EPISODE SUMMARY

Rachel Eubanks is a copywriter and the founder of Inspire to Engage, a company helping businesses serve customers well through their written content. In this episode of Storyhouse, Rachel shares how she built her business during her sons’ nap-time hours and shows us how she still uses some of those early boundaries and principles to lead and sustain a standout business today.

IN THIS EPISODE: 

• How Rachel built her business while homeschooling her two boys and the boundaries she put in place so she didn’t grow too quickly and disrupt her family life
• The challenges of entrepreneurship and motherhood and what Rachel does to maintain a healthy work-life balance 
• What Rachel thinks through when she’s trying to decide if she should take on a client who may not be a good fit (and the questions she asks to determine if the project is worth pursuing)
• Why Rachel has said NO to social media and what she does instead to market herself and build client relationships 
• Rest, technology, and AI in marketing 
• Consistency in business and what Rachel does to nurture existing clients 

TRANSCRIPT: 

[00:00:00] Lindsay: Rachel Eubanks is a copywriter and the founder of Inspire to Engage a company helping businesses serve customers well through their written content. Rachel believes that words build relationships and relationships build loyal customers. Rachel’s a mom of two boys in happily married to her college sweetheart.

She’s based in Huntsville, Alabama, and I’m so excited to have you here today with us. Thank you for joining us, Rachel.

[00:00:27] Rachel: I am very excited to be here as well. I’m a little bit nervous if I’m honest, but I’m extremely excited as well. Well, good, good.

[00:00:35] Lindsay: Why don’t you just. Start off with maybe, hopefully the easy question is just give us a little bit of the, the lay of the land of what it is that you do.

I mean, inspire to engage you help you help customers with their written content, but what does that mean?

[00:00:52] Rachel: So what that means is I write sales and marketing content for my clients, and that is a range [00:01:00] of things. We know that shoppers do not just go to a store anymore, so that means I write. Content for websites.

I definitely write content for social media because that’s where shoppers are getting to know, like, and trust you. I also write, um, inbox content, so that’d be newsletters. Sometimes it’s a nurture sequence. Um, then I also write some of the hard, the hard print things like for pamphlets, so anything that’s going to help a business grow, more loyal customers.

I help write that. Mm-hmm. And I, I even have a couple of, of c clients that, that technically it probably falls underneath content writing. Um, it’s blog and article content. Mm-hmm. Case studies. Mm-hmm. But the reality is, is once again, that content is being used to decide, do I like what this, um, what this business is doing.

So yeah. I, I, I often just tell people I write for businesses, and then if they want to know a [00:02:00] little bit more, you know, if, if I’m mm-hmm. If I’m, you know, at the grocery store, if they wanna write a, want to know a little bit more, then I delve deeper. Yeah. I love that. My

[00:02:07] Lindsay: kids will often say, now what do I tell people when they ask what you do?

Then I always say, just tell them that I’m a marketing consultant. That’s the easiest thing that they can wrap their heads around.

[00:02:19] Rachel: I love it. My son, he was talking to one of his tutors one day and he said, oh, I forgot my period. My mom really, she does a lot of stuff with periods. She’s gonna care about that, and I thought, Okay, so is that he, he goes around and tells people, you know, my mom makes sure that there’s periods in, in, in sentences, so whatever outta the mouth of babe.

[00:02:39] Lindsay: Right. I love it. That’s so great. So how long have you been doing this? How long have you been over engage?

[00:02:46] Rachel: This is a great question, Lindsay. I believe I’m at year six or seven. I’ll tell you the reason that there’s a little bit of nuance there. I started my business when I came home to be with my boys, and it started [00:03:00] as a naptime business.

Mm-hmm. Some mothers that are listening to this are those that are working full-time and looking to move away from their current full-time position. It started as a na naptime business, something that could really give about an hour and a half to three hours a day for so. That’s why it, it has slowly, over the years, over about six years have has morphed into what I would consider is a full-time income.

Okay. Um, so that’s why there’s a little bit of like, huh. Mm-hmm. Um, six-ish years.

[00:03:35] Lindsay: Yeah. What I find fa fascinating about your answer is I. What I hear is, what I hear often out of a lot of women is kind of discounting the journey. Like, well, you know, it was a naptime business so it wasn’t really real.

Whereas a man oftentimes will step up and own that. Very much so. And so it’s, it’s always fascinating to me, and I, and I say [00:04:00] this, knowing that struggle. Mm-hmm. You know, personally knowing that struggle, like, well, is this really legitimate? Um, and so, To me, that leads me into my next question is, so as you’ve been building this for the last six or seven years, what would you say has been the hardest part of that journey?

[00:04:19] Rachel: So it does relate to what you and I were just talking about, which was growing in an intentional way. So I do wanna backtrack and say that I do not discount those nap time years. . Because, I, I, I’ll say this all the time. You don’t know what you don’t know. Like you just have to get started. We all want it to be so perfect.

