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Hey, my name is Lizzie Smiley and I absolutely love helping people connect with their calling and all the tools they need to kick roadblocks and excuses right out the door so they can cultivate the life they dream about. If you want to launch, grow, pivot, or scale your Etsy shop, or you've always wanted to develop the mindset and skills to run your own business, then I'm your girl. I've had that entrepreneurial spirit going strong since my very first lemonade stand. And now I'm a work at home mama with multiple online companies and a full time Etsy shop, all while being present with my kids for the everyday chaos and most important milestones. On this podcast, we'll talk about all things business, mindset, Etsy, creativity, dazzling our customers, and so much more. There's plenty of room at this table for you, so scooch on in and let's go. I'm holding nothing back. Welcome to how to sell your stuff on Etsy. I'm so glad you're here. Hey, my friend, welcome back to the podcast. Or if you just hit play for the first time. I'm so excited you're here. There have been a lot of new people coming into my world lately and I am so here for it. You're making the right decision. Etsy is. It's doing so well and my students are doing so well and my podcast listeners are doing so well. And so I am just super, super excited to do a little solo episode with you guys today. We're going to talk about my favorite thing, Trends. Etsy trends. It's my jam. I want to start this time before I do a bit of a trend overview. This is a slightly different episode. I want to do some teaching because I think that you can hear about, oh, we're going to do Etsy trends and have no idea why you should or how to apply them or like how long they're relevant and all of that. So I want to do a little bit of that to begin with. I'll, I will. I'll kind of give you a little bit of an itinerary of what we're going to do here. The first thing I want to say is one of the reasons I'm really big on trends, other than the fact that they really help new sellers break through. I'm going to share a bunch of stories with you on that today. They stick around longer than you think. There are some, yes. That are a bit more flash in the pan and they come and go and it's a bit like hit and miss. But you know what, that's posting anything on Etsy, it's like even when you really know what you're doing, not every single one, every single listing is going to take off. In fact, my head coach, Becca in my Scaling society, she's like my right hand woman in the business. And then you guys have also heard about Caroline who literally keeps everything running from the inside. Like she keeps me sane. Becca just posted today in our school community for Scaling Society this amazing analogy. And I was like, oh my gosh, yes. About how if you think about like a really famous singer or even just a, even just like a pretty good, you know, we'd all be pretty happy to be at least even partially that famous. Not even like Taylor Swift level or whatever, they think about how many songs in their career that they write. I bet they don't even publish all of those songs. And the ones that they do publish, what percentage of those become hits? Only a few, right? Except for the elite. Only a few. And it still makes an incredible career. They can still make an incredible living. And so when you think about an Etsy shop, even those of us who've made multiple six figures, like me, all my friends who are in this space as well, not every single listing sells. In fact more of them don't than do. So it's always a bit of like trial and error test. Half, half science, half art, half prayer. I just threw. I know some of you who are math people, but you know, you'll get used to that with me. Trends are a bit of testing, but they can last longer than you think. In fact, I have a couple of trend heavy designs that I created from over two years ago that I thought would be like long dead by now. And they are still selling for me. So it's one of those things I know that's sometimes an objection, like why would I want to create something that's not gonna like, you know, make me money long term? It can last longer than you think because kind of like some people say, why would I ever design for holidays when it's just for a few months? And well, you know what? Sometimes in the places of risk are the places of great reward. And you. I sell things that I created two Christmases ago. They will sell. I actually sold one recently because we got Christmas in July coming up and I will sell more this fall. So it lasts longer than you think, it's stickier. Longer than you think. I want to tell you a little bit about my own experience with trends because your girl is not naturally Trendy. I am such the girl next door. I was the girl. I was like a theater kid in high school. And I would be like, sitting in the hallway at lunchtime crocheting a scarf, which at the now it's all about granny hobbies. Back then, I was a weirdo, okay? I was not dressed on trend. I am not good at home decor. I don't have the eye. I spent a few years in art school and it was definitely did not come naturally to me, okay? I'm not a natural. Naturally good at art, design, identifying colors, things that look good. My sister, on the other hand, is incredible at that. You know how some people have that gift and you go into their home and it looks straight out of Pinterest? That's my sister. That is not me. You come into my home and it's going to be like dog hair and toddlers, okay? So I want you to know if you're somebody who play on this because you were curious and you know, trends can make a lot of money. And you're just like, I am. This does not come naturally to me. I'm like, me too, sis. Me too, sister. Not at all. Like, I had to learn so much. I had a slow start. But what does the how to sell your stuff on Etsy family do when something's a bit challenging? We remind ourselves that everything is figureoutable. We double down, we learn it, and I'm a little bit stubborn. And then we come back, like, we become the best, right? So just like your big sister Lizzie here, I became the Etsy trends queen. It's like my thing. I'm known for trends. Now that is hysterical, you guys. That is God using the things of the foolish to confound the wise mess right there. Okay? So I was completely clueless for years. This is. This is learnable. This is learnable. It's all about pattern recognition and training your eye and training your brain. Just like anything else in life, it's learnable. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to talk about who they work for and who they don't work for, why they work and how you can use them for kind of kickstarting your Etsy business. This can really pour some gasoline on the fire. And then after that, I'm going to share five trends that are absolutely blowing up on Etsy right now that you need to know about so you can leverage them today and you can start hearing those cha chings on overdrive. Because that is literally what's happening with my students right now. So I think the first place to level the playing field on what we're thinking about here are the gaps for Etsy success. Okay, so there's three main places that people tend to struggle with on Etsy. This is when they come to me, this is where they're struggling. And the first one is patience and consistency. Okay. I think sometimes people come in and the content out there can make it sound like, oh, my gosh, this is gonna be so easy. I'm gonna get so, so rich and it's gonna be freaking amazing. And while it can be easy and becomes easier and PS as someone who tried every single side hustle out there and failed, this was the easiest one to break through on. And it can make you a lot of money. I have made as much as $12,000 in a month, over 12,000 on Etsy, and I know people who've made a heck of a lot more than that. In fact, some of my students have already outperformed me. And that's the best thing I could ever tell you. It's like amazing news. You need to know that we all come with a learning curve. So if you're someone who's got a marketing background, a design background, you understand demand, you know how to do research, you can come in and hit it pretty big and fast on Etsy, but the majority of people are coming with a learning curve. And the problem I see people run into is they don't have a reasonable expectation for what it's for, the amount of work it's going to take and how long it's going to take. And I try to really keep that real, stay still, encourage you, so you'll start, give you that hope, but keep it really real. So the gap for success is, are you willing to push through your learning curve? What do you need to master, how long is it going to take? And are you willing to put in the reps long enough to get good? I am not naturally a gym person. I'm am athletic. I love to be outside. I walk a lot. But you know how miserable it is for some people, for people like me to go to the gym and work really hard for weeks and weeks and really not have results. You know what, it's easier for me to discipline myself like that in business than it is for fitness, but it's the same kind of thing. Anything that you keep up with every single day, consistently for a year gives you better results and more satisfaction than anything else. So that's gap number one, the next gap of Etsy success is design quality. So people struggle to make sales on Etsy because their designs aren't strong enough yet. Mine weren't either. Let me tell you, you have to let yourself suck for a bit again. Unless you're the unicorn who's coming in with experience. And you just need to know that every single one of us who has made something of ourselves on Etsy had to go through that. It's called the messy middle. You get started, you have lots of energy and adrenaline and excitement and dopamine from starting something new. You're excited about the potential. You do a whole bunch of work, get no results and you're like, this stinks. This is, maybe I should quit. This isn't worth it. Why am I doing this? That's the messy middle. You have to discipline yourself to go through those reps for your designs to get better and to be good enough. And do I teach strategies for actually developing that skill? Heck yes. We talk about that constantly because it's the most important thing. And after a little bit of repeatedly going through the research process, repeatedly, you know, trying putting, putting something out there, sure enough, people start getting sales. For some people again, the unicorns. 10 to 20 listings are up and they start getting sales. And that's amazing. That's incredible for them, for more of us. For me, it was like 100 to 300 listings before I started getting regular sales. And I'll get. It depends on your product line, right? Like handmade products, you get there faster. You don't need to do as many listings usually to get sales. There's not as much competition, there's not as much learning curve. The learning curve really there is developing a really good product, getting really good photos taken of it, you know, and then setting up the listing and then, and then, golly, I'll tell you what, for handmade, it's so much that shipping strategy, it's the, and like inventory and your pricing. For print on demand and digital products, it's so much, it's so demand related. So it's so much about are you creating something that's gonna compete in the marketplace? And it's something you gotta learn. And so actually that leads us into the third gap for Etsy. Success is understanding demand. A lot of people, it's like, it's unbelievable the numbers of people who come to Etsy and they're, and you know what's funny is this happened to me is someone just told me, hey, you should sell that on Etsy. And back then there weren't coaches, there weren't YouTube channels, I had to go through the school of hard knocks. It just so happened that what I was creating was in demand. However, I did have to make some tweaks to it. I was selling wood signs, and turns out the phrases I started with were trademarks. So whoopsie there. We learned that lesson the hard way. You have to make sure what you're selling, you have the right to sell. But then also, I needed to tweak my aesthetic a little bit. But a few tweaks, and I was rolling in it. I was selling them left and right. But on Etsy, you have to sell something that people are actively shopping for. Okay? It can't just be what you like unless there's a proven market that other people like it too. Like, you can go search for it on Etsy. And there are. There are. There's at least a full page of bestsellers. And I like to add to that ideally as well. Not only are they bestsellers, but there's a bunch of those bestseller listings, like listings with a bestseller badge that are also less than 6 months old. I like them even less than 3 months old for. For just product validation. So there's a little bit pro tip there. I use Profit Tree to see how old listings are because they. Their Data is only 12 hours old. So it's really, really fresh. I can link. I should put a note here. I can link Profit Tree for you guys, along with a tutorial. You can get lifetime Access for just $67, which is insane. That's like the one, one tool I think you need to pay for and invest in. So those are the three places that people tend to have problems on Etsy. And what I have seen over and over again is, is that trends are a bridge. They help you bridge those three gaps much more quickly. What happens is when you pair a trend with a micro niche, you can hit demand in a really powerful, unique way. And this is the recipe that gets my students success much faster on Etsy than I did in the beginning or than a lot of people out there just trying to figure it out on their own. Okay. There's, like, strategies to this. So I want to break. I just used a lot of terms. I want to break that down in case you're new here or even you've been here for a while. And it's just. This is a good time to reinforce what we've learned. When I talk about a trend, a trend is a design, esthetic, or a set of elements or a. Some certain colors that are showing up a lot in the Etsy bestsellers now. Right now. So like the trend means we are seeing it all over the place repeatedly in different niches typically. And it's like people can't get enough of it. Some examples are right now. We're going to talk about these in more detail later. 