How to Plan the Rest of Your Year Without Burning Out with Katherine Mackenzie-Smith [Ep 260]

We just passed the halfway point of the year, which means one of two things: you're right on track, or you're staring down a list of January goals you haven't looked at since. This week I'm joined by Katherine Mackenzie-Smith - business coach and strategist for introverts and highly sensitive entrepreneurs, and creator of the Cozy Business framework - to talk about giving yourself permission to build a business that actually fits your energy, and how to plan the rest of the year without burning out trying to catch up.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• Why copying someone else's business system rarely works long-term, and what to do instead
• How to actually review the first half of your year before you plan the second
• Katherine's 90-day "expedition" approach to planning, and why it beats a 12-month plan
• Checking in with your energy daily so your to-do list stays realistic
• Why "you don't have to do all of the things - but you still have to do something" might be the most useful permission you give yourself this year

Links & Resources:
🔗 Katherine's website: https://katherinemackenziesmith.com
🔗 Podcast: Cozy Business with Katherine (podcast)

Guest Spotlight: Katherine Mackenzie-Smith
Katherine Mackenzie-Smith is an award-winning business coach and strategist for introverts and highly sensitive souls, and the host of the Cozy Business with Katherine podcast.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] to then be able to move forward a bit more proactively for the next half of the year so that we're not always in reactive mode and just like, "Oh, I've learnt this strategy, so now I've got to change this, and now I wanna do this," and doing different things each week or each month.

[00:00:12] But to actually go back and think about it, see what's worked, bring that with you to the next quarter or the next half of the year, and then go, maybe there's one new thing that you wanna try

[00:00:23] Are you a female business owner frustrated with battling the algorithm and looking for growth strategies that don't involve awkwardly pointing or dancing online or throwing cash at paid ads? Welcome to the Email Growth Show. I'm your host, Kylie Kelly, visibility and email marketing strategist. I grew my email list from zero to almost 10,000 subscribers in less than two years, and the same is possible for you too.

[00:00:50] Are you ready to build your email list and start making more money in your online business? Let's head into today's episode.

[00:00:58] Katherine, welcome to [00:01:00] the podcast. I'm so excited to have you

[00:01:01] Thank you so much for having me. I can't believe that it's been so long we've known each other and this is the first time we've done this

[00:01:07] I know, I know. It's been a long time coming, so I'm so excited. in case somebody is tuning in and they don't know who you are, can you just give us like a little snippet on who you are and what you do?

[00:01:17] Yeah, sure. So I am a business coach and visibility strategist. I've been working for about 12 years with more introverted, highly sensitive, neurodivergent people who are just kind of over the hustle, empire building, kind of everything of the online business, and just looking to create something that actually aligns with their energy and needs.

[00:01:36] And it's something that has been a very personal journey for me over the years. First, kind of realizing that I was an introvert, and how do I show up and be visible in the online space when my energy works differently, and I don't really necessarily want to be super visible all the time. And along that journey of really just learning to understand my own capacity and things, and working with other clients like [00:02:00] me, to really understand that business doesn't have to look like what we think it should look like.

[00:02:05] That we can create something for ourselves that just feels aligned and isn't exhausting, and doesn't lead to burnout because we're following somebody else's steps to success. so yeah, I've been on this super personal journey myself to understanding more about how I work best, and along the way I've kind of started to think of it as like a fantasy quest 'cause it helps me get through the day when times are tough.

[00:02:28] And I think about like, "Okay, well today I'm fighting dragons, and you know, I'm gonna get past this and onto the next thing." so that's how I support my clients and things to just really stop getting caught up in all of the noise, and actually start to identify like what is it that I really want? Why did I create this business for myself?

[00:02:46] And what is it that is gonna work best for me? Sometimes we have to figure it out. But yeah, it's been nearly 12 years of online business. So life before that was so many different things. but yeah, it's just a journey that we're on to really [00:03:00] understanding our purpose, that has been just this ongoing part of my work that has, you know, really helped me to navigate it and learn more about myself than I maybe ever have before.

