I want to share with you the tale of the Pop Tart phone case.

This is an item which I started selling in my Etsy shop around September in 2023 and which trended at the end of 2023.

To give a bit of background, I opened my Etsy shop in April 2023, so my shop was pretty new. It was a spur of the moment decision to open an online store. I had been thinking for a number of years about how I could possibly support myself through different channels as an independent artist.

When I was in Indonesia working on a theatre project late 2022 and early 2023, I became obsessed with creating botanical designs based on rubbings, watercolours and inks, partly as a way to cope with my overwhelm being around so many people, but also because the process of colouring the leaf designs I made from rubbings with inks and watercolours was very calming and joyful. I was so proud of these designs I wanted to do more with them. I thought that perhaps by putting my designs on t-shirts and other products, this could be a way for me to make an income online, to support me to make theatre work at the pace and with the rhythm that works for me.

I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I listened to lots of you tube videos, and after some challenges with my instagram account, which you can read about here, I finally started an Etsy shop. Because what ever it is you are doing, you just need to start, and be brave enough to let it unfold and take you in surprising directions. And the Pop Tart phone case is a good analogy for this.

So, I opened my Etsy shop ‘Botanic Mystic’ in April, starting with putting my botanic designs on products, such as the T-shirt above, using various print on demand companies who print the order then dispatch it themselves to the customer. It’s a great business model for artists and designers, but also has it’s challenges and pitfalls and environmental factors. Anyway, I was hyper-focussed to begin with. I now realise this is a common ADHD trait. For 6 weeks I focussed on nothing else. I desperately tried to get it all up there while my attention lasted. Because I knew, instinctively, my attention would not last….

It was after that that I crashed, and hit a real low point in my life. I felt completely overwhelmed by my new shop and also suddenly cut off from my performance work and writing, perceiving myself to miss many opportunities because of my new found focus. My housing situation was unstable and so were my finances. I was at a loss. I felt so overwhelmed I started thinking about dying. I would never want to do that to my kids. But I have to acknowledge how bad it was. I really had no interest in making content to promote my t-shirts online, which seemed necessary if I was going to sell them. I felt completely stymied. That was when I finally acknowledged that the pattern in my life of hyperfocus followed by exhaustion had really created many challenges for me in life, and I finally sought support, ending up with a diagnosis of ADHD and CPTSD from childhood and teenaged trauma. I had already self diagnosed many years before, but finally getting an official diagnosis from a psychiatrist was a turning point for me.

I started to understand myself more, to recognise the traits I struggled with without judging myself and feeling shame like I had done my whole life. I started to heal myself in a more focussed way than ever before. I also started to unpack my childhood experiences with my autistic mother, and being able to talk with a professional about this experience was very validating. I started to share my experience with others, publicly on social media, and many people responded with similar stories. I saw that sharing my story truthfully, rather than ‘hiding’ myself and trying to fit some perceived ideal, which is what I had been doing for a long time, meant that I could grow, and that it could be helpful also for other people.

So anyway, it was on the upward wind of my diagnosis, and starting to express myself in this more public way, that the Pop Tart phone case story began.

I had put some lovely botanic designs up, and I had sold a few t-shirts and hoodies, mostly to supportive friends. There were some reviews also, all of them 5 stars. I was learning about the role that key words play in the Etsy search, and how the Etsy algorithm works, and closely monitoring my Etsy seller app to see how people were engaging with my shop. Then, one early evening I saw on my Etsy seller app stats that someone had been lead to my Botanic Moon t-shirt (one of my favourite t-shirts of all time), using the search term ‘Kate Bush T-shirt’ .

I am not sure why someones search for a ‘Kate Bush T-shirt’ had yielded my Botanic Moon T-shirt , but there I was, at the front of my house having just arrived home, staring at these keyword stats on my phone, and I thought:

Kate Bush t-shirt? If that’s what people are looking for, I can make a Kate Bush t-shirt!

After all, as a teenager, I was obsessed with Kate Bush. I knew every line of every song. Every move from every video. I was so obsessed with Kate Bush that I had consciously pulled myself back from it, as it was becoming a bit too obsessive, and I had felt it was getting a bit unhealthy. If anyone could make a Kate Bush t-shirt, it is me. I am going to make a Kate Bush T-shirt. Now!

And I rushed inside and opened my computer.

I knew exactly which video to get a still from…..

Hammer Horror!

I am going to make a Hammer Horror T-shirt!

