Preparing for Maternity Leave with Eman Ismail

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[00:00:50] Welcome to Being Boss, a podcast for creatives, business owners and entrepreneurs who want to take control of their work and live life on their own terms. I'm your host, Emily Thompson. And in this episode, I'm joined again by Eman Ismail to talk about her recent maternity leave, which as you'll hear was executed in a way that I believe is a wonderful example of what is possible for us to accomplish in our boss owned businesses.

[00:01:16] We'll go on the journey of planning, taking, and coming back from her recent maternity leave as a micro business owner with client facing services. You can find all the tools, books, and links we reference on the show notes at www.Beingboss.club. And if you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe to the show and share us with a friend.

[00:01:37] Want to build a more streamlined business, but want to do it in quick spurts of actionable end row. Then you've got to check out iDigress. A show hosted by Troy Sandidge or brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network. With shows under 30 minutes, I digress helps eliminate complexity, complications and confusion in your business with frameworks and strategies to achieve scalable and sustainable success and does so with episodes, like how to attract your ideal customer in an oversaturated market and hourly rates versus project pricing charge for value for results instead of time, learn more and listen to I digress wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:02:19] Eman Ismail is the person to call. When you want to make money from your emails as an email conversion, strategist and copywriter, she helps six plus a figure online business owners and e-commerce brands fire up their conversions, evergreen, their sells and turn fans into super fans. When she's not writing high converting emails for clients, delivering workshops or teaching business owners, how to write, copy that converts she's bingeing, either podcasts or pizza.

[00:02:52] Welcome back to the show. Yvonne. I'm so glad to be having the chat with you today.

[00:02:57] Eman Ismail: Hey Emily, thank you so much for having me again, honestly, being on the show once is just a dream. So I'm so happy to be here a second time. Yeah. Is this going

[00:03:06] Emily Thompson: to be such a good one? The topic today, which is taking a maternity leave is one that comes with.

[00:03:12] Constantly. I mean, there's not like a season of having babies, we're all having babies all the time. Someone's always having a baby. And so someone is always either coming into our Monday meetups or, just shooting an email or, around like some sort of conversation going, OMG, I'm pregnant.

[00:03:29] OMG. I have to plan in maternity leave.

[00:03:32] Eman Ismail: Help. What do I do? Yeah, that was me.

[00:03:36] Emily Thompson: Yeah. Like where, where does one even start? So before we dive into that, because I want to go through all the things that you went through, or at least some of them a good number of the things that you went through over the course of planning, taking and coming off of maternity.

[00:03:51] I want to start with just, what's been going on, you were last in the show about a year ago. So June 20 21, what's been going on since then, other than maternity leave.

[00:04:03] Eman Ismail: Yeah. Well, I was going to say the biggest thing has to be the new addition to the family. So I now have a seven month old, almost eight month old.

[00:04:12] And that means I have two boys. So one who's a little older at six, and then on the, my youngest at seven months. So it has really just been me kind of adopting, to this new life and also trying to grow my business while also giving myself the kind of space that I needed. It's been, it's definitely been a year of just trying to find some kind of balance.

[00:04:40] And I'm still working on that where, where we're getting that. But I've also just been trying really hard to enjoy life a bit more, just every like really taken every single day. And so I try to start every day now with a walk in nature and just, just really enjoy the time that I have and make the most of being a business owner.

[00:05:03] I think one of the things that I've realized over the past year is how, I mean, there are loads of difficulties, obviously, as we know, and we're going to get into those around being a business owner, but I want to make most of the positive stuff and like the benefits more, which is, the flexibility and the freedom and the, and the, the independence.

[00:05:21] So definitely been trying to find that balance and just trying to make the most of the good stuff about being a business.

[00:05:30] Emily Thompson: Yeah. Oh, I feel like that's going to be a whole fun part of this conversation for sure. But you also made a really big move in the past year to correct?

[00:05:38] Eman Ismail: Yes. Yes. I moved country, so I was in the UK and I've now moved to Europe.

[00:05:43] And so it has, I mean, so much has happened. I moved countries. I actually, I moved my business over as well. So I am now officially a company, a limited company here in Europe. So. It has been a lot, a lot. And it's so funny because I had all these plans. I mean, we'll go into this in a second, but how do all these plans, but what I was going to do, like I'm going to have this space during maternity leave.

[00:06:10] So yeah, this is what I'm going to do with that space. There was no space. And so I'm trying to like sell this company has been, has, has been a lot and it's felt so hard at times. I kind of thought, why does this feel like I'm starting again? And then I kind of. For a moment and thought, well, actually I've kind of, I'm like, this is a whole new entity.

[00:06:34] It's a whole new thing. It's, it's it's, for me it felt like it was, the same business, but it's a new company in its own. Right. And so there's been a lot, a lot going on and just trying to manage that and, be in a proper grown-up business owner and, and dealing with, I think there's definitely been a lot of growth over the past year.

[00:06:55] So dealing with kind of big numbers and figures and [00:07:00] feeling comfortable and confident enough to deal with those bigger numbers and bigger clients and names as well. So it's been, it's been, it's been a lot,

[00:07:14] Emily Thompson: it's been a long year. It sounds

[00:07:16] Eman Ismail: like it has. And sometimes you just got to just think. Wow. Chill out.

[00:07:22] You did all that. You did all

[00:07:25] Emily Thompson: that. And I'm glad that you touched on this because I was going to ask the question, in the past year, you move to countries, which is no small fee. You literally, reincorporated or however you guys say that over there, your business in a completely different like, like government entity, you, right.

[00:07:42] And you got pregnant, had another baby, went on maternity leave, like all of these things and you exterior in end, you still experienced growth while sort of re calibrating that like work-life balance where it sounds like you had a very life heavy year. Right. But your business still soft growth.

[00:08:06] Eman Ismail: Yeah.

[00:08:07] And it was, it was hard work. And I think I'm going to be totally honest and say some of that was probably motivated by anxiety at one point with the baby on the way. But, I have, I have really big goals for myself and, and I think I just, it really annoys me that sometimes it feels like as women, we have to choose between family and business, I just, I refuse to let my business suffer because I want a family.

[00:08:44] It doesn't make sense to me. And I don't think that that should be the case. And so I'm working really hard to kind of find a way to. Keep growing both and keep nurturing both. Yeah. I mean, you're definitely

[00:08:58] Emily Thompson: talking about like, sort of ancestral mindset, right? Of like, you can't be a business woman or like a professional woman and have a thriving paint.

[00:09:08] You have to choose one or the other. That's something that we're all like instilled with and have been for generations. Right. Even as we're sort of crawling out of that, like it's still very much so ingrained in us, but it is not necessarily true. Like we can just as easily maybe if even more easily decide to believe that we can have a thriving, happy business and a thriving, happy family, and maybe it's, it doesn't look like it would have looked, but it can happen.

[00:09:37] And I love that you're like prioritizing sort of making that choice that you can have.

