Angela McCourt 0:00
Let's get ready for some serious shift. This is a podcast shifting Inside Out hosted by your quantum shifter, Angela McCourt, we are diving into ways to empower and enable a quantum shift. Inspiring topics hacks and guest speakers take us on a journey around authenticity, challenging status quo, personal power and living a purpose filled life.

Love your gifts and permission to revolutionize authenticity and leadership is out. You can get it on Kindle or on paperback through amazon.com. I'm really super excited about book number two. And the reason is, is because I actually go really super deep into the blocks that many leaders, whether you're managing people, or you're a leader from an idea and innovation strategy, or an implementation perspective, go through that hold them back from being able to unlock the incredible gifts that are now really in desperate need, and how evolving leadership is allowing for some of those gifts to come forward now. And how we're going to see a continuation of that into the future I go into as well integrating these gifts. And what I really love about this book is I went out and interviewed a bunch of people in the industry who are leaders, whether it's leaders of creating a nurturing ideas and programs and, and whatnot, or have teams or of companies. And so really got some great real time input and feedback as to what some of the biggest challenges are, as well as some of the most incredible opportunities and big focus areas that a lot of these really admired leaders and very effective leaders are actually doing the business. So go grab your book, and I would love for you to leave a review if you can, it really helps to get the book out there and positioned on the Amazon platform in a better way. So thank you so much for your support. I really appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I am super excited to have today's guest on this is my baby sister Amanda belts. And she just has such an amazing journey and story as well as a really great dive into how she set up her what I would call side business although it's actually like a good solid business outside of her eight to five job as an executive in the staffing industry. So I wanted to really bring her on because she was the one that actually first mentored me when I started my first Etsy shop and goes call me first for us really has done such an incredible job. She always has had these entrepreneurial skills in the spirit of you know, between being a collector and then coming up with ideas for business and how to execute on it and she's got incredible drive, but she's hilarious as well. So I think you're gonna really enjoy the episode, but I would love to hear your thoughts on this episode. As you listen, you can find me on LinkedIn at Angie belts McCourt and Instagram at Angie underscore McCourt. So without further ado, let's hear from Amanda.

So welcome to shifting inside out. I am so grateful to have you on this episode. To get started. Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself.

Amanda Beltz 3:32
I'm very excited to be here. My name is Amanda Beltz. I am the queen of chaos, as I've been called many times in my life. I am a mom to my son Ayden and I'm also a director of business development for a company called Oxford global resources.

Angela McCourt 3:50
Awesome. I appreciate that. And I love the queen of chaos. Yeah. will expose to the listeners how we have such a connection. Okay. A few quick round questions so the listeners can get to know you better. The first one is what is your morning ritual?

Amanda Beltz 4:09
Well, I am not a morning person. So my ritual is not a great one. But I have a tendency to eat a huge breakfast in the morning because I I try to intermittent fast in the later part of the day and overnight. So that gives me my energy. I have a tendency in the morning as I'm eating and when I'm done and to kind of take 10 minutes just to sit in silence. not thinking about anything. I'm not trying to plan my day out. I'm just trying to sit in silence and get my act together. AKA shit together. Stretching as well. And then drag myself out of the house to the office.

Angela McCourt 4:51
Okay, how do you renew your energy?

Amanda Beltz 4:54
I have been running a lot the past year so when I feel sluggish You're tired all usually run, get a workout in, I do aerial yoga, hanging upside down blood flows to your brain really gets you going. So anything that can get my heart up my heart rate up. That's that's what I tried to do and, and I get my second, you know round of of energy throughout the day so I try to run, you know, either in the morning or at lunchtime and not necessarily work out at the end of the day because then I'll be up all night.

Angela McCourt 5:24
True. Exactly. All right, what is your guilty pleasure?

Amanda Beltz 5:28
So I know you've heard a Kind bars and I don't know if you have been there in Florida, but they have frozen Kind bars. They are absolutely amazing. I'm not gonna lie. I do eat a box at a time. You should try. They're very addicting. But they're Kind bars so they have to be good for you. Right?

Angela McCourt 5:48
Yeah, exactly. It doesn't matter that there's 50 grams of sugar. And, of course, we do have Kind bars in Florida. But I don't know if we have frozen ones that I am going to look at the grocery store next time I'm there because that sounds yummy, actually. Very good. So we're really excited to have you on today. There are a couple things that we'll dive deep into, but I thought it would be really great for you to share your journey with the listeners. I have known you since you were born. I used to change your diapers. Just exposing you're my little baby sister.

