The Female Founder Show

Transforming an Etsy Shop into a Six-Figure Success: Dylan Jaris on E-Commerce and Entrepreneurship

• Bridget Fitzpatrick • Episode 16

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What if you could transform a simple Etsy shop into a multi six-figure business that secures your family's future? Join us as we welcome Dylan Jahraus, whose journey from a Minnesota farm to the bustling world of e-commerce giants like Zappos and Zulily set the stage for her successful entrepreneurial venture. Dylan's story is one of resilience and adaptability, where marrying a military officer led her to San Diego and ignited her transition from corporate e-commerce to a flourishing Etsy business. Discover how her upbringing and corporate experiences provided the foundation to thrive on platforms like Etsy, Amazon, and Shopify, starting with nothing more than a floral letter.

Balancing the chaos of entrepreneurship and family life can be daunting, especially for introverts in the digital product space. In our conversation, Dylan and I tackle the realities of work-life balance, emphasizing authenticity and the necessity of prioritizing different life aspects at different times. Together, we explore the power of small, manageable tasks and the unconventional morning routines that help us stay productive amid life's imperfections. We also delve into the empowering stories of female entrepreneurs, highlighting the critical role of SEO for Etsy sellers and the importance of sharing your journey. This episode is brimming with insights and inspiration for anyone aiming to succeed in the e-commerce world.

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Voice Over:

This is the Female Founder Show with host and entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick, exclusively on ASBN.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Hi everyone, Bridget Fitzpatrick here with the Female Founder Show. I'm really excited about today's guest, Dylan Jahraus. Now, Dylan is a multi six-figure Etsy seller who turned her online shop into a game changer for her family's future. But her story goes beyond just sales. She's a mother of two boys, a military spouse and someone who used her deep background in corporate e-commerce, working with brands like Zappos and Zulily, to build real, lasting wealth. She's an expert in buying, product development, pricing strategy and forecasting, and now she's applying that knowledge across Etsy, amazon and Shopify. What I love about Dylan is that she keeps it real on social media and with her Etsy course, with actionable strategies that help other sellers create financial freedom for themselves. With that, Dylan, welcome to the show.

Dylan Jahraus:

Thank you for having me, Bridget. I'm so happy to be here.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Wonderful. So let's take us back a little bit now. What was your upbringing like?

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Did you always want to be an entrepreneur?

Dylan Jahraus:

Yes, so my parents were both entrepreneurs. I grew up on a farm in Minnesota, not afraid of hard work, and my dad had a fencing construction company and my mom she had a private dental practice. So I was just surrounded by it and I knew at some point I would want to. I thought, maybe by the time I'm 40, at that point, okay, I'll get some good experience and then do something on my own. But I would say that really accelerated when I married someone in the military and it kind of forced me into entrepreneurship early.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Oh well, thank your husband for his service for us. We appreciate him very much.

Dylan Jahraus:

Yes, Thank you, I will. So then you had you worked in the corporate world, working for big corporations like Zappos and Zulily. Talk to us about some of the things you took from those companies into your entrepreneurship world.

Dylan Jahraus:

Yes. So I learned so much specifically from Zappos about the customer experience, the customer journey. Delivering Happiness was Tony Hsieh's book. He was the CEO and I learned so much about really the lifetime value of the customer and what that meant in e-commerce but also in like a service-based business, like what I do now, so that you know I will always take with me. And then I moved up to Seattle and worked for Zulily, which is a flash sale model, totally different I would say very unstable business, in comparison to Zappos. They ended up going through bankruptcy later. But I learned a lot about the other side of customer service, which honestly it was a little bit polar opposite to Zappos, which honestly it was a little bit polar opposite to Zappos, and I saw just the leverage that you have in business relationships when you really are looking out for each other. It gives you, I would say, more stability long term.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

That's good. It probably made you more well-rounded, going into entrepreneurship to learn both sides of it the way you did at those corporations.

