063 – Selling Handmade on Etsy with Christine Hoffer

Gift biz unwrapped episode 63,

Still have to innovate this to keep going at the same

rate. It's crazy.

This is John Lee,

Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,

and you're listening to gifted biz unwrapped,

and now it's time to light it up.

Welcome to gift biz,

unwrapped your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop

and grow your business.

And now here's your host,

Sue Monheit.

Hi there.

I'm Sue and welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast,

whether you own a brick and mortar shop sell online or

are just getting started,

you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your

business. And today I have joining us.

Christine Huffer.

Christine has been an artist,

her entire working life,

and is influenced by natural and ancient symbols.

She says that they represent all that is missing in modern

life. Our connection to nature,

our bodies,

our families,

and the cycle of the seasons.

Christine has been creating and selling beads and buttons.

she also paints and makes mosaics along with other arts and

crafts. Working as an artist at home has allowed her to

homeschool her five children who are now almost grown.

And that of course is another big part of her life.

Welcome to the show,

Christine. Hi,

thanks so much for making this podcast.

I'm excited to take part in it.

I'm thrilled to hear Have you,

and we didn't talk about this in the intro,

but you know,

I'll mention it now just for our listeners too,

when I'm over and doing Periscope,

there has been a specific request to learn more about Etsy

and you and I found each other on Instagram and I

know you're doing Etsy,

so that's going to become part of the conversation today and

a specific request from our listeners.

So I know we're going to have a lot of people

tuning in when this goes live.

Yeah. So I've done the intro.

Is there anything that you would want to add to it

before we get started?

I don't think so.

I think as we talk in a more details would come

in, but yeah,

I think that's great for getting started with All right.

Well, I like to kick it off by having you describe

a motivational candle,

the light shines on you while you share your stories and

your experiences and everything about your business.

And I also believe I need to mention that your business

name is bead freaky.

So that's kind of interesting.

I'm going to want to get into what that's all about

in a little while,

but let's start off with what is the color and what

is the quote of your ideal motivational cannon?

Oh, sure.

I chose green because I feel like green is the color

of plants and it symbolizes that energy,

just water,

sun and the earth kind of come together.

And then that energy comes through the leaves.

And especially this time of year,

there's just that green energy everywhere.

So A natural energy,

yeah, that Natural energy.

So that's why I chose green for my quote.

I really motivated by Georgia.

O'Keeffe the painter who lived in New Mexico for many years,

did the flower paintings.

And she started them in the thirties.

On top of being an incredible painter is also really very

succinct and perfect quotes,

summing up her work,

made sure the details of her flower paintings and her other

work to,

to sums up a lot of life here.

It is someone else's vision will never be as good as

your own vision of yourself live and die with it because

in the end,

it's all you have lose it and you lose yourself and

everything else.

I should have listened to myself.

Oh, that's interesting.

What does that mean to you?

Well, I think that No,

you should always just pay attention to not get distracted by.

So like,

we don't want to be influenced by other people or listen

to other people,

but you always have to be centered.

And in reality,

even if you feel like you're following somebody,

you really are doing what you want to do.

And you should always go back to that center,

that awareness that You,

you really are yeah.

Of your path And not forget that.

Yeah. I think it's so easy.

Maybe not as much for artists,

but maybe,

you know,

you look at what other people are doing and you know,

it's like they're doing it the right way.

So I have to do it exactly like they're doing it

or I'm not doing it the right way.

And with an artist,

I think maybe it's a little less.

So because artists understand better than anybody that personal touch and

making it different and the creative effects that they bring uniquely

to their product.

So combining the artist versus just human nature,

I think people look to others for the right way versus

looking inside themselves for the right way.

And then you create an unauthentic self.

Really? Yeah.

You just never feel just right in what you're doing and

you have to go back later.

I mean yeah.

Connected and true to yourself.

Yeah, exactly.

All right.

So Christine,

I want to talk about your business bead freaky.

It's very unique.

And I talk a lot or defense listeners know this about

making sure you either niche down or have something very specific

and unique to yourself and your beads clearly are very unique.

If people see some of your work,

they would know that it's you.

