53: 5 surprising ways to build a more sustainable business
Do you ever check in with yourself and ask what kind of a business and life you want to have? How much you want to work, or how much freedom you desire?
In this episode of ill communication, I’m sharing a replay of a conversation I had with Elaine Lou Cartas and we are diving into the 5 surprising ways to build a more sustainable business.
Elaine is an award-winning business coach, career coach, and speaker for women of color and allies and the host of the Color Your Dreams podcast.
Elaine is a sustainability business badass, and I'm thrilled to rebroadcast this conversation for you!
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
How capitalism and the patriarchy are influencing our views on success
How to easily magnetize the right people to your business
The power of leaning into your values in your business
The nine-word follow up email that you need to know
How AI can simplify your copywriting process and save you tons of time
Tips for getting off the content-creation hamster wheel
How showing up authentically creates sustainability in your business
I hope you enjoyed this replay of my interview with Elaine! I'm so thankful for voices like Elaine's, who are showing us another way to grow our businesses without sacrificing our health or time with our loved ones.
Make sure to subscribe to Elaine Lou's podcast and newsletter! You can find both at www.elainelou.com.
What are your thoughts on creating more sustainability in your business? Share any sustainability takeaways with me or better yet with your community!
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[00:00:03] Welcome to Ill Communication, Copywriting, Tips and sales strategies for small Business. I'm your host, Kim Keel. I'm a copy coach, sales strategist and direct response copywriter. It's my mission to help women leaders and change makers amplify their voices through copy. It's why I'm dishing out all the juicy tips, writing prompts and sales formulas to help you generate more leads, book more calls, and get more high value clients on repeat. Sounds pretty good. It's time to ditch the overwhelm you might be feeling and find confidence in your copywriting so you can get your message out there and attract more soulmate clients. Let's get started. Hello, my friend. How often do you check in with yourself to ask what kind of business and life [00:01:00] you really want to have? How much time do you actually want to spend working? How much freedom do you want to have? Do you want to work two days a week, three days a week? Do you want to be able to take several weeks off without having to work at all? The podcast guest host you're going to hear from today has totally got it figured out. And she is someone who is continually inspiring me with how she leads by example.
[00:01:28] Welcome to the Ill Communication podcast. Today's episode 53 is five Surprising Ways to Build a More Sustainable Business, featuring Elaine Lockhart-ross. She's an award winning business coach, career coach and a speaker for women of color and allies and the host of the Color Your Dreams podcast. Elaine is one of the most decent, most authentic humans I've met in the online space, and I've even had the luxury of meeting up with her in person, too. What's pretty funny [00:02:00] about today's episode replay is that it was a conversation Elaine Lu and I had on her podcast several months ago all about how to build a sustainable, easy business you love. And get this, as I record this episode, Elaine is in the midst of an African safari where she's taking several weeks away from her business and not taking her laptop with her. I also heard her share out her podcast. This is the seventh vacation she'll be going on this year, and it hasn't slowed her growth or her revenue. Oh, and by the way, she typically only has a three day workweek. Elaine is a sustainability business badass, and I'm thrilled to rebroadcast this conversation for you. Let's get into it.
[00:02:44] So there have been some female powerhouse leaders who have retired recently. Serena Williams just retired from tennis. The prime minister of New Zealand decided not to continue another term. And [00:03:00] more recently, the CEO of YouTube is leaving. And the reason for all these three amazing female leaders for leaving and retiring is to have more time with their families, to have more of a life, to have a life for themselves. And you probably want this, too, right? Legacy leader? Because for a woman of color and allies, we are learning and unlearning that success and happiness is not dependent solely on our working identity. We have other identities beyond work, like being a mother, daughter, sister, and or just being a human being. And let me emphasize on the word being of being a human being. We're human beings, not human doings. And in this episode, I'm joined by my friend Kim Keel, who's a mom and [00:04:00] a copywriter for 15 years for small businesses and nonprofits. And in this episode, we talk about five tips to have a more sustainable and conscious business and life. All right, let's drop the beat.
[00:04:20] Hey, legacy Maker. I'm your host and emcee, Elaine Loukaitis, business and career coach for Women of Color and Allies. And welcome to the Call Your Dreams podcast, where we have conscious conversations to help you create a business or career that is sustainable, abundant and equitable to the lifestyle you deserve. Because our ancestors sacrificed so much so we can have this life of choice. Now grab your coffee, tea and your boba, and let's call your dreams to create your legacy. Hey, [00:05:00] legacy leaders, I'm excited to.
[00:05:03] Have my friend who I.
