Striving for Work-Life-Homeschool Balance with Carly Kewley
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When motherhood meets business, many parents are hesitant to consider homeschooling due to the responsibilities that come along with it. Carly Kewley loved the idea of spending time with her kids while also running her business, which made homeschooling an ideal setup. In today’s episode, she’s sharing how she balances business, homeschooling her kids, and maintaining her own life!
The Business-First Creatives Podcast is brought to you by CRM and Dubsado expert Colie James. Join Colie each week as she discusses how to build a business that brings you joy and a paycheck! From business advice with fellow entrepreneurs to sharing automation tips and tricks, Colie and her guests are sharing industry trends and resources, along with a little bit of sarcasm.
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Guest Bio:
Carly is based out of Sioux Falls, SD and very familiar with the long midwest goodbye 🙂
She’s a brand designer who’s helped over 75 businesses build a brand they love and feel confident about. She strongly believes in putting play in your work and every day – business needs to be fun.
She loves to box and spar, she’s married with two daughters who she currently home schools, and loves a good scary story (oh hey there, Radio Rental and Spooked!).
Today’s episode is brought to you by my Love Your Leads private audio training! Are you providing an experience for your leads that sets an expectation on when they’ll hear from you, provides them with tools that will help them easily say yes and book you, while also making them feel seen and heard? In my private audio training, you’ll learn how to love your leads and get more booked clients through an automated booking process.
Here are the highlights…
[:54] Meet Carly
[2:48] Deciding to Homeschool
[6:45] A Day in the Life of a Homeschool Mom
[12:08] Finding Balance in Business & Homeschool
[24:43] Shifts in Business Due to Homeschooling
[26:37] Improving Your Dubsado Automations
[27:43] Creating Workflows in Dubsado
[31:20] Outsourcing
[34:07] Lessons in Homeschooling
[37:49] Biggest Fuck Up
Mentioned in this Episode:
Dubsado – Get 30% off your first payment
Connect with Carly
Review the Transcript:
Colie: Hello, hello, and welcome back to the Business First Creatives podcast. Today I am chatting with Carly Kewley of Hey, Carl Brand Design. Now, let’s start with the name, Carly. How did you get into brand design and why is your business name? Hey,
Carly: Carl?
That’s a, okay, so brand design. I actually, when I first started, I always wanted to be an artist. So this is actually technically my third business. The first one was called Art by Carly, and that’s when I was doing all of the things I was doing. I. Painting, photography, design. I had a shop, like, I was just like all multi-passionate entrepreneurs know you try to do all of the things.
And then I got burnt out really quick. So then I did CK design and I tried to, decided to niche down into just brand design. A lot more focused, a lot more fun for me. And then I could keep art a little bit more on the personal side of things. And then this last year I did another pivot, uh, which brought me to Hey Carl.
And I’m actually named after my grandpa Carl. So I grew up with the nickname Carl. Carlos, Carlene, Charlie, lots of different nicknames and so I thought it was really fun to do. Hey, Carl, that’s kind of nod to like nineties aesthetic too, like, Hey Arnold, and how I approach a lot of my clients. Very laid back, very casual, very fun, very conversational.
So it’s, it’s me as a personal brand and it’s also kind of a fun nod toward legacy as well with my grandpa and um, yeah.
Colie: I mean, I love it because technically my name is not Coley James. It is a completely made up name. It’s my nickname and my husband’s name. Because my name is rather boring and very popular. So I love it when people create interesting names for their business and kind of, you know, build it in a storytelling way.
So that’s what you do on the business side. And so listeners, today, we are gonna take a deep dive into balancing business and motherhood, but also while homeschooling. So Carly, I know you’ve only homeschooled last year, but tell me about the decision to homeschool and how you
started.