Of course it only occurred to me later that the reason Kate Bush was trending on Etsy was because the song ‘Running up that Hill’, which came 8 years later than Hammer Horror, was the theme song for the popular TV series ‘Stranger Things’. The younger generation were discovering Kate Bush through this re-emergence. No, that didn’t occur to me at all at the time. I presumed everyone would be familiar with all of her works, just as I was.

In my mind’s eye, I could see the exact image.

I fast forwarded through the music video to the moment when the creepy phantom like dancer is behind her and has his hand on her shoulder, and she is caught mid terror…

And I screen shot it!

Then I opened up my Canva app, which, for those of you who don’t know is a very easy to use design program, and I created a t-shirt design using the screen shot on a template.

A very bad Kate Bush t-shirt design.

The best bad Kate Bush t-shirt design on the market.

Nothing could stop me. I was on a roll. I went to my Print on Demand dashboard, with a company called Gelato, who I had chosen as my main print partner, as they seemed a more ethical POD company and their interface was easy to use. I mocked up the design onto one of their unisex t-shirts.

I then sent the product through Gelato’s Etsy integration app to my Etsy shop listing drafts. There I wrote a title, description, filled in the attributes, set the postage settings and filled out everything else needed for an Etsy listing. I made a mock up product photo on Canva and uploaded it to my listing:

Then it was time to add my tags. The all important thing which allows your listing to show up in someone’s relevant search. On Etsy you have 13 tags. And every one of them counts. I thought hard. What keywords might one search for if looking for a Kate Bush T-shirt?

Pop music? British pop music?

I did my best to come up with good ones.

I was just guessing, as this was all very new to me. Then, I hit publish!

Yes!

And there she is! 2nd from the bottom right on my Etsy page.

Then I had an idea. How about a Kate Bush Hammer Horror Phone case? So I went straight back into my Gelato dashboard, and I mocked up the same image onto a phone case, then sent it to my Etsy drafts. Again, I filled out the description, and filled in all 13 keywords.

And using product mock ups straight from Gelato, I published the listing!

You may be wondering, what the hell has this got to do with the Pop Tart phone case? Well I am just about to get to that.

So things were quiet. No one jumped at my Kate Bush t-shirt or the phone case. It was certainly a divergence for me, to sell merchandise, rather than original Botanic designs. But I knew I needed to shake things up a bit. To open my mind about what I could sell in my shop, and get that alogrithm flowing. If I could only just find one item which would give me some traction. Could my Kath Bush Phone case be the one?

The next day I checked my stats on my Etsy Sellers App, and saw that someone had viewed my Kate Bush phone case by searching the term ‘Pop Tart Phone Case’.

At first I was shocked.

Imagine calling Kate Bush a tart!

Sure, I had used the key words ‘Pop Queen’ and ‘British Pop Music’

But never would I have dreamt of calling Kate Bush a ‘Pop Tart’!

I actually had no idea what a Pop Tart actually was. The cereal cakes are just not that popular here in Australia. I had never tried one. I still haven’t.

What exactly did they mean? I searched ‘Pop Tart Phone Case’ on the Etsy search bar, to see what items might be listed.

And this is what I found:

There in the bottom left corner was my Kate Bush Hammer Horror phone case, on a page of pink sprinkled cake like items. She did look a little out of place…

What on earth is this Pop Tart thing?

I googled ‘Pop Tart’, and there in the search I saw an array of images of sickly sweet items, with white icing and sprinkles..

I could make a pop tart phone case!

I grabbed an image of a homemade pop tart which had a nice shape and creamy icing, and downloaded it, designed it on a template in Canva, then went to my Gelato dashboard, and uploaded the design onto the phone case mock ups. I sent the product to my Etsy store drafts and filled out the details quicker than I ever have, including the 13 tags, then published it to my store, using the mock up images generated from Gelato.

Usually I put a lot of effort into my listings, but this one I did very quickly. I really wasn’t taking it seriously at all. I suddenly felt liberated. What has Pop Tart got to do with Botanic Mystic? I didn’t quite know yet, but it was exciting to think I don’t have to be tethered to any theme or style. There’s so many ways to interpret Botanic Mystic. So many potential ideas for phone cases!

Kate Bush phone case

Even Kate Bush, she’s a mystic.

How about a Brain phone case?

Because this is about my brain. About me. Accepting my brain, how it ping pongs around to different ideas, different focusses.

Moon phone case?

Because it is important to me to learn how to share my story. To encourage others to share their stories too. So we don’t feel that we are alone on the moon.

