The Ultimate Creative

Getting Out Of #Hustle Mode

• Emily Milling / Christy Cegelski • Season 2 • Episode 61

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Have you been sucked into the #hustle and #grind of entrepreneurship? Is your creativity being compromised because you’re working all the time? Well my friend, this episode is for YOU. 

This week on The Ultimate Creative Podcast I’m talking with Christy Cegelski, host of the podcast Captivate + Convert about how she started her copywriting business, what it was like to develop (and stick to) boundaries within the business, and how she uses her podcast as a way to support the core mission of her business - to help more women achieve wealth, success, and independence, and to do it in a sustainable way.

“Sometimes I do that by creating email funnels so my clients can automate their sales process and save time. And sometimes I have a guest on the podcast to talk about how to address and managing anxiety, because you can't effectively run your business if you're having panic attacks every day. To me, success isn't just about how much money you make. It's about really the quality of life. So the way I see it, both of those quote unquote ‘services’ align with my core mission.” - Christy Cegelski

Tune into this episode to hear:

  • How Christy’s copywriting business came to be, and how it has evolved to match her lifestyle over time
  • Christy’s motivation to create content that empowers her listeners to not do "all the things,” but to find satisfaction in what they love instead
  • Christy’s top 3 non-negotiables to having a successfully stress-free business?

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Emily: [00:00:00]   Welcome to another episode of the ultimate creative podcast.

I'm your host, Emily milling. Today, I'm here

with someone who inspires me all the flipping time with her content. She is an entrepreneur. She is like, So whip smart. And the thing I love about her most is that she's absolutely 

true to herself and chooses the things that make her feel good. That's what we're all about here.

And so I would love to introduce you to the host of the podcast, captivate and convert DUSA gals. Welcome to the podcast. 

Christy: [00:01:12] Wow. Can I get you to uh, record me some motivational? The speech every morning. It was pretty awesome. 

Emily: [00:01:19] Absolutely. That's what I'm all about. Stand in the mirror and repeat to yourself. I love you so desperately every morning.

That's what you got to, do and it'll make your life so much better, but I'm so happy you're here. I wanted to have you on The podcast for like, for ever, and I've like dabbled with a couple of different ideas of topics that we could.

Discuss one of them being like community building or like list building for your podcast. But then 

I've been going through this shift in my own content recently and trying to dial into exactly what it is that I want to be doing with my message. Like, what do I want to share with people I want to share with them that it is.

Awesome to make money with your content. And it is also awesome to do it without burning out. And I thought you would be the perfect person to talk about this hashtag hustle, hashtag grind, entrepreneurial lifestyle with in the sense that we just don't want that. So, I would love to kick us off with just the story of how your copywriting business came to beat. What inspired you to get started? 

Christy: [00:02:25] Well, I love all of that. So I'm excited to talk about all this stuff for sure. 

So for me, copywriting was 

not something I 

Dreamed of, as a kid didn't even know it was a thing really. I had, so my kind of first foray in the online business world was with a product based business. My husband and I actually created a line of a skinny margarita mixes and 

Emily: [00:02:50] I love that so much. 

Christy: [00:02:52] I really miss it.

There, there are many things about it that I miss. But it was really just like a fun project and we had no 

intention of. Bottling this stuff or selling it. It was just something we were playing around with. And we were just naive about it. So I think we, we just dove in head first and I didn't really like sort of the, the S the selling side of things that, showing up at whole foods and doing a tasting or that kind of thing.

I loved creating. All the marketing content, like our website copy and email campaigns and growing the, our, our community on social media, which of course back then back in that day was a whole lot easier than it is now because it wasn't pay to play platform, but I didn't know that was copywriting.

And then we ultimately closed that business in 2014. I think we just, it was expensive. We were not making enough money and I ha I kind of started getting other, entrepreneur acquaintances and, and business friends reaching out to me, asking for help with their copy and their emails.

