In this in-depth and deeply personal conversation, Emily shares her journey from being a kindergarten teacher to starting her own social media consulting business and where it has led from there.
She discusses her experience with ADHD and how it has influenced her life and business and talks about her shift to providing marketing strategy and mentoring for business owners with ADHD.
A big advocate for finding your minimum so that you can achieve the greatest impact with the least amount of stress, Emily also provides tips for managing overwhelm and burnout. Plus, Emily and I tackle the transformative journey of sobriety.
It's a conversation you won't want to miss!
Learn more about Emily, Be Social Consulting and the Social Squad Society:
Instagram: @emily_schwalbach
Be Social Consulting - www.besocialconsulting.net
Find Your Minimum Challenge - Free 3-Day Email Challenge
Social Squad Society - https://socialsquadsociety.com/ (use code EMILYCLIENT10 for $10 off your first month!)
SSS Instagram: @socialsquadsociety
SHAUNA GREY
www.simplifiedsavvy.com/
Instagram: @simplifiedsavvy & @thesavvyscooppod
YouTube: Simplified Savvy - The Savvy Scoop Podcast
In this in-depth and deeply personal conversation, Emily shares her journey from being a kindergarten teacher to starting her own social media consulting business and where it has led from there.
She discusses her experience with ADHD and how it has influenced her life and business and talks about her shift to providing marketing strategy and mentoring for business owners with ADHD.
A big advocate for finding your minimum so that you can achieve the greatest impact with the least amount of stress, Emily also provides tips for managing overwhelm and burnout. Plus, Emily and I tackle the transformative journey of sobriety.
It's a conversation you won't want to miss!
Learn more about Emily, Be Social Consulting and the Social Squad Society:
Instagram: @emily_schwalbach
Be Social Consulting - www.besocialconsulting.net
Find Your Minimum Challenge - Free 3-Day Email Challenge
Social Squad Society - https://socialsquadsociety.com/ (use code EMILYCLIENT10 for $10 off your first month!)
SSS Instagram: @socialsquadsociety
SHAUNA GREY
www.simplifiedsavvy.com/
Instagram: @simplifiedsavvy & @thesavvyscooppod
YouTube: Simplified Savvy - The Savvy Scoop Podcast
Welcome back to the Savvy Scoop podcast, where we give you the full scoop on all things living your best life. So if that's your jam, you're in the right place. Episodes go live every Wednesday for you to enjoy. I am on YouTube, where you may be watching me now, or all your favorite podcast platforms, so head over, leave a review if you're a fan of the show. On today's show we have a very special guest my dear friend and mentor, Emily. Emily is a marketing strategist and business mentor who specializes in making marketing and growing your business Simple, which obviously I love. She started her career as a kindergarten teacher but left after she had her first son, and has been in marketing for nine years. That's almost a decade y'all. So after falling face first into an MLM, haven't we all failed?
Speaker 2:with the MLM.
Speaker 1:Because she refused the hey Girl DM strategy, which we all hate.
Speaker 1:Thank God we learned to market successfully without those gross strategies and has supported almost a thousand, that is 1000 business owners to simplify their own social media and business strategy through one to one consulting, team trainings and a low cost social media membership. She co-founded called the social squat society, of which I am a dedicated member. It is the best place. If you aren't there, why the hell not go there? Emily and the co-founder, shannon, are the the goat. Okay, they are the best. You must all be there. Okay, that's my personal take. And obviously, emily, I've known you for a few years now. We have, like you've, mentored me. You are the best and I'm just so, so excited to talk to you today about this big shift you've made in your business. But first let's start before that, what led to your entrepreneurial journey? Obviously, you were kindergarten teacher.
Speaker 1:So, what brought you this?
Speaker 2:way I started every day just with you. I mean, I just feel like my face is like hurting from smiling so much. Thank you for the hype. Up, gosh, I will hype you.
Speaker 1:I will sing your praises from every rooftop. You know that I love you.
Speaker 2:I'm so glad to be here. All right, so yeah, didn't think I'd be doing this, that's for sure. I was one of those kids that was confused by people who went to college not knowing what they wanted to do with their life. Like I knew, since I was a second grader I'm going to be a teacher, that's what I'm going to do. I remember even getting one of those career tests done because my parents made me. And I'm like, if he said I'm not going to be a teacher, he doesn't know what he's doing, he's bad at his job. The funny thing is is he said you would be great at business, but you don't want to do that, you want to teach. And so I all my parents bring that up now all the time because they're like remember what Dr Fadley said.
Speaker 1:He said you'd be good at business.
Speaker 2:I'm like ah he knew I could do this too, so yeah, never was good at his job.
Speaker 2:So I should not have been hating on him so much. But yeah, so I was a kindergarten teacher and then I think something that I always feel like a little hesitant sharing or like a little bit like, ooh, there's a little bit of shame. Still there is. After I had my first son, will, I didn't realize how fulfilled I was in my job and I knew that the amount that I made being a Catholic, hippie Catholic, by the way, love is love, women can be priests, all the things women's rights. But being a Catholic kindergarten teacher, I was making such little money it didn't make sense for me to continue and it wasn't like this thing where, you know, my husband and I talked and it was you know that we knew that I would not have that income going into post-having kids. It was the plan was. You know, I teach, I have the babies, I go back to teaching, like that was the plan all along.
