Firing The Man
THANK YOU TO OUR 25,000+ LISTENERS! We are so thankful to be one of the TOP E-Commerce Podcasts delivering high-quality authentic content to you! Serial Entrepreneur’s David Schomer and Ken Wilson share tips, advice, and insider knowledge about all things Amazon FBA, Walmart WFS, and E-Commerce. Discover how you can create multiple income streams by selling physical products online so that you can have the time and freedom to do what you love - whether that is spending more time with family or traveling the world. Ken and David have successfully created several six and seven figure online business ventures. During the journey, they have had major wins, losses, and lessons learned. This podcast will teach you about selling physical products online through platforms such as Fulfillment by Amazon, building a team, outsourcing, listing optimization, pay per click (PPC) advertising, driving traffic to your listings, and productivity tips / life hacks that will provide a path to be successful in building your online business. It’s a mix of interviews, special co-hosts and solo shows from Ken and David you’re not going to want to miss. Hit subscribe, and get ready to change your life.
Firing The Man
The Secrets to Scaling Your Etsy Business with Dylan Jahraus
Ready to scale your Amazon business? Click here to book a strategy call. https://calendly.com/firingtheman/amazon
Dylan Jahraus transformed from corporate e-commerce strategist to Etsy powerhouse, landing her shop in the top 0.1% worldwide and hitting $1 million in sales in just a few years. Now coaching over 4,500 Etsy sellers across 30+ countries, Dylan returns to share her expertise on the platform that changed her life.
This conversation dives deep into what makes Etsy different from Amazon and Shopify - from customer expectations to policy control. Dylan reveals that Etsy customers aren't expecting free returns and sellers maintain complete control over their policies, creating a fundamentally different selling environment. She shares how the platform's built-in trust eliminates the friction often associated with independent Shopify stores that might initially appear less trustworthy.
Perhaps most valuable is Dylan's contrarian take on Etsy ads. While many sellers pour money into advertising, Dylan built her million-dollar business primarily through organic growth. "I'm very passionate about exhausting your organic potential first," she explains, noting that in her experience, paid ads have only proven worthwhile for less than 20 people she's worked with. Instead, she recommends free marketing channels like Pinterest, which for one student generated over 1.1 million monthly impressions without spending a dime on ads.
The episode covers practical strategies for international expansion, personalization best practices, and the free shipping debate. Dylan suggests a hybrid shipping model where you might charge a nominal amount when shipping costs are higher while building the remainder into the product price. She also shares her testing methodology to determine what works best for your specific shop.
Whether you're considering Etsy as a new sales channel or looking to optimize your existing shop, this episode provides actionable insights from someone who's mastered the platform. Book a free call with Dylan to chat about your Etsy shop and see if her coaching program might be the right fit for your business goals.
How to connect with Dylan?
Website: https://dylanjahraus.com/
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ph/podcast/etsy-seller-success-tips-for-starting-growing-and/id1647518076
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeO8Gmc2B-3G2fgcFnRR4Xw
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dylanjahrausofficial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dylanjahraus/
Ready to scale your Amazon business? Click here to book a strategy call. https://calendly.com/firingtheman/amazon
Welcome everyone to the Firing the man podcast, a show for anyone who wants to be their own boss. If you sit in a cubicle every day and know you are capable of more, then join us. This show will help you build a business and grow your passive income streams in just a few short hours per day. And now your hosts, serial entrepreneurs David Shomer and Ken Wilson entrepreneurs, david Shomer and Ken Wilson.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Firing the man podcast, the show for entrepreneurs and business builders ready to move beyond the hustle and into ownership that truly scales. I'm your host, david Shomer, and today's guest has transformed from a corporate e-commerce strategist into a top-tier Etsy powerhouse. Meet Dylan Jarvis, an Etsy and Shopify seller who's achieved multi-six-figure success, landing her shop in the top 0.1% worldwide. She hit a million dollars in sales in just a few years and has now parlayed that into coaching over 4,500 Etsy sellers across 30 plus countries through her structured, no-fluff programs. The Ultimate Etsy Course with weekly accountability and 260 group Zoom calls Dylan's weekly podcast Etsy Seller Success. Dylan's weekly podcast, etsy Seller Success, is packed with tactical strategies for serious sellers, from how she drives over 50,000 monthly visits to her shop to how one single product netted her over 500,000 in sales.
