Episode #32: [Answering your Qs] Some personal news, a peek inside my calendar, what I outsource/delegate, balancing business & motherhood, email strategy tips & more
In this episode, I'm answering your questions!
I address time management, building effective systems for my micro-agency, and tips for your email strategy.
And, if you're not following me anywhere else, I also share a big surprise.
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Welcome to Mistakes That Made Me, the podcast that asks extraordinary business owners to share their biggest business mistake so you know what not to do on your road to success. Mistakes That Made Me is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals.
I'm Eman Ismail, your host, and this episode is not an interview. Instead, it's an ask me anything episode. So I asked listeners to submit their questions across Threads, LinkedIn, Instagram, my newsletter as well.
I have a bunch of questions that I'm going to answer on all different topics from kind of time management, maybe energy management to things I'm learning, setting up my agency to speaking related questions. So it's a good mix. I think, I think you're going to enjoy this, but before I get into all of that. Before I start answering questions, I have a little announcement. You may have already heard, you may not have, if you don't follow me anywhere else. But I am pregnant. I am very pregnant. Like very, very pregnant. I am five and a half months pregnant. I'm expecting another little boy, that will be my third boy.
And he will be here, God willing, in a few months. I don't have long left. So, in the meantime, I'm just following my energy. I am still working as normal. I'm trying to be kind to myself. And You know, listen to my body when it tells me to rest and stop and sleep, which is often, and I'm busy just trying to make sure that my team is still able to run the agency while I'm away.
Now I'm still at the very, very early stages of running this agency. So in terms of systems and processes, like behind the scenes on the back end, still working on those and trying to get them into place for my team. next year as for whether my team members will be able to continue, you know, producing amazing work for my amazing clients.
I have no doubt that they will. Remember, I've been working with them for a couple of years already. So, you know, I already know they're great, which is why I hired them. Um, and if you want to find out more about what building my agency looked like, Had Back a few episodes to an episode called, behind the scenes, building my agency where I share a whole bunch of information and kind of details there.
But in terms of the backend of everything working without me being here to make everything work, um, like processes, systems, that kind of thing. I'm still working on all of that. So that's what I'm, that's what I'm busy doing in the background. and then I also have plans. I hope to, to launch my email course before I leave for maternity as well.
I'm not sure how much maternity leave I'm going to take. last time I took, I think, seven months, which is really interesting because that seems like a lot to the Americans, but for the Europeans, it's like, that's not a lot. Usually we're talking like a year, right? so I hope to take at least Six to seven months off.
We'll see, we'll see how it goes. We'll see what happens. but yeah, until then I am just kind of carrying on, carrying on. I'll be launching my email marketing quiz, which I'm super excited about in the next week.actually in the next few days, by the time you listen to this, it might already even be out actually.
Head over to my website to find out, you'll see it on the homepage if, if it's out, but I've been really excited about that. A lot of work has gone into it, so I'm hoping that'll be a great lead generation tool. Anyway, all this to say, my email micro agency will still be running while I'm away, but if you want to hire us while I'm still around, now is the time to hire us.
We are booking projects for 2025 availability now is, is January 2025. And if you book us now in 2024, you will get 2024's rates, even though we start working on your project in 2025. So to lock in those lower 2024 rates, because our rates will be increasing in 2025, Get in touch with us, emancopyco. com slash contact.
Okay. Let's get into some of these questions.
So the first question is from Elephia. I want a peek at your calendar. So I'm actually going to just open up my calendar now, because this is interesting. I don't think it's anything special. About my calendar. you might be interested to know that I only kind of realized recently thatI really only work between the hours of like 9 30 to 4 most days, because I have to do all the kids stuff.
So basicallymy work hours are basically school hours. If there's something that I can do in the evening, as in, you know, It's usually going to be calls because I'm speaking to a lot of people on the other side of the world in America. when they're waking up, my work day is finishing.
Basically, I'm getting the kids, I'm doing dinner. we're doing homework. I'm getting them ready for the bed. And so I'm not available again. to speak to like my American clients or American leads like my evening like 830 after I've put the kids to bed So I have some podcast recordings in the evenings.
I have calls with international clients in the evenings have sales calls.A mixture of sales calls with new potential clients. I have onboarding calls with existing clients. I have podcast recordings for mistakes that made me and then also me being interviewed on other people's podcasts.
So that's what my evenings are usually, looking like, but here's the thing. I. Was doing this for a while because I couldn't figure out how to still serve international clients without making myself exhausted. and I did come up with a solution. So I now have, a week a and a week B basically on my calendar.
That means that, Week A is a call week. So my calendar is open for calls in the evenings. And again, I'll, I'd only probably be able to fit in one call. maybe two if they're two short calls.it might be like an hour call and then a half hour call. yeah. But then week B is a no call week, so my calendar is entirely closed to calls.
