If you’ve hesitated to promote yourself and want to learn more self promotion skills, this episode is for you to get better at self promotion.

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Today, we’re tackling a topic that so many smart, talented, and successful women still struggle with: self-promotion.

You’ve built an impressive career, achieved incredible milestones, and yet, when it comes time to talk about your wins—whether it’s in a meeting, on LinkedIn, or even just in a casual conversation—you hesitate.

You’re not alone. In fact, this is one of the most common struggles I see in the women I coach. So, why is it still so hard for us to own our accomplishments with confidence?
Let’s dive in.

First, let me say this: if you struggle with self-promotion, it’s not because you’re not capable—it’s because you’ve been conditioned to self promote.

Think about it:

• Girls are often praised for being “polite” , “modest,” , “quiet” and “humble” while boys are encouraged to “be bold” “to step up” and to“go for it.”

• As we grow, we internalize these messages. So, while confidence in action comes naturally—leading projects, solving problems—confidence in visibility still feels foreign to many of you.

And then, there’s the fear of being judged.

Smart, successful women worry that promoting themselves too much will come across as:

• Arrogant

• Attention-seeking

• Or worse, inauthentic

But here’s the kicker:

Staying quiet doesn’t serve anyone—not you, not your business, not your followers and not the people you could be helping with your expertise.

Now, you might be thinking:
“Do I really need to talk about myself more? Won’t my work speak for itself?”

And I get it.
You want your results to do the talking.
But here’s the truth:
Results only speak if people know they exist.

You could be the best-kept secret in your industry—and that’s not a badge of honor. It’s a missed opportunity.

• When you shrink yourself, you limit your reach.

• When you downplay your wins, you make it harder for others to see your value.

• When you hesitate to share your story, you rob the world of the impact you’re meant to have.

And let’s talk dollars and cents for a second:
Research shows that women are less likely to negotiate for raises or promotions—and that directly affects their earning potential.

 So, how do we move past this?

 How do you promote yourself with confidence and authenticity?

Here are three simple but powerful strategies:

1. Reframe Self-Promotion as Service.
   When you share your wins, you’re not bragging—you’re serving.
   Think about the woman who needs to hear your story—the one who’s feeling stuck, wondering if she can make it.
   By promoting yourself, you give her proof that she can too.  Try this:

Next time you post about a recent win, instead of just stating the achievement, add a takeaway or a tip. 

For example:
Instead of: “Just landed my biggest client yet!”
Say: “Just landed my biggest client yet—by finally implementing this one simple strategy: asking for the sale directly. If you’ve been holding back, here’s your sign to go for it.”

Now, you’re promoting yourself and providing value.

2.  Practice Small, Consistent Visibility.
You don’t have to make grand gestures of self-promotion.
Instead, focus on small, consistent actions:

• Share a win in a team meeting.

• Post a quick reflection on LinkedIn.

• Speak up about your contributions during project updates.

Try this:
This week, challenge yourself to share one win—no matter how small.
It could be as simple as:
“I’m proud of the way I handled a tough conversation today.”

“I’m proud to have gained one follower on Instagram or 1 new subscriber on Youtube.
Visibility is a muscle—you have to exercise it regularly.

3.  Adopt a “Brag Buddy.”
You don’t have to do this alone.
Find a friend, colleague, or coach who will hold you accountable for sharing your wins.

• Text each other your wins
• Practice introducing yourselves with confidence.
• Cheer each other on.

If you feel you can use a little more help with self promotion, simply reach out to me and message me the words IamRemarkable, each month I hold a pitch free workshop to help you practice your self promotion skills. So message me your interest and I’ll let you in on my next workshop.
Try this:
Reach out to one person this week and say:
 “Hey, let’s be brag buddies. Let’s hold each other accountable for sharing our wins.”
You’ll be amazed at how much easier self-promotion feels when you have someone in your corner.

Here’s your reminder:
Self-promotion is not self-centered—it’s self-honoring and it inspire others to do great things.
It’s how you own your brilliance, expand your influence, and inspire others to do the same.

So, let me ask you:
What’s one win you’ll share this week?
Big or small—own it, celebrate it, and let it be seen.

If you found this episode helpful, share it with a friend who needs this reminder. And don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review—it helps more women like you discover this show.

Until next time, keep showing up boldly. You’ve got this.

If you’ve ever felt paralyzed by overthinking, worried about every tiny little detail, or avoided taking action because it might not be “just right,” this episode is for you to go from Overthinking to Overcoming: Confidence for Perfectionists.

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Hello my friend, and welcome back to The Lucy Liu Show, the podcast where we help high-achieving women like you to cultivate unshakable confidence and step into your boldest, most authentic selves.

I’m LL, a confidence life coach and speaker, and today we’re diving into a topic that so many of you have told me you struggle with: perfectionism.

 Today, we’ll explore:
 Why perfectionism kills confidence
 How to shift from overthinking to overcoming
 And three powerful strategies to help you take imperfect action with confidence

So, if you’re ready to stop letting perfectionism hold you back and start making bold moves, let’s dive in.

Let me start by saying this: perfectionism is NOT the same as having high standards.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to do a good job. But perfectionism is when the fear of failure, judgment, or not being “good enough” stops you in your tracks.

