#awinewith Elisha Casagrande
MEET Elisha
Elisha is the Founder of Feel Be Look.
Find Elisha here:
Feel Be Look website and Instagram @feelbelook @elishacasagrande.
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:08):
Let's do it, Elisha. I'm
Elisha Casagrande (00:11):
So excited.
Danielle Lewis (00:12):
I'm so excited too. Thank you so much for being here on Spark tv. We have known each other for forever, I think. So
Elisha Casagrande (00:21):
Long. I couldn't even tell you when. Oh, our first interaction. It would've been years and years ago, and my business has changed tenfold since then. Oh
Danielle Lewis (00:29):
My God. Yeah. Same yours. I think we met you back in the blogging days. We were bloggers. Love it.
Elisha Casagrande (00:39):
Oh my gosh. That's
Danielle Lewis (00:40):
So good. Well, let's kick things off by sharing that story. So how did you get to actually starting your own business? Was there a career first? Did you drive straight into business? Where are you at today? Tell us all the things.
Elisha Casagrande (00:54):
Oh, how much wine do we have? Yeah, that's
Danielle Lewis (00:55):
Right. Oh my God. Full glass. I'm ready to go. I should have brought the bottle.
Elisha Casagrande (00:59):
Oh, I know, right? It's been the longest journey, and as you said, it started out, I guess where I am now, started out with blogging. So essentially from school, I went and studied interior design, and I actually worked as an interior designer for quite a while, but I started a fashion blog because I just loved fashion. And so I had that going on the side, and I thought, I've always been a really creative person. Let's just see if this fills my cup up. And essentially it didn't. I mean, I still love interior design, but the industry in itself, which just wasn't for me. So I found myself working more so on my blog at every given chance that I had. So I thought, you know what? There's got to be something here. Maybe I'm more into fashion than I am interiors. So from that point, I went and studied fashion styling and the light bulbs went off. I was like, you know what? This is what I am meant to do. So I pretty much from the get go, just went straight into my own freelance business. I've always been someone who, from the get go from a young age said, I could never work for someone. I can't handle when someone tells me what to do. And I'm still like that. To this day,
Danielle Lewis (02:11):
The whole mark of a great entrepreneur just hates authority.
Elisha Casagrande (02:15):
Exactly. I'm such a good delegator, but when someone tells me what to do, I'm like, oh, okay,
Danielle Lewis (02:20):
I know about this.
Elisha Casagrande (02:24):
And you know what? I think naivety plays into that as well. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. So I had this little blog on the side, and that just kind of chimed away. It was nothing. It was just like a little passion project, which I copped photos on, and then I just dove straight in. I went straight into all elements of styling because there is so many different elements. There's commercial styling, editorial runway, there's corporate, there's personal styling. So I kind of dip my hands into everything, and I guess you need to figure out what do I actually really want to do in this space? And I found my true passion in personal styling. It just lit me up so much. So I spent a good few years just doing that, solely doing that, doing personal styling, consultations, like shopping, sorry, not online. I transitioned into online shopping, but it was just going to shopping centers and whatnot. At that stage, very old school dream. There was no dream
Danielle Lewis (03:20):
For a living because I want that job,
Elisha Casagrande (03:23):
It sounds it. But honestly, I think I've got my PTSD TD now because I just cannot go into a shopping center now. So I actually was one of the first people that I know of to transition into online shopping. I was like, I love it. Filled me up so much, but I can't go back to a shopping center. I just can't go there. But that came later, later down the track. So I was doing all the wardrobe edits and whatnot, and I was having these conversations with my clients, and one of the common themes that I heard quite a lot was, it must be so easy, or You're so lucky to be you. Everything just looks good on you, dah, dah, dah, dah. And I thought, well, you know what? I actually work really hard behind the scenes to I guess look like this, but nobody's seeing this side of it.
(04:09):
I actually put a lot of effort into my nutrition. I exercise most days per week, but I guess I'm not showing that. And this is kind of when Instagram and whatnot started. And I thought, well, this will be a great opportunity to showcase maybe that side of it. So I was showing little snaps of my personal styling business, and then I just naturally started showing what I was eating and what I was doing. And I found that a lot of my clients, when you naturally care about how you look on the outside, I think it's normal to care somewhat about how you feel on the inside. And I thought, I'm having these conversations with these women and they all feel the same. They want to look good on the inside and out. And I thought, well, there might be something here. I'm really passionate about all areas, but how the heck can this intertwine? How can I combine all of these things? And for the longest time, that remained the biggest mystery to me. It just did. My head in, I kept thinking, you know what? It's like they say, you need to really niche down. You need to just focus on one area. And I thought, but I can't. I'm so passionate about fashion. I'm so passionate about nutrition, about wellness, about health. I want to do them all and
Danielle Lewis (05:21):
Do it all. Yeah, yeah.
