Who is a comrade? A close friend or someone who comes to mind when you say, “We’re in this together.” You don’t have to be best friends with everyone in the group to know you have their support.

This is the feeling I had with our group of Etsy Ellijay team members during a recent team meeting at the Gilmer County Library. The Ellijay Etsy Team attempts to meet monthly to stay in touch face-to-face. This meeting included active Etsy shop owners, both veteran and virgin (long timers and newbies).

To quote the Captain, Melisa Searcy of Blessed Bee Melisa: “In a community like ours we are a part of something special when we come together. It’s more than what “I” can do, but rather, what “we” can do – it takes a village – and we become a village when we encourage each other and hold each other up.”

Prior to our meeting, Melisa, made sure everybody got a copy of the agenda in advance to encourage team discussion. Kitty of Mattie’s Hodge Podge on Etsy, kept us all on point during the informalities by highlighting the agenda when a point was discussed moving everything along at a good pace. Every single member of the team and those contemplating joining the team participated, and we want to say a BIG THANK YOU to all!

COMRADERY in action. A true feeling of TRUST, a bond created by a shared goal or experience came about during that meeting. Since the meeting was so successful, lets use it as the basis for all our meetings to come. Let’s here it: GO TEAM!!!

Quoting a newbie to Etsy: “This is great! I was feeling timid about coming to a group I didn’t know by myself, but really felt welcomed and know it was a big step in moving this along with greater confidence and understanding.”

Quoting one Etsy veteran: “It’s always so great to have actual human contacts, especially when you live in small-town USA! There are always so many questions that we have as Etsy shop owners, and we also have answers from what we have learned along the way, so it’s always good to share, ask and tell! We all have a lot that we can share, and I love that Etsy is not just about promoting yourself, but helping to promote others.”

MENTORING is a good way to describe the Etsy Community as a whole. So taking a cue from the Etsy Community, we–Melisa (team captain) and Becca (team leader)–are mentoring the newbies who want to be a part of the Ellijay Team as soon as their shops are up and running. Encouragement goes a long way and starting out alone can be scary. Etsy has helped us learn, and we are happy to ‘pay-it-forward.’ We hope that by our next team meeting we can add a couple more members to the team line up and maybe next time everybody on the team can be there. Would you like to meet the team?

Select a link below to meet our Ellijay Etsy COMRADS:

Those present for this meeting.

Melisa Searcy of Blessed Bee Melisa: https://www.etsy.com/people/BlessedBeeMelisa

Jim Harmon of Rustic Lodge décor: https://www.etsy.com/people/jimharmon

Candace Harmon of White FeatherJewelry: https://www.etsy.com/people/candaceharmon

Jolee of 12 Precious Stones: https://www.etsy.com/people/JoleeJoy

Kitty of Mattie’s Hodge Podge: https://www.etsy.com/people/mattieshodgepodge

Mary of Starry Nites Farm: https://www.etsy.com/people/starrynitesfarm

Becca Shuler of Green Craft Studio: https://www.etsy.com/shop/GreenCraftStudio/about?ref=shopinfo_about_leftnav

Other active members who did not make it to this meeting –

Deborah and Niki https://www.etsy.com/people/BirdSongStudio

Jan Blaskay – https://www.etsy.com/people/fairymuse

…and we have many more in our Team that are yet to come to the meetings but that have lovely shops on Etsy and are hoping to make it to future meetings. We encourage you to come join us sometime at our meetings and upcoming workshops. AND as always, if you have questions, we can come together over the www – through our team threads on our team page on Etsy and Facebook!

JOIN US and Etsy on!