Episode 102: Dylan Jahraus

DylanJahraus-Episode 102

Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Pretty Powerful Podcast, where powerful women are interviewed every week to share real inspiring stories and incredible insight to help women or anyone break the barriers, be a part of innovation, shatter the glass ceiling, and dominate to the top of their sport, industry, or life's mission.

Join us as we celebrate exceptional women and step into our power. And now here's your host, Angela Gennari.

Angela Gennari: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Pretty Powerful Podcast. My name is Angela Gennari, and today I'm here with Dylan Jarrus. Hi, Dylan.

Dylan Jahraus: Thanks for having me, Angela. I'm really excited to be here.

Angela Gennari: I'm excited to talk to you. So Dylan Jarrus is a seasoned e commerce expert. Expert with over 10 years of experience and went from corporate e-Commerce to making over $1 million in profit on Etsy, Amazon, and Shopify. She and her team now help thousands of Etsy [00:01:00] sellers grow with corporate e-Commerce, commerce principles through her one-on-one Country program, the ultimate Etsy course.

Outside of being a CEO, she's also a military spouse and mom of two boys. Yay. Awesome. So thank you to your spouse for his service. Um, and what branch of the military?

Dylan Jahraus: He is Navy. He's a submarine officer.

Angela Gennari: Very cool. We actually did, um, my, I have a son who's 17 and he's looking at going into the Navy. So we did, uh, two college tours yesterday and met with the Navy ROTC, um, program coordinator.

Dylan Jahraus: There you go. Yeah. Lots of benefits. Yes,

Angela Gennari: absolutely. Absolutely. So one thing I know about being a military spouse is it can be a little troublesome to try to keep a position because you're moving around a lot. Is that right?

Dylan Jahraus: Yes. You know, as, as often as every six months to two years for us. So it's a lot of change and you, you don't realize it when you're climbing the corporate ladder, [00:02:00] you end up you're 25, 26, and all of a sudden, like, You can't do it how you've been doing it anymore,

Angela Gennari: right?

Yeah. Yeah, because I have a friend who who has a business and she She also started her business out of a need because there were, she does a lot of things online and virtual, but, and she's helped other military spouses do the same thing because it is so challenging to try to find that stability in a role when you're at the mercy of where you're going to be moving next.

Dylan Jahraus: Yes. Yes. It's tough. But now with a lot more remote work, it's not as difficult as it was like, you know, You know, eight, nine years ago. Right. Right. Well, good for

Angela Gennari: you. So tell me what inspired you to want to go the e commerce route that you had worked corporate e commerce, right?

Dylan Jahraus: Yes. So, um, back when in college I studied business, but then I also studied, um, fashion journalism, buying products development.

That was a program in London. And I thought I want to go into [00:03:00] fashion journalism. So I interned at Marie Claire. That was a nightmare. That was such a nightmare. Have you seen the devil wears Prada?

Angela Gennari: Right, right. Yeah. Yeah.

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. That was it. That was it. Use your imagination. So quickly got, got out of that idea.

Um, wanted to get into the business side. So I went, worked for some big companies, Zappos and Zulily and loved it. Loved it. I'm, you know, it's, Balancing being, you know, creative, but also very political. Very cool.

Angela Gennari: And then what led you, so you worked for these two pretty major brands, pretty major e commerce sites.

Um, what principles did you learn there that you felt really helped you and inspired you to want to do your own thing?

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. So at Zappos specifically, um, if you've read, um, delivering happiness by Tony Shea, uh, yeah. So focusing on the customer

Both: and,

Dylan Jahraus: and really that's something that we've carried through, um, to what [00:04:00] we do now, teaching Etsy sellers is always focusing on the customer first, the product second, because you want to make sure you're going to have consistent income.

So who do you want to rely on for your income? You know, someone else with consistent income. So, um, targeting, you know, profitable customers, having that premium customer experience, that is huge. Um, and then Zulily, you know, that's completely different business model back then, you know, it was flash sales, new products every day, curating, curating and making it a fun and easy shopping experience, which we still teach people today on Etsy.

