Giving It All Away

Kathleen Shannon 0:04 Get your business together, get yourself into what you do, and see it through. Emily Thompson 0:10 Because being boss is hard. Planning work and life is messy. Making a dream job of your own isn't easy. Kathleen Shannon 0:18 But getting paid for it, becoming known for it. And Emily Thompson 0:21 finding purpose in it is so doable. If you do the work, being boss, the podcast for creative entrepreneurs from Emily Thompson and Kathleen Seamus, welcome to Episode 23. Give it all away of your approach to content sharing and social media brought to you by fresh books cloud accounting. Kathleen Shannon 0:44 Alright, you guys, today we're going to be chatting about content sharing social media, and our philosophy of giving it all away. But first, we have a few announcements. We just want to thank you guys so much for your ratings and reviews on iTunes. We continue to make the top charts, which helps us reach even more bosses who want to do the work and live the dream. So please, if you haven't already, please leave us a rating or review on iTunes, even if you listen to us elsewhere. Emily Thompson 1:11 And finally, we have a secret episode it is live. It's called cultivating confidence. And it's ready for download only at loving boss calm. Kathleen Shannon 1:20 In this episode we talk about not just faking it until you make it but faking it until you become it. We talked about really digging down and finding the source of your confidence. Emily Thompson 1:32 Yeah, and we even talk about how it is that who you hang out with can either boost or deplete your confidence. Kathleen Shannon 1:40 You can find this episode exclusively at love being boss calm. Alright, so back to our episode. Give it all away, Emily and I wanted to talk about how we share content on the internet and online. And we can't really talk about that without talking about social media, but also talking about our philosophy of giving it all away. Even in our Facebook group, someone the other day was talking about having an idea for something, but they're scared to share it, not only because of the fear of failure, like what if I share this and don't ever do it, but the fear of someone stealing their idea. And I think that that's a fear that comes up a lot whenever it comes to giving it all away. There's also the fear of if you give away all your good stuff, then why would anyone want to buy it? So the first thing I want to do is touch on what it means to give it all away. And Emily, what does that mean to you giving it all away? Emily Thompson 2:45 For for me, it's about proving to people that I'm smart. In a lot of ways, it's about positioning yourself as that expert is proving to people that whatever it is that you're trying to sell or whatever it is that you're trying to teach or share in paid services is worth it because you're showing them the proof that you actually know what you're talking about. Or you actually have the skills or the knowledge to give them the experience or the product or the service that you are trying to sell them. Kathleen Shannon 3:19 I started giving it all away whenever I first started freelancing. I quit my day job and started my blog. And I was blogging a little bit about freelancing and found that people started emailing me and asking me questions about how I was doing it. And so I decided to instead of just responding to one person, I wanted to go ahead and give this information to a lot of people. And it's a it's a tactic that I learned quickly and that I have taken into my business now. So I was blogging, people are asking me questions through email, and I would spend a lot of time like crafting a long email back to them. I would send it back and maybe not even get a thank you for this huge responses, almost like I was bitter. And I was like, Well, you know what, I'm gonna give this to everyone then. So I started putting it on my blog, and found that it did just what you're describing Emily, it kind of positioned me as an expert in freelancing, even though I was just sharing the journey along the way. And so I was giving away lots of advice, like how to fire tricky clients, how to set up print specs to send something to print, and how to manage your projects, just things that I was doing along the way. And then whenever I started getting creative, I really wanted to take that philosophy to what we were doing at braid, and just give it all away everything that we were were learning and sharing with our clients. We create blog posts about all the time and now even with our podcasts, we're giving away everything we know even whenever people try and hire me one on one for creative coaching now Half the time, more than half the time, I would say nine times out of 10. I say you know what, just listen to my podcast being boss, you don't have to spend 1000s and 1000s of dollars on one on one coaching with me, whenever you can listen to my free podcast that said, This podcast is I think