We want the perfect website copy. We want the perfect offering, and the reality is, is you just have to start and sometimes you just start in the nap time. I. And so while, while I wasn’t doing full-time work, then I know that that is what was building my business. All the experiences that I have, [00:05:00] I, that plays into the work that I’m doing now.

Even though some of it’s still, it’s very different work, in fact. Mm-hmm. But it still plays into it. So the hardest part for me was to grow intentionally because I, I homeschool my two boys as well. Mm-hmm. So, I have to be very cognizant about how I grow. And the reality is, is I know that you speak to a lot of, uh, women business owners and, and, and even men, business owners, if you choose to go down the entrepreneurial life, a lot of times you are a very goal oriented person.

Like you see the, the carrot in front and you just go at a thousand miles per hour. Mm-hmm. The problem is, for me, that was then going to dis. Not destroy. That’s too strong of a word, but it was going to mess up. What I was trying to create at home, because I was a public school teacher for 13 years, and I tell people all the time, this is kind of a little joke, look, I was in the ultimate sales and marketing [00:06:00] job.

These people didn’t even wanna come to me every day. It’s not like they went to my website to buy from me or walked into my store voluntarily. They were dropped off with a on a school bus. And so, and here I am selling. Addition and subtraction of fractions. Mm-hmm. You better believe I figured out how to market and then ultimately sell my, um, offerings.

And so I tell people all the time, I, I’ve been doing marketing sales from the beginning of having a full-time, a full-time job. So all of that to say, I came home after 13 years of teaching to be with my boys. So I have tried to, to grow intentionally knowing that I did want to spend that time with them too.

It never started out to be a full-time business at the nap time level. Right. Does that make sense? Right. So all that to say is that I talk a big game, but the competitor in me, the entrepreneur in me is still like, You know, just dying, dying to race hard. But [00:07:00] that’s not, that’s not my ultimate goal right now.

One day they’ll, they’ll be older. Right.

[00:07:07] Lindsay: And I would say that the most successful entrepreneurs know that like that’s, that is the accepted tension, right, of this is what I could do, but it has to be aligned with everything else. Mm-hmm. Or it’s not gonna work. Like that’s, mm-hmm. That’s where we do set ourselves up for failures when we move forward and, you know, just say, Damn to everything else behind me.

Doesn’t matter. This is where I’m going. Mm-hmm. Well, fine. And it, it might sustain us for a year, two, three or five. And then we break. Okay. And so the, the savviest entrepreneurs get that. There is that tension. And we, as business owners, we, we have to be willing to step into that tension mm-hmm. And, and live with it and acknowledge it and.

Wrestle with it and say, okay, as a result of this, what am I building? Where am I going? What fits me the right [00:08:00] way? Has it been. You know, as, as a mom, fellow mom here as well, you know, I have four children. I too, I too spent, I spent three years in a high school. In a high school classroom. I was a high school English teacher.

Yay. I, I do not wanna do this ever again for the rest of my life. Um, but, um,

and

so, You know, fellow mom. Then I, when I went back to work full-time after our youngest was back in kindergarten, I got to the point of realizing if I’m gonna make the money and live the life that I wanna live. Mm-hmm. It’s just, I’m just, I, I need to be my own boss.

Mm-hmm. But stepping out and very intentionally building a business around my family. That’s why I decided to build my own business instead of commuting an hour to and from work every single day was because of my family. And at times that’s been hard for me to step into spaces because I wrestle with that.[00:09:00]

I’m just a mom, but I’m also a business owner. Mm-hmm. And I think that a lot of it’s my own mental game. Yes, there is. There is some of that. Being thrown on to me by others as well. But if I was being honest, I would say it’s probably more my mental gain than anybody else. Mm-hmm. But so that struggle of building something around, something as sacred as being a mom.

Mm-hmm.

How has that been for you?

[00:09:28] Rachel: Uh, this question is so exciting to me. First of all, I agree with you. I feel like that too. Oh. But, but I’m just a mom. Even though you and I know anybody that’s listening to this, we know that being parents is the greatest calling. It is the hardest, the most easy job that we’ll ever do, you know?

And, and it that, and it changes within like 30 seconds every day. Mm-hmm. All the time. But I have found something, I’ve really worked hard, and it goes back to what we’ve talked about intentionally building our business around our family. [00:10:00] I have found that, When I surround myself with really good people, you know, the same good people, no good people.

Mm-hmm. So you surround yourself, that counts your, that, that’s your customers as well, a and your colleagues. You surround yourself with people who have similar focuses, whether I don’t care if, I don’t care if they have a family or not, but they understand that you have a life outside of your business.

Great. You have to surround yourself with those people and we, I also have to believe that there are plenty of copywriters in the world for every business that needs one and wants to hire one. So if you do not, if it is a big problem between you and me, I. That I homeschool my family in the morning or that I’m going to be offline starting at 5:00 PM because we have soccer games rest of the night.

