Ep. 47

What Growth Means as an Entrepreneur with Emily Kund

On today’s episode we’re here with one of our Certified Quiz Consultants and Strategic Partners, Emily Kund. While we’ve worked with Emily in the quiz world, today we get to learn a little bit more about how she ended up here.

Emily started her entrepreneurial journey in 2018 after spending almost 19 years as a bank examiner. She kept telling herself that there had to be more to life than the work she was doing day-in and day-out at the bank. Then one day, she discovered quizzes—and the rest was history! We are so excited to have her here today to learn more about her journey as the founder of Emily Kund Quizzes.

Emily’s website: https://www.emilykund.com/

Jessmyn:
Hi everyone. And welcome back to Interact Creator Stories podcast. I’m your host, Jessmyn Solana. And with me today, I have Emily Kund. Welcome Emily. Thanks so much for being on our show with us today.

Emily:
Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. I am so excited to be here.

Jessmyn:
Of course, of course. And if you guys don’t know, Emily, is actually one of our certified quiz consultants. So this is one of those where I am really excited about because we’ve worked together a little bit in that capacity, but I haven’t really gotten your backstory. So I’m really excited to hear what that is. And you’ve been working with us, I think, as a partner since, oh gosh, it was early on in my days. I think it was maybe 2018 ish?

Emily:
2019, sounds right.

Jessmyn:
Yeah. Like somewhere around there. So it’s been quite a while. But you are the creator of Emily Kund Quizzes, which is your business. And it’s an agency that makes lists building businesses business. Totally read that too many S’s. But list building business fun and easy with lead generation quizzes. So this is something that I found super interesting. You used to be a bank examiner, and then you became an entrepreneur. And you use your current experience to help the difference makers and disruptors build their texts and email us to connect and create client relationships with quizzes. That’s awesome.

Emily:
Yeah. And I absolutely love it.

Jessmyn:
So tell me a little bit more about your business right now. And then we’re going to go back to the beginning, and I want to hear more about what you did as a bank examiner, and how that actually helped you with your business today.

Emily:
Yeah, so today, I am building out my quiz agency. And I am so excited to be in this stage of business because one of my missions, like my mission in life, my personal mission is to help economically and educationally empower women. So what I get to do is by hiring quiz specialists and sales specialists and pay them well, I get to economically empower them.

Jessmyn:
I love that.

Emily:
So what I get to do is, I take a percent of my net income and I donate it to my pretty strong, smart scholarship fund. Which goes to girls graduating high school that are going into a STEM field. So that’s my way of educationally empowering women. And so like doing this really just, it lights me up. So I’m really excited for building out this quiz agency.

Jessmyn:
How exciting. So take us back to the beginning. How did you go from bank examiner to an entrepreneur?

Emily:
Yeah, I had this great job and I loved being a bank examiner. And then it was the spring of, I think it was 2017, 2018, somewhere in that neighborhood, where I was finally able to go to one of my son’s literally games. And I was starting to make small talk with the moms. And one of them said to me, “Do you have a son playing in this game?” And that was a gut punch. Because they didn’t even know who I was. I think they thought my husband was a single father. I hadn’t been because the spring was during a high travel season for my work. And I was distraught that I couldn’t be there.
And then that really led to me, and I remember this clearly looking out of my window in DC, where I used to work, and I was looking at the top of the Capitol building and looking at the top of the Washington Monument thinking, “There has got to be more to life than this.” And I started thinking about what would life look like if I wasn’t here? If I wasn’t at that job. And I really started to research and think about separating, which I ultimately did. But it didn’t go from bank examiner to quiz maker.
There was a stop along the way, where I had also picked up skills in data visualization. So the dashboards and that type of thing. And I thought to myself, “I could provide data services for banks, or I could provide data services for entrepreneurs.” Except a lot of entrepreneurs don’t like to hear the word data. Some of them cringe and some of them… it was really hard to talk about.
And it was really in the winter of 2018 where I didn’t have any money coming in because I hadn’t caught on to like my messaging and what would work. I was so new, like as smart as I was in other areas, this was still totally, I hadn’t nailed that part of it yet. And my husband who works in the public sector was furloughed. So we had no money coming in whatsoever. And somehow I stumbled upon Interact, and I was doing network marketing as like a hobby. And I was like, “Well, if I do…” I thought about our position in that my husband had this steady income, but then all of the sudden it wasn’t there anymore.
And so we thought we have the security, but we actually didn’t. So I was like, “I wonder if other people know how financially fit they are.” And so I created a quiz on, how financially fit are you? I posted it to my Facebook page. And while I didn’t get anybody to sign up for my network marketing team like I had hoped, what I did get was somebody going, “Emily, this is amazing. This is actually better than what some of the banks have.” And that one piece of validation was all I needed to go.
Well, wait a minute. I love data. And I know how helpful it can be. And what I keep hearing from my entrepreneur friends and these masterminds is, “Will it get me leads? Will it get me clients? Will it increase my income?” And I thought, “Well, that’s amazing. I think you can do both.” And then I went all in on quizzes and truly, I think, and I even tell people this, when I speak at different events or if I’m just like chatting with people, I truly believe quizzes are one of the best tools for an entrepreneur, not just lead generation or not just client retention, but truly one of the best because of the market research and the insights that you can get from it. So it’s right. I love it. It’s super fun.