[00:09:43] Eman Ismail: Yeah. And it's been, it's been really hard because I think I've been grappling a lot with, it's just, I just look at such, so boring of me to even say it's just so cliche, I'm just so tired of even thinking about Dell and all that kind of guilt.

[00:10:01] Oh. If I'm taking, if I'm spending time in my business, I'm not as with my kids as much as I should be. Well, you know what I have, I'm literally, I'm in my home office. I've literally created an office in my home so I can be at home as much as possible. I do as much as I can. I've realized that I'm a better mother to my kids when I am feeling fulfilled in.

[00:10:27] All the ways outside of the family and they get a better version of me for it. And so when I started to think of it like that, I really started to prioritize having me time, whether it is just going for that walk and, listening to a podcast or carving out time to work on my business because that's what fills my juices creatively.

[00:10:48] It's important for me and it's important for them. And also my oldest son is getting to an age where we have this conversation about me working and why our work and. I'm very open with him about the fact that, well, I worked so that we can, have nice things and so that we can be stable and safe.

[00:11:08] And, and also because I love my work and I've started to talk about that second aspect a lot more. Now I love my work and I want to do it. And it's really funny. Cause we were just walking through the super market about an hour ago. And I don't know why he got this from, but you said super loud as a six year old do, mama, are you rich?

[00:11:27] People around me and I was like, well, I don't know why he got the idea from, so it just kind of clarified that payment. No, I'm not rich, but I planned it to be, we're going to get that, but it it's, it's great to be able to have those conversations with him about business and, and money and dreams as well.

[00:11:44] He's at the age where he's talking about what he wants to be and what he wants to do. And so it's, I think it's inspiring for him. And I know as someone who is the daughter of a working mother, she, she worked, my mom worked so hard. All it ever did was, motivate me. And then I got to a certain age where I could just really appreciate really how much she did.

[00:12:06] And I wouldn't want it any other way for my own kids.

[00:12:09] Yeah.

[00:12:10] Emily Thompson: Oh, you just touched on so many nuggets there that I think are so important if anyone needs to rewind and listen to that again, I feel like you have definitely the right mindset, in terms of the opportunities that we have in, instilling in our children, This sort of better way of looking at work right?

[00:12:33] Of like in how it is that we want to enter into the work that we do and curate and cultivate the work that we do and all of those things, that is so much maybe more healed than it has been ever. Right. And so I love that you're doing all of that love that you're having all of those conversations. I think

[00:12:52] That's a really great foundation for, for the conversation we're here to have. But I think before we dive into that, maybe like, let's give a little bit of perspective in terms of you and your business. Cause we're going to talk about you planning, taking, and coming back from your maternity leave, as you in the business that you have.

[00:13:09] So let's set the stage. If you wouldn't mind, give me a quick recap of what you do and who you do it for. And I think for the purpose of this conversation to sort of what your team looks like.

[00:13:22] Eman Ismail: Ooh, great question. Okay. So. I am an email strategist and copywriter, and I help online business owners and e-commerce brands fire up back conversions, evergreen sales and turn fans into superfans through email.

[00:13:38] So that is just a really kind of fancy way of saying that I help my clients business owners make money through email and not just make money, but also really build impactful relationships that can help their businesses grow, not just financially, but also through that, building relationships.

[00:13:55] And when I was here last year, my business was called Ink House and with the moving of countries and, creating a new company, the name Ink House was taken.

[00:14:10] Emily Thompson: Worst nightmare.

[00:14:11] Eman Ismail: The worst nightmare, and I was devastated initially. And then I thought, it's a chance for me to, rebrand.

[00:14:19] Yeah. Because it was kind of feeling like in house didn't really fit me anymore. I accidentally really kind of a personal brand. Like people come to me for me, they know it's me. I'm very kind of, my face is kind of everywhere. And so I thought this is a good opportunity for me to rebrand. And so my new company is called Eman Copy Co. and I have kind of left room that it was so difficult to use a name, but right now it's, it's just me.

[00:14:48] But I've left room that in the name for, for the company to grow again last year, it was a little different in terms of how my team looked. I had an assistant and I had a social media manager. And I let both of those go on good terms as I was kind of entering maternity leave. And when I came back, my intention was to hire rehire and my social media manager.

[00:15:09] She did a great job and I think it, we worked on my Instagram specifically, and I think that I love Instagram and I think it's super important for my business. However, coming back into work, I realized how much I love talking to you. You gave me a bit of advice too. I realized how much I really just need some, some support before I get to even kind of social media.

[00:15:30] So I'm actually hiring a, for an assistant right now. So I'm looking for an assistant right now, and I'm hoping to get someone to kind of help me with that kind of side of my business, kind of systems, ops, admin, all that stuff. So right now it's just me. I've really scaled back. But I don't intend for it to be just me, much longer.

[00:15:54] Emily Thompson: Perfect.

[00:15:55] And I love this view. Going into maternity leave. You had a couple of contractors that you were working with, you were able to position, and that's one of the benefits of working with contractors, right. That come and goes very easily. So when you're in the time of your life, when you're like, am I going to have to, take a pause for my business for whatever reason.

[00:16:15] And that's one of the benefits of working with contractors. It's easier to sort of come and go from those relationships in that way. So love that perspective. Let's talk about this maternity leave then. I guess my first question to lead us into it. I think everyone always first wants to know, like, when do you need to start planting?

[00:16:35] Do you start like the moment you find out you're pregnant? Probably not a bad idea. Like five years before, if you're super Type A you already, you already have it all planned out or, or did you start later and how do you feel about when you started? Do you feel like you started planning it at the right time or not?

[00:16:54] Eman Ismail: Okay, so this is this. Oh, there's just so much to this question. So the first thing is that I think that if you know that you want to have a family, or maybe you already have a family and you already have kids and you want to have more than, it's a very good idea to grow your business in a way that in a way that supports that from the very beginning.

[00:17:19] So you kind of want to take that into consideration from the very beginning. So it was really funny because I came into January 2020, no 2021. I'm confused. Right. I came into January, 2021 with a very clear idea that I want to work less and earn more. So that was my thing. Like I was like, I'm I I'm feeling a little bit out.

[00:17:48] I joined this great mastermind. I'd already told my coach, like, this is the goal. What less earn more. I want to change my entire business model. And so I was already planning to change my type business model. I already had this plan that was, good to create more space for me. I was going to, I decided to change my business so that I was doing a VIP offer only

[00:18:12] type of business model. So, like people do VIP days for me, VIP days on enough for me to work on email strategy and copy in a way that's meaningful for my clients. So I decided to create my own thing called a VIP week. So I would work with my clients on the email strategy and copy and kind of in week chunks.

[00:18:31] And I raised my rates because I mean, I needed to, at that point and for the type of work that I was doing, I was like deep work and deep strategy and, and how quickly as well that I was, producing the work my rates needed to go up. And so that meant that I could instantly start earning more. I decided I was going to put a cap on the amount of clients I took.