[00:05:04] Am obsessed.
[00:05:05] With. I just told her, I mean, you know, I'm one of your groupies. It's Kim Kiehl, who is the founder of the boutique copywriting agency. Kim Kiehl Copy. With 15 plus years of writing multi six figure campaigns for small businesses and nonprofits. So similar to me, Kim is from the nonprofit world and she has an amazing podcast show called Ill Communication. It's like 5 to 10 minute bits on copywriting and I'm excited to have her and to talk about five copywriting tips to have a sustainable business and life for the modern woman, because we've been seeing people like Serena Williams taking a sabbatical, people in the coaching world, people in different industries, the Prime Minister of New Zealand. So Kim, I'm excited to have you here. Anything else you want to brag about, about yourself?
[00:05:55] Hey, think you got it in a nutshell? Thank you so much for having me. And I am just [00:06:00] as obsessed with you, so I'm excited to be here.
[00:06:04] Yeah. Please join Kim's email list. I know I'm the call to action now, but Hudson, who joined their email list. I'm just gonna put it out there right now. Your email list you can go.
[00:06:14] To Kim Quill.com Kim k e l.com/newsletter and then you can just sign up right there and you'll get little snippets a couple times a week, once a week, sometimes two times a week.
[00:06:29] And her headlines, her subject headings you could learn so much from if you have your own business. What I saw was like Confessions of a Failed launch. I was like, Oh, clickbait. Yes, I will hit that. Anyways, actually, I want to get into it. What we've been noticing, we're recording this in 2023 with women taking a sabbatical. Like I remember seeing the incredible Prime Minister of New Zealand who decided she's no longer serving another term. She was able to govern really [00:07:00] well while dealing with the pandemic and Covid and just other things. I know your mother of how many kids?
[00:07:06] Kim I have two pre-teen and a teenage boy.
[00:07:10] Yeah. And I would love to get your thoughts and we'll go into the copywriting tips. But this also kind of layers in of why it's so important to be mindful of having a sustainable business in life as a business owner and as a woman. You know.
[00:07:23] It's yeah, exactly. And I think that, you know, you mentioned Serena Williams, the New Zealand prime minister. There's also a politician in Scotland who recently stepped back and also the CEO of YouTube, who's a woman.
[00:07:37] Yes.
[00:07:38] Saw she recently announced her stepping back as well. And it's because the success that we want to see in our lives isn't congruent with the kind of family lifestyle that we want. And I think when you're an entrepreneur, you have maybe a little bit more flexibility. We can create the kind of business that we want to have so that we have [00:08:00] that freedom. Or maybe we get into jobs so that we know we can have that kind of freedom we want with our families. But if you're not really paying attention, you can end up getting sucked into this bigger machine or creating this sort of monster machine that is bigger than you can actually sustain and makes women want to, like, jump out and take a break and take a sabbatical because the system just isn't set up to support us in the daily lives and our career lives and our social lives.
[00:08:31] Yeah, I think what I'm saying and even for me and I'm sure for you, it's like a lot of the unlearning, right? We were raised for success is a lot of money. You know, having that corner office or the beautiful view of the city, being able to manage everyone. And then you get here, you have kids, you have aging parents. Yes. We didn't predict the pandemic was going to be here and we were going to be in four walls realizing what makes me [00:09:00] happy. And it's like, hold on. This definition of success is not what I want.
[00:09:06] And for some reason we sort of forget that it's okay to have this, like, really modest little business or a really nice little career that just chugs along, brings us joy. But we don't always have to be like ten Xingu and scaling and being on all the platforms, you know, like we have to be okay with just being like a small success and feeling comfortable about that in our own lives, I think. But, you know, we still need some of the systems and support to help to help us be able to show up at work and also to be able to like show up for our families as well.
[00:09:42] I love that you share that. You know, there's this I think capitalism has a play with it, too. And the patriarchy of more and more and more being the best. I just went to the alt summit conference and I met an Olympian. And even though she didn't win like a gold, silver or bronze, I was like, You are. Clearly still the 1% [00:10:00] like that is still an achievement to be in the Olympics. And I remember what my former job before I became a coach, I was working at Passi City College Foundation. It was my dream job. I got to raise millions for college students and my boss, Bobby Abraham, who is still a good friend and mentor of mine. I loved how transparent, honest she was. She was like, We're not trying to be a big nonprofit. I'm not trying to be the Red Cross. I'm not trying to be the LA Philharmonic like we are a local nonprofit and we want to serve our community and this is what we are doing. She just owned it. What I felt in my own business, I don't need to be the biggest, quote unquote in terms of amount of hits on my website and followers. I want to impact the small amount with quality. It's kind of like Ivy League schools. That's the unfortunate thing. I think like a lot of people in this coaching industry or consulting industry, it's like more and more and more I was like, But [00:11:00] people pay a lot of money to go to Ivy Leagues or liberal arts schools for smaller student teacher ratio, and I'd rather have that. I don't know if you have anything you want to share about that perspective too.
