Theresa Ceniccola and Kelly Garrett ICMNetwork.com Theresa Ceniccola is a writer and marketing consultant who began in the work-at-home field in 1994. She founded the International Christian Mompreneur Network and is passionate about helping fellow moms build successful businesses. Kelly Garrett is selftaught in graphic and web design and has an extensive background in marketing. She left the corporate world after deciding to give freelancing a try, which quickly became a success. Kelly desires to help other moms overcome their fear of online marketing. Caitlin: Well, hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Work-At-Home Summit. I m your host, Caitlin Pyle, and I m here with Theresa Ceniccola and Kelly Garrett. Now, I m going to introduce Theresa first and then Kelly. Get ready for a really cool story. So in 1994, Theresa discovered that she could get paid to write, so she s been in the work-at-home game for a long time. I m super excited to dig into her story a little bit. On her own schedule, in her own home, while wearing yoga pants, she s working at home back in 1994, and now she has a steady flow of clients, and she s officially unemployable in the traditional sense. That s a good thing. Now, through the International Christian Mompreneur Network, Theresa is on a mission to encourage and equip moms who want to experience the blessings of running a business at home while raising a family. It can be done, you guys. I know there s a lot of you watching right now who are thinking that you can t do it because you have kids, and I m going to tell you right now Theresa will tell you that you can. Now, with a thriving virtual community, private coaching, online courses, and live mastermind meetings, Theresa works with moms of all ages and professions who are passionate about faith, family, and business in that order. And joining Theresa today is Kelly Garrett who is the marketing and technical director at the ICM Network. She s in charge of all things techie and helping our members helping their members overcome the fear of online marketing. By trade, Kelly is a digital marketing connoisseur, strategist, designer, and developer. You guys are going to want to pay attention to everything she says because not only does she have the knowledge to share, she s been in the field creating brand campaigns for over ten years. She s an ActiveCampaign certified consultant, AmbitionAlly certified partner, and Bot Academy, a certified bot consultant. She has a lot of marketing knowledge, and a lot of people are afraid of marketing, and so you guys are in for a treat. Welcome, Theresa and Kelly. Theresa: Thanks. Kelly: Thank you so much. Caitlin: Yeah, so I m excited to have you guys here to talk about how to get we re specifically going to be talking about Etsy, but before we dive into that, first I ll speak to Kelly. I want to hear more about your story as a mompreneur because we have quite a bit of detail on Theresa, and I want to hear more about that too, but Kelly, tell me more about your story as a mompreneur.
Kelly: Yeah, absolutely. It s similar to Theresa s. I went to undergrad, studied computers, technology, and then decided I want to go get my MBA right away, went to graduate school, studied marketing and entrepreneurship there. And then when I got done with that, I was thankfully in a position where I wanted to start a family and just didn t see myself climbing the corporate ladder, so I jumped right into a business. I ve always been self-taught with graphic design and web design, so I started freelancing, and that grew pretty quickly. I had to hire someone right away, and that s about the time that I met Theresa and started working with her because I realized really early on that, you know what? I family is so important to me. I can t be married to my job 24/7. I have to find a way to make this work so that I can have flexibility. I can go to my kids programs at school. I can still be the mom and wife that I want to be and also get my creativity out and have my need to actually do something outside of that as well. So I ve known pretty early on that this is what I was meant to do and just dove right into it, and thankfully had a very supportive family and husband that encouraged it all along the way. Caitlin: Yeah, I love that. I love it. I love that because there are so many people at home right now that are thinking that all these things that you have in your life kids, just a busy schedule, especially as relates to the kids that they use those things as reasons they can t create their own businesses, so I m going to ask Theresa to step in, and I want to just ask you just flat out, how what kinds of things do you tell other moms who are thinking that they want to get started in business, they re inspired by your stories, such as both of you guys, but they think that the kids thing is just their major roadblock and the reason they can t get started? Theresa: Wow, well, I mean my kids are 13, 15, and 17 now, and they ve never known anything other than a mom who works from home, so I mean I had them all, three kids in five years, and somehow I managed to do it, and I m not supermom at all, so if I can do it, you can totally do it. And that s one of the reasons I started the network is to meet with other moms who are kind of doing the same thing. Now, not everybody in the Christian Mompreneur Network has works from home, but the majority of them do, and they make it work. I mean it s actually I couldn t imagine going into an office every day anymore, and the kids I mean they re just used to it. So when you already have kids first, because I was I guess fortunate in a way I had the business first and then the kids, but there s some training to do if you have the kids and then you ve got to adjust. And the number-one thing I tell women is don t expect to be able to do this at nap time. I mean if you really want a business, you have to have some help whether that s your spouse or a childcare swap with a friend or something. But you need to have dedicated time when you know that you can work on whatever it is that you re working on. Caitlin: I love that, and so we brought you guys on to the Work-At-Home Summit specifically to talk about Etsy so and Etsy is well known for being a way to sell your handmade goods, and there s also digital products on there and stuff. What can let s ask Kelly. What do you know about Etsy, and why would it be a good thing for moms especially to get into in terms of making money at home?
