Etsy Tried To Ruin Chief Swag Officer

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Hey Fearless Friend!

Today on Stay Fearless or Die Trying:

1. I’ve had a whirlwind weekend because Etsy suddenly shut down our beautiful Chief Swag Officer shop. Luckily, we have the website: but this is a massive learning lesson for founders. Scroll down to read why this is a serious problem for my startup. If you are a current or aspiring entrepreneur, read this newsletter because hopefully the lesson I’m learning is one you can avoid.

2. I have been using Grammarly for years now and want you to sound much better perfectly professional. Get 20% off Grammarly Pro here!

3. Because of Etsy suddenly shutting down our shop, it’s critical we get our SEO to the top of Google, so when people search “customized mic covers” we come up first. I’m running tons of giveaways on my TikTok and social media to get you interacting with our brand so we can keep the momentum going. Please help us!

4. And if you don’t want to follow us on social media but you want swag, use the code CHIEFSWAG10 on chiefswagofficer.com for a discount off of your first order.

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Etsy Tried To Ruin Us.

I had two options. I’m writing this newsletter from the plane as I head to Austin to present at the University of Texas tomorrow about entrepreneurship!

I’m down to one option because the CEO whom I have publicly tagged in many posts, won’t acknowledge any of this. As a self-made founder, my customers are everything. Without you guys, I wouldn’t be where am. Without our hundreds of Chief Swag Officer customers, we wouldn’t have a business. As you grow your business, your values and morals and customer service matter more than anything.

Quite frankly, I’m disgusted with Etsy. Unfortunately, when you run a small business, you’ll be faced with decisions like this in business.

You’ll need someone more than they need you.

You’ll need an employee, a boss, or a friend more than they need you. It sucks. I started Chief Swag Officer in August of 2024 as an Etsy shop to prove the concept. We took off immediately, and I built the company privately for months because I was going through my own version of hell and wanted nothing to do with the Alexa Curtis brand.

Chief Swag Officer felt like my last chance at being successful.

I was right.

We sold hundreds of microphone covers, wrapped a deal with Red Bull, and supplied products to brands like Heineken and TikTok.

On Saturday, I woke up to an email from Etsy that the Chief Swag Officer store was banned from selling. No reason, or warning, besides “you no longer fit into our terms and conditions.”

There are a few reasons this could have happened:

1. We got too big and they wanted us off of their platform.

2. They think we’re drop shipping and we’re not (founders: you need to know what drop shipping is, especially if you want to build an e-commerce business - to simplify it, it’s when you sell products usually from China to customers, and act as a third party in supplying the sale. 99% of Etsy is drop shipping even though they act like it’s not)

With 300+ sales and ALL 5-star reviews, how did this happen? As the founder of this growing startup it’s my responsibility to keep the momentum going.

Why does this matter, you have a Chief Swag Officer website!

Yes, but we’re a small brand: and Etsy dominates the SEO market. When you Google “customized microphone cover” we barely come up, and it’s going to take a lot of work to get us back to the top of Google. We had 20+ sales a day, and now we’re barely at two because of the SEO.

Here’s what I learned:

I spent thousands of dollars out of pocket when I started Chief Swag Officer hiring a consultant I was introduced to in London. Since this is my first e-commerce venture, I needed someone who had expertise in building e-commerce brands.

Don’t be a stupid founder and think you know everything or can do everything. And don’t think you’re the best founder in the room ever. There is always room to grow and learn.

Founders fail fast when they think they’re the smartest person in the room.

It was a scary investment but I followed my gut. He’s still on the Chief Swag Officer team. Richard convinced me to start a website for Chief Swag Officer, and we hired a design team with a very lean budget to launch or Shopify store earlier this year.

Had we not launched the website, we’d honestly be fucked. Sales are still coming in, through the other platforms we sell on, but the website is critical. If you have a proof of concept, you must invest in a website.

Get someone onboard for SEO. I let Etsy take the reigns with the SEO for Chief Swag Officer. After all, we were at the top of Google: why would I invest money somewhere we didn’t need to yet?

Ultimately, our brand is bigger than Etsy. I knew that when we started. I was not expecting us to lose them as a vehicle during this build.

It’s like taking away the bread from a PB&J sandwich. I’ve got to find the bread again!

Whether or not this gets resolved, I’ve learned a lot and I hope by reading this, you have too!

Shop Chief Swag Officer here, and please support us on social media here and here!

Stay fearless or die trying,

Alexa

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