[00:11:10] I think what comes to me was you're just talking about that and what your last employer had done was actually niche in like she decided, we're not going to serve everyone. This is exactly who we're going to serve. And that allows you just that focus alone gives you a chance to like create some boundaries on your time, your energy, your bandwidth, so that you're not trying to be all the things to all the people and think that that plays into the kind of marketing we do, the kind of copy we write, how we show up in our businesses because we have that sort of more defined niche that we can play. And it's like being a bigger fish in a smaller pond. You can go deeper with your clients and customers when you have articulated who it is that you actually serve.
[00:11:55] So already going deep in. So let's talk about the tips like the [00:12:00] five copywriting tips to be more sustainable. So I'm assuming one of them is niching. Is that what I'm hearing from you?
[00:12:06] Yeah. So I actually just did like a really low key, lazy launch. I was an affiliate promoting a different online business course and I knew I had very limited bandwidth to do it. I had a very short window of time in which to get stuff prepped and executed. So one of the things that I did was I significantly narrowed my niche. I decided that for this particular offer, I was only going to be talking to Gen X women in business, and because I created that niche, I was able to speak very directly to that audience and they showed up like they heard me. They reached out to me, they engaged with me. Ultimately, it wasn't the offer that they needed. You know, it's an affiliate offer. You never know who's going to say yes to that. But what it showed me was the power of having that niche, and it just helped [00:13:00] me, like really focus in on my copy and know who I was talking to so that I didn't get distracted by like, Oh, well, I need to talk to, you know, people who are millennials or Gen Z or I need to talk to the boomers. No, I was just talking to Gen X women. It's so funny. Like when you narrow in, you actually create more space for yourself.
[00:13:21] You do. And I implemented this new thing in my own business because I do calls to people that are interested in working with me. I have people fill out the form and I was realizing I was at putting like this specific minimum amount per month. I even have extended payment plans at the minimum 625 a month minimum for extended payment plans. I didn't put that exact number, so I used to have 20 sales calls scheduled and a lot of people took advantage of it when a free session with me and I'm like, my time is more important than doing all this. So now I put my time and I put a boundary like within 24 hours you need to fill out this form. [00:14:00] And what happened this past month is ten people actually opted out. So they booked a call, opted out. And I found that as a win. I was like, Yes, I'm so excited that I have more time. Yes. And the people that did fill it out, they're just so ideal. I'm in conversations with them. I'm excited. And the reason why that was also important to me is that I could work out, I could go take a nap like this is not even I have more time to do more work. It's I could take a nap. I could go work out, I could sleep in, I could win. I just don't want all of this. And I just want to be direct and honest with others. And my niche is with women of color and allies. And I've been talking to someone who is an ally and I really appreciate her. She was like, I don't want to take up space for someone that may like should get this space. And I was like, Actually, you even being mindful of it makes you an ideal person that I want to talk to. And I've noticed that my messaging retracts that A. People that are not ideal. [00:15:00] So I just want to share how important it is to niche down because then you get really excited with the people that you get to work with. Anything you want to add to that?
[00:15:08] No, I think it's really a win win because it focuses you and your copy and your messaging and it magnetizes the right clients to you so it becomes a little bit easier. It's so counterintuitive. Like it really it was eye opening for me to do that experiment and just to be able to say, yeah, niching, niching, niching is so good.
[00:15:29] And I'm sure for you it happens to me too. Sometimes you get someone that doesn't meet that target market, but they align in values and you take them on like, that's okay too. And there's nothing.
[00:15:40] Wrong with having, you know, as long as you're disciplined and deciding, this is on my term, I'm having a sales call with a client who is not, quote unquote, my ideal avatar. But it's an interest of mine, which is baseball. And so I'm going to like just see where it goes. And, you know, if it results in anything great. If it doesn't, that's great. [00:16:00] But I am choosing to go outside of my boundary. And I know that if I choose to work with that organization, it's going to be with some very good boundaries. Yeah.