Jessmyn:
How exciting. So what are some of the challenges that you experienced trying to build this business, and then you had to do somewhat of a pivot, which seemed like ended up doing well, obviously, because now that’s your business. But what are some of the challenges going from that and then, kind of starting new?

Emily:
Yeah. I think one of the challenges is that I had people go, “I don’t really understand how this works.” Or all they thought about was like the Disney princess quiz, which they’re like, “Quizzes are fun. They’re not like business.” Even to this day. I was chatting with somebody in Messenger and we were talking about, they wanted to do a quiz and they’re like, “But we just want to do it for fun. We don’t want to spend any money.” But they wanted to capture email addresses from the Facebook group.
And there was like okay, there’s clearly some messaging that needs to happen here because, I think quizzes can… It’s not an either or, it can be fun and for business and a great business builder. So I think that’s still something that I occasionally will get, but I think one of the biggest challenges for me actually was pricing my service. That was the scariest part. Because I was just like, “I don’t know what to price this at.” And even after working with a business coach and I wanted to increase my price, and she was like, “But have you sold any at that price?” And I’m like, “I think I’ll show up bigger. I think I’ll show up for this price more.” And sure enough I have. And I now triple what I was at before.

Jessmyn:
Nice. That’s actually really interesting because I think a lot of… I feel like every time I talk to people and especially if they’re new and figuring out different types of services, they always do wonder, like what do I price this at? What is this worth? So how did you figure that out?

Emily:
Partially I took a look at what people were pricing out there. And so, what is the market bearing? And I knew that I wasn’t… especially for starting out. So like, first of all, when I first started with quizzes, I actually did trades. Like, “I will do a quiz for you, you need to give me a testimonial. Or you need to help me spread the word.” So that’s actually how I first started. And I did a quiz for somebody who ended up not using the quiz, actually I’ve had that happen twice, but they referred other people to me.
Because they liked my work. It was a good experience for them. So yeah, that doesn’t help my numbers, but it gave me additional business. And now I have relationships that have grown from there. So that’s actually how I first started. And then I looked at what is the market bearing? And I looked at what the certified consultants were charging and really use that as the basis, because I didn’t have anything else. And I knew I wasn’t going to be top of market. And I still don’t want to be top of market. Because I want to work with scaling entrepreneurs who are scaling to six and like the low six figures.
So, that’s not 8,000, 9,000, $10,000 service for me. And I feel good with where I’m at right now. So part of that now is strategic, but I just also, I think the biggest thing was that I tried it on for size. So I would say like to my friends, or I would say to myself, like I’d role-play, “How much is this quiz service? 797.” Or I tried like 997 at first. And that felt too big. I think I landed at 797, and that felt right. And then for everything I do, I think about will the market bear it? How does it feel? And can I cover expenses from it? So that’s how I price now. [crosstalk 00:12:35] back then.

Jessmyn:
Earlier you had mentioned what got you into thinking of starting your own business was, you didn’t have free time in order to spend family time. Which I think is a big deal for a lot of people who do want to start their own online business. That’s a big reason they want to have more freedom and more free time to actually do the things they want to do. So my first question from this is, do you feel like you now have that? And also, I guess what steps did you have to take in order to get your business up and running to a place where you can go do that?