[00:18:51] I was only going to take two VIP weeks a month. So that would leave me with two weeks that I was not working in the month with clients anyway. And so the idea was I'm going to have like a week A. Well, I have a VIP week and then a week B where I am maybe focusing on business development, marketing and that kind of thing.

[00:19:10] And then a week A again, while I'm doing a VIP week and then, and then the following week is client work again. So I already had this. Now, I've already shared this a little bit, the podcast. So I feel totally fine sharing this, that this pregnancy was not planned. Okay. That was my

[00:19:26] Emily Thompson: next question.

[00:19:27] Where are you doing all of this knowing?

[00:19:31] Eman Ismail: No clue funny thing is I was already pregnant at this point and I just didn't know it. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like planning this whole thing. I had no clue and then I found out I was pregnant and baby was totally welcome. I moved very excited. It was a little bit of a shock.

[00:19:50] We just moved countries. It was a lot but, it was a lot, but, I mean I knew I always wanted to have more children. I am an only child, so I knew that I didn't want my son to be an only child. And that was something that I always just knew. I know that one have more than one. And so, that was that.

[00:20:09] So it was, I was excited about that, but it wasn't. A surprise. And so I wasn't planning for a baby or maternity leave or anything like that. But it just felt so almost like it was meant to be because I'd already started planning this like new phase in my business where I was going to have more space and I was going to have more time and I was going to earn more on work less and I was going to work more, with, clients I loved working with and who made me, excited and passionate about my work, what class would the clients who stressed me out?

[00:20:42] And it's so funny because I actually had a very difficult client. I was working with at the time where I hadn't worked with someone who I'd found that difficult to work with for very, very long time at that point. And I found myself kind of in the situation where I thought, how did I, how did I get here again?

[00:20:58] You know? And you just wonder, like, how did this happen? And I feel like your backup, like, what did I do? Right. Yeah. And I, and I remember finding out I was pregnant and I don't know if it was the hormones or don't know if I just,

[00:21:15] because all of that, I just remember thinking I'm not dealing with this anymore. Like, I don't, here's a refund. We're not gonna be working together all the best. And that just felt like a completely new chapter. I was like, okay, from now on, when I get that little feeling in my stomach that tells me like a client, isn't a good fit.

[00:21:34] I'm going to go with that feeling. And I'm going to create a business that makes me happy because I could see and feel that when I wasn't doing that, I'd bring all that stuff home, you know? And it affects everyone around you and it affects your kids and your partner and everything. And I didn't want that anymore.

[00:21:51] So I'd already created this whole thing for myself. I was in a state of change. I'd already started planning it. And then I found it. I was having a baby and I thought, wow, I just don't have a choice. I may have to do all this stuff.

[00:22:07] Emily Thompson: Time for some follow-through.

[00:22:09] Eman Ismail: Time for some execution. So that, that was that. So, I mean, I would recommend that you, you plan as early as you can. But in my case, I didn't have that chance to, but as soon as I found out I was instantly in, okay, let stop planning mode because I knew I'd have to paln my maternity leave as well.

[00:22:30] So that was huge. I needed to figure out.

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[00:24:02] Emily Thompson: Okay.

[00:24:02] So next question then this sort of, part of this is that transition that you were making in your business. So you decide, you need to like, make some shifts up until like it's relatively, fully implemented and maybe not like planning maternity leave, but isn't that like, phase one is like setting up your business to support you while you can, and be easier to sort of deal with a maternity leave, come back from maternity, all of those things.

[00:24:30] So I see this as sort of phase one of like getting your business ready for you showing up differently, right? One way or the other, about how long do you think that that phase took to feel like it was implemented?

[00:24:44] Eman Ismail: Oh, it was a while. So, and I also was kind of, I was also, it was a transition period.

[00:24:52] It was, it was a transition period. So I had started planning that in January and I already told in January, I told myself, okay, from now on any clients that come to me, I'm only going to offer the VIP week. I'm not going to take on any custom projects that go on for months and months. Like I had been that I'm not going to do that anymore.

[00:25:09] However, I had already locked myself into some projects that took me up to May. So I knew that I was in these projects and I needed to finish that. So that was interesting because that taught me something I didn't know about myself. Initially. I'd been super excited, as you do, Raven, that I I'm booked out for six months, how excited.

[00:25:34] And then I realized the reality of being booked out for six months in advance. And I really felt very claustrophobic. I felt very like stuck. I felt like the flexibility that I had, been working so hard for her, just I'd just completely gone. And I was really locked in for five, five months. And so yeah, from that point on, I realized I that's not for me, some people, yeah.[00:26:00]

[00:26:00] Some people want that and aim for that. And that's fantastic. But for me, I can't, I can't do it. So I only ever booked myself out maximum like month and a half in advance because I liked being able to just be like, okay, great. I'm going to go travel. Or I don't know I'm going to go do this, or I'm just going to take a week off.

[00:26:18] That's what I live for. And so it was the time the transition period. And I think the danger is that sometimes we feel like things should happen really quickly and we're doing something wrong if it doesn't. And I think what I did do well was that I prepared myself for a long transition and I gave myself permission for it to be a longer transition.

[00:26:38] And the goal was ready to just have everything done as much as I possibly could or put it to the core course off point. And I decided, and it wasn't something that needed to happen over.

[00:26:49] Emily Thompson: Yeah, I think,

[00:26:50] well, one you've definitely touched on another one of those, like, sort of business standards that bosses, I think in general, should break in this idea of like, being booked out as like the pinnacle of like, especially like solo preneur existence, right.

[00:27:06] Of like, that is your, your, your metric for success, but not the way we usually measure success. Right. And so I love that you realized so quickly and I hope anyone can, can sort of take this or take something from this, the idea that, that usual sort of pop metric that you want to be booked out as far as possible, is actually really detrimental to the flexibility.

[00:27:30] And sometimes like creative energy of the kinds of work that we do.

[00:27:35] Eman Ismail: Oh, yeah. And my business evolves so quickly. Like I am, I love experimenting in my business and changing things and, I'll try new. Well, at that point, I tried new service. It didn't work. I'd try something else. Now I've, I mean, I've been doing this VIP week model for a while now and it works really well.

[00:27:52] So I know that this is what I want to stick with for, for the long haul. But at the time things were changing very [00:28:00] rapidly. And then suddenly I was stuck in this mode for like five, six months. I couldn't change anything because I'd already committed to doing things in a certain way. And I felt very creatively stifled.

[00:28:10] And I felt like, it also, it felt like I was working actually unpaid because like the projects have been paid for so far in advance. Yeah. So kind of early on in the year. And when I'm working on them in may, it was really difficult because I was like, oh, I mean, I've been. But it was so long ago, it feels like I haven't been paid.

[00:28:32] So that was also really interesting to work through. So yeah, not for me.

[00:28:38] Emily Thompson: Right. And I will see if, if that is your vibe and that is your version of success, please work for it. But I also love that you're showing how that's not necessarily everyone's ideal.

[00:28:47] Eman Ismail: Yeah. And I think, and I totally agree if it works for you.