Speaker 2:But I didn't realize what hole that would leave in me, because I was so fulfilled by teaching kids how to be at school, how to read, learn, I loved it so much, I missed the teaching so much and I think I was so down because I had this like flip side of being guilty, that my being a mom didn't feel fulfilling enough and I didn't realize that those two things could coexist. I could love being a mom and just feel the joy and the love that we all have for our kids and becoming a mother and also miss what I used to do. I didn't know those could be both, so I was very reserved and quiet within myself the first year after Will was born obviously postpartum and all that. That can be a whole other podcast Postpartum anxiety and stress and what am I doing? Are they alive? And all that.
Speaker 2:It wasn't a year. It was a year after Will was born and my mother-in-law and my husband approached me because we have a family business, family owned business, and they said you know, we need help with our social media. You can post fast. And I was like what? Post fast, okay? And I was like all right.
Speaker 2:I can do that and I could. I could post fast, that's all the requirements needed.
Speaker 1:That was in 2015. 2015, that was it, oh.
Speaker 2:God, I missed 2015.
Speaker 1:I missed the old ways.
Speaker 2:I was looking at my graphics and I used to make them on Word Swag. Do you remember that app? Did you ever use that? Oh God, no. Maybe you just used Canva and you were just forever cool. But I used Word Swag because I remember when me and Shannon started working together, I'm like, well, I can make some graphics on Word Swag. And she was like girl, do you know that? So I was like no, so I was making some stellar graphics.
Speaker 1:Like is it like clip art? It's not good. I'll send you some.
Speaker 2:So I started this Instagram for my husband's business and then, like you shared in my intro, I did become a Beachbody coach. Now, I was so bad at it. I was bad at the business model of it. It is all about growing the team underneath you and I just loved gaining as many customers as I could, and that's really not where you would make a huge chunk of change. However, I did love the social media marketing aspect of it. I fell in love with it. I loved doing it so much that I was watching YouTube's on stories because I was there when stories came out.
Speaker 2:I'm like a dinosaur, so I was one of the first people to start using stories in whatever it was 2016, I guess, is when it came out, and I'll have to research that and see when that year was, because I could be lying but I remember seeing people just talking and I'm like, oh my gosh, I feel like I'm invading, like in their living room, like I'm like watching them video. That is right, it happened right now and I am with them. I thought that was so cool. I used to love like VH ones behind the back Whenever I watch sports games with my husband. I wasn't athlete myself, but I'm like do you think they're friends? Like who do you think is friends on the team? Like I love knowing the inside scoop. So it was fun. It was fun to start, you know, at that ground level of stories and that I have all those old stories to look at.
Speaker 2:But I started helping people other business owners, specifically other MLMs with their social media and my husband was like you should get paid for all of this help that you're doing. That was news to me. I didn't think that I I'm as a kindergarten teacher, I just had a knack for it. It wasn't something that I could make into a business. Then I threw it out there and I did my first session for $35 and you could not tell me anything that day. I mean, I still remember that feeling. I was like I'm not babysitting, which is the only other time I got paid, like directly for a service I was providing that didn't go through anything else. Like I was a teacher and I beach body. But beach body was the company. I was just an affiliate for them. It was mine, it was my thing. I didn't have a principal, I didn't have a you know, up leveled coach above me. It was something that I had created and I made money from it. And that's when you know you love something so much is when you make that little and you're so excited about it and that kind of just spun off into a lot of other opportunities later that year.
Speaker 2:That was in like early 2018. Later that year I met Shannon McHimstree. She engaged with me through a hashtag and we created a free Facebook group. But at that time I was, you know, had clients coming in.
Speaker 2:People needed help and I learned very quickly that, although I could manage, my ADHD was very much a parent as I would try to post for other people. It wasn't as simple as holding down the little bottom right corner and being able to switch through accounts. You had to log out and then log in for everyone. So I was helping my family company and then I had another friend who's a physical therapist helping her and I was like I am so bad at this. So I decided to just be a consultant where I would just teach people how to do it, and it was great. A lot of business owners didn't have the money for a manager. I thought I made it up completely myself. I didn't know anyone else who did it. Lo and behold, a lot of other people were doing at the same time, but I do feel like it was a ground level of teaching the people how to do the things instead of just doing it for them, and in social media in general it is still a newer field that people don't understand, they don't get it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so that brought me and I have been just morphing and changing, but that is how, like the whole story started, which didn't even mean to happen.
Speaker 1:I love that so much. I know it's well. I think is it Sarah Wiles, who always says two things can be true at the same time. She says all the right things.
Speaker 2:We can just keep closing her all the time. She's a genius.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I was the exact. It's funny. Okay, I knew we had a ton in common, but like, even more like, so I used to teach like pre, like preschool and same thing. It's so fulfilling. I always say it was one of the most fulfilling jobs I ever had. But I knew that I wouldn't be able to have my own kids if I kept in that and also, like you said, the pay.
Speaker 1:it's so awful People are like of this earth and they are just not paid a property so anyways, yeah and the but the two things we cheer up was like being a mom and then not being totally fulfilled by that. I mean, that was just like I was like oh my God, is this, it Is this me. I'm just in a row on my couch and like watching reruns of Zeus for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2:It's so hard because you look at the baby and you're like I love you and I love this. And then also the privilege that I don't have to do another job, that would find a job that would make more money, like so thankful for my spouse at the time that allowed me to recover and not pump in the back office or in a closet, like so many very privileged things, which was another layer of the guilt. Yeah, so many people looked at what I was doing with envy and then I looked at them with envy Cause I was like you get to go, you get to go somewhere and you get to talk to people.
Speaker 1:So, and be a human, and like an adult with other adults and like get dressed New ones Normal clothes Exactly.
