← How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy
How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy
Ep 242 | Why Most Print on Demand Shops Stay Stuck at $500/Month - with HeatherStudio
00:47:37
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A
Hey, my name is Lizzie Smiley and I absolutely love helping people connect with their calling and all the tools they need to kick roadblocks and excuses right out the door so they can cultivate
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the life they dream about.
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A
If you want to launch, grow, pivot, or scale your Etsy shop, or you've always wanted to develop the mindset and skills to run your own business, then I'm your girl. I've had that entrepreneurial spirit going strong since my very first lemonade stand. And now I'm a work at home mama with multiple online companies and a full time Etsy shop, all while being present with my kids for the everyday chaos and most important milestones. On this podcast, we'll talk about all things business, mindset, Etsy creativity, dazzling our customers, and so much more. There's plenty of room at this table for you, so scooch on in and let's go. I'm holding nothing back. Welcome to how to sell your stuff on Etsy. I'm so glad you're here.
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B
Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. I'm super excited to bring my friend Heather back to the podcast for Print on Demand Chat. And I thought it would be so fun to kind of talk to the people who are in the messy middle. Right? You figured out the printify connecting to Etsy piece. You've got your basic listing format figured out. You know what your listing descriptions are, you know what listing graphics you're using, you know what SEO you're using, what products you're selling, things are working, you're making some sales, but you're just hitting a bit of a ceiling, right? You're not getting past maybe $500 a month and you're wanting to go from there. And so I really wanted to unpack some of that. And one of the things, regardless of if you're in Print on Demand or you're in handmade or you're in digital products, you really need certain tools to help you make wise decisions. Okay, you've heard me say again and again, you need to make data based decisions, which just means don't just create and design what you feel like. Do some studying on Etsy and find, find out what's already selling, get proof of concept from your competitors, find out what's working and then you can meet the customer where they're at. Right? You can start creating things that are more likely to sell because there's already showing signs of demand for it. My favorite tool for this is Profit Tree and the reason is because it's accessible and affordable. For people, you can get a lifetime access plan, which means you just pay one time, $67, and you have lifetime access to gathering this data. When I'm going to go create a new listing, before I do, before I design anything, before I do anything, I am looking at what the trends are on my, on my weekly trend report. And then I am going to like, let's say right now it's all about vertical stripes. So I will go and I will look at a number of vertical stripes listings and with my Profit Tree tool, I want to see are there new listings that are less than three months old, for sure, less than six months old, that are best sellers that are making decent money. Okay, if this was, let's say I was still selling in my sign shop, you're a handmade person, I would be going in and looking at signs in the same, like, size, like the same kind of concept or the same location. Let's say it's a kitchen sign. And I would be seeing what designs, what's performing right now, maybe what fonts are performing right now, what colors are performing right now. If it was in jewelry, I'd be like, okay, what colors? Like, is it gold or is it silver or is it rose gold or is it bronze or is it something else? Is it tiny chains or is it chunkier chains? What, what are those things called trinkets that go on. If you're doing trinket type jewelry, what's trending right now? And I would use Profit Tree to look at listings that are best sellers and figure out what are the components that are selling now. Now, very recently, profitree added a new tool and it is called, it was called, it's called the Shop finder. And this is a really big deal because when you're in a specific product type, you want to find shops that are a few years ahead of you that are basically where you want to go and you don't want to copy anybody that's not going to help you and that's not going to them. It's not ethical and it's not actually going to serve you. What you want to do is learn from the way that they do things like what types of products work really well, what kind of designs sell well over time, what kind of trends are they incorporating that you could incorporate? What is their pricing strategy, what is their listing strategy? And the Shop Finder tool is going to help you do that. And you can search by, like, keywords, you can search by categories within that tool. You can even search the shop's name. So we want to be very ethical and not be using this to copy people but to actually pay attention to the shops that are performing at the level that I want to perform at. What can I learn from them? And you can go do mass data research. So I highly recommend checking out Profit Tree. I will have link below for that lifetime access plan or their regular plan if you want access to some of these more advanced tools. Definitely something you want to check out. I also have a little tutorial so if you want to see like how they work I will go ahead and include some videos below as well. So if you're new or if you're stuck, make sure you're using a third party tool. I recommend Profit Tree to make sure you're following the data. Don't just go create whatever, go create what the market is asking for. We're going to touch on this more with with Heather because she and I are on the same page about so much of this. Let me in case you haven't heard from her before, I have many other episodes where she was here and if you look in the show notes you can go listen to all of them. We're taking a different approach today though and we're reaching out to the people in that messy middle to help them figure out how they can break through maybe that $500 a month mark or $100 a month mark. They know how to get sales but we need to scale it, we need to escalate it. Heather is a top 1% Etsy and print on demand seller. She's a multiple 6 figure Etsy store owner. She went from 0 to 250,000 in sales in revenue in 2021. She's been featured on Printify, Success Stories, Upflip and the side Hustle podcast. And she's an Etsy and print on demand, YouTube and TikTok coach that's taught multiple students to earn five figures and beyond with Etsy and Print on Demand, Heather has one of Those like massive YouTube channels in the Etsy space for Print on Demand. She's just a very known and loved voice and she has become a dear friend of mine. She's one of those people out there that I can always stand behind that I can always tell you guys you're safe to go. Listen, this is really sound advice from a very ethical and trustworthy person. So I'm really excited to chat with her. We're going down all kinds of fun rabbit holes today. Please help me welcome Heather to the podcast. Heather, hi. Welcome back to the podcast.