[00:16:11] Yeah. And I even wanted to reflect when I focused more on values because I know values is a huge thing for you. What I've appreciated, noticed in my own business is I have more clients who aren't just coaches. They're such a pyramid scheme of that, right? Coaches, coaching coaches, coaching coaches. Actually, majority of my clients now, you know, one has a dog product based business, another one has a restaurant, another person does the I work. If anything, about 5% of my clients are now coaches. But what's beautiful is the diversity that's happening and how we could learn from all of it anyways. I always get into like black holes with my guests, so I apologize. What's the second tip besides niching? Well, you know what?
[00:16:57] I think you were kind of you just were leading in there with talking about [00:17:00] values. And I think that leaning into your mission and your values and being very transparent about that, it's kind of similar along the lines of niching. But so many consumers today are wanting to do business with ethical businesses. Like if you are donating 1% of your profits to a nonprofit, make sure you share that because that is actually going to be more attractive to a potential client. So your sales will probably be easier if you're sharing and showing your values. I think the other thing about, you know, trying to build in sustainability into our businesses is how we approach our launches and our promotions and to approach those with ethics and values of being transparent as well. And one of the things that I have seen and heard other launch experts talking about is how we need to give people a [00:18:00] longer amount of time to make a decision to work with us and be very transparent from the beginning about what our pricing is. So whether you're selling a $15 product or a $15,000 product you like, be very upfront and say, Hey, later I'm going to be opening the doors to this offer.
[00:18:17] That's $15,000. You can come in, you can stay, you can listen along like whatever. I just want to give you a heads up. That's what the end goal is here. But here I am today to serve you with whatever maybe event or training you might be offering. But over time your people will be able to look at that price tag and enroll themselves. So they're not going to be having sticker shock when you finally, like open the doors and it's $15,000 or, you know, hopping on a sales call and then you're in this like state of flight freeze and you need quickstarts like that. And just to be a little bit more trauma aware and provide a little bit more space and longevity to allow people to make that decision. It also takes a lot of the pressure [00:19:00] off of us as well. When we give people that longer lead time, we're not feeling as much pressure during a period of open cart or a sales or promotion to like hit our sales goals because we know that people are going to come in and they're going to be the right fit person.
[00:19:15] Yeah, I know both of us have a similar background being in the nonprofit sector prior to having our business. You doing copywriting, me doing coaching. And it's weird because in the nonprofit world, as a former fundraiser, I was taught that it was a long time. Then I go into the coaching world like needs to be faster because I started back in 2017 and I've seen a lot of unlearning happening and I would beat myself up recently. Like I'm Unicef. I came from the world of the nonprofit sector where we saw our donors as people. We were focused on getting married with two till death do you part? Because in the nonprofit world, if you're nurturing a relationship, it's not just those major gifts and donations you're receiving. The bigger. Your goal is. Hopefully you're going to be in their will [00:20:00] or their trust that they're going to donate millions to your nonprofit. And I will even share in my business. I do take time and giving people agency, right? So at the end of my first initial call with people, I say, Hey, I'll send you a proposal. Do you want to have a follow up call next week or two, or do you prefer responding to me an email? No pressure. And then even when I follow up, because I'll be honest, I do get annoyed when people ghost. Me. Are you giving an option for people to say no to you instead of, Hey, do you want to work together? Or What I've been doing in my emails is, Hey, I just want to circle back. It's been a while since I heard from you. Let me know if you want to move forward. If you need to go on a call for any questions. And third, if you no longer want to work with me, that's okay too. Just let me know to honor both your time and mine.
[00:20:46] Yeah, love that. One of the emails that I like to send in that kind of a scenario is the nine word email, which is very simply. Are you still looking for support with Blank [00:21:00] or are you still needing help with blank? So in your case it might be. Are you still wanting to work with a coach? Are you still needing help with growing your business or are you still needing help with copywriting? And you just send that very simple email and people will reply back with a yes, and then you can enter into that conversation and take it the next step. Or they'll be like, No, I've decided to go another direction. So it's a very simple and inoffensive email. You just send those links, that one simple sentence, and it lands in the inbox and it grabs your attention because it is so simple and people will open it and read it and reply. And if they don't, then you know, they're probably not a good fit anyway.
[00:21:41] Yeah, if people don't respond after 1 or 2 times, I usually just say, okay, best of luck. And that's another thing too. When even people tell me I've decided to work with someone else, I actually congratulate them. Congratulations for finding a good fit.
[00:21:52] Yeah. For knowing what you need?
[00:21:55] Yes. Like celebrating them. And I will say, I've done [00:22:00] that two times before and they referred me to other clients because they're not meant for everyone. Going back to your knitting, we're not meant for everyone.
