Peaceful Profits Podcast Ep. 46 - How an Etsy Illustrator Had Her Best Day Of Sales Ever
Synopsis:
Discover how Scottish watercolor artist and Etsy seller Mhairi Morris transformed her creative side hustle into her best sales day ever—$286 profit after ad spend! In this inspiring Peaceful Profits success story, Mhairi shares how she built a profitable front-end funnel, overcame self-doubt, and launched a beta program to help other artists thrive on Etsy.
Packed with practical tips, mindset shifts, and marketing strategies from the Peaceful Profits coaching program with Mike Shreeve, this episode is a must-listen for creatives ready to turn passion into profit.
Transcript:
Peaceful Profits Review: How an Etsy Illustrator Had Her Best Day Of Sales Ever
[00:00:00] Jessica: Hello, Peaceful Profits Nation. Jessica here with an exciting client Spotlight episode for you today. Today we are talking to our client, Vari Morris. Vari is a Scottish watercolor artist, designer, and illustrator who lives in England and by day she is an academic. She is also an Etsy seller who opened her first Etsy shop a couple of years ago in the knitting and crochet space.
[00:00:23] Jessica: She has another shop selling digital products and now one selling print on demand products as well. She says that [00:00:30] she discovered what works on Etsy through trial and error and a lot of research, and she wants to pass that knowledge on to help other artists build their own creative business so they too can be paid to do what they love.
[00:00:42] Jessica: Welcome Vari. Thank
[00:00:43] Mhairi: you very much.
[00:00:45] Jessica: It's wonderful to have you here. So to start, can you tell me a little bit about your greatest recent business win?
[00:00:55] Mhairi: Okay. I think it was a day only in the last week or two where I had [00:01:00] something like, and this is gonna sound like small peanuts to everyone, but $286 of profit.
[00:01:06] Mhairi: And I was like, gosh, if every day was like this, then I'd started the mental mass. I thought, oh, and I could really begin to see things starting to work out. No, not every day is like that, I should add. But it's the sort of the green shoots beginning to come through that I can see of my business growth.
[00:01:20] Mhairi: And it's been a long time coming 'cause I have been working on growing my business for quite a while.
[00:01:25] Jessica: Yeah. Yeah. And so that $286 that was on your, what we [00:01:30] would call a front end offer?
[00:01:31] Mhairi: Yeah, that's right. So I have a workshop, a two hour workshop where about an hour and a half actually where I help.
[00:01:37] Mhairi: Etsy sellers to get started or people, artists to get started selling on Etsy
[00:01:41] Jessica: Uhhuh. Yeah. And so that was it's a funnel that you've built and that you, you were running ads to it as well.
[00:01:50] Mhairi: Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
[00:01:50] Jessica: Yeah. So this is $286 profit in one day after ad spend. Yeah, after ad spend.
[00:01:55] Jessica: Yeah. Pretty sure was that time. I think a hundred dollars. Okay, so right. Yeah. A hundred a [00:02:00] day on ad spend. Yeah. Wonderful. Wonderful. That's amazing. So how did that. Particular day. How did that impact your business or impact your mindset about your business maybe?
[00:02:09] Mhairi: It was funny 'cause I don't check my stats every day.
[00:02:12] Mhairi: I try and do it once a week. And I, for ages, I wasn't checking at all because I could see that I wasn't really making much money and I was trying to fix a little bits and pieces all along the way. But I'd made some tweaks that had really. Change things. Actually it was a Facebook Meta Pro person had reached out to me and was like, oh, you could try this, you could try that.
[00:02:28] Mhairi: And so I, I did, [00:02:30] and her recommendations helped to get things going. So our pixels starting to learn, and I think that in itself helps. Once your pixel has been a bit seasoned, then helps pick up, new customers along the way. Anyway, I had happened to be reviewing my stats in preparation for a call with her, and I was like oh, okay.