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C
Thanks for having me again, Lizzy.
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B
Oh, I've missed you in this capacity since we talk all the time, but in this capacity. This is so exciting.
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C
Yes. Yes, it is.
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B
You guys, Heather and I are Marco Polo friends, and if you don't know Marco Polo, then you're probably not Jen, a millennial, and that's totally fine. Wait, Heather, are you technically Gen X? Not Gen X, I meant a Gen Z. Are you technically Gen Z?
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C
I'm. I would classify myself as a lennial. I am. Okay, I'm, like, right on the border. So technically, I'm a millennial, but then technically, I'm Gen Z because I'm, like, on the exact date that they say the switchover is so. Or the same year the switchover is so.
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B
This is why we understand each other. Because I'm technically an Xennial. I'm technically right on the border of Gen X, which I can. I can't really identify. I feel much more like a millennial, but I do. I do have some Gen X tendencies, so this makes perfect sense. But we talk on Marco Polo, which I have been told is a millennial thing, and I do feel like you're very wise for your years.
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C
Well, thank you. Thank you.
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B
Have you always heard that? Have you always been, like, told you were an old soul?
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C
I think so, but. Pardon me, this is probably a funny side tangent, but I. I think because my voice is deeper that people associate. Maybe I sound older and. But my mom's had that, too, because she has a similar voice, so. But it's so funny because when I worked in mri, people would always be like, oh, you should be, like, on a radio or something.
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B
Yep.
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C
Yeah. And I was like, oh, I never really considered that, but they were like, oh, yeah, your voice is very, like, soothing over, like. Because I would talk to people over, like, the headphones on in the MRI machine. And I attribute my old soulness to probably that we're interpreting the voice.
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B
Okay. But also your emotional intelligence, I feel like, is through the roof.
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C
Thank you. Thank you.
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B
You know, I've never thought about this before. You have an incredible voice. It's like, it's. There is something a little deeper about it. Very soothing. Man, there's so much. There's so much we could unpack with that. But anyway, we are Marco Polo. For all of that to say. We are Marco Polo friends, and we catch up there regularly, and so that's a lot of fun. Highly recommend that for anyone who wants to video. It's like a walkie talkie, but, like, video chat.
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C
Yeah. Yeah.
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A
Okay.
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B
So you guys, I obviously just wanted an excuse to talk to Heather, but I'm really excited about this topic because I feel like it's something that we don't necessarily hear about. I mean I, I don't know if you've seen it before Heather, but I don't see a lot of people talking about. I see a lot of. Here's how you get started with print on demand. Here's how you build a six figure shop with print on demand. Here's how you like move off of Etsy with print on demand. I don't hear a lot of that messy middle of like why shops get stay stuck. Like what is the differentiator between someone who figures it out and starts getting some sales and actually hits their goal? Have you seen this much?
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C
I have, yeah, I, I definitely, I think that is something I hear a lot or a topic I touch on just like briefly sometimes. And you know, it wasn't until last year that I worked with, I, I hosted more of like a one on one accelerator group and I'm not running it this year, I don't think just due to things in the life. But last year it was really eye opening for me to work with those clients one on one of just like more I would say intermediate to advanced sellers. And the thing that they all had in common was just very interesting to me. Like I mean we could talk about it in depth or if you just want me to talk about it now,
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B
tell me you already have me on
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the edge of my seat.