Speaker 2:For those of you who missed it, dylan was a guest on Firing the man back in October of 2024. This was one of our most downloaded episodes of all time. Last week, I sent out a message to our email list asking for questions about Etsy to share with Dylan. Well, you delivered, and today we're putting Dylan in the hot seat answering fan-submitted questions straight from our hotline. Let's fire up the conversation. Here is Dylan Jaris Dylan, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Thanks for having me, David. I can't believe it's almost been a year. That's wild.
Speaker 2:I know Time flies. Time flies when you're an e-commerce seller, I suppose.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that's funny. And did you have a baby too? Yeah, yeah, that's funny. And did you have a baby too? I did I did.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So I'm now a father of three, and our youngest just turned one and is walking like as of last week, which is very, very exciting Little Samuel.
Speaker 3:Oh cute.
Speaker 2:A lot happened. Wow, yeah, so, yeah, thanks for remembering, yeah. So, yeah, thanks for remembering, yeah. So, to kick things off, for those that missed your first appearance, which was episode 243, and everybody should go back and listen to that one it was an outstanding episode. But for those of you who missed that, can you fill us in on your background and path in the entrepreneurial world?
Speaker 3:Totally, totally so. I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. Both of my parents were entrepreneurs, so it wasn't a foreign concept to me or anything. But I got started in corporate e-commerce right out of college. I worked for some big companies Zappos was in Las Vegas and then I moved up to Seattle and worked for Zulily and then I ended up when I was 25, I met someone in the military and we ended up when I was 26, getting married.
Speaker 3:We were in San Diego and there's not much e-commerce here in the corporate space. So I was doing all these side hustles. I was dog walking, house sitting, buying stuff from Goodwill and flipping it and Etsy was one of the many side hustles and actually I didn't take it very seriously. I threw something up there from our wedding. Within two months I had forgotten about it and then all of a sudden something sold and I realized, wow, okay, this has some potential here. So I basically just applied everything from corporate e-commerce to Etsy and within eight weeks of that, we're making over 10 grand a month and it kind of was no looking back from there.
Speaker 2:That's outstanding. That's outstanding, and all of the questions that we have today are Etsy related from the Firing the man Nation, and so are you ready to get into some of those?
Speaker 3:So ready yes.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So for business owners selling on Amazon or Shopify or both that are interested in selling on Etsy, what are some of the key differences?
Speaker 3:Yes, okay. So the differences are, I would say, good in Etsy's favor. Now I'll preface this by saying I have sold on both Amazon and Shopify and Shopify over six figures a year. Amazon was smaller. I was in the handmade category specifically on Amazon, so that's kind of where I was in those spaces.
Speaker 3:Now Etsy has very different customers, the Etsy customer. Their expectations are different. The way they behave as a consumer is different. They're not expecting free returns. They're not going to wear it and then return it that type of thing. You own your policy as an Etsy seller. You own all of your policies. You can decide if you want returns or not. You choose your turnaround time, you choose production time and you own all of that. And in turn you know you can really compete in that way Because you own your policies. You can compete with your policies, and that's something you can't do in the same way on Amazon.
Speaker 3:Now a lot of people think well, why would I drive people to an Etsy shop if I could just send them to Shopify? Well, etsy has that trust built up with its customers as well, whereas Shopify. First of all, it takes a while to make a Shopify site not look sketchy Like even your first attempt. It's not going to look super safe. It'll look a little scammy. It's just typical, I feel like in your first couple rounds of creating a Shopify site.
Speaker 3:And with Etsy, they trust the platform, they're used to shopping on it, there's not going to be friction in that checkout. I wonder if this will actually go through. If they're stealing my credit card and the checkout is smooth, the trust is there and then they are doing the marketing for you. So they are bringing the customers to their platform. So instead of paying a marketing team or paying for ads, you can really rely on that organic traffic through their search engine. So so many benefits. Those are just a few of them. Typically, because of that, your margin will be the highest on Etsy, because you're not paying for those eyeballs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and we're going to. There's some really good question on ads, but we're going to. We're going to wait to address that till a little bit later in the episode. So for those Amazon and Shopify sellers, if they're considering Etsy, they're probably wondering one question like are my products going to sell there? And so when evaluating the product market fit, how do you go about that?