Speaker 2:It's such a nuanced time in your life where you're you just don't know. And so if anyone is in that spot and you don't have support around you and it's a lot of judgment like, know that me and Shauna, get it and reach out to us If you need some support around that, because you deserve to do what you want to do. And also mentally, what I know in the first year of being a mom to now my I'm in my ninth year, I guess 10, will's, nine math's not my forte, you'll learn Is that I'm such a better mom by doing what I do. I am so filled so that when I do have the time with the boys, I am so focused on them because my cups filled already.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and now you get to, like I always say, like I loved the jobs, even that I had I was in communications for almost a decade before I started my business and I the jobs I had.
Speaker 2:I loved and I was treated so well and.
Speaker 1:I was like, but at the end of the day, like you said, it was still for somebody else and you can't just like be yourself. So, getting to be able to just talk like myself, or not? Some corporate?
Speaker 2:you know, like we have to speak this way to everybody. We just can't with that.
Speaker 1:And so getting to just be yourself. And then when you get to be yourself and then people want to give you money for being yourself, I mean it's the greatest thing ever.
Speaker 2:It's the shock of a lifetime to be able to like me and you are in our sweatpants doing something for our business, Like it's just. This is wild, it's a wild, wild time.
Speaker 1:It's it's amazing, okay. So I love that story, love the journey, and I feel like so many people do have that in common. It's almost so many of us like after we have a kid or two or whatever that we're like something it's time. And then now you've been in business for a few years and I know like I get very, I get antsy. I always need something new going on. So now you have shifted, but there was a real need for what you've got.
Speaker 2:Going on and people were telling you they needed it, and so you listened and you've capitalized and it is exploding.
Speaker 1:So you are now serving business owners with ADHD. Can you talk about your?
Speaker 2:own journey with ADHD.
Speaker 1:And then, what made you decide to take this change and shift into?
Speaker 2:business, so I love talking about this. I was diagnosed when I was 16. My mom really pushed for me to get tested when I was in eighth grade because my older brother also has it and she, he's hyperactive. There's two types, are actually three hyperactive in a 10 of or like a combo, and a lot of times with girls we sit still but there's nothing being retained up here. So I was pointing to my brain because I forgot that this was a podcast. There's not going on. You're sitting in, our bodies are not hyperactive, but our brains are hyperactive and they were going a mile a minute. So any information that I would learn in class. I would go to do my homework and be like what? I don't remember how to do any of this, especially math, and so it was a struggle. My mom would ask me to do three things. I would remember one of them so she could tell the signs were there, but none of my eighth grade teachers would sign the questionnaire, the observation forms necessary to get tested. So she was very upset about that. But at that time you had to have those in order to get seen by a psychiatrist. So then, when I was 16, my English teacher I love her I'm a C Ellis We'll never forget it and my Spanish teacher both agreed and were like mm-hmm, we see this, we see this being an issue with her. She's working.
Speaker 2:I remember I studied so hard for finals and I got straight Cs. I said no to every social engagement. All of my friends were going out over Christmas. We had our finals after Christmas that year, which is a terrible idea. I don't know why our students never did that, but I didn't go anywhere.
Speaker 2:I studied, I made note cards, I did all of my strategies that I knew how to study, went to the tests and straight Cs, and I was just like I didn't know what else to do. I knew that I could do it, but I just needed help. It felt like I was running with boulders in my hand. I just couldn't keep up with the rest of my classmates. So my mom obviously asked my two teachers. They said, yes, I went through the testing.
Speaker 2:And so many people are like, oh, I just told the symptoms to my doctor and got a prescription and that's awesome for you. However, I went through three to five I can't remember the exact amount Three to five sessions of hours long testing, where it's literally my biggest nightmare the whole time. It's like here is a group of numbers and can you repeat them back? I could never. It was thinking quickly on your feet and oh, it was terrible. And obviously I got the diagnosis and I started off with stratera for my medicine and it did not do a thing for me. And then I tried concerta, which is my soulmate ADHD drug a choice and I also played volleyball. I played volleyball in college and I was on my club team and my coaches came up to my mom the weekend that I started taking it and they said what did you do to her?
Speaker 1:Wow, oh my gosh she remembered every blocking assignment.
Speaker 2:She knew every defensive position she played out of her mind and she's like well, she's diagnosed with ADHD. She started taking her meds this weekend and then I went on to get a full ride, scholarship to a D1 school. So those things all leading up. I thank my mom all the time for advocating for me, Because all of those things.
Speaker 2:Volleyball is a sport where there are a lot of things happening. You have to remember a lot of things and I know now that I know what is expected of you at the college level. I would not have made it without my strategies, without my medication, without my mom advocating for me, so that in of itself is just such a big gift that she gave me. So I love talking to other parents about advocating for your kids, and it is such a hard process. You will not meet a person who wants to make a phone call less than me. I do not want to. I will talk to you all day like this, I know.
Speaker 1:I hate picking Every time I put it on my list and it's the only thing that I'll put on my list for that day if I have to make a call Because it takes so much of my brain to be like here we go. We're making the call and, yeah, same thing. I love to chat, obviously it's like the gift of the gap, but getting on the phone gives me all the anxiety it's the worst and you have to do so much of it when your child is having these issues.
Speaker 2:So I'm always encouraging other parents, so anyway. So any paper I could do on it, any project I could do on it, what was that? Did you hear that music? That was so weird. I'm so sorry you're gonna have to clip this out. There goes my thing. I'm like did I get music? I swear maybe it was a car driving. That's so funny.
Speaker 1:Well, you do love all your music. I didn't know. I'm like, oh, did I get music? Oh what?