Kelly: Yeah, I think it s a great way because it can capitalize on something that you might already do. I think a lot of us as moms, if that is our primary job, tend to find a hobby or some type of craft or handmade thing that we like to do, and that s a way to turn that into money. And it s really it s relatively easy to set up. The infrastructure is all there. You just have to set it up correctly and get your products out there, so I think it s appealing from that respect. There s not a lot of training on how to fulfill it. There s a lot to learn in terms of setting it up and making it work, but it s something that you might already know how to do. You might already be doing. Caitlin: Yeah, and Theresa: I think it s one-stop shopping is another advantage. You don t have to figure this all out yourself. You just go to one place because if you re building your own website, you ve got to go learn WordPress, and you ve got to get a shopping cart, and then you ve got to get email marketing. You ve got everything is all contained in and of itself on Etsy. Caitlin: Yeah. Are there certain products that sell best on Etsy and certain products that don t? Kelly: Everything sells. I mean there s an audience for every different kind of product, so the most important part is finding out who your product is for and making sure that your product is unique and stands out in a crowd. So yes, there are some things that probably sell better than others, but if you can find a specific audience and a specific niche of people that want what you have to sell, you ll be able to sell it on Etsy. Caitlin: What are some mistakes that you guys see people make when they start selling on Etsy or they try to set up their Etsy even? Kelly: Yeah, and I think this is a common one that people make whether they re on Etsy or any type of business that they re starting, and that s trying to be all things to everybody and not having an audience, a person that they want to sell to. So think about who is going to buy your product and talk to those people and see what you can do to make your product even more appealing to that specific people, and just forget about everybody else. You don t have to try and sell to everybody. I think not having someone in mind to sell to is the biggest mistake because then nobody is going to buy. Nobody is going to find what you have appealing. Caitlin: Nailed it. I think you re 100 percent correct on that, and it aligns 100 percent with what we talk about in the Work-At-Home Heroes Facebook group. I did a video not that long ago about this exact topic where, if you figure out what audience you want to serve, who your people are, who your tribe is then they kind of do the work for you in telling you what they want. And so you might have a product that people are responding to, and then you re like, hmm, what else should I make for these people? Well, why don t you ask them and they ll tell you? And then the work is done for you. You just make the thing that they want. It s the same thing with creating online products as well, creating or offering services. You re offering one service, and then you talk to your audience. You talk to your clients, and they say or the people that you want to work with, and they tell you what problems they re having, and then you know what skills you
need to learn so you can be of better service and better value to them, and so I call it the magic of asking. And so if you ve got an audience on Etsy, they ll tell you what they want, what they like and don t like, listen to your reviews, things like that, and I think that just connecting with the people you want to work with is in any business, whether it s Etsy, service based, online courses, whatever, any kind of network. So much of that work is done for you if you focus on the people first. If you re only focusing on the inside, and I think a big mistake is and you guys have probably seen this a lot, too, in the network is that people focus inward, and they think, oh, I ve got to make money. I ve got to start this business. I ve got to make this product, and they re not looking at the people who are going to buy the product or the clients that are going to be paying them. But if you flip the switch and you start thinking about those people, then the puzzle pieces kind of fall into place, don t they? Would you say that s been true in you guys experience as well? Theresa: Yeah, and I think what you re talking about is that engagement factor with your audience is again, it s one of the things that makes Etsy different. It s integrated within their platform is that social media element, so Etsy is part a site to sell your stuff, but it s also about engaging with your customers and with other vendors, and so that s all part of it. The people that do really well on Etsy are talking to their audience. They re trying other products and reviewing them and making those connections because they understand that it s more about the conversation and the relationship than just a sale. Caitlin: Yeah, I love that, and Kelly, you re the tech person, and I know there are probably people probably out there thinking that I m not tech savvy, and you mentioned a little bit about how it s easy it s quite easy