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From One Wedding Letter to $1.25M on Etsy: Dylan Jahraus on Scaling, Systems & Staying Sane

• Amanda Hughes

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Etsy expert and seven-figure entrepreneur Dylan Jahraus joins Amanda Hughes to share exactly how she scaled a single floral letter from her own wedding into $1.25M+ in revenue then built a coaching company helping thousands of Etsy sellers do the same. 

We get into the client-lifecycle strategy (serving brides → mums → grandparents → teachers), why consistency beats intensity, the repeatable systems that make scaling possible, and how to grow without burning out, especially as a parent.

In this episode

  • The first 60 days on Etsy: what results to look for and why momentum matters
  • Product strategy: following your ideal client through life stages to raise LTV
  • Listings & SEO basics to get found (and why your “new shop boost” window matters)
  • Building systems: SOPs, RACI, hiring the right people, and when to outsource or sell the brand
  • Mindset: handling wobbly days, protecting sleep, and keeping going when life’s messy

Who it’s for

Product-based small business owners, side-hustlers ready to go full-time, and anyone wanting a practical Etsy growth plan that fits real life.

Links & resources

Huge thanks to this episode sponsor KM Tax Returns - the kind of accountant who cares enough to check in monthly, not yearly!

  • Connect with Amanda on Instagram: @amandahughes.uk
  • Growth Addicts Show Notes: Read the blog + grab freebies + guest links
  • Be Mentored by Amanda: Join Get Seen Get Sales and get the support, strategies & accountability you need to grow your business on social media with confidence. Learn more
  • Free Small Business Downloads: Access all of Amanda’s freebies in one place → Get them here
  • Exclusive Discounts: Exclusive discounts on Amanda’s favourite small business tools & services → See discounts




SPEAKER_01:

Hi, hello, welcome. I'm Amanda Hood, your host of Small Business Girls Addicts. I escaped the corporate world after 12 months of a side hustle which turned into my full-time income. Fast forward 10 years and I'm running not my first but my second small business, and this time around it's with a passion to share all that I know, all that I've learned and all that I'm still learning with fellow small business owners. As the title of the show suggests, I am addicted to growing my business and I know you are too. Growth means different things to different people though, and that's why we talk about a whole host of subjects on growth addicts. Whether that's in a solo episode, just me or with one of my many autumn guests, between us we share advice, tips and real-life entrepreneurial experience. To grab a pen, a copper and a biscuit, obviously, and get ready to grow that small business of yours. This is Small Business Growth Addicts. Hello and welcome to another episode of Growth Addicts. Thank you so much for joining me and my guest today. I have a guest who's joining me all the way from Las Vegas in the USA today, Dylan Yaris, who is an Etsy expert, seven-figure entrepreneur, podcast host, you name it, who's helped thousands of small business owners grow successful businesses on the Etsy platform. Now this comes around after scaling her own Etsy shop, which started as just one small item that she wanted to sell on there from her own wedding. It's an incredible story how Dylan went from selling that one item to scaling her own Etsy shop to over$1.25 million in revenue. She has, of course, now turned her focus to coaching other small business owners and how to build thriving, sustainable, product-based businesses on Etsy without burning out. Let's dive in. Let's pause there for a second to hear a word from our sponsor.

SPEAKER_00:

Tired of only hearing from your accountant once a year. Hi, I'm Kirstine at KM Tax Returns. We check in monthly so you always know your numbers, stay on top of tax, and avoid end-of-year stress. Find out more at kmtaxreturns.co.uk.

SPEAKER_02:

Hi Dylan, welcome to Growth Addicts. How are you today? Great. Thank you for having me, Amanda. I'm so excited to be here. An absolute pleasure.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, Dylan, Etsy is your thing, and Etsy is what we're here to talk about today, including your incredible Ultimate Etsy course. So just tell us a bit about you and how that all came to be. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02:

I honestly didn't even shop on Etsy before I started selling on Etsy, and I still didn't even until a few years in after selling. So it's not like Etsy was something that I had been thinking about for a long time, but I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. And that was not a foreign thing to me running a business. I loved the idea of doing that someday. But I was thinking maybe when I'm like 40. And I ended up getting into it much sooner. I climbed the corporate ladder. I was working for some big retailers doing buying. So buying the product that you would see in different e-commerce sites. But then I married someone in the military. And you move a lot in the military here. He was in the Navy. You move a lot. So your career, you can't like keep climbing that corporate ladder. So I was doing all these side hustles, dog walking, house sitting. And Etsy was one of those side hustles. I had a picture of something from my wedding that I made. It was a floral letter, uh J for my last name. I put it on Etsy, one picture, and then I forgot about it. Two months later, it sold. And I was like, oh wow, now I have to like make one for someone else. Then I thought, wait, what if I apply everything I knew from corporate e-commerce to Etsy? And I did that. And within eight weeks, we're making over 10,000 a month consistently, made over a million dollars in profit, was able to invest in a lot of real estate with that cash flow and expanded onto Shopify and Amazon. And it really changed our lives.

SPEAKER_01:

I can feel just an excitement inside me, like how incredible that story is. Because we all, I, you know, myself included everyone listening, we're business owners, we know that when something clicks, like, wow, how good is it? How good? And you thought I might be on to something here. And of course, the signs of it, it started to grow really quickly once you really started to put your knowledge behind it. So at what point then did you think, okay, this is no longer just another job like dog walking or house sitting? This isn't a side hustle anymore. This is for real.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. So it was 2016 of in December when I found out, it was right before Christmas, I found out I was pregnant with my first son. And that same week, I had been interviewing for corporate jobs to try to get a corporate job again. It had been like 10 months, I finally got the job offer I was dreaming of. So I got this amazing job offer. I was making like 110,000 a year. And then I found out I was pregnant and I have this Etsy shop now making 10,000 a month. And I really had to make a decision. And I was only 26 years old, and I had to decide do I stick with the corporate route? Or do I, because I kind of felt like if I left, I probably wasn't going to go back. Or do I bet on myself in this business and really try to take it to something long term? And finding out I was pregnant, that was the pivotal moment, thinking I don't really want to have a newborn, put them in daycare. I just didn't want that. So I went all in at that point.

SPEAKER_01:

If you know me by now, you'll know that I love social media. It's how I've grown my businesses and now I want to help you do the same. That's why I created Get Seen Get Sales, my mentored group for small business owners who want to get seen online and actually attract followers that convert to customers. Inside you'll get weekly content prompts, live workshops, and support on everything you need to grow confidently on social media. If you're feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or just ready to do things differently, I've got you. Head to smallbusinessgrowthaddicts.com to join us. Wow, and yeah, you're not alone. A lot of listeners will be mothers as well, parents as well. And then I know that I I wanted to be self-employed long before I ever had kids. So I've got five-year-old twins now, but I've been self-employed for like 11 years, and it was always in my mind thinking I wanted to do the drop-offs and the pickups and never have to ask anyone's permission if I needed to take them to an appointment or something, you know. So yeah, I think particularly for the females that I speak to in motherhood does seem to change our minds around careers, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and it motivates you. It gives you a bigger reason why. And so for me, you know, starting a business and going all in on your own business is scary. But when you have something bigger than you, like your children driving you, and a bigger reason and purpose behind it, I feel like it just fuels that grit and relentlessness. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

So that was the moment then you decided to go all in. And was it purely with the floral letters at that point? Was that the main product?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so the only product at that time was the floral letters, and then we had baby mobiles. We might call them something different in the US. Mobile or they hang from the ceiling and they stint. Yeah, yeah, we call them that as well. Yeah. You do. Okay, okay. So they those and people would buy them as a set to match and got started with that, and then started adding big flower walls and adding floral decor and did wedding decor, got into even a some apparel for moms, these trendy sweatshirts that would say mama on them with these cool patches, started expanding the product mix and building the product mix around this customer. And the customer, it was mostly brides and moms. Now, the moms I was selling to, very different from myself. The customer, like not at all like me, it was typically girl moms. I didn't have really anything in my shop for boy moms. So it was mostly girl moms. I didn't even have girls. I had two boys, and these moms would spend a thousand dollars on their crib bedding. So different from me. I'm much more frugal than that. And I just sold to this customer who would spend a ton of money on their kids and on their decor. It was very lucrative. And I kept serving that customer in different areas of her life. And in the lifetime value of the customer, just kept climbing and climbing. So I would have one customer, they'd come in once, and then they'd spend over the course of three to five years, they'd be spending thousands of dollars with us.