If they already know you take us back to the beginning

of bead freaky.

And how did you decide and kind of narrow in on

that type of a product Kind of two directions?

Cause there's the more practical circumstances of my life.

I went to community college and I was really inspired by

the teacher there.

It was a fun class with ceramics.

I really enjoy the tactile part of it,

which is a fun creation part.

And then the visual AF or the kiln,

you usually have that transformation.

You've got the bright colors.

So I really like that part of it.

And so it passed that time and I was living my

life and not going to school whenever I had the chance,

I would try to set up a shop and get this

stuff I needed to do ceramics.

And I was lucky enough to get a small kill and

a spot,

you know,

enough space in my garage to make small things.

So that's the direction I went.

And one thing I like about this small things is,

yeah, you can put just an essential symbol or little bit

of something that's meaningful to you on it that you can

then carry around or wear.

And so that mixture of practical.

And then again,

I wanted to put in my love of having that little

symbolic connection with something that you would carry or wear so

that you can kind of be reminded.

It's kind of almost like a centering.

You can be reminded of our connection to nature just by

wearing one of my tributes.

So yeah,

that's, I guess the two directions,

one was,

it was easy to find what I needed to do to

make it.

And then the other thing is that I liked having that

little way of putting that reminder of nature,

reminder of spirituality onto something little that you could carry around,

You took two things,

the convenience,

because you had only a limited amount of space to work.

So you made something smaller.

So that was a convenience type thing.

But then you also had this whole idea of connecting with

nature as something that someone can carry around.

You're so passionate about.

I can just hear when you're talking about it,

that really is important to you indirectly.

I don't even think you probably meant to do this,

but this is your unique feature.

They're small pieces because normally with ceramics,

you think bigger things,

right. Pots and your very grounded in nature,

just like your candle was and then all the symbolism on

your pieces.

So that's really interesting.

You just kind of naturally got there by being authentic to

the things that you liked.

And then also the physical circumstances of having to stay in

a little smaller area to produce our out.

So you knew now that this is going to be your

product, where was the transition from making these pieces and liking

them to deciding now you're going to sell them.

Now you're going to turn it into a business,

right? That I first came up with.

This was actually way before Etsy,

before the internet,

even really my husband and I were partners at that time

in the business,

we worked together,

coming up with some of the designs and techniques and it

obviously wanted to make a living at it.

At that time,

we went to bead shows and he drove to bead stores

and sold to the bead stores wholesale.

And we did some shows as well.

And that's how we marketed it.

We had a hiatus and then it was many years later,

we got back into it.

I got back into it on my own,

basically really near the beginning of Betsy.

I saw Etsy and I thought that would be a great

place for me to do it on my own without having

to drive to bead shops and do that part of it.

I thought that it would be a great way to market

it while I was doing both ends of it by myself.

And so how long have you been on Etsy now Started

So I'm an old timer.

And I know it's been a while since you started.

So things have probably changed for someone who's just jumping on

the platform now,

but what did you find from them in terms of setting

up and getting established?

Can you walk us through your experience with just getting up

and running on Etsy?

Sure. Probably the trickiest part is having a ban or you

want something on your store.

Guy ended up just taking a picture of beads and using

that as minor.

So even if you start with just a small group of

items, I'll use vintage as an example,

you know,

maybe you have 20 items that you've picked up that you're

ready to sell.

Basically it's like filling out a form really.

You're going to get in there and you're,

you're going to set up your account.

I think it's different from eBay in that you actually do

have a store.

You're going to want to talk a little bit about yourself

and what you're doing and answer those questions.

And you can take it as far as you want to.

And of course it's,

the more you put in there,

the better,

the more you can,

you know,

the more you can put in about yourself,

about your shop policies,

about your items.

And of course adding the items as a separate process.

First, you,

you answer the questions about yourself.

You put as much in there because that's what people are

going to see.

And then from there you describe each item carefully and describe

it well,

photograph it.

Well, that's really what you have out there.

I want to focus for one minute on what you're talking

about in terms of when you're setting up a platform,

whether it's an about us page on a website,

your own website or something like Etsy.