Angela Gennari: Okay, very cool. So why so great experience in both of those companies. And I did read his book, the delivering happiness book, and I loved his principles and what he stood for in terms of, you know, when he was starting Zappos and love to hear some of the things that he's had to overcome. And, um, you know, that it's been a while since I've read the book, [00:05:00] but I just remember being so inspired by it because everybody deals with stuff, right?

Everybody has obstacles when you're starting a business. And I'm sure you did as well that you have to overcome. And I love the transparency and the vulnerability when when CEOs can put that in writing and say, this is what I was dealing with. And these are the mistakes that I made. And this is how I overcame those mistakes because I find those are the great learning opportunities.

Dylan Jahraus: Yes, absolutely. Sometimes it's, um, stuff in the business. Sometimes it's stuff outside of the business.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So when you started your business, um, so you started selling on Etsy, what were you selling and how did you become so successful?

Dylan Jahraus: Yes. So when I started on Etsy, um, I was newly married, unemployed, new military spouse.

I felt like such a failure, like really my identity had been tied in my career, right? My achievements, you know, I'm, [00:06:00] um, I, I kind of have like a high achievement mindset https: otter. ai Like failure is not an option. I'm kind of a little obsessive about that. And so I felt like such a failure because I couldn't get a job.

We were in San Diego e commerce. It's not like it is in Seattle. Like you could get a job in a week in Seattle, but here not the same. So really struggled to get a job. It had been like 10 months. Of searching and I was getting all these offers for like 50 percent of the pay, you know, being underemployed where I just couldn't see myself doing it.

So

Both: I,

Dylan Jahraus: I was side hustling. I was walking dogs. I was, um, house sitting. I threw up something on Etsy from our wedding and it was a letter J for our last name. We put fake flowers all over it. Um, so floral letter and then it's like two months later, it's sold. And we just have one picture of the thing. And then we thought, Oh my goodness, someone wants a letter H.

Now what do we [00:07:00] do? We have to like figure out how to make this thing and ship it to them. So my husband and I are like engineering this and trying to figure it out. And then, um, two months later we're doing over 10, 000 a month. And from that point, yeah, we made six figures in the first year for profit.

And, um, it just exploded from there.

Angela Gennari: Wow. That's amazing. So what was it about that particular item that just that it was custom handmade item?

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. And it was something that I had found on Pinterest actually. So Etsy, yeah, Etsy is one of the last places to get trends. So you don't want to be looking for product ideas to sell on Etsy, but I had, I'd found this thing on Pinterest and this is back in 2016 when.

People weren't really doing this, um, type of product and it definitely, like I saw it as something really unique on Pinterest. So then I made it myself and I, I didn't know the potential.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. That's amazing. Well, good for you and good for you guys for [00:08:00] being creative and figuring it out. That's one of my favorite things.

My favorite saying is say yes and figure it out. And so I love that you guys were like, yeah, we can do this and then let's go hurry up and figure this out, how to do that.

Dylan Jahraus: I love that. That's my motto. Um, I actually say put the food in the oven before it's preheated. Oh,

Angela Gennari: that's awesome.

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah.

Angela Gennari: So, so what challenges did you have in starting your business?

Dylan Jahraus: Well, we were operating it from a one bedroom apartment in, uh, more of a, High traffic area. So we were out on the patio with like a jigsaw. We got, we got in a lot of trouble and, uh, so, but then we have, we're having these orders.

So my husband buys a generator from Home Depot, puts it in the back of his truck, um, gets a little portable work table with a jigsaw and goes to the side of the freeway. frontage road. Meanwhile, there's all these like homeless people living there. [00:09:00] Um, he basically just works off the back of his truck about every other day, um, processing orders.

So we did what we had to do.

Angela Gennari: That's amazing. That's amazing. I love the grit. So So when you're starting this business, how did you, did you fund your own orders? Did you get a bank loan? Like, how did you make this like a business business? Because at first it was kind of like, Hey, I'm going to put this up there, you know, and, and it sells.

