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The Truth About Scaling a Business With Limited Hours (and Little Kids) with Shanna Skidmore

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 20 minutes

You’re in for such a treat with today’s episode! I have the wonderful Shanna Skidmore here to share how to work less, mom more, and still hit your goals. Shanna truly walks the walk — she currently runs her business in just 15 to 20 hours a week while spending the rest of her time with her two girls. You're going to love her advice on scaling a business with limited hours (and little kids at home).

If you’ve heard of Shanna before, you probably know she’s a finance expert. She helps small business owners master their money and is a former Fortune 500 financial advisor — so yes, money is her thing. But on her podcast, Consider the Wildflowers (which I love and have been a guest on), she also talks about the real side of working mom life. Her solo episodes on that topic are some of my favorites — always full of wisdom and practical advice.

When I invited her on, I knew I wanted her to talk about this — because she has such insight and tactical ideas for balancing business and motherhood. Shanna’s actually been on the Breakthrough Brand Podcast before, where we talked about how to run your business without social media. That episode (number 253) is still one of our most-downloaded ever, so definitely go back and listen to it after this one.

And if you want more from Shanna, I was on episode 43 of her podcast Consider the Wildflowers, where I share my business story and how I handle finances in my own company — plus a bit of backstory you might not have heard before. I’ll link both episodes in the show notes for you.

So, get ready to be encouraged by this conversation — the mindset shifts, the practical tips, and Shanna’s honest reflections on navigating work and motherhood with little kids, while letting go of the pressure to “do it all.”

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

Subscribe & download the episode to your device: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Search for episode 322!

While money is usually the topic I’m asked to speak on most, today I’m excited to share something equally close to my heart: motherhood, business, and the role finances play in both.

By nature, I’m an overachiever — driven, perfectionistic, and competitive to the core. I started my career in the world of finance bros, black power suits, and three-inch heels. At the ripe age of 21, I was thrown into an environment that valued more above all else. More money, more recognition, more influence.

It’s not that the finance world didn’t value family; it’s just that the culture I entered was heavily weighted toward success defined by achievement or at least, that’s how I perceived it.

When I started my own company back in 2013, I unintentionally found myself pushing back against that culture. I saw incredible women pursuing their passions, starting and growing businesses to create more flexibility and find that elusive work-life balance only to end up burned out, working late nights, and often barely making a dollar.

The Why Behind Starting a Business

Now, my guess is that you didn’t start your business just for the money, the recognition, or the fame. No shade to any of those things but I doubt they were your main motivation. Yet, in the business world, those same messages I heard early in my finance career are still everywhere: six-figure business, seven-figure business, $100K months.

But when we share numbers without context, it can easily lead to comparison and make us working mamas feel like we’re falling behind. Or maybe that’s just me.

Because honestly, I’m just over here trying to keep the magnet tiles picked up, dinner on the table, and enjoy the work I do in the limited hours I have (while also saving for college, weddings, endless home projects, and of course, seasonal throw pillows).

What I really want is a business that fuels the life I want and I’m guessing you feel the same.

Over the past four years of running a business while raising little ones, I’ve learned that I can’t do it all at least not at the pace I wish I could. In fact, whenever I’ve tried, I end up tired, burned out, and, more often than not, burning dinner.

So the question I want to explore today is this: Can you build a business that fuels both your passion and your paycheck, in limited hours, while raising babies and building the life of your dreams?

This is exactly why I’m so passionate about the work I do with business owners. Because I believe numbers have this powerful way of giving us permission, freedom, and strategy — helping us structure a business that supports the work we love, provides income, and also makes space for the life we want to live.

And at the end of the day, isn’t that what it’s all about?

Now, please hear me when I say that I’m not here because I have it all figured out. But if you’ll allow me, I’d love to pull back the curtain and share my journey, from starting my business before kids to running it now with little ones at my feet.

I’ll walk you through the mindset shifts, practical systems, and yes, the real numbers (with context!) behind how I’ve continued to grow a multi–six-figure business while working just 15 to 20 hours a week.

At this point in my career, I’ve seen the back end of hundreds, if not thousands, of small businesses, ranging from $1,000 a month to over $10 million a year. It’s such a privilege to see the reality behind the highlight reel. And as I always say, the numbers don’t lie.

Here’s the good news: from my experience, I’ve learned that you don’t need to spend every naptime hustling when what you really need is rest. You don’t need a 60-hour workweek or a massive passive income empire to run a profitable business as a mom.

If you’ve ever wondered how to work less, mom more, and still hit your goals, my hope is that you’ll leave today encouraged (and equipped with practical strategies to do both mom and CEO well).

Here’s what we’ll cover today:

How I run a multi–six-figure business in 15–20 hours a week while raising littles.
Five strategies that have helped me grow revenue without adding more hours.
Three practical tools that keep my business running while I raise my babies.
Some real talk: real numbers and what sustainable growth actually looks like as a mom and CEO.

So let’s dive in.

Scaling a Business With Limited Hours

My business didn’t start with nap schedules and 20-hour workweeks. It began when I had no kids and all the time in the world to pour into my work. But over the years, and especially after becoming a mom, things had to change. The truth is, motherhood changed everything, including my business model.

Ironically, the lessons that serve me most now as a working mom — setting boundaries, defining success, managing my time, and separating my identity from my work — weren’t lessons I learned in motherhood. They were lessons from the early years that prepared me for it.

Those foundational years shaped how I show up now, with limited hours and bigger responsibilities, and I’m so grateful I laid that groundwork.

Before we dive into strategies, let me take you back for a minute to how my business evolved and how those early lessons set me up for sustainable growth today.

When I first started, I didn’t have a roadmap. I was figuring things out as I went — adjusting my pricing, experimenting with offers, saying yes to too much. Before long, I was buried in projects, overpromising, undercharging, and completely stretched thin.

That’s when I learned my first foundational lesson: boundaries matter.

Not just with clients, but with my time, energy, and expectations.

I realized that clarity around my offers, intentional pricing, and a well-protected calendar weren’t just smart business strategies — they were forms of self-preservation. Little by little, I started building a business focused on sustainability and longevity, not just growth.

Because the truth is, you can only run on burnout and adrenaline for so long.

Profitability and manageable workloads aren’t just good for you… they’re good for your business. They help you build something that lasts, so you can keep serving your clients for the long haul.

Fast forward five years, and my business had really taken off. What started as a solo, service-based venture had grown into courses, programs, and digital products. I’d taught thousands of students, was generating more revenue than I ever dreamed possible, and had built a team — six employees plus a group of contractors handling everything behind the scenes.

From the outside, my business looked like a success. And on paper, it absolutely was. But behind the scenes? I was tired. The business had grown so quickly, and while I was proud of what we’d built, I woke up one day and realized my life didn’t look the way I wanted it to.

So, I did something that felt radical at the time — I took an entire year off.

I paused launches, stopped selling, and gave myself permission to just breathe.

During that year, I got pregnant with our oldest daughter. That season taught me one of the most important lessons of my career: how to separate my identity from my business.

I began to believe deeply that my work is just that — work. It’s a job I love and am proud of, but it’s not my entire identity.

Over the past four years, we’ve welcomed two little ones (with another on the way!) — and I’ve continued running a multi–six-figure business while working just 15 to 20 hours a week. This setup allows me to prioritize being a mom, especially in this season with little ones at home.

We’ve intentionally kept our team small, our operations streamlined, and our growth strategy focused. When I became a mom, it wasn’t that everything about my business had to change, it was that the lessons I’d learned in my first eight years suddenly became essential.

Boundaries, clarity, focus, and knowing what matters most — those weren’t optional anymore. I didn’t just want a business that looked successful; I needed one that worked with my life, not against it.

Because here’s the truth:

You can grow a business and raise kids.

You can scale with limited hours.

You can build something you’re proud of without sacrificing everything else that matters to you.

But it doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by intention or, better yet, by strategy.

Looking back over the past 12 years of running a business — four of those with little ones in tow — I can see five guiding strategies that have shaped my growth and helped me do both mom and CEO in a way that feels sustainable and fulfilling.

These strategies aren’t magic tricks or quick wins. They’re steady, intentional choices that have made long-term growth possible for me and I hope they’ll do the same for you.

So, let’s jump into the first one.

1. Start With The Life You Want.

Before you set goals, map out offers, or chase after growth, get clear on the life you want to live.

It might sound cliché, but it’s true — your business should serve your life, not the other way around. Strategic growth always begins with clarity on what you want your life and work to look like.

There’s no one-size-fits-all business model, and that’s a beautiful thing. You get to define what success looks like for you.

So, first, ask yourself: What do I want my life to look like?

Be specific. How much do you want to travel? What do you want your home life to feel like? Do you love cooking and meal prep, or would you rather outsource that? Do you want quiet mornings before your family wakes up? What time do you want to get up and go to bed?

Next, ask: What do I want my business to look like?

What kind of impact do you want to make? How many hours do you want to work? Do you want to work part-time? Who do you want to serve? How big do you want your team to be?

And maybe most importantly: What does being a good mom mean to me?

Does it mean picking your kids up from school? Being at every game? Having slow mornings together? You get to define it. No one else.

Start there. Get clear on what you want from your life and your business.

That’s the first strategy, and in my opinion, the most important one.

2. Do The Math On Your Time And Money

Because time is your most limited and valuable resource — especially as a mom and business owner. Now, I have a course called The Blueprint Model. It’s a strategic growth and financial planning course, and in it, I teach a concept called The Time Bank (one of my absolute favorites to share with my students).

Think about your time like a bank account. You only get so many hours to “spend” each week, and our goal is to always stay positive (not rack up those “NSF fees” with our time).

So, to start, I want you to get clear on how many hours you actually want to work.

For me, in this season of motherhood, I aim for about 20 hours a week. I have two days of childcare, that’s roughly 10 hours, and then every morning I get up a couple of hours before my family wakes up. That gives me my 20 working hours for the week. I call these your time deposits.

Once you know your time deposits, the next step is to brain dump all your tasks and responsibilities. You can do this for home life too, but for now, let’s focus on work.

Write down everything: emails, social media, client communication, travel, meetings, the actual work you deliver — all of it. Then, estimate how much time each task takes.

These are your time withdrawals.

Now, do a little time math.

How many “deposits” — hours — do you have each week? And how much time do all your “withdrawals” — your tasks — actually take?

For me, that’s 20 hours of deposits. Then I look at how much time everything on my plate requires. Again, you can do this for home tasks too.

At the end of the week, ask yourself: are you positive or negative in your time bank?

I think so many of us feel rushed, hurried, or like we’re always behind. I often feel that way myself. And every time I do, I sit down and redo this exercise. Seeing it in black and white helps me understand why I’m overwhelmed, and usually, it’s because I’ve simply taken on too much.

I’ll share a few practical tips later for keeping your time bank in the positive, but for now, just know: this exercise has been incredibly eye-opening for me.

3. Get Strategic With Your Offers

When you only have 15–20 hours a week to work, not all offers are created equal.

One of the best shifts I ever made was getting brutally honest about how much time each offer actually took and how profitable it was. (And side note: whether or not I even enjoyed doing it!)

The truth is, business models can look a lot of different ways.

A wedding photographer might take on 10 weddings a year at $10,000 each and make $100,000. Another photographer might not want to work weekends at all, so they do three portrait sessions a week at $650 each which is also $100,000 a year.

That’s what I mean by designing a business model that works for you — your life, your interests, your goals — not forcing your life to fit a business that just looks good on paper.

Let me give you an example from one of my students that perfectly illustrates this.

She’s a calligrapher. Her highest-revenue offer was custom calligraphy (beautiful, detailed work that paid well per project). But she also had a shop selling calligraphy pens and kits, which were priced much lower. So to make the same amount, she’d have to sell a lot more of them.

Naturally, she put most of her time into her high-ticket custom projects because they brought in more per client. But when she did her time bank math, she realized how many hours those custom jobs were consuming.

So she made a shift. She started focusing more on her shop — products that were quicker to fulfill, easier to scale, and still profitable. Within 30 days, her monthly sales jumped from $2,000 to $20,000… simply by reallocating her time toward the offers that gave her the best return.

That’s the power of strategy.

By being intentional about her offers, she multiplied her income without increasing her hours.

So after I clarified my time and my vision for my life and business, this became my next step too: get strategic with my offers.

Ask yourself:

What’s working and what’s not?
Which offers give you the best return on your time?
Which ones do you actually enjoy?

Focus your energy there especially if your time is limited.

4. Delegate Like a CEO Even if It’s Just You

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: ask for help.

Whether it’s outsourcing your laundry, hiring a virtual assistant, or bringing in childcare, growing a business with limited hours requires support (usually more than you think).

But the question is: how, when, and what should you delegate?

So, you want to start by identifying the tasks that only you can do or the ones that are most important for you to do.

I know that’s easier said than done, but with practice, it really does get easier.

For example, in my own business, I know that I’m the visionary. Financial reporting and strategy are how my brain works best, so I want to spend time improving our financial reports for CFO clients. I want to refine my course, The Blueprint Model, and build out new spreadsheets and reporting tools for our shop.

I’m also the face of the brand. That means carving out time, and honestly, I love carving out time, to spread the word about what we do. I enjoy being a guest on podcasts like this one, writing and recording content for our own podcast and blog, and creating long-form SEO content. I also love connecting with and serving our audience through our weekly newsletter.

Those are the things I’ve identified as the most valuable tasks for me — the ones only I can do. Everything else, I work to get off my plate.

In The Blueprint Model, I teach this process using something we call the Time Matrix. It’s a simple framework that helps you categorize your tasks into four quadrants:

Eliminate
Automate
Delegate
Prioritize (or keep)

First, once you’ve identified your key responsibilities (that you are prioritizing/keeping), look for what you can eliminate. These are tasks that don’t add value to you, your clients, or your business.

For me, one of those was social media. Back in 2017, I quit social media entirely. It’s not that it isn’t valuable, it just wasn’t the most useful for my business or my time. I realized that my energy was better spent elsewhere, so I eliminated it.

Next, automate whatever you can.

Automation can be simple, even silly but it makes a difference.

For example:

My nanny always washes our bedsheets on Mondays. I never have to think about it.
We always order takeout on Thursday nights. I don’t cook that night, and I love it.
I meal prep and grocery shop on Friday mornings.
In our business, we automate podcast guest follow-ups using a tool called Dubsado.

The more you can automate, the less mental energy you spend on repetitive decisions.

And finally, delegate.

If a task can’t be eliminated or automated, and it’s not the best use of your time, delegate it.

Start small. Hire someone to manage your inbox or schedule client calls. Bring on a part-time virtual assistant. Hire childcare, even if it’s just a few hours a week. And if a traditional sitter isn’t an option, think creatively. I’ve had students who trade childcare days with a neighbor: one mom watches all the kids one day, the other takes them the next.

In my business, we have contractors who handle podcast editing, blog post formatting, Pinterest management, and email support.

And of course, since we’re a finance company, we manage our own books in-house but for most small businesses, hiring a bookkeeper is one of the best early investments you can make.

Outside of business, think about delegating household responsibilities too.

A house cleaner, a nanny, or even using grocery pickup or meal delivery services like HelloFresh, Kroger ClickList, or Target curbside — those count as delegation too.

Delegation isn’t just about outsourcing tasks; it’s about protecting your time for the work and relationships that matter most.

When you do this well, you create space — space for creativity, strategy, family, and rest.

I know it can be really hard to ask for help, and even harder to pay for help, especially when your budget feels tight. Limited work hours can feel frustrating, and I completely understand that.

But honestly, having limited time has forced me to get crystal clear on what truly matters most — and to find creative ways to both pay for and delegate tasks. That’s been one of the biggest mindset shifts in my journey.

5. Do Less, but Better

When you’re short on time, doing more is not the answer. Doing the most important things really well — that’s the answer.

For me, that means focusing on just one, two, or maybe three core offers — the ones that are the most profitable, the most impactful, and the most enjoyable for me to deliver. Then I go all in.

Refine your systems.

Optimize your delivery.

Raise your prices as your value grows.

I see so many entrepreneurs stretched thin — juggling too many offers with clunky systems that waste precious time. But when you simplify, when you focus on one thing, optimize it, then move to the next, you create smoother systems, save time, and increase profitability.

It’s the same with marketing.

You don’t need to be everywhere. Choose one, maybe two or three marketing strategies that you love and that actually move the needle for your business. Maybe it’s a podcast, a blog, or a YouTube channel. Maybe it’s a simple weekly newsletter.

For me, it’s long-form SEO content and speaking.

Now, I know speaking isn’t technically the most profitable thing I do on paper, but it’s my favorite marketing tool. I love being with people, sharing on stage, and connecting through conversation. It’s great for our brand, and it fills me up — that matters too.

When you simplify, you create space for mastery.

And mastery brings better results, better clients, and more profit.

Before I send you off, I want to give you three practical tools I use to keep my business running smoothly, week after week while balancing both motherhood and entrepreneurship.

Practical Tool #1: Set Real Work Hours (and Respect Them)

I have friends who integrate home and work life beautifully. I tried that for a while… and realized it just doesn’t work for me.

I don’t like the “nap-time hustle” — rushing to my computer the second my kids go down, or feeling frustrated when naps don’t happen as planned. That constant juggling left me exhausted.

For me, I prefer clear separation between work time and home time. When my kids nap, I want to be unloading the dishwasher, picking up toys, reading a book, or just sitting quietly — not answering emails.

Early in my business, I started tracking my time religiously with a tool called Toggl, almost as if I were billing by the hour. And I’ve been using it ever since — 12 years now!

That practice has given me deep insight into how long tasks actually take me.

So when I decided to keep work and home life separate, I knew I needed to set real work hours and respect them.

For me, that doesn’t necessarily mean 10–2 on certain days. My schedule shifts depending on the week, especially if we’re traveling or taking time off. But my goal is to clock 20 hours per week.

That’s my sweet spot and Toggl helps me stay accountable to that.

When I track my hours honestly, I can see what fits into 20 hours… and what doesn’t. That clarity helps me “clean house” — cutting back, simplifying, and focusing only on what truly matters.

For instance, I know that writing long-form content, whether that’s guest blogs, podcast interviews, or solo podcast episodes, is a priority for me. But I also know I’m slow at it, so I plan my time accordingly.

I’m very thorough. It takes me about five hours to write one blog post or one solo podcast episode. And when you only have 20 hours a week to work, that’s 25% of my time — every single week!

So if that’s my one form of marketing, it has to work, right?

Tracking my time in this way has helped me stay realistic about where my energy goes and make sure I’m focusing on the tasks that actually move the needle… the things in my zone of genius.

I look at:

How much time I need to improve and update our course, The Blueprint Model
How much time I need to prep for launches
How much time I need to write our newsletter
How many client calls I can realistically take each week

Tracking my time has given me incredible clarity. It keeps me honest about what I can and cannot take on, and it allows me to direct my focus toward the work that actually moves the business forward.

Practical Tool #2: Plan Your Tasks in Advance and Focus on the Most Important First

I use a tool called Asana for this, and I absolutely love it.

I get overwhelmed trying to keep a running to-do list in my head. I don’t like constantly thinking, “What have I forgotten? What ball have I dropped? What do I need to do tomorrow?”

So years ago, I started using Asana to plan everything and it’s been a game changer.

Big tasks, tiny tasks, random brain dumps — they all go into Asana. I can assign things to my team members, set deadlines for myself, or just park ideas on a “tackle later” list so they’re not cluttering my brain.

And yes, I love the fun part, when you complete a task, a little mythical creature flies across the screen. It’s silly but satisfying!

At the end of every work session (and I call them sessions because my schedule shifts week to week), I take a few minutes to review what’s on my list and choose the one, two, or three priorities I’ll tackle first the next time I sit down to work.

And here’s the hardest part: I start with the hardest or most important task first.

I’m naturally drawn to quick wins and I love checking boxes as much as anyone. But I’ve learned that the hard stuff usually matters most.

One of my friends calls the easier, low-pressure tasks “wine tasks” — the things you can do later in the day when your energy is lower or interruptions are more likely. I save those for later and knock out the tough, high-impact work first.

This one simple practice — putting everything in Asana, getting it out of my head, and choosing what to focus on next — has made me dramatically more productive and calm.

For me, that’s Asana.

Practical Tool #3: Know Your “Enough Number”

You’re going to be sad we can’t spend more time here because this one is my favorite — it’s the financial philosophy I’ve become known for.

Knowing your “Enough Number” means creating a clear, realistic budget for both your home and your business.

This is truly the most practical and freeing tool I use to make both mom life and CEO life work together.

I know, down to the penny, how much our family needs to live and how much my business needs to run. And I focus solely on hitting those numbers.

Knowing what “enough” looks like gives me permission to rest, to stop hustling, to let go of the fear that I’m falling behind. Especially in a season where I want to watch my babies grow more than I want to watch my business grow.

So what does this look like in practice?

If you have no idea what your sales goal or “enough number” is, start here:

Sit down and figure out how much you need to contribute to your household this year. That’s it. Start there.

Call it your salary, your owner’s draw — whatever term fits your business. But identify that number.

That number — the amount you need to contribute to your home — might be zero, or it might be $100,000.

From there, the next step is to figure out how much it costs to run your business. Once you know those two numbers, you can reverse-engineer your goal with simple math:

What you need to make (your personal income)

What it costs to run your business

= Your sales goal — or what I call your Enough Number.

This is the total amount of revenue your business needs to bring in to cover all your expenses and pay yourself what you want to earn.

Simply put, your Enough Number is the sweet spot where ambition and contentment meet.

Knowing this number gives me so much peace of mind.

If I want to try a new offer, or if I happen to have extra capacity and want to stretch for a bigger goal, I can absolutely do that but I know I don’t have to.

Inside my financial planning course, The Blueprint Model, I teach my students to identify three numbers:

Your Need Number: what you need to live.
Your Want Number: what provides comfort and flexibility.
Your Reach-for-the-Stars Number: your big stretch goal.

But at the end of the day, simply knowing your Enough Number gives you the clarity and permission to rest.

I know that if I hit that number, I’m providing for my family, my business is healthy, and I can exhale. It’s incredibly freeing.

This, without a doubt, is my most practical and most powerful tool.

I’m not stressed about money, because I know exactly what I need to hit. That focus keeps me grounded and calm.

And if you’re listening and thinking, “Shanna, I have no idea where to start. I’ve never made a budget for my business or my home. Money gives me the sweats,” — I’ve got you covered.

I have a free 30-minute class here, or if you’d rather dive straight into the tools I use myself, I also have two simple one-year budget templates (one for home and one for business) available in my shop.

You don’t need a complicated system just something that helps you use the hours you do have wisely.

For me, that looks like:

Tracking my time with Toggl
Planning my work with Asana
Defining “enough” with clear home and business budgets

These three practical tools keep me grounded. They’re simple, effective, and most importantly, they help me run a business that supports my life, not the other way around.

They help me be present when I’m momming, and be focused when I’m working so I can do both well.

When you know where your time is going, what matters most each week, and how much money is enough, you can stop spinning your wheels, stop feeling behind or burnt out, and finally start growing with intention.

You can have a thriving, profitable business and a rich, meaningful home life — but not always at the same pace or scale as the “overnight success” stories we so often hear.

Real, lasting growth takes time especially when you’re intentionally working fewer hours to prioritize motherhood. That can feel challenging, but it’s not a setback. It’s a sign of wisdom.