[00:28:50] Absolutely go for it. But I did just want to share that because I think that is the norm. Like you said, that's what we're told to aim for and that if you're doing that, then [00:29:00] you're doing well. And if you're not booked out in advance for X month, you're not doing well. And that's just not the case. Yeah,

[00:29:05] Emily Thompson: no.

[00:29:06] I also love that you have. I love that you hit on this timeframe because I feel like especially, type a creatives here, we are like, when we make decisions, we want them to be implemented immediately and the faster, the better, but you're illustrating that this was a several month long process.

[00:29:22] And I think whenever you're making big changes in your business like that, you should absolutely plan for it to take three to six months to, to implement like big structural changes in your business. You're not going to, be making big bucks next month on an idea you just have. Yeah,

[00:29:40] Eman Ismail: no, it's so true.

[00:29:40] And wow, I'd forgotten about this, but you've taken me back, Emily. So I just joined this mastermind. I was really excited about joining. I had this coach, I'd obviously invested quite a bit in this and I was super excited to start, but that January, I didn't do a thing. Like I didn't do, I didn't execute at all.[00:30:00]

[00:30:00] And I spent all of January just thinking and brainstorming. And I remember thinking I've never given myself this much time to just stop and think about what I want to do. And it felt so good. It was, it felt terrifying because I'm very much a doer. So it felt like. I need to be doing, why am I not doing, but actually just having that time to really think about what I wanted to do and how I wanted my business to look, that was the most thinking time I've ever given myself.

[00:30:31] And it really paid off because I made the right decisions for me at the time and a year and a half nearly later, I'm still feeling really good about those decisions.

[00:30:40] Emily Thompson: That is that's invaluable stuff. I mean, you gave it like a proper winter, right? Like you really sat with it. You really thought it out and you weren't doing, but there is some important internal work that needs to be done that we definitely don't give enough value to because no one can see the productivity of it.

[00:30:57] Right? Like it's all happening in your head or like researching or [00:31:00] whatever it may be. But it's a super important part of the process. So I love that you gave it that time and that you're really seeing how that paid off for yourself. So you spend a couple of months like putting this new structure in place at first, not knowing that you were pregnant and then realizing you were and relating this path that you had sort of intuitively chosen for yourself, was the one that you needed to align yourself with the next steps of your life.

[00:31:26] What did the next phase look like? So you set this up, you set up these new business structures with the idea that this was going to how you were going to do business, but then you quickly realized that you needed to actually take a break from business. So what did it look like to plan this break, especially with this new structure in place?

[00:31:43] Eman Ismail: Well, I knew that I needed cash and so that was, that became the main goal. So it became a question of, well, how can I make a lot of money fairly quickly? And it felt like a lot of it was a [00:32:00] lot of pressure. It was a lot of pressure, but I tried to lean into what do I enjoy? What do I enjoy doing? And what do I think will work?

[00:32:08] And so I found myself coming up with quite a few different ideas. So we already know that with client work, I'd raised my rates quite significantly, and that was going really well. So I was already anymore from client work and I was working less on client work, which was brilliant. And I was only taking on projects that I really loved.

[00:32:25] So I felt energized in that sense. And then I also had a lot of speaking stuff going on. So in my industry and the copyrights and industry, I was kind of. Becoming more noticed. And I was getting on kind of virtual stages at the time, virtual because of COVID. I was getting on some quite significant virtual stages where all the copywriters were starting to notice me and also just express interest in wanting to learn from me.

[00:32:53] So again, I really thought deeply and hard about what, [00:33:00] whether I was going to do this, but then I decided that I was going to create some kind of lead an experience for copywriters. And that, that was going to be a significant part of the cash that I needed from attend to leave was going to come in from, and in the end I decided on a mastermind for copywriters and I ended up doing it.

[00:33:20] And the great thing about this was that I believe in pre-selling very, very, very deeply. So I never create a thing before having sold it. I. I created, I think the bonus for the masterminds and I created the first module. I even quit the first module. I don't think I did create the best module. I think I just created the bonus and the sales page.

[00:33:50] And then I went out into the world and said, this is, this is the mastermind I'm doing. Like, I planned it all out. I knew what it's going to look like. I knew what it's going to be. Like. I asked guest speakers to come and speak. [00:34:00] Emily. I asked you and you came in and spoke to my mastermind is, and it's so funny.

[00:34:05] Cause I was asking you and all these guest speakers to come and speak and I haven't sold a single spot yet. And I'm thinking just, please, please let me actually sell these spots. Cause I'm getting all this stuff ready anyway, create the sales page, create the bonus. And then I told everyone, look, this is what I'm doing, launched it.

[00:34:22] And it sold out and it was high ticket. So high ticket ish. It was 1,997 pounds at purpose. And and so if I look that up in dollars, if that might be like a little helpful for you, I don't it's that? Oh, about 2,500 USD, maybe. Okay. So I had 12 spots and I sold all 12 spots. One person ended up asking for a refund because they'd had a medical kind of emergency.

[00:34:54] So 11 spots sold and the majority of the, a couple [00:35:00] people paid up front, the majority of those people paid using the payment plan. And I actually created a six-month extended payment plan because I wanted to make it as accessible as I possibly could while also making it financially viable for me.

[00:35:13] And it's so crazy because I, that was one of the best things I could've done. And I was so grateful that those people had paid be a payment plan, because the way that it worked, like the way the dates worked, I had. Going on maternity leave and had the baby, and those payments were still coming in for a significant amount of time.

[00:35:30] It was brilliant. So I had that mastermind. I did that. It went amazingly. And then if I felt really good because now I had this great program, that was just all about, I don't like calling myself a coach because I don't feel like I'm a coach. I feel like I'm someone who has done the things that the people who joined the mastermind wanted to do.

[00:35:53] You're an expert. Thank you. Okay. So I'm an [00:36:00] expert in growing a copyright in business successfully, and these specific people wanted to learn from me specifically. And so I walked them through that and also, just help them create a, a corporate and business that worked for them. And it was amazing.

[00:36:15] It was an amazing experience. I loved it. I found it a little difficult. It required energy. Cause I had to show a polite and being pregnant that was difficult. So that's really something to consider like your, your energy levels. But I really did enjoy it. It was brilliant. And then financially it paid off.

[00:36:32] Absolutely. And then I had this thing that I knew that I could relaunch again next year. So we'll move on to that in a minute. But some of the things that I did to kind of create a caution flux with launch my copywriting course, as in relaunch, that was already in existence. So I just opened the doors again.

[00:36:49] So my copywriting course, that one was for all business owners, not just copywriters, and just teaching them, the kind of foundational skills of copywriting that [00:37:00] went well as well. And again, most people chose payment plans, so those payments will come in and that was great. And, and then I was taking on clients as well.

[00:37:08] And so. I had a really great financial year. But I was just like storing away money, like little squirrel with nuts. Preparing for hibernation. I know squirrels don't have an eight, but that was like the only word that's coming to.