Then not to be mean, but you’re just not my client. Right? Go, go work with a, with [00:11:00] another copywriter that their hours are different than mine. Mm-hmm. That, um, you know, maybe, maybe they really do sit down and work from five to to midnight. Um, That, that’s the other thing too, is that I had to, when you first start your business, you want every client that ever comes across your, your, your computer screen.

And the reality is, is sometimes we have to take those. Mm-hmm. When you’re first starting your business, you have to take them. Right. Because you gotta have some money in the bank. Mm-hmm. And you also have to learn what makes a great client. Mm-hmm. And especially in that early season. So. But you do get, once you get a couple of really good clients underneath your belt and you get a little money in your bank account, you really do, your confidence starts to grow a little bit and you can look kindly at somebody and just say, I don’t think we’re a good fit.

Mm-hmm. And it’s nothing personal like you wish them well. Right. But not in my inbox, you know? Right. Curious. Answer your question.

[00:11:58] Lindsay: Yes. Yeah. I’m curious [00:12:00] to know, because this is something that I, this is a tension that I will step into at times because you hear that advice a lot like. Don’t, don’t take on clients that aren’t a good fit.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And that is so very true. Like mm-hmm. When you’re just getting started, that’s very idealistic advice. And it can be Exactly. I agree. It can be catastrophic to your growth as a business owner. You’ll Exactly. You be willing for a of reasons have to be willing. Exactly. Mm-hmm. But when you do it to that point, how do you personally decide this person isn’t a fit versus.

This is a challenge, like, this kind of scares me. I don’t know if I can do this project like this is, this is something I’ve never done before. Or like when you’re stepping

into an unknown,

like how do you, how do you know that you’re just not making an excuse of this isn’t a fit, versus this is something new and it’s a challenge.

[00:12:53] Rachel: Thank you. I think you hit the nail on the head with some, with asking those really good questions. Like, [00:13:00] am I just terrified because this is the biggest contract I’ve ever signed? Mm-hmm. Or am I, or am I terrified because I’ve never done this exact project? Am I terrified because I don’t have the right executive assistant under underneath me or the right team around me?

You know, if you answer yes to those questions and you have the bandwidth in your life to take on that project, then you need to take it on. Mm-hmm. You need to take it on. But there’s other things that doesn’t add up. When you start, when you start getting that feeling in your gut that like, here’s an example.

When you start to dread. Opening that email from that client, or you just sent something and they’re sending something right back, or you can’t get them to respond. But when they do respond, it’s an emergency. Like you’ve been asking for that information for two weeks, they never gave it to you. They finally give it to you, and then they say, Can we meet tomorrow to go over [00:14:00] the, the, the first draft?

Mm-hmm. All of those are red flags. Now sometimes those, sometimes those red flags do not show up until you’re in the middle of the project. And then this is where I’m just gonna be mean and say, you know what? As a business owner, you just gonna have to finish it. Mm-hmm. But, because a lot of times we don’t know that someone’s a bad, a bad client until we’re in the middle of a project.

Once we finish that project, then we can. Politely tell ourselves and in the future if they reach out to us again, you know, I’m not available. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And that’s how, that’s how you ended. I’m just not available, or, Hey, I think so and so and so and so might be a better fit for you. Mm-hmm. So I don’t know that, I don’t know that we can always sense that sense that someone’s a bad client from the beginning.

I’ve been very blessed with, with great clients. But, um, But sometimes you do get in the middle of something. Here. Here is one situation. She did not become a client of mine because she, she [00:15:00] reached out to me at about year three. So Lindsay, I had really started to gotten to get just a little bit of confidence.

You know, I’m getting past that phase of that. I’ve had to say yes to everything. But her list of what she wanted done every single week was, was about 20 items deep. Hmm. And I, here was a red flag in her email to me when she was setting up a meeting for me. She said, and these people want something like $20 an hour to do this stuff.

It’s not that hard. Mm. The only reason Lindsay I took that meeting was because she was a friend of a friend, and I told my husband going to that meeting, I think she’s a lovely person. She’ll not be a client of mine. She’ll not be a client of mine. And so I spent that meeting telling her some different opportunities, different ways that she could do it herself, and to do it quickly.

Because what I realized is from the beginning when her list was 20 [00:16:00] items deep and she was complaining that people were wanting $20 an hour, which my rate’s way more than that. Right. Right. Um, I knew right then that she wasn’t a good fit. Mm-hmm. But once again, you and I talked about whatever season your business is in.

Had that been year one, you and I both know I’d have been working for her. Okay. Right. Figuring out about a year into it or six months into it, how am I getting myself out of this, you know, out of this. And that goes into contracts and things like that. But, um, So anyway, does that answer your question about the red flag?

Yeah.

