She's Got It Together
She's Got It Together
Start a Mom-Friendly Side Hustle with Lisa Siefert
Hey there! In this episode, I chat with Lisa from Pretty Fabulous Designs about how moms can start a side hustle or even a full-time business creating and selling planners, printables, and other digital products. Lisa shares her journey as a self-taught graphic designer and gives us the lowdown on how anyone can get into this creative field, regardless of their background.
We dive into the nitty-gritty of getting started, from using tools like Canva to coming up with unique ideas that solve real problems for parents. Lisa dishes out some great tips on designing products, creating sales pages, and even touches on the importance of choosing the right platform to sell your creations.
We also talk about the potential income you can earn from this kind of business and why niching down (especially in the parenting space) can be a game-changer. If you're a mom looking for a flexible way to earn some extra cash or build a full-fledged business, this episode is packed with practical advice and inspiration. Don't miss Lisa's insights on where to find her for more in-depth guidance on getting started in this exciting field!
Hope you enjoyed this episode!
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Here's to Getting it Together one day at a time,
Jessica & Samantha
Yeah, there's just a natural need. I think never before have parents so badly wanted to be good parents and they're buying all the tools and things they can to help supplement that. And if you can provide an easy solution for them, they're going to buy it and then they're going to tell their friends about it. So I think it's a great niche to be in and a great position, because you know firsthand what other parents need.
Speaker 2:Niche to be in and a great position, because you know firsthand what other parents need. Hi everyone, and welcome to a brand new episode of she's Got it Together. I'm your host, Jessica.
Speaker 3:And I'm Samantha.
Speaker 2:Each week we peel back the curtain on what it really looks like to have it together, From the messy moments to the milestones. We're here to share it all.
Speaker 3:So grab your favorite drink, get comfy and let's dive into today's topic.
Speaker 2:Are you looking for a side hustle that you can do from home, maybe just a creative outlet, even Something outside of that mom hat that you're always wearing? Well, I have Lisa Seifert here today and she's going to share with us how she creates printable planners and how you can do the same Really easy, no design experience necessary. Anyone can do it. Lisa, welcome, so glad to have you on the podcast today. How are you?
Speaker 1:Great, very excited to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this will be a fun conversation. I love the fact that this is somehow going to help moms find a side hustle or just earn some extra income, make it a full-time business. I mean, there's so many opportunities here. But before we dive in, can you give us a little background, just a little bit about yourself and how you came to be such an expert on this particular topic?
Speaker 1:Sure, I am a self-taught graphic designer, so that's why I always love sharing this, because I feel like it doesn't matter what your background is. Anyone can do this. I do have a bachelor's degree in history, which I can confirm doesn't apply at all. So, don't even worry. You know, whatever your background is, it will not matter. If you just wake up today and decide I want to make planners and start selling them, you can.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome. So you know, let's kind of just dive in and talk about. You know how how does one go about starting. You know this kind of little side hustle, you know when in their free time, or you know making it a full-time income I mean, eventually is is a possibility too, but how do you kind of get started in there?
Speaker 1:Sure, I think it's really perfect for someone who just loves organization. First of all, I think if you have a passion for just liking planners and tracking your day and I'm sure with children they have their own schedules you have your schedule, your spouse has his schedule right.
Speaker 1:The other children and so anybody who just likes seeing all of that in one page and a nice snapshot is someone who already I can tell you you're 50% of the way. You know how to do this, and when I was doing it, I had to use Adobe InDesign, which has a pretty big learning curve, but now you can make everything in Canva, which is a much easier drag and drop tool. So, yeah, it's super easy to get started. If this is just something you are, interested in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I like the fact that you point out that you kind of already know how to do it. You're just essentially taking the things that you've learned along the way with your own organization or your own planning and putting that down for someone else to have. And I mean or your own planning and putting that down for someone else to have, and I mean that makes the perfect unique product when you do something like that, because you're you're solving the struggles that you've had personally, so there's a good possibility that you're not the only one out there that has has had that issue. So, yeah, very neat. And you said you know you start out with InDesign, which definitely does have a learning curve, but with Canva, I mean, Canva is really easy and it does pretty much the same thing. So do you, when you do this, do you start this? You know, with templates, Do you kind of, you know, start from scratch and just create what you've got imagined or like? How do you go about it?