I once heard that Tony Robbins gave three talks a day in his early years to outperform the top speaker in his industry, who gave just three talks a month. That kind of momentum creates fast results — it’s the “10,000-hour rule” in action.

But when your available hours are fewer, your pace will naturally be different. And that’s okay. That’s not failure… that’s intentionality.

Give yourself permission to grow slowly, sustainably, and in alignment with the life you want and the mom you want to be.

You can always choose to accelerate later.

Martha Stewart famously built her empire in her fifties, proof that success has no expiration date and no perfect timeline. So whether you’re building your business during naptime, after bedtime, or in just 15 hours a week — you’re not behind.

You’re growing with intention, and that is something to be deeply proud of.

I’ll leave you today with one of my favorite quotes from Dolly Parton:

“Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”

Links Mentioned:

Sign Up For Shanna’s Free Class with 6 Money Moves to Make in 2025 to Cozy Up with Your Business's Numbers (Without Spreadsheet Meltdowns or Budgeting Burnout):

Grab Shanna's Simple One Year Business Budget

Grab Shanna's Simple One Year Home Budget

Listen to Shanna's Podcast Ep. 127 What Work-Life Balance really looks like as a mom & CEO

Not sure which template is right for you? Take the quiz!

Thanks to our blog sponsor, Christian Healthcare Ministries (CHM)!

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The post The Truth About Scaling a Business With Limited Hours (and Little Kids) with Shanna Skidmore appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

The Beginner’s Guide to Evergreen Marketing (Even If You’ve “Tried It” Before) with Stephanie Kase

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 9 minutes

As you're hearing this, I'm currently on maternity leave, and I've invited some of my talented business friends to share guest trainings on topics they're incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about. Our first guest is my lovely friend Stephanie Kase. She's actually been on the podcast a couple of times before so you might already be familiar with her. She's amazing. We’re talking about evergreen marketing today (something I'm also really passionate about in my own business).

I've known Stephanie for years, and she's someone I truly admire. She's a smart businesswoman, a dedicated mother and wife, and a strong woman of faith. We have a lot in common and have bonded over so many things in both business and life. I just listened to her training, and it's fantastic. I'm so excited for you to hear it.

I love her practical tips for making evergreen products and content work for you, especially her insight on using ChatGPT (make sure to read for that near the end). Stephanie also teaches a lot about YouTube, which complements what I share about podcasting. If you're interested in learning YouTube, she's definitely your go-to. She's incredibly gifted at what she does and teaches it all so well.

So without further ado, here is Stephanie with her training: How to Start Evergreen Marketing That Actually Sticks.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

Subscribe & download the episode to your device: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Search for episode 313!

So, maybe you’ve tried evergreen marketing before, or maybe this is your first time considering it, but how do you actually set yourself up for success? Often, people dive in and, a month or two later, feel overwhelmed or discouraged by slow results. I want to share what I would focus on and what I would do to make evergreen marketing genuinely worth the time and energy, especially if I were starting from scratch.

About Stephanie Kase

By the way, I’m Stephanie Kase. I’ve been a longtime fan and customer of Elizabeth’s Showit website template shop. I think I bought my first template back in 2019 or 2020, and I’ve loved staying connected with her ever since. So I’m really excited to be here with you today.

I’m an online marketing coach, specializing in YouTube growth and email list building. I work primarily with entrepreneurs who sell online-based offers. A lot of my students come to me feeling completely burnt out on social media. Maybe you've felt that way too. Even if you enjoy social media, it can start to feel like a never-ending grind. Many of my students are looking for a different way, something more sustainable and meaningful, and that’s where evergreen marketing comes in.

Most of what I teach focuses on long-form content, particularly through YouTube. I help entrepreneurs streamline their content creation, reach their ideal audience through evergreen systems, and generate consistent leads. One of my students, a lactation consultant, is a great example. After launching her YouTube channel and going through my course, she was able to sell multiple eBooks within just a few weeks. It was amazing to see how quickly she gained traction.

My own background is actually in photography, and that’s where my love for evergreen, long-form marketing began nearly ten years ago now. I started by blogging and eventually added YouTube. Today, my YouTube channel has nearly 100,000 subscribers and brings in over 400 trackable leads every month. That channel helped me hit my first multiple six-figure revenue year in 2022, and I’ve sustained that ever since. One of the most rewarding outcomes? My husband was able to leave his job to stay home with our kids, and I now work part-time hours so I can be with them too—something I know Elizabeth values and talks about a lot.

What Evergreen Marketing Is

When I talk about evergreen marketing, I’m referring to platforms like podcasts (like the one you’re listening to now), YouTube, blogs, and Pinterest. These are the key platforms that support evergreen content (content that continues to work for you long after it’s published).

Interestingly, Pinterest is the only one of those platforms that focuses on short-form content. The others (podcasts, YouTube, and blogs) are all long-form, just in different formats. Podcasts are audio, YouTube combines audio and video, and blogs are written content. Of course, you can also embed a podcast or YouTube video into a blog post.

The defining trait of evergreen content is that it has a long lifespan. A single piece of content can continue to bring in traffic, leads, and even sales for a year, two years, or even five years down the line. I still get views on blog posts I wrote five years ago, which is wild to think about. That’s why this strategy is so powerful for building a long-term, sustainable business.

Choose ONE Evergreen Platform and Commit to 6 Months

So, here’s the first big tip I want to share: if you’re brand new to evergreen marketing and want to actually see results, choose one evergreen platform and commit to it fully for at least six months. Go all in. That focus and consistency will make a huge difference.

Ideally, you should commit to at least a year. Evergreen marketing is a long game. You're probably not going to see a ton of traction in the first month (or even in the first few months). Yes, there are amazing resources out there. Elizabeth has a fantastic podcasting course, and I offer a lot on YouTube. Those tools can help fast-track your progress, but even then, success takes time.

Think of it like a snowball: it starts small, but the more you roll it, the bigger it gets. And the beauty of evergreen content is that once the snowball gains momentum, it takes a long time to melt. That means you get more breathing room in your marketing. Yes, it takes longer to build, but it also keeps working for you long after you stop publishing or take a break.

Dedication is the biggest factor in whether you'll succeed. When I look at my students or other business owners who are doing well with platforms like podcasts, YouTube, or blogs, it’s clear—they’ve stuck with it for months or even years before seeing major results.

Look for the small wins in the beginning

That’s one of the hardest parts: you start off excited, but a month or two in, the enthusiasm fades and it starts to feel like a lot of work. And yes, creating a podcast or launching a YouTube channel has a steeper learning curve than posting a reel or sending an email. But that learning curve gets easier with time. The key is to go in with a committed mindset. Stick with it even when growth feels slow, and stay focused on where you want to be in six months (or a year).

When I first started on YouTube, I spent a couple of years just throwing up random videos and barely saw any growth. Then I made the decision to go all in and really learn what works—specifically as a business owner, not as an influencer or content creator. After about three months, I started seeing small signs of growth. A few months after that, the growth really took off, and it hasn’t stopped.

Another example: we've recently gone all in on Pinterest. I’ve used Pinterest off and on for years, but we got serious about it this past year, and now we’re finally starting to see traction. It really does take consistency. You need to be committing to show up even when it feels like nothing is happening. And once you see those small signs of growth, lean into what’s working and do more of it.

One important note: if you’re newer in business, evergreen marketing works best when you already have a strong foundation. You need to know your brand, know your audience, and be really clear on your message.

You need to know the offers you ultimately want to sell and make sure your evergreen marketing supports them. You should also have opt-ins for your email list that you can weave into your evergreen content. And it's crucial to know who you're creating content for. If you don’t have clarity on your niche and audience, you risk putting effort into content that won’t serve your long-term goals.

Create an Evergreen Marketing Workflow That Works For You

Now, the second key to success is creating a workflow that works for you. There are so many ways to approach this, and I teach a lot about batch creation, especially for YouTube. For me (now as a mom of three girls, including a baby) batching has been a game changer.

Getting ready to film (doing hair and makeup, setting up the space) takes time. It doesn’t make sense for me to do all that just to film one 15-minute video. It’s a much better use of my time to prep outlines for four to six videos and film them all in one session. Sometimes I get through three, sometimes six. It depends on my energy, especially with a newborn. But the goal is always to record multiple videos at once so I don’t have to think about filming again for a few weeks.

Of course, at the beginning, evergreen marketing will take more time because you're still learning and figuring out your rhythm. But batching can help. You might batch all your outlines in one session, then film later, then edit in another session. Staying in one “mode” at a time, rather than switching tasks constantly, helps you use your time more efficiently.

For me, editing multiple videos back to back is tough. I don’t have the brainpower for it. So I typically only edit one video a day. But I can batch film, batch outline, or batch create thumbnails. It’s all about figuring out which parts of the process work best for batching in your life and business.

Maybe you’re in a season where filming one video at a time is more realistic. That’s totally fine. The important part is creating a workflow that fits you. This is one of the biggest things that trips people up. They get overwhelmed by how time-consuming it feels and give up too soon.

Just remember: it might take more time up front, but once you find your rhythm, everything gets easier. And your workflow doesn’t have to look like mine or Elizabeth’s or anyone else's. It just has to be something you’ll actually stick to. That’s what matters most.

Repurpose Evergreen Marketing Content

This is something you should start doing from day one. It helps take the pressure off creating new content for every platform. When I started being consistent with YouTube, I took those weekly videos and used them as my weekly email newsletters too. It made everything so much simpler.

Pro tip: you can drop your YouTube transcript into ChatGPT and have it help you write the email. It’s seriously such a time-saver.

I still do this today—it’s one of the easiest ways to work smarter, not harder. If I’ve already spent time making a valuable video, why not turn it into other types of content? And it also gives me a way to point my email subscribers back to the video and get more eyes on it.

Today, we do this at a bigger scale. Each YouTube video becomes a blog post as well.

Each YouTube video I create also becomes content for my email list, Instagram Stories, and Instagram feed. Sometimes we clip the video directly; other times, we simply take the ideas from it. If there’s a point that really resonated or stood out, we’ll rework it into the context of an Instagram Reel or post.

I’ve had a team member help with this in the past, and it's been a game changer. She takes the YouTube content I put my best time and energy into and repurposes it using the outlines, transcripts, or clips. This has taken a huge load off me, especially since I started my business nearly ten years ago. It’s been such a refreshing shift to not feel like I constantly have to generate brand-new content.

Making an Evergreen Content Calendar

I have a free resource that shows exactly how I manage this. There, you’ll find a visual representation of what I call my Content Stacking System. It shows how I repurpose my YouTube videos into all these other content types. If you're a visual learner or just want some inspiration, I highly recommend checking it out.

At the end of the day, repurposing is about making the most of what you’ve already created. If you want to step into the CEO and visionary role in your business, you’ll want to stay focused on creating high-value, long-form evergreen content. From there, your team, or even just you, can break it down into smaller pieces. And because the original content is from you, it still feels personal and aligned with your brand.

Finding Evergreen Content Ideas

If you're just getting started with evergreen content or need help figuring out what to create, look at your best-performing short-form content. Think about your Instagram Reels, Stories, or captions that performed well. Use that as a starting point. If you had a great post or a long-form caption that resonated, turn it into an outline for a YouTube video or a podcast episode.

That’s exactly what I did when I first started my YouTube channel. I went back to my old blog posts, after years of blogging, and used those as scripts for my first YouTube videos. It’s a fantastic way to repurpose what you’ve already created and save time.

And if you want to go deeper into evergreen marketing, especially with YouTube, I’d love to invite you to my free private podcast. It’s called Evergreen Pregame. I share more of my story, lessons I’ve learned, and what it really takes to succeed with evergreen strategies. There are several great episodes already waiting for you.

Thank you so much for spending this time with me and letting me fill in for Elizabeth. It’s been so much fun! If you’d like to connect further, you can find me on Instagram at @stephanielynnkase, or visit stephaniekase.com for more resources. I'm also on YouTube at youtube.com/@stephaniekase.

Thanks again, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your week!

Links Mentioned:

Grab Stephanie’s sample evergreen calendar

Download Stephanie’s private podcast

Follow Stephanie on Instagram

Not sure which template is right for you? Take the quiz!

The post The Beginner’s Guide to Evergreen Marketing (Even If You’ve “Tried It” Before) with Stephanie Kase appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

What God’s Word Says About Business, Work, and Everyday Faith (2 Scriptures to Pray Over)

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 9 minutes

I believe in praying over our businesses and bringing both our struggles and successes to God, just like we do with other areas of our lives. Every time I’ve done scripture-based prayer episodes, you all have responded so positively. That’s encouraged me to create more of them and today, I want to specifically share what God's word says about business, work, and everyday faith.

Today, I’m sharing two Bible verses that I believe are important to bring before God, whether it’s about your business or other parts of your life. As you listen, I’m trusting that God will show you exactly where these verses apply to you.

If you don’t consider yourself a Christian but you’re curious about faith, and you already enjoy this podcast, I encourage you to listen to this episode. It’s not just for Christian business owners. God’s Word is for you too.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

Subscribe & download the episode to your device: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Search for episode 312!

What God's word says about business

Every time I’ve done one of these episodes, the scriptures I end up sharing always vary quite a bit—in their message, their tone, and in what I believe God is trying to communicate through them. And that’s definitely true for today’s episode as well.

Leading up to recording these, I usually spend time asking God what He wants me to share with you. Often, as I’m praying or going about my day, I’ll come across a verse that just feels right—like it was meant for this moment. That’s exactly what happened this time when I looked at what God's word says about business.

“Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands.” - 1 Thessalonians 4:11

When I first heard this scripture, it was actually in an audiobook I was listening to. I’ll be honest, I had a moment where I thought, Wait—this is in the Bible? It felt brand new to me, like I had never heard it before.

Maybe it’s just me, but I really don’t remember hearing this verse before, and it hit me in a powerful way. But yes, it is in the Bible: 1 Thessalonians 4:11. I want to acknowledge that I’m taking it a bit out of its full context as I share it with you today. Paul originally wrote this letter to the Thessalonian church to encourage them in godliness. The overall theme of the book is about clinging to God and growing in holiness throughout your life.

Now, even though this verse was written to that particular church, I think it feels surprisingly relevant today (especially in contrast to what our culture promotes). It’s basically the opposite of what we’re taught, not only by the world at large but also in the online business space and personal brand culture.

The verse says to make it your goal to live a quiet life. But think about that… quiet? That’s not what we’re told to pursue. We're encouraged to share everything, to grow a massive following, to be known, to be the best, to constantly strive, and to be seen on the stage, at the top, as “the one.”

Then it continues: minding your own business. Again, not exactly the message we usually hear. We're often pulled into gossip, comparison, and criticism (even without knowing the full context of someone else’s life).

You see a social media post, a successful launch, a great reel, and suddenly you’re thinking, “Wow, that was so clever. Why didn’t I think of that?” And just like that, you’re caught in the comparison trap, pulled out of your lane because you're not minding your own business.

In so many ways, social media culture encourages the opposite. We’re constantly looking at other people’s businesses (and their lives), and measuring ourselves against them.

That’s why this verse felt so compelling to me. Mind your own business. Pay attention to the work right in front of you instead of watching what everyone else is doing. It’s simple, biblical advice but also incredibly solid business advice.

I often tell people: if you need to unsubscribe from a competitor’s email list, do it. If you need to unfollow someone on social media, do that too. Mind your own business. Focus on what God has placed in front of you.

Then we come to the last part: working with your hands.

I spent some time reading commentaries to understand what this meant in its original context. Paul was encouraging believers to do honest work and provide for themselves. Don’t be lazy or idle, and don’t rely on others for support unnecessarily.

He was calling them to value hard, honest work. And that’s something we can absolutely apply as business owners. We’re called to avoid laziness and idleness, and to take pride in the effort it takes to build something meaningful.

Paul was urging the church not to fall into the world’s standards of work, but to exceed them as Christians. To work honestly, work smartly, and provide well for their families.

And I think it’s important to recognize that not all valuable work is paid work (especially as we apply this message in 2025).

In fact, for many of us, a lot of the “working with your hands” that we do each day (the kind that doesn’t involve a computer) is unpaid work. And I think this scripture applies to that kind of work, too.

Things like loading and unloading the dishwasher, doing laundry, changing diapers, cooking dinner, cleaning up your kids’ eating area for the fifth time in a day. Comforting a crying child. Getting on your hands and knees to wipe up the milk your toddler spilled before someone slips on it.

It’s setting up a craft or activity for your kids. Preparing the coffee pot the night before. Making sure the diaper bag is fully stocked or your car is packed and ready for a family outing. Maybe this summer, you’re the one responsible for packing everyone’s things for a trip and making it feel special. These are just a few examples from my own life. I’m sure you can relate.

This kind of hands-on, often repetitive, unpaid work is still glorifying to God. It may feel small, but it is deeply meaningful. It’s kingdom work too.

Now, I want to take a brief detour from business talk and share a quote with you from Well-Watered Women. Some of you might be familiar with this ministry and shop. Years ago, early in my business journey, before I had kids, I was their marketing manager. I even got to design their website, and it was such a meaningful season of work for me.

They’ve written a lot about where the gospel meets everyday life, especially in the mundane. One phrase they use is “missional laundry,” which I love. I’ll link to the full blog post in the show notes, but I want to read you an excerpt that really captures what I’m talking about.

It speaks to how these repetitive, everyday tasks are actually a key part of our sanctification and walk with Christ. This brings us right back to that idea in Scripture of working with your hands and honoring the work God puts right in front of us—even when it feels less important than our business work.

Here’s the quote:

“If we were to add up the tasks that make up the days of our lives, most of them would be mundane, repeated, unexciting everyday tasks. We often live for the brief moments of being out of our humdrum routines, but it is in those day-to-day tasks that God brings to completion the work of sanctification in our hearts. Daily chores, such as laundry, cooking, scrubbing toilets, and taking out the trash, become an avenue for knowing Christ more fully if we allow God’s scrubbing brush to have its way in our souls rather than resisting His cleansing.”

When you fold your clothes, think about who will wear them. Will your husband wear this button-up to work the next day? Pray for him as you spray starch on that shirt and press the steaming iron on the creases. Pray that he would be a light in the darkness as he provides for your family. Will your child wear those shorts with the stain on them you are scrubbing to get clean? Pray for her heart to be soft and moldable to the Gospel as you discipline her in the ways of the Lord. Who made these clothes? Who spun the thread that made the fabric that holds each piece together? Who sewed the buttons and added the label? Pray for those hands. Pray that if they don’t yet know Jesus, they soon will.

There are a million ways to shift our perspectives and love God with our whole hearts, souls, minds, and strength as we go about our daily tasks.”

You can read the full article here.

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

I want to read this verse to you in a different translation. The Message version, which tends to be more conversational, puts it this way:

"Be cheerful no matter what. Pray all the time. Thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live."

I really love how that translation gives it a bit more clarity with what God's word says about business. You’ve probably heard this verse before—it’s a popular one, and there are even songs based on it. But sometimes we just skim over it and think, “Yeah, that’s a nice idea. Rejoice, pray, give thanks.” It can even feel like a “Thanksgiving verse.” But we don’t always pause to pay close attention to what it's really asking of us.

Funny enough, I originally planned to share a different verse here, but I felt like God was leading me to this one instead. And honestly, I hear this verse almost daily because, in our house, we’re big fans of Jingle Jacqui. If you’ve never heard of her, she’s a kids’ YouTube channel that combines music and theology, and her songs are also on Spotify. Both of my boys, especially Colin, absolutely love her music. He knows all the words to just about every song.

We listen to her in the car all the time, and just last night, Colin and I were talking about this very verse as we listened to one of her songs. It’s such a great way to memorize scripture, and he was asking me questions about it.

So back to how this applies to our business — business is SO UP AND DOWN, RIGHT? You have a good day, a good month, a horrible day with a nightmare situation, and a month in the negative, a week where you want to throw in the towel, a day where you are stuck in crazy comparison mode to the other business owners you follow or know. Sometimes life outside of work adds even more weight whether it's parenting, caring for a loved one, or managing any number of other responsibilities.

So here’s the question: How can you apply this scripture—being joyful, prayerful, and thankful—to both the highs and the lows? As a business owner, but also as a wife, mom, friend, boss, daughter, and in every other role you fill?

How can you live it out on the days when you’ve been up all night with a crying baby and you're facing a day full of meltdowns and exhaustion? Or on the days when business feels especially hard and discouraging? And what about on the days when things are going really well, like after a successful launch? Can you still give glory to God instead of thinking, “This was all me”?

Rejoice in every circumstance. Be grateful. Look for where God is blessing you, even when things feel difficult. And when things are going great, recognize that blessing too and turn your thanks toward Him.

In that same Jingle Jacqui song, there's a line I absolutely love. She sings the scripture, and then she adds:

"God’s Word tells us to be thankful, for God is good. No matter what may come our way, He works all things for good, even when we don’t think He could."

That line has stuck with me ever since we started listening to it. Especially when thinking about what God's word says about business. It’s a powerful reminder. God is good, no matter what may come our way. He works all things for good, even when we don’t believe He could. Let that truth sink in.

Then we come to the part of the verse that says, “pray without ceasing.” What does that mean? It simply means to pray all the time. Be in a continuous conversation with God, much like how you might stay in touch with your spouse or best friend through a long-running text thread. You don’t need to start over every time. You just pick up where you left off, knowing that God is always listening.

Another line Jingle Jacqui sings in the song is, “God’s everywhere we go, just like the air we breathe. We can talk with Him anytime, pray with Him continuously.” And again, she repeats, “He works all things for good, even when we don’t think He could.”

Then the verse goes on to say that this is God’s will for you. This is His plan for people who follow Him. And the way I think about that, as a designer, is that this is God’s design for us as humans. This is literally how He created us to live: to pray continually, to give thanks in all circumstances, and to choose joy even when things don’t go according to our own plans or hopes.

The Message translation puts it like this: “This is the way God wants you to live.” That gives us the why behind the command.

I believe that living this way brings us closer to God. When we’re mindful of these things, choosing to rejoice always, praying without ceasing, and giving thanks in every circumstance, it helps us experience deeper joy, no matter what’s happening around us.

One of my favorite phrases, which you’ve probably heard me say on this podcast before, is this: God always provides, and He never wastes anything.

You might remember me saying this in other episodes where I talk about faith, but it’s something I really believe can anchor us in both life and business. Whatever you’re facing, whether it’s a headache, a hard season, or even something wonderful, God doesn’t waste it. He uses it.

And maybe He’s using it in a way you can’t see right now. Maybe your human eyes just aren’t able to see what He’s doing behind the scenes. Or maybe the purpose of what you're going through won’t be revealed for years, even generations.

Believing this truth and living it out on hard days or during long seasons can make all the difference.

Both of the verses we’ve talked about today regarding what God's word says about business are from Thessalonians, and I’ll link to them in the show notes so you can read and reflect on them yourself.

Links Mentioned:

Scripture mentioned: 1 Thessalonians 4:11 & 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Read the Well-Watered Blog

Listen to Jingle Jacqui

Become a Booked Out Designer

The post What God’s Word Says About Business, Work, and Everyday Faith (2 Scriptures to Pray Over) appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

A Candid Conversation About Making a Shift to The Breakthrough Brand Podcast (+ a REAL Look at How I Make Big Business Decisions & a Q&A)

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 03:48:06 +0000

Reading Time: 27 minutes

This episode is all about a big shift coming to the Breakthrough Brand podcast—one that I’m making very mindfully and am really excited about. I can’t wait to share it with you and give you tips when you’re making your own business decisions.