3D textiles, we've been seeing a lot of this year like patchwork for while we were seeing a lot of the scrapbook or ransom note trend. So and also when I say that they're in two dimensional format. So it's like they look like these 3D items but they're actually two dimensional. Impasto or 3D. Chunky looking paint is also really popular right now and in two dimensional format. We're going to talk about these more later. Retro vibes. Lots of 90s and even now 80s and 70s aesthetics. So like think checkers and lightning bolts and groovy text and daisies and celestial stars. Pro tip, smiley faces are typically thought of as part of the retro vibe and they are. However, they are trademarked. So never do a design with smiley faces. That is the one element that people most get sued for other than like Disney or Taylor Swift, stuff like that. So for sure you can lean into the retro vibes. Just don't do the smiley faces. And then for fonts, you know, we see a lot of doodle fonts right now, a lot of varsity or collegiate fonts. We see a lot of brush script. These are trends, these are aesthetics, which just means how something looks that are in high demand right now and designs with them are more likely to sell. The next word we need to break down is niche. Okay? And a niche is a type of customer or audience. So for example, these are niches. Teachers, nurses, moms, pickleball players, mahjong players, big right now, book lovers, basketball. You know, either kids, kids playing basketball or basketball moms would be a whole separate niche. And then I want to drill it down at one more level to a micro niche. And a micro niche is a more dialed in type of customer or audience. So instead of a teacher, a pre K teacher or a history teacher, US History teacher would be even better. Those are micro niches. Instead of a nurse, a CICU nurse or a respiratory therapist, those would be more dialed in. Instead of the mom niche, which is massive, the doodle mom niche is a micro niche. And then the book lovers is a huge niche. But the spicy book lovers is a micro niche that is ripe with possibility. People buy that stuff like crazy. So where my students tend to have faster success is when they test, they play with pairing micro niches with one to two trends. We're going to talk about why it works in a second. So who do trends work for? I want to start with by telling you, like in the handmade space, trends can still work great. I, I would argue like when I think about this, trends literally apply to everyone, but they apply more directly to, to certain groups of sellers and they, and it's more important to be on top of what they're doing week to week for certain sellers. Or that's who I'm talking about right now. If you're a handmade seller and you sell something personalized, personalizable, wow, there's a lot of syllables in that word. Or customizable, you do something embroidery related, you do something laser engraved, you do something where you are personalizing it, making it different all the time. Niches are huge for you. If you're in print on demand, literally, like unless you are serving a very specific niche that only a very specific aesthetic is always for, which some of you are, then trends aren't as relevant because you just need to lean into what does that particular shopper shop for, where do they shop, what do they read, what do they watch, what do they listen to, where do they eat, what, what content do they consume, who do they follow? That's a different set of research, right? Because you're just serving that one type of person. But most people in print on demand have a more general shop and they are testing, they're like they're using more of my strategy where they're testing different trends and then expanding on them when they work. Right. For digital products, trends work great for anyone in the PNG space. SVGs, digital invitations, event related products. So like if you're in the wedding niche, then trends would be like super applicable because the brides are looking for like on trend and like super super aesthetic. You know, things like printables and signs and things like that. Clip art, digital textures, Tumblr wraps, wall art, most digital products, I'll give you an example of a few that don't apply to the trends as much. They like really watching the trends regularly are helpful. Who do they not work for? So where are trends less valuable? For example, in a, in handmade, if you sell pottery, you probably don't need to be on top of all the trends, right? You pro, you need to know them generally, maybe checking them once a quarter or once a month just to see like what different aesthetics could you start putting on your pottery that are, that are, you know, trending and applicable to your audience. Another one would be so like, when I made signs, I did a farmhouse style sign. It wouldn't have been important for me to have a trend report telling me to add checkers to that or to add coquette bows. Maybe I would need to know about the bows, but I would have seen that was a big enough one. I would have seen it. I would have wanted to know that grunge distressed font was in. But I wouldn't have necessarily needed to know about, like the feral girl trend. Or I probably wouldn't have been doing like any 90s things on there, if I think about it. But so do you see how I'm saying, like, you need to be kind of have your fingers in it because even still it's going to apply. I was the other one. I thought it was like, if you sell crochet lovies, because those are super big right now, you don't need a, like a weekly trend report. But I would be paying attention to what animals or like elements are trending. Because if I was selling crochet lovies, you better believe I would have a highland cow, a raccoon, a possum, probably a frog, a cat, for sure. A doodle. Like, I would be paying attention to the animals. I'm trying to think there's another. Oh, right now. Like, leopards are really big though, so I. Oh, chickens. So like, the trending animals, I would for sure be including, right? So it's like they matter and they don't matter. For digital products, if you're doing detailed planners or templates, you don't really need to follow the trends every single week because