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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
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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 athome mama with multiple online companies and a full-time Etsy shop. All
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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
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let's go. I'm holding nothing back.
Welcome to How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy. I'm so glad you're here.
Hi guys, welcome back to the podcast. I'm about to introduce you to a very magical human and so I hope you're
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ready. You clicked play on the most amazing episode.
So, we're going to talk to Leela here in a minute. Before we do that, I want to let you know that I have an FAQ episode coming up.
That's where you guys get to submit your questions about Etsy, about social media, about
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selling online, about your art, about your creations, about all of it. Um, print on demand, digital products, AI, physical products, whatever you're geeking out on, wondering about.
You get to submit your questions to me and I will answer them on the FAQ episode. So,
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there will be a link in the show notes. It's a really simple survey link where you can go ahead and submit those to me and we will talk about them in a few weeks.
Make sure that's going to be coming up kind of soon. So, make sure don't wait on it.
If you're listening right now and you want to do it, get them in today for me. Also, I want to kind of put the call out that I am
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looking for future podcast guests. So, if you are an Etsy seller or something adjacent, maybe you're selling a lot from your own website, maybe you're on a different platform, um maybe you are, you know, you've built tools to help
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Etsy sellers, I am kind of opening up invitations for that. There'll be an application down in the show notes.
You just need to, if you're an Etsy seller, you need to have at least 100 sales. You need to not have any intellectual property violations in your shop and you need to have some kind of advice to
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share. So, that'll be part of the application process is you'll be able to share some of that information, get me a link to look at your shop and all of that just to clear everything up.
But, if you feel a little tug right now, then you need to apply. It's you.
You've got more to share than you think. just like some of you like Leela today.
She
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literally emailed me out of nowhere just to like say hi and we ended up here we are and we're going to have the most amazing conversation for you guys. So some of you definitely need to be coming on the podcast and you need to let me know that you exist and that you're my people.
So there's that. Um what else was I going to say?
Oh, I wanted to
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float this and see how many of you might be interested in a digital product course from me. We have like e- printables from Gold City Ventures.
They're very specific to printables. We've had several workshops that we've done, but if you are you I'm working on
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putting together like a digital product course, but before I really go down the rabbit hole, I want to gauge your interest. So, there will be a little survey down below.
You'll be able to just drop drop your email if you want to know more about it. Um, and it'll kind of give me some it'll kind of give me some guidance about are are you guys looking for that information?
Would you
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like for me to teach you how I am making money selling digital products on Etsy? because I came from the physical product space, played with print on demand and very much happily landed in this mostly passive income place.
So, let me know if you're interested in that. I'd love to know that.
Let's talk about Leela.
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Leela Simon Hayes is an abstract artist and textile designer who creates unique patterns by combining simple elements into surprising relationships. Drawing from a meditative dream space sourced from emotion, her work explores playful scale alongside rhythm and movement.
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Leela's work comes to life on table linens, home wares, wallpaper, stationery, and framed prints that are designed to energize homes and encourage play. Gosh, it's literally lyrical.
Like, was that not lyrical? Like, we need someone better than me to read it.
So, we're going to talk to Leela about
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all of the different places that she is selling, about her art process. She is like she is a professional full-time artist with just making money on all of these different streams.
She's doing it without losing any there's no selling out. She's such an authentic pure artist
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as you're going to be able to hear immediately. Um she's doing it really well.
So we are going to be loving on the you know newbies out there who are wanting to be selling their art. Those of you who are more advanced and looking to scale, holy moly are you about to learn a lot.
And if you like a little bit of woo woo. She and I are soul sisters and we couldn't avoid a little
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of that. So, please help me welcome the lovely Leela to the podcast.
Leela, hey, welcome to the podcast. Thanks so much for having me.
I'm thrilled to be here. I'm so I'm so excited because you are such an artist and um I love the posers
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like myself too who are just playing with digital stuff, but you are doing such amazing things. And I was just I was just saying to you before I hit record like I cannot wait to hear all of this because I am not an artist.
I am not at And so when I get to be with someone as cool as you, I'm just like makes my job worth it.
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Yeah. I'm You are so out of my league, girl.
Stop. You're amazing and I'm thrilled to be here and I love your work and you are an artist and you your podcast is art and the work that you do is art and you're a curator of all the cool cute
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things. So, you know.
Yeah. I'm thrilled.
Well, thank you. Thank you.
This is going to be way too much fun. And you know what?
when I was like trying to come up with what to talk to you about. It was the easiest set of questions I've ever had to compile because you're doing so many cool things.
Sometimes I have to
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sit there and I'm like, how do I have this conversation a different way? It's some it's not the same person we talked to before, but it's the same topic or maybe sometimes the same person.
But with you, I was just like, I could do five episodes. There is so much we could talk about.
So, I just want to start with uh because you're you're you're out
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of the norm of to average guest. What is your favorite place to sell your artwork like right now?
where are you having the most fun? You know, it's interesting.
Well, it was funny. I this all started just cuz I wrote you an email telling you how much I love your podcast and just what a
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great host you are and that I've just learned so much. And you know, one of the thing as I was writing, I was thinking about like my kind of theme right now is just all about diversification.
And it's just something
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that like diversifying my sales channels and my marketing channels. But, you know, I just love selling things honestly.
Like I really enjoy making art and it feels
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like it really completes the cycle to communicate with a a customer through a sale. It feels like I'm kind of like building a community and I love that.
And it doesn't matter really where that
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sale happens. It just really Yeah.
It just feels like it completes a cycle. If I was making art in a silo, it would not be as satisfying and I might stop, you know, like I really enjoy I really enjoy
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that part of it. I would say probably my favorite way or place to sell is in person.