Elisha Casagrande (05:22):
And I just could not for the life of me separate into just one area. And so it kind of evolved in that way. I went from my personal styling business to then studying health coaching, which was focused a lot around, it's not just nutrition. A lot of people think it's just nutrition related, but it actually focuses on the 12 key areas that I guess really bring joy into your life. That's career relationships, your friendships, even finance to some degree. Not that I would ever call myself a master in finance, but all these areas contribute to how you feel essentially. So I did my health coaching qualification, and then I just thought, you know what? I'm just going to go and study personal training. So I had two kids under my belt at this time, just I would not recommend it to anybody. Oh my gosh.
Danielle Lewis (06:14):
Well, I dunno how you do it.
Elisha Casagrande (06:16):
And by this stage, I was still working. I've kept my business the entire time I had launched an e-commerce business in this time that completely folded. It was very much a fail, however,
Danielle Lewis (06:30):
Right? Learning period learning, I love this.
Elisha Casagrande (06:34):
However, I learned so much from that experience. And so I had all these things going on at once. And I would honestly say within the last maybe three years, everything has finally started to fall into place. So I felt like the first 30 years of my life, I was just thinking running around a chuck whose head's been cut off. I'm like, what am I doing? I've got these things that I feel like I'm really good at and want to share, but how on earth do they all relate? And how can I bring this into a service? And I sought out lots of mentoring and help to be able to do that. And I finally think I found my little special space where I've been able to combine all three elements. So now I specialize in fashion, nutrition, and wellbeing, and I help women feel confident both on the inside and out. And oh, it lights me up so much. But I tell you what, it took the longest time to get here.
Danielle Lewis (07:30):
You know what? And I love it so much because I obviously follow along on you must be
Elisha Casagrande (07:35):
Tired keeping up with all of it.
Danielle Lewis (07:39):
Totally, totally. But it's so cool because do you know what? I don't think I follow anybody else who shows up as much as you do. I am just blown away. I find it really hard. I find keeping up my energy and showing up online and doing all of those things, I really struggle with it. And I even, I've dabbled in some one-on-one coaching and all of those things, and I'm like, you know what? I can't do it. I can't do it. It's too hard. And I see you show up every day and share what you are doing. And I'm like, holy crap. And I think the thing that I've realized is exactly what you said is you love it. This lights you up. This is not just a business. This is actually what you were meant to do.
Elisha Casagrande (08:23):
And it's funny you say that because I must admit, I would say maybe the last 12 months I've felt really lost in the online space. I've been consistent in the fact that I do show up. But you know how you can just tell that somebody's off? And I definitely lost my spark there. I lost my love for it. But from chatting to so many people, I think that was such a common occurrence through everything that we've been through. And I just found that I was focusing too much on the wrong, I guess, metrics for my business. I got sucked into the comparison. And then the looking at the likes and followers, and these days, it's so hard to build or grow online. And when you are measuring those metrics alone, it just becomes really defeating and it's so easy to give up. So again, I sought out a mentor and she really helped me to focus my and divert my attention elsewhere.
(09:15):
And since doing that, I've just really found the love for it. Again, I'm consistently showing up again, but really enjoying it. This time for so long, I felt like I was using socials, I guess, to prove myself, to prove that I know what I'm talking about. This is why you should work with me, this is what I'm doing. You can do this too, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. But that was coming from a place, I guess, of forced and talking about sales and wine, everything just felt forced. Every time I logged into the app, it was like, how can I sell myself today? What can I do to prove that I can help women do this? But now, honestly, I just come from a totally different perspective. And I don't know if that shows on my socials, but it feels so different, and it's allowed me to fall in love with it again, because I definitely did lose my love for it there.
Danielle Lewis (10:04):
And it's really important, I think, to reflect on that when you're having those feelings kind of take a step back a little bit. And rather than just pushing through and going, I've just got to keep doing and keep going, keep going. It's like, why isn't it working? What is out of flow? What's out of alignment? Why are things not feeling right? And there's usually a reason. It is usually, yeah, you, you're focusing on the wrong thing. You're not focusing on the end customer or the value that you provide. You're focusing in on that, but you do need to actually make space for that and make time for it.