Carly: So homeschooling is obviously a very personal choice. It’s not always gonna work for every family and public school works great for some people too. Like you gotta fi figure out what’s gonna work best for your business and your family and your lifestyle. And for me, when it started to get to the point where Elsie was getting too old for daycare and she was entering into school age for kindergarten, I had this weird, I don’t know if it was like a spiritual nag or dig or something, but there was just something that was just kind of sitting in my gut where it was just like, I’m not ready to, uh, give up this time with my children.
Cause it always felt strange. And I don’t think it was the mom guilt. I think it was just, it felt weird to have kids. And then only see them for like three or four hours out of the day, and then the weekends were still booked with. Whether it was family events or whatever it was, but I don’t know, when I was getting to the point of picking up the kids from daycare, it was just this feeling of like, what, why?
Like, I wanna spend time with my children
Colie: Yeah.
Carly: little bit more than just, you know, a couple hours. And even in the evenings, like that’s filled up with, getting dinner ready, bedtime routine. So how much time is actually spent? Playing with your kids, you know? So that was, that was my biggest thing is like I just, I only get this shot once and I just wanna have fun.
And then also I just want them to try to dip into more of play-based learning instead of, I mean the school systems are different in every state, wherever you go. And to me, it just felt like, I don’t want them to feel like they have a job just yet to where they’re sitting at a desk for, you know, X amount or amount of hours during the day.
I want them to have more room for playtime. So those are my two main reasons for homeschooling.
Colie: Yeah, and I mean, so I homeschool and my life
looks very
different than
Carly: Yeah,
Colie: I homeschooled a 12 year old this year, so very different than homeschooling preschoolers. But we started with kind of at home virtual learning during the pandemic. I mean, I never thought I would be a homeschooler. I actually have a de, I have a background in
education, not elementary, not school aid, but I do have the background, and I was just like, No, I’ll never
be a homeschooling mom.
And then the pandemic hit and she stayed home for, you know, that last surprise, that last two months of that first year. And then the next year I was still too worried to send her back to school. So we let her do virtual learning another year. And we were kind of, I don’t wanna say privileged, but she actually had the same teacher in third grade that she had in fourth grade.
Her fourth grade teacher was actually not at school either. So it’s not like Chloe was watching school happening inside of a building, you know, from our house. Her teacher and everyone else in her class was at home. So they were all kind of having the same experience and she’d actually had that teacher before she did virtual learning.
So I think that really helped with the transition. And then in fifth grade I was just like, oh, let’s just put her in pure virtual school and see how it goes. And she really thrived, like she loved it. And then this year we started off with virtual school and I knew immediately that was not a good choice for
Carly: Yeah.
Colie: She was having some trouble with reading, but then in, in general, I didn’t feel the same level of support that I had felt
the year before. I don’t know if it was because it was middle school versus elementary. I don’t know. I told my husband, I’m like, yeah, we’re, we’re gonna pull her from this. This is not working.
So then I homeschooled. I sent her to a co-op one day a week, which was great. And then she also had a reading specialist that she was working with twice a week. So that’s what my homeschooling journey in the last year look like. What does an average homeschooling day look like for you? And then we’re gonna get into like how you fit your business into that homeschool
life.
Carly: So I will say the beginning of our homeschool journey was Rocky. At best.
Colie: Mm-hmm.
Carly: the first month or two. I think, and I, this is something that I’m still learning to unlearn, is bringing the public school system into the homeschooling system because they’re two very different things. They don’t have to be like, you sit at a desk.
In my mind, cuz I grew up in the public school system and it was, it was great, but in my mind when I was like, I’m gonna homeschool the kids, I’m gonna be miss Mom, like Miss Rainbow, and it’s gonna be easy peasy. I’ll sit at my desk and do my work and the kids will sit at their desk and we’ll just do our lessons and it’s gonna be so cute and so fun.
Not at all.
Colie: Not at all.
Carly: No. So it took me a long time to unlearn, and I’m still unlearning some of those, those things. So our homeschooling, we signed up for a co-op as well. We did classical conversations. So we would meet once a week and that was a four hour school day, so they still got a lot of their social parts of it.