Speaker 1:So originally I started with the template only because I didn't know how to use Adobe InDesign. So I had paid somebody. It was a lot, it paid like $4,000 to have a beautiful planner made Right and it just wasn't what I wanted and it wasn't like things weren't placed correctly. So basically that's how I started. I just knew what I needed to have changed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you'd figure it out along the way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's why I feel like you know, if you look at any planner you know at Target or Walmart or Staples or anything like that, you can look at those and get some ideas. And I bet everybody who's ever used any sort of planner has an idea like oh, I wish this was over here, the margins were bigger, or I write really big, I just need more space. So you already intuitively know how to make the changes in the design that you want to see.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and again, that makes it more, it makes it unique. So you're, you know you're not it's not a carbon copy of something that you've already seen, and it's great selling feature for that too. Yeah, I love that. So I mean, how long does it typically take you to create one of these, you know, from start to finish? Is it a big process, or are you able to do it pretty quick on the fly?
Speaker 1:It's usually for me it's about a week. It's one week to get like. It's like creating a new website you have to have all the colors and the fonts and the wording and decisions. Yeah, a lot of design decisions go 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 to something else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's a good point too, that you know what you've got in your mind is not always what you end up with, because I would definitely say that 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, so I get it 100%. In fact, I just made a new logo and I wanted lime green in it. I was set on having lime green, and I ended up with a pink and a navy blue Very not what I was planning and a navy blue Very not what I was planning so you see inspiration for ideas.
Speaker 1:It looks so great, Like maybe you love Target and you're like oh, the red and the bullseye.
Speaker 2:And then when?
Speaker 1:you try to like transfer it over to your idea.
Speaker 2:Doesn't translate correctly? Yeah, not for me. Yeah, yeah, there's a reason that only Target can pull that off, right, yep, yep, there's a reason that only Target can pull that off, right, yes, so where do you come up with your ideas, aside from you know, like what you've found that needs fixing? I mean, do you go like through Pinterest and do you kind of just try to, you know, drum up some inspiration, or you know how do you go about all that?
Speaker 1:I actually get a lot of requests at this point, so what I'll? Do is if you look at my YouTube channel inside the community tab, it has polls in there and I ask people hey, here are, like you know, maybe I get a bunch of requests for a tarot card, a moon card, a puppy planner, and then maybe a homeschooling planner, right, and I let everyone vote and that way I am not the bad person, for, like you got to choose and that's right.
Speaker 2:I'm not making the decision really. Yeah, I like that, I like that and I think that even you know, for moms just starting out, you know, wanting to dabble on this or, you know, pull it into a full-time gig there is. You don't have to have like a list of people, you don't have to have a huge social media following. You know you'll have the opportunity with just people in your own life that you can ask opinions on. You know I mean friends and family and things like that. And then you know throwing out the polls on social media is always great.
Speaker 2:I like to do a little promo on those sometimes, just so I can get some new feedback and just kind of see you know what the consensus is outside of my group, which kind of helps me decide. You know which direction I want to go and things like that. So, yeah, there's definitely lots of options for that. So I mean I know you said it takes you about a week to do this creation. Now does that? I mean, how many hours a day are you working on it? Is it just something like when you feel passionate about it, you really have the juices flowing for the creativity, or is this like a all day long, all week kind of thing.
Speaker 1:You know, I'd like to say I work eight hours a day, but that is not accurate.
Speaker 3:That's good. We don't want that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I started tracking it with an app and I actually only work maybe four or five hours a day. I take breaks right, like TV, I don'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 is the design, the other half is just me putting together the sales page and making mock-ups. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:So that kind of leads me into okay, what other pieces are that this entail? I mean, obviously you're creating the product, but what else do you have to do? I mean, you know, how do you sell it? Like, what are you designing? Where are you leading people, like, how does this all work for them?
Speaker 1:It's easy once you do your first one like your first printable, your first physical planner, your first digital because once you get a sort of like template set up or workflow, you just kind of plug and play the next one, Right, so?