[00:22:07] Yes, yes, yes. 100%. 100%.
[00:22:11] So what is your third tip for our listeners?
[00:22:15] This one might be a little surprising, but you might. If you're wanting to build in a little sustainability into your business, you might want to experiment with a AI to write your copy or to help you plan your messaging. Ai is all over the media news right now. Chat GPT, GPT four, Jasper Jarvis. These are all different services that you can access to help you write your copy. These newer versions are actually very, very good. What it needs is the quality of the prompts and the information that you feed the AI, and then it will spit out better quality information. So [00:23:00] I have only experimented with a very little, but I have taken lots of really deep dive trainings with people who are sort of leading in this field and it is mind blowing to me the kind of powerful copy that you can get out of ChatGPT. It is not something that you want to ask it one prompt and get a spit out and then immediately copy and paste that into an email or onto a social post or into a blog. You need to really have some back and forth, feed it information about who your client is, who your audience is, feed it information about a particular scenario.
[00:23:36] Ask really compelling prompts like Give me a compelling, unique emotional subject line for an email that is about finding sustainability in your business. Give me five examples and it'll spit out five examples and then you can say, That's great, can you fit, spit out five more? And so you can actually use it for a lot of idea generation. [00:24:00] You can get it to write some longer content, but again, it's more like a first draft, second draft, and then you want to take it and rework it. But for someone like me, I'm a responder in my human design. So for me to put in a prompt and have it spit out something, I can look at that and be like, okay, this is what I like, this is what I don't like, this is how I'm going to change it. And it can help actually save you a little bit of time. If you're like, I don't know what to write, well, go to ChatGPT first and then iterate from there.
[00:24:30] Yeah, it's processing it and orchestrating it. At Alt Summit, I got to meet with a product manager for Microsoft because Microsoft is leading and they're working on another product. And it was just so fascinating the questions you could ask and being more specific and what it helps as a human being. It's processing like it's processing your brain like, Oh, okay, this is too bland. Can you make this more fun? Yes, Right. And then there is a product called Microsoft Designer that Microsoft is working [00:25:00] on. It's kind of like Canva, but it's with AI. We're asking specific questions. So can you create a post with Palm Springs vibes with an orange tint? Wow. Can you add a car in it? Like it was just more specific. My friend April Little, who's an executive career coach, described ChatGPT like it's mayonnaise, right? Like you were saying, like, first, second draft. It's mayonnaise. Just add your own spice into it.
[00:25:28] Yeah, absolutely. And you don't ever want to, like, necessarily trust the information and statistics that it pumps out for you. So you really do have to know your field of of expertise. You need to know the topic you don't want to trust because there are some errors in the data that it spits out. So you definitely want to review it and use it and adapt it. And but I've used it to come up with like an outline for podcast episodes, for subject lines, podcast titles, headline ideas. And I even used it to write a silly poem [00:26:00] that I used for Gag Gift at Christmas. And it like I wrote this silly poem and in like 20 minutes using ChatGPT. So, you know, experiment with your own personal fun stuff.
[00:26:10] What I heard is we could be poets here and send love letters to friends and family members.
[00:26:17] Songs? Yes. Songs. Anything. Yeah. Okay.
[00:26:21] Well, I don't think ChatGPT could actually provide me a really good voice, so that's okay. Maybe in the future, I'm pretty sure that's going to happen in the future.
[00:26:31] I just heard of like, a deep fake a scam that's going on where it's like AI generated voice, like they're mimicking the voices of people's grandchildren and then calling grandparents and saying like, Hey, grandma, I'm trapped in the in the jail. Please send money. And it sounds just like their loved ones. So not that you want to use that, but, you know, robotic voices are getting pretty good.
[00:26:55] That's crazy and insane on a funny joke. I've had two psychics tell [00:27:00] me that I'm going to have twins in the future. And I have jokingly said, if I have twins and they're girls, I'm going to call them Alexa and Siri. So the names.
[00:27:10] And then you'll have like all your devices popping on all at the same time. Alexa, clean your room.
[00:27:17] Siri, go get me water. Yeah. So what's your fourth tip for us?
[00:27:23] My fourth tip is to take a look back at good old fashioned content creation. So, you know, we've really seen a swing over the last several years to creating reels and then stories and then carousel posts and then being on TikTok and being on LinkedIn and being on Facebook and Instagram and YouTube and being in all these places. And it is exhausting. And you physically can't be in all those places at once unless you have really superior systems and really superior team to help you repurpose your content, create the imagery [00:28:00] and help you get all that stuff out on all those different platforms. But even still. We have no control over what the algorithm is going to decide today. Are they going to show that real? No, They're prioritizing carousel posts. Oh, okay. Now we're doing stories. And then Meta recently decided to do like the blue check where you have to pay a subscription fee, which is fine. We pay for subscription fees for lots of services in our business, but if you're not willing to pay for that check, then your content probably isn't going to be shown to as many people in your audience.