to set up. You have to make sure it s working correctly, but is Etsy something that s user friendly? I mean enough people are on it. You would think, Hey, I could figure this out, right? That s kind of what I like to lean toward. I m like, Okay, if all these people are doing it, I can figure it out, and not to be afraid of that tech. What advice do you have in terms of figuring out the technology for new Etsy sellers? Kelly: Absolutely. I think Etsy is one of the easiest user-friendliness platforms in terms of getting a shop set up quickly. If you re going to go and make a WordPress site on your own, that could take years to learn how to master that, but Etsy is very user friendly. It walks you through how to do things and following a guide. I think it s best to have a resource to reach out to, but find someone you trust. Follow a guide step by step that takes you through, and you should be able to do it in no time really. You could have a set a store set up within a matter of hours. Caitlin: Wow, I didn t think it would be that fast. I once built a Shopify store, and it took me three days, which I thought that was fast, but if you can have a shop set up in two hours. That s amazing. I mean for that many people to be on it, it s to their advantage Etsy as a company s advantage to make it easy, and so I think that s I ve been trying to get my mom to sell her stuff on Etsy forever, and she s just like, well, I need somebody to do it for me. I m like, Mom, so
many people are selling stuff on Etsy. I don t know. Maybe she needs to watch this interview. I might just send her the video, so she can get some ideas. Kelly: Absolutely. Caitlin: We re going to take a look at the back end of Etsy in a minute, but I know that there s and I m always trying to think about what my audience is thinking, so I like to practice what I preach. So there s probably people at home that are thinking there are so many people selling on Etsy. They re selling stuff, and they think that s a negative thing that nobody would buy my stuff. So let s talk about how to make ourselves stand out as vendors on Etsy. Are there certain things that you can do, certain things that people don t do that causes them problems, certain things that everybody should be doing to make ourselves stand out? Kelly: Yeah, I think one of the biggest things that happens often is kind of copy-catting. It s easy to go and look at a store that you really like and go, Oh I want to be just like that store, so I m going to use I make something really similar. I m going to take some of their ideas. And that s again, that s not a way to stand out. I think if you can take whatever it is, and it s okay if you sell bath bombs, and there are 1,000 other people on Etsy that sell bath bombs. That s okay as long as you can take your product and change it in some way to make it unique, so put a different packaging on it. Make some unique scent for it, or add a little sparkle to it, something that can make you stand out, and a lot of that ties into your brand too, the way you brand your store, the graphics that you use on it, the name that you give it. All those different things that you can use to differentiate yourself are really going to help you stand out. I had another thought, and then I lost it about what to do. Caitlin: Oh, what about product descriptions? Theresa: What s that? Caitlin: Like writing really good product descriptions. Does that matter? Do people find your stuff based on what you write in the product descriptions? Kelly: Absolutely, yeah. There is a little bit of SEO work that you can do if you really want to get geeky and advanced with it, and basically it comes down to knowing the type of things that the people that you want to purchase your products are going to search for and putting those keywords in your descriptions. With descriptions also, it s really important to be super clear as to what it is that they re purchasing, what ingredients it includes, what it maybe doesn t include, and then policies as well, so if you have a return policy or how long it s going to take you to send something out, if you personalize it. Things like that to include in your description are all really good ideas and will help your products to stand out and then sell too. Caitlin: And you want to make sure that you have those descriptions proofread too, because if you have mistakes in there, then people will respond to that. I know I ve been on Etsy before,