[00:37:28] Emily Thompson: Right. Okay. But I'm loving so many pieces of this. I love that you started out with this really practical and maybe this is even like a practical and very personal thing.

[00:37:37] Where would you say that you feel like, like money is one of those things that makes you feel. Incredibly safe and secure.

[00:37:46] Eman Ismail: Oh yeah. So much. Yeah. So much.

[00:37:49] Emily Thompson: So I love that you one know that about yourself, right? Like in order for me to feel good, taking this maternity leave, I need to squirrel away a whole bunch of cash.

[00:37:57] Right. And so you recognize that, and [00:38:00] then you went to work on the thing and you thought outside the box to think about, what is it that you are qualified to do, which is an important thing there. I mean, to be qualified, to do it, to give you the resources that you need to feel comfortable taking this moment.

[00:38:17] I also love that you had set up your business in a way that a lot of you basically half the month, every single month to dedicating, not to the client work. Cause that was the other half. But to these sort of, business development, things that allowed you to make the extra cash that you needed to put you in a place where you could take this lead.

[00:38:43] In a way that made you feel as like safe and secure as possible, because like there's like, parenting situations, it really is about safety and security is about getting you to that place, whatever it looks like for you and you for you and your business, you focused on that. You [00:39:00] made the plan, you showed up into the work.

[00:39:02] And you did it.

[00:39:06] Eman Ismail: Thank you. I will say that as I got closer and closer to my due date or the date that I knew that I wanted to kind of sign off work, I started getting inquiries. It was, it was really difficult because I was kind of started having to say no to people. And then I find myself saying gas when really I should have been saying no, but, I was looking at the dollar signs, like, I could really do with that.

[00:39:30] Why not? And so by the end of it, I was probably a little overworked. I should definitely not have said yes to those final few projects. But I did. And, I, I finished them and got them done and I did sign off on the date that I had planned to, but I was a little more tired than I had planned to be.

[00:39:51] Emily Thompson: Sure.

[00:39:51] D did you make, or did you set like a financial goal in the beginning? And if so, did you make it and, or exceed it? [00:40:00]

[00:40:00] Eman Ismail: I made a financial goal because I knew that I wanted to pay myself a salary for every month that I was going to be off. And yeah. So not even just for when the baby was here, but the month before as well.

[00:40:12] So I wanted to take off the month before, and then. Months after, and I didn't know how long I wanted to take off. So the first question was right. Well, how long, how long do you want from a maternity leave? And my answer to that was, I don't know, and I want to be in a position where that's okay. What if I decide that I want to take longer, then that's okay.

[00:40:34] And if I decide that I want to go back earlier, that's okay. But I imagined knowing myself that I'd probably start itching to get back to work around six or seven months. And I was right. So by the time I was kind of off the six months, I decided to come back at that point kind of very slowly. But when it came to planning, okay, how much money do you want?

[00:40:56] Do I need? I knew that I needed to support myself for at least seven [00:41:00] months. So I had that figure and I exceeded it.

[00:41:04] Emily Thompson: I love it. I love it. And because you took those last couple of projects, cause you just, you just had to scroll away more nuts.

[00:41:11] Eman Ismail: But it was great because I actually, I actually went back to work, I think for two months and I was still able to pay myself off of the savings.

[00:41:22] So I was making money. Yeah. I was making money and I was able to, I wasn't paying myself with the new money I was making. I was paying myself with the old mishandled maternity savings. So that was, that felt really good.

[00:41:34] Emily Thompson: Oh my gosh. I'm so proud of, well, what does that mean? But like that makes me so excited for you.

[00:41:40] What an accomplishment. Legit. That you were able, that you were able to do this for yourself and like self-empowerment you accomplished in like making the plans, sitting down doing it and having been able to afford yourself such a, what is [00:42:00] unfortunately, a very luxurious maternity leave?

[00:42:02] Eman Ismail: Yeah. And, I have to say, I have to say, I have to add this because my previous experience was so different, with my first son, I, I was struggling financially very much so when I had my first son and, I had a very difficult birth with him, which unfortunately kind of made it very clear that I'd probably have a second very difficult birth.

[00:42:28] And I did, but with my first one, I remember coming home from the hospital, having had a C-section and very difficult birth. And I was doing client work, I don't know, like three days out of the hospital. Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I remember not being able to think straight and having to write this blog post that's write three blog posts.

[00:42:56] I remember not even being able to think, and [00:43:00] it was, it was horrible. It was horrific. And so my motivation was just to never, ever be in a position like that ever again. So I was really motivated. I was really motivated for that to just never happen again.

[00:43:14] Emily Thompson: Oh, every everyone learned from this, please, please, because I cannot tell you how many times I have heard bosses, going on maternity leave, how long you taken two weeks.

[00:43:25] Excuse me. Excuse me, six weeks. What? Like, you're just then able to start remembering your own name at about six weeks. Legit legit. I think, and you three days, not enough, you have no idea what's going to happen. You have no. And especially if it's your first, I think second, third one, from what I've heard, because I do only have one, you obviously know better, right.

[00:43:51] With your second and third in terms of like what your energy is going to be like or whatever. But I've also heard that sometimes it's easier to get back at it with your second and third [00:44:00] than it is your first, because like you're a little more prepared for how your life is going to do, be like completely like incomplete upheaval.

[00:44:08] So it's a little easier to actually get back with your second and third, than it's going to be with your first.

[00:44:14] Eman Ismail: Yeah, I agree with that. And I will say that what I knew from my previous previous experience was that I was probably going to have a difficult birth. And so I really needed to protect that time around the birth.

[00:44:25] And then I also remembered that I didn't feel like I could even think straight, like my brain wasn't working until my son, my first son was at least like three, three months old. So it took about 12 weeks for me to feel like I knew what was going on with the world. It wasn't, yeah, it wasn't until he was two years old that I started getting a full night's sleep.

[00:44:50] So I'm actually started feeling like myself again. So I was much more prepared for that side of things. I mean, I still feel like nothing can prepare, [00:45:00] but yeah, I had that experience. And so I was able to, I knew that there were certain periods of time that I really needed to protect because it just needed to be about me recovering.

[00:45:13] Emily Thompson: Okay, good. Everyone learned for that. Please. If I hear another ball saying two weeks, six weeks a month, whatever, I'm going to start throwing things, probably going to like you're going to need longer. Okay. Even if you think, even if you were like the most boss' boss' boss' boss, you're going to need time.

[00:45:30] And the most boss you can, thing you can do is give yourself the time for sure.

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[00:46:34] What did maternity like the month before? A couple months after. What did that mean for you? Like where you, air quotes off, but like still checking your emails, still like writing things here and there. Like where you allowing yourself to do things. Were there things that you still needed to show up for?

[00:46:51] Or did you just really cold Turkey sign off and not look at another thing for me?

[00:46:56] Eman Ismail: This was really hard to figure out because there were lots of things I [00:47:00] felt like I should do. I felt like I had to and I, and I should completely switch off. And that's what a good maternity leave is. And if I don't do that, then I failed at that.