Unknown Speaker 6:27
Yes, change diapers.

Angela McCourt 6:31
In my other sister Andrea and I, we spoiled the heck out of you. And we love you dearly. But I'm really grateful to have you on. So maybe if you want to just start with sharing your journey. You know, go back as far as you'd like, that would be really awesome. And then we'll get into some other stuff.

Amanda Beltz 6:47
Well, I just have to ask which journey because you do know I have ADD right? Now there are many journeys, most of them happen at the same time.

Angela McCourt 6:58
Parallel timelines go for it.

Amanda Beltz 7:00
I get a lot done. Well, let's see. So obviously was the youngest of three have amazing older sisters that have been my mentors and my champions for all of my life not so much when I was little, I think we had some rough patches, but we were closer. And so I you know, basically probably, I mean, it had been fourth or fifth grade, maybe six, I became obsessed with criminal profiling and the FBI. And so I assume became obsessed with serial killers for some reason and would write papers on them, which everybody thought was odd, perfect grader. I loved it. And I was bound and determined to go into the FBI. I wanted to go to school, I wanted to become you know, either an FBI criminal profile investigator or something to that effect. So I went to college for criminology then got a degree in forensics and went and thankfully tested the waters at the medical examiner's office. And I did autopsies and decided that I did not want to do that at all. And had a great contact of mine that we both know that got me into the staffing industry. So autopsies to staffing. I mean, it's amazing. It's a very interesting journey. So I started with a company called Pay force actually interviewed there, found out I was pregnant after I interviewed was offered the role had to tell him I'm pregnant starting a sales role 100% commission. So that was interesting. spent five years as a recruiter working a desk and then moved into leadership. I had great mentors there. It was one of the most amazing supportive environments I've ever been in definitely have powerful and amazing women leading the charge there. You know, Sam Farrell, Amy Simpson, Peggy pitcher, Michelle Cole, they really got me and taught me everything I know. And still today I use, I use that in my day to day and I'm still friends with all of them. So it's always great to have those great mentors and champions in your life. So let's see. So I was in leadership there for quite a while born and raised in in Florida, North of Tampa, as you know, I mean, you were there too. So I lived in Florida our whole lives. And in 2017, my husband and I and my son Aiden decided we're going to test out Texas, I had a job offer for in Houston so made the decision to move to Texas and write the week I was supposed to move Harvey hit Houston. It delayed me a week. And then Irma hit us in Florida. So you know, that always shows well with your parents when they already don't want you to move away and they're like, Well, this is just doomed. It's not it's not it's not meant to be I mean, have you seen the news? They're sharks swimming on i 10. I remember those texts. Yeah. The entire Houston city is underwater and nobody survived. So we survived. We moved here and then I act She left that company and started at the company that I'm at currently Oxford global resources. We're a consulting firm and I work in the Healthcare Solutions Group. And so I work you know, obviously here in Houston and my team is all over the US. But we made the decision to open an office here in Houston, I hired a team of seven. Super excited open the office three days later, COVID lockdown, the best timing in life. Let me tell you, when you have chaos made it through that though. So yeah, so we, you know, basically, everybody knows how much of a struggle it was, especially in leadership roles going through COVID Your team going from being in the office, face to face to everybody working remote, everyone in the entire universe trying to log into teams at the same time. Every day for Microsoft, like I don't even know what to do right now. We have 4 billion people on at the same time, we didn't test this.

Angela McCourt 10:57
How could they have known? Right,

Amanda Beltz 10:59
exactly. So now they know. And so last year, unfortunately, unexpectedly lost my husband. So now I am a single mom, raising a 16 year old, not 15. I kept saying he was 15 and just realized he's not he's 16. I think about to celebrate that birthday. He's not lucky about it that I made him younger. But it gives me a little more time with him. And your and today.

Angela McCourt 11:27
Awesome. Thank you. I love you, sis. You too. And we miss you. You need to be back to Florida. Your company set up a set up a whatever remote here

Amanda Beltz 11:40
in Tampa. I have I have two of my individuals that work there in Tampa. And I would love to except for the housing market just needs to get itself together.

Angela McCourt 11:50
Yes, I agree. Yeah, it'll that'll happen. That'll happen naturally. It may take a couple years, though.