Here’s the kicker: perfectionism pretends to be our friend trying to protect us, perfectionism pretends to be a strength. It makes you feel like “oh you’re being so responsible”. 

But in reality, it’s quietly chipping away at your confidence.

Here’s how:

1. Overthinking leads to self-doubt. When you constantly second-guess yourself, your brain starts to associate action with uncertainty. The result? You lose trust in your own instincts, you lose trust in self belief and you lost trust in your ability to overcome when in reality you have it all within you.

    

2. Perfectionism leads to procrastination. You keep delaying actions because you’re waiting for the “perfect” moment. You’re waiting for yet another sign, you’re waiting for external validations. Spoiler alert: it never comes unless you make a decision.
3. You fear judgment more than you value growth. The more you prioritize avoiding mistakes, the more you avoid opportunities to learn and evolve. We as human beings all make mistakes, it’s a natural part of life, what you learn from each event in life is crucial to your future self so make sure you are making decisions today that your future self will thank you for.

Here’s the truth: Confidence doesn’t come from perfection—it comes from getting it done and consistent repetition. Confidence is built through action, not flawless execution. 

So, how do you break free from the perfectionism trap?
Let me introduce you to a mindset shift I call: Progress Over Perfection.

Think about it—confidence grows through doing, not through polishing.

When you embrace imperfect action, you develop competence, which then fuels confidence.

Here’s a real-life example:

When I wrote my book, overthinking too many details I actually wrote nothing for a whole year. Procrastination kicked in, imposter syndrome creeped in. Then when I finally reminded myself to just make progress and set my calendar to write just one chapter a day, about 1000 words a day, the entire book was finished in 21 days. Then from there I was able to quickly improve my draft and complete the book soon after.

The lesson? You can’t improve what you never start.

 Alright, let me give you three actionable strategies you can start using today to break free from overthinking and build confidence through action:

1. Set a “Good Enough” Timer
When you catch yourself overanalyzing, set a timer or deadline.
Use that time to make a decision or complete a task. When the time is up, commit to moving forward, even if it’s not perfect. 

 2. The 70% Rule
Most of the time we tend to wait until we feel 100% ready. The problem is, maybe that day never comes. So instead, commit to taking action when you feel 70% ready Because the remaining 30% is often just fear and self-doubt dressed up as “preparation and planning.”

 3. Celebrate Imperfect Wins
Perfectionists tend to only celebrate “perfect” outcomes. Instead, start celebrating the act of showing up. The simple act of getting started or getting it done deserves a celebration.
Post the unpolished video. Send the email that’s 90% right. Every time you take imperfect action, you’re rewiring your brain to associate action with confidence, not fear.

Oh and a bonus tip, add an ex- in front of perfectionist, I declare that I am an ex-overthinker, I am an ex-perfectionist. Pause for a minute and say it outloud right now! I declare that I am an ex-overthinker, I am an ex-perfectionist I am no longer that version of me.

 Here’s your takeaway for today: Confidence comes from doing, not perfecting.

The next time you find yourself overthinking, ask:
“What would I do right now if I knew it didn’t have to be perfect?”
Then—go do that thing.

And remember: imperfect action will always move you further than perfect hesitation.

If this episode resonated with you, share it with a fellow perfectionist who needs to hear this message. And if you haven’t already, hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode.

Until next time, keep showing up, taking messy action, and owning your confidence.

You’ve got this! 

This episode is for you if you want the confidence to make more money with your email list, even if that email list is small, no matter what industry you’re in. You’re in for a treat, my friends, because I love my guest today, my friend and fellow Angeleno, Miss Shannon Bondi, aka the email queen, who helps business owners make money using email. 

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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

This episode is for you if you want the confidence to make more money with your email list, even if that email list is small, no matter what industry you’re in. You’re in for a treat, my friends, because I love my guest today, my friend and fellow Angeleno, Miss Shannon Bondi, aka the email queen, who helps business owners make money using email. Doesn’t that sound amazing? Welcome. 

Hi, Lucy. Thanks for having me.

So good to see your face on zoom. Again, we’ve chatted many times before. And it always brings me a smile to talk to you.

Oh, that’s so nice. I know. I always love to get to see you and chat with you as well.

Awesome. Okay, so let’s get straight to it. What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve seen people make with their email list that’s costing them money?

Oh my gosh, so many. And any of them I’m telling you today are probably ones I have made myself. So don’t feel badly that if you are making some of these, but things I see is not emailing.

That’s the biggest one I probably see is that people get in their heads about it and just don’t do it. And then often I see one of the biggest ones I feel like I see is that often people just become kind of a robot when they get in front of their emails, right? So they’re like, you’re like so funny and personable online or on like social platforms.

And then you get into your emails and you’re like, hello, I am a person that would like to send you an offer. And like, I’m like, who’s this? Like, why?

Why am I not getting this fun personality in here? And honestly, this was a mistake I made for a long time in my emails, too. So I think what we to remedy that we should just act like we’re talking to one person, right?

Like, how would you answer a question to just talk to one person? How would you say something like if you’re telling a story? How would you say that to like your best friend, right?

And those things, when we bring that into email, you make it so much more personal and so much more fun and interesting and more you to your audience.

I love that. Okay, so what’s the number one mindset shift someone needs to adopt in order to start email as a profit generating tool?