[00:16:35] Lindsay: Yeah. And I think it is just, I think it’s just that willingness to step into the narrative with yourself and explore that. Like if there’s something that gives you pause, the pause doesn’t necessarily mean jump ship. It means stop and think this through. And be willing to listen to your gut. Listen to the gut.

But you have to know what that feeling is. You have to understand what it is. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. What is [00:17:00] one thing, one piece of business advice that you wish you would’ve tuned out sooner?

[00:17:06] Rachel: Oh, I love this question actually. I love all of your questions so far. Here was something I spent a ton of time, and this is gonna sound really weird with me saying this because I’m a copywriter and I write a lot of social media for other people.

Mm-hmm. Um, the, the notion. That everybody’s marketing has to be the same. And when I first came into business, you know, what did I say, six or seven years ago? It, it was just all about social media. And at the time it was all about Instagram. Mm-hmm. Well, the reality is it’s of course, yes, most businesses need some type of presence online.

I, I, yes. I, I cannot, I can’t, you know, overstate that, but, The truth is, is that not all of us work great on social media. Mm-hmm. I love writing for other people, like to be someone else’s cheerleader comes very easy to me. [00:18:00] Mm-hmm. To be my own cheerleader is hard. So then when I’m sitting here writing social media for my own business, I.

It, it takes me hours, Lindsay hours to write for myself. In fact, it’s a great case in point about why people hire me because writing for your own self, you know this in your line of work too. Mm-hmm. Writing for yourself is the hardest. It’s like doing brain surgery on your own brain. Um, and so I know, yeah, yeah.

I know why people hire me and so I, about a year and a half ago, I told myself that I have to market myself some way that you have to in business. Mm-hmm. But I said I can either spend these hours on social media that I don’t enjoy, that I don’t get a, I don’t, here’s reality, I wasn’t getting return on it either and probably cuz I didn’t enjoy it, you know?

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Or I could join a networking group where there’s accountability and all this different stuff. I get to be in person with people. You and I both know, word of mouth [00:19:00] marketing is the highest converting form of marketing there is. Uh, and I chose to go that direction. Now I do have to say with a asterisk little warning here, that’s not for everybody.

If I have another friend that, when I mention, when I mention my networking group, like she vomits Lindsay. Mm-hmm. She is so good at social media, that’s where she wants to spend her time. You and I have talked about the fact that family, for us is very important and so. I had to make a decision of where I’m going to spend my quote unquote block of marketing time, right?

And so I chose, I chose there. So the piece of advice I would say is that, Your marketing does not have to look like everybody else’s. Mm-hmm. I would also challenge and say too, that as your family changes, as your season of life changes, as your business matures to how you market that mm-hmm. Also can change.

Mm-hmm. And probably should change, right? So everybody’s marketing does not [00:20:00] have to look the same. Really start asking yourself, what do I enjoy doing? Where I can talk about my business? What comes natural? And then I would lean into that. And especially if you’re some, if you’re somebody like you and me where we’re really strapped for time.

Mm-hmm. Everything that we do, we feel like it, it, it’s gotta be purposeful. Mm-hmm. Um, so there you go.

[00:20:23] Lindsay: Yeah. Couple years ago, I don’t know if it was maybe two years ago, I wrote a post Why I quit Instagram as a business owner. Hmm. Ooh. It was very much that realization, like, this is just not me. Same. I will just like what you just said, I will say, I say to people often, I don’t need the spotlight when I’m in a room.

I like to be against the wall, helping other people find the spotlight. That’s my job. Yeah. I don’t need it. Yes. Mm-hmm. And so, Doing anything that brings a spotlight onto me feels very just unnatural. Yes. And you know, I don’t know if it’s because I’m a Gen [00:21:00] Xer and so I, I’m not a native social media user.

Mm-hmm. I’m sure that that plays into it as well. Um, It just, it doesn’t feel like I’m building the authentic type of relationships that I really wanna build. And so I just decided, you know what? I know that the advice is for me to be on Instagram because that’s supposedly where people are. But you know what?

My audience isn’t here, so what am I doing? I’m just spinning my wheels. This is ridiculous. So I pulled the plug and it’s been the best thing ever, honestly.

[00:21:31] Rachel: I totally agree with you too. And, and, and we do say this out loud in the fact that we understand that for some businesses that’s not an option.

Right. And then that’s when you say, Hey, hire somebody that’s gonna write it for you. Mm-hmm. Um, if it bec, if it comes up very unnatural to you. But you and I were very blessed that for our, for our businesses, it, it was an option. Mm-hmm. Um, I do try to look alive on LinkedIn and I do say that phrase look alive.

Um, I do try to look alive on LinkedIn. Um, that often doesn’t mean that I’m writing. For [00:22:00] writing for myself, but I, like I said, cheering, you and I talked about cheering for someone else. Mm-hmm. Comes very easy. That’s the fun part of social media for me, not actually putting my own service and products out there.

Yeah.