what's making more people come to us for creative coaching. So that's kind of the philosophy of giving it all away is that whenever you give it all away, whenever you are sharing your expertise, and you're openly sharing those ideas, it positions you as an expert, and it attracts dream customers to you, like mobs to light not the dream customers or mobs but Emily Thompson 5:42 bad metaphor. Beautiful. Um, no, I absolutely agree with you. So I really built my business in the exact same way it started, started as me blogging, and I guess whenever I was making jewelry, I was like a product business. I was blogging about things that I was experiencing and selling on Etsy, and found people like other sellers on Etsy, coming to my blog to learn more about how it was that I was building my business. And they started coming to me for, for advice on how to take their business off of Etsy, which is what I was doing. And that turned into my first website projects. And then from there, I started transitioning my blog into more of like, more purposefully, I guess, speaking to creative entrepreneurs. And that is exactly how I built my business. I think we're both in the same place where neither of us have ever spent any real money on marketing, like on advertisements is not been anything that either of us have ever done, I've thrown throwing money into Facebook ads a couple of times just to like see what happens and to play around with it more than anything. But other than like advertising play money, which is like 100 bucks here and there occasionally. I've never done any advertising. And we've never had to because we give away all of this content. So instead of spending money, we're sharing knowledge, and in turn have built businesses from that instead of throwing lots of money in advertising. I think it's huge. Kathleen Shannon 7:12 And a lot of people always ask the both of us How do I get a bigger following? How do I get more people to read what I'm putting online. And a big part of giving it all away, is making your content valuable, making sure that every piece that you write is making someone's life a little better, and that it's teaching them tools or skills that they might need that they could also hire you for that they could I mean, every time I write a blog post or do a podcast or send out, especially sending out an email, because I think that inboxes are a sacred space, and I want to respect that space. So every time I send out content, I want to be sure that I'm giving my readers and my listeners a lot of value for their time, because I respect that they're showing up and reading what I have to say or listening to what I have to say that's a huge honor. And so I want to make sure that they're getting something really good for their time and their investment in me, even if it's just time and not even money. Emily Thompson 8:18 Yeah, and I've even I've even read stats that are kind of nerd that I am. I've even read stats around things like having an opt in for your newsletter, and that and a good opt in to build your list and to grow your newsletter, it should be worth to someone signing up 100 bucks. And if your opt in, if it's not something that someone would pay $100 for then it's not good enough. And I like to take that same approach with with all of my content. And I've, I've stopped blogging as much lately. And part of that's because I don't have time to put in to put in the work to make it that valuable. I find myself like moving more towards that now that things with being boss are are leveling out. And I can have more time blogging because the value that I want to put into being boss is very important. And the level of value that I want to put into my blog posts and my newsletters is super important to me. And I think that that the more valuable you can make that content to people, the more valuable you are to those people. Well, you know, I want to talk about that for a second because maybe the value of like that $100 philosophy or an idea. I think it's great for something that is truly like where you're getting value out of it also. So Kathleen Shannon 9:36 it's kind of like you would probably pay 100 bucks to get one person on your email list. I mean, if you had a bajillion dollars, right, it'd be worth $100 to get that person on your email list. But to have one person read my personal blog post, I don't know that that's necessarily worth $100. So or even like an Instagram post, or something like that. I think that you have to Think about the worth, as it relates to the different platforms, maybe we can go into that for a second, I want to talk about newsletters and providing value. And so one of the things that we do on our being boss newsletter, is you get access to our secret episodes. And we're also cooking up other exclusive goodies, just for our being boss, newsletter subscribers. For braid, creative, we just launched a I mean, talking about really giving it away, it almost makes no I Emily