So that allows me to focus on work, on doing deep work, and also gives me my evenings back, so I'm not just on calls all the time in the evenings because it's exhausting. So I have, One call week and then a no call week and then another call week and then no call week and another call week and no call week.
That's how it kind of goes on throughout my calendar and it's been working really well. I think I put this into place I want to say after the summer, so maybe August because I was just exhausted by evening calls and I It's been fantastic.
It's a little bit difficult to sometimes maintain boundaries when people like, Oh, can I speak to you sooner? the problem is if I say yes to everyone, it's kind of like, well, then we go back to the problem of me just being exhausted and not being able to serve people very well. and also there's a point where my son was saying, Oh, you're always on calls in the evenings.
And I was like, yeah, you know, you're right. I am always on calls. Let me just stop that actually. So that's what my, that's my calendar looks like my Wednesdays. I have a language class, that is kind of, it takes an hour, maybe a bit longer out of my work day, but, I'm committed to it. So it's there, it's on my calendar and it's happening just to confirm if something's not on my calendar, it doesn't exist.
I have co working, Like virtual co working with the being freelance community on Fridays, which is always fun.that just means we, we have a bit of a talk and a laugh, we have a bit of a chat, a laugh, and then we get to work. That's always really fun. AndThere's a lunch date as well that I have every week with my husband. And. Yeah, I put that on my calendar so that I make sure it happens. it's a highlight of the week, so it's important, I think, for it to be on my calendar.
But yeah, those are the kind of recurring things on my calendar. and then of course I have one half hour call with my assistant every week, every Monday as well.
I hope that was ............helpful. Like interesting. I didn't mention my weekends cause my weekends are just not work related. My weekends are all family. I have an eight year old and a two year old, now another one on the way. Nothing, no work gets done on weekends. And I stopped trying to get work done. I realized my life is better when I'm not trying to work, when it's impossible to work.
And now I just enjoy my weekends more. And I have naps every Saturday and every Sunday. I used to actually have naps in the weekdays as well, especially now that I'm pregnant, but, Saturdays and Sundays, I'm definitely having naps both days, afternoon naps, fantastic. and that's what my weekends are for just for family time and having fun.
So the next question is from John, who asks, what is your biggest learning point after setting up your new agency? So what's been really interesting for me that I've been actually thinking just this week, this came to me just this week is I think that we make things harder than they need to be. So, for the longest time when I was thinking about building a micro agency, was just so worried that people would refuse to work with anyone but me. And I was so worried that people wouldn't want to hire me because I now have a group of people working with me and it's not just me and they might not necessarily get me doing their work. Turns out that I definitely overthought that. I was overthinking as I overthink everything. and it's a valid concern. It really is, but it turns out that my clients trust me and people who come to me to work with me and inquire about working with me, they trust me and they trust that I have the right team in place.
And that has been so enlightening and it really hasn't been a concern for anyone. So a couple of conversations I've been having, include. You know, especially now that I'm planning my turn to leave. Okay, that sounds great. If you want to get back in touch in 2025 and we, you know, we want to work together in 2025, that's perfectly fine.
I won't be here because I'll be on my turn to leave, but my team will be here and they'll take care of you. And the answer has been, okay, great. That's fantastic. Looking forward to it. No problem. I've just been wowed all this time. I was like, Oh, what if people don't want to work with anyone but me?
That's just not the case. I don't know. Was it my ego? I don't know what it was, but I guess I was worried. And it is a valid concern that people coming to me and seeing my face and then working with, Maybe not me necessarily would be an issue and it hasn't been.
So that's made me think, what else are we overthinking? What else am I making harder for myself? What else am I creating my own stories around? And you know, I haven't even given a chance before I've kind of given up on. So that's been a really interesting lesson for me.
Question number three was from someone on Instagram, but the name wasn't attached to the Instagram profile. So I don't have a name for you, unfortunately. which is a good reminder, if you have an Instagram account, put your name on your Instagram so that people know who they're contacting and speaking to if they want to hire you.
Okay, but let me get back to the question. The question is, how do you plan for maternity leave? This is a humongous question and I'm not going to answer it here because I've already answered this question on the Being Boss podcast. I did this episode about planning for my maternity leave the last time I was going on maternity leave with my second son in 2022, I recorded it in 2022 after I'd come back from maternity leave.
And I think that was a really great, time for me to talk about it. I feel like. Talking about how I'm planning for it before is only half the story because when I can like come back and share. Yeah, sure. How I planned it, but also did the plan go according to plan? Did everything go according to plan?
How did it work? And also what happened after I came back to business? I think that's more helpful. So I'm gonna putting the show notes this episode. It's. the being boss podcast episode 304 preparing for maternity leave with Eman Ismail and that was recorded in May 31st, 2022. What's really funny is I'm probably going to re listen to that to like check in with myself and, and, also give myself a confidence boost.
Like you've done this before, you can do it again. No problem. Right. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely not easy, but no problem. so I'll put that link in the show notes and you can listen to that episode after you finish listening to me here. Don't leave yet. Although it is a really great episode.