Amanda Beltz 11:55
Again, timing is everything. Yeah. I look at moving back there. And then everything is a million or so dollars. So

Angela McCourt 12:03
insane. Yeah, insane. So it's, it's really interesting, because first of all, going from autopsies to sales leadership is like a freaking major change. And I find I find that as I got to witness that part of your journey, it was so incredible how much commitment you had going into that. And then you said, Nope, this is not for me. And you immediately, you know, pivoted into something completely different. How was that? Like, from a mindset of you know, you knew exactly what you wanted to do literally for over 10 years, and then you're, you're in it, and maybe not exactly what you wanted to do, but you're in it. And then all of a sudden making the decision? Nope, this isn't for me, like, how was that? Was that scary?

Amanda Beltz 12:53
Well, I think part of it, unfortunately, was a fear factor. It was, you know, you get to the almost to the finish line, and you're like, Okay, now I have the application for the FBI. So what if I can't do this? Or what if I forget this? Or what if I do this? Or what if I don't do this or what if I don't get in or and so you start having all these what ifs and, and then the reality of what you'll be doing and not necessarily the work itself, that didn't bother me, but you are on call 24/7 You are working weird hours, you're getting called in the middle of the night to go in. It's definitely not a normal nine to five job and so are eight to five jobs. So that is when I started to the reality started to say then that, okay, if I'm going to have a family, you know, I started talking to people that were investigators. And, you know, two investigators were a married couple, and they had to rotate sleeping on the couch with the kids. And I just could not even imagine having to handle all of that and get used to that type of a schedule. So so really going into an office setting, which completely different head down on the phones all day very competitive environment, having to really figure out a way to Okay, I gotta turn some sales on me. And I think I always had a little bit of a natural, you know, persuasion as I was. Yes, you did. The youngest child. I don't know. But I was like, you know, I could put that to good use one day. So it came

Angela McCourt 14:20
on. That's awesome. Yes, I would say and this is interesting because I think this kind of goes with you are the type of person that I've seen really adapt well throughout life. So if you were always willing to try new things, number one, you always had a collector spirit. And you always had this entrepreneurial sense like this. You're always starting little businesses even though we lived in the middle of nowhere. Who the hell was gonna come to the lemonade stand or the the books? You were selling books one time two, and we did a little mini

Amanda Beltz 14:57
let me call you up parents. that love you and a family that loves you, you sell stuff to them, right and take their money. And two months later you take the stuff back. And then three months later you sell it to them again. And yes. All over again. It works wonders. I think you guys all picked up on it, but you didn't say anything, which was great.

Angela McCourt 15:17
You were doing pyramid scams before they actually thing

Unknown Speaker 15:21
out there and got nothing on me.

Angela McCourt 15:24
Okay, so what was interesting is when I think back to all of those unique things as a child, especially that you were always consistently portraying, now fast forward into adulthood, I think, your transition and from a career perspective, that whole open mindset, you know, definitely was was part of that adaptability and flexibility that you kind of grew up with. But the entrepreneurial side of it, the entrepreneurial spirit, as well was always a thing with you. But then as an adult, you actually started your own business while you're working. And I don't remember I think was eight years ago. Now. I mean, I'll let you tell the story. But I think it would be great to share, because right now, a lot of people and I don't know the updated number, because literally it changes every month at this point, since COVID hit especially people doing side gigs, people doing side hustles people doing passion projects that now are earning income, people taking their hobbies, if especially if they were artistic or creative in some way. And now turning that into an income stream. People are really in this mode of, yeah, I have my nine to five job, but I have this purpose filled thing or this Passion Driven thing that I'm doing and earning income on the side. And this is the thing that either will be my future job, or will just continue to be my additional income stream, whatever it is, and you went down this path. And I just would love for you to share your journey on that, too. Yeah, so