And then all of a sudden you have a real business and you have orders to fill. Did you self finance that? Did you go help? Did you go get funding? How did, how did that happen?

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. So, um, we basically started with what we had and it was supplies that left over from our wedding. So it was about 150. Um, and then as you, you know, sell, you just reinvest, yes, reinvest.

So you're bootstrapping the whole thing. And we're the type of people like, You know, we make, we make eight figures, um, a month, uh, at this point with everything combined and [00:10:00] we still drive cars that are 13 years old, like, um, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So, I mean, yeah, we definitely weren't big spenders.

And so with that, we just used what we had.

Angela Gennari: That's awesome. Good for you.

Both: Yeah.

Angela Gennari: So, um, so tell me about you do the one on one coaching now to help other people. So tell me how somebody would get in. So if I have a little Etsy store, how do I start generating income? Because if nobody is really picking it up, how do I, how do I turn that around?

Cause I know people have tons of Etsy stores, but they're not making the kind of money that you made. So how does, how does one do that?

Dylan Jahraus: Exactly. So it's either a problem with the strategies. So how you're listing the product, you're not getting in front of the right customers. You're not positioning it in the right way.

Um, SEO is a big part of that pricing strategy doing social media, you know, having a cohesive brand aesthetic is a big part of it. Um, or the [00:11:00] product sucks. So it's one of those, um, we always start with the strategies, right? We, we really give that thing a chance to sell, but sometimes the product market fit simply isn't there.

So then we help reestablish product market fit. We start with a customer, then choose the products. Okay.

Angela Gennari: And I know for a long time, Amazon was the place to do reselling. But lately I've heard Amazon's fees have gotten so high that it's, it's kind of hurting that market. Um, if you're a reseller, can you, can you expand on that a little bit?

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. So Amazon fees, um, plus the returns that really, you have to look at your return percentage. And just include that as a built in cost. Like if I think of it like a fixed cost, um, unless you're selling custom items on Amazon, you have to accept returns, which is such a bummer. And it can really kill your, your all of your profit if you're not careful, [00:12:00] unless you're doing this at a serious scale where, you know, your 10%.

But it's okay because you're doing 100, 000 a month, you know,

Both: um,

Dylan Jahraus: so you just have to be so careful with returns. Their fees are much higher than Etsy. Etsy, you own your policies, so you don't ever have to accept returns and, um, their, their percentage is just so much lower.

Angela Gennari: Okay, now I've heard, now this is again, I'm not in this industry so I'm just going off of hearsay.

Did Etsy recently get bought?

Dylan Jahraus: Bought, not recently.

Angela Gennari: I thought they got acquired by another company, um, and they were worried that people's, um, creative ideas were being stolen by that company and I can't remember if that's Etsy or if it was Shopify.

Dylan Jahraus: Um, interesting Shopify, unless it was within the last hour and I haven't checked.

Okay. All right, good. Could be it could be possible. Um, there they are publicly traded. Um, [00:13:00] so yeah, it would be pretty big news, actually. But no, I didn't hear about that. It could have been another, um, Retailer or marketplace. Maybe. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Good to know.

Angela Gennari: So yeah, I'll have to do a little deep dive into that.

It was a rumor that I heard and I hadn't really explored it too much. So I just didn't know if you knew anything about it or not. So what would you say is the biggest differences between advertising or listing? I would say on Etsy, Amazon or Shopify.

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah, so the thing is with Amazon, you've got to be ready for PPC.

So you've got to be ready to spend to get that initial traction. It's like from everyone I've talked to. In order to actually get sales on something that's new, um, you really, you have to spend something I actually have met. Yeah. I met people who are like 30, 000 in debt from Amazon PPC. So,

Both: wow. So

Dylan Jahraus: what is PPC exactly?

Um, like, uh, ads. Um, okay. Yeah. So, um, [00:14:00] spending on ads within Amazon's platform.

Angela Gennari: Oh, I see. I see. Okay. So all those sponsored. Is that what that is?