[00:03:13] And be able to support other people to do the same thing. So I don't even know if that was a proper intro, but

[00:03:19] I love it. I love it. It's perfect. It is perfect

[00:03:21] That's how the energy is today.

[00:03:22] No, it's perfect. and what I picked up most when you were just explaining that, is that permission piece, right? Which I think it takes a long time to give ourselves permission to do things differently in a way that feels good.

[00:03:33] it's easy to say that, right? But then when we're getting, all this stuff thrown at us when we're starting out about what we need to be doing and that we need to be posting three times a day, and we need to be sending these emails, and blah, blah, blah. When that's all being thrown at us, it's really hard to stop, isn't it?

[00:03:46] And be like, "Huh, I don't have to do that."

[00:03:49] Mm, yeah, absolutely. And for so many of us who grew up as, the good girl, and that's such a big part of our identity, taking cues from what we've been conditioned [00:04:00] to follow and behave, the unraveling it takes when you start your own business and you realize, like, "Oh, I'm the start and end point of stuff happening."

[00:04:09] Versus, you know, your whole life you've been trained to follow the rules, and do things this way, and follow the instructions. And then all of a sudden you start your own business, and the natural instinct is to turn to people who have done something like what you're trying to do before and follow their process.

[00:04:27] But what we don't realize after potentially decades of learning someone else's systems is that they don't always take our needs into consideration. And so we go from doing that at school, and then in the workplace, and then starting a business, to just be naturally gravitating to listen to somebody else.

[00:04:46] And I just got to this point for myself where I realized, like, nothing has ever fully accommodated or supported me. Why would somebody else's business system or model necessarily work for me? And yeah, we do [00:05:00] need to be discerning about that, but also, like, super aware of the fact that we do look to others for the rules, because that's what we've been taught to do.

[00:05:09] And, and I know so many of us are like that good girl, A+ student kind of identity. so it's such a big awareness piece, I think, when you start to realize that, mm, maybe I don't have to do what everybody is saying I should be doing.

[00:05:23] Yeah, absolutely. And I can imagine for a lot of our listeners, we've just passed the halfway point of the year, and, oh, shit starts to get real, right? When we start to feel like we're running out of time, when we have these big, big New Year resolutions or big goals that we set at the start of the year. what would you say to anyone that might be, like, on the edge of burnout or might be doing things without even taking themselves into consideration?

[00:05:44] Like, where do they start to, like, unravel that?

[00:05:47] Yeah, such a great question and such a great time to be taking that check-in for the year. I actually did a podcast episode this time last year on this exact thing, that I had been kind of trying some things out in the [00:06:00] first half of the year, and really took myself out of, uh, well everything basically, for like a week and just did a review of what I'd been doing, what was working, what was feeling good, what was exhausting, what was not getting results but had a lot of energy input required to do it.

[00:06:18] And then reevaluating, because so often I find, I've ... This is ... I've been in this place myself, and I see it so much with, people that I talk to, as business owners there's so much happening that's coming into us, so ... That we're reacting to every day. We've got emails, we've got DMs, we're always contactable.

[00:06:35] People need something, they want something from us, and so we often find ourselves reacting to those outside sources. what taking that step back and kind of disconnecting to do a review can really help with, is it starts to help you to actually see, well, okay, I've been doing all of this stuff, but what impact has it been happening in the business?

[00:06:53] And then what is the next half of the year going to look like in order to replicate the good [00:07:00] results, take out the stuff that wasn't working, and look for ways to maybe simplify or take some time back and energy back on things that kind of weren't moving the needle, to then be able to move forward a bit more proactively for the next half of the year so that we're not always in reactive mode and just like, "Oh, I've learnt this strategy, so now I've got to change this, and now I wanna do this," and doing different things each week or each month.

[00:07:24] But to actually go back and think about it, see what's worked, bring that with you to the next quarter or the next half of the year, and then go, maybe there's one new thing that you wanna try

[00:07:35] instead of just cont- I always use, like, the analogy of, like, the buffet. Like, entrepreneurs we're just so excited about new things that we've learnt and things we wanna try that we're, like, stacking our plate up on the buffet, and it's like, you can go back for seconds.

