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00:00 Ellie Hugdahl Yeah, total revenue I've done about $190,000. The last year has been a lot lower because I've been focusing on my coffee shop. Etsy hasn't really been my primary focus. But in Q4, I'm definitely going to start listing a lot more listings and diving into those trends because that's where I really saw success in 2020.
00:20 Cody McGuffie Hey there, welcome back to the Etsy seller podcast. I'm your host, Cody McGuffie. And today we have Ellie joining us to inspire us about her Etsy selling journey. And I got to say this. is an awesome episode because she is a total hustler when it comes to making money and finding success. She started in 2020 selling products like jewelry and other things and realized that it wasn't really for her. And then she kind of discovered this print on demand thing and she immediately fell in love with this type of business model and this venture. And now she is a thriving Etsy seller. As always, this podcast is brought to you by Everbeat. Everbeat is the all-in-one business platform that helps Etsy sellers find winning products, grow their business, get more sales. You'll be able to quickly understand what people are searching for, what they're buying. So you can do just that. You could sell people what they actually are already purchasing. It's a platform that you guys need to be using to grow your Etsy business. Sign up for free, everbeat.io. Let's jump in. Ellie, what's up? How are you?
01:28 Ellie Hugdahl Hello. Good. Good. Thank you for having me.
01:31 Cody McGuffie Super happy to have you here. So we talked a little bit before this. Um, so thank you very much for coming on and like sharing your story. And you do have a really cool story that a lot of people can relate to and stemming from a traumatic injury, right? To like no job to selling on Etsy, print on demand. And then now you've now, running your own business, which we'll get into that in a bit. Can you tell a little bit about who you are and who is Ellie and yeah, introduce yourself.
02:02 Ellie Hugdahl Yeah, definitely. So, uh, my name is Ellie. I am a full-time entrepreneur. Now I got started in on Etsy in 2020. I actually broke my leg and I was basically forced into finding another source of income because I was a personal trainer and I was also running a coffee shop at the time. So, I had to find another source of income. I didn't really have a choice, like even just to pay my rent. And so I found the world of Etsy and print on demand, and I just fell in love with this business because it was so passive. And I always knew I wanted to own a business, but I didn't really want to hold all the inventory. And so print on demand was just like such an amazing opportunity that fell into my lap.
02:46 Cody McGuffie That's amazing. So can you talk to us a little bit about how you actually started your Etsy journey and what even brought you to Etsy to begin with?
02:55 Ellie Hugdahl Definitely. I actually started off selling tangible products. So I actually started off selling jewelry. And so I had a supplier that I found over on Alibaba. They would ship me the jewelry and then I would physically ship it out every single time I got an order. And I just realized that's not the business model that I wanted to sustained for a long period of time. And so I transitioned eventually onto print on demand. I started watching coaches, YouTube videos, listen to podcasts on my way to work, like all this stuff until I learned everything that I possibly could about print on demand.
03:27 Cody McGuffie Yeah. I love that. Um, and I think that's like what attracts a lot of people to Etsy is like that dropshipping type of model from like AliExpress or something like that to not everybody, but a lot of people. And we don't even realize when we first do this, it's like, that's actually like against these terms of service. And yeah. And then we realized this and we're like, Oh, okay, got it. Like what is allowed, you know? And then you find like print on demand, which is kind of like a modified version of drop shipping, but it's, it's what Etsy allows and they actually like it, you know? Uh, so it's interesting that you kind of came from that like background, but I could tell that like, you kind of came from that like hustler mindset of just like, I need to build a business. I need income. Let's go and do it type of thing.
04:05 Ellie Hugdahl Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Like just figure it out. I have to.
04:09 Cody McGuffie That's so cool. Um, crazy. So before, before this, before Etsy, what were you doing for a living?
04:16 Ellie Hugdahl Um, before Etsy, I was doing a multiple, multiple things. So I was running a coffee shop. I was a barista and then I was also a personal trainer. So working multiple jobs, hustler, like I've always worked 24 seven. I went to school for business. I knew I wanted to own a business eventually, but I didn't know what it looked like.
04:35 Cody McGuffie Yep, for sure. And fast forward just for a second and we'll kind of go back. But what are you doing now? Like what business are you in now that you really, really wanted to be in? You already shared with me.
04:43 Ellie Hugdahl So I just purchased a coffee shop. I own Unity Coffee. We are a drive-thru coffee shop and it's always been my dream to own a coffee shop. So Etsy actually made that possible because I used that income to purchase my coffee shop.
04:58 Cody McGuffie That's wild. Honestly, that's so cool. And it's so valuable for anybody listening to this, too, because maybe Etsy isn't the end-all, be-all. It's not the goal, maybe, but it can be a vehicle to get you where your goal is. That's the cool thing about it. Exactly.
05:12 Ellie Hugdahl And that's how I viewed it. And it still pays my bills on the side.
05:16 Cody McGuffie Gotcha. So you still have your Etsy shop?
05:18 Ellie Hugdahl Yes, I do.
05:19 Cody McGuffie I love it. Cool. How are you able to maintain your Etsy shop and also your coffee shop at the same time?
05:26 Ellie Hugdahl Um, because my Etsy shop is a couple years old now, it's more just upkeep. So I really don't have to do much on my Etsy shop. I still upload listings like here or there, or like going into Q4, I'm definitely gonna, you know, dive deeper into my shop. Cause I know that's where sales start to pick up. Um, but for the most part, like the last five months, it's been extremely passive. I log in like 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there just to like reply to comments or maybe I'll just like upload a listing or update one, you know, amazing.
05:54 Cody McGuffie And You shared this with me too, but your story was cool because you actually got in, you broke your leg to share with everybody. You're okay with me sharing that? Yeah, of course. Okay, cool. No income anymore, pretty much, right?
06:07 Ellie Hugdahl Yeah, no, pretty much. I was stuck at home in a boot.
06:10 Cody McGuffie Gosh, and then you decided to go all in on this Etsy print-on-demand type of thing. And I think you shared that you started using like Everbee to kind of fuel this fire that you've already kind of like got started with Etsy print-on-demand? Exactly. How did Everbee kind of play into this role?
06:29 Ellie Hugdahl So Everbee really excelled my shop success, like doubled my numbers in a couple of months after I learned how to use it correctly. And after I learned how to read the numbers on Everbee and in conjunction with other tools too, I was able to, you know, look at what listings were selling for other sellers, which ones were recent trends that were working for them, what products were working. and then also calculate the profit margins on each product as well.