Speaker 3:Yes. So with Etsy you also have access to a lot more customer data that is qualitative and not just quantitative. So what I mean by that is one of my favorite ways to establish product market fit is to go to a product and you're using their search. So let's say you're searching for an heirloom quality gift or an heirloom gift. You type that in, you'd filter to, let's say, $200 or higher and you'd see what are the best sellers, what is selling really well, that is $200 or more.
Speaker 3:Okay, then you're going to click into those listings and they'll have bestseller badges on them, which means they've had enough sales and revenue history to win that badge. And you'll actually look at the reviews and you'll see who is reviewing these products, who is buying these, who is spending $200 on an engraved hairbrush for their baby, you know. And then you click on their profiles and you can click on all those customer profiles and really look at what else are they favoriting on Etsy and suddenly you have a really clear understanding of what that customer comes to Etsy for. It's not the hairbrush, it's all the other things they're thinking about, all the other things they'd buy, and that's one of the fastest ways to do that research.
Speaker 2:I like it, I really like it, and that is, you know, I'd never thought about clicking on the customer's profile, and that is something that you really don't get on Amazon at all, and so I really, really like that. So, moving on to the next question for those who are on Etsy and most of our audience lives here in the US for somebody that has an established store in the US and they want to grow, they can either add more products or they can sell their existing products to new people, and international expansion is one that is typically at least discussed when deciding how am I going to grow my company, and so what does that look like for an Etsy seller, say, if they wanted to expand into Canada? Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's pretty easy. Actually, it's pretty easy, you basically, especially if you're purchasing your shipping labels through Etsy. They provide a pretty seamless experience. I have never had issues selling internationally and it is. There's no reason not to do it. Now, the one type of product that I would hesitate a little bit is super breakable items that are super high value. Now, I had a large like three and a half foot by two and a half foot flower wall and it was framed and the frame was just. That would be the thing that would break and so. But I was still shipping these things to Egypt and Dubai and, as long as you know, you do calculated shipping so the customer pays fully for the shipping. You put in the accurate dimensions and weight. You should be just fine. Now tariffs like dare we even bring this up right? That is the one variable. And this is today. It's August 26th Huge announcements, huge things taking going into action right now, and I would say it's a very fluid situation.
Speaker 3:The updates that Etsy is making they're pretty transparent on how they're dealing with this. They're providing alternatives, they're providing options. So I wouldn't let that hold you back from selling internationally. I would say the one thing is what's the worst case you offer international shipping and then the person doesn't want to buy it because it's too expensive. So what? You might still catch a few. So there's no harm in setting it up to offer it.
Speaker 2:That's really interesting. And so for a US seller, you can purchase shipping labels from Etsy to send into Canada. Yeah, and they will calculate that cost for you and they'll like all the border stuff. They'll handle all of that, presumably.
Speaker 3:Yep, the customs forms. Everything is printed out with it so that you are protected. And you also have the Etsy seller protection program. So if something gets lost or something gets seriously damaged and it's under a certain value, Etsy will actually cover you and reimburse the customer that amount. And that's only when you buy your shipping labels through Etsy and you have to have your policies set up. If you have no policies, they're not going to support you with that program.
Speaker 2:Interesting, interesting. So I had mentioned Canada as a natural place to expand to if you're a US seller and it's just because we're in the same continent. When you said Egypt, that kind of threw me off, like I was not expecting Egypt. And so if where are some areas or what countries does Etsy have a strong presence in that you can that you would encourage people to add to their listing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would turn on. You can choose the. I forget if it's countries or continents, but I would select everything available. Personally, I would absolutely select everything available. Now the one there's a couple like, for sure Russia. They are very, you know, careful around. I don't know that you can ship into Russia right now, but yeah, I would turn on everything possible now. But yeah, I would turn on everything possible. And I mean Etsy. We see a very strong presence in the US, in the UK, for sure Canada. We also see Australia as well. Now we see more merchandise coming from Australia to here versus here to Australia. But those are probably some of the biggest players Germany, germany as well.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, that makes sense All right. So next question is Etsy ads, and the question is is it worth it and how much should I realistically spend when I'm just starting out?