Emily:
Yeah. Right now, I’m in a very busy season of trying to onboard. But I know that this is short-lived and the reason why I’m doing all of this, I can see that there’s a finite point which will allow me to have more of that freedom that I want. I think one of the biggest things was systems like my systems were kind of loose when I first started because I was still trying to figure it out. And then I really started, I use a client relationship management software, and started to put together like draft email templates and workflows. I think that helped.
That helped, systems helped. That was number one. And then the second thing that I think was probably the best thing I could have done also the scariest was that I hired a virtual assistant. And because what I found is that there was a period of time where I wasn’t showing up as my highest and best self in service to my clients. And that’s not something that I’m particularly like, it’s not like I shout that from the rooftops and go, “Oh my God, that was the best day of my life.” No, it was like some of the worst times because I know my quality and how I want to show up in this world, and what I was doing by trying to do everything, wasn’t it.
So I hired somebody to help me. And I looked at those areas that I don’t enjoy. Like I love doing a quiz or I love figuring it out, like okay, providing that challenge of, “But is your ideal client actually thinking about this?” I love that strategy. So some of the logistics and the admin task, “No, thank you.” Or hire somebody to help me do as much of that as possible.
And right now, what we’re in the process of doing is standard operating procedures. So in case somebody leaves, we can pick it right back up. So that’s what’s eventually going to allow me to have more of that freedom and not to worry, “Well, did that person do this?” So that’s really, I think what’ll help.

Jessmyn:
Yeah. I love that a lot because I was actually talking to somebody last week, I think it was. And she was saying something similar about being worried about hiring somebody to take other things on. And I do get it because you’re like, this is mine, it’s everything that I came up with. And this is like my baby. And it’s hard to trust someone in order to take some of that on. And it’s not something that I thought about before. I never thought of hiring other people as something being scary or nerve wracking, I guess.

Emily:
Yeah. And a lot of my business has come from referrals. So if there aren’t referrals, there’s no money to pay the person. Unfortunately, I had a health issue towards the end of last year. So I had to put my business on pause essentially. So that was really tough. So having people who can… that is probably one of the biggest and best reasons is that, when you take yourself out of all of the doing, then it doesn’t matter if you get sick. Because if I had had a quiz specialist onboarded last year, I could have kept going. I haven’t enough Instagram content that anybody could take a look at and go, “That’s amazing, I want to hire her.”
But if I had that support already in place, I wouldn’t have had to put my business on pause. So now what I have is I have somebody who’s in place, and then I don’t have to worry about doing that. Or like, if I’m not feeling well, or if my kids need me, that gets to be that time freedom.

Jessmyn:
Was that something that you figured out in that time that you were sick, that you were like, “Okay. Actually, when I get back into this, I need to get this set up in order for this to keep going, if something happens again.” Or did you try to jump back in and then realize, “Oh, shoot. I don’t like doing this part.”

Emily:
Right. Yeah. It was the latter. So I started doing it again and I was just like, actually, I had this realization. I’m not going to grow to the extent that I want to and impact as many women as I want to, if it’s just Emily Kund, doing all of the work. Because that’s still in an essence, it’s still kind of time for money. There’s only so much time in the day. And I think, one of the big triggers for me, because… let’s see, I guess it was in early 2020, I did not have good boundaries in place. So when a client said, “I need this ASAP,” well then I did it ASAP because I wanted to deliver and all of that good stuff, except I found myself being resentful because I was working on Mother’s Day.
So that for me, it was like, that was the first step of like, “Okay, you need to get boundaries in place. So that way work feels good.” And then once I got sick and started getting back into it, it was just like, I can’t really scale it. It’s just me doing the work all the time. Even if I have an assistant who’s helping me with client communications, I still need help to get to where I really want to go. And so that’s where I decided to actually take steps to make it happen.

Jessmyn:
Yeah. I giggled because I’m the same exact way. When I get an email, this year I had to really learn like, okay, if you’re in the middle of doing something and you get an email and someone asking you to do something totally different, you need to either a, let them know, “Hey, I can get to this at X time.” Or be like, don’t look at it yet. And then when you do have time, then look at it and go do that thing that they needed you to do.

Emily:
Yeah. I am not the best of that, that’s an area for opportunity. That’s an opportunity for improvement there.