Amanda Beltz 16:59
you know, my role at Cape horse was very stressful. I basically reformatted the way, we were running our business and, and I took on an entire new team that had never existed before, it was a very large team. So had a lot of stress in my role. You know, around 2016, I believe it was my husband, Sean just we decided he was going to be a stay at home dad, just because I was working so much. And we needed to get aid into baseball, we needed to get them to school. And so it just made sense. So I was thankful for that. But I had a lot of females on my team. And so I asked them and did a little survey and said, What Would everybody like to do for our team building event. And everyone wanted to make the they had these bangle bracelets that were popular at the time. I don't know if they still are, but they all wanted to make them. So I said, Okay, I can learn how to do that in two seconds. So I went, you know, Google that figured it out test, you know, tested a couple of them out. We went to one of their houses, drank wine, everybody made jewelry, they had so much fun. They were like Amanda, you're really good at this, you should sell these. And I was like now I don't want to do that. Because when I go in, I go in hard like I don't know you. I am all or nothing at all. Yeah. So of course then I was like, All right, let me try to sell some of them. I opened an Etsy shop, and started selling some jewelry on there. And then you know, taught myself silversmithing wanted to learn that electroforming learns that basically learned anything I could and then would get bored with it two seconds later and move on to the next. But what I realized is a lot of time in my office and so every night working long hours every weekend, working long hours not seeing my son not seeing my husband. And so you know why I have all these stones. And it just I think it just clicked with me because I have collected rocks and stones gemstone since I was young. I was in fourth grade, I think when I started so even maybe we collect to them for them. We used to go on our trips to Michigan. And so I don't know if it just like re energize or turn something on that was like I'd shut off throughout the years. But he was like, you know, I have a rock collection somewhere. I have all this I have this. I used to collect meteorites and fossils and all this cool stuff. And so I started digging through it. And I was like, You know what, let me see if I could sell this. And so I started putting my extra supplies up and that up and I was like that's a lot easier than making something it takes a lot of time. And I was selling quite a bit. So I'm a I definitely like to adopt things that are weird, strange, rare. And so I just started looking and meeting people and making connections with with different individuals in different countries in Brazil, somebody out in Arizona, somebody in check, and basically they had something that I knew was hard to find and I wanted it so I could sell it. And so I just I started buying all this stuff, and then I run out of time to put it up and so I would I would collect a lot more than I would sell unfortunately that's the downside to loving what you do, by the way. And so it's started growing little by little last year was my best year, despite it being you know, COVID and, and having Shawn pass away and, and all the distractions, I absolutely had my best year last year, so and that's really just me focusing on and I've gotten a pattern down to where, you know, I learned over the years that okay, I could sit and watch a movie with my family and still measure stuff and pack stuff up and puts up. So I started doing that and moved my little packing station out to the dining room, so I could be more in the household versus locked in somewhere. And so now I've learned, you know, just do a little bit every day, don't put it off to the weekend, because you'll end up all weekend, you know, working so just a little bit every day. And so I've just learned to really balance it and kind of, you know, make my processes smoother and cut things where I don't need them. If I'm focused on something that I really don't need to be doing. I cut it out, cut the distractions out last year taught me to run it more like a business than a hobby. Because that one point, I was getting like 35 orders a day. So I went from work and I'm like no, no more. I can't take it.

Angela McCourt 21:09
Well, and I think what's amazing is that when you needed to dial it down, you were able to dial it down when you dialed needed in wanted to dial it up, you were able to dial up the business too. So it's amazing the amount of control just to kind of balance the full time mom full time job scenario with, you know, the business as well. And then the second thing that I've found so amazing with what you do and how you're doing it is you don't pay for advertising, like you literally get on Instagram and you post up and you have followers and you engage with them. And that's how you build your clients. And you work on the Etsy platform to make sure that you've got the visibility there, right when people go and do searches and whatnot. But your your loyal clients that you've built over the years, it's just been so incredible to me to watch. But I don't know if you want to share like any tips if anyone was interested in doing an Etsy shop and maybe not doing the same stuff. You're doing Hinton's, but something else that they want to do on Etsy as long as you like handcraft or you create or you are it's natural, you can you can go ahead and start selling there.

Amanda Beltz 22:20
Absolutely, I mean, even even what I do, there's so many different individuals out there. And they're amazing. I mean, I buy AI from people on Etsy. So I mean, I don't always look for, you know, something that's wholesale, if I see something that I think is really cool, I'll buy it, and I keep it for a while, and then I resell it for what I bought it for so. So there's a lot of great sellers on there, my customers are absolutely amazing. I've been able to really interact with them through social media, I've gotten to know them on a personal level, I consider them friends. And so we support each other, I have customers, they have their own businesses as well, obviously, they're buying stuff for me to make jewelry, or, you know, whatever the case may be. And so we support each other. And it's a great way to engage and interact with your customers to create that long standing relationship. And not just, I don't want just a customer to come one time and then never come back again. I know what they want, they know that they can just tell me you know, specific instructions and I, I can get that taken care of if if I know that they're looking for something, I'll always keep my eye out for them. And then my contacts that I buy stuff from, they know me as well. So this the same thing that they do the same thing, they'll reach out to me, they'll ask me, you know, hey, I'm going to there's huge rock show in Denver every year. And they'll basically say, you know, let me know what you're looking for. And I'll look for it for you. I'll take some pictures, and I'll get it for you. So it's just it's been a really good way to to meet new people and to make contacts and a lot of the contacts that I have from individuals I buy from I stay with the people that I know. So you know, you build those lasting relationships. I started the business. So I started in 2016. I can't remember.

