September 2, 2024 • 35 mins
In this episode of the Mom Owned and Operated podcast, Rita Suzanne and Emylee Williams discuss raising a family, running a business and remembering yourself.
Emylee Williams is the visionary founder of Creative's Catalyst in Kansas City, where she expertly blends her passion for marketing and operational efficiencies with her entrepreneurial spirit.
With over a decade of experience revolutionizing how small businesses and creatives approach marketing and operations, Emylee brings a wealth of knowledge from her tenure as co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of a previous multi-million dollar agency.
During her nine-year leadership at this agency, Emylee created digital offers that helped over 30,000 students and sold to clients and students from 189 countries. She also co-hosted a top-charting business podcast that reached millions of listeners worldwide. Despite its success, Emylee left to establish Creative's Catalyst, pursuing ventures that align more closely with her daily values and long-term vision.
Now, Emylee works exclusively with small business founders, corporate executives, and senior leadership to create more inclusive workplaces for neurodivergent and introverted leaders.
You can connect with Emylee on her website, on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Send a text message! Email, if you want a reply though. ;)
P.S. You can find more interviews at momownedandoperated.com and learn about working with Rita at ritasuzanne.com/apply/
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Episode Transcript
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Rita Suzanne (00:01):
Hi, this is Mom Owned and Operated.
I am Rita, suzanne, and today Ihave my guest, emily, with me.
Emily, I'm so excited to chatwith you.
Please tell everyone all aboutyou, your business and your
family.
Emylee Williams (00:13):
Okay, hi, so my name is Emily Williams.
I'm the founder of CreativesCatalyst, a consulting agency
based out of Kansas City.
I am an author, a publishedauthor, a founder, an artist, an
ex-CEO, a podcaster, a mom toone.
Here in the Midwest, I startedand co-founded a pretty large
(00:35):
marketing and education agencythat I ran for almost nine years
after being out on my own,building a photography business,
which turned into a strategybusiness with local brands and
influencers.
When I met my business partner,we collaborated, created my old
company, and I ended up leavingthat, walking away from what,
(00:57):
from the outside, looking in,looked like a dream job about
this time last year, to go offon my own again, to scale back a
little bit, to be a little bitmore present with my family and
my kiddo and maybe make somemore money while I was doing it.
And I took the summer off lastyear to really focus on
(01:21):
publishing my first book.
I also write romance novelsunder a pin name.
I call her my secret identity,so I focused on that for about
four or five months and thenreally dove headfirst back into
consulting.
Now I had, you know, nine yearsunder my belt of experience
working with literally tens ofthousands of small business
(01:43):
owners in the creator economy,getting a peek behind the
curtain of what their businesseslook like, how they ran, what
marketing worked really well forthem, what systems were they
using, what was the mostprofitable strategy and
everything in between.
And I decided to take all ofthat experience and that data
and work specifically one-on-onewith other service-based
(02:05):
business owners who were coachesand consultants.
Typically these folks have ahigh-end coaching program that
has an application process andwebinars or podcasting or open
houses, and then they open andthey close their cart a couple
of times a year and then theytry ads and they do evergreens
those kinds of businesses thatare typically in that like 300
(02:25):
to million dollar price rate orrevenue stream per year and I
help them generate systems intheir business to know what's
working.
Typically they are one womanshows or they have a very small
lean team of a couple of VAs andcontractors, and sometimes it's
really hard to understand whereto put your time and attention
but also your team VAs andcontractors, and sometimes it's
really hard to understand whereto put your time and attention,
(02:47):
but also your team's time andattention, and I am a numbers
girly and so I like to make datasexy and understandable and fun
to really dig into in yourbusiness.
I'm a recovering data phobe, Iguess you would say.
I remember I had a panic attackon a Zoom call with our
(03:08):
bookkeeper, kind of halfwaythrough growing a multimillion
dollar agency, and I didn't likehow that made me feel, and so
ever since then I've kind ofmade it my mission to fall in
love with the data and not beafraid of it and really find a
way to understand how to makedecisions based on that data in
(03:29):
a really fun, in a really funway, and so that's what I do now
.
I do that one-on-one withclients and I love it, I'm
addicted to it.
Rita Suzanne (03:40):
I love, I love that you, that you kind of face
that fear, because I find that alot of women are actually
fearful of data in general,right Of numbers.
They don't want to kind of facethe facts of the financials or
even look at the numbers.
When it comes to the data, asfar as, like their analytics or
(04:04):
any of those things and, um, youknow, before we kind of you
know, segue into the otherthings, why do you think that is
?
Emylee Williams (04:13):
Um, at least for me, the experience I, um, I
have been in a relationship forso long.
I met my now husband when I was18 and we started dating when I
was 18.
He's the finance guy, he's thenumbers guy, he's the logic guy
and for so long of my marriage,of my life, he's taking care of
(04:35):
all of the money aspect, thefinancial aspect, of our, our
family, of our household, of ourmarriage, of our relationship,
and I've allowed that to happenbecause that's what felt most
comfortable for me, that's whatfelt safest for me.
I don't feel like a lot of uswere trained, were informed,
were educated growing up aswomen, but as people to budget,
(04:56):
to save, to have a healthyrelationship with money.
I feel like I had a lot ofmoney trauma growing up and a
really negative relationshipwith money.
So I just full on delegatedthat to my partner.
But what happened was then, as Iwas growing my own business and
being a small business ownerand being an entrepreneur which
I love doing and I'm really,really good at there was a giant
(05:17):
disconnect with what I wasspending my time on, what I was
thinking about, what I wasinvesting in, what I was
building behind the scenes andhow it was making me money, and
I've since learned that there'struly nothing more empowering
than seeing your efforts beingdirectly correlated with your
revenue, with your profit, withthe impact that you can have in
(05:39):
your community, within yourbusiness, your clients or
philanthropic whatever floatsyour boat, that there's nothing
that excites me and empowers memore than understanding how all
those things work together.
So I think a lot of it isfear-based, a lot of it is we
just don't know, we weren'ttaught.
A lot of us probably havesupportive partners who do
manage a lot of that.
(05:59):
That's very stereotypical,that's very common, and so,
therefore, when it comes to ourbusiness, these are all brand
new skills and muscles that wehaven't flexed and that we don't
know how to strengthen, but itis doable and it is fun.
Rita Suzanne (06:13):
Yeah, and I think it's super important.
I always am telling my clientsthat they need to every month
when they're looking at theirfinancials.
One, they don't look at theirfinancials, but two, when they
do look at their financials.
One, they don't look at theirfinancials, but two, when they
do look at their financials,they should be looking at what
products or services offers areselling and things that are not
(06:33):
selling.
Then maybe let's discontinue,let's not put our efforts into
those things.
What are you focusing on withyour clients as far as like
those type of things?
Is it similar?
Emylee Williams (06:44):
Yeah, that's a really big part of the
discussion.
So how, how I start everyrelationship with the client is
through a five point audithealth assessment.
Basically, we work together to.
We have a phone call where we,where we, I learned about your
business, how you sell, how youmarket, how you generate leads,
what you invest in, how you makemoney, all of those things and
(07:05):
it typically comes down to aboutfive to seven different avenues
of things that matter metricsthat matter.
Typically, it's always yourQuickBooks, your P&L, your top
line revenue.
Maybe you have a membership, soit's retention.
Maybe it's your email serviceprovider and it's your open
rates, or your new subscribers,or your click rates.