Jessmyn:
I know. That’s something that I’ve been working on for, I don’t know, like the past five months already. Do you still feel like that’s something that you are still actively working on or were you able to actually get a good rhythm in place to where now you have that down?

Emily:
So for boundaries, I am really good with it. Well, I use scheduling link for all of my call times or market research or anything like that. And I just manage my schedule that way. So I have boundaries on my time for sure. I would say one of the challenges right now, and this is just part of this, like some of the growing pains is that I have a part-time office business manager who’s now helping me because what I also realized was there are a lot of people I have to touch base with. I have somebody who’s helping me with my social media engagement. And I have sales specialists, and I have a quiz specialist, and I have a VA.
And I don’t have time to talk to like five people at different parts of the day. So I really needed to streamline that because what I didn’t want to have happen was for me to be the bottleneck in my business. So now I can communicate with one person, and that’s going to be helping because then everybody knows to flow communication up, and then we’re getting more formalized in our processes. So that way, it’s really clear as to who reports to who and when I actually am needed. So that’s going to be helpful.

Jessmyn:
I love that because I think it is a huge challenge to figure out like, okay, I have no say eight hours in a day. And the reason why I started this was to be able to have more free time to do things that I want to do. What’s the point if I still have to talk to people all day and still do other parts of the job that I’m supposed to be doing?

Emily:
Yeah. Working on quizzes at nine and 10:00 PM at night was not really ideal for me. So I think it was those signs that, they keep showing up and it’s like, “Hey, you either pay attention to me or I’m going to really make myself known.” And having learned lessons on boundaries, now I’m like, “Okay, what can we do now?” Even little things. I’m always thinking about how can we make this process smoother? How can we make the client experience better? What can we… I’m always thinking about that. And through that, I think making a client experience better, having good processes in place, I think that really helps a business run.
And like the other, like the mindset thing though, was I really felt like I stepped into my leadership. I really became a CEO. And it wasn’t just like, “Okay, I founded a quiz company.” And it was just me or me and a VA. It’s like, all right, I actually am paying, so through contract work, but I have people who are reporting to me and who are looking to me for answers and guidance, and I need to step into that role of CEO.
And I can’t just like, I don’t feel right anyway, just like messy actioning it when it comes to leadership. So that was, I think a really beautiful observation that I had. Because that was like, okay, I’m growing as an entrepreneur. And that’s great.

Jessmyn:
Yeah. Because something that I noticed in my time working with online coaches and consultants, and everyone in that kind of industry is that, you do own an agency, but I never realized how most of them are just that one person, and they are doing a lot of the work. So what is it like, I guess, how can you fully trust other people to take ownership or be responsible for different parts of your business?

Emily:
For me it’s about communication and expectations. So like for those sales specialists, I just onboarded, I wrote out an entire sales framework of, “Here’s how I want the sales calls to go.” And I even shifted and when I talk about stepping into my leadership, this is a really great example of this because I would get on sales calls or discovery calls, whatever you want to call them. And for me, there were about one in the same. I would just talk to the person, “What are your goals?” And I didn’t have anything written. It was just me. I knew what I was going to say.
And I went through a sales call experience that I thought, “That is awesome. I want to do something like that.” And so when I wrote out my sales framework for my sales specialist, I said, “Here’s how I want this call to go.” Yes, I’d love for people to work with this, but I know that they will get massive value out of this call, regardless. Whether they opt to work with us at our lowest price point or our highest price point. And they’re going to get some artifacts that are really going to help them. And we touch on different aspects. I talk about like, I try to give them as much information as possible. So they feel informed.
And I think that was something that helps create that trust because I’m writing it out. I’m just like, “This is the expectation. And you also need to email them within 24 hours with the post sales call and you need to input this on the log. So that way we can make sure you get paid.” So it’s communicating out those expectations. And then also making sure people know that they can come to me or my OBM. So like one person said, “I don’t really feel like I have a good handle on this piece. Can you explain it to me?”
So, I could say like, “Look, here’s the framework. It has everything you need, go forth.” For her something wasn’t clear. So I’m glad that she asked. Because then, that sounds calls are not going to go well, or it may not. There may have issues. So I think that’s part of it. And then that communication up. So just checking in, making sure like, here are the things that are my priorities and I have my OBM being able to track how we’re completing those. And then using boxer or other things to help us stay in communication so that we know things are progressing. I think that’s it. Communication and expectations are like, you can’t go wrong with those.

