand new or you're ready to scale and help you build intentionally instead of guessing your way forward. And honestly, the biggest feedback I hear from members isn't just about sales, it's relief. They finally know what to focus on. So if Etsy feels harder than it should, if you're putting in effort but you want more clarity and direction, or if you're ready to treat your shop like a real business and have actual support behind you from people who know what they're doing, you can learn more about Scaling Society at the link in the show notes. There's monthly and annual options and you can cancel anytime, so just pick what's right for you. I'd love to support you inside. You know that first episode I think that we did, I'm going to all of our previous episodes are going to be linked in the show notes, but we had a really good conversation because I was choosing a machine at that time for our laser engraving for Robbie and you were talking us through how how to make those decisions on what to invest in. So people who are listening, who are like wanting to be handmade, know they're going to have some investments up front. I thought those were really good conversations to go back to listen to for the sake of time. I'm going to rattle off the last couple of things about how a full time Etsy seller should think or would think, and then we can kind of move in for a few minutes. I'd love to chat about the practical about what they would do it's basically that the two go hand in hand. Right? There's. Here's how I think and here's what I do about it. And I don't want to miss out on that. For the people who are like, I mean, actually I feel like this isn't super woo. Like, yes, it's like how you think, but we're not like, look up at the clouds and write down your dreams, you know? Okay. So the other ones I had were to network at every chance you get. And that's kind of the being pride. Proud of what you do. You're not over there like, oh, I don't want to talk about my little Etsy shop. It's literally like, no. You meet someone new, they're like, what do you do? All right, so, you know, I'm thinking about Becca. Becca would be like, well, I'm a, I'm. She's a speech therapist. She. So she helps with kids with speech therapy and she runs a digital product, Etsy Shop. Because then people, you know, you'll have people go like, oh, and maybe there's something that like, oh, they want to go buy a digital invitation for their kids next birthday. You're creating more business for yourself by letting it come up naturally in conversation. I mean, for me, everywhere, everywhere I go, if anyone asks me, I'm like, oh, I'm an Etsy. I'm an Etsy podcaster. They're like, really? And, and we can get into. Oh yeah. I help help people either create a side hustle or replace their full time income with either handmade products or print on demand or it opens up conversations. You wouldn't believe how many, like my next door neighbor here at the farm started listening to the podcast, opened up a T shirt shop. She now sells tons of shirts locally. Preston, she buys patches from you?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

It is crazy how this. So now it's created business for both of us. Right. She'd been in transpotting and I mean this has happened over and over and over again. So don't be shy. To network every chance you get next was to constantly assess your strengths and weaknesses and delegate or learn accordingly. So I think it's a small time thing to do to never go back and evaluate. All right, and this is what, like scaling society. This is our Etsy success roadmap. That's like proprietary in there and it really helps you figure out where you're at, what you need to do next. Because clarity and not second guessing are two of the most important things for an Etsy seller. Is not to sit there in analysis paralysis, but to know what to do next. You've got to be able to assess and you've. And here's the other thing I think you've got to be able to delegate. So there comes a point in every single Etsy seller's life that you've got to bring in help and you've got to know when to do that or if there's something like, for example, I'm never going to be a good accountant. I hired an accountant. I'm not going to be good at that ever. And you know what? It takes up too much brain space for me to try. And I grew up in a household pee. I don't know about you where it was like when you have a weakness and I don't. I like this.

[C]

But.

[B]

But there's a lot. There's a point when you have a weakness, you go after it and you plow through it. And this is I think very like maybe baby boomer, Gen X. And as a kid that's good because you want to learn how to strengthen your intellectual muscles. But when you're a business owner, it can be a, it can slow your growth down if you stay in that mindset too much. Instead you need to figure out what are you good at, what energizes you, what do you need to do? And you need to delegate the rest. I spent too much time on that. But wow, hit a childhood wound. Also full time seller thinks I can't just stay in my comfort zone. My comfort zone limits me. It keeps me small. So stretching myself is how I create exponential results. It's really funny. Like a big one. I'll see is even coming on this podcast. I'll get someone who clears a hundred sales which is like the first hundred sales. And no intellectual property violations in your shop are like the two main criteria for coming on the podcast. And people, there's a lot of introverts on that are Etsy sellers and they're just like, I could never do that. And I'm like, well you need to push and maybe this isn't part of your business growth. I get it. But finding ways to push yourself outside of your comfort zone, doing things even if it's maybe it's like, all right, well I only get up one listing a week. Well, maybe you need to push yourself to get up too. And I'm talking about a handmade seller print John manager. You'll need to be doing more than that. Or maybe it's a. I don't like, I don't like trying a different kind of design than what I do all the time. Well, you need to get out of your comfort zone because at some point what you're doing is going to, is going to lose steam. All right, that's enough of that. Let's talk about the practical. What does a full time seller do? Number one I got is consistent effort. So they prioritize and schedule time to work. I'd love for you to talk about consistency P because you stuck with this for so long before it really blew up for you.