those things, it's more about like, the depth of detail and the actual colors. You'd want to know what colors were trending and you'd want a basic, like, idea. Like, okay, I could probably sell a planner that had like a 90s vibe to it, but you're not creating a new one every single day, right? So you don't need to be as on top of it all. The vast majority of us are better off knowing what's happening. And anyone who's creating a lot of a lot of listings, like the personalizable handmade, the print on demand, or the digital product sellers, we need to be on top of this. I want to share some stories about how trends worked practically in people's shops, because I've never done that before. And I think that could be very insightful for you imagining how it might work in your own. So these are all from my Students that share these with me. Jelena said she started listing on Etsy this month and has 24 listings. Today she made her first sale. She's thrilled. I wanted to let you know it was based on a listing I made from your trend report in Trendspotting and I did one of your. I also always provide. Here are listing ideas with done for you SEO. So she says she used the tags that I provided to get that first sale. Thank you for all your help. That was so cute. And then Jessica said hi Lizzie. I just just excited that I download this week's trend report and saw one of my PNGs on there. I screamed so excited. Mine is it was a patchwork. She was leaning into the patchwork trend that I taught her. I've only been doing PNGs for about two and a half months. I've had my shop longer but I was selling templates. I'm transitioning my shop over to P and GS. This is my first really good seller. Your reports and videos have helped me a lot. So Jessie learned the trends, applied them and then got her first sale. My student Shannon, who's been on the podcast is like such a unicorn. So she is one who embraced trends from the get go and started creating listings on them. And she is now at the level where she's actually a trend setter. So when I look at the best sellers every week, I am seeing her shop in there creating new trends and that is wild. So she emailed me a few months ago and that she had just hit her first $2000 month. She is selling PNGs so she's only making a couple dollars per sale. But it's all passive income because once you create the digital product you don't have to do anything else. Etsy automatically delivers it to the customer. So she. Okay, so she's. As of this morning, I had my first $2,000 month. Thank you for your support in getting me as far as I've gotten. Couldn't have done it without you, Shannon. She's. I'm so proud of her. She's gone way beyond me and now literally setting trends. Okay, this one makes me giddy. So my student Fatima has been with me for a while now. Her headline was 1 week 11 sales. Thank you Lizzie. She says okay, but can we talk about how close I was to quitting Lizzie's trendspotting? For a second I thought I was wasting money because I wasn't even paying attention to it. Yes. Embarrassing. I know. And my own fault. I know that too. Lol. So she wasn't opening the trend report, but something told me to just get back to it, stick with, stick it out. And I'm so glad I did. Within one week of a listing listing a product from her trend insights, I sold 11 items total and consistent daily orders. And oh, and the best part, one customer even placed a bulk order of four. Oh, and I've got eight favorites on it too. Another of her trend designs just made its third sale, so. So she's listening and she's getting sales. Lizzie, you really know your trends like a magician. It's like you get it before anyone else does. I'm honestly so grateful I didn't act on impulse and quit. Thank you. And for everyone else, if you're thinking about this, this is your sign. Trust the process. So Fatima, I'm so proud of her because she's been on like a learning journey and when she started incorporating the trends, it really turned things around for her. Becca, who you guys all know, you've heard her on the podcast, she says this was a this was on last week's trend report. I took the glam animal trend and put a little artistic spin on it and it sold within three days. Judy said. Judy is a handmade seller. She said last Christmas you said the trend was pink, leopard print and gold. I leaned into that and created a few bundles that were not anything I would have ever made, but I did it and it just sold or and oh, and it sold last Christmas and I just sold another one of these Christmas bundles this week. So that's June. Recently your trend report said color of the year was kind of an off white and then gold accents. I made a floral design and it is selling great on multiple product types. So you're starting to see how these things apply, right? Ro says she used one of our Inside my scaling society, Becca puts out a daily prompt for a listing that you can go create based on trends. So she said. Rose says I used one of Becca's prompts and created my shop version. Tried it on a sage T shirt which is a trending comfort colors color, listed it as a print on demand shirt and it sold within less than five days. This was totally a different vibe for me but because it was trending, I tried it and it sold. It was in the line art. It was a lot. The line art trend. Kathy said, I got a few sales with trying a couple of trends. Patchwork and impasto stripes. Two sales of the same design in about 10 days. Go Kathy. Ro says she took a design from an expired listing that had never sold for her, reworked the layout with the vertical stripe trend behind it, aligned the wording or the font with what buyers are actually searching for, and it finally sold. So that gives you like very realistic, like life examples of what's happening when people are starting to incorporate the trends. There's some of like the actual success stories. Here's how trends work, you guys. Okay, so when someone is new to Etsy, there is so much to learn and get right before it usually clicks. Okay? That's a very normal experience for everyone. You do have to have some staying power. So your strategy and your designs are going to be weaker in the beginning and it's a challenge to know how to stand out right away. But when someone new picks some micro niches where there's, there's the tr. The key is that there's still demand in the micro niches, but the competition is a lot lower. Okay, so if someone new starts designing, they design using one or two appropriate trends, so they pick the micro niches. I suggest trying more than one. By the way, don't feel like you can only do one thing. Pick like three to five micro niches and then pick a couple of trends and create designs for those micro niches using the trends. And even better, if you can trend combine. Now that can be tragic but can be very powerful as well. So a really easy to understand trend combination example would