Thompson 10:30 know, like, I kind of guys listen to this, Kathleen Shannon 10:34 wanting to go back and tell me sister Tara, like, hey, maybe we should start charging for this ebook. But we just developed an ebook called seven ways designers can brand themselves as experts. And it's a free ebook. And you sign up for our list. And you get this it is loaded with really actionable content and scripts, and interview little tips that you can use to position yourself as an expert, and it's exclusively for designers, but really, I think that will probably modify it for different industries. So even if you're not a designer, you can download it, but talk about giving it all away. And I almost had that fear that I was talking about at the beginning of this episode, where I was like, well, then why are they going to hire us? And well, what if, you know, what if? What if, what if, like, there are all these things that kind of come up whenever you give something away? But whenever I sort of have those feelings, I knew I was on the right track. Yes, I think it's those scary feelings where you know, sometimes like, Okay, this is the kind of a brave move. And so those are just a couple of things. And then our own braid letters for creatives, which is just our other newsletter, lots of newsletters, I give away an ideal day worksheet whenever you sign up, and I don't even really promote it to build the list. It's kind of just that thank you for signing up. Here's a little extra something something for you. So Emily, what do you give whenever people sign up for indie tactics, which is your letter? Emily Thompson 12:06 Sure. So in detecting any tech, what's it called indie tactics is, it's had a couple different iterations in its life. At one point I, I shared like an SEO quick guide, like helping creatives like build some easy search engine optimization on their site. These days, these days, I position it much more as you simply get like this really exclusive content that comes to your inbox every week. So it's less about that immediate opt in and more about the long term value of what you're signing up for. But we've also been putting in some things in play to just last week or something we launched, like a freebie like website audit worksheet, so that people can sign up, download the worksheet and then go through, go through their own website, and really like make it as fantastic as possible. And then we've also, I launched this last summer, we were about to turn this into a more evergreen, like opt in option as well is a I did a five day email series on like building a better online presence for your business and making your website more fantastic. And so we're about to turn that into a more evergreen product as well, that's just sign up, you get a free five day ecourse. And you get exclusive content in your inbox beyond that. So I've went through a couple different iterations of sort of my like being of testing change, sort of see what works and see what doesn't. We have done really great list building without actually having a specific opt in. But positioning as this ongoing, really great content you get in your inbox, and it's worked really well we're going to try out something new. We'll see what happens. Kathleen Shannon 13:45 Alright, so newsletters are just one way to share your content, I want to talk about some other ways that we share content and ways that we recommend content sharing for our clients. And there's so much that goes into this. So I want to start the conversation starting with platforms like let's just get into the nitty gritty of that are we share. So where do you share? All right, so I've got a personal blog at Anne Kathleen, calm, and I don't. So that is a sharing platform where I am sharing who I am, that's much more personal. It used to be a little bit more business as because that's where my following was. And so I was kind of blogging about business. And that's pretty much where my journey was at the time was starting this business. So that's just where I share who I am. After having the baby I wouldn't say I've turned into a full fledged mommy blogger, but it's definitely more focus on that journey and processing that as I go. So I share that and and then I have braid, creative calm, which is where I'm blogging. So we have a blog there. We also have our newsletter there. Now I'm sharing on this podcast. So being boss we're sharing here and I do that With you, obviously. I'm also sharing so as far as social media goes, my favorite platforms that I have are Instagram. So Instagram for me has almost replaced blogging, like personal blogging, and I really do a blend there of work and life. But I would say mostly personal stuff there. And then I also have a braid, creative Instagram, and my sister really manages that account. But I'll send her photos every once in a while and say, Hey, can you Instagram this, I have a personal Facebook page, I never use it, except to just interact with our Facebook