Speaker 2:song is that I heard Speaking of ADHD. Look, you can keep this in. Who cares? So, anyways, I moved through all of my schooling. I did any project I could on ADHD. I love talking to people about it. I got approached a lot to sell it to people because in college that's what happened. I said no, I need this for my brain to live.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, oh, yeah, right, I know I shouldn't be surprised, but like I have a test to study, for I'm like you're neurotypical, Get out of here.
Speaker 2:You already have a leg up. I'm not Go away, you neurotypical asshole. I'm not giving you any more legs up in the world. Get out of here.
Speaker 2:So, as it comes to me and my business, ever since then, any of my friends oh, I think my child has ADHD or oh, I think I may have it I have just been this person that people come to because I am so open about it, which not everyone is and not anyone has to be. But I do think that one of my things that God has given me is the ability to share about these things that may be vulnerable, to make sure people don't feel alone. Adhd, anxiety, I had fertility issues. These are all things that people don't normally like to talk about, but sometimes they need someone to be talking about it so they don't feel alone. So it's not like oh, look at me, I have all these issues and I like to talk about myself. It's more of I like to open up a conversation. So this is how I overthink things. I'm like do people think I'm just so self-involved that I love to talk about myself?
Speaker 1:Like, no, there is a mission. Oh, it's OK, I do. That's why I started the podcast, because I just love to talk about myself. So I'm like, ok, good, what could I do? I could just talk at people all the time. Perfect Podcast. So, don't worry, you're good, you actually. And I do want to help people, I really do. But I was like the best way to do it is by talking about myself, self.
Speaker 2:Well, it's the best way to relate to others and you do such a great job of this. It's a safe space. We offer a safe space for people to connect and talk. So, yeah, since I've had my business and I've been sharing a lot on Instagram and all my stories, I would bring up my ADHD every now and again, but I think in the last couple of years, the pandemic, I think too, really impacted this is that there has been a lot of late diagnoses when it comes to ADHD, especially in women, and so a lot of people are coming to me and being like I just got diagnosed.
Speaker 2:What my life, oh, my gosh. Everything makes sense now and while I can't emphasize, since I was diagnosed at 16 and dealing with all of that, and I feel for those who are late diagnosed and have to look back, however, they get this new kind of sense of oh. That is why I am the way I am. I'm not a weirdo, I'm not dumb or stupid or shameful about not being able to complete these little tasks. It's literally because of my brain and also can be a best as depression anxiety. I know when I was not taking meds because once I found out I was pregnant with Will I cut it off? Cold turkey. It's a class of drug that they just don't know how it affects the fetus. So, unfortunately, from let's see December 2013 to March 2021, I was without my medication, so I actually started my business on medecine oh that's a long time.
Speaker 2:When you're used to being on it every single day, every day you take it right, and so it was hard, but I chose that for myself because I didn't want to get on and off and on and off and on and off as I was having kids. However, when I started to have a lot of anxiety attacks, I just had so much anxiety and I thought, oh, it's because I'm a mom. And then, as these people were getting diagnosed, I was like, hmm, maybe my anxiety is because I'm not medicated anymore. And lo and behold, once I started taking my meds, my anxiety attacks I mean, I think I've had one since March of 2021. And that it used to be at least eight or nine times a year where they would be big and my manifest is not being able to breathe and I can't function. I have to lay on the ground.
Speaker 2:It's bad, but it just goes to show it proved the point of it can manifest as other things and you could be getting medicated for anxiety or depression, and maybe it is that you just have ADHD and that your anxiety comes from not being able to manage all the things that you need to manage. So, as I've been chatting with people, I help people find different psychiatrists around their area to get tested. I do all these things because I find it so important and it is part of my mission. I had someone approach me, actually from Threads, which I was like oh my gosh, a new social media platform that I'm going to totally use, that's Threads that I'm totally going to use, and I'm like no.
Speaker 1:I'm not anymore. No, me neither.
Speaker 2:Everyone's mean I can't do it. It's like TikTok I can consume, but if you're mean I'm out, I'm too sensitive for that.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, I know I can't get on TikTok because everything I hear is just people. It's just so toxic. And then Threads. I'm like I don't know, I like the visual. I feel like I can't really get to know people on Threads, and that's what I love about Instagram is, I feel like, because I can have the image with the stuff I can get to know them. On Threads, I'm like who, who's that again?
Speaker 2:I just that's such a good synopsis I can't get on board. But the one good thing about me being on Threads and diving into that platform when it first came out was I met my friend Alaina. She is now one of my clients and she is an organizer who has ADHD, so basically a unicorn. I'm like, how yeah, seriously. And she said I know you have these marketing strategy sessions. Because what I found is, yes, how much I mean I love Instagram strategy so much. I love the content, I love helping people pair their business goals with their Instagram. But once I evolved myself as a business owner, I realized that if I am putting everything into Instagram and not utilizing these other tools like email marketing, like networking, all these other things it puts so much pressure on Instagram to be the only thing and I was getting tired so I was like I need to branch out a little bit.
Speaker 2:So once I taught it and learned it myself, I wanted to help other business owners. Yeah, instagram is one of the pieces but not like the whole pie of your marketing strategy. So I started offering business strategy sessions and she said so, do you do ADHD, business, mentoring, marketing all in one like an ongoing thing? And I said, no, but that's a really good idea and so I would love to do that. So, anyways, that was this year, that was the summer and, in true ADHD fashion, I just went and pivoted and I started talking about it and I filled up three of the six spots in the first story that I shared about it. I didn't realize that there was such a need for someone like me who my hyper focus and my gift and my talent with my ADHD is business strategy and marketing for other business owners. Now, I don't know how to do bookkeeping at all, but I know a good bookkeeper.
Speaker 1:I don't know how to do a lot of other things.