[00:28:35] So if you want to get off that hamster wheel, I think I really see a swing back to creating content, whether that's blogging, creating a podcast, leveraging your email list to share and build a relationship off of those social media platforms that you don't own and you don't actually really, truly engage with those audiences. So as you're creating, not saying [00:29:00] don't create content on social media, but just know that when you do that, you should be having a call to action to get them to come onto your other platforms where you can engage with them. Podcasts are great. You and I both are using podcasts to build our audience. It's a great way to share content. It's a great way for people to hear you and create a relationship with your voice and your personality. Blogs are a great way to also share content and yeah, we can share snippets of that on social media. But you know, like even just this week with TikTok being threatened at being shut down in Canada, where I live, TikTok is not allowed on any government devices. So, wow. Like think the writing is on the wall.
[00:29:43] And but we've known this. This is not new this we've known this since not existed.
[00:29:49] Yes. And so if you have a really great TikTok following, like start creating some calls to action to get people to engage with you on your email list, on your website, [00:30:00] in other platforms, and think that that investment of time will build in a level of sustainability that will just give you a little bit more space and breadth. So you're not constantly on this hamster wheel of creating short form content that doesn't even exist after 24 hours.
[00:30:17] And let's be real, Crave Those short term content is actually really long. Like creating reels would take an hour or two or even three hours to do. And as a millennial, I'm actually excited that long form content is making a comeback. But at the same time it makes sense. Both Kim and I do have high end services where people are paying a penny to work with us and with that our customers are conscious spenders, so they're not just going to give like a four digit price tag to someone that did a one minute reel. Yeah. So giving people an option to get to know you through [00:31:00] a podcast, through your email, through your blogs, I have all three. That's actually my focus in my own business and I know it is for you too. It allows your customer to make that decision if they want to work with you and if they don't, and that's great if they don't too.
[00:31:13] What I've found with the kind of clients that I attract who are typically quick starts, they're typically, you know, running multi six and seven figure businesses. They don't have a lot of time, but when they either get a referral to me or I come across their path, then they binge all of my content at once. So they're going to be listening to all the podcast episodes. They're going to be looking at all at sort of the what I've just recently created and shared, and that's going to be how they make their decision of whether they want to book a call with me or not. So when you've created a reel that, you know, might have been great six months ago, it's harder to find like it's lost. So having a really great portfolio of your work on your website or on a podcast or YouTube channel is just [00:32:00] a really great way to have that content available.
[00:32:03] Yeah. And I will share like I was just thinking about the psychology of it, so about beginning of last year and have an episode with Monica Shrunk, my marketing strategist who's been on here a couple of times, so I'll put it in the show notes if you want to listen where we focused on the long term content and also just thinking about the customer. I use social media. I use Instagram to distract myself. Like I go there for distraction to look at memes and gifs. I follow am 30 af that makes fun of 30 year olds. I follow Punch Chrissy Allen, who's a geriatric millennial. I don't know if you follow her. She is hilarious. I go on Instagram and social media to distract myself and for entertainment, and when I started thinking about how I use it, I started thinking about my consumers. Do I really want to work with someone who's distracted on social media? My clients are established entrepreneurs and leaders who know what they want [00:33:00] and when they know what they want, they're looking for it and they're going to do their due diligence and. The research to get to know the person like, Oh, then I should focus on that. And that shift and that understanding and perspective has given me the most ideal clients. I don't even do launches anymore, really. Right? I love that I have a sustainable business where clients are coming to me every month because they're looking for me and they're being intentional about who they want to work with.
[00:33:28] Yeah, I love that. I love that. I think that if people want to create content, you can look at it as sort of staying in a loop or nurturing or stewarding your community a little bit. In the same way, using some of the language from the fundraising world. So like, how can we like keep delivering value and reaching out so that if they are scrolling Instagram, maybe you're there, but it's not for a sales moment, it's more for a moment of connection and know, like and trust.
[00:33:57] I will say if you all follow me on Instagram, it's at Elaine [00:34:00] Lu underscore I'm having fun with it. This is like my first time I'm having fun with social media. So I'm just putting funny like reposting funny reels or gifs, making fun of millennials or Here, I'm hiking. That's it. That's literally all it is.
