Success Without Stress: How Emylee Williams Effortlessly Sells Earrings on Instagram
I am so excited to welcome one of my very good friends, Emylee Williams, to the show today! She's been on the show before (here, here, and here), and now she's back to share something a little bit different.
If you've listened to the show before, you know that I'm very interested in business building that feels fun and easy, and also making selling not feel crappy. My background is in sales, and I'm a firm believer that when you get it right, it doesn't have to feel tough, restricting, or like you're just talking snake oil. And Emylee's story tonight showcases this perfectly!
In this episode we talk about how she got started, the feel-good strategies she uses to sell out every time, and how her mindset of keeping business simplified and fun is spilling over into her other business endeavors.
Here's a sneak peek of what's in this episode, with timestamps so you can skip around to the good stuff:
How Emlyee found herself with a handmade business on her hands [2:54]
The secret to effortless success in business: having no ulterior motives [12:02]
Emylee's take on launches and how they can be done simpler [15:02]
How not being attached to the results and income creates a business that is joyful [21:56]
Steph's big take-aways [35:38]
Emylee's strategic tips you can replicate [40:48]
"How do I have fun again?"
Being an art major, and being creative for most of her career by taking photos, Emylee found herself missing the feeling of having fun and creating. She wanted an identity outside of being a wife, friend, and business owner. So she picked up some paintbrushes and started painting. Then a few months later, she discovered clay and couldn't get enough. On a whim, she decided to list a few earrings that she's made for sale.
They were all sold out in 24 hours.
What started out as a way for her to feel creative and playful ended up bringing in a sizeable income while continuing to be a side business that takes Emylee just 2 days a week to run.
The secret to effortless success: no ulterior motives
I'm not much of a romantic, but just thinking of that feeling where you have your hands in something and you can't wait to squirrel away some time and play, gets my heart fluttering. The really cool thing about Emylee's success is that her treating her handmade business like play is not a coincidence.
Her success happened because she had no ulterior motives. She loved what she was doing, and she wanted to share it -- no strings attached. If something came from it, cool. If nothing came from it, she already got so much from the pure act of creating it.
"I remember, at some point early on, my husband Brian asked me, "What are your goals from this, and what do you want to do?" And I said, I have none. Literally, my goal is that if I have to keep 60 pairs of earrings, I will wear them, I don't care. I truly love making them and I have an idea in my head. And the fact that I, within a couple of hours can literally hold it in my hands -- I think that is so cool."
She didn't decide to just put her head down, make something, figure out the right thing to say, and was happy when people bought it. In fact, early on, her husband asked her what her goals were from this endeavor.
"Literally none," she replied. "If I have to keep 60 pairs of earrings, I will wear them!"
That's what it's really about, and that's the key to easy selling right there!
Launching, simplified
Instead of doing huge and crazy launches like everyone talks about (you know, where everything is automatic, and you've got ads and all this stuff), Emylee does small restocks twice a month. She posts the date and time the items will be available on her Instagram stories, and she sells out every time.
Of course, there are some intentional, strategic things that she started doing after things started snowballing -- like taking screenshots of her orders to get people excited to buy, and reposting photos from people who have already bought and were showing off their earrings.
It just goes to show that we sometimes totally overlook what may feel like small potatoes: DMing your friends and people who said they liked a particular pair of earrings, and just being conversational with Instagram stories. It's just good old-fashioned storytelling, after all!
How to detach yourself from the "results"
As we've talked about earlier, Emylee had no ulterior motives of selling, nor did she have any goals with this project other than enjoy it. It may seem a little elusive to get to this state of mind, however, especially if you are relying on that income. How can you not care about the outcome when you have to feed your family?
And it's not that you don't care -- obviously, you're super excited when it happens. But it's more than that. It's more than maneuvering things and making them fit.
Emylee says that the feeling of play and "let's just try it" attitude has shifted over to her other business, Boss Project. "I came to meetings… with an attitude of, that sounds great. Let's just try it. I don't know what it's going to do, let's just try it. We have that attitude about reworking one of our trainings, and it's performing amazing right now."
This kind of attitude has also led her to choose the simplest route to the result that she wants, and it's paying off really well for her.
Steph's biggest take-aways
Don't be afraid to share your success
I think that we should underscore Emylee's willingness to share the success that she's had. A lot of times, people post the beautiful things they're making, but have a lack of willingness to share the success when someone purchases it. Emylee has found a way to celebrate it in a way that is not braggadocious or self-aggrandizing. She shares it very honestly, just like, "Hey, look at these people who are buying. I'm having fun, I'm grateful. Thank you!" It's very gracious.
"I also find it interesting because, coming from the online space of sharing education and sharing business strategy and talking to other business owners, it's very easy to talk about profits, expenses, and investments. We spent this money on Facebook ads, and we made this much on sales -- we do all of that within our community. But when you have a product-based business, does it make sense to share how much money you just made? So I'm definitely taking it into account that in the product space it's far less talked about. I just want to share stuff because I have no filter!"
Include your audience in the creation process
The other big thing that really stands out to me is the way that Emylee has brought people into her creation process. She does it in a really fun way, where she'll allow her people to influence how to name things, or ask them if they like it hanging this or that way. It seems like a small thing, but it's actually not small at all when you consider that it takes vulnerability to say, "I don't know everything, I don't have it all figured out. What do you think?"
Emylee's strategic tips
You don't have to be "everywhere"
Emylee breaks down exactly what percentage of her sales come from which source: 58% from Instagram, 25% from them typing in her website directly, and 12% from email (and actually, she only emails people who have purchased from her before). That's it -- that's all her sources. So if you feel like you need to be in all of the places, you really don't. Emylee is a fan of keeping this business super simple.
Be selective about which tools you actually need
Emylee is a big fan of two things: keeping all her data in one place on one platform (so she doesn't lose it when she migrates from one platform to another), and paying attention to the right statistics.
When evaluating whether you need a new tool, give it a try first and see how much return on investment you get. For example, Emylee was evaluating whether she should pay $5/month for email. She sent 3 emails as part of a free trial and made a little over $400 as a direct result. So in that case, it was definitely worth it!
On the other hand, she was told that she needed to invest thousands of dollars in custom printing for her packaging. It was not going to make her money right away, so she declined to make that upgrade. She feels like a lot of people get hung up on things like this, like custom shipping boxes, labels, and stickers -- and ignore so much useful stuff that they get within things that they are already paying for.
Emylee's biggest tip?
Just start taking action. Start getting used to selling. Your biggest lessons will come from simply taking action. Start with things that feel truly fun, not what you can imagine yourself doing for five years. So start with what feels fun today, what feels doable in this season of your life today, because you cannot make a wrong decision. The only thing that's going to not make it happen is you not making it happen.
Links & Resources
Emylee’s Instagram — @emyleesays
Boss Project on Instagram — @bossproject
Emylee’s previous episodes on the Courage & Clarity Podcast:
https://www.courageandclarity.com/podcast/24
https://www.courageandclarity.com/podcast/25
https://www.courageandclarity.com/podcast/114