[00:02:48] Mhairi: And I think not that I'd was thinking I'd given up at that time, but around about my birthday in July, I had, I thought maybe I should just switch the ads off. It's not really working. And I'm still glad I didn't because a month later there, my, my [00:03:00] role had gone from 0.5 up to about 1.8 so return on ad spend.
[00:03:04] Mhairi: And that was before any backend offer sales because obviously I'm not. Really been focusing on that this summer. All the stuff that's been going on
[00:03:10] Jessica: yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. So how long have you been running that funnel?
[00:03:15] Mhairi: I started my ads, I think it was in the middle of May.
[00:03:18] Mhairi: Okay. Yeah, about the 24th of May, something like that.
[00:03:20] Jessica: So
[00:03:20] Mhairi: oh, no, hang on. Sorry. The first workshop was the 25th of May, so it would've been two weeks before that.
[00:03:24] Jessica: Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So three, three or four months so far. Three or four
[00:03:28] Mhairi: months. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:03:29] Jessica: Okay. [00:03:30] So in the beginning through various
[00:03:31] Mhairi: situations, sorry.
[00:03:33] Mhairi: Yeah. Yeah. No, so I didn't, it's gone through various situations. I didn't help myself in that. I wanted to run it live the first few times. So that I got feedback directly from participants. And so each time I set up my ads, I could only let it run for, say, two weeks or a month or whatever. Prepared I was and then had to start the whole process again, so my pixel kicked getting put back into the learning phase.
[00:03:52] Mhairi: So yeah, but when I eventually put it on Evergreen in July, early July, that's when it really started to. I guess embed itself. [00:04:00] Yeah. Yeah. Learn properly.
[00:04:01] Jessica: Amazing.
[00:04:03] Jessica: Amazing. And I also know that you wrote a book as part of this process. You've created this workshop, now you've been building your front end funnel throughout all of that what challenges have you faced in, in, in working through all of those various pieces?
[00:04:16] Mhairi: So I think probably the biggest challenge for me has been my own self-doubt and worrying about whether I can really charge X amount for this and without charging too little because I'm charging too much.
[00:04:25] Mhairi: It's a real guessing game sometimes. And you hear people talk about pricing [00:04:30] comes from within. And. I dunno what feels like nonsense, really. I think you have to just look at how much value you're giving your students and then over deliver on that. So that's been a challenge.
[00:04:42] Mhairi: It's been hard to keep going in the face of days where I don't make any sales and my Facebook ad spends quite high and I'm like, oh. But then you have other days where you make lots of sales and you're like, oh, it's okay. And I think you had a client on recently who talks about checking it daily, but.
[00:04:56] Mhairi: Judging it weekly. And I, that's become my new mantra because it is [00:05:00] so true. If I was to go on a daily basis, on the basis of my emotions, I would've given up several times over. But having that tempering my expectations and just measuring it at the end of the week, and then at the end of the month it shows me that actually on a long, on a, the long game and in profit and it's worth.
[00:05:15] Mhairi: It's worth
[00:05:16] Jessica: persevering, right? Yeah. So what's the plan next? How are you planning on continuing to help clients after they've purchased your front end offer? You're, so you're helping them create, in this [00:05:30] workshop, you're helping them start their Etsy business. Yeah. And then, yeah. And then you have other plans for Yeah.
[00:05:36] Jessica: Continuing to offer other things to them later.
[00:05:39] Mhairi: So what I'm finding is I have two, two, a mix of two different types of clients, those who are completely brand new, and those who have got an Etsy store that isn't really working. And they they're desperate to find something to help them get it reinvigorated.
[00:05:51] Mhairi: So what I'm working on at the moment is something called the Etsy Accelerator, which I will run as a beta program to start with, just because I wanna get. To know what people need [00:06:00] and also what works and what doesn't with my clients. So that I can then use that to create an even better program going forward.
[00:06:07] Mhairi: But I've got my first I have my first student in through that. And we're working together on setting up first store from brand new and it's been really interesting actually, seeing, I dunno whether it's because I've been working in the online business space for a few years now. Or maybe I've got a different way of thinking.