Speaker 2:However, I know people to help, so that's another part of working with me is then you have access to my community, my people that I've already know and vetted. So many people are in the society, like you said. So I started and it's been so great. I love connecting with other people with ADHD, just helping them with their daily schedules, how to manage their time, how to place boundaries, because a lot of people with ADHD have zero and it's very hard and then we're all over the place and can't get focused, which is already an issue. And it's been wonderful. It's been so fulfilling. It's been probably the most fulfilling offer I've ever done, because it's not just about the business it's about them personally as well.
Speaker 2:So it's been really really awesome to see my mentees shine the past three months. It's been great.
Speaker 1:What's better? Than that Finding your like the offer that just feels completely in alignment. Yes, and obviously if people jumped, on it right away. That was the thing that you were meant. I remember when you first we were in the DMs talking about it. When you were first like I think I'm going to do this, and I was like you have to do this, it's good.
Speaker 2:I love that, because it is scary. It's scary to do something new and I remember everyone I talked to. I'm like but can I do it? I don't know. I know Instagram and, yes, I've been learning more about overall marketing and importance of networking. Okay, I feel like I can, but no matter how many years you have under your belt and your business, that imposter syndrome it's going to come up, no matter what.
Speaker 2:And I'm not even an ADHD expert. I just have lived with it and I think I just had to. I thought what would I say to someone if they came to me with this? And I always say to people you just have to be a step ahead. You just have to be a step ahead to be helpful to someone else who is a step behind you. Yeah, and so yeah, no, I'm not an ADHD expert, but I have a lot more years of this diagnosis than other people who have gotten diagnosed recently. So if you think about it that way, I'm like, okay, I do, can do this. And you know, once I saw their wins and saw their businesses a lot of them had their best months within the container that I was supporting them and I'm like nothing is more amazing than helping people make money for their families Like and they tell me what they use the money for. I just it makes me so happy. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2:It's been great Get paid to be themselves.
Speaker 1:It's awesome. Well, that actually leads in very well to my next question, because a question that I got asked for you was about strategies for when you're feeling overwhelmed and burned out. I know you have more, but one of the main ones that came to my head when this question came through was what like drew me to you in the first place was about finding your minimum, and I think everyone needs to know, because that's I mean you could talk about all of them, but finding your minimum is like just a chef's kiss so we need to talk about that and then any other strategies you have for ADHD and really all business owners, when they're like
Speaker 2:super stressed on the verge of burnout. I'm so glad because I could talk about finding your minimum all day long. So this is a concept that I get made up out of the out of my life, because I had to 2020, I was pregnant with my third son and it was like April. We were in it. It was heavy, I was so tired and I remember going to Shannon and being like so this has been awesome. I can't do this anymore. Like I don't know, is there going to be a bed for me to have this baby? And I have humongous babies. Everyone's allowed to do whatever they want to do.
Speaker 2:I needed an epidural. I had. I have nine pound babies. So I'm like is there going to be an epidural? And then I have to have my baby in a tub. Right now, my business is so like back burner. I don't even know. I'm like Shannon, it's been a great run, go ahead and do the membership. I don't think I can do this anymore. And oh my God, I didn't know you were like I don't know, can you just run it at least for the next three months, because I can't? And she's like well, let's not go there, it'll be fine, let's find some experts to outsource the summer masterclasses.
Speaker 2:That'll take some pressure off and, just, you know, do what you can. So that was such a gift and a blessing from her. So in that stance it was great. But for me I am at that point I was just an Instagram strategist and I don't know about you, but, like an Instagram strategist, just like not showing up on Instagram is like probably not the best look, and I thought, okay, so I can go one or two ways. I can just be done and light it on fire. I can just continue to post. You know the three times that I feel like I should be posting three to four times a week and burn out and, just, you know, feel overwhelmed. Or I can do the least and kind of see what happens.
Speaker 2:So from April till I would say probably November, I was posting maybe once or twice to my grid as an Instagram strategist. However, I thought, okay, well, actions I do on Instagram, what is the thing that keeps me, you know, connected to my audience, engaged in the DMs? And that was stories. So I was doing the least, but I was doing the most beneficial and what converted the most for my business, the most, and the rest I was doing the least. So like yeah, I didn't. You need to have stuff to your grid as foundation for your whole entire account. Yes, but stories is what converted best for me. And then I stayed connected with my audience. I didn't feel burned out and I was like this, I need to teach this to people. It felt fun. Oh my gosh, this is great.
Speaker 2:So I created a framework to help other business owners figure out and do their minimums. So it starts off with like what platforms do you need to be on? And this is something that can change. This is something that you can do multiple times a year. Things happen parents get sick, kids get sick, the dog throws up. There's lots of things that happen and you can look at your day, you can look at your week and you can just be like all right, I need to find my minimum, all right. But when it comes to social media, it's like what platforms do I convert the most on? For me, it was Instagram, maybe some Facebook, and like that was it. It wasn't really anything else. Oh, that's good. I mean like, not really. It was like of the two.
Speaker 1:I don't want to be on LinkedIn because I'm just bad at it and TikTok was, it was going, but not really.
Speaker 2:So I mean, it was Instagram. Let's be honest, it was just Instagram. So I chose Instagram and then I was thinking, all right, so what are my most conversion moves there stories so I just did that. So it's about looking at your business, seeing what you can manage and what you can do for your business, what you can manage and what you can do consistently. So some people will just be like I have to unplug for a month or two and, while you can all do whatever you want want to do in that you know situation because life is that's just what happens For me I think that I needed to be consistent because it was my job to stay consistent.