Dylan Jahraus: Right on. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Now with, um, Shopify, your issue is also traffic because it's not a marketplace, essentially like your own website. So you have to drive all of your traffic, you know, SEO.

If you're relying solely on SEO, that's going to take so long. Right. You're paying. Yes. You're paying to host a Shopify site. It's a monthly cost. Usually it ends up over 30 a month and you have to pay for traffic. So a lot of people will end up doing ads on meta for that. Um, cause that's the biggest hurdle.

So traffic in both places. Is the issue with Etsy. However, they have such great built in traffic and their ad platform, like it's kind of bad. So it's yeah. Which I mean, for the seller, [00:15:00] it's good because it, it really doesn't give the seller any power. So essentially you don't have to do it. Cause not many people are being competitive with how they do Etsy ads.

You just put in a budget. It spends what it wants on the listing itself. That they want to, um, they, you can't specify a specific budget per listing, just a big budget. So you can burn your money pretty quickly there. Um, but the organic traffic opportunity with Etsy is so strong. And so that's why I do really think it's one of the fastest places to build your brand.

Absolutely.

Angela Gennari: Okay. Interesting. Yeah. Because I knew Shopify has a slightly different business model. And of course, Amazon is different as well. So I just never knew the differences between the three. So Amazon, I know is just kind of a marketplace, but do you have very many unique products on Amazon or is it, I feel like Amazon is full of duplicate products, like [00:16:00] order one particular product and you know, there's 20 other companies selling the exact same thing.

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah, exactly. And like the reviews, um, you're just so focused on the reviews. Like what, what is going to be an issue potentially. So, um, with Amazon, uh, I actually talked to a guy earlier this week, David Schomer, who teaches Amazon, he has a podcast called firing the man. And we, we talked about the me too products on Amazon where it's like, You see something selling, you go to, you know, a Chinese manufacturer and try to get a cheaper version of it.

Mm-Hmm. .

Both: Mm-Hmm. . Mm-Hmm. .

Dylan Jahraus: And part of Amazon that I would say is one of the bigger opportunities is Amazon Handmade, which is those custom items where you're shipping yourself usually. And that's where we are seeing a lot of opportunity right now.

Angela Gennari: Okay. All right. Very cool.

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah,

Angela Gennari: so with the volume that you were doing in on Etsy, it was it just Etsy or you were [00:17:00] selling on all the platforms?

Dylan Jahraus: Um, all three platforms, but primarily Etsy.

Angela Gennari: Okay, so with that much volume, did you end up having to hire staff to help out? Were you guys still doing it just the two of you or how was that being handled?

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. You know, it was such long days. So even like during my husband's deployment, I'm like wrangling our child.

We just had one at the time, their toddler and packaging orders in the bathroom. It was such a mess, but the, the hours I was on my feet the whole time, I actually developed vascular disease in my legs from standing so much. So I had these compression stockings, sometimes two layers thick. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, all the way up to the top of my leg to try to help the blood flow and had to have surgery, ended up realizing this is not sustainable for me.

I hired an employee to manage it full time and I just kind of managed or oversaw what she did. Okay,

Angela Gennari: very

Dylan Jahraus: cool.

Angela Gennari: So [00:18:00] now you've kind of moved yourself out of the process. You guys are still making great money doing this, but now it's, it's much, much, much easier to run. That's good. Yeah, that's smart because you can't scale and you also can't balance your life if you don't actually start delegating.

So I think that's a really smart move. So how do you balance all of this now? Children. Now you have, um, help doing your business, which is amazing, but how do you find the balance and everything, especially during deployments?

Dylan Jahraus: Yes. So luckily he will not have to deploy ever again. Yeah. So that's good. But, um, I mean, now we have, we have 31 employees on the coaching side of the business.

Wow.

Angela Gennari: Okay.

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. So that has exploded, um, in the last couple of years. To be much, much, you know, way more than Etsy ever, ever was. Um, so balancing it, like I stopped trying to have balance a [00:19:00] long time ago. Okay. Cause it was not achievable. I like, I don't believe in balance. I do believe in seasons, priorities in different seasons.