Angela McCourt 23:53
Yeah, I thought it was earlier than that.

Amanda Beltz 23:57
It was Yep. 2016 at the beginning of 2016. Gotcha. And so yeah, because I think before then I was actually making jewelry for people at work. Make them stuff. And so yeah, that definitely took up more time. But I would say that the most important thing for someone that's looking to start something on the side is when I first got into having a side business, I remember saying to my president at the time, Sam Farrell, she was actually the CFO. I said, I wish I was a lawyer or had a degree in something like that, or a CPA, just something where I could on the side do work. And she's like you have you have a lot of creativity, you have things you can do. You just have to tap into them. And I just remember looking at her like I don't have anything I can do. I don't know what to do. And within six months I had my business so so it's really just thinking about you don't have to be an artist. You don't have to be a creative person. Maybe it's something that you know you are good at networking with a certain group of people and you could bring I mean people on Etsy sell supplies. It's not just about making art I make jewelry they they sell supplies to jewelers, so, and a lot of artists actually start out as artists and end up doing that because it's more profitable. And they're able to, to have, you know, a better business model that way. So, I would say social media is huge. I'm not a big Facebook person at all. So I know that I could do a lot more there. I just don't. But it takes a long time to build a following on Instagram, especially if it's a real following a solid following. It definitely takes time. I mean, I've had my Instagram page for years now. And I probably have like, I don't watch all 100 people that follow me. I don't put as much effort into it the past year. But I I still have those followers that follow me, which is great.

Angela McCourt 25:46
Yeah. As far as like people, like you had a great story there about kind of the shift from I don't know what I could do into starting your actual business. There are so many people right now in that space are like, I want to do something I want to have my own side business. I want to do something, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do. Right? Everyone's doing what I'm supposed to do. Yeah, I think it's, it's a it's a bit of a different kind of mental approach to it. Not what am I supposed to do? What will I have fun doing? Or what will what will be a great fit for my life? Like, how did you how did you end up like deciding to be open to this?

Amanda Beltz 26:28
Well, it's, it's called a, an accident. It's cold, I wasn't really lucky to do it at all. I just, I basically, you know, I like learning new things. I'm very handy. I can do pretty much anything, I just don't do anything really good. That's what I always say. So I can learn how to do anything, I just, you know, usually don't have the attention span to make it perfect. But we're just basically taking an idea and seeing that they, you know, really loves these bracelets and and they all wanted, you know, basically would just start making jewelry and posting it on on Instagram. And they would all be like, I want that. I want that. That's my Can you make me this rain? Can you make me an opal this, can you do this? And so it just started with that. And I was like, Okay, well, let me just let me just try it and see what happens. You know, there's no downside to it. It's not like, you know, Etsy is gonna say you're a failure, if you close your shop. It's what's what's it gonna hurt to

Angela McCourt 27:26
Toronto? It was almost like your unintentional market research. Yes, exactly.

Amanda Beltz 27:31
And I have a tendency to go all in. So then when I started looking and researching and reading and reading, I mean, I just, I don't I don't stop so. And it didn't hurt because I was like, Well, I'm buying these stones, and I collect stone. So if I don't sell them, I could still have them.

Angela McCourt 27:47
There was no waste.

Amanda Beltz 27:49
Yeah, exactly. I mean, until two of my rooms in my house are full of stone. Your husband's like, okay, what are we doing with all this? And you got to move? You know, 20 tons of it to from Florida to Texas.