and if they don t put punctuation or they spell the product name wrong, something like that, you might not even be found at all on Etsy if you spell bath bomb wrong, right? Kelly: True. Caitlin: So that s probably a big deal. Theresa, you were going to say something right before we started talking about that. I didn t mean to cut you off. Go ahead. Theresa: Oh no, I was just going to say it s kind of a shift in thinking too. Like you said, people are intimidated by the number of Etsy sellers, so they think nobody is going to want to buy my stuff, but the last stats I looked at were that Etsy is one of the top ten online retailers, and they have similar visits to Best Buy and Kohls. So if I had a physical product to sell, I would not be intimidated if Best Buy or Kohls wanted to sell it. I would be like, yes! So just going in with that attitude instead of like, Oh, nobody is going to find me. Caitlin: And I think a lot of people deal with that. I know just even on in any industry, if somebody is wanting to write a book, well, tons of people are writing books, and that doesn t stop people from writing books. Tons of people are starting blogs every day and not being held back by the idea that there are a ton of bloggers out there because the pie is huge, and I think that most people just don t realize how rapidly expanding this universe the internet is, and I like to say that it s expanding faster than the actual universe because it kind of is. So many I think millions of new websites are created every day. New ideas are coming into fruition. I mean if you think back even five years ago, so many things exist that didn t exist five years ago and just new stuff, and there is room for you, but you ve got to step out and do it. So I mentioned product descriptions, and if you make mistakes, then those how it can detract from selling your stuff, but let s talk about writing really good ones. What goes into a really good product description? Should it just be like a description of what the product is, or can you get creative with it? Are there limitations, things like that, things that you can do to really amp up your attractiveness on Etsy? Kelly: Theresa is a copywriter. I m going to let her handle that one. Theresa: Yeah, well, again, the SEO is important, so having the right keywords that people are searching is number one, but then interjecting your personality and your brand with your copywriting. I mean if you get catalogs I don t know. Is it Title Nine that has just their even their photo captions are just so clever, and they re just they fit with their brand. One of the things about Etsy is they have a huge repeat business, so I think I read more than 50% of Etsy buyers are repeat buyers or they re buying from the same company or something like the same shops. So there s a huge loyal following, and I think that s part of that social media component, so I say be yourself. Brand your product descriptions just like you would if you had a store and you were putting signage up over each area, and that s going to really connect with, again, your target audience.
Caitlin: Let s get a little specific on that because some people are probably thinking, how? How do I brand my shop? How do we do that? Theresa: Kelly is a branding expert. I ll let you talk about branding. [laughter] Kelly: Yeah so Caitlin: You guys are a great team. I love it. Kelly: We ve been working together a long time. So the technical nuts and bolts of branding your shop boils down to graphics pretty much. You Etsy allows you to have kind of a header across the top that you can really stand out and make something unique and interesting. So you would want to come up with your name and make sure that it s something that s unique and identifies you and also appeals to your target audience. And then take that and come up with a graphic look, something that has a logo and a set of colors and fonts that all match and really feel like speaks to your personality and the products that you offer too. They should it should be congruent with the products that you have in the store because they all appear right there on the same page together. Caitlin: I love it, and something just popped into my head that if I don t say it now, I m going to forget, but there are ways I was thinking about things that I had bought on Etsy, and I have bought handmade jewelry and stuff. Actually, the jewelry I wore for my wedding back in 2011 was purchased on Etsy, but I ve also purchased used items, vintage items. So I know there are probably people at home thinking, well, this isn t really relevant to me. I might stop listening because I don t know how to make stuff. I don t know how to make stuff either, but there might be somebody who loves to go to flea markets, and if you ve been watching this summit so far actually, I don t know where we are in the summit, but we have Flea Market Flipper as a contributor to Work-At-Home School. They re a speaker in Work-At-Home Summit, and they go out and they buy stuff at a flea market. I ve bought vintage stuff at a flea market, and then I bought stuff on Etsy too, and you can get more money selling it on Etsy than you can selling it at a flea market. And so if you buy it at a flea market, you can sell it high and make a profit on Etsy, so you don t have to make stuff to sell it on Etsy. You don t have to make physical products to sell on Etsy. I have a friend who has an Etsy shop, and she sells printable signs, and there are people who sell business printable stuff on Etsy as well. And that s just something I wanted to mention, and in case there s anybody thinking that you have to make some handmade thing to be able to sell it on Etsy Theresa: Yeah, absolutely. Caitlin: Yeah. What about getting found and getting promoting your shop on Etsy? Because, like you said about the bath bombs, there might be a bunch of people selling bath bombs, so how do you promote yourself so you get found easier on Etsy? How do you land as maybe the first page of results for example?
