We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Naomi Greenstein-Gulotta a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Naomi, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later?
As a 26-year-old in business, it’s not uncommon for me to hear “oh, but you’re SO young! You have all the time in the world.” In some ways, this is true. However, I often wonder how my life would be different if I’d started my business years ago.
From the moment I graduated with my MA degree from NUI Galway, I was on the hunt for marketing jobs. From my first position as an SEO Strategist to my final one as a Marketing Account Manager, I’ve certainly done my fair share of job-hopping over the years, trying to find the perfect combination of happy co-workers, a great boss, and work that I love.
When I left my last job in January of 2022 and chose to dive into my business full-time, it was because I’d finally seen enough of what I didn’t want and, somehow, there wasn’t any fear left in my decision to leave. If I failed, then I failed, and I’d figure it out from there. But if I succeeded… well, that itching thought in my head was enough to convince me to jump.
However many regrets I may have at times about not leaving the traditional 9-5 lifestyle sooner, there is still a huge part of me – probably the larger part of me – that knows I had to go through what I did to reach this point.
I had to experience what was out there, the good and the bad, to know that I am so, so capable of making my own dreams come true instead of focusing on building someone else’s.
So, yeah – do I wish I would have started my business sooner? Probably, yes.
But, am I absolutely elated that I didn’t wait another 10 years to take a chance on myself and experience the joy I feel now? Hell yes.
Naomi, 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?
I often describe myself as a writer by nature, because between that and dance, it’s one of my greatest passions. Though I’ve been writing for years, I only first learned about freelance writing in college at Mercyhurst University – in fact, it became my primary source of income during those years and well into my year of graduate study at NUI Galway.
It was always apparent that my career would someday include writing, whether it was journalism, that path I thought I wanted to take in my first year of college, or publishing, which I studied in Galway.
As my path from job to job evolved, I became more involved in SEO content writing for blogs and websites in many of my positions. At the penultimate job I held before leaping into my business, my boss said to me once, “I’ve never had a content writer before who writes so much quality work as quickly as you do.” At the time, this compliment made me feel incredible, but it also became a heartfelt compliment that I kept in my back pocket as I began to build my own business, Glas House Media.
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When Glas House Media first began, I offered website design, SEO, and content writing. YIKES. Let’s just say I was overly eager, and after several months of working out the kinks, I realized “Damn, all I REALLY want to do is write.” So, Glas House Media transformed into what it is today – a copywriting agency for entrepreneurs and business leaders around the world.
When I write for a client, my main priority is giving them the language to speak to their dream clients and leaving zero room for doubt before they book. I want to amplify my clients’ businesses with website, sales page, and email copy that turns fence-sitters into real clients and convinces their audience that their offer is the ONLY one that matters for their needs.
However, because I come from marketing, I also spend much of my time mapping out strategic customer journeys before the writing even begins. Navigating a website or sales page should be a completely seamless experience for my clients’ leads because even with killer copy, people are so much less likely to stay on a website where they feel confused or overwhelmed. Therefore, at GHM, every piece of copy is created with intention, from the SEO strategy and headlines all the way down to the micro-copy.
We want our clients to book THEIR dream clients, so we do everything in our power to make that happen.
As someone who has spent a long time working for others before jumping into my own business, I’m really proud of what Glas House Media is today. The time, energy, and love put into each project are what delivers the results my clients need to take their businesses to that next level, and seeing their successes after they implement their fresh copy truly never gets old.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Being a creative business owner is rewarding in so many ways.
As a copywriter, I have the ability to make my clients’ dream leads come flying through the door to book their services. The fact that I’m able to use my knowledge, experience – everything I’ve learned – to do this for my clients and get them more money to grow their businesses feels absolutely incredible. My clients are awesome, strong, brave people who are trying to build their own dreams, and I get to help them reach that next level in their journey with what I do.
On the other hand, though, being a creative business owner is another kind of reward. My husband works in network engineering, and unfortunately, that’s not exactly an industry where you can just start a business easily. As much as he loves what he does, I feel grateful to have taken a path in life that allowed me to start Glas House Media and work for myself. Even when things get tough, the choices and the freedom I have in my life right now feel like such a gift.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Hustle culture is so toxic.
This is not a hot take by any means, but learning that hustle culture is bullshit was a huge step in the right direction for me.
In late 2020 when the world was still mostly shut down, I was essentially balancing 3 jobs: my full-time position as an account manager at a small marketing agency, a part-time job as a dance instructor, and my business. I was so grateful to have employment still after so many others had been laid off that it made me feel happy to be working so much.
Plus, in the business side of Instagram we see every day, I was watching SO many other entrepreneurs at this time working 12-hour days to complete projects or kick-start their businesses, spending weekends working outside on their laptops, and it all looked so strong and fierce to me. Damn, these people didn’t stop chasing what they wanted! I wanted to have that drive.
So, I’d wake up at 6 or 7 AM to work out, log on to my laptop to start my 9-5 job at 8:15, and then either head out to dance until 9:15 a couple of nights a week or stay at my desk to work on GHM tasks until midnight. Often, on dance nights, I’d still end up coming home to work on business stuff. Rinse, repeat.
After several months of this schedule and giving up weekends to work all day, I began to notice that I dreaded waking up in the morning, I dreaded sitting down at my desk – even walking into my office felt unbearable. After all, almost a year had gone by, and I was overwhelmed with the feeling that I’d been half-assing everything in my life because I just didn’t have the time to give anything my full attention. Plus, I mean, geez, I was not happy at all.
It wasn’t until I stopped working until midnight every night, quit spending weekends planning content, and started focusing on myself again that I began to feel my brain and my body heal. It was really hard for me to unlearn all these bad habits that hustle culture taught me – I felt really guilty sitting down on my couch on weekends to watch TV when I had things to do, but I was learning that rest and caring for yourself isn’t a privilege that you earn after working 65-70 hour weeks. It’s a priority for making sure that when you do get back to work, you’re in the best position mentally and physically to complete your tasks.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.glashousemedia.com
- Instagram: @glashousemedia
- Facebook: @glashousemedia
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-greenstein | https://www.linkedin.com/company/glas-house-media
Image Credits
Brand Photography by Kelsey Mader
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