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I'm like, what is she about to say?
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C
Yeah, so one thing is just the willingness to try new things they all had which was very, very interesting to me. Which, I mean it's, it's almost like a given. Like if you think of, you know, the ideal Etsy seller, it's someone who has the ability to kind of diversify their product line, diversify their trends that they're designing for on Etsy and they can kind of navigate products niches with ease as far as okay, I can do this design and this product type in this niche and I know this is a really good design. Not that they know but like they're willing to try and they have had success maybe with another niche and design and product type. But I guess those like those two things or I guess it is one thing still which is just the willingness to try and extend the effort. Because when I was working with these sellers, what I would give them like a roadmap and it would be personalized. This was before, like AI even became big. So I was like hand typing. And I just remember, like, I would be like, oh, you know, what are you willing to try? And they would just be like, oh, anything. Like anything you think is right for me. I trust you and I just want a new perspective. I would take that and I would be like, okay, this is great. This is amazing because I love suggesting ideas to people. Like, that's, that's probably where I. I'm on YouTube where I'm like suggesting like business ideas a lot of the times. But I was just like, well, like, you know, for your design style that you seem to be really good at, I really think, you know, tech accessories would be good for this client. Or T shirts are really good for this other client because they just, they have that specialty. And then some clients and sellers that I worked with, they would be good at all of the above. So it was kind of like, you know, trying to have them product scale because they were so good at so many different product types. So. But they were all just willing to give it a shot. And they did. And I was very surprised with a lot of the results from those clients I worked with last year. One client reached out earlier this year and she was like, I just hit my first like 8,000 revenue month. And I was like, whoa. Like, and given its revenue, but her shop makes about like, I'd say a little bit higher profit margin than the average seller because of the product type. I won't reveal the their product just to protect them because it's a really good product that we kind of did a lot of, a lot of behind the scenes on. But I will say it's in home and living space and home decor kind of item. And I know that's probably annoying to say on here and not reveal, but it was a home decor product. And basically she was making like 30 to 40% profit margin on the products she sold, which is huge for print
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B
on demand, by the way. That's a huge profit margin in print on demand.
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C
Yes, yes. So, and that was just really cool to see her grow and like, in comparison, because I had everyone screenshot their dashboards from when I began working with them last January. And then like when I got the new dashboard for some of those clients this year, I. I've just been like, this is wild. That. But they all were willing to try something and that speaks volumes for how far you can go. And I guess the second quality of clients was that they executed. So you could be willing to try everything, but if you don't execute. And by execute I mean create the listing, try to market the product in some form, whether that be if you're on Etsy organic. And of course, most everyone in this podcast or listening to this podcast is probably organic with Etsy in some form, facet or maybe you're using social media or something else. But basically, like just executing is a big one. So, you know, I, I've had a lot of sellers who have like all that motivation, all that fire, all that talent, but they aren't finishing their work. And I think that was eye opening to me too. Was the Canva graveyard. Yes, yes.
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B
Where all their designs are still sitting over in Canva and they never listed them. Is that, do you see that too?
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C
Yes, yes. And that's kind of what I've noticed is the sellers, like, they will, they will just get things out the door rather than focus on like, oh, is this perfect? Is this going to be the perfect package listing? And then also, I guess the third quality that I've noticed in a lot of those sellers is just reinvesting in their business and themselves too. And not only like I, I'd say reinvesting as like upgrading mockup images. I mean, even like seeking out someone like a coach to teach them. And not, not to say everyone needs a coach or someone for accountability, but they were, they're willing, you know, to invest in themselves because they know having a coach is going to get them farther than doing it themselves because someone's going to be on them to be like, hey, come on, let's keep it going. So, and that's what I've noticed at least is it's just that initiative to invest in themselves, whether that be in new in running ads in their business or, you know, trying out something in investing for their mockup images, photocards, a new software. Maybe that's what they're willing to do when they get that profit coming back so that they can make more. And I think that's just, I guess the three qualities I've seen that are very eye opening to. I can kind of have a pulse when I talk to someone on, okay, are they going to take this really seriously or are they going to not follow through on what they want to do? Because I'm sure, Lizzie, you have similar. But I've had a lot of family and friends. I will not name names, but they have came to me and said like, oh, I love what you do. I love hearing about what you. I want to do that. You know, I don't know where to start. I don't know what to do. And you know, like, if I have a close relative, like I'm, I'm like, well, I will take you under my wing. You just let me know, you know? And they, they don't, they're just kind of, it goes, you know, kind of. No, I haven't heard from them since. And it's again, it's kind of just, it depends on the entrepreneur. And also like, I guess the hunger and the grit that comes with that of how hungry are you for this business? And if, if you don't have that like driving force in your internal, I guess, functions or I feel like there'd be a really cool way to explain that mechanisms. You're, if you don't have that driving force in your internal mechanism, then again you might be like, ah, I'll do this later. And the people who are successful are like, no, I need to do this now because they have that hunger, they have that determination and they know they need to do this. I don't know. I kind of went on a lengthy tangent. I am so sorry, Lizzie.