Even though I don't do it very much, it takes a lot out of me. But I and I'm such an introvert, but I realized a couple years
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ago that in-person markets are really just a series of one-on-one conversations. It's so like different than like being on a stage or, you know, doing something like this.
But you know it's like actually like the you can have really intimate conversations with
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people in markets and people share a lot about their own creativity or their own interests or you know I get an incredible amount of information hearing what people see especially because I make abstract art it's up for
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interpretation. So, it's really so satisfying for me to hear how people take it in, you know.
And then also in person, I I get to see people's first reaction, which I don't get to see
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online, you know, sometimes people email me or leave me reviews or whatever, but in person you just see somebody's like immediate response and that tells me more than anything any review ever could. I love reviews, don't get me
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wrong, but then lately in the past um nine months or so, I've expanded into table linens. And I've been creating things that people can mix and match.
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And so I didn't really expect people to mix and match as much as they do. But what ends up happening is that my creativity is mixing with their creativity.
So, I'm getting to see like
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it's like a collaboration that I just never expected. And I love that so much.
People will choose a placemat set and a napkin set that I'm like, I never would have thought of that and it looks so cool. You know, I really love variety.
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I'm I'm really prolific in what I make. It's it's very improvisational and very from my most internal experience.
And so having that connect with people really it just means so much
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to me. I love it.
I love it. But I don't do I I don't do a lot of inerson markets because it takes a lot of energy.
It takes a lot of energy. But I'm answering honestly what is my favorite?
That is my favorite. I wish I could do more.
I wish I could kind of like snap my fingers and just like be
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all set up at a market. It's just it's the setup, right?
It's not even just the people. It's the set.
It's the moving of the thing. It's just like how much more expensive did you how much more like profit did I lose on each of these things because of how much they stuck out.
Um, but you you know what you just you just
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exposed yourself as like a like a like a little marketer too, though. Like you're kind of loving the marketing piece.
I do love the marketing piece and I have been this has been a big career change and actually this is the first year that I'm going fully on my own in my shop
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way and before that I um for 20 years I've been a graphic designer and creative director mostly for museums and some of that I've worked in the marketing departments at different museums and so marketing comes somewhat
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naturally to me. I didn't go into graphic design thinking that I would do marketing, but I really love communication and that's all that marketing is.
You know, it's really I think I enjoy it the most when I think
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about the individuals that I'm connecting with. And you know, I think sometimes people can feel a little salesy and uncomfortable about marketing and I definitely do too.
It's very personal, especially when you're marketing your own art that you made
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with your own hands, you know. Yes.
Um, but when I get really clear on the fact that it's it's really a service to the people who are looking for what you're making to help them find what
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you're making. So when I think of it that way, you know, I'm not going to attract the people who are not interested in my work.
That's easy. You know, I don't have to.
I'm not for everybody. Comes down to mindset.
Totally. Yeah.
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Yeah. And and it can really free you up when you just really can accept I don't need to be for everybody.
And I really it's fine if I'm for very few people, you know, like the people that are interested in my work are very excited
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about my work. And that means everything to me, you know, it's it's really a lot of people share a feeling of gratitude for the work that I do.
I recently sent out a survey to some of my top
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customers, my top like repeat customers, people who I feel like really understand what I'm doing. And one of the questions was, "If my business went away tomorrow, what would you miss?" And there were so many people like, "Don't mess with me.
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That would be okay." You know, I was like, "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to." you know, like it's just like one of those survey questions you ask like I was.
Anyway, it was very sweet to hear how much it means to people, which means so
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much to me. You made their brains melt.
Uh, okay. You You did.
You did. So, okay.
Here's what I want to know, though. Can you list off for us all the different places that you're selling?
I want to I want to hear that real quick because I just realized you didn't say that in your intro. So, tell us all the different platforms you're selling on.
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Okay. So, I sell on Etsy.
I sell on my own Shopify website. I sell wholesale on fair.
I sell in person at markets. I sell
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on Spoonflour. Yeah, I was going to say, what is Spoonflour?
I I definitely wanted to know that one. Yeah, Spoonflour is a print ondemand site um for mostly textiles and wallpaper.
So they will print on different types of fabric, quilt,
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cotton, canvas, upholstery weight fabrics. It's really incredible and it's really high quality.
And is it sustainable? Like are they doing you know a lot of those companies are sometimes trash for that.
So, I'm just curious from the environment. They're not they're they're really thoughtful about the type of paper they
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use for wallpaper and it's simply more sustainable to print on demand for, you know, I can't have bolts and bolts of my fabric in my dining room, you know. Um, but uh so it's it's it's really nice for
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people to be able to, you know, buy one roll of wallpaper and, you know, things like that. So, uh, so I sell on Spoonflower and, um, Good Mood Prints.
Okay. Yeah, I just started with, um, also
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within the last year. I really like their company.
They're a small print on demand kind of higherend, like mid to higherend prints and framing. They're based in the UK and they're very
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artistforward. anybody can sell on them, but they also feature a lot of artists and do a lot of interviews and and it's a really good um commission rate.
And then I'm starting to I just got accepted
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into the House. Do you know House?
H O U Z. Oh my gosh.
Yeah. So, that's pretty cool.
It's kind of like wholesale. It's like a step up from wholesale in terms of commissions.
Um, but it's it's it's a search engine
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like Etsy, you know, it's a search engine connecting me to people that I might not otherwise be connected to. So, I'm going to experiment with that.