Dylan Jahraus:

Yeah, yeah, having a really great experience and, you know, exemplifying those attributes as a company and then kind of the opposite. I saw both sides and I saw the results of both sides.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

And then transitioning from going from corporate to your own. Talk to us about that transition. How was that for you?

Dylan Jahraus:

Yes. So it was totally by accident and I was 25 when I met my husband and we've been married almost nine years now, but he is in the military, he's on a submarine, and I knew nothing about this life. I thought, oh, this is so mysterious and cool. But he found me actually through my blog. We were up in Seattle and I was a blogger and he's like, oh, I realized you lived in Seattle, just across the water. So he invited me to a submarine officer's ball, like blindly emailed me, blindly emailed me, and yeah, it was quite the story.

Dylan Jahraus:

Basically, within that year, we ended up getting engaged, moving to San Diego and there's really not a lot of e-commerce here. So I thought, oh, my goodness, has my career peaked. I'm applying for all of these jobs that are, like you know, front desk admin, when I used to be making six figures and it really, really, I would say, hit my self-esteem, because I really tied my identity to career achievement before, and so I was doing all these side hustles, dog walking, house sitting and putting things on eBay. Etsy was one of those and that was the one that really took hold.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Now, what was your first item that you sold on Etsy? What was the beginning like?

Dylan Jahraus:

Yeah. So I was very casual in the way I went about it. I didn't really take it seriously, I didn't realize the power of the platform and I just put up a floral letter. So it was a wooden letter in the shape of our last name initial. So a J and I put fake flowers all over it for our wedding. I just took the photo from our wedding, put one picture up on Etsy, a few words, and the idea was that this would be customized, made to order. They can pick their letter, their colors. And it took two months but I finally got one sale and then I realized, wow, there could be something here. And at that two-month mark I started applying pretty much everything I learned in corporate e-com to the Etsy platform and within eight weeks of that we're making over $10,000 a month from that point on.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

That is such a great success story and I know there's a lot of people watching that may be thinking about starting an e-commerce shop. Was there one thing that you think might have contributed to that?

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Probably many things, but what sticks out the most?

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

I guess so probably many things, but what sticks out the most, I guess?

Dylan Jahraus:

Yeah, yeah, you know I would say I started with one product that was my own. It was just one product. It was something I liked. I used it in the wedding. But every other product I added to the shop it was purely by listening to my customer and doing that market research. So I was no longer selling things that I liked. They're things I wouldn't put in my home, but I knew my customer would love it. And actually it was probably a principle that I learned as a buyer for Zappos, Because when I started working for Zappos as a buyer, I was in the surf skate category. I'm not a skateboarding kind of girl, but I learned to really look at the data, so you had to listen to the customer.

Dylan Jahraus:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I learned to really look at the data to make business decisions, and that's exactly what I did with Etsy. That made it so successful.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Great advice for any type of business is to listen to the customer. Now you saw incredible growth in the first year Um so much so that you decided to start um coaching. People Talk to us about your coaching business.

Dylan Jahraus:

Yeah, so, uh, in the first roughly six years on Etsy, we made over a million in profit and, uh, it actually was so much work, so long of days 16 hour days that I ended up actually getting vascular disease in my legs. Um, I don't share this often, but you know it's from standing up so long. Um, all day nurses, you know they wear compression stockings. It was kind of the same situation. So I ended up getting surgery and the doctor told me, like this is going to happen again if you don't change your working style. So I was. I basically hired out everything for production for Etsy and all these military spouses are asking like Dylan, how are you making more money than your spouse? This is crazy. So I saw the need for the education, the real e-commerce education. So I started teaching it on YouTube. Within a month I already had like 40 students who were wanting coaching and we scaled to eight figures in the first 14 months.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

That's great. I mean such huge success so quickly. And now you've really transitioned and so you've even conducted a summit. So you recently did a summit for Etsy shop owners. Can you talk to us about that? I know what goes into hosting a live event like that. I've done two of them myself, with my husband and our companies, and it's no easy feat. So talk to us about why you decided to do the summit and what that's going to look like in the future.