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B
No, I love that. So. And I have a follow up question. So the three differentiators between the people who kind of stay in beginner stage and actually scale is number one, they're willing to grow and pivot. They're willing to try new things, they're willing to test new products, they're willing to expand beyond their niche. Number two is they take action. So they don't just create a bunch of designs in Canva or Kittl and then deliberate. I don't know if this is good enough over analyze over question, they just list it. They list it and they move on. They get it out the door. And number three is they reinvest in themselves. Whether they're regularly refreshing their mockups and other things that make their business more efficient or more aesthetic, they're leveling up or they're reinvesting in themselves, getting coaching and getting feedback or learning new things, you know, investing in learning. So I completely agree. I love those three things. I want to help unlock something for some people right now because I love what you said, number one, about being willing to try some new things and get outside of their comfort zone. I still hear, and it's amazing to me because so many of us talk about this all the time, but I still hear constantly. But Lizzy, I thought I was supposed to niche down. I thought I was supposed to focus on the one thing. And I am such a type C person, Heather, that I am like telling People left and right. No, we'll worry about that later. Right now I want you to test a bunch of stuff and figure out what works for you. I want you to be expansive and creative and stop worrying because the algorithm is going to analyze each listing less than the shop overall. What do you say to people who come to you and say, okay, but I know I'm supposed to niche down. How do I then be expansive like this? How do I branch out and try new things? What are your thoughts on that?
- [19:52]
C
Yeah, I think on if Etsy is kind of a different being and I think that some of that advice comes from a place of if you're on Shopify or your own website, like sticking to one niche might be a little bit easier for those areas given you can still have a multi niche business on Shopify and whatnot. But I know like typically sticking in one niche for your own website or Shopify is a little bit easier at that time to test out designs. But when it comes to Etsy, for me it's always been typically I'm, I'm kind of going off of new design styles and testing those in different markets niches, so to speak. So typically like I always recommend having multiple niches, multiple product types and even if they're adjacent product types, I still think that's perfectly fine. So even if you're like, oh, you know, I want to do apparel, does that mean I should do like, you know, tech accessories and you can just do adjacent apparel? So like, okay, well you can create a dress with print on demand. You can create a T shirt, a sweatshirt, a tank top, a V neck. A lot of people are looking for that on Etsy and they're not finding it. Some people only like to wear V necks, you know, or they only like to wear crew necks. So it, it just depends on the type of customer you can kind of find there. But ultimately I've found that going into multiple niches on Etsy is just more lucrative than sticking in one niche. Because what I found too, this is just my own personal experience on Etsy. But if I have a really good design that's the best seller and I don't scale it to multiple niches, someone else will take my design and scale it. For me, that's kind of what I found with the copycat culture on Etsy is okay if you're not in that niche, if you don't have that exact phrase. I like I, I was in professions and I was doing a bunch of occupation where on my own Etsy shop, I was going into nursing, teaching, physical therapy and like all of these areas. And then I see my design show up in like the maternity niche and I'm like, oh. And then I reached out to that person and I was like, hey, just wondering, you know, your designs look a lot like mine. And I knew I couldn't do anything, you know, but they were like, oh, well, this isn't the exact phrase that you've used, so I'm fine to post this on my own shop. And I was like, ouch, that, that stinks. You know, so it's, it's kind of like if you don't scale it to other niches, just know that someone else will at times and not to like. I guess that is kind of, in a way perhaps a. I would say it's reality, not necessarily fear mongering because I've seen it on my own account that that's happened to. So it's, that's why I recommend multiple niches. So if you have a design that works, scale it out and just scale away as far as you can to different niches. If you have a product type that's, you know, it's a popular product, it might be a crew neck, it might be V necks that you're doing well in and you can scale that, so to speak on Etsy and try out and you know the worst that, not the worst, but the best thing that could happen is you get a sale after spending 20 cents for that new listing. The worst thing that could happen is you lose 20 cents. So that's, that's the way I like to look at it. At least
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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 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 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. I'm really curious to know cause we've never talked about this before. When you're teaching your students how to scale, what are the metrics that you're personally focused on every single week? Like what do you think is worthwhile really watching? Cause I think people can get really in the weeds. But I do think we should be led by data. There's a middle ground. So I'm curious how you handle that.