06:56 Cody McGuffie That's awesome. I appreciate you sharing that too because so many people, like, Everbee is like a big community now, right? We have over like 200,000 people using Everbee and it's so cool. And I do wish that like every story was like your story, right? We have a lot of people, like tens of thousands of people that have a very similar story, but then we have like tens of thousands that don't have a similar story. So I'm always like, As the founder, I'm just like, it breaks my heart to like not see everybody win. You know, when I know that there's enough room for everybody to win, but maybe they just haven't put the puzzle pieces together.
07:25 Ellie Hugdahl Definitely.
07:27 Cody McGuffie Like you mentioned like reading numbers and like using it correctly. Like how do you use ever be? And like to where you got where you can actually like turn it into like, Oh, I double my revenue. Right.
07:36 Ellie Hugdahl Great question. Um, you have to read the numbers in a way that, um, is relevant to your shop and your niche. So looking at other sellers who are selling the same products or similar niches, what are they doing correctly? What keywords are they using? What keywords are overly saturated or which ones are newer trends? And just reading the numbers that way. For me personally, I only look at listings that were uploaded within the last three months. And that way I know that the trends are still relevant and they're not overly saturated yet.
08:09 Cody McGuffie Got it. And so for anybody listening, like you go to listing age and you'll like sort by listing age or maybe you use the filter and like you put max three, like list. Got it. And then you sort by revenue or total sales or whatever you want to do at that point.
08:22 Ellie Hugdahl So I want the top revenue at top and then like a key product would be listed within the last month. And I know that that would be a relevant product to dive into.
08:28 Cody McGuffie Got it. So basically you're jumping on, you're seeing trends that are like the last three months of like, Oh, people seem to be buying this type of, if it's, if it's shirts or mugs, they seem to be buying this type of design. So in the last three months, this thing's got a thousand sales. Oh, that's something I should be potentially selling something like that.
08:46 Ellie Hugdahl Exactly. And then I know it's so relevant.
08:49 Cody McGuffie I love that. Okay, cool. Very, very awesome strategy by the way. Um, thank you. That's super cool. How did you, let's, now let's go back a little. Well, maybe let's go forward for a second. How much share revenue numbers with us? Like what have you done last 12 months or total revenue? It doesn't really matter, but excite anybody.
09:08 Ellie Hugdahl Yeah. Total revenue. I've done about 190,000. Um, the last year has been a lot lower because I've been focusing on my coffee shop and he hasn't really been like my primary focus. Um, but in Q4, I'm definitely going to start listing. a lot more listings and diving into those trends because that's where I really saw success in 2020.
09:28 Cody McGuffie I love that. So in the past three years, 190 K in revenue. Yeah. Cool.
09:34 Ellie Hugdahl And did you have a full year was one 50.
09:36 Cody McGuffie So, Oh, nice. That's awesome. Cool. And that's when you were actually focusing on Etsy full time. How much time do you think people, if they were like full time, cause there's some people that are like, Oh, I don't, I want to be like Ellie and I want to like, use it as a vehicle to get to my business. But then some people are like, Oh, no, I wish that I could just like have at Ellie's like success. And I would just continue to be an IT seller. Like, that'd be a dream for me. Like, how much time per day per week should they be putting into their IT shop if they want in 2020? Ellie in 2020? How much? How much time did you put in per week?
10:12 Ellie Hugdahl A lot. I put a lot of work up front. It was probably four to five hours a day that I was learning Etsy, but I was doing it at my other job. So when I was at the coffee shop, I could work in the back on my Etsy and just kind of sneak back there. So it was probably a few hours a day that I was working on it in the beginning, those first couple months where everything is hard and challenging and you don't know anything. And then after you kind of get over that learning curve, it gets a lot easier. And then I was only spending like maybe an hour or two hours a week on it and I was like working on vacation, working on the beach, like it was so much more passive after you get past that like hard learning phase.
10:52 Cody McGuffie I love that. I mean, it's just like anything, right? Like the first learning curve is like the hardest part and then kind of like as you figure it out, it's like driving a car, right? Like when we first drive, we turn 16 in the US at least, like your first time driving a car, you're going to be kind of like slower, like you're kind of like nervous, you're kind of like, yeah, it takes longer to get everywhere, right? But pretty soon now we're just like getting in a car. you know, and you can pretty much close your eyes and get to where you want to be. Right.
11:19 Ellie Hugdahl Not even realize it's easy. It's like second nature.
11:21 Cody McGuffie Now I can run my shop totally, but you can't get there without practicing upfront.
11:27 Ellie Hugdahl Exactly.
11:27 Cody McGuffie It's just impossible. And so I try to, yeah, I love that. Talk about that more. Like talk about maybe a failure that you've had in your, in your Etsy journey.
11:37 Ellie Hugdahl Yeah. So my shop in the beginning, I knew nothing about, um, copywriting or trademark infringement or anything about that. And so my shop, I think in the beginning was shut down like two or three times and they would suspend my shop and it would be closed for like a month. And then all of my traction would be gone. And I would have to like figure out, I have to email them a whole bunch and eventually they do get your shop back. But, um, just being really careful about trademarks and copyright infringement, they are, they're super strict about that. And you don't, that's nothing that you want to mess with or have your shop shut down for.
12:14 Cody McGuffie I love that. And I think it's cool you say that now too, because ever be, we also like noticed like trademark monitor or trademark infringement, like being a major thing, especially on Etsy, especially if you're generating 150 grand in a year, that's like meaningful income. Now it's not like, Oh, five, you know, a hundred bucks. Like that's like meaningful income. And if you could avoid a trademark infringement, especially on accident, like just do it.
12:37 Ellie Hugdahl Yeah, exactly. So I love that you have that tool on there now, because I use that all the time just to be, just to be sure.
12:43 Cody McGuffie That's cool. And we're, by the way, it's in beta phase. So like, it's, we're making improvements to it too. Um, but that's, that's really, really cool. And okay. So five hours a week. So if someone, I'm sorry, five hours a day when you're first starting minimum, probably, um, which it's interesting. Cause like when you say that's a lot, it is a lot of course for an Etsy seller, but like if you were to focus on like your full-time job, by the way, if you're like getting like working at a coffee shop, for example, you had to be there for like eight to nine hours a day.
13:10 Ellie Hugdahl Yeah.
13:11 Cody McGuffie And so we choose your hard type of thing, right? Like build your dream or work for someone else's.
13:19 Ellie Hugdahl Exactly. And you're just doing all of the work upfront right now and you're going to get paid for it later. So as long as you don't quit, you will get paid for all this work. It's just, you don't, you're not seeing the numbers right now.
13:28 Cody McGuffie I love that. Like the compounding thing, right?
13:31 Ellie Hugdahl Exactly.