And I signed ’em up for a lot of programs through our communities. So they had like science on Wednesdays through the museum. So we would spend 45 minutes doing a class that they would do on their own with other students. And then we would spend the rest of the day just playing in the museum. And then Mondays was our cc.
So that was our community, and that’s where they spent, my favorite parts of that was they would learn how to public speak. So we’d have like a,
like a show and tell type thing. And then the arts and science part of it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed that. And then Fridays was just kind of a free fall of like, let’s go to the library, let’s do whatever is open.
And this coming year, Elsie has mentioned, she’s my oldest, so my oldest is six, she’s going into first grade. And Emma, my youngest is four. So Emma will for sure be doing the CC and then Elsie, this next year we’re debating on doing part-time public school. Cuz the one thing that I have learned that we’re struggling with is the workbook side of things does not want to do it at all.
So I don’t know if it would be beneficial to do learning through like. Partially through another instructor, and I think she misses, she’s a very social butterfly, so I think she misses like daily the same faces instead of weekly the same faces. So we might give it a shot, see how it goes, do a couple of classes in there.
Um, my favorite thing about the journey with homeschooling is just learning that like it’s whatever you want it to be. So it’s not just a one size fits all. Yes. And I’m still trying to like, loosen up the reins and the controls on that because growing up it’s like, All I ever grew up in and knew, and even as an adult, like I feel like you just, and I think Covid opened a lot of eyes on this as well as like public school is the way, or private school or whatever, like you, you have a very limited set of options on how education looks for children.
And there’s so many ways that you can build an education around your kids. And I think the homeschooling thing really opened my eyes for that.
Colie: Yeah, I totally agree. So one of the best things about homeschooling Chloe this last year, I mean, and I will say cuz we’re about to jump into business, it was not great for my business. I mean, I had to really learn how to balance. Spending time with my child, giving her what she needed versus being able to work and earn an income.
But you know, Mondays and, let’s see, it was Mondays and then Tuesday, Wednesday were like our main learning days. And so we used a curriculum that covered history, science, uh, math, and I kind of taught what I wanted to teach and skipped parts that I wanted to. But then on Thursday she went to an art
co-op.
Um, for half the day, yes, it was so, I’m sorry. Monday, Wednesday, Friday were our learning days. Tuesday she went to the one day co-op through the district, and I think that’s amazing because when I tell people no, her co-op was through the district, they’re like, what? I’m like, yeah. The district that we live in right now, they have a building dedicated to homeschoolers and you can enroll your child one day a week for a full eight hour day, and they get to pick six classes
to attend. so Chloe
Carly: cool.
Colie: It’s awesome. She did robotics, science, pe, musical theater, which was her favorite art, and now I’m forgetting her six class. Oh, cooking.
She did cooking.
Carly: That’s so
cool.
Colie: And she’s really sad that I’m not sending her back this year. This year we are kind of doing what you’re talking about.
We’re sending her to a private middle school for half the day to get more focused reading, writing, and math instruction. And then for the other half of the day, she’s gonna be in our public school around the corner. So this is brand new territory for us. I thought I was going to be able to jump back into my business full-time, but it turns out, with this schedule, I have to leave my house every day at 1115 and drive her from one school to the next.
So my business is still not mine again. It’s still not where I have, you know. Full working day, five days a week in order to work into that. So Carly, I think that’s a good transition for us to talk about how you either fit your homeschooling around your business or you fit your business around your homeschooling.
So which camper you and how does it
work?
Carly: I don’t really know. I can tell you how it works. I’m not sure. I think it’s fitting my business around the homeschooling and maybe it’s like equal parts 50 50. So I knew when I like, fully committed to making the decision, it’s like we’re gonna homeschool the kids and we’re just gonna figure it out as we go.