[00:34:15] You've got a few good food posts as well. I must say. I do enjoy watching some of your food posts.
[00:34:21] I'll see. Follow me for some food tips. I will not be a food blogger, by the way. Please note that I will eat though. What is your fifth tip for folks?
[00:34:31] Think that what helps create sustainability in your business is being true to yourself and your voice. So how do you show up authentically if you're using social media, but in your emails, on your website and that relates to your personality. So making sure that your personality is coming across in your content allows people to connect [00:35:00] with you. It also helps you stand out in a sea of boring content and you know, like there are thousands and thousands of coaches out there. How are you? Like, what is Elaine's unique secret sauce? What is her personality that I'm going to connect with that makes her stand out? That makes you stand out and makes me want to work with you. So making sure you're not being too stuffy or getting too caught up and being formal and official and very businessy. And it's, you know, we all come to communications with like years and years and years of school grammar drilled into us and how can we just talk casually infuse a couple of one liners or a little bit of our humor or talk about the books we love or talk about hikes we like going on all of that, showing your personality, your authentic personality will actually you'll feel better because you won't feel like you're wearing this crazy mask and building this crazy business that doesn't [00:36:00] look like you. But you'll also more easily connect with that ideal customer and those sales will flow more naturally when you use and infuse some more personality in your marketing.
[00:36:12] Yes to all of that mean. And I want to actually throw flowers at you. I remember going to one of your master classes talking about putting gifts and I thought to myself, Hold on, I love gifts. That's what I distract myself on social media with. Why do I add gifts onto my emails? And I do. If you follow my newsletter. If you don't, you can go to Elaine. Com forward slash join don't you love that plug in there and I love it above the fold. I always put a gif because it's just fun for me and I actually have a lot of fun looking for the right gift for each email.
[00:36:47] It can be a bit of a time suck when you're like looking for that perfect gift. But I'm the same way. And studies show that GIFs and other animations will actually increase the engagement on your emails. So not only is it fun for [00:37:00] you, but it's actually can be very effective for your business as well.
[00:37:03] Yeah, showing your personality and I get responses to my emails as you do for you. Kim, I'm one of your responders for your emails where it's like.
[00:37:12] I'm one of your responders too.
[00:37:15] Yeah. It's like, Oh my God, that was so funny. This was a great click bait. This is a great email. Just getting your audience excited. I get responses from my audience too, from my emails and just like, okay, I'm glad it. And I will say, being a millennial growing up in Zynga and Live Journal, that's how it feels like when I write my emails. Like people get to really know me and I'll be honest, I don't want to share everything on social media. I feel like emails is a little diary where it is personal and my audience members and my email list actually gets to know me more than on my social media.
[00:37:47] Yeah, I agree. I see a lot of people doing what I consider to be oversharing. But no, it's just because I'm from a different generation and I have a different approach to that kind of, you know, sharing. But I love that's [00:38:00] why I love the intimacy and connection that you can build an email and if people don't like it, then. They can leave and it's like totally fine and they're not fine People.
[00:38:08] Answering you, like on social media, you know, have had emails like that was horrible or just encapsulate, that's fine. That was just between me and this person. They could go, right. We're not meant to be. Yeah. I wanted to add a bonus question because you are a mother and about sustainability in business, what would be your number one tip when it comes to that? Having a sustainable business as a mother, as a wife, as a partner, and as a human, having mental health like making sure you're okay?
[00:38:35] Well, I definitely want to say I don't have it figured out every day. It's a work in progress. I probably work more than I wish I did. So I'm still trying to figure out my own systems to allow me to outsource a little bit more. Let me share with you this. Like I am working a lot in the last few days because I'm going away for a week of holiday for spring break [00:39:00] with my kids, so I'm prioritizing that time away in the week leading up to it, I'm working my butt off trying to get everything done. And yesterday my kid came in after school and he was like, Mom, do you want to walk with me to the corner store? And I was like, Oh, buddy, you know, I've really got I've got to get you know, I just got to keep doing this work. I got to plow through. And then he asked me again and I, I perked up and I was like, I want to be the kind of person who says yes to my kid. Like, that is why I started this business, was so that I could be present for them and be available to them within reason. And so I thought, if I can't take ten minutes out of my day to go and walk with him to the corner store and walk back, like that's actually going to be good for my physical health as well as my mental health and my desire to have a little bit more fun and say yes to more fun things.
