PODCAST
A little bit business journey. A little bit personal journey. A lot of bit awkward.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:06] spk_1: Welcome to love this journey, the podcast. That’s a little bit business, a little bit personal journey and a lot of bit awkward mess. This is a podcast where we talk about journeys through business and personal successes and failures, what we learned along the way and how we didn’t lose our ship or did we? I’m Emily Maguire. I’m the owner of flourishing grit and email marketing and automation studio where we focus a lot on customer journey. So this is the perfect podcast to talk about all kinds of journeys. I’m so excited to have you here and with me, I have my copilot, Shelly Costello, she’s the marketing coordinator here and Shelly introduced her, say hi, say hi to everybody for us.
[00:00:55] spk_0: Hello?
[00:00:56] spk_1: Hello. All right. So today this is our very first podcast. I’m so excited. We put on makeup, we washed our hair even though if somebody’s listening to the podcast they’re not going to see the beautiful makeup job we’ve
[00:01:13] spk_0: done, that. I didn’t vocal warm ups before this.
[00:01:16] spk_1: Oh perfect. Was it just a lot of red leather, yellow leather. Mm Yeah, So Shelly works in a unique community. Shelly works with me, she’s my marketing coordinator and today to kick off this podcast, she’s going to be interviewing me first because I get to go first because I’m the person who gets to decide things and then the next episode, I’m going to interview Shelley because she’s got a fascinating story. So you do, you’ve got a great story. So Shelly tell me what’s what’s been up this week for you.
[00:01:56] spk_0: Oh my gosh, let’s see. I had a stuffy nose this week that’s been no fun. And there was a bird in the house this morning because I live in a I got a bird. What else? What happened this week?
[00:02:10] spk_1: Oh my God. Just everything. It’s just been a week, you know? All right, so it’s been a real journey. Do you like how I live to
[00:02:18] spk_0: that? All
[00:02:21] spk_1: right, so we are gonna, so quickly I’m just going to give everybody my quick bio and Shelly, so you get to know us a little bit more. So I I’m the owner of flourishing grit. Uh and I have built this business based on lessons that I’ve learned over a decade and tuck, sending literally thousands of email campaigns, testing everything under the sun and earning clients millions of dollars in campaign revenue. I love sharing the mistakes that I’ve made. So others don’t have to make them. And I’m really cool because I am a mom, so is Shelly and I love trashy tv f boy island, um reading and um and chasing my kid. Um Shelly, Shelly’s worked in hospitality for a theater programming and project management for a long as time and now she’s using the skills in the marketing world with me here is truly she’s from California, but she’s my neighbor in michigan. I mean basically neighbors, right?
[00:03:30] spk_0: Yeah, like across one Main Street.
[00:03:32] spk_1: Yeah, we’re very close. Um She’s also a mom to a four year old like me and uh, chasing her kids as a daily workout and loves a good box at Costco line because he doesn’t,
[00:03:47] spk_0: who doesn’t,
[00:03:47] spk_1: who doesn’t owe you
[00:03:50] spk_0: don’t, I don’t want to be friends with you.
[00:03:52] spk_1: What? All right. I’m going to turn it over to Shelly so she can ask me all the questions so I can keep talking about myself, right?
[00:04:00] spk_0: Yeah.
[00:04:03] spk_1: People want to listen to,
[00:04:05] spk_0: well, I’m so excited. Okay. I’m only, here we go. Question number one. Um, where did your journey with this start?
[00:04:14] spk_1: Oh, so email marketing journey. I love to tell people how I got into email because I was working at a job right out of grad school. And they heard me to do social media, uh, and all their digital marketing stuff. And they were like, you do internet, you can do email too, right? I do internet. And so it’s all the same thing. Right? Right. Yeah.
[00:04:37] spk_0: Yeah.
