Episode 034: Help! I’m Too Nervous to Start My Own Print on Demand Shop!

What if Print on Demand Makes Me Nervous?

Have you been thinking about starting your own print on demand shop but keep talking yourself out of it? I get it! Starting anything new is scary and, when you start something, you don’t start as the best. And that’s okay! I’m so excited to share my thoughts with y’all about why being nervous is normal and how to gain confidence while you grow in your business. 

Here’s a few things we’ll be chatting about!

• Nerves are Normal
• Sucking at Something is Actually Really Great!
• Building Things Brick by Brick Leads to More Success
• There is No Shortcut
• How to Not Get Discouraged by Other Success Stories
• Why It’s Important to Keep Moving, Even When it Feels Hard

Want to know this episode in one quote? I’ve got you!

Running your own shop is so exciting… and also a little intimidating. Y’know what’s also very exciting and super intimidating? Putting your designs out for the world to see! 

It is normal to be nervous to put your work out into the world. In fact, I think it’s to be expected. Know that, first off, no one person has every answer to everything. Second, there is no one right way to do literally anything. What works for one person won’t necessarily work for the next so, as you build out your design style and build out your shop, know that it’s so important to make decisions that feel right to you. Follow your gut! I’m not saying that your gut is right every time but I am saying that following your gut - specifically with design choices - will pay off over time. It may make you have a slower start but, the more you figure out what you want to make and how you want to put it out into the world, the more solid your design - and business! - foundation will become. 

--------

SEASON THREE OF LISSA TALKS POD WILL HAVE 15 EPISODES!

*Marked explicit for accidental swears.

Mockup Photos | Your Photographer Mom Podcast | Photography Website | Instagram

And best of all? Three free mocks!

--------

More Information + Links About Print On Demand!

Total Disclosure: A few of these are affiliate links.

Literally forever obsessed with Printify. I use Printify for all of my print on demand printing and I'll never stop singing their praises. They're incredible!

For design work, I'm totally in love with Canva and also love finding extra artwork + fonts on Creative Fabrica and Creative Market. 

--------

Thank you so much for hanging with me today!

Looking to support the show? Head on over to my colorful mockup shop, Opal and June Mocks. There, you'll find fun model mockups, styled flat lay photos, and so much more. If you are looking for mockups that'll make your items pop, I've got something perfect for you! Go grab your new fave mockup today!

Transcript

unknown 0:00

Hey.