be like doodle elements. So like kind of hand drawn doodle elements with the 90s aesthetic. So you're like doing doodle style lightning bolts, doodle style celestial stars. See what I'm saying? So you're combining two trends together and then applying it to a niche. So, so like what I would do there would be maybe like for a pre K teacher, I would create a design that's a doodle collage. That's one trend in and of itself that has 90s retro elements. So celestial stars, lightning bolts, checkers, that kind of thing with maybe some groovy font. For the pre K teacher, that's my micro niche. Hopefully that made sense. I'm getting too geeked out now. So the chances of that student with that design showing up in search results, because remember, there's lower competition. It's easier to show up in the results because you're in a smaller pond and then actually making a sale because demand is high for the trend. Right. So if you're one of the first ones to hit a micro niche with a trend, your odds of getting a sale go through the roof. That's why these people are getting them because they're going. They're. They're like drilling down. They're not just creating for the mom, they're creating for the doodle mom or the triplet mom or the ADHD mom. They're drilling down and then they're bringing trends in on top of it. So this is the. This is like the C secret sauce. I feel like I should give you another one. They're not just designing for the city homesteader or the homesteader, which would. It still isn't a massive niche anyway. But there's. There's enough in there. I'm actually in the homesteading niche, but they're designing for the city homesteader. That's going to be a slightly different. A slightly different vibe. Right. They're picking that micro niche that isn't as represented, but there's still demand. And then they're adding one or two trends also with homesteading, like, doodle can do great. So can. I mean, honestly, any of the trends we're gonna talk about today, like that impasto or the patchwork trend, the 3D textiles, would do great for the homesteading you're going to be drilling down. And the reason this works is because the emotional connection on the design is so high. Okay. This is why. Because people are shopping in those niches and they're just like, when they see something that is so them, like, the design might not be perfect. The designer may still have a lot to learn. The SEO may not be perfect, but the shopper connects so perfectly with the design because it's just them. It's a lower competition niche. The shopper doesn't have as many choices. They see something fresh. They see the trend, like, finally hitting their micro niche, and it's super personal to them. So you get that, oh, that is so me. I have to get. I have to have it moment. And when you nail that, when you nail that emotional connection to. People care less about price, they care less about perfection. They add to cart because the emotional connection is so high. And you just. You get that opportunity when you're playing in that smaller pond. And then for my more advanced sellers, what happens is I'm gonna kind of like, throw this out there and we'll talk about it more at another time. I have actually, like, a free masterclass on this you can go find on my website. Once you start having a design work, let's say you do this, you create something and it starts really working. You turn that design into a template. So you switch out. Let's say it worked really well for that. 3K teacher. 3K? Yeah. Toddler teacher, preschool teacher. You take the same template and you switch some things out for the kindergarten teacher and you try to sell that and see how that works. Maybe you switch it out and it's like for a gymnastics instructor or a dance teacher. Maybe you switch some things out and it works great for a pediatric nurse because the aesthetic might be on, you know. So, like, that's called niche blasting. That's what I teach as a much more advanced strategy. You find out what works and then you go and you use it for as many niches and micro niches as you can think of that it's appropriate for. And that's how you build towards mega seller strategy status. Okay, in a minute, I am going to talk you through a few of the hottest trends we're seeing right now that you could design for and apply today in your Etsy shop. This is what I love to talk about. But first, I just want to invite you if you're finally convinced that you need to start learning more about trends. I'm about to run seven weeks of bonuses in my trendspotting membership. People go crazy for this because you get so much free stuff, so much value packed in for, like a low investment. I'm going to tell you what they are and you're going to flip out. And I just give them away one every single week that you're active during the trend bonuses, and you get to use them and learn a ton and get a lot of value. So most of my students actually start in trendspotting because you can get your first month for just $17 with the code keep20 at checkout. Don't worry, the details are in the show notes. If you're driving, you don't need to write down keep 20. So it's like, very affordable, it's very accessible and super high value because you're getting the freebies on top of it after the first month. My membership is $37 per month. So, like, what is that per week? $9.25 per week. So it's very. It's very reasonable for what you're going to get. So here's what's just included in trendspotting. So in case you're new, you don't know, and then I'm going to tell you what the bonuses are about to be. So you. Every week, every Monday, I email you a PDF, a visual PDF with examples of the trends that are happening right now. You see examples of what's working. It's going to show you the newest trends that just hit the hottest trends that are flying off the shelves, the holidays and events that you should be designing for right now with examples of what's working. And then also it's going to highlight the consistent like not flash in the pan trends. Like the ones that are like going strong is what I call them over the course of weeks because I think that's important to watch as well. You can refer to back to it all week or some of my top students actually put it into their chatgpt and have it tell them what they should design for their shop, particularly how they can use those trends to like it's like doing the heavy lifting for them. Like they've got the design aesthetic and then, and then even ChatGPT can create the designs for you. So it's like super great way to use that. It's going to save you a ton of time. I put in a lot of research and do it for you every week. You also get a weekly trend training video. So I'm going to, you're going to like over my shoulder, we're going to go on Etsy together and I'm going to show you what I'm seeing, give you ideas. How else could this be applied? What are the