This is a behind-the-scenes look at how I’m running my business this year, and I think you’ll find some key takeaways for your own business as well. If you’ve ever wondered how others grow and maintain their businesses while balancing other responsibilities, this episode is for you.

I’ll be sharing more details about the podcast changes, and then we’ll dive into a Q&A format where I’ll answer any questions you might have about this shift. So, let’s get to it!

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

Subscribe & download the episode to your device: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Search for episode 307!

Okay guys, this feels really big to say, but here’s the announcement—and please don’t turn this off after I say it because I have so much more to share. For the remainder of 2025, I’m shifting the Breakthrough Brand podcast to a seasonal format instead of releasing episodes every single week (at least for now).

That means this episode will be the last one for a while. I’m taking a three-month break to start, and I’ll explain more about what these breaks will look like. After three months, I’ll be back with new episodes, then I’ll take another break, come back again, and so on. I have a full schedule planned, and I want to be really clear about why I’m making this change.

Is this a profit-driven decision? A gut decision? What will I be doing while I’m not podcasting? I’ll get into all of that.

But first, I want to make something very clear.

I know we all multitask while listening to podcasts. I do too! But I want you to really hear this: I am not closing my business. Not even a little bit. Don’t take this podcast pause as a sign that I’m stepping away from my business or taking a break from it. That’s not happening.

I’m still fully running my business as usual—just without creating new podcast content for a few months. Right now, I’m working on new template designs, I just scheduled the spring coaching calls for Booked Out Designer, and Podcast Success Blueprint is still going strong. My courses and templates are still available, and I’m staying plugged into my business—maybe even more so in certain areas as I focus on new projects.

So, to be crystal clear: This is not a business closure announcement. It’s also not a farewell to the podcast. I love this podcast, and it’s not going anywhere. I’m just taking a break from releasing new episodes.

Now, I fully support anyone who decides to close their business or end their podcast. I always admire business owners who make those bold moves, and I think it’s incredible when people make intentional decisions like that. But that’s not what this is for me.

I’m simply taking structured breaks from new podcast episodes. The podcast will return after my break, then I’ll take another pause, and then I’ll be back again. I have a full schedule planned, and I’ll walk you through what that looks like.

Why am I switching to a seasonal podcast?

So, let’s talk about why. Now that we're all on the same page—this is a break, not a stop—I want to dive into why I’m taking a break from weekly podcast episodes.

I’ll answer more questions as we go, but first, here’s a high-level explanation:
On March 5th, 2025, I’ll be celebrating six years of this podcast—which, ironically, is also my son Ethan’s birthday! I didn’t even realize my podcast anniversary and his birthdate lined up until later. So, while he’s turning one, this show is turning six.

I launched my very first episode on March 5th, 2019, after months of prep work that started back in winter 2018. So technically, I’ve been working on this podcast for over six years now. And six years is a long time to do anything in business!

Through all of the changes happening in the podcast space over the last six years, I’ve kept up with podcasting because I love it. I truly enjoy it, and I see real results from it. You’ve probably heard me say before that podcasting is one of my favorite things I do in my business—if not the favorite thing. That’s why I’ve stuck with it for so long.

Out of curiosity, I looked back at how many weeks have passed since my first episode aired on March 5th, 2019. The answer? 312 weeks. That’s 312 weeks of podcasting and content creation, which is how I’ve reached 307 episodes. That means I’ve only missed five episodes in six years!

Now, you might be thinking, “Wait, Elizabeth, I feel like you’ve taken more breaks than that.” And you’re right—I’ve had weeks without new episodes, but because there were times when I aired two or even three episodes in a single week (like for a part one and part two situation), the numbers evened out. I’ve also done recasts of previous episodes.

But for the most part, my only real breaks have been around the holidays. Every year, I take off the week of Christmas, sometimes the week before or after as well. And that’s been pretty much it—312 weeks of consistent content with barely any gaps.

The biggest break I’ve ever taken from the show was in 2021 when my first son, Colin, was born. Even then, I prepped a ton of content ahead of time, so episodes kept airing throughout my maternity leave. After that, I switched to an every-other-week schedule for about two months just to ease back into work.

And that’s the thing—you can adjust your podcast schedule however you need to. You can make it fit your life. That two-month shift helped me transition back into work because, honestly, returning to work after having my first baby was really challenging. At the time, we didn’t have paid childcare yet, and I had a lot going on in my business. So cutting back to every other week was a small change that made a big difference.

After my second son, Ethan, was born, I didn’t take any break at all. I had episodes lined up through maternity leave and just kept going. Maybe I skipped a week, but I honestly don’t even think I did.

So now, taking a full three-month break with no new episodes? This is the longest break I’ve ever taken from the podcast in six years. And that feels so crazy to say out loud!

Taking a 3-month break on the podcast

If you’re listening and feeling a little disappointed that there won’t be a new episode every week, first of all—thank you. That means a lot to me. I know it might sound silly, but I truly appreciate that you care enough to feel that way. And I hope you’ll go back and listen to some older episodes in the meantime.

This decision feels both exciting and bittersweet. I am excited to take a break, but it’s okay if you feel a little sad about it too. This was a big and difficult decision for me—even though it’s only three months. I know I might sound more dramatic than I mean to, but honestly, this shift feels huge in my business. And it’s more than just a three-month break—this is a new pattern I’m setting, where I’ll take intentional breaks between seasons.

Podcasting is still one of my favorite things I do in my business.

I know some of you might have questions, and I’ll be answering those in the Q&A section coming up. But first, let’s talk a little more about why I’m making this change.

People often ask me, “How do you come up with so many episodes? How do you keep showing up every single week, especially with a mostly solo podcast?” And I get it—interview-style shows are a ton of work, but at least the host isn’t always the one generating the ideas. For me, since I primarily do solo episodes, I’m responsible for coming up with fresh content every single week.

But here’s the thing—I do it easily because I truly love this work. When I reflect on myself as a business owner, content creation is something that has always come naturally to me. Teaching, too. I love breaking things down in a practical way that helps people learn. Maybe it’s in my blood—my mom was a teacher, my dad was an entrepreneur—so it feels like a blend of both worlds.

And I’ve said it many times before, but this podcast is probably my favorite thing I do in my business. Sitting in my office, talking to you like this—it’s a gift. It’s something I genuinely look forward to every week.

But even with things we love, we still need breaks. Even when something is working, even when it’s successful, stepping away can be a good thing. And I’ll get into this more in the Q&A, but I want to emphasize:

This show is not something that’s failing. In fact, it’s grown significantly in weekly downloads since I started, and it continues to be a major driver of revenue for my template shop and courses. I truly believe this podcast has played a huge role in building my business and making my template shop one of the top ones out there. I’ve also earned a lot through sponsorships over the years.

So it’s not that something isn’t working. It’sm more that I want to take a break from content creation and see what business looks like without constantly planning the next podcast episode.

Taking a break from something that is working

And I think that’s an important point—taking a break doesn’t have to mean stepping away from something you dislike or that isn’t working. So often, we hear advice like, “Oh, if you hate Instagram, just quit it.” And yes, that’s valid. But this is different. I love podcasting, and I’m still choosing to pause.

I’ve been observing myself, paying attention to my life, and I realized: I need a break from this. I want to experience a few months of business where I’m not focused on long-form content creation, where I don’t have a weekly commitment like this.

Instead, I’ll be shifting my attention to other projects in my business. I’ll still create short-form content for social media as I feel inspired, but without the structure of a weekly podcast episode. And I think that’s going to be refreshing.

Ultimately, I also believe this will help me create even better episodes when I return. And I’m really fascinated by this process—it feels like a personal experiment.

Because, honestly, what will it feel like to go from recording episodes every week for six years to suddenly stopping for three months? Yes, six years versus three months is a huge difference in time, but when you think about it in terms of routine, that’s drastic. And then I’ll be taking another break after that.

I’m so curious about how this shift will feel. Will I miss it? Will I feel relieved? How will it impact my business? I plan to spend a lot of time reflecting during this break and just observing my thoughts, seeing how it feels to not be thinking about the next thing to teach.

In a way, this feels a bit like a sabbatical—but just from one area of my work. Like, “Okay, I’ve done this consistently for six years, now let’s see what happens when I step back for a bit.”.

And of course, I’ll report back to you all in a future podcast episode to share the results of this experiment

This is also one of those business decisions not based on profit

So, do I think this is an especially profitable business decision? No, definitely not. This is not a financially motivated decision. My podcast brings in a lot of leads and revenue, and thankfully, I have years' worth of content that will continue to serve my business and attract new listeners even while I take this break.

And that’s one of the really cool and unique things about podcasting—and blogging too, for that matter. I’ll talk more about that in a minute.

But this decision? It’s personal. It’s about what I need right now—especially while I’m pregnant with our third baby. It’s also a decision rooted in curiosity and faith—listening to what God is leading me to do.

For a while now, I’ve been prayerfully considering cutting something back in my business—finding something to pause or take a break from. And especially in this third pregnancy, that desire has only grown.

If you missed it, back in episode 300, I shared the news that we’re expecting baby number three! So, if you’re looking for something to listen to while I’m on break, you can go back and check that episode out. But yeah, three kids, three and under. That’s about to be my life! And this pregnancy is flying by. As I’m recording this, I’m already 21 weeks pregnant, and I’m thinking, How am I already over halfway there?!

So, this break feels like the right move. Especially considering how third pregnancies can be harder when you’re also taking care of little ones.

And, like I’ve said, I love trying new things. I will always believe that podcasting is a worthwhile endeavor in every way, and it will probably always be one of my favorite things I do.

During my break, I’m actually looking forward to plugging in more with my Podcast Success Blueprint students. If you didn’t know, I have a course on podcasting—which I know might sound ironic since I’m taking a podcast break! But I hope this serves as an example that you can take a break too, if you need one.

And I’m really excited to help my Podcast Success Blueprint students during this time—guiding them through launching and growing their own shows.

So, here we go—long-form content break, podcast break… here I come!

I will miss these weekly episodes, but I’m also really excited to see what this change brings.

Answering FAQs about Seasonal Podcast Episodes (& Other Business Decisions)

Now, let’s switch things up and dive into the Q&A section. These are some of the biggest questions I know you’re probably wondering about. My podcast manager actually helped me brainstorm some of these—she’s a podcaster too, so she came at this from the perspective of a business owner with a podcast.

Some of these questions are ones I thought of myself, and some are ones she anticipated you all might be curious about. So, let’s get into it!

Why are you choosing to take a break from something that is profitable?

I know I touched on this earlier in the episode, but I want to approach it from a slightly different angle now.

This isn’t just me repeating that taking a break isn’t one of the most profitable business decisions. Instead, I want to talk about how we, as business owners, often frame the idea of quitting or stepping away from something.

Usually, when we talk about cutting things from our business, we focus on getting rid of what isn’t working—the tasks we don’t enjoy, the strategies that aren’t generating revenue, or the things that feel like a drain. And I actually have an entire episode about this called Your To Quit List—episode 260 of this podcast.

In that episode, I share things you might want to consider removing from your business. But here’s the thing—podcasting wasn’t on that list.

We rarely talk about stepping away from things that we do enjoy and that are profitable but that we simply need a break from. And sometimes, that’s exactly what we need to do.

This break is one of those decisions for me. I’m stepping back from something that is working, that I love, and that brings in revenue—because I have other priorities right now.

And I also feel like I’m in a place in my business where I can do this. I have years' worth of content, and the great thing about podcasting is that the content remains valuable even if it didn’t air last week.

Now, would I have made this same decision if I were only 20 episodes into my podcast? Probably not. But at 307 episodes in, I feel confident in stepping away—not because I have to, but because I want to. I’ve put a lot of thought into this, and this is the decision that makes the most sense for me right now.

Do you think revenue will go down when you stop having weekly episodes?

That’s a great question, and honestly—I have no idea.

Will taking this break impact my business? Maybe.

For years now, my podcast has been one of the top ways customers find me, often accounting for 25 to 30% of my sales. That’s based on responses from customers who, when asked where they heard about my products, say the podcast. That’s a huge number.

Even now, it’s still consistently bringing in sales. Just yesterday, I had a new template sale, and the customer came directly from the podcast. That happens a lot.

So, will that change simply because there won’t be a new episode for three months (and then another break after that), even with over 300 existing episodes available?

I honestly don’t know. My gut says I might see a dip in revenue, but only time will tell. I’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on it.

The tricky thing about financial data is that it’s always influenced by multiple factors. If I do see a decrease, is it because of the podcast break? Or would it have happened anyway for some other reason? It’s hard to say.

One area where I know I’ll see a revenue shift is in sponsorships. Since I won’t be releasing new episodes, any sponsorship deals will be on pause. But other revenue streams could balance out that loss, so we’ll see how it plays out.

That being said, it’s also worth noting that running a podcast costs money—especially when you have a long-running show with established systems in place.

For these three months, my expenses will see a decrease, mainly because I won’t be paying my podcast editor or podcast manager during this time. Since team expenses—whether for contractors or employees—are often a significant part of business costs, this is a big shift. And we planned for it well in advance, making sure they were fully prepared for the temporary pause.

I’ll also likely pause at least one of my podcast-related subscriptions, which will save me money as well.

And just as a quick tip—if you’re ever taking a business break of more than a couple of months, pausing certain software subscriptions can be a smart move. Of course, you wouldn’t cancel a membership or something crucial to your business, but pausing things like extra tools or platforms you don’t need for a short time can add up to decent savings.

For example, when I’ve taken maternity leave, I’ve stopped paying for things like Zoom for a few months, and those small decisions really do make a difference.

For this podcast break, I’ll be doing the same with some tools I don’t need while I’m not actively producing new episodes. Obviously, I won’t stop paying for my podcast hosting on Buzzsprout, because that would mean my entire podcast disappears—but there are other services I can pause temporarily.

At the end of the day, I still believe podcasting is an incredible revenue generator and a powerful way to bring in leads. That’s literally why I teach it inside Podcast Success Blueprint! Everything I’ve done to grow this show, I teach in that course.

Was this a data decision or a gut decision?

This, my friends, is entirely a gut decision and a prayerful decision—not a data-driven one.

If I were basing this solely on data, I would actually be increasing my podcasting frequency—maybe even going to twice or three times a week. That’s what the numbers would suggest because my show consistently brings in results. From a purely logical standpoint, it would make sense to double down, invest even more time, money, and energy into it.

But my gut—and more importantly, God—is telling me something different.

I keep hearing: Elizabeth, take a break. Come back stronger. You’ve literally never taken an actual break from this. So let’s try it.

And I want to emphasize something—when it comes to making decisions in your business, both data-driven decisions and gut-driven decisions are valid.

Too often in business, everything is about revenue numbers, increasing followers, scaling growth. And if you consume a lot of business content—podcasts, courses, whatever—it can start to feel like every single decision has to be driven by data, numbers, and strategy.

And yes, making decisions based on data is smart. But if that’s all you ever base your decisions on, you risk building a business that might be successful on paper but leaves you feeling exhausted, unfulfilled, or even burned out.

That’s not where I am—and I think a big reason for that is because I’ve always made decisions using both data and intuition.

My business is about to turn nine years old, and I truly believe the reason I’ve been able to sustain it for this long is because I haven’t relied solely on data.

If I had, I might have pushed myself too hard, chasing numbers instead of building a business I actually enjoy.

So this decision? It’s not about maximizing growth or optimizing revenue.

It’s about following my gut.

How do you make a gut decision like this? What was the process?

I find this really interesting, and maybe you will too—this decision wasn’t something I made overnight. It was a long process.

The idea of taking a break came to me, and honestly, I fully believe it was from the Lord. But when it first crossed my mind, I immediately dismissed it.

I remember thinking, No way. Why would I do that? I love podcasting. It’s profitable, it’s fun, it’s my favorite thing. That’s a terrible idea. If I’m going to take a break from something, it should be something else.

That was my gut reaction—a hard no.

But as time went on, I kept thinking about it. I kept praying about it. And when I really stepped back and asked myself, What’s something I could take a break from? What’s something I consistently dedicate time to every single week?—the answer kept coming back to the podcast.

And that’s when I realized—I’ve never taken a real break from this. Not once.

So the idea kept resurfacing, and I couldn’t shake it. Take a break.

And even though it made sense, it still felt like such a big decision. I actually cried when I told my husband, Adam, that I was thinking about taking a break.

We were sitting up talking after the kids went to sleep, and I just blurted out, I think I might take a break from my podcast. Saying it out loud felt huge—overwhelming, even. And honestly, just thinking back to that moment now (especially with pregnancy hormones in the mix), I could probably cry again.

Now, as I’m talking to you, it doesn’t feel quite as intense. That was months ago—probably around six months now. But when I was still in the decision-making process, it felt so emotional.

Even telling my friends about it made me tear up. It just felt like this massive shift.

And I also worried—what if people take this the wrong way?

Even now, as I’m telling you this, I still have those thoughts:

Will people think I’m not committed enough to my business? Will they see this as me pulling back too much?

When you pause or shift something in your business, it’s easy to worry about how others might perceive it. It’s a real risk.

So if you’ve ever felt that way—wondering if people will judge you, misunderstand you, or question your dedication—you’re not alone. That fear is normal.

But at the end of the day, I just have to trust that you, my listeners, will understand where I’m coming from. And I am still deeply committed to helping you grow your business—I just need this break.

To give you a bit more behind-the-scenes, I told my two podcast team members about this back in mid-December. But even before that, I had been thinking and game-planning for months. I wanted to give them plenty of time to prepare and really explain my decision before we took any action on it.

So, how do you make a gut decision like this?

For me, it took time. It took a lot of thinking, praying, and talking it through with others. And interestingly enough, talking about it actually made it feel less overwhelming.

In my head, it felt like this huge, life-altering shift. But once I started saying it out loud, I realized—Oh. This is actually way more chill than I thought.

Sometimes, a decision doesn’t make sense on paper—but that doesn’t mean you should ignore it. Instead, I’ve learned to give that voice space—to sit with it, reflect on it, and ask, Huh. That doesn’t seem logical, but maybe I should listen to it anyway.

For me, prayer and journaling were huge in this process. I spent a lot of time writing things out—both with pen and paper and typing things up on my computer.

I asked myself: What would this actually look like? How could this make sense?

And once I put everything down on paper and fully mapped it out, the decision started to make sense. From there, I just took the next step, then the next, until I was ready to take action.

So, that’s my answer to How did I make this gut decision? What was my process like?

It started with listening to that little voice, praying on it, journaling about it, and then finally, putting it all into motion.

Do you have any advice on making tough business decisions?

I've made a lot of tough business decisions over the past nine years. One of the hardest was closing my membership—a decision that, at the time, felt massive. I actually recorded a few podcast episodes about that (episodes 223 and 224), which you can listen to while I’m on this break.

I really want you to come back to me for this next part—because this is the best piece of advice I can give you when it comes to making tough business decisions:

Not every decision is a forever decision.

In fact, most decisions in business aren’t permanent.

If you listened to last week’s episode, my interview with Emily Conley, she talked about this—how not everything has to be a forever thing. You can try something. And I think we often overthink decisions, making them feel way more permanent than they actually are.

Instead of saying, This change is forever, try saying, I’m going to test this out for a while and see how it feels.

Even when I closed my membership, which had 165 people in it at the time, that decision wasn’t necessarily permanent. Yes, that particular membership ended, but that doesn’t mean I can’t start another membership again in the future if I ever feel called to.

So many things in business are less permanent—and honestly, less of a big deal—than we make them out to be. It’s okay to try something, take a risk, and see what happens.

Your business is a marathon, not a sprint.

Your career is a marathon, not a sprint.

And that means things won’t always look the same in every season. And that’s a good thing.

One of the most beautiful parts of running a business—especially the kind of business I have and the kind so many of you have—is that we can adapt it to fit our lives.

Seasons of life change.
Seasons of business change.
And that’s okay.

You don’t have to do everything at once.

For six years, I’ve consistently grown, monetized, and thrived with this podcast. And I’m going to keep doing that. But for six years, I’ve also never taken a true break.

Some of that time was before I became a mother. Some of it was after. But none of it has been with three kids.

So this intentional break, this shift in format—it’s good. It’s worth trying.

And the same applies to you and your business.

What I’m doing here may not be what you need, but maybe, as you’re listening, you’re feeling like there’s something in your own business that needs to shift.

And remember: it doesn’t have to happen overnight.

If you feel like there’s something that needs to change, consider doing it. Pray about it. Journal about it. Sit with it. It takes time to slow down something that’s been running full speed, but you can do it.

You can take a break.
You can pause.
You can even quit something entirely—if that’s what’s right for you.

What marketing efforts are you keeping?

That was a great question from my podcast manager, and honestly, part of my answer is—I’m not entirely sure.

For as long as I’ve had this podcast, I’ve been incredibly structured with how often I release episodes. I’ve been consistent, showing up every single week, usually batching episodes ahead of time to maintain that schedule.

But when I look at the rest of my business, none of my other marketing efforts have had that same level of structure for a while now.

So, to answer the question—I’m keeping all of my other marketing efforts, but I’m keeping them as they’ve been, which is to say, not super structured.

For example, I actually think I’ll show up on Instagram more during this break, simply because I might want a space to create and share content. But that doesn’t mean I’m suddenly committing to a strict Instagram schedule. I’m not setting a rule for myself like, I’ll post four times a week or I’ll show up on stories every day.

Instead, I’ll just continue approaching it the way I have—going with the flow and seeing what feels right.

I’ll also continue sending emails to my list as usual.

And I’m hoping to do a bit more guesting on other podcasts during this break. So if you have a podcast and would like to have me as a guest, feel free to reach out! Being on other people’s shows is such a great marketing tool, and I’d love to do more of it.

Another thing I plan to focus on during this time is blogging, which I’ll talk more about in a moment.

But overall, my goal for marketing during this break is simple: I’m stepping back from my own podcast, but everything else is staying the same.

One thing I might experiment with is finding ways to promote older podcast episodes—especially ones that were really popular when they aired but might not be getting as much visibility now.

I might pick out a few standout episodes and think, How can I get this in front of more people? Maybe that means making the blog post better, repurposing content, or finding new ways to reshare it.

So while I’m taking a break from creating new episodes, I’ll still be active in other areas—and I’m excited to see how this shift plays out!

Do you think that it’ll work fine for every business owner to take a content creation break?

I think a lot of people listening might be dreaming of taking a break from content creation. And I totally get it.

Content creation can feel like a hamster wheel sometimes—always running, always needing to keep up. It can be exhausting, especially when you’re not sure if it’s actually moving the needle in your business.

So, could this kind of break work for you?

I can only speak for my own business, but I think the reason this can work for me is because I already have a lot of content. And that’s not true for everyone.

One thing working in my favor is that podcasting has great SEO—and it’s only improving. Apple, Spotify, and other podcast platforms are constantly making updates to improve searchability, meaning people can find my episodes just by looking up a topic they’re interested in.

That happens all the time—someone searches for a topic, finds one of my episodes, downloads it, and then keeps listening to more episodes. It’s the same way with blogging.

So, whether or not this kind of break would work for your business depends on your content strategy and how people typically find you.

But here’s the thing—you can always try it.

Test it out. Pay attention to the data. Ask yourself:

Is this working?
How do I feel without this content being a constant part of my business?