[00:04:38] spk_1: So I was like, you know, I was like, yeah, sure. I’ll try it. You know, it sounds interesting and learned that I loved it way more than social media management. Um, so then I got a job only doing email marketing for a really large e commerce company sold adult toys. So it was, yeah, I know, fancy fancy, right? I’m so cool. So cool. Uh, so I learned how to, I really, uh, mastered email marketing through selling adult toys. So, which is fun. I mean obviously, but you learn a lot of lessons because it’s a really tricky thing. Like there’s a lot of compliance issues and um, you know, ad blocking things and you just have to, there’s so much to take into account. That’s not the only industry where you have to do that. So, um, learn to email, working with them and then had a baby, don’t know, you’re just not a dread and everything changes, right? So, uh, my husband, I moved back to michigan so we could be in your family and I was looking for jobs and they were all like an hour plus commute, no, thank you, right? Or they wanted you to do everything under the sun with little pay and I was like, no. So I was like, you know what? I create my own job and that was one of the most genius slash naive things I’ve ever done because I feel like what
[00:06:10] spk_0: I say, I feel like that’s like most big ideas, right? As you’re like the best idea I’ve ever had or the fucking worth the I, I,
[00:06:17] spk_1: I don’t care. Well, some people might, I guess, huh? Sorry, potty mouth over here is, sorry, whoever just heard that word in their ear holes, I don’t know. Um But yeah, so yeah, I feel like it’s like, uh, the entrepreneurial journey is so similar to the parenting journey because it’s like, you don’t, you think, you know what you’re getting into and then you get into it and then you’re like holy crap, what have I done, this is so much more work than I think I wanted to admit to myself and then you know, high highs and low lows just like parenting where you’re like this is the best thing ever or why do I, why did I do this to myself, I hate myself. So you know, it’s really been and it’s also one of the most challenging, mentally, emotionally challenging things where you have to get that stuff down or else everyone else suffers. Like again I’m talking about parenting and entrepreneurship at the same time, right? Like when your mom, you’ve got to really dig into your crap because you know you can’t help but think about your past and what you want to repeat and not repeat and then um and then in your entrepreneurial journey it’s like why do I keep repeating stuff that I don’t like and that’s like, oh right, there’s mental stuff there, so, so that’s been a journey so far, obviously it’s not complete but been three years in the business over three years and holy holy cannoli um it’s an only learned a lot, Did I answer your question, Yeah,
[00:08:08] spk_0: you certainly did you, where you started, that was the journey, but you did mention something about all the lessons that you had learned and that’s the next question um what has been the biggest lesson you learned along the way
[00:08:20] spk_1: um as much as I hate to admit this, like uh mindset and mental health are so crucial to everything. Um Because if you can’t think straight, how are you going to strategize straight? How are you going to listen to your clients and deliver what you said, you were going to deliver? Um And so half of it is you know like I need mental breaks, which is hard to do um for me and the other half is um you know, letting go of the perfectionist bug um something I tell my clients a lot because I need to tell myself this is you know, something is better than nothing, particularly people who are just starting out on their email journey. Um You know like if you keep focusing on perfect, it’s never going to be done and you’ll never get it
[00:09:16] spk_0: out, it’s never gonna be perfect.
[00:09:19] spk_1: Yeah and it’s so hard because like this is how I earn my living is like what I can produce and I yeah you’ve got to let it go, so we’re gonna be perfect and there are things that I’m not going to see that other people are going to see um that they might not consider perfect, right? Um So I think that’s like the biggest lesson and the other one is that just like people who like to give out general Izabal advice about email marketing or just anything in general, it’s usually b s because you can’t generalize things, you cannot, what works
[00:10:00] spk_0: for them and their story is like unique.
[00:10:02] spk_1: Exactly yeah. Everything depends on the resources you have, right? Um, the access to resources, you have, the buying you have. Um, and who you’re, who you’re community is. Uh, every, every person and every business is different.
[00:10:22] spk_0: That’s a very, very, very good point to make. Sometimes people think I’ll just make a blanket for everybody and it will all be the same. But you’re right. Everything is is unique and different and you need to take into account all the, all the stories.
[00:10:35] spk_1: Mm hmm. For
[00:10:36] spk_0: sure. Okay, so next question. Um, what advice would you give others on a similar journey? Your entrepreneurial
[00:10:44] spk_1: journey? Yeah, I mean same advice entrepreneurial or you know, if you’re a marketer who is trying to get buy in for doing things differently or doing something new, it’s being able to articulate your value and you know, it’s so hard to see your stuff from the outside in because you’re so in it, you know, whatever that saying is about can’t see the water if you’re swimming in it. Um it’s very similar. So being able to step back and think about what do people want, what are they looking for? What are their goals and how do I position myself as somebody can help achieve those goals or solve pain points, right? Um, that’s something I wish I would have known when I worked in the corporate world.