13:32 Cody McGuffie Yeah. The coolest part about it is for selling on Etsy, you're really selling online or really any skill really. But, Like if you put this work up front, like this thing, all these skills that you learn now, they like roll over to the next thing that you do, whether it's, you know, selling on Etsy, selling on Amazon, selling on Walmart, selling in a coffee shop, buying a coffee shop, like all of it rolls into the next venture. Would you agree?
13:58 Ellie Hugdahl Oh, definitely. I use, I mean, Canva, obviously I use across the board now for all of my branding, for all my logos, like all of my social media for my coffee shop is all on Canva. So it's just, it's really neat that it does actually translate to the next business.
14:12 Cody McGuffie That's so cool. And your coffee shop business, by the way, is going to roll into the next venture that you do. Maybe it's a second coffee shop or whatever it is, a coffee brand maybe. Right.
14:20 Ellie Hugdahl Exactly.
14:20 Cody McGuffie That's so cool. Um, tell us about the coffee shop business. So tell us maybe like inspire someone that maybe is, they want to use it like you, like they want to use Etsy as a vehicle to get to the next, next thing that they, their, their true passion maybe. How did that come about? Maybe walk us through that transaction.
14:40 Ellie Hugdahl Yeah. So I have always wanted to own a coffee shop. It's been my dream since I first started in coffee. When I was 16, I worked at a little coffee shop stand drive through. We have them on every single corner here in Seattle. So I knew that that was my dream. One day I was going to have a coffee stand and fast forward to, um, I was 20, 24, 24 when I bought it. Um, just this past year and I reached out to all of the, um, my shop owners that I knew and like my little community. I was like, Hey, if you ever wanted to sell your shop, like I'm looking to buy, just let me know. And one of them actually reached back out to me and we worked out a seller financing deal. And I mean, from there it's kind of history, but I purchased it in December of this year, 2023.
15:24 Cody McGuffie That is so cool. Congratulations.
15:27 Ellie Hugdahl Thank you.
15:27 Cody McGuffie Thank you. That's awesome. I, it sounds fun and I know that that's like super, super exciting because that's something that you've been wanting to do for so long and you actually manifested it and it became a reality, which I think is probably the most special part of the whole thing is like you actually have this like goal and then eventually just like you took the action and then it happened.
15:47 Ellie Hugdahl Exactly. Exactly. I knew it would happen. I didn't know how, and I put in the work and somehow got there.
15:52 Cody McGuffie Always. It's like we're so surprised when this happens as humans, right? But every time it happens. Yeah, right?
16:00 Ellie Hugdahl But then you look back and connect the dots and you're like, that's why I did this and this and it led me to this, you know? Even like I broke my leg so I could start Etsy so I could have the funds to purchase this, you know?
16:10 Cody McGuffie Totally. Can we talk about the mindset maybe of a business owner? Because you're a go-getter very clearly and You set your vision on something, something that you want in your life, and you take action and make it happen somehow. How do you get that mindset? And how do you program yourself to be like that person? Is this something that you work on daily? Are you just born with this naturally?
16:40 Ellie Hugdahl How does one do that? It's a daily. It's a daily work in progress. I've always been a go-getter and a hustler, and I knew that I wanted to own a business one day. I knew that was always my dream. Definitely, mindset is going to be a daily battle, though. There's some days that I feel like getting up and crushing it, and then days like yesterday, I wanted to lay in bed all day. So, it's not like I'm 100% all the time, but it's just showing up. Improving every single day. You can only fail if you quit and that's my motto and so I just don't quit I just keep going.
17:16 Cody McGuffie I love that. I'm very very cool. What are you reading? What do you typically read? What do you consume on a daily basis in order to like keep this mindset? Like you mentioned it's a daily battle. How do you make sure you're ready?
17:26 Ellie Hugdahl Yeah, I read every single day and then I listen to podcasts every day on my way to the shop and on my way home and at the gym. So I listen to like two hours of podcasts every day. I don't have a lot of like sitting down downtime And so I take advantage of all that in between time, like when I'm getting ready, when I'm going on a walk, when I'm on the treadmill, like I take advantage of all that time. What are you listening to? What podcast?
17:49 Cody McGuffie Yeah.
17:50 Ellie Hugdahl I love the Ed Milet show is one of my favorites. Um, he's really great on interviews, a lot of different mindset, um, individuals and then female founder world is a great one for business to business or business to consumer. She interviews a lot of different founders. Um, and then obviously the ever be podcast, listen to that one all the time. And yeah, those are my probably, I love those ones.
18:14 Cody McGuffie That's so cool. And by the way, like I listened to my last podcast as well. I haven't as much recently, but I know for sure that like years ago I was like consuming that on a daily basis and he just brings on like awesome builders and people that have accomplished things really just like, that's the thing was we're trying to accomplish our mission and we need to program our brain to actually do that thing. Yeah. I think we as builders, as creators, as founders of our businesses, this isn't going to happen for us. We have to actually create the reality. And in order to do that, you need to program our brain to think a certain way. When we see problems, we need to turn it into opportunities. And that's what you've done with breaking your leg, for example, having no income all of a sudden. A lot of people, unfortunately, will turn that situation into a worse situation and they'll say, take the victimhood mentality of saying, Oh, I can't do it because of this. I can't do it because of this. What approach did you take to that?
19:15 Ellie Hugdahl Um, I took it as a challenge that I was going to take on. And when my back was against the wall, I just, I knew that I had to figure it out. And so,
19:23 Cody McGuffie yeah i love that super inspiring honestly thank you no totally for anybody listening to this too i'm sure it's super inspiring because us as humans with families with family members like just just being a human being we have problems on daily basis right so many problems constantly going on chaotic you know lives that we live but in order to like filter through all that stuff we have to be programmed in a certain way we have to program ourselves in a certain way by Consuming like positive content like helps us get us to our goal.
19:57 Ellie Hugdahl That is so true You have to be very careful and cautious of what you're consuming because anything that you're consuming is going to have an influence on you So even if it's just the music that you're listening to or the people that you're around or your co-workers that all influences you I love that and I feel like everything that I know that you would say that because you're a humble person you probably say like I'm still work in progress like you mentioned but Like the majority of stuff that you mentioned to me just now
20:23 Cody McGuffie was we're all positive you going to the gym listening to podcasts and they weren't like crime podcasts nothing wrong with that but like there weren't they weren't like non-growth podcasts they were like business podcasts right yeah exactly it sounds like you're reading we didn't talk about the books but i'm sure they're business books or some sort of like inspirational books and then Um, obviously you're building a business, which takes a long time. Every podcast, like all we do is talk about opportunity and the positivity in the world. And like, we don't sit here and talk about how Etsy is screwing us over and how e-commerce is dying and how print on demand is saturated. Like we don't talk about that because we don't believe that.