[00:07:47] You can do stuff later. but you don't wanna fill your plate so much that everything starts falling off or you get full or you feel sick because you've just eaten way too much. Might have taken that one a bit too far.

[00:07:59] I loved it. That's a great [00:08:00] analogy. Oh, gosh, I've definitely filled my plate up and ate too

[00:08:02] Oh, same. I do it all the time. That's why I have to talk about it so much, just as a reminder for myself.

[00:08:07] No, I love that, and I think we'll put the link to that podcast in the show notes for anybody that wants to go and listen to that. But I love that idea as well of really thinking about, like, what's worked for the business, but then also what's felt good. Like, I used to have a Post-it note on my desk that said, like, "What would feel fun right now?"

[00:08:22] Oh, I love that

[00:08:23] And I feel like it's the most important question, because if we can't get our energy behind something, or if something is taking away from it, like, people feel that, they pick up on that. Like, that affects then the results that we get. and who wants to build a business that makes us feel like shit or, like, drains the life out of us?

[00:08:38] Like, I wanna build a business that lets me live the life that I wanna live, not the other way around. And so it's so important to reflect on that, So back when I first started, I'd do CEO days. And then I found that wasn't enough, so I started doing CEO weeks, where I wouldn't take any calls.

[00:08:51] And they are my favorite weeks, 'cause I get to, like, just have a week where I get to focus on what I n- I still make sure my clients are looked after, but for me, the [00:09:00] energy of not having to be on a call, I can stay in my pajamas, I can have a face mask on and do my work. ah, that was so freedom-giving, right?

[00:09:08] Like, that just feels so good. And, I think that's probably different for everyone tuning in. Like, you might have your own thing. But I love that idea and reflecting on not just the business stuff, but also, like, how do you wanna feel?

[00:09:18] Yeah, for sure. I love that question, and mine is always, how can this be easy? So like, how can this be easy and how can it be fun, is such a good combination because it's finding like a middle ground between what feels, like what feels good and like our feelings are important and our, our capacity is important.

[00:09:38] I think sometimes we can take it a little bit too far into like, "Oh, I don't feel like doing that, and so I'm not gonna do anything."

[00:09:44] Yeah, I'm having CEO

[00:09:45] I

[00:09:45] month

[00:09:45] say, yeah, like definitely take your feelings into consideration, and also like we can reframe things so easily that were a b- burden and then start to shift them into something that like, "Hmm, how can I think about [00:10:00] this differently as well?"

[00:10:01] that I think can really help. But my clients are gonna be annoyed because I've just taken your, uh... I've just made a mental note of the CEO week, and now I think that I'm gonna start doing that.

[00:10:11] it, yeah, it changed everything. It was really... I was definitely booking my calendar out with calls, like, so much, and this was back when I had my low-ticket membership press- like, and there was a lot... It was very call-heavy, and I just started getting like Zoom fatigue, like burnout from being on Zoom so much.

[00:10:26] So, it was the best thing. But I do like what you said there about the reframe, because there's gonna be parts of our job that we don't like that we have to do as well. So it's like it can't just all be sunshine and rainbows all the time.

[00:10:37] For sure, and I have to always add that caveat 'cause I've been so soft on everyone in the last few years that I've actually ... Uh, it's like I wanted to be so anti-hustle and anti what a lot of the messages, the girl boss era messages were, that I kind of swung all the way back the opposite way and was like, "You still have to run a business."

[00:10:56] So I always feel like I have to add that [00:11:00] caveat in there as well. Sorry, I'll let you off the hook a little bit, but not fully.

[00:11:05] love that. No, I love that. I love that. So talk to me a little bit about how you plan out the rest of the year. So if somebody's listening to this and they're like, "Oh, so I, I know I need to do the reflection piece, I need to look at what has happened." But then you do a really cool expedition, 90-day expeditions.

[00:11:21] Can you tell me a little bit about what they are?

[00:11:23] Yeah, so I've always found, and I know that a lot of people experience this as well, that when you set goals at the start of the year, it's so easy to, like, be excited in January about those, and then never look at them again until the following January. And I'm definitely one of those people. I love to buy a planner.