- [26:17]
C
Yeah, so with the metrics that I look at weekly, I typically am looking one. If I'm running ads, which typically in a lot of my stores I am even like minimum of the ad spend I'll run, I am looking at return on ad spend is a big one. Return on ad spend is essentially just how much you're spending per that listing that you're applying the ad spend to or your whole shop typically. Unless I know Etsy just came out with the 25. I think it's you have to spend 25 a day to apply it to individual listings. Now for anyone who doesn't know, that's kind of the return on ad spend that I I like to look at If I'm running ads in a shop, and that's something that with a lot of my clients, even like last year with my sellers, like every month, I would be like, okay, how's the return on ad spend looking? How is your sales looking on the ads? What ones can we cut? What ones can we keep? Because one thing that a lot of people don't know when you're running ads is you don't have to run it on the full shop unless they change that recently. Lizzie, you can stop me here, but I think that I'm aware of edit like the individual. It's just you can't throw a specific amount of money on one listing. You have to run it spread over
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B
the ones you have activated.
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C
Yep, yep. So that's one metric I look at. And typically, you know, it is weekly for me because I do spend at a higher amount than the average Etsy seller. I would say I spend like about, I mean, right now I've, I've lowered it just because I've been a little bit out of it on my shops. But I used to be spending like 25 to 50 a day. Now I've really lowered that because I haven't been as active. But now I do also look at just in general for my shop, organically, I like to look at conversion rate. I like to look at my traffic per day, which ties into conversion. I really don't. I mean, I like looking at the traffic and seeing where the search terms and my SEO is pulling into. So there is a. Just like on Etsy's dashboard, you can check into your search terms and see what's pulling in the traffic on a daily week, weekly, monthly basis. So I like to look at that every now and then. But those are probably the main three I look at. What would you say yours have been?
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B
I'm the same. Like, I wasn't really too focused on stats until I started running ads and I didn't start running ads until I already had regular sales. So I think people can get. It was a whole different question I was going to ask you, but about where do I think people spend too much time? I think people spend too much time looking in the rear view mirror at things they've already listed rather than continuing to build their brain cash, which is what I call studying the best sellers before you design so that you can refine the placement of things. The fonts that are popular, the colors that are working, the trends that are happening. You can refine that place. So every time you sit down to design, you're a little better than last time. I think people should spend more time doing that, studying what's working and creating new designs than going back to analyze. Oh, did this SEO work? Oh, did this. You know, how many views did this get? With the exception of. I agree with you. When you're running ads, you don't want to be wasting money, so you want to be going in. I usually, when I turn on something new, I'm at the point now where I don't only turn ad spend on things that are already performing. That's what I did in the beginning. But now that I understand how Etsy works, I turn them on on new listings because I know there's a decent chance I've been in the game long enough that something is going to sell and if not, I have the money to kind of burn. So I will then go in every probably one to two weeks and curate. And if something is not performing, I'll turn them off. That's kind of where I'm spending my time from the stats perspective. But I mean, it sounds like I love, like we're secretly just like doing the same things and we don't even talk about these details most of the time.
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C
I know. Yeah.
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B
Dogs and babies, like, we don't talk. We end our mental health and like, what we're learning and our goals for world domination.
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C
Yeah.
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B
So, okay, I freaking love that. Okay, I just remembered you suggested such a fun topic. I'm gonna go off. I'm going like off the plan now, Heather, because we were talking just the other day about the things we're doing with AI and so selfishly, I want to ask you how you're. We're like, we're both clawed girlies. I still use ChatGPT quite a bit, but anything strategic, I'm using Claude. Anything like, more advanced, I'm using Claude. Honestly, ChatGPT is my therapist. Like,
- [31:00]
C
same.