group at being boss. And I'm all about some Facebook groups, but not so much as a place to share as much. And then finally, I have a Twitter, I haven't used it in a long time, it just kind of fell off my radar. And so we have a Twitter, I have a Twitter for myself and for braid. Um, and then finally Pinterest, which is I don't even think of that as like a social media tool, I think of it more as a creative, a creative tool for mood boarding, and collecting inspiration and stuff like that. So one thing I want to address here is I'm talking a lot about I have my personal stuff, and then my professional stuff, we get asked all the time, should I keep it together? Or should I keep it separate? We've even done a minisode on this. But I think it is worth repeating here that you have to just do whatever you feel best with like there's no right or wrong answer whether you should keep your personal and professional together or separate. It might be a blend of both. And for me it is it's a blend of both. So I have these separate personal accounts. The reason why is because with braid and with being boss, I'm sharing those businesses with other people. And so my personal accounts, I've kept them because it still gives me a place to share things like my vacation, and I would probably share those in a professional setting, too. It's just not always as I share those settings. I don't know that Emily, you'd be like, Yeah, sure. Let's just blog about being a mom or vacation. We even haven't been boss blog. But you get my point. Yes. So anyway, I just wanted to mention that here is that there's no right or wrong way to i think i think whatever you do that allows you to just share the most or share in a way that you feel really comfortable with is what you should do, whether that's putting it all together or keeping it all separate. Yeah, Emily Thompson 17:27 definitely. I think that comes also with having a clear brand and knowing like how it is that your your personal brand interacts online, which I know is something that you guys do a lot of work with, with your clients in terms of like, what are you going to be sharing and how to share it, which I think is just really important and differs from person to person. The way you and I share online is not the way anyone else may ever share online. It's just about finding what works for you and the brand that you're building. I want to hear what your what platforms you use, what social media is your favorite. And then I also want to talk about how they all interact together and everything kind of feeds into each other because I know that's your that's kind of your jam. It is that is totally my jam. So the ones that I use the most let's see, I have I have Emily Thompson calm, which is my more personal site and semi personal blog, but I do sell a lot or share a lot more business tips and advice on there than anything else. I'm actually probably about to start doing a lot of sharing regarding our, our big 40 day grand adventure we're taking of our trip out west, I have some some things getting written now for getting written know they're in my head is where they are. They're getting written in my head at the moment for sharing some of that grand adventure and all of that that entails. So which will be a little more personal than I've been on my blog in a while. So of Emily Thompson, which is my blogging platform, but then I also have indeed tactics, which is my newsletter, which I almost feel is more my blogging, like what people would usually think of blogging content than anything else that I do. So that's really where I share. Just sort of like, I don't know, tips and advice on how to be a better entrepreneur and how to think like an entrepreneur. I Kathleen Shannon 19:14 love getting your newsletters. I just have to say that. And I think it's easy to take it for granted whenever you read a friend's blog or a friend's eyes letter, but your newsletters are so good. And me thinking is there something that exists? Maybe you know, where because I feel like a lot of people are writing exclusive content in newsletters, and it's so good and it comes straight to your inbox. And maybe it's just a way of sorting your inbox, but it would be so cool if there is some sort of app that collected all of your newsletter and put it into a feed almost like blog posts. Emily Thompson 19:47 Yeah, well, Unknown Speaker 19:48 does that exist? Emily Thompson 19:49 I think it might. I don't I've heard people like talking about when I haven't went and done like went and researched it myself. Yeah. This is like unroll me on and roll me. Kathleen Shannon 19:59 I don't know unroll me is like how you unsubscribe from a bunch of letters that you don't want. So this is the opposite of that. Emily Thompson 20:07 Yeah, I don't want to I don't know, if there's anyone out there, shoot us an email hello love being boss calm if you know of an app like this because I'm in the same boat, I get. We and we did a episode on