Next question is from Nihad. I'd love to know which business tasks you do yourself and which tasks you outsource slash delegate. Ooh, this is a good question. So first thing to say is, Nihad is actually someone I have hired. Multiple times. She's a designer. She's a fantastic designer. She uses Canva for all her designs and they're just brilliant she's so good at what she does her Instagram page is called our polished pages with underscores in between each word our polished pages And she's a fantastic, designer, rpolishedpages.
com. So first of all, if you need a Canva designer, go check her out. and that leads me into who I outsource and delegate tasks to. I occasionally hire a designer when I need to, occasionally. I try not to get in the habit of, of like that, for me it's perfectionism that makes me always need to hire, designers for stuff because I feel What I can do myself is not good enough.
And you know, I'm probably right. It's not good enough. I am not a designer. What I design is not good enough. However, I have to be realistic with the resources that I have, with the budget that I have. I can't hire everyone that I want to hire. So for me, a lot of the time designer is not a priority, but, sometimes it is, and I, it's been me hard that I've been hiring the past few times.
But in terms of my biggest outsourcing expense, that would be my assistant. Nicole, she's an admin and tech assistant. She's absolutely fantastic. She works about, I want to say 35 to 40 hours a month with me. and she's just worth every penny. She's fantastic. She's definitely my biggest monthly expense.
That sounds awful. I don't mean, that sounds awful. And also expense, I feel like has like negative connotations. I am so happy paying Nicole for what she does, which is absolutely fantastic. But in terms of, you know, how much money is going out every month in the business, when it comes to outsourcing and delegating, and to be honest, actually just in general, that's probably, that is the biggest, amount.
That's the biggest figure that's going out is to Nicole. And, she helps me with, Admin, like managing my inbox, she helps me with, I say admin, but an admin is just so much more than hiring, than managing my inbox. It's just so much. she helps me with systems and processes, so she helps create my SOPs, my standard operating procedures, which is really important considering, you know, and I have a team of people that I work with and I need.
My, all my processes and systems to be out of my head and on paper, or in this case in Asana, so that other people can do what I do in my business for example, she just worked on creating a spreadsheet for me, with like updating all my business expenses and then we're also working right now on creating a spreadsheet in Airtable, actually.
that basically automates all of my,Revenue calculations every month. So right now I have to manually go and check how much I'm making every month or how much the company is making every month working currently on a spreadsheet and a table that will just automatically pull in that information every month.
So we can just go to a dashboard and just see, and it should be live as well. So we can just see live, like where we're at. Monthly, yearly, even, weekly and how much we're making across all the various places that are making money, products, workshops, masterclasses, and, one to one services, speaking, brand deals, all that stuff.
And we're actually using, a system. dashboard created by systems over stress. That's what the, that's the company name and that's run by Ashley. And so I bought the product, which is the actual template of the dashboard template, and then, also like, it's actually a three hour workshop that teaches you how to set it up.
So I. Do not have time to sit through a three hour workshop, no matter how amazing it is. And no matter how, how effective it is going to be for me and my business. and this is right up Nicole street. She loves this stuff. She loves tech. She was, I think she was excitedto talk about setting this up.
And so one of the tasks that she has. Over the next few weeks, is to watch the three hour workshop and set up this Dashboard and template. So obviously I bought it and then I handed over all the onboarding stuff for her so she can set it all up. So I think that's interesting, a kind of an interesting use of an assistant and something else that is really interesting that we do is that, All those support conversations that you have, you know, when you have tech issues with like your tools and stuff, like right now, I'm about to launch, actually, I was supposed to launch the email marketing quiz today on Interact. Super excited about launching it today. And of course we're having tech issues. And so instead of me contacting. interact and talking to support and figuring out what's happening. Nicole does all of that for me. Oh my gosh. I don't know how many different support chats she must have going on in one week, but I just see it come up in my inbox.
Like one day she's talking to Kit, another day she's talking to Interact, another day she's talking to Countdown Hero. I'm just like, and you know what? boggles my mind is the fact that I spent so long being the one who does this. How many hours must I have spent every week talking to support and sorting out tech issues that, by the way, I'm not even the best person to, to like handle this stuff.
I'm not even the best person to deal with it. I don't know this stuff. I, hate trying to figure it out. I just like it when things just work smoothly and just are easy. And. Instead, I can pay Nicole to do it. And she actually like, enjoys this stuff. And so it's a win-win for everyone. She's absolutely fantastic.
and what I love most about her is that, yeah, I, I, I'm never like monitoring what she's doing. we have Asana. we live in Asana. I create tasks for Nicole in Asana. She picks 'em up. She does them, she keeps them updated. we have our regular half hour meetings on a Monday. she tells me like what's happening, what I'm, what I've missed in my inbox, things that I like, like that need a response, things that I need to work on, things I need to get back to, or people that I need to get back to.
she's brilliant. That's it. I love having an assistant. I once heard someone say on a podcast, someone that I really respect and look up to actually, oh, sorry. I'm trying not to say people that I look up to. Let me say people that I. Look to as May Kaye Santos in her episode for guidance and, inspiration.
she said that the first people or the first person that we should hire, the first role that we should hire for as business owners is, a salesperson. Now. For me as a parent, that's just not the case. For me, it's an admin person. I did think for a while, am I doing this? Did I do something wrong? Like should I have hired a salesperson first?