different things your eyes might not be noticing about the trends that are going to help you do it? Well, I think that training is really helping to develop people's skills to be able to do their own trend spotting. I also give you six listing ideas. Three print on demand, three digital products. They are currently high demand, low competition. So you have some ideas of what you can go list right away for some quick, quick wins. I write all the SEO for you. It's done for you. Actually, Caroline does that because she is an SEO queen and she is, she keeps everything going for me. And when you get access, you immediately get access to my library of over 300 listing ideas waiting for you. So literally your next 300 listings, assuming you did print on demand and digital products are done for you and you just go and grab the SEO, grab the concept and go run with it because they're low demand, high competition. You also, this is one of the first places before you get into my bigger membership where you get onto a monthly group coaching call with me so you can get, you can get feedback from me, you can get my eyes on your shop, you can get Becca's eyes on your shop, you can get a shop audit, that kind of thing, which just so for $17 you get all of that for your first month and then it renews at 37. I have to tell you about the bonuses. They are starting May, May 11th. So you want to be inside transpotting before May 11th to get all of them. If you come later, you'll get the ones you get. They could drop every. A new one drops every Monday. So we're going to do a Bonus every week, May 11 through June 22. And then in July, we're doing a live event that you can come to that is. I'll tell you what that's gonna be. It's gonna be crazy. So bonus number one, we're gonna do a bonus group coaching call because typically I can only get through about 10 shop audits per call, which is a lot, but I want to be able to really over deliver. So on May 11, the first day of bonuses, we're gonna get on a coaching call that night. There's gonna be like, no, no agenda. Just come have office hours with me. We can do audits. I can answer your questions. We are going to hit. We're going to hit the. I hit the ground running is what I'm trying to say. May 18, we're doing a trending color pairing guide. So I've never done this before. I'm actually going to show you the color palettes that the top sellers are using, giving you the hex codes and all of that so that you can easily get the colors right. This is something that people often get wrong. They just are slightly missing it. So we're going to give you a color pairing guide. May 25th is going to be Pinterest PIN templates for your Etsy listings. Pinterest is the 1 social media place that I think makes sense for Etsy sellers to go spend some time because it's not going to be a time suck and you can get really good bang for your buck. So we're going to give you templates for your pins to help you do that more easily. June 1, we are going to begin access to one of my custom GPTs. This went over huge last time. I'm going to give you four weeks of access to the prompt architect. This is a custom GPT that will write design prompts for you as if a professional, myself or Becca or Jason or Shannon were sitting next to you, literally telling you what to do. You're able to pick, like, here are the trends I want to use, here are the, the niches I want to design for. Like, help me come up with a prompt and it will write an incredible prompt for you. So that's just going to go into trendspotting for four weeks and you're going to get to play with that. It is a huge like everyone loves that tool. June 8th we're going to do 10 design prompts direct from the report. So you're going to get the trend spotting report that day and you're going to get pre written prompts for me that take those trends and not to copy the bestsellers at all. I am actually going to do the work for you to apply the trend to another perfect niche for it and give you the prompt for that. And that is going to help you just be able to niche blast so much faster because you can go and you can test those. What I would do with that is I would take those prompts, put them in a chatgpt and say like let's say I wrote it for let's do the homesteading niche again because it's on the tip of my tongue and I'd say, hey chatgpt, please rewrite this, this trending prompt for the thrifting niche. How would you tweak it? And it will do the heavy lifting for you because it's got the base prompt to work with. June 15th we're gonna do a Q4 listing calendar. It's gonna tell you exactly what you should be listing and when for Q4 basically with like a schedule to follow so that you don't have to think about it. If you tend to get squirrel brain, you're like, I don't know what I should be designing next cause I have no ideas or I have too many ideas. This is gonna tell you exactly what to do. Super high value. June 22 is going to be a training, a pre recorded training on how to incorporate trends into various different product examples. Okay. Because a lot of you are just like, I know I need to be using trends, I see these trends, I how do I incorporate into X, Y and Z? So I'm going to get you a training on that so you know exactly what you're doing and that is going to help you so much. Take this to the next level. Our special event in July will be Thursday, July 16th at 6pm all this is going to be below by the way, so don't feel like you need to write it all down. I just want you to hear it and know what's coming up. We are going to do a niche blast workshop. So you're going to have had more than eight weeks of trend training. At that point you are going to be ready to go. You're going to know what you're doing. And so it's going to be time to teach you how to scale your Etsy designs. And so we will jump on live and I'm going to walk you through that and show you exactly how you would scale out using the trends, the designs. I think that is going to be insane. I'm so excited for it. So if you want to receive all of these goodies, grab the link in the show notes, use Keep20, the coupon code at checkout for to get your first month at just $17. I want you to think about it this way, okay? If you commit to this for the next three months to get all those bonuses, I'm making it worth your while because I'm going to give you so I'm going to over deliver in value. Okay? But here's my actual agenda. I want you sharpening this skill over the next few months so that when you hit Q4, you explode. You are not just figuring it out, you are not just picking it up. You are not thinking about it for the first time. And Q4 is here. You have sharpened your ax. You are ready to go. You know what you're doing. So if you do this for three months with me, first month at $17, it is a $91 investment. And in exchange, you're getting a weekly trend report. You're getting the weekly training, you're