SPEAKER_01:

So interesting because you started with the floral letters, which was something from your own wedding. So your ideal client at that point then was brides, as you say. How did it evolve then to moms and girl mums in particular? And how did you then bring in like sweatshirts and things? Was it just ideas or yeah. How did it come about?

SPEAKER_02:

In 2016, the thing that was really big, uh, at least here in the US, was the mommy vlogger kind of trend. And so I'm, you know, pregnant. I'm watching all these YouTube videos of these moms, and a lot of them had girls, and they're decorating the nursery and they're putting together their baby shower list and they're doing all the preparation. And usually they start doing the mommy vlogging stuff after they get married. So I realized, hey, like I'm serving a customer for their wedding. That's a one-time thing, I hope, like usually. But how can I serve them after that? Like they had a great experience with us. How can I keep serving them? And so I looked at what's next. Okay. They're doing a baby shower, a nursery, first birthday parties. So I just looked at all the stages of her life, and a lot of our product ideas came from these mommy vlogger influencers.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow, that is so clever. So I do client is like a such a hot topic for me. I love talking about it. I truly believe that knowing what you offer and who is likely to buy it is really at the heart of good business, small, large, medium, any size business. And it seems like more entrepreneurs like I'm speaking to, like yourself, especially via the podcast, seem to have the same mindset. But that's the first time I've heard that your business actually grew on that ideal client journey. That's incredible. So not only did you want to meet this ideal client where they were at then, you wanted to continue on that journey with her. That is so smart.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. And then, you know, I even started offering items for grandparents, so gifts for grandma and gift for grandpa. Because that same customer, that mom who has the kids she's buying for, she's also buying for her parents. And then I even started adding in towards the last couple of years, teacher things. Because now I served her at her wedding, her first birthday, second, third, fourth, fifth. Now the kids are going off to school and she's buying teacher gifts. So it truly is following her life cycle.

SPEAKER_01:

That is so smart, honestly. Really so smart. I'm blown away with that. Fantastic. That's great thinking. Yeah, I mean, I could just talk about ideal client all day, but we'll move on slightly from that. A lot of small businesses I know are still working in a corporate position, for example. They're still working nine to five and they're building the side hustle and they desperately want to take it to a sort of business phase, you know, and grow it so much that they can leave their job and do that full time. And lots of them certainly are selling on Etsy for sure. But what's the first sort of practical steps, would you say, to start moving beyond being just a hobby side hustle business to going for real?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think most people, because we've worked with 4,500 Etsy sellers who want to start their business, scale it to the point where they could leave their job. And I think getting your business, your side hustle to the point where you have the option of quitting your nine to five is the goal. Sometimes you decide, oh, I'm just gonna do both and make twice as much money. Perfect. That's a good choice too. Knowing that you can quit your job and quit what you're doing at any point is such freedom. And so we love helping people build their Etsy shop to that point where they know they could quit their other job if they wanted to, or if maybe a family member got sick or they wanted to slow down, have kids, and still have the income. You know, life happens and they can adapt and they can still not sacrifice their dreams and financial future. So that is typically the goal of people we work with. However, if you want to get to that point, yes, it's great to start with Etsy as a part-time hobby, an hour a day, maybe, but consistency still matters. And so I find it's not even the amount of time, it's how consistent you are. If you can do an hour a day for a year, you will win. You will absolutely win with us. If you do an hour a day, like two weeks a month, and then like you take months off, it's just not going to develop it into anything. Momentum, I find, is everything. And momentum can only build with consistency. Because once consistency stops, the momentum stops. So you're starting over. So I think if anyone is really looking to start Etsy or grow their Etsy shop to the point where it could be full time, just stay consistent with the little time that you have. It does all add up. Every 10 minutes adds up and get a little guidance if you're not seeing results, because I've heard some advice that's not really accurate about Etsy, where it takes six to 12 months to see any results. It really shouldn't. Something is very wrong if it is. Um, so really be looking for results within your first 60 days.