Angela McCourt 28:02
That's awesome. Oh, my God. Yeah. That was crazy. Plus the stone tumbler table. Oh, yeah. Are that what was it called? Yes. Oh, yeah. When when you started using Etsy, like, you never actually went to any other platform. And I've used Etsy before to for my old shop. So I realized, and you guided me and coached me and mentored me on on doing that setup, I thought it was the easiest thing in the world to do. If you were to just give anybody who would be interested in, you know, going out and checking out Etsy, like, just a couple quick tips on, you know, what were the most important things to consider are the things that really made a difference in the operation on the execution piece of the business. Using that platform, what would those be

Amanda Beltz 28:45
what I will say, there's a lot of competition out there. So you either have to sell a product that's cheaper, or something that nobody else has, what with what I sell, every piece is different, which is a challenge, because it takes a very long time, you'd have to change every description, you're not selling T shirts, small, medium, large, selling buttons that are all the same size. It's every picture is different. Every description is different. Everything has to be measured. Everything has to be weighed, everything reacts differently to sunlight, everything looks different in the picture, you know, a lot of opals and shiny stuff like that. I mean, it is very difficult to to capture the essence of something that shape shifts basically with every single tiny movement. And so I would say that, find something do do market research first go on as we go and look type in some searches and see what are people selling. You can kind of see what the top things are. There are actually different websites you can go to for that. But you can go on Etsy and it'll autofill like start to type something out and see. It'll pull that all that up for you and I went and I would look at other people's shops that have sold a lot. What is what's different about them, what are they doing differently? And I will say that In every research I've done the only two differences either number one, they sell things for cheaper than than their competitor. We're number two, they have a huge social media presence. They have captivated audiences on Instagram, Tik Tok Facebook, they're out there on everything, YouTube. And so they're on Tik Tok showing off their stones, they're, you know, communicating back and forth with their customers or people, you know, that comment, they're very interactive and engaging. And a lot of times you buy sell stuff, just off Instagram, or Etsy, so, so you'll have someone that sees something on your Instagram, and they'll reach out to you and want to buy it. And so there's also actually a platform to sell on Instagram as well now, but there used to not be that. So it was just a lot of that, you know, reaching out to you study social media and business pages on social media, not like a standard business page, make sure it's something that within what you're looking to do, and then go research that's yet doesn't have to be at the Amazon, other place to sell Ebay. I know, people think that eBay, you know, is is different than an Etsy but really, a lot of, I found a lot of things on eBay that are amazing. And people don't know what they have. And it's just like, you're like, Wait, you're gonna sell me this entire tray of opals, that you got an estate sale for 100 bucks, it's worth like 5000. So you're like, I'm gonna grab that for somebody else does. The other thing that has come along as a challenge, and I know that you've experienced this a little bit as well, is with social media and there being this big, huge visible platform where everyone can reach everyone. Yes, what happens all of your contacts that wholesale to you say, Why am I going to wholesale it when I can go sell it to to the customer. So then your your contacts become your, your competition. And I learned the hard way when my customer started reaching out to me saying, hey, this, this person keeps reaching out to me to sell me stuff. And it looks like the stuff you sell me. And I'm like, What in the world? So and it is what it is it that's just how it is now. And so you have to be able to be creative to work around that because wholesalers and individuals that are you know, working the minds, they're more open to selling things at smaller quantity than they were in the past.

Angela McCourt 32:18
Yeah, there's a new, there's a totally new profit model that their eyes are going to change. This is more scalable, I can do this. Well, it's really interesting because I think that both small business as well as the Etsy platform uniqueness. A lot of people have started going there as almost like their Google search engine for things, you know, for gifts and for unique things that they're trying to find for their house or jewelry or clothing or whatever, that there's also along with the competition, there's also the customers have really driven a lot of the expansion of using that platform and or other, you know, similar platforms to it. i That's, I mean, I use that as one of my like Google searches. You know what, I'm looking for something unique. When you think about kind of that evolution that you've seen already happening, the current evolution with you know, even some of the business models are changing even some of the suppliers are now becoming direct, you know, with customer, how do you stay in the game, like what is the what's the key to staying in the game on your business.

Amanda Beltz 33:23
So I think that the good thing about how I, how I've run my business, up until this point, which was I started as a collector first and then started the business from there, I held on to a lot of very rare items that due to the it just so happened that due to the pandemic, they stopped mining certain things and things are you can't find them anymore, and they've quadrupled in price and I just so happened to have stashes of this stuff everywhere. That has and it's been very, very difficult for people to find so that has been definitely something that was like an unintended consequence of me being a hoarder for once but so other than that, it's really I look for things that I think are cool, not necessarily things that I think I'll sell in bulk, if that makes sense. So a lot of your things that you wouldn't think would I sell a lot of are my top sellers. Because I look and I'm like well nobody else is really selling this so I'm gonna sell it and I think it's cool and I think other people probably think it's cool and then it ends up being one of the top sellers. So number one, and I'm glad I didn't do this I thought about it many times. Stick with online first because if I opened a brick and mortar store, it would have cost me so much money and there's a lot of overhead there. The other thing is you don't have to go all out you just have to create a logo, figure out how you're going to ship get some shipping supplies and then just work on your you know Instagram and Facebook and you might have to put some Facebook ads out there or you might have to do you know certain things to to try to bring people to your business but don't overboard it at the beginning

