This podcast episode is part of a 4 Part series, "How to Live Your Dream Life Making & Selling Handmade,” where we share our story as working creatives and describe the 4 things you need to do to live your best possible creative life as a maker or artist.
Before we get into that though... Here's everything you need to know about our upcoming online course (which launches June 25!!!) Dream, Create, Sell is our signure course, where we'll teach you step-by-step how to Make More Sales & Grow Your
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In our experience, growing your business isn’t just about one thing. It’s about the perfect combination of multiple things, like making the perfect tasting lemonade. You need to know who YOU are as the maker, you need to have the skills, you need to have a plan, and finally, you need to have the mindset.
This is episode 4 of our four part series. In the first episode of the series, we went over how to identify and narrow your style and your niche so it’s clear to your audience exactly who you are and what you sell, and it feels good to you. In the second episode, we talked about why you need a plan for your business and how to make one. In the third episode, we share some of the most important skills you need to really be successful selling handmade online, how to identify what skills you need to improve, and where to start!
Today on the podcast, we’re going to talk about mindset. If you just heard me say that and you’re like uhhh okay, that sounds a little woo-woo, haha, just hang in there with us! This is important. I say it’s so so so important because we would not be where we are today as top 1% Etsy sellers with more than 6 figures of revenue and a brand we love without the transition we made in the way we think about our business, our money, and our work.
Just think about this...
It’s totally possible for you to…
...make meaningful income selling your art online
...run a five or six-figure Etsy shop
...stop trading hours for dollars
....price your art without feeling guilty or sales-y
...lose the overwhelm & know exactly what you need to do
...find your true creative style that makes you unique
...sell your handmade products to your dream customer
Why are we so confident?!?
Because we’re doing it. We’ve sold made and sold more than 25,000 handmade products on Etsy. We’ve had multiple best-selling products on Etsy’s homepage. We’ve made more than $100,000 on Etsy since launching in 2020. We have the time to do everything we want including traveling, creating, and spending time with our family.
But, let’s be honest…
It wasn’t always like this.
I (Katie) used to be so lost when it came to marketing, pricing, and selling my art. One time I was asked to make some custom watercolor graphics for a company & I gave them a really, really low price. I just *hated* pricing and I felt guilty charging more. They emailed me back telling me my price was way too low and I was worth more than that, and they would pay me a higher amount instead.
I didn’t have the mindset to know my value as an artist and price things without feeling guilty or anxious about it.
And I (Taylor) used to think it was impossible to have enough time for creating and traveling around the world like I dreamed of. It seemed like an absolute this-or-that situation. I could either work every possible hour as an underpaid teacher just to make enough to pay my bills and never get the time off to travel or even just stay home and create something...or I could have the free time but never enough money for the things I wanted. I was so, so stuck on this mindset of “this is impossible.” I absolutely had to change the way I thought so that I made the space for it to happen.
What if we told you the most important part of being successful with your business was how you thought about your business?
How exciting and empowering does that feel that the key to your success truly is just in your brain, waiting for you to unlock it?
Now, of course, there is hard work and consistency and growing involved in all the parts of your business. We’re not saying that you can just cross your arms like I dream of Jeannie and make your dreams real, because that’s certainly not what we did.
But, we are saying that you can do more and grow faster and great things happen- things beyond what you ever expected- when your head is in the right space.
So, here are some of the mindset transitions we’ve made in our journey as small business owners where we live our dream lives:
#1 Pricing & Selling & Marketing without Guilt or Anxiety
All Creative work has value, and YOUR work is worth money. It is absolutely okay to ask for money in exchange for your art or your handmade product, and you shouldn’t feel guilty about it.
I think for me, my mindset switched when I started telling myself that “if this person doesn’t want to purchase my art for what I think it’s worth, it’s okay. There will be someone else who will, I don’t have to lower my prices.
So if you’re in that same struggle, or you get anxiety asking a certain amount for your work, just remind yourself that not everyone is your dream customer, and that your work has value whether that person sees it or not. Someone else will!
#2 Losing the Overwhelm
We’ve heard from many of our podcast listeners and newsletter subscribers that you often feel overwhelmed about how to grow your etsy shop and handmade business. We hear you guys when you say “there’s just so much information out there.” And it’s true, there is.
You could spend years pouring through google to learn how to grow your business and make more sales and, while the information is out there, you’d definitely feel overwhelmed in the process.
Instead, because all that googling just sounds awful, ask yourself this, “what would help me lose that overwhelm right now for the very next step?” Do you need personalized help from an Etsy coach? Do you want a step-by-step course? Do you want a support group that will help you stay accountable in your business? Do you want to learn from someone with experience? Any or all of these things might be the answer to that question for you. But, ask yourself truly and deeply. What would help me right now lose the overwhelm so I know exactly what to do?
Once you have the answer, it’s easy to make the mindshift away from overwhelm because you can break that answer down into steps that are a part of your plan.