Dylan Jahraus:

Yeah, you know there were many reasons we wanted to do the summit. We've been around for about two and a half years and we saw really the meaning of community for these entrepreneurs, many of them solopreneurs. At home. You know, they're just watching me on videos and on Zoom calls, but they didn't have that connection of someone who really understood in person, and so we saw a huge need for that. Also, you know, in this kind of online digital product space, sometimes you question does someone really know what they're talking about or are they like putting on this facade? Did they really do e-commerce and I think, just for the brand as well? Honestly, getting out there and saying you know, this is not me by myself. We have a team of 35 people, full coaching team and staff, and even just what this is going to do for the brand was important, so it was intimidating because I'm an introvert.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Me too, so I get it yes.

Dylan Jahraus:

Yeah. So you know all these people coming and I do not like to be the center of attention at all, I would much rather someone else. So it was. I would say humbling was the word. I was just so taken aback by the stories. You know people coming up to me crying saying it changed their life. So it was a good first summit. Nothing really went. Employees You're a mother, wife hosting, you know working all the time.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Talk to us about the work-life balance. Sometimes people hate that, but it is a thing. So talk. I hate those words anyway, but it is a real thing. Talk to us about how you manage all of that and stay motivated and positive.

Dylan Jahraus:

Yes. So one thing that I'm really big on is always looking ahead, and I do not dwell on things that go wrong. I have to be very resilient. I think that comes from maybe a difficult childhood as well, as you know. Looking ahead, what's in your wheelhouse of controllables and how can you improve the situation, how can you make an impact. So always looking ahead keeps me really positive. Um, you know, even when things are going wrong, I think, okay, what can I, what can I do though? Um, and then you know balance, kind of like what you were alluding to. I don't really believe in balance, but there's definitely chapters throughout a year of different priorities. So certain time of year, it's like, okay, my husband is really going up against something big and we got to prioritize what he's doing career-wise. Other times of year, it's like I'm launching something. Okay, he know he's, you know, doing more with the kids. So it's it's like definitely waves of priorities that always shift.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, great way to put it. And then you ride those waves that you have to when you have to, right Totally. So if there was one piece of advice you could give to yourself when you were first starting out, or give to those women that are watching today, that are thinking about starting a business, what advice would you give them?

Dylan Jahraus:

I would say that honestly, like whether you have a family or not, or whether you're married or not, there's always different priorities.

Dylan Jahraus:

Maybe you have parents or siblings or friends who have needs from you, so there's always kind of you're being pulled in different directions.

Dylan Jahraus:

I would say one of the biggest things that I've seen, I would say, make me successful, but also like our students successful is when they learn to thrive in imperfect conditions. And I think a lot of us think, okay, I'm just gonna like survive these imperfect conditions but really thriving and like stepping into the chaos a little bit, working in the margins and not waiting for, like, perfect timing for anything, not delaying decisions as well because of timing things, you know, in a way, that's, I do believe, not making a decision, that's, you know, clear way to make a decision. That I would rather be a little more intentional about, uh, instead of just like letting things happen. So, um, really just remembering conditions will never be perfect in your entrepreneurial journey. So embrace the imperfection and the chaos and just work in the margins. You know, every 15 minutes, what could you do that would have a positive ROI for you, and breaking it down into that small, tiny little level.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Oh, I like the way you said that, breaking it down into small chunks instead of thinking, oh my gosh, what am I going to do? Or like, what can I do in the next 15 minutes. That can help right, totally. Yes, so a lot of high achievers such as yourself have, whether it be a morning routine or something that they do daily to, to keep them going. Do you have a morning routine or something, some kind of routine that you can tell us about?

Dylan Jahraus:

So I have a three-year-old and a seven-year-old and it is they're both boys and it is just wild in the mornings. So my 7 am to 8 am I actually I don't look at Slack. That's like the one hour a day where it's like you cannot get ahold of me. And there's, I would say, for me, like multitasking you could, I can multitask almost all day long, but there are certain times where it's like I just got to focus on the one thing, otherwise I'm not going to do anything. Well, um, so I would say, really protecting your energy. Um, during certain times of the day having a very limited time if you need to shut things off to do that, certain times of the day having a very limited time if you need to shut things off to do that. And you know, my very first thing I do when I wake up at 6am is I look at Slack and put out the fires. So you know not, I'm not really into the woo, woo, I'm going to get in like bath full of ice cubes.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

I don't do the ice cube thing either. No, no, I've. I don't know if I would be able to do that.