And then adjust from there.

Not every decision has to be permanent—you can always experiment and see what works best for you!

You've shared how most of your customers come through SEO/podcast... Do you think that will be affected?

When we talk about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), we’re referring to how people find content through search engines like Google. In my business, I primarily think about SEO in relation to blog posts—people searching for something and landing on my website because of it.

And the great thing? I don’t expect this part of my business to be affected by my podcast break.

That’s because the relevance of a podcast episode or a blog post isn’t dependent on new content being released every week.

For example, if someone is searching for information on a specific topic and they find an episode I released eight months ago, it’s still just as relevant to them—even if I haven’t released a new episode that month. They’re interested in that topic, so they download it and listen.

The same goes for blog posts and web pages. When you find something on Google, you’re not checking to see if that website published a new post last week—you just care that the information is relevant to what you’re searching for.

Now, of course, keeping a website up to date and regularly creating new content does help with SEO—but that’s a slightly different conversation.

In my business, some of my top traffic-generating blog posts and pages were published over a year ago, and they’re still driving people to my site.

So when it comes to older podcast episodes—people finding and listening to them through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or even YouTube—I don’t expect this to change just because I’m not publishing new episodes for a few months.

And that’s actually one of the reasons I encourage people to just try starting a podcast. So many people want to start a podcast but feel overwhelmed by the idea of committing to hundreds of episodes.I totally get that. It can feel like a massive, never-ending commitment.

But here’s the thing—
You don’t have to do it forever for it to be worth it.

You can take breaks whenever you want. You can adjust your format. You can do whatever you want with your show.

Even if you only release 20 episodes and never touch it again, those episodes can still bring in new customers, leads, and revenue for years to come.

That’s the beauty of this kind of content—it keeps working for you, even when you step away.

How did I decide on the break format?

I'm not taking a long break—just March, April, and May. So, three months with no new episodes. Then, my plan is to come back for four to five episodes, and after that, I'll take another break for my maternity leave. I’ll be back again in the fall.

I actually teach all about this inside Podcast Success Blueprint—how to find a rhythm that works for you, your recording process, and your life. Your show’s format doesn’t have to stay the same forever. You can test things, adjust as needed, and you don’t have to make a big announcement about it (though I am, because I think this change is significant).

And honestly, this feels like a huge shift for me after going six years without a real break.

As I was planning this, I actually went back and reviewed all the options I teach in Podcast Success Blueprint—and this seasonal approach just felt right. It gives me a real pause, almost like a mini sabbatical, so that when I return, I’m showing up fully refreshed and intentional.

And yes, this format is very much based on my personal life—timed around my due date and maternity leave. But it’s also strategic.

For example, I’ll be airing episodes throughout October and November, right before Black Friday—which is a big sales season. That way, I can be actively promoting my offers at a time when people are already looking to buy.

This is something I always tell my students—you can structure your business to work for you. You don’t have to follow some artificial rule about how things “should” be done.

If you’re thinking about moving your podcast (or any content) to a more seasonal format, you can structure it however you want! It doesn’t have to be a strict three months on, three months off pattern. You can tailor it based on:

Your personal life and energy levels
Your promotional calendar and sales cycles
Your audience’s listening habits

That last one is key. Part of my break timing aligns with the fact that podcast downloads tend to dip in the summer—kids are out of school, people are vacationing, and overall, fewer people are plugged into podcasts.

So when planning your own break (if that’s something you’re considering), take into account your lifestyle, your marketing needs, and even your audience’s behavior. That way, it serves both you and your business in the best way possible.

What will you be doing with the time this podcast break frees up?

I’m really excited to spend my intentionally limited work time over the next three months focusing on other projects. Since I’m with my kids a lot these days, I only have about two and a half workdays per week, and I want to be really intentional with how I use that time.

One of my biggest focuses will be designing new templates—I’m working on four new designs right now, and one is already almost finished! Honestly, designing is going to take up a lot of my time—being in Showit, creating new templates, fine-tuning the designs, and then ultimately working on the marketing and setup so customers can start using them.

Because once a template is designed, the work isn’t done. There are still a lot of steps—getting everything finalized, creating the listings, writing descriptions, setting up previews, and planning launch strategies. So that’s going to be a big focus for me.

I’ll also be hosting more coaching and co-working calls for my Booked Out Designer and Podcast Success Blueprint students. If you’re in either of those courses, definitely check the call schedule—there are some fun things planned!

And as I mentioned earlier, I might be doing some blogging.

There are a few blog posts I’ve been wanting to write for a while, and some content ideas just make more sense in a blog format than a podcast.

For example, I want to update my postpartum freezer meal blog with new recipes I’ve been using. I even have two new recipes I’d love to share. Not that I’m trying to become a recipe blogger or anything—it’s just something fun for me.

I also have a few maternity and baby-related posts in mind—topics that wouldn’t really make sense as podcast episodes but would work well as blog content.

That said, I do want to feel like I’m truly taking a long-form content break, so if blogging starts to feel like too much, I might scale it back. But I love writing, and I enjoy creating content in that way, so I think it’s likely I’ll still do some.

But overall, the main thing I’ll be focusing on is designing templates—that’s going to be my biggest project during this break.

Are you decreasing the amount you’re working (less than two days a week)?

Another question that came up was am I taking an even bigger break from my business as a whole? Like, will I only be working one day a week or something like that?

The answer is not really—I’m still working my normal two and a half days per week, just without the podcast.

But if you’ve ever been pregnant (or gone through an adoption process), you know that the to-do list leading up to bringing a new baby home is huge.

So I will be using some of my work time for baby prep instead of business tasks.

A few things on that list:

Buying a new car—we’re getting a minivan! Someone actually asked me on Instagram if we’d get one with a third baby, and at first, I didn’t think so. But after doing tons of car research (which, yes, has sometimes happened when I have childcare time), I decided a van makes the most sense. I just test-drove a few and have narrowed down my choice, so now I just need to actually buy the car.
Selling one of our current cars—because we don’t need three cars, so that’s another big task.
Moving my office—right now, my office is upstairs, but we’re moving it downstairs to combine offices with Adam. He doesn’t really need a home office anymore, so his space will become mine. That means:
- Moving Collin’s bedroom into my current office
- Turning Collin’s old room into the nursery
- Installing new doors on my future office for better soundproofing (because right now, it's not great for recording).
- Lots of furniture moving and setup. It’s a whole project.
Buying a chest freezer for the garage—I’m planning to prep a lot of freezer meals, and our kitchen freezer just isn’t cutting it.
Going to all my prenatal appointments—including my glucose test, which is basically a half-day ordeal.
General baby prep—buying what we need, organizing baby gear, and getting everything ready for July.

So while I’m not necessarily reducing my work hours, I am shifting how I spend some of that time. Just like in my other pregnancies, I’m taking some work time and dedicating it to family and baby prep—because all of this has to get done before July, and there’s a lot to do!

Now that we’ve talked about my business decisions, what should you do while there’s a break?

First of all, I’d love to hear from you about this change! When this episode airs, I’ll have a blog post that goes with it, and if you have any thoughts or additional questions, come chat with me there. I might even do a Q&A on my Instagram Stories this week to answer more questions, because I know that as we wrap up, you might be thinking, Wait, I had a question that didn’t get covered!

So, come find me on Instagram—I’ll be sharing more there, and I might do additional Q&As while I’m not producing new podcast episodes.

Catch Up on Old Episodes!

If you’re missing weekly episodes, I highly encourage you to go back and listen to old ones!

Some of you might not listen regularly but tuned in today because you were curious about this change. If that’s the case, now is a great time to explore past episodes.

And if you’re looking for something specific, here’s a little search tip:

In your podcast app, type:
Breakthrough Brand + [your topic]
Examples: Breakthrough Brand SEO, Breakthrough Brand Motherhood, Breakthrough Brand Marketing

That will pull up all the episodes I’ve done on that subject so you can find exactly what you’re looking for.

You can also do the same thing on my blog—just use the search bar to find website tips, branding advice, or any other business-related content. Everything is well-organized and categorized, so it’s easy to find what you need!

Other Ways to Stay Connected & Keep Learning

If you want to stay in the loop, I’d encourage you to join my email list—I’ll be sharing behind-the-scenes updates there, and it’s another great way to stay connected.

And if you’re looking to keep learning from me in a different format, consider joining one of my courses:

Booked Out Designer – for designers wanting to grow their business
Podcast Success Blueprint – for anyone looking to start or grow a podcast

I’ll link to both of those in the show notes, but they’re also on my website if you want more info. Or grab one of my website templates to build an incredible site for your business!

Final Thoughts… & A Thank You!

Again, I really encourage you to catch up on old episodes while I’m on this short break. And come say hi on Instagram—I’ll be sharing updates, interviews I do on other podcasts, and maybe some extra short-form content there.

Thank you for listening all the way to the end of this episode. And thank you for your support in this new season!

Links Mentioned:

Not sure which template is right for you? Take the quiz!

Thanks to our sponsor, Christian Heathcare Ministries! CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry and is a faith-based alternative to traditional health insurance. My family has been using CHM for our healthcare for 4+ years now, and we couldn’t be more pleased. As a business owner we all know healthcare is outrageously expensive with CHM you can save money on your budget and know if a medical situation ever arises CHM will be there to take care of you and share 100% of your eligible bills. Learn more here!

Thanks to our podcast sponsor, BDOW!. You can supercharge your email list growth with BDOW!. This powerful software helps you target the right visitor with the right message at the right time. Get 25% off your subscription with the code "ELIZABETH" for a limited time! Click here to grab the deal and snag a free BDOW! template I designed just for you and start building a bigger email list, faster!

The post A Candid Conversation About Making a Shift to The Breakthrough Brand Podcast (+ a REAL Look at How I Make Big Business Decisions & a Q&A) appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

How We Handle Health Insurance as a Self-Employed Family (Talking Healthcare, Finances, and more!)

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 10 minutes

Wondering how to choose health insurance as a self-employed family? You're in for a treat! My amazing husband, Adam, is back on the podcast—and it’s been almost a YEAR since his last appearance. Clearly, I need to have him on more often because I know you all love these episodes with him. In fact, when we announced baby #3, many of you thought we were launching a co-hosted podcast together. Maybe someday!

But today, we’re diving into a super important topic: health insurance as a self-employed family. Whether you’re self-employed, both you and your spouse are, or you simply don’t have access to employer-sponsored health insurance, we’re sharing what works for us. Plus, we’ll talk about some financial strategies we use to support our family.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

Subscribe & download the episode to your device: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Search for episode 305!

Our Employer Health Insurance Story

To start, Adam used to work for a nonprofit ministry called Young Life, and for the first five years of our marriage, we had employer-provided health insurance through them. And let me tell you—it was excellent! Young Life really takes care of their staff when it comes to insurance, so we know firsthand what great coverage looks like.

Back then, health insurance wasn’t even something we thought much about. It was just part of Adam’s job. I was running my business, and I hadn’t been at my first 9-to-5 long enough to qualify for employer-provided insurance.

But everything changed when Adam quit his job and went back to graduate school to become a therapist. Suddenly, we were both without insurance—and without an employer plan to fall back on.

That meant we had to start looking for coverage we could purchase on our own, and let me tell you, private insurance is insanely expensive. We researched our options and ultimately found an alternative to traditional health insurance: Christian Healthcare Ministries—which we’re going to dive into today!

Keeping a Job You Hate for the Insurance

That was our story of losing employer-provided insurance. But for so many people—including many of you listening—health insurance and other benefits are the only thing keeping you in a job you don’t love.

This is especially true when kids are involved, and your whole family depends on the coverage from your employer. But even if you don’t have kids yet, the thought of leaving a full-time job to pursue your dreams can feel impossible when you think it means going without healthcare.

And honestly? That fear is valid. It would have scared us too.

As someone who loves encouraging you to chase your business dreams, this is such a personal topic for me. I’ve seen so many people stay in jobs they don’t want—not because they love them, but because of insurance.

That’s exactly why I love to shout from the rooftops about what we do for healthcare. Because if this is something holding you back, I truly believe it could be the solution you need too.

Finding Christian Healthcare Ministries

How we found CHM as a way to handle health insurance as a self-employed family.

Adam: When I started graduate school and we had to make this big pivot, I came across Christian Healthcare Ministries—and we’ve been with them ever since. From Elizabeth’s first pregnancy and birth with Colin, to Ethan, and now baby #3 on the way, our whole family has been part of CHM.

Elizabeth: And if you’ve been following me on Instagram or listening to the podcast, you’ve probably heard me talk about CHM over the past few months. It’s been so fun chatting with you all about it, and I love seeing so many of you make the switch for your families!

How CHM is Different From Health Insurance (+ A Cost Comparison With Traditional Health Insurance)

I know CHM can be a little confusing at first—it definitely was for me when we first started using it. That’s because it’s NOT insurance.

So, to be super clear: Adam, our kids, and I do not have any form of traditional health insurance. No backup plan, nothing. But that doesn’t mean we’re covering every medical bill completely out of pocket. We still receive plenty of healthcare, and we’re saving tons of money in the process.

CHM is what’s called a “health cost-sharing ministry”—or simply a “health share.” And even though it’s not insurance, CHM actually covers 100% of qualifying medical bills, which is often more than the typical 70% or 80% coverage you’d get with traditional insurance.

I know this can sound complex at first—but I promise, it’s actually really simple once you understand it. In just a minute, we’re going to break down exactly how CHM works, step by step.

But first—let’s talk numbers.

We’re going to be completely open and share exactly how much we pay per month for CHM and compare that to what traditional insurance would cost for our family of four (soon to be five!). Spoiler: The difference is huge.

And if you’re curious about what it would cost for your own family, you can get a free quote on CHM’s website here.

We pay $861 per month for our entire family—Elizabeth, our two kids, and me. CHM memberships are structured in units: one unit for me, one for Elizabeth, and one for all of our children, no matter how many we have.

So when we had just one child, we paid for one child unit. When we had Ethan, and now with baby #3 on the way, the cost stays the same because CHM charges a flat fee for all children in a family. That’s one of the biggest advantages—it doesn’t get more expensive as your family grows!

Our $861 monthly cost breaks down like this:

$255 per adult unit (me and Elizabeth)
$255 for the kids’ unit (covers all children)
$32 per unit for CHM Plus, an optional add-on that removes coverage limits

CHM Plus is a game-changer because it makes the cost-sharing limitless. Unlike traditional insurance, where there’s often a maximum payout, CHM Plus ensures that all qualifying medical expenses—even in extreme situations—can be shared, no matter how high the cost.

Of course, we hope we never face a catastrophic medical event, but if we did, there would be no financial cap on the medical expenses CHM would share.

So bottom line:

We currently pay $861 per month for our family of four
When baby #3 arrives, our cost will remain the same
That includes full CHM Plus coverage for all three units

Oh, and just for reference—a quick Google search says that insurance for a family of five typically costs around $19,000 per year out of pocket.

What It’s Like to Use CHM (The Step by Step)

1. You can join CHM anytime

Unlike traditional insurance, there’s no enrolment period. You can literally become a CHM member today. Once you join, you’ll receive a CHM membership card, just like an insurance card.

2. Choose your healthcare providers

You can visit any provider who accepts self-pay clients. This means the provider bills you directly instead of an insurance company.

One of the biggest advantages of CHM is that there are no network restrictions—a major difference from traditional insurance. With standard insurance plans, switching coverage can mean that your longtime doctor is suddenly considered “out of network,” forcing you to find a new provider.

With CHM, there’s no network to worry about, so you can continue seeing the doctors you trust. However, it’s important to note that CHM only shares costs for eligible services based on their guidelines. For example, naturopathic doctors are not covered.

3. Submit eligible bills

After receiving care, you can easily upload your medical bills through the CHM Member Portal and answer a few simple questions. However, not every visit is reimbursable.

For example, when I took Ethan to the pediatrician for an ear infection, I paid $80 out of pocket because routine sick visits aren’t eligible for sharing. That said, I still received the self-pay rate, which ended up being cheaper than what I would have paid through insurance. Personally, our threshold that determines whether or not a medical event is shareable or not is $1,250.

While smaller visits like this aren’t covered, CHM fully shares major medical expenses, including childbirth, emergency room visits, and significant medical events.

Plus, for smaller, non-reimbursable visits, CHM offers “Healthiest You”—a free virtual care service where you can talk to a doctor when you’re sick without any out-of-pocket costs.

4. Receive your reimbursement

You pay your eligible medical bills upfront (we’ll go into more detail on that in a minute). Once processed, CHM reimburses you with a check in the mail—always a fun day when it arrives!

Using CHM (Christian Healthcare Ministries)

This is a big part of how we handle health insurance as a self-employed family. We personally put all of our medical bills—and really, most of our spending—on a credit card whenever possible. The card we use is the Alliant Credit Union Visa Signature Card, and if you’ve been following me for a while, you’ve probably heard me talk about it before. It’s a black card, and honestly, I think it’s one of the best credit cards out there.

What makes it so great? 2.5% cash back on all purchases. Unlike other cards that only offer higher rewards on specific categories like gas or groceries, this one gives 2.5% across the board. And here’s where it gets even better—this is actually a hidden perk of using CHM.

Because we pay for our medical bills upfront and then get reimbursed by CHM, we earn 2.5% cash back on all those medical expenses—even though CHM ultimately covers the cost. That cash back adds up fast, and we’ve been able to take family vacations completely paid for with the rewards we earn from Alliant.

Another key financial strategy we use is paying for our CHM membership through my business. Since CHM is our version of healthcare coverage, it qualifies as a business expense and shows up as a line item on my Profit & Loss statement each month. While it’s still us paying for it, structuring it this way is really helpful for taxes because it counts as a business expense rather than a personal one.

To manage this setup, I use Gusto for payroll. If you're a business owner looking to do something similar, you can sign up here and get a $100 Visa gift card when you join. It’s a great way to handle payroll and business expenses efficiently!

Cons of CHM As A Way To Handle Health Insurance as a Self-Employed Family

You guys know I’m always blatantly honest about any company I endorse or review, so we can’t talk about this without telling you the cons of doing healthshare that we’ve experienced (and then I’ll tell my pros next!).

Con #1: Submitting bills is extra work

There’s also work involved with traditional insurance, but it’s worth noting that while saving and submitting bills with CHM is easy, it’s still something you have to stay on top of. In our case, Adam handles it all for us, and I think it’s really helpful to have one person in charge to keep everything organized.

That said, CHM is very easy to work with when it comes to submitting bills. Their online portal is super user-friendly, making the process straightforward—but it is an extra step compared to traditional insurance.

Con #2: Some places do not take self-pay individuals

At least in Nashville, there are some doctors—particularly for childbirth—who won’t accept self-pay patients. They see it as a financial risk, so they simply choose not to take on self-pay clients. I personally don’t think this is okay, but it has been a reality.

That said, this isn’t the case across the board. I’ve given birth with two different providers using CHM and am likely switching providers again for my third baby. I haven’t had a hard time finding doctors overall, but I have had moments where I called a provider to inquire and was told, “We don’t take self-pay individuals.”

However, if you’re considering a home birth or birth center birth, those providers almost always accept self-pay. Many traditional insurance plans don’t cover home births, so these practices are already set up to accommodate self-pay clients.

Pros of CHM As A Way To Handle Health Insurance as a Self-Employed Family

Pro #1: Best Value for Families Having Babies

If your family is in a season of having babies, CHM truly offers the best bang for your buck. Birth is insanely expensive for most people, even with insurance, due to high deductibles—but that’s not the case for us with CHM! Plus, the cost doesn’t increase as you have more children!

Pro #2: Significant Cost Savings

CHM is actually, factually less expensive than traditional insurance out of pocket. It’s a huge money-saver compared to standard premiums, deductibles, and copays.

Pro #3: Exceptional Customer Service

CHM’s customer service is next-level, which is so different from most health insurance companies. Since it’s a ministry, they truly treat you like family instead of just another number. Every interaction I’ve had with their team has been incredibly kind and personal.

For example, when Adam called to let them know we’re expecting another baby, I received the sweetest congratulations email from their team—along with everything I needed to know about CHM’s maternity coverage. You just don’t get that kind of warmth from traditional insurance companies!

Pro #4: Maternity & Lactation Support

On the CHM Gold Program (which is what we use), you get a lactation consultant visit covered, which was so helpful. With both of my babies, it made it easier to say yes to that first $200 LC visit, knowing it was included.

Plus, fun fact—maternity is now available on all CHM levels, though the out-of-pocket expenses vary depending on the plan.

Pro #5: Newborns Are Covered for Free (First 3 Months!)

For the first three months, your baby’s medical expenses are fully shared under the same program the mom is on. This is such a relief during those early months when you’re adjusting to life with a newborn and don’t want to stress about extra medical costs.

Getting Started with CHM

I want to quickly go over how to get started with Christian Healthcare Ministries again. Like we mentioned earlier, you can join CHM at any time—there’s no enrollment period, so you don’t have to wait for a specific time of year.

Honestly, we both agree that choosing CHM has been one of the best financial decisions we’ve made as self-employed parents. Health insurance is a huge decision, and figuring it all out can be confusing. I really wish more people talked about options like this because so many families could benefit from knowing there are alternatives.

As we prepare to welcome another baby, we’re feeling so grateful to be part of the CHM family this year. It’s truly a blessing knowing that these costs will be shared and covered, which takes such a weight off our shoulders.

Thank you for listening all the way to the end of this episode and letting us share our experience with you! If you want to learn more or get a free quote, head here next.

Also, CHM is super helpful if you have any questions—they’re responsive on Instagram, email, and phone calls. I’ve posted about them several times on my Instagram, and I’ll link some of those in the show notes. You can even comment on one of my posts with a question, and they’ll respond directly to help you out!

This episode is sponsored by Christian Healthcare Ministries. To get a free quote for your family, head here next!

Links Mentioned:

Get a free quote with Christian Healthcare Ministries here

Not sure which template is right for you? Take the quiz!

The post How We Handle Health Insurance as a Self-Employed Family (Talking Healthcare, Finances, and more!) appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

How to Navigate Becoming a Mom When You Already Have a Business You Love

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 05:00:29 +0000

Reading Time: 19 minutes

I am so excited about today’s episode. I honestly think this will become one of my all-time favorite episodes to record. I’ve been working on this outline for months—it’s eight pages long all about having a business before motherhood!

I hope these tips are helpful to you and make a real impact in your life. If they do, I’d love for you to share them with other moms or moms-to-be in your life. Many of you, like me, had a business before motherhood. Others started businesses after becoming moms, which is a completely different experience.

For me, I ran my business for five and a half years before becoming a mom. Over time, I built it into so many different things—my template shop, this podcast, my courses—so much happened before I had kids. Now, I’m a mom of two with baby number three on the way!

As I’ve grown my family, my journey as a mom and entrepreneur has evolved, and that’s what I want to talk about today. This episode is for business-owning women—including side hustlers—who are expecting or thinking about having a baby. If you're in your first year (or so) of motherhood, you’ll likely find this helpful too.

So whether you're trying to conceive, adopting, expecting, navigating life with a newborn, or even adding another baby to your family, this episode is for you. I hope it serves as both a pep talk and a guide with insights you may not have heard before.

A lot of what I’m sharing today is advice I wish someone had given me when I was a new mom. Now, as a mom of two (with a third on the way!), I want to share what I’ve learned—both from a mindset perspective and a practical, business-prep standpoint. I’ll cover ways to adjust your business for big changes, how to work fewer hours effectively, and so much more.