Jessmyn:
Yeah. Yeah. Does it feel… well, I’m trying to think of the right way to say it. Did it feel hard to actually pass some of this stuff on to other people?

Emily:
No, it actually didn’t because I was so like I needed to, I wasn’t showing up as my best self. And I wasn’t like really, I was resenting work a little bit because I was doing so much of it. And if I had left my job, which had like amazing salary and benefits and I’m going to be working for myself. But the main reason why I left was to be present with the kids. Like I got to be present with the kids. And so for me, it was very liberating.
And again, I had constant communication with my VA. She was the first person that I outsourced work to. We’d have constant communication, and until we got in like a rhythm with each other. And then it’s like, okay, she can send that out. Or if she sent something out that didn’t quite hit the mark in terms of what I was expecting, then we had a conversation about, “Hey, well, the next time let’s do this.” So I think now for me, it was like a welcome, it was a welcome change.

Jessmyn:
Was there like a period of time where you felt like you needed to fall back in love with your business and what were you were doing after you decided, “Okay, I’m going to hire somebody because I’m not loving this like I used to.” And then you hired someone, then what happened from there?

Emily:
For me, I could really see the potential. Because when you’re in it and you’re just like slogging through it and trying to be your PR and your marketing and all of the things, it’s like you can’t step back and breathe and see what’s going on. And so I think that’s where I started to like it more. I’ve always loved it, but I started to like it more or like it again.

Jessmyn:
Yeah. I love that. I think it’s, I don’t know. It’s just like, this is kind of part of the reason we want to do a podcast like this. Is to show people like, “Hey, you can make small changes or big changes,” I guess you could say, “And still be where you want to be, go where you want to go, if this is something that you really, really, really want.”

Emily:
Yeah. And I think with entrepreneurship, even with my own business, like I love teaching that is something that is in my zone of genius. I absolutely love it. I did a lot of training last year in another business and another one of my businesses. So I try to implement that. And I will actually come out with a course here soon. But I think we can try things and that’s okay. So, when I was thinking about, I can’t scale the way I want, it’s just me doing these quizzes. And I didn’t even think about, “Well, Emily hire out, hire out the parts.”
I had thought about that. That was a strategic vision that was in my mind, so far down in the future that I hadn’t really gotten to like a place where I had made it and now I can convert this to an agency. And then I was like, there’s nothing stopping me from creating the agency now. So I can actually help impact people. Now I can create the course. Because what I found was that I really love… I mentioned earlier, like I truly believe quizzes are a great tool for every entrepreneur. So I try to make it accessible to entrepreneurs at every level, whether you’re making 15,000 or 150,000.
And as part of that, I did group coaching for quiz creation. And I found, I actually don’t love being a coach. I love teaching. So that was something that I tried. It’s great quality work that we put into it. I loved the students that went through my program or the participants that went through the program, but I had that realization like, “Oh, that’s interesting. I’m not a fan of coaching.” I was taking a lot of energy that I didn’t have for health reasons. And so then it was, “Okay, how do I make this change?” And I think, trying those different things, it’s just all part of entrepreneurship.

Jessmyn:
Yeah, it sounds like, you really have to dig deep and I guess self reflect quite often to figure out like what parts I love, what parts I think I can pass off to someone else. And then how do I also make this into something that I’m proud of at the same time?

Emily:
Yeah. Well, and for somebody like me, who’s very analytical, that’s easy to do. Like I’m thinking all the time. Yeah, for me, I was thinking about, and somebody gave me some advice, like, what are the things you should hire out? The things that don’t bring you joy or the things that are below your hourly rate or hourly worth.

Jessmyn:
Interesting.

Emily:
Yeah, because then it’s really kind of at least on paper, it’s costing you money where you could be doing income producing activities or doing something else, that is on par with what you’re worth or what your rate is.

Jessmyn:
Sorry, one second. I’m just going to pause this real quick. Okay. And we’re back. Go ahead.

Emily:
Yeah. So if you think about, if your hourly rate is $100, but to enter data or enter some information into a spreadsheet, that’s really not $100 task. So if you outsource that to a neighbor kid, a son, or a VA, that’s like a 15 to $25 task, then you can spend your time doing the things that you love to do or being on the calls, or connecting with clients, whatever it is. And so that’s part of the logic of what to hire out. And I loosely follow that.

