It sounds kinda mental, doesn't it? Going full time and trying to support a family by selling pins. It’s like when you read about people from the late 1800s and they were shoe-menders, Hindenburg pilots, bottle-cap repairmen and things like that. Pin Seller doesn’t really lend itself to a stable career in 2026, in most people's minds, at least. I’m looking to see if it’s possible.
In the beginning, the plan was never to make this a standalone business that would support a family of 4 - it was just to have a bit of fun and make some pocket money. That is still the plan, I just have bigger pockets now.
Where it started
The Original packing station. Four mini-boxes of pins, an ipad & handwritten envelopes.
I worked full time as a Marketing Executive when I made my first pin. Back then, it was fairly manageable. I worked my daily 8.5 hours, came home and packed the few orders I had, once a week. With only one pin to pack, it wasn't very difficult. The business grew to having 5 pins by Christmas that year and even then it was still a doddle.
It was slap-bang in the middle of Covid and this was all before my daughter was born, so it's not like I was going anywhere, anyway. It was just me and Jasp in the front room, working on an ipad and manually writing each address.
More pins, MORE!
I allocated 50% of the money I made to go to new designs. This helped me create a larger and larger range over time. This created a problem though - I was taking up the front room with boxes of pins. So off up to the spare bedroom with me. I invested in a Brother label printer too, which I still think is the best money I've ever spent on anything. The process was speeding up, but so were the orders.
The office after the busiest day of sales I had to that point, Nov 29th, 2023.
It was like Spiderman's uncle said:
With more pins comes more responsibility
- or something like that. He was right too, god rest his soul. With more pins, I was packing more orders, and my free time was being whittled down further. We didn’t really mind - Siobhán was pregnant and in bed before 9 most nights at this stage, so Jasper and myself would occupy our time with packing the slight increase in orders and watching YouTube videos about ancient history. I learned so much about the Greeks. Jasper did not.
When my daughter was born, my life changed in a huge way. In a really, really positive way, too (had I known it would be like this, I would’ve tried to convince Siobhán to have like eleven children by this stage). Initially, my design output reduced fairly significantly but my nappy changing output went through the roof.
Over time, I’d get back into the swing of things and sales picked up to where they were prior to my daughter’s arrival. At this stage it was in a real sweet spot. I’d time with the family, time to design and my full time job was pretty steady, thought growing fast.
The Claddagh Pint effect
As some of you will know, there was some low-level internet drama surrounding one of my earliest designs that I released in 2020, the Claddagh Pint. For the record, you can’t own this design in any sense, it’s a traditional symbol with a pint slapped into the middle of it, so it’s fair game for anyone really. That said, I’ve searched and searched and as far as I can tell, I was the first to put the two together in any sense. (Though I’m open to correction on this!)
The original Claddagh Pint design, timestamped in Google Photos from August 2021
Anyway, a kerfuffle about it’s ownership kicked off and I wasn’t involved in the discussion. Someone else was claiming to be the owner and they were trying to prevent anyone else from using this un-copyrightable design. It was a minor drama on TikTok. Once I pointed out that my design predated the two at the centre of the schmozzle by a good 4-5 years, I got a lot of new followers, a lot of attention and a considerable jump in sales.
I didn’t realise it, but the writing was on the wall for either my full time job or deadly.ie from this point. It wasn’t possible to balance them both out. That was a year ago. I’ve been burning the candle at both ends since then.
Outside Interest
Adding fuel to the fire was an increased demand from companies to stock my pins. I am stocked in all the National Museums in Ireland and a few boutique shops, too. However, larger companies came knocking and were inquiring about thousands of orders per pin, not two-dozen. I was batting them away, trying to buy myself some time to get everything right, but it wasn’t possible. There was never going to be enough time to do two full time jobs in a manageable time and take on extra work on top of that.
My big, happy head after seeing my pins in The National Museum, Collins Barracks for the first time
An Australian dog made me hand in my notice
I've worked at my current job since 2019. I created a website that went from zero to 7-figure sales. I created a whole brand and I was pretty good at what I did, so when I realised I had to make a choice for my own health, I debated the choice in my head for weeks and weeks. I couldn’t decide which way to go and what would be best for me and the family.
I was watching an episode of Bluey with my daughter when I made my decision.
There’s an episode called Cricket where a young dog called Rusty (the best character in the whole show) highlights that he is unbelievably brilliant at batting in cricket. He can handle bowls on dodgy ground, he can place the ball on a pin, but his one weakness is the fast ball. The bigger boys play with a proper, heavy cricket ball and they bowl fast. He gets whacked with the ball on his first play, leaving him hobbling and he’s put off the sport for a while.
Rusty (the best character) with his older brother, preparing for a fast bowl.
His dad, a dog in the army (just go with me) writes him a letter and tells him that you can ‘back away and get out - or step in front and play a pull shot’. It’s a message bigger than cricket - it’s, like, life advice. Which I took to heart. If I wasn’t going to take the chance, I’d never know how good it could be.
It’s either that or I greatly misunderstand cricket.
And Australian kids shows.
Either way, the decision was made. I was going to take up cricket take the leap with my business. If it fails, or doesn't work out as well as we need it to, I can always go back to work elsewhere. For now though, I'm going all in.
Time for the business
The main thing really, was that I would have time for this business. Up until now, it existed in the weird space between work and walking the dog. That it even got to this stage is a miracle and testimony to how great the products are.
So now, instead of working an hour or so a day on deadly and then not sleeping between October 20th and Christmas Eve, I’ll be able to devote 8+ hours a day to the pins (and not sleep between October 20th and Christmas Eve). IDEAL!
You should see less typos in my posts, more products, faster responses to your messages and all that sort of thing. It'll be great!
Time for the family
The main thing that people who start their own business say is ‘well, thank god for that - I’ve so much more FREE TIME to myself now.’ At least, that’s what I think they said. It was hard to tell, what with all the crying and all.
In reality, working 50% less jobs and doing so from my home will inevitably lead me to seeing more of my lovely family and maybe even seeing some of my friends on occasion.
That blissful moment where two of my best friends became best friends
Your Support
What do I need from you, I hear you say?
Well, obviously, buy a bleedin’ pin.
If you already have the entire collection (thank you for that), you could still help out by telling a friend about me, recommending my pins to local business owners or leaving a lovely review on my website. If you’re real sound, you could leave a review with a photo - that does so much more than a standard review, if you want to go the extra mile.
B2B
Yes, I’m open to B2B now! If you own a shop, a business, if you’re looking to make an occasion or if you’re getting married (I know it’s not a business, but shush), I’m yer man. Custom pins can be made. Get in touch if you want more information.
I’ve worked with some coffee shops, bands, podcasts, oh and like one or two mega corporations too making pins. More on the last bit soon. But yeah, I’m a total sellout and I’d do it again if it meant I can buy more Bluey Blindbag toys for my daughter.
The pin made for the Adebisi Shank reunion Tour, 2025. The pin I'm proudest of.
The Reality
Look, the world’s a giant pox at the moment. None of this is guaranteed to us, but I thought I’d make a jump and try and make a little family happy, fed and watered by making you laugh and getting you to buy something silly from me. If you can help out, that’d deadly, if not, no sweat. I’ll be here trying to make something that’ll tickle yer fancy down the line.
My dad helping me move into the new office space, 2026