And I didn't really know it was a thing you could get paid for. So that's kind of where it started. And then

eventually I got smart and started charging.

Emily: [00:04:04] yeah. 

really great episode about raising your prices and like understanding how to do that and giving yourself the permission to do that. But I think everyone should check out. I'm going

to link to that in the show notes, because that was like, That was a real tipping point, 

not just for me, but also for the copywriter I work with at the ultimate creative Valesca Griffith.

She's our copy chief here. And she listened to that episode too. And she's like, wow, I really got to change 

what I'm doing. Christy is inspiring me. I'm like, I know she inspires everybody. She's very cool. 

So. 

Christy: [00:04:35] I love that. 

Emily: [00:04:36] Where, was I going with this? I don't know. I just, I love you so much. You do so many great things to make everybody like want to do and be more, but, okay.

So here's what I was thinking. Your story is pretty similar to mine in that, like, I started building websites

ages ago with my business, because I was like, Oh, I can make money at this. And it's a thing that I know how to do, but then it got to the point where I was like, I don't feel fulfilled.

Necessarily by this. And I don't feel like it's reaching the people I want to reach or 

spreading the message I want to share. And I know that you've talked about this a lot, like in your emails that you send out to people and in the Facebook group you used to have and in your podcast as well. So maybe let's jump into the content of your podcast actually, because it explores way more than copywriting and marketing.

Because there's that much more to you. Like there's so much to you. It is a really, really great resource for women entrepreneurs who feel like they need to be, hands-on responsible for everything in their business all the time. I'm really just thinking about myself here right now. What was the motivation to create content that empowers your listeners to not do all the quote unquote things.

Christy: [00:05:47] Yeah. Oh gosh, there are so many things I could say on this topic. For sure. And you. 

know, it's not just you, everybody, I think feels that way at some point on some 

level.

But first of all, I think, in the online space we are. Bombarded with messages of what appears to be 

overnight success. It's six figure this and seven figure that, and most of these 

gurus and influencers and internet famous entrepreneurs make it look easy, right? Like they're all, follow my 10 step blueprint and make a million dollars in a month. 

And the reality is. 

Well, I mean, the reality is there's a certain percentage of that.

That's just bullshit. And you know, when they are telling the truth, they're often not telling the whole truth or at least, not sharing everything that's required behind the scenes to achieve that level of success. In my opinion, they make it look easy. It's like, just do what I do. And you can have what I have.

Meanwhile, They have a coach, an online business manager or a marketing team, a copywriter, a social media manager, a couple of VA's, you're over here, like following their online course curriculum, doing all the things, feeling burnout is hell and not getting anywhere. So I just think, being an entrepreneur is hard.

It's hard. Like there's no other way around that. 

Emily: [00:07:10] of the year. It is so hard 

Christy: [00:07:14] is hard and, we, we need all the help we can get to make it work without killing ourselves. And I just think we need to have more conversations around that and normalize the idea of asking for help and support.

Emily: [00:07:29] what was like a time in your entrepreneurial journey where you were like, I can't do this anymore. I need somebody to help me do this thing or I'm done. I quit. 

Christy: [00:07:38] For me, it was 

kind of in the first or just over the first year in business. And, I should, I should preface this by saying that I started out as a copywriter, not having any idea what to charge, because I had never had like a quote unquote real job where I was paid a certain hourly amount for 

doing a certain amount of work, so I Googled it as we do. And I kind of, came up with, with the hourly rate of $35 an hour, which at the time, to be completely honest, sounded like a great amount of money, because like I said, I'd never had a real job, so that sounded great. But then, as, as I got into it and I got more clients and I was, doing more work and I had all of these expenses behind the scenes of running an online business, I quickly found that I was working.

All the time just to make, barely more than what was covering the costs of running, of running my business. So, it just wasn't sustainable. Like I was working, 10 hours a day. I was working six, seven days a week, always thinking about my, my, my client work, always thinking about the next project.