Yeah, you'll have to go back and tell us. But like Spoonflower and and the Good Mood print good mood prints, is that still the Do you have to promote those or are they is it a search engine
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as well? It's not like Printify, right?
Where then you have to sell it all. Okay, tell me how that works because I don't know.
I don't know either of those. They're both search engines.
Spoonflower is a very powerful search engine and they also um have an incredible marketing team, but it works
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best when I'm promoting my stuff. My designs don't sell as well on Spoonflour organically because my stuff is a little weird and it really applies it really appeals to
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a certain niche. So, I do better when I'm directing people to my Spoonflower shop, but you know, I just sold six rolls of 27 foot wallpaper last week on
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Spoonflower, so like it's starting to gain traction, which is really great. Good Mood Prints, it's a search engine, so Okay.
and they have a lot of artists that are kind of in the in a similar
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visual language to mine. And you know, I would all of these things also respond best when I'm uploading consistently to them, which I'm not doing right now because I'm setting up
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so many other systems in my business getting ready for the holidays. So you know I can't do everything but um but it is really important to diversify for my particular business because it is so niche and it doesn't
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apply it doesn't appeal to everybody. So really finding my people is really important and I haven't put a ton of energy into that over the years.
I've just really focused on the people that I already have which is step one.
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Absolutely. Um, so I'm kind of expanding in Have you been featured on Etsy yet?
I feel like that needs to be my I never have. Have you?
Okay. Because Melissa, yeah, it was like after Melissa came on the podcast and she'd already been on there once, but then she got like a m she like a big feature after that.
So,
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we need to Anyone listening who who likes to like DM or do we call it tweeting? Send it.
Yeah. Tweet at tweet at Etsy or anything like that.
We need to get Leela's stuff because it's it is gorgeous. You're you're really hedging
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right now, ma'am, about the about like only a certain kind of per and I get it. Like your stuff is not going to be it's not a landscape portrait.
It's not a pop culture. It is it is gorgeous funky like abstract art, but yeah, I don't like abstract art and I love
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your stuff. Oh, that's cool to hear.
It's very like earthy. Do you know what I mean?
It's very boho and earthy, which I even though I don't like abstract, I love that. So like you are I think I think you have like a broader audience than you think.
And I also wanted to ask you okay so wallpaper on Spoonflower.
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Why would you from like your Instagram choose to be sending traffic to the Spoonflower rather than your Shopify for the wallpaper? I do both and it might confuse people.
My brain is breaking. Tell me more.
I know. So I basically drop ship through Spoonflower also.
Okay. So many
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channels. So, I put a select few listings of my most popular wallpaper styles on my website because there are people who find the shopping experience
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on Spoonflower to be pretty confusing. H okay.
So, it's kind of like a service. It's slightly more expensive, but it's really like in in range with what Spoonflour is selling.
So, there's a whole world
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around drop shipping through Spoonflower and um Erin Kendall has a great a great workshop that you can purchase. Okay, Aaron, like E R I N E R I N K E N D.
I can't spell. So,
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I'll find it. I'll find it and link it.
That's really interesting. Also, that could be such a fun interview as well, just to hear all about Spoonflour, like like just a whole focused thing on that.
She she has a really wonderful membership program all about Spoonflour. She's incredible.
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Sounds like a great a great choice for us. Really wonderful person.
Yeah. Oh, we love those around here.
We love wonderful people. Yes.
So great. Oh my gosh.
I love that you mentioned that. I'm Oh, we doing We could talk.
I need five episodes with you, my friend. Um Okay.
Okay. So,
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Spoonflower, it's all textiles and wallpaper. So, when someone orders from Shopify, do you have wallpaper in your house or do you send it to them from Spoonflower?
I send it to them from Spoonflower. Okay.
It's just not connected. You have to go put that order in.
Okay. I'm Okay, next question.
And I
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have already And the same is true. And the same is true for my my framed prints on my site.
I also drop ship those. So, I have a company that I work with who does the printing, the framing, and the shipping.
And so if I get like this behind me is
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one of their pieces. I love their work and they I put I get the order in and then I put the order in with them.
Is that is that like proprietary? Are you Are you Would you be willing to share who that is?
Is that your turn? I'll share who that is.
Um yeah,
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somebody was very generous with me about who they work with. So I'll be generous, too.
Um they're Gango Custom Printing. there in Portland, Oregon.
And their work is just really high quality and really
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nice. You just changed a few artists lives.
You literally just broke the ceiling for some other women listening. Yeah.
So, thank you so much. You know, it's like it's not hard to do drop shipping.
It's very overwhelming setting it up. A lot of these things,
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it's about the setup that is very overwhelming. But once you're doing it, you can iterate off of it.
You can be like, "Okay, well, I messed that up and I'm now gonna fix it." Like, it's almost like you don't know what you need to
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know until you do it. You know what I mean?
I think that's true for Etsy, too. Are you a print on demand or digital product Etsy seller who's tight on time or still learning all of the Etsy secrets?
I totally remember the days of having no idea what product to create
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next before I learned how to make those informed decisions so I can really identify with where you're at. I know how stressful and frustrating it can be to just create listing after listing and see little to no results.
You wonder what you're doing wrong and just you just want someone to tell you what to create that's actually going to sell.
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Where are those opportunities? So, let me give you a leg up with my weekly trends and opportunities report.
You just join my membership and every Monday I'm going to send you an email with a list of exactly what is trending right now with a video tutorial showing you how I found those trends and how to
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apply them in your shop. We're taking guesswork and time extensive time off of your table.
I'm also going to send you five print on demand and digital product opportunities that are growing in demand right now, helping new shops make sales and still have very low saturation in the marketplace. So, your tight
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schedule, your newbie status doesn't have to hold you back anymore. I'm going to help you earn while you learn.