[C]

Yeah, it's, I mean it's kind of what we said before, like the mindset of consistency, then the actual physical doing of consistency go hand in hand. You, you can think yourself like, oh, I'm thinking about my business a lot now. We had to start doing about our business and it is time. You talk about it all the time. Especially with digital designs, all about reps and getting those designs in getting the bad designs done. You know, from a creative standpoint, you have to create the bad designs. You got to do them like the bad designs are what lead to better designs. And so yeah, consistency of making and putting up listings and just committing to some of this stuff's gonna suck. And that's okay because I'm going to get better, you know, and I want to focus my on learning better skills and I learned better skills by doing so anyway, that's, that's what I would say about that.

[B]

To add on, this is an interesting thing that I think, like, I don't know, when I was first introduced to it, I was like, huh. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna recycle what I said earlier. So you don't. I mean, I'm sure there are certain people in like mental health situations where this may not be true, but you don't always feel like cooking dinner for your kids or feeding your dog. But you make yourself do it. It's a non negotiable some of us struggle with. We make goals for ourselves, for going to the gym, working out or whatever. But no one's life is depending on it. So we don't necessarily make ourselves do it. So I just want you to know that there you are. There is some area of your life where you're capable of disciplining yourself to do something. The question is, what do you in your head believe is the consequence if you don't? And so you can make yourself when someone or something's well being is at stake or if it's like a moral thing for you, but what about. And like, this is where it comes to, like, keeping promises to yourself. I think one of the best things we can learn as we develop as humans and improve our mental health is keeping promises to ourself. Whether it's about our time, whether it's about our relationships, whether it's about our business. So I want to throw that in there because I know that always used to get my wheels turning. The next one is a full teller. Full. I know you agree you've had enough conversations there. Full time. Seller creates what the market wants. They follow demand over what they feel like making. So they're following the numbers and the data.

[C]

I said something the other day in our school group. There was a conversation that was being had about how do I know what to make or whatever. And somebody had said, you know, you need to love what you make or you won't want to make it. Something along the lines of that. And I came out and I said, I partially agree with that statement. For me, the. The mental gymnastics that I'm doing, I suppose, for it are do I love the process of making? And I think a lot of this has to do with. With hand. With handmade sellers, creating craft. It could be. I mean, even digital. Like, do you enjoy the process of making the thing that you make? You don't have to love every design. You know, I think I've talked about this before, maybe in the podcast that we did with. With Becca, where there's a lot of patches that I would not wear on my own head. I make a lot of designs that I don't necessarily love, but it's what my customer wants or what people, you know, want or need. But I love the process of the making, like the doing the designing, all that. If I didn't love those things, then I probably am in the wrong business, you know, like, I'm in the. I'm doing something wrong. And so I'm telling you, I'm not telling you to. That you got to just slog through your job like, oh, I hate making digital designs, but that's what Lizzie told me to do. Well, if you don't love making digital designs, don't do digital designs. It's okay. But love the. Love the process. You don't have to love each and every product. And so that, that, that was a big jump for me because I was making a lot of stuff that I thought was funny or that I loved or that. And you start realizing, like, I'm not every man, you know, like, I'm not the everyman in this situation, I gotta design what is marketable, what's trendable, and what people are actually gonna buy. And then I just invest in the process of doing those things. And that, that's been a huge generation of income for me to be able to kind of shift my mindset that way and start doing more of those products than creating stuff that I like. I know there's like a lot of movie actors that say, like, I'll do the, the Marvel movie for the paycheck and then I'll do one for me. You know, they'll go do some sort of film, you know, like some sort of like really obscure indie film that nobody's ever seen. And so I kind of have that mentality too. Like I'm gonna do one for. One for the. The world, one for Preston. And so I get. Make something fun for me every once in a while.