I truly hope this episode blesses you. I’ve poured so much thought and energy into it. Now, let’s get started!

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

Subscribe & download the episode to your device: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Search for episode 304!

Like I mentioned, this episode is all about navigating motherhood when you already have a business. These are the things I wish someone had told me as a business-owning woman stepping into motherhood.

I have six key tips for you—most of them focused on your business, but some touching on motherhood in general. But before we dive in, let me set the stage with a little context.

I’m a mom to little ones—I haven’t yet experienced motherhood with elementary-age kids, middle schoolers, or teenagers. My oldest is almost three and a half, my second is 11 months old, and I’m currently pregnant with baby number three, due this summer. That means I’ll have a 16-month age gap between my second and third, and about a two-and-a-half-year gap between my first and second.

I also ran my business for about five and a half years before becoming a mom. So when I found out I was expecting, I had to figure out how to navigate this huge life change while continuing to run a business I had poured years of energy into.

These are the tips I wish someone had shared with me during that transition. So let’s dive in—no particular order, just real, practical advice to help you prepare for this exciting (and sometimes overwhelming) new chapter!

1. Don’t assume what you’ll want for your business until after you meet your baby

One of the most important things you can do during pregnancy is have honest conversations—with your spouse, significant other, or, if you’re a single parent, with your support system. Talk about what both of your work lives will look like once the baby arrives. How will your work change? How will your partner’s work change? How will you share responsibilities? The key is to have a plan—and to prepare to adjust that plan as needed.

Now, I’m not saying don’t make a plan. In fact, I highly encourage you to. But I can’t tell you what plan is right for your family because everyone’s situation is unique. Some of you might be single moms. Maybe your partner works long, inflexible hours. Maybe you work crazy hours in your business, or you’re juggling a 9-to-5 job and a side hustle. Or perhaps you’re transitioning into full-time stay-at-home motherhood for the first time.

No matter your situation, one thing I can tell you is this: Whatever plan you come up with now, your feelings about it may change once your baby is actually here. So go into it with flexibility and grace for yourself.

For example, you might plan to do full-time daycare, thinking, I’ll take a short maternity leave and then jump right back into work. But once your leave is up, you might realize you don’t want to send your baby to daycare full-time. Maybe you decide on part-time daycare or explore other childcare options instead.

Or maybe it’s the opposite. Maybe you initially think, I won’t need any childcare—I’ll just work during nap times. Then your baby arrives, and you quickly realize that’s not sustainable. You need real breaks, both for your own well-being and to keep your business running.

The point is—changing your mind is not failure. You can’t fully know what will work for you until you’re in it. And this applies to so many aspects of motherhood!

A plan might sound perfect on paper, but when you’re actually living it, you might realize it’s not the right fit. And that’s okay!

Be adaptable—not just in the newborn stage, but as your baby grows. Your needs will shift. Your baby’s schedule will change. If you have more children, your work-life balance will evolve again. Maybe what worked for you with one baby doesn’t work with two or three. Or maybe when your child stops napping or starts school, your approach shifts again.

Personally, I’ve found that before having kids, my seasons of work looked more like years. Now, as a mom, a season can be just a few months—like when a baby is on a certain nap schedule, isn’t eating solids yet, or is exclusively breastfeeding. Things change fast, and flexibility is key.

So, whatever you choose is okay. It doesn’t matter what other moms are doing, what your own mom did, or what you thought you would do. The best thing you can do is stay prayerful about what’s right for you and your family.

Be open to change. If something isn’t working, it’s okay to say, Hey, I thought I wanted this, but it’s not right for me anymore. Or, This worked great for the first six months, but now my baby’s needs have changed, and I need to adjust.

Adjusting doesn’t mean you were wrong before—it just means you didn’t have the lived experience yet, or your situation has evolved. So stay flexible, stay open to change, and most of all, give yourself grace.

2. Learn how to delegate (and let some things slide that you used to obsess over)

Moms make efficient business owners because they learn to cut out what doesn’t matter and delegate effectively. Motherhood will teach you this skill—if you allow it.

Since becoming a mom, I feel like I’ve become a better business owner, despite entering motherhood after business. Has it made business easier? No, it’s actually harder. But I’ve learned to focus on what truly matters in this season of life and in running my business. If you don’t embrace this shift, you may find yourself overwhelmed by the lack of time to obsess over details like before.

If you're preparing for maternity leave—whether you're pregnant or expecting to adopt—take time to look at your daily, weekly, and monthly tasks:

Identify unnecessary tasks: Things you do out of habit, not necessity.
Look for automation opportunities: Use tools you already have or invest in new ones.
Delegate tasks: Assign to existing team members or even consider hiring help. Becoming a mom may be the right time for your first independent contractor hire.
Increase efficiency: For tasks that can’t be eliminated, find ways to streamline them.

You may realize that your business doesn't require as much micromanagement as you once thought. When I was preparing for my first maternity leave four years ago, I went through this process very intensely. The moment I found out I was pregnant, I recognized that I needed help to take time off or reduce my workload.

At that time, we didn’t use outside childcare until my firstborn was 14 months old. My husband and I tag-teamed childcare while he was in graduate school. With my second child, things were different, and they will be again with my third.

During my first leave, I found things that:

A team member could take over.
Were honestly just a waste of time, so we could cut them.
Needed better systems in place.

Keeping a running list of things to evaluate. I like to use my phone for easy updates, and do this before the baby arrives so you have time to implement changes.

Here are a few real examples from my business:

Failed Payments – I run a digital product business, selling templates and courses. For years, I handled all failed payments myself—tracking issues, emailing customers, and following up. While this task is important, it didn’t need to be done by me. I delegated it to a team member who was already managing customer communication, and she still handles it today.

Podcast Show Notes – I used to write my own show notes for every podcast episode, even after having my first child. It wasn’t until my second pregnancy that I realized I could delegate this task. Since my blog writer, Kara, already had my outlines, it made sense for her to take over the show notes as well. Now, for this episode, she’ll use my eight-page outline to craft the notes, making my podcasting process much more efficient.

Tracking Sales Manually — I used to track every sale in my business manually. You may have heard me talk about this on the podcast before—I loved it and thought it was valuable to have that level of data. But it also took so much time and precision. Right before my second son, Ethan, was born, I cut it out completely—I didn’t delegate it, I just let it go. I realized that, in this season of life, I don’t have the capacity to track every single sale in that much detail.

These are just a few examples, but I hope they help you see the bigger picture. The key is to pay attention daily to what you’re doing in your business. Ask yourself:

Do I really need to be the one doing this?
How much time is this taking me?
Will I still have this time once the baby arrives?

It’s going to look different for everyone depending on your business, but my biggest tip is to start thinking about this for yourself while you're pregnant. Make it something you’re actively working on before maternity leave.

3. Plan for a longer maternity leave than you think you’ll want

As a business owner, you are your own boss, which means you have to give yourself time off—no one else will do it for you. Unlike a traditional employer who says, “Here’s your 12 weeks of maternity leave,” you have to structure and plan for it yourself.

So, my advice? Plan for more time off than you think you’ll want.

I can’t tell you how long that should be. Maybe you have a number in mind based on your first maternity leave, what your friends did, or the standard U.S. maternity leave. But whatever you’re thinking, set up your business in a way that allows you to take more time if you need it.

Why?

You may actually want or need more time than you expected. Birth and recovery can be unpredictable, and you may need extra time to heal or adjust to your baby’s needs. Or, you may simply love the newborn phase and realize you’re not ready to return yet.
Returning to work is often a slow process. It’s rarely a sudden shift from 100% leave to 100% back at work. Instead, it’s more gradual—maybe a nap-time work session here, a few hours while your partner watches the baby there. Planning extra time allows for that transition to happen naturally rather than feeling like you have to rush back.

In my own experience:

With my first son, Colin, I planned for a three-and-a-half-month maternity leave. But in reality, I took five and a half months before I fully came back. That didn’t mean I didn’t touch my business at all—I still ran my Black Friday sale and managed small things—but I wasn’t back in my office for a full workday until he was six months old.
With my second, Ethan, I took three and a half months off and worked right up until he was born. That worked better for me mentally, since I didn’t enjoy taking time off before the baby arrived. With my first, I had planned for two weeks off before my due date, and he ended up being born at 41 weeks! I quickly realized I didn’t enjoy “waiting” and ended up working on random projects just to keep myself busy.

Now, with my third baby, I’m planning another solid maternity leave. I don’t know exactly how long yet since I’m still early in pregnancy, but I want to give myself plenty of time.

I say all this because I don’t want you to assume that you’ll be fine with just three weeks off, only to find yourself overwhelmed and unable to step back when you realize you need more time.

Maybe you think:

“I love my business, so I’ll be excited to jump back in.”
“Newborns sleep a lot, so I’ll have time to work.”
“I saw someone else take only two weeks off, so I can too.”

But then you might find yourself locked into commitments—a client project, interviews, coaching calls—that you can’t push back, even though you want to.

So, think about how much time you believe you’ll need, discuss it with your spouse or support system, and then add a few more weeks. That extra time can be your gradual transition back into work.

Bonus Tip: Plan Time Off During Pregnancy

Don’t forget about taking breaks before the baby arrives!

For example, when you do your glucose test (around 30 weeks), that might be a good day to take off work completely. Go do the test, then treat yourself—grab lunch with a friend, get a pedicure, do something relaxing.

You’ll also have days where you just need to rest—maybe due to morning sickness, exhaustion, or just the general strain of pregnancy. Be gracious with yourself.

Growing a baby is huge work—it’s incredible how our bodies do this! If all you did today was grow that baby, you’ve done enough. And especially if you have other kids, pregnancy can be physically exhausting.

So, don’t push yourself too hard. Plan for rest, and give yourself the space to take breaks when you need them.

4. It’s ok to scale your business back, quit your business, or pause it for a season

This might be my favorite tip of all: It is okay to scale your business back, pause it for a season, or even quit altogether if that’s what makes sense for you and your family.

Quitting often gets a bad rap in the business world. We hear messages like:

“Never quit your business.”
“Always chase your dreams.”
“Stick with it no matter what.”

But I don’t agree with that mindset, and I never have. I’ve talked about this many times on the podcast—quitting, pausing, or shifting your business is actually a power move when it aligns with your life and family.

Your seasons of life will change, and your business can change with them.

The Problem with the “Hustle No Matter What” Mentality

What frustrates me is that society tells us it’s okay to change our work for any reason—except for our family.

You might hear things like:

“If you step back from your business for your kids, you’re not empowering women.”
“You’ll lose yourself in motherhood.”
“You won’t have anything for yourself.”
“You should be contributing financially.”
“You’ll get bored staying home.”
“What will you do all day if you’re home with your kids?”
“Daycare exists for a reason—you should use it.”

I’ve heard it all. And maybe you’ve heard these messages too.

But I want to tell you something different: It is more than okay to shift your business for your family. It is a great reason to change things, simply because it makes sense for you in this season.

Your Career is a Long Game

I also want to remind you that your career is not a race.

With how quickly business and technology move, it can feel like you have to hit every milestone right now—the next income goal, follower count, email list number, or pricing increase. But you actually have so many years of working life ahead of you.

If you’re in your 30s (or older or younger), and you have small children, just think about how many more decades you have to work.

Your business goals can take longer. You can pause a goal for a season.

So if you feel called to scale back right now—whether it’s a small part of your business or the entire thing—try it. Trust God's guidance. Nothing is permanent.

Pausing something doesn’t mean quitting forever.
Even quitting your current business doesn’t mean quitting business forever.

I truly believe you will never regret spending more time with your children.

My Personal Experience with Slowing Down

I’ve found that some days, playing the role of a stay-at-home mom is actually harder than running my business.

Shoutout to all the stay-at-home moms—taking care of small children is hard work. Sitting here recording this podcast in my quiet office is much easier in comparison.

But I never regret investing time in my family. I love motherhood. It fulfills me in a way that nothing else does. It’s a high calling that I’m honored to step into, even when it means shifting my business.

Sometimes that means scaling back, pausing, or even quitting—and that’s okay.

Real-Life Example: My Grandmother’s Career

A lot of the women we admire professionally didn’t follow a straight career path—we just see where they ended up.

For example, my grandmother—my dad’s mom—had an extremely accomplished career. She was the head buyer for Kirkland’s Home Store and played a huge role in growing the company. She was also an interior designer and teacher and made a great income throughout her career.

But when I visited her last year, I asked, “Were you working in those roles when your kids were little?”

And she said, “No, honey. I was a stay-at-home mom for years.”

That surprised me because I’ve always thought of her as a career woman. But when she had her four kids—who were all close in age—she stayed home.

Her career came later—and she still built something incredible.

This was such a great reminder for me that careers are a long game.

You might look at someone’s success and assume they were grinding non-stop for decades—but you don’t see the seasons where they stepped back.

It’s Okay to Step Back—And I’m Doing It Too

I’m actually making changes in my own business right now with baby number three on the way. I’ll be talking about those details in a podcast episode soon.

But for now, I just want to encourage you:

It’s okay to scale your business back to be with your kids more.
It’s okay to quit for a season—or forever—if that’s what makes sense for your family.

And if you feel that calling, follow it. Your business will always be there, but your kids will only be little for so long.

5. Motherhood is really fulfilling. And it’s really hard. It can be both. Hard isn’t the same as bad.

Motherhood is incredibly fulfilling, and it’s also really hard. It can be both at the same time. And hard does not mean bad.

This is something that’s not talked about enough. You can absolutely love being a mom, feel like it’s everything you ever wanted, and still find it exhausting. You can be fulfilled and wish for a break. You can be completely in love with your baby and want them to stop crying so you can get some sleep.

Maybe you wish potty training didn’t result in a mess all over the floor. Or that you could just eat dinner in peace without making sure everyone else is eating theirs. Or that you could schedule a work meeting without worrying about whether nap time will actually happen.

Parenthood is hard—it’s a job like no other. And in my opinion, it’s the hardest job and the most fulfilling work you can do.

Society Doesn’t Always Value Parenthood

Parenting gets a bad rap sometimes. It’s sacrificial, and we live in a world that doesn’t always value kids—or parents—enough. And when you combine all of that, it can feel like a challenging road to navigate.

And I believe that having your first baby is the biggest adjustment of all.

Going from zero to one was a bigger shock for me than going from one to two kids. Now I’m about to go from two to three, so we’ll see how that feels! But at least for us, zero to one completely rocked our world—from work, to life, to free time, to sleep.

I remember feeling, “I’ll never do XYZ again.” And at the time, it felt true. But looking back, those thoughts weren’t actually accurate. Yes, some things do change forever, but many things are just different for a season.

If you ever find yourself missing a part of your life before kids, that does not mean you don’t love your baby or that you regret becoming a mom. It just means you’ve taken on something incredibly hard.

Motherhood is so fulfilling, but it’s also exhausting. And it’s okay to acknowledge both.

My Own Experience With a Newborn

I remember a moment early in motherhood when Colin was just a few weeks old.

Adam was out of town on a trip, and my mother-in-law was visiting to help me out. Colin was struggling with breastfeeding, had colic, and sleep was rough—it was just a lot.

That night, a new episode of Law & Order: SVU was airing. I had always loved watching new episodes as they came out—it was my thing. Before having a baby, I could sit down, grab a snack, and just enjoy it, no problem.

But that night, it felt like watching a TV show was an ordeal.

Colin wasn’t ready for bed yet—newborns often stay up late with their parents. He was fussy, and my mother-in-law sweetly encouraged me, “Elizabeth, just sit down, relax, and enjoy your LaCroix. I’ll hold him.”

So I sat down, but I couldn’t relax. I remember thinking, “Oh my gosh, I’m never going to just watch TV normally again.” It felt so overwhelming and permanent in that moment.

But of course, that wasn’t true. Just a couple of days ago, I sat down after the kids were asleep, watched a new episode of Law & Order: SVU, and enjoyed some dessert—totally uninterrupted.

That night with Colin felt so long, but in hindsight, it was just a season.

Hard is Not the Same as Bad

Motherhood is both fulfilling and hard, and one does not cancel out the other.

So when you have those hard moments—when you feel exhausted, frustrated, or overwhelmed—it doesn’t mean you’re failing as a mom. It doesn’t mean motherhood is bad. It just means it’s a really hard job.

Think about your business. There are probably parts of it you don’t like, but that doesn’t mean your business is bad—it just means there are hard aspects to running a business. Motherhood is the same way.

So if you’re in a tough moment right now, just remember:

It’s hard, but it’s worth it.
This season won’t last forever.
You are doing an incredible job.

And above all, hard does not mean bad.

6. You can do this. You can do the motherhood and business thing if you want to.

I want to close this episode with encouragement: You can do this.

You can run a business and be a mom if that’s what you want to do. If you’re going to work and not stay home 100% with your kids, I truly believe that owning a business is one of the best jobs you can have as a mother.

I feel so much gratitude every single day that I built this business and that I can make money from home while being with my kids—even with minimal childcare.

Now, I’m not going to pretend to be one of those people you see in reels or on TikTok saying they work no hours, only from their phone, while making a full-time income as a stay-at-home mom. That’s not my reality.

Right now, as I record this, both of my kids are in paid childcare. But I’m still grateful because I get to do this from home, and throughout the day, I can go downstairs a hundred times to see my baby. That flexibility is a privilege, but it’s also something you can work toward and structure your business to allow for.

Your business is a gift. I believe we should see it that way.

You Are In Charge—Not Your Clients, Not Your Calendar

One of the biggest advantages of running your own business is that you have control.

You can scale it up or down based on your family’s needs.
You can work from home or on the go.
You can choose your maternity leave length instead of having an employer decide for you.
You can set your own work hours around your kids’ schedules.

But here’s the thing—you have to make those decisions.

Don’t let your clients, calendar, or customers dictate how you run your business—especially during pregnancy and postpartum. People are often way more understanding than you think.

I’ve seen too many business owners assume, “My clients won’t understand me taking time off for a baby.” So they don’t take the time. They try to keep their business running as if they aren’t a mom, as if they didn’t just have a baby.

You don’t have to do that.

And if a client isn’t gracious about you taking maternity leave? They’re probably not the kind of client you want to work with anyway.

Be a Better Boss to Yourself

You wouldn’t want to work for someone who never gave you breaks, right? So don’t be that kind of boss to yourself.

Take the half-day for your glucose test.
Take a full day off to rest.
Take naps when you need them.
Spend less time on a project if it means you get to rest.
Give yourself a real maternity leave—and plan it well.

You are in charge—not your clients, not your team, not your calendar.

Define Your Own “It”

You can do this—but only you can define what “this” is.

Whatever your version of success looks like, you can do it. And that definition might change over time—and that’s okay.

Your motherhood and business journey will not look like mine.
It won’t look like that business owner you follow on Instagram who seems to have it all together.
It won’t look exactly like your mom’s, your mother-in-law’s, your friend’s, or anyone else’s.

Your journey is your own.

Give Yourself Time to Learn

Something else I want to encourage you with: Motherhood is a skill—and new skills take time to learn.

Think about it:

When you first got pregnant, you didn’t know what prenatals to take.
You didn’t know what was happening at each stage of pregnancy.
You might not have known much about birth or postpartum.

You had to learn—and learning takes time.

It’s the same with motherhood and business.

I actually saw a note in my Hosanna Revival Five-Year Prayer Journal today from January 2022. At the time, Colin was five months old, we had just moved into our new house, and I was trying to work more again.

In that journal entry, I prayed, “I’m having a hard time moving between mom stuff and work stuff, and I feel like I can’t do both well.”

I remember that season so clearly. I’d get in the zone with my business, and then suddenly it was time to nurse or put him down for a nap. It felt impossible to juggle both.

But over time, I learned how to manage it. It became a skill I developed.

And now, with two kids, I’m learning the skill all over again—because it looks different. And soon, with three kids, I’ll be learning it again in a brand-new way.

It’s all a process. It’s all learning. And that’s okay.

So be gracious with yourself. You are growing and learning just as much as your kids are.

6 Tips for Running a Business While Becoming a Mom

Before we wrap up, let’s quickly review all six tips. As I read them, think about which one stood out to you—maybe one that you can take action on today.

Don’t assume what you’ll want for your business until after you meet your baby.
- Make a plan, but stay flexible. You might think you want one thing, but once the baby is here, your desires could shift.
Learn how to delegate and let some things go.
- Motherhood can actually make you a better business owner by teaching you how to be more strategic with your time.
Plan for a longer maternity leave than you think you’ll want.
- Give yourself the option to take more time if you need it, because adjusting to motherhood is a big transition.
It’s okay to scale back, pause, or even quit your business if that’s what makes sense for your family.
- Be prayerful about it, talk it over with your spouse, and know that nothing is permanent—you can always shift again later.
Motherhood is both fulfilling and hard—and hard doesn’t mean bad.
- It’s okay to miss parts of your old life while also loving your baby. It’s okay to find motherhood challenging while also finding it deeply fulfilling.
You can do this.
- Define what “this” looks like for you in this season. Know that it will change over time, and that’s okay.

I hope this episode encourages you! Motherhood and business together is a learning process, and you’re going to grow so much along the way. You can do this!

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The post How to Navigate Becoming a Mom When You Already Have a Business You Love appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

The New Elizabeth McCravy Brand (BTS of my Business Rebrand & New Website!)

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 11 minutes

If you are reading this, I have a brand new website and a new brand for my business, and it’s finally live! I'm talking about new fonts, colors, patterns, logos, and a completely new website that I started completely from scratch. This business rebrand has been in the works since LAST October, and so we’ve been working on it for almost a year (and I’ve been dreaming of sharing it with you ever since!).

I’m going to share:

Exactly why I chose to rebrand my business
My experience working with a branding agency (as a designer myself!)
Design decisions we made for the brand (and the why behind those decisions)
The process we went through (including the nitty gritty of working to redesign and reimagine 100+ pages of my giant website from the ground up).

Plus, before you dive in, I’m celebrating the launch of my new website with a SALE. Head here to find out how you can get 15-25% off my Showit Website Templates and Courses!

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Why Did I Choose to Rebrand My Business?

Simply put, I’ve had my business for almost 9 years. In those 9 years, there has been a ton of evolution of what I do and offer, but my Elizabeth McCravy brand hasn't changed at all!

A little history lesson (in case you’re new around here!):

When I started my business almost 9 years ago, I was under a brand name (Every Whim Creative) that I kept for a little less than a year. I had a brand/website I built for that on WordPress.
Then I rebranded. I made a new logo, brand, and a new WordPress website with a new name (Speak Social Agency)! Some of you may remember those days! Thank you for being here so long!!
Then I redesigned that website on Showit, when I switched to designing websites on Showit.
Finally, in August of 2018, I rebranded AGAIN to Elizabeth McCravy. I said “let’s stop with the made up fictitious/created names and use my name”. I was showing up as a personal brand and I just wanted to do that all the way.

I feel like sometimes we forget truly how many changes and growth that happens in the early years. It’s funny looking back on it now thinking how many times I changed things in a short period.

Business as Elizabeth McCravy

I rebranded to Elizabeth McCravy six years ago already. And in those 6 years, I’ve been using the same logos, even though I didn’t like them anymore and didn’t feel like they represented me well. Instead, I kept adding new courses and products and the overarching visual identity for the brand was the same in these 6 years!