this recently about emails and how we're inundated with emails. But I know so many people are sending out such great exclusive content. I hate missing them. And I love reading those emails. Ash Ambridge from middle finger project, she has a great newsletter. That's one of those like I always like seeing in my inbox too. Sometimes it gets lost, and I get sad. But that would be a handy tool and would be one that I would recommend my people use if they are on indie tactics. If we end up finding one because that is it's where I send it that's my best content. If you want my best content minus being boss, because be actually big bosses, my best content in detail tactics is, is what is where you would get that best content, you can subscribe in the short biography.com slash newsletter, I think I believe that's it. So newsletter is is definitely a place that I do a lot of sharing. giveaway my so my best content there. One of the things that I really like to do for my newsletter group and a way to like nurture that group is I do occasionally three and 30 sessions, where every couple of months, I'll release a couple of 30 minute free coaching calls. absolutely free there 30 minutes you get, you get 30 minutes to ask me three questions. And it's just a FREE Mini coaching sessions. And I love doing them, I don't do them as much as I need to make some more time in my schedule to do them Kathleen Shannon 21:43 well. And that's also a great way to like gather content, the more content you can see what people are asking. And Paul Jarvis mentioned this, in our episode with him did is really getting to know the people that you're already talking to. Emily Thompson 21:57 Yes, exactly. So I've been doing that for years. And when he said that I wanted to be like jumping up and down like Unknown Speaker 22:02 I do. I'm getting burst. Emily Thompson 22:04 I've done it for a long time. So I've done it for a couple of years. And I don't even remember where the idea came from. But I've actually booked clients from getting on the phone for free with someone for 30 minutes and then booked, you know, an $8,000 project or something like that's how giving it all away for free will literally be Money in Your Pocket take soundly because giving people the opportunity to actually like gain that one on one value from you. allows them to sort of get past any objections they may have in hiring you. So my three and 30 sessions are another way that I give it all away for free. And then where else am I I do a lot of mini blogging on Instagram. So that's where I share a lot more of the personal stuff, but also still a mix of the business. And that's Emily m underscore Thompson on Instagram, we also have an indie shop biography Instagram, Chris takes care of that. She's my like PR girl who takes care of all of my communications and stuff. And she handles the indische epigraphy Instagram account. And that one shares a lot of like the work that we do, but also inspirational quotes and just fun things that we do around the studio. And then I have a Twitter, I do like Twitter, I'm getting a little more into Twitter than I have recently. And so it's just sheer like snarky shit, like Twitter, but then we also do a lot of sharing of like really great articles and inspirational things on there as well. So I guess those are my main platforms that I cover everything with a Pinterest too, but we don't really that's just like an inspiration gathering thing as well. I guess that's it. Oh, Facebook. Yeah, the Facebook I don't share on Facebook either. I'm not a Facebook share well, and you Unknown Speaker 23:46 thought about even like shutting it all down recently, right? Emily Thompson 23:49 I have. So whenever it was like in college, and Facebook became a thing I remember like all the people who were like 25 on Facebook, they were creeps like cuz, you know, we're all like 19 I remember thinking like whenever I turned 25 I'm deleting my facebook group or my Facebook page. I never did it because now that's where all my photos are and things anyway, I think about it. I do. I'm not a huge Facebook fan, but I understand this use so I play along. Kathleen Shannon 24:18 Let's take a minute and talk about our sponsor fresh books. Fresh books is the easy to use invoicing software designed to help creative entrepreneurs get organized, save time invoicing, and get paid faster. freshbooks is easy to use. You'll get organized, you'll get paid fast, and you'll be growing your small business. You can invoice and Bill your clients directly from freshbooks either by email or snail mail. You can track your time, you can convert estimates into quotes, you can generate reports and freshbooks has Award Winning Customer Support, as well as mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and Android Stay on top of your business with a clear picture of its financial health and try fresh books for free today. I use it personally in my business and I love it. Go to freshbooks comm