Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, there's just a
natural need.
I think never before haveparents so badly wanted to be
good parents and they're buyingall the tools and things they
can to help supplement that.
And if you can provide an easysolution for them, they're going
to buy it and then they'regoing to tell their friends
about it.
So I think it's a great nicheto be in and a great position,
(00:21):
because you know firsthand whatother parents need.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Niche to be in and a
great position, because you know
firsthand what other parentsneed.
Hi everyone, and welcome to abrand new episode of she's Got
it Together.
I'm your host, Jessica.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
And I'm Samantha.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Each week we peel
back the curtain on what it
really looks like to have ittogether, From the messy moments
to the milestones.
We're here to share it all.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
So grab your favorite
drink, get comfy and let's dive
into today's topic.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Are you looking for a
side hustle that you can do
from home, maybe just a creativeoutlet, even Something outside
of that mom hat that you'realways wearing?
Well, I have Lisa Seifert heretoday and she's going to share
with us how she createsprintable planners and how you
can do the same Really easy, nodesign experience necessary.
Anyone can do it.
Lisa, welcome, so glad to haveyou on the podcast today.
(01:14):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Great, very excited
to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, this will be a
fun conversation.
I love the fact that this issomehow going to help moms find
a side hustle or just earn someextra income, make it a
full-time business.
I mean, there's so manyopportunities here.
But before we dive in, can yougive us a little background,
just a little bit about yourselfand how you came to be such an
expert on this particular topic?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Sure, I am a
self-taught graphic designer, so
that's why I always lovesharing this, because I feel
like it doesn't matter what yourbackground is.
Anyone can do this.
I do have a bachelor's degreein history, which I can confirm
doesn't apply at all.
So, don't even worry.
You know, whatever yourbackground is, it will not
(02:00):
matter.
If you just wake up today anddecide I want to make planners
and start selling them, you can.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Awesome, awesome.
So you know, let's kind of justdive in and talk about.
You know how how does one goabout starting.
You know this kind of littleside hustle, you know when in
their free time, or you knowmaking it a full-time income I
mean, eventually is is apossibility too, but how do you
kind of get started in there?
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Sure, I think it's
really perfect for someone who
just loves organization.
First of all, I think if youhave a passion for just liking
planners and tracking your dayand I'm sure with children they
have their own schedules youhave your schedule, your spouse
has his schedule right.
The other children and soanybody who just likes seeing
(02:46):
all of that in one page and anice snapshot is someone who
already I can tell you you're50% of the way.
You know how to do this, andwhen I was doing it, I had to
use Adobe InDesign, which has apretty big learning curve, but
now you can make everything inCanva, which is a much easier
drag and drop tool.
So, yeah, it's super easy toget started.
(03:07):
If this is just something youare, interested in.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, I mean, I like
the fact that you point out that
you kind of already know how todo it.
You're just essentially takingthe things that you've learned
along the way with your ownorganization or your own
planning and putting that downfor someone else to have.
And I mean or your own planningand putting that down for
someone else to have, and I meanthat makes the perfect unique
product when you do somethinglike that, because you're you're
solving the struggles thatyou've had personally, so
(03:32):
there's a good possibility thatyou're not the only one out
there that has has had thatissue.
So, yeah, very neat.
And you said you know you startout with InDesign, which
definitely does have a learningcurve, but with Canva, I mean,
Canva is really easy and it doespretty much the same thing.
(03:53):
So do you, when you do this, doyou start this?
You know, with templates, Doyou kind of, you know, start
from scratch and just createwhat you've got imagined or like
?
How do you go about it?
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So originally I
started with the template only
because I didn't know how to useAdobe InDesign.
So I had paid somebody.
It was a lot, it paid like$4,000 to have a beautiful
planner made Right and it justwasn't what I wanted and it
wasn't like things weren'tplaced correctly.
So basically that's how Istarted.