SPEAKER_01:

That sounds better than six to 12 months. I think that would be a bit disheartening, wouldn't it? Sitting waiting for something to happen for half the year. I know. Don't be so patient. It's okay to not be patient. And consistency across so many things in business is key, really, isn't it? We spoke about that under really being clear on what you're offering and who you're offering it for. And then just keep showing up. Like I support small business owners to grow their business on social media, get seen and get sales from social media. And so much of it is just be consistent, not to the point where you're burning out. Obviously, don't confuse consistency with constantly. Find something that works for you that you can keep up. But showing up is just so much of it, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02:

Totally, totally. And we're here on a podcast. If you even think about all the people who've started a podcast or a blog or something, and they did it for like three weeks or three months, and then you see no episodes since 2021. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. And it's a shame because some of those episodes were good and you're looking for them and they've just disappeared. And I think this is probably a lot to do with the world we live in now with instant gratification. We're looking for instant results. And like you say, we don't have to be patient. You it's okay to want quick results, but some things do take time as in, you know, you have to get, I have to at least let it get off the ground.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, yeah. Put in the reps. Definitely put in the reps, and that is a way to win in anything. If you don't quit, you can't fail. I love that.

SPEAKER_01:

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SPEAKER_00:

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SPEAKER_01:

And when I've heard you speak before, Dylan, you mentioned a lot about systems, behind-the-scenes systems that sort of repeatable systems, that kind of thing. So what were the sort of systems that you put in place that you would say have made the biggest difference to your business?

SPEAKER_02:

And just for context, you know, we went from making over a million dollars in profit on Etsy to then I started outsourcing the entire production to someone who was a military spouse. And that freed up a lot of time for me. And I'm not the type of person to sit, I guess. So I that is when I started coaching on Etsy, was in 2022, which I mean, that this coaching business that we have, and then the software company that we started stemming off of this, everything is built on systems because the scale at what we've done with coaching is something that one person cannot do. And if you don't have systems, it would never have gotten to this point. So we started by myself. Now I didn't have the right systems in place. We were able to get to, it was like half a million a month, just five months into that. And that is when I started realizing I haven't created scalable systems here. We couldn't double the number of clients that we help without breaking everything. Part of systems is the people and who you bring in and having the right people in the right seats. So it's hiring department leaders and executive assistants and virtual assistants and people to kind of plug in. So having the right people in the right seats, creating SOPs. I'm a huge fan of a racy chart. So who's responsible for something, who's accountable for it, who's consulted, and who's informed on every different area of the business. We live by that. Suddenly it went from one person to this like 49 person company. And that's only possible to do that profitably with systems.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So yeah, so you went from just you doing this at home at the beginning with the letters, and it's built and built and built to now where you say you've outsourced the entire production. So you're not involved in the making or or anything to do with the Etsy store anymore. You're now coaching other business owners to grow on Etsy.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. So I actually completely stepped out of production and was just this person would come to my house regularly. And then she, since she's military, she moved and we actually were moving within a few months. So what we ended up doing was selling that brand to one of our students. The brand still continued on. All those products are still on Etsy, just run by one of my clients. That was really cool to kind of see that continue on. And that's always an option. You know, you always want to look at it's 24 hours in a day. Where is your time best spent? And with Etsy, like I've worked with people who've built brands up, sold the brand. Now you can never sell your shop itself, you can sell your brand and all of your products. Fantastic. That's that's a really cool story.

SPEAKER_01:

That's one of your students that's continuing it on now.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. And it's so cool because I see all of her. She has a one-year-old and she's now like making all the stuff and doing the social media, and it's like parallel lives. Like it's a flashback. Yeah. It's cool. Yeah. And do you miss the hands-on stuff at all? Making things? Part of me does, but you know, I I worked so such long hours every day standing at this work table that I ended up getting vascular disease in my legs. And I've had two surgeries to fix this. So unfortunately, I loved making stuff, but physically it took a big toll. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I get that. I used to be a florist as well. My first business was in floristry, wedding floristry. And no one knows, and if they're not involved in it, the the actual manual labor, like lifting heavy buckets of water and cleaning all those buckets and big boxes of flowers coming in wholesale and cutting every stem, standing at the workbench, it's really quite physically intense. I can imagine that crafting, making things would be the same on a on a big scale, certainly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Totally. And and with florals, because you know, I mean, yours were real, mine were fake. But either way, you can't really sit like at a low table and do it.