[00:39:53] So I think it's just remembering at the moment when you can I have a choice. I can say yes to [00:40:00] working or I can say yes to whatever else the priority is and just being okay with that decision. Sometimes I say no because I'm saying yes to my business and I'm totally okay with that. But it's just knowing that we each have those moments to make that decision. The other thing that I'll say really helps me is having someone to come and clean my house. It's using meal planning services when I can. It's using grocery shopping where they shop for you and you just go and pick it up. Like these are all very banal, like unsophisticated, not sexy things to have in your business, but as a working woman. I think they are so helpful and just knowing that someone is going to come and clean my house frees up the space. It gives me a deadline to, you know, tidy up all my crap so that it's ready to go. And then I have this beautifully clean home for a week and it just creates so much more expansion and more space in my mental load [00:41:00] and my physical being. And that allows me to show up differently in my business and show up differently for my family. So find some of those little tiny, low hanging fruits that will actually build in some more space for you.
[00:41:13] I always end podcast episodes asking like, what's a question or action people could have, but you actually provided it right now. And what I heard from you is being conscious that you have a choice, right? I know there's always assumptions to how to do things like, Well, no, I need to finish this and do this. And I loved how you're more mindful of it. I had a call with a client yesterday. She doesn't have a business, but she's working full time. She has two daughters and she's like, Elaine, I've been getting eight hours of sleep because I've been cuddling with my daughter. Even though I have so much work to do. I chose to cuddle with my daughter. I'm like, Well, do you regret it? No, it's giving me that connection with her. And so I love that you're reminding our listeners that you have a choice when and then two, you also shared, you don't have to do [00:42:00] everything like, what can I let go of where I don't have to do it? Like, oh, I could because, you know, I'm obsessed with Target here in the States. What's up? Actually, put this in a cart and pick it up. Yeah, except I won't do that because Target is my therapy, so I do need to walk around.
[00:42:16] And, you know, that's great that you know that. And to be able to say, I'm going to target today because Mama needs it. I need it, you know, like remembering what's important for our self-care and giving us space to do that, but also not judging ourselves when we don't that part.
[00:42:33] So I'm sure everyone has fall in love with you. So how can people find you or want to work with you or connect with you?
[00:42:42] Well, I would say if you're listening to this on the podcast, come and find my podcast, which is Ill communication, Ill communication. It's Beastie Boys reference, by the way, because I'm obsessed with Beastie Boys, so you can find me on all the podcast platforms. You can link to my podcast from my website, [00:43:00] which is Kim Reel.com. I'm on most of the social channels. I am not on TikTok, so don't find me there, but you can find me on Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn.
[00:43:12] Oh well, thank you so much, Kim. And be sure to also join Kim's email at Kim Kim's dot com slash newsletter. I'm a groupie and always respond to her emails and I learn so much from it from even being a reader. Kim, thank you so much.
[00:43:27] Thank you, Elaine, for inviting me. I'm glad we were able to get our little girl crush on with each other, and I'm so I just love what you're representing in the world and what you're creating, the community that you're creating. And so I'm just really honored that you invited me on to your podcast today.
[00:43:43] Of course.
[00:43:44] Uh, that conversation was so, so, so good. I listened to Elaine's podcast faithfully, and I encourage you to follow and subscribe to her podcast, Color Your Dreams, wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. And [00:44:00] you've got to subscribe to Elaine's Gifts and Gifts Email newsletter. It is always delightfully written with the funniest gifts, and it always delivers so much helpful business building tips. Visit Elaine's website. Elaine Lulu.com and click on the newsletter tab. I'll drop the links in the show notes and then I'd love to hear from you. What are some of the ways you create a little more ease or balance in your business in life? Is there anything you heard from this episode replay that you might try to create more sustainability in your marketing or business yourself? Find me on social and let me know and better yet, share it with your community. We hear so many messages online about how we have to hustle harder. We have to get up at 5 a.m. to get in our morning practice and get our writing done. How we all have the same 24 hours in a day as Beyonce. So there's no excuse for not getting your fitness in putting homemade, nutritious [00:45:00] meals on the table or annexing your business. We need to normalize that. That's not always a good goal, nor is that healthy or sustainable for the majority of us. And that's why I'm so thankful for voices like Elaine's, who are showing us another way to grow our businesses without sacrificing our health or time with our loved ones. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, but that's it for me today. I'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Ill Communication. Hey, if you enjoy these snack sized strategies and tips, you'll want to join my VIP Copy and Cocktails club. It's my email newsletter where I share. More coffee tips, sales strategies, and the occasional recipe for my favorite beverage or appetizer du jour. To subscribe, visit Kim keil.com/newsletter. Thanks for tuning in.
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