Speaker 1:but mostly it's, you know, it's the design, packaging it together so that it can be delivered as a zip file or some other format that people need, and then also giving them directions, right? So there's nothing worse than giving somebody something and they're like okay, great, and they're like well, now, what do I do? What?
Speaker 3:do I do with this?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so now I give out directions on how to use the digital planner, because a lot of people were like giving me bad feedback because they didn't know how to use all the bells and whistles that were inside there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that's a very good point too. I think you have to remember that you have to go back to the basics, because obviously you know how to do this and what it's all supposed to do, but you just need to take it down and like really break it up so that every feature that you've created here you know the reason why 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, you know, or you know just inexperience of of the product, um, so do you? You said you created a sales page and things like that Did. Was there ever a point when you didn't create like a whole sales page? I mean, is it a short one, is it like a long one?
Speaker 1:Um, what works best for you. So I had a sales page that I used to sell the first planner and I literally just use it over and over again. So I changed the name and then it would say it's about medium length, right? So it has all the logos that you get, and then it has all of the color palettes that you get, and then it has all. Like, all my planners come with like four to eight different covers, because not everyone wants the same cover or just helps people to see the possibilities of oh, I can do this in purple and gold, or I really like pink and blue, or because again they're coming to me because they don't want to do the design, right, right, right.
Speaker 2:They're paying you to do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so like I'm sure if you saw it you'd be like oh, pink and blue, those are my brand colors, and all of a sudden it clicks for you, even though it's just one option. Um, and so I do. I try to do that. Probably takes up the majority of the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it caters to a bigger audience. Then by having you know options within that, Um, that's, that's a really good point. That probably is not really thought about when you get started. So what other items do you have? You said you have cards as well. So where are these cards that you design?
Speaker 1:The card. So if you do, you mean like a card deck, so a card deck, you can design these in Canva or you can design them in InDesign, and so there's two ways to deliver them. Well, I should say there's three. You can deliver them as physical cards and have them printed. I have like a lot of great print recommendations, like for vendors on my site. You can also do them as printable, so the person just gets them, prints them out themselves Again, a lot of directions are needed. Or you can do it digital. So there's a couple apps. Probably the most popular one is Deckable, and then they can load it into Deckable and use it that way.
Speaker 2:Okay, oh, that's neat, okay, yeah. So I mean, what about items that you want personalized? Do you have anything like that that they are able to purchase and then personalize on their own, or is that not something that you really get into?
Speaker 1:No, 100%. It's all DIY, so everything is just editable. So you can take everything. You can change the colors, the fonts, you can delete, add pages whatever you think is necessary so that you don't. Basically, my whole premise is you never have to stare at a blank page. You can take my design and then just turn it around and then call it your own.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's very neat. So you know, like, what kind of platforms are you using like software and things Like. I know you mentioned InDesign and Canva and that's for designing. But as far as you know, where are you having this hosted web? You know the webpages and things like that. And then also you know where are you selling this?
Speaker 1:Sure, so I moved. I just migrated from WordPress to Squarespace and, mostly because I don't know if you've ever had this problem there's something not working on your WordPress site. The plugin person blames your theme. The theme person blames your host. The host blames like some other thing. You're just like thanks.
Speaker 2:I'm all alone.
Speaker 1:So I switched over to Squarespace One. I actually like it. It's much easier to use and whenever I have an issue, I just call one person and they fix it.
Speaker 2:Nice, yeah, that's nice. That's nice. Now for selling and things. Do you do Etsy or do you do anything like that Shopify?
Speaker 1:So I've never done Etsy. I would say, if you're just starting 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 really matter as much which platform you pick, as long as you just pick one. I think if you're trying to do Etsy and your own website and start a Shopify store and then sell it on different platforms, you're never really going to learn which platform works best for you or tell people where to go. But Etsy has a captive audience and honestly, I think you could just do zero advertising and then it'll just kind of do the sales for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think the keyword research would probably help. So with that, like, what do you do for your keyword research? I mean, how are you pulling those and you know, getting competitive within this very saturated market so that you're seen?