I really encourage everybody to not just put the generic stuff

on there,

like who you are,

where you're doing business and what you do,

but add a little bit of personality to it as well

because people,

you know,

that is the page that everyone talks about is the most

read page because people want to know who they're buying from,

who they're doing business with and not just the standard stuff.

You know,

they want to know something,

personality wise,

something quirky,

something that's a little different that sets you apart,

where they can understand you as a person like Christine.

You may even talk about the fact that you have five

children, because that's a little bit different than the norm and

that you homeschool may not even relate to your product,

but it gives people a little closer tie to the person

you are as a business owner.

I'm glad you talk about that,

Christine, in terms of the,

about you page and filling that in there,

over on Etsy,

you're talking about now putting up your products,

a good photo of course is going to be important because

they have to see the quality of the product.

Any advice on the description or anything that you've seen that

would be beneficial in terms of tips for putting up the

specific products,

more wording,

less wording.

I don't know what it would be.

I just kind of have done it organically over time.

I'd say for my product,

I want to describe it well,

but I let the image of it speak for itself also.

But I have also seen people who go into more or

like inspirational extra stuff.

And I think that can work really well as well.

It's not my particular style.

Mine is I go into my inspiration a little bit,

but I actually mostly let the look speak for itself in

a practical sense,

because somebody can hold it in their hands.

When they're looking online,

I want to give a good description,

say that they know exactly what they're getting.

How do you feel in terms of the platform attracting business

unto itself,

not driving business from other places like Facebook or anything else

you do to capture business.

But what about just the organic business that Etsy would provide?

What advantage that I have in selling supplies is because people

who are looking to buy items that they're going to intern

using their jewelry,

for example,

or knitted items,

they are looking at Etsy for supplies as well for somebody

who is making jewelry.

I think it's more important probably to find other social media

because although I think Etsy has been a go-to place for

people who like handmade stuff,

because the numbers are so high now,

I think it's probably really important to get out there with

your other social media.

So you can find those people and get them to your

specific page.

I have a lot of customers who may be buy sets

of beads and they're going to turn around and they may

not sell them on Etsy.

They may sell them at a craft fair.

They may sell them just a little street market or something.

Yeah, there's a little bit of element to wholesale to what

I, and I noticed,

like was my jewelry,

which I do make some jewelry.

It does better right around Christmas.

It does better when people have a reason to be buying

gifts. So seasonally you're finding that Etsy is great,

but then product wise,

if you're selling just a specific finished project,

your suggestion is to make sure you're using other platforms to

drive people over to your Etsy site.

That's how I found you on Instagram.

Cause I saw your product and I thought it was awesome.

And your Instagram account looks great,

et cetera,

et cetera.

And that led me over to your Etsy platform.

Exactly. Now,

as he's gotten big enough to the point where you can

probably purchase Etsy advertising,

but you're also probably going to do well by driving traffic

to your Etsy store specifically through your social media.

So that the people who you're seeding your work,

you know,

they almost know what they're looking for by the time they

get to Etsy,

right? Are you using see advertising?

I use it a little bit,

but I don't want to spend too much for people Who

are unfamiliar with it.

How does that work?

You as a buyer have less control over it than you

would for like a normal ad.

In other words,

you decide which of your products and which keywords you want

to use.

So for example,

I'll pick some of my best selling goddess or tree of

life beads,

maybe my most popular buttons.

And I'll choose those someones that the advertising will pop up

and I'll use keywords after that.

And it's all them.

What I'm hearing You're saying is you provide them the product,

you provide them,

the keywords and the description and the dollar amount,

however much you want to sell it for.

And then do you also do some type of a timeframe

of when you want it to be hitting the ad to

be hitting No.

When you don't do anything else after that,

except decide how much your budget is.

It's a little bit more like Google ad words.

So they'd know what your items are.

They will pop it into say,

somebody's search.

If they're searching for something it's going to hit a little

higher paying for that advertising.

Yeah. They have like their little email sayings where they have

featured items and stuff.

I think the people who are paying advertising are a little

bit more likely put into that type of thing.