Like she said, no, well, I'm a parent and I think it's important to just share just for the sake of this conversation that she's not a parent. And so our lives are just very different. And also that means we have different priorities in terms of in the business. Like. What needs to happen next. So for me, if I find myself spending evenings and weekends doing admin tasks, that I could be hiring someone else to do better and faster than for me, that first hire has to be an admin person because I can't even get to the sales.
I can't even get to the sales because I'm stuck in admin. and so for me, she's the best hire I've made. hiring assistant is the best decision I've made. I will say I've hired quite a few assistants, been through quite a few assistants, and I will say that assistants, are not made equally.
and. Just make sure you find the right one for you. I feel like it's a soulmate situation, you know, you've got to find the one that's right for you. and another big thing that Nicole helps with is customer service, stuff in my inbox. So obviously I sell a lot of masterclasses, courses, programs, that kind of thing.
And generally just customer service. Nicole is Doing all of that stuff, helping people with any issues, tech issues that they have, payment issues, answering the questions and basically answering email, that she can answer and that I don't have to answer so that I'm not stuck in my inbox and I can get on with doing other stuff.
And then the only other like regular person that's on my kind of outsourcing slash delegation, List of expenses is my podcast producer, Zuri. yeah, I mean, Zuri's amazing. I've spoken about Zuri a million times. You know what Zuri does? He edits and produces this podcast.and that's not something I can do.
I, I mean, I could try in like, GarageBand. potentially, maybe. But Zuri does a much better job, Zuri has awards that tell us how great he is at doing what he does. And so that's also another,expense that is just well worth it. and it means that I can focus on recording the podcast. And then once I've recorded, I just send it over to Zuri and he magically like creates all his, turns it into an episode, sends it back to me for review.
I listen to it. We go back and forth with edits if there are any that are needed and then we can publish it. and it's. All done. So yeah, those are the two big ones, podcast producer and assistant. And I generally will hire other people throughout the month. Sometimes, I'm trying to think who else have I hired?
Well, I feel like this year has been a bit of an odd year because I was working on my website, rebrand and agency launch. And so I hired a bunch of people that I wouldn't usually, that are like one off hires, website designer, website copywriter, personal stylist, brand voice and messaging expert, you know?
basically I will hire people when I need to as well.
Next question is from Kirsten Cable. How do I make myself feel professional enough to start pitching corporate workshops and training? Surely this is an undertapped market for us soloists. I definitely agree. And it's something that I'm working on right now.
and something I'm definitely interested in. The question is not how do I do this? The question is how do I make myself feel professional enough to start doing this?
So this isn't a case of you're going to get confident and then you're going to pitch and then do these workshops and training and in corporate environments. This is one of those situations. And honestly, most situations are where you have to do the thing to build the confidence and feel professional enough.
So when you say feel professional enough, I feel like you're saying, It's this is about confidence and self esteem and feeling like you're good enough to do this, right? But that those feelings don't come unless you do the thing and prove to yourself that you can do the thing it comes with doing the thing and you having Empirical evidence that you can do the thing that's where the confidence comes from So I think it's one of those things that you do without necessarily feeling a thousand percent confident.
I think if you know that you are a good speaker, that you can host workshops, that you would host valuable workshops. I think that's enough. Of course, you may feel a little imposter syndrome, maybe a lot of imposter syndrome, but that. It's one of those things that you, you have to just do it anyway, and know that the confidence will come after you do it.
Some things that can help you is feeling prepared for those bookings. So, for example, create a great speaker page on your website. I. I really love mine. If you want to have a look at an example of, a speaker page, I will just bring it up. andthe target audience for my speaker pages, coaches, course creators, service pros, people who might want to book me to do that, like conferences workshops, webinars, that kind of thing, but also the brands cheering them on as well.
I have not like targeted like a corporate sphere, but it's something I've thought about and I think that it's important to know that if I wanted to target like the corporate, I guess environment sphere, I would create a speak page that spoke to them specifically. and yeah. Convince them that I'm worth hiring, as a speaker and yeah, being paid to speak.
I really leveled up my speaker page this year and I don't think it's coincidence that I have now, this year has been the year that I've received the most. paid speaking opportunities and yeah, like significant ones. I think there was 500 for one speaking event. I did a thousand for another one, 500 for another one.
So, you know, the budget is that, and also I realized that I want to be charging a lot more eventually as well, but you know, let's, let's start off slowly and, And go from there, bear in mind, I think a couple of years ago I was charging like a hundred and a hundred dollars I think hundred dollars for an hour 120.