[B]

Just, I'm just like, listen, you're not, you're not like out there. I mean, I don't. Some people love like, I love our people who come clean our house. So I don't want to like insult anyone, but I'm saying there's a lot worse or like less desirable work you could be doing that you would take less pleasure in than creating something creative. I promise you're gonna love the Cha Chings. I don't want anyone to hate what they're making. For sure. I ended up painting the signs because it was so grueling.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

But boy, did I love the Cha Chings. So it's like, it feels like a balance. Next one I'm gonna go through quick because we talked about it a lot before and it was about just full time. Seller intentionally creates reasonable goals based on data. And they play the long, long game. So they're, they're being reasonable about what they can accomplish in six months versus five years. We talk about this a lot. You know, people underestimate what they can do in five years. They overestimate what they can do in six months. So there's just this balanced thing about setting reasonable goals. The next one is, is paying for tools that make them more efficient, investing in things that create a better product. They'll take the hit on profit short term to invest in the long term results and efficiencies. They invest in coaching that can help them level up and community that can sharpen them and encourage them. Golly, as a. I mean, I make more money now than I've ever made my whole life. And I spend more on coaching now than I've ever spent in My entire life. So think about that. You don't arrive and then decide, I don't need to invest in, I invest more in tools now too. Tools or coaching? I don't need to do that. Once I get good. No, you're, I mean a full time seller does it even more.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. And I think that's just like being smart about your budget and knowing what you can afford. You can't afford. Another interesting conversation we were having in school this week was what tool do you use for your SEO? You know, there's, there's so many out there, some are better than others, some are about the same. And so I don't use any of those tools. Um, I use free versions of everything that I did. And this week I was like, well, because they mentioned this, I'm going to invest in it for myself because I, I am kind of needing to dig a little bit more for my own business. I'm going to invest in one of the ones that we mentioned on in the school group. It's a lower ticket than the most of them. And so I was like, I'll try it for nine bucks, I'll try it. You know, you know, it's, it's one of those deals where you, you are going to have to make some investments. And it's like I said, like, yeah, I'm not, I didn't buy the top of the line laser engraver, but also didn't buy the cheapest one I could find. You know, I bought a used one. I bought a used laser. Yeah, my big one that's in there making me money right now. It's used and refurbished. So I, I'm a, I'm cheap. If you'll, if you learn anything, like, I'm cheap and I believe in affordability. And so I'm gonna, I'm shopping at Goodwill, I am buying stuff off the discount rack at Walmart. You know, anything that's on sale, it's coming home with me. So I'm trying to find that balance in my business as well. But like, don't buy the cheapest thing. Don't get the cheapest coaching. Don't get the cheapest thing. You know, tool xyz. Buy, buy good stuff, invest in those good things. And I think that's the difference is like, there's a difference between like purchasing something and investing in something. And my full time mind now I'm making investments in my business, not just purchases.

[B]