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Have you been thinking about starting your own pronoun demand shop but keep talking yourself out of it? I get it. Like it can be really intimidating to try something new. Starting anything new is scary. And when you start something, you don't start as the best. Like that's just kind of the vibe. Like you're just not gonna start something and be the very best at anything like ever. And if you are, you're like a miracle. Um, and that's okay. I'm so excited to share my thoughts today with y'all about why being nervous is totally normal and how to gain confidence while you grow in your business. And this is specifically for print on demand sellers, and I'm just really excited to be here. My name is Lissa, and today we're gonna talk about print on demand. Okay, so before I talk about anything else, I wanted to just remind anyone listening to this that nerves are normal. It's totally normal normal, nervous. It's totally normal to be nervous about starting something for the first time. Um, if you've never had your own business, you've never ever really done design work, all of those things are brand new. And so it's totally normal to be nervous. And yes, like you will probably fail at first, and that's good. Like it's not, I'm not saying fail isn't a bad thing. I'm saying that like when you start something new, it's very common to not be the very best at it and to have to learn the craft, learn what you're doing, figure it out. And so um, one thing I love about print-demand is that there's so many growth stages. I've said many, many times I still consider myself a baby print on demand business. Um, for me, print on demand is just the way that I run my business. Um, I love it. It's so fun. I designed everything in Canva and it's just fun. I love Canva. I use Adobe programs for all of my um photography work. So I really like having a program that is different than Adobe because it's like it's a totally different job and I can like switch between the two instead of doing just Adobe programs. So I specifically love Canva for that reason that it feels more uh because I wanted something that could kind of go along my photography as I was building out Opal and June. And um it's really, really fun to be able to design things and just get in there. And nerves are normal. Your first designs are gonna be shitty, they're not gonna be good. Mine weren't good. Nobody's are good. You might find a one in there that is good. I'm always telling y'all about the dinosaur, a floral dinosaur shirt I made. That was like my first um good seller. That was a good design, it would still be a good one today, but I just happened upon making a good one that time. It just wouldn't always be a good one. Um, like I couldn't read I couldn't redo it over and over. I had to learn trial and error how to make it better. It's normal to be nervous, it's normal to be bad at something when you start. And sucking at something is actually really great. Like it really is. I know that sometimes it's easy to be like, you know what? I tried this for a couple times, three times, four times, five times, and I just am not good at this, so I am giving up and I'm going to move on. An analogy for this for me personally is that I love like hand building pottery and I hate wheel pottery. I just do not like it. Um, I'm not good at it. And besides not being good at it, I just don't like it. So if I liked it and I was really bad at it, I could work on it to become better and better at it. However, I don't like it and I do like hand building. So pottery is one of my like low-key hobbies. I do it sometimes, and sometimes we'll take classes with friends and things like that. Um, I will even take wheel pottery classes with friends, but I go in knowing that like I suck at this and it's not my favorite thing, and I'm not trying my best to get the best that I can and this. But when I make hand building stuff, it's totally different because I really like to do that kind of pottery, and that is really, really fun. Um, and it's really fun to suck at something that especially something that you really enjoy. So know that if you are having fun and also sucking, totally, totally is good for you. Go, totally good for your um mini aspects in the future. And that's one of the reasons that it's so great is that we all start from somewhere, and this is something you can really just try out. And because there's feedback from people buying your stuff when you have a shop, um, you learn more and more what direction to go in. And I think that's really, really beautiful. So remember that building things brick by brick is going to lead to more success than just having a one-off design that takes off. You want to be able to do something you can replicate, you want to be able to make the same kind of designs um repeatedly that will um connect with your customers. You want to have a vibe somehow in your shop. It doesn't matter what the vibe is exactly, there's so many different ways to have the vibe. It could be, you know, your design, what you're designing, it could be your design style, it could be the people you're targeting. There's so many things, but having a vibe really, really helps. And to do that long term, you need feedback. And since um most pre-on-demand sellers are just selling on platforms and selling online, um, of course, because it's pre-on-demand, uh, it can take a while to kind of get that kind of feedback because you have to learn so much. You have to learn how to list, you have to learn how to um do SEO, you have to learn all of these things. And learning brick by brick, I can talk. Um, brick by brick is really going to help you be able to kind of like have it all together. Like it's gonna make it come together better than if you are just kind of doing one-off designs. I always say that I would have rather have 50 designs that sell regularly, like one time a day. So if I had 50 designs that sold one time a day, I would way rather have that than one design that sold 50 times a day. Because if you have it with the 50 that are selling one time a day, you have that data of what you can build off, and there's so many other directions. Um, take, you know, one times 50 of how many times you can you can create things. Whereas if you have one design that is always the one selling, it can be really hard to um to do that. Um, an example for this is I had a really popular bumper sticker for a long time that said racist to the library. It still sells a lot. It's it's a big seller for me. Um, just a bumper sticker, really cute, really fun. And I added it in a bunch of colors one day because I just didn't really want to do anything else. Um, and I put it with like different little icons, things like that. And none of those took off like the other one. Um, and so if I was just having um trying to redo racy to the library over and over and like that kind of vibe, I