Dylan Jahraus:

Yeah. I mean yeah, my morning routine is just gets to work.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yeah

Voice Over:

Right, I love it.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

I love it and I love the honesty and just that. That's what you do. That's great, yeah. And with two small children, you sometimes you might not have a choice. What you do, it's there, it's up to them. What you're, that's great, yeah. And with two small children, sometimes you might not have a choice. What you do, it's up to them. What you're going to be doing in the morning, exactly right. So you talked about being an introvert. I am as well, and leadership as an introvert I've struggled with in the past, and you have a team of, like you said, more than 30 people. Can you talk to me a little bit about your leadership style, especially as an introvert?

Dylan Jahraus:

Yes, this is so interesting. I found, like you know, when I have five people, okay, it's like I do well with five teammates in the group I can, you know, pay attention and really put energy into all that, but once we got over maybe like 15, I was just like, wow, now all I do it's like people management and this is exhausting, like this is like draining all of my energy and I'm and it's um, like dynamics of between people and relationship management within the team versus thinking expansively how can I grow and what's the vision for the company to really lead them. So what I've found works really well.

Dylan Jahraus:

I actually was inspired by Tony Shea at Zappos. He was very quiet as a CEO, very, very quiet, soft-spoken, not the loudest person in the room and he built this huge company. So I realized I don't have to be the loudest person in the room and he built this huge company. So I realized I don't have to be the loudest person here. So I started hiring people who are actually extroverts and it does so much for the culture of the company because they help carry that and move it along, and so it's not weighing on me to like build this vibrant, you know, culture where I'm like always on with each person, so I basically bring in strategic hires who are more of an extrovert to help fill that.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Very smart, very smart, yes. So let's talk about five 10 years down the road. Where do you see yourself in the company? So let's talk about five, 10 years down the road.

Dylan Jahraus:

Where do you see yourself in the company, yes. So this year it's a big transition year. My husband has been in the military for 15 years and he's actually not going to stay in until retirement. So he's getting out in a couple of months and he will be stepping in. He's already kind of stepped in as our COO, so working together husband and wife really excited for that. It will also involve a move out of California. We don't want to be California residents with a business right now, so we'll be making a move and then really growth for the company and stability. We just launched a software company in October. That is kind of complimentary, I would say it's for e-commerce sellers. So focusing on that, building that up to be about equal in size to the coaching business, is our plan.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Great, that's exciting. So I work with my husband and it's amazing. There we have our moments, but it really does work well. I don't know if you're is your husband, extrovert or introvert.

Dylan Jahraus:

You know he has more endurance returning on his extrovert side.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, mine's a total extrovert and so that kind of helps helps me a little bit, but it really is nice, um, getting to work with him every day. I love creating and, you know, going into the office with him every day and excited about your, the platform that you're producing. Maybe we can have you back on to talk about that when that gets going and we can hear more about that.

Dylan Jahraus:

Awesome, yeah, and it is out there. It's called Etsy E-T-S-E-Ocom, so it's out there and we're growing it steadily in a healthy way.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

So yeah, so is it seo for etsy is that what yes, oh, awesome, okay, well, great, we can talk about it now. No, that's exciting. Congratulations lots, thank you, lots. Going on in your world, um, keep killing it. You're doing an amazing job and it's it's been fun to watch your growth and I look forward to continuing to watch your growth.

Dylan Jahraus:

Oh, thank you for having me on. This was really nice. Yeah, thanks for joining us.

Voice Over:

This is the Female Founder Show with host and entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick, exclusively on ASBN. If you're a female founder and would like to help other female founders with your inspiring story, we would love to hear from you.