Hello little business babies! We are so excited to chat to you about reaching our first 100K downloads on the podcast in just four short months. We absolutely cannot believe how great you guys have been, and we are so thankful for the amazing support that we have been given. Each and every download, share, and review makes a huge difference to the impact that we are able to have on all of you creative biz bosses out there.

For today’s episode, we are going to be talking about how we got to a 100,000 downloads, the effect that having a podcast has had on our business, our marketing game plan, and some strategies that we think have helped and made a difference. Keep in mind, there is one major caveat to all of what we are going to be talking about today — with podcasting, there really is no one-size-fits-all formula. It is still such a mysterious medium and people are continuously trying to understand how it works and how to interact with it, which makes it really hard to measure. So please keep that in mind as we are sharing some of our experiences, and find out what you can take and apply to your own podcast.

Today on the podcast, we have Kelly Parker Smith of Hello World Paper Co. For those of you who don’t know, Kelly is a retired third grade teacher who started an Etsy shop and has had a booming business ever since. She has over $400,000 in sales on Etsy and even started her own podcast where she talks all about what it’s like to be an Etsy shop owner and run a product-based business. Kelly has been on Etsy for almost a decade, so she knows the ins and outs of why the platform is such a total rock star for product-based businesses.

On today’s episode, Kelly shares with us why she chose Etsy to sell on in the first place and how to build an audience when you are first getting started. She even talks about some pros and cons of Etsy and how some of those cons can actually work in your favor. Kelly lets you know how to stand out in the sea of many Etsy shops and gives some strategies to communicate with your customers outside of Etsy. She also gives some secret tips and tricks to maximize your presence, improve your SEO on Etsy, and get found quicker. So get out your notebook, especially if you are considering hopping over to Etsy, because there is a lot of good stuff in this episode.

Today, we are addressing something that we get asked about on the regular. We are answering the question about dealing with business overwhelm, especially for those of you who are just starting out, trying to figure out what to focus on first. We are giving you the foundation and showing you where we think you should put your focus first and why, so perhaps you won’t be so overwhelmed. Now, this does not mean we are going to give you a copy-paste, one-size-fits-all formula. Instead, we will give you the building blocks to figure out exactly what you need for your unique situation to build your own successful business.

We know how easy it is to fall into those holes of massive overwhelm when you are wanting to add more and grow your business. So if that is you, then listen up! And honestly, it does not matter if you are just starting a business or if you have started one already. The information shared in this episode will truly help you lay those solid business foundations and push through the overwhelm regardless of where you are in your journey.

Today we’re talking about one of our favorite systems, Squarespace. We’re discussing why it is our favorite web platform, chatting about all of our favorite features, and why we have adamantly insisted on staying on Squarespace despite having had the option to leave multiple times at this point. Now, if you are using another platform, we are not here to shame or judge you for that, and we are certainly not going to tell you that WordPress is wrong and that it will ruin your life. So if you are happy where you are and you are getting great results, then maybe this episode is not for you.

However, if you are frustrated with where you are right now and are thinking about leaving, or if you haven’t even started your website yet, then this might break down some options for you and let you know where we stand. This will be our judgement free zone and, although we are completely biased, we will not shame you. That is not our objective. So if you are curious about how we started out on Squarespace and why it might be right for you, then stay tuned!