Elisha Casagrande (10:39):
Oh, hugely. And I think it was at the end of last year, I took maybe three months off, which is the, I know that sounds like nothing, but that is the longest I've ever taken off. Before that I had not taken a week off socials. And my husband can't stand social media, so he was always in the back of my head going, just get off there. You're not enjoying it. You don't need it. Most of your work comes from your email list anyway, and from referrals. So what are you doing on there? And I knew his side of it, but I also thought to myself, it's so important this day and age when you're a personal brand, but people need to know you. I have to be on here. There's no way about it. And as much as I hate that, I just have to roll with it. You've got to play the game, I think.
Danielle Lewis (11:24):
Yeah. But you're spot on. I love that you just said the bulk of your sales comes from email marketing or the email list. I know you do a daily pep talk, don't
Elisha Casagrande (11:33):
You? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And I've only started that within the last, I'm coming up to a year now. So every damn day I write an email, and I've been doing this for, as I said, coming up to 12 months. In all honesty, it's become journaling for me now. So in the beginning I thought, oh gosh, this is a lot of work. I dunno if I can commit to this. Prior to this, I couldn't even send one once a week. I would sit there and pick my brains, and I'm like, oh, there's just no inspiration or motivation coming today. But now it's become honestly my favorite part of the day. So I sit down, I grab my coffee, and now it just takes about 20 minutes and it's just whatever comes to my mind, whatever I'm doing that day, how can I guess tweak that to be helpful for my email list, but also refer back to what I'm doing and why I can help them with that problem? And it lights me up so much. So I enjoy that. And that's where I focus most of my, I guess, marketing energy and efforts, which I believe is paying off. I measured all my successes and whatnot today, and the stats are there, so I'm just going to keep doing it, enjoying it. So that's what matters, right?
Danielle Lewis (12:43):
Yeah. Well, and I love it so much because I think I was creating this kind of outline for a course for creators yesterday,
(12:53):
And I get advertised too because when I'm in influencer marketing, I get advertised too by all of the online experts. And it's all like if you're not posting a reel four times a day, if you're not on Instagram, I'm like, Instagram is not a business strategy. It is one channel. It is one tactic that's not a business. And I just get so blown away by how people obsess over it. And I totally agree with you. We are all personal brands now, especially as business owners. Super important to be in all the places and be sharing your story and making that human connection. But you really do have to actually understand where your customer is and what provides value for them and what converts the best for your business. So I do love that you have kind of found that and found the right approach as well, something that you actually love doing that's actually working for your business as well.
Elisha Casagrande (13:44):
And it's so easy to get sucked into that, isn't it? Because there's TikTok, and I guess that's the best example because that's the newest, I guess, biggest platform at the moment. And so I kept thinking, oh God, maybe I should just jump on there. And I'm like, you know what? No other moms at school or anybody who I know of is on TikTok. I'm not on TikTok, so why would I go on TikTok? That's my market. There's no reason for me to go on TikTok. And the realization came is when I was chatting to the other moms at school, I've got two kids. And so we often have chats, and so many of them aren't on social media at all.
Danielle Lewis (14:19):
A
Elisha Casagrande (14:20):
Lot of them aren't on Instagram, A lot of them aren't on Facebook. So I just rattled my brain. I was like, you know what? That's my audience. If they're not on social media, what am I doing spending all this time and energy? So I kept thinking, well, what can I do? I know that they get emails all the time, and a lot of them have their own businesses and whatnot, so they're on their computers. So I think that's going to be my best strategy. And I haven't looked back since. It's amazing. And it feels like, I think that know and trust is easily more established when you are chatting to people every day and you're in their inbox at 9:00 AM in the morning every single day. They know they're going to hear from you. It just feels more personal.
Danielle Lewis (14:59):
And I think that, again, it's that showing up. It is that, Hey, you have given me your email address, which is actually super, it's a commitment. It's a commitment because we get so many emails these days and you said, I'm making a commitment to you that I'm going to show up in your inbox at nine o'clock every day, and you do, which is absolutely incredible.
Elisha Casagrande (15:21):
Oh, don't get me wrong. Some days it's a big, long, other days it's like, you know what guys? I've got a couple of words for you. Here's a quote.
Danielle Lewis (15:30):
That's all I've got. And that's good though. I think that that just is also, that's just life energy. That is, we ebb and flow. Some days I've got something amazing to share, and other days it's like, I would like to stay in bed all day. Thank you.