slash being boss and enter being boss in the How did you hear about us section? whenever it comes to social media, a lot of people feel like they should be on whatever platform like I should be on Instagram, I should be on Facebook, I should be on Twitter. You don't need to be on anything that you that does not excite you. And so whenever you're saying that you're getting into Twitter lately, I mean, just use whatever platform that you're digging at the moment and it can Emily Thompson 25:38 ebb and flow a little bit. Oh, it definitely does. You used to be huge on Twitter. Oh, I was big on Twitter. And then I had a baby. Yeah. And you stopped using it so much. And you've like it, just it guys, it changes? Kathleen Shannon 25:50 Well, the thing about Twitter is that if you're not like updating constantly or staying engaged in conversations constantly, you kind of feel like, whenever I open up my Twitter, I feel like I've just stepped into like a huge, awesome rockin party and I'm wearing like my pajamas or something. You know, it's just I just feel out of touch. And not very cool. And and then if you're only tweeting once every three months, like that better be a good tweet. And so then, what am I gonna say? So? Yeah, I mean, every once in a while, I'll kind of hang out and I'm sure are saying and I'll retweet some stuff. But for the most part, I much I really enjoy Instagram. And so I was gonna say my sister just started our braid Instagram account, and she has her own account, but she was never very active, like, literally had 12 photos. Okay, I have to share this story. Whenever I first started. Instagram, I thought it was the same thing as like hipstamatic I thought it was one of those photo apps where you can just apply a filter and make a cool photo. I didn't know it was going on to like a fee that other people can see. My very first photo is of Jeremy in his underwear like total crush shy. So once we're all Emily Thompson 27:08 rolling back on Kathleen's feed now, Jeremy in his in his undies? Kathleen Shannon 27:14 Right? Well, I deleted that photo. Like once I figured out that this is all going online and other people can see it. I remember, I called Jeremy and I was like, I've made a big mistake. And he's like, what? I was like, you can never run for politics because there's been a photo of you in your underwear on Instagram for like 52 weeks because it took me that long to figure out that Instagram was not just like a photo app. So anyway, once I started figuring out Instagram and how it really works, I've been using it for a few years now. And I really like it but my sister has just now gotten into it. We were talking to a client the other day and and my sister's like, yeah, Instagram is where it's at. I'm like now hold the phone. That's it. Just because you just started using Instagram does not mean that I mean, it is where it's at. I love Instagram. But it's just to say that it's not the only place and Facebook isn't the only place Twitter isn't the only place I mean, there are probably some new social media platforms. Oh, Snapchat is the new height. Yeah, you think that the cool kids are doing? I thought it was also for texting like dirty photos. I thought that Snapchat was Emily Thompson 28:21 well now businesses use it to text dirty photos. Unknown Speaker 28:25 Maybe we should just do it. Maybe we should embrace it and do it being bused Snapchat, Emily Thompson 28:29 oh, wouldn't it be fine, Kathleen Shannon 28:30 because we don't have we don't have any being boss social media, we just use our personal accounts to kind of interact and promote right being boss opposite. So I kind of want to talk about that like how social media, how all the different all the different platforms really interact with each other and how your newsletter should feed people to your blog, and that your blog should get people to sign up for your newsletter and that you do an Instagram post, have a blog image and send people back to your blog post. So I think whatever it is that you want people to be doing, keep sending them across all your channels. Let it all work together. Emily Thompson 29:08 Yeah, so I've started doing this thing whenever I plan like a marketing week, because I'm literally doing this these days is our start a Google doc and I share it with Chris who will like implement all the things and I'm like alright, you know, this week, the general topic like this week, it was like financial tools. So I did a blog post on how financial tools can make you like more competent in your business. And so and I listed out the financial tools that we use in our business to get our money shit together. And in that I blogged the cultivating confidence Secret Episode that's on love being boss, but I also wrote a newsletter that fed people like talking about using tools to gain confidence that sent people to my newsletter or to my blog that sent people to download the being boss Secret Episode. So on this Google Doc, I had