Maybe it's how many people aresigning up to watch a webinar
(07:26):
and then are converting to yourpaid offer.
Maybe it's sales calls toconversions, to proposals,
whatever right, whatever makessense for your business.
So I go back and I do all ofthe digging.
I look at your last 12 monthsof your data and I'm really good
at finding themes and so, withall of that presented in front
of me, I can see okay, here'swhat led to this, or I have
(07:47):
questions about this, or why didthis dip down, or why did this
spike up and we just do an auditabout what is actually
happening in your business.
That then enables us to pulldifferent levers.
If you bring on more clients,you could potentially make more
revenue, but do you have thetime and the capacity to serve
those clients?
If you create a new offerdigital lower price typically
(08:11):
where are those leads going tobe coming from?
Do you have the currentaudience who's going to actually
say yes to that?
How much should we be chargingto reach your new income or your
revenue goal?
And there's a big part of thatconversation I call it your
profit pie, where we look at avisual pie, a pie chart.
I'm such a visual learner and Ineed to see it, not just in
(08:32):
cells and records but in chartsand graphs and comparisons.
And so we look at your profitpie.
Of all of the offers thatyou're selling, how much money
did it make you in the last 12months?
And I challenge my clientsanything under 7% of your total
revenue.
We cut, and that enables us topour time and attention in
(08:53):
things that are bigger incomegenerators that do impact our
clients in a bigger way.
We can either cut it or we canroll it into an existing offer
and increase that price, or wejust cut it in general, and
sometimes that alone offers sucha freeing on your literal time,
the task that you have to do,but then you see a bigger income
(09:17):
jump with your other productswhen you're able to focus more
on them.
Rita Suzanne (09:21):
I love that, okay, so what is your biggest stream
of revenue right now?
Emylee Williams (09:27):
Yeah, it's a hundred percent of my one-on-one
consulting work.
When I left my company, theanswer to that question was like
seven or eight different things.
When you have a multimilliondollar marketing agency, there's
a lot that goes into that and Iwanted absolutely to streamline
.
I really got.
I finally got intounderstanding nervous system
(09:52):
regulation and managing myanxiety and my addiction to
productivity and the tie that Ihad of my self-worth with my
work.
And since I was, you know, kindof unraveling that in the last
year with a lot of therapy, alot of talking and reading and
educating and learning, I reallyknew for me what works is
(10:18):
cutting, trimming the fat right,trimming the fat right and
really getting to the meat ofwhat's going to make the biggest
impact in my clients' lives andtheir business and really
streamlining my offers.
And so for right now it'sone-on-one consulting work.
I'm advising businesses.
A lot of that involves buildingspreadsheets, building data
(10:39):
interfaces so that we can lookat that information and make
proper decisions on how we wantto move forward, and a subset of
that is a lot of marketing andlaunch planning and advising.
And so typically what comesfrom our calls is okay.
This is what has happened inthe last 12 months.
If nothing changes, this iswhat you can expect to happen.
(10:59):
But you told me your goal is X.
Okay, what's the gap?
How are we going to get there?
And I like to collaborate withbusiness owners and really help
them come up with the best leverto pull in order to get to that
point.
Does that mean hiring?
Does it mean creating a newoffer?
Does it mean raising the price?
Does it mean launching one moretime Like what does that
actually mean?
And really supporting them andhelping make that come to life.
Rita Suzanne (11:23):
I love that.
So what over the years?
What has been the most valuablefinancial lesson that you can
share with other mom businessowners?
Emylee Williams (11:34):
Honestly for me .
I you know, I'm a mom, I alsohave a chronic illness.
I'm also neurodivergent.
I don't have a lot of spoons togive.
Some days I don't have a lot ofhigh energy.
I have to be very intentionalabout my work.
So for me and for other momswho find themselves in that
space, I have to know on a monthto month basis, on a quarterly
(11:55):
basis, what was the action inthis last quarter that actually
made me the most money.
And if I only have energy to doone thing, I'm going to
prioritize that.
And if we don't know thatinformation, I can tell you
exactly what's happening.
You're doing a little bit ofthat because you think that you
should, you know that you should, but then you're also writing
(12:17):
blog posts and figuring out yourwebsite and your SEO.
You're rebranding to seem moreprofessional or more polished or
whatever, because it's just fun.
You are on social media andmaybe you're making reels and
you're making TikToks and maybeyou're buying that $37 course to
learn how to do this DMautomated strategy for this
low-priced offer that youhaven't even made yet.
(12:37):
Maybe you're also working on awebinar slide deck and thinking
about starting a podcast andthen emailing that one client
and then wondering what you needto be doing next and why you
feel like you're always busy butyou're not making progress.
I don't have the time and energyto be always busy and not
making progress.
No one does, no one does.
But I needed the clear data toshow me.
All right, girl, if you've gotextra spoons, go explore this
(13:00):
cool new thing.
That sounds great, that's fun,that's part of being in business
, that's learning something new.
I love doing that.
But if we're limited or if weneed to be seeing quicker
results, here are the thingsthat have been proven for me and
for my offer, for my business,for my audience, to work.
So that's the lean, meanmachine that I'm going to focus
on that's the lean mean machinethat I'm going to focus on.
Rita Suzanne (13:24):
I love that.
I it's interesting that youbring that up, because I had, a
few weeks ago, created a freegift and started talking about
are you really marketing?
Right?
Because I see a lot of mombusiness owners getting stuck in
that busy work but continuouslytalking about their marketing,
their marketing, they're busy,they're busy, they're busy,
(13:45):
they're busy, but you're notreally making money with these
things, these busy work tasks.
You're updating your website,like you said.
You're updating, you'recreating images, you're doing
these things, or you could evenbe posting on social media, but
are you actually marketing?
Like, sharing a inspirationalquote is not marketing.
(14:06):
So I think that we need to getreally clear on what is actually
marketing and, speaking of that, what's one marketing tactic or
strategy that you are doingthat's working for you?
Emylee Williams (14:22):
or strategy that you are doing that's
working for you A hundredpercent every single time.
I know when I focus onrelationships I make more money.
One hundred percent of mybusiness in the past year and a
half and in the history of the13 years that I've been in
business, it hasn't been ahundred percent throughout my
entire history because we'verelied on Facebook ads or
different things.
But in the past 18 months, 100%of my business has been because
(14:46):
of referrals.
So I know that if I reach outto the right people who are
connected in the right way andI'm really clear on hey, here's
the thing that I'm going to beoffering, do you know anyone Can
you introduce?
Do you think of anyone whomight need this thing?
Is there a warm referral or canyou just give me the name and I
can kind of go do some creepingand build that relationship?
(15:08):
But when I speak up and say tothe right people and I have
three of those people, you don'tneed a bunch, I have three
people in my back pocket who Iknow when I'm developing a new
offer, I've got clarity on mymessage about this thing that I
already am offering or whatever.
I know that if I call thisperson.
(15:28):
If I voice message this personand say, hey, here's the thing
that I'm working on, that theycan think of five to 10 people
who it's going to be perfect for.
I don't need, as an introvert,as a human design projector, I
am someone who does not have theRolodex of contacts I don't
need as an introvert, as a humandesign projector, I am someone
who does not have the Rolodex ofcontacts.
I'm not that person.
I'm not the person that's like,oh my gosh, I know exactly who
(15:48):
you should be connected to.
I'm the person who has three tofive to seven of those people
in my back pocket who I'venurtured that relationship with
over the years, who I know.