Angela McCourt 35:00
Hmm, yeah, that is fantastic advice. Because it's, and I think this is where a lot of people get challenged as they're like, it has to be perfect, I have to have the perfect business plan, I have to have the perfect product. But I think getting started is the most important thing and testing it out and then seeing where's it going to evolve to go into it with the mindset of you know what, this isn't going to be perfectly set in stone like I'm, I'm looking for feedback so that I can evolve this. And having that kind of mindset, just like you went from the jewelry to I get to scale this business, this isn't this isn't going to work. And into, you know, being able to be the supplier to the jewelry makers and to collectors. What is your advice for managing how much time you spend on a daily basis? Is there a way to set I know, I used to set kind of SLA expectations with customers? So I would give myself a few days? Do you have any other tips or tricks for people on how to kind of manage how much time they're spending on it, especially when they get home from work? And now they're, you know, trying to deal with kids and homework and all this other stuff? And then they've got to go and deal with the business? Like, how do they do it so that they don't burn out? And how do they do it, so they don't really resent it?

Amanda Beltz 36:10
That's hard. So I started doing because I used to be a workaholic, I stressed myself out so much, which is part of the reason why I said you know, I need something to I need a side therapy hustle. And that's kind of what led me. So when I get in the door for work, I turn to work on when I walk out the door, whether I'm working from home or in the office, I shut it off, I don't I don't want to hear it, I haven't I have a team all over the country. And my team out west, they're still working, obviously, I basically set it to where even at lunch I blocked, I'm out running, you will not get a hold of me right after work, I'm in the gym, you will not get a hold of me. And then people usually they don't bother you. But that's the first thing and you got to set those parameters. So even if I'm not running, I'm running.

Angela McCourt 37:01
I'm running in my mind.

Amanda Beltz 37:04
And so I started time blocking everyday doing that. So that kind of gets your mental as to where whether it's at lunch going and running your errands, instead of doing it after work or whatever the case may be just time block that time out. And then I started making sure that I do a little bit every day. So if I have a lot of orders to pack, then I'm not maybe going to take pictures of stuff that night. And I'm not gonna post it but but I try to post one thing a day on my my website, so it's not a lot. And I try to pack any packages that come through, I try to print them in pack on that same day. Now I'm a lot faster than I used to be. So the other thing that is a little bit more challenging with what I do is I sell specific needs. So I'll sell five beads at a time of a really expensive product. And I have to handpick them. Because I'm like that I go in and I look at every single one of them. And then I put them on a pretty string for them. And I put these labels on and these warning labels and all this stuff. Well, I've started now just pre pack and packaging them and doing it ahead of time. Like here's the 55555 people already on the string. So I was spending so much time analyzing every little thing that number one, my husband could never help because he's like, I don't know where to start. You're pure chaos, you're the queen of chaos. And I don't even know where anything is in your office. My own system and it works for my brain. I number two is I don't know what to put out for them. Like I try to I don't know if it's intuitively picking it for the customer. But I just try to pick out what I think they would like. So I've really gotten away from that to really try to focus on how can I now be as efficient as possible. But so it's doing a little bit every day, taking care of stuff, right when it comes in, and then being as efficient as possible. That's where you're not going to get burned out. If you're waiting, and then all of a sudden, you have to work all day Saturday and Sunday to get caught up. That's when you start to have that resentment.

Angela McCourt 38:51
Yeah, definitely I could see, for sure.

Amanda Beltz 38:54
My scalability is not there. I mean, I could definitely have this business could be triple what it is right now. But it's not. And that's good, because I would probably be insane.

Angela McCourt 39:02
Right? So you you manage that you manage kind of how and I remember last year when it got like really peaked. You're like, Okay, gotta back it off a little bit here. So and you did and what you just, you know, slow down on the posting slow down on the, on the, you know, putting putting stuff out on social media just slow down and kind of retract a little bit. And then the business does the same thing. It's really interesting how you can control that flow.