And I just was feeling like, how did this become. How did this go from being something I was so excited and thrilled to do. Like here I am, I'm finally getting to use these writing skills. I've always wanted to be a writer, to dreading getting up every day, because I knew at the end of the day, like I was just going to be exhausted.

So  I hired a coach and, you know, we kind of started talking about, well, what were some of the things I could hand off and. My first hire was a VA. And I taught, so this actually this week's episode of my podcast, I talked to a copywriter friend who she had a huge amount of growth in the first year of business.

She went from like $7,000 a year to $170,000 in less than 12 months. And we had a little conversation around like hiring team members and it was actually her recommendation. To not hire a VA first because typically when you're so brand new, you don't have all the procedures in place to just hand off to somebody else.

And that was definitely my experience with hiring a VA. I didn't know any better at the time that was sort of like the recommendation. Right. But I made it kind of harder on myself initially, because I didn't have SOP in place. I didn't, I didn't know how to. Explained to her how she could help me and, lucky for me, she had some experience.

I wasn't her first client and she was able to sort of, walk me through that process. But I think if it, if it hadn't been for her, I might not be here today because I just don't think I could have sustained that kind of overworking, you know,

Emily: [00:10:18] Yeah, I completely understand that. And I've tried to hire VA's in the past as well, had the exact same experience. I think I saw a couple of your. 

Your posts on Facebook about hiring out. as well. And actually, I think you did like a, an episode of your show where you answered my question, but you did like an audience feedback survey thing, an AMA AMA, that's the word I'm looking for?

The C acronym I need where you 

Christy: [00:10:45] ask me anything? Oh, good. I'm so bad at figuring those things out. I'm so glad I got that. I feel so smart. 

Emily: [00:10:52] We're not old. We're the youth of tomorrow. 

yeah. So you had, you had

answered a couple of questions around that and, and you, you shared that. same point, like you can't really hire somebody who's like junior or really new to come in and like, expect that they're going to help you with things.

They kind of need to have some experience. Right. And that does take obviously a bit more of an investment, but it's like, Without that you can't actually grow. You can't make any sort of an impact on your business. And you, you really inspired me. I don't know if you know this. I have messaged you on Instagram, about how much you inspire me as you know, but like you really, motivated me to take steps towards understanding what the heck I needed to hire for, and then taking the leap to do it.

And the idea of hiring a VA over an editor, for example. So now I have another editor working with me on the team, which is amazing. Also because I busted my elbow and it hurts to hold a mouse right now. Like, yeah, it's really bad. I need to get an a, what do you call it? An ultrasound on Thursday for it?

I physically can't do some of the work I was doing before, which sucks. Like how, how am I supposed to make any more money? And I had to like, Like very luckily found this person who is so great at his job and like picks up on things intuitively. I'm so happy about that. And I had to just like, let go and.

Give him that trust because I couldn't move my hand and I had no choice, but to let the stuff go and that the cool thing about it is as soon as I let 

like S like a handful of clients go, not go, but a handful of clients into his wonderful care. The business actually brought in, I don't know, 

15, 20% new revenue in the month.

Christy: [00:12:41] Wow. 

Emily: [00:12:41] I gave myself a $1,000 raise. I haven't had 

Christy: [00:12:45] That's fantastic. 

Emily: [00:12:46] And guess what you inspired me. So thank you. Just going to throw that out there, but it's, you know, I think it's really scary to think that. 

Even if you're not making a lot of money. And especially at the outset, like you were talking about charging $35 an hour, and of course your rates are completely different now as they should be, because you are a powerhouse of majesty and wonderfulness.

If you don't have like the funds at the outset to hire somebody, and then also you don't really know what you should be hiring for eight is such a scary feeling. So like, I guess my question is. When someone's in that position, what do you think the first thing is they should do, should they look at their pricing and see if they should increase it or should they work on their processes?

What's more important.

Christy: [00:13:35] Oh, gosh. That's, that's so good. And first of all, let me just say, I think you should probably move in with me because you are really good for my self-esteem really, really good. 