[00:06:24] Mhairi: I've got a different kind of brain. But seeing the questions that she has, I'm like, oh, it didn't even occur to me that would be a [00:06:30] question.
[00:06:30] Mhairi: And that's been a really useful exercise. So that's what we're working on at the moment, is a beta launch of the Etsy Accelerator.
[00:06:35] Mhairi: Amazing. It's TPC. Yes.
[00:06:38] Jessica: Yeah. I love the beta launch version of, for your high ticket offer and we coach students in Peaceful profits to do that all the time because it is, it really allows you to have that chance to test it out and see what. Hearing, I think the feedback that you can get from clients specifically as you are, creating it and serving them and [00:07:00] building it, and it, they have ideas that you were like, oh, I did, wouldn't even think that was the thing that you needed more help with.
[00:07:04] Jessica: Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah I was gonna ask just like how you feel like your work with clients has improved or how have your. How has your work here impacted your clients' experiences and their success in what you're helping them do?
[00:07:19] Mhairi: Oh, wow. I think my confidence has definitely grown.
[00:07:23] Mhairi: Yeah. So I think back to my first client, I think there was a lot of you could try this and perhaps do this, and I wasn't very confident. [00:07:30] Whereas with this client, maybe I'm just more sure of my offer now that it's been honed and tweaked over the months. But being able to say to her.
[00:07:38] Mhairi: Confidence. Oh no, you want to do this and you should try that. And then there's just no doubt in my mind about what I'm telling her. What is, what will work for her? So that's helped. I think. A lot of the stuff that Mike talks about in the early stages with the, like reading every day or listening to scripts, I like to read.
[00:07:54] Mhairi: And okay, I fallen by the wayside with meditation, journaling. And actually that's a really useful [00:08:00] exercise. Journaling your thoughts out because you don't realize how much that chatter box in your head because there's such negative things and sometimes you don't even catch it.
[00:08:08] Mhairi: It's so fast. But if you actually spend the time right now, that's been a real. Interesting and useful exercise, and I think that's made me a better coach,
[00:08:18] Jessica: I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. So I wanted to ask also about your process. You've gone through building a funnel, you've get getting it up and running.
[00:08:29] Jessica: [00:08:30] Have you been able to, are you doing that all yourself? Are you hiring any of those pieces out along the way and running the ads? There's a lot of pieces along the way of building the funnel, and I know that sometimes, it takes time. We of course, teach a lot of that process in the Peaceful Profits course.
[00:08:43] Jessica: But I'm just wondering how that has gone for you as you've been working through that.
[00:08:47] Mhairi: So it's been a real mixed bag. I, when I first joined, I had my website on Kajabi. I love Kajabi. I think it's fabulous for its course membership area. Website building's, nice and easy. [00:09:00] Email. Email marketing's really easy.
[00:09:02] Mhairi: But when it came to building the funnel, when it got to the ones the one time offer upsell, it was just you, all you're allowed was a video and some text and you couldn't customize it. It was very, and so I looked into hiring somebody these to do that for me. And I looked into, people were talking about doing, having a Thrive car integration with Zapier and dah, and eventually.
[00:09:22] Mhairi: Somebody, a friend of mine said to me, why don't you try FG Funnels? I've got an affiliate link. So I went, alright. Then having just paid somebody to do my [00:09:30] website on Kajabi and then alright then, and I switched over to Easter this year. Huge learning curve. But I love FG funnels. It is just everything I needed it to be and it's beautiful.
[00:09:38] Mhairi: So my website is. As you have pointed out, there's a couple of little errors on there, so I need to do a bit work on that. But actually I'm in the process of changing it over to a different template and hiring, I will hire somebody out to do that for me. Because I just don't have the time to do everything.