This person seems more corporateconnected.
This person seems like they'regoing to know a lot of people
who need this analyticaldashboard that I just designed.
(16:10):
This person seems like theyknow really new beginner
consultants, so this lower priceoffer that I'm developing would
be perfect for them.
So I know when to reach out tothose people.
But if I hadn't nurtured thoserelationships, if I hadn't also
let them pick my brain when it'snecessary and when it's needed
it's got to be an equitablerelationship Then I wouldn't be
(16:31):
able to just call on them at anysecond, you know with a new
idea, but I know when I do I'mgoing to be introduced to my
next client.
Rita Suzanne (16:40):
Do you have any tips for building or maintaining
those relationships?
Emylee Williams (16:47):
Yeah, I think I think a big part of it is is is
, first, that that releasing theexpectation that you, you know
sometimes, sometimes, when wetalk about networking and and
and building that network right,especially if you're an
introvert, you automaticallylike pull into yourself and
you're like, oh, like, nothingsounds worse than going to this
networking event and talkingabout myself and introducing
(17:09):
myself to all these people who Idon't care about and I don't
want to know.
And it's stressed out and itliterally like can create a pit
in your stomach.
I get that Like that is me ahundred and so release that.
That doesn't have to be the waythat you network.
You can network in a way thatfeels in alignment with you and
so if you feel like you're thatperson, um, then it's all about
(17:30):
really thinking about the, thecontacts that you've had over
the years in your neighborhoodon the PTA.
Who your parents know?
Who your ex colleague at thatone, at that one place?
Where did she go to work?
Where is she at now?
Who does she know that placethat you volunteered at?
Who do they know your literalold job, current job?
(17:50):
Who do they know Anyone thatyou've worked with before in any
capacity that your partner hasworked with before in any
capacity.
Think of the people who are nomore than one degree away from
you, so they cannot be past that.
Like you should be able to sendthem an email, text them or
call them, and it should be metwith warm reception.
(18:11):
They remember who you are.
Oh my gosh, it's so great tohear from you, but these are
people, like some of thesepeople I didn't talk to for
years.
But when I reached out to thembecause we had such a solid
relationship previously and Iwas very specific about my reach
it it, while it came out ofleft field, it was like no time
had passed.
Yes, let's hop on a zoom, let'sreconnect, let's do this.
(18:33):
So I'm talking about thosepeople.
So, when you find them, makeyour list of five, seven, 10 of
those and I promise you, whenyou reconnect with them and
start to just have a human tohuman conversation, what are you
up to?
Here's what I'm up to.
This is crazy.
This is my new offer.
Isn't this wild?
Like?
This is what I'm doing.
(18:53):
I'm so excited about this.
They're automatically going tobe able to connect the dots on
who might be able to benefitfrom that thing or who they can
introduce you to, that knowspeople who could benefit to that
thing.
That's how you start wideningthat circle, but your initial
reach out does not have to bemore than like five, seven, 10
people.
Rita Suzanne (19:14):
Yeah, I agree.
I think that oftentimes peopleare afraid to even go to
previous clients and say, hey, Ihave this new thing.
Here are the details about it.
Do you know anybody who mightbe interested in this?
They are terrified Cause I'llsay that to um, you know
colleagues and friends and say,hey, you should, you should go
(19:37):
approach your old, your oldclients, like they are your best
referral source you should goapproach your old, your old
clients, like they are your bestreferral source.
Emylee Williams (19:48):
I promise you, like the the, the psychology
behind that is we all want to bethe reason for someone else's
success, every single one of us.
It's a really cool thing to do.
Oh, my gosh, like I introducedyou to that person and it made
this happen for you.
They want to feel responsiblefor that, able to, you know,
bridge those connections, and soyou asking, especially if it's
a warm connection, is allowingthem to get to flex that very
(20:12):
human desire and make thatconnection happen for you.
Rita Suzanne (20:17):
Yes, Okay, so let's pivot a little and talk a
little bit about any of yourfavorite tools, apps, softwares
that you're using that make yourlife or business a little bit
easier.
Emylee Williams (20:30):
Yep, I would say, hands down.
The number one tool that makesmy life and business easier is
Airtable.
I've I'm a new Airtable convert.
I have been messing with it forabout a year now.
I shied away from it for thelongest because it looks like a
spreadsheet and there's formulasand it's data and there's
records and I'm like, ah, thisis going to break my brain.
(20:52):
But holy moly, the things thatI have been able to build, not
just for myself but for myclients.
Like, I have an entire I call ita consultant ecosystem and it's
quite literally every singleone of my leads, my income, my
expenses, my proposal, mycontracts, everything happens
automated through that entiresystem and at a visual glance I
(21:13):
can see how much money I mademonth over month.
What, what do I feel likecontributed to that thing?
Cause I like I track differentthings that are custom to my
life and my business.
Um, I also track because of mychronic illness, my energy
levels and my health and mycycle and when I have childcare
and when I don't have childcare,so I can compare that and I can
(21:34):
look back and if I'm looking atthe last six months or the last
year and I'm like, man, thatone month was really down, like
what happened.
And instead of like beatingmyself up about I must not have
like networked enough, or I mustnot have sold enough, or I must
not have marketed enough, orwhatever it is, I can literally
look back at the data and belike, oh, I was on my period, I
was in bed for seven days and Ididn't have childcare for half
(21:56):
the month.
That explains it.
And that's just so much morefreeing when I'm able to make
decisions and pivot off ofactual information instead of
just feelings.
It feels a lot more empowering.
Rita Suzanne (22:10):
Well, yeah, and then you're not so hard on
yourself, right, it's not, youknow, it's not your fault
actually.
Emylee Williams (22:17):
Yeah, actually it's not your fault, Actually
like life happens, right?
Rita Suzanne (22:22):
Yeah, because it's so easy to be down on yourself,
especially when you're lookingat something that is so black
and white, like the numbers,right, and we often look at the
numbers and we take suchaccountability for them and take
it so personally that we can beso critical on ourselves.
And I think that looking atthose outside factors especially
(22:46):
as a mom, as an you know, as aparent, whether you're single or
not, or you know you have otherthings going on in your life
there are other factors thatthat can make it even more
challenging.
So I love the idea of lookingat those things I have.
I use Notion.
I've used Airtable before.
I love Notion too, yeah, and inmy Notion I have the same thing
(23:09):
where I'm tracking water andexercise and all of these things
, because it helps me stay ontrack with my habits and helps
me feel better and just be moreaccountable.
So let's talk a little bitabout what are you currently
reading or listening to?
Emylee Williams (23:32):
Yes, I have my book right here.
Actually, I came prepared.
I'm halfway through this bookcalled Never Not Working.
It's by Melissa Clark.
It's why the always-on cultureis bad for business and how to
fix it, and it basically takeseverything you think you knew
about perfectionism andworkaholics and workaholism and
(23:52):
tells you data-backed truthabout those things.
And it is so incredible how andtruly everything I knew about
overworking and workaholism.
It's actually so much deeper.
It is way beyond the surface ofwell, you're only a workaholic
if you're working 80-hour weeksor if you're in certain
(24:15):
industries or if you're tied toyour phone all the time.
I thought there's no way Icould be considered a workaholic
or have these tendencies.
I have such great boundaries,right, I only work this many
hours.
I take half days often.
I work from bed when I need to.
I don't check my phone on theweekends.
I have do not disturb on likeall of those like surface level
(24:36):
kind of bare minimum things.