Speaker 2:So consistent doesn't mean constant, so you don't need to be posting every single day and that's consistent. My consistency was once a week and my audience was trained to then be accustomed to that. They weren't expecting that from me. So that's why, when people feel gross selling, it's probably because they haven't been sharing anything else. They're like, oh, I need to promote this thing. And then they're like, ooh, I don't want to post. I feel gross. I'm like, yeah, probably because you haven't posted anything in a few weeks.
Speaker 1:It's the only or it's like the only time they email you is when they're selling something.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I know, I know, and that's what? Yeah, that's the sales and that's what. That's the last thing.
Speaker 2:I want to feel like is gross, like that is part of my personal brand, is like let's do this and not be feel gross about it. So I created a whole challenge and I that's how, that's what picked off my email list was creating the find your, finding your minimum. So it's looking at what you have to do and it doesn't even need to be business wise. I can just be like all right, this is my to-do list. Wow, that's really long. What has to be done and what can I like move to tomorrow? Because I got to find my minimum, I got to get done what has to be done and the rest of it will. We'll figure it out and just giving yourself grace to that.
Speaker 2:You don't have to do the most and I think that was another thing too. And 2018, 2019, there wasn't this like thing that there is now of like self care and like it was hustle, crying, who who was up late? And I'm like is anyone going to want to hear this message of like how about we do the least? Like I didn't know if it was going to pack a punch, but it who was to get up late?
Speaker 2:and go to bed early, let's go. But it was about doing the least but the best you can. So that is what I do with my clients. Now I figure out, all right, what is the best, most high performing content. All right, let's do that and do less of anything else. Where are you getting your sales from? Think of your, of your interactions on Instagram. Are there? Is it a story? Is it a real? Okay, then do less stories. Do a real. Is it cause you went live with someone? Do more lives, do less lives, do less stories. So it's different for everyone. I can't tell you what your minimum is until I start talking to you one on one. Yeah, but we can link that challenge. That challenge is always going, so we can link it in. The. We'll link it in the show.
Speaker 1:I will put it in the show notes. I love to say that now, and don't worry this will all be in my show notes. You're a fancy podcast, yes, and I remember well, I loved that and I remember the real that you did. That brought me to it. It was one where you were like, hey, you don't have to dance, and like you cut through it, like the music cut and you're like, hey, guess what? You don't have to do.
Speaker 2:I love that reel so much and I think everyone did, cause I think it blew up with that reel and I remember like, oh, it's so funny, sean, I haven't thought about that reel in so long. I was like you don't have to dance, you don't have to point at boxes.
Speaker 1:You don't, you actually don't do anything you don't want to.
Speaker 2:This is your business. Okay, bye.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Yeah, it was so good. That's when I was like this woman is a genius, I want to. That's why I consumed. I went into you know, the rabbit hole of all your stuff and I was like, yep, I need her. Oh, she has a side. I'm in Great Like I need all of these things. So another question that came through was if you have tips for the spouses of someone with ADHD.
Speaker 2:So, ryan, my husband is amazing and we listen to this podcast. It's Glennon Doyle's podcast. I love her. In the door Door her it's with her sister and her wife and her sister was talking about how, as a mother and typically the manager of the household, because that's just life it feels like we have this running ticker like at the bottom of CNN and it's just like we have to do this. We have to order the lunch, we have to do the the, the, the, the, the and so when our spouses are going to come to us and they say well, how can I help?
Speaker 2:Um, it's almost a twin genoing, because it's like you don't even know, like I keep it all up here. Thank you for offering to help, but also, how nice is it that you don't even know, cause it's not even on in your brain, it's all in my brain and I have to delegate tasks to you. So I had him listen to it and he was like whoa, this is such a game changer. I didn't think of it that way. So after that, he took over haircuts. I have no idea when the boys need haircuts, I don't know, I don't. I typically don't even go. Uh, he schedules them, he does it on the app. I don't know about that.
Speaker 2:Ordering uniforms he just started to like accumulate all these things that sometimes are things that I don't do well, like ordering things in time, which is totally me. Um, okay, um, and so he, you know, finds the sales and he will order the uniform. Um, fancy clothes, I don't know why, that's not my thing either, but he does all of that. I don't order the fancy clothes, he does it. It's another ordering thing with a time requirement. So he takes that. So, for the spouses, think of things that maybe your partner struggles with doing and take it over. Another thing that's been really tough my oldest son, which he has allowed me to share has, was diagnosed with ADHD as well. It is very hard to order my meds, get them on time, but at any time you know, remember to call them in because you can't get them before a certain time period because they're controlled substance.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh ADHD persons nightmare to get the thing they need to remember the things to do. So it's just, it's so backwards, oh, God, that's awful calling for wills.
Speaker 2:So he helps manage wills, medications, even though doctors is my ticker, doctors and dentists is my ticker. Um, right, he takes over the calling because in any time there is a thing to call he's like I will do that. Um, he does all the house stuff. Like he'll be like hey, there's a guy coming. I'm like great, don't even, don't know, I don't know who that guy is. Um, if there's a thing to be fixed, but he'll be here, but he'll be, here at the house more.
Speaker 2:You think I should do it, but I it's a phone call, I don't like, I don't like it. It's scheduling, it's appointment yeah, I don't like it. Um, so that is the biggest suggestion I have is not just asking, like, what can I do for you that day, it's, what can I fully take over? So it's out of your brain because it's still just just take it away to ownership. It's yours, run with it, I and then. But on the flip side of that, as the you know wife, the spouse, you have to relinquish control. So it's not going to be done perfectly and they're going to do it their own way. But do you want the help? Yeah, I'm so desperate. I'm like, yes, I don't care if the hair cuts aren't great, whatever they're done, check, I just want them done, just want them done. So that's that's my biggest tip for spouses is to take something over, completely Okay.