like a purpose like what is the purpose Kathleen Shannon 35:00 They have and that's great, you know, fine, do that. But it feels like an online bulletin board. And that's not what I want our Facebook group to be. So the other day someone emailed me, and they're so sweet. And she's a girl that I've known I met her had the first designer vaycay a few years ago. And she's like, Hey, can I promote this thing that I created? And I was like, Yes, and or kind of like, yes, but please don't limit your engagement to just selling something, feel free to give away your gifts of knowledge and interact with people. And someone who's a great example of that is Elise greiss. From SEO, I Emily Thompson 35:38 love her interaction in the Facebook group. Exactly. Kathleen Shannon 35:40 So we have them on our episode, and she is in there, I mean, just giving these really golden nuggets of inspiration and advice. And then yeah, she'll sell something every once in a while. But I'm more than happy for her to do that. And I think people are more than happy to buy it because she's been engaging so much. So they're a really good example of people who are constantly sharing content. And then kind of like that Jab, Jab, Jab, hook, like then they're hooking and selling something, but really, truly not in a sleazy way. Okay, I want to go back to the content. And because as you're talking about content strategy, you I or at least I do, I almost started to get this like, Oh, my gosh, heavy feeling of Okay, my content has to be really good, really valuable and actionable. That can lead you to almost feeling paralyzed like this, waiting for content perfection. And we just did a blog post over at braid creative. And I'll be sure to link to that in our show notes. I love being boss. But it's not about just shaping your content. It's about how your content shapes you. And so this goes back to my original blog posts, and even being boss, our podcast episodes here, a lot of it is processing through our own stuff and sharing our journey along the way. And if we're waiting for perfection, we would never hit record, we would never hit Publish. So I think that there is a certain amount of strategy that comes into shaping and sharing your content. But I think it's also about going ahead and saying it going ahead and hitting record going ahead and hitting publish. Even if you don't have a plan, I think that a lot of people are talking about content sharing strategies and plans. And for me, I get this visual of like an awesome flow chart that tells me exactly what to do. Like every time I do a blog post. There's three Instagrams and those Instagrams linked to this newsletter, and like I imagine it like this big complex flow chart, but I can just kind of check off the boxes. And that's what I crave. I was even talking to you about that in Lee yesterday for being boss, like, I wish that we just had this awesome plan, we're doing it, we're kind of just figuring out as we go. And a plan really surfaces out of the hitting publish the hitting record the doing, we figure it out as we go. So I just want to encourage anyone who is listening to this who might feel a little overwhelmed, just hit publish, and you'll figure it out from there. And maybe just start with one or two platforms. So maybe start with and I think it's like your best place that you feel most comfortable sharing. For me it used to be writing and blogging. Now, I feel a lot more vulnerable and open and excited sharing on the podcast. I'm sharing so much more here than I am in my writing these days. So that is like don't wait for content perfection, because it will never, it will never happen. Emily Thompson 38:39 I mean, I have been at this point, my god I've been writing for like online stuff for 13 years. True story. Horrible. I'm just now getting. That's a lie, not just now I'm getting it. And what I was writing back then does not count. Yeah, Kathleen Shannon 38:58 like what I was like journaling definitely didn't have actionable items at the end of that. Emily Thompson 39:02 I know it definitely didn't. But but it's definitely like it started building voice like you have to start writing and whether you're writing in a journal or you are sharing things exclusively in a newsletter or just on Instagram at the moment, find one platform that is going to just energize you to share content and share it. Don't think don't think of it as giving it all away for free. Your job as a creative entrepreneur, is to show up and add value. And if you do that enough, and it's hard work, I mean, it's not going to be easy to just constantly like answering questions and writing blog posts and doing these podcasts or anything that you do is not going to be easy, but if you are showing up and adding value, you're positioning yourself in a way to ask people to give you whatever you need because you have been adding enough value that people will just in some ways like bend over backwards to help you because you've had