Jessmyn:
What do you mean by loosely?

Emily:
Well, for me, because I also have a technical, like I’m relatively good in tech. I can take an idea and go to execution in one weekend, [crosstalk 00:35:10] to remember just because I like doing something, doesn’t mean I should always do something. Because I should delegate this out. So that way I can spend time with family or I can be more strategic, or do something that’s really like, I can empower my VA to do the task that are appropriate for her. So that’s what I mean by loosely, because sometimes I can’t help myself and I’m like tinkering in the website to try to build a new page.

Jessmyn:
This was really big realization though. I guess like, yeah, if you have the time to put it in and you like doing it makes sense, but I think that’s a pretty big part of what you should delegate out is, how can I make sure that I’m making good use of my time?

Emily:
Yeah. Because there’s always something that we can do, whether it’s self-development or professional development or just like chill out. And then save those tasks for the people who should be doing them.

Jessmyn:
So would you say before you were able to hire people to take some of these other tasks on, were you working crazy hours?

Emily:
Yeah. It was interesting because even though I had time flexibility, which was great, I was working pretty much every day. And that was not great. So it started with that of working every day, I would tell, I think my husband once said like, “Oh, it’s like every day is a weekend for you.” And I was like, “No, every day is a work day for me.” And that’s what it was like. And then I started to implement in my business systems and self care day. So every Friday I would do like, I’d work on my systems. I wouldn’t book any calls on Friday. It was just purely to work on me and work on things that I needed to for my business.
And that felt so good. That really shifted things too, because then I could think about like, just again, stepping into that leadership. And so that was, I think really, that was a huge move for me.

Jessmyn:
Yeah. I like that a lot as a kind of strategy. Because you have to stop and take care of yourself in order to keep going. And then in order to grow from there. How did you come across, I guess, deciding to do that?

Emily:
I think I was just tired of working every day to be honest. And the other thing too it’s, so I have two kids, and that was the other part that I think has been really challenging is because, when your family works or goes to school Monday through Friday, and then they’re off on the weekends, and they’re like, “Hey, we’re off, hang out.” I’m like, “But I have work to do.” So that was kind of tough. And I knew that I wanted to get to that point where I wasn’t always working, like that if I did some work, it was just like a little bit on a Saturday or something before they really woke up.
But I knew that with them being in school, I could take Fridays where I don’t have to like really be mom because they’re in school. I could take Fridays and do some of that stuff. Where I could take care of myself and take care of my business. And so that’s how systems in self-care Friday was born.

Jessmyn:
Wow. It’s funny because I know I asked it, making it sound like, there was some very strategic planning.

Emily:
No, it’s purely like mom life entered into the picture and I just needed to not be mom.

Jessmyn:
Sometimes I think that’s the best way to figure out what’s best for you, is to just see, okay, what is really bugging me right now. And let’s just try something out to see if that’ll work. So how is the self-care Fridays going?

Emily:
Okay. Not so great right now. Although every other Friday I get a massage that’s part of my self-care. But I do have self-care on the weekends. I’ve transitioned it more. So I work during the week and then I take weekends off. And then I am with family. And I’m a big fan of bubble baths.

Jessmyn:
I love that. I love that.

Emily:
My kids will say, “Are you okay? You’ve been in there for like two hours?” And I’m like, “I know it’s amazing.”

Jessmyn:
That’s awesome. Awesome/hilarious that they’re like, “Is she okay?”

Emily:
It’s like a whole thing. I have like music on, I’m reading, I have coffee. I have LED lights. I make it a production. That’s what makes me feel good. And just like in the moment, instead of like being in mom mode, so that’s my time.

Jessmyn:
Yeah. I think, we’ve been remote for, oh, man, it’s been over two years already. It was like March of 2019, we went fully remote. And I had just such a hard time with the flexibility of working, whatever, as long as your work gets done. And at first I thought that meant, okay, now I don’t have to commute, so I should be working more. I should be working a little bit longer. And then I hit a point where I was like, “I actually don’t like this very much. I have no time to actually cook anything. I can’t relax on the couch because I still have to exercise at some point in the day. And before you know it, I need to go to bed.”
And so that was pretty crazy for me. And I’m sure a lot of people starting their own businesses, especially if it’s your own business. You get to kind of pick and choose what do I want to get done? And it’s just up to me. So how did you figure out what that looked like? And I know you mentioned the self-care Fridays, but how did you structure that in a way that was like, “Okay, these are the hours that I’m going to work. And then, I’m going to make sure that on weekends I’m also free in order to do what I want.”