SPEAKER_01:

You need the movement, you need space, don't you? Yeah, yeah, totally. So yeah, big shout to all the forests out there, whether you're working with artificial or fresh product, it's hard going. We see you. We know. We know. Now, of course, you have a lot going on, Dylan. You're busy and you've got two boys now. Yeah, is that right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we spoke there about momentum and keeping that up and whatnot, but of course, every day is not like that. And there's days where we feel a bit off or discouraged, or things might be slow. And so, how do you keep going on those sorts of days?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and to be honest, today was one of those days for me. I woke up and I just in the shower, I was thinking, okay, I just have to get because I shower in the morning and at night.

SPEAKER_01:

Not like I everyone needed to know that, but is this part of your like wake up and wind down routine?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah, totally. So I was showering in the morning and I was thinking, okay, I just have to make it to my shower tonight. I just have to make it to my shower tonight. And because I have a like a really like complex day ahead and a lot of challenges. And then I I met with our tax person this morning, and I just literally an hour ago, I just started, I broke down crying. Even like successful people who seem like they have it all, who seem like they have it all together, we all feel the same things. And it's just a matter of choosing to take the next step forward and to not give up just letting those emotions dictate your day and your future.

SPEAKER_01:

Gosh, you know, that feels so relatable because I'm having a deal at that as well. I don't know if there's something in the air. My son has disabilities and medical complexities and whatnot. And we've had quite a few intense meetings with education and health professionals recently. One was yesterday, and it was two hours long, and it was going through a lot of trauma, and you know, it was a few hard trifts, and it was just a really heavy afternoon. And this morning when I woke up as well, I was very much about taking let's get out of bed, let's get our teeth brushed, let's get it washed, you know. So that's so funny you say that because I have absolutely had a deal at that too. And so it really is sometimes just about the next step, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02:

Completely. And some people they feel that way when they wake up and they say, this day is a wash, I'm done, I'm I'm gonna cancel whatever I had. But what makes successful people successful is realizing that, you know, everyone feels that same thing at some point. But the people who are successful and who achieve things and accomplish things and get to their goals, they don't let that stop them. Like it's almost like you're a robot. Like, I'm just gonna force my body to brush my teeth, I'm going to walk to get breakfast, I'm going to go sit down. And it's kind of like you are in control of that action versus letting your emotions control that action.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. And at the same time, it's okay to take a day if you need a day and you can take a day. But on the days like today, you've got a busy day. I had a busy day ahead as well. My kids are actually off school on holiday this week. So today my husband had taken the day off to take them out because he knew I needed a day to catch up with work. And it's like, well, what's the other option there? I don't, you know, I cancel this podcast episode. That's not good. You know, not good for you, not good for me. And then the the episode wouldn't go out in a couple of weeks' time. And we spoke about that consistency and showing up, and that's not good. You know, there's lots of listeners who'll enjoy tuning every week. I feel like I'd be letting them down. And plus, it's something I enjoy. I've never come off a podcast episode and felt any worse. Like I'm always uplifted, speaking to someone new and hearing new stories. So I think also when you have a job you enjoy, which I would hope most small business owners do. Like if you decide to do something for yourself, please at least enjoy it because it does make it easier on those tough days, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_02:

Totally, totally. And also when you become better at something and you you're you become more successful, you would you do tend to enjoy it more. So maybe like the first time when it's new and different, and you're like your first podcast episode or something, you feel like, I don't know, can I really do this? That didn't feel that smooth. But then as you get better, you start to enjoy it more because it's more familiar, it gets easier. So enjoying what you're doing is important. And it's always okay to make changes to what you're doing if you no longer enjoy something.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. The queen of the pivot here. I've had more than one career pivot. But I fully endorse the pivot. Like if you're not happy, change it up. Life is too short. Completely agree with that. Now, let's talk about financial numbers. You've surpassed six figures now, which is incredible. You've had incredible success with your business. So huge, well done there. But talk to us about that first six figures. I've heard other entrepreneurs talk about that and thinking, you know, it wasn't what they thought it would be hitting that number. Like, is it as glamorous as it looks and feels online?