I just knew what I needed tohave changed.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, so you'd figure
it out along the way.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, that's why I
feel like you know, if you look
at any planner you know atTarget or Walmart or Staples or
anything like that, you can lookat those and get some ideas.
And I bet everybody who's everused any sort of planner has an
idea like oh, I wish this wasover here, the margins were
bigger, or I write really big, Ijust need more space.
(04:47):
So you already intuitively knowhow to make the changes in the
design that you want to see.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, and again, that
makes it more, it makes it
unique.
So you're, you know you're notit's not a carbon copy of
something that you've alreadyseen, and it's great selling
feature for that too.
Yeah, I love that.
So I mean, how long does ittypically take you to create one
of these, you know, from startto finish?
Is it a big process, or are youable to do it pretty quick on
the fly?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
It's usually for me
it's about a week.
It's one week to get like.
It's like creating a newwebsite you have to have all the
colors and the fonts and thewording and decisions.
Yeah, a lot of design decisionsgo into it and then, once you
get into the design, you're like, oh, purple and gold would look
good, a little tacky.
Let me switch this up tosomething else.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah, I think that's
a good point too, that you know
what you've got in your mind isnot always what you end up with,
because I would definitely saythat the color choices that you
feel like are going to work out,just they just don't.
I do the same thing.
I'm always creating things, soI get it 100%.
In fact, I just made a new logoand I wanted lime green in it.
(05:55):
I was set on having lime green,and I ended up with a pink and
a navy blue Very not what I wasplanning and a navy blue Very
not what I was planning so yousee inspiration for ideas.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
It looks so great,
Like maybe you love Target and
you're like oh, the red and thebullseye.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
And then when?
Speaker 1 (06:17):
you try to like
transfer it over to your idea.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Doesn't translate
correctly?
Yeah, not for me.
Yeah, yeah, there's a reasonthat only Target can pull that
off, right, yep, yep, there's areason that only Target can pull
that off, right, yes, so wheredo you come up with your ideas,
aside from you know, like whatyou've found that needs fixing?
I mean, do you go like throughPinterest and do you kind of
just try to, you know, drum upsome inspiration, or you know
(06:38):
how do you go about all that?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
I actually get a lot
of requests at this point, so
what I'll?
Do is if you look at my YouTubechannel inside the community
tab, it has polls in there and Iask people hey, here are, like
you know, maybe I get a bunch ofrequests for a tarot card, a
moon card, a puppy planner, andthen maybe a homeschooling
(07:00):
planner, right, and I leteveryone vote and that way I am
not the bad person, for, likeyou got to choose and that's
right.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I'm not making the
decision really.
Yeah, I like that, I like thatand I think that even you know,
for moms just starting out, youknow, wanting to dabble on this
or, you know, pull it into afull-time gig there is.
You don't have to have like alist of people, you don't have
to have a huge social mediafollowing.
You know you'll have theopportunity with just people in
your own life that you can askopinions on.
(07:29):
You know I mean friends andfamily and things like that.
And then you know throwing outthe polls on social media is
always great.
I like to do a little promo onthose sometimes, just so I can
get some new feedback and justkind of see you know what the
consensus is outside of my group, which kind of helps me decide.
You know which direction I wantto go and things like that.
(07:51):
So, yeah, there's definitelylots of options for that.
So I mean I know you said ittakes you about a week to do
this creation.
Now does that?
I mean, how many hours a dayare you working on it?
Is it just something like whenyou feel passionate about it,
you really have the juicesflowing for the creativity, or
is this like a all day long, allweek kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
You know, I'd like to
say I work eight hours a day,
but that is not accurate.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
That's good.
We don't want that.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Yeah, I started
tracking it with an app and I
actually only work maybe four orfive hours a day.
I take breaks right, like TV, Idon't know.
Go for a walk, go to the store,but it probably you can do it
really in half the time.
I would say half of the week isthe design, the other half is
just me putting together thesales page and making mock-ups.
(08:39):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So that kind of leads
me into okay, what other pieces
are that this entail?