20:59 Ellie Hugdahl Exactly. We don't give that any energy.
21:02 Cody McGuffie No energy. Exactly.
21:04 Ellie Hugdahl No, totally.
21:05 Cody McGuffie And we only have energy to things that like are positive. And because of that, we win.
21:11 Ellie Hugdahl Yeah, exactly. Exactly. There's no other option.
21:16 Cody McGuffie So cool. Um, the reason why it's so cool is because I think probably the people listening to this right now are winners, right? Whether they've won in the past, maybe not yet or, but for sure they're going to win, right? Because they're consuming things like this. And then you just gave them another couple of podcasts that they should go listen to too. And I think that's, that's super cool. Um, what's next for you?
21:43 Ellie Hugdahl I want to open a million more coffee shops and stands all over. So that's my next venture.
21:48 Cody McGuffie Okay. So podcast, unity, unity, coffee. Okay, cool. So that's your passion. It sounds like, and that's still your passion after owning one.
21:58 Ellie Hugdahl Yes. Yes. That's the goal. Just keep expanding that brand.
22:02 Cody McGuffie Very cool. Are you, um, primarily, is it going to be like coffee stand or coffee shops or are they going to be like, do you have, are you going to own your own brand one day or like, how's that going to work?
22:12 Ellie Hugdahl Yeah. Primarily stay with the coffee stands. We specialize in monthly, um, drink drops. So that's kind of like our thing. So just keep expanding all over the area. The Pacific Northwest is where I mainly want to focus.
22:26 Cody McGuffie I love that. So cool. And how about Etsy, Etsy goals, Etsy business? Is that eventually going to be like, you'll keep it going until you probably get, you know, your coffee businesses continues to grow so much or what's the goal with that? Definitely.
22:39 Ellie Hugdahl I love helping other people, um, start their Etsy. So I recently started doing that as well. Um, coaching other people on how to start their online business and on Etsy. So that's another passion. And I'm working on that as well.
22:51 Cody McGuffie Oh, cool. So you're like coaching people and helping somebody that's like Ellie, maybe three or four years ago, you're actually helping that person.
22:59 Ellie Hugdahl Yes, exactly.
23:01 Cody McGuffie Oh, cool. That's awesome. And like, how do you help them?
23:05 Ellie Hugdahl Um, so I'll do shop audits or I'll do one-on-one calls with them. Um, and then I'm working on my course right now as well. So that will be out probably in a few months.
23:13 Cody McGuffie I love that for your, let's maybe talk about, I know we kind of skipped past this cause your story was so interesting. Um, but your Etsy shop specifically, like how did you find your first product to sell or your first niche to sell in? Um, was it, I know you mentioned jewelry originally and then print on demand, which everybody's mind goes to shirts and apparel and stuff and print on demand. Where would you recommend someone starting if they're brand-new le like three years ago, right? Like where would they what kind of products should even be thinking about and all that stuff?
23:45 Ellie Hugdahl So honestly, I wouldn't even really worry about t-shirts now in 2024 I think that there's so many other products print-on-demand has expanded so much that you can sell Basically anything with print-on-demand now, I mean there's jewelry. There's beach towels. There's like pet crew necks now, there's mugs, tumblers, like whatever you want to sell, it's out there. And so t-shirts is a much more saturated product to try to break into right now, that if I personally were opening up a brand new shop, I would break into these new products that Printify and Printful are releasing almost every day.
24:22 Cody McGuffie I love that. Um, and when did you, did you tend to be like more of a general store, like selling the products to lots of different types of customers? Or did you like niche into like, I'm going to sell to hiking people, right. Or to fishing people. Like, did you type, did you go in the niche route? Which way did you go?
24:39 Ellie Hugdahl I went more general. So I just wrote down my target, um, audience and my target ideal customer. And I was like, what would this one person want to wear or, um, see on my shop. And then I made products based off of that.
24:52 Cody McGuffie Got it, so you're serving a specific type of person. You've kind of went that route.
24:55 Ellie Hugdahl Yes, specific audience.
24:56 Cody McGuffie Okay, cool. Some people would call that niche, right? Because you're trying to target that niche. But you sold multiple products though to that person. Is that correct? Exactly. Yep. Very cool. I love that. I think that's a better way. I'm not saying that one way is necessarily worse than the other, I guess. I'm kind of saying that. But that's a better, more sustainable approach of serving them. Exactly.
25:13 Ellie Hugdahl Because I know that target audience is always going to be there. It's not really a trend that's going to go away.
25:20 Cody McGuffie Exactly. Yeah. And for anybody listening, that's like you, for example, you love hiking, um, right. And you would probably make a whole bunch of products serving that hiking person, right. That maybe it's a mom that hikes and she has three kids and she like enjoys going on hiking every weekend. Like you'd be selling shirts, you'd be selling a mug, hiking mug, shirt, hiking shirt, hiking hats. Right. And like funny quotes about hiking probably. Right.
25:46 Ellie Hugdahl Yeah, exactly.
25:47 Cody McGuffie Cool. Um, golden. This is great. Anything else that you feel like you want to share with that new seller who's maybe has zero sales or maybe they have like five sales and they just like want to give up right now. What would you say to that person right now?
26:07 Ellie Hugdahl Very challenging in the beginning when you're putting all this time and effort into something and nobody's even clicking on your listings or you're not making any money. Or if you do make money, it's like pennies. Just know that like you are doing all this work up front and it will pay you for years and years to come. So if you don't quit, you cannot fail. Just stay consistent and keep logging on to Etsy every single day, at least for 10 minutes, because they will reward those active shops.
26:35 Cody McGuffie I love that. Last question, because I forgot to ask this, and I'm really curious about it now. How many listings did you time? How many listings do you have, I guess? Were you talking thousands, hundreds, ten?
26:47 Ellie Hugdahl Today?
26:49 Cody McGuffie Sure, yeah.
26:49 Ellie Hugdahl Today I have 120. 120? Yeah, so not a lot. Cool.
26:54 Cody McGuffie I think that's really exciting to hear, because something looks like that. Okay, I'm happy I asked that now, because most brand name sellers have thousands of listings. Yeah. And you don't. And you've still been like high level of success in 2020. And obviously you're, you've ramping down a little bit, but the point is like, you don't have to necessarily have thousands of listings in order to be successful. You could, you could actually just focus on bestselling products and actually just make your products somehow better, better offering, better value. And you could do it with less listings.
27:25 Ellie Hugdahl As soon as I found a design or a product that worked, I just honed into that design and I ran with that.