Oh, yeah, that’s a good one. So again, I think we get hung up on this idea of like needing to be really professional and all these things in email where I would argue the more fun you have, the more fun your subscribers will have too. So I think we tend to, we just need to reframe a little bit when it comes to this, right?

Like our emails don’t always have to be selling like the way we think like, yes, we want to make money from them, but we don’t always have to be like pushing business, pushing sales, all of these things, sometimes just showing up and then inviting people to go deeper with you. So like if you show up, you tell a story about like a client win or even something like you noticed, I’m, I always do this, like I’m out and I see something and I’m like, Oh, that’s a great email. Right?

Like, I’m like, Oh, I should make that email. And so I’ll like tell a story around it. And then I’ll be like, if you’re struggling with storytelling, XYZ, whatever it is you teach, right.

Or help people do, if you’re struggling with that, let’s go deeper. Come join me inside this offer, right? Like, or join me inside or email back and let me know what your biggest problem is or things like that.

So you’re not constantly feeling like you’re quote unquote being salesy. You’re really sharing more of an experience and how you can go deeper with them.

I love that. It’s like having a more awareness of where you’re going. Just like when I first started writing my book, I took a course on book writing and it was all about that.

It was about that awareness. Think of a story. What did you learn from that?

And that becomes one chapter of your book. And the same with email, you can be just going on about your day and something you see or hear or learned, right? That could be an email idea.

So be more aware, consciously searching for topics. And I think the more you are aware of it, the more you actually see it coming everywhere.

Exactly. Yeah, we have a saying in my membership that everything’s an email. It’s literally everywhere. Anything you do can be an email.

Yeah, I like that. I know what really helped me when I first started with zero subscribers was that my business coach telling me that she was making six figures with 400 people on her list. So I think it’s not about the size of your list because I’ve also talked to people who had like 10,000 people on their list and they weren’t selling anything and they weren’t making anything.

So how do you go about increasing your sales and revenue per subscriber, would you say without feeling salesy?

Yeah, I think this is something people get tripped up on a lot, mainly because I know you and I Lucy have been in this industry for quite some time. So we’ve seen quite a lot of things. So a lot of people who do teach email and that are like what I like to call the celebrity quote unquote celebrity entrepreneurs that teach email kind of have this old school way of thinking.

And I’m not knocking anyone so much as they just are sharing experiences that were like from 10 years ago and anymore, it’s not the case, right? So for instance, they’ll say, Oh, you’ll only sell to 2% of your list. So you have to grow your list to a certain amount if you want to make a certain amount of money.

Whereas yes, this, this statistically mathematically is probably true. However, I’ve proven this wrong hundreds of times because my philosophy is you want to attract your ideal client to your email list, not just trying to get out there to hit a number. So like, you don’t want to like trying to attract everyone and their brother to your email list so that you can like try and sell a certain amount.

Right? Whereas if you’re focusing on just attracting hyper-specific people that are like your people, you’re going to have much more success with a small list because it’s full of ideal clients that want your offer, are interested in your offer and just want to get to know you more and want to understand your offer more. And if it’s right for them.

Beautifully said. I love that. Like I help women.

So I get excited, right? When the subscriber is a female name, that’s, that’s my, that’s my, my people, right? A man on my email list that would not be helpful for me.

Fair, fair. Yeah. No.

And I think, like I said, I think we get caught up in these vanity metrics, right? Of like, just, it just comes from being on social and all the things like that society, you know, deems valuable. And so we get caught up on that, but I’m like, if you have 10 ideal people who are on your email list, like that could be a goldmine if they’re the right people.

So it’s just, yeah. Again, I think we’ve just gotten this old school mentality of like, you need to have more to make more, but I find that that’s just not true anymore these days.

Yeah. Okay. So what happens when you think your email lists subscribers are cold?

They’re very cold. They’ve never purchased from you, but they just learn about you somehow. What’s your goal to strategy to turn those cold, uh, subscribers into hot buying leads or people who really want to work with you?

I love this question.

Cause I literally just taught a class on this this week. And so I’m very excited to talk about this. I just taught a warmup, like rewarming up your list.

If it’s, you know, you have some cold subscribers, but if, if somebody, so there’s two ways of kind of answer your question here. So the first way is if you’ve had a list for a while and you’re just not seeing sales and all of this kind of thing, you probably do need to do some sort of list cleanup, which would re-engage these cold subscribers, get find out if they’re even interested in your offers. And if not getting rid of them actually can boost your email list stats and getting your emails in front of people that actually want them.

Um, so it’s a good strategy to do, but if you’re like newer to email and you’re just getting new subscribers on, um, the way I would do that is I would make sure you have some sort of good welcome sequence or warmup sequence for them to go through so they can get to know you. And, you know, I have a lot of strategies of how to do this in the best way. I think a lot of things out there are helpful that teach, but I think that they kind of aren’t teaching the way that I teach it.

And so I think that there’s a certain way to go through a welcome sequence with your new subscriber that really can, um, warm them up and get them into a sale a lot faster, like collapse that timeline. But like I said, a lot of the things I see out there with, you know, Oh, get my, my free, like, you know, welcome sequence or, or here’s my cheap, whatever one. Right.

And I’m like, you really need to customize it to your client and to your ideal, like subscriber, because if you don’t, it’s just, it’s, it’s just going to fall flat.