Are you able to equate some of your sales from Etsy

advertising If somebody found that item through their advertising and then

they purchased it fairly soon after,

then it shows up on your revenue for the ad.

Yeah. Sounds great.

Because for people who are looking at going on to Etsy

and it doesn't sound like it's that hard to get established

and to get up and going,

and then if you're not as good at some of the

advertising ends,

it sounds like by providing just a little bit of information,

they're then able to take it away and it's to their

advantage too,

for any advertising to produce results because they want you to

keep doing it with them because you have so many options

these days.

So it sounds kind of like a pretty good made for

you platform based on what you're saying.

Yeah. I'd say it is more similar to Google ad words

than anything else,

except it's more visual and you can see if it's working

for you.

If you try it out for a while and you don't

get any sales from it you'll know,

and then we'll try something else or do whatever it is

you need to do to,

you know,

get it going.

Well, let's talk about this a little bit more in terms

of sales and moving product,

what would you say based on all of your experience and

it may not even be Etsy.

Let's just talk a bit about bead freaky and total.

What is the best thing that you do that brings in

the business?

I think for me,

having a lot of designs has really helped me.

It's taken a long time to get all its designs,

but I think having they,

and they do all have that kind of similarity with what

I was talking about in my,

of my vision,

it's helped me to have a lot of things.

Okay. So wide variety of designs in a wide variety of

colors of all those designs.

So when people go there,

they might see something and not be like,

Oh, I really liked this one,

but it's not purple.

I need purple.

But if you have all those different colors,

all right.

A lot of depth in terms of your inventory,

what's put up on the site.

Exactly. In terms of process of a sale after somebody buys

on Etsy,

what happens then on your end to get that product out

to the customer?

How does that work?

I almost exclusively make first and then list because that of

course makes it a lot,

you know,

it's immediate.

I go out to my shop,

I have it wrapped up and I take it out and

I send it right off.

And then what I'll do is be sold out and I'll

make another set.

That's very similar.

And then I,

I reactivated A lot of people ask about packaging,

how to present their product through I'm S I'm assuming that

you mailed them out postal service.

Yes. Most of mine is slide it up to be first-class

mail because I do do supplies.

I have a pretty bowl Brown paper neatly wrapped.

So there's no doodling around or chipping unless I'm selling jewelry.

And if I'm selling jewelry,

I do have like a nice little jewelry,

little gift box.

And then I just loosely wrapped that in Brown paper and

put it in my envelope.

Just a couple more questions with that T because I specifically

wanted to get more information for our listeners on this platform.

Is there any reason why you continue to stay on Etsy

versus using any other platform that's out there?

I think for me,

I would Add another platform perhaps over time,

but I wouldn't give up that seat.

It's one where people who are looking for him made go

to the most.

So I would keep it.

And of course I've been there a long time,

but even as a new person,

I think I would probably put in an Etsy store,

even if I wanted to do other things in addition to

it. It's good input.

Of course,

nowadays, if you promote stuff enough,

you can do gear or standalone website.

I think it comes to promotion at that point,

because then it's all on you.

Right. You're doing your own website.

Right. Well,

and I think for you,

I mean,

right now,

again, the way I found it was through Instagram.

So you,

in a way have another platform,

although you're not selling directly from Instagram necessarily,

you are indirectly because your pieces are up there and then

you have your Etsy link in your bio on Instagram.

Right. And I've definitely gotten sales that way.

And I think it's for anybody who's out there selling stuff.

I think Instagram is actually,

it's my favorite social media,

because I think it's just more direct again for artists who

have something visual to show.

I mean,

if you're talking then Twitter's probably yet,

but for me,

definitely Instagram,

you get the most bang for each picture.

Right. And so how often do you put up a new

post on Instagram?

I'd say maybe two or three times a week.

I'm not as active as some people.

I want my food to look good.

I want to actually have something that looks nice each time

I do it.

So I take my time a little bit.

Some people do a couple of times a day and that

seems to work.

That would probably be my goal,

but it's tough to find enough breadth of images and,

you know,

I want each one to be good.

Right. Okay.

So we're going to move on now,

Christine, into our reflection section.

This is a look at you.