I'm like I'm so good at that.
Um, yeah, it's not about thatat all.
It's not about that at all.
And so it's blowing my mind.
I'm highlighting so many thingsand I feel like I feel like I
could have a whole podcast topicjust about this book.
Rita Suzanne (24:54):
Oh, my goodness, I feel like I need to dive into
that, because I am aself-diagnosed workaholic, even
though I do have healthy,established boundaries.
I am obsessed with working,even though I am obsessed with
other things, you know, yep.
Emylee Williams (25:15):
Yeah, it'll change your life.
Rita Suzanne (25:19):
I should check it out.
Okay, so let's talk a littlebit about self care.
Then, since we're talking,we're talking that's a good
pivot for us let's talk aboutwhat are you doing for self-care
.
Emylee Williams (25:29):
I'm going to therapy.
I highly recommend therapy.
Part of the thing that I did.
I knew this before I read thisbook and the book is solidifying
this with data.
But I started seeing a newtherapist when I left my old job
.
I had a lot of um, you know, alot of grief and a lot of
(25:49):
emotions tangled in me leavingthat position and ending that
partnership and stepping downfrom that role and all of the
things that that meant and I hadtied up with my literal
identity and self-worth.
But a lot of it it was also andI kind of mentioned this
earlier like my addiction tobeing productive and my
(26:10):
self-worth tied to productivity.
I am also a self-diagnosedworkaholic.
I'm an Enneagram three, INFJ,Like.
If any of those things resonatewith anyone like you know, with
anyone like you know, thatthat's I achieve by working and
by doing and by being productive.
(26:39):
And and I had also quiteliterally shaped my body, the
inside of my body, to beaddicted to the adrenaline rush
of a to do list, of urgent work,of a project that only I could
solve, of urgent work, of aproject that only I could solve.
It literally changes ourhormones in our bodies when
those things happen and whenthey're put in front of us.
And so I went to my therapistand I was like I just feel like
(26:59):
I don't have the Sunday scaries.
I'm actually excited about work, but it's the Monday heavy
productivity, it's like a ballof energy that's ping ponging
around my chest every singleMonday.
It's there and that doesn't goaway unless I, like, do a
certain amount of tasks, or Iwork a certain amount of hours,
Um and and then I need torecover because I'm tired,
(27:22):
because I just worked a bunch totry to get this feeling to go
away.
And so all of that to say is myself-care for the last even
year and a half and for theforeseeable future will be to
continue to unravel the threadsthat I have completely shaped my
identity around work and andreally trying to regulate my
(27:43):
system around work.
Rita Suzanne (27:46):
Yeah, I was a guest on somebody else's podcast
a couple of weeks ago and sheasked me what are the things
that you've been saying yes tolately?
And I said actually I've beensaying no to a lot of things,
and the reason why is because Ineed to take a step back and
(28:07):
stop saying yes so much, and Irecognize that as being
something that I've, you know,gotten myself just too busy.
I'm too busy to be effective.
Emylee Williams (28:18):
Yes, yeah, this book talks about how like
workaholism is, is the only umapproved and celebrated
condition.
Ism?
Uh within our society, withinour our world, within our
country, and not just the UnitedStates a lot Um, and there are
(28:38):
a lot of studies in here thatare referenced even in other
countries about like um.
There's, there's like phrasesand terms coined in other
countries that basically meanlike uh, work till death and
death by work, and it's veryreal and it's it's not meant
like as I'm not trying to belike fear mongering here it's
very like it is something to payattention to and I I know that
(29:01):
as a lot of moms startingespecially like consulting or
service-based work.
It's really easy, really easy,too easy, to get into the
overworked state in this type ofbusiness, especially being your
own boss, and I think we couldall benefit from being really
intentional from it from thejump.
Rita Suzanne (29:21):
Yeah, I learned very quickly how burnout can
really impact your health, andespecially, you know, as a
single mom it is.
You know the burden is so heavythat you feel like you have to
do all of these things.
(29:42):
But then, shortly after all ofall of these things kind of like
came down on me, my healthstarted to be an issue, and so I
think that, not outside of thefear mongering, people need to
realize that burnout andoverworking can really impact
your health, and that's the onething that we have is is our
(30:03):
health, and my health has beenchallenged dramatically from
overworking.
And yet, at the same time, it'shard for me to say no, because
I have four kids that I need totake care of all by myself, so
nobody else is going to come inand save the day.
I have to do it, and you know.
(30:24):
But I think the benefit ofbeing a business owner is we get
the freedom to pick and choosewhat we want to do.
And that's where, like, lookingat our numbers, is super
critical, right, because we canlook at what is actually making
the most sense for us and whatis not making the most sense.
(30:44):
So after I had that interviewwith her, it was actually a
pivotal point for me, because aweek later I canceled a lot of
the calls for this podcast, Icanceled a lot of interviews and
things that I had going on.
And then I took a week off andI went away and I said, okay, I
(31:06):
need to restructure my businessbecause this is not working for
me, and I did what we weretalking about.
I took that time to analyze,like, what can I do to make this
better for me?
Because I still have to do it.
I just need it to be better forme, right, right, because I
still have to do it.
Emylee Williams (31:25):
I just need it to be better for me, right?
Well, I think a lot of people'snatural inclination is, when it
gets that hard and bad andnegative, we quit and we burn it
down to the ground, and that'snot the solution.
That doesn't have to be thesolution.
Every time I quit, I quit myjob.
It was a partnership, thoughthere were big changes I want to
(31:48):
make in order to honor how Iwanted to work that we couldn't
come to terms with, and that'sokay.
So I needed to leave and justbe the only one in charge to be
able to make those decisionsRight, and I know that's why a
lot of especially a lot of momsare leaving corporate spaces to
be able to do that same thing,right.
I know that childcare continuesto be a huge issue in this
(32:10):
country.
I know that after the pandemic,it wrecked a lot of our lives
because of that, and we're a lotof us are making different
decisions literally aroundchildcare and whether it's
because of solo parenting orwork or finances or whatever,
and I know that a lot of us arepursuing careers like this, and
(32:34):
I love that and be intentionalabout the things that you're
putting on your plate, likewe're talking about when you're
understanding what the data isshowing you that enables you to
pull the right lever.
You do not have to pull everylever, you do not have to be
everywhere.
There is absolutely reality,because I am living it and so
(32:57):
have tens of thousands of smallbusiness owners where you can
like, quite literally build aservice-based business that
brings in six figures withoutsocial media, without a website,
even without content.
Like that can be.
That is an actual reality stillin this day and age, and so
(33:18):
release yourself from theshoulds and the expectations and
really just dial in on what'sactually bringing in revenue.
Rita Suzanne (33:27):
Yeah, I agree, okay.
So where can everyone find you?
Where are you at?
Emylee Williams (33:32):
Yeah, so I hang out mostly on Instagram.
It's a little bit of personal,a little bit of business.
It's at Emily says my name isspelled kind of uniquely, so
maybe go to the show notes orwebsite or whatever to try to
find that.
Also creatives catalyst it'splural.
That Also Creatives Catalyst,it's plural, it's
multiplecreativescatalystcom.
That's where you're going tofind my consulting work and see
(33:53):
if it makes sense for us to worktogether.
If you are interested in one ofthose health audits for your
own business, if you are makingover six figures and sell either
more than one offer or yougenerate leads in more than one
way, then we definitely need tochat.
Otherwise, I also have my ownpodcast.