You can grab my free demo to start and see an example of what the weekly trends and opportunities email looks like right from the show notes. See what you're going to get and I will see you on the inside soon.
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What's amazing about you is you are cracking so many different things simultaneously. And that was actually the next thing I wanted to ask you is how did you know you were ready for this level of diversification?
Because just yesterday I was telling another seller, now she's new. I was telling her, "Nope." She wanted to go do something else.
She wanted to add something else.
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I said, "Nope, you need to go harder on what you're doing." And yet you, Leela, are an example of someone who was ready and at the right place to branch out and it was the right thing to do the smart move. How did you know you were ready for that?
Yeah. And it really has been about five years since I've been selling.
So,
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thank you for saying that. really is a slow process and I honestly think the slower the better if you really want it to be your main gig and now you know like I'm very early in this so I can't
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speak to a lot of experience of this being my main thing but it's been a very high percentage of my income as my side gig for five years I think you know can I get a little woo Woo woo. Sometimes we get a little woo.
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Okay. You know, I was at a market in December that was terrible.
It was not good for me. And I It was in this very loud space.
I was next to a gigantic
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It's like a um It's the um House of Blues. So, it was a gigantic space with gigantic speakers and my booth area was upstairs in a balcony at a dead end next to the gigantic speaker.
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Nope. It was hard.
It was Oh, and in the dark. Sorry, I forgot that part.
No lighting. No lighting.
So once I realized that like I was not going to sell anything, I did make my feedback which was good, but I I kind of
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like let go and I was like I can't hear I and I brought earplugs. I bring earplugs everywhere I go just in case I'm in like really loud situations that are overwhelming.
Very helpful neurode divergent tip. So, I put my earplugs in and I just was like, I'm just gonna
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smile at people because I can't have conversations, which is my favorite part of selling in person. So, I put my earplugs in, smiled at people, and really just kind of like went inward and just, you know, it was hours, hours, you
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know, it was like 12 to six or something. So, I just kind of tuned in to my business as its own entity, like its own spirit almost.
And I' not I I
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didn't plan on doing this. It was like something kind of came to me that it was like, what if your business is basically its own has its own spirit and its own purpose in the world and you're its steward?
Then it was it was it the words
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came in what may sound a little condescending but I it was like the right moment for me to hear it. The words were can you please grow up so you can steward it a little better and I was like
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oh okay I think I can. you know, like I was already in a mode of wanting to take it more seriously, but had a lot of imposttor syndrome and a lot of like shame around selling stuff.
That was not
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that's never been like a super comfortable thing for me. But I, if I'm really honest about it, I love it.
I love what I'm making. You better love what you're making.
And I love sewing it. I love connecting with people around
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art and creativity. It's my biggest joy, you know.
So, I felt like I kind of made a pact with my business that I was like, "Okay, I'm gonna do all the scary we can do hard things things around letting my
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business grow in ways where it can be seen by more people." So, I feel like we could we could end right there. That is bananas.
you I I I'm over here taking notes because I'm literally like what if your business has its own
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spirit to express. Yeah, that's a wild thought.
It's obviously not as like you know our businesses are I still I'm going to put more value on humans, right? Human but there is this thing that they need to express that's a
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little separate from us and that is really really cool and I also think that's really empowering. Well, and humans are top priority and businesses are a way for humans to connect.
Yes. So, who are we to say that our businesses are extra or not necessary or
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like we don't know. We don't know how our work touches somebody.
It could be the smallest thing. Like I give out stickers for free at at markets and people are like, "Are you serious?" And I'm like, "It's a sticker.
Like, it's
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okay. That's good.
But they're like really touched. And even my business cards I use Moo.
So you can with Moo. Do you know Moo?
No. What a cute name though.
Oh, it's such a great printing company. They're in New England and they they are
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so great. And you can get these little mini business cards and you can put up to 50 different backs on them, which is perfect for me because I cannot choose which pattern I want to put on my business card.
So, I put 50 different ones and then at markets, people can
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choose whichever one they want or when I'm shipping my orders, I often include a business card if it if I don't recognize the name if they haven't ordered with me in the past or if they're from Etsy. I kind of like feel into their energy and pick a little card like a angel card or something.
I'm
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like, "Oh, I think they'd like this one." I don't know who they are, but you know, it's it's connection. Okay.
I'm obviously I've been sitting here for however long we took 30 minutes we've been together being like I'm literally got to go order stuff from this website and I want you to feel into
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my spirit and pick a business card for me. Okay, I need a business card even though you know me the way I cannot wait to see what you decide.
Um I you guys these show notes are going to be bananas with all of the links. I just think we all I love sh I really love sharing resources and I really love when people
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share resources. It's like why are we not sharing the resources?
Like MOO is a small business. Geno the printing company is a small business.
We need to all be lifting each other up, you know. So it's like it's just because we've been
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raised in scarcity. We've been raised to think we have to always be and you know, God love us, always be in self-p protection mode, always be watching our back.
Like there's and and I only hold us partially responsible. it.
You know, we were like so raised in this, but
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we're breaking patterns. We are breaking patterns left and right.
I don't know what I'm going to do next because now I have to go ask ask my business what it wants to express. And I don't even Leela, I don't It's a really interesting time for you to be bringing this up.
So, oh my word. Okay.
No, I love it. I love
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it. And okay, so you realized that you needed to you were ready to expand because it literally spoke to you.
you were in, you were open to the feedback. You were sinking into just in a very open place of like what's next for this business and you let it
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speak to you. And I think like there's a lot of woo to that, but there's also a lot of practical to that.