So yeah, create a speaker page That makes you look and feel professional and confident so that you can convince people that you are the right person to be hired. I hope that helps.
Stick around. Don't go anywhere. We'll get right back to this episode after this quick break.
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Now, the next question is from Dr. Sapphire. She says for someone who has a small team for client execution, but isn't positioning as an agency right now, how do you manage client communications with your team?
So I want to transition into the client communicating with me and an account manager for our list management clients. But I know that. Some people say they want to work with just one person. So I think for context, I believe Sapphire does email as well. So when we're talking about list management, we're talking about email list management for clients who potentially are, you know, hiring Sapphire and her team to do email newsletters, that kind of thing, on retainer in this case.
So I. Don't want to go too much into how I do things because I'm very much still in the experimental kind of phase. I don't want to be sharing things that I'm not 100 percent certain about because I'm still figuring out my,agency kind of systems and processes. But I will say, you said. there are some clients that only want to work with one person and I agree with them as a client who's hired a bunch of people before.
I also don't want to be like communicating with, multiple people. Honestly, I want one person who I, communicate with and I have to worry about communicating with them. That's it. So wherever possible, I would just make that the situation.
As someone who has hired a bunch of people before, I totally understand that as a client, you don't want to speak to multiple people. You don't want to have to be in communication with multiple people. So I would say wherever possible, make it, make it so that they are just communicating with that one person.
Do they have to be communicating with you and an account manager? Can they. Not just communicate with the account manager. I also think it muddies things a little bit. Like unless you've made it super clear, who are they supposed to contact and when I think I just having one point of contact is always the, the best thing to do.
I also do that with my clients. I get them to nominate one point of contact at the beginning of the project so that I know who to contact. And so. Is it possible for them to just have one person, basically? do you have to be also communicating with them? is there any way to, like, for that not to be the case?
You said that you don't want to position yourself as an agency, but you have a small team, that's because you want to keep communication simpler and ensure response times are faster. So I would just, If you don't want to position yourself as an agency, literally just don't just don't position yourself as an agency and I really I think it's as simple as that.
I think that if you have a team who's helping you with execution, I think the best course of action is transparency there so that people do know that, You know, you have other people working with you, but that doesn't mean that you need to go out and position yourself as an agency. You are you, and you have people helping you and that's it.
You know, you don't have to like rebrand as an agency or anything like that. So while I didn't give you any,I guess, examples of what I do, cause I don't know if that would be helpful right now at the stage that I'm at, I'm still figuring this out. When I do figure it out, I will share and I will let you know, but hopefully that was helpful, Sapphire.
Okay, next question. So, Xianyuda, and I'm really sorry if I pronounced your name incorrectly. I hate it when people don't even try to pronounce my name correctly. It's okay if they get it wrong, as long as they tried. just please know that I really did try.
The question is how do you create systems for effective content management? Ooh, great question. Cause I do publish a lot of content. I publish content on LinkedIn, Instagram.
and I'm going to actually take social media out of this mostly because when I had a social media manager, my R like process was like fantastic. I don't have a social media manager anymore. although I, I highly recommend Niala Jan if you are looking for a social media manager. So, Yeah, my posting on social media is a lot more sporadic and less, effective content management, but I will say that I do post on LinkedIn newsletter.
That's like intentional. I have my email. My newsletter, which is, very intentional. A lot of work goes into that and also my podcast as well. So for these things, I do have like a content management system. I use Asana. I use, Asana's. Like workflows, Asana's calendar. I have tasks assigned very clearly to, you know, who does what.
I do, oh, I do hire a video editor as well, for the podcast. So literally anybody that's involved in the creation of anything for the podcast is in my Asana and they are assigned tasks to do and given briefs to do those tasks where necessary. The due date is set, they do the thing. I think it's really hard to describe my Asana system because it's pretty lengthy.
It's a lot.I mean, just my podcast workflow from like, from like, once a guest says yes to publishing the episode,
there are 35 subtasks and then those subtasks often have subtasks. So we add all those together, maybe 40. There are 40 steps to just publishing this podcast episode between me. my podcast producer, Zuri, between my assistant, Nicole, who also helps with the promo side of stuff, and between, there was Dani who was doing, who was editing the transcripts.
and then also, My video editor, Yogesh, as well, who was doing, who is, who does occasional videos. So it's a lot. So I won't describe like the whole system, but know that it's Asana. Asana is my effective concept management system.
Next question is from Rachel.
the question is how many subscribers do I need to start making money from my email list? And this is a, this is a really good question and I'm almost annoyed by my response because I don't know how helpful it is But hopefully it'll be a bit inspiring So here's the thing when it comes to subscribers, and I should mention, if you don't already know, the reason Rachel is asking me is because I'm an email strategist and copywriter.