getting the listing ideas, you're getting my eyes on your shop during the calls, you're getting the bonuses. You're not just buying a report, my friend. You're practicing a skill over this time. You're going to learn, ramp up, get feedback, and then it's going to click. And by the time Q4 hits, you're going to be so far ahead of the competition because you already know exactly what the market is hungry for. That is my job to teach you and I will teach you that. So this timing is strategic. So don't wait until the holiday rush to figure out the strategy. Let's build it now. All that's below. I'm excited and I want to talk to you now about the trends. Okay. I'm going to share five of the hottest trends on Etsy right now that are popping off. My students are having success with them. Some of those, some of those success stories were around these. I was just on Juna's Detour shirts. That's his YouTube channel, talking about trends because he was super excited to take this to his audience. These are so hot right now. Trend number one is the vertical stripes design. And what's basically happening is people are using as the base background of their design a bunch of narrow vertical stripes. And sometimes they are perfectly the same. All this, like, the same shape and thickness all across. They're, like, very mathematical, and sometimes they're very organic. So there's, like, different size stripes behind the design. They're doing different, like, different colors. Some of them are very, like, straight lines. Some of them are very organic lines. They kind of look hand drawn. The trend is the vertical stripes. And then on top of it, they're putting elements, they're putting words. And every single niche that has this, they're usually trend combining. Like, they're putting doodle on top of that or putting collegiate on top of that. They're putting impasto chunky paint on top of the stripes. But we are seeing it everywhere. Everywhere, everywhere. So basically, if something was popular, this is like my little pro tip for you. If something was popular in the past 24 months on its own, a certain aesthetic, or you're doing your profit tree research and you see, oh, this listing has done really well. It's about, you know, 12 months old or whatever. If you recreate that design for your niche or your micro niche, and you put it on top of stripes, it's going to sell again. Now, on the vertical stripes, that's like kind of the evolution of that particular trend. Trend number two that I am seeing constantly is the patchwork trend. So ever since January 2026, we've been seeing three dimensional textiles. It started with, like, crochet and latch hook. And I kind of thought, like, actually, was it Pinterest who said that that gummy 3D gummy was going to be big? I actually haven't seen that hit yet. We'll wait and see. Because usually Pinterest is right. Haven't seen that. But we've seen 3D textiles. And right now, what's had the most staying power, we've kind of evolved from the chunky knit and the crochet and the still. I would say faux embroidery is big, but patchwork is the biggest one. And sometimes you'll see really clean edges on the patchwork. Like, it looks very 90s. Sometimes you'll see really jagged edges on the patchwork. It feels much more 80s, much more kind of. What is that word? I don't know. Just like jagged edges. Like where it looks like it was ripped. Right. And frayed and distressed. Probably distressed. So in the patchwork, I'm seeing a lot of summer vibes, like, okay, so. So the vertical stripes Are every niche patchwork? I'm seeing a lot of summer. I was seeing a lot of holiday. So we saw it for. We're seeing it for fourth of July. We saw it for Valentine's Day and Easter a lot. And like, right now I'm focusing on Q4 patchwork designs. Okay. So I'm thinking ahead of fall football season, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and I'm creating patchwork. It was even big. It's interesting. It's going to make the whole year. Um, that's what I would be focusing on right now, is hitting. Hitting those niches in the future holiday event categories or. Or seasonal. Trend number three is the impasto or chunky 3D paint. Okay. So it's just like the 3D textiles are patchwork. It's a technically a two dimensional design. It's a flat design, but it looks realistic. It looks three dimensional. It's the same thing with the paint. It kind of looks like it's coming off the shirt or coming off the mug, coming off the sublimation design. It's working in every single niche. Right now I am designing for Halloween with impasto. I'm sure it'll go probably beyond that, but just so that you kind of have the inside scoop, that's what I'm working on right now. I've seen everything from bestselling impasto American flags. So it looks like a 3D paint situation of American flag with like wildflowers. We're seeing impasto fish for the summer, lots of also fruit for the summer, and then the trending animals like raccoons. It's kind of everywhere. Trend number four is an evolution of the 90s vibes that we've been seeing for the past couple years. And I'm calling it retro pop. Okay, so it's retro 90s. Lots of checkers, groovy fonts and text, things like that. But it's a little bit updated to feel very like, hence the pop popular right now. The way we're typically seeing it is the checkers. There's checkers in the background of the design and then they're a little bit distorted. They're not just the straight box boxes like we used to see. It's kind of had an evolution. It's kind of grown up a little, matured a little bit into these kind of more distorted boxes. And then we're seeing a lot of organic doodly type elements, but not like line art doodle. More of a chunky doodle. It feels more 90s, like the bubble letters that we used to do. And then this is. So I would say this is the current expression of the 90s retro trend that we've been seeing for a while now. But when we used to see horizontal rectangular blocks of those checkers, it used to be kind of like they'd be framing out some text, right? We'd see a long rectangle of checkers framing out text or like as maybe like filling a lightning bolt. That was big. Like the last 18 months or so. Now we are seeing more of a vertical block of checkers. So it's up and down rather than a long, thin strip. Up and down, big block. It's literally framing the entire design. The design's going on top of those slightly warped checkers. And the design is. Is very 90s, very organic, very doodle, doodle bubble, bubble type letters, and then other designs. In fact, I'm seeing. I'm seeing a lot of different trends get combined with this. And not just the doodle 90s thing, but, like, literally, we're just using that background of the checkers. You're going to want to bring in some other winks to the 90s. So if you like. I'm gonna try to think of an example. Let's say that you use that vertical