I want you guys to be thinking about, just constantly evaluating. I'm kind of lumping everything together. Now because I want to give Pete a chance because I think he's got extra thoughts too. I want you to be as a full time seller in a practical sense. I want you to sit down quarterly and I want you to evaluate. So when you're new, you fly by the seat of your pants. When you're not taking it seriously, you just go with the wind. There's some of that that's just intuitive that you're always going to do, but a serious business owner is going to be evaluating how it's going sitting down at the end of the quarter. What worked, what didn't work? How do I need to plan ahead? Where do I need to learn and grow? What's the next step for me to scale? What person, tool or resource do I need to level up? Is there something I can do more efficiently? Is it time to add Etsy ads? Is there a way AI could be streamlining this for me? Is it time to make sure I'm secured with an llc? What's the next pivot? Because what I'm doing now won't always work. Maybe it's working great. Maybe I just need to iterate on it for now. Or do I need to be testing the next products? Always thinking about this and then also always thinking about where am I too comfortable? Where am I, where am I hesitating to change or grow? Even though I can feel the tension building there because the learning process and adopting takes time and effort and capacity. You know, what's something I can do to stretch right now that I'm otherwise kind of resisting? And, and we really have to press into those things. That's kind of like a summary of, of everything else I guess I did throw in. And this is good because this is again touching on that first thing we talked about, which is kind of this mindset of like almost shame about being an Etsy seller. It still doesn't totally process to me. But when you are like in the wild, when you're in your life, this is a way to get outside of your comfort zone. I want you to listen for openings to mention your work and not in like an icky way where people are like, oh, like here comes, I don't want to say name because then people think I like they. People get their feelings hurt. Here comes so and so, you know what I mean? Like I, I used to say that. And like I, I'm like, sweetheart, right? I'm the one, everyone thinks it's really nice. And I am. And so I stopped doing that. I learned my lesson. So I'm like, oh, here comes so and so. And they're going to be peddling whatever. No, no, no, no, no. I just mean like when it feels natural. But there is this point of when you own a business, you ask for the sale. Not cringy to your friends, but like someone saying, like, let's say, okay, this used to happen to me all the time. I'll say I'd be at a birthday party and my friend would have one of my signs on their wall and someone else would ask about it, be like, oh, Lizzie made that. And the person be like, oh, really? I'd be like, yeah, I'd love to make one for you too. It's just that extra line of I'm not being cringy. I'm just saying expressing interest. It's asking for the sale. You. You want to at least leave breadcrumbs. You know what I mean? Like, oh, yeah. Like, ask her if you ever want a link to my shop, I'd be glad to make you one. So it's just taking pride in your work. Because let me tell you what, if you and me, I don't know, maybe this is too close. I was gonna say, like, I don't know if you've ever had a friend who like makes baked goods. Everyone loves them. They are not hesitating to be like, yeah, sure, I'll make you a loaf of sourdough. Do you know what I mean? Like, they're not cringing, but no one's cringing about it, so just think about a way to do it. I over talked on that one, but that's fine. What? Pete, you had a. And maybe we addressed them, but what kind of closing remarks or other things did you want to talk about? You got to get throughout your Dwight Schrute.

[C]

Oh, yeah, sure, yeah. And it goes back to our investment and just like general decision making for your business. There's a great, great Dwight Schrute quote on the office where he says, one of the best things that I've learned is don't be an idiot. And so in my life I ask, would an idiot do that? And if I answer yes, I don't do that thing. And so I think that's kind of what we have to do with being a full time Etsy seller is like, would a full time business do this? If the answer is no, I don't do that thing. As a people pleaser, it's really hard to tell people that, that you're not going to do a thing right or tell yourself that that's not a path I'm heading down. So I think like the one thing that I would add to everything that we said is there is nothing wrong. And especially with Etsy, I think it's important to do this. If you find your lane, double down on that lane.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

Invest in it and try not to veer too far off of it there. You know, we talk about making products and iterations and stuff like that. Like take that into account but don't do things that you're not comfortable with doing. And here's what I mean by that. Just this week I have a customer who I make hats for locally. I made some shirts for them. I have a, I have a single press DTF shirt press in my house and I've committed to doing small runs of shirts. I did 10 shirts for him and at the end of that project I went to my wife and I said, no more shirts. This is it, no more shirts. And I don't do a ton of shirts. Like I don't press my own shirts a lot, but even 10, it didn't take a long time, but it took away my focus because I had to be there with it. I had to actually, like the process took longer than I wanted to. And I said, I have wasted like a whole afternoon babysitting these shirts, doing like 10 or 20 shirts. Like if I had somebody else doing those for them that was focused on doing those, that's fine. Maybe that comes with working with robots all day. Like I have embroidery machines and lasers now that work by themselves. And so I do other things while they're working by themselves.

[B]

So I'm like, sounds like time to delegate that task, Preston.

[C]

And if I had enough, if I had enough business doing it, I would. But what I'm going to say is the same thing happened when I made a tumbler for a friend. Oh for, for Christmas. She asked me if I could do a tumbler with a name on it. Well, it was a Stanley tumbler. I don't do tumblers. So she brought me this really nice 40 ounce Stanley tumbler. I messed it up. I got to go buy another forty dollar Stanley Tumblr. And I was only going to make about $10 on the git and deal anyway. And so now I'm out. Now I'm out $30. And so I should have just said no. You know, there's other people in town that can do that. So learning to say no and learning where to direct your energies is so important as you move forward. Just because you can do Something doesn't mean you have to do it or that you should do it. And so now I'm, I'm feeling more and more comfortable saying, I am in the hat lane. I make hat patches. I don't make a lot of other things right now. Maybe down the road I will. I'm toying with some different ideas to do stuff on the laser. I don't do a lot outside of hats on my embroidery machines. I do some shirts and stuff like that, that's fine. But I got to know where my limitations are, where my guardrails are. Because anytime I, I've learned, anytime I get out of those, even if I know how to do the thing, I'm either going to waste time or I'm going to waste money.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

Honestly, right now I can't afford to do either. And so, you know, focus your energy and find those things that you're really good at and double down on those things.