Elisha Casagrande (15:43):
Exactly. And I'm very honest in that. I just sort of say, you know what? This has happened. I had a car accident this week. I'm really not feeling it. But here's something I heard today. I hope it resonates with you. That's it. We don't need to pretend to be somebody we are not. And I think for the longest time I did that, I'm only, I think recently working on, I call myself a recovering perfectionist, and it's been a very long, I guess, journey with trying to let go of that perfectionism. And I think that's a lot of the reason why I couldn't stand socials for so long and why it didn't feel good to me, because I just kept trying to be someone that I wasn't. And it's not like I was showing up inauthentically or not in a genuine way because I always was, but I was only showing the really polished bits.
(16:33):
And I guess they say that Instagram is a highlight reel, and you know what it is. And a lot of the time before I would post something, I would go and clean the background and make it all look really nice. And I'm like, you know what? This just isn't my reality. I've got two kids. I had two dogs. It's a dog's breakfast, so to speak around here. So I think people need to see that. And once I started letting go of that need to be perfect, and I think that comes to with the industry that I'm in as well, a lot of people say, oh, you must always feel the need to look good. And I did feel that pressure for a long time, but now I'm just so confident in who I am and what I can do for other women that it just doesn't phase me anymore.
Danielle Lewis (17:15):
Yeah, I love that so much. So why women? Why did you choose to focus on supporting women as the core of your business?
Elisha Casagrande (17:24):
Oh, I love that question. I did work. I did do men styling admittedly for a little while there. But to be honest, the entire reason I stopped doing it was because when I started marketing online, I was just attracting the wrong audience. And it was just sleazy guys, I think that would see a photo of you on Instagram. And I had a lot of inquiries come through saying, can you come over and edit my wardrobe? And I was like, oh God. I know.
Danielle Lewis (17:55):
Well, that would've been confronting.
Elisha Casagrande (17:58):
And you know what? I'm sure a lot of the men were genuine in their request, and I did do a couple and they were fine, but it just didn't sit right with me. And I'm such a big believer in trusting your gut instinct and your intuition, and it just didn't light me up working with women did. So I thought, there's someone in this space for you, but it's just not me. And maybe that's how I niched down in a sense. But yeah, I just thought, you know what? I can't go there.
Danielle Lewis (18:32):
But I love that. So I think you don't have to be all things to all people. And I think the fact that where you've gotten to is we've just talked about how well you show up and how consistently. And I think that is a progression of overtime of going, Nope, that's not for me. Nope, that's not for me. This
Elisha Casagrande (18:49):
Is, oh, hugely. I feel like I spent so long doing that. And don't get me wrong, like I said, I dipped my hands into everything at the start, and I had to do that to figure out what it was that I enjoyed, plus what I was also good at. And yeah, that took time. It took quite a long time. But I feel like I've finally got that now. And I guess the confidence that comes with that is immeasurable.
Danielle Lewis (19:16):
And I love that idea as well because in the highlight reel, we do see so much of find your passion. And I see so many people who get hung up on, they're like, I don't know what my thing is. I haven't found my thing. And you're the second person I've spoken to this week who's like, I tried everything. I
Elisha Casagrande (19:35):
Just,
Danielle Lewis (19:36):
I'll do this, I'll do this. No, don't like that. Don't like that. And actually do the work and try the things. There's so many people who think that they've got to work somewhere for one to two years so that it looks good on their LinkedIn profile. And I'm like, no, you've just got to find what you love doing.
Elisha Casagrande (19:51):
Oh my gosh, my resume looks terrible. I was at this job for six months. I was at this for three months. I had, by the time I was, admittedly, I've had my own business for I think 12, 13 years now. But before that, it's a mile long. The list of places that I worked in. And my mom and dad used to say, what are you doing? You're just always jumping, jumping, jumping. And I think the clarity came for me. Have you heard a human design
Danielle Lewis (20:16):
More recently? Yes. Everyones talking about it at the moment, and I've not explored much about it at all.
Elisha Casagrande (20:22):
Oh, you would love it. So I'm what they call a manifesting generator, which is a multi-passionate person. Amazing. And I went and did my human design reading and found out all about it. And essentially that was my purpose. My purpose in life was to come here and do everything so that I could figure out what I wanted to do, combine those things, and then that would be my unique, essentially offering. And I just feel like I could not put that into words even better, how true that was for me, because for the longest time I just thought, what am I doing? I'm so flaky and just moving around and can't sit on something. But now I can see so clearly how it all intertwined and how I use, I guess bits from every single job that I had throughout my life to what I'm doing today. So I am so grateful for everything that I did in the past.