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B
And Claude is my business strategist. Isn't that so funny how that's turned out? I will say I don't like, like Claude's image generation. I still love ChatGPT's or Gemini's image generation. I want you to talk to us about how you're using Clawd for your print on demand business. Because, like, the fact that you want to talk about that more, I'm literally giddy.
- [31:19]
C
Yes. I've been talking about it more on YouTube. I will say I hesitantly did it because I was like, I don't know how people will respond to this, but I think it needs to be talked about. More since it's a tool, you know, you can. It's pretty much similar payment to spending on 10 other tools and you kind of just get it all in one. And it. It has lowered my monthly software expenditure because it's kind of like, oh, well, you know, I, I don't necessarily need. You know, at times I. I do like using a research tool, but now that Claude can kind of do the scru and the scrounging. I will say, though, I still use research tools to like download like real time data for a lot of the trends that I go into or talk about on YouTube. So I still do pay for a plan just to like get that data in the real time data. But there's ways that you can like use other research. I guess we don't need the five
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B
tools that we used to need. We need maybe one. And then Claude, that's, That's. I mean, I agree with that. I don't think we need what we used to need.
- [32:37]
C
Yes.
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B
Is that a fair summary? Don't. I don't want to put words in your mouth. Is that a fair summary?
- [32:40]
C
Yep. No, no, that's a good summary. I feel like before I used to use like multiple tools. Like, I'd use a tool to like check out my shop and make sure that all of my listings had all 13 tags. And now I could just have Claude AI kind of scrounge my data on the back end or I guess scrub. I feel like scrounge is.
- [33:00]
A
Is.
- [33:00]
C
Is that even a word, Lizzie? I feel like I'm trying.
- [33:02]
B
Heather, when you make up words, I get really happy. So can we please make. No, but actually scrounge is a word. Like you scrounge for food. You know, if you're like, if you're.
- [33:10]
C
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So that's what, that's what I have Claude do is I have it as basically my assistant. Now. I will say it doesn't take over. Like, it's not autonomous yet. I wish it was. That'd be really cool because it would probably operate as me, but not fully me. In a way.
- [33:32]
B
I probably could design and leave it in Canva and Claude would publish it for us. How freaking cool would that be?
- [33:38]
C
Yes, exactly. Yep. We're almost there. Once Fable comes out with Claude. Oh my gosh, we're almost there. Lizzie. I've been like, when Fable came out this past week, and I don't know if you've heard about the possibilities that Fable has now. Oh, it's going to be untend creation. Like, if you want it at least you have your designs ready to go. Because again, if you're on Etsy and this is most businesses, like you still want your IP in designing. So and with Etsy's house policies and rules just to like make a disclaimer for anyone listening, you want to make sure you're compliant and when you list those designs or your designs and not created by AI because that would be against Etsy's policies too. So. But if you have your design designs, I mean Fable, there's going to be like, and this is something I recently released talking about AI is just like you can automate a lot of things and given I will say AI is a little bit slow. I don't know if you've experienced this, Lizzie, but I have where it is definitely slower than me doing it, which has been frustrating at times. But then I'm like, well, you know what? It I don't have to sit here and stare at my computer. I can go and do something else while it's running like a function. And I think that's like the biggest pro of it is if, let's say you have a bunch of SEO to create or listings to finish, you can have that like Claude Cowork do that on the back end. However, Claude Cowork is a paid subscription plan. So that's the downside. But if you're looking for just kind of the assistant aspect and writing aspect of it it using Claude Sonnet or Claude web app, you can access that for free to have it like answer a customer who's agitated, let's say. And you can have Claude write a response even though you might want to respond in a different way. You might be like, hey, I'm just a human. And you type that to Claude and Claude is like, no, you should not type that back to your customer. You should type this. So yeah, so that's, that's kind of. There's so many use cases of Claude though. I could honestly, we could have a full conversation maybe.
- [35:58]
B
No, I want to unpack that. But you said something a few minutes ago that Heather, I was like, wait, what? I hadn't thought of it. Were you saying that you'll like have Clawd analyze your shop and for example, tell you what listings don't have all 13 tags. Like, it can see that it can
- [36:14]
C
click into the listings with the Cloud Chrome extension. So if you connect the Claude Chrome then it can navigate into your shop and click into listings and like scrub the listings. So let's say you do like a batch of 20 listings and you're like, oh, you know, I want you to track all of my new 20 listings I just posted and tell me, give me a briefing on what I should fix, what doesn't have all tags and make sure that it has maybe an AI disclaimer. You know that I created all these designs with the use of AI, so you can ask it for legal compliance of your shop as well. So you can have it also audit your shop. So there's. There's just so much with just attaching the Claude Chrome and syncing that to your Claude.