[00:11:40] I've spent so much money on Notion dashboards and things, thinking they're gonna change my life. And then as a neurodivergent person, they will be fun for two weeks, and then I'll completely forget about them. And so what my process has been over the years is, like, how do I stay on track as someone who is so easily distracted by shiny things [00:12:00] and who will literally just abandon a system after, like, a month?

[00:12:03] So planning out for a whole year freaks me out. Even the thought of doing six months planning, I'm like, "Ugh, I'm gonna change my mind completely by November." Like, sometimes, this has, has happened a number of years in a row. I've been planning to do Black Friday, which I know will be coming up, soon, and I just at the last minute go, "You know what?

[00:12:19] I just don't wanna do it." And I change my mind, and everything I've planned for, I just end up scrapping and doing something else. And so the way that I have found that really helps me is to have that clarity on, like, what was my big-picture goal for the year, and then how do I break that down into a 90-day...

[00:12:35] not even a sprint. Like, 'cause again, I think of it as this experiment, this adventure of, what is it that I'm actually working towards? So often I think we're like, "Oh, I wanna get 1,000 new members or 1,000 new subscribers this quarter." And until we know the actual metrics or the input that it takes to get those results, It's really hard to actually just be able to figure that out and break it down into weeks and months. And so it's [00:13:00] more a focus of, like, this quarter, I'm focusing on list growth, or this quarter I'm focusing on my launch. And what that looks like then gets broken down into, okay, month three is gonna be the big launch part.

[00:13:16] What needs to happen in the two months prior to that? And then being able to break that down into small daily steps because... And I know daily freaks everyone out, but- for people with inconsistent energy like I have, I can plan out every week to be like, "This week this needs to happen, this week this needs to happen."

[00:13:33] But some weeks my energy is really low and I can't necessarily do a big load of YouTube videos or interviews and things like that. And so what I found was if I would check ... If I knew everything that needed to get done in a list, and then actually just check in with my energy each morning to make sure that my to-do list for the day like the tasks are in alignment with how I feel today and what my capacity is.

[00:13:58] And then you can adjust it [00:14:00] on a daily and weekly basis based on that. you know, sometimes it's like, "Okay, this last two weeks have been really rough. Are my plans for that launch actually realistic at this point with my capacity in mind?" And what it does is it means that we can instead of getting to the end of a quarter and being like, "Oh my gosh, I've gone so far in an opposite direction of where I was working toward, now I have to make such a huge shift back on course," what it's doing is like creating micro shifts and micro adjustments towards the goal that you're working towards or the milestone.

[00:14:34] So yes, taking that review step back really helps, and even starting to ask like, "Where am I getting pulled in a direction that feels like what I should be doing versus what is actually aligned with my goals right now?" And then, how do I break this down into a core focus for the quarter? And then break it down into smaller chunks so there's like a milestone for each month that I'm working towards.[00:15:00]

[00:15:00] And then I know what my cadence is for both my recurring tasks that I need to do to actually have the business run, and then whatever other project-based tasks are needed in order to have this quarter get me to the place where I wanna be based on the focus that I've got set for the quarter. If that makes sense.

[00:15:21] Yeah, I love that. I love that. And again, there's a lot more flexibility then. Like you said, I love that micro adjustments or micro shifts, 'cause it's like, you know, if one day your energy doesn't suit what's on that day's to-do list, there's that flexibility just to move a few things around or,

[00:15:34] exactly.

[00:15:35] yeah. I love that.

[00:15:37] I find I always push things away. It's like, you know that saying of like eating the frog or whatever, and I feel like my frog just always moves to the next week and the next week until I'm really overdue. So that's something I'd need to watch, I think, if I gave myself too much freedom.

[00:15:51] Oh, absolutely. And that's the thing, like, I always look at things that I'm pushing off or, like, procrastinating on as like, why is this happening? Like, almost [00:16:00] taking that moment again to reflect back on, why am I putting this off? Because what I've learnt over the years is that there's always something else going on underneath that, and sometimes it's that you're following a strategy that is completely misaligned with your strengths and energy, and it's actually just time to do a complete overhaul of that particular thing that you're focusing on, and finding something that's gonna work better.