I mean, obviously you'recreating the product, but what
else do you have to do?
I mean, you know, how do yousell it?
Like, what are you designing?
Where are you leading people,like, how does this all work for
them?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
It's easy once you do
your first one like your first
printable, your first physicalplanner, your first digital
because once you get a sort oflike template set up or workflow
, you just kind of plug and playthe next one, Right, so?
but mostly it's, you know, it'sthe design, packaging it
together so that it can bedelivered as a zip file or some
other format that people need,and then also giving them
(09:20):
directions, right?
So there's nothing worse thangiving somebody something and
they're like okay, great, andthey're like well, now, what do
I do?
What?
Speaker 3 (09:26):
do I do with this?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah, and so now I
give out directions on how to
use the digital planner, becausea lot of people were like
giving me bad feedback becausethey didn't know how to use all
the bells and whistles that wereinside there.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, no, that's a
very good point too.
I think you have to rememberthat you have to go back to the
basics, because obviously youknow how to do this and what
it's all supposed to do, but youjust need to take it down and
like really break it up so thatevery feature that you've
created here you know the reasonwhy and you know how to do it.
And all of that Because, yeah,I think I bad feedback, feedback
that completely sucks if it's,you know, because user error,
(10:04):
you know, or you know justinexperience of of the product,
um, so do you?
You said you created a salespage and things like that Did.
Was there ever a point when youdidn't create like a whole
sales page?
I mean, is it a short one, isit like a long one?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Um, what works best
for you.
So I had a sales page that Iused to sell the first planner
and I literally just use it overand over again.
So I changed the name and thenit would say it's about medium
length, right?
So it has all the logos thatyou get, and then it has all of
the color palettes that you get,and then it has all.
Like, all my planners come withlike four to eight different
(10:41):
covers, because not everyonewants the same cover or just
helps people to see thepossibilities of oh, I can do
this in purple and gold, or Ireally like pink and blue, or
because again they're coming tome because they don't want to do
the design, right, right, right.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
They're paying you to
do it.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah, so like I'm
sure if you saw it you'd be like
oh, pink and blue, those are mybrand colors, and all of a
sudden it clicks for you, eventhough it's just one option.
Um, and so I do.
I try to do that.
Probably takes up the majorityof the time.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, so it caters to
a bigger audience.
Then by having you know optionswithin that, Um, that's, that's
a really good point.
That probably is not reallythought about when you get
started.
So what other items do you have?
You said you have cards as well.
So where are these cards thatyou design?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
The card.
So if you do, you mean like acard deck, so a card deck, you
can design these in Canva or youcan design them in InDesign,
and so there's two ways todeliver them.
Well, I should say there'sthree.
You can deliver them asphysical cards and have them
printed.
I have like a lot of greatprint recommendations, like for
vendors on my site.
(11:50):
You can also do them asprintable, so the person just
gets them, prints them outthemselves Again, a lot of
directions are needed.
Or you can do it digital.
So there's a couple apps.
Probably the most popular oneis Deckable, and then they can
load it into Deckable and use itthat way.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Okay, oh, that's neat
, okay, yeah.
So I mean, what about itemsthat you want personalized?
Do you have anything like thatthat they are able to purchase
and then personalize on theirown, or is that not something
that you really get into?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
No, 100%.
It's all DIY, so everything isjust editable.
So you can take everything.
You can change the colors, thefonts, you can delete, add pages
whatever you think is necessaryso that you don't.
Basically, my whole premise isyou never have to stare at a
blank page.
You can take my design and thenjust turn it around and then
call it your own.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Okay, that's very
neat.
So you know, like, what kind ofplatforms are you using like
software and things Like.
I know you mentioned InDesignand Canva and that's for
designing.
But as far as you know, whereare you having this hosted web?
You know the webpages andthings like that.
And then also you know whereare you selling this?
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Sure, so I moved.