Speaker 3:realistically spend when I'm just starting out. Yes, Okay, so I am all about organic growth. You know, even like this coaching business, we scaled to over a million a month without ads, so I'm very passionate about exhausting your organic potential. First, there's no reason to be turning on ads if you haven't touched free Pinterest, for example, Pinterest. Honestly, doing Pinterest takes about as much time as it takes to manage ads or to set them up, and it's free and it's longer lasting. So think, for example, what you do on Pinterest today. It can be helping you 10 years from now. So why wouldn't we want to do that? We have someone who did our Pinterest strategy for one year just under one year, actually and they get over 1.1 million impressions per month. Now that's huge. To pay for those eyeballs through ads would be just a huge amount of money, and this is a strategy.
Speaker 3:If you can do things like Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, I would say my favorite combination is Pinterest and Facebook. Pinterest is the long game, Facebook is the short results kind of game. If you can do that, your competition's probably not doing that and it's just another way for you to compete. So if you're not doing those things, I would definitely never touch ads before touching those. And then ads I mean it's a very expensive way to establish product market fit.
Speaker 3:So if you are testing a new product, some people think I'm going to just like blow 50 bucks a day on ads and then see if people want it. That is such an expensive experiment and maybe it's because I grew up, like in the Midwest, on a farm with boomer parents who, like taught me not like the value of a dollar but why Like? If you're willing to let your money on fire, go ahead and try to see if people like your product with ads. But I personally would never recommend ads unless you know people like the product, you are confident in your conversion rates and you've exhausted every other organic strategy.
Speaker 2:First, Okay, this is not a fan-submitted question. This is a personal testimony. So I have run Etsy ads $10 a day and then I have turned them off and I have not seen a whole lot of difference in terms of sales. And it seems like when I turn it off I'm still getting some traffic to my listings. And it feels a lot different from Amazon where you have an auto campaign, a broad match campaign, an exact campaign. You're bidding like specific, like 26 cents on this keyword. It's very, you know, for my Amazon business I have a full time PPC manager. That's all he does is bid on keywords. And when I got over to Etsy, the simplicity of it was in a way, kind of intimidating. Like I'm putting money into this piggy bank and I don't know where it goes after that or what impact it's going to have on my sales. And so is that something that? Am I an anomaly or are there other people like me?
Speaker 3:No, that is the majority of the cases. And the thing is, ads can increase the traffic. It can increase that traffic number, but ads are only going to perform as well as like your SEO, for example. So if your SEO isn't perfect, it's not really going to perform as well as like your SEO, for example. So if your SEO isn't perfect, it's not really going to perform as well as it could be. And also, yes, you have no idea. You put in $10, you say I'm going to send it to these 10 listings. You're not choosing what proportion to spend on which listing. There's so little choice, so little control. That's why I say it is like lighting your money on fire. You have to be okay with not caring what happens to that. So I don't operate that way. And there's much more targeted things you can do with organic. So, yeah, I've only seen ads work. We've had $4,500. I've probably only seen ads work for less than 20 people $4,500.
Speaker 2:I've probably only seen ads work for less than 20 people Interesting. That's really really interesting and also good to know. That totally changes my mindset on ads and where I'm allocating dollars. So thank you for that, yeah. So next up, the free shipping debate. Does offering free shipping actually boost sales or does it just eat into profit margins?
Speaker 3:Great question. So in October of last year which was, I guess, when we were talking last time on your show they enacted I think it was October 10th, if I'm remembering correctly and they enacted a new thing where they said if you have flat rate shipping under $6, so $5.99 or less they would give you a boost in search results. Now, when they made that announcement, we did see a huge change in traffic for people who had shipping over $6. Now I'm not sure if this was a test, because it was an initial change and then it kind of faded out and fizzled out. So now people with shipping over $6, they're not seeing their traffic having tanked. It did bounce back. It was kind of an initial almost reset of the algorithm.
Speaker 3:So if you in general, though, I do think for a seamless conversion from viewing it visiting the listing to buying, a seamless conversion from viewing it visiting the listing to buying, having reasonable shipping in relative to the price of the product is helpful. So usually with an average order value on Etsy, it's rarely over $40 from what we see. So with that kind of average, $6 or less is helpful. It's more of a no-brainer. I always recommend testing both and when you do the test at least three weeks. If you've never tested free shipping, I guess my question would be why not? What's stopping you? It's so easy, it's just changing one setting. So I would definitely test both if you haven't. And also pay attention to your competition. Are all the competitors doing free shipping? Maybe this would be a way to stand out, offer a lower price point than them, undercut them and then add it in the shipping cost. So test, it is my advice.