And what types of things you feel have led to you

being successful?

So the first thing is,

if you think of yourself back when you were a younger

girl, what would you say?

The one natural trade is that you've always had your whole

life that has helped you to be successful where you are

today? Oh boy.

Okay. I think just going consistently for where you're thinking,

you're going try to have that center.

So really knowing where you're trying to go.

Is that what you mean?

Yeah. And sticking with it,

not giving up or at least even if you waver around,

like I was saying in a way there's a little add

going on,

you kind of always go back to that goal again,

you know,

like maybe you deviate a bit,

but you head back and stick with it.

Okay. And then what tool do you use regularly in your

life to keep everything together?

I mean,

homeschooling five children and then also running a business.

Oh my gosh,

what tool or what do you do that you call upon

every day that keeps you productive?

Hmm. I'm always kind of sinking about it,

especially I'm a,

a bit more of a morning person and I always have

those few little goals that I put down for myself that

that's, what's going to be that day.

And usually I probably think about it a little bit the

night before.

And again,

first in the morning,

get started on those.

So that at least those couple of things that I planned

on getting done,

get done.

I think that's really important.

And also to have kind of a longer term goal on

the back of your mind too,

like, you know,

you have a bigger thing that,

you know,

you're probably not going to get done that day or even

the next couple of days,

but you don't want to lose focus of that thing.

I do want to figure out which days you're going to

make those steps direction and not forget about that longer term

goal too.

There are two things that I would underline for our listeners

in what you're talking about here.

I really like what you're talking about in terms of the

morning you've identified and I'm just like,

you are Christine.

You've identified that you work best in the morning and not

everybody does.

Right. Sometimes people,

you know,

just by the way you naturally are.

Sometimes people come alive at four o'clock in the afternoon,

which for me is my downtime.

But so,

you know,

for you,

you know,

number one,

you're setting goals,

but then you're also really redefining them right in the morning

and getting going right away because that's when you know you

work best.

So give busy listeners really think for yourself.

What is that day part that is the very best for

you. I'll give you a hint on me.

I like to do podcast interviews in the morning.

And when I schedule people,

I try to put them all in the morning unless they're

on the other side of the world and I have to

do it at night because my energy level just isn't that

great later in the day,

it's way better in the morning.

So I intentionally do that.

So I encourage everybody who's listening.

You know,

what is the day part?

That's the best for you?

And consciously put those tasks where you have to have the

most energy or the more challenging tasks in the morning for

Christine and my part or wherever your higher energy levels are.

Because that really helps in terms of number one,

the output,

but also the efficiency of just getting it done,

because that's when you have the most energy.

The other thing that I like about what you were saying,

Christine is you're talking about working on your business,

not just in your business,

what is the longterm goal?

Where are you trying to take the business versus just making

the beads and filling orders?

Like what else do you see long-term for growing your business?

That's what Christine's talking about.

So she's doing both because clearly as an artist and the

way Christine has her business set up,

she has to do everything.

She has to create it,

put it on the website,

fulfill the orders,

all of that.

But she hasn't forgotten that very important element of where do

I also want to take the business in the future?

There's nothing wrong with people.

Specially also,

if you have a part-time business because you're working somewhere else,

you have younger children who clearly need a lot of attention.

There's nothing wrong with just having your business kind of on

stable drive for a while too.

Because the one thing about us all having businesses,

we can control what our standard of success is and letting

your business just kind of continue stable for some time during

certain life cycles.

There's nothing wrong with that either.

But you talking about goals and growing your business is also

really valuable to know you're not just working in your business,

you're also working on your best Haas.

Anything you would want to add to that,

Christine. Yeah.

Yeah. I think that was a really good point because people

do get busy and a lot of times it's a part-time

endeavor. But I was going to add though,

because even when you're trying to be somewhat stable because technology

and because we're working in,

at least for me and se,

and most probably people are listening to your podcasts,

they have their own website,

or they're working in this technological environment where you kind of

have to keep up and keep doing the right,

right. If you want your business,

even if you want your business to say,

Hey, I'm only doing this level because this works for me.

You still have to innovate this to keep going at the

same rate.