Mm. Yeah. But that, that reminded me of when I first started with my business coach, my very first business coach, like I did not interact with her at all.

I was watching her, right? So just because you’re getting nothing, it doesn’t mean people aren’t reading your emails. They aren’t watching you.

They are. So what you do matters and don’t give up because people are waiting for your help or your product. And it’s not something that you are not doing right.

You are doing it right. And people are out there. They might not be reacting to them.

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

It’s like anything, right. That we put out there. I think I always say this too, because when you post something on social, you get instant gratification pretty quickly, right?

Like you post a story or, or a post or whatever, and people like it or comment and you’re like, okay, this is doing well. And I actually bring this back to school when we were kids and like, we had to turn in assignments and we get a grade and it’s like, did I do okay? And so I think we all are just looking for that A plus on our papers.

Um, so when you send an email so often we don’t hear anything, right? Like it’s crickets. And so we’re like, is anyone even liking this?

Is this even working? And so to your point, I agree, like really just keep emailing because that’s really going to solidify you. The other thing it does is it keeps you front of mind to people.

They see you showing up and you might be the only person in your industry showing up regularly. Even if they’re not responding, they’re seeing you do this and they’re like, well, if I see her all the time or see the same thing she’s saying all the time or talking about all the time, she’s probably onto something. And I should probably pay attention.

Love it. Love it. Okay.

Okay. So let’s talk about what you actually write in your emails. What’s your formula for writing a subject line that attracts attention or boost open rates?

Oh, I love that question.

So I tend to write my subject lines after I’ve done my email in general. Sometimes I have an idea before and I, you know, maybe I’ll like a tagline I’ll pop in my head. Um, plus if you’d asked me even a few years ago, if like subject lines were my jam, I would have been like laughed at you.

But like now I’m, I love them. Like what are my favorite things to write? But I tend to do it after I’ve written my email because I can pull something from my email that like is intriguing or bring something out of the story, um, or whatever it is I’m sharing.

So, um, what I like to think of is what I open this email and I’m, I’m a tough sell. Like I’m very hard to get to open an email. So I think like, would I open this email?

Would this intrigue me enough? And I think a lot of times, again, we get kind of like technical because of the emails we see, right? Like we’re on like old Navy’s email list or whoever’s emails that they’re sending all the time.

And they’re just like sale, blah, blah, blah. Right. And like, so we’re like, Oh, email’s gross or it’s weird or subject lines have to be kind of like this one way.

No, I literally sent an email the other day that said everybody poops. That was literally my subject line. Um, so like have fun with it.

Like think of like things that will stop people when they’re scrolling through their inbox and get them to open it. And we also want to be careful not to be click baity too, right? Like we don’t want to put something that isn’t in your email or that doesn’t give them any kind of satisfaction when they go into your email.

So really I just like to think of, like I said, would I open this email and how does it like intrigue delight, make somebody stop in their tracks? Like, how can I get somebody to just kind of go, wait, what I need to read this, I need to know more. What, what is this?

Um, so I know it’s not like the most structured formula of all time, but that’s kind of the, like things I ask myself when I’m creating a subject line.

Do you like using emojis in your subject lines?

Personally? Yes. Um, but what I recommend is I wouldn’t use more than like one or two, depending on what you’re doing.

And I wouldn’t recommend using it to replace a word in case someone doesn’t, like if you were saying, uh, like t-shirt sale or something, you wouldn’t want to just use the t-shirt like emoji sale because if the, like somebody’s email isn’t loading right, or they don’t have emoji, that emoji or something like that, then it will just look weird. So I don’t like to replace words with emojis, but I do love to use a good emoji every now and then in my subject. Actually I use one pretty often, but it’s always like accompanying the email, not replacing words.

Perfect. Okay. How about the copy?

How should we write it so that it actually moves people?

Okay. Yeah. Copy.

So it actually moves people. That’s a great question. Um, so I like, again, I really like to think like I’m talking to a friend that’s, that’s like my, my number one copy tip is like, how can you write this?

Like you’re speaking to a friend? Like you wouldn’t start a story with like the other day I was walking down the street with my dog and like, you would jump into the story of like, you’re not going to believe what I saw on the street the other day. Like when I was walking my dog, or you’re not gonna believe what happened to me when I was walking my dog.

Right. Or something like that. Like you’re going to kind of jump in or like, you’re not going to like, or maybe you even jump into the story of like my dog ate a peanut, you know, or whatever it is right on the street.

And a squirrel got mad at it. Like, you’d be like, what, what is happening? Like you’d want it.

You want to bring people in immediately. So, um, I even say like, I don’t even start my emails anymore with like, Hey name, because I see that in so many emails and I’m not saying it’s bad to do if that’s like what you want to do. But I just jump into things, right?

Like I’ll be like, um, did you know an elephant has three toes? I made that up. I don’t know if that’s true, but I, um, you know, do you know, an element elephant has three toes first name, instead of saying like, Hey name, because then I’m bringing them in a lot quicker because we only have a few seconds, right?

People are email or reading emails when they’re in line for coffee, or they’re like picking up their kids in the car pool lane or something like that. Right. They’re not sitting down at their computer typically and reading emails like they’re, they’re doing it on the go.

So I want, I, I think the rule is you only have like 13 seconds or something like that for email. I’m sure it’s probably less than that now. Um, so I try and jump right into my stories or whatever it is I’m getting into because people are just busy and they don’t have time for stuff.

Um, I always say too, if you have passed third grade, you can write an email, like literally you do not have to be a amazing writer. You don’t even have to honestly be a good writer. You just have to be able to have a very easy sentence structure that you can write for people.

And you did that in third grade, probably even second grade, honestly. So you can really just be simple and have short sentence structure, get people through your email. Don’t have huge, huge long paragraphs.

Um, because most people don’t just sit and read. Um, and there are exceptions to that rule. Like maybe if you’re an author, for instance, like, and you’re known for writing long, complicated things, or I had a client one time who was like, she wrote long, heartfelt emails, but her audience was like trained for that.

So they knew to sit and expect that every time they got an email, they were like, Oh, I’m going to have this like heartfelt message. So there are exceptions to things. But in general, my favorite thing about email is it can be short, simple and sweet.

Love it. Short and simple and sweet. What’s your take on the new trend, the AI trend, Shannon?

Okay. So I can always tell when the email is written by AI, but I will say it’s really helpful. I think it’s a great place to get you started.

So I think put in, you can train AI so easily now to kind of get your brand voice. You can put it in there and then make sure you just edit it and look at it because there’s so many things that it like just doesn’t do well yet. I’m sure it’s going to continue to get better, um, over time.

But I always just like, if I use it to start something, it’s great for ideation too. So if you’re just stuck on what to say, that’s a great thing you could put in there of just like, Hey, what are some things my ideal client’s struggling with right now? And like, it could give you a list of things and spark an idea.

You could have it, like I said, get you started, but I would go in and make sure you’re looking through it and editing it. Because like I said, I have, I, in my membership, I have people submit emails in there. I can’t even tell you how many times I get it.

And I’m like, so chat to BT wrote this. Uh, I want to hear what you have to say, not what the computer has to say. Um, so I think it’s really important that like, I think it can be a great tool, but I think we need to moderate it as well.

Beautifully said. Okay. So you’ve been doing this for a long time.

What is something that, what is a myth you want to debunk for people around email?

Ah, I mean, okay. One, I for sure that kind of just grinds my gears is when people tell me email doesn’t work. Like I hear that one.

Luckily, I don’t think most of your listeners, if they’re listening to this episode are thinking that, but I do hear that one quite often, um, of just like, Oh, email doesn’t work anymore, blah, blah, blah. And I’m like, you wouldn’t even believe the amount of money people make from email. Like it is bananas, how much money people use or they make from email.

Um, so it’s that, um, would be a big myth. I would just love to, I wish I could touch people and be like, honestly, I wish I could go back to business, baby business owner, me and be like, girl, learn email because it will change your life. It literally did once I finally learned it.

So that would probably be part of it too, is like, if you want, don’t believe email works, let’s change that. But then also like, just learn how to use email in your business and use email in a productive way that works for you and your business. And you’re going to just see incredible results.

Would you recommend including a call to action, a CTA in every email?

I would recommend including a CTA in every email. There are a time and place that you don’t necessarily have to, but I would say in general, yes, I would have one, but it could be as simple as reply to this email. It could be as simple as here’s a post I put up on social that you should check out or, um, like a podcast episode or YouTube, something you listen to and you liked, like, it doesn’t even have to be something of your own content.

It could be this podcast episode. If you really enjoyed it, you could send an email about it or put it in a PS in your email or just say, Hey, if you’re looking for a good episode or, you know, my favorite episode I’ve heard this week or something like that, you could totally share those kinds of things too. So it doesn’t have to be like always a sale.

It doesn’t always have to lead to, um, something that like is business related. If that doesn’t feel aligned for you.

I think when I first started, I was afraid of unsubscribers. It made me really sad when someone unsubscribed, but not anymore now, because I know I provide value whenever I send an email, but how would you go around the fear of being unsubscribed?

I love that question. This would have been a good myth for me too. So I agree with this one because I feel the same way.

Like I still get a little bit sad every now and then when I see somebody leave, but there’s several things we want to keep in mind. One it’s almost never personal, right? Like almost never are people leaving email lists because they’re like mad at you or upset with you or anything like that.

They’re probably leaving because their inbox is out of control. Um, they’re not interested in what you have to offer. So it’s actually a favor to you to be like, Hey, I’m not going to open or buy from your emails.

So I’m just going to get off your list. Um, or they’re just, you know, live in life. Um, I have a friend who’s an email marketer and we were talking about it one day and she said she had somebody get like, come back to her list.

I guess that’s another great thing is people can always come back to if they change their mind. She said she didn’t even know the person had unsubscribed and she came back and she wrote her and she said, Hey, this is the craziest story, but she goes, I was, um, diagnosed with cancer and I had to go and I just unsubscribed from everything. I needed everything out of my life.

And she goes, and your emails were ones I actually missed. So I got back on your, now I’m in remission. I’m fine.

I’m feeling good. And I’m back on your email list. And my friend and I were like, we will never judge anyone for leaving our email list ever again, because it was such a compelling story, right?

Of just the reasons she had to put up her own boundaries. And so maybe that’s all people are doing, right? Like they’re probably, again, it’s, it’s likely not personal.

It’s likely that they’re just living their lives like all of us.

That is so good. I love that story. And it is true.

I mean, I myself, I clean my email once, once a year, at least to unsubscribe. And yeah, there are ones that I do miss and come back to but other ones I try to keep my inbox as clean as possible, right?

Yeah, exactly. It’s so easy to get out. I’m like a serial email list signer upper, you know, somebody who’s got a freebie.

I’m like, I’m in. And then my inbox is like, you’re at 98%. Babe, and I’m like, Okay, we got to cut back.

Beautifully said. Okay, awesome. In your days working in and out of your business, when you need a little picker upper, is there a quote that you resort to?

Oh, that’s a good question. I think one of my favorite quotes is probably not all that wander are lost. I love that one of just because I’m I love to go on adventures and things like that.

And and I think it can really relate to us in business too. Because often, when we’re out here doing things, we’re sometimes feeling a little lost, right? Because we’re, we’re all just we’re in marketing, or at least, you know, I am.

And so and marketing’s constantly changing, things are constantly evolving, people are learning different things, and they buy differently. And so sometimes we feel like we’re a little lost when it comes to, you know, anything in business. And so I always kind of think sometimes we’re not, we’re not necessarily lost.

We’re just we’re just wandering. And we’re finding our way through our own adventure.

I love that so much. Yes, to adventure in life. Yes, to having more fun.

And yes, to writing more emails with confidence, right? Yes, yes, yes.

Remember, at the end of the day, it’s just an email.

Awesome. Okay, so if you’ve enjoyed this episode, go follow Shannon at Mrs. Vondy. I love her Instagram.

I am addicted to waiting for her dog walk stories.

That’s so sweet. Thank you.

Thank you for being with us. Thank you.

This episode is for you if you’ve ever thought, “I’ll be more confident once ________ fill in the blank. Once I lose the weight, land the job, or hit the next milestone”

This episode is your permission slip to stop delaying and start embodying confidence immediately.

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This episode is for you if you want to learn from the wisdom and mindset from Brynn Snyder, the 7 figure co-founder and CEO of Slate Flosser.

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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Hello, hello, beautiful souls. Welcome back to another episode. And I’m so excited to be here with you to share the mindset of another seven figure business owner.

And I’m excited to welcome my guest, Bryn Snyder, co founder and CEO of Slate Flosser. Welcome to the show, Bryn.

Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here. And I hope that I can help someone else not make the same problems I made.

It’s beautiful. I actually was gifted a set of Slate Flosser and it was sitting in my drawer for a whole year before I opened it. And the first time I used it, I was like, Oh my goodness, why did I let this sit in my drawer for a whole year?

It is absolutely amazing. So I love your product. Actually, I’m a big fan.

Well, thank you so much. I actually we’ve noticed that if someone’s gifted it, sometimes they’re like apprehensive to use it. But we’re trying to figure out how do we make this more approachable and more exciting because once people use it, they’re like, Oh my gosh, this is so easy.

Because we’re so conditioned to use a good old floss, right?

Or not use but you know, there’s some people who do use it.

Awesome. Okay, so obviously, you’ve gotten to where you are, because we have these beliefs. And early on in your business, what do you think you had to unlearn to get you to where you are today?

Oh, that’s a hard question. So I actually grew up as an entrepreneur. So I was lucky enough when I was 13.

My mom helped me start a business. And anytime I’d have questions, I’d ask her and so I was really fortunate to, I think I made a lot of mistakes then. So with Slate, I think the thing that was probably the biggest thing I had to unlearn was profit margins need to be higher.

We obviously all want to offer our product at the best price possible. But you have to make money in order to be a business. So we did a Kickstarter and our profit margins were not high enough.

And so when we came out with our product, we had luckily learned that so our profit margins we increased.

Okay, and along the way, when these are not working out great, I envision that there might be some self doubt that creep in some imposter syndrome, right?

So luckily, I have a therapist. So anytime I feel like I have self doubt or frustrated with something, it’s nice to have another person be like, wait, you felt you you were a failure, but you didn’t fail. Like at last year, my goal was to do three and a half million dollars.

And that’s our second year in and I was like, okay, but we actually beat that goal. And when we were when we knew we were going to beat it, I’ve made a bigger goal. And we didn’t hit the big, big goal.

And I was like, so sad. And they were everyone reminded me like Britain, your first goal was 3.5. And you beat that. So you need to be happier.

And I just think as an entrepreneur, sometimes we set the bar, we just keep putting the bar higher and higher instead of being like really happy with our success that we’ve achieved.

Such a great reminder. As a matter of fact, I just got off of another call, which is the monthly workshop I hold called I am remarkable. And it’s where we practice saying how much we accomplished, because that’s what we want to focus on.

There’s no too small, right? There’s right. There’s always room for improvement.

Yes. But look how far you’ve already come. Look how much you’ve already accomplished.

And it’s a great reminder, especially for women, that you are remarkable and just focus on what you have already accomplished.

I totally agree. I think that would be such a beneficial class, because we almost every month, I have to remind myself like, Okay, we did all these amazing things this month, Bryn, we got this. And it’s good to have the team there.

Because otherwise, you just always feel like a failure. You got to remind yourself what you’re doing. That’s awesome.

What do you think are the small habits and or rituals? Because I believe all the smaller habits added up make the biggest impact on our growth journey. So what are the small habits you think that made the biggest impact in your personal or business growth?

So we always have goals. And I think that habit of having an achievable goal is really important. I always want to make them be achievable goals, because I don’t want to always feel like I’m failing.

So making projections that I feel like I can achieve in every at the beginning of every month, I let everyone on our team know what our goal is. And then in the middle of the month, we kind of do a check in and see like, do we need to adjust our goal? Like, oh, sales are going way faster, we actually need to up our goal or sales are way down what what external components are causing that.

So we do and now I can’t remember the acronym, but it’s like a SWOT assessment after big launches or different things. And we say like, what went right, what went wrong. So I just think goal setting is probably the best habit that we have, because it helps us all be on track and know what we’re doing right and wrong.

But I think it’s okay to not hit a goal too. So we set the goals and when we don’t hit them, we ask ourselves why. But I think goal setting is my favorite habit.

And then delegation is the hardest thing to do, but the most important thing to do. So every month we get either a new employee or a new thing that changes and you have to learn how to delegate or you’re going to get burnt out.

I love it. Goal setting is something I love talking about as well. If you don’t accomplish your goals, that means you have to chunk down your goals further, you have to get detailed, make it smaller, and it’ll become inevitable that you accomplish your goals.

Yes. Okay, Brian, can you share a time when you faced a major setback or failure in your business?

Which one? I think so when we first developed our product, we had some manufacturing issues and we were trying to get our product out because we had run a Kickstarter and our product didn’t come out for another six months because of issues. And it was so, so frustrating.

And if you don’t have product to sell, you can’t make money. And I just felt so stressed out. And I was just seeing our bank account go lower and lower.

And I remember I was laying in bed and I was like, how am I going to do this? And instead of quitting, I was like, okay, let’s figure out how am I going to do this? So I think that when we hit failure, you need to ask smarter people than you and have a positive outlook on how can I fix this?

Because I just went and I found people who I really trusted. And I said, this is my situation. How do I work on this?

And then they’re like, okay, a product doesn’t have to be perfect, but it has to be really great. So I think there’s this fine line in a product development where you need it to be really great. But perfection is going to take you too much time to get to.

So understanding that 90% is better than 100%, which I wouldn’t have ever thought before.

And that leads right into my next question, which is so you need to bounce back, right? There’s always feelings of doubt or feelings of giving up when these setbacks arise. What what’s going on in your mind?

What mindset do you remind yourself? How do you bounce back?

So I am lucky. I have a very positive attitude normally. And I usually speak to myself very kindly.

So I am lucky because I have, I have five kids and I can see some of them don’t speak as kind to themselves as others. So I am lucky in that way that I don’t dwell on the negative. And I just think, okay, how do I move forward?

And, and I usually, maybe to my detriment that my therapist would say is sometimes I don’t feel as much as I should. I just like go into like logic production mode. But I would just say to people like, we need to be so much nicer to myself.

I see how one of my daughters speaks to herself. And if I could just tell her what I think about her, I always like, I do say to them sometimes, like the way you think about others, you should think about yourself. And so my sisters tell me I can do anything.

And I’m like, you’re right. Like, let’s do this. I can.

I love what you said about taking your daughter in a positive way, because that’s a ripple effect into our society. And growing a business with a big family is tough, right? But you’ve worked hard, and you should be proud of what you have accomplished.

That is amazing.

It is a lot of work.

I’m sure there are a lot of tough decisions along the way, right? Definitely. How did you push through when you had to make a tough decision?

I kind of when I have tough decisions, sometimes they cause you to have so many sleepless nights, like or for instance, like letting someone go that’s always so hard because you like love or I usually like love all my employees. And so letting someone go is usually so hard for me. And I think you just you have to go into it prepped and ready because tough decisions, no matter what they are, just stress you out.

And so if you if you go into them prepared, it’s a lot easier to follow through with what you’re going to do. So with tough decisions, I like to make sure I’ve created a good plan. And sometimes I’ll ask a trusted advisor on like, okay, this is what I’m doing.

Is this a good decision? And then once I’ve made that decision, that it’s a good decision, I just, I try to get it done as fast as possible. For instance, like if you are no, you’re gonna let someone go and and you wait a whole month, that means you had a whole month of bad sleeping.

But if you would have done it the second day, like just get this stuff done.

I love it. And I love how you have help. You said you work with the therapist that support is amazing, right?

Oh, so so beneficial. What is what would you say was your therapist’s favorite advice to you?

Trust my gut. Most of the time, like, I know what I need to do. I just need to do it.

That is so true. We as women, we are always waiting for a new sign. We’re waiting for external validation.

We’re waiting for I don’t know, we’re just never ready. So I love that advice a lot. What do you think is something about growing a business to seven figures that no one talks about?

super lonely and super hard. And so because of that, I will, especially as a woman, I feel like you have to put yourself in social circles, you have to make the time you have to network. I don’t think my business could have grown as fast if I wouldn’t have spent the energy and time networking.

I felt so lonely. So I went and I looked and I found a female founders group of other females and I went on a vacation with them. I got to know them and they became a great support to me.

I also do network events in my own city because there’s not a lot of CPG or women businesses in my city yet yet because we’re going to be there soon. I go to networking events with men and I have to just realize that they can be some of your biggest assets. So strategize with them and learn from them.

That is very true. I’m glad you found your circle. And I’m glad that you’re here to tell us that that circle is really important that people around you, right?