How often do we get quiet enough to just sit and not let our mind race and just sit and and like just listen inwardly to what what the next step should be? There is more wisdom there than I can give you.
There
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is more wisdom there than any expert on this podcast is going to give you. We can help you with the practical, but holy moly, that's the that's like mic drop.
Just done. Um well, and every business is so unique.
Like there's there's only so much we can give to each other. You really need to listen to what's your
31:57
what's your vision and and what is the business's vision? And they might not be the same.
And then it's like, how do you reconcile that? Or how do we or maybe my I'm afraid of my vision or I'm afraid of the business's vision.
Can I be big enough to handle what my business wants
32:13
to be? Like these are it's like you can have a conversation with your business.
Like why not? You know, that sparks another question related to this woo stuff.
Have you ever been in a place, Leela, where things weren't necessarily working and you had to
32:29
figure out I'm so excited. And you had to figure out why and fix it.
And how did you do that? I mean all the time you know I I doing life is just about a series of experiments and then learning from the experiments and then
32:45
trying something different. So business is very much like that and especially a creative business because there there is no road map.
There's nobody who can really tell you exactly what your business wants to be you know. Yeah.
So
33:04
I think of it as a very iterative process. So like even when I was like starting out on Etsy really early on, I started with a calendar um that I had actually just made as a gift as like an
33:19
endofear gift for my graphic design clients. And I had been doing well all this art came to be because I had started a 100 day project back in 2018 because I had two decades away from my
33:35
art practice and I was depressed because when you're an artist you really need to be making art. And I didn't really know how to crack back in to into my art practice.
It felt so overwhelming and I felt really detached from it. And I had
33:53
heard about the concept of a 100 day project for many years, but I explored the idea of like what would that mean for me? And I kept hearing things like go back to like when you were a kid like what kind of art did you love to make?
34:09
and you know just that real essence of yourself as like a baby artist cuz that's where it all starts you know and when I was a kid I loved ripping tissue paper and gluing it on paper and like just really the essence of like how
34:27
different shapes relate to each other and how colors relate to each other. So, I created this project called shapes relating and I just drew 10 different very different shapes and I chose 10 different colors and I digitized the
34:45
shapes and I brought them into the computer and I just made a different arrangement every day and I posted it on Instagram. I had zero followers and I just was like I just need the accountability.
Instagram was a much friendlier place at that time. I made
35:02
like a lot of friends through this project. Shout out to all my art Instagram friends.
I did a 100 days of I I really stuck to it. It was like a lifeline and I was getting ready to leave a really important job that I
35:19
really enjoyed and I loved my team. I was working at a museum as a creative director and I just wasn't happy enough.
I was feeling more calling me, you know, and it's a project that bridged I
35:35
started it while I was still working there and it bridged my leaving there and has continued on. So I did a 100 days and on the 100th day I accidentally made a pattern.
It just kind of like came out and I was like, "Oh my god, I didn't anticipate that happening and now
35:50
I have to make a 100 days of patterns." So I kept going 200 days, 300 days, 400 days. I just kept going to like 827 days or something and then the pandemic hit and you know I have kids and it was a mess.
So, so but it really like got me
36:08
into feeling confident in myself as an artist. I've kept them all on my Instagram.
you can scroll all the way back and see the very embarrassing beginnings of my art practice
36:23
because I think it's important to see it like it's not it's not all the top nine squares baby. like so yes.
So, I did this many hundreds of days project to get me back into my art practice. And
36:42
then I had all these patterns and I was like, I don't know what to do with them next. And I made this calendar for my as a end of year thank you gift for my clients and they loved it and they wanted to like buy them for their people
36:59
for the holidays. And then I was like I had a art studio at the time, a tiny little art studio that I was sharing with somebody else and we had an open studios and I sold out of all of them really fast and I just was like that was the first time I was selling something
37:16
with my art on it and people were so excited about it and I had that feeling of like real connection that was facilitated by my art. How cool is that?
So, but I don't remember the question
37:32
you asked. No, I mean that that I am so excited you said all that, but it we were just talking about times where you've had where things weren't working and you had to like go in and figure out.
Do you know what I'm saying? Cuz I there are so many artists listening who are like, "This is
37:48
my art. This is my expression.
It's not working in the e-commerce." And I just had I had a feeling you would have some piece of Yes. But you just have something right there, girl.
Because so many times if everyone listening did created one new thing, even if it wasn't like, okay,
38:04
for I mean my my my big old signs, I probably I don't know. I could have done one every single day.
I didn't need to. But even if you're doing digital products, if you're doing print on demand, if you do one design a day, you don't list them all.
You do it so you get good. When I was in art school, we copied a bunch of stuff just to get
38:21
good. That wasn't supposed to be what we were going to sell.
And people, I saw this post on the gram yesterday and it's a little spicy, but I kind of like it. And it said, "I'm I'm more successful with you because I failed more times than you've tried." And I'm just like, "Listen, can I say
38:38
that with a hug? Can I say that with a h I you know, people look at you and me and and they're just like, "Oh, that's like that's just not fair.
I'm a talent." I'm like, "Yeah, you're super talented, too, but I've been putting myself out here since 2008." You know what I mean? And I'm like
38:53
failing. I'm still feeling every day.
So, totally. Me, too.
Yes. And it's beautiful.
And it's like having having the the bravery to try things that we don't know if they're going to work. Like, if we only did things that we knew
39:08
were going to work. Like, I would do five of the things I've ever done, you know?
Like, it's not it's not the goal. The goal is to try and share and that's it.