It's crazy.

No, you're right.

The world changes and you have to change with it or

you're going,

even if you're you were doing the same thing,

you'll get behind.

If you don't change as the world is changing,

right. Yeah.

You have to do a little bit,

you know,

to yeah.

To keep like Instagram,

for example,

for a really I'm,

I've been on it now for about a year and a

half. And I think I was late compared to a lot

of people,

but there's a point where,

gosh, everybody's doing this.

I have to at least do this too.

And there's all,

so many things like that.

Yeah. Well,

and now you said it's you one,

it's your favorite platform?

So it's a good thing you got on.

Yeah, it's a good thing.

I finally,

I had to buy a smartphone for the last time.

Oh, darn yeah.

I know.

It's really ridiculous.

I was like,

yeah. I think it's probably a good idea to do this.

Your phones.

I mean,

you need them for your business these days.

This is just not a convenience.

This is a necessity in my opinion.

Right. And forbid not needed to meet at of course the

computer. I mean,

I'm dating myself now,

but yeah,

there was a time when you didn't,

you know,

they're pre-computer and post computer.

Right. For sure.

So yeah.

To do a little bit,

keep up.

Yep, absolutely.

So Christine,

is there a book that you've read lately that you would

suggest to our listeners?

You're not the guy.

I was lucky enough to go to the media forum at

the social media experts here in Portland and one artist there.

Her name is Lisa condom.

She does printed and they're really kind of cool designs,

quirky illustrations.

And she wrote a book called art incorporated.

The essential guide for building your career as an artist.

And it's really a great,

helpful book.

I was lucky enough to win it in the little raffle.

Oh, that was helpful.

Yeah, it did.

It was awesome.

She really covers all the bases.

So You have a second book that you'd suggest They also

was reading MD Carr,

who is a really great Western artists from Vancouver,

Canada. And she has a journal hundreds and thousands of journals

of an artist that was really great reading too,

for more artistic philosophy stamp.

All right,

well give biz listeners,

this will not work for photo books necessarily,

but I do know that you like audio since you're listening

to this podcast.

So as you're listening today,

you can pick up a lot of books that are valuable

for you through audible.

And as you know,

I've connected up with audible and I would love to offer

you a book for free.

If you haven't taken me up on that offer in the

past, all you'll need to do is go to gift biz,

book.com and make a selection that's at gift biz,

book.com. All right,

Christine, I would like to invite you now to dare to

dream. I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.

It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.

So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable

Heights that you would wish to obtain.

Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.

What is inside your box TRIBE?

I think travel seek the world more and then I definitely

would want to express what I see and learn through painting

and ceramics,

but the big push would be,

get out there and see more.

That sounds great.

Okay. So without even thinking,

no thinking aloud or to pick up the phone or no,

go online right now and you could book a trip anywhere,

where would it be?

Ooh, no thinking.

I was going to say to Haiti,

I thought you,

weren't going to say Paris.

How funny?

Because I Painting and travel and I was thinking of,

it just started me thinking of artwork by Paul Gauguin and

he did all those Tahitian paintings.

All right,

then. So there you go.

All right.

Well Tahiti it is.

Okay. So Christine,

if our listeners wanted to find and take a look at

your art,

what is the best place,

the single best place for them to go Etsy?

My Etsy shop,

which is being freaky,

dive etsy.com,

I think.

Okay. Super and I also put together a show notes page.

So if you did not capture that website,

if you want to check out the books that Christina's mentioning,

also, if you want to relisten to some key points throughout

this podcast,

just jump over to our show notes page on gift biz

unwrapped, and we'll have all of that outlined there for you.

Okay. Christine,

I'm going to tell right now that I think you have

well put in your time while you've been homeschooling all five

of your children,

that it is time for you to travel.

And I think you should pick up that phone as soon

as you can,

or I don't know,

keep what no.

Why he keeps saying phone or go online or something and

get yourself a trip to,

to Hedy.

Yeah, that's funny.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you for sharing all of that insight and information and

your experience with Etsy.

I really,

really appreciate that.

And may your candle always burn bright?

Thank you so much.

This was really a pleasure.

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