[00:16:24] Maybe it's something that is just, you know, it, you don't realize how important it is to actually get that thing done, and so it keeps being put off because it's doesn't seem like it's a priority. But oftentimes it's like a constraint that's stopping a whole bunch of other things from happening. And so I always just ask myself in those moments, why do I keep putting this off?

[00:16:41] And s- because so often I will make something out to be so much bigger and harder than it actually is, and just put it off and put it off. But the longer you put it off for, the bigger and harder it feels. And then you sit down and you're like, "Oh, that took 25 minutes." Like doing my tax this

[00:16:45] It's crazy, right? Mine's,

[00:16:59] [00:17:00] year, I was like, "Oh, I've been putting it off for so long, I just have to do it." And it literally took, I think, about 45 minutes. I put it off for three months

[00:17:09] Hilariously, that's on my to-do list for tonight after work. I've gotta get it done for the accountant by tomorrow. So yeah, 

[00:17:15] Deadlines help. Like I I find that if I'm, you know, left to my own devices, I will do that too. Giving yourself a public deadline and telling your people that there is something, a new resource coming or a new training or whatever it is you're working on, that is also my, that's my secret ADHD too.

[00:17:32] Mm-hmm.

[00:17:32] publicly announce things or I launch them and then I have to get it done, and you can't operate from that place all the time 'cause that is very reactive and can burn the nervous system out and things. But I really thrive under that kind of pressure, so I do like to create those situations for myself as well because a deadline is the, the greatest thing for me to be productive

[00:17:53] Same. Absolutely. I would rather die than let anybody down, so

[00:17:57] Yes, exactly.

[00:17:58] that is like, [00:18:00] yeah, it's the best motivation for me to

[00:18:01] Absolutely. Yeah, for sure

[00:18:04] I'm curious, when you plan out like your launches or your list growth or like you just said instead of saying like 1,000 new subscribers this quarter, you say, "I'm just focusing on list growth."

[00:18:12] Yeah. Do you still attach like concrete goals? Like, so like if you're launching, do you have I wanna hit this much revenue. I wanna do this Like, do you go into that or do you allow a little bit of the magic to happen and keep it like broad when you're setting goals?

[00:18:24] Yeah, that's a really great question, and it really depends on the situation, I think. But yeah, I always have like a, a goal and a stretch goal just for myself to be able to see how close I got to it. Because what I find that I'm really gathering data for in those launches and things is actually, again, what made the biggest impact, and what are the actual pieces that lead to that?

[00:18:50] Like, so like what's the data that leads that? So if, say it was like adding 1,000 subscribers to your list, how many people do I need to get in front of? How many summits do I need to do? How much money do I need to spend on [00:19:00] ads? Or whatever the, the pieces are that are the part of the strategy that are bringing that audience in, how I know what that looks like so that it can be repeated in the future.

[00:19:11] So I go, "Okay, I can get leads for 50 cents." Now, I know that from Facebook ads, because I've just run this quarter and I've seen what I can get. So maybe, you know, 500 of my subscribers came from ads, and 200 came from a summit, and then I did three bundles and, and that built out to get that. So it's kind of establishing like what are the things I'm gonna try?

[00:19:32] And then at the end, looking at what helped me to get there. So I know my cost per lead is around this much, so if I wanted to do 2,000 next quarter, I know it's gonna cost me this much money. I know that I maybe need to do this many other things. So that we're actually thinking of results and metrics and things with like real information behind them versus the stories that we can sometimes tell ourselves about like, "Oh, I'm not growing [00:20:00] here because the algorithm hates me," or you know, whatever it might be.

[00:20:03] And actually knowing what are the things that I did, what result did they lead to? And if I wanted to replicate those results again or grow them for the future, how do I... like, what do I need to do on the front end to be able to get that result? Because I don't like the idea of just like leaving it all to chance.