Danielle Lewis (21:15):
And I think it's tough because the majority of the way we're brought up is to go through school for a period, go through uni for a period, get a good job, get a promotion, buy the house. There seems to be a path. And when you stray from that path and you explore a little bit, sometimes you kind of feel like you're not doing it right. You feel like you do get resistance from other people and you feel like, yeah, you're flaky, or you're this or you're that, or you're doing it wrong or you haven't found your thing. And I think just some of us are a bit more that way inclined. We need to experiment a little bit more. We need to have a few things on the go. We are passionate about multiple niches, and it's that and being okay with that, that helps us show up to our customers.
Elisha Casagrande (22:03):
And you know what? There's so much pressure too. There's so much pressure from society I guess, as a whole, but even your family and friends, I was so thankful that my husband was so supportive in everything that I did that he's like, you know what? Everything you've really done has worked out in some strange way for you, so I'm just going to trust that you know what you're doing, and I'm so thankful for it. Now. He's like, okay, I'm so glad I trusted you. But there was moments there where, oh gosh, I've just gotten a lot of hot water and lost a lot of our money and it was awful. But I tell you what the lessons that we learned from that tenfold.
Danielle Lewis (22:40):
Totally. And I think sometimes there's nothing like going through it yourself. I know that everyone's like find a mentor who's done it before and learn from their mistakes. And some of us just need to make our own mistakes.
Elisha Casagrande (22:54):
Oh, I couldn't agree more. The lessons I've learned is, but you know what? I wouldn't ever take them back. I don't regret them at all. As much as we've learned, as much as we've lost oodles of money in the past,
Danielle Lewis (23:08):
You can always make more.
Elisha Casagrande (23:09):
You know what? I think I can see the lessons now, and I'm sure I'm not the only person or entrepreneur that has failed and lost lots of money and look at all the big guns out there. I'm sure they've got better stories than what I do. So I think it's part of the process.
Danielle Lewis (23:26):
Absolutely. And it's really interesting, I think, and I dunno if this is a female thing, but we sit there and go the failures, and we lost all this money and we made this mistake, and yes, we learned from it. But then you see these so-called unicorns who've raised billions of dollars who aren't making any money, and they're just continuing to spend money, and we're all going, oh my God, they're amazing. Follow them. So it's a little bit contradictory, I think.
Elisha Casagrande (23:53):
Oh, it's, gosh. Yeah. It's sad really, isn't it, when you think of it like that. And it does tend to be women, which is, yeah, I think we're definitely our own worst critic.
Danielle Lewis (24:03):
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, in that vein then, have there been along the 13 years of business, any major challenges that you did at the time you were like, oh my God, this is it. Maybe not it, but this is horrendous and learnings that have helped you build a better foundation for your business?
Elisha Casagrande (24:24):
I think burnout would be one.
Danielle Lewis (24:30):
I think a lot of people can relate to that right now.
Elisha Casagrande (24:32):
Yeah, it was after my first child and I was just, I guess selfish in a way. I had a baby quite young, and I just wasn't prepared to give up what I had. I didn't want to give up my businesses, and so I was trying to juggle all of the things. And I ended up with quite severe adrenal fatigue, chronic stress, bedridden, bedridden for the longest time. And that taught me I think quite a lot, that I am not indestructible and that without my health, I am absolutely nothing to my business. So that would probably be one of the things that has, I don't think it's, I'm very much a go getter naturally anyway, and I'm someone who kind of thrives on doing lots of things at once. I like to say that I have this energizer bunny type of energy that's just, I don't know where it comes from, but it does taper eventually. There
Danielle Lewis (25:31):
Is a
Elisha Casagrande (25:31):
Limit. I've tested that limit to what that is, and I know that now though. And I can start to feel when that burnout comes on. And so I have the strategies now in place to ensure that I don't end up there again. So that for one, I think would be the biggest thing that I've learned.
Danielle Lewis (25:48):
Well, and do you have any strategies that you can share with people who might be listening in who are kind of going, oh my God, I think I'm there.
Elisha Casagrande (25:55):
Oh, absolutely. Ever. Nobody wants to hear them. But my first and foremost, the thing that worked, I guess the most effective and quickly for me giving up coffee.