Yeah. I just learn so much by
39:24
iterating like you were saying like iterating. Yeah.
So, I put this I put this calendar that I made on Etsy, you know, I didn't price it right. I didn't do any I didn't know what SEO was.
I didn't you know like but people were
39:40
finding it and you know and like I didn't know I was like waiting in line at the post office like I was not I didn't know what I was doing and but I had started you know and then when orders started I started doing more stationery and when orders started
39:57
getting more robust I was like wait people are not waiting in line at the post office how are they doing it and then like you know Google is free you can be like what how do people do this, you know, and then I got myself a printer and a stamps.com account and you
40:13
know, all the things that we need to do and but I wouldn't have you have to kind of get to a pain point sometimes to be able to know what you need to do next. Yes.
You know, and I think that's kind of that that whisper that I got last
40:31
December was like, "Your pain points are going to need to get bigger, you know, like." And I just set up an affiliate program. No way.
Which is huge because I'm interested in
40:47
getting on gift guides, you know, um, wire cutter. Girl, did you have you talked to Gloria yet?
Have we talked about this? Have you talked to Gloria yet?
I've had two PR episodes with this girl, Gloria. She's in New York.
You're going to be obsessed with her and she will get you featured
41:03
immediately. Okay, great.
Oh yeah. And I learned, you know, like I had I had emailed all the editors last year like trying to get on gift guides and then I learned that you need, you know,
41:19
these days you need affiliate. You need to be able to send out affiliate links.
I think that influencers would like promote your stuff. Well, it's not even Oh, that's a good idea.
Yeah, I hadn't even gone that route yet. And then um Melissa, she's got her
41:36
stuff. It like shows up in Netflix video in Netflix movies and shows.
I heard that. I loved that episode.
That was great. That was really nice to hear another um abstract artist, too.
I was like, yes. And then did you listen to last week's because Melissa does more landscape like moody landscapes but last
41:52
week's was Emily Keating Snider. It was interesting to have you guys both right now.
I'm just like what is happening? I'm looking for the episode with Gloria so I can tell everyone what it is.
177 and that was like but she's all about um PR features and she didn't go to PR
42:07
school. Like she's literally self-taught and she's incredible.
Y'all are going to love her. Oh my gosh.
I cannot wait to hear. So it's really funny.
We've end we've we've of course taken this a completely different direction than I even planned. But can we spend some time let's can you just tell us about your art and your
42:22
process and can you just just tell we just need to know about you. Sure.
Yeah. Um everything that I make is pretty similar to how I've made the first 100 days.
Everything in my studio starts black and white. I paint with
42:39
ink. I use, you know, scissors to cut up black paper.
I create shapes. I just follow my instincts and everything's very improvisational.
And I create what
42:55
I call elements and I put them I kind of file them in different I don't know moods or hierarchies, things I like the most, things that want to be cut up and made into something else. And so I have like different parts of my process.
the
43:11
making part of the elements which is all black and white and then kind of curating different combinations and then I digitize the black and white pieces create patterns in Illustrator or
43:27
all every program I actually use in a lot because I'm so used to inesign from my graphic design days. So you know I use programs that are not designed for the things that I make but it doesn't matter.
You just use what you use, you know. Um, I use Procreate too on the
43:44
iPad. And then I add color at the end.
My work is so colorful, but it really has a long period of time. Like 75% of it is black and white.
And I really add color at the end. And it really comes alive in a different way when the
44:00
colors are relating to each other, too. And I definitely keep some patterns black and white because I I really like the mixture.
Um, for a long time I was creating quilts that were twothirds my colorful patterns and one-third black
44:17
and white pattern. And it just the the way that they relate to each other I think really is energizing.
So yeah, and then it just depends what I'm applying the patterns to. So if it's, you know, stationary is so easy, it's nice and
44:34
small. So I have a lot more leeway with that.
wallpaper is 24 inches wide. So like I really have to think about scale and I like bold scale.
I like playful
44:49
weird patterns that really make you think like I one of the thing I grew up um with a lot of wallpaper in my house because my grandfather was a wallpaper hanger. So he would we had all the 70s 80s wallpaper in our house.
And one of
45:07
the things that I look back on is that when you live with pattern, your relationship to it changes over time. So you may think, oh, I see, you know, we had this um in our bathroom, we had a grid of this was very 70s, a grid of
45:26
brown background and silver lines, like metallic silver lines. And I for years I saw it as metallic silver lines.
And then after a couple years I saw it as a
45:42
silver background and brown squares all over the place. Your relationship changes.
You know, you you like expand as your relationship to the patterns expand and you start seeing things differently. And I love that.
And I want
45:58
to make products that last a long time so that people can have that experience. Your brain is just this like magical place.
A thanks Lizzie. Yeah.
So I'm just really now I'm crushing
46:14
hard. Um it is it's so it's so precious.
Tell Okay. Golly, we we skipped half of this, but it was this has been the most special conversation.
Let's let's love on the new artists a little bit. The
46:30
people like not necessarily new artists but new to trying to turn it into a business maybe or maybe it is new artists. Can we love on them a little bit?
What tips would you have for them to get started? Like how would you encourage them?
You know, I'm going to butcher this quote, but Georgia O'Keeffe, this is
46:45
like a very famous quote, but it's really one of my favorites. She said something like, "Everything I've done in my life, I did afraid." I butchered it.
It's It's better. I promise.
Beautiful though. I'll look it up.
But that's beautiful. I mean, the sentiment of that is so
47:02
important to me. And I would say you're never going to be ready.
Like you just get so much more information for anything ever. Yeah.