[00:22:12] Lindsay: Yeah. I think that just speaks to, as a business owner, it’s really critical. That you do have a, a foundational understanding of who you are, how you work, how you operate, how you step into your space, how you invite others into your world, and you’re, and that’s a large part of the work that I

do with clients.

And if you don’t have that, not

just understanding, but intentional acknowledgement, then you wind up building something based on the scaffolding of other people.

And it just doesn’t work like they, it’s not sustainable.

No. I’m convinced that’s why we have bus so many businesses that fail within the first five years is because we’re building on other people’s scaffolding and it’s just not designed to support us.

[00:22:58] Rachel: Mm, that’s well said. I have not [00:23:00] thought about it like that. Um, let’s see.

[00:23:03] Lindsay: What about ad? So advice that you two wish you would’ve tuned out of. What about advice that you think people need to tune out of now or even tune into, like, currently? I got it.

[00:23:15] Rachel: Rest, rest, rest, rest. I’ll say it again. Rest the, um, our world.

Every gen, every generation has faced their own set of challenges. Our challenge in this generation is the constant in influx, or not influx, but the constant feed of information. And I don’t think that we recognize just how tiring that is. I think, I think we think that just because we’re watching the news or just because we’re scrolling Instagram, that we’re relaxing.

That’s, that’s just not the reality. Mm-hmm. And I also think, um, I can speak for myself here that I try to fill almost every moment of my waking day with something productive and what I have learned as a creative. [00:24:00] And I would say I would even further that and say, as an entrepreneur, you have to be creative in so many ways as an entrepreneur, entrepreneur, but so, but as a creative, I have learned that if I do not take time to have margin or white space in my own life, I don’t have anything to say.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I don’t have anything to say. The screen is blanker than blank. Mm-hmm. And then therefore I don’t serve my clients well. And if I’m, and, and as sure as heck not serving my family very well either. Mm-hmm. Um, if I am run down in ragged and so, There are, there has been a big push, or maybe I’m just following these, these entrepreneurs that have started talking about the fact that we have to be intentional with rest.

And if you can’t rest just for the sake of resting, then know that you should rest because it will make you more productive. Mm-hmm. It will make your work better. And how you choose to rest is very different. You know, for me, I really do like mindless tv. I love to turn on [00:25:00] the Golden Girls. Or MASH or, or, and just.

Laugh, just mm-hmm. It’s not productive. I’m not trying to learn anything, you know? Right. Um, for other people or, or for, or for me, for walking, being out in nature and for other people, it really, it really is that they wanna do, they wanna go kayaking or whatever. I don’t mm-hmm. The reality, we just have to get away from work.

We have to get away from work and in this, in this idea of always being productive so that we can come back from that intentional, that scheduled rest and be. Ready to like take on the world. Yeah. So lean into rest and there are more and more entrepreneurs talking about that.

[00:25:41] Lindsay: Well, yeah. I think, you know, as we understand more and more about the brain and how it’s wired, how it works, and that critical importance of carving out space just for the brain to reset and rewire and do all of that.

But to, as you mentioned earlier, you know, all business owners, all entrepreneurs, we are creators [00:26:00] and the creative. Cannot create in a, in an atmosphere that is so full of noise and activity that there’s not time to actually decide, figure out what to create and innovate. Yes. What what you have instead is just a lot of replication, duplication.

And I think we see that in businesses and in marketing, and it is because we aren’t taking the time to step out and really create space where we can find ourselves in the midst of all of that noise. So I think that it’s really expected. It’s, to me it’s like not even interesting. It’s like, well, what, what would we expect is that in the day and age where it is so noisy, I mean, it’s just new technology after new technology bombarding us.

And, and as we are absorbed into that, our pushback is we need more rest. We need more space, we need more connection with others. [00:27:00] Yes. And, but we have to, so there’s a lot of talk about it. Mm. But I don’t see. A lot of true action of what does that really mean? Maybe it does mean deleting your Facebook account or your Instagram account, or leaving your phone on the counter from 7:00 PM onward, whatever it is, like it requires, it’s not enough to talk about it.

It requires an intentionality.

[00:27:24] Rachel: Well, in fact, I have learned that the, the more the people. That I am really leaning in towards, in, into these days. And remember I talked about, I’ve, I’ve been very blessed with some really good entrepreneurial friends are those that really are not scared to say, in fact, I’ve grown to admire them when they say it at the bottom of in their signature and say things like, You know, uh, don’t respond and I don’t respond to emails after 5:00 PM or I don’t work on the weekends on Sundays or whatever.

And I typically, that was something you, you’ve talked about us not just talking about it, but beginning and intentional. About three [00:28:00] years ago, I realize that I was working seven days a week at some point. And so now I try my absolute best not to work on Sundays. Mm-hmm. I need that day of rest. I. And, and it has to be intentional.