[00:47:11] And so it was really difficult for me to come up with what the, what this actually means for me. And so it took me a while to figure out that I was not going to keep my VA on while on maternity leave. Because again, that would have meant, I mean, this is something I want to mention. Also, I didn't, wasn't just saving from I was also just saving for saving like seven months worth of business expenses as well, so that everything in the business could keep on ticking all those software or that software and tools and that those things that needed to keep going while I wasn't there.

[00:47:40] I was paying for that as well, dude, that didn't really want to pay for my VA and social media manager as well. No, I didn't. So I decided to cut back on the contractors and figure out, well, what do I really, whatever they want, what do I really need to do? I decided that I didn't want to be available to anyone, [00:48:00] but my main thing was that I didn't want anyone to have to rely on me for anything.

[00:48:04] And that was that. So if I decided to show up in some way, I wanted it to be because I wanted to and not because I had to. So I went about systemizing, my basically entire business and I hired, a productivity coach and a plateau expert to help me literally just systemize my business. So I, one thing I was really worried about was forgetting like how to do everything because I'd worked really hard and creating this really serious brain is real

[00:48:36] Emily Thompson: I'm giggling because I know.

[00:48:38] Eman Ismail: Yeah, exactly. I was very concerned. I would forget just how to do everything. And I'd worked so hard on creating this, this experience for my clients and onboarding and product delivery and kind of offboarding. And I was like, I cannot, I can't, I don't even want to just forget even just like one little tiny step.

[00:48:55] So we, we, we figured all of that out. We codified it. We have it all like written [00:49:00] down and flow tots and all sorts. And then we also, and this is super important. We create a wait list. I didn't want to be, I mean, I've been on some business owners websites, so I did a lot of research on what other people have been doing.

[00:49:14] Some business owners, you go on the website and it'll say, right at the top of the fold, I'm on maternity leave until X, Y, Z date. And I thought about doing that, but I decided not to because I still, yes, I wanted to leave, but I also wanted to come back as well and make that coming back as easy as possible.

[00:49:35] So I decided to instead like offer my website, nothing looked different except for when you try to, send an inquiry to me. So then it would let like, Hey, I'm actually on maternity leave. I'm coming, I'm planning to come back around, I think I said around February or March, and again, I didn't want to be like too committed to a date.

[00:49:57] And I said, if you want [00:50:00] to, if you, if you're willing to wait and you want to work with me, then filling this form and you'll be put on my wait list. I'll get in touch with you as soon as I'm back at work, or I can recommend you to another copywriter if you need to work with someone right now. And I set up an agreement with a few of the copywriters that, if I, anyone, if I send anyone to them that.

[00:50:17] I would get like a 10% referral fee. Cause I thought that's a nice little way to make a little bit more cash. And, that was all automated. So I didn't need to anything like the person filling in the form just clicks what they want and then the emails would automatically arrive in their inbox. So that was fun.

[00:50:32] Now I didn't actually make any like 10% fee off anyone because I don't think anybody has to be referred to anyone else. I got a good, I think I've got maybe about 15 inquiries and I think nearly everyone, maybe, maybe everyone asked to wait for me, which felt really good. So even just kind of CMS comment made me feel a little bit more confident that.[00:51:00]

[00:51:00] It might be okay. It might be okay when I come back. And so that was brilliant. And the only thing that I really wanted to do was, keep my news left to go in. So I told, cause I'm an email copywriter. So my email, my newsletter is really important to me. And I had planned actually to write, content, to batch content in advance, but I just didn't couldn't do it in time.

[00:51:21] And then I just thought, you know what? Instead of putting that pressure on myself of having to write, God knows how many emails look cool for seven months, I enjoy writing my newsletter. So I'm just going to write it as I go along. And as I want to, so I told my newsletter that, Hey, you know what, I'm taking a break to have the baby and I'll speak to you soon.

[00:51:39] I'll be in touch soon. And then I. When I was ready to, I got back on it and started sending weekly emails because I knew I had had launched plans early in early 20 22. So I knew that I wanted to be like in their minds and on their brains, but it was great because I didn't have anything to sell at that point.

[00:51:58] So there was no like [00:52:00] sales and I want this and I want that it was just pure value and just like really for newsletters and, getting responses from people, congrats on the baby, this, that, and the other. So I had a really fun time with that. And I gave myself permission to continue in that sense and continue with the things that I enjoyed my Instagram as well.

[00:52:16] I kept kind of posting it wasn't business at all. But I have a personal brand, so it was still on brand that I was kind of updating everyone in my life and what was going on. So those were the two things I continued just posted on Instagram as a, when I wanted to, there were no kind of official posts on the grid about work or anything like that.

[00:52:34] And then my newsletter as well, everything else, I was a fully checked out.

[00:52:39] Emily Thompson: Yeah. And you were just doing things that you want to do, right. You didn't. And would you have stopped your, would you have stopped either of those things if you had gotten into it and decided you didn't want to?

[00:52:51] Eman Ismail: Absolutely. Like if I had started doing the newsletter every week and then thought, oh, I'm not enjoying this, I would've stopped.

[00:52:59] And [00:53:00] also I started at a time that felt good for me. It wasn't like a thing I had to do, so I didn't start it super rarely. I started writing again when I felt okay too. And when I just, I just really enjoyed it. It was a, it was a break away from everything else to be honest. And also it was a, it was a source of connection for me as was Instagram.

[00:53:19] So I'd move countries. I'm away from my huge extended family. So it was really alien for me to be away from away from everyone and to be kind of dealing with. Postpartum without them. And so that was really a social connection for me, my newsletter and an Instagram. And I really enjoyed that. I think I needed to actually, I think I really needed it.

[00:53:43] Emily Thompson: Yeah. Oh, and I think it's beautiful that you both have flexibility into it. I do feel like oftentimes a business owners, it can give them more anxiety. The idea of completely unplugging. And the point here is to do things in a way that makes you feel good. And so if staying [00:54:00] slightly connected, I also love that for you.

[00:54:02] It was just like those little marketing pieces, the places where you're going to show up in your business, but you weren't client facing you. Weren't talking to paying people. You were just showing up for a bit of marketing here.

[00:54:14] Eman Ismail: Yeah. And I also want to want that I had an autoresponder on my email that was like, I am not available.

[00:54:20] I am not here. I'm away having a baby. So here are the things you can do and then direct them to the various forms that they need to fill in. And I'll get back to you when I'm back on maternity leave. So that was great too.

[00:54:32] Emily Thompson: Oh, I love it. Okay. Then let's talk about the end of maternity leave. At some point you decide, well, I'm ready to go back.

[00:54:39] What did that look like? And what did it feel like? Like getting back

[00:54:43] Eman Ismail: into it. I was really excited to get back to it. Like I was ready to get back to it, which felt so good. And I knew that I wanted to kind of be working with clients in March. And so I decided that [00:55:00] this is one piece of advice that I really want to share when you're ready to kind of go back.