SPEAKER_02:

Or how how did it feel to hit your first six figures? When I turned down that job offer, it was$110,000. And I told myself, now my goal is to make$110,000 with Etsy in a year. It gave me a metric to work towards. I had a clear number to go towards. And I mean, we did, it was actually 141,000 in the first year. And I remember hitting the first 100,000. For me, that happened pretty quickly to where I didn't even have time to celebrate it. But I will say, and I think this is really important for people who are chasing a number. Hitting a number is not going to make you happier because then what? I will tell you like the simplicity of my life when we were making like a hundred to three hundred thousand. I look back at those days with just this fondness for wow, like that was really nice. And making more money, like we made over$10 million in 14 months with the coaching program. That's insane. And not that doesn't happen. But I will tell you, that money didn't make me any happier at all. Money is not going to make you happier. I think the idea of building something and accomplishing something is what where the happiness can come from and what bigger goal that's not financial that you're working towards. Because once you hit the number, like I think people might be disappointed with how they've kind of idolized a number because it it really does not make a difference. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

Because it's something that's um used quite a lot, you know, on Instagram and whatnot, isn't it? This six figures, six figures and 10, 20k months and whatever. But yeah, like you say, you have to really know for yourself what you're in it for, what is your motivator. For a lot of small business owners, it's the freedom of their time, isn't it? Don't get me wrong, they want to be paid and properly compensated for what they do, of course. But for a lot of people, time is your more an important currency than the natural money. So I guess just being clear and not chasing the figures for the sake of chasing it or because you become distracted by someone else who said that you should do that. If that's important to you, then go for it. Yeah, if not, then you might feel it's not quite the destination you thought it would be.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, exactly. So if you're choosing a destination and an end goal, make sure there's something more than financial with that, because otherwise it will be disappointing, I think.

SPEAKER_01:

No, good to hear. Good to hear from someone who's who's been there and surpassed that now. And of course, the work that goes into that as well. You know, those figures don't happen without doing the work, do they?

SPEAKER_02:

Right, right. And it's almost, you know, I encourage you if you're like thinking, okay, how do I like, what am I working towards? How do I set some goals for myself and and this business I'm starting or I'm that I'm already have started? You know, have some shorter goals. Like every month, it's it's funny. I have this notebook here and I have this list of, okay, what am I gonna do this month and what are what am I gonna accomplish or what piece of the puzzle am I gonna create this month? And it's not financial, but at the end of the month, I check everything off and I feel like wow, like I was able to figure all of that out and it wasn't financial, and that is a better feeling than hitting a certain goal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Quick pause from our conversation because I'm wondering how you'd feel if I told you I could give you a free£50 today. Yep, if you've been thinking about moving your business bank account or perhaps you don't have a business bank account yet, I can highly recommend Monzo. And if you open an account with them via the link in today's show notes, you get a free£50. Monzo are free to bank with. I bank with them personally. It's so easy to use, and also they won best business banking provider in the UK in 2024. So if you don't have a business bank account yet or you're looking to change from where you are just now to free business banking and£50 in your account, head over to spawbusinessgrowthadicts.com for the link and enjoy. Absolutely. And I love that you're still a pen and paper kind of gal, even though you've got so much going on. Same. Electronic systems have got their place and whatnot, but you cannot beat a good notepad and pen and I will die on that hill. Now, of course, Dylan, you have two boys now. So you mentioned your first pregnancy at the start, and you've got two boys now. What age are they? Four and eight. That's busy times. So can we get into motherhood for a minute? Is it not wild? Yes. Oh my goodness. How do you manage your ambition alongside motherhood without burning out?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Well, I texted my husband this morning. I feel like I'm failing as a mom. So if that is You have had a rough morning. I know. Well, what sparked everything was my kids wear uniforms at school and there wasn't any, they're at a new school, so we we didn't start the year, so we didn't buy like a bunch of uniforms. They have like four days worth, and I hadn't had time to do any laundry. Normally I have a house manager, but we've moved here and I haven't found anyone yet. So I'm trying to do that all myself, and they had no clean clothes. So I'm like rapidly trying to do a quick wash cycle on the machine, and I just felt like such a failure. My kids don't have like clean clothes.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, Dylan, but it's not that they Don't have clothes and they don't have clean clothes. Life has just got busy, and you've not managed to catch up on the washing, which we would call the laundry. You are not alone. I need to tell you that right now. I don't know how many times I have had to quick wash and dry school uniforms at like half seven in the morning before they start school at nine, or I've been ironing as they're having their breakfast, like frantically ironing sharks. Yeah. Not alone. And it does not mean you're failing as a mom. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02:

I needed to hear that. Yeah. But that set me off, like, wow, I'm really dropping the ball, you know? And so there's no perfect balancing things. People who think I'm gonna have this like perfect work-life balance, working for yourself. It takes so much more discipline to be able to turn things off and to create the boundaries in the day and to prioritize work versus family versus, you know, the laundry. So it's working, clocking in and clocking out for your employer. Sometimes that's easier because you know these are the boundaries. They set them for me.