I just migrated from WordPressto Squarespace and, mostly
because I don't know if you'veever had this problem there's
something not working on yourWordPress site.
The plugin person blames yourtheme.
The theme person blames yourhost.
The host blames like some otherthing.
You're just like thanks.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I'm all alone.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
So I switched over to
Squarespace One.
I actually like it.
It's much easier to use andwhenever I have an issue, I just
call one person and they fix it.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Nice, yeah, that's
nice.
That's nice.
Now for selling and things.
Do you do Etsy or do you doanything like that Shopify?
Speaker 1 (13:42):
So I've never done
Etsy.
I would say, if you're juststarting out, I definitely think
Etsy is the place to go.
There's like a whole algorithm,there's SEO, there's ads it's
like a whole thing.
So I think it doesn't reallymatter as much which platform
you pick, as long as you justpick one.
I think if you're trying to doEtsy and your own website and
start a Shopify store and thensell it on different platforms,
(14:03):
you're never really going tolearn which platform works best
for you or tell people where togo.
But Etsy has a captive audienceand honestly, I think you could
just do zero advertising andthen it'll just kind of do the
sales for you.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Yeah, yeah, I think
the keyword research would
probably help.
So with that, like, what do youdo for your keyword research?
I mean, how are you pullingthose and you know, getting
competitive within this verysaturated market so that you're
seen?
Speaker 1 (14:32):
So I think if you're
on Etsy, you want to use
Marmalade because that's likejust built in If you are on.
I'm still using Google, justlike everybody else.
I use SEMrush a lot.
It also helps with my website.
It just does a weekly audit, soit just kind of reminds me what
to do and that's pretty much it.
(14:52):
I'm not really like I've done.
I've gone down the road oftrying to do a lot of analytics,
but I'm actually it's just notmy strength.
I do.
I have hooked up GoogleAnalytics so I have that data,
but mostly.
So my audience is mostly US,australia and New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Okay, that's yeah, I
mean.
So how did they find youoriginally then?
Just kind of word of mouth oryou know, were they searching
and find?
You know, found you online orhow.
How did you kind of build thislittle empire?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
So when I first
started out, I put all my
templates on creative marketing,so a hundred percent of all my
sales came from there, and thenafter that, when I wanted to
sell my own course, I had.
According to Google analytics,90% of my traffic came from
YouTube and then, like the restof it, from Pinterest.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah, okay.
So yeah, I mean you were takinga look at your own analytics
then and figuring out where youraudience was or where they were
coming from, at least.
So yeah, I mean now Pinterestis another whole beast.
Is that something that youutilize often?
I mean, I'm assuming you've gota lot of pins directing back to
your site, or is that just kindof organically happening?
Speaker 1 (16:02):
So I have like a
love-hate relationship with
Pinterest, like sometimes I'llget you know.
It's kind of like I'll get allexcited, like I'm going to go
all in.
I see somebody else killing iton Pinterest or saying how great
it is, and then I'll hire aPinterest admin and I'll put all
this money into it, and thennothing really happens and
nothing changes and I'm like, oh, forget it, and then I'll leave
it dormant for a couple ofyears.
So this has been on and offsince 2017 when I started.
(16:25):
So there's stuff on there andthat's why I still do get
traffic, but I'm not good atconsistently.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
You're not actively
on there.
Okay, yeah, I would say aPinterest is you really have to
be consistent in order to reapthe benefits, at least from the
very beginning?
I do actually have a randomblog post from my original site,
follow my Arrow, back in 2016.
And it was, let's see, I thinkit was Prosecco, champagne,
(16:57):
lemonade type, I don't know, itwas some kind of crazy recipe.
Anyways, I still get trafficfrom that and I've only posted
one random pin on Pinterest wayback in that day, but yeah, and
then everything else is dead.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Yeah, it's so hard.
That's why I always say I havelike a love hate relationship
with it, like it has potential,and I know I see traffic coming
in from analytics.