[00:20:21] It's like, "Oh, I'm just gonna put it out there and see what happens." It's like, no, I wanna know what are the things that I can control? Or, or like not even control, but like what are the, what's the input metric that I need to hit in order to be able to get the result that I want? And a lot of the time we have to start with actually experimenting with things to know what those things are to be able to then do it again the next quarter or shift something or do something differently next time.

[00:20:47] And then we kind of just build up a bit of a system of like, okay, if I wanna do this, these are the things that I need to do. These are the number of people I need to talk to in order to get this many paying clients because I've been doing it and I [00:21:00] know now what that metric looks like. So, okay, how do I talk to 25 people?

[00:21:04] What does that look like? and then having this system that can be repeated and tweaked, like, every quarter versus what I know I definitely spent- way too long doing, and I know a lot of people do, again, in reactive mode, is kind of like throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. And it's absolutely fine to do that.

[00:21:23] In fact, I think it's fun to do that. I love trying new things. But it really helps to also build out a repeatable system so that depending on what your goal is, if you've done it before in some way, you know what you need to do for that quarter. And then that means you're not sitting down at your desk each day and going, "Mm, what am I gonna do today?"

[00:21:42] And that is where I see people get really kind of down the garden path of comparison and signing up for programs that aren't actually, you know, gonna help them, and getting distracted by Facebook and, and Instagram, and TikTok, and all of the things. Because when we don't know what we need to do, [00:22:00] then we have this open playing field of like, "Ooh, what can distract me today?"

[00:22:04] Versus like, "Mm, I know I'm focusing on list, list growth. I really need to, submit for that summit today or, change my ads today," or whatever that is, so that we know each day what we're working on. And that way we can be as effective as possible with the energy and the time that we have.

[00:22:18] Oh my goodness. So that was just like the playbook of how to do, do it well. yes, absolutely. Do you know what I'm the worst at? Is like, I will set a goal, work towards it, hit it or miss it, doesn't matter, then I get on board. I'll try something

[00:22:31] Yeah, oh, for sure. It's literally, yeah, entrepreneurship 101.

[00:22:35] Gosh. So yeah, and again, circling back to the accountability piece, right?

[00:22:39] Like we were just saying with deadlines you know, like I feel like this is where do the reflecting, do the plan, and then even if it's just like a, biz bestie, it doesn't have to be a big community group, but have somebody keep you accountable of what you're focusing on so that you don't be like Kylie and go off on this tangent 'cause she's bored.

[00:22:54] Hey, look, I still do that, but it definitely helps when you've got that, support there as well. because you're [00:23:00] on... Like, left to your own devices, that's what I always think about. If I'm left to my own devices, I mean, I'm a house cat. Like, that's me left to my own devices. I would happily just, like, laze around and read books and drink coffee all day and not do anything.

[00:23:12] And so left to my own devices, that's what would happen. I'd just go sit out in the sun for a few hours, which, you know, I still like to do. but not super productive in terms of, like, trying to operate a business all the time. It's a 10% of the time thing.

[00:23:28] It's so interesting, isn't it? That, like, our personality or the way of being is so deep. so for me, I was always, before I was an entrepreneur, I changed jobs as fast as I changed my underwear. Like, I got so bored, I would just change jobs all the time. I moved house a lot 'cause I loved a new house.

[00:23:44] I loved the dopamine of something new. And it's so interesting when you reflect back now as a 40-year-old woman, but I'm like, you reflect back at all of that and go like, "Ah, I can still see that woven into my life today in different ways with the business." And I- you just gotta be really aware of that, I [00:24:00] think, and careful.

[00:24:01] the more that you know about yourself, like that's where it's a difference between if anyone... Like, it doesn't matter. I'll just use this as an example because it would apply to anyone. But say you're like, " Oh, I can't do that because I'm too introverted." And that's one that I've heard. I, I mean, I've been working with introverts for so long now, I've heard it so many times, and I totally can understand that because there are things that, you know, we feel like we've been expected to do or pressured to do in our lives that just don't really support our needs and energy.