[B]

I like. This is such a. This is exactly what we're talking about in Scaling Society left and right. And guys, when he keeps saying chat, what we're talking about in the school group, what we're talking about, he's talking about scaling Society, which is the program I built as a roadmap for Etsy sellers. So if you're looking for focus, you want to really grow this year, you want to get in there with us. It's where you get. It's like my all inclusive. It's where you get access to everything that I do, all of my courses, all of my workshops, all of my done for you stuff. You get access to the Etsy success roadmap, you get access to the coaching group, you get Trendspot, you get everything. So it's just like one monthly fee. You get everything. And that's where we're really helping people scale. So what I want to build on what, what P was just saying in the beginning, because people get. This is a mindset thing that happens for people in the beginning. Test a lot of stuff. Use the capacity you have from it being something new and exciting. You're not being dragged away by tons and tons of orders you're filling. Use that expansive space to figure out what works. So don't be shy about trying a bunch of different products in your shop. No, you don't need a different shop for every product. Try a bunch of things that appeal to you. What's going to happen is as you get up several listings and you get better and better at designing, you go through that messy middle. A couple of things are going to emerge as your thing. It's going to sell well. You're going to do it intuitively. You're going to feel like you get it. People buy it regularly. You're going to see what works for you. This happens for every single student. Took P a few years to go a couple of different product types to get there. But then once you figure it out, once that thing emerges, the secret to scaling is to then double down on that thing, iterate it, figure out how to do more of it, figure out how to do it better. Now, yes, with time. There's going to come a point here where Preston and he's going to start playing with it soon, is going to start looking at other. Other things that fit his mold, that he wants to be his next thing to add on. Right now he's finding out shirts are not it. You know, he's. He's finding out other things maybe aren't. Tumblers are not it. By the way, Tumblrs make a ton of money. They're just a pain. You've got it. You really want to get good at that one thing. But then you can make a ton of money in Tumblr. It's just a pain. But it's not. It's not my thing, it's not P's thing. And that's fine. But. So P's gonna then go into a testing phase again soon. Kind of figure out what that next thing is. But it's that he's gonna figure it's that thing that comes easy. It's that thing. It's like, this works. I get it. I can rinse and repeat it. I can iterate it. And then ideally, if you, if you guys haven't checked out my free workshop yet, how to blow up your Etsy shop, you're gonna be able to niche button blast it. You always want to pick a product you can niche blast. If you don't, what I'm talking about a link totally free. It's a training. I came out with that all my colleagues are going to. They want to kill me because they can't believe I gave this away for free. And they make a note to how to blow up. You can go ahead and grab that free training, but that's. He's going to be looking for the next thing he can niche blast. I just wanted you to hear in the beginning play test, do all those things figure out what's going to emerge and then double down, lock in on it. Did you think I characterized that? I said a lot fast do you think that made sense to pre. No.

[C]

Yeah, nothing to add to that. That's great.

[B]

All right, so if you guys are moving towards, you know, wanting to scale that Etsy shop, move into a. Move into full time seller, we want to lock arms with you. We're giving you all the resources, we're giving you the roadmap, we're giving you the coaching, the want in like just that intensive personal touch inside scaling society. So join us if that sounds like a fit for you. But otherwise, I just think this is a helpful conversation for everyone. P, thanks for doing it with me. Thanks for suggesting it.

[C]

Yeah. Like I said, it's always a huge pleasure to come on. I will come on as many days as you need me to. I learned something every time I come on and I'm inspired to do better and. And more. And so here's to year of growth for us both.

[B]

Oh, buckle up, buddy. So guys, if I know y' all love when P comes on, send me all the dms. Send him the dms. Let us know how you liked the episode, Let us know what other topics you'd like for me to cover with Preston because I'd love for him to be a regular guest this year and we just want to know what you want to hear about. So thanks for hanging out with us. It's been an absolute joy. We are just rooting for you harder than your mom. Love you guys to pieces. And until next week, go make something awesome. Thanks, guys.

[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.