It got to the point where I didn’t like the logos so much that I avoided using them anywhere (they weren’t really on the website at all). Then, in 2022, I set out with the goal to do a rebrand myself. New logos, fonts, colors, website, everything!! It was my big THING for that year.

Truthfully, I did not even consider hiring anyone else because I am a designer myself. So my thought was, “I should do this, because I can do this.” With this business rebrand attempt, I got as far as new fonts and colors that I really loved, that I felt suited the brand well, but I never created new logos. I did do some brand strategy for sure, but it was all done SOLO, with no one to bounce ideas off of. Just me and me! Not super effective!

Also, it always fell to the back burner for me behind other projects. I felt like I struggled to get out of my own head and out of my way. It’s hard designing for yourself as a designer!

So basically, since January of 2022, I have been using the rebranded vibe that I created, while trying to not use any of my old logos. And it did work. I want to emphasize that. My business has grown and done really well in those years. But that whole time, “completing the business rebrand” has been on my to do list and I just kept not getting it done or getting stuck.

It’s also harder because I have a lot of sub-brands underneath my business name. I have Booked Out Designer, The Template Shop, Breakthrough Brand Podcast, and now Podcast Success Blueprint. They are different and unique, so figuring that out how they could all come together cohesively too was tough at times.

I think in reality, I needed someone else’s perspective as a designer myself!

Fast Forward to January 2023

I had done a power hour call with Veronica Romney! She’s wonderful. She’s a team building expert and a podcast host herself. I’m going to have her on this show soon! A big thing that came out of the call is that I was holding onto things in my business that I needed to delegate.

She helped me see ways I could focus more on my genius, on the things only I can do, which is especially important for me in this season of working so few hours and being with my kids more than working typically. I’m not a stay-at-home mom, but I am not working 40 hours, or even 25 hours a week, either!

So after that call, I had ideas and direction, and I decided enough is enough. I needed to step into my CEO role more in my business and let a brand designer do the rebrand, while I did the website after! Because truly, websites are my passion. I love website design, and felt confident that I could take a brand and implement it into a new website for myself. And that regardless of if it was a good use of time or not, I would adore the process. And it would be fun for me, and business is supposed to be FUN!

I will be honest: I had some doubts/imposter syndrome at first about the idea of hiring a designer (as a designer myself). But I realized that was not how I should run my business, and it was not how I was running my business in other areas that I was seeing success.

For example:

I don’t do my own customer support and haven't for years.
I don’t write the blog posts that go with these episodes.
I don’t create every single Canva graphic to promote launches/sales.
There’s a lot I don’t do that I can do or did do at one point.

So I applied to be a client of another designer who I admired. I knew she was familiar with my brand, and had listened to my podcast before. We had been online acquaintances for some time, but she wasn’t overly involved in my brand, which I felt was something I wanted actually. Some familiarity but not too much.

Hiring Cember Studio for My Business Rebrand

That person was Kelsea from Cember Studio! I do plan to have her on the podcast to talk about branding at some point, because she’s wonderful. I reached out to her, she had never worked with another designer before, but was game! I promised that I would trust her with the process and let her be the design lead. Which was actually really easy for me to do!

I booked her, then we started the project in October of 2023. And guys — it was exactly what I needed to create a powerful brand for this business and powerful sub-brands, and a vibe built to LAST! Plus, I felt like I had a really strong foundation for the website I was going to build!

We finished up the rebrand in December of last year, and of course, I was closing in on having a baby at that point. I started designing the new website then but I struggled to really get GOING on it until after my maternity leave was over. I had some pages done prior but not much.

I implemented the finished branding on my current site first, which I know is not necessarily the best way to do it, but I knew with the size of my site and all the different things that needed updating, I couldn’t launch it all at once.

Before I went on leave, I updated the logos everywhere on the website, updated all my checkout pages, receipts/invoices, Dubsado settings, email signatures, things for students in Kajabi, and our freebies to be the new look!

Then post-leave, I got going quickly. After we started to get some momentum, it was like BOOM - HERE IT IS!

About the Business Rebrand

I love it all, and I hope you do as well! Kelsea was great to work with. It was truly just a fun, fun project. I love when I hire contractors in my business and get to see how other people run their business and work with them and get to be a client myself. Kelsey's process (at least her process with me) was that she ended up presenting two brands that were similar.

They had the same color palette and some similar elements, but the logos themselves for my main brand were completely different. we actually did the brand presentation in person, which is really cool because I live in Nashville and she lives in Alabama fairly close by, and she was coming here for their team retreat. She then asked me, “Would you want to meet at a coffee shop and do the brand presentation in person?” I was like, yes, that would be so fun. I was so excited and nervous leading up to it though! But it was so nice having her explain her vision and show me everything in real time.

When she showed me the options, there were things I loved from both of them and things I didn't like about both of them. So the ultimate brand we ended up going with was a combination of both things she presented to me, even down to some of the submarks. I really, really love the final result and the whole process with her!

Brand Words and Visuals

Beyond visuals, the brand words that we went with to describe the new brand identity, are: bright, friendly, authentic, inspiration, supportive, and powerhouse. I really love all of those words and I hope those words resonate and feel accurate for you too. A lot of them are actually words that I've gotten from podcast listeners and other customers who have filled out my end of the year survey.

Truthfully, I had a moment in the business rebrand process where I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue to embrace color. My brand has literally from day one embraced color — from pinks to yellows, blues, purple. I have always been a color gal, and loved bright and vibrant colors. However, one of the goals for me was to “grow up the brand” while keeping it fun, and I briefly was like… wait, do I ditch the bright colors? Really quickly I decided (with Kelsea’s help) that the answer was NO. This is something that is my style and there’s a way to stay bright, but mature with the brand,

For the final colors, you’ll see some shades of pink, yellows, a poppy reddish pink, a purple color, and shades like that. The yellow and poppy colors are almost the same as what I had been using from that half-way rebrand, but lots of the other colors were new! I actually started using the new colors on social media last year and in the freebies! I did things in phases.

Overall, my favorite parts of my new branding are the colors, having a cohesive brand look, and having so many patterns/logo variations.

Updating and Launching the New Website

I’ve been on Showit for many years now, and hadn’t created a new site for myself since 2018 when I switched to my Elizabeth McCravy brand from Speak Social. Overtime, I’ve ended up building a huge website of over 100+ pages, some not using the design settings in Showit, which made it hard to update. It wasn’t the best organized, which is why I chose to START FRESH instead of duplicating my current website and going from there. I wanted to start with a complete blank slate.

If that sounds daunting to you, especially for you designers listening… it was!

I’ve learned so much from this design process that I plan to create more content around Showit for template customers and fellow designers, because yeah… designing for yourself is hard. And staying organized and motivated and getting started is hard too!

So anyway, I started with a blank website last December in Showit. And I did make some progress before Ethan was born. I got everything set up in Showit with the brand colors and I started on the homepage and the menus, but then I halted at baby time and had to pick up after. I picked up the project again for real in June of this year, and now we’re launching, so that feels FAST. Once I got the momentum and systems, it moved a lot quicker.

Help From My Team Redesigning the Website

At first, I was doing it all completely alone because I had a vision of reimagining every single page. Then, I realized that I really only needed to reimagine the older pages and the bigger/most important pages (for example, the home page, resources, blog, etc).

But then there were some pages (like all 30ish email marketing freebie landing pages) that I have that I didn’t feel the need to reinvent the wheel on myself! My team member, Stacey helped me with those pages, and y’all she is one of my favorite business people ever. I just adore her! She was a huge blessing in this project. I’d assign her pages in ClickUp and give her some direction, and then she reworked them on the new website by bringing those pages in and editing them (so not every page was done from scratch).

New Website Rebrand Changes

Here are a few of the pages/things that I am most excited about with the new brand and website:

About page (finally - I didn't have one for like a year!!)
Freebies only page
Resources page
Blog that’s more easy to navigate (now that it’s so large)
Logos for all my products and podcast that feel more cohesive and branded than they did prior
My site menus (head to the hamburger menu at the top or the footer to see them!

Design Decisions For The Blog

While there were a million decisions that went into the new website and business rebrand, I want to walk you through just a few design decisions I made for the blog.

For pages like the blog pages, I had a process where I mapped out all of the possible things that could go on those pages. Then, I thought about what should go where (and in what order). So, for example, I have a bio at the end of all single posts, but not on the blog “home” page.
I chose to get rid of the sidebar on my blog, because with over 400+ posts, I wanted to go “full screen” with it.
I redid the categories for all 400+ blog posts I have to make things more organized. That took hours in WordPress! There is a big emphasis on search and categories for the new design to accommodate all the content.
I also created a blog search bar and think it’s sooooo cool. Have a look here!

Updates I Did With the Business Rebrand Nobody Will See/Notice

Here are a few more changes I made with the new business rebrand and website that nobody will see/notice (but make my life easier and business better!)

I started using Universal Site Canvases! Yay! I never implemented these on my old site, even though I did in all my templates as soon as the feature came out in Showit. My old site felt too massive and unorganized to do it. Now, I am using universal canvases really well and intentionally and it’s so nice!

All of my pages are sorted in the sidebar into groups (which I already had that way) but now, within the groups, everything is alphabetically organized. This is going to make it so much easier to find a page quickly.
There’s no more “Em Shop” branding (what I used to call my template shop). Now, everything has been updated to Elizabeth McCravy.

Favorite Things On My New Website

Thank you for reading this post all the way until the end! To close, here are a few of my favorite things on my new website:

My Resources Page
My About Page
Flashing text throughout
Moving icons for subtle animation
Patterns in the backgrounds
My 404 page with Phoebe
My new menus!

To Celebrate, I Am Having a Sale!

Like I said before, I’ve been dreaming about sharing this with you all for more than a YEAR. For a limited time, until September 3rd, grab some seriously stunning website templates at a sweet discount (25% off!). Whether you're a coach, creative, or small biz owner, I’ve got Showit Website Templates that will make your online space feel like home.

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Thank you so much for celebrating with me! Grab all the launch sale details (and find out what you get for FREE with every purchase) here.

Links Mentioned:

The post The New Elizabeth McCravy Brand (BTS of my Business Rebrand & New Website!) appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

An Unfiltered Week BTS with a Newborn, Toddler, and Business: What I Planned, What Got Done, and All the Messy Moments in Between

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Today, I’m sharing a behind-the-scenes look into a very typical work week for me as a mom, as a business owner who works from home, and as a woman in the new baby and toddler phase of parenting. This is a true, BTS with a newborn, toddler, and business kind of episode.

When I asked you guys what you want more of on the podcast, these kinds of episodes are always a favorite. It was actually one of the first 10 episodes of The Breakthrough Brand Podcast (which is fun to think about – because life was so different back then!).

I hope you enjoy this behind the scenes (from what I do on my full work days to what I’m doing in “mom mode”. Personally, I love when people pull back the curtain and just really share the raw and real of what this looks like to run their business. And so that is truly what this is.

You'll hear me check in every morning to say what I have planned for that day and then check in the evening as well to let you know how the day actually went. Now, let's dive in!

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

Subscribe & download the episode to your device: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Search for episode 281!

Products/Resources Mentioned:

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

Nourish Move Love YouTube Channel
Muffin recipe to do with your toddler (coming soon!)

2.3 Million Podcast Downloads Later: How This Mama Built Her Dream Business with an Online Course and Podcast with Stephanie King of My Essential Birth

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 8 minutes

Today, I’m bringing on Stephanie King from My Essential Birth to the podcast. Stephanie has been instrumental in my pregnancy and birth journey with both of my boys. I discovered her online course and podcast early in my first pregnancy and have been a dedicated listener ever since. Her content, courses, and guidance have been invaluable. It's amazing how our paths crossed through social media, and we've since collaborated in a number of ways. Today, I'm excited to dive into a topic she doesn't often discuss: her business smarts and the journey behind My Essential Birth podcast. Welcome, Stephanie!

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

Subscribe & download the episode to your device: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Search for episode 280!

Who is Stephanie King?

My name is Stephanie King, and I am a childbirth educator and doula, but I’m also an online course creator. I have a top-rated podcast for birth called Pregnancy and Birth Made Easy, and then my company, or the name of my birth course, is My Essential Birth. It’s online birth education, and I get to serve women all over the world doing that. I’m also a mom of five and I’m really active in my church, a follower of Christ. Faith is a big part of my journey as well.

When you were teaching in-person classes, how did people find you?

I attended every birth-related event, made cards, and networked extensively. I would go to birth centers, attend any birth meetings, and show up at La Leche Leagues so that people could tell their friends. If there were homeschool meetings nearby where kids got together for playgroups, I talked about it there. I went to any kind of birth get-together, including showings of "The Business of Being Born." It was a lot of showing up, making cards, and talking to people. Once I established a presence, word-of-mouth referrals also helped. It was a mix of networking and providing a great experience that kept people coming.

When you and your former business partner decided to take your education online, what was your process? Did you create the course first or start the podcast?

We created the course first, which I don't recommend now. We had no audience when we launched, which was a hard lesson. Our vision was clear and the production quality was high, but without an audience, it didn't sell initially. After the course, we started the podcast, which helped build our audience. It took a while, but eventually, we started making enough sales to cover our expenses.

Initially, our vision was very clear, and we wanted to ensure the quality of the content and the video was top-notch. We also went into a lot of debt over that, which I highly recommend you do not do. We did all the things that you could do wrong. We did that the wrong way. We launched it and nobody was interested in what we had because they didn’t know about it. We beta tested and did discounts but had no social media following. Then we started the birth course six months later. We had taken out all of that debt, probably at least $20,000 in debt for creating the course, which is so silly.

At that point, we were using debt to pay debt hoping that the birth course was going to start selling. When that didn’t happen, I was ready to quit. I prayed about it and had a clear answer to keep going. By August, we finally made enough sales to cover the debt payment and then always made enough sales to cover the debt and then some from that point. You should not have to go into debt to create, it's not that you don’t make sacrifices, but you do not have to go into debt to create a business. We didn’t have to do that professional video and all of these things. We could have built it up slowly. We should have also built our social media while creating the course.

If you were to redo it, would you start the podcast first and then make the course filmed with slides at home and record it yourself? Or would you still do the professional recording the first time, but just start with the podcast first?

I think it depends on where your budget is at. I could see it going either way, but I think it makes complete sense that while you are just getting started to not have to spend a bunch of money in the beginning. Start some kind of social following, whether you're going to choose Instagram, a blog, or a podcast, whatever you're going to use to start your email list and nurture them every week. Create the content while you're doing it and do something that is cheap and accessible and also full of really great content. Then when you have money coming in, you can put some into re-recording with a better camera or hire somebody.

There are lessons to be learned once you start recording too. Part of the reason it cost us so much is that the first time we recorded, we didn't know what we were doing. We did a pretty good job, but we missed things and had to hire them again for a second day, and then two rounds of editing. It gets expensive.

How do you approach updating your course content? Knowing you spend a lot of money on the production.

Initially, I felt intimidated about updating our professionally done course. Now, I've invested in equipment to record updates at home, allowing more flexibility. This setup helps me to make necessary updates without the high costs of professional studio time. So now, instead of hiring someone to come in and professionally do this, I set up a nice, clean, and pretty space at home with good lighting, cameras, and sound equipment. I spent about $6,000 on this setup, which allows me to record high-quality content at home and send it to an editor. This way, I can make updates as needed without the hefty price tag.

Spoiler alert for our listeners: Stephanie has had over 1,500 students and 2.29 million podcast downloads! What tips do you have for growing an online course and podcast listener base?

Understanding your ideal customer is key but also make your content fun, interesting, and informative. I've used a podcast headline analyzer to improve titles and make sure they’ll capture attention. Your first few episodes might feel awkward, but keep going. Also, engaging your audience through testimonials and consistent, quality content helps build a loyal following.

When we started, we recorded three episodes, and the first one was so bad we couldn't put it up. The second one referred to the first, so we had to figure out how to engage our audience from the start.

The headline analyzer helps with that by suggesting improvements to make titles more personal and engaging. It's important to keep your audience in mind and make your content relatable. And make sure you are showing up in search!

Having someone to host with me initially made the podcast more engaging, like friends talking about birth at a table. When I switched to solo episodes, I had to pretend I was talking to a friend to keep that personal touch.

Knowing your ideal customer and speaking directly to them helps create content that resonates. It's also about understanding their pain points and addressing those in your episodes. As you get more comfortable, it becomes easier to create valuable content.

EM: Yeah, I feel like I followed your customer journey in the way you would hope: I listened to your podcast, downloaded your freebie, got your emails, and ultimately purchased the course.

Why did you choose NOT to monetize your show with ads and promote your own stuff instead?

Yeah, I was going back and forth with that. In fact, I think it was probably about this time last year when I was considering maybe putting some sponsors on and/or adding some affiliate revenue streams. But I realized, honestly, just crunching the numbers and looking at what made sense financially, but also for my listeners and thinking about what's going to benefit them the most, I just didn’t want to do ads.

How do you target new listeners at the exact right time? Because there is only a short window between when someone’s pregnant and when they’re ready for your birth course or postpartum course.

The nice thing about that (pregnancy and women being involved in that experience in their life) is they really go searching within those nine months. They are searching for everything. They want to learn all the things. How big is my baby this week? Why do I have this symptom? Some people dive in right away with the first baby, and I absolutely love that, but a lot of times it really is those second babies. So a lot of my first-time moms, it's like they're finding me around 30-32 weeks, I'll have people jump into the course at 35-37 weeks, and it's because it's like we've ignored it long enough and now all of a sudden it's like, oh yeah, baby has to come out.

Because of this, every six to nine weeks, I have new people looking at my stuff. Which in turn, gives me an opportunity to reuse content more often, put it into a new light, say it a little bit differently, or something like that. When you get started with podcasting, I don't know if you felt this way, but I was like, oh my gosh, I'm six episodes in and I feel like I've shared everything. Now we're coming up to 300 episodes at this point, and I feel like I have new things to say all the time. I know my ideal client and I speak directly to her.

How do you convert podcast listeners into course customers without being too salesy?

Now, I incorporate testimonials and birth stories from course students in the podcast. If someone shares their birth story in our Facebook group, and we think it will be impactful, we will reach out and invite them to share their experience on the podcast. I also use dynamic ads through Buzzsprout during key promotional periods.

On top of that, I mention the course naturally within the content, emphasizing its value and how it complements the free content. For instance, when I share a birth story, I ask the students how they prepared, highlighting how the course helped them. I feel like this naturally showcases the course's value without being overly salesy.

How do you balance giving away valuable content on your podcast while ensuring people still see the value in your paid courses? Have you ever been concerned that you're giving away too much on your show?

I used to worry about giving away too much, but I realized the value of having everything organized in a course format. People appreciate the structured learning a course offers. Occasionally, someone might feel they've learned enough from the podcast alone, but the majority find immense value in the course's structure.

It's like this: you can get a lot of information from free resources, but the course provides a step-by-step, organized approach that’s hard to replicate through podcasts alone. Plus, I include bonuses and exclusive content in the course that aren't available anywhere else. So, while the podcast is valuable, the course offers a deeper dive into the topics.

You had only one main lead magnet for a long time. Can you explain your email marketing strategy for moving people from the freebie to the course?

Our welcome sequence has changed over time. Initially, it spanned several weeks, but now it’s a week-long series with daily emails and videos. This sequence introduces our content and leads to weekly emails that tie into our podcast topics. We also share more freebies to keep people engaged and provide value. For example, we have hospital tour questions, questions to ask your provider, and the "Find it and Flip it" exercise.

When guests have higher profiles, they will also often provide branded PDFs for our email list. This benefits both of us as it promotes their work and helps us grow our email list. It's a win-win because the guest gets exposure, and we get to offer valuable content to our audience. We've had great success with this, and it helps keep our email list growing with engaged subscribers.

Lastly, how do you balance motherhood and your business, especially with homeschooling? What tips do you have for other moms in similar situations who might want an online course and podcast business?

It varies by season. Right now, I'm working a lot because it's summer and I have the time. During the school year, I scale back to focus on homeschooling. Flexibility is key. Having a strong support system, like my virtual assistants, allows me to adjust my workload as needed.

With four teenagers and one almost-teen, life is busy. We recently adopted two of our nieces, so the dynamics have changed, but we’re managing. My business allows me to be present for my family while still working. Some weeks, I can work just a few hours, and others, I dive deep into projects. It's all about finding that balance and prioritizing what's important.

Connect With Stephanie

You can listen to my podcast, "Pregnancy and Birth Made Easy," on any podcast platform. You can also find my website here or come find me on Instagram here!

Links Mentioned:

Watch the Episode on Youtube

Join me inside Podcast Success Blueprint

Connect with Elizabeth on Instagram

Connect with Stephanie on Instagram

Check Out My Essential Birth

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The post 2.3 Million Podcast Downloads Later: How This Mama Built Her Dream Business with an Online Course and Podcast with Stephanie King of My Essential Birth appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

Back From Maternity Leave! My Work Schedule as a WFH Business Owner and Mom of Two (Working Just 2 Days/Week)

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 9 minutes

I'm back from maternity leave! This is part three of the three part series all about my maternity leave as a business owner, as a mom of two, and just taking you guys behind the scenes more of my life and business. I have gotten the sweetest messages about how you have enjoyed the last two weeks of episodes (head here for episode 276 to hear about planning my maternity leave and episode 277 to hear how the first three months went!). Today, I’m sharing all about coming back from maternity leave and what my schedule looks like as a mom working two days per week!

What I’m sharing:

Our experience finding a nanny
What we’re doing for childcare for each child
Our current family schedule
My hope for the rest of this year
My feelings wanting more time at home and with my kids in this season

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

Subscribe & download the episode to your device: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Search for episode 278!

First things first, for some context — I have had my business for 8.5 years! I’ve been a mom for almost 3 years now. My business has evolved a ton in these 9 years. Today, I mainly sell digital products and online courses and host this podcast.

Ever since Colin was born almost 3 years ago, I've worked part-time hours with an average of three days of work for the last two years and even less than that his first year of life. I’d say as a business owner, I’m all about growing slower and not letting your business take over your life. I’m all about not doing random stuff that just wastes time and doesn’t move your business forward (if you can avoid it)

While I often hate sharing vague numbers, I’m going to here because I do feel like it makes sense in this episode. With my business, I am able to pay myself a multi-6-figure per year salary with these part time hours in my business. And believe me, I am so grateful for it.

I truly think it's a blessing from God that I'm able to run my business this way and I also think it's something that I worked hard on and that doesn't just happen by accident. I've had this vision the whole time I've had my business. I've not gone through a season where I was working insane hours, burning myself out, offering too many things, and saying yes to all the things. Growing slow has worked and I also have really, really strong systems in my business.

My Schedule Over The Last Two Years

For the last two years, my oldest, Colin, has gone to a preschool, three days a week (on Monday, Wednesday and Friday). Those 3 days have been my main work days, and then on Tuesday and Thursday, Adam and I would split the days. That worked really well, and I got into a good work rhythm this way! But of course, what works is always changing (especially with kids!).

With Colin, we did try a nanny and Mother’s Day Out but neither felt right for us. When we tried those, he ended up having a lot of separation anxiety. We kept him home for the first 14 months (with a lot of juggling and help from family!) and eventually, we did put him in preschool for three days a week and he’s been doing that ever since.