block of checkers, and you were gonna do. Let me think of a niche first. Let's do book lover. And you were gonna do, like, I wouldn't put patchwork on top of it. You could try putting impasto on top of it. Let's say you were gonna trend combined with like the maximalist trend. So whatever you're putting on it, we said book lover. So it's like a book, probably a coffee, maybe a cat, but it's going to be in really, really bright, maximalist colors. You're going to want to make sure you add a few other 90s elements. I'd be popping in some celestial stars and or daisies on there to help pull together that 90s aesthetic. But otherwise we are seeing it trend combined a lot. That one's just huge. And that's a. That's a very new expression of the 90s trend. We're still watching it evolve. Trend number five is going to be a vintage collage. So the biggest niche that it's hitting right now is the thrifting niche, which is just exploding this year. Last year, 2025, and I feel like even 2024, the really big niches were the book lover niche. They're still huge, but right now everyone's like, it's like, all about Thrifting. Okay. So anytime you can incorporate even like traditional graphic design style vintage elements. So like think a vintage bread box of vintage like bowls, the stacking bowls that are grandmas like have in their kitchen or that, that, that chicken casserole dish, you know it's like literally the shape of a kitchen of a kitchen of a chicken. But the chicken head you like pull off and then below is the casserole dish. Any of those like old school saucers and doilies and fringe and anything very grand. Millennial collages, huge. But you can also pull these into other niches as well. I would say like we're seeing this carry over into homesteading. We're seeing like vintage elements in there. Teaching faith summer. Especially with some like doodle vibes. I feel like a lot of times the vintage has some doodle or hand drawn vibes to it. The bookish niche would work as well. Basically anything that can be trend combined with vintage. So like here's what I wouldn't do. I would not do a vintage collage or vintage elements for kids sports. Okay. Like it wouldn't really work there but for granny hobbies, heck yes. All day, every day. So those are the five that I would be focused on right now for you like that are just exploding. We, we're seeing them at every turn. And if you are jonesing for a visual trend report on this, just you get instant access the second you join us into trendspotting. So like last plug, jump in there and make sure you if you can just join us before May 11th so you get all seven of the bonuses. We'd love to have you anytime. Link and coupon code are in the show notes. Let me share a couple testimonials because like I know you can't see over my shoulder. A lot of this has had to be auditory, right? Megan says, I look forward to receiving the trend spotting emails and videos every Monday. I love how there's an overall review of what's hot on Etsy, then detailed info on product opportunities. What I like most is when you show the particular stats on items that are doing well. Sales volume, revenue tags and give suggestions on how to do something similar yet different to stand out. Amy says, hey Lizzie, I love your trend spotting emails. I'm a busy mom with ADHD and these emails really help me focus on what's important, relevant and in demand. Lizzie takes the guesswork out of it and saves me so much time by doing the research for me. I highly recommend the trendspotting emails. Amber says Lizzie Smiley's weekly trendspotting subscription has been a game changer for me. It offers a deep dive into emerging trends, making it easier to stay ahead of the fast paced world of E commerce and design. Her insights are incredibly actionable, breaking down not only what's trending, but why it's gaining traction, Becky says. I've joined other trendspotting monthly packages in the past, but I've enjoyed Lizzie's the most. I like how she breaks it down and really explains what she is seeing. That's that that weekly training. I'm only on my first month, but we'll definitely keep subscribing on this one. Says hey Lizzie, I'm a subscriber to the weekly trendspotting report and I'm providing some feedback for you here. She says. Lizzie is truly a gem with her weekly trendspotting report. It's exactly what I need to stay motivated and focused. Juggling a full time job, super commuting and being a stepmom leaves me with little time, but the high value insights she packs into each report are a game changer. Although I haven't hit four figures yet, my confidence and motivation have skyrocketed. All thanks to the incredible value Lizzie constantly consistently delivers. I can't recommend it enough, Megan says. I look forward to receiving the trendspotting emails and videos every Monday. I love how there's an overall review of what's hot on Etsy, then detailed info on product opportunities. Wait, I already read that one. I'm sorry guys, that was a duplicate. And the last one is I just wanted to drop by to say that your weekly trendspotting report is one of the greatest tools I'm using for my Etsy shop. It really makes my daily work so easy and your videos are really fun to listen to. So if you've ever wondered, now is the time. We are going to rock and roll the next couple months. I'm going to get you so Q4 ready and I just hope that this like deeper trends learning has just helped you understand. Even if even if joining us isn't the right fit, you just helps you understand why this is important and how much further along it can push you. And I just can't wait to hear the stories of people who took the dive they were otherwise feeling like, oh, I don't know, it feels a little over my head. I just can't. I can't wait to see you soar with it. I just want you. I want to say one more thing. This is Trends have been the number one thing that has been the differentiator in watching my new students hit sales faster. And when you hit sales faster, your confidence goes up and you start to say, oh, I can do this. It's that it's like when you get on the scale and it's down a little bit, or you start to see a new muscle develop on your body or like you were able to run further than ever before. It's that boost and then when you really lean into it, this is where mega sellers are born. So I hope that you enjoyed this different format for the Trend Report the Trend Report episode. I'm super, super excited to see some of you on the inside of trendspotting. And until next time, go make something awesome. Thanks for hanging out with me guys. And that's a wrap on this episode of how to Sell youl Stuff on Etsy. Thanks so much for hanging out with me today. If you're looking for more resources, head on over to howtosellyourstuff.com where you'll find podcast show notes, all the links from today'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.