I knew the structure that I had it before, which is previously CK design where I was a, a brand designer, which I still am now, but it was. The classic sense to where I would book multiple projects and just have ’em stack. So I’d be doing like two or three projects three months at a time, and then the next quarter would be another three projects or whatever.
So it was a lot of carryover and I knew there’s no way in hell my brain can work like that. Having like fi like 50 tasks. Cuz I, I’m very like, Future focused. And when I am working on something like I need to be in it. I can’t just have like all of the things and having kids that are both under six, I’m like, this is insane.
There’s no way this is gonna work. So I decided, um, towards the end of CK Design, I had actually introduced v i P days, which is a hot button, not hot button, but like a hot thing that a lot of people are doing now. Yeah, I love
it. I love it. It’s so great. So I started offering that at the end of CK Design and I figured, you know what?
I think I can pitch this doing the same exact thing that I’ve already been doing, logos website brand design, but instead of offering it like we’re gonna get this done in three months, it’s like, here’s my v I P days that I have. I can get this done for you in a day or a week, or in two weeks. So it’s been so fun because it’s awesome for my clients cuz they know that I’m only working on their projects.
And it’s awesome for me cuz I’m focused on just one project at a time instead of worrying about different deadlines at different times. And then it really opens up my homeschooling days to where I still do some work. So, But it’s not, the pressure isn’t there. And a lot of that outside of work, outside of my v I P days is just either wrapping up the project, setting up for the next project or internal stuff, like what do I need to do any social media marketing, or do I need to do any outreach or things like that.
So Monday, Wednesday, Fridays when I homeschool, and then Tuesdays and Thursdays are when I work full time.
Colie: Nice. I love it. I, and I, I transitioned into v i p days in, let’s see, January of 2021. So I’ve been doing them for, you know, a little over two years now. And the thing that I really love is, as I got further in my business, cuz I’m in year 11, as I got further in my business and I started doing more systems set up than I did photography.
I was struggling if I was multitasking with different clients. Like I like to be very focused. I like to get it done. And like you said, that’s a big benefit for our clients because they know, okay, we’re gonna start this process and at the end of the week or at the end of the day, depending on how you’re doing it, I am gonna have a system that I can start testing immediately, which is where I like to go.
When it came to the homeschooling, it really did help because on a day when I was doing an actual v i P day, my child knew that she was gonna do independent learning, and that looked very different depending on, you know, what it was that she was studying. But I just made sure that when I gave her her assignments for the day or for the week, I would let her know, okay, mommy has a V I P day on Monday this week.
So these are the things that you need to do while I’m on my call and while I’m working. And we would always take like a midday check-in. Like I would make her lunch. I would sit down, I would ask her about what she had done in the morning to make sure that she didn’t have any questions. I think it also really helped that I had the reading specialist working with her two days a week.
Because if I did that on days when I had my v i P day, I knew that at least for part of the day, she was getting like one-on-one attention from someone, even if it
wasn’t me.
Carly: Yeah, and I think that’s kind of, my husband kind of has this misconception about it too, to where it’s like, I’m the sole teacher for our girls, and it’s like, no, bro, there’s no fucking, there’s no way I can do all of it. So I think when you homeschool, just really leaning into like, You can have a community, like you need to have a community of people that can help you with this and different people that your children can lean on to learn from.
And yeah, it doesn’t have to be just you, the parent. Like there’s so many different ways that you can have people teach your kids.
Colie: Yeah, so you mentioned quite a few resources and community things that you enrolled your children in, and I know here in Colorado, at least in the Boulder, Longmont area where I live, I mean, we have very large online homeschool groups. We have, as I said, the co-ops through the district.
So I mean,
I feel like there’s a
Carly: amazing, by the way.
Colie: It is.
It
is.
It is amazing. I’m really sad she’s not going next year. I mean, she really enjoyed musical theater. She’s a very, she loves to act. She loves to dance, and I’m feeling a little bad that she’s not gonna be able to do something like that this next year. So I may actually find a after school theater to enroll her in so that she can still get some of that.