#3 Money: There’s more where that came from
This was a big one for me (Taylor). I used to get so, so stressed out about spending any money at all, or feeling unhappy that I was obviously being responsible and paying all my bills but there wasn’t enough money leftover for the fun things like art and traveling. It was depressing to think about money, like I’d never be in a place where things would be different. So, if you’re in that situation, the first thing I hope that you do is to be grateful every time you pay a bill or spend money on something that’s not fun. Begin saying to yourself, “I am so grateful I paid the electricity bill” or “I am so grateful that I’m able to spend $300 on my car payment because I have a great car that gets me where I need to go.”
Then, the transition I had to make was instead of always saying in my brain, “there’s never enough money in my bank account,” I had to start saying every time I spent money, “there’s more where that came from.” It put me into a mindset of abundance, which not only allowed me to stop being so stressed out about how much money I made or spent, but also left me able to be more generous.
The more we give away, the more money flows into our business. The less I worry about money for myself, the more money there is.
This mindset is real, you guys. When you say “I have everything I need, and I’m able to be generous to others because I’m doing well in my business” it will happen.
And generosity doesn’t have to be just giving money.
It can be re-sharing a friend’s small business or helping someone else clean their house, or making a handmade gift for someone else. But all of these things are connected. You won’t be able to grow a hugely successful handmade online business without believing you can do it, without feeling grateful and satisfied with what you have, and that you’ve got more than enough to give back to others.
#4 Day by day, let’s make magic: All of your biggest dreams are totally, 100% possible
The final mindset shift you need is so simple. You need to believe every single day that every little step is good. Even when it’s not something you want to do, or you don’t feel totally confident in it, it’s still small business magic and you got this.
This can also be finding the magic in the little everyday things. Be grateful for your routine, really enjoy that cup of tea you make first thing in the morning before you get to work, and look at your life as successful already. I think that’s really key here. Remember how far you have come, and how much you have grown, and how successful you are right now.
Imagine that you had a PLAN for your Etsy shop, your Instagram, and your personal style/niche as an artist???
Imagine no more. We’re going to teach you EXACTLY how to make your handmade small business goals a reality, no matter what you make and sell.
Maybe after listening to this 4 part podcast series you…
Don’t know what you’re “doing wrong” in your Etsy shop…
Want more instagram engagement from your followers…
Hate the idea of showing your face on social media but don’t know what else to post...
Aren’t good at selling your work…
Need help with product photography…
Feel confused about Etsy SEO, keywords, and “optimization”...
Look, we used to be there too. If only we’d known 3 years ago what we know now about selling handmade online. We worked really hard to learn everything there is about Etsy & Instagram for artists and handmade sellers.
Today, we use Etsy SEO to drive traffic to our shop, we cultivate killer listing descriptions so that we easily convert views into sales with an Etsy conversion rate of 6.1%.
Since March 2020, we’ve been able to generate more than 8,400 sales, with an average income of $10,000+ per month for the last 12 months, all on Etsy alone, without paid social media ads. We just needed a STRATEGY.
Our STRATEGY includes:
Nicheing Down
Knowing *Exactly* Who We’re Selling To
Goal Setting
Daily & Weekly Workflows
Flawless Product Photography
Killer Etsy Listing Descriptions
100% Understanding and Using Etsy SEO to Drive Traffic
Fully Optimizing Our Etsy Shop Profile
Authentically Marketing Ourselves & Products
Social Media Content that Engages Our Audience
And Scaling Our Shop to Save Major Time!
And the cool thing is?
We turned this exact strategy into an easy, step-by-step guide that you are able to fully duplicate!
If you haven’t heard, Our course is called Dream, Create, Sell and we teach you the step-by-step way to Make More Sales & Grow Your Handmade Business on Etsy & Instagram.
Dream, Create, Sell is a self-paced, 100% online course that will teach YOU how to do all of the things we just mentioned in our strategy including how to stand out in your niche, nail SEO, product photography, and authentically grow your instagram.
The course officially opens for registration on June 25 but we’re giving YOU, our podcast listeners early bird access and a special early bird pricing discount that no one else will get.
So, next week, June 22-June 24, we are offering our podcast listeners the opportunity to register for the course for $229 with the code PODCAST.
You’ll get access to the course 2 days early - before anyone else - and the special promo price. On Friday, June 25, the course price will go up as we live launch to our social media followers and newsletter subscribers and open the course to everyone.
So, if you want to sign up next week, June 22-24 and get the 33% discount off of our regular price for the course of $397, register with the code PODCAST!
We hope this four part series on how to live your creative dream life selling handmade has left you feeling inspired and empowered to make a plan. We hope you’re feeling ready to take action to invest in your business and grow your skills, and you’re thinking about how you can make the mindset shifts you need to live your dream life every day as a small business owner. We want to help you do this, so if you’ve got a question for us about anything at all, from the course to our own business, to how to grow yours, reach out to us on instagram @shopstudiosisters.
We always answer our DMs & emails so literally ask us anything!
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