And I, I'm the founder of email and copy co where we help you take your email list from has potential to highly profitable. So that's why this question, is being asked. By Rachel. So the thing about subscribers is that it's really more about quality than quantity because I have I've worked with people with a lot of subscribers with tens of thousands of subscribers who don't make many sales because Well, either they have the wrong types, type of people on that list, or they're just not doing email effectively.
I recently, you know, I do, I do a lot of email strategy consults. So I speak to, if you want an email strategy consult, by the way, head over to my website and go book one. It's an hour strategy course, super helpful. I see what a lot of businesses are doing and, you know, I'm kind of helping a lot of businesses solve problems.
And, you know, you'd be surprised how many businesses there are with a good amount of subscribers who just aren't selling very much and who know that they could be, should be selling a whole lot more. So it really is when it comes to subscribers, it really is about quality over quantity. to be clear, I launched back in 2021.
I launched to 422 subscribers. That was a small segment of my wider list because I only wanted to target the copywriters on that list at the time.at the time I sold my mastermind to just that small segment of 422 copywriters and ignored the rest of the people on the list because you know, this wasn't for them and I had a 35, 000 launch.
So I just want to be super clear that you don't need thousands of thousands or tens of thousands of subscribers to make money or to have a profitable email list. I'm literally even thinking even if you only had a hundred if you know how to How to use email and you have the right people on your list, the right target, audience, the right subscribers.
You can make money. I'm not saying you'll have a 35, 000 launch. I'm not saying that, but I am saying that you could still be getting clients from your email list. You could still be selling digital products. so hopefully that makes you feel inspired. Know that on my email list, I only have.
Just, just under 3000, I'm about to hit 3000, subscribers and I've had real success with, selling my products, with selling my products passively, with selling my products in launch and also selling my services as well, the majority of people that hire me and my team are on my email list and they are.
On my email is before they hire me usually. So hope that makes you feel better. Obviously I'm working on this growth. It's, you know, it's something that I want to work on. I want to have a lot more subscribers, but it's hard. It's hard growing your email list. and for me. I know that, well, first of all, I'm constantly cleaning my list.
So I know that having an engaged, healthy list is more important than just having a huge list where your audience is unengaged. They are not opening. They are not buying. I'd, I'd rather have a smaller list than a, than a bigger list. Like a smaller list that buys and a bigger list that doesn't.
And also like these list growth strategies, it takes time. It takes time. So yeah, go easy on yourself. Know that, you don't need a huge list to have a profitable. email list. So hope that helps.
So I have an anonymous question that came in. I'm going to get, I'm just going to go straight into the question.
Okay. So I'm a 31 year old business owner and I do want to have kids one day, but I feel like my life is going to be over when I have kids. I don't want to resent my kids or for them to resent me. I have a lot of limiting beliefs around being in business while also being a mom. I want to be a present mom.
How do you have. A healthy relationship with motherhood and business, is it even possible? So the, my answer to that is, first of all, yes, it is possible. Is it hard? I would be lying if I didn't say that yes, it is very hard. even now, like as I'm recording this, I feel super guilty because my, my son, my son wanted to come home early from school today.
And so I let him thinking, I wonder if this is a good idea because like this is my work time still, I still need to work. and just to clarify, by the way, he's allowed, he's allowed to come home early. This is not me just letting him skip school. but I did think, is that a good idea? Because I still need to work.
Will I be able to work? And it's really important that I do work in the daytime because, you know, I don't get to work really on evenings, weekends, that kind of thing. Bravo! It's fine, he's old enough, right, to entertain himself for a bit while I'm finishing my work, so I'll let him. So, he did come home early, and he's come in a few times while I've been recording this, and I had to tell him to stop coming in, because Because I lose my train of thought every time he comes in and then I don't know what I'm saying anymore And then I lose my flow and then this whole thing just recording this is just taking longer than it needs to do And so as soon as I told him that he can't disturb me And then I need to continue with this so I can finish it.
I felt really guilty I felt really guilty for putting down that boundary because it almost feels like I'm putting work before him But I have to remind myself that that's not the case. He's okay. He has everything he needs and I can take 30 minutes to do what I need to do for my work that provides this entire family with a lot.
and so it's a constant battle. It's a constant battle of like energy and time and emotions. It's not easy, but it's very, very possible. I certainly don't feel like my life is over and I'm sure that lots of other parents would agree. Is my life different? Most definitely. but I think a good example is I often see people talking about not being able to travel now that they have kids.
I have never traveled more now that I have kids. I was traveling when my oldest was how old? Four months old. I've never stopped traveling. does travel look different than when I was, when it was just me when I wasn't a parent? Of course it did. And of course it's different now. That doesn't mean it's a bad different.
In fact, it's a good different, you know?so yes, life is different, but it's not over. It's another, it's a different. Season of life. And it's also one that, you know, people remind me as temporary. It's not forever either. I have a very short amount of time in the grand scheme of things to raise my kids and to spend time with my kids.
And so I think that's what the struggle is sometimes is knowing that like my, my, my, my business needs my mind right now, but also it's not my priority. It's not my priority. My family is my priority, you know, and so there, the, it can be a struggle sometimes.I think daily it's a struggle, like finding that balance, but I think I found it or I think I'm finding it.
It's, it's a, it's a process. It's constantly something I'm working on, but here's the thing. When I was in a nine to five job, I couldn't find this balance. It didn't exist. It wasn't like a, Oh, I'm, I'm struggling a little bit. I'm trying to find it. I'm like working on it. No. None of that, it just didn't exist.
It wasn't even a possibility. And so for me, building a business was the way that I have been able to be a present, a present mother. And it's funny that you use that, that, that, that term as well, present mother, because if you listen to me talking about why I left my nine to five job, it was because I wanted to be a more present mother.
Because working in the traditional employment, 95, didn't allow me to be. Did not allow me to be. And often made me feel like I had to put my job in front of my, my family. And yeah, that's, I'm not, I'm not about that. I really, I, I built this business so that I can, build a life that I want to live and that I actually enjoy, because I, I, I, I once came across a saying that I think really sums this up really nicely is that, and I wish I knew who said it, I don't know who said it, but your whole life is your every day.
Your every day is your whole life. And that's how, like, sometimes people look back on their whole lives and think, what Like, where did my life go? What have I been doing? What have I been doing? And it's because we kind of just like, skip past the everyday stuff. But the truth is that every single day is what makes up our entire lives.
And so we have to find a way to live every single day in a way that, you know, works for us and that feels aligned with us. That's why I built my business. I wanted to build an every single day. I wanted to build a life that works for me. And do I succeed at that every single day? No, but I, I think I'm doing a pretty good job.
and I think business is a really great way to be able to, to do that. one more thing I will say about this is that, I think one of the hard things and one of the greatest things about being a parent while being a business owner is that Parenthood forces you to have boundaries in your business and to stop.
And I actually think that's a good thing because I'm one of those people who would just go and go and go and go. I would just keep going and I would never stop if I didn't have a reason to stop. I have a reason to stop. I cannot continue in some cases. When my toddler comes home, I cannot continue.
Therefore, I have to stop. That boundary is enforced, I am forced to create boundaries. I am forced to be intentional with my, with my goals, with my plans, with my time, because there are, you know, human beings who literally need me. and so, I actually think that's a good thing because it allows me to get out of my business and be in my life.
And I think it's really easy for business owners to just get, stuck up with business all the time and forget to be in life.
Okay. I, I feel like that was a hard question to answer because I can't give you the answer, but I can just tell you what my experience is.and it's possible to have a healthy relationship with motherhood and business.
And, and in your actual original question, you did say you haven't, you don't have many people around you, or you've not seen many people around you who've been able to do this. And that was really interesting to me because I have so many examples of people who've been able to do this. There are so many parent business owners and mom business owners around me, but I think that's because I'm intentional about making sure that they're around me, that I see them, that I am learning from them, that I am friends with them.
And so that's just the case of like, Who, what your network is, who your network is made up of. And you know, the social environment that you create for yourself, whether it's online or in person. There are so many mothers who are making this work. you just need to go out and find them. So I hope that helps.
Final two questions. This is from Shazia. How do you boundary your life to focus on getting the things done that matter most to your business? You know, that's funny. I think that really kind of relates to the previous question because when we talk about me needing boundaries in life, my boundaries are forced on me, as I mentioned, through motherhood.
and so like, that's it literally, my boundaries like have to exist because I have humans to keep alive. and so all I can do is prioritize. I realize I can't do everything. I cannot do everything. There's so many things I want to do and I can't do them all. Even now, like planning for my turn to leave, knowing that I'm leaving for my turn to leave in a few months.
I have not done even half the stuff I wanted to have done by this point. I've been sick and all sorts and dealing with my, you know, ankle injury and this and that and then regular pregnancy stuff and blah, blah, blah. And I just have to accept that I can't do everything, so I need to prioritize the most important things.
And I think that's a really simple answer. But it really is just about prioritizing and then also I find it really helpful. I don't know if you will find this helpful, but I find it really helpful to once I prioritize and decided that something is going to happen and that I'm going to work on something or something needs to get done and actually like listing out step by step everything that needs to get done in order for me to reach that goal and also put in a deadline on it.
That's really helpful to get it out of my head onto, for me, it's into Asana for me, task by task, so I can start ticking things off and working through it and I have a very set list of things to do. These things are not just floating around in my mind. I can sleep at night because everything lives in my Asana and nothing lives in my head anymore.
Like, literally, nothing lives in my head anymore. So, That's how I boundary my life to focus on getting the things done that matter most to my business growth. I also work really hard on just identifying the things that are going to have the most impact. So, you know, maybe I get an opportunity, but it's like, it's amazing.
It sounds great. And I love it, but actually it's probably not the best thing to do for my business. It's not really gonna move the needle by that much. I have to prioritize and just be like, no, not this time. There are some times. Where I will say, yeah, I'm going to do that thing just for the fun of it. I know it's probably not just, it's probably not going to bring me a million clients, but I'm going to do it because I'm like, it excites me and I want to be excited.
You know, passionate and, and I want to do things that I enjoy, even if sometimes the end result is not money, because that's why we have a business, right? To do the things that you want to do and to not do the things that we don't want to do, but also sometimes I won't choose things. I'll say no to things because I've realized that that's not going to help me move the needle.
It's not going to help me with my business growth. I want to choose the activities that will.
Final question. This is an email question. This is from Heather. Do I still need an email list? I'm pivoting to begin providing wellness workshops, mindfulness, meditation, and nature connection to nonprofits and businesses.
The question is, do I still need an email list? And if so, who is it for? CEOs, HR folk, the person in charge of staff wellbeing, or just the general population, like my current list of moms who might provide an, an inlet to their place of work. I honestly just can't figure out this piece of the puzzle.
This B2B is not something I've done before. The answer to this question is really simple, but. Might annoy you a little bit. So the answer to this question is, yes, first of all, I would argue, and I may be biased, but seriously, every business needs an email list. every business benefits from having or using email marketing.
So that's the first part of this. Secondly, who is this? Email list for like who's on your email list. Who is this newsletter for it's for the person who is gonna get you Into these businesses, right? And who are those that that's just people like it's it's just people So you need to sit down and figure out who's my audience?
Who is my audience? Who do I want to talk to? Who is it that will likely convince their, uh, workplace to bring me in and, and provide wellness workshops. So, yeah, there are, there are various, like, ways you could go with this. It could be that your, your newsletter is all about providing wellness in the workplace.
So, maybe that does talk to HR people. But it could also do just be about wellness for, I don't, for women or for moms, for example. I think you got to be careful because in your case you want, I guess it would be working moms. You just want to like be super clear about your audience. But if you're just, if you, if your newsletter is, is for, is for working moms who care about wellness, then all those people have workplaces.
And so you just email to them as like the people they are. And I think it's really interesting because when people want to change or when people, when we're talking about like B2C versus B2B, I feel like when, when we start talking about B2B people kind of just like shut down. And for me, I've never understood the shutdown only because.
You're still writing to people, like your, your emails are still going to people, even if they're people in businesses now, even if it's businesses that you're, you're contacting, you're emailing, while there's still someone on the other side of that, who is the person who has to pick up that email, who decides, Whether they're gonna pass it on and, you know, recommend that you come in to speak to their, that you do workshop for their, for their, employees or, you know, colleagues.
Either way, whether it's B2C or B2B, yes, they are different styles and approaches, but it's still person on the other side of this. So you just got to figure out, well, who do I want my newsletter to speak to? And then, Create the newsletter for that person that's going to interest that person. And also don't forget to make it very clear that you want them to.
invite you to come and do a wellness workshop at their place of work. So how can you make that easy for them? Like, what can you do? Do you, I'm assuming you have corporate packages. I'm assuming like, you could even have a template, like an email template or a script that you give them, that you create for them, that they can just follow.
To convince that manager to let them do this wellness workshop. Remember around like holiday times, like maybe Christmas time. And, you want to be reminding them that you offer this and that this could be a really great, like, getaway day for, you know, The company, all that kind of stuff. So just remember, it's about, you deciding who you want to talk to and then, and then creating emails that they actually want to read, that they're excited to read, and then also never, ever letting them forget that they can hire you to come do these workshops.
I hope that was helpful. I hope that was helpful. and if you are someone who is like, Oh, I also have questions about my, my email, list or my email marketing, head over to your mind, copy code. com. and book an email strategy console. It's a one hour console call. And I think you're going to find it really helpful.
I just had one yesterday and, we finished up and honestly, less than an hour after the call, the person got in touch with me to say, Because of the, the consult call, they now might, they haven't locked it in yet. They haven't locked it in, but they might have just made, I think it was a 3, 000 or 4, 000 sale.
but the point is the person is considering it when they weren't considering it before. So these email strategy consults are super effective. if you need that support, drop us a message either through my website, or you can just book it straight away through my website.
Okay. That's everything. That's the ask me anything session over. How long did this take? Okay, good. I was aiming for under an hour. We made it, we got there. let me know if you enjoyed this episode, hit me up on wherever you find me, like my newsletter, my Instagram, LinkedIn, whatever. Let me know if you enjoyed this.
Cause this is the first time I've done a dedicated ask me anything on this podcast. I really enjoy personally listening to ask me anything episodes on all the podcasts. So I thought, you know what, let me try this. follow me on Instagram at Eman Copico or on LinkedIn, Eman Ismail.
If you want to be able to submit questions next time. I will see you in a couple of weeks. Hope you enjoyed it.