You know what? I don't know that I have the best answer for this, but let me just say this, like you sort of, you just figure things out as you go along.

And I 

think it kind of depends where you're starting to write. Like I started, like I said, charging $35 an hour. And the fact that I got booked up so quickly was probably the best sign I could get that maybe I wasn't charging enough. And. 

I was able to, bump up my rates 

several times in that first like six, six, seven, eight months without really much much pushback.

So I was, I, I was nervous to do it at first. I'm going to be honest and I didn't really know like what the right thing was, but, so it was literally going from like 35 to 40. 40 to 45, 50 to 55. Like that, that whole, it was a very slow process at first. And then I think my last hourly rate before I totally switched over to packages was a hundred dollars an hour.

So, that worked well for me because it didn't require like a whole new level of Ideal client. Right? Like I was still able to basically work with the same kind of people. When you're, when you're getting to the point where you're talking like, okay, well now I'm going to start charging more premium prices.

That's kind of a different animal because the, the client that you're, that you're going to attract  with that kind of pricing. 

Kind of forces you to look at your messaging and look at, how you're positioning yourself, if that makes sense. So I think it's kind of like, maybe start, start there and then maybe kind of look at your processes.

Like, how can you up-level your onboarding process? How can you make your clients feel like they're getting this premium experience? And then, from there you can, maybe think about. Upping your prices a little bit more, or kind of pivoting your packaging or packages or something like that.

Does that make sense?

Emily: [00:15:40] Yeah, I think so. I think what you're saying is it's all about going with your gut and understanding what your audience wants and who they are. 

Christy: [00:15:49] I think so. Yeah. And just being willing to try stuff, like look at it as a, as an experiment. It's not the end of the world. If somebody says, no, you can, you can test it out and you can change your mind.

Emily: [00:15:59] exactly. Exactly. okay. Talking about testing things out and changing your mind.

on things, I want to talk a little bit about how your podcast is part of your marketing strategy. So to me on the outside, it shows that like you've created this fantastic alignment with who you are as a person. And what your business is, values are.

But th th the show isn't only about 

copywriting, right? I think sometimes like myself included kind of get like, in this feeling of, well, if I sell podcasting, I must always talk about podcasting, but your show isn't like that 

the show isn't just about copywriting. Even though that's the business you're in. So I'm curious, how did you figure out how to blend the overarching entrepreneurial topics with the copywriting and marketing topics that you also have to attract your ideal clients? 

Christy: [00:16:46] Yeah, I love this?

question. So, 

At first, well, first of all, starting my podcast at all was, was really about following my. Gut 

instinct on that because, 

As I mentioned, I was working with a business coach who really encouraged me to build an online program, like a group program. 

And I started creating content for it.

I started doing the research for it and I, it was like, I could not bring myself to work on it every time I sat down to work on it. I 

just, I would, peruse Facebook. I would look at Instagram, I would check my emails and it just, it got to the point where I was like, okay, 

clearly this is not what I want to be doing right now.

And, I had thought about creating a podcast, for a few years, actually I bought a course, like a podcasting course, maybe five, six years ago. And I just never did anything with it. I didn't think, I don't think I had a clear. Idea of what that podcast would look like. And honestly, it's probably good that I didn't start a podcast because if I did, it would be completely different.

Like what I'm doing now wouldn't make sense. So that context, but for For whatever reason, I was called to the podcast. So I chose to do that and put my energy into that rather than a group program, because that's just what I felt called to write. And a while back I had Cara Alwill on the podcast and we talked about how to be successful as a multi-passionate entrepreneur.

That's a topic that I'm really interested in and she explained it in a way that really resonated with a lot of people. And I don't want to misquote her, but she said something along the lines of like, it doesn't matter how different, the range of products or services you offer as long as they all align.

With the core mission of your business? 

Emily: [00:18:35] Heck. Yeah. 