Hiring a Nanny

We knew we couldn’t realistically do that again with Ethan because Adam had more work going on now that he’s a therapist (he was in grad school before). We knew we needed a nanny. While I was pregnant, we actually worked up a family schedule to work towards that included Colin's childcare at preschool, a nanny for Ethan two days a week, and then three days where one of us was going to be with both of them or with just Ethan.

We could have enrolled Ethan in the same preschool that Colin’s at but I really wanted to keep him at home longer than that. I like the idea of him having the individualized care of a nanny and me just being able to pop in and out all day while he's with the nanny, which is how it literally looks, and I absolutely love it.

In order to find a nanny, we tried Care, and made the listing actually at the very end of my pregnancy. We wanted to find someone early ideally, and were hoping they would be willing to wait until Ethan was closer to 3 months old to start. This felt better than trying the moment I was ready to come back to work.

We didn’t have much luck with Care though. I interviewed one person from there, but mainly the people who replied to the job posting were flaky and didn't write me back after I followed up with them. Which was strange because back when I was a nanny (one of my many side jobs when I was starting my business), I was on Care and got a lot of jobs that way!

From there, I tried Facebook groups, specifically a Young Life group, which ended up being much better. That was ultimately how we found our amazing Nanny. We connected through the group, and interviewed her on the phone first, then in person. Then, we offered her the job!

Having Incredible Childcare Help

The nanny we hired is absolutely wonderful — truly such a blessing, especially when with Colin we struggled to find good child care help at first when we needed it. Without sharing too much personal information about her, she is just lovely. She has prior experience in a daycare setting with newborns, so that felt perfect. She’s an aspiring musician (and super talented!) and has another part time job too, so she was happy to do part time with us. She’s just so good with Ethan too. I love that I know he’s in great hands with her, and that I am just upstairs working, and they are right downstairs and I can go see him/her any time. Or help her if needed.

I can also help manage his schedule with her, so we’ll text and talk about “extending his naps” or how much food he’s had, etc. while she’s with him. She also is a professional laundry folder (she used to do it as a side job in high school), so usually on the 2 days she’s here, I’ll give her laundry to fold and she does that during Ethan’s naps when she’s not having to hold him. Honestly, laundry is insane for us right now. We’re doing laundry daily. So having help with the laundry folding is huge. One less thing I have to do as a mom.

Our Current Schedule Now That I’m Back From Maternity Leave

So right now, what are we doing? Now that I’m back from maternity leave, Ethan is almost 5 months old and our days look like this (with exceptions popping up always!):

Mondays: Our nanny comes and she’s with Ethan while I work (usually from 10am-5pm)! Colin goes to preschool, usually from like 8:30 until 4:30 or so right now. Adam is at work that whole time in his office doing counseling.
Tuesdays: This is more of a hodge podge day right now. Both kids are home, and Adam and I take turns working. Last week, for example, he went into work for a few hours on Tuesday morning, and I was solo with the kids all morning and had a playdate with a mom friend and her 2 kids!
Wednesdays: They are the similar to Monday other than Adam usually works late so I’m alone with the kids.
Thursdays: Thursdays are the same as Tuesday!
Fridays: Fridays are my solo day with Ethan and Colin is in school. I take Colin to school on Fridays because Adam works really early! And then it’s just me and Ethan having solo time together. I’m trying to use Fridays to mainly focus on time with Ethan and then other things I want to accomplish for our home (for example, last Friday I went shopping with Ethan for stuff for the house). I try not to work on Fridays!

Our Vision for the Future

This is working for us now, but we came up with a goal schedule for when we adjust more to life with another kid for what Tuesday and Thursday will look like. And that goal will be that one of us is working on Tuesday and then the other one is with the kids (then vice versa for Thursday). For now, I'm wanting to keep Fridays solo, just being Ethan.

We're working towards that in little stints because we like having all the time together as a family right now. I’d say that’s the biggest reason why we haven't just adapted to that for Tuesday and Thursday. We really like doing different things together as a family because we can do that and we've worked our work schedules and our life to where that's possible. We want to take advantage of that and enjoy it.

Why We Chose To Do Childcare This Way

I’ve talked about this stuff many times on the show, and so before I get into it I want to remind you that I truly think you should do childcare, however it makes sense for your family, your desires, your finances, all of it. Just because I do something does not mean I think it’s the only way or even the best way. It’s all so individual to your unique family.

For us, we (Adam and I) have always wanted to not do full time child care for my kids, even though financially that would give us the “most gains” to just both work full time in our careers. This is something we were both on the same page about before we started our family even. Neither of us wanted to stay home full time, but we both wanted to do BOTH.

What’s Been On My Heart As I’m Back From Maternity Leave

I have felt very much like God is working in me right now with motherhood and work things. This has been going on for me, feeling like God's really speaking to me about this and working out some things in my life since I would say October of last year. Almost a year ago now. I was pregnant at that point with Ethan when I started to really feel like God's stirring at me about this stuff. I've had a few times where I've truly heard God speak to me about motherhood and work and his desire for my life. Maybe I'll do an episode about that in the future once I'm done processing all of this with God because I do think it would be a really cool story to be able to share with you.

Basically, it all started with a prophetic word that someone on Showit’s team actually spoke over me at an event last year. At the time, I felt like it meant one thing and then slowly God has been like, “Hey, wait, that's actually not what I meant”. So the moment I realized what God was truly trying to tell me, kind of happened when Ethan was about one month old, I was up for a night feed and literally felt God talked to me of like, “Hey, what he said, I actually meant this”.

Since then I've had other days where just in subtle ways I’ve felt other people talk to me about something or specific things happen in my life where I know I’m on the right track.

With all that said, with all that super vagueness that I just shared, I am very much in a listening space right now of honestly trying to be superintendent to God and letting God make my motherhood and work schedule. I’m letting him really be the leader of my business and where it is headed and trusting him with this season where I feel like I hardly have any time to work.

Hopefully you can tell if you're new here, I adore this business. It lights me up. I feel called to this business. I truly feel like God has me where I'm meant to be doing things like recording this podcast for free, making my courses, making my templates. But I do feel like God has been tugging at me to work less and less and be with my kids more and more.

I really feel like I have had him just tell me to trust him in that endeavor. I know it doesn't make sense. And even right now, you're going to see this cool title for this episode, but yeah, I'm only working two days a week. I have a successful business. I get to be with my kids more.

But it does feel scary at times and it feels really hard and it can feel like I get behind on things. I'm recording this episode one day before it's going to air. I feel like I have to say no to more things. I've been working on my new website redesign for a year now. But I have just felt God being like, “Hey, just trust me with this”.

What I’m Working On Now That I’m Back From Maternity Leave

Now, my biggest focus coming back is my new website and rebrand. My team and I have been hard at work on this! Huge shout out to Stacey who has been designing with me (and Christy now that she’s back from her honeymoon!). I’m hoping to launch it fairly soon! It takes a lot of time, some pages I’m totally redoing from ZERO, so it’s a ton of work. I also released a new podcast rebrand, which we finished up the podcast art since I’ve been back from leave.

Other projects going on in my business now that I’m back from maternity leave:

Recording new interviews for this podcast!
Creating new add on template designs
Sponsorship agreements and partnerships
Preparing to teach at Spark / Showit designer retreat coming up (Grab your ticket here and use code MCCRAVY100 for $100 off!)

So it’s been a lot! And things are moving slowly and I’m saying no to more things. But it’s OK. There are less meetings. Anything that can be a loom video is. That’s been a focus for me so I can spend more time actually getting things done in my business.

Links Mentioned:

Listen to episode #276 where I shared how I planned for my maternity leave

Listen to episode #277 where I shared BTS of what my maternity leave has been like so far

Join me at Spark and Use Code MCCRAVY100 for $100 Off

Shop our Showit Website Templates (use code BBPODCAST for 10% off!)

Join me inside Booked Out Designer

Want the insider scoop? Join my Free Facebook community!

Connect with Elizabeth on Instagram

The post Back From Maternity Leave! My Work Schedule as a WFH Business Owner and Mom of Two (Working Just 2 Days/Week) appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

Raw BTS Look at My 4-Month Maternity Leave: Recovering From a C-Section, Adjusting to Life with 2 Kids, Unplugging From Work, and My Business Finances While Out of Office

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 11 minutes

Today I’m taking you behind the scenes of my 4-month maternity leave with my second baby as a business owner! We’re going to talk about what my leave was like from a business perspective (what I still was doing, how I unplugged from work, how my business did financially in those 4 months, and more), and on a personal level (what it was like going from 1 to 2 kids, c-section recovery, how we had “4 weekend days a week” while I was on leave, potty training my toddler with a newborn, going on a beach vacation with a 2-month-old, postpartum emotions, and more).

As you can tell, we’re going to cover a lot today but I’m excited to share with you all what it was really like behind-the-scenes of my maternity leave!

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

Subscribe & download the episode to your device: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Search for episode 277!

First things first, I started my leave slightly before my due date! I quit having meetings for work about 2 weeks before my due date, which felt really good to me this time! With Colin’s birth, I started my leave 2 weeks before my due date, then he was a week late. That felt too early, and I was stir-crazy and ended up getting back into working before he was born.

I like the way I did it this time. A week before was enough time to not really work except like an hour a day or so and mainly was focusing on last-minute pre-baby things and family bonding time! I did so many fun one-on-one things with Colin right before going into labor. If you’re interested in listening to Ethan’s birth story, you can hear more about the pre-baby time here.

I Did Not Struggle To Unplug From Work This Time

With Colin in his newborn season, I really struggled to unplug at first and that did not happen with Ethan. With Colin, it felt like I was trying to go from “100 to 0”, and it just didn’t work. With Ethan, I actually felt like I craved the unpluggedness this go around, and I doubt anyone really noticed because people notice us less than we think! But I posted a lot less than normal and wasn’t showing up on social media really much at all on my leave.

I mainly felt like I wanted family time and wanted to step AWAY. And that felt so good. When Colin was born, I also ended up stepping away really well eventually, but at least in that first 1-2 weeks postpartum, I was still sharing sooo much on social media about new mom life. I even randomly ran a Labor Day sale when he was like 3 days old.

Recovering from a C-section

This time, I was able to check out from work a lot more quickly. That might have been in part from having had a c-section and a harder post-birth recovery. With Colin, my labor was insanely hard and long, but recovery was really chill. With Ethan, labor was shorter, ended in a c-section and recovery was way harder.

For anyone wondering, C-section recovery was so intense for me at first, but then got easier quickly. I’m not going to lie, I had some deep moments of feeling absolutely defeated over how hard it felt in the first 10 days postpartum. I remember at the hospital in the postpartum unit the nurse had me do a short lap up and down the hall just walking crazy slow while holding onto Adam as a “test” before leaving, and I did it, but it really was so hard. I couldn’t do things like sit up on my own from laying down, walk up and down stairs, roll over comfortably, walk comfortably for any distance, or even hold Colin or anything heavy. I couldn’t drive. I was on pain medications. My stomach and intestines were feeling really weird. It was a lot.

And I did have moments of “I’ll never be normal feeling again”, which proved to NOT be true, but that’s how it felt in the moment. Plus, processing my birth story was really hard at first, as the c-section was such a shock and not what I had planned. However, in hindsight, I’m so grateful for the experience. And if you listened to Ethan's birth story, you’ll hear that in it!

You can listen to Colin’s birth story here, or Ethan’s birth story here for more details.

When I was planning my postpartum period and thinking about what it would look like before Ethan was born, I decided I wanted to do the 5-5-5 Rule.

There are different versions of this, but mine was 5 days in bed, 5 days around the bed, 5 days around the house. My doula, before knowing I’d have a c-section, had encouraged me and Adam in one of our last doula meetings to go for this! And I was all like “Yes, Adam! I want to do that. I want to really rest and soak up newborn snuggle time and recover slowly”.

I went back to doing normal things quickly with Colin, and I liked the idea of letting someone else do the laundry and unload the dishes and I just rest.

So then I had a c-section and the 5-5-5 rule became less of a “luxury” and more of a NEED. Like, I was at home and told not to go up and down our stairs more than 1x a day because it would be hard on my body. Bending over and picking things up was a major no. I couldn’t unload dishes, do laundry, or organize new baby things.

And I will say, something about NOT BEING ABLE TO, triggered me, and on maybe 6 days postpartum, I got soooo upset about not being able to do anything and cried and cried about it. Adam reminded me that I wanted this type of rest. I can still picture us sitting in our bedroom with me crying trying to go downstairs. We had family there who wanted to help and he wanted to help, and my body needs it, so just relax and remember that I did want to rest.

This little pep talk truly changed things for me and I was able to lean into the 5-5-5 thing well after that.

Because the truth is, you have the rest of your motherhood journey to do the dishes, go up and down the stairs 100000 times a day carrying a toddler and newborn, being responsible for laundry and dinner and grocery shopping, so JUST TAKE THE BREAK!

Things I Did That Helped With My Recovery

Here are a few things that helped with my recovery:

Diaphragmatic breathing early on (here’s a free guide for how to do it!)
Lauren Fitter Exercise Videos on YouTube
Wearing my belly wrap and walking for 10 minutes outside
Lots of family help in those early days
Lots of snuggle and TV time in the early days with both boys!

As I’m recording this now, I’m 4 months postpartum, and I feel GREAT. In the gym, I can do what I could do pre-pregnancy. My body feels good/normal. The only thing is that my incision site/scar feels really weird still. It feels like sandpaper. I’ve been told sometimes it takes years to actually get feeling back in that area (and that’s how it seems like I’m heading). The scar was also really emotional for me at first and I felt sensitive about it, but now I feel good about it. It’s also much lower than you’d think.

The Newborn Phase

Every child is so different, but for us, the newborn phase of those first 3ish months with Ethan was a breeze compared to with Colin. He SLEPT SO EASILY! It was bizarre to us, because Colin never slept well as a baby, really not well until like a year and a half old. And we did NOTHING SPECIAL. Ethan was just a sleepy new baby. You can do all the sleep stuff or none of the sleep stuff, some babies just sleep more easily than others!

I also think some things felt easier because your capacity expands! We are more skilled as a parent after doing it once already, compared to when Colin was a baby, everything was so new and sometimes scary! Things like going out solo with a baby felt challenging, whereas now it feels easier going out with just one of them, but going out with TWO feels tough!

Adam took three weeks completely off work. If you didn’t know he’s a therapist, so taking off is harder, because your clients need to keep seeing you. It’s also worth noting that, similar to me in my business, Adam also only works part-time. So he works Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as a therapist, and then we are home as a family Tuesday and Thursday.

Family Life on Maternity Leave

Adam said we have “4 weekend days a week” while I was on leave. And honestly, we’ve kept some of that still as I’ve come back. We spent Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday together as much as possible. It was blissful, and hard, but truly felt like two additional weekend days.

Especially when Ethan was little and sleeping so easily everywhere, we’d go out of the house every morning for his first nap either out to breakfast or just to a park. I feel so grateful for all of those days!

Even now as Ethan is 4 ½ months, we are all still spending a lot of Tuesday and Thursday together. Like when I outlined this, yesterday was a Tuesday and we all went out to breakfast together from 8 am - 10 am and just had family time. Then, Adam and I did divide and conquer the rest of the day to get some work done.

When Adam went back to work (and Colin went to preschool), I got to enjoy:

Watching SVU in the middle of the day while holding him for a nap on the sofa
Reading lots of books (both nap-holding and just reading)
Co-sleeping naps with him
Long walks with him in the stroller for his naps
For those first 3 months, I would take Ethan to our bed after his 4 am feed

I’m grateful I had that 1:1 time with him, and if I could do it over again, I’d do it even longer. I share this because I want to encourage you to EMBRACE this time. There’s a lot of busyness with a newborn but there were a lot of slow, special moments too.

When you’re a business owner, you always have to do something on maternity leave.

This is true of some other jobs as well. But especially when you’re running a business. You hear some business owners share that they didn’t even get to take a leave because of this fact!

As you heard last week, I planned my maternity leave. I worked hard to make it happen, and it was super important to me to take significant time off and also slowly get back to things. So, I got a leave! But there’s still some work (even if it wasn’t much).

What it looked like for me:

For the first month, I would check Slack most days, but wasn’t busting out my laptop
Tuesdays were the days I had to do a little something for the podcast. I’d have to post about it and send/approve the email to go out to my list
After that first nothingness month, I did some things like recording two podcast episodes and managing some projects that team members were doing (like redesigning all the freebies)

But overall, I unplugged really well I think. My autoresponder on my email always helped keep me content! I can’t recommend that enough on leave because with some of the emails I’d get, I felt the impulse to “handle” quickly, but then my autoresponder took care of it for me, at least for the time being! Knowing Stacey was in the inbox helped me a lot too! But there were also opportunities I missed because of being out of the office.

A cool thing about my business is that you can do so many things easily from your PHONE, anywhere. So while I only got out my laptop for like an hour or so per week (after the first month of never touching it), I would reply to my team members on Slack or post on social media, look over an email that came through and things like that… all on my PHONE! I even did things like making a reel or writing a podcast outline while holding Ethan for a nap in the nursery.

How My Business Did Financially During Maternity Leave

My business didn’t make any less money while I was on maternity leave. March, April, and May were actually all higher than those same months in 2023 when I was working normally. Crazy right? Some of the months were even doubled the revenue.

On top of that, the profits were excellent too. Since I was not working, my expenses were down some because I paused some of my subscriptions I wouldn’t be using like Zoom and Calendly, and I didn’t have any big projects going on with contractors or any special new expenses.

Some of that going “good” was because of the work I did right before my leave. I do think if you keep your business in a perpetual state of out-of-office, you’ll see things go down long-term, but even now as I’m back form leave, I’m still seeing strong financial numbers.

It’s also worth noting on the business front, unplugged from work does NOT mean I didn’t know what was going on, that things weren’t still happening, or that I was not coming up with new business ideas. I started on outlines for podcasts, had new website copy ideas for my new site, came up with a new course idea, and had so many interesting new dreams and visions for my business while I was gone. It was really cool.

Other Things That Happened During Maternity Leave

Our Beach Trip During Maternity Leave

We originally started talking about a family trip this year as something to do in the fall, because we can’t do that with a new baby, right?! Then one night it hit me that this was the BEST TIME to go because I was on maternity leave, Ethan was as easy as he was ever going to be, Adam was back to work but had more flexibility, and it was early summer before beaches got crowded, so we did it.

We actually went from the idea to booking a house to stay in within 3 weeks. That trip was truly incredible and just so fun. It was Colin’s first time at the beach, and he loved it. We stayed in a beautiful house in Watercolor in Seaside. We stayed up late after the kids were down and would have drinks on the porch or swim in our own private pool. We went to the pool a lot and ate great food!

Ethan, because he was a newborn still, was awesome at sleeping on the go in the stroller or car seat or being held. And as I think about that trip, if we did the same trip now it would feel so much harder because naps with Ethan are so much harder and so is night sleep.

Potty Training

A few weeks later, we decided to do potty training with Colin! He was so ready, but we had held off on it because we didn’t want to do it right before the huge change of becoming a big brother. It was hard with a newborn and toddler but also was the right timing and nice that I was on maternity leave. The first 3 days felt really intense, but then it got a lot easier. We did the “Oh crap potty training” method and loved it.

We also found and hired a part-time nanny while I was on leave, so getting that all figured out was something that needed to happen before I came back full-time. I’ll talk about that more next week!

What Surprised Me The Most

First, I was surprised by how much more confident I felt as a mom this second time. Second, I was surprised by how sweet Colin is and how great he adjusted to being a big brother (to be fair - we read lots of books to help him). Two of my favorite books we read him were My New Baby, Best Ever Big Brother, and Waiting for Baby.

I also feel like you appreciate the newborn baby stage more because you visually SEE how fast time passes by looking at your toddler daily and being like… what… in 2 years or 3 years or whatever, they’ll be SO BIG!

This time, we still had a meal train and made freezer meals! That was so helpful the first time and honestly was maybe even more helpful the second go around!

Hard Moments During Maternity Leave

I’ve mainly focused on the positive here because it has been mostly positive. I absolutely love being a mom, but yes, there have been hard things in this postpartum season.

I’ve had some postpartum anxiety at times, and I don’t really wanna get deep into any of that, but I want to mention it so that if that is YOUR EXPERIENCE, you know you’re not alone! I’ve seen with friends that postpartum depression and anxiety tend to be more common with second and third kids than the first time through because your life is more overwhelming! I’ve had plenty of moments of overwhelm in this adjustment period, and the anxiety wasn’t happening for me in the newborn stage. It's more prevalent right now when he’s four months old and people just expect life should be back to normal, but you still feel like you’re adjusting a ton. Your hormones are still shifting so much!

That’s all for the behind-the-scenes of this maternity leave! Next week, I’ll share what back to work is looking like for me and what my new normal will be. I’ll also share:

How coming back has been slow
Finding a nanny
Why I’m doing childcare the way I am
Projects I’m working on first
How I’m accepting less work time

Links Mentioned:

Listen to episode 276 where I shared how I planned for my maternity leave

Shop our Showit Website Templates (use code BBPODCAST for 10% off!)

Join me inside Booked Out Designer

Want the insider scoop? Join my Free Facebook community!

Connect with Elizabeth on Instagram

The post Raw BTS Look at My 4-Month Maternity Leave: Recovering From a C-Section, Adjusting to Life with 2 Kids, Unplugging From Work, and My Business Finances While Out of Office appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

How I Planned (& Executed) My 3 Month Maternity Leave with Baby #2

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 00:36:20 +0000

Reading Time: 9 minutes

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing a behind-the-scenes look into my 3 month maternity leave with my second baby. Specifically, what my maternity leave looked like as a business owner! I’ve done this once before (and actually took off 5.5 months with Colin when he was born). Back then I planned to take 2 ½ months off, but ended up taking longer for a lot of reasons!

This time, I was more up in the air about how long exactly it would be, but ultimately thought I’d want to take around 15 ish weeks. I have to say though, it felt a lot more fluid this time. In this episode, I’m going to share a behind-the-scenes look at how I planned this leave: from what I had to do to prepare my business for me to be gone, what I’d do differently, what I thought worked well, and what I did do differently from my last leave.

I also want to say - you can apply this stuff to another type of business leave too, so if you want just my tips and thoughts in general for planning time away, you’ll enjoy this episode too!

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

Subscribe & download the episode to your device: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Search for episode 276!

It’s always so interesting to talk about a “leave” or “maternity leave” because going back as a business owner, at least for me, doesn’t just go from “you’re not working at all” and now you’re working everyday! It’s been way more subtle than that.

First, I’m still home because I work from home. I’m Ethan’s primary childcare. So I’m starting with just 2 work days a week right now, which is really limited. To some people, this would even be considered back at work. But the truth is that my business is really really lean and I’m fortunate that I’m able to work less and still keep things stable (or even see growth).

Taking time off as a business owner

When you’re a business owner, it’s hard to truly take off “all the way”. I know this is true of some jobs when you work for an employer as well, but it is especially true as a biz owner. That said, I do take off the best I can, and I did for both my leaves. Personally, I also don’t struggle with taking time off from work for a new baby. I actually love the time and if anything, I struggle more getting back into the swing of things. While at the same time, I’m also being hit with a ton of great business ideas while on leave!

How I Prepared During My Pregnancy

First, I went on two trips with Showit that happened basically immediately after finding out I was pregnant. First trimester trips are not my favorite (partly because of the heat, and partly because I wanted to start planning right away!).