I know zero traffic comes infrom Instagram or TikTok.
So, that's why I feel like it'sstill worth looking into.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah, yeah, I mean.
But that is great to really toknow where your audience is.
I think that's the biggest goalif you're trying to make these
sales and things like that.
Otherwise you might be findingcrickets and that's.
That's never any fun.
So, all right, well, you know,I mean those are all really
really good points.
I think you know, taking it backand kind of breaking it down
(17:50):
again.
You know, starting with theproduct that you're, you're
after, you know what you'rewanting to create.
If you don't have a productidea, you know the biggest thing
is to always go out and lookfor.
You know, a solution to aproblem is what you need to do
create something to fixsomething, and that's.
You know, usually you're prettygold if you have that type of
(18:12):
mindset going into this.
And I think another point ofall of this is that you don't
have to go big.
You can start with one or twoproducts.
I mean, even if your Etsy storeonly has one or two products,
focus on those.
Even if your Etsy store onlyhas one or two products, focus
on those two.
You know, like, once you getsome traffic with your store,
get some sales, etsy will startpromoting you.
I mean they have their ownalgorithm too and there's that's
(18:34):
a whole other beast.
There's lots of beasts heretoday, but yeah, that one
actually you can really divedeep into.
But I think it's a great placejust to start, because you don't
have to have your audience.
You're going to find youraudience there.
As long as you have created aproduct that is helping us and
it's a solution for a problem,you'll be good with that.
(18:57):
And then, I know you mentionedyou have your sales page and all
of those things.
Those might feel intimidatingto someone just starting out,
you know, especially just a momtrying, you know, doing this
kind of on their own and just,you know, side gig or whatever,
um, and Etsy will take care ofthat too.
So you don't have to create asales page.
You don't have to do all this.
(19:18):
They have their standard pages.
You just put your informationon the descriptions, images, all
that good stuff.
So there's really not a wholelot that you have to do to get
started.
And then again with the designdoing Kartra or I'm sorry, not
Kartra Canva.
Kartra is our platform, butCanva that's a free account too
for the majority.
(19:39):
I mean you can do a lot in that.
You can obviously pay get pro,but you know the free option
does a lot and you know where doyou find your graphics and
things.
Do you purchase graphics to usein these?
Do you design them?
Speaker 1 (19:53):
So because I want
them to be resellable.
I don't want anyone to everhave any issues.
I always use Adobe Stock.
It's commercially licensed.
No one will get.
I've never had a single personhave a legal claim or any issues
, because I think a lot ofpeople when they.
I would be careful, though,when you design in Canva.
A hundred percent of all of myimages don't come from Canva.
(20:13):
They come from Adobe Stock andthen I upload them to Canva.
There are different licensesand there's so much ambiguity
and you'll see a ton of forumsof people arguing back and forth
on what's legal and what's notlegal, and Canva doesn't do a
very good job of answering foryou.
So I would say, when in doubt,just use images from a premium
stock library that you had topay for?
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
definitely yeah.
Library that you had to pay for?
Yeah, yeah, definitely yeah.
I think that's definitely thebest way to go.
And you know, creative markettoo, like you had mentioned
before, where you were sellingand you can purchase graphics on
there too.
That have you know, like you,you have to choose your oh, my
goodness, choose your license.
That's what I'm trying to sayhere.
So you know, you can get thepersonal, but if you're going to
(20:55):
be selling it, you're going towant it to be commercial, like
they have it all broken down foryou.
So definitely check into thosethings.
I mean, there isn't too manyitems within this that have to
be, you know, worried about forlegalities and things, but that
definitely is one.
But yeah, I mean, there's justso many different ways that you
can kind of get started and,depending on you know, like
whatever level, like you cankind of get started and,
(21:16):
depending on you know, likewhatever level, like you can
start at the bottom, you couldbe more experienced.
You could be a trained graphicdesigner that just wants to dive
into this and see.
You know, test the water to seewhat happens.