It's called Lazy BusinessPodcast and it's about my
(34:13):
recovery from burnout andoverwork and overwhelm and
designing a business that ishella profitable but lazy, which
is my favorite, Alsointentional and aligned, but I
like the.
I'm reclaiming the word lazyfor myself, Um and so that one's
that one's fun.
It airs twice a week, so youshould definitely go listen to
(34:33):
that one.
Rita Suzanne (34:33):
Um, but yeah, all right.
Well, thank you so much forbeing a guest.
It has been my pleasure.
Emylee Williams (34:37):
Yes, thank you so much for having me.
I had so much fun.
Hi, this is Mom Owned and Operated.
I am Rita, suzanne, and today Ihave my guest, emily, with me.
Emily, I'm so excited to chatwith you.
Please tell everyone all aboutyou, your business and your
family.
Emylee Williams (00:13):
Okay, hi, so my name is Emily Williams.
I'm the founder of CreativesCatalyst, a consulting agency
based out of Kansas City.
I am an author, a publishedauthor, a founder, an artist, an
ex-CEO, a podcaster, a mom toone.
Here in the Midwest, I startedand co-founded a pretty large
(00:35):
marketing and education agencythat I ran for almost nine years
after being out on my own,building a photography business,
which turned into a strategybusiness with local brands and
influencers.
When I met my business partner,we collaborated, created my old
company, and I ended up leavingthat, walking away from what,
(00:57):
from the outside, looking in,looked like a dream job about
this time last year, to go offon my own again, to scale back a
little bit, to be a little bitmore present with my family and
my kiddo and maybe make somemore money while I was doing it.
And I took the summer off lastyear to really focus on
(01:21):
publishing my first book.
I also write romance novelsunder a pin name.
I call her my secret identity,so I focused on that for about
four or five months and thenreally dove headfirst back into
consulting.
Now I had, you know, nine yearsunder my belt of experience
working with literally tens ofthousands of small business
(01:43):
owners in the creator economy,getting a peek behind the
curtain of what their businesseslook like, how they ran, what
marketing worked really well forthem, what systems were they
using, what was the mostprofitable strategy and
everything in between.
And I decided to take all ofthat experience and that data
and work specifically one-on-onewith other service-based
(02:05):
business owners who were coachesand consultants.
Typically these folks have ahigh-end coaching program that
has an application process andwebinars or podcasting or open
houses, and then they open andthey close their cart a couple
of times a year and then theytry ads and they do evergreens
those kinds of businesses thatare typically in that like 300
(02:25):
to million dollar price rate orrevenue stream per year and I
help them generate systems intheir business to know what's
working.
Typically they are one womanshows or they have a very small
lean team of a couple of VAs andcontractors, and sometimes it's
really hard to understand whereto put your time and attention
but also your team VAs andcontractors, and sometimes it's
really hard to understand whereto put your time and attention,
(02:47):
but also your team's time andattention, and I am a numbers
girly and so I like to make datasexy and understandable and fun
to really dig into in yourbusiness.
I'm a recovering data phobe, Iguess you would say.
I remember I had a panic attackon a Zoom call with our
(03:08):
bookkeeper, kind of halfwaythrough growing a multimillion
dollar agency, and I didn't likehow that made me feel, and so
ever since then I've kind ofmade it my mission to fall in
love with the data and not beafraid of it and really find a
way to understand how to makedecisions based on that data in
(03:29):
a really fun, in a really funway, and so that's what I do now
.
I do that one-on-one withclients and I love it, I'm
addicted to it.
Rita Suzanne (03:40):
I love, I love that you, that you kind of face
that fear, because I find that alot of women are actually
fearful of data in general,right Of numbers.
They don't want to kind of facethe facts of the financials or
even look at the numbers.
When it comes to the data, asfar as, like their analytics or
(04:04):
any of those things and, um, youknow, before we kind of you
know, segue into the otherthings, why do you think that is
?
Emylee Williams (04:13):
Um, at least for me, the experience I, um, I
have been in a relationship forso long.
I met my now husband when I was18 and we started dating when I
was 18.
He's the finance guy, he's thenumbers guy, he's the logic guy
and for so long of my marriage,of my life, he's taking care of
(04:35):
all of the money aspect, thefinancial aspect, of our, our
family, of our household, of ourmarriage, of our relationship,
and I've allowed that to happenbecause that's what felt most
comfortable for me, that's whatfelt safest for me.
I don't feel like a lot of uswere trained, were informed,
were educated growing up aswomen, but as people to budget,
(04:56):
to save, to have a healthyrelationship with money.
I feel like I had a lot ofmoney trauma growing up and a
really negative relationshipwith money.
So I just full on delegatedthat to my partner.
But what happened was then, as Iwas growing my own business and
being a small business ownerand being an entrepreneur which
I love doing and I'm really,really good at there was a giant
(05:17):
disconnect with what I wasspending my time on, what I was
thinking about, what I wasinvesting in, what I was
building behind the scenes andhow it was making me money, and
I've since learned that there'struly nothing more empowering
than seeing your efforts beingdirectly correlated with your
revenue, with your profit, withthe impact that you can have in
(05:39):
your community, within yourbusiness, your clients or
philanthropic whatever floatsyour boat, that there's nothing
that excites me and empowers memore than understanding how all
those things work together.
So I think a lot of it isfear-based, a lot of it is we
just don't know, we weren'ttaught.
A lot of us probably havesupportive partners who do
manage a lot of that.
(05:59):
That's very stereotypical,that's very common, and so,
therefore, when it comes to ourbusiness, these are all brand
new skills and muscles that wehaven't flexed and that we don't
know how to strengthen, but itis doable and it is fun.
Rita Suzanne (06:13):
Yeah, and I think it's super important.
I always am telling my clientsthat they need to every month
when they're looking at theirfinancials.
One, they don't look at theirfinancials, but two, when they
do look at their financials.
One, they don't look at theirfinancials, but two, when they
do look at their financials,they should be looking at what
products or services offers areselling and things that are not
(06:33):
selling.
Then maybe let's discontinue,let's not put our efforts into
those things.
What are you focusing on withyour clients as far as like
those type of things?
Is it similar?
Emylee Williams (06:44):
Yeah, that's a really big part of the
discussion.
So how, how I start everyrelationship with the client is
through a five point audithealth assessment.
Basically, we work together to.
We have a phone call where we,where we, I learned about your
business, how you sell, how youmarket, how you generate leads,
what you invest in, how you makemoney, all of those things and
(07:05):
it typically comes down to aboutfive to seven different avenues
of things that matter metricsthat matter.
Typically, it's always yourQuickBooks, your P&L, your top
line revenue.
Maybe you have a membership, soit's retention.
Maybe it's your email serviceprovider and it's your open
rates, or your new subscribers,or your click rates.
Maybe it's how many people aresigning up to watch a webinar
(07:26):
and then are converting to yourpaid offer.
Maybe it's sales calls toconversions, to proposals,
whatever right, whatever makessense for your business.
So I go back and I do all ofthe digging.
I look at your last 12 monthsof your data and I'm really good
at finding themes and so, withall of that presented in front
of me, I can see okay, here'swhat led to this, or I have
(07:47):
questions about this, or why didthis dip down, or why did this
spike up and we just do an auditabout what is actually
happening in your business.
That then enables us to pulldifferent levers.
If you bring on more clients,you could potentially make more
revenue, but do you have thetime and the capacity to serve
those clients?