Christy: [00:18:36] Yeah. So that was like kind of a light bulb for me too. So for me, I grew up really poor and the women I was surrounded with had no education, no career. They had to rely on the system or a man to put a roof over their heads and feed their families. So my core mission has always been to help more women achieve wealth, success, and independence, and to do it in a sustainable way.

Now sometimes. I do that by creating email funnels. So my clients can automate the sales process and save time. Right. And sometimes I have a guest on the podcast who is on there to talk about how to address and managing anxiety, because you can't effectively run your business if you're having panic attacks every day.

So. To me success. Isn't just about how much money you make. It's about really the quality of life. So the way I see it, both of those quote unquote services align with my core mission.

Emily: [00:19:38] I think I'm going to cry. I'm just going to wait. Oh my gosh. This, I mean, this 

is all like what I'm all about too. And it takes so long to like, realize these things, you have to surround yourself with people like

Christie Sigelski in order to 

understand. All of this 

stuff. go check out our podcast right now.

Seriously. It's so great. 

Christy: [00:19:57] Girl, I'm still figuring it out. Believe me every day. I'm like, how did I not know this? 

Emily: [00:20:02] But that's the great thing about your content and you're so like you, you really put yourself out there, you're vulnerable about what's going on, you share your

experience and that enables other people to do the same. And this?

is like something I've been working on as my own values, the values of the business.

And it's really all about. Using your voice to enable other people to do the same, the same thing being to share 

their voice so that everybody ultimately creates a fantastic positive world of happiness, where we don't feel like shame or guilt, or we don't 

feel like we're in it alone. We all feel connected.

We all feel together and you embody that. So Holy and I just love it so 

Christy: [00:20:47] Wow. Thank you. I'm so glad. I mean, that's the goal, right? 

Emily: [00:20:51] I think so. And that's kind of why, like, I 

think I've been. So much more into podcasting as a business, even

though like, at the core of me, like I'm very much all about entertainment. I want to be creating sketches and comedy and music all the time and films.

But podcasting is just another Avenue. Like you said, as a multi-passionate that I get to help people share their stories. I'm telling stories with all the different types of things that I do as a creative and all of us as content creators, we do that, that we're just 

effectively we're storytellers. Right. But you know, I get to now help people do that. And it's so much more in alignment with me as a human being to be able to do that. And, and also I get to 

charge money for it. So it was pretty awesome. We're also allowed to charge money for the things we like people K.

Christy: [00:21:40] Getting paid as a good thing. 

Emily: [00:21:41] Yes, it is. Okay.

So you've interviewed so many different people, all with totally different methods of slowing down the hashtag hustle. I'm curious, which methods have you tried and which ones have worked really well for you? Cause you had like a whole bunch of different ones when we were just starting your podcast last summer.

And I was like, wow. There's like, Crystals. There's like other things of this dementia. I'm like what, how,

how so? Um, yeah, so which ones have you tried? Which ones work? What do you, what do you like? What do you hate? 

Christy: [00:22:14] Well, I I've always 

been a searcher, so? I'm, probably always going to be the first one to try whatever. Like, I mean, within 

reason I'm 

not crazy, but 

I think like my husband makes fun of me because he he'll say like, I'm the Guinea pig. You go do something for a while and if it's.

Then then I'll try it. So that's just kind of, my it's always been my Mo, but you know, I've tried a lot of things. I've done a lot of things and really like all in full transparency, like 

To attempt to S to heal, some of the craziness from my childhood. So, you know, I've gone to therapy of, 

I've done all the meditation, like all the, all the things 

really, but one of the biggest things that I've changed in the last, I don't know, maybe like six to nine months is really leaning into my human design strategy and listening to my intuition when I make.

Business decisions. And, you know, I don't feel like I know enough about human design to really explain it without sounding like a complete moron, but as a manifesting generator, it's part of my strategy to ask myself questions and to, you know, to go with my gut response. So what's, served me really well.