did like race to the thrift store, racy to the, you know, volleyball court, all kinds of things like that is how I kind of um scaled that one out. And those sell, and some of them sell well, but they're not as um popular as racy to the library. And I just hit a really good vibe with that one. And I think it took a while for that one to even start selling. It was one of the first bumper stickers I ever made. And um, you know, when I went back a couple years later and tried to expand on it, it didn't hit the same. And so if I was building everything off of just that, I'd feel really defeated. But I don't feel really defeated because what I need is um that kind of bumper sticker, you know, I have a template, and so I made race you to, you know, X, Y, and Z. And the ones that sold, I kept them up. The ones that didn't, I took them down for my Etsy shop, and the ones on my website live forever. So they're there and they're ready for people to be picked up. And one thing that's beautiful about a website is you can link them and then they're all together. I love it so much. Um, so that's just my whole point of building things brick by brick leads to more success and also really harkens back to the whole idea that like um the longer you're building something, the more that um you can circle back to things and like you can move and know you're coming back to it. Like at this point, like when I was doing print on demand two years ago, I didn't know if I was going to be doing print on demand for a long time. Now in 2026, I know that I'm going to be pronoun doing print on demand for the foreseeable future. I don't see any reason I would stop unless I decided to sell my business, um, which I don't think I'm going to do because I like it too much. Um, so there is no shortcuts. Nerves are normal. Running your own shop is so exciting. And it's also a little intimidating, like very intimidating. You know what's also very exciting and super intimidating? Putting your designs out there for the world to see. It is normal to be nervous to put your work out into the world. In fact, I think it's to be expected. There's something very like vulnerable, like when you um are putting your stuff out there. Like some of the times I feel most vulnerable in any of my creative work is after is the couple of moments after we have fully set up a booth at a market, and I have all of my shirt designs, all of my notebooks, all of my stickers, they are just out for the world to see. And I'm like, well, I've done everything I can. It is now up, and now it's just gonna be what happens going forward. Like I have put my stuff out here, people are gonna come by, they're gonna see me in this booth, they're gonna know I made these. Um, it's really vulnerable. Um, it just is, and I think that's to be expected. So know that, first off, no one person has every answer to everything. So don't think that there's one person out there who is going to be able to tell you everything you need to know about starting your own business or about pro on demand. That's not how it works. Second, there is no one right way to do literally anything. There's so many different steps you can take to have a successful business. There's so many ways you can go. What works for one person won't necessarily work for the other or for the one after that. So as you build out your design style and build out your shop, know it's so important to make decisions that feel right to you. Follow your gut. I'm not saying that your gut is right every time. Sometimes she's gonna be wrong, but I am saying that when you start following your gut, um, specifically with design choices, it will pay off over time. It will may make you slower to start, but the more you figure out what you want and how you want to pull put it out into the world, like how you want to pull it off, how you want to put it out there, the more solid your design and business foundation will become. Because when you are following your gut about what you want to make, um that's gonna have more passion. That's gonna have um more creative thinking than just being like, I'm doing a checklist. Someone said I can do X, Y, and Z, and I can have a successful business, and now I'm going to do that. So there is no shortcut. What works for one person may not work for you. There's so many factors. I have said this before on this podcast, and I'll say it anytime I'm talking about any kind of creative work, but I think there is always an element of luck that goes into any kind of business succeeding. Um, not because that those people are inherently lucky, but because sometimes things just don't work out when you've taken the right steps. Um, you know, nothing in life is guaranteed. And so I think that there's always an element of, you know, the right person finding your stuff at the right time. And I've seen this in my businesses and other businesses and all kinds of things. Sometimes you just have to be found by the right person, and that is gonna take a little bit of luck because yes, you can do everything, you can put yourself out there. But like, for example, talking about a market, like, you know, if that could be someone that you're going to reach, but like if someone gets a flat tire on the way there, that would have been like this person who absolutely loves your stuff, then they won't get there. And that's unlucky. Do you get what I'm saying? I'm not saying that like that's going to make or break your business because as long as you keep going, it's going to get better and get more, you're gonna get more into what you're doing and get more uh confident and make stronger choices, and all of that is going to take an element of luck because you keep are doing it. It's hard work, but also people who interact with you. You can only, you can only do so much. Like you cannot make people buy your stuff, is what I'm saying. That's why I'm saying there's always an element of luck. There could be someone who loves your stuff, but they're having a bad day that day and they don't want to buy something. Do you get what I'm saying? And then maybe they won't see it again. Um, but if they were in a good mood, maybe they would have. There's always that kind of luck to me, I think, in a business. So do not get discouraged by other success stories. If you have been doing this for a long time, say you've been doing it for a couple of years, or if you're just really um trying to figure out the way to do it and you're just seeing a bunch of success stories online, know that nothing is as easy as it seems. And if it's as easy as it seems, it's probably not going to be something that is sustainable in the long run. Um I say that with so much love and so much um grace for people, but I think that sometimes we really just want like a magic bullet to be like, this is how I made my business work, and this is the things that I did. And if you do it too, then you will also succeed. And