If you create a new offerdigital lower price typically
(08:11):
where are those leads going tobe coming from?
Do you have the currentaudience who's going to actually
say yes to that?
How much should we be chargingto reach your new income or your
revenue goal?
And there's a big part of thatconversation I call it your
profit pie, where we look at avisual pie, a pie chart.
I'm such a visual learner and Ineed to see it, not just in
(08:32):
cells and records but in chartsand graphs and comparisons.
And so we look at your profitpie.
Of all of the offers thatyou're selling, how much money
did it make you in the last 12months?
And I challenge my clientsanything under 7% of your total
revenue.
We cut, and that enables us topour time and attention in
(08:53):
things that are bigger incomegenerators that do impact our
clients in a bigger way.
We can either cut it or we canroll it into an existing offer
and increase that price, or wejust cut it in general, and
sometimes that alone offers sucha freeing on your literal time,
the task that you have to do,but then you see a bigger income
(09:17):
jump with your other productswhen you're able to focus more
on them.
Rita Suzanne (09:21):
I love that, okay, so what is your biggest stream
of revenue right now?
Emylee Williams (09:27):
Yeah, it's a hundred percent of my one-on-one
consulting work.
When I left my company, theanswer to that question was like
seven or eight different things.
When you have a multimilliondollar marketing agency, there's
a lot that goes into that and Iwanted absolutely to streamline
.
I really got.
I finally got intounderstanding nervous system
(09:52):
regulation and managing myanxiety and my addiction to
productivity and the tie that Ihad of my self-worth with my
work.
And since I was, you know, kindof unraveling that in the last
year with a lot of therapy, alot of talking and reading and
educating and learning, I reallyknew for me what works is
(10:18):
cutting, trimming the fat right,trimming the fat right and
really getting to the meat ofwhat's going to make the biggest
impact in my clients' lives andtheir business and really
streamlining my offers.
And so for right now it'sone-on-one consulting work.
I'm advising businesses.
A lot of that involves buildingspreadsheets, building data
(10:39):
interfaces so that we can lookat that information and make
proper decisions on how we wantto move forward, and a subset of
that is a lot of marketing andlaunch planning and advising.
And so typically what comesfrom our calls is okay.
This is what has happened inthe last 12 months.
If nothing changes, this iswhat you can expect to happen.
(10:59):
But you told me your goal is X.
Okay, what's the gap?
How are we going to get there?
And I like to collaborate withbusiness owners and really help
them come up with the best leverto pull in order to get to that
point.
Does that mean hiring?
Does it mean creating a newoffer?
Does it mean raising the price?
Does it mean launching one moretime Like what does that
actually mean?
And really supporting them andhelping make that come to life.
Rita Suzanne (11:23):
I love that.
So what over the years?
What has been the most valuablefinancial lesson that you can
share with other mom businessowners?
Emylee Williams (11:34):
Honestly for me .
I you know, I'm a mom, I alsohave a chronic illness.
I'm also neurodivergent.
I don't have a lot of spoons togive.
Some days I don't have a lot ofhigh energy.
I have to be very intentionalabout my work.
So for me and for other momswho find themselves in that
space, I have to know on a monthto month basis, on a quarterly
(11:55):
basis, what was the action inthis last quarter that actually
made me the most money.
And if I only have energy to doone thing, I'm going to
prioritize that.
And if we don't know thatinformation, I can tell you
exactly what's happening.
You're doing a little bit ofthat because you think that you
should, you know that you should, but then you're also writing
(12:17):
blog posts and figuring out yourwebsite and your SEO.
You're rebranding to seem moreprofessional or more polished or
whatever, because it's just fun.
You are on social media andmaybe you're making reels and
you're making TikToks and maybeyou're buying that $37 course to
learn how to do this DMautomated strategy for this
low-priced offer that youhaven't even made yet.
(12:37):
Maybe you're also working on awebinar slide deck and thinking
about starting a podcast andthen emailing that one client
and then wondering what you needto be doing next and why you
feel like you're always busy butyou're not making progress.
I don't have the time and energyto be always busy and not
making progress.
No one does, no one does.
But I needed the clear data toshow me.
All right, girl, if you've gotextra spoons, go explore this
(13:00):
cool new thing.
That sounds great, that's fun,that's part of being in business
, that's learning something new.
I love doing that.
But if we're limited or if weneed to be seeing quicker
results, here are the thingsthat have been proven for me and
for my offer, for my business,for my audience, to work.
So that's the lean, meanmachine that I'm going to focus
on that's the lean mean machinethat I'm going to focus on.
Rita Suzanne (13:24):
I love that.
I it's interesting that youbring that up, because I had, a
few weeks ago, created a freegift and started talking about
are you really marketing?
Right?
Because I see a lot of mombusiness owners getting stuck in
that busy work but continuouslytalking about their marketing,
their marketing, they're busy,they're busy, they're busy,
(13:45):
they're busy, but you're notreally making money with these
things, these busy work tasks.
You're updating your website,like you said.
You're updating, you'recreating images, you're doing
these things, or you could evenbe posting on social media, but
are you actually marketing?
Like, sharing a inspirationalquote is not marketing.
(14:06):
So I think that we need to getreally clear on what is actually
marketing and, speaking of that, what's one marketing tactic or
strategy that you are doingthat's working for you?
Emylee Williams (14:22):
or strategy that you are doing that's
working for you A hundredpercent every single time.
I know when I focus onrelationships I make more money.
One hundred percent of mybusiness in the past year and a
half and in the history of the13 years that I've been in
business, it hasn't been ahundred percent throughout my
entire history because we'verelied on Facebook ads or
different things.
But in the past 18 months, 100%of my business has been because
(14:46):
of referrals.
So I know that if I reach outto the right people who are
connected in the right way andI'm really clear on hey, here's
the thing that I'm going to beoffering, do you know anyone Can
you introduce?
Do you think of anyone whomight need this thing?
Is there a warm referral or canyou just give me the name and I
can kind of go do some creepingand build that relationship?
(15:08):
But when I speak up and say tothe right people and I have
three of those people, you don'tneed a bunch, I have three
people in my back pocket who Iknow when I'm developing a new
offer, I've got clarity on mymessage about this thing that I
already am offering or whatever.
I know that if I call thisperson.
(15:28):
If I voice message this personand say, hey, here's the thing
that I'm working on, that theycan think of five to 10 people
who it's going to be perfect for.
I don't need, as an introvert,as a human design projector, I
am someone who does not have theRolodex of contacts I don't
need as an introvert, as a humandesign projector, I am someone
who does not have the Rolodex ofcontacts.
I'm not that person.
I'm not the person that's like,oh my gosh, I know exactly who
(15:48):
you should be connected to.
I'm the person who has three tofive to seven of those people
in my back pocket who I'venurtured that relationship with
over the years, who I know.
This person seems more corporateconnected.
This person seems like they'regoing to know a lot of people
who need this analyticaldashboard that I just designed.
(16:10):
This person seems like theyknow really new beginner
consultants, so this lower priceoffer that I'm developing would
be perfect for them.
So I know when to reach out tothose people.
But if I hadn't nurtured thoserelationships, if I hadn't also
let them pick my brain when it'snecessary and when it's needed
it's got to be an equitablerelationship Then I wouldn't be
(16:31):
able to just call on them at anysecond, you know with a new
idea, but I know when I do I'mgoing to be introduced to my
next client.