Speaker 1:That's great, okay, um, okay, something, well, obviously, look, we have a million things in common actually, but one of the things that we have in common is that you quit drinking earlier this year, so can you share more about that and if it has helped with?
Speaker 2:your.
Speaker 1:ADHD symptoms or other areas of your life and business.
Speaker 2:I I not that I was a heavy, frequent drinker, but when I drank, I drank. I loved me a white claw. I mean 430 on a Friday. What makes 430 on a Friday A Friday If you don't crack a white claw?
Speaker 1:Um, it was a, it was a happy thing.
Speaker 2:And, um, I learned that and I as I continue to learn more and more about ADHD we do have more addictive personalities. Um, we also don't like to stop doing things that are fun, and so pair that with drinking. Uh, it's not always great for me, um, and you know, I had a few instances last year where I just didn't really like who, um, I was when I had drank heavily, and a lot of the times it was when my sons weren't with me or, um, I wouldn't have to wake up the next morning with them. So that was always when there was no control or limit, um, and I didn't like that, that I couldn't control myself. Um, even though I am a 36 year old woman, um, I should just be like, oh, two to three drinks and I'm done.
Speaker 2:I don't have that control, um, and and I wish I did I wish I could have the two to three drinks. And now, looking back, I'm like well, if I'm not going to have more than what's the point which is so sad?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's how I was too. I want, I want none or five Like like. Why like? Why can't you take it or leave it?
Speaker 2:No, leave it If I wasn't no.
Speaker 1:I want four glasses.
Speaker 2:I'm not doing it and that's so. That is so much of me, my personality. I'm a hundred percent or zero. Um, I don't do things half-assed ever. Uh say, we're drinking. So, yes, I wasn't doing it a lot, because people are. When I told people I wasn't drinking, they were surprised because you know, I'd have maybe four or five total a whole week. Um, but it just came to when I would be drinking and social and I wouldn't have responsibilities the next morning, I wouldn't have my sons overnight where there was no control whatsoever.
Speaker 2:So I talked to my husband about it and I said, hey, I think I'm going to only drink once a week in 2023. That's what I'm going to do. And he turned to me and he was more of a frequent one to two drinker. You know, at night he also owns his own business. So he would pour himself a couple of drinks and he would work. He's like I'm the best worker at night after I've had a couple of drinks. He's like I can deal with all of my businesses problems with a couple of drinks and emails are flowing. So he said I've actually been thinking of quitting altogether.
Speaker 2:And I was like, Whoa. Well, if I'm going to do this, ever let's. I've always been sober, curious forever, because again I would go through these nights of, oh, you know I was out with friends and then we stayed at the hotel and I'm just, like you know, black out or I would be so hungover Like I don't alcohol in my body I cannot do anything the next day, no matter how little or how much Um. And so I said, okay, let's try it. And you know it was rough. You know I reached out to Shawna.
Speaker 2:Thank goodness I saw her real thank goodness she shared about this because I had literally no one to talk to and I am so thankful for you because you made me feel not weird. I felt so safe being able to talk to you about it. You gave me so many strategies like substituting I mean, I had a fizzy little drink and a wine glass. So much in January. It's so funny now because every time 435 would hit I'd be like, oh, I need to make my little mocktail and I'd like be muddling things. And I never muddled anything. I drank white clothes only.
Speaker 2:I broke up with like hard liquor and like when I was 22, I couldn't do it anymore. So, like I've never made fancy cocktails ever and I'm like, here I am making mocktails, but like anything to make it feel fun and normal. It was a hard month of what's fun If we're not drinking, what's the fun part of it, and it's very eye-opening. The first month is tough, but the sleep was so good, I was feeling so clear and looking back on this year, I had so much more clarity. I feel so good. I just love how in control I feel all the time I like on weekends, how productive I am. Yes, that is a huge one.
Speaker 2:Being ADHD, we need all the legs up we can get and I do think that this year, not drinking has helped me substantially with my mental health. It's also helped to really exercise this. I'm going to do what's best for me narrative, which is what I've been trying to do for a while. But this is more in a personal, not in a business, Because for many years I've been like I own my own business and this is what I do, and you can make fun of me and I don't care, and I'm going to post funny reels of myself and put myself out there and that's a whole other battle. But to do it personally with friends and with people who are like you're not drinking, I mean, wow, the backlash or the trigger. It's intimidating. I never want to trigger anyone with me choosing this, but it's overwhelming sometimes when you're in social situations how much you trigger. And it's not about them at all. They go into this whole story about their drinking and I'm like I'm.
Speaker 1:Isn't that the funniest?
Speaker 2:As soon as you say you don't drink people start telling you how much they don't drink.
Speaker 1:And I'm like it's OK, I didn't say this for you to tell me how much you do or don't drink. I'm just telling you I don't drink, and then every time almost. And it's not with people that I know, it's always with a new person who then finds out they don't drink and they're like I only have a couple here and there and I'm like it's OK, it's that every single time and so that's been surprising.
Speaker 2:And it's also me and Ryan are so close, like we have never been closer and we were close before, like we have such an amazing marriage. That's so nice. Whenever he says he talks to his buddies and they're like, oh man, you're still not drinking. He's like, yeah, me and Emily. And they're like and Emily's not doing it, he's like we could not do this alone. And we truly do feel that with our personalities.
Speaker 2:We don't think we could have done this without each other. We're just not To be able to do something as serious as this. As such of a life change as this was for us and we're almost to a year it feels great. I don't know, ryan, still likes the taste of it.