[00:55:04] You want to stop. Planting those seeds a little bit earlier. So if I know that I want to have clients in March, I'm going to be sending like speculative emails to those clients. I was working with last year in maybe early February to let them know that this is the timescale. This is what it's kind of looking like.

[00:55:21] Are you still interested in working with me? I made, the decision to contact everyone on my wait list in early February and let them know like I'm going to be taking on clients in March. So if you want to, if you want to chat, let's chat and we'll schedule in a chat for them. So that kind of process was happening and it was very slow and he was very gradual.

[00:55:43] So that felt great. And then I was also, I was also planning a paid workshop because again, by this point, my, the money was starting to kind of dwindle and it wasn't going at all. But going back to the idea of me meeting like that stash of money to [00:56:00] feel safe, it was really anxiety-inducing for me to see.

[00:56:05] This figure that I had spent an entire, almost an entire year, like saving disappearing and not being replenished. And so I wanted to make sure that when I went back, it wasn't because I had no money. So I still had some savings. I went back a little bit earlier than I needed to just so that I could have that stability of, I don't need to take any work on, I don't need to take any clients on it.

[00:56:28] I don't need to take any bad fit projects. I'm just, I'm literally, I'm here two months earlier than I need to be because I want to be. And I, yes, and out those emails and started. Working on my launch, which is actually really fun. I enjoyed it. So I had this paid workshop because I decided that I didn't want to do free workshops anymore and free free webinars.

[00:56:51] And I'm kind of in the run-up to my launch, cause I just thought, well, why actually I want to qualify the people that come into this, this [00:57:00] workshop. And the, I knew the concept that was sharing was really good. And I was like, this, this needs to be paid for. So, I launched this paid workshop. I made a nice little kind of influx of cash, which was brilliant.

[00:57:11] And then I launched my mastermind. Now the mastermind. Launch did not go as well as I wanted it to. Yeah. So I had 12 spots to fill and I filled five and I gave a scholarship place away as well. So there's six people in the mastermind this time round. Now I think there were loads of things that may be contributed to that.

[00:57:37] So first of all, I had to like be realistic and think, well, you meant you were gone for seven, eight months, so that may be part of it. And then of course I I'd launched when, everything with, with Ukraine was happening on people's minds with someone else, understandably, and a lot was going on in the world.

[00:57:59] [00:58:00] And I think that was probably another thing that impacted the launch, because people just had other things going on the world was, crumbling. And so. It was, it was crazy though, because those numbers came in and initially I was disappointed. But then when I stopped looking at like the actual number and started looking at the people who had joined and just thinking like, wow, by the way, I'd raise the price of the mastermind this time around.

[00:58:25] So it was Sydney, it was like 500 pounds, more expensive. And this is a significant amount of money and every single person who joined, joined, because they believed in me and they wanted it to learn with me and from me. And so I owed them nothing but excitement and, gratitude for just believe in, in my mastermind.

[00:58:44] And so I was, I was super excited and I am excited. And the last time I had been going brilliantly, every single person has joined has been fantastic. There've been no refund requests. It has felt really an alignment. And actually I also managed to land, three projects as [00:59:00] well. So I had the launch in March at three.

[00:59:03] In March as well, confirmed. And even though the launch didn't go too well, as in, I didn't get the numbers that I wanted. I actually had not just my best month in business, but my best week in business. Yeah. So the, the, the month that I came back off of maternity leave, and, it was pretty insane because I looked at that week and I am not in that in those six days, I earned more in those six days than I had in an entire year, working at my old full time job.

[00:59:41] I'm so serious. I am serious. So it was, yeah, it was, it was insane. And, I, you know what that did though, it made me realize that it gave me the space to not have to. [01:00:00] Go full throttle. And so, yeah, so instead of like, instead of being crazy about, getting more clients and also like trying to make up the money that I didn't make in my launch, like I was just happy and okay.

[01:00:16] That I could like figure this out. I had a few have a few more months. I have a few more months of space to just figure out what I want to do and hire a VA to help me because at the moment I am working with, with my youngest son, who's seven months old now at home. So I'm working around him enough times and, that's maybe like two hours a day.

[01:00:41] So I'm doing these client projects and it's definitely been difficult. It's been an experience. But, I'm just kind of taking each day as it comes right now. And I think that's what I really wanted. I wanted to not feel a whole load of pressure coming back. And I think one of my biggest fears was that I would leave [01:01:00] from attend to leave and I'd come back and no one would remember me or think about me and hire me.

[01:01:06] I think this is a fear that a lot of people have. And I think that there are definitely ways to make yourself kind of feel more confident that that won't happen. And so, yeah. I mean, I like to think that, I mean, I hope me sharing this has helped people. I know that I'm not an expert on this. I am not an expert, this things that, I wish I'd done better, but,

[01:01:31] Emily Thompson: like what?

[01:01:34] Eman Ismail: I wish I think the burnout at the end, I wish, oh, I wish that I hadn't. I think I panicked towards the end of my me, preparing for maternity leave, panicked and like was overcome by anxiety of just leaving for that amount of time and really overworked myself and burnt myself out. And so then baby [01:02:00] was due the same month that I was also moving house.

[01:02:04] So at a country, unmute house by that point twice that year, as well as moving country. And I just worked myself to the bone. And I shouldn't have, I wish I hadn't done that because I needed, I needed that space to just, like shift from business owner mind to okay. I'm having a baby think I'm ready to gave myself that moment.

[01:02:29] Just be like, okay. Shift.

[01:02:31] Emily Thompson: Right. Oh, but also like, I appreciate you sharing that. Do you feel though that there is like some regret or resentment or resentment around that? Whenever you look at what it afforded you on the other side of it, or do you think that you still kind of afforded yourself that like coming back flexibility, if you hadn't done that, like, tell me about the relationship between those two things.

[01:02:56] Cause there's a lot of cause and effect

[01:02:58] Eman Ismail: there. Yeah. It's a hard [01:03:00] one. I gave myself a couple of moments by taking on those extra few projects at the end. And so I. I'm grateful for the amount of time that I had. And I think that it worked out really well in that I really did go back when I wanted to.

[01:03:16] And when I got ready to, and I was itching to book to go back, it wasn't just like, okay, I'm ready to go back. I was itching to go back. I needed to go back. And I was excited too. And at the same time, I was talking to people in my family who were, like off on leave from that work. And, and they were like, Ugh, I have to go back to work.

[01:03:35] Ugh, I am so not looking forward to this. And I just remember thinking how blessed am I, that I am away from work. And all I can think about is going back because I'm so excited to, to be back. So now I think I'm in a space where I'm just trying to find this balance between business and motherhood. And I don't have any childcare at the moment [01:04:00] and I won't for a few months.

[01:04:01] And so all of that kind of. Rubbish. It's coming up for me as well, around childcare as well. And it's, again, it's so funny because I was talking to a friend and they used said to me, and I'll feel really guilty. Cause I, I need to put my child in daycare because I need to work. I just think it was ridiculous, you know?

[01:04:20] Right. You put you in with some caution ourselves. Oh, so harsh on ourselves. So it's a work in progress. Yeah.

[01:04:28] Emily Thompson: And it will be forever, forever and ever. But I, I love that you're mature. I mean, I, I heard it had gone well. Right. Which is why you are here. But I am so impressed with what you were able to do for yourself by acting proactively by getting your business ready by.

[01:04:48] Being very clear about what your goals were and what would make you feel as if you could take the time you need it and actually giving yourself the time and space that you needed. I mean, you, I feel like you just showed us what is [01:05:00] possible, right? If you just like show up and do the work, right. To give yourself the maternity leave that, that you needed, that you just needed and wanted, needed, and wanted, which is, is probably the most luxurious part of all of it.

[01:05:17] But I also just want to highlight that this is something that, you didn't work a year on, you worked five years on, right? Like you've built a business. And I also love this idea that you came back and your business was like back with like your biggest week ever, right? Like your business missed you, your clients missed you because you had worked so hard for so long to build the kind of business that not only would support you before, and not only during a maternity leave, but would show right back up for you when you got back.

[01:05:48] Eman Ismail: Thank you. And I love the idea of my business, welcoming me back. And almost as if on cue, I don't know if you can hear baby, like screaming. Hopefully, hopefully he doesn't make it under the [01:06:00] recording. But I do just want to add that everything that I've said in this podcast episode felt entirely impossible to me when I was planning all of this.

[01:06:10] So this wasn't, this wasn't like, I had done this before I had hit these kind of figures before I was, it, it was almost like you'll live in, in a fantasy world thinking that you can come up with these numbers in eight months. Seriously. So I just, I want people listening to know that, it's.

[01:06:36] Even if it feels impossible. And I think the key, like you said, is to realize that this wasn't just work that happened over yet. It was work that I had done over time. And also that it really comes down to having a plan, a serious plan and execute on that plan.

[01:06:58] Emily Thompson: Yeah, for sure. [01:07:00] Well, in mine, this has been a tree I'm so glad that you shared this journey.

[01:07:04] I'm so glad that you just I'm so glad that you did this for yourself in a way that I, I don't see enough bosses prioritizing themselves in their family, along with their business in the way that you've just illustrated that you can do. And I'm so glad that you've come and shared all of this.

[01:07:22] Eman Ismail: Thank you so much.

[01:07:23] And you're a really big inspiration to me as well. When I think of, of business women who are also, balancing motherhood as well. So thank you for doing what you do because seeing people like you do do the work and also be a mom, has really helped me. Be the women business owner that I am.

[01:07:46] And, throughout the past year I've been binging the inbox episodes going all the way back to the very beginning when you, and Kathleen's when you and Kathleen was talking about, time management and being a mother and, and also Kathleen [01:08:00] going through hell, sleep deprivation, stage, all that.

[01:08:03] Yeah. Super, super important stuff. So you helped me through it as well.

[01:08:07] Emily Thompson: Oh, well, wonderful. Well just here sharing the journey. Right. And hopes that inspire someone to, to show up and align themselves with what it is that they want out of their work in life. For sure. So I appreciate that. I will let you get off to that screening baby, but first and which I don't here just so you stopped, you stopped.

[01:08:24] Okay. Perfect. But last, well, actually, before we get to last, last question, if anyone wants to know more about you and what it is that you do, where can they find you around the internet?

[01:08:38] Eman Ismail: My website, emancopyco.Com. So that's E M A N Copy Co.com on same Instagram handle @emancopyco.

[01:08:49] Emily Thompson: Perfect.

[01:08:49] And I will say that we have worked with them on in the past.

[01:08:52] Cannot recommend highly enough. Definitely go check her out. If you were looking for services like hers, otherwise, last question for you. [01:09:00] I'm interested to hear what you say now. What is making you feel most boss?

[01:09:05] Eman Ismail: Well, I remember my last answer, which was, so that nobody has to kind of go back and listen to that.

[01:09:10] My last one. So it was being able to design my day as I want to, and kind of really it now, but being able to design my business in a way that has supported my family. Like when I look back on the past year and think about how much my business has, has done for my family, that really makes me feel boss.

[01:09:32] That really makes me feel boss. And I think it excites me for what's possible in the future. And, just knowing that I have a business that takes care of my family makes me feel boss.

[01:09:46] Emily Thompson: You are living a dream over there.

[01:09:50] Eman Ismail: Okay.

[01:09:50] I want people to know that. I feel like I have to bring it back now, because that was, [01:10:00] that was, there was postpartum depression.

[01:10:02] That was, there was like, I know, I feel like I'm like piling on with the sadness now, as real as you need to. But it's so true because we see people like doing amazing things and it makes us feel like crap because maybe we're not doing those things that we deemed to be amazing. But the truth is as a whole or the story behind doors that you're not seeing.

[01:10:26] There's so much more to the story we've done the highlights, right? We've done what works. We touched a tiny bit on what didn't work, but there was a lot of, there was a lot of difficulty as well. As you can imagine, just having a baby, right? So all that stuff, I don't even need to go into it.

[01:10:42] Emily Thompson: It is not all puppies and rainbows by any means, but I do, I do think that you accomplished something amazing with his maternity leave, like really showed what is possible for our kinds of businesses.

[01:10:54] When most of us, especially solopreneurs or small solar porters with small teams or solo preneurs, [01:11:00] Who are working directly with their clients who think that this is what you just described as impossible, right? Like they could never accomplish it. How could they leave their business? What are their clients going to think?

[01:11:11] Am I going to be able to come? Like all the things you touched on are all the questions that I've totally seen and you've, you've totally illustrated that, that it is possible. And you can afford yourself the ability to deal with all the hard things along the way without also having to deal with a business that's unruly and not allowing you the time off.

[01:11:29] So yes, to that. Thank you for bringing us back down for sure. Of like the reality of doing all of this is not all puppies and rainbows. But you did absolutely illustrate that it is possible to build a boss business that affords you the ability to show up as a parent in whatever way you most desire, especially during a time as significant as allowing yourself six months-ish

[01:11:58] of maternity leave. [01:12:00] That is, that is a dream.

[01:12:02] Eman Ismail: Thank you. Thank you so much. And thank you for asking me to be here and talk about this because this is something that I want to do. I don't think that we talk about it enough and I'm really grateful that I can even be part of this conversation. If it helps one business owner figure out how to plan their pregnancy maternity leave.

[01:12:23] Emily Thompson: All right boss, because you're here. I know you want to be a better creative at business owner, which means I've got something for you. Each week the team at Being Boss is scouring the news, the best entrepreneurial publications and updates and releases of the apps and tools that run our businesses and is curating it all into a weekly email that delivers the must know tips and tactics in the realms of mindset, money and productivity.

[01:12:46] This email is called Brewed. We brew it up for you each week to give you the insight you need to make decisions and move forward in your clued of business. Check it out now and sign up for yourself at beingboss.club/brewed. That's [01:13:00] beingboss.club/B R E W E D. Now until next time, do the work,

[01:13:07] be boss.