Rita Suzanne (16:40):
Do you have any tips for building or maintaining
those relationships?
Emylee Williams (16:47):
Yeah, I think I think a big part of it is is is
, first, that that releasing theexpectation that you, you know
sometimes, sometimes, when wetalk about networking and and
and building that network right,especially if you're an
introvert, you automaticallylike pull into yourself and
you're like, oh, like, nothingsounds worse than going to this
networking event and talkingabout myself and introducing
(17:09):
myself to all these people who Idon't care about and I don't
want to know.
And it's stressed out and itliterally like can create a pit
in your stomach.
I get that Like that is me ahundred and so release that.
That doesn't have to be the waythat you network.
You can network in a way thatfeels in alignment with you and
so if you feel like you're thatperson, um, then it's all about
(17:30):
really thinking about the, thecontacts that you've had over
the years in your neighborhoodon the PTA.
Who your parents know?
Who your ex colleague at thatone, at that one place?
Where did she go to work?
Where is she at now?
Who does she know that placethat you volunteered at?
Who do they know your literalold job, current job?
(17:50):
Who do they know Anyone thatyou've worked with before in any
capacity that your partner hasworked with before in any
capacity.
Think of the people who are nomore than one degree away from
you, so they cannot be past that.
Like you should be able to sendthem an email, text them or
call them, and it should be metwith warm reception.
(18:11):
They remember who you are.
Oh my gosh, it's so great tohear from you, but these are
people, like some of thesepeople I didn't talk to for
years.
But when I reached out to thembecause we had such a solid
relationship previously and Iwas very specific about my reach
it it, while it came out ofleft field, it was like no time
had passed.
Yes, let's hop on a zoom, let'sreconnect, let's do this.
(18:33):
So I'm talking about thosepeople.
So, when you find them, makeyour list of five, seven, 10 of
those and I promise you, whenyou reconnect with them and
start to just have a human tohuman conversation, what are you
up to?
Here's what I'm up to.
This is crazy.
This is my new offer.
Isn't this wild?
Like?
This is what I'm doing.
(18:53):
I'm so excited about this.
They're automatically going tobe able to connect the dots on
who might be able to benefitfrom that thing or who they can
introduce you to, that knowspeople who could benefit to that
thing.
That's how you start wideningthat circle, but your initial
reach out does not have to bemore than like five, seven, 10
people.
Rita Suzanne (19:14):
Yeah, I agree.
I think that oftentimes peopleare afraid to even go to
previous clients and say, hey, Ihave this new thing.
Here are the details about it.
Do you know anybody who mightbe interested in this?
They are terrified Cause I'llsay that to um, you know
colleagues and friends and say,hey, you should, you should go
(19:37):
approach your old, your oldclients, like they are your best
referral source you should goapproach your old, your old
clients, like they are your bestreferral source.
Emylee Williams (19:48):
I promise you, like the the, the psychology
behind that is we all want to bethe reason for someone else's
success, every single one of us.
It's a really cool thing to do.
Oh, my gosh, like I introducedyou to that person and it made
this happen for you.
They want to feel responsiblefor that, able to, you know,
bridge those connections, and soyou asking, especially if it's
a warm connection, is allowingthem to get to flex that very
(20:12):
human desire and make thatconnection happen for you.
Rita Suzanne (20:17):
Yes, Okay, so let's pivot a little and talk a
little bit about any of yourfavorite tools, apps, softwares
that you're using that make yourlife or business a little bit
easier.
Emylee Williams (20:30):
Yep, I would say, hands down.
The number one tool that makesmy life and business easier is
Airtable.
I've I'm a new Airtable convert.
I have been messing with it forabout a year now.
I shied away from it for thelongest because it looks like a
spreadsheet and there's formulasand it's data and there's
records and I'm like, ah, thisis going to break my brain.
(20:52):
But holy moly, the things thatI have been able to build, not
just for myself but for myclients.
Like, I have an entire I call ita consultant ecosystem and it's
quite literally every singleone of my leads, my income, my
expenses, my proposal, mycontracts, everything happens
automated through that entiresystem and at a visual glance I
(21:13):
can see how much money I mademonth over month.
What, what do I feel likecontributed to that thing?
Cause I like I track differentthings that are custom to my
life and my business.
Um, I also track because of mychronic illness, my energy
levels and my health and mycycle and when I have childcare
and when I don't have childcare,so I can compare that and I can
(21:34):
look back and if I'm looking atthe last six months or the last
year and I'm like, man, thatone month was really down, like
what happened.
And instead of like beatingmyself up about I must not have
like networked enough, or I mustnot have sold enough, or I must
not have marketed enough, orwhatever it is, I can literally
look back at the data and belike, oh, I was on my period, I
was in bed for seven days and Ididn't have childcare for half
(21:56):
the month.
That explains it.
And that's just so much morefreeing when I'm able to make
decisions and pivot off ofactual information instead of
just feelings.
It feels a lot more empowering.
Rita Suzanne (22:10):
Well, yeah, and then you're not so hard on
yourself, right, it's not, youknow, it's not your fault
actually.
Emylee Williams (22:17):
Yeah, actually it's not your fault, Actually
like life happens, right?
Rita Suzanne (22:22):
Yeah, because it's so easy to be down on yourself,
especially when you're lookingat something that is so black
and white, like the numbers,right, and we often look at the
numbers and we take suchaccountability for them and take
it so personally that we can beso critical on ourselves.
And I think that looking atthose outside factors especially
(22:46):
as a mom, as an you know, as aparent, whether you're single or
not, or you know you have otherthings going on in your life
there are other factors thatthat can make it even more
challenging.
So I love the idea of lookingat those things I have.
I use Notion.
I've used Airtable before.
I love Notion too, yeah, and inmy Notion I have the same thing
(23:09):
where I'm tracking water andexercise and all of these things
, because it helps me stay ontrack with my habits and helps
me feel better and just be moreaccountable.
So let's talk a little bitabout what are you currently
reading or listening to?
Emylee Williams (23:32):
Yes, I have my book right here.
Actually, I came prepared.
I'm halfway through this bookcalled Never Not Working.
It's by Melissa Clark.
It's why the always-on cultureis bad for business and how to
fix it, and it basically takeseverything you think you knew
about perfectionism andworkaholics and workaholism and
(23:52):
tells you data-backed truthabout those things.
And it is so incredible how andtruly everything I knew about
overworking and workaholism.
It's actually so much deeper.
It is way beyond the surface ofwell, you're only a workaholic
if you're working 80-hour weeksor if you're in certain
(24:15):
industries or if you're tied toyour phone all the time.
I thought there's no way Icould be considered a workaholic
or have these tendencies.
I have such great boundaries,right, I only work this many
hours.
I take half days often.
I work from bed when I need to.
I don't check my phone on theweekends.
I have do not disturb on likeall of those like surface level
(24:36):
kind of bare minimum things.
I'm like I'm so good at that.
Um, yeah, it's not about thatat all.
It's not about that at all.
And so it's blowing my mind.
I'm highlighting so many thingsand I feel like I feel like I
could have a whole podcast topicjust about this book.
Rita Suzanne (24:54):
Oh, my goodness, I feel like I need to dive into
that, because I am aself-diagnosed workaholic, even
though I do have healthy,established boundaries.
I am obsessed with working,even though I am obsessed with
other things, you know, yep.
Emylee Williams (25:15):
Yeah, it'll change your life.
Rita Suzanne (25:19):
I should check it out.