[00:11:40] spk_0: Um,
[00:11:41] spk_1: was like knowing what the goals were, what the pain points were um, in the organization and how what I was doing could help with those things and I would say that is the biggest thing I’ve learned as an entrepreneur and an email record or like you have to always be telling people why they should care about what it is you have to say and it’s hard, but once you are able to flip that switch, it gets really easy.
[00:12:14] spk_0: Good good point is something that you like have in your back pocket that you, you say, you know, and you’re being like, this is why I am gonna work for you. I’m gonna do this that you think to yourself when you’re doing it. Like how do you help not convince people that show people you can convey.
[00:12:34] spk_1: Yeah, well, and get buying right. Like everybody needs to know what’s in it for them. Like we are selfish creatures. Um, so we have to spell that out for people who can’t just expect them to get it.
[00:12:48] spk_0: That’s true, that’s true. Okay, so how do you get your message out? Which family do you use to communicate?
[00:12:55] spk_1: Yeah. So, um, they let me in on linkedin. So yeah, they gave me a free account. Yeah, I know I’m very special. Um, so, you know, I’m a digital marketer. So I use digital media and you know, as I’ve, you know, expanding on my personal brand and gotten to play more. Um I’ve really started to enjoy it. I used to hate social media, but like when you feel confident in the messages sharing, um again, it gets to be way easier. So linkedin primarily. Um I do run some google ads, but I don’t know, I feel weird giving add money to facebook and google. Um, so evaluate, reevaluating that one. And then of course email, like what kind of email market or would I be if I weren’t, how dare you? Don’t you say that to me, you’re out, get out of here. Um Yeah, like what kind of email market or would I be if I didn’t have an email list or wasn’t emailing people? And what’s funny is I spoke at a conference a few weeks ago and um at the end I was like, okay, here’s a freebie if you want it and you’re going to join my email list. And I got like people who were like, oh yeah, you know, just like laughing at, it’s like, well what kind of what kind of entrepreneur email record or would I be if I weren’t asking people to join my list? Like what do you expect? Yeah, exactly. Like having a
[00:14:28] spk_0: restaurant and like not inviting
[00:14:30] spk_1: people to your restaurant. Exactly, exactly. But yeah, you gotta get your message out and you’ve got to find the ways that fit for you.
[00:14:36] spk_0: Um what have you learned about your communicating investing,
[00:14:39] spk_1: I’ve learned, the more vulnerable or whatever is comfortably vulnerable, right? Because over sharing is a thing. Uh but the more I try to connect with people on a human level, not just a, you know, sales level, which, you know, I have to do because I’m an entrepreneur. Um you know, I got bills to pay. We all do. Uh but the more I try to connect with people on the, on a human level, the more response I get, the more people get excited. So it’s um, I would say like that has been the most shocking thing, like people like humans.
[00:15:21] spk_0: Yeah, I would just say, well, you know, it’s like, um, when you have that friend who you either call and you’re like, I’ll use the parenthood thing as an example, like, oh my son’s crazy. He kicks and screams and the other parent is just like, oh man. And they don’t share their struggles. You know, you’re like, I want to know you’re struggling to like, I want to know that people out there are human and they have stories and they have things that make them happy and things that make them sad. You know, you don’t just want to be that like email robot,
[00:15:53] spk_1: right? Exactly. Yeah. Where y’all I mean because people can sniff out that inauthenticity and you essentially greed too, if all you’re saying is give me money.
[00:16:04] spk_0: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um Okay, so what has inspired you lately? Do you have any books podcasts, Thought leaders, anything that’s really inspired
[00:16:16] spk_1: you? Um Well I love Renee Brown and everything she does. Uh I used
[00:16:21] spk_0: to think the laugh is great too, but
[00:16:23] spk_1: I know right? It’s so good. I love her podcast. I love her books. Um and well I mean she’s really taught me that we are more emotional creatures than we would like to admit and it’s like, oh you’re right, we make so many decisions based on a feeling. Um not rational thought. That’s not how we work. So bananas to me. Um Yeah, burn a brown. You know, I listened to untamed by Glennon Doyle a month or so ago like that uh that gave me life and then I’m also reading right now a book called emotional currency. It’s called The Women’s Guide to um finances or something like that. But it’s really about the emotional aspect of money and again, like the more I explore this, like it’s emotions thing like you weird, the more like you start realizing how many decisions you do make based on like old stories and how you’re feeling. So um that one has been
[00:17:30] spk_0: really read that I feel like in my head, I’m already thinking about the emotional connection that I have
[00:17:37] spk_1: with you or what you
[00:17:39] spk_0: remind me. I still owe you the lunch from the weekend
[00:17:43] spk_1: Chicago. Oh that’s right. Yes. Do you like us to do anyway?