I also decided to make another course! I made Booked Out Designer pregnant with Colin, and something about pregnancy gives me a course itch. It felt really ambitious to make Podcast Success Blueprint while pregnant since I was not just pregnant but also had a toddler. That felt a lot different than when I made my first course “just” being pregnant.

But I did it. I beta launched the course in October last year, then created it basically my whole pregnancy, then opened the doors again in January. Now, the Podcast Success Blueprint is on evergreen and available now!

But with that said, during my pregnancy itself I was working on creating the course, maternity leave prep, plus maintaining everything happening in the business already. There was PLENTY to keep me very busy!

I always recommend starting earlier in your expecting/waiting for baby time if you’re able to. I know with things like adoption, you can’t always plan as much, and that is hard! But if you’re able, starting earlier is great because you lose energy around it often as you get later into pregnancy because you want to just be in baby nesting mode. At least that has been my experience!

Planning My Maternity Leave as a Business Owner

When planning for this new baby’s arrival, I did the planning part really similar to how I prepped for Colin, only with more experience this time and some of those things I really had to focus on delegating and eliminating with Colin, were already done. So that was nice and easier. Also Ethan was born at a totally different time of year, which I think made for an easier leave actually. With Colin, there was an upcoming Black Friday sale which was a bit more stressful.

I used a ClickUp system for planning a leave and mapping things out nearing the due date that I just LOVE. I plan to make it into a little mini offer and sell it at some point - if that interests you, let me know. I literally have it planned out month-by-month up until my leave.

When I think about the biggest things I had to prep before my leave, it was:

Internal communication things for our team
Autoresponders and communication outward
Podcast episodes
Social media content
Any sales/promos
Projects happening behind the scenes with my team

So let’s walk through those! And I’ll share what I did and how that went.

Internal Communication

On leave with Colin, we weren’t using Slack or ClickUp yet! We were on Voxer and Basecamp back then, so internal communication was just really different. Personally, I like Slack so much more than using Voxer when it comes to team communication with multiple people. It’s way more effective.

But when planning my maternity leaveI had to decide: what would the set up be? What’s the expectation for communication? I was planning this mentally throughout my whole pregnancy, but really got down and made a written plan in early February, a month before my due date.

The plan lived in ClickUp documents and then it was mainly executed in Slack. Again, I might make an eBook/audio course on this at some point!

But basically, I had documents for:

Important dates/contact info
My plan for unplugging
Best methods for communication about different things (Slack or ClickUp based on urgency)
The new maternity leave slack channel I wanted to use
Managing the inbox notes about different requests we get and how to reply (plus information on all the canned emails I made)

Then, I shared that with my team, everyone read it over, and then we all had one-on-one meetings before my leave in the month of February to discuss questions and just touch base about things! I feel like all of that went really smoothly too. I loved our slack set up, and think that things felt clear to everyone. I also felt like I knew what was going on, while being unplugged!

Outward communication

This was mainly between me and Stacey since she responds to most things in my inbox! I made some canned emails in our email software for her to use and I set up an autoresponder. Business and customer service inquiries were responded to by Stacey as per usual, but for anyone emailing me, they got an auto response. I can’t recommend autoresponders ENOUGH! It gives you so much peace of mind when an important email does come through.

Podcast Episodes

This was the biggest thing probably that I actually had to prep for before my leave. ALL THE EPISODES! This can feel like a lot of work because you’re prepping ahead, while also just recording episodes for the month when you’re not on leave yet.

You need to make a decision: do you stop airing episodes and take a break? Record anything in real-time? Recast stuff? Interviews? All solo episodes? There is a lot to decide.

I have to say that I prepped this better than I did with Colin’s maternity leave, which I’m proud of. With his, I didn’t go as far out because of Black Friday looming and feeling like I needed to record in “real time” for that. I batched 15 episodes for this leave. That’s a LOT of episodes.

That said, it was a mix of things:

2 recasts from other shows
3 interviews I pre-recorded with guests
Solo episodes
2 recasts of my old solo episodes

I was really strategic too in mapping out when things would happen. For example, one of the recasts happened the week that I assumed (correctly) that I’d have a newborn baby on my hands and might not want to promote an episode much on social media. I also left a gap for me to do the birth story if I wanted to.

When planning, I tried to vary up when things were airing so it wasn’t like 3 motherhood episodes in a row (for example). Ultimately, I looked at a 3 month period and the episode ideas I had and mapped them all in.

It’s worth noting too that my podcast team worked on these not in advance, but in real time, so I had communication with them every week for episodes. Tuesdays were a little bit of a work day for me on leave for episode things. I also recorded a few reels ahead of time for specific episodes, but mainly did social media content to promote the episodes in real time. It probably would have been easier if it were all prepped.

Social Media

Social media was so different when I had Colin! While Reels were a thing, I could also post an image with a caption a lot too. I did a prep day for social media where I recorded some things. Ironically some of the stuff I prepped, I never posted.

Generally over my leave, I felt less engaged on social media and felt less of a need to show up this time around. I would go days at a time not posting anything, even to stories. I liked that.

I didn’t do that with Colin, I was on a lot sharing everything. I enjoyed the privacy this time posting less but then when I felt inspired, really going for it. For example, I did a few content pieces that I made while on leave that I really loved! I also had a doc going my whole leave with social media ideas that would come to me and some of them I made while holding Ethan in the dark nursery rocking him while he napped.

I can’t say I’d do anything different on the social media prep honestly. But it would have been easier on me if I had made more in advance to post. I also would have something planned to post and then just keep delaying and delaying it. So that’s the disadvantage of prepping.

Sales/promos

Ethan was born March 5th and I actually had a leap day sale going when he was born. It was a last minute decision which ended up being true pregnancy brain because I set up the coupon code wrong.

Generally with the timing of his birth, I decided no sales or launches were needed while I was on leave or even immediately when I returned! Which was SO GREAT AND NEEDED.

I did do a quick Memorial Day sale that I just put on my website and sent one email about, but that was it.

My products are all evergreen, which is the business model I love for this season of life! Things are always for sale. And that works really well for planning maternity leave because money can keep coming into the business, and people can still access your products while you are away.

Projects happening

The fun thing about having people work with you, is that you can have things happening when you’re not working.

We had a few projects that were actually tackled while I was on leave where I’d approve things and communicate about them over Slack and ClickUp like:

Redesigning all my freebies into new brand look
New social media graphics to go with new branding to use as needed on stories
New blog post graphics to promote offers
Making Podcast Success Blueprint evergreen
Created two new freebies that went with podcast episodes (my guide to team check ins on Slack and my podcast equipment guide!)
Weekly episode emails going out with weekly podcast episodes

Those were the main things, but I’m sure I’m forgetting something!

I originally had myself doing some 1:1 consulting meetings at 37/38 weeks pregnant and ultimately asked those people to reschedule for after baby was born. I was so beat at the end of pregnancy, feeling myself in more nesting/privacy mode and couldn’t do it.

So those got canceled and ended up being meetings I did when Ethan was like 2 months old. I am so grateful that they were ok rescheduling! I was just truly feeling so exhausted and anticipating birth at the end of pregnancy and felt honestly overwhelmed by to do list things for postpartum season like freezer meals, nursery, thank you cards for the baby shower, appointments, and I felt like I couldn’t take on anything else! And needed that break from meetings.

Next week, I’ll be sharing what the leave was actually like on a personal and professional level.

In the meantime, if you want more maternity leave episodes, tune into:

If you're an expecting mom right now listening to this, I just want to say you're doing amazing. Pregnancy is really hard. Running a business while pregnant is really hard. Planning this leave on top of everything you're already doing is really hard, and you're doing amazing. Keep going. It'll all be worth it when you get to have that planned time away where you're just snuggling your baby, enjoying that phase, not having to worry about work.

Links Mentioned:

Shop our Showit Website Templates (use code BBPODCAST for 10% off!)

Join me inside Booked Out Designer

Want the insider scoop? Join my Free Facebook community!

Connect with Elizabeth on Instagram

The post How I Planned (& Executed) My 3 Month Maternity Leave with Baby #2 appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

ConvertKit Rebrands to “Kit” — Is It a Mistake? My Thoughts!

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 8 minutes

Today on the podcast, we are talking all about ConvertKit's rebrand to Kit. In case you missed their big announcement of this, don’t worry! I’m sharing all about it today: from my thoughts on the name, what it looks like to rebrand a company of this size, domain name things, and even diving into the last time ConvertKit rebranded and how it relates to all of this.

I have a spicy opinion on it all that I'm excited to talk about it from the perspective of a brand designer and business owner (and someone who has been a ConvertKit user for many, many years now, loves the company, and supports them wholeheartedly).

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

Subscribe & download the episode to your device: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Search for episode 275!

ConvertKit Rebrands to “Kit”

If you’re like me when you first heard this announcement, you thought “man, that stinks that they’re rebranding themselves and they probably don’t even own the domain name for the new name.” And then, like me, you typed it into your season bar and saw they did buy the domain, and realized that wow, they’re really serious about this.

In case you don’t know, ConvertKit is an email marketing software company, or as they say on their site, “More than just a software company. We're here to help you grow your business with email.”

I’ve personally used ConvertKit for years for my own email marketing. It’s a great tool! I love them. So just know as I say everything I’ll say here about the rebrand, it’s from the perspective of someone who completely loves the software and supports the vision, regardless of my feelings about the rebrand.

ConvertKit Has Had Huge Growth Over The Last 11 Years

ConvertKit has been around for about 11 years, which when I think about that feels like insane growth. They actually have their company metrics available online for anyone to see and it looks like they make about 40 million dollars annually in recurring revenue from subscriptions, so there’s no doubt it’s a very successful company and awesome product. For comparison, in 2018 when they did the first rebrand attempt, they were at half of that.

ConvertKit Announces Their Rebrand to Kit

This year, Nathan Barry, CEO and Founder of ConvertKit announced at their annual conference Craft + Commerce a few weeks ago, he announced 5 new features that all sound awesome, and with those new features, they’re also rebranding to Kit.

In my opinion though, when you read over those new features and listen to his speech, there’s no clear reason WHY they need a name change to go with the new features.

Here’s what part of the announcement says (you can read the whole thing here)

This is more than just a name change. As Kit, our product philosophy is all about scalability and giving you the actionable insights you need to grow your business. And because each creator business is unique, the features in your Kit can be tailored just for you.

We’re building the operating system for the creator economy. That starts with:

An app store where anyone can develop and expand on Kit to bring in extra tools
A central hub for your data with enhanced reporting to pull insights from
The biggest and best Creator Network to help you find new collaboration partners
Improvements to the features you already know and love using to run your business.

So as you can see, there are a lot of cool new features being added.

The Previous Rebrand of ConvertKit (That Was Ultimately Reversed)

It’s very clear to me that Nathan Barry (ConvertKit’s CEO) has wanted to ditch the name ConvertKit for a while now, for whatever reason! I love the name, so I don’t see why as much, but this is definitely a thing he’s feeling.

In 2018, ConvertKit rebranded to Seva (and then ultimately changed it back). When they changed the name, they had a few criteria:

It should be one word
We need the .com
It can’t sound too techy
It should be easy to hear and spell over the phone
It should mean something tied to our mission

I was using ConvertKit back then and was an affiliate and I remember going on to my website and changing out my ConvertKit logo to the Seva logo for the time being. But it was short lived, and I’m sure it was a huge financial and time loss for the company.

So why did they change it back?

With the Seva rebrand, the marketing around it was that Seva means “selfless service” and therefore related to serving your audience through email marketing and the other tools. There was a TON of backlash, with headlines like “Convert Kit is changing their name to Seva and they are ripping off my culture.” Seva is ultimately a word that has deeply religious meanings for many people and so associating selfless service with a marketing/sales tool was offensive.

They had angry people and hurt people, and Nathan said he was really inclined most to listen to the hurt people. He also publicly shared that they spent over $500k on the rebrand, and a lot of that was in acquiring the domain, which they still own. Now, that domain redirects to a page about why they are staying ConvertKit.

Here’s part of what they said:

“We listened. We learned. We have a new appreciation for the word seva and we won’t be changing our name after all. We’re sorry for our mistake. Seva is not just a word that means “selfless service.” It’s not just a word that means “serving without the expectation of anything in return.” It is a holy and sacred practice that involves giving generously to others out of love, tied so deeply to spirituality that it cannot be separated from spirituality itself.”

Rebranding in Public

This shows us for a while that there's been a desire for a name change. Now that they’ve announced the name is going to be Kit, they’re doing what they're describing as rebranding in public. So it's funny, when he announces the name change in the video, he says, “I'm going to show you the new logo... Just kidding, we don't have a new logo yet”. They're actually going to rebrand with you and you can follow along and subscribe (which I'd highly recommend doing if you guys want to follow this process). So much work will have to be done to rebrand a company the size of ConvertKit.

4 Reasons ConvertKit’s Rebrand to Kit Might Be a Mistake

So my initial thought is that I don't love it. Like I already said, I will support them though as ConvertKit or Kit, it doesn't matter. I think they're a great company, but I don't love the name and I do think ConvertKit is better.

But I also think, like I've said, Nathan Barry is a genius founder and CEO, and if you watch the announcement video, you can see his passion for this and his desire for the name change, and I think there's power in that.

1. ConvertKit has 11 years of brand building in its name

ConvertKit has 11 years of brand building in its name and that's shortened by this name change. Kit is so much less recognizable. Whether or not you're a ConvertKit customer or user, there’s so much name recognition there that's all lost by renaming it to Kit (which is an extremely generic word).

2. Kit doesn’t tell us anything about what the company does.

Like I said earlier, ConvertKit acquired the domain for both kit.com and kit.co, and they actually just straight up acquired the entire company that was kit.co. I can’t find how much they spent on the domain, but I would guess it’s in the thousands or millions or even multi-millions. When you look at domains that are three letters in our dictionary, there are so few of them even available, and they can be super, super expensive.

At one point, Kit.com was actually a health testing company and that company was acquired by another company for 55 million at some point years ago. That's all public information that I found in researching this. And then again, since then, the kit.co people have been using that domain for a while (they’ve been using both kit.com and kit.co). From what I understand, kit.co lost the .com domain in 2019 because they were just leasing the domain kit.com, and in 2019 the owners of the kit.com domain were no longer interested in selling to us and were going to repurpose the domain for a different property.

At one point, Kit.com also belonged to a company called Kit Electronics. Which just really shows that “Kit” could mean literally anything and a lot of people are using it in the name.

I would also imagine it was probably a really expensive transaction for ConvertKit, which they can of course afford because they are a very successful company, but it would have been really expensive because domains are so expensive. But it does mean business. They are definitely showing everyone how serious they are by acquiring the domain.

3. The new product changes don’t require a new name

It’s clear they feel like ConvertKit doesn't tell enough of what they do, because they're doing more than just Convert, they're helping you create and so much more. In my personal opinion though, ConvertKit is still a good word to describe it. The product changes that were announced at Craft + Commerce don’t require a new name necessarily. I think it could all work within the ConvertKit brand. I think ConvertKit still perfectly tells us what they do. Kit does not tell it any better.

I even had a thought that since it seems like they're hung up on not liking the word “Convert”, that maybe even something like CreatorKit would be better, or just something that just is more specific than kit.

But again, they’ve also said very clearly that they were wanting it to be a really short domain. That's been a desire from when they did Seva as the change and a desire now as well.

If you listen to his presentation, there's a big emphasis on the word Kit, like “being your kit for all these different things as you grow your business.” In my mind, I feel like they could have kept it as ConvertKit and still focused the marketing language around the word kit instead.

4. People often resist the new name for a while.

I think it's very possible that long-term and at least for a few years, people are going to still want to call it ConvertKit. People have that brand recognition and I know even in my business internally we use CK and everyone knows what it means, which just goes to show you how ingrained the name is already.

As another example, let’s talk about the rebrand from Twitter to X. This change happened in July 2023, and everyone still wants to call it X. Twitter had incredible brand recognition years and years in the making and he was erasing all that with this new name.

ConvertKit Rebrands to Kit

Again, I want to stress that I think ConvertKit will do well no matter what. They're such an awesome company with such an awesome CEO and founder and great team and great software. I like the name ConvertKit better than just Kit because it has that brand recognition, it's longer, and it tells us a bit more about what it's doing. I think the word convert really translates well to all things marketing, which is also what ConvertKit is doing. Although it seems like they might be thinking it's too technical, I think it's a word we all are used to using as business owners to talk about different things that we do in our business.

ConvertKit is going to share the steps, share the behind the scenes, and they'll officially be switching the name to Kit in September. That's something I've always just loved about ConvertKit as a company is how open they are. They love to share things as they happen. Nathan regularly blogs his experience of running this company and they're really open with their own numbers and stats and things.

And as far as I can tell too, but it does seem like the response to this name change has been really positive. So it’ll be really interesting to see what they do with it and where it goes.

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Read more about ConvertKit’s rebrand here

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The post ConvertKit Rebrands to “Kit” — Is It a Mistake? My Thoughts! appeared first on Elizabeth McCravy.

8 Proven Ways To Make More Money Today In Your Service Business

Elizabeth McCravy — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Get excited for double episodes this week as we’ve got a part one and part two here! If you want some simple, not too obvious ways to make money more in your business — this is your episode. I’m sharing 8 ways that you can make more money in your business as a service provider — whether you’re a designer, copywriter, podcast producer, event planner, photographer, coach, whatever you do for your service… These tips will help! A few of these ways *might* seem obvious, but I’ve tried to focus on the ones you likely aren’t thinking of. So, we aren’t talking about things like adding a new service or starting a digital shop. I’m focusing on ways you can make more money without abruptly changing your biz model, without adding products, and without reinventing the wheel.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW:

Subscribe & download the episode to your device: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Search for episode 273 + 274!

This is a 2-part series so I highly recommend listening to both episodes! You will find the first 4 tips in episode #273 and the second 4 tips in episode #274!

Let’s dive in!

1. Reach back out to cold leads that had potential.

Maybe you had a discovery call with someone, but then they said they couldn't book because they weren't ready yet. Maybe a potential customer sent you the most excited email ever about working together, but then they ghosted. Or, maybe they inquired about something you didn't offer at the time, but you do now.

Whatever the reason, just because a lead went cold once doesn’t mean they gone are forever! I’ve always had the habit of doing this in my business, both for service work as a designer and for my template shop.

I don’t reach back out to every lead. Sometimes it’s clear that it isn’t going to work out or they aren’t interested, so you can let those go.

On the other hand, sometimes a potential client who felt really promising but didn't book with you might just need to hear from you again! People have things come up all the time that distract them from taking action! Reach back out and make it personal.

The easiest way to book more clients is to look at the pool of potential right there in front of you with people who have already shown interest.

2. Network to get referrals from both other people who do what you do and other industry peers.

Networking and friendships inside and outside of your industry are some of the most overlooked ways to book clients. The word “networking” often makes people and think of the old school exchange of business cards at some sort of corporate meeting, but in reality, networking can happen every day from your house through the internet. Effective networking can lead you to book more clients AND make more friends. It's a win on so many levels!

I have a whole module on this in my course Booked Out Designer that teaches you how to do this really well! If you want to deep dive into this, join Booked Out Designer!

Listen to the full episode to hear some great examples of how this can play out for different industries. Don’t miss this one because referrals can be a huge way to transform your business.

3. Respond faster and with a more personable approach - always!

This applies to anywhere someone reaches out to you. Systems can help with this! The main point is not to let messages hit your inbox and sit there for days with the person wondering when or if they will hear back

In the “Age of Amazon”, expectations around when things are delivered also translate over to our expectations on response times from businesses of all types. We don’t want to wait for hours to talk to a real person from Comcast and we also don’t want to wait days to hear back from a small biz owner about a brand redesign!

It is all connected.

We also are in the age of the personal brand. People are connecting with more personality-driven, mission-driven, and approachable businesses. Bigger businesses get this and they are often trying to make themselves feel more fun, more approachable, and honestly more approachable. It's smart business.

So when someone reaches out to you, let them know there is a real human behind the email and that you care. Being a small business is an advantage, and we need to USE this advantage.

4. Invest in coaching and training from someone who has already done it.

Sometimes you have to spend money to make more money, right? I’m pretty conservative when it comes to my business spending. I think about what to invest in and I have been from the beginning of my business, which is how I keep great profit margins.

BUT some of the best investments I’ve made have been in education from people who have gone before me. Not every investment I’ve made has been a win. But the ones that have been wins have actually been really big wins where I made back the money I spent and more.

There’s no reason to figure it all out alone if you don’t have to. We are blessed to live in the age of online education. So, consider courses, coaches, events, and investing in yourself and your business.

5. Update the pricing on your website.

This is the most basic and obvious tip of all of the ones shared yet not enough people do this. We often get hung up about whether or not we’re “worth” the extra money and there is a lot of fear that happens with this!

My advice? Just try it! You can always go back if you’re not getting any bites. If you raise your prices and it works then you will make more money in your business. If it doesn’t work, you can always go back!

I have a specific method for revealing pricing information I teach in Booked Out Designer that you can learn when you join! But there are several different ways to show your pricing to potential customers. Whatever your way is, change that number!

This also means that you need to be paying attention to where leads are coming from and how many you typically get to begin with so that you have something to compare to.

6. Track where leads are coming from - especially leads that book.

Then, do more of that. I told you I'm not teaching ways to reinvent the wheel in these two episodes, and this is a great way to not only not reinvent the wheel, but also to simplify your marketing. Just do more or what's working and stop doing what's not working.

First, you need to know where your leads are finding you. Is it Instagram? Is it a Facebook ad? Is it a referral from a specific person? Is it a Google search query? Is it from a Facebook group post? Ask the question on your contact form, "Where did you find me? Please be specific."

Then, take it one step further and actually look at the people who were really great leads and be like, okay, where did they find me? For example, maybe only two people found you on Pinterest but they were the BEST two leads you had recently.

7. Start doing more education

This could go in so many different directions: blogging on your own site, social media posting, guesting on podcasts, or anything else. Creating content that is educational puts you in the driver's seat as an expert. This will help you book more clients in your service business and ultimately make more money with more opportunities.

Let me give you a few examples:

Being a guest on a podcast helps new people find you in a way where the host is basically saying, "look at this person and what they're doing, maybe you should work with them."
Social media posts with the right hashtag found by someone looking to hire someone like you is a great way to get more clients that can open a lot of doors
Having a blog post show up on Google or found on Pinterest easily can really help you book more clients.

Outside of the lead generation perks, being someone who creates educational content for your ideal client will help with easier bookings, higher price point clients, and more people knocking on your door to get your services!

8. Pursue working with past clients on new projects.

Who is the easiest new client to get? The one who is already your client. This is that principle we often hear shops and larger retailers talk about of “lifetime customer value”. The easiest person to book is someone who already booked previously and had a good experience.

What could you offer past customers to bring them back into the sphere of working with you?

So don’t overlook the people who have already paid you and consider that maybe they would like to pay you again for something else or even the same thing again if it is a recurring need.

If you are not sure what past clients would like from you, ask some of them!

That is it friends! I hope you have enjoyed these two episodes and have snagged some new ideas for making more money in your business without creating new offers.

If you want more help with any of these tips, want to make more money, book more ideal clients, raise your prices, learn how to create great educational content or get on a podcast… Join Booked Out Designer! There is so much amazing content inside of this course along with a supportive community that you can learn from and access to coaching! So come join us now! Have questions? Email us - hello@elizabethmccravy.com.

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