Danielle Lewis (26:08):
Oh, I don't want to hear that. I
Elisha Casagrande (26:09):
Know, I know. I was the same. Oh,
Danielle Lewis (26:12):
Wow. But that's really interesting.
Elisha Casagrande (26:14):
I was a two to three coffee a day kind of girl. That's what kept my energy up. So I thought, but I think you hear about burnout and you hear these horror stories of it taking three to four months to bounce back. The second I gave up coffee, it was within, I'd say two weeks, I started to really notice a massive improvement. So don't get me wrong, I went to decaf, which isn't exactly caffeine free, but that's what I had to do. I was so heavily addicted it. So coffee is my absolute, anyone, all of my clients who suffer with chronic stress and burnout, I say, I know you're going to hate me, but even just do it for a week, and that will be enough to reset your adrenals and just get them feeling happy again, coffee. And then the other thing is diaphragmatic breathing.
Danielle Lewis (27:01):
Oh, okay. I love this very board.
Elisha Casagrande (27:05):
So a lot of us walk around shallow breathing, so we breathe a lot just through our chest. And you'll notice now you're like, oh, I
Danielle Lewis (27:13):
Know. I'm literally sitting here starting to concentrate. And actually it's great.
Elisha Casagrande (27:19):
However, if you look at a child, and it's only because I have two kids that you notice that children breathe through their belly, their diaphragmatic breathing. And so we lose that as we become adults, I think, unless we're really conscious of it. And so what diaphragmatic breathing is, is just breathing deep down into your belly, which I think we forget to do. So it's taking a longer exhale than you do an inhale. So say you take an inhale for four breaths, and then you take that exhale out for say, eight breaths, but you breathe so deep down into your belly, which feels extremely difficult to do if you don't do it. And for so long I was just like, oh my God. I was like,
Danielle Lewis (28:00):
It's almost like you're making yourself hyperventilate if you don't breathe in your belly. And
Elisha Casagrande (28:05):
That's what we're essentially walking around doing. We're all sort of sitting there just shallow breathing, and there's so many negative health benefits of doing it. So I found there was quite a other few things that I changed within my diet and lifestyle, like acupuncture and herbal, not herb. Well, oh yeah, you can take herbal teas, but I took a lot of liquid type herbs that specifically target your adrenals and stress. But I would say if you want two never fails that are going to work extremely quickly, it would be the combination of giving up caffeine and diaphragmatic breathing.
Danielle Lewis (28:39):
Wow, that's awesome. And it's like, you know what I love about that is you can do that today. It costs you $0 to make those two changes.
Elisha Casagrande (28:50):
I know. And how easy is it to breathe? But we just forget to do it. It's just something that we don't pay attention to, and it's free essentially, and it's something that we can utilize. So what it does it, I guess, calms your nervous system down and just tells your nervous system that what, although you've got emails and it massive to do list and so much stuff to do, it's okay. You're actually okay. You're safe and your body is safe, and it's the quickest and most efficient way to tell your body that you're not in that flight or fight response.
Danielle Lewis (29:22):
Yeah. Wow. Well, I'm glad you didn't mention wine, even though I'm sure it's on the list.
Elisha Casagrande (29:28):
I honestly, I'm very much back to coffee, very much back to wine. So if anybody is suffering with burnout, just know that it's temporary. That's the only thing that got me through. I was like, you know what can do this? If it's short term, it's not going to be forever.
Danielle Lewis (29:46):
But that's interesting, isn't it? In and of itself, it's like any of these things that we put in place, it doesn't have to be for the next 50 years of your life, just give yourself these little resets. But if you kind of don't reset, then you just end up struggling and burning out for a long period of time.
Elisha Casagrande (30:02):
And it's the most common, I guess, worry that I hear amongst all of my clients. I say, well, let's try this, dah, dah, dah. And they're like, yeah, but I don't want to live a life without those things. And I'm like, you know what? I so get that. I am that person too, but tell yourself that it's only temporary and it's not forever. In 30 years, you're not going to be sitting here still doing the same thing and the benefits of doing that, so exponential.
Danielle Lewis (30:29):
Yeah, no, I love that so much. That's amazing. And so I had a thought because I listened to your podcast, and I know you have a co-host on the podcast, and I'm not sure if that's kind of an arm of the business where she's a co-founder or if it's just a co-host scenario. But I'm super interested in other people in your business that you work with and kind of how you've sort of, I guess, let go of things in the business and collaborated with other people and how that process has worked for you. We've got, in the smart community, people tend to be a little bit more early stage. So they're right at that stage where they're doing everything themselves and potentially burning out. So I'm always interested to hear how it's been bringing other people into the business and experimenting with that over time.