Speaker 2:I think that's really really good advice. I think that's really really good advice. And, yeah, it seems like Amazon has gotten e-commerce shoppers into the mindset of shipping is free, which, as business owners, we know is not true. You know, you could charge $110 and have free shipping, or you can charge $100 and $10 shipping, but yeah no, I think the testing.
Speaker 2:It makes sense. And one thing I want to call out which I think is brilliant is the hybrid model, where you are adding a nominal amount of shipping costs. It may not be the full amount, but a $5 or $6 bump. That's going to help out with profit margins and may not hurt your conversion rate a lot.
Speaker 3:So I really like that I really like that. Yeah, that's a great point. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. Let's say shipping costs you 15, maybe charge them five and build in the rest of the price. That's a really great reminder to people because I do think people think it's all or nothing sometimes.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. In fact, prior to your answer, that was kind of my mindset. You either do free shipping or you don't, and I do think that hybrid model makes sense. Are you looking at at the end of that three-week period to determine?
Speaker 3:whether the shipping cost included or not included was a better route. Yeah, so when you test anything, we always want to start top of funnel. When we look at the data, okay, so first thing is traffic, which would reflect a click-through rate. Were people more likely to click on your product when they saw maybe it was free shipping or maybe, if you did the opposite, it was a lower price and they couldn't see what the exact shipping was? So that is one thing. So top of funnel traffic, overall traffic to that listing, did people click in more or less? And then the second thing would be the conversion rate on that listing itself.
Speaker 3:So, conversion rate everyone asks like, what's a good conversion rate for Etsy? And I would say it depends on two things your price point and your competition. For example, if you are selling something that's 99 cents, I would want to see a conversion rate six to eight percent at least. If you're selling something that's $500, under 1% might be okay. So just keep that in mind. There's gray area, there's a scale here. But look at your conversion rate. And if the conversion rate went down significantly with that change, okay, you added friction to the purchasing process. If it didn't change, okay, then which option was more profitable for you, and then if it went up, that's great. Keep that.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, I really like that and that's something that to our listeners. You could rewind that with a spreadsheet in front of you and there's your model on how to look at it. So, yeah, thanks for being really specific there. That's very, very helpful.
Speaker 2:Yeah process, and this is something I've experienced both as a seller and as a buyer. So the question is what's the best way to collect personalization details from customers without things slipping through the cracks? I see some listings that say copy and paste your order number along with the custom text you want to engrave and then send it to us in a DM, and there seems to like there has to be a better way, and so what's the best option here?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that is a little messy, I would say, once they're having to find an order number, how do you find that? Like is this? You know there's too many numbers that they could even pull from. So simple, simple, simple. There's the personalization text box.
Speaker 3:One thing when you're offering personalization, I think the biggest mistake I see people make with this is they provide options that the customer doesn't care about, and this could be options within a variant, like, let's say, font, and you're giving them like 15 font options and they're all script. And you're looking at this on your phone shopping. You're like, oh my gosh, I don't know, I'm going to come back to this later. Okay, you just lost 50% of people with that. And then it's like you know Times New Roman, or like Arial, or you know two fonts that are very similar. Well, gosh, I don't know. Anytime you make people think it's a poor customer experience if they're having to think too much. So I want you to think about your shop and the options you offer, like Lululemon. So Lululemon, if you notice, their footprint of a store is pretty small and they've curated the options for you. They don't have the pullover and 50 different colors. They've curated a collection of seven good color options. So make those tough decisions for the customer, provide them only good options and make sure all the options are different enough.
Speaker 3:So that is very important when it comes to personalization. And then also that's within each option, like each color option or font option, curate it down. And then also, if you have more than three decisions that have to be made on something like do I want it personalized or not? What color do I want? Then what pattern do I want? Do I want a gift tag or a card? If you're providing so many decision points, you're going to lose people. So maximum of three and have it be where they can choose at least two of them in the variation. So there's two drop downs. Exhaust both of those. And then the third one should be in the personalization text box or they simply type it in and you can write a lot of text there. So you could say this will be printed exactly as you typed it, nothing will be changed. And then you can also say if you have additional requests, send a message or email X. So that's always an option, but you're not requiring them to find you and message you another way.