So like, okay, this is a busy season for me. Like, like we're launching a new course. My husband is going to take on shoulder more of the stuff with the kids or bath time, whatever it is. Um, or this is a busy season for him or something else. And. I will take on more in this area. So it's like always ebbing and flowing.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Well, and I think that's a smart way to look at it because there's so many different things that can come up and like right now my son is a senior and so I'm trying to be much more present. I'm trying to be much more engaged. There's a lot going on. So I don't want to miss out on that because I could work.

All the time 24 7 never feel caught up, but at the end of the year, I will have missed so much. So I'm really trying to be super, super intentional [00:20:00] and re strategizing and reprioritizing my time right now.

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. And it's hard. It's hard to know where the, um, You know what the season is and how long it will last, but I think things change so quickly that priorities have to be able to change too.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Angela Gennari: So what advice would you give to somebody who's starting out a brand new store, brand new Etsy store? They have this really cute idea of a product that they want to start making. What would you say are your first, let's say three to five steps?

Dylan Jahraus: Step number one is just getting that thing up, getting that shop open, getting it up.

I promise you like 98 percent of the time, that one idea you had, if you stick with Etsy, that is probably not going to be what you are known for a year from now. Simply the product that probably just got you started. And so don't get so hung up on perfectionism that it delays your start, [00:21:00] just get it up and reps.

It takes reps. So reps of listings, um, practicing SEO, like strategy designing. Um, so not putting so much pressure on yourself. Early perfection because it will never happen. Just, you know, the opportunity cost of that is so high.

Angela Gennari: Yeah, I agree. One of the biggest problems that I see with entrepreneurs is the failure to launch, right?

Just that, that just, I, I've been thinking about it. I've been talking about it. I've been putting plans together about it, but there's this quote that I send to my team sometimes because they'll get caught in analysis paralysis is what I call it. And I say, you guys have to, you know, You have to do the thing, you know, thinking about doing the thing is not doing the thing.

There's, there's this whole, um, it's like a little poem or a quote or something, but it's like, you know, thinking about doing the thing is not doing the thing. Planning to do the thing is not doing the thing, you know, strategizing about how to do the thing is not doing the thing. Writing about how to [00:22:00] do the thing is not doing the thing.

The only thing that's doing the thing is doing the thing. And so you have to just start. And, and that can be the most challenging part because we feel the need to like Make it perfect. It has to be the right time, the right budget, the right money, the right, you know, the stars are aligned. It's not mercury, retrograde, whatever it is.

There's a million things. So you just have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and starting when you need to start.

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. And that's something that I find is holding so many people back from their potential. And you know, they're like, I'm stuck living paycheck to paycheck. I want to start this business.

I just can't do it yet. I need to make money before I start a business. Well, how are you going to make the money? Um, and there's excuse after excuse and smoke screens when it's really probably just fear,

Both: like

Dylan Jahraus: failure. And, and then my question is, You know, if you hate your job so much, you say, you've been saying for seven years, you want to start your business.

You still haven't done it. Are you just meant to be an employee? Like not to [00:23:00] be mean, but like, yeah, it takes us. It takes guts to start a business. Um, do you have it? Like you find it within you, it's going to be so uncomfortable. Um, but the alternative. You know, what's the bigger risk here?

Angela Gennari: Right, right. So, so they finally get that courage and they set up their shop.

What's the next step?

Dylan Jahraus: Yes. I would say we need to get customer feedback as soon as possible. So you can, yes. If your SEO is on point, you can rely on Etsy for a lot of that traffic and customer feedback, right? Looking at your stats, I always recommend driving external traffic, but social media methods.

Angela Gennari: Okay.

Yeah. So if social media ads like Facebook, Instagram ads, is that what it is? Or TikTok? So,

Dylan Jahraus: yeah. So no paid ads, just organic methods. So um, posts on your own and building up the social presence, driving the traffic to [00:24:00] Etsy.