But in your community, where is it that you learned about these different activities, like the museum day, the science class, because here you kind of have to search. And if you’re in the, if you’re in the Facebook online groups that are for homeschooling, like a lot of people are constantly sharing resources.
But I know some people that wanna jump into homeschooling. They’re like, oh, that’s, there’s nothing like that in my area. And I would be like, no, I bet. To differ.
I bet you
do.
Carly: Yeah. Facebook was a big thing and as soon as I started talking about the idea of homeschooling, I was. Really surprised at the amount of business owner friends that I had that either previously homeschooled their kids or currently do. And so I had a lot of close friends that were resources to lean on to ask questions for that too.
And I was like, I had no idea that you homeschooled your kids. And then I felt like, cool, I’m not such a weirdo, so this is nice. I’m not the only crazy one. so Facebook was huge. Community as far as just like friends, like once you even start talking about it, I think people would be surprised at how many people come out and just be like, oh yeah, so and so did this.
You should reach out to them and ask, or, I did this for a year, you should try this. Um, as far as the museum goes, that was just researching on internet, like. Things to do with children and homeschooling and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and then things would just kind of pop up from there. So there’s definitely legwork that you have to go into it, but there’s, I mean, yeah, there’s resources everywhere for homeschooling for sure.
Colie: And I feel like at least here, one of the things that’s come up in me having a 12 year old, I can feel it more now than I think I would’ve if I’d started homeschooling my kid when she was your daughter’s age. But I. They say that it gets harder as they get older because there’s not as much community and as much resources and as much like social interaction opportunities for the kids as they get older.
Because I will notice that like, you know, when people are putting resources and classes and things like that in the group, I mean, if you compared elementary school opportunities to middle and high school, it was probably like 75% elementary and 25% for like kids that are over 10. So have you thought about what this is gonna look like for you in the long term?
Do you intend. To homeschool forever. I don’t mean to
put you on the
spot.
Carly: No.
Colie: Do you intend to homeschool for like a few more years or do you know a point where you think you might consider, I mean, and I don’t wanna say putting them in public school, but like, just something else besides, um, homeschooling all on
your own.
Carly: Yeah, so I don’t know how long this is gonna go. I really wanted to try it for the first year to see how it went. And so far, I mean, it was good. Like, and I don’t wanna, like, again, I don’t want it to be like it was all rainbows and butterflies. We had our great moments and it was still a struggle bus, but the struggle was mostly me just trying to, again, just unlearn everything that I thought homeschooling had to be.
Cuz it can be whatever you want it to be. So, I think this next year for sure, we’re gonna try a little bit of the combo with Elsie, with the public school and, homeschooling with that. See how that goes for a little bit. Emma will do the cc. I mean, I get like hearing you homeschool your, your daughter.
That’s 12. Gets me excited because I
like.
Colie: I really.
Yeah.
Carly: Because it, like, I’m at the point to where, uh, well, not even at the point, but I get more excited with the, the concept of the independent learning. Cuz lc and Emma, they’re just too young for that right now. So a lot of it is like, mom, I need help with this mom, I need help with this.
And as you know, I love that. But man, I’m also very excited for the, the independent learning phase a little bit more to where it’s like they can just, like, I can direct them and then they can just do it on their own. Cuz multitasking, like I get overstimulated really easy with stuff too, so it’s just trying to make sure I block time off to where I can be very available and focused for, for the girls.
So that part has been tricky, but it’s been, you know, it’s been good at the same time. So I don’t know how long we’ll see.
Colie: So when it came to Chloe, I think one of the things that made it easier for me to kind of commit was the fact that she was already
reading and writing. Like my background is math and statistics, and so while I can teach her almost anything in math, I think if I had tried to do it when she was much younger, I would’ve been really worried because like as we’re seeing that she’s having some reading comprehension issues now.