Speaker 2:I like that. And the personalization text box. Is that a singular text box or can you add multiple modules, like a drop down menu for fonts, which I know you said you shouldn't but like is there is? Is it one per listing or can you add in multiples?
Speaker 3:So there are two drop-down variations per listing so you want to use both of those for sure. And then the third way is if you need them to type in something like an address or a name or a date or something, then you'd have them type it in and it's only one box. So if there's multiple questions you need them to answer, number it out. You can use emojis in your instructions, in that personalization instruction box to really make it eye-catching, and then also toggle it so it's required, so that if you don't toggle it on to be required, they have to actually click another step to even find the box, which most people will miss.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like it. I like it. That's really really helpful. So, on listing strategy, this next question asks should I make one main listing with personalization options or create multiple listings for each variation personalization?
Speaker 3:options or create multiple listings for each variation, I see. So I would say it depends on how many options you have and are those options even targeting the same customer. So, for example, if you were let's say you're doing kids birthday decorations and you have like three different options or themes in the shop Maybe you have a princess one for girls, a trucks one for boys, and then like an animal one that's a little more gender neutral Would we put all of them in the same listing where they choose the girl, the boy or the neutral? I wouldn't, and I wouldn't because basically, what you're doing is you want your thumbnail and your SEO to match up. You don't want to offer something in the listing that's not even relevant to either of those things. So I would say, if it's a variation that would serve the same customer, yes. But if you're selling first birthday girl party decor, they're not going to be looking for the boy party decor, so why would you put it in front of them?
Speaker 2:That makes a lot of sense. That makes a lot of sense and that's a good rule if it's speaking to the same customer. I really like that, yeah, Awesome. So on the listing strategy, is there any we'll call them advanced tactics in terms of you know, maybe your title, your description? Is there anything on the back end that you can do to make your listing stand out or gain more organic traffic?
Speaker 3:Yes, a couple of things we're seeing, especially now. One would be professional photos. That really will help. Photos gosh. I feel like right now on Etsy they're killing 75% of listings, people's photos and mock-ups. They're outdated, they're like the Achilles heel of your listing and without that you're kind of dead in the water. So professional photos are definitely worth it, especially if it's a product that you know people would like if the photo was good. So professional photos are helpful, maximizing the number of long-tail keywords.
Speaker 3:Now Etsy came out with some SEO title advice on what two to three days ago and they actually in this said that you don't need to use all the characters in your title. You could just have 15 words, or is it 15 characters? Oh, 15 words. So really these like short, short titles. Now important. Um, people think people are freaking out on YouTube about this. They think do I have to go change all my titles and shorten them? Remember, etsy didn't say that they will penalize you for using all the space. They simply said you don't have to use all the space. So, no, do not go changing your titles right now. It's not going to hurt you to use all the SEO real estate. They just said you don't need to use it all. My question is why wouldn't you use it all? So, anyways, if you're kind of, have you been seeing that chaos around their titles? Update. I would just simmer down. They're not penalizing you, don't change it. So yeah, those are a couple relevant tips for right now.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely, and I think that's really good to know. Amazon has also mentioned something similar where they're wanting to get away from keyword stuffing and you see that with 250 character titles that have every important keyword in there and to the shopper it's kind of annoying. But to me, e-commerce connects keywords and products. That's what it does, and I know AI. You can talk about Rufus, you could talk about some of these AI shoppers, but to me, the AI systems are learning from keywords and text and so yeah, I can say on the Amazon side of things, I've continued to keyword stuff and have been getting good results.
Speaker 2:So very, very good.
Speaker 3:And that's the thing. Etsy even came out with this thing. It's a tool. It's a beta test right now, so not for everyone, but you click a button and it will change your SEO and it doesn't say it will change it for the better Like it will help your ranking. So I am imagining right now I mean, if you are going on to Etsy, for sure use proven e-commerce SEO strategies. Don't just trust this beta tool that they rolled out, because I saw the demo of it and it wrecked someone's title. It completely wrecked a title. So if you see like your competition might be taking advantage of this new, like amazing tool that's not so amazing and it might be hurting their listings, this might mean it's a new way for you to compete if you stay and stick with tried and true SEO principles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So we had one more question on custom orders and so, since they can't be resold right, it's got an engraved name. What's the best practice for handling refunds or returns when a buyer's not happy?