27:30 Cody McGuffie I love that. Use Everbee, use Canva, you guys, if you're listening to this. Use whatever other tools that you feel like can serve that type of purpose that Ellie's mentioning. Ellie, thank you for coming on and sharing this. Where can people find you?
27:45 Ellie Hugdahl So, primarily I'm on TikTok. My TikTok is moneywithellie, or YouTube. I post every single week on there about Etsy and growth and e-com and business, and that is my name, Ellie Hugdall.
27:56 Cody McGuffie I love it. We'll link down to your TikTok and also YouTube in the show notes or the channel, wherever, or the video notes, wherever you're watching this. Ellie, thank you again for coming on. Seriously, I appreciate it.
28:07 Ellie Hugdahl Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
28:09 Cody McGuffie Yeah, of course. All right, see you later.
28:11 Ellie Hugdahl Bye.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yeah. Total revenue, I've done about 190,000. The lastyear has been a lot lower because I've been focusing on my coffee shop. Etsyhasn't really been my primary focus, but in Q4, I'm definitely going to startlisting a lot more listings and diving into those trends because that's where Ireally saw success in 2020.
Cody McGuffie:
Hey, there. Welcome back to The Etsy Seller Podcast. I'myour host, Cody McGuffie. Today, we have Ellie joining us to inspire us abouther Etsy selling journey. I got to say this is an awesome episode because sheis a total hustler when it comes to making money and finding success. Shestarted in 2020 selling products like jewelry and other things and realizedthat it wasn't really for her. And then she discovered this print on demandthing.
She immediately fell in love with this type of businessmodel and this venture. Now, she's a thriving Etsy seller. As always, thispodcast is brought to you by EverBee. EverBee is the all-in-one businessplatform that helps Etsy sellers find winning products, grow their business,get more sales. You'll be able to quickly understand what people are searchingfor, what they're buying, so you can do just that. You could sell people whatthey actually are already purchasing. It's a platform that you guys need to beusing to grow your Etsy business. Sign up for free everbee.io. Let's jump in.Ellie, what's up? How are you?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Hello. Good, good. Thank you for having me.
Cody McGuffie:
Super happy to have you here. So we talked a little bitbefore this, so thank you very much for coming on and sharing your story. Andyou do have a really cool story that a lot of people can relate to. Andstemming from a traumatic injury to no job, to selling on Etsy, print on demand,and then now you're now running your own business, which we'll get into that ina bit. Can you tell a little bit about who you are and who is Ellie andintroduce yourself?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yeah, definitely. So my name is Ellie. I am a full-timeentrepreneur now. I got started on Etsy in 2020. I actually broke my leg and Iwas basically forced into finding another source of income because I was apersonal trainer and I was also running a coffee shop at the time, so I had tofind another source of income. I didn't really have a choice even just to paymy rent. And so I found the world of Etsy and print on demand, and I just fellin love with this business because it was so passive. I always knew I wanted toown a business, but I didn't really want to hold all the inventory.
Cody McGuffie:
Awesome.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Print on demand was just such an amazing opportunity thatfell into my lap.
Cody McGuffie:
That's amazing. Can you talk to us a little bit about howyou actually started your Etsy journey and what even brought you to Etsy tobegin with?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Definitely. I actually started off selling tangibleproducts. So I actually started off selling jewelry. And so I had a supplierthat I found over on Alibaba. They would ship me the jewelry and then I would physicallyship it out every single time I got an order. I just realized that's not thebusiness model that I wanted to sustain for a long period of time. And so Itransitioned eventually onto print on demand. I started watching coachesYouTube videos, listen to podcasts on my way to work, all this stuff until Ilearned everything that I possibly could about print on demand.
Cody McGuffie:
Yeah, I love that. I think that's what attracts a lot ofpeople to Etsy is that drop shipping type of model from AliExpress, somethinglike that too. Not everybody, but a lot of people. And we don't even realizewhen we first do this, that's actually against Etsy's terms of service. Andthen we realize this and we're like, "Oh, okay, got it. What isallowed?" And then you find print on demand, which is like a modifiedversion of dropshipping, but it's what Etsy allows and they actually like it.So it's interesting that you kind of came from that background, but I couldtell that you came from that hustler mindset of just like, "I need tobuild a business, I need to income, let's go and do it," type of thing.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yeah, definitely. Just figure it out. I have to.
Cody McGuffie:
That's so cool. Crazy. And before Etsy, what were youdoing for a living?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Before Etsy, I was doing multiple things. So I was runninga coffee shop, I was a barista, and then I was also a personal trainer. Soworking multiple jobs, hustler. I've always worked 24/7. I went to school forbusiness. I knew I wanted to own a business eventually, but I didn't know whatit looked like.
Cody McGuffie:
Yeah, dor sure. And fast forward just for a second andwe'll kind of go back, but what are you doing now? What business are you in nowthat you really, really wanted to be in? You already shared with me.
Ellie Hugdahl:
So I just purchased a coffee shop. I own Unity Coffee. Weare a drive-through coffee shop and it's always been my dream to own a coffeeshop. So Etsy actually made that possible because I used that income topurchase my coffee shop.
Cody McGuffie:
That's wild, honestly. That's so cool. And it's sovaluable for anybody listening to this too because maybe Etsy isn't the end allbe all. It's not vehicle maybe, but it can be a vehicle to get you where yourgoal is. That's the cool thing about it.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Exactly. And that's how I viewed it, and it still pays mybills on the side.
Cody McGuffie:
Gotcha. So you still have your Etsy shop?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yes, I do.
Cody McGuffie:
I love it. Cool. How are you able to maintain your Etsyshop and also your coffee shop at the same time?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Because my Etsy shop is a couple years old now, it's moreof just upkeep. So I really don't have to do much on my Etsy shop. I stillupload listings like here or there, or going into Q4. I'm definitely going todive deeper into my shop because I know that's where sales start to pick up,but for the most part, the last five months, it's been extremely passive. I login 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there just to reply to comments, or maybe I'lljust upload a listing or update one.
Cody McGuffie:
Amazing.
Ellie Hugdahl:
[inaudible 00:05:55]
Cody McGuffie:
You shared this with me too, but your story was coolbecause you broke your leg to share with everybody. You're okay with me sharingthat?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yeah, of course.
Cody McGuffie:
Okay, cool. No income anymore pretty much, right?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yeah, no, pretty much I was stuck at home in a boot.
Cody McGuffie:
Gosh. And then you decided to go all in on this Etsy printon demand type of thing. And I think you shared that you started using EverBeeto fuel this fire that you've already got started with Etsy print on demand?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Exactly.
Cody McGuffie:
And how did EverBee play into this role?