Angela Gennari: Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. All right. And so you're getting traffic and then what about logistics?

How do you start with the shipping process? How does like, do you go to the post office and you set something up? Do you get like, how does that whole process work for somebody who's never done it before?

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. So now there's a couple ways you can do Etsy. One is digital products. They're just receiving a download.

That's all. Okay. You're not just saying anything. Yeah. Yeah. Like templates and, and clip art, things like that. Okay. Yeah. Print on demand. That's another thing where you have a production partner. So you just click, you know, click, send to the production partner and they fulfill it. They ship it. Okay. That's easy.

And then there's the handmade supply category where you're shipping yourself, which is what I did. And, um, I recommend never going to the post office. They do free pickups.

Angela Gennari: Yes, yes, yes, exactly.

Dylan Jahraus: Oh my gosh. That'll save you hours of [00:25:00] time and many headaches. Right. Avoid the post office. Yeah. But Etsy, Etsy handles all your shipping labels to give you discounted rates.

So you just, um, get a little food scale that's easy and then weigh it and, um, put the label on it.

Angela Gennari: Okay. Very cool. Yeah. And so where have you found, cause you've mentioned SEO a couple of times. How do you do SEO and how do you make that effective in your, in your marketing?

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. So I think one of the biggest issues with SEO is.

People have no idea where to get the keywords. They're like, okay, um, I'm going to just copy the SEO or they think it's a title, like a title.

Both: Yeah.

Dylan Jahraus: They're like, I'll just copy and paste from the other seller.

Both: Right.

Dylan Jahraus: You see all these shops that are just copying each other. And it's like, . Like the Stacy over here who has two sales, does she really know what she's doing?

Like , right? , [00:26:00]

Both: this is you. True? Yeah. Are you sure you wanna

Dylan Jahraus: use her? SEO? Um, and then if you try to come up with it on your own, you're thinking about it like the product,

Angela Gennari: right?

Dylan Jahraus: Let's say your earrings like, you know, five millimeter. Um, iridescent pearl drop style, like whatever earrings. Can people even spell iridescent?

Right,

Angela Gennari: right, right. It's too descriptive.

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. So we want to think about the buyer, what they're searching and really think about purpose and utility. So maybe like, you know, mother of the bride earrings.

Angela Gennari: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Absolutely. Okay. Very cool. Okay. So when you have been successful, what products have you found to really kind of capitalize on the Etsy market and the Shopify and the Amazon?

What, what have you found to be the most successful products that people put out?

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. So physical products, typically, um, I see the highest growth [00:27:00] with versus on demand or digital. Um, I see the fastest growth with physical products, usually something that you are buying and altering. Okay. So let's say you're buying something like a leather wallet from one of our sources.

Um, and then we like engrave it, something like that. Okay. Very cool. So it takes you two minutes. You made a 40 profit. Nice. Okay. Yeah. Very

Angela Gennari: cool. So things that you can just buy wholesale and then you then customize it yourself.

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. Exactly. Yep. Okay. Buying and then altering something about it to make it handmade.

Angela Gennari: Mm hmm.

Dylan Jahraus: I love that. Okay. Very cool.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. There's so much out there that we can be doing and I feel like there's, there's, there's For people who say they just need a side hustle, I feel like Etsy is really, that's, that's like the perfect place that you can go do that. Some people want to do the Amazon, uh, like they see all the TikToks and, and all these little ads about, about, you know, [00:28:00] make 10, 000 a month, you know, Passive income on Amazon.

So we actually tried that one time. My son and I bought, you know, we had a friend who was doing some video games and he was like, just go buy a bunch of video games. There's such a small margin on video games. And like, there's a bazillion people selling them. And so I think it took us like a year to sell through the little bit of inventory that we had.

And like, we had to keep dropping prices and we ended up losing money. But I think what he does is he does it at such high volume. Um, but then there's so many restrictions on Amazon. Like if we bought something that was like a Disney brand, you can't list it. Or like a Lego brand, you can't list it. And so like you're kind of stuck.