- [37:02]
B
So I never thought to ask it to look for tags. That's crazy.
- [37:06]
C
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you can ask it to fix your tags too. So even if, even if you were like, ah, you know, I. It's great if it gave me a briefing, but I want it to actually fix my tag. So if I don't have 13, I would ask Claude to fill in what, let's say I have 10 or I have 12 for some reason I missed one tag. Then we can ask Claude, hey, while you're performing this audit, can you also add in a tag and base it off of my rules that I set? So typically what I do with Claude is I do a whole training. So I do SEO training. Like, must have all 13 tags, try to fill in all 20 characters, do not repeat two keywords. I like to have some micro niches, some broad niches in there, but I have trained like a complete system for that. That's what I kind of recently released in my, like, community is. It was like kind of a quick release, I would say, which was my AI Magic masterclass. And I'm so sorry, Lizzie, not to. We can cut this if, if you want me to.
- [38:17]
B
Tell us about it. I want you to share what's available. This is so cool.
- [38:21]
C
Yes, that's, you know, I'm your cheerleader girl. I'm like, no, I know I am here. I just feel bad. I was like, I'm like talking about all this. I mean, anyone can train Claude themselves. Like, anyone can. And not that you have to download a system from someone else, but I essentially trained a Claude plugin that people can just purchase install on their own, on their own devices. It's based on my, like, trainings and all that I've kind of manually typed over the years. And so it's really cool I was able to train that. But now it creates SEO. It does deep research and everything. But again, that's something that every individual can train their own Claude for. They can create Their own project, do their own connectors and all of that too. So not to say that you can't train your own, but I think that's like the magic of, like, the new world of Claude is not only can you train it yourself, but you can also share it too. So, like, Lizzie, I'm sure with your digital products, that's something in the future Lizzy might have for all the digital and all the Etsy things too. But, like, it's really cool that we have that with Claude, so we can train intelligence systems and then like, share them, which I think is, like, so cool. But it's also kind of scary because it's like, oh, that's my brain that I'm just. Yes, sharing. So that's the only reason why it's gated with a price. But outside of that, it's, I would say, very helpful for the people so far that have been using it. So.
- [40:00]
B
Yeah. So tell us, how do we. How can we. Will you give me, like, a link that I can put below for people if they want to? Because here's the thing around here, we love a shortcut, right? Like, some people have lots of time and they can go figure all that out on their own. And then some people, they don't have the time, but maybe they can invest in a tool that can shortcut it, right? And like, I am such a fan of that. I. I think this is fascinating. So if. Do you have a link that we can share for your Claude plugin for people to purchase?
- [40:26]
C
Okay, yes, I will share.
- [40:28]
B
Is there anything else? Because, like, there's so much people can learn from you about print on demand and then how you're using AI and your community. What else do we need to share in terms of, like, people connecting with you and going deeper with you?
- [40:39]
C
I would say just my YouTube channel at it's Heather Studio on YouTube. So I post plenty of free content there where I kind of go into all of this. I also have just like free prompt guides on my website I have to update.
- [40:55]
B
Okay, so we'll link those too. So we'll link free prompt guides. Oh, sorry, you. I'm so sorry. Say it again.
- [41:00]
C
Oh, no, I was just thinking out loud about how I need to update my website. I am so bad about updating. I like, it's so funny having an Etsy shop. I. I update that. I audit my shop, but then I don't audit my actual website. So I. I digress. But I will have that updated by the time that you share this podcast. So.
- [41:24]
B
Well, even Just give us a link. Do you know what I mean? Like, don't worry about your website. I'm so right there with you. I've been working on it lately because I've been using Claude to write code so I can make my website prettier than I just could with Kajabi. Like, I've been so that's the only reason I am my website. It has been abysmally and my homepage is still. You looked at it a while ago and you were like, girl, we need to do. And I'm like, oh, I know. So don't feel bad at all. We will have a. We'll get a link for your Claude plugin, for your free prompt guides and of course for your YouTube channel, which is one of the best of the best out there for Etsy and print on demand. And now you're talking about, like, I'm so glad you joined us in the AI, like the AI tool world, like you're approaching it from such a different angle from me and I think that's so fun. Like, I think that's like, doesn't that make our community so rich?