I'm not saying that those things don't work, and I'm not saying to not take that advice because that advice is very good. There's lots of advice you can get. Um, that's so, so helpful. And of course, there's patterns and behaviors that can really help you um build the kind of business you want to build. What I mean is that like it can be really hard to hear somebody be like, oh, I tried really hard for six months and nothing happened. And then one day I just clicked and then I made$500,000 in two minutes. Um, but you've been working for three years and you haven't gotten to that same level. Sometimes that's just how it works. Sometimes it's just slower. But the more you keep learning, the more you keep designing, the more you keep putting yourself out there and learning from what people are buying, the more um stable and uh smart your business is going to become. Um, and there will be times that you can step away from it more, there's times that you can focus on it more. I definitely am a good example of that because there's times of the year where I'm super hands-on with my pre-on-demand business and times where I am super not hands-on at all, except for answering messages. And just know that nobody's success is the same. No one catalogs success the same way. What you need for a living salary may not be what somebody else needs. So someone quitting their full-time job um when they make$40,000, and that is not a shame at all, in any ways. But someone quitting their job who makes$40,000 is different than someone quitting their job who makes$400,000 a year. Those are different things. You can't um equate them. And um, so always keep that in mind that you don't know exactly the backstory of who you're listening to, including me. You don't know exactly what is going on all of the time. And so it's so important to not compare ourselves to what we see other people succeeding as. The more you learn, the more you grow, the more work you put in, the more you're going to grow as a person and as a business owner. And I think that that is really, really helpful. And that is the long goal. We want to build sustainable businesses, not flash-in-the-pan businesses that burn out overnight. It's really, really important to do that. And it's so important to keep moving forward, even when it feels hard. So, this is something I'm really passionate about in basically all aspects of life. Um, and I think that with particularly with a business, you know, sometimes it can be so sterile, like looking at numbers and comparing them. And if they're not looking the way you want, and you'll hear people be like, oh, I mean, I one thing I hear a lot is people say, um, like that I have a hard time with people saying if I hear them talking about any kind of business, really, is when they're like, oh yes, every month has just been more and more and more. Because that's not how my journey has been. Um, some months I'll do absolute killer, and then the next month will be a little bit quiet. And it's not that I don't have stuff for that time period. It's that sometimes it's just more quiet. And so if I'm listening to content from somebody about businesses or because I listen to all kinds of podcasts and um YouTubes and all the things because I just like to hear people talk about businesses. I listen to photography ones, I listen to business ones, I listen to pronounced man ones, I listen to women ones, I all of the things. I love to listen to stuff. And um, you know, I'll hear people talking about what worked for them, and it's not always what works for me, or they'll talk about how they just have had um growth, growth, growth the whole time. And it hasn't been like that for me in either of my businesses. Sometimes it's really, really good, and sometimes, you know, you have an off month, and that's okay. Um, your experience is not going to be the same as everybody else's, and that doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with their experience, and it also means there's absolutely nothing wrong with your experience. We all need to learn things as we go, and it's really important to keep moving forward even when you don't want to. I am not saying put yourself in a bad mental health place. This is not a mental health podcast, this is a um, this is just a lady chatting about proud demand. But what I am saying is that keep moving forward and trying new things. It's okay to experiment. I think that sometimes we're so afraid to just try new things, but it's fun to experiment. It's fun to try different things. And yeah, sometimes like you can sit down and like really focus really hard on a bunch of kindergarten teacher t-shirts. And other times you just want to make some dinosaur ones and just kind of like put out there and sit, you know, and see what happens. Um, that's self-a true for me. That's true for other people. Um, I love making a lot of collage work. If you've seen any of my designs, you know that a lot of them are super, super extra. And that means they're not for everybody. But that's like what it's so fun to make because the people that get it, they just like are so, so over the moon, so happy. But it is definitely niche. And because it's niche, um, it can sometimes feel a little outrageous and like difficult to move forward. Um, and I don't really struggle with that now, but I did struggle with that when I was learning how to design and how to make things for print on demand because it was so different than what I had ever done before. And I can just tell you that from experience, it's so important to keep moving, keep making stuff. Just be like, okay, I'm making a couple of designs today. Give yourself a limit, be like, okay, I'm gonna make two to five designs every single day. You don't have to post them, just make that your goal. Like, I try to make a couple designs every single day, and I don't have to post them that day. I just export them and have them ready to go for when I'm ready to list them. Um, it can be so, so wonderful to just do little tasks like that. Maybe your goal of moving forward that one day is just to format something on your shop, even if it's a TikTok shop, Etsy shop, Amazon shop, not a website, um, to like fill out some facts or something. Like that is still moving forward. It's so important, even when it feels hard. And if you one thing I love doing is having a lot of different niches so that like if I'm overwhelmed with one, I'll be like, you know what, I'm gonna go do this for a while and then I can come back because it's still going to be there. And if you know you're in this for the long haul, it's still going to be there. Success does not happen overnight, and it's normal to be nervous for starting your own endeavor, anything new, especially when it's something that you're putting out for people to buy and be like, oh hey, I made this. Don't you want to wear something I've made? All right, I'll talk to y'all later. Bye.