helped them in their life or in their motherhood or in their business, or whatever it is, because you've been giving free content that has assisted them in some way. whenever it's time for you to ask for something, they will be much more willing to give it than if you're just some creep out there who's, you know, used car salesman trying to sell something out of nowhere. Kathleen Shannon 40:19 The last thing I really want to say is that what you share is what you become. So whenever I started my business, even, you know, freelancing, or even as as I started braid, or even starting being Boss, I wasn't yet a freelancer. I wasn't yet an expert and creative entrepreneur in working with creative entrepreneurs, and I wasn't yet a podcaster. What do you even call us? Emily Thompson 40:45 I Astor's Kathleen, Kathleen Shannon 40:47 I didn't know really what I was doing. But I had aspirations, and by sharing what I wanted, and it gave me some laser focus, and what you share is what you become. So now I am an expert in working with creative entrepreneurs, I am an expert in personal branding, and on becoming an expert, podcaster, whatever that means. Unknown Speaker 41:12 But let's just say what you share is what you become. So don't be afraid to share the journey along the way. Emily Thompson 41:18 No doubt. I mean, that actually gives you more clout than anyone. And there's something that you've said before this idea that you only have to be two steps ahead to help someone. That's all you have to do in sharing your journey will allow them to come along with you. And then you get positioned as that expert in their eyes. So even if you're just like just leaving your day job to start your, you know, creative endeavors, there's people who are still in their day job, who are only dreaming of being where you want to be. So share the story along the way, share your content, give advice that you've learned and don't fall into that trap of like, well, who am I to say things? Or who am I to share this advice? I feel like that's, that's one of those like, I don't know, crippling fears that a lot a lot of people have in terms of sharing, and did something with this podcast, this podcast has been huge for Kathleen and I and not like not in terms of like growing our tribe, but like personally like Kathleen, and I get on this podcast often. And we're recording almost every day these days getting ready for, for my big trip out west. And you grow and it hurts and it's painful to do, and it's overwhelming. And you just sort of do it. Kathleen Shannon 42:36 But it's also energizing and exciting earlier, whenever you said it's not easy. In some ways. I think sometimes it can be easy for me, it is easy to show up with you. I'm in camera out this podcast because it is energizing. And it is fun. So I think that keep that in mind too. Whenever you're sharing content is go where the energy is, if you've energy, literally instagramming and that's all you do. Go for it. I mean, I remember there was a day where I thought that people who didn't have blogs were crazy. But now there are so many different platforms for sharing who you are. And you could go anywhere and you can do anything and you can grow into anything just by sharing who you are and what you want to become. Emily Thompson 43:20 Yeah, it will in for us every podcast is easier. Like every time we do this, it's easier and easier to do it so that the painful parts like fall away, and it has just become much more fun for us to get out and be be. I can't talk anymore. It's so much Unknown Speaker 43:38 Yes. So easy. And Lee Emily Thompson 43:40 No, unless you have a mouth like mine that does not like to form words. So it's it becomes easier to show up and add value as you practice over and over again. Because it's all it is like anything that you do you do the work and you practice it until it becomes an easy habit that just sort of happens. And you become the amazing expert that Unknown Speaker 44:01 you were always meant to be. Unknown Speaker 44:04 Hey, guys, Unknown Speaker 44:04 I wanted to tell you about something fun that we're doing coming up this fall, Emily and I decided that we wanted to go on vacation to New Orleans, one of our favorite cities in the world. And we thought wouldn't it be fun if we invited you to come along? Go to being boss calm slash Nola and learn more about taking a vacation with us. Kathleen Shannon 44:25 We hope to see you there. All right. Thank you for listening to being boss from Emily Thompson and Kathleen Shannon. Find Show Notes for this episode at loving boss calm. Listen to past episodes and subscribe to new episodes on our website, iTunes and on SoundCloud. We're also on Stitcher too. If you like our podcast show some love by reviewing being boss on iTunes and sharing it with a friend. Do the word boss and we'll see you next week. Sure, so Emily Thompson 45:10 in detecting any type, what's it called indie tactics? Unknown Speaker 45:15 Amen. Amen.