Now, do I get it right every time? No, because sometimes my Saturdays are insane and there’s a project that just has to go out. So guess what? My Saturdays then that, then that day I don’t work. Now it’s, it’s not necessarily restful, but I am away from my computer. Mm-hmm. And so I think it starts with us having to be very clear.

With ourselves that I’m, that I’m just not good without rest. Right. And I just challenge somebody to try it. If you have not chosen a day of the week that you will not work. Here’s another thing too, Lindsay, very rarely I started this, uh, other friends, we started this about, about a year and a half ago too, that it is rare that we take meetings on Monday and Fridays.

Mm-hmm. Um, doesn’t mean we’re not working. But it just means that those days need to be a different [00:29:00] type of work. That’s another level of stress on your brain, is to be sitting in front of people. And you and I know in, in our space of needing to sit down and write and to really get into that mindset. Um, It’s difficult to do with a meeting here, and then you try to write for a second.

Right. A meeting

[00:29:17] Lindsay: there. Oh, my word. I always tell my husband, I’m like, well, I had a meeting at noon and then at two, and so essentially my day shot, like there’s there’s no productivity time sandwich then. Yes. I just can’t do it.

[00:29:28] Rachel: Yeah. So those are some things I’ve been, I’ve been put, put into my life and I, I don’t wanna say, I don’t wanna say that I’m perfect, I’m not.

But there, those are very intentional. And when I can’t, when I, and when I cannot not abide by those. I have said out loud to my husband why, like, Hey, the reason I have to work today is this, or The reason I had to take that meeting was because, That project is due and there’s six other people counting on me and it’s due Tuesday.

I had to take the meeting. Right.

[00:29:55] Lindsay: So, right. Yeah. I think the key takeaway is just [00:30:00] rest doesn’t look the same for all of us. Our tolerances are different. You know, my husband’s work schedule is vastly different from mine and he’s fine, and I’m like getting worn out just watching him. But I jokingly will lift up his shirt.

I just did last week. I lifted up his shirt. He’s like, what are you doing? I said, I’m looking for the batteries.

Like, you can’t,

you cannot be human. You must just be a robot in this fact.

[00:30:23] Rachel: Well said. Well said. That’s, that’s well said too. And I think that, I think that’s the thing. It goes back, you said something earlier about, you know, really asking ourselves those questions.

I now, I am 43. I just turned 43. And I will say that I, I’m confident out at 43, I have started picking out when I’m losing my mind. Mm-hmm. I have started picking out those little bitty things like for example, I dread coming to my computer. I, I wanna go read a fun book. Like, I, I just, and when that starts to take, take over my, my brain, the entire, like all the time, I’m like, mm-hmm.

Oh, it’s because I haven’t rested. I am [00:31:00] overwhelmed and my brain is just looking for anything else to do. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And to go work. That’s one silly little example, but. I now recognize that for 20 years I’ve been doing this. Mm-hmm. I even had that tendency as a teacher that I just wanted to get some cheap little romance book that I just knew at the end that they were gonna hate each other in the middle and love each other at the end.

I didn’t have to think as I read it, you know? Right, right. Um, so that’s a silly example, but I just challeng anybody listening that you start recognizing your own little, little bitty tendencies that. I, I don’t have enough rest. I don’t have a, I don’t have a margin or white space in my life. And then try to find some.

[00:31:38] Lindsay: I love that. All right, so as we talk about rest, as we’ve just talked about the bombardment of technology coming in, this feels like a great time for me to ask you, the copywriter who writes content for others, all of this talk, I would be remiss to not ask you what do you think about AI and what should we be thinking about when we talk about [00:32:00] it?

[00:32:02] Rachel: I had, you asked me this question six months ago. You’ve gotten a different answer. But now today I can say that I’m excited about ai. Now I’m just wanna talk about em. I’m being excited about AI for what it can do for businesses and for. As far as writing, okay. Mm-hmm. We could get into it. We don’t have time today to get into what are the applications long term.

I just wanna talk about what it can do for copywriting. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I think it’s a powerful tool. I, couple of caveats I. AI is not just taking over over cop, over copywriting. It’s happening inside of videography. It’s happening inside of, of photography. We’ve been seeing AI for a long time already on websites like the, the bot chats.

You know, when they’re like, Hey, so glad you’re at the website. What question do you have? Like we, this is not new to us people, but it is taking over certain industries and it’s really getting people talking. Here’s the thing, if a business does not want to hire me, Because [00:33:00] they now wanna use chat. G P T, we probably weren’t a great fit to begin with.

Okay. Because the reality is you also need to know how to use chat G P T for content creation in order for it to be good, in order for other humans to want to read it. Right? So if you think that you’re going to go to chat G P T, or writer or Jasper or whatever, and one time put in, like, write me a blog about storytelling.

Mm-hmm. You’re not gonna get a great product. Right? So that is actually going to require that business even more work. If they were already not willing to pay me because they’re going to use chat. G p t, we’re not a great fit. Go ahead. Go ahead. I wish you well. All of that. That leads to my next question is, I mean to my next point is chat.