Ellie Hugdahl:
So EverBee really excelled. My shop success doubled mynumbers in a couple of months after I learned how to use it correctly. Andafter I learned how to read the numbers on EverBee and in conjunction withother tools too, I was able to look at what listings were selling for othersellers, which ones were recent trends that were working for them, whatproducts were working, and then also calculate the profit margins on eachproduct as well.
Cody McGuffie:
That's awesome. I appreciate you sharing that too becauseso many people... EverBee is a big community now. We have over like 200,000people using EverBee and it's so cool. I do wish that every story was yourstory. We have a lot of people, tens of thousands of people that have a verysimilar story, but then we have tens of thousands that don't have a similarstory. As the founder, I'm just like, it breaks my heart to not see everybodywin when I know that there's enough room for everybody to win... But maybe theyjust haven't put the puzzle pieces together.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Definitely.
Cody McGuffie:
You mentioned reading numbers and using it correctly. Howdo you use EverBee to where you can actually turn it into like, "Oh, Idouble my revenue because..."
Ellie Hugdahl:
Right. Great question. You have to read the numbers in away that is relevant to your shop and your niche. So looking at other sellerswho are selling the same products or similar niches, what are they doingcorrectly? What keywords are they using? What keywords are overly saturated orwhich ones are newer trends? And just reading the numbers that way. For mepersonally, I only look at listings that were uploaded within the last threemonths, and that way I know that the trends are still relevant and they're notoverly saturated yet.
Cody McGuffie:
Got it. And so for anybody listening, you go to listingage and you'll sort by listing age, or maybe you use the filter and you put maxthree.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Right.
Cody McGuffie:
Got it. And then you sort by revenue or total sales orwhatever you want to do at that point.
Ellie Hugdahl:
So I want the top revenue at top, and then a key productwould be listed within the last month, and I know that that would be a relevantproduct to dive into.
Cody McGuffie:
Got it. So basically you're seeing trends that in the lastthree months of like, "Oh, people seem to be buying this type of..."If it's shirts or mugs, they seem to be buying this type of design. So in thelast three months, this thing's got a thousand sales. Oh, that's something Ishould be potentially selling. Something like that.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yep, exactly. And then I know it's still relevant.
Cody McGuffie:
I love that. Okay, cool. Very, very awesome strategy, bythe way.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Thank you.
Cody McGuffie:
Now, let's go back a little. Well, maybe let's go forwardfor a second. How much shared revenue numbers with us? What have you done inthe last 12 months or total revenue. It doesn't really matter, but exciteanybody?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yeah, total revenue, I've done about 190,000. The lastyear has been a lot lower because I've been focusing on my coffee shop. Etsyhasn't really been my primary focus, but in Q4, I'm definitely going to startlisting a lot more listings and diving into those trends because that's where Ireally saw success in 2020.
Cody McGuffie:
I love that. So in the past three years, 190K in revenue?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yeah.
Cody McGuffie:
Cool. And did you have-
Ellie Hugdahl:
My first year was 150.
Cody McGuffie:
Oh, nice. That's awesome. Cool. And that's when you wereactually focusing on Etsy?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Full-time, Etsy seller, yeah.
Cody McGuffie:
Yep. How much time do you think people, if they werefull-time? Because there's some people that are like, "Oh, I want to belike Ellie and I want to use it as a vehicle to get to my business." Butthen some people are like, "Oh, no. I wish that I could just have Ellie'ssuccess and I would just continue to be an Etsy seller. That'd be a dream forme." How much time per day, per week should they be putting into theirEtsy shop if they want Ellie in 2020. How much time did you put in per week?
Ellie Hugdahl:
A lot. I put a lot of work upfront. It was probably fourto five hours a day that I was learning Etsy, but I was doing it at my otherjob, so when I was at the coffee shop, I could work in the back on my Etsy andjust sneak back there. So it was probably a few hours a day that I was workingon it in the beginning, those first couple months where everything is hard andchallenging and you don't know anything. And then after you get over thatlearning curve, it gets a lot easier. And then I was only spending maybe anhour or two hours a week on it and I was working on vacation, working on thebeach. It was so much more passive after you get past that hard learning phase.
Cody McGuffie:
I love that. I mean, it's just like anything, right? Thefirst learning curve is the hardest part. And then as you figure it out, it'slike driving a car. When we first drive, when we turn 16 in the US, at leastyour first time driving a car, you're going to be slower. You're nervous. Ittakes longer to get everywhere, but pretty soon now we're just getting in a carand you can pretty much close your eyes and get to where you want to be, noteven realize.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Exactly. It's easy. It's second nature now. I can run myshop.
Cody McGuffie:
Totally. But you can't get there without practicingupfront.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Exactly.
Cody McGuffie:
It's just impossible. And so I try to...
Ellie Hugdahl:
And failing.
Cody McGuffie:
And fail forward.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yeah.
Cody McGuffie:
I love that. Talk about that more. Talk about maybe afailure that you've had in your Etsy journey.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yeah. So my shop, in the beginning, I knew nothing aboutcopywriting or trademark infringement or anything about that. So my shop, Ithink in the beginning was shut down two or three times and they would suspendmy shop and it would be closed for a month and then all of my traction would begone, and I would have to figure out. I have to email them a whole bunch andeventually they do get your shop back, but just being really careful abouttrademarks and copyright infringement, they're super strict about that, andthat's nothing that you want to mess with or have your shop shut down for.
Cody McGuffie:
I love that. And I think it's cool you say that now too,because EverBee we also notice trademark monitor or trademark infringementbeing a major thing, especially on Etsy, especially if you're generating 150grand in a year. That's meaningful income now. It's not like, "Oh, 100bucks. That's meaningful income." And if you could avoid a trademarkinfringement, especially on accident, just do it.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yeah, exactly. So I love that you have that tool on therenow, because I use that all the time just to be sure.
Cody McGuffie:
That's cool. And by the way, it's in beta phase, so we'remaking improvements to it too. But that's really, really cool. Okay. So fivehours a week. So if someone... I'm sorry, five hours a day when you're firststarting minimum probably, which it's interesting when you say that's a lot, itis a lot of course for an Etsy seller, but if you were to focus on yourfull-time job, by the way, if you're working at a coffee shop for example, youhad to be there for eight to nine hours a day. So choose your hard type ofthing. Build your dream or build someone else's.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Exactly. And you're just doing all of the work upfrontright now, and you're going to get paid for it later. So as long as you don'tquit, you will get paid for all this work. You're not seeing the numbers rightnow.
Cody McGuffie:
I love that. The compounding thing, right?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Exactly, yeah.