[00:24:33] And so I really appreciate that, and it's so important, like, we take care of our nervous systems as well and find safety in that when we've felt that way in our lives. But the thing that I think of with that is, like- It's important to know yourself, but it not be a constraint against your ability to, to build a successful business. So it's not so much a case of like, "Oh, I'm too introverted for that." Okay, yeah, I don't wanna do that 'cause I'm an introvert, and I prefer not to do [00:25:00] reels every single day on Instagram and spend all my time, like, hooked into the energy of a social media platform, for example.

[00:25:06] So what are you gonna do instead? And that is so important because when it comes to visibility in particular, and you know this, you don't need me to tell you because I know you feel exactly the same, but, like, you don't have to do all of the things. You don't even have to do the popular things that everyone's doing or what's trending right now, but you still have to do something.

[00:25:27] And the more we know about ourselves, it's then not so much an excuse for not doing things. It's actually being able to identify the systems and the strategies that are most supportive of our skills and strengths and energy, and do those and not worry about everything else. And I think once you can really understand and know yourself, you just kind of create your path, and then all of that noise just goes out the window because it's like, "That has nothing to do with me.

[00:25:56] I can just swat all of that away." Because I know that, [00:26:00] sure, it might take me some time to build my Substack following, for example, but I would rather do that than put a whole heap of time and energy... Not me personally, I'm not on Substack, but, but this is an example for anyone listening who's feeling like there's a pressure to do YouTube right now.

[00:26:14] And it's like, if you don't wanna do video, and that's gonna hold you back from taking action, then find a platform that actually really aligns with you and that plays to your strengths. And then you just let go of that, that feeling of needing to do video or whatever it might be. But what I see so much is, like, people are, like, hooked into, like, what they think they should do, and then they get in such a place of just being stuck because it's like, "Well, I don't really wanna do that, but everyone's saying I have to do that, and so I'm not gonna do anything" because it's like paralysis almost of feeling that pressure and feeling like that's what you should be doing.

[00:26:50] But because it's actually not what you wanna do, or it's misaligned, or it's not actually your goals that you're working towards, then it's like not doing anything. And it's [00:27:00] like, I always say, "You don't have to do social media. You don't have to do anything you don't wanna do." But you have to do something.

[00:27:06] So know yourself well enough to figure out what that something is, and then let go of all the rules and the shoulds and the platforms that don't serve you and align for you right now, 

[00:27:17] Yeah, I love that message because it all works. It all, it all

[00:27:21] It all works. There are examples out there of every single platform, format, strategy, business model, everything that works. There are people out there who have made millions of dollars doing any of them. And so it's not what's the best one or what's the one that's gonna be successful the quickest or any of that.

[00:27:40] You have examples of every single one working, but what's the best one for you?

[00:27:45] Oh, mic drop. Oh my goodness, I have loved this conversation, and I feel like it could just go on and on and on and on and on. But we're gonna wrap this up. If you have been listening to this and you feel that permission piece, take some of what Katherine shared about planning the rest of the year.[00:28:00]

[00:28:00] Find out what that thing is for you, and let go of all of the shoulds and the noise around everything else. If they wanna connect with you further, Katherine, where should we send them? What is the best place for them to go?

[00:28:11] Yeah, so if you're listening to the podcast, the best place is probably to come over to my podcast, uh, on, on your app that you're listening on. So my podcast is called Cozy Business with Katherine, and, Kylie is always one of my guests. she should already be on, by the time this one goes live.

[00:28:26] And so yes, come over and listen to our chat 'cause we had a completely different conversation over there. but you can also find me on Instagram at miss_kms or katherinemackenziesmiths.com 

[00:28:38] Amazing. I'll put all those links in the show notes below. But I just really appreciate you coming on and having such a transparent conversation. I think it's always good when we get together 'cause we just tell it how it is, and I love that.

[00:28:48] No, thank you so much for having me. I've just loved this so much. We need to do it more often.

[00:28:52] Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the Email Growth Show. I hope you found valuable insights into the next steps you can take to grow your [00:29:00] email list and boost your business without relying on social media or paid ads. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to rate and review the show and share it with others.

[00:29:10] Your feedback helps me reach more female entrepreneurs just like you who are ready to say goodbye to social media and leverage email marketing to grow their business and make a bigger impact. Thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode.