We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Emilee Lopez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Emilee below.

Emilee, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, let’s imagine that you were advising someone who wanted to start something similar to you and they asked you what you would do differently in the startup-process knowing what you know now. How would you respond?

If I were to start over I would invest in the right mentor or coach for me. As a new business owner I went with a popular coach with a low cost program. It felt as though I was taking the right steps, and honestly her program did help me set a bit of a foundation but she had SO many students that I wasn’t getting the guidance I needed to really figure out who I wanted to serve and what I wanted to do. I spent TWO years searching for the right fit and just taking the jobs I could.

I finally met the right coach with a smaller but more expensive program who was able to give me the guidance, community, and inspiration to figure out the business owner I actually wanted to be and I have been blessed to grow in my position, be referred to many people and become a figure known for Email Marketing and strategy work.

If I could go back, I would’ve picked a smaller program, and taken out the business loan sooner to set a better foundation in the beginning because I would’ve made my money back faster and be at a higher income than I am now.

Emilee, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Emilee and I own Emailing with Emilee. I am an email marketing strategist for small overwhelmed businesses who are looking to grow. Many small businesses struggle with staying on top of everything, from serving their clients/customers, to social media, to marketing and more; it can be A LOT for a business owner. I use my Freak Out Email Marketing Framework in order to take my client’s email marketing from simple emails to emails that have their subscribers freaking out over their services and products. This way my clients can focus on anything else and their emails are making sales for them automatically.

I am a mom who’s mission it is to watch my kids grow and be available to them as much as possible. In order to do that, I started this business to work on my own time and show my kids that they can do anything they set their minds to. Being a business owner IS possible and they won’t be confined to traditional jobs if they don’t want to.

I actually fell into Email Marketing by accident while working as a Virtual Assistant. One of my clients actually had me work in her email marketing program ConvertKit (now called Kit) and I fell in love with the program and seeing how little changes we made within her emails could have such a big impact in sales. As someone who could live in a spreadsheet, seeing the data just work out made me realize that email marketing strategy was where I was meant to be.

I am no ordinary strategist though, I believe in making email marketing fun. Emails do not have to be boring so I make sure that my clients are showing their true personality in their emails by making them fun, colorful, and exciting to read. That’s why my method is called The Freak Out Method, because we are going to have your subscribers freaking out over you!

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I have such a unique start to funding business that may not be feasible for most but it is just how life worked out for me! I originally started dabbling in social media marketing and virtual assisting in 2020 when it was trendy. I was learning through TikTok videos and free webinars, I really thought I could start my business for free haha. Boy was I wrong!

I realized I needed a few thousand dollars to start out. I needed enough money to allow me to stay home full time to focus, money to invest in a coach, money for legal stuff (LLC fees, etc), and money for equipment I needed.

So what did I do? Well I convinced my husband that we should sell our house and move somewhere with a lower cost of living. So for no reason whatsoever, we sold our house and moved us and our son across the country to a city and state we’ve never been to. We used the money from our house to pay for our rent for a year and my coach and business expenses so I could start this business.

I am not telling you to sell your house haha, just… that’s what I did. I made a sacrifice and it is paying off.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I had to unlearn is that you don’t have to take EVERY client that comes your way. Being desperate for money can cause you to do work for cheaper and for anyone. I was regularly taking any client that came my way, even if I didn’t know how to do what they needed. I saw it as, someone was willing to become a client and at least SOMETHING will be coming in. I never raised my rates and just worked for anybody doing anything. I always hated the thought of “niching down” because then I would be “limited”

All this was doing was confusing my audience on who I was, what I was good at, and who I served. After awhile I learned that business owners were more willing to pay me my worth if I was an expert at what I did and I got specific on who I wanted to work with.

So with a lot of fear I had to learn that clients will come and I will earn what I am worth if I offer what I am good at to people I am aligned with. Once I started doing this, I got better paying clients who I actually enjoyed working with and I could do what I was good at. You are worth waiting for.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://emailingwithemilee1.godaddysites.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevate.with.em/