SPEAKER_01:

And it is, if anything, probably the only thing I miss about employment is that you you left when you left and arrived when you arrived, you know. Like I say, the kids are on holiday this week and I'd be able to take the odd day here and there and enjoy it. But ultimately there's stuff I do every week that still needs done by me, you know. So I do have to check in at some point. And it's fine because I enjoy my work, but every now and again I think, gosh, it must be nice to just put in for a week's holiday, and you know, there's no work that week. Like, however, working for yourself beats it anytime. It still beats it. And so you mentioned like boundaries and whatnot there. Is there any sort of things that you live by? Do you have any boundaries for that whole work, family life?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so I think one thing is I learned when I started this coaching business. I I just went full blown around the clock and I ended up getting pneumonia, which, you know, it was like walking pneumonia. So I think I'd had it for a little bit, but it's dangerous and your immune system goes down if you're not getting enough sleep. So I realized like sleep is a boundary I have to protect, and every day will be better if I had a good night of sleep. So sleep is something like cannot sacrifice that anymore. And then the best part of my week is my kids' soccer games. Like nothing beats watching them play soccer. Love watching that every Saturday. So I'm blocking that all that time and fully present. Don't look at my phone during those games. So yeah, there's definitely boundaries, but I I'll be the first to say I need more boundaries.

SPEAKER_01:

Same. Same. We have a lot in common, Dylan. And I know fine well people listening will have the same thoughts. So honestly, again, you're not alone. You're not alone. I would love to say, you know, that at four o'clock, that's it. My phone goes in a drawer and it's family dinner time and whatnot. It's not, it's not. It's hard. You enjoy your job and you become self-employed, it becomes an extension of you. And of course, your family are. Of course, they are also. But yeah, I think boundaries and that juggle is something that most female, particularly small business owners, entrepreneurs, struggle with. For sure. Yeah, yeah. Wow, and so now, of course, you've got the ultimate Etsy course, which is helping other small business owners grow beyond what they probably would think imaginable on Etsy. So if anyone's listening out there who's just getting started on Etsy, what would you tell them?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I mean, definitely don't go in totally blind. Learn a little bit before you do it. Because when you start a new shop, Etsy gives you this great boost in traffic in the beginning. So you want to start your shop with good listings, good quality listings, the right strategies with SEO and pricing. So I have a YouTube channel. I have thousands of videos on there that are totally free. You can always check those out. I also would love to give your audience a checklist of 16 things, like steps that they should be taking with Etsy. So we can give them that. And then just stay consistent, learn a little bit before you jump in so you're not totally blind and you'll be much better set up for success.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. And it's funny how you mentioned Etsy and YouTube there, Etsy giving you a boost when you first start up because I'm just sort of starting out on YouTube and putting the podcast on YouTube. And I noticed at the start it got such a boost. So I wonder if YouTube's sounded kind of similar and people were finding me really easily, and then it's got a bit trickier after the as the months have rolled on. So yeah, sometimes these platforms give you a bit of a false sense of security when you're first there, aren't they?

SPEAKER_02:

And maybe, you know, maybe they do that to get you excited and a little hooked, like, okay, it's working. It works because we keep going.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah. And as I guess thinking about yourself, when you started out then, it wasn't on your mind to start this business with the letter. You just popped it on there to see what would happen amongst other side hustles and odd jobs that you had going on. So if you could go back now to that point where that first one sold, is there anything you would do differently?