Is the idea that if something doesn't feel like a hell yes. Whether that's, a new project, a new client, a social media platform to write an email that day, then it's a no, it's a hard, no, and it's harder to do sort of in my personal life, honestly. And there are things we've just got to do that maybe we aren't like jazzed about, but.

Yeah. 

You know, Blow, drying your hair, that kind of stuff.

But, for the most part, like if something just doesn't feel like you're excited about it, maybe, maybe you don't need to do it. That's just kind of, what's been sticking with me lately.

Emily: [00:24:02] Yeah. And you shut down your Facebook group today because it didn't feel right. 

Christy: [00:24:07] Yeah, absolutely. 

Emily: [00:24:09] like from the people. 

Christy: [00:24:10] Well, so far I've gotten, I don't know, probably a couple of handfuls of messages. Like I think some people commented. I've gotten some messages on Facebook and everybody's really been positive. Like just thank you for being honest. And I've, I've found value here. I'm sorry to see you go kind of thing, but I definitely will follow you.

And I mentioned my podcast, I'll be hanging out there, my email list, that kind of thing. But, yeah, I mean, it's just one of those things that I started that Facebook group based on the advice of a well-meaning coach and, you know, there's nothing wrong with that. Like, that's, that's what worked for her and that's what she suggested.

And, When I look back, there were all of these signs that I just, I wasn't into it. So if I would have, kind of known better at the time and was into, or understanding that listening to my intuition was kind of the thing to do rather than. Following what worked for somebody else, then I wouldn't have started it to begin with.

And it's not that it was bad or that I had a bad experience. Everybody in there was great. I th I, it, it was a great space. It just didn't feel, it didn't feel aligned anymore. Like, I didn't feel like what I was putting out there was resonating in a way that, was working for that platform.

So. I'm all about simplifying things. I'm all about sort

of, narrowing down to, to what feels really good and what really makes sense so that you're not killing yourself and doing a million different things. And so that just seems like, the clear next step.

Emily: [00:25:33] Yeah. 

Well, and you know, what I love about the response is that people aren't pissed off at you. Because first of all, why would they be? But what this tells us is that it's okay to change your mind. Right. It's totally fine to hashtag pivot. It's cool. Nobody's going to be like, Oh, this sucks. And I talk about this in, in episode two of season two.

Which came out today, the day that we're recording. So like you can make a shift if you want to, the way I'm doing the way Christie 

has done with her Facebook group. Like, however you need to do it in order to feel better about your life, cause it really, it comes down to your life. If you are the only person responsible for the things like making your income, running your business, creating your content, you shouldn't be having.

Friggin good time at it. And it can feel so scary. I think, to stop doing a thing, if you're like, okay, but you know, this person said, I should do it just like you were saying, Christie. Like if someone who you look up to is saying, you should do this, that, or the other thing, it's very hard to be like, I don't want to, and this doesn't feel right.

In which case I think you should probably just look up to Christie so that you never feel that way.

Christy: [00:26:49] don't know, about that, but I think it's true. And like, if we don't. if you're a newbie or even, even, I guess, no matter what level you're at, right. You know,

That you don't know all the things, and it's great to look to other people to get advice and, to see what worked for them. But ultimately there are millions of ways to do the same thing.

So if, if you listen to somebody and something that they're saying or something, some advice they're offering doesn't feel right for you. It's okay. They're, it's, it's not like it's not going to work because you're going to do it 

differently. I think that's a hard one for, for us to sort of wrap our minds around because we look to these experts to show us how it's done and.

I think ultimately, your, the only one that you need to,

check in with and follow, 

Emily: [00:27:36] Exactly. And I think too, we look to these experts because there's something about them that we identify with. Not necessarily their content cause like, but jillions of people out there talk about copywriting and podcasting, but you listen to this cause you're like, I resonate with your message. I feel like you get me, you sound weird and have weird places, Emily.

And I'm like, yes, I do. People show up for you because they like you, the human being, and that goes back to align with your core values. Okay. I've got another question for you.  What are your top three? Non-negotiables to having a successfully stress-free business.

Christy: [00:28:17] Well, I think stress-free might be a little optimistic, but I think it doesn't have to feel like a constant struggle, if it does, probably something needs to change. But I think my top three right now, anyway, and this is, subject to change because that's who I am. The first thing is like, I, I really no long, I try to no longer do things that aren't in alignment.

And I know that sounds kind of woo and all that, but. It really doesn't matter if a certain strategy, what we were just talking about this, it doesn't matter if a certain strategy or offer or marketing tactic, worked a hundred percent of the time for somebody else. If I'm not excited about it. I really, really just try to steer clear.

Yeah. The second thing. Probably releasing any expectations of a particular outcome. I used to get really invested in. Like, Oh, is this client going to sign or did they, did they not like me? They didn't, they decided not to work with me. Did they? Not like me? Did, was my price too high or whatever.

at this point, like I just do things that feel right. That feel fun. And I don't get caught up in the results because I truly believe that if it's meant for me, it'll happen for me. And I might not know the timeline. I'm not in control of that. And if it's not, then there'll be something better. And probably the last thing is honoring my boundaries and I hate the word boundaries because I just feel like it's so overused. But, I used to be really afraid also to set boundaries with my clients. Like. When I was available or how quickly I could complete the work and what was included, all of those things, because I was terrified of hearing a no, I wanted to, I mean, I'm a people pleaser, so  I wanted to make sure that I was, offering all the things and available all the time.

And it just got out of hand. Cause I was, doing a lot of phone calls for free and, working until 10:00 PM and like all these crazy things. So. Yeah. I mean, I know you can relate, like it's a, it's a common thing. Right. But I would literally work myself to death to under promise and over deliver. And now I just I don't know. I try to just tell it like, it is like in the nicest possible way, of course, but I'm not afraid to. Tell people what my rates are like, no apologies. I'm not afraid to tell them that, I only do client work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 10 to four.

Here's what you can expect. Here's here's when I'm available here, we're now here's when I will get back to you. And you know what, sometimes  I will email a client back at seven o'clock at night, but I'm not bound by that. And I, and I want them to know that.

So. I think that's like the big, the biggest change that's, relieved a lot of stress in my, in my business.

Emily: [00:31:05] okay. So these are your top three. I'm going to recap them. You said not. in alignment. Oh my God. I can't read my, own handwriting. If it's not in alignment, don't do it. Number two, releasing expectations of an outcome. Oh my

gosh. That's a big one. And then number three is honoring your own boundaries. It's so easy to honor other people's boundaries, but your own, 

Christy: [00:31:26] Yes it is. And what I think is important to say there too, is that, just because somebody Like send you an email at 10 o'clock at night. They don't necessarily expect that I'm thinking most of the time they don't expect you to respond. Right. It's like, I know that I kind of do this where, because my schedule is, is whatever I want to make it.

Sometimes I am working late at night, sometimes I'm done at noon. So sometimes when I think of something, I will like send somebody a Voxer or send somebody an email and. I never have the expectation that they're paying attention at that moment or that they should respond to me immediately. It's just me like doing it while I, while I remember.

Right. So I think we, we tend to put all of these expectations on ourselves thinking that somebody else is expecting it of us. And it's really not, nobody cares. They don't, they don't expect a response in five minutes. You know what I mean?

Emily: [00:32:23] It's very true. And you know, what, if this is something that bothers you, if you're listening dear listener, and you're like, gosh, I don't even know how we would start to implement that. What are you just start with? Like an auto responder that says, I check my emails at noon and four, or you could set up like, Contact hours on your website, and then you can just point people back there.

And then you don't have to tell people that over and over, you can just be like, this is how you can connect with me. Or like if you sign contracts with people, you can put that in your contract. You can say, I am reachable by email. I'll get back to you within one to two business days, here are my business days, and then you don't even have to worry about it.

I feel like that's a really easy way to overcome that. And the other thing that I really like is scheduling emails, because like in Gmail, you can actually schedule them to go out at like all at 8:00 AM or all a noon or 

Christy: [00:33:17] Oh, 

Emily: [00:33:18] Yeah. And then, and then it doesn't look like I'm working all hours.

Cause like, again, like I get to choose the hours. I want to work if I need to take some time off. Cause I feel like I have food poisoning today. Perhaps I work later in the day, but I don't know. I don't necessarily want you to know that I'm working later in the day. You know what 

I mean?

Uh, but I, I really, I really love everything that you've shared there.

I think, like I said, you are the kind of person entrepreneurs need to look up to. I don't care who you are just like. Go find

Christi on all of the places, willing to everything in the show notes. OBS Christie, what are you plugging right now? What are you promoting? But tell everybody

Christy: [00:34:03] Well, well, I, I don't honestly have any particular thing that I've have going on. I'm not launching anything. I'm actually retiring my mini course. So we don't need to talk about that, but something that I've been loving doing, and I've been doing a lot of them lately is my done in a day package.

It's, it's just what it sounds like. It's like, we work together, you bring me your draft of, whatever it is. Maybe it's a sales page. Maybe it's a couple of website pages. Maybe it's a few emails and I work on it and revamp it and optimize it for conversions. And it's done. In the day.

So you get, check it off your to-do list. You don't have it hanging over your head anymore. And it's very profesh. So

Emily: [00:34:47] Very professional. I would expect nothing less. You are a very profesh person. So how should I 

Christy: [00:34:53] yeah, I love it. My, my daughter is like, I didn't even know what that word meant. And then I heard it on Tik TOK the other day. That was like, my mom says that

like, okay, dork.

Emily: [00:35:03] to talk. I don't know, couch infants. Ha.

Oh, 

Christy: [00:35:07] I hate tech

talk. 

Emily: [00:35:08] Oh no, I'm getting so into it because the algorithm, the algorithm, the algorithm is so

different from Instagram and like, you don't have to worry about how many people are following you. 

Christy: [00:35:19] Oh, 

 

that is weird. I don't know, actually. So I'm not on Tik TOK. I mean, as you can probably imagine, but  one of the things like my biggest pet peeve lately is reels. Like I swear to God, if I see one more real, where somebody is dancing around for no reason or pointing to words on the screen, I am going to lose it.

Emily: [00:35:43] It's the like, why, why did this become the thing? and it's not just like a very short-lived phase. This has been happening since they introduced reels six months ago, please come up with other ideas and share them with everyone. So they stopped doing it because Christy needs to not have stress in her life.

Do it for Christie 

God. Oh my goodness. Okay, well, that's awesome. I'm gonna link to your done in a day package in the show notes. Everyone can go check that out. Your podcast is captivate and convert on Instagram. You are at

Christy: [00:36:18] Christy  

Emily: [00:36:19] great. 

Christy: [00:36:20] will. You'll have to look at the show notes to spell that. 

Emily: [00:36:23] Okay. We'll spell it out in the show notes and. Sign up for Christie's email list too. It's a very good email list. It's just full of awesomeness and experiences that an entrepreneur

would relate to Let's wrap up this episode with a final thought. Give me whatever final thought you have in this moment. 

Christy: [00:36:44] Oh, my God, I 

Emily: [00:36:45] Great thought 

Christy: [00:36:46] I don't think on the, I don't think on the spot like that. 

Emily: [00:36:50] That's good. Right? That's fine. That is a perfect fun with that. My final thought is that I really like Iris flowers. I have a bouquet of them. Thanks for listening. Thanks for

coming, Christie. This has been awesome. I appreciate you so much. 

This is great. 

Christy: [00:37:07] Well, thank you for having me. You are just the funnest person ever. 

Emily: [00:37:10] Thank you.