I have something a little bit different for you this week where I swapped seats and was the guest on the Heart-Centred Business Podcast with host Tash Corbin. 

Tash is amazing and a friend of mine. I met her a few years ago at Denise Duffield Thomas’s first ever Rose Farm retreat, and I just have so much respect for her. Tash is a marketing and business growth specialist, and she’s also one of our members in The Modern Marketing Collective.

INSTAGRAM: A SNAPSHOT OF YOUR BUSINESS

Social media has revolutionised the way businesses connect with their customers, and Instagram has emerged as a powerhouse platform for brands to showcase their products, services, engage with their audience, make connections and generate sales. Instagram is such a valuable platform for businesses to grow their presence and achieve their marketing goals. Listen in as I discuss with Tash how the value Instagram can offer business owners and share my own strategies to improve connection, promotion, engagement and sales. 

AVOID COMMON MISTAKES

However, like any social media platform, there is the risk of comparisonitis, trying to copy strategies, following brand ideas that don’t resonate with you, or feeling pressure to post huge amounts of content. I’ll take you through how you can gain traction with only a handful of posts and use the algorithms to your advantage. 

CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT

Focus your posts on four types of key content: connection, credibility, value and promotion. What is your audience going to get out of your content? What can you do to delight or inspire them with your own unique knowledge, advice and experience? You’ll set your business up with a fabulous following if you address these key types of content. 

LEVERAGING AND SCALABILITY

I share my own journey from where I started doing a whole mixture of things like copywriting, contracts, and strategy sessions before changing my business model to one that works for me. I talk about my own journey scaling my business so I could create space and time in my life with a business that worked around my own needs and goals. 

BUSINESS TAKING THE BACKSEAT

Tash and I talk about how the birth of my newborn son impacted how I run my business. I needed to give myself headspace and time. I’m keeping myself flexible and adaptable by working out how to shrink and expand different parts of the pie depending on what’s going on in life and what’s going on in the business. 

We explore how Tash’s health journey led her to needing eight months away from her business and doing the bare minimum. She shares how she kept her business running during that hectic time and how she has built herself back up again. 

As a business owner, you may feel guilty about taking a step back from your business, whether it’s for personal reasons, health concerns, or simply needing a break. You may worry that you’re letting your business and your team down or that it reflects poorly on your abilities as a leader. But here’s the truth: taking care of yourself is not only essential for your well-being but also for the success of your business. 

Taking a step back from your business can actually be beneficial in the long run. It allows you to recharge, gain fresh perspectives, and come back with renewed energy and creativity. It can also help you delegate tasks to your team, foster their growth and development, and build a more resilient and sustainable business. Remember, you’re not solely defined by your business. Give yourself grace and permission to take a step back when needed without feeling guilty.

In life, you have to focus on what feels good for YOU. Don’t be tempted to compare yourself to others. When you run a business, you’re so privileged to be able to build a business in a way that suits your goals and life and when you need to take a step back, you can decide how that will look and how and when you’ll return.

HEART-CENTRED BUSINESS CONFERENCE 2023

I’m speaking at the Heart-Centred Business Conference on the 18th to 21st May at Peppers in Noosa, Australia. I’ll be sharing all of my latest advice around using Instagram to grow your business and I’m delighted and super honoured to be sharing the stage alongside incredible people, including two of our former podcast guests. The first being Natarsha Bamblett, who is Queen Acknowledgements who shared with us how to create powerful acknowledgements of country. The second is Louise O’Reilly who is speaking about how inclusivity can actually grow your business.Alongside these powerhouses of wisdom, there is Leonie Dawson, Aileen Barrett, Michelle Smith, and Brigit Esselmont and, of course, Tash Corbin herself. If you would love to join us at this conference, go ahead now and snap up your ticket here and enter the code EMILY50 for a $50 discount.

LINKS: 

Connect with Tash Corbin: 

Website: www.tashcorbin.com

Podcast: Heart-Centred Business Podcast by Tash Corbin 

Instagram: @tashcorbin

Join me in the Heart-Centred Business Conference 18th to 21st of May at Peppers in Noosa! Grab your tickets here and use the code EMILY50 for $50 off your ticket price. 

Previous episodes mentioned: 

• How inclusivity can grow your business with Louise O’Reilly
• Natarsha Bamblett on creating powerful Acknowledgements of Country
• How to improve your value proposition with Tash Corbin

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[00:00:00] Emily: Welcome back to the show. I hope you’re going really, really well. Now, before I introduce you to the guest today, I would love to invite you to join me for an hour coming up on the 9th of May for my Instagram workshop. I’m running this. To help you understand how to really leverage the platform for your purpose, for your profile, and what should actually be on your Instagram profile for more connection and more clicks your posts.

[00:01:14] Emily: So what type of posts you should be sharing. How often. Your personality and how to bring that out on the platform, and importantly, your profits. So how it’s really benefiting your business in 2023. This Instagram workshop is US $49. It’s running from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM Australian Eastern Standard Time on the 9th of May, 2023, and you can go ahead and figure out what time that is for wherever you’re based.

[00:01:40] Emily: Just search for an online time converter and pop those details in. 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM Australian Eastern Standard Time, 9th of May, 2023. And, if you can’t attend live, go ahead and buy your ticket and you’ll receive the recording. So you go to emilyosmond.com/workshop and go ahead and get your ticket.

[00:01:58] Emily: Now. It’s gonna be a brilliant hour together of lots and lots of practical information that you can go away and implement, and also a chance to ask your questions and join me live. So go to emily osmond.com/workshop and buy your ticket now for my upcoming Instagram workshop on 9th of May. I can’t wait to see you there.

[00:02:19] Emily: All righty. Now, this week’s episode, it’s actually a podcast episode that I was the guest on and it was on the Heart-Centered Business Podcast with Tash Corbin.

[00:02:29] Emily: Tash is a friend of mine. I met her a few years ago now actually at Denise Duffield, Thomas’s first ever Rose Farm retreat, and I just have so much respect for her. Tash is a marketing and business growth specialist, and she’s also one of our members in the modern marketing collective.

[00:02:45] Emily: In this episode, we started talking about Instagram and why it’s so valuable, some strategies to think of and some mistakes that can be pretty easy to make on the platform. But then we ended up having a much bigger conversation about building a business that aligns with our own goals and our own lifestyle.

[00:03:04] Emily: Tash and I with different reasons had some challenging times lately in business. Tasha’s had some health problems that she’s been dealing with, which has seen her business need to take a little bit of a backseat at times. And then I’ve welcomed my first newborn son, and that’s been challenging at times as well figure out how and where and how on earth business fits in there.

[00:03:27] Emily: And so we discussed this and talk about the times when business for expected or unexpected reasons can’t have as much of our attention or energy as it once did. We talk about how to deal with some of the guilt and comparisonitis when you do need to take some time off or when you’re not as focused on your business as you might normally be, and also creating and shaping your own business and your own business model to work to your strengths, your goals, and your own values.

[00:03:59] Emily: I always love my conversations with Tash and I’m really excited to be speaking at her conference, the Heart Centered Business Conference 2023 in N oosa from the 18th to 21st of May, 2023, I’ll be sharing my latest and best advice around using Instagram to grow your business. And I’m delighted and super honored to be sharing the stage alongside incredible people, including two of our former podcast guests. The first being Tash Bait, who is Queen Acknowledgements and Tash was in episode 150 of the Emily Osmond Show, speaking about how to create powerful acknowledgements of country. Also on the stage at the Heart Centered Business Conference is Louise O’Reilly, and Louise was a guest in episode 120 of my podcast speaking about how inclusivity can actually grow your business.