I would just rather pay a professional, like it is something that I 100% do not feel qualified to help her, you know, try to overcome and work on. Um, and I mean, even when we were interviewing at the new private middle school that we’re sending her to for half a day, I asked a bunch of questions and they said, they asked me something about her math, and I was like, oh, no, you guys could do whatever you want.
Math. Like, I’m not worried about math. I’m like, what are you gonna do for reading and writing? Because I feel qualified to help her with math. But reading and writing, like I just, I have never struggled to read. Ive read, you know, multiple books a day when I was little. And so just the idea of like not wanting to, and I know it’s because she’s struggling, like she struggles with reading and so it’s not something that she enjoys.
But like I don’t understand that because I enjoyed reading so much, and of course I grew up in a very different time. Like we didn’t have televisions
and iPads
and like the constant stream of like.
Carly: Yeah.
Colie: Yeah. One of the things that I, I tried to do before I enlisted help from someone else was when she was still in the virtual program with Boulder, uh, valley School District.
They were having her read Percy Jackson, and so I was trying to work on her reading it. Then watching the movie and then kind of doing like a compare and contrast and trying to think of the differences, and that just didn’t go as well as I thought it would. And that was when I was like, okay, I’m definitely not
qualified to help her in this endeavor.
Like at all.
Carly: Yep. Yeah, and that’s, one of the other things that I’ve definitely, signed up for to help too, cuz I feel like for me as the homeschooling role, I. I feel my position is better as more of a guide than just the teacher. So I do rely on, you know, the co-op that we go on and finding downloadables and different workbooks and, I probably, I.
I, I think this first year is really just trying to figure out how the girls learn. So I’ve been throwing everything I can at them that fits our wallet and everything else and be like, what works for you to learn here? So we, we’ve done hooked on phonics and Elsie and Emma both really like that. And I love the, the apps that they have on there, and then they send workbooks that you can opt in for.
So just finding like, Different play-based, and they’re at an age where a lot of it is play-based learning anyway, so yeah, it’s been like trying to figure out, I think this year the biggest focus has been trying to figure out how they learn and who they want to learn from.
Colie: Okay. So let’s get back to the balance between
homeschooling and business. So we’ve talked a lot about what you may do differently this coming year, but is there anything that you were, that you’ve learned? That would make running your business while homeschooling easier this year, going into next year.
Like are there, I know you’re doing your v I P days, but are you going to make any business changes based on the fact that you will be progressing into a new year of homeschooling?
Carly: I think keeping the full-time for Tuesdays and Thursdays and, Tom, my husband and I are very blessed to where both of our parents are close. So the girls go to my mom’s on Tuesdays, and then on Thursdays they go to, Tom’s mom’s. So they get that unique experience too, which is, Awesome. One of the things that I’ve noticed that I’m taking this summer to focus on to you, so it’s not as much pressure to, like, we still do a little homeschooling, but it’s not school.
School. It is focusing on my systems and leaning on my VA a little bit more. So I’m trying to make sure I have, like how do I want some of these automated emails set out? How do I want to wrap up these v i P days? And I probably need to prep a little bit more so I don’t have to spend as much time splitting my attention on the homeschool days and work.
I can just have my VA do more of that stuff for me. So I think it’s. Letting go a little bit more and setting up the systems and workflows a little bit better too, so that way it’s just a little bit more streamlined. So all I have to do is just show up on Tuesday and Thursday and know I have everything I need, and then I, when I’m done, I can just hand it off to Allie, my va and just be like, Hey, I just need you to package this and send it off and we’re good to go.
So,
Colie: Guys, I did not pay her to bring up systems and workflows, I swear. So, I mean, Carly, let’s start with, what, what do you use for your systems? What is your main c r m
tool?
Carly: Dubsado, which I know you love that.
Colie: and she’s a Dubsado user. So tell me about where you think, because you said that you wanted to improve your systems, so in particular, you’re talking about automated communication.
Is there anything in particular that you feel like. If you were going to suggest to one of our listeners that this is where they should start in order to improve their automated communication, what’s the most important email that you crafted for your clients?
Carly: I would say the, the easiest thing is the leads. Part of it is having the form, knowing what they want help with, and then having that link to the scheduler. So I have it all set, like all three is just one embedded on my website, so I don’t have to send the scheduler, I don’t have to send the form, I don’t have to like, it’s just all one and done.
And then the automated email that says, Hey, really excited to work with you on this. If you have any other questions on these things, you know, bring it to our meeting and they’re just really quick, 15 minute calls and then. The thing that I need to work on, I think more so is the, getting out of having to have everything like customized for a package.
So I have a proposal page and I just need to streamline that a little bit more to where it’s a lot more easier. For Allie, just be like, Hey Allie, I need to send this person for a V I P day, or we’re gonna do a logo design, so I need to have this package in there. So I think just automating that portion of it a little bit more would be really helpful to me.
So then I don’t have to have as much brain space on getting that sent out.
Colie: Yeah, so my tip for you on that, Carly, if you’re not already doing it, do you have a workflow set up for each of the types of services that you
offer? So do you have one workflow for your v i P days and one workflow for like logo design and one workflow for like website design? Like do you have them separate?
Carly: Kinda not really. That’s one of the things that Allie and I have started to do. But I definitely like, that’s on my list of things like I really need to sit down and like, what are the steps for all of these things that I need? So,
Colie: Because if you set it up separately, I feel like it’s gonna be a lot easier for your va. To just start the appropriate workflow and make any tiny changes that need to be done and then send it off, versus you starting with like one process and it’s like, okay Allie, this person is booking a logo design.
Can you add in the package for the logo design? Can you add this in
if you do one? so since I know. Oh, it’s ok. You’re gonna get a recording of this if, if you’re working on v I P days, for example. I always encourage everyone to start with the thing that you wanna book the most. And so for you, if that’s your v i P days, you should start by, you know, writing all of your steps, every communication that you need to send someone for a v i p day, every form, every email, have it all laid out.
You create them, you make the workflow, and once you know that that works, you can duplicate it and customize it because. Once you get the first one done, like everyone’s always amazed, cuz you know, on my v i p day, I’m only working on your main offer. And then what I tell you is once I deliver your main offer and you’ve tested it and you know that it’s good, that’s when I duplicate it for, you know, your other offers.
And everyone’s like, oh, but that’s so quick for the second. I’m like, well, yeah. I mean, it takes me eight hours to build your main offer. It takes me 90 minutes to make your next offer because all I’m doing is swapping emails. Changing a few words, swapping the package and just making it go. And by starting that workflow manually, I, I like to say that anytime your client has to make a decision, that is where you should start a new workflow, because if you need to talk to them, Before you know what offer they want.
Then after you’ve done it, you can start the correct offer because that makes the customization a much
smaller feat. You’re not customizing the entire workflow, you’re just picking which offer it is and making tiny customizations after you’ve done that.
Carly: Yeah. I love that. Thank you.
Colie: You guys heard her voice? Yeah. I mean, you know, we could call these podcast episodes like systems. Yeah. I just, I love helping people make their businesses more effective and I feel like those of us that homeschool our kids really need it because, you know, we don’t have, you know, all day, every day like other working moms do when their kids are in school.
I know. It was really funny. I was looking forward to summer. I don’t know what your kids are doing during the summer, but my daughter is in sports camp. All day, every day,
this
week. And so I’m like wow, when’s,
Carly: is so nice.
Colie: I’m like, when’s the last time I had eight hours in my house where it was completely quiet and no one was, you know, asking me how to do an equation or asking when I’m gonna make lunch or, you know, whatever it is.
So it’s really fantastic.
Carly: I love that.
Colie: So, Carly, you talked about you need, you need to improve your systems, make sure that they are optimized. You talked about your virtual assistant, so what kinds of things do you rely on your virtual assistant to do besides helping you get proposals and things like that out inside of Dubsado?
Carly: Dude, I, so when I first hired her on, it was mostly gonna be for email management and task management, and this was primarily with CK design. And then when I made the pivot to, Hey Carl, um, it, like, I just throw anything and everything I can at her and just see what sticks. I’d be like, Hey, are you comfortable trying this?
And I love, like, she’s very self-sufficient, so it’s like I don’t have to like, Google is free. So if I have a question, if she’s able to kind of look it out and figure it out, awesome. So I love, I love working with her. I did a brand builder magazine, last year and she really helped following up with emails as far as getting articles in and just sending them out.
I ordered them all and then I just sent them to her address so she could write out the letters and, and mail ’em because I don’t have the energy or time or want to do that. So.
She does all sorts of different little things. I’ll ask her to help with canvas stuff and yeah, she’s great.
Colie: So beyond your virtual assistant, what else are you outsourcing in your business?
Carly: A lot of subcontracting. So like if somebody, when I do a website design, if they need copywriting, I’ll outsource that. That’s probably it. If there’s like random business naming things or there’s been an occasion with like developing a website, if I find I don’t have time for that, I might outsource a piece of that to kind of like, Hey, I have this website, v i p day coming up.
This portion of the website I’m not as familiar with. I need to subcontract that for another designer, but ultimately, like it’s still me overseeing everything. So yeah, just, I don’t know, random things, but I would say I also outsource, like when I do, when I need a sales page or something, I’ll hire somebody else to do that for me cuz I don’t wanna mess with it.
So it’s really just trying to figure out like I. Where do I actually wanna invest my energy in my business? Is it worth me investing the energy in that? Is it better to just spend, you know, 500 to $3,000, whatever that looks like, to have somebody else do it for me? Cuz you’re gonna, you’re spending money or time either way.
So
how do you wanna exert it? Yeah.
Colie: For those of us that are homeschooling like our time, even though we’re not making money when we’re homeschooling our kids, we do have to
still make sure that we have that availability. We have to make sure that they don’t suffer because we are unwilling to outsource things in our business in order to make the time and space for them.
Carly: Yep.
Colie: So Carly, in closing, is there anything that you would suggest, or that you would say was a lesson learned? If there are any entrepreneurs listening to this who are considering, you know, running their business and also trying to homeschool in the future?
Carly: Yeah, I mean, I look at homeschooling. It feels honestly a lot like starting a business. But instead of having clients, your kids are the clients.
Colie: Yeah.
Carly: it’s very entrepreneurial, it’s very scrappy. So I would say if you’re hesitant about homeschooling or if you’re unsure on what it’s like, like if you’re a business owner, I feel like 99%, like you can do it.
You can figure it out as you go. If you can run a business, you can absolutely homeschool. If it’s something that. You feel called to do? It’s a lot of just trying to find the resources, subcontracting finding other
Colie: Outsourcing.
Carly: So it’s totally doable. It’s just, figuring out, you know, what works for you, where you need to have your attention in your business and if you need to structure, whether it’s v i P days or, just making it like, these are the only days that I work, and then everything else falls outside of that.
So
Colie: Uh,
Carly: hopefully that helps.
Colie: was an ama. It helps so much. Carly, this was an amazing conversation. If people wanna find out more about you and your business, where can they find
you on the internet?
Carly: So my website is hey, h e y dash carl, c a r l.com. I almost added a Y cuz I was like, Hey Carly. But hey carl.com and my Instagram is underscore hey dot carl underscore. Those are my two primary hangouts. But yeah,
Colie: Carly, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast.
I have been wanting to chat with someone about like business and motherhood and homeschooling for so long. And when I listened to you on Maddie’s podcast, I was like, oh my gosh, this is the perfect person to
come chat with
me.
Carly: I love it. Thanks for having me.
Colie: Yes. So everyone, that’s it for this episode.
See you next time.