Speaker 2:I learned that I don't like the taste of it, which is funny. I don't like. I went to a there's a non-alcoholic bar that opened up in Indianapolis, which is wild, but it's so cool. They taste like alcohol, though, and I'm like, oh, I don't.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, no, I found that if I had one last summer and it tasted so much of booze and I never drank alcohol, but it tasted so much like hard alcohol that I was like that's what.
Speaker 2:I drink, I actually can't have it.
Speaker 1:I like a non-alcoholic beer. That's fine for me, the ones that taste like hard alcohol I'm like. No, and it was like some mixed drink and I had champagne.
Speaker 2:when I walked in Me and my friend who is also sober, I was like is this? This tastes so real, I can't have that. And it's funny because champagne was my girl Like that was another one of my. I loved a mimosa.
Speaker 2:Oh God, we know, Me too, but you know kin has a really good drink that's mimosa-esque that I love so much, kin. I love recess. I love hyal. I've tried them all. I love it. But yeah, it's been a wild journey and I've just been so thankful to have you just to like connect with about it, because it is so scary.
Speaker 1:Well, it's been good for me too to have someone to talk about with, and, like I love what you said, the clarity. I think, clarity and peace. Those are the two things that have come, like you just feel so much clearer about where you want to do in your life and because, like you know, our brains are always going, and they still are, but the sense of peace that I have in my life, I always, I don't know it's hard to describe.
Speaker 1:I can't describe it. It's just like it's there, but it's there, and I've just I've never had that kind of before.
Speaker 2:And it's hard to go back to that for a lot of things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've been asked a lot if I, if I will just like someone to also. John and I are going on a vacation soon and someone said well, is she going to cheat? Well, she's away. I'm like cheat, that's not. I don't think that's what you do, but no, I'm not because I said every, literally every part of my life has gotten better since I stopped drinking. So what's the motivation to start again when everything has improved? It's hard.
Speaker 2:It's hard to explain, it is. Yeah, and a lot of more people are becoming sober curious.
Speaker 1:Oh, my gosh so if you are and you're listening. You know Emily and I are both open. We have to have more people to chat about it with.
Speaker 2:So get it to the DMs. We're here for it. Yeah, ok, to finish this off.
Speaker 1:I have a couple of quick answer questions that I like to ask everyone. So what's one thing you do every day, or most days, that helps you to live your best life, which is annoying in I-Rolls, but it literally especially ADHD, you know is so good for you.
Speaker 2:If you're ADHD and you don't even walking like moving your body gives you. We are low on dopamine as it is. That's why we're constantly seeking it out everywhere we go. That is why we are the way we are. Unless it's interesting, then we're hyper focused on it. But working out gives you a natural dopamine, and so that's why I do it every single morning. I feel so much better when I work out, so that is how I set the tone for the day, I agree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, working out's the best, the best, ok, at best advice you've ever been given or advice you would give to your younger self.
Speaker 2:Here's your. You're just like follow the nudges and like people are not thinking about you. My dad told me 90 percent of the time.
Speaker 2:So thinking about themselves, Like they're not thinking about you at all. And I think another thing I don't mean to bring it back to ADHD, but something that we do a lot is rumination, where we'll just be like thinking of this situation or this exchange and over and over and they're mad at me. And then you talk to the person, they're like what? And it's just like you don't realize it. But people actually aren't thinking about you as much as you think they are.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:Which is sometimes I wish about me a little more, because I want more attention.
Speaker 1:Think about me more, please, and do you have a favorite quote?
Speaker 2:Money, my life. There's like a trillion bajillion. Let's do this one. You can do hard things. That's on my wall right there. Yeah, you can do hard things, yeah, and and you know, I love it that it's in my workout room.
Speaker 2:I love it that it's in my office because it's both a room of both. But, yeah, I think whenever you are, you know, in that situation where you feel like you can't, you actually can. So I love it. It's my favorite reminder to have in here. Yeah, yeah, it's a good point to have in your workout space.
Speaker 1:I like that. I need to add that. Okay, thank you so much, emily, for being here. Please tell the people how they can work with you, because and your beautiful genius brain I don't, I know it's you might not think it is, but it is and you have so many, you have so much goodness to share. I have been the beneficiary of some of that, and I mean you just. You have so much knowledge and so much like, so many amazing ideas, so you are so sweet. So where can they find you?
Speaker 2:Immediately, you can hop in the society or membership that Shauna was talking about. At any time, it's always open. Um, it's a social media, business, marketing, membership. It's all the things we just had a masterclass on AI. That was so good, so good. If we don't know something?
Speaker 2:we hire the experts, we bring them in so you don't have to caption templates, trending audios, all the social media help of Facebook group that is fire all the time. You will find so many other business owners in there. We do events. We have a conference coming up in October. We have a retreat that's sold out in May. So that whole the social squad society. If you don't follow our main account, we'll put it in the show notes so you can follow along with us because we love to get social off of social Um.
Speaker 2:Me personally, one-on-one, my ADHD mentoring is booked for the 2024 first cohort but I will open it back up if there's spots available, probably mid May-ish, because we have our social squad society retreat and then but I still will be doing one-offs some one-off marketing strategy sessions. So those will be available, um in 2024. So I take a couple of those a month and we just, you know, crank out whatever it is that you're. You know you have half-formed ideas in your brain and you don't know when you need some direction. Uh, we hop on a call and you know, after an hour and 15 minutes you have a plan. So that's, that's what I got.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I've done. I've done a one-off session and it was incredible and it is giving me so much, so much goodness, so you need to get in there with all of that. Thank you again, emily, so much for being here, and thank you everyone for listening. I'll see you next time.