Speaker 1:So I think if you're on Etsy, you want to use Marmalade because that's like just built in If you are on. I'm still using Google, just like everybody else. I use SEMrush a lot. It also helps with my website. It just does a weekly audit, so it just kind of reminds me what to do and that's pretty much it. I'm not really like I've done. I've gone down the road of trying to do a lot of analytics, but I'm actually it's just not my strength. I do. I have hooked up Google Analytics so I have that data, but mostly. So my audience is mostly US, australia and New Zealand.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's yeah, I mean. So how did they find you originally then? Just kind of word of mouth or you know, were they searching and find? You know, found you online or how. How did you kind of build this little empire?
Speaker 1: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 then after 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 rest of it, from Pinterest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay. So yeah, I mean you were taking a look at your own analytics then and figuring out where your audience was or where they were coming from, at least. So yeah, I mean now Pinterest is another whole beast. Is that something that you utilize often? I mean, I'm assuming you've got a lot of pins directing back to your site, or is that just kind of organically happening?
Speaker 1:So I have like a love-hate relationship with Pinterest, like sometimes I'll get you know. It's kind of like I'll get all excited, like I'm going to go all in. I see somebody else killing it on Pinterest or saying how great it is, and then I'll hire a Pinterest admin and I'll put all this money into it, and then nothing really happens and nothing changes and I'm like, oh, forget it, and then I'll leave it dormant for a couple of years. So this has been on and off since 2017 when I started. So there's stuff on there and that's why I still do get traffic, but I'm not good at consistently.
Speaker 2:You're not actively on there. Okay, yeah, I would say a Pinterest is you really have to be consistent in order to reap the benefits, at least from the very beginning? I do actually have a random blog post from my original site, follow my Arrow, back in 2016. And it was, let's see, I think it was Prosecco, champagne, lemonade type, I don't know, it was some kind of crazy recipe. Anyways, I still get traffic from that and I've only posted one random pin on Pinterest way back in that day, but yeah, and then everything else is dead. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so hard. That's why I always say I have like 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 in from Instagram or TikTok. So, that's why I feel like it's still worth looking into.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean. But that is great to really to know where your audience is. I think that's the biggest goal if you're trying to make these sales and things like that. Otherwise you might be finding crickets and that's. That's never any fun. So, all right, well, you know, I mean those are all really really good points.
Speaker 2:I think you know, taking it back and kind of breaking it down again. You know, starting with the product that you're, you're after, you know what you're wanting to create. If you don't have a product idea, you know the biggest thing is to always go out and look for. You know, a solution to a problem is what you need to do create something to fix something, and that's. You know, usually you're pretty gold if you have that type of mindset going into this. And I think another point of all of this is that you don't have to go big. You can start with one or two products. I mean, even if your Etsy store only has one or two products, focus on those. Even if your Etsy store only has one or two products, focus on those two. You know, like, once you get some traffic with your store, get some sales, etsy will start promoting you. I mean they have their own algorithm too and there's that's a whole other beast. There's lots of beasts here today, but yeah, that one actually you can really dive deep into. But I think it's a great place just to start, because you don't have to have your audience. You're going to find your audience there. As long as you have created a product that is helping us and it's a solution for a problem, you'll be good with that.
Speaker 2:And then, I know you mentioned you have your sales page and all of those things. Those might feel intimidating to someone just starting out, you know, especially just a mom trying, you know, doing this kind of on their own and just, you know, side gig or whatever, um, and Etsy will take care of that too. So you don't have to create a sales page. You don't have to do all this. They have their standard pages. You just put your information on the descriptions, images, all that good stuff. So there's really not a whole lot that you have to do to get started. And then again with the design doing Kartra or I'm sorry, not Kartra Canva. Kartra is our platform, but Canva that's a free account too for the majority. 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 do you find your graphics and things. Do you purchase graphics to use in these? Do you design them?