Elisha Casagrande (31:17):
Well, movement of Mimosas, which is the podcast that you're referring to, that's our podcast. It's a separate business from our own personal businesses. So we both have our own personal business, and it's completely separate. And it's funny that you say that because we had these big, great big plans for movement and mimosas, but because we are so stuck in our business at the moment, and we're so bogged down with our to-do list in our business, we are finding it really hard to be able to find the time and energy and space to be able to make that business grow. And you know what? They say that if you half-assed one business, there's no way it's going to take off. So for now, we've sort of collaborated and got our heads together and said, well, we've got this vision. But I think what needs to happen first and foremost is just to continue doing what we're doing, continue with the podcasting, forget about the growth of the business, but focus on the growth, I guess, of the listeners. So just keep doing what we're doing, keep podcasting, because that in itself isn't too difficult for us to manage. There's been stages, of course, where it is, podcasting is a lot of work.
Danielle Lewis (32:27):
Yes.
Elisha Casagrande (32:28):
Oh my goodness. It's so much work, isn't it? And I think that's so heavily misunderstood. It seems so glamorous and oh wow, you've got a podcast. But a, it is a lot of
Danielle Lewis (32:40):
Work. And it's really interesting too, because the way people talk about podcasting now is Instagram. It's like, well, if you just have a podcast, obviously business will take off. It's like a, it's a lot of work. And B, it doesn't just happen overnight. You don't just launch a podcast and you have a million listeners and then your business goes crazy. It takes time. It's
Elisha Casagrande (33:02):
A huge amount of work with honestly no real reward back. We don't make money on our podcast because we've chosen not to have ads. One because we can't stand when we are listening to a podcast and an ad comes in, I'm like, oh God. And so we don't essentially make money from it, however we love it, and it lights us up and we, oh gosh, the feedback of it makes us so happy. And so it's our passion project, and we both know that. However, where that leads us into who knows, but I guess the key thing to think about when bringing somebody else into a business is you are not just juggling your time anymore. So that's the biggest, I think, struggle with movement and mimosas, is that we are both moms and we both, it's not just our schedules that we're working with. We're working with our kids' schedules. I'm working with my husband's schedule, so it's four or five schedules trying to, and now we interview guests, so we're also working with their schedule. And yeah, you've got to be organized. You have to be prepared, otherwise it would just all unravel.
Danielle Lewis (34:10):
Yeah, and it's one thing I've found that's helping is batching content, because you're exactly right. If you are working with anybody else, it's really hard to do things. And then if it's a weekly or a monthly or whatever, and if you're doing it kind of on demand, there will be things that come up and then you've missed schedule or whatever. So I am finding that having a little bank of them to push out is the only way that it works for me.
Elisha Casagrande (34:39):
Yeah, we try to have about a month's worth in advance, and then if we get given the opportunity, so we'll go and record an episode. If we get given the opportunity to do two at once, we'll always take that opportunity. So it does, I don't know if it would be possible if we were just doing it off the cuff and let's record one this week. I just don't think it would have the same effectiveness as what it does now. Plus it builds that like no, and trust people know that every Wednesday you've got a podcast dropping and they begin to expect that from you. So I think that's really important too. I think consistency as an overall message from me is yes,
Danielle Lewis (35:18):
I love that. But that's
Elisha Casagrande (35:19):
One thing
Danielle Lewis (35:21):
You're exactly right though, because that is I think, how you build a connection with your audience and your potential customers. So I love consistency
Elisha Casagrande (35:29):
As
Danielle Lewis (35:30):
Of advice. So you've been amazing. Let's close on perhaps one piece of wisdom or advice that you might give somebody who is super early in their business. Perhaps it's something that you wish you knew starting out, or perhaps something that might keep them going when they are feeling a little bit overwhelmed.
Elisha Casagrande (35:53):
I would say focus all of your time, energy, and effort into creating conversations.
(36:02):
So a lot of the time, I think where I went wrong previously, well in previous years is that I spent so much of my energy, especially marketing wise, focusing on the wrong metrics. I was focusing on following and likes and even retention. I have a business that my retention is so different to everybody else's. It's very similar to say, a sleep apnea app or a dating app. Our retentions aren't to keep people on. That is not the purpose. If I have a client who is with me for a long time, I am not good at my job.