- [42:10]
C
Yeah, I really, I love, I mean, I've been using AI on the back end for the past, like few years, ever since I feel like ChatGPT kind of came out and was popular. But yeah, there's just so much to do and there's going to be so much in the future to do as well. So it's exciting world to be in and I think in the world of being scared of AI, if anyone is listening and you might feel scared of AI, I think that it's a good time to, instead of being scared and fearful is learn AI in the systems and use it to your advantage. Because I think that's what we're going to see is a big separation of people and even Etsy sellers who use it and harness it as a tool in their business rather than running away from it and being like, I'm not going to touch AI. When we're going to see shops doing really well that do use AI.
- [43:07]
B
So I think there's going to be a big divide and you're either going to have to go really analog and there will be a community of people out there, there will be a massive segment of the population that chooses to stay and go very analog or you're going to have to really get savvy with AI and get on there Now. I don't think there's going to be an in between that works, works. I think you're gonna have to pick one camp or the other, but kind of like, we'll wait and see. Like, we can't. We need to keep learning. And your YouTube channel is a great place. And I'm thinking, Heather, our next conversation needs to literally be like a claw deep dive. Like, we need to do another episode down the road when you feel up to it, when you've got the time. And we'll just do like, I don't know, whatever you're talking about on your YouTube channel. That's like, I literally, like, can we just stay on the phone another hour and do it now? I'm so freaking excited.
- [43:54]
C
I know, but it's.
- [43:55]
B
If you'd be down, we should totally do that next and do a big. Because you're. You're talking about stuff that I haven't, That I haven't explored yet. I'm really excited about what you're doing.
- [44:04]
C
Yeah. Yeah, I'm excited to talk about it. I feel like that it's one of those things when, like, I. I know we've talked about this before, but when you're a solo entrepreneur or a solo CEO, it's like, you really don't know how other people are using AI in their own businesses until you talk about it or show someone. And then it's like, whoa, like, you unlocke new layer. Like, I, like, even from you, Like, I would be interested to know what, how you're using it as well. And maybe we can swap that in our next episode to talk about, like, oh, this is like your use cases and my use cases. And then maybe by the end, everyone kind of learns the powerhouse of them both. Like, wow.
- [44:48]
B
Yes. Yeah. Because we're. I've got a whole team working on different apps and developments over here, but we're not necessarily thinking about it in the same way. We're. I should, I should ask them because what's so funny, as a solo, like, I have to let go of some of the control. Right. And it was a few years ago that I stopped consuming all of our friends and competitors content and just started going with what my students were asking for. Do you know what I mean? There was like this interesting place where I was, like, staying aware of the market, you know, like, stay. And then I was just like, wait a minute, I need to. I need to stop doing that. That's a recipe for burnout. And I need to just go, like, listen to my students and start serving what they're asking for, what they need. So now you've got. But now I'M like, oh, I'm going to Heather's YouTube channel. Like, that's what I'm doing on my lunch break today for sure. Thank you so much for coming to hang out with me today and for doing another episode.
- [45:34]
C
Yeah, thanks for having me on. I feel like I really derailed us. I know you had other questions about Etsy. Is there any. Any other, like, other questions you wanted to ask before we hop off? I feel so bad.
- [45:47]
B
Don't feel bad at all, because here's what you did. So I. You are so much more analytical than me. And so what you did was you answered seven questions with your first answer. Like, you were like, here's the three things people need to know about if they're stuck at $500 a month. Like, you literally, like, nailed it right there. And so then we got to go. Have fun. It's like when you eat your broccoli now you can you. You gave us dessert for the second half of the combo. So you did nothing wrong other than, like, elevate this entire conversation. And I'm freaking obsessed with you.
- [46:16]
C
Yay.
- [46:17]
B
Well, thank you.
- [46:18]
C
Thanks for having me on and steering us to the right place and getting through the questions you had. I felt bad that, but we kind of went off or I went off
- [46:26]
B
base, so you literally pulled a Lizzie, which is so welcome around here. You guys, thank you so much for hanging out with us. Go check out Heather's resources and her YouTube channel. Heather is one of my dearest friends in the space. My, like, most trusted people. So anything with her name on it, you've got my stamp of approval and full support, like, full confidence. I have vetted this freaking love you so much, girl. So you guys, until next week, go make something awesome. Thanks so much for spending the time with us.
- [46:56]
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.