eight years ago today...

what I was doing on this day in 2014 ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  Eight years ago today I gave birth to this green-eyed angel after a long and grueling labour. He was born at 8:08 am, or, as we’ve always called it, “bob o’clock.” I started my business when he was one-year old, renting an office that was a 15-minute walk from the duplex I lived in with my husband before we got married. I took a bunch of online courses right away. First Marie Forleo’s B-School, then Amy Porterfield’s Courses That Convert, then I joined a $10K mastermind with Joanna Wiebe of Copyhackers. I won an email copywriting contest that Joanna hosted that year with Ry Schwartz, who then recommended my work as a copywriter to Amy. I started writing emails for her in my second year in business. Business-wise, things moved really quickly after that. When I got pregnant again, this time not on purpose, I was really scared. How was I going to support my family PLUS have a baby at home, breastfeed for three hundred years, co-sleep with two kids, and uphold all these other unrealistic expectations of birthing parents?! (I was fully subscribed to the religion of personal wellness at the time, and considered anything less than this negligent parenting.) It felt impossible. (Probably because it was.) By my third year in business I was writing emails for clients from the Google docs app on my iphone while breastfeeding my new baby on our living room couch, which probably sounds kind of sweet. It was the opposite of sweet. I got mastitis three times. I was stressed AF. I stayed up late researching really expensive organic grass-fed baby formula that I would order from Europe because I felt so guilty about not having the energy to breastfeed my child anymore. (I’m still so mad that no one supported me in this, and that I was so conditioned to believe that “formula = failure,” which is some patriarchal bullshit. Formula = a reality of modern parenting that no parent should ever have to justify.) I had this huge fear that I would look back on that period of my life and not remember any of it. And the truth is I barely have memories from that time in my life. It was really hard. But I survived and so did my business. My marriage, on the other hand, did not. A lot of times in promotions I read emails that say, “I accomplished [...] and therefore you can too! Join my program and use my special formula.” This message is built into almost every webinar framework I’ve ever seen. I would urge you not to compare your business to mine, which grew faster than I could keep up with. My ability to convert new customers developed much more quickly than my capacity for leadership. After four years on a bullet train, I started walking it back. I’ve been doing this for three years now. Like children, marriages, and jobs, businesses rarely spring up fully-formed, and that might be a good thing. If your business isn’t where you wish it was this December, I hope you remember, TRULY, that it takes time. It takes putting in the hours. (Hours you may not have, and it’s important to be honest about that instead of shaming yourself for not growing your business faster.) It takes enormous effort, relationship-building, testing strategies, failing at lots of things, trying out offers, and a hundred other things. But most of all it takes time. I would love to support you on that journey, especially if you want to lean into email marketing as a way to sell your programs and/or services. I know it works not just because it worked for my business, but because I’ve had thousands of students go through my programs and experience firsthand what email marketing can do for their businesses. Email Stars is now sold out, but it'll come back around soon enough. You can purchase Module One: Weekly Emails That Work as a standalone program [right here](. It teaches you: --> What to write about in your newsletters (with prompts and subject line ideas) --> The 3 types of subject lines that get your emails opened --> How to format your emails for accessibility (and a better experience for all subscribers) --> What to do about GDPR, no matter where you live, and other spam laws you need to know about --> How to create USEFUL segments by tagging your subscribers for the right things [Enroll in Weekly Emails That Work here](. These are the basics and they are important to get right whether you have 50 subscribers or 50,000. That is the end of this loosely-promotional message. Please join me in wishing my sweet son Gaïan a happy eighth birthday. Him and his family have been through a lot this last year, and we are better, stronger, smarter every day. I’m proud of us. I hope you’re proud of you too. xo, Tarzan Want to access your fave emails on the go? Subscribe to the [Tarzan Reads Her Emails]( podcast]( to, well, hear Tarzan read her emails. 🤷‍♀️ [New recordings released every Tuesday and Friday. Exclusively for my email subscribers]( Enjoy the email? Why not share it with a friend? [Facebook](  [Twitter](  [Linkedin](  [Email]( Inbox getting a little crowded? Looking to reduce the number of emails you receive? I hear ya, {NAME}! Simply choose how often you want to hear from me by clicking one of the links below. [Send 'em as you write 'em!]( [One a week would be perfect.]( [Can I get a monthly digest?]( This email was sent to: {EMAIL}. [Click here to update your info](. Tarzan Kay Global Inc., PO Box 1036, Fonthill, ON L0S1E0, Canada | [Unsubscribe](