Kelly: Yeah, it s a combination of things. I think when it comes to search, your keywords are going to be key there. However, in terms of just generating sales, getting the first few customers, getting people to like your shop, that I think is easiest to start with personal outreach, so using your own network of friends and letting people know that you re on Etsy. Use social media, so you may even want to create a Facebook page just for your Etsy store and start to get people to like your Facebook page where you can talk about the products that you re releasing. You can do some other social media promotion as well. It shouldn t be 100% promotional all the time because nobody wants to hear from somebody who only says, Hey, I have a new bath bomb to sell. Look at my bath bombs. So it kind of bleeds into traditional digital marketing where you want to make sure that you are staying relevant and in front of the people that you want to buy your products. Caitlin: Yeah, I love that you said it shouldn t all be promotional. What popped into my head at that point was having a blog, and so if you had a blog, you could, if you re selling bath bombs for example, write ten things that you need to have in your bathroom or how to have a spa day, a DIY spa day at home or something like that. Create valuable content. You can post that on Pinterest. I just finished recording right before you guys actually. I met with Kate Ahl from Simple Pin Media. We talked about Pinterest and using Pinterest to grow your brand, and so having an Etsy shop can go hand in hand with Pinterest and creating content that gets your products found, that gets your brand and business found on the internet outside of Etsy. And so you don t need to just depend on Etsy. You don t need to necessarily buy Etsy ads. You can create a blog. You can have a Facebook page and just kind of intertwine your brand all over the internet and just spread the a good kind of disease all over the internet. I just love thinking about it that way, and you create this ripple effect, so you start with a really good, high-quality product, and you gradually add arms, and then you create this ripple effect where you re just kind of everywhere. And I think trying to do it all at once is a bad idea, so you want to get your shop running and everything good and rolling, and then you can add on the different pieces. I think one of I think you guys probably agree with me. Warn people watching that you don t need to go out and set up a Pinterest, set up a blog, set up an Etsy store, set up a Facebook page all at once. Start with your Etsy shop, and then figure out who your audience is you re going to serve, your brand, and things like that, and then you can add on different arms as you nail it in terms of your systematization of the moving pieces. Well, I just want to say thank you guys for coming and sharing your knowledge on Etsy and also just sharing a bit of your story and kind of busting through these objections. I know a lot of people have. I ve had them, especially when it comes to moms at home. I m not a mom yet. I have a dog, but I have used him as an excuse from time to time, and so I can only imagine when and if I have children, that I will have that inclination as well. It s just a natural inclination to view things in our lives as roadblocks instead of reasons to do the things that you want to do, and I think that s a big mindset shift.
We talked briefly about that at the beginning of this talk where you just need to shift your mindset. And so if we shift our mindset to from thinking that things in our lives are roadblocks and start thinking of them as reasons to do the things that we are maybe afraid to do, then that becomes a lot easier to take the action steps. And you ve given us quite a bit of actionable advice on getting started on Etsy, and if somebody is thinking about getting started on a platform where everything is kind of all in one, Etsy is a great place to start. I definitely recommend looking into it. It really is a great way to turn especially a handmade hobby or maybe selling vintage items. If you re great at designing things, you want to sell those digital products online. So I really want to thank you guys for your expertise on that. And guys, if you re watching this at home and you ve dreamed of turning your niche hobby your hobby into cash, then you re going to want to grab Theresa and Kelly s free PDF guide, Seven Things to Consider Before Opening Your Etsy Shop. It s a bit of a checklist for you guys to go through and make sure you re doing things correctly when you re setting up your shop, and I m super excited that these wonderful ladies are also instructors here at Work-At-Home School, and their awesome course Getting Started on Etsy: A Step-By-Step Training is inside the Curious-level Curriculum Package where you ll get five intense modules that will help you plan and create every step involved in getting your Etsy shop and brand off the ground and profitable. You ll also get access to bonus interviews with successful Etsy shop owners who will disclose all their secrets on what s working and what s not in real Etsy businesses. Links for both of those items are below this video, so be sure to check them out, guys. Thanks again for being here with us on the summit, Theresa and Kelly. Theresa: Thanks, Caitlin.