G P T is a tool, like any other tool. I have a jewelry designer friend and. She, her slogan, part of her slogan says, handcrafted [00:34:00] jewelry. Her jewelry is beautiful. I know when she writes handcrafted, that does not mean she literally went and dug by hand the jewels out of the ground. Mm-hmm. And that she then by hand shaped the metal into a ring.

I know that means that she put her hand on it using her tools that she has that makes jewelry beautiful. Well, that’s what any great photographer, copywriter, storyteller videographer, is going to do as well, and you are going to have to use it as a tool. A hammer is just a hammer sitting there until a true carpenter picks it up and makes something beautiful.

Mm-hmm. Chat, g p t, Jasper, writer, whatever you wanna use, is simply a tool sitting there until someone with experience and the know-how and the time and the drive to figure it out. Actually starts to use it. So I’m excited about ai. I think it’s a tool. This has been happening since the beginning of time.[00:35:00]

We’ve, we’ve always, humans have always been improving upon what we have. Like I said, This tool is, we, we don’t the ramifications for the future. And there’s a, even inside the copywriting world, there’s conversations about, you know, NDAs. Like I could see businesses, certain businesses saying, don’t you dare put my content into an AI writer and try to, and, and, and try to then pull out content and create it from there.

Mm-hmm. Uh, so there’s, there’s. There’s future conversations to have, but we are thinking about that. And at the same time, humans still have to drive a good product that comes out of an AI writer. Mm-hmm. Um, humans are still needed. They just might be used in different way. In fact, have you even heard now?

Well, I think yes. I think you did hear this, we had talked about this at some point about the phrase prompt engineer [00:36:00] now. Right, right. But there’s the. Those that are getting really good mm-hmm. At prompting inside these AI writers mm-hmm. There’s perhaps another job. Oh, absolutely.

[00:36:11] Lindsay: Um, I think it is, you know, and as it should be prompting some really important questions like what does it mean to be created?

What does it mean to be human? Mm-hmm. Um, and the pushback against any sort of technological advancement is that when science and technology advances faster than the human mind can think through it, that’s when we start to collide with. Mm-hmm. Some catastrophic things, and that is where we’re at. Things are happening faster than humans can think through the implications.

So I think people who are asking hard questions should be asking hard questions rather than allowing themselves to be poo-pooed by the futurists who are like, Hey, this is awesome, because there are hard questions that we do need to pause and ask ourselves. And you know, to your point, the [00:37:00] people going that are gonna be using chat, G P T.

Probably wouldn’t hire me anyways. Mm-hmm. A friend of mine, Justin Blackman, who is a brand voice expert compared chat GP the other day, we were talking about it and he said, you know, it’s kind of like the Canva for designers. Yeah. And I think I, I use Canva all the time knowing that my designer friends would look at anything I create and cringe.

Like, to me it looks beautiful, it’s great. But if I really wanted to show up in a way that, you know, In like the full capacity. Mm-hmm. I’m going to ask a designer to create something or when, when it’s really complex, like I’m not trying to create my entire website mm-hmm. On via Canva. I know people who have, but I’m not trying to do that.

Yeah.

[00:37:44] Rachel: Um, That’s a really good analogy. It’s a good analogy. She can sniff out Canva from, you know, from a, from a screen away. Yes. You know, she’s like, oh, that’s Canva. We’re like, we know, we know Jackie. We’re not, we’re not trying to be you. Ok. Yes. And

[00:37:57] Lindsay: that’s the same with, um, [00:38:00] writers and creators, like AI produced content.

Most of us are like, oh my gosh, can’t you see like, this is mm-hmm. This is very formulaic, or this is this, this and this. Mm-hmm. Um, I what the, what I see it as is, at this point in the game, who knows what it’ll be tomorrow year at this point in the game. It’s really great for, if you’re creating SEO driven content that you, you know, you need to create content.

You just gotta get it up. It’s not necessarily because you’re looking to be the next thought leader in the game. You just need to create content to increase your search rate. Then it’s great. Mm-hmm. But if you’re truly trying to be a thought leader, presenting information that’s never been thought through before or a a really new angle chat, g p t doesn’t have the capacity to do that.

It doesn’t have the human reasoning skills like that. It’s only producing what is known, what is discovered. Mm-hmm. And the true brands. I think the brands that are gonna emerge and kind of. Become the front runners [00:39:00] in the next few years are those who are like, it’s just going to put a, a, a additional premium on true thinking on new thought.

[00:39:09] Rachel: Yeah, I, I agree with you on that because there, there will I. I’m just interested to see will there be, will there start to be questions like, now are you going to write this or are you going to use chat G p T? Right. And here’s the thing too. I could see businesses being upset either way. Mm-hmm. Because the reality is if you get really good at prompting an AI writer, You might could produce content.