[00:09:52] Mhairi: Yeah. But I did build a funnel myself. It was a template that I had, I just, yeah. I had to make all the mockups and all the make, all the copy and all rest of [00:10:00] that, and that in itself, I think, I wouldn't do it every time myself, but I think it's really useful to do it the first time. Because then you see a what's needed and what's involved and where the things are, they pick up the little glitches here and there.
[00:10:11] Mhairi: So even tonight, it's been running for three or four months and I was on my mobile trying to look at the page and I'm like, oh, I didn't realize what that looked like that on mobile. So I've had to go back in and change things. So I think that's a useful thing to do as a, an entrepreneur.
[00:10:25] Mhairi: Learn how to do it yourself so that you can then tell somebody else how to do it and also pick up on the know [00:10:30] what mistakes and things to look out for.
[00:10:31] Jessica: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. But it's a lot of work, a lot work. Amazing. Amazing. Okay, so can you tell us what is your number one piece of advice that you would like to share with others who are working through this process as well?
[00:10:48] Mhairi: Can I give more than one?
[00:10:49] Jessica: Of course.
[00:10:51] Mhairi: Number one, just do it. Just take action. Don't second guess yourself. Don't hold yourself back. Don't let what if's not perfect or what if's [00:11:00] not right. Hold you back. Just take action and the process of doing that, things will become clear. It's the whole, you don't need to know every step in the journey.
[00:11:09] Mhairi: You just need to know where the next couple of steps are to be able to get to your destination.
[00:11:12] Mhairi: I'd say also ask for help. I'm not very good at that myself. I like to be, I'm very independent. I like to do things myself. So make, take, make use of the coaching that's available on the calls and the, the copy and offers.
[00:11:25] Mhairi: And I haven't even been on the Facebook ads calls yet. I've just been muddling through myself and I'm like, oh, I [00:11:30] should probably actually. Ask for some help there. So yeah, that's probably my two biggest pieces of advice.
[00:11:36] Jessica: Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Take action.
[00:11:38] Mhairi: Ask for help.
[00:11:39] Jessica: Yes. Those are both good, very good pieces of advice that we try to tell people all the time, but yeah, and also, those mindset pieces and that the self-confidence and all of that.
[00:11:50] Jessica: Yes. Those are such important pieces as well. Like you were saying earlier about journaling and getting things out of your head and all of those things, like you have to get that in the right place in order to be able [00:12:00] to take action, right? Yes,
[00:12:02] Mhairi: and I notice a difference.
[00:12:03] Mhairi: So there are times when I don't read every day. And there are times when I do in the moment I'm reading, feel, fear and do it anyway. And it's the nuggets that come out of it. And actually I probably last summer, just about the time that I joined, I was reading create the Impossible or something like that.
[00:12:18] Mhairi: But yeah. His name now, Michael, somebody, and it was I, every single day I had screens and screens to write because there were so many nuggets from this book. And I think that in itself is probably the most valuable [00:12:30] or one of the most valuable pieces of advice that gives us just to keep yourself growing.
[00:12:34] Mhairi: Because I think in any yes, we want our clients to have transformations, but as the entrepreneur, we undergo so many more transformations ourselves. Yeah. And I think that in itself is. You're not just impacting your clients, right? You're impacting your families, your friends, those who you interact with on a daily basis.
[00:12:50] Mhairi: Yeah, it's always about trying to be your better self. It sounds so cliche and cheesy, doesn't it? But it is true.
[00:12:56] Jessica: It is. It very much is wonderful. Okay, so [00:13:00] now to wrap this up, how can our listeners find out more about you and what you are up to and how you help people?
[00:13:09] Mhairi: You could find me on social media.
[00:13:11] Mhairi: My name is very but spelled Mary, so you're probably gonna have show notes, aren't you? So it's M-H-A-I-R-I-M-O-R-R-I-S.com. If you wanna check out the Etsy workshop, it's slash Etsy Hyn workshop. Keep an eye out for an ear out for the beta launch of the XY accelerator. And yeah, watch this [00:13:30] space.
[00:13:30] Jessica: Yeah. Wonderful. Thank you so much.