Including success. You know, you
47:17
it's it's uncomfortable to grow and it's we're all babies at what we're doing now, you know. So, it's like the when I was first selling, I you know, was a baby at selling.
And just this past week, I finally finalized three weeks of
47:34
working on setting up an affiliate program. And boy, was I a baby about that.
Like, I had to read Legally stuff and I had to like think about commission levels and prices and percentages and all of that. And it's so overwhelming to me.
But I
47:51
realized that like if I do it wrong, like if I set up this affiliate program wrong, some publisher who's interested in working with me is going to tell me what I did wrong. They're going to be like, "Oh, that's too low of a commission." And I'm going to be like,
48:06
"Great, I'll make it higher. What does it need to be?" You know, like it's like everything, you know, it's like that Marie Forlio book that I haven't read yet, but I love the title.
Everything is figure outable. Like it just is, you know?
So, it's really just doing the
48:23
things that scare you in small doses. So, you don't scare yourself too much.
You don't jump off the deep end, but you just do little bits of putting yourself out there in ways that stretch you. I
48:40
mean, here, like, I didn't want to be on video. I told you I was like, she didn't have a choice.
She I was like, "Guess what? We're gonna be out of your comfort zone today.
Yeah, it is. It's only my second podcast interview and it's my first one on video.
And I actually got on my stories
48:58
on video right before coming on here because I needed a little exposure therapy of just like it's not that hard. Just like here I am.
Here's my face. I can do this.
I can talk in real time, you know? And it really helps me.
I
49:14
think exposure therapy is such a great term because well just to like kind of get back to the woo side like making art and sharing it is a very spiritual endeavor. It's not a light
49:32
thing and that is why it is hard. So for people who are new and who are scared, you're not crazy.
Like you're doing a hard thing. Most people don't do it.
It's awful. It's so scary, you know, but it's like gradually
49:49
expanding your capacity is such a safe way to grow. We don't have to do it quickly.
In fact, I don't recommend doing it quickly because I do see a lot of people just being like, I'm just going to build a
50:04
big business and I'm gonna, you know, like just jump off the deep end and it's really overwhelming. Most of us are pretty sensitive people, right?
We don't need to overexpose ourselves or over extend
50:19
ourselves. We can do it bit by bit.
Are you brand new to Etsy, about to get started, or struggling a bit to find your groove? What I'm about to say is just for you, okay?
I can completely relate to where you're at because I think I can help you achieve success faster. When I first started my Etsy
50:37
shop, it was not one of those success stories that we hear, you know, on the big YouTube channels, even on this podcast, where I just had crazy success and it took off right away, right? I all but failed for my first six months, just like a lot of new sellers.
And so, it's very relatable. And the issue for me was
50:52
I didn't understand demand for one. I didn't understand SEO.
I was way too broad in my search terms. And I didn't know how to position my product so that customers just couldn't help but click add to cart.
And so once I learned those things, I went from making about $25 a
51:08
month in sales to $6,000 a month and up. And in the holidays, I would even have $13,000 months, like at my shop's peak.
And the thing about me, if you've been here for a minute, you already know this. I'm a terrible gatekeeper, okay?
When I figure something out, when I crack a code, when I get excited, I
51:23
cannot help but tell everybody who wants to listen. It's like either my my best asset or my toxic trait.
I can't decide. But I put everything that you need to know to fill that beginner knowledge gap into a low ticket just under three hours beginner course that I have called sixfigure secrets to getting started on
51:39
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The whole thing is bite-sized
51:56
videos, not long form, just small bite-sized videos, zero fluff and to the point. You could get the course today, go through the the less than three hours over the next couple days, launch your shop this weekend, and have sales coming in as soon as Sunday.
So, let's get you the few missing pieces of the Etsy
52:12
success puzzle, those little tweaks you need to make so you can start making the sales that you deserve because I have never been more convinced that there is room at this table on Etsy for everyone. And the opportunity is so ripe right now.
I am in the in the numbers in the data every day and my mind just keeps
52:28
expanding on the possibilities. Okay, so as a special treat, use the code save50 to save $50 on the SixFigure Secrets course today.
That's $50 off with a coupon save50. And by all means, DM me or shoot me an email when those sales
52:44
start popping because I want to celebrate with you. I think it's like one of the saddest parts for me of like the culture today.
I actually think there's so many gifts to being live right now. Like I'm just an optimist.
I I try to look at everything I can as positively as I can.
53:01
I do think our like shortened attention spans is really hurting art 100% like well artist I mean which which in turn hurts art. Do you know what I mean?
because we're so used to wanting to see results so fast and especially with art. There has got
53:18
to be process and there has got to be testing and there has to be iteration. There has to be patience um to create something really profound.
So um do yeah have you had any experience with that like with just like the rushing of the I I'm so impressed that you stuck with that for over 800 days that 100 day
53:34
challenge but I I think everyone should do that. Like that's that's really helpful for 800 days.
But even doing 30 I mean just just the practice is the showing up. The practice isn't even what you're making.
You can scroll back on my Instagram all
53:51
the way back. There's some horrible like it's so embarrassing, but it's how I got here.
And so I love that person who made that like silly little thing when I had, you know, 20 awesome followers who were cheering me on, you
54:06
know. Yeah, I mean I do agree about the short attention span thing and you know I'm not even going to get into AI but I do feel that there are people who because of all
54:22
that appreciate the human touch more way more the value for artists has just gone through the roof. AI is going to make art the most valuable thing that there ever was.
It's going to give it so much. Right now it sucks, but it's going to give me so much value.