Okay, so let's talk a littlebit about self care.
Then, since we're talking,we're talking that's a good
pivot for us let's talk aboutwhat are you doing for self-care
.
Emylee Williams (25:29):
I'm going to therapy.
I highly recommend therapy.
Part of the thing that I did.
I knew this before I read thisbook and the book is solidifying
this with data.
But I started seeing a newtherapist when I left my old job
.
I had a lot of um, you know, alot of grief and a lot of
(25:49):
emotions tangled in me leavingthat position and ending that
partnership and stepping downfrom that role and all of the
things that that meant and I hadtied up with my literal
identity and self-worth.
But a lot of it it was also andI kind of mentioned this
earlier like my addiction tobeing productive and my
(26:10):
self-worth tied to productivity.
I am also a self-diagnosedworkaholic.
I'm an Enneagram three, INFJ,Like.
If any of those things resonatewith anyone like you know, with
anyone like you know, thatthat's I achieve by working and
by doing and by being productive.
(26:39):
And and I had also quiteliterally shaped my body, the
inside of my body, to beaddicted to the adrenaline rush
of a to do list, of urgent work,of a project that only I could
solve, of urgent work, of aproject that only I could solve.
It literally changes ourhormones in our bodies when
those things happen and whenthey're put in front of us.
And so I went to my therapistand I was like I just feel like
(26:59):
I don't have the Sunday scaries.
I'm actually excited about work, but it's the Monday heavy
productivity, it's like a ballof energy that's ping ponging
around my chest every singleMonday.
It's there and that doesn't goaway unless I, like, do a
certain amount of tasks, or Iwork a certain amount of hours,
Um and and then I need torecover because I'm tired,
(27:22):
because I just worked a bunch totry to get this feeling to go
away.
And so all of that to say is myself-care for the last even
year and a half and for theforeseeable future will be to
continue to unravel the threadsthat I have completely shaped my
identity around work and andreally trying to regulate my
(27:43):
system around work.
Rita Suzanne (27:46):
Yeah, I was a guest on somebody else's podcast
a couple of weeks ago and sheasked me what are the things
that you've been saying yes tolately?
And I said actually I've beensaying no to a lot of things,
and the reason why is because Ineed to take a step back and
(28:07):
stop saying yes so much, and Irecognize that as being
something that I've, you know,gotten myself just too busy.
I'm too busy to be effective.
Emylee Williams (28:18):
Yes, yeah, this book talks about how like
workaholism is, is the only umapproved and celebrated
condition.
Ism?
Uh within our society, withinour our world, within our
country, and not just the UnitedStates a lot Um, and there are
(28:38):
a lot of studies in here thatare referenced even in other
countries about like um.
There's, there's like phrasesand terms coined in other
countries that basically meanlike uh, work till death and
death by work, and it's veryreal and it's it's not meant
like as I'm not trying to belike fear mongering here it's
very like it is something to payattention to and I I know that
(29:01):
as a lot of moms startingespecially like consulting or
service-based work.
It's really easy, really easy,too easy, to get into the
overworked state in this type ofbusiness, especially being your
own boss, and I think we couldall benefit from being really
intentional from it from thejump.
Rita Suzanne (29:21):
Yeah, I learned very quickly how burnout can
really impact your health, andespecially, you know, as a
single mom it is.
You know the burden is so heavythat you feel like you have to
do all of these things.
(29:42):
But then, shortly after all ofall of these things kind of like
came down on me, my healthstarted to be an issue, and so I
think that, not outside of thefear mongering, people need to
realize that burnout andoverworking can really impact
your health, and that's the onething that we have is is our
(30:03):
health, and my health has beenchallenged dramatically from
overworking.
And yet, at the same time, it'shard for me to say no, because
I have four kids that I need totake care of all by myself, so
nobody else is going to come inand save the day.
I have to do it, and you know.
(30:24):
But I think the benefit ofbeing a business owner is we get
the freedom to pick and choosewhat we want to do.
And that's where, like, lookingat our numbers, is super
critical, right, because we canlook at what is actually making
the most sense for us and whatis not making the most sense.
(30:44):
So after I had that interviewwith her, it was actually a
pivotal point for me, because aweek later I canceled a lot of
the calls for this podcast, Icanceled a lot of interviews and
things that I had going on.
And then I took a week off andI went away and I said, okay, I
(31:06):
need to restructure my businessbecause this is not working for
me, and I did what we weretalking about.
I took that time to analyze,like, what can I do to make this
better for me?
Because I still have to do it.
I just need it to be better forme, right, right, because I
still have to do it.
Emylee Williams (31:25):
I just need it to be better for me, right?
Well, I think a lot of people'snatural inclination is, when it
gets that hard and bad andnegative, we quit and we burn it
down to the ground, and that'snot the solution.
That doesn't have to be thesolution.
Every time I quit, I quit myjob.
It was a partnership, thoughthere were big changes I want to
(31:48):
make in order to honor how Iwanted to work that we couldn't
come to terms with, and that'sokay.
So I needed to leave and justbe the only one in charge to be
able to make those decisionsRight, and I know that's why a
lot of especially a lot of momsare leaving corporate spaces to
be able to do that same thing,right.
I know that childcare continuesto be a huge issue in this
(32:10):
country.
I know that after the pandemic,it wrecked a lot of our lives
because of that, and we're a lotof us are making different
decisions literally aroundchildcare and whether it's
because of solo parenting orwork or finances or whatever,
and I know that a lot of us arepursuing careers like this, and
(32:34):
I love that and be intentionalabout the things that you're
putting on your plate, likewe're talking about when you're
understanding what the data isshowing you that enables you to
pull the right lever.
You do not have to pull everylever, you do not have to be
everywhere.
There is absolutely reality,because I am living it and so
(32:57):
have tens of thousands of smallbusiness owners where you can
like, quite literally build aservice-based business that
brings in six figures withoutsocial media, without a website,
even without content.
Like that can be.
That is an actual reality stillin this day and age, and so
(33:18):
release yourself from theshoulds and the expectations and
really just dial in on what'sactually bringing in revenue.
Rita Suzanne (33:27):
Yeah, I agree, okay.
So where can everyone find you?
Where are you at?
Emylee Williams (33:32):
Yeah, so I hang out mostly on Instagram.
It's a little bit of personal,a little bit of business.
It's at Emily says my name isspelled kind of uniquely, so
maybe go to the show notes orwebsite or whatever to try to
find that.
Also creatives catalyst it'splural.
That Also Creatives Catalyst,it's plural, it's
multiplecreativescatalystcom.
That's where you're going tofind my consulting work and see
(33:53):
if it makes sense for us to worktogether.
If you are interested in one ofthose health audits for your
own business, if you are makingover six figures and sell either
more than one offer or yougenerate leads in more than one
way, then we definitely need tochat.
Otherwise, I also have my ownpodcast.
It's called Lazy BusinessPodcast and it's about my
(34:13):
recovery from burnout andoverwork and overwhelm and
designing a business that ishella profitable but lazy, which
is my favorite, Alsointentional and aligned, but I
like the.
I'm reclaiming the word lazyfor myself, Um and so that one's
that one's fun.
It airs twice a week, so youshould definitely go listen to
(34:33):
that one.
Rita Suzanne (34:33):
Um, but yeah, all right.
Well, thank you so much forbeing a guest.
It has been my pleasure.
Emylee Williams (34:37):
Yes, thank you so much for having me.
I had so much fun.
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