Cody McGuffie:
The coolest part about it is for selling on Etsy. You'rereally selling online or really any skill really, but if you put this workupfront, all these skills that you learn now, they roll over to the next thingthat you do, whether it's selling on Etsy, selling on Amazon, selling onWalmart, selling in a coffee shop, buying a coffee shop, all of it rolls intothe next venture. Would you agree?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Oh, definitely. I use mean Canva obviously. I use acrossthe board now for all of my branding, for all my logos. All of my social mediafor my coffee shop is all on Canva, so it is really neat that it does actuallytranslate to the next business.
Cody McGuffie:
That's so cool. And your coffee shop business, by the way,is going to roll into the next venture that you do. Maybe it's a second coffeeshop or whatever it is, a coffee brand maybe, right?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Exactly.
Cody McGuffie:
That's so cool. Tell us about the coffee shop business. Sotell us, maybe inspire someone that maybe is they want to use it. They want touse Etsy as a vehicle to get to the next thing that their true passion maybe.How did that come about? Maybe walk us through that transaction.
Ellie Hugdahl:
So I have always wanted to own a coffee shop. It's been mydream since I first started in coffee when I was 16. I worked at a littlecoffee shop, stand drive through. We have them on every single corner here inSeattle. So I knew that that was my dream. One day I was going to have a coffeestand and fast forward to I was 24 when I bought it just this past year, and Ireached out to all of my shop owners that I knew in my little community. I waslike, "Hey, if you ever wanted to sell your shop, I'm looking to buy. Justlet me know." And one of them actually reached back out to me and weworked out a seller financing deal. I mean, from there it's history, but Ipurchased it in December of this year, 2023.
Cody McGuffie:
That is so cool. Congratulations.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Thank you, thank you.
Cody McGuffie:
That's awesome. It sounds fun. I know that that's super,super exciting because that's something that you've been wanting to do for solong and you actually manifested it and became a reality, which I think isprobably the most special part of the whole thing is you actually had this goaland then eventually just you took the action and then it happened.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Exactly, exactly. I knew it would happen. I didn't knowhow and I put in the work and somehow got there.
Cody McGuffie:
Always. We were so surprised when this happens as humans,but every time it happens.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Right. But then you can look back and connect the dots andyou're like, "That's why I did this and this, and it led me to this."Even I broke my leg so I could start Etsy so I could have the funds to purchasethis.
Cody McGuffie:
Totally. Can we talk about the mindset maybe of a businessowner? Because you're a go getter very clearly, and you set your vision onsomething, something that you want in your life and you take action and make ithappen somehow. How do you get that mindset and how do you program yourself tobe like that person? Is it something that you work on daily? Are you just bornwith this naturally? How does one do that?
Ellie Hugdahl:
It's a daily work in progress. I've always been ago-getter and a hustler. I knew that I wanted to own a business one day. I knewthat was always my dream. Definitely. Mindset is going to be a daily battlethough. There's some days that I feel like getting up and crushing it, and thendays like yesterday, I wanted to lay in bed all day. So it's not like I'm ahundred percent all the time, but it's just showing up and improving everysingle day. You can only fail if you quit and that's my motto. And so I justdon't quit. I just keep going.
Cody McGuffie:
I love that. Very, very cool. What are you reading? Whatdo you typically read? What do you consume on a daily basis in order to keepthis mindset? Like you mentioned, it's a daily battle. How do you make sureyou're ready?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yeah. I read every single day and then I listen topodcasts every day on my way to the shop and on my way home and at the gym. SoI listen to two hours of podcast every day. I don't have a lot of sitting downdowntime, and so I take advantage of all that in between time when I'm gettingready, when I'm going on a walk, when I'm on the treadmill, I take advantage ofall that time.
Cody McGuffie:
What are you listening to?
Ellie Hugdahl:
What podcast?
Cody McGuffie:
Yeah, podcast.
Ellie Hugdahl:
I love the Ed Mylett show is one of my favorites. He'sreally great on interviews, a lot of different mindset individuals. And thenFemale Founder World is a great one for business to business or business toconsumer. She interviews a lot of different founders and then obviously theEverBee podcast. I listen to that one all the time. And yeah, those are myprobably, I love those ones.
Cody McGuffie:
Love that. That's so cool. And by the way, I listen to EdMylett's podcast as well. I haven't as much recently. It's great. But I knowfor sure years ago I was consuming that on a daily basis and it just brings onawesome builders and people that have accomplished things. Really just likethat's the thing was we're trying to accomplish our mission and we need toprogram our brain to actually do that thing.
I think we as builders, as creators, as founders of ourbusinesses, this isn't going to happen for us. We have to actually create thereality. And in order to do that, you need to program our brain to think acertain way. When we see problems, we need to turn it into opportunities. Andthat's what you've done with breaking your leg, for example, having no income.All of a sudden, a lot of people unfortunately, will turn that situation into aworse situation and they'll take the victimhood mentality of saying, "Oh,I can't do it because of this. I can't do it because of this." Whatapproach did you take to that?
Ellie Hugdahl:
I took it as a challenge that I was going to take on, andwhen my back was against the wall, I knew that I had to figure it out.
Cody McGuffie:
I love that. Super inspiring, honestly.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Thank you.
Cody McGuffie:
Yeah, totally. For anybody listening to this too, I'm sureit's super inspiring because us as humans, with families, with family members,just being a human being, we have problems on daily basis, so many problemsconstantly going on chaotic lives that we live. But in order to filter throughall of that stuff, we have to be programmed in a certain way. We have toprogram ourselves in a certain way by consuming positive content helps us getus to our goal.
Ellie Hugdahl:
That is so true. You have to be very careful and cautiousof what you're consuming because anything that you're consuming is going tohave an influence on you. So even if it's just the music that you're listeningto or the people that you're around or your coworkers, that all influences you.
Cody McGuffie:
I love that. And I feel like everything that... I knowthat you would say that because a humble person, and you probably say like,"Oh, I'm still work in progress," like you mentioned. But themajority of stuff that you mentioned to me just now was we're all positive. Yougoing into the gym, listening to podcasts, and they weren't like crimepodcasts. Nothing wrong with that, but they weren't like non-growth podcasts.They were like business podcasts, right?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yeah, exactly.
Cody McGuffie:
It sounds like you were reading. We didn't talk about thebooks, but I'm sure they're business books or some inspirational books. Andthen obviously, you're building a business which takes a long time. Every podcast,all we do is talk about opportunity and the positivity in the world, and wedon't sit here and talk about how Etsy is screwing us over and how e-commerceis dying and how print on demand is saturated. We don't talk about that becausewe don't believe that.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Exactly. We don't give that any energy.