SPEAKER_02:

I would say I probably would have gone, it's hard to say, because the way everything worked, I see how things come full circle. So probably not. I think it's probably just having a little bit more confidence in knowing that, hey, this this is not just a short-term thing. I think sometimes when you experience a little success, you expect that to end soon. Sometimes you don't have the confidence that you can continue to build it. And it's almost like, oh, did I get lucky that now I have some sales? And you don't trust yourself that you can keep it going. So I think if anything, it would have because I honestly I kept dog walking and house sitting and I was like picking up dog poo in people's backyards and stuff. I was doing that until we had probably made like close to$100,000. Cause I didn't trust that the platform would sustain in the way it did. So more trust, I think, would have been the thing I'd change. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep. That's an easy one in hindsight, isn't it? When you're looking back and now you know the journey you've been on. But um it's something I spoke about in another episode actually, when I was talking about when I made that change from full-time employed to self-employed, and saying how when I was a wedding florist and I would drop off the bouquets and whatnot, and sometimes the bride would like tear up, she was so happy, or she would gasp with delight. It was a really nice experience. I would go away and worry myself sick for the next like 24 hours that she hated the flowers or that the arrangements I'd done for dinner like fell apart and just tortured myself, you know, thinking just watching the phone, this review is going to come in, this bad review, or a message from the mother or something. And it never happened. So just trust if you've done a good job or something's going well, try and enjoy it. Yeah. Try and enjoy it.

SPEAKER_02:

Totally. Yeah. And over time, you know, that confidence and everything and peace will develop. But don't worry yourself sick and stress yourself out when things seem to be going well. Like trust that they really are going well. Yeah. Enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And so what's next for you with the ultimate Etsy course? Is there anything exciting coming up or anything you want to tell us about? We're all ears to learn from you.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah. So we have some awesome free trainings that I'm also doing every week, masterclasses for the next few weeks. I don't know when this will be posted, but we do them at least twice per month. So, you know, even and this is before even joining our course. So we on that training, we take you through a deep dive into some really clear tactics. So keep an eye out. We always have it on the top of our website when the next masterclass is. So we have those. And then I have a software company called Etsyo that optimizes your listings for you and it uses AI. You plug your shop in, you connect it, and it like with one click, you can optimize your shop. That will help you if you are really struggling with Etsy right now. And it's etseo.com if you need help with that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Cool. Okay. I'll get all those links and pop them in the show notes for everyone so they can easily find them because that sounds really helpful. Clever name as well, Etsy O. I like that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, luckily we got the trademark. Uh, and I was like not telling anyone until we got that trademark approved. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It's up there. Business names are up there with baby names, aren't they? You don't tell anyone. Yeah, for sure. I guess someone steals it. Wow. And so, of course, is your website the best place to connect with you then, Dylan? If anyone wants to get in touch, find out more about your work, where do you hang out most?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah. Dylanjaris.com is great. We have a great contact form too if you want to go back and forth and email a little bit. Or Instagram at Dylanjaris. I'm very active there. DM us. I'm I'm also on my stories. You can see the crazy behind the scenes of this raw life that we're living here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. I love Instagram as well. For all, I'm on most of the social media platforms because that's what I help other business owners with. Instagram has got a special place in my heart. It's the first platform I really started to grow my wedding flourishy business on. And like you, it's sort of evolved into mentorship, when mentoring other small business owners. And I just, there's just such an awesome community, I think, on Instagram in particular. Yeah, yeah. So I like it there too. So anything else you think we've not covered today that you'd like anyone to know or like to share with us?

SPEAKER_02:

I just hope that, you know, if you're listening to this conversation, you just realize like you're not alone. And even the people you see who seem successful feel the same things you feel, and there's nothing really different between you and them. And just keep going, stay consistent, and it'll all be okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. That is wonderful words to end on, Dylan. Thank you so much for joining us today. It's been a real pleasure just hearing about your such humble beginnings with this letter. And do you still have the letter? Oh, yes, I do. It's in the closet. Yeah, I would think so. Get to where you are now supporting other business owners to get that sort of same success on Etsy, which is a fantastic platform. I think we've probably all used it now, haven't we? It's like the small business sort of Amazon version, isn't it? This thing marketplace. Yeah. You can find so many awesome things on it. So, yeah, so thank you so much and take care. Thanks, Amanda. Thank you so much for joining us today for another episode of Small Business Growth Addicts. I hope today's episode has given you inspiration and tangible tips that you can use to grow your small business in a way that feels right for you. If you love today's episode, please head over to smallbusinessgrowthadicts.com and check out today's show notes where you can find details of our wonderful guests, sponsors, discounts, freebies, and so much more. Please also don't forget to leave a review today. Reviews are invaluable to us to help us get the show out there. Every single one is read and very much appreciated. Until next time.