Speaker 1:So because I want them to be resellable. I don't want anyone to ever have any issues. I always use Adobe Stock. It's commercially licensed. No one will get. I've never had a single person have a legal claim or any issues, because I think a lot of people when they. I would be careful, though, when you design in Canva. A hundred percent of all of my images don't come from Canva. They come from Adobe Stock and then I upload them to Canva. There are different licenses and there's so much ambiguity and you'll see a ton of forums of people arguing back and forth on what's legal and what's not legal, and Canva doesn't do a very good job of answering for you. So I would say, when in doubt, just use images from a premium stock library that you had to pay for?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely yeah. Library that you had to pay for? Yeah, yeah, definitely yeah. I think that's definitely the best way to go. And you know, creative market too, like you had mentioned before, where you were selling and 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 say here. So you know, you can get the personal, but if you're going to be selling it, you're going to want it to be commercial, like they have it all broken down for you. So definitely check into those things.
Speaker 2:I mean, there isn't too many items within this that have to be, you know, worried about for legalities and things, but that definitely is one. But yeah, I mean, there's just so many different ways that you can kind of get started and, depending on you know, like whatever level, like you can kind of get started and, depending on you know, like whatever level, like you can start at the bottom, you could be more experienced. You could be a trained graphic designer that just wants to dive into this and see. You know, test the water to see what happens. But it's definitely a very cool thing to consider. But before we go today, like, I just want to let them know like, what kind of income do you, can they expect to earn, or could they possibly earn, because obviously everyone's going to be different. You know, like, is this able to be a full-time, a true full-time income? Or like, what have you found?
Speaker 1:It can, definitely it has the potential to be that, especially if you niche down into being a parent, and I think that's this is the golden age of parenting, right? Like I'm Gen X and when I grew up, my parents were just like go outside and play, leave me alone. Now people are paying like thousands of dollars for just to make sure their kids at age 10 are set up to go to college, right, and they're making sure at two years old, like you used to have what baby Mozart, now it's like a whole system is my two year old progressing. You can make a series of planners for one year olds, two, three, all the way up until college. There's like the possibilities of just focusing on being a parent and helping other parents is like the it's so amazing right now, and it was never like that and you know I've actually heard a lot of people when they talk about oh, we're making millions of dollars in these printables.
Speaker 1:A lot of them are making printables for just kids to learn and do work seats Right. So there's nothing Not a huge product, just something simple.
Speaker 2:But everyone's paying for convenience these days. So that's where you're coming in these days. So that's where you're coming in. You're providing that solution because they don't have the time, the creative ability, the want, whatever it might be. So this is the void you're filling when you do something like this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's just a natural need. I think never before have parents so badly wanted to be good parents and they're buying all the tools and things they can to help supplement that. And if you can provide an easy solution for them, they're going to buy it and then they're going to tell their friends about it. So I think it's a great niche to be in and a great position, because you know firsthand what other parents need.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and niching down, that's a really, really good tip because, you know, I think we think that going broad, you know, catering to the largest audience possible, is best, but that's when you kind of get lost in the water, and I mean every there's just too many other options out there. But when you're very specific and I mean whether, like you said, parenting, I mean you could even go down into, like 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 to advertise the easiest for yourself and really find those people that want what you're selling. So, yeah, definitely a good tip to consider when you're doing all of this. Well, that was an awesome little conversation. I think it's a really unique topic for our podcast. So it's, you know, literally something that you guys can do to earn some income, you know, at any level.
Speaker 2:But before we go, I really would love Lisa to share you know where they can find you, cause I'm sure if they have questions they'd love to connect and things like that. So can you give us you know where they can find you? Um, cause I'm sure if they have questions they'd love to connect and things like that. So can you give us you know where your website is, and things like that.
Speaker 1:Sure, it's pretty fabulous designscom, and then, other than that, I am pretty much 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:If you want to start learning right now? Yeah, that's perfect. I think that's a great way to end it here. You know, we can actually get trained in how to do this. A little guidance would be great. But yeah, no, love that, Love that. So all right. Well, thank you so much for being here today, lisa, and we will see you all next week with our new episode. Thanks for joining us today on she's Got it Together.
Speaker 3:It's been a real journey, sharing and laughing with you all. We hope you're walking away with a smile on your face and a bit more confidence in your step.
Speaker 2:Remember you're not alone in this crazy ride called life. We're all in this together, one day at a time.
Speaker 3:Don't forget to subscribe, leave us a review and, of course, share this podcast with all the incredible women in your life join us next week for more stories, more laughs and more real talk until then, keep embracing your unique journey and remember you've got it together more than you think.