Amanda Beltz 39:27
And you can actually put your shop on vacation mode. And on Etsy, so that's been very helpful if, you know, I was in Florida for quite a while and I put it on vacation mode. But I might do that even if I'm here and I have a lot going on and it just won't break.

Angela McCourt 39:43
That's a great, that's a great suggestion as well. So what was the most interesting piece that you were ever able to procure? What was your favorite of the most interesting, it's probably

Amanda Beltz 39:57
artifacts that I've been able to put on hands on, I have a meteorite carving. That is, I don't know, it looks like a dog, a pregnant dog, but then it looks like a donkey, but then it looks like an alien at the same time. And it's a meteorite that was carved. However, many years ago, I don't even know how old it is. And somehow I was able to get it. And it's really cool. So stuff like that, where it's just something that's completely different. I have a piece of glass from the first atomic blast here in the United States. I really think that that's something cool. So you know, that blast obviously heats the the sand up and, and I have a piece of that. A small piece, but a bit of that is one of the cooler pieces that I have. But I would say probably the artifacts that I have. I have a bracelet that's very, very old. I have some carvings that are that are pretty old, but they're a real arrowhead. I like that kind of stuff really interests me when it's something that's from history.

Angela McCourt 40:54
Yeah. Like dinosaur poop. Yes.

Amanda Beltz 40:57
My favorite is actually one of my favorite things, is dinosaur gemstone. So it's advertised dinosaur bone. And I have quite a bit of that, that I've collected over the years and sell some of it. So beautiful. It's beautiful. And it's amazing to me to see the cell structure just that to me. It just I can sit there and stare at it all day.

Angela McCourt 41:16
Hmm. It's like artwork to you. Yeah. For sure. It's amazing. So what is the name of your shop?

Amanda Beltz 41:25
My shop is called Raw and refined Earth. I call it rare, but it's raw and refined Earth.

Angela McCourt 41:31
find you on Etsy on Etsy. Yes. And what's your Instagram handle? And I'll put this in the show notes as well as your, your Etsy your your company name.

Unknown Speaker 41:39
It's wrong refined Earth.

Angela McCourt 41:42
On it's on Instagram. Yes. Gotcha. Perfect. I should know that I just follow you don't know where to go. There's Amanda. That's awesome. So if there was any advice you have kind of like the Amanda, Billboard, Queen of chaos. advice, what would that be?

Amanda Beltz 42:04
I would say don't take life too serious. Don't stress out about stuff that doesn't matter. You'll realize that one day that not much matters at all. And so you know, you you will be a lot less stressed and a lot happier. The sooner you realize that.

Angela McCourt 42:21
Wow. That's beautiful. Yeah. So right. It's all right. Do you have any call outs that you would like to share whether it's a book or products other than your own? Anything I don't know how many listeners we actually have in Texas, but anything local, anything nonprofit wise, anything that your that is very interesting to you.

Amanda Beltz 42:43
Yes, there's this book that is amazing. And the person that wrote it is also amazing. It's called Love your gifts. I don't I

Angela McCourt 42:54
haven't had one of those in a call in a while Oh, miles.

Amanda Beltz 42:57
And then the other thing is I am hiring for business development executives and you can sit anywhere in the United States work remotely. If you have any sales experience for preferably healthcare, even if it was only six months. I don't care. I am hiring.

Angela McCourt 43:13
That's awesome. So I'll put a LinkedIn link for you in the shownotes and people can reach out to you and DM you there. Right. Excellent. Okay, perfect. Amanda, thank you so much for coming on. That was really phenomenal. I think this was so rich for people who are really interested in starting their own business or people who are like, I have to quit my job to start this business. No, you don't. She's been doing it for almost seven years. And making really good money with it. So you know, there's there's a real part to this entrepreneurship and, you know, kind of this cross life, job and entrepreneurship and owning your own business and so many resources out there that have made it so much easier nowadays, as well as people really helping each other to, you know, stand up their own business work through mindset issues, things like that. And I think this was great that you were able to share, you know, just some guidance on how to do it and what to focus on. Was this been really great, thank you.

Unknown Speaker 44:14
Oh, thank you. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Angela McCourt 44:17
If you liked this episode, you can LinkedIn me Angie belts McCourt, and let me know and if you really want to say thank you please leave a review on Apple podcasts. Thanks for listening