Danielle Lewis (36:39):
Wow.
Elisha Casagrande (36:39):
And so the whole point of my business is for people to leave.
Danielle Lewis (36:44):
Wow. Oh my God, that's really interesting.
Elisha Casagrande (36:47):
And so as crazy as that sounds the same as sleep apnea, I was listening to a podcast and it was a interview with somebody who owns a sleep apnea app, and he's like, we want people to drop off the app because then we know that our product works. And so I think you need to know your retention, what your goal actually is. My goal is to make an impact, and retention doesn't need to be a part of that. So I was just measuring for the longest time, the wrong things. I was measuring, how long are people staying on? When I started to change my focus to, okay, well, how many conversations can I create with new people, with followers who have been following me for the longest time, but they're silent followers who aren't interacting? How can I start a conversation with them? And the instant I started to focus on that is the instant that my business just instantly started to progress. And now the one thing that I do all of the time is I've got a little note in my phone and I keep a tally of how many new conversations I start each week.
Danielle Lewis (37:52):
Wow, that is so cool. And how do you, so tactical. So are you literally just reaching out to people in their dms email? How do you actually start conversations?
Elisha Casagrande (38:04):
It is strategic and it needs to be strategic. I mean, marketing is strategic. As much as I don't like that element of it, it's almost like business. I guess you need to think of, let's just say you had the cure for cancer and you knew that you could help so many people. If you are not out there loudly and proudly screaming that you've got this cure for cancer, you can help people, then what are you doing? I know that I can help so many women improve the way that they feel, be and look and so think, well, I'm doing everyone a disservice if I'm not out there marketing myself.
Danielle Lewis (38:40):
Totally.
Elisha Casagrande (38:40):
So I focus a lot on simple call to actions, which so many people don't do. So in my posts on Instagram and even in my emails, I'll blatantly say, if you need help and support with this, please reach out. My inbox is always open. It's not salesy at all. It's just a conversation. I'm just saying, I'm here. I'm available. I want to help you, let me help you. And so I do a lot of that. I've also found what's really effective is to say for social media, if you're doing a post, then popping your poster up, making the process super easy for you to be able to start the conversation. So on stories, for instance, I'll add my poster to stories to say, I've got a new post. And then I'll follow that up with say a poll, is anyone suffering with this? Or anyone, does anyone need help with this? Let me know. All you have to do is click yes or no. And then those who click yes, I will reach out to them and send them a message and say, I saw that you clicked. Yes. And while I've still got the time and capability to do that, I think that is so important to do, especially when you have a personalized business. People want to interact with you. So I would say that would be it. Creating conversations is where my sole focus goes now.
Danielle Lewis (39:55):
I love that so much because I'm obsessed at the moment with creating communities. I'm pivoting my So Scrunch, which has been around for 10 years, we closed the agency side of it at the end of last year. And we are moving into basically being a global community for influencer marketing professionals. And so I love that key piece of advice because I think that's where the future is. I think that communities conversation relating to people on a human level is going to be where every business needs to play.
Elisha Casagrande (40:28):
And you know what? Since I've started doing that, the amount of people who have been following me since I started Instagram, they've never reached out. They've said, oh my gosh, I'm so thankful you've gotten in contact with me and I didn't even expect you to get in contact with me. I'm like, I am human. I am the person behind this account. I'm sitting there in my land room in my undies writing to you. So good. It's not this robot behind this account, it's me. And I don't think people expect that anymore. So I think if you can let them know that this is you behind the account and to genuinely care, then I think that's the key to it. And you know what, from these conversations, you get so many insights into what people are struggling with, how you can market to that. Yeah, it's absolutely, I think, the best thing you can do for your business.
Danielle Lewis (41:25):
Amazing. Well, thank you so much for spending your time and having a wine with us today. Cheers.
Elisha Casagrande (41:32):
Cheers. Cheers. You don't have to ask me twice.
Danielle Lewis (41:35):
That's right. I love that. No, I just am so grateful for you spending the time and being honest and sharing your story and your wisdom with the Spark community. That is absolutely incredible. So thank you so much.
Elisha Casagrande (41:49):
Oh, it's been the biggest pleasure. And you know what? Us finally having a long-winded conversation, it means, yeah. The most to me.
Danielle Lewis (41:57):
No, it's so good. It's been a long time coming.
Elisha Casagrande (42:01):
It sure has.