[00:04:54] Emily: Now also speaking at the conference is Leoni Dawson, Alin Barrett, who is from Tinder Translators, Michelle Smith of Aussie Biz Chick, and Bridget Eselman from Biddy Tart, and of course Tash Corbin herself. If you would love to join us at this conference, you can go ahead now and snap up your ticket. Go to heart-centered business conference.com and also enter the code Emily 50 for $50.

[00:05:21] Emily: Your ticket, you can go to heart-centered business conference.com. Snap off a ticket to this conference that’s happening in May in Noosa Australia, and enjoy $50 off your ticket with the code Emily 50. Now, without further ado, how about a handover to Tash to kick off this conversation. 

[00:05:46] Tash: Hello everyone and welcome to another Spotlight episode of the Heart Center Business podcast. I’m joined today by the amazing Emily Osmond. Welcome, Emily. Oh 

[00:05:56] Emily: Tash. Thank you so much. I adore chatting with you. I have so much respect for you, so I’m excited to, um, get to hang out and, uh, have a good conversation.

[00:06:05] Tash: Absolutely. For those of you who don’t know Emily, she actually has two brilliant programs. One of them is called the Modern Marketing Collective, which I am a member of, and Emily helps people in that program to be sold out and really get their business off the ground, bringing in customers and grow their presence on social media, which is absolutely brilliant.

[00:06:31] Tash: I’m in there. Emily is my go-to person for Instagram strategy and she’s always got her finger on the pulse. And then her other program scalable is about leveraging your time, creating a scalable product so that you can make more money in less time, which is also mm-hmm. Very cool. And something we are gonna talk about today.

[00:06:50] Tash: Absolutely. So, yeah, sorry, Emily is gonna be one. Speakers at the Heart Center Business Conference in 2023, and she is gonna be talking about Instagram. So Emily, why don’t we start off with that? Mm-hmm. What is the appeal of building a presence and an audience on 

[00:07:07] Emily: Instagram? Yeah, sure thing. I think it’s really interesting, Tash, because a few years ago I was educating people about, Like what Instagram is and yes, you should be on there.

[00:07:20] Emily: It was kind of like people were on Facebook and they just couldn’t quite get their head around Instagram. Mm-hmm. Now I think that’s really changed for, for the majority of people and business owners and they totally like, yeah. I. See how Instagram’s being used. I’m using it myself personally. So now my business is on there.

[00:07:36] Emily: And so a lot of what I do now is he helping people understand how to use it, um, in the most time effective way so that we’re not wasting time with our content on there. I think the appeal is that it’s just so powerful in terms of, uh, as a, as consumers, I know that like my behavior is to go on Instagram to look up a business, and often I do find this as well attached.

[00:07:56] Emily: When you meet someone, it’s like, Hey, what’s your Instagram? I’ll follow you on there. 

[00:08:00] Tash: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It’s def I’ve definitely seen a shift in yes. That, in in person events where it used to be sort of 50% Instagram, 50% Facebook 

[00:08:10] Emily: or business card, either. Yeah. Physical. Yeah. Now it’s like, oh, what’s your Instagram?

[00:08:15] Emily: I went to a, um, I spoke in an event the other day and they did a, um, A business card kind of draw where everyone goes around, put their business card in and 50%, I would say of the business cards were actually pieces of paper that people had ripped off and written their details on. Because I think the shift is away from that physical thing too.

[00:08:35] Emily: It’s like, I’ll check out my Instagram. Yeah. Um, and who knows? And the thing is as well, um, and hopefully you know this about Me Too, Tash, is that I’m not attached to a platform. Mm-hmm. But I’m. Attached to what is going to be a good investment of a very limited time as sold traders and small business owners.

[00:08:50] Emily: And at the moment, Instagram’s still pretty powerful for that. It’s something like I said, that um, a lot of people will go and look up a business once they hear about a business just to see, okay, let me get a snapshot of what it’s all about. What are the photos looking like? What, what can I learn about this business?

[00:09:05] Emily: Um, where we will go and connect with people once we’ve met them somewhere. Give them a follow. And then, um, the beauty of that as well is when you follow someone, you’re then, um, showing Instagram that you’re interested in them and you’ll see most of their content pop up straight away. So it’s a really good one if you are, um, connecting and networking, um, to make sure that real strategic with the content you have there, because then when someone follows you, maybe they’ve heard your podcast, they met you in an event, they heard you.

[00:09:31] Emily: Wherever it was, they’ll follow you. Then they’ll start seeing some of your content straight away because that’s how Instagram works. So like, this person must be interested. Um, so it can give you pretty quick returns in terms of people then seeing your content and just being smart about what we’re doing on there.

[00:09:43] Emily: Having those call to actions as to where do we want people to go next. Mm-hmm. Um, and I think as well, it’s just one part of the strategy. I don’t think reels are gonna be the only thing that you can do for your business. Um, and you don’t even have to do reels. Yeah. And. A bit of a polarizing, um, thing. But I, my belief is that there’s no one thing that you have to do.

[00:10:07] Emily: It’s like, figure out what fits with you. Figure out what it is that you wanna be doing, um, and, and you can make it work. And some of the biggest business owners in the world, some of the, um, oh, some of the, um, mentors that I follow, they’re not doing Instagram reels and their businesses are like huge and amazing.

[00:10:23] Emily: So don’t ever feel that there’s one thing that you have to do. Um, But it’s just looking at, okay, what’s working? What suits me? What do I wanna invest my time in? And then go for it and have fun and experiment 

[00:10:34] Tash: with it. Hmm. I love that so much. And I also find one of the other things that I find with Instagram is that the shareability of content, especially when you are tagged, means that things are far more likely to be reshad and res.

[00:10:51] Tash: So like if I’m tagged in something on Instagram, I can share it to my stories instantly. Yes. Like two clicks and it’s done. Whereas some of the stuff that I get tagged in on Facebook, being able to share it, it’s not as common a practice. Yeah. And so, yeah. I find that really interesting about Instagram is yes, if I’m reading a book and I tag the author yes, I often, they’ll put my, my feedback in their stories or those sort of things.

[00:11:20] Tash: It’s more networked, I think, in terms of accessing each other’s audiences 

[00:11:25] Emily: definitely as well. Oh, can I add to that as well, Tash? Because one of the things, one of the features, um, that’s a relatively new one, um, that is really good for this and the collaborations and getting in front of each other’s audiences, which is such a great way to grow, um, is through the adding a collaborator to your post.

[00:11:43] Emily: Yeah. So I can imagine at your. You could be like, Hey everyone, um, tag me, like tag you Tash, um, in your post. Add me as a collaborator on the post and then it will appear on your profile and their profile. Yes. If you wanna accept it. And so you are just getting, cuz I’m seeing, um, Reels or posts pop up on my feed that from people that I don’t follow because they have, um, tagged in someone that I do follow.

[00:12:10] Emily: Yes. And so I’m then getting exposed to this new brand or this new person seeing some great content there. And it’s a really. I really like that. I really like the way that that’s kind of working and as long as it’s good content, um, and interesting, which it typically is if it’s getting shown in the feed, cuz other people have found it interesting.

[00:12:25] Emily: So Instagram’s gonna show, I think it’s, um, a really great way that we can jump on board and, uh, get in front of existing audiences that might have people that might like what we do. Yeah, 

[00:12:36] Tash: absolutely. Um, some that, that collaborate collaborator function is definitely something I’m playing with for conference speakers in.

[00:12:44] Tash: So, you know, the conference speakers don’t have to create and share the content themselves. They just have to accept the collaboration. Yeah, perfect. I’m making it easier for speakers to be able to help spread the word about conference as well. So yeah, there’s lots to love about Instagram love. I mean, the visual nature of Instagram also lends itself to certain, uh, types of businesses and personal brands and ones where you are the face of your business.

[00:13:07] Tash: In that it’s not just about product businesses, yes. Or clothing, those sorts of things. But actually for service businesses, Instagram can be really powerful cuz we’re seeing your face and your brand quite consistently. Yes. So Emily, what do you think are some of the assumptions or mistakes that people make when they think about Instagram strategy?

[00:13:25] Tash: Yeah, yeah, 

[00:13:26] Emily: sure thing. I think that one of the things that they do is look at what other people are doing and then think that they have to be doing the exact same thing when it doesn’t resonate with them. Um, something else is that they feel like they should be posting more than that. They are, and they get up in their head and feel.

[00:13:44] Emily: They’re out about themselves and think that I need to be more consistent. Um, but really you can have success on there with a few, with a handful of posts. Yeah. Um, a week and that type of thing. It doesn’t have to be three posts a day or anything like that, especially with the algorithm. If you open up your Instagram, you can see posts that have been around.

[00:14:03] Emily: For 12 hours, 24 hours, sometimes a couple of days that are still showing up the top of the feed. Yeah. Uh, based on when you were last on there, based on what Instagram thinks you want to see as well. So it kind of takes that pressure off, I think. Um, I, I think that as small business owners, sole traders, there’s, there is a sense of that constant pressure.

[00:14:20] Emily: If I should be putting more out there, I’m not doing enough, I should be more consistent. So I really want people. To remove that and know that it’s totally okay. Yeah, you can get great cut through and great results without having to share heaps and heaps of content. Mm-hmm. Um, something else is, I guess getting caught up on, oh, hang on.

[00:14:38] Emily: There’s this new, um, update or new feature or new function. And the way that I approach Instagram is just to understand how marketing works. First and foremost, understanding the core concepts of marketing, which I know you are very much about, Tash, understanding what is going to compel people to take action.

[00:14:56] Emily: What is gonna build that connection with your audience, which is a few things here, like sh actually showing up. Can we hear your. Through your Instagram, can we see what you’re like? See your mannerisms, especially as service-based businesses or online course creators. Like people wanna get a sense of you and feel like this person gets me.

[00:15:12] Emily: Um, feel as though they can trust you. So sharing some of you on there, sharing touches of credibility, maybe the number of. Podcast downloads you’ve had or awards or that you’re speaking somewhere, just positions you as an expert. Um, sharing value. Why is someone gonna follow us? Mm-hmm. What is it in it for them?

[00:15:30] Emily: What are they gonna get out of our content? How can we delight them or inspire them or give them, um, some helpful tips or hints? And then also, What are we actually trying to achieve on there? How are we tying Instagram in with our goals? Um, and that’s about actually promoting and talking about what we sell and how people confide from us, which is an interesting thing.

[00:15:51] Emily: I think that we can feel like I’m not allowed to do that or I don’t wanna come across as salesy, but, um, that’s what I really recommend people. Without getting too caught up in, oh, hang on, there’s this new filter, or there’s this new effect that I can do that’s not gonna make or break your business. But understanding it comes back to those four key types of content that I just spoke through.

[00:16:11] Emily: The connection piece, the credibility piece, the value piece, and the promotion piece. Yeah. And that’s like across every. Like channel every part of your marketing, if you can just come back to these and think, how am I, uh, addressing these through Instagram, then it’s gonna set you up really, really well.

[00:16:27] Emily: Yeah, 

[00:16:27] Tash: absolutely. And um, I think one of the big things for me in hearing you talk about Instagram strategy that was a relief, was that you don’t have to do the dancing and pointings. Yeah. You don’t have to do the lip syncing over. Popular sounds and trench and those sorts of things. And in fact, for me, whilst playing with some of those, yeah, is fun and can get more views on those reels or get more engagement, most of that engagement is irrelevant to my business.

[00:17:00] Tash: Yeah, most of that reach is irrelevant to my business because, It’s just because it’s trending, that it’s being shown to all these extra people. Those people aren’t my ideal clients. Yes. Those people aren’t necessarily going to follow me. Mm-hmm. Um, and so, you know, I love the way that you teach things like just sh show up with your voice.

[00:17:20] Tash: Yeah. Talk about something you want to share and help people with, uh, because that’s creating far more connection with your audience and if your audience engage with it. Still get good reach and it still goes to other audiences and to new people. Mm-hmm. But it’s going to new people with something relevant.

[00:17:37] Tash: Yeah. Not going to new people with some random, sassy saying or something along those lines. So I think that’s really like for a lot of people, that comes as a relief because Yeah. Some of the fear around Instagram Yes. Is I’m gonna have to do this, I’m gonna have to do learn the dance. Yeah. On TikTok, I’m gonna have You really don’t.

[00:17:55] Tash: Ah, but you really don’t 

[00:17:56] Emily: have, do this like, and do what’s fun. For some people they love that. Yeah. That’s awesome. Like go for it. Something on that TA actually is, um, I’ve had, uh, a couple of conversations with people that are in them or I guess sensitive, um, subject matter with their work. They might be counselors and that type of thing.

[00:18:15] Emily: And so what they put out there, like they’re doing this one of, um, fellow member, um, putting great content out there. Um, but she’s just naturally not going to get a whole lot of engagement back when she’s talking about more subject sensitive subject matters. People aren’t necess. Probably gonna say, oh, this really resonates, or Yeah, I’m totally going through this.

[00:18:32] Emily: You know? Yeah. And, um, we can also keep in mind and take the pressure off. It doesn’t have to always be getting huge engagement. Yeah. But if you are seeing an increase in sales through their bus, through your business, and that can be an indication that it’s working and actually tracking back where the sales are coming from.

[00:18:50] Emily: Mm-hmm. Um, because if you see the businesses growing, even if you’re not seeing necessarily, you’re getting huge likes, huge comments on your posts, but you have a way of tracking and asking people where, where did you find me? That can be. You can kind of show that Instagram’s working and you’re putting out that good content.

[00:19:06] Emily: You’re showing up, you’re talking, you’re sharing advice, um, you’re sharing some of your own personality. Even if you aren’t getting that necessarily on the post itself, it can still be so, so powerful. So I want people not to forget about that. And also the other thing that’s happening is that, um, Conversation on social platforms are more and more going into the private realm.

[00:19:29] Emily: Yeah. And um, it’s like Tash, I don’t know if you used to do this, but when I was at uni, um, sorry, I don’t know tw how long ago was that? Eight years ago. I used to write on people’s Facebook walls. Hey, how was your day? So good to see you last night. Whatever it might be like on their profile. Yeah, and we just don’t do that anymore.

[00:19:45] Emily: The conversation has gone from that very public sphere to more the private sphere and so on Instagram as well. You may find more and more that you put content out there, but people will then DM you. As well. Yep. So just keep that in mind. 

[00:20:00] Tash: My key measures on Instagram is actually dms because Amazing.

[00:20:04] Tash: That’s where the connection happens. Yes. But also I can share links there. Yes. And that’s where most of my traffic to my website from Instagram comes from dms. So good. T. Um, so it’s good to be able to see that and know, um, that there, there’s not one measure of success on Instagram. The higher connection and the higher the relationship that you’re building.

[00:20:27] Tash: Yeah. The more likely that is to turn into someone who’s gonna be an active audience member. 

[00:20:32] Emily: So yeah. And you can even see that under each post. Um, if you go do view Insights, then people can see, okay, well I got a lot of people sending that. The little airplane paper, airplane. It’s like, okay, how many people sent that onto other people, or how many people saved it?

[00:20:46] Emily: And you might find a discrepancy, I often do, between the posts that got lots of comments versus the pace that got. Post that got heaps of saves. Yes. So just like you’ve said, Tash, take into, um, take those different metrics into account as well and just be, just be aware of and across, okay, what’s happening on these, on this content?

[00:21:02] Emily: What do people wanna see more of based on those different measures? Yeah, 

[00:21:05] Tash: absolutely. Okay, so we’ve had a little chat about the current trends on Instagram. Before we move on, I wanna also pick your brain. Leveraging and scalability. Yeah. So before we move on to that, is there any other advice or hot tips or trends that you are seeing on Instagram that people could maybe have a play with or pay attention to?

[00:21:27] Emily: So good. Um, I think it’s a matter of experimenting continuously. I think. Uh, well, I know that Instagram actually came out and said, look, we probably over-indexed videos a little bit. Yeah. And, and reels a little bit. Feel free and feel like you have total permission to stick with some of the graphic posts.

[00:21:47] Emily: Mm-hmm. Um, experiment, sorry, with some of the static posts, experiment with some of the carousels as well. They’re a good way to, um, give that information in the actual post itself versus in the caption. And I really like the creativity that you can do with that. Um, in terms of, Really clear, um, content on those slides when you’re sliding through those different carousel posts, you can have your key, um, points in really nice graphics there.

[00:22:11] Emily: I really like that. Yeah. Um, I think the collaboration function is a really, really smart one, and looking at how you can leverage that for your business. Um, what else? I think as well, um, Looking at, um, I guess Instagram stories as well. They pop up at the top of the feed. There’s something that you are going to be, um, keeping people coming back to your content as well.

[00:22:36] Emily: It’s pretty smart to, if you can get some stories up there, because if you’re up there and people are tapping and looking, then you’re also gonna have your posts shown in the, um, in the feed as well. Yes. So, and that’s been around for ages. Yeah. And I say with the Instagram story side of things is you don’t.

[00:22:51] Emily: Try and think of content to create there, but just share what you’re doing during the day. So it’s like, Hey, I’m sitting down Attash, we’re gonna do a podcast interview right now. Can’t wait to speak at her conference and just tell people what you’re up to. It doesn’t have to be sitting down and thinking, right, what’s something that I can create to actually share here?

[00:23:06] Emily: I just find that that helps people to. Get into the actual sharing mode as well. 

[00:23:11] Tash: Yeah. Yeah. And I find the more that I’m sharing what I’m up to in stories, the more that people are used to watching those things. So when I am in launch Yes. Promoting something and I feel a story that’s more promotional.

[00:23:26] Tash: Yeah. I’m getting far more people watching that because they’re so used to checking. That is so true. Sharing, you know, other times, and it feels a bit more personal in stories too. 

[00:23:37] Emily: Yeah. No, that’s a really good point, Tash around, um, sharing all the time, not just when we are in launching or or sales as well.

[00:23:44] Emily: Definitely, 

[00:23:45] Tash: yeah. Great. Okay, so you’ve recently had a little baby and you, I, I remember when we met at the Rose Farm in 2020. One of the things that you talked about, Freedom and building a business where you had that leverage and a lot of that freedom was so important to you. So I feel like you are someone who’s very intentionally built your business model.

[00:24:12] Tash: Mm-hmm. So I’d love to hear like what, you know, what were some of the things that drove you to making those decisions, and how did you create such a leveraged and scalable. 

[00:24:23] Emily: Yeah, thanks Tash. Um, I guess it started by creating a business that wasn’t that leveraged and realizing that that was my initial goal and I created it, but then it wasn’t really right for me.

[00:24:39] Emily: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh, and then kind of going through a tricky period of being like, well, what is it that I. Like, I have my own business, but I don’t really feel that happy or fulfilled like this sucks. Why would I be, why I, I don’t wanna keep going like this because. I should be in control here of what I’m doing, and I should be able to enjoy most aspects of the business.

[00:25:00] Emily: And right now I’m not. So I, um, I started out and I was, uh, well, basically just said yes to everything, which I think is a good way to go. When you’re starting, you get heaps of experience. Um, and I soon realized the type of work that I liked. I was, I was always been in the marketing space. So I was doing, um, a mixture of things, some copywriting, contracts, uh, event marketing contracts, some strategy sessions with small business owners, and, um, And before I switched my business models, the, I would say the bulk of the work was some branding, brand strategy and brand design packages and website packages.

[00:25:33] Emily: Um, and I had some designers that were contractors and helped do the work, uh, in terms of the actual design. Um, and had like, they were multiple thousands of dollars contracts, so nice meaty contracts. Um, Great clients. There was no real issues, just that I felt like it wasn’t what I was meant to be doing.

[00:25:52] Emily: Hmm. And I did look forward and I’ve always wanted to be a mom. Uh, and I looked forward and I thought, well, this isn’t really, I can’t really see this happening with me being a mom necessarily. This feels like quite, um, needs a lot of my, um, time, I think, and continuous input and being at the computer and I.

[00:26:15] Emily: There’s options there and there’s stories there too, because I think I totally could have made it work if I wanted to, like people make, um, make every business work. But there was also the part of me that just felt like it wasn’t. It wasn’t fully what I was meant to be doing. Mm-hmm. And so I gave myself, uh, six months.

[00:26:35] Emily: I had about six months of work booked up. Um, and I thought, right. I’m not gonna take on any more work. I’m just gonna let this play out and give myself a bit of space to think and try and figure out what it is that I want to do. And I had always known about online programs. Yeah. I guess I just didn’t think that was something I could do.

[00:26:57] Emily: I’d only really seen examples of Americans doing them. Um, people that seem to have much bigger personalities than me, I’m naturally an introvert. Um, which I know you’re probably like what cuz you’re an extrovert and you love like, and I’m quite a social person, but I’m also. Like a total homebody as well.

[00:27:15] Emily: And I, I just don’t like, consider myself to have big personality. If I’m out in a group, I’m kind of like, oh God. Um, anyway, so a few different things. I’m like, I dunno if that’s something I can do. And obviously like I don’t have a big audience. I was just kind of in not, um, didn’t have the audience that I’ve grown now, which is not huge still, but you know, bigger.

[00:27:32] Emily: Um, anyway, I heard an American being interviewed on a podcast about how she had built this membership program and. She said that she was quite introverted. Yeah, and it just caught my attention. I thought, well, hang on a minute. This lady’s like done it. She’s doing really, really well. Maybe there is something that I can do here.

[00:27:55] Emily: Maybe I can do this. And, um, I, for me, I loved the idea, and I also, sorry I’m rambling here, but I also went back and looked at, okay, what are all the different revenue streams in my business? What are all the different things that I’m offering? What are the percentage that they’re bringing into my business?

[00:28:12] Emily: Put it in a spreadsheet and then like, how do I feel about each of those offerings? Do I enjoy them? Do I love them? Do I find ’em a bit like energy depleting? And it was really clear to me that my favorite things were when I ran workshops cuz I ran in-person workshops teaching small business owners Instagram and content strategy.

[00:28:28] Emily: And um, and that I also loved doing the strategy sessions with business owners. So I thought, right, there’s something here about, I love the teaching, I love the sharing ideas, and I love bringing people together. And so, I had a free Facebook group at the time. I had about 700 people in there, I think it was.

[00:28:43] Emily: Um, and I was basically running a free membership if people could be in there. I gave them weekly advice, um, and I thought, right, well, let’s put it out to them and see what they would be interested in. And I put a survey just with a few different options. What are you interested in? Uh, maybe this course, maybe this event, maybe this retreat, maybe a membership.

[00:28:59] Emily: Um, and at the same time I didn’t really wanna create membership cause it seemed really, really scary to me. Like, what if I dunno the answer to what people are asking me? What if there’s just like so many questions I can’t keep up? But, um, there was a pretty clear indication that people were interested in, um, ongoing monthly, um, basically access to strategies and um, be able to ask questions and that type of thing.

[00:29:21] Emily: And I’m pretty quick at taking action. Uh, and so a few, I think it was only like. Later or a few weeks later or something, I, um, figured out Kajabi, I put my program out there, didn’t really know anything about launching or anything. Um, did a five day email series at the advice of a really good business coach, so joined her program and she’s like, oh, you probably wanna do like something before you just say, Hey, join my membership.

[00:29:45] Emily: Yeah. So I did that and, um, that’s been four, four and a half years ago or so. Mm-hmm. Um, and. Had that same program and that’s the modern marketing collective. And for me, it has just like, I just adore it. I love that it allows me to do the work that feels really in flow to me. I love, which is the supporting people and inspiring and connecting people and creating that community and, um, Like helping people Yeah.

[00:30:15] Emily: Answering questions. Yeah. Helping people be like, well, is that true? Like, what if, what about this strategy? If you tried this, what are you doing? Let’s talk about that. Um, sharing strategies in there and, um, and some live events, bringing people together. Um, I love that it like, helps people and I see their transformations that I see, like what it does for them and their businesses.

[00:30:36] Emily: Um, even if like, we’ve had a couple of Facebook conversations and it’s like, wow, they’re getting so much out of. Um, the trainings that are there and being part of that community, it’s doesn’t have to be fully me one-on-one sitting down for a day with them, like they can, they’re still getting such awesome results.

[00:30:54] Emily: Mm-hmm. Um, and then I love. They allows me to have most of the time pretty low stress business and life. And that’s just super important to me. I don’t want to be feeling hectic. I don’t wanna look at my diary and have back to back to back to back meetings or coaching calls. So that type of thing, it’s just not what I want.

[00:31:11] Emily: Um, I think I need quite a lot of downtime. Um, and now that I have a six month old or a seven month old Lando, it has allowed me to keep that membership happening, to keep having the revenue coming in. It’s not by any means. I’m not smashing out of the part right now it’s not growing massively cuz I’m not doing much work in the business, but it’s still there.

[00:31:30] Emily: People are still getting results. I’m still doing a coaching call once a week or so. Um, the revenue’s still coming in and yeah, it just, it just works for me and that’s the thing. I’ve figured out what I want and what works for me and that’s gonna be totally different for everyone. And I’m a big advocate of, um, like anything can.

[00:31:50] Emily: And there’s no one right way to do things and there’s no right one right business model cuz I know other people like love stuff that I don’t love. Yeah. And sometimes I find myself being like, oh, maybe I should be doing that. Like shiny objects syndrome or like, oh, other people are doing this. But then I’ve just gotta remember, okay, no, I don’t actually want that.

[00:32:07] Emily: What do I want? What feels good to me? What’s the bigger vision? So 

[00:32:09] Tash: yeah. Yeah. And so, um, did you find that there I, I. First of all, I just wanna say it’s gonna be so reassuring to people to hear some of those like challenges that you had and some of those hesitations, because I think also people who see you online would think you’re a natural presenter, right?

[00:32:29] Tash: You’re naturally just so good at what you do, and I think it’s such a good reality check to hear people honestly share. Yeah, I had never seen anyone but Americans do it, or, yeah. I didn’t think I had a big enough personality or, you know. Yeah. All those sorts of things. And I felt exactly the same way with some of my shifts in my business as well, because I didn’t wanna be a manager of lots and lots of physical.

[00:32:51] Emily: Yes. That’s, that was me too 

[00:32:53] Tash: hard. You know? And I think sometimes we just make assumptions. People would assume you just are so confident, people would assume you just know how to do things. You, you know, there’s none of that. Challenge and imposter syndrome and all of those sort of things happening behind the scenes.

[00:33:08] Emily: But there, and there still is, like, that’s one of the biggest things I think I struggle with really is like perfectionism, I think. And then I see other people doing things. I’m like, oh my God, why aren’t I just doing it? Like, it doesn’t have to be like, what am I doing? Just do it. It’s fine. Just do it. And um, and definitely the imposter syndrome still, like really it’s, it doesn’t mean that people that you see don’t have these things.

[00:33:32] Emily: I think it’s just that we still. Take some actions, not all the actions that we gotta take necessarily, but still do these things even though it’s like, ah, And do I actually know stuff? Am I good? 

[00:33:45] Tash: You’re amazing, Emily. If we have to tell you over and again, we’ll, but I think also lots of people have different reasons for not necessarily going all out and working the 10 hour days and all that sort of thing.

[00:33:58] Tash: Like I had that myself with, oh my gosh, being away for the last two years really after my surgery in 2021. It’s taken me a long time to get back to even 10, 12 hours a week. Yeah. And so seeing other people sharing in their Instagram stories, like I’ve got three podcasts and four clients and, and blah, blah blah.

[00:34:18] Tash: Today, like, it makes me feel exhausted just fooling through what people are doing on a day-to-day basis. But I also do often think. Man, I’m not doing enough. Or, well, 

[00:34:31] Emily: We can just console each other there, TASS. I know. We’ll probably can. 

[00:34:34] Tash: And I have to keep reminding myself, just like you said, like that’s not what I want.

[00:34:38] Tash: Yeah. I don’t want to do 10 hour days. Yeah. I don’t want to have back to back meetings. I feel guilty that I don’t a lot of the time. And I think that can sometimes be money, mindset and mindset blocks because we feel like we have to earn it and we have to work hard and all of those sorts of things. But I would much rather.

[00:34:56] Tash: Gradual consistent growth of my business. Doing it the lazy way, doing it in a very boundaried way. It’s that FOMO sometimes of like, am I being left behind? Yeah. Or you know, I’m le like that whole leaving money on the table thing. Definitely about it. But honestly I think it’s great for us to have these conversations because there are so many people who, they have a chronic condition or they have kids.

[00:35:24] Tash: Yes. Or it’s not a growth phase of their business right now or. You know, they’re caring for someone or they just, 

[00:35:30] Emily: elderly parents, grandkids just wanna travel. 

[00:35:35] Tash: Like it doesn’t even have to be Yeah. An external reason. Some people just really value freedom. Yes. And so having that comparison to other people and the big days that they’re doing, it’s.

[00:35:47] Tash: It’s hard and it’s tricky sometimes to remind yourself and remember what you want. Absolutely. Is there anything that you use or anything that you do to really like, get yourself outta that ison? Oh, this is so perfect. 

[00:36:03] Emily: Literally this morning. Um, I feel like, and I said this before we hit, um, record, but um, I have felt like I haven’t had a lot of time.

[00:36:11] Emily: Think and think deeply lately. And it’s been like, my hand’s been pretty full. I’ve kind of been full-time mum mode. Yes. Um, and, and coat like, so my partner has Lando at the minute downstairs as we do this. And then I’ll have him back and I’ve got trackies on the bottom half. I’m like, it doesn’t matter.

[00:36:25] Emily: She’s only gonna see the top half. It’s all good. Then I’ll swap my top and get vomited on again. Bye baby. Um, but this morning when Lando was sleeping, I knew I’d have about an hour and there’s people that I need to write back to on the email. There’s things I wanna do for the business, but I actually just wanted.

[00:36:41] Emily: Like, think about the bigger picture and what am I wanting here and what is like even about, cause we’re just renting at the minute. We built a house last year. Um, and or yeah, over the past few years, sold it. And um, just even looking at where do I, like, what am I working towards? Where do we wanna live?

[00:36:58] Emily: What does the life look like? And just like, Sinking into that again. Yeah. And really like feeling it and stepping through it. And so for that hour when Lando was sleeping, instead of doing anything, um, like with my hands and the laptop, I put on some meditation music, which is very rare for me. I used to do it, and then I got outta the habit of it, and I just kind of like, The what about, and then started like researching schools and houses and started following accounts in local areas that I thought, actually, I think this would be a really nice place to live.

[00:37:29] Emily: So I went and followed some local accounts to get them in my Instagram feed. Um, But I think that’s what we gotta do. Yes. When we lose sight, it’s actually, it’s probably cuz we don’t have a minute just to actually sit and think about it or if it’s going on a walk and thinking about it distraction free.

[00:37:43] Emily: And I, I know that I can have the habit of kind of like stuffing my brain. Yeah. I’m like, oh, but I gotta have a podcast on and listen while I’m doing something else, while I’m reading a book. Like just get all the information in there and learn. And learn and learn. And I’m like, hang on a minute right now I just wanna let my mind think.

[00:38:00] Emily: Yes. So yeah, I, I. I love that. That’s kind of one of the only ways is to give yourself that space to tap back into it and think about what am I doing this for? What’s the goal? What am I working towards? What do I really want? Um, joing things down. I find journaling super easy and ridiculously annoying, that it’s so easy because I go round around in my mind about things and then I’ll.

[00:38:25] Emily: I’ll be like, right, I heard Journaling’s meant to be good. I know that you do it Taj. I’m like, right, okay, fine. I’ll journal. And I start writing and I’m like, oh, that was easy. Yeah. That’s just become really, really clear to me about what I want and what I wanna do and 

[00:38:37] Tash: Okay. Yeah. So yeah, I’m exactly the same.

[00:38:40] Tash: If I’m feeling that sense of heaviness or overwhelm or it’s just busy or that hamster wheel feeling, yeah, I’m doing, I’m not gonna going nowhere. I, I will resist journaling for three days. Okay. Yeah. That journaling will fix it. Yes. I could actually sit down and clarify it. No, no, no. I’m too busy. I’ll send that email.

[00:39:01] Tash: Exactly. Exactly. Look, live. I’ll record that reel, but then as soon as I sit down and I start writing, it’s like I take a breath. Yeah. And everything makes sense again. And just remembering that feeling. I actually saw, um, on Instagram, Elise Myers, I love her. She’s talks about being a D H D. Okay, cool. She’s a singer and she wants to be an actress, and she was talking about her A D H D compulsion.

[00:39:28] Tash: To avoid having a shower and she was sharing on a reel, like it’s been two days, maybe even three days since I’ve had a shower. Yeah. And I know that shower will feel heavenly. Yes. And I know it’ll be amazing and I know that that feeling will be brilliant, but between now and having a shower, I’ll be in so much resistance.

[00:39:45] Tash: So yeah. And we just do that to ourselves. And I definitely feel the same about journaling. It’s, it’s something that’s so powerful for me. Also, even like making a vision board or Exactly. Doing something creative. Uh, 

[00:40:01] Emily: and I, that’s what something else I’ve been doing. Tash, I went cuz I’m like, right, I wanna tap back into it.

[00:40:05] Emily: Cuz I have been feeling like I’ve lost that spark a little bit. So, um, I think it was yesterday I was looking through, I have a Pinterest, like a private board on Pinterest with my goals. Yes. Um, and what’s called goals. And I just have images of, um, like events. To inspire events I wanna do and um, like gorgeous homes and just things.

[00:40:25] Emily: Um, and yeah, just re-looking at that and remember and adding things to it. And I’m a visual person, so I really like doing that, but I’m like, actually I think if I. Print one out and stick it up, that would be better. Cuz then it’s always there. Do you have one printed and stuck 

[00:40:40] Tash: up? We normally do, but we haven’t got one at the moment.

[00:40:44] Tash: Yeah. Cause we, um, need to refresh and get clearer because I found last year because I was so unwell and Yeah. Um, I just, I had my mind had ideas but my body couldn’t keep up. I actually found that having. Vision board, big things like buying a giant beach house and Yes. Traveling the world and all that.

[00:41:06] Tash: Yeah, looking at it made me feel exhausted and it, it felt like pressure, so I had to take a bit of time away from that and just practice routine and practice. Just my goal was an hour at the desk. An hour at the event. Right. So I, I had to shrink things right back. Mm-hmm. But, um, now, uh, from the start of this year, I’ve really started to feel like my energy is picking up.

[00:41:29] Tash: I am having more and more long stretches of good days, and so I’m feeling itchy to get that vision put up on the wall again. And so, yeah, I think it’s important that we pay attention to how it makes us feel. 

[00:41:43] Emily: And this is 

[00:41:43] Tash: true Tash. Yeah, normally a vision board makes me feel inspired and you know, it makes me feel energized.

[00:41:50] Tash: But last year it just didn’t have that effect on me and it was really good to just acknowledge that, take it down. Focus on something different. So we actually have, I think I’ve got one here. Yeah. So we create, David and I created this little, um, card of what does a tight day look like? So it’s like tweak days, what’s.

[00:42:09] Tash: Point. Yeah. It’s from Brooklyn 99 when they got, I’ve not heard. But anyway, um, so we just had this little card that we made of what we do each day. What feels like a good day. Yes. And so that’s actually what’s up on my wall at the moment is like, what feels like a good day? I love that. Rather than big, long-term vision.

[00:42:29] Tash: It’s just like, let’s have a good day today. 

[00:42:30] Emily: Let’s have a good day today. But you know what, I think that’s what it all boils down to, like. What does that ideal day look like? Yeah, yeah. For everyone, and for me it was like, yep, waking up, walking the kids to school, get back, work, like just actually thinking, what does it look like that I, that, that day look, because that’s what life is.

[00:42:48] Emily: It’s the days in it. It is. And it’s like, well, what do I wanna be spending my days doing? Um, and also just on that Tash, I did, um, tap out of listening to business podcasts for a couple of months. I feel like the last three months I’ve been like out. Out of work a little bit, out of business a little bit, just cuz Lando has been.

[00:43:10] Emily: People say like, babies wake up after a few months. That’s definitely what happened. He slept like so much to start with and I’m like, oh, this is fine. I can still work. And then it was like, oh wow. Yeah. Okay. Um, and I just, I did find it a little bit like, oh, I don’t really wanna be listening to business podcast right now.

[00:43:24] Emily: I’m just not in that head space. Um, but now, because I’m like, yeah, I’m, I’ve made a plan. He’s gonna do some childcare, I’m gonna have a little bit of time for work. Um, I’m like excited to listen to ’em again. I think that’s why I was going back, okay, what’s the vision? What, where’s, where’s my Pinterest goals board?

[00:43:38] Emily: What’s, um, what do I, yeah, what am I focusing on? Let’s vision where I wanna be. Um, and I think that’s kind of natural, isn’t it? We go in ebbs and flows, and I think as well, it’s, uh, I kind of see it like a, it’s. A pie with three sections, um, and life and business and one section or one part of that pie is life.

[00:44:01] Emily: And for you, that’s been, that’s kind of been a huge part for the past couple of years. Yeah. For me, baby pregnancy, figuring how to be a mom, that’s been a huge part. And so just naturally like our time pie, the marketing and sales, which is one part, and then the actual delivery. They might get a little bit smaller perhaps.

[00:44:22] Emily: Mm-hmm. And I think for me, I’ve staged very focused on the delivery with my students, but that means the marketing and the sales, just, I don’t have capacity and brain space and all that type of thing. Um, that’s how I look at it anyway. Yeah. And it’s just always going to be, um, Like shrinking and expanding those different parts of the pie depending on what, what’s going on in life and then what’s going on in business.

[00:44:43] Tash: Yeah, absolutely. And I think the biggest piece of advice that I would give people having through my experience is, Like the guilt about wishing it was a different way. Yeah. Doesn’t actually contribute to making it a different way as well. And so for me, when I just accepted, well, now’s not a time to go for this ginormous beach house goal, now is the time to focus on just.

[00:45:07] Tash: Having some good days. Yeah. It was like a huge relief. And then all of a sudden I had more good days all of a sudden, like I felt more effective. Definitely. And I think sometimes we try and clinging to what’s worked for us in the past. Yes. Or what we think we should be doing, or what we should be more ambitious or we should, yeah.

[00:45:24] Tash: Want to work more hours or whatever those things might be when we clinging to those for a little too long. But actually when you let them go, There’s so much more that becomes possible and available to us. Um, and so being able to share some of these stories from behind the scenes, I think it really does help people Yeah.

[00:45:43] Tash: To acknowledge how they’re feeling and to accept, you know, sometimes you don’t wanna be getting up at five o’clock in the morning. Before the kids get up, just because some random do Exactly. Said that that’s the only way you’re gonna succeed. Yeah. I, I have this thing I’ve been saying a lot, like I do not care to see another sunrise, so as long as I leave, I don’t need to see a sunrise.

[00:46:04] Tash: I’m happy to sleep through them. The sun will rise without me. The sun will rise while I’m in bed and that is totally fine. And um, especially when I first started my business and hearing all those messages about the 5:00 AM club and getting up or something, I did feel like, oh, I should wanna do that. I should wanna.

[00:46:23] Tash: Um, have that drive and that ambition. Yeah. But I found more success by accepting, I don’t want that type of ambition. My type of ambition is different and I’m just gonna accept it and I’m gonna embrace it. So yeah. What a powerful combo, Emily. 

[00:46:41] Emily: Oh, absolutely. And I think as well, it’s almost like you look at people that maybe do that, and it’s like, that’s all very well.

[00:46:47] Emily: Your business is like that, but how many hours are you putting in and is that really the life that you want? Are you really like happy? And maybe, and like that’s amazing that they are if they are, yeah. But again, it’s like, what feels good to us? What do, what do we actually want? What does that day look like?

[00:47:03] Emily: And to me it’s like space and creativity and some connection and some downtime and like just, yeah, I don’t know, figuring out what that is. 

[00:47:11] Tash: I think for a lot of my audience as well, like, and for myself, I didn’t just start my business for financial freedom. Yes, definitely financial freedom was part of the picture.

[00:47:20] Tash: Yeah. But time freedom was. Also a big factor for me and lifestyle was a big factor for me as well. Yes. I didn’t wanna get to 65 years old and then be allowed to go on holidays, you know? Totally. I, I really love connecting back in with those initial drivers of why I wanted to start my business, because for me it was never just the money.

[00:47:41] Tash: There was a financial factor to it, and I’m very open about the financial part of it. But there were many other reasons that I wanted to start my own business. Yeah. Beyond that money. And so making sure that I keep those front of mind makes a big difference to the decisions that I make. 

[00:47:58] Emily: Mm-hmm.

[00:47:58] Emily: Definitely. T because I wanted to ask you actually around Yeah, how you have, I guess, how you feel about and how you’ve processed the, and you’re still in it, but this time in your life when. Your health has needed so much of you and you, you haven’t been able to execute on ideas. Yeah. And your thought process, and I, and you did explain that it’s almost kind of right once you almost like accept and then embrace where you are now.

[00:48:33] Emily: That pressure that we just put on ourselves. Can be let go. 

[00:48:39] Tash: Yeah, absolutely. And for me, I, when I went and had my surgery in 2021, I was expecting six weeks. Yeah. That was the expected recovery time. So I thought I was being very generous by allocating 12 weeks. Like I gave myself 12 weeks off and like I prerecorded podcast for 12 weeks.

[00:48:57] Tash: I had my team all set for the 12 weeks. Um, and so, It was unexpected and also very unknown. I just wasn’t healing. My energy was really low. And um, so for me, it ended up being about eight months that I was away from my business and doing the very bare minimum, and I mean like maybe two hours a week for eight months.

[00:49:22] Tash: And so it was almost like, Initially I kept trying to tell myself, no, it’ll be, I’ll be fine next month. Yes, I’ll be fine next month. And I did. I got to that point where I thought, if I just keep tell wishing that next month is gonna be the answer, I won’t, uh, set my team up for success. I won’t set my business up for success.

[00:49:43] Tash: I will just constantly be pushing things to next month and making next month worse and worse. And, And so, yeah, there was a lot of having to come to grips with the fact that it wasn’t the picture that I expected. And I think it’s the same. I’m not a mum, but I think it’s the same. That’s the same story here from Mums, right?

[00:50:01] Tash: Yep. I’m gonna have my 12 weeks maternity leave and then I’ll be fine and Exactly. Sleep lots and all of those sorts of things. But you know, for a mom, so I, a lot of the time I hear them say things like, even when the baby’s sleeping, I’m listening for the baby and. There’s a lot to be said for the brain space that that takes up.

[00:50:21] Tash: Mm-hmm. And so for me it was, even though I’ve got some good energy for the next hour, I don’t know if it’s gonna last. Yes. And so do I embark upon a project that I’m gonna need future energy for to finish? Yeah. What do I just keep? The fire’s out, right. Do I just fight fires for now because I don’t know if I’m gonna get another good day for another few days?

[00:50:43] Tash: Definitely. So, yeah, there was a lot of coming to terms with that. Mm-hmm. And there it took a lot to accept that that was the way that it was gonna be. Mm-hmm. But when I did, and when I had a big conversation with David, You know, talking about this multi moon dollar beach house is making me feel tired.

[00:51:03] Tash: Yeah. And pressured. And I don’t think it’s productive anymore. Yeah. It was a huge shift for me. Yeah. And it just allowed me to focus on now and focus on healing, and focus on looking after my body. And yeah, it was really tough financially. I didn’t have a membership like you, Emily. For me, my income does rely quite heavily on marketing.