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, everything I sold in my shop was custom, every single thing. So there was nothing that was not made to order, and I clearly had policies stating this is custom made to order. It cannot be resold. So therefore there's no returns or exchanges, and that was clear in the listing and in the policies. So two different places. And one thing we also said was once you place an order, production begins within a couple of hours, so there's no changes to be made. If you get messages saying you know and you've like shipped it, oh my gosh, I want to change it or I noticed a misspelling, let them know. Per policy there's no changes and it's already on its way, so let them know that. And then I would stick to your guns, because there are people who've been trained to abuse sellers. I think Amazon has kind of trained people to do that and I would stick to your guns, Unless you did something wrong. I would not be letting people return personalized stuff.
Speaker 2:Okay. Okay, you've mentioned the policy a couple times and this is something. I've been on Etsy for quite a few years and I would guess that my policy is the stock policy that Etsy gives, and so is that. Am I shooting myself in the foot, or are there things that I should do to my policy that would enhance the performance of my account?
Speaker 3:Yes. So, for example, every client we work with, we give them copy and paste policies because there's a whole. There's the static default policies and then there's a whole FAQ section that you can create yourself and this is actually considered part of the policies. So that's where you put in your custom policies and we give them copy paste policies that they can just put in that are super robust and we'll cover them just in case. So, yes, use the custom FAQ area, because it does show up as part of your policies.
Speaker 2:OK, ok, very good, very good. And if people are interested in becoming one of your students, what is the best way?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So now let's see last time we talked. Even since then, the program has evolved quite a bit. So we have different things like three-month sprints that you can do with us, you know, like little 90-day challenges. It's options where it doesn't have to be this huge commitment, it can just kind of get you on track and on your way. So we've probably created over 400 unique options, and the best way to learn more about that is to just book a free call with us where we can chat through your shop. If it's not the right fit, we'll actually give you free resources and send you on your way. But that way you can actually talk to someone in person, show them your shop, say, hey, this is what I'm struggling with. Do I need guidance? Do I not need guidance? And that's the best way to even consider getting some help.
Speaker 2:I like it. I like it and I will post a link to that in the show notes. Awesome, dylan, this has been an outstanding interview. Before we end the episode, we have something called the fire round. It's four questions we ask every guest at the end of the show Are you ready?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:All right, what is your favorite book?
Speaker 3:The Bible.
Speaker 2:Very good. What are your hobbies?
Speaker 3:I'm an entrepreneur. What are hobbies? I would say work and building my team. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Great, great. What is one thing that you do not miss about working for the man?
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, probably feeling guilt and pulled in multiple directions and not feeling like being worried. I'm not enough in so many areas of my life now I can really compartmentalize. It can be fully with my kids, I can be fully with my team and, um, I'm not feeling that spread thin. Trying to balance people's emotions, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely. I agree with that as well. All right, and final question what do you think sets apart successful entrepreneurs from those who give up, fail or never get started?
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh. Yeah, I feel like there are and maybe this is going to be off-putting to people, but I feel like there's this whole generation. I don't know if it's a generation or an age group or what, but it's. I call them low-capacity people. I don't know if you know what I mean, but it's just like, oh, I'm like so burned out today I'm not going to do anything, or I'm just I'm having an off day, I'm not going to, I'm going to come back tomorrow, or, you know, being willing to let how you feel dictate what you do. Like I don't even know that concept because, like, I will do the thing despite how I feel. And when you let your feelings guide you on this roller coaster of your day or of your week, good luck being an entrepreneur, because that's going to just really stifle any potential. So having high capacity, separating feelings from actions, is really important.
Speaker 2:Well, very nice, very nice. And if people are interested in checking out your content or your course, what is the best way to do so?
Speaker 3:Yeah, follow us on Instagram. We post a lot of fun content there and then YouTube as well, which we share over on Instagram. And then if you ever want to just chat about Etsy or see if maybe if your products are the right fit to bring over to Etsy, book a call with us.
Speaker 2:We'll look at kind of what your situation with Amazon or Shopify is and then we can kind of show you okay, yeah, this is what you could bring over to Etsy. Outstanding Well, dylan, this has been an outstanding podcast. Thank you so much for your time To the fans. Thank you so much for your fan-submitted questions and Dylan looking forward to having you on the show again in the future.
Speaker 3:Yes, thanks for having me, david, this was great.
Speaker 2:Thank you Bye.