And sending Yeah, we got to go through this period. But sending
54:39
actual physical products to actual physical humans from your actual physical self is really powerful and it is kind of a spiritual experience. I'm connecting with somebody I've never met, I probably will never met, never meet,
54:57
and and it's a real connection and it means a lot to me. And in a lot of cases, it means a lot to them, too.
People will reach out to me and be like, I'm really touched by how much effort you put into making this calendar such
55:12
high quality. Like, the paper that I choose has this incredibly gorgeous texture.
It costs way more to do that. I print it locally.
I care a lot, you know, and it's hard to show in pictures,
55:29
but when people receive it, they feel that like I've had a lot of people be like, "Wow, this was a lot more special than I thought it would be." And I've had people buy this
55:44
will be my sixth calendar. I just finished the first draft of the sixth calendar and I try to get it to print so that I have it inhouse midepptember when okay markets start and things like that.
I know and I do a pre-sale which really
56:01
helps me pay for the printing and people are loyal to this calendar and to me and it means so much to me. people will last year I was having a really low moment and like I don't know that I want to do
56:17
this anymore and I I'm just really overwhelmed and people would be like well you know like when I get your you know when I get the 2025 calendar and I was like oh they expect it like I wasn't even sure I was going to do it but like I
56:33
let's not start a war okay let's let's not start a a riot okay Leela let's but that's That's the thing. And I have this former graphic design client who's a really dear friend of mine, or I guess I still do some graphic design for her.
56:48
She's a real estate agent and she in the past few years has bought up to 400 calendars and I print a custom back of the calendar for her and she sends them to all her clients. And you know, so
57:05
there have been times actually I just did a market in May and somebody I had a piece of fabric over the table that is the same pattern as the cover of my current calendar and somebody walked by did a double take. She was like, I know
57:22
you. And I was like, okay, great.
Like who? Hi.
You know, and she was like, I'm from Arizona. I was in Boston.
She was like, I'm from Arizona. and you know this um real estate agent that I'm a real estate agent and this real
57:38
estate agent that I'm friends with sent me your calendar for the past couple years and it is my favorite object in my house or something like really incredible and it was just because she recognized you know my my patterns are
57:54
pretty unique and she recognized it and stopped and like it really you know I may never meet her again. But it meant so much to me and it meant so much to her.
You know, it's it's You're famous. I love it.
You're You're famous.
58:11
I'm not famous. Randall's from Arizona are stopping at your to tell you that you're I know you.
It's a testament to the human connection. Like I didn't know that that could happen, you know?
Like I never
58:27
could have anticipated that. But magical things happen when we're doing things outside of our comfort zones.
I need to come up with a list of people to send calendars to. That's really cool.
Yeah. Yeah.
So, anyone who wants a
58:43
custom back for their calendar, let me know. Oh my gosh.
We'll take you up on that. That's awesome.
Okay, my love. I have kept you for so long, but this is a beautiful conversation.
Where are the best places for everyone to find you and connect? My website is leelasimonhaze.com.
59:00
I'm on Etsy at Leela Simon Hayes. I'm on Instagram at Leela Simon Hayes.
My name is spelled L E I L A. I'm on all the things as my name.
I'm on Pinterest also. We didn't really talk about Pinterest, but I have been really putting a lot of energy and attention
59:17
into Pinterest. Is it working?
It is a long game as you know. Yeah, it is starting to work.
Yeah. And I just started an ad and that's starting to work too.
But I po I started an ad right when I started Pinterest and that did
59:33
not work. And then I did a year of pinning organically consistently and I have some help for that and I'm very grateful for that help.
And um we just started an ad and it builds off of all the work that we've done
59:50
organically. So, none of these things are quick, but they're worth it.
You know, it makes sense though because you needed that year to teach inst to teach Pinterest who to show the ad to, who to show your pins to, and who to show your ad to. And that that is all about
00:05
finding your niche. And the first the first month of post isn't going to do it, especially if it's a very specialized product.
Exactly. So, it makes perfect sense to me.
But again, do we have the attention span? Do we have the discipline?
Will we choose
00:22
ourselves enough days in a row to make it? You had a coupon code for everybody as well because we all need to go buy from your website.
A thanks. Yeah.
If any listeners want 20% off, you can just put Lizzy 20 in
00:39
the checkout and% off on my website. Yes.
And that will go for everything except wallpaper. Oh my gosh, thank you for that.
That's awesome. Oh, it's a pleasure.
I love your podcast
00:55
and I'm and I love you and I'm just really honored to be able to have this conversation. It means a lot to me.
The heart and soul that you put into this is really special. Thank you for seeing me.
01:11
I'm gonna try not to cry. We're going to close with the Georgia O'Keeffe quote because it's you did you did not butcher it.
It's but it's really it's really great. She said, "I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I've never let it
01:26
keep me from doing a si a single thing I wanted to do. What else do we need?
What else is there else to say?" Yeah. Okay.
Thank you. I hopefully we're friends now.
Yeah, we are. It's a
01:42
treasure beyond treasure and thank you for your generosity and your everything even parted today. Thank you so much.
It's a pleasure. Thanks for having me guys.
If you are not fired up right now and your heart is not bust open, please get some therapy. Um and I love you so
01:59
so so much. You guys have no idea.
I Everything I do is for you. And until next week, start your 100 day challenge.
Go make something awesome. Love you guys.
And that's a wrap on this episode of How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy.
02:14
Thanks so much for hanging out with me today. If you're looking for more resources, head on over to how to sell your stuff.com where you'll find podcast show notes, all the links from today's episode, the blog, courses, coaching, and more.
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02:31
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02:47
for your support. Have a great day and see you next time.