Pop pop pop tart

Because my brain has low dopamine levels. This is one of the challenges of ADHD. This is why people on the spectrum are prone to addictions. This is why we are prone to not eat well, to eat sweet things, for that dopamine hit.

ChaChing!

Suddenly, through my headphones came that lovely sound. The ringing sound of a cash register which the Etsy Seller app pushes out when notifying of a sale.

A shot of excitement, probably dopamine, immediately rushed inside my brain at the sound.

I looked at my notifications.

Someone had bought a phone case. A Pop Tart phone case!

Yes yes yes yes I sold a phone case! I sold a Pop Tart Phone case! And I had only just put it up!

And how that ChaChing sound feels good!

Sales started to come in. From the other side of the globe, mostly America.

I had had a few sales of t-shirts already from America, one woman even came back and bought a second Botanic Moon t-shirt, the one pictured earlier, and below in pink, all the way from Texas!

But my Pop Tart phone case was the first item that was selling reasonably consistently.

ChaChing ChaChing ChaChing

A dopamine hit every time.

Ahhhhh the dopamine gives me hope. That is what the dopamine chemical is. It’s the chemical which gives you motivation to continue. It’s the chemical of success. Liquid ambition distilled. The chemist of dreams, gilding the mundane with meaning, turning effort into ecstasy.

ChaChing ChaChing ChaChing

As the phone case is a print on demand item, orders are dispatched straight to the customer’s address from the print providers, who are based all around the world. With all my botanic t-shirt designs I had ordered samples, so I could see them in person, tweak the designs and take product photos before selling them to customers. Such as the pink version of the Botanic Moon t-shirt above. I would end up wearing them myself or giving them to friends. But I already had a phone case, and didn’t want to buy another one. So I didn’t order one for myself. I was hoping and praying that the phone case would look good and that the customers who had bought one would be happy. It felt like a gamble to not see it first.

I waited for news, a little anxiously.

Then, the first review came in:

ChaChing! My dopamine levels shot up again. The phone case works! Someone likes it! How amazing. I felt like I had hit the jackpot. The next review came a few days later:

Cha Ching Cha Ching!!!!!! This phone case really is incredible!

Then another review:

3 X 5 star reviews in a row! By now I was now feeling confident that it must be good. I felt confident that I could continue selling my Pop Tart phone case to the world.

Then, a few days later, there was a message in my Etsy inbox from a customer:

Thank you Sandra for your prompt shipping. I am disappointed in the quality of the image. It’s a tiny bit blurry and it needs to be about 1/4″ longer as it doesn’t go all the way to the top. You did a nice job around the camera holes, but overall not well executed. The photo on your etsy site looks so much better!

The included with their message an image of their phone case.

Terrible in fact!

The image was misaligned. Not even covering the whole case. I could see how the design could work better for some models than others. For the first time I started to understand the risk of selling products to the public who may not receive the item they hoped for. My dopamine levels plummeted. I felt a sense of deep shame. It overwhelmed me, and I suddenly felt like I had lost all hope. It was that thing known as ‘rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD), which ‘interferes with your ability to regulate your emotional responses to feelings of failure and rejection‘, common amongst neuro-divergent people, and something I have struggled with my whole life, way before I knew what it was. I was completely unprepared for how this negative response from one customer to my pop tart phone case impacted me.

I checked the template for that particular phone model on my print partner’s dashboard, and saw that I hadn’t aligned the image properly for it. I needed to check and tweak all of the templates to be sure this didn’t happen again. Fixing it up made me feel a bit better. Perhaps my online shop could be a good way for me to face my RSD. It could help me to practice not take things personally any more, to not be debilitated by criticism, so that I could finally really stand up in the world and achieve my dreams.

I responded:

I agree it looks terrible! Not at all the quality i expect either. I have fixed it and will order a new one for you. Will send a tracking link to you once dispatched again, kind regards, sandra

I did so, and organised for another one to be sent promptly.

Things were quiet for a week, then there was a review from that same customer:

My first 3 star review. A bit disappointing, but not the end of the world. If I run an online store, I need to accept this will happen. And they did say ‘Excellent customer service’. That is a good thing. I should feel happy about that.

But I knew I needed to brace myself for this potentially happening again. With printers around the globe working for Gelato, there is bound to be some inconsistency. Which made me feel a little nervous. I had managed my RSD pretty well this time, but how will I go if there were more unhappy customers? One thing that was clear, this customer’s response showed me how important customer service is. In this world where there is often little interaction when buying and selling online, this perhaps was the most important thing.