Mm-hmm. A little bit quicker. Right. Um, but at the same time, I could also see how a business would then be like, well, if you’re gonna do that, then I could have just done it myself. Right, right. Here’s you, we were talking about implications. Here’s an interesting implication too, that’s a little, a little bit outside the business world, but it does make you stop and think.

My husband is an adjunct professor at a local university here in, in the accounting department. And, um, start thinking about how AI [00:40:00] writing affects. College. Absolutely. College papers. Mm-hmm. Now for years, years and years and years, they’ve had the software to, to determine plagiarism. Mm-hmm. But what about writing that was done from ai?

Now I know that there’s people smart enough that could probably create software, but here’s an example where we’ve gotten ahead of, like you said, we’ve gotten ahead of ourselves here. Mm-hmm. And so my husband and I were brainstorming like, what do we do? You know? Um, does, uh, does it gets into a super, it gets into a deep debate about, well, does that.

Student know anything about accounting then if they can’t write a paper explaining that project. Right. Um, do you go back to writing papers literally in class? Mm-hmm. So that mm-hmm. So that you have to show, you know, so that you have to show that you were the one that wrote it and you didn’t just put a really good prompt right.

Inside of an AI writer. So that’s [00:41:00] just one example that kind of, that’s hit home in my house recently. Yeah. Outside of the business world. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Some good stuff. Mm-hmm.

[00:41:09] Lindsay: All right, last question. What we, we all give, give medicine. As business owners, we all hand it out. This is, this is what you should do, but I know that it’s often hard to swallow our own medicine.

Well, and so for you, what, what would be the one thing, you know, whether it’s like really deep, really deep answer like this is, this is how I tell people to show up, or just really basic. Consistency here.

[00:41:38] Rachel: Here’s the thing, I, that’s why people hire me because they want a consistent voice or they want consistent content.

They want their offer to be discussed consistently. People hire me for consistency. Mm-hmm. That’s also very hard to replicate as a business owner because we all [00:42:00] have lives outside of our own business. Our business changes season by season. Sometimes it changes as quickly as one client to the next client.

They re, it really may take your business in a different direction and so it’s hard to be consistent mm-hmm. When things are always changing. Yeah. And so that is something I preach to my clients all the time. Hey, please communicate consistently with your clients. For example, we know we’re, we’re recording this, um, in the middle of May, and so we know that.

Summer is coming and summer always makes things different. Mm-hmm. If you have, if you have a family or if you love being outside, there’s just always summer’s just a little bit different. And so I was telling, um, a group of people, I said, Hey, do not. Go this summer without consistently communicating with your past and current clients.

Mm-hmm. Stay top of mind and if you need [00:43:00] some help coming up with what that content may look like, coming up with a system so that they are hearing from you on a very regular basis. Reach out to me. I will do that for them, but I know behind the scenes that is very hard for me to pull off. Now I’m starting to put systems in place.

I have an executive assistant who’s helping me make sure that at least once every six months or once every, let’s say once every quarter, is what I should have said. That my past and current clients hear from me in their inbox, and it’s not even salesy. Like I don’t care to do business with them unless they need it.

But I do want them to know that I saw that they have a new offering out, or that their new website looks fantastic, or their birthday was two weeks ago. I hope it was wonderful. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Saying that top of mind. But keeps that relationship a lot. I mean, that email keeps that relationship alive. And whether they ever hire me again, they have a circle of people who they’re going to be talking to.

Mm-hmm. [00:44:00] And if some, if Venita rises for website copy, email copy, social media, whatever. I wanna was like, oh my gosh. I know. Great copywriter. Hang on, hang on. I can, let me, hang on. She, she just emailed me a couple months ago. Or I can pull, I can pull up her email address. Let me get it for you. Right. So, Consistency is so hard, but it’s something that I believe in because I believe in the power of relationships and words.

Whether they’re spoken or they’re written help to build that relationship. Mm-hmm. And so, um, consistency matters. I know that. And I am, I have, you know, rebuked myself about the fact I’ve gotta do a better job. So I’m putting some systems in place to, to kind of take my own medicine. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:44:42] Lindsay: Well, thank you so very much.

Thanks for giving your time and being here with us today where. Where should people find you or reach out?

[00:44:50] Rachel: So my inbox currently is my very best place to find me. You and I’ve already talked about the social media. Um, so my email address is Rachel, r a c [00:45:00] h e l, at Inspire to Engage. So there’s no spaces, it’s the word two is written out. Inspire to engage. I am also on LinkedIn, so you can look for Rachel Eubanks. On LinkedIn, Eubank says E U B A N K S. All

[00:45:19] Lindsay: right, and we’ll, we’ll post all of that in the show notes too.

[00:45:22] Rachel: Awesome, Lindsay, this has been so much fun. It’s been great. Great chatting with you, so you take care. Okay, I will. All right.

Bye bye.