They say you become the you become who the five closest to you are. And so if you want to be a founder, get a surround yourself with founders, you want to be that version of you that higher version of you, make sure you are surrounded with positive people like that.

Yeah, when I actually joined the group, you were supposed to make a minimum of $2 million. And I was at like 100,000. And I just said, please, can I come I really benefit from this and they let me come and I would never have thought I could do $1 million that year.

And I did. And I felt like it was because I figured out what they were doing. And they and they people want to help you.

Most people want to help. So just ask.

Yes, that’s so true. I want to help everyone, every stranger I’m going to smile to and if they ask me a question, I want to help them. We want to give back to society we want to give to others.

I think it’s genuinely really beneficial for all of us to grow together. So that is great advice as well. And you did mention there’s a lot of mistakes along the way.

So from what you see, or what you hear, what do you think are some most common mistakes from other founders that you’ve seen?

I think thinking that virality is going to make us money. I think we see that that can happen and like, oh, they got this break or that break. But the most important thing I think in a business is consistency.

If you consistently do stuff, you will catch a big break. It’s like my mom always used to say, like, the harder you work, the luckier you get. And I totally agree with that.

Like, the people who have things that go well, it’s because they’re, they’re doing the same things over and over again.

Yes, yes. Virality is only overnight, but consistency is okay, Brynn’s business is doing well. I’m going to buy her flosser.

Yes, exactly.

So I think virality is amazing if you can get it to happen. But like, I remember I paid an influencer to do something for me because she had a lot of followers and it was, it was the biggest waste of money. And I was just like, it’s, it’s hard.

I think influence, I’ve seen influencers work and I have paid influencers that work, but typically I have them show me that they can make the money first before paying.

Great reminder. And you mentioned working with the influencers. So there are all these opportunities, right?

Even just when you have a business, it doesn’t matter what type of business, you’re going to get DMs, you’re going to get emails, like pitching you all these opportunities left and right, right? Like for me, I’m an author, I’m a speaker. So every single day, I’m getting these DMs about talks, like, or features in the media, just loads of opportunities.

But of course, we know, you know, to say no to those paid opportunities. How about for you, Brynn? How do you know when to say yes or no to an opportunity for you?

It’s so hard. It’s so hard. I think you can tell what I’ve started to learn is, is like, it only works if people genuinely love my product.

So if people don’t genuinely love my product, I don’t want to work with them. Like, I don’t care how big they are, how cool they are. If they aren’t telling their friends outside of something like, oh my gosh, I have this product and I love it, then they’re not, it’s usually not the right fit.

And so I feel like you got to trust your gut and get data. I love data. I make almost all my decisions on get all the data, see how do people interact?

What we’ve seen is like, if we’re talking about influencers, the smaller influencers usually perform better than the really big ones. So I just think we at Slate, we try things and when they work, we keep doing them. And when they don’t work, we stop doing them.

You don’t know unless you try. So just make sure that the decision you make isn’t going to put your business out of business. So, you know, if you, if you only have $5,000, don’t spend all $5,000 on a trade show, do stuff until you have $20,000 and then you can spend money on a trade show.

I love the advice. Something I say very often is also do what has already worked for you, right? Because so many people get carried away, something worked and they see this other marketing technique or shiny object syndrome comes in.

And then I’m just like, well, what has worked for you? Where did your client or customers come in from before? Just repeat that.

Yeah, I totally have shiny syndrome. I’m always like, oh, let’s try that. We all have this syndrome.

It’s so fun. I tell my staff like, remind me, do not let myself get distracted.

That’s funny. Yes. So you mentioned the founders circle.

What else would you say was the best investment you’ve made for your business?

Find things you’re not good at and hire those people. So I am not good at customer service because I’m a problem solver. So like someone told me they needed help.

I would just solve the problem instead of saying like, how are you? Let me help you. So I’m like not kind enough to be a customer service rep.

So that was one of my first hires. For me, knowing your finances is so important. So hiring someone over finance was my one of my best decisions.

So still hire and delegate and stop doing everything yourself, right?

Yes, that would be my advice.

Yeah, you got to be loving what you do. Okay, so there might be some low days. And on those low days, what quote do you think of that gets you through the day?

Well, a quote my parents always said that I really like is when I do good, I feel good. And when I don’t, this is their own rendition of Abraham Lincoln quote, but they changed it a tiny bit. So it’s when I do good, I feel good.

And when I don’t do good, I don’t feel good. And I’ve lived long enough that I know that I want to feel good. So I know when I do good, and I’m kind and I put things out to people that I feel good.

And ultimately, that’s what I want.

I love that. I want to feel good. And I want to do good, too.

Yeah, I think I’m really passionate about like, the education and prevention of flossing. And that is like, I could just share our knowledge with everyone. I just feel like the world would be a better place.

And so that’s one of my goals is to change people’s oral health habits because of my passion for it.

That’s beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us. And if you’ve enjoyed this episode, and you haven’t tried yet, just check out Slate.

It’s S-L-A-T-E. And it’s an electric flosser. And I’m a personal user of it.

So love it. Thank you for being with us.

So much for having me. And I hope that every person listening to this knows that you are amazing. You are capable.

Tell yourself that and do what you want to do.

Yes, yes, so much. Yes. Thank you.

Thank you.