The Pop Tart phone case sales went a little quiet for a few weeks. Perhaps it had lost its appeal. Perhaps the 3 star review had turned people off. In some ways I was relieved. Perhaps it would be better to sell nothing than to sell products which make customers unhappy. My old fears were surfacing. The old fears that make me sometimes not want to do anything. Even though there have been 3 positive reviews, is the terror of that 1 negative one worth it? I wondered if I ever would be successful. Should I just stick to chasing grants and handouts? In that endless cycle of chasing and burnout that so many artists know. I tried to keep my mind focussed. I continued working on my shop. I started getting coaching for running an Etsy business. I worked deeper than ever to improve my mindset, understanding myself from my diagnosis, raising my sense of self worth, self love and self concept. I listened to many different coaches and meditated. I reflected a lot on my life and the impact of my childhood. After so many years of living undiagnosed with ADHD and CPTSD I tell you, improving self worth is not an overnight thing.

Then there came a message in my Etsy inbox:

Hi Sandra, I hope you’re doing great today! I’m an editor at Hearst magazines.

I’d like to put your pop tart phone case in the Food Network gift guide. Could you please give me your email? Thank you!

Food Network? I had never heard of them. I looked up Food Network and saw they are part of Hearst Magazines, a big magazine conglomerate based in New York, with a massive following. A little bit of excitement welled up inside me. If this is not a scam, it could sell a lot of my Pop Tart phone cases. Finally my Etsy algorithm might just get the boost it needs.

But alongside the excitement, there was that terror. What could happen if lot’s of people didn’t like it?

I managed to calm my fears and I responded, giving her my email.

She emailed me asking for mock up images and information about the phone case. So I sent her the same mock up images I had used for the Etsy listing and the information she asked for. She never replied.

After not hearing back from her after a week or so, I thought perhaps she’d changed her mind. A higher level editor might have decided the Pop Tart phone case is not appropriate. It has got a 3 star review after all. Perhaps they could tell it was just an image I had got from a google search and put on a phone case template. To be honest, it would be a relief if it didn’t go in the gift guide. The idea of a mass public humiliation over my Pop Tart phone case was unbearable. Nah, she has clearly forgotten about it. Phew. What a relief! And then I forgot about it.

I kept the shop ticking over while focusing on other things. I travelled to Jogjakarta for Artjog festival where I performed with my collaborators in a work we started during Covid lockdowns via Zoom. I felt so honoured to be invited.

And then the next week I went to Lombok to be part of a community arts festival with some of the same collaborators, performing with a Hadrah (sufi) Community music ensemble.

Each of these projects was amazing and also challenging in their own way. On return from Lombok, I had a production coming up in Melbourne, with international collaborators, whom I was hosting at my house also, and there was a lot to prepare for that, as I was the producer, and also the dramaturg and script translator.

I also needed to complete a script redraft for a performance project called ‘The Swallows’ which was taking place the next year. I was finally focussed on theatre again, and it felt good. I had almost forgotten this part of me! This very important part of me. My Etsy shop sort of ground to a halt, apart from a few sales here and there. And I totally forgot about the Pop Tart phone case.

My guests arrived in November. Rehearsals started. I was refining the script and translation while organising everything with the venue, the publicity and marketing.

I was very busy.

Then I noticed one evening that I had a number of sales on my Etsy app.

Cha Ching, Cha Ching Cha Ching!

How strange. The Pop Tart Phone Case is suddenly selling. A lot. What could have made that happen?

I showed my daughter, and she said:

‘Is that because of the magazine?’

Yes of course, Food Network magazine! I had almost forgotten.

Steadily the sales started flowing in.

ChaChing ChaChing ChaChing

I woke up each morning to multiple sales notifications from my Etsy Sellers App, and they continued throughout the day.

ChaChing ChaChing ChaChing ChaChing

The way the Etsy algorithm works is, if a product is popular, it will show up more and more in peoples searches. And if it is trending, it will show up as the first item in a search. The sales coming in from the food network magazine were making my Pop Tart phone case trend in Etsy! Finally I had cracked the algorithm! So this is what it means to make money while you sleep! I felt very excited to be selling this many Pop Tart phone cases.

ChaChing ChaChing ChaChing ChaChing

Although I was busy, I remembered how important customer service had been to my previous customers, so I took great care to message everyone who bought a Pop Tart phone case and thank them. This kept me very very busy. I was up late, and up early to manage it all.