But it's definitely a very coolthing to consider.
But before we go today, like, Ijust want to let them know like
, what kind of income do you,can they expect to earn, or
(21:37):
could they possibly earn,because obviously everyone's
going to be different.
You know, like, is this able tobe a full-time, a true
full-time income?
Or like, what have you found?
Speaker 1 (21:49):
It can, definitely it
has the potential to be that,
especially if you niche downinto being a parent, and I think
that's this is the golden ageof parenting, right?
Like I'm Gen X and when I grewup, my parents were just like go
outside and play, leave mealone.
Now people are paying likethousands of dollars for just to
make sure their kids at age 10are set up to go to college,
(22:10):
right, and they're making sureat two years old, like you used
to have what baby Mozart, nowit's like a whole system is my
two year old progressing.
You can make a series ofplanners for one year olds, two,
three, all the way up untilcollege.
There's like the possibilitiesof just focusing on being a
parent and helping other parentsis like the it's so amazing
(22:33):
right now, and it was never likethat and you know I've actually
heard a lot of people when theytalk about oh, we're making
millions of dollars in theseprintables.
A lot of them are makingprintables for just kids to
learn and do work seats Right.
So there's nothing Not a hugeproduct, just something simple.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
But everyone's paying
for convenience these days.
So that's where you're comingin these days.
So that's where you're comingin.
You're providing that solutionbecause they don't have the time
, the creative ability, the want, whatever it might be.
So this is the void you'refilling when you do something
like this.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Yeah, there's just a
natural need.
I think never before haveparents so badly wanted to be
good parents and they're buyingall the tools and things they
can to help supplement that.
And if you can provide an easysolution for them, they're going
to buy it and then they'regoing to tell their friends
about it.
So I think it's a great nicheto be in and a great position,
(23:29):
because you know firsthand whatother parents need.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah, and niching
down, that's a really, really
good tip because, you know, Ithink we think that going broad,
you know, catering to thelargest audience possible, is
best, but that's when you kindof get lost in the water, and I
mean every there's just too manyother options out there.
But when you're very specificand I mean whether, like you
said, parenting, I mean youcould even go down into, like
(23:54):
the homeschooling you could do,you know the preschool resources
, you could really get very,very specific with it, and
that's when you're able toadvertise the easiest for
yourself and really find thosepeople that want what you're
selling.
So, yeah, definitely a good tipto consider when you're doing
all of this.
(24:14):
Well, that was an awesomelittle conversation.
I think it's a really uniquetopic for our podcast.
So it's, you know, literallysomething that you guys can do
to earn some income, you know,at any level.
But before we go, I really wouldlove Lisa to share you know
where they can find you, causeI'm sure if they have questions
they'd love to connect andthings like that.
So can you give us you knowwhere they can find you?
(24:36):
Um, cause I'm sure if they havequestions they'd love to
connect and things like that.
So can you give us you knowwhere your website is, and
things like that.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Sure, it's pretty
fabulous designscom, and then,
other than that, I am prettymuch always on YouTube, so if
you just look for that same name, uh, you'll find me there, and
there's tons of videos.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
If you want to start
learning right now?
Yeah, that's perfect.
I think that's a great way toend it here.
You know, we can actually gettrained in how to do this.
A little guidance would begreat.
But yeah, no, love that, Lovethat.
So all right.
Well, thank you so much forbeing here today, lisa, and we
will see you all next week withour new episode.
(25:15):
Thanks for joining us today onshe's Got it Together.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
It's been a real
journey, sharing and laughing
with you all.
We hope you're walking awaywith a smile on your face and a
bit more confidence in your step.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Remember you're not
alone in this crazy ride called
life.
We're all in this together, oneday at a time.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Don't forget to
subscribe, leave us a review and
, of course, share this podcastwith all the incredible women in
your life join us next week formore stories, more laughs and
more real talk until then, keepembracing your unique journey
and remember you've got ittogether more than you think.