[00:17:50] spk_0: Um um Okay, so this is a part of the podcast where we do rapid fire, so be prepared, I’m gonna ask you a question and then you answer it without too much thinking, you know, it’s like entering my third and you just answer the question, number one, your go to karaoke song.
[00:18:05] spk_1: Um, um, don’t stop believing by journey.
[00:18:09] spk_0: Okay, number two, what are you binging right now?
[00:18:13] spk_1: Binging? Um, a great Canadian baking show. Yeah, we have um, the Xfinity app or whatever like that. We live close enough to the Canadian border that we get cbc and so yeah, it’s on cbc. So we recorded it and I’ve been no dan levy this season. Yeah. If we want to talk about full circle um, references love this journey is from Ships Creek. I love this journey you’re on And Dan Levy was the one of the co host for two seasons.
[00:18:52] spk_0: Okay, I do need to watch that. Okay with you win the lottery. What is the most frivolous thing that you purchased?
[00:18:58] spk_1: Um, I want like a classic muscle car. Yeah. Um, just something totally frivolous. Like a classic Ford Mustang. I keep saying 1969. It seems like here. Yeah, it would be a good year to have a car, but I don’t know enough about these cars to be like, Oh, you’re in 1967. Yeah,
[00:19:20] spk_0: there’s a Kathy
[00:19:21] spk_1: under the hood, right with this trim. I just know I’m yeah, and much more. Um, so what I’m trying to go shallow.
[00:19:30] spk_0: Okay number four you’re on a desert island. What are the three things that you bring?
[00:19:38] spk_1: Um We’ll definitely a book about number one. Uh You have to choose the book now. I’m gonna choose a book. Um Maybe a second book. Two books and a Swiss army knife. You’re
[00:19:55] spk_0: being too practical.
[00:19:56] spk_1: You know? Is that practical?
[00:19:58] spk_0: It’s unlimited supply of beef jerky.
[00:20:02] spk_1: Oh I do like that idea.
[00:20:03] spk_0: I don’t need beef but you know just like yeah.
[00:20:07] spk_1: All right. I love it. That is
[00:20:08] spk_0: to practice and you’re
[00:20:10] spk_1: gonna do right? Um So definitely I mean definitely two books if I’m streaming on doors under and you gotta rotate right, you gotta rotate and they don’t need to be charged. No that’s true. Yeah. And a pillow. Oh
[00:20:30] spk_0: That’s a really good one.
[00:20:32] spk_1: I mean read and sleep, read and sleep. Yeah.
[00:20:35] spk_0: Yeah. Well it sounds like you’re gonna have a really great time on the center Island.
[00:20:39] spk_1: Yeah, Asleep in one or eating?
[00:20:42] spk_0: Yeah. Okay. Last question. You can only eat one food again for the rest of your life. What is it?
[00:20:50] spk_1: Tacos? Is that what you’re gonna say?
[00:20:52] spk_0: No. I said it’s a tough one. I can’t
[00:20:55] spk_1: tacos or mac and cheese or bride race. I’m gonna say fried rice. I love fried rice. Yeah. All day every day.
[00:21:07] spk_0: That’s a good one. It’s the ice cream or fried rice for me like I love ice cream. You know looks like if I didn’t in Britain, it was like no calorie ice cream. Like imaginary world.
[00:21:20] spk_1: Yeah. Well you gotta save these for your interview. Like don’t get too in the weeds about it. Okay. Okay.
[00:21:28] spk_0: Well that is all of the questions that we have for you today, Miss Emily. You wanna close this up?
[00:21:36] spk_1: Yes. Thank you so much for joining us. Um I would like to thank myself for being our first guest. You can find both. Shelley and I on our website for script dot com connect with me on linkedin. If you were a linked in person, I share email stuff all the time. Um and feel free to like rate and review this podcast wherever you found it and goodbye. Mm
[00:22:08] spk_0: bye.