ChaChing ChaChing ChaChing ChaChing

At the same time the theatre work Surat-Suratnya which I was producing was also going off! The season completely sold out half way through, we had a 4 star review in the AGE by a respected theatre critic, and every night was full of fascinating conversations from our full house audiences.

ChaChing ChaChing ChaChing ChaChing

It was an incredible fortnight. And the whole time the sales kept coming in.

ChaChing ChaChing ChaChing ChaChing

The reviews started coming in too. Many great, kind and generous reviews of the Pop Tart Phone case! People really liked it!

ChaChing ChaChing ChaChing!

But also, there were some not so appreciative reviews:

DaDowww

And despite all the wonderful reviews which by far outweighed the bad ones, the bad ones still had way more effect on me. With each bad review, my dopamine would drop, and the old RSD would creep in. Feelings of shame, unworthiness and guilt.

RSD aside, It actually broke my heart to think a customer isn’t happy. With each customer who wasn’t happy I only wanted to refund their money. Even though I would be out of pocket. So then I was also refunding people who were unhappy with their cases.

Of course I didn’t want to be taken for granted. To not ‘people please’ is a huge challenge for me. People pleasing is also an aspect of RDS, and a symptom of CPTSD, but many people will recognise this in themselves. It’s a trauma response, and it’s a very difficult habit to break. But I would never want to rip anyone off. Abundance is about everyone being happy, not gaining money at someone else’s expense. If someone isn’t happy with a product they buy from me, I take it seriously.

There is a very real impact of a negative review on an Etsy shop. It’s star rating system affects how items show up in the algorithm. A bad rating affects all items in a shop not just that one item.

On the other side, I was so happy for anyone actually happy with their purchase. I hate consumerism, I am not a big consumer myself, but our phones need to be protected. I myself use phone cases. And if a customer is happy and enjoys the product it just gives me joy. So why were the responses so disparate? Were the printers really inconsistent? Or was it just people’s perception? I have to say, it got quite confusing!

Isn’t it interesting though, no matter how many nice things people can say to us…

It’s that one negative feedback that has an impact.

Anyone else relate?

Needless to say, by Christmas I was quite exhausted. Alongside my print on demand success with the Pop Tart Phone case over the weeks leading up to Christmas, I also had a number of orders for handmade Christmas Lanterns, based on Australian bush plants:

My guests returned home to Indonesia after celebrating our successful theatre season which ended just a week before Christmas. I diligently continued to message each and every person who ordered from our shop to thank them. Each and every exchange really meant a lot to me. Because the most important thing is our humanity. Even across the other side of the globe. And although that was a wonderful exciting ride and an opportunity to experience how entrepreneurship can work, the human exchange is the thing which meant the most to me.

In the new year, sales continued but they slowed down. Evidently the trend was toning down.

I started getting tired of managing and refunding those who weren’t happy with the case, even alongside those who loved it. It was still triggering me. Especially as I had no control over the quality of the case and the design, I knew it would be better for me to step back. Also, I was getting bored. The amount of time spent in customer service for this one item was too much. And it was impacting my star rating, which had gone for 5 stars to 3! I still to this day have no idea why some people loved it so much and said it looks just like the photo, while others hated it.

So I ceased selling the Pop Tart phone case. And then I decided to close my Etsy Shop, and focus on my website, where I was not constantly needing to stimulate the Etsy Algorithm. I received one last message from a customer after I closed my shop, which left me feeling happy.

Sometimes life seems to be made of flows of luck and success, next to chaos. We need to believe we are absolutely worthy of everything good in our lives, and to accept that which we are not so proud of and love ourselves regardless, with all our imperfections. And accept, that everyone has a different perspective. Nothing will ever be perfect, and that is OK. I think this experience did help me to understand RSD and navigate it a little better. It gave me a focus and framework through which I could observe the RSD tendency in myself. But it also gave me a sense of compassion for people, and even great faith in humanity, just through this simple product. I am very thankful to everyone who took the time to communicate with me about the Pop Tart Phone case.

Please follow this blog and/or our email list if you would like to read more and keep in touch.

Click on the photo’s of the items in this post if you want to go to the listing! If you are interested in buying a pop tart phone case, reach out to me. I can still order them to most phone’s specs and have it delivered to you through my print partner. I take absolutely no responsibility if you don’t like the product, but will refund it, if it is faulty.

Thank you all for reading and for those of you who have supported Botanic Mystic.

Sandra