Cody McGuffie:
No energy, exactly.
Ellie Hugdahl:
No.
Cody McGuffie:
Totally. And we only give energy to things that arepositive, and because of that, we win.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yeah, exactly. There's no other option.
Cody McGuffie:
So cool. The reason why it's so cool is because I thinkprobably the people listening to this right now are winners, right? Whetherthey've won in the past, maybe not yet, but for sure they're going to winbecause they're consuming things like this. And then you just gave them anothercouple podcasts that they should go listen to too. And I think that's supercool. What's next for you?
Ellie Hugdahl:
I want to open a million more coffee shops and stands allover, so that's my next venture.
Cody McGuffie:
Okay.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Expand Unity.
Cody McGuffie:
Unity Coffee. Okay, cool. So that's your passion, itsounds like. And that's still your passion after owning one?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yes. That's the goal. Just keep expanding that brand.
Cody McGuffie:
Very cool. Primarily, is it going to be coffee shops orare they going to be like... Are you not on your own brand one day or how'sthat going to work?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yeah, primarily stay with the coffee stands. We specializein monthly drink drops, so that's our thing. So just keep expanding all overthe area. The Pacific Northwest is where I mainly want to focus.
Cody McGuffie:
I love that. So cool. And how about Etsy goals? Etsybusiness, is that eventually going to be like you'll keep it going until youprobably get your coffee businesses continues to grow so much, or what's thegoal with that?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Definitely. I love helping other people start their Etsy,so I recently started doing that as well, coaching other people on how to starttheir online business and on Etsy. So that's another passion and I'm working onthat as well.
Cody McGuffie:
Oh, cool. So you're coaching people and helping somebodythat's like, Ellie, maybe three or four years ago, you're actually helping thatperson?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yes, exactly.
Cody McGuffie:
Oh, cool. That's awesome. How do you help them?
Ellie Hugdahl:
So I'll do shop audits or I'll do one-on-one calls withthem, and then I'm working on a course right now as well, so that will be outprobably in a few months.
Cody McGuffie:
I love that. Maybe let's talk about... I know we skippedpast this because your story was so interesting, but your Etsy shopspecifically, how did you find your first product to sell or your first niche tosell in? I know you mentioned jewelry originally, and then print on demand,which everybody's mind goes to, shirts and apparel and stuff and print ondemand. Where would you recommend someone starting if they're brand new. Ellielike three years ago, Right? What kind of products should they even be thinkingabout and all that stuff?
Ellie Hugdahl:
So honestly, I wouldn't even really worry about T-shirtsnow in 2024. I think that there's so many other products, print on demand hasexpanded so much that you can sell basically anything with print on demand now.I mean, there's jewelry, there's beach towels, there's pet crew necks now.There's mugs, tumblers, whatever you want to sell, it's up there. And soT-shirts is a much more saturated product to try to break into right now thatif I personally were opening up a brand new shop, I would break into these newproducts that Printify and Printful are releasing almost every day.
Cody McGuffie:
I love that. Did you tend to be more of a general storelike selling the products to lots of different types of customers? Or did youniche into like, "I'm going to sell to hiking people or to fishingpeople?" Did you go in the niche route? Which way did you go?
Ellie Hugdahl:
I went more general. So I just wrote down my targetaudience and my target ideal customer, and I was like, "What would thisone person want to wear or see on my shop?" And then I made products basedoff of that.
Cody McGuffie:
Got it. So you're serving a specific type of person you'vewent that route?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yes, specific audience.
Cody McGuffie:
Okay, cool. Some people call that niche, right? Becauseyou're trying to target that niche, but you sold multiple products though tothat person, is that correct?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Exactly. Yep.
Cody McGuffie:
Very cool. I love that. I think that's a better way. Notsaying the one way is necessarily worse than the other, I guess saying that.But that's a better, more sustainable approach of serving one.
Ellie Hugdahl:
I know that target audience is always going to be there.It's not really a trend that's going to go away.
Cody McGuffie:
Exactly. Totally. And for anybody listening that's likeyou, for example, you love hiking and you would probably make a whole bunch ofproducts serving that hiking person that maybe it's a mom that hikes and shehas three kids and she enjoys going on hiking every weekend. You'd be sellingshirts, you'd be selling a hiking mug, hiking shirt, hiking hats, and funnyquotes about hiking probably, right?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yeah, exactly.
Cody McGuffie:
Cool. Golden, this is great. Anything else that you feellike you want to share with that new seller who's maybe has zero sales or maybethey have five sales and they just want to give up right now? What would yousay to that person right now?
Ellie Hugdahl:
It's very challenging. In the beginning, when you'reputting all this time and effort into something and nobody's even clicking onyour listings or you're not making any money, or if you do make money, it'slike pennies. Just know that you are doing all this work upfront and it willpay you for years and years to come. So if you don't quit, you cannot fail.Just stay consistent. And keep logging onto Etsy every single day, at least for10 minutes because they will reward those active shops.
Cody McGuffie:
I love that. Last question because I forgot to ask thisnow. I'm really curious about it now. How many listings do you have? I guess,were you talking thousands, hundreds, 10?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Today?
Cody McGuffie:
Sure, yeah.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Today, I have 120.
Cody McGuffie:
120?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Yeah. So not a lot.
Cody McGuffie:
Cool. I think that's really exciting to hear because...I'm happy I asked that now, because most print-on-demand sellers have thousandsof listings and you don't.
Ellie Hugdahl:
No.
Cody McGuffie:
And you've still been high level of success in 2020, andobviously you're ramping down a little bit, but the point is you don't have tonecessarily have thousands of listings in order to be successful. You couldactually just focus on bestselling products and actually just make yourproducts somehow better, better offering, better value, and you could do[inaudible 00:27:24] those things.
Ellie Hugdahl:
As soon as I found a design or a product that worked, Ijust honed into that design and I ran with that.
Cody McGuffie:
I love that. Use EverBee, use Canva, you guys, if you'relistening to this. Use whatever other tools that you feel like can serve thattype of purpose that Ellie is mentioning. Ellie, thank you for coming on andsharing this. Where can people find you?
Ellie Hugdahl:
Primarily, I'm on TikTok. My TikTok is Money with Ellie orYouTube. I post every single week on there about Etsy and growth and e-comm andbusiness, and that is my name, Ellie Hugdahl.
Cody McGuffie:
I love it. We'll link down to your TikTok and also YouTubein the show notes or the channel, wherever, or the video notes, wherever you'rewatching this. Ellie, thank you again for coming on. Seriously appreciate it.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Cody McGuffie:
Yeah, of course. All right. See you later.
Ellie Hugdahl:
Bye.