[00:51:29] Tash: I had, um, a lot of payment plans cuz I, for my take off time, I did an extended payment plan before my leave. So I had a lot of people on 10 month and 12 month payment plans, so I was very fortunate about that. Cause I did still have that baseline income. But as those payment plans started to finish mm-hmm.

[00:51:47] Tash: That was when there was like another wave of, okay, well I now am not having enough consistently coming in to pay the team and pay myself. We’re going to have to make some changes. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it was, it was really tough. And you know, I still find it quite challenging because I was so on track for a million dollar year.

[00:52:07] Tash: Mm-hmm. And that milestone felt really important to me. Mm-hmm. And, um, you know, I had said I wanted to do it before I was. 40, now I’m 41. You know, all of those things. 41 a bit. Good morning. You know, like, oh, I didn’t make that, or I didn’t achieve that goal. But I think ultimately I am so grateful. I have to keep reminding myself.

[00:52:29] Tash: Mm. I didn’t have to ask anyone for sick leave. Yeah, I don’t have to. Convince anyone that I need the day off today. Mm. I just get to decide. And that is so powerful to me. Mm-hmm. And so what ended up happening for me a lot last year was I would be on the couch absolutely gone. Like I just couldn’t even get off the couch.

[00:52:53] Tash: Couldn’t think straight. I was, I couldn’t even watch a screen. I couldn’t watch Netflix. Like I just had to like stare off into space. But I would ultimately be overwhelmed with the gratitude that I could do that. But I have a life now. Yeah. Where I can sit on the couch and I can stare off into space.

[00:53:11] Tash: Yeah. And the world doesn’t end, and I don’t have anyone yelling at me that I should get back to work. And so, yeah, I’m really grateful that I started this business and I’m really, really grateful for the life that I have. Mm-hmm. And I feel like. Now as my energy’s coming back, as I’m really healing, things are starting to make a lot more sense.

[00:53:31] Tash: My brain is working more effectively. It’s like, wow, I’m, I’m never, I never went back to square one. I never had to start over from scratch. Yes. Even if my income dropped down to starting from scratch. I have an audience. I have momentum. Yeah, I have a mailing list. I have exactly experience. I have the products, the programs, the assets, so all of that is not wasted.

[00:53:56] Emily: Totally Tash, Ican so resonate with that. Oh yeah. And I think as, wow, I’ve gotta say like the becoming a mom, for me that was a choice. And for you. Your illness and well the surgery and then the recovery wasn’t a choice. So there’s that difference there. Um, but yeah, I was definitely like, I don’t know, I dunno why, but I was like, yep, three months pre-record everything, get it pretty organized.

[00:54:15] Emily: That’ll be good. And then I think, I thought, and then it’ll be childcare time, but then it got to the three months and I think I was just like, it was too hectic. Like yeah, I was figuring out this baby. He was changing. I was just, was. And then like the same thing as you. It’s like, no, next month will be fine.

[00:54:28] Emily: Or next. It was like, next week it’ll be fine. Next week I’ll have this sorted next week. Like I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but it’ll be fine. Didn’t happen. So then it’s like, okay, well what do I want? What feels good to me? Let’s not look at what every other mom is doing or what other people’s opinions are, but what feels right to me.

[00:54:49] Emily: What do I want my week to look like? And, um, let’s make dec decisions based on that. So, um, but yeah, it’s super interest. 

[00:54:58] Tash: Beautiful. Alright, well I don’t wanna take up too much more of your time. You’ve got Lando to get back to, but a couple of quick things. Yes. First of all, um, you have a brilliant freebies page, so I just wanted to highlight to everyone.

[00:55:11] Tash: We’ll put the link to that in the show notes of today’s episode. But do make sure that you go and check out Emily’s. Freebies page because she has classes there and resources. Her podcast is also Oh, absolute. So make sure you check that out. So we’ll link to all of those things in the show notes. But Emily, in closing, yes.

[00:55:31] Tash: If I was to quote you on something that we’ve talked about today, what is it that you would like me to say? Hmm. 

[00:55:41] Emily: I think the quote or the phrase that, um, I come back to and I know that my members come back to his connection over perfection. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah. Is that the kind of thing you are looking for right now?

[00:55:53] Emily: Yeah, absolutely. Ok. Connection over perfection. 

[00:55:55] Tash: Cause it does, um, apply to Instagram, right? Yeah. You don’t need perfect Instagram feed, you just need to connect with your audience. Mm-hmm. Uh, but it also applies to what you’re talking about in terms of, um, that you know, Stage of life that you’re in and yes, creating that leverage because you know, it’s connecting to what you want rather than looking for the perfect outward facing business or, and also, or the perfect marketing strategy.

[00:56:22] Emily: Yeah. And also I’m kind of excited now to, cuz I, I need to, this is something that I was just gonna. Mentioned like when Lando did sleep was sleeping, I’m like, oh, this is great. I’ve got way more time than I thought I did. I’m gonna re redo. I’m gonna reposition some things. I’m gonna re um, message some things.

[00:56:38] Emily: I’m gonna restructure, um, the collective add, like, so now it’s actually combined with the scalable content in the collective. Oh, wow. Take people from booked out to then scaling. Um, but I need to get my funnel up and running and I’m like, oh. And then you like basical. I had way less time than I thought, so now I’m gonna be creating my wholesale funnel of fresh.

[00:56:58] Emily: But on definitely like part-time hours to do that. And so I’m really excited to see what that looks like, new strategies that I’m gonna create, and then be able to share those with people in the way that it’s like, Hey, it doesn’t have to be this huge big thing. I get it. I’m in there with you. I don’t have all the time in the world right now, but I’m gonna do this in a way that I, that is manageable for me and I’m gonna track it and see what works and make it amazing.

[00:57:22] Emily: And then I’m kind of excited to share that. So I think as well, it’s like, hey, Things never have. Things are never perfect anyway. Right? And if it is like marketing really is about building connections with people and. It’s like forget. And for me, I’m a perfectionist, so it’s like, this is my quote for myself too, to just like throw that out the window.

[00:57:40] Emily: Just get stuff out there. Just do what you can now in the best possible way that you can, and that’s gonna like, it’s gonna work. That works. Yeah. 

[00:57:48] Tash: Yeah. Oh, I’m so excited to. Keep up with all of this behind the scenes. I think this is really fascinating. And to be able to learn from, you know, what you, uh, discover in the process of setting that up is gonna be so valuable for everyone in the collective.

[00:58:05] Tash: So that’s absolutely brilliant. Well, thank you so. So much, Emily for joining me on the podcast. I’m so excited to have you on stage at the Heart Center Business Podcast, uh, heart Center Business Conference. I cannot wait. Um, it’s gonna be so amazing. And also anyone listening along, if you don’t have your ticket to conference, if you come and grab the link at the show notes.

[00:58:27] Tash: I’ll also put Emily’s coupon code, which will get you $50 off your. So perfect. Make sure that you come over and check it all out and get your ticket to come to conference and you’ll be able to meet Emily in the real world.

[00:58:36] Emily: And it’s in Noosa. Best place ever. 

[00:58:40] Tash: Can’t wait. Yeah, it’s gonna be brilliant. Thanks so much everyone for joining us.

[00:58:44] Tash: Until next time, we cannot wait to see you shine. Bye for now.