You have to be like an official wholesaler, retailer, whatever. So it's an interesting dynamic, but I love the homemade, um, idea because I think that that really sets you apart.

Dylan Jahraus: It does. It does. And it's a little sweat equity. Yeah. Um, you know, a little sweat equity, but it doesn't have to be a lot of time.

You don't even have to be creative.

Angela Gennari: Right. [00:29:00] I love it. Okay. Very cool. So what advice would you give to your 18 year old self?

Dylan Jahraus: Yes. Um, I would say to Mary who has dreams as big as you. Oh, I love that. Yes. Yeah. Or bigger.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's so important because who you choose as your spouse really determines what direction your life is going to go.

And I think for women, especially well, men and women, because, you know, if you, if you, if you marry the wrong person and that person is a, like what I call a dream killer, you know, like every time you're like, Oh, I have this great idea. That'll never work. You know, like, it's not, you don't want to be with that person because every time you want to expand, if you want your mind to grow and your life to grow, and you're with somebody who wants to stay in a very small place mentally and physically.

[00:30:00] It's not going to work. It's going to be, it's, it's, you're going to constantly feel like you're not living to your potential.

Dylan Jahraus: Right. Right. Yeah. So I, I dodged a bullet. Yeah, with a college relationship. I thought I'm gonna marry this guy, but I think he's probably still like in his parents backyard. Yeah Yeah, so yeah, that's a good one I would I would be thinking about

Angela Gennari: yeah for sure I think that's really really really good advice You're right, because if you don't have somebody who dreams the same way you dream and wants the same things that you want You're gonna Constantly feel like you're being held back and that's not good for either of you, you know, you'll resent them and they and then you'll also feel like you could have done more and so and then they'll feel like they never can satisfy you like you're never satisfied and and I can talk to this because I, I was in a marriage like that where, you know, I was constantly wanting to grow, grow, grow, do more.

And, and he was always very much like, Nope, what? With [00:31:00] works works and you know, we're going to keep it just as it is. He's very complacent and, and it ended up being one of the things that I resented about him the most was I felt like I was being held back. So yeah, absolutely can totally understand that one.

So as women, we give our power away a lot, um, whether it's giving credit to someone else or, you know, whatever that looks like. So can you tell me about a time that, uh, you've given your power away? And then another time that you've stepped into your power.

Dylan Jahraus: Yes. So, um, given your power away in a good way, you mean, right.

Angela Gennari: Could be good or bad. Like you could, you know, miss a promotion because you, you weren't, you know, advocating for yourself, or it could be something like, um, you gave your power away in order for someone else to, to move up.

Dylan Jahraus: Yes. Yes. So, um, I would say one of the things that I didn't expect when becoming like a YouTuber or, uh, you know, podcaster getting into the public eye was [00:32:00] crazy people.

Both: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Dylan Jahraus: Crazy people getting into your head. And, um, who don't know you,

Both: right. But they,

Dylan Jahraus: they will say they will speculate. They will comment on your videos, you know, call you a horse face or something. Yeah. And it really got to me. Um, yeah, for it did for about a week. And then I thought I cannot, I gave my power to them for a week.

Um, and it really got to me. It kept me up at night. It, it made me feel like, how can I show up on camera every day? These people are just going to say terrible things about me. So I, yeah, I had to realize like this business will crash if I don't, if I can't keep showing up because of what other people think that I know.

Yeah,

Angela Gennari: absolutely. Well, good for you for finally set for saying, I'm going to, I'm not going to let this. Be the thing that takes me down, because I think you could do that if you, if you let it. And I think a [00:33:00] lot of people stay out of the public eye for that reason, because they don't want the backlash, but the backlash is going to come.

I mean, it's just going to come the more successful you become, the more, you know, uh, popular you become. You're going to have those people out there who can't stand to see the success. And they're going to want to destroy you. And it has nothing to do with you. It's a 100 percent about them and what is going on inside of them.

And you know, I even tell my employees this sometimes, like when you have an irate customer, 99 percent of the time, that's the outrage that they're going to. That you're dealing with has nothing to do with you. It's all about what's going on inside them And you just happen to be the battering ram for it.

So

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I heard um bigger levels bigger devils.

Angela Gennari: Yeah.

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah, that's a really

Angela Gennari: good statement Well, and and even like, you know in my business I own a security company and most of the people are really good. Like most of my competitors are great You know, we we have [00:34:00] great working relationships But then you have those who will hate you no matter what, you know, because they just don't think you belong or they just, you know, you've taken their client and now they're going to destroy you to anyone who will listen or whatever that is.

But I've, I've had a lot of that backlash in my industry as well. And it's sad, you know, it really is sad that, you know, people can't be happy for other people unless they can, you know, they have to, they have to feel like they can destroy them in order to make themselves feel bigger.

Dylan Jahraus: Exactly. Yes. Yeah. So you just have to remember, I'm here to serve.

I'm helping people. That's right.

Angela Gennari: Exactly. And the people who are sitting in their, you know, mom's basement and have no life, they're going to be critical of you because they're not you because they don't have that ability because they they're, they're angry with themselves and they want it. They want somebody else to feel as bad as they do.

Dylan Jahraus: Thank you. I needed that today. . .

Angela Gennari: Yeah. So, uh, yeah, I can, I can, I can understand that. So, so I love this conversation and I think this is [00:35:00] helping so many people. So I just have one last question for you. So what do you wish more people knew?

Dylan Jahraus: I wish more people knew that they are the only ones holding themselves back.

And they can Yes. Amen to that. Yeah, they can get through so much more. Then you think you can, your worst nightmare, like, you know, being afraid or anxious about something in the future, like you will survive that, like you will get, it's not going to kill you. And you're so much stronger than you think you are.

And you won't have anything put in your life that you can't handle. I'm, I'm Christian. And so that's what I really believe. Like God doesn't give you anything you can't handle. handle, right? Me, like I lean on my faith for that, but, um, we're all stronger than we think we are. And for that reason, like, don't be so afraid.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely. [00:36:00] Yes. Amen. Because I think so many people just doubt their own skills and abilities and it holds them back when, if we just took that step, even though it's scary into the darkness of like, I don't know if I'm going to succeed in this. And you know, the worst thing that can happen is That you don't move, you know, that you, that you don't move forward, but you learn from mistakes and you get back up when you fall and best thing you can do is just keep moving forward.

Dylan Jahraus: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. That's it.

Angela Gennari: Well, good for you. Well, I'm so proud of what you're doing because I love that you not only created success for yourself, but now you're sharing that wisdom with other people to allow them to be successful as well. And I think that that's so admirable. So thank you for what you're doing.

Dylan Jahraus: Thank you. Thank you. So fun to be here. I really enjoyed the conversation.

Angela Gennari: Me too. Well, I hope you have an amazing day. So how can people find you and get help with their Etsy stores and their, their Shopify and their Amazon? How can people find you?

Dylan Jahraus: Yes. So if you are looking for that extra push or even that guidance, um, we have tons [00:37:00] of free YouTube videos.

Uh, the channel is Dylan Jaris, J A H R A U S. And then we're on Instagram too. We'd be happy to chat with you over there. We're always in the DMs, um, chatting it up. Awesome.

Angela Gennari: Well, thank you so much, Dylan. It has been a pleasure speaking with you and I wish you so much luck with everything that you're doing.

I think you've got a really great service that you're providing. So thank you.

Dylan Jahraus: Thanks, Angela. Good to be here.

Angela Gennari: Have a great day, everybody. And we'll see you the next time on prettypowerfulpodcast. com. And of course, you can always find Dylan's links also on prettypowerfulpodcast. com. Have an amazing day.

Bye bye.

Intro: Thank you for joining our guests on The Pretty Powerful Podcast. And we hope you've gained new insights. And learn from exceptional women. Remember to subscribe or check out this and all episodes on prettypowerfulpodcast. com. Visit us next time. And until then, step into your own [00:38:00] power.