Emily:
Yeah. So for me, I really struggled with all of that flexibility and I needed structure.

Jessmyn:
Yeah, in the same way.

Emily:
So I decided, I really had to come to this and I think you all can tell like, I really think about a lot of things because I was like, “You know what? We talk about time flexibility so much, and that we don’t have certain hours to work and isn’t that freeing?” That can be very freeing for some people, but for others it creates this like chaos of like, “Oh, I can do work whenever. So I’ll do that later.” And then maybe it gets done, maybe it doesn’t. So I actually put myself on work hours.
I’m like, “Okay, I’m working from 9:30 to 5:30. And I stick to that. Or I think I worked 10 to six. And so I would stick to that. And at 6:00 PM computer was off and I was upstairs having dinner with the family, doing karate and doing all the things

Jessmyn:
I love that. I think that’s such an important part. I actually had that realization recently where, you have to have that separation of work and home if you’re at home for both. And it is a crazy kind of process, I guess, because you have, I don’t know, it’s hard time. I have a hard time separating the two. And especially with the pandemic and everyone forced at home, I had to move my whole desk into the bedroom as everyone can see now. If you’re watching the video version of this, but I had to move my whole desk into the bedroom.
So my fiance could be outside in the living room where he’s on calls all day and I couldn’t concentrate. And so then after that, I was like, okay, I’m literally sleeping and working in the same place. And now I have to also go through that process and figure out how to separate those two. Yeah.

Emily:
That is tough. I am fortunate that I have my office downstairs in the basement, with my salty blue wall behind me. That’s great. Like it is my place where I can step away from it. So I am fortunate in that regard.

Jessmyn:
Yeah. So it’s kind of like you are physically leaving the office, so you’re physically leaving work. Oh, I love that. I wish I had that. One day. Well I think that’s all I had.

Emily:
Awesome. Well, I have really enjoyed our chat. I love what quizzes can do for people. And I love being a part of that. And I love being able to empower people with that. And I’m such a nerd because I think about the psychological aspects of quizzes and how they can help us create community. And all of that stuff is so fascinating to me that I am like really pumped anytime I get to talk about quizzes. And so for me, this was like super fun because I’m like, “Yeah, let’s jam out.”

Jessmyn:
I love that. I love that. I do have two last minute questions that I always like to close out every episode with if you’re up for it. So what are three things that most people don’t know about you?

Emily:
Let’s see. The first thing is that I won an Indian leg wrestling competition.

Jessmyn:
Whoa. What is that?

Emily:
It’s where you like lay on the grounds, and you swing your leg, like I’m not really describing it very well, but you like lay your legs and then one, two, three, and then you hook the leg and then if you flip the person you win.

Jessmyn:
Wow, I’ve never heard of that.

Emily:
Yeah. It’s like a game from, I think it was like when I was growing up. But yeah, it was actually one of us as an adult at a [crosstalk 00:46:26]. We had field day and that was one of the games. So that’s one thing. Second thing is that, I was a fitness competitor for a couple of years. I loved it. It was so much fun. And then the third thing, I kind of already alluded to it, but I do karate, so like-

Jessmyn:
Okay. Yeah, you did allude to it, but I thought of it in like, just kind of the context of, being around but not actually doing it.

Emily:
No, I actually do it. I’m going for the green belt. [crosstalk 00:47:07] next. Yeah. And my son is a black belt. Yeah. So those are three things that people may not know about me.

Jessmyn:
Oh, I love that. So my last question is what is a single piece of advice you would give yourself at the start of it all?

Emily:
Don’t stray from who you are.

Jessmyn:
I love that.

Emily:
Yeah. I think, what I found myself doing is getting caught up in this echo chamber of entrepreneurship and listening to so many people. And some of it was great, but I really found myself being lost and losing a little bit about who I am. Thinking I had to do group coaching if I didn’t want to do service all the time. Then I think just staying true to who you are and there’s no role, that’s the thing. There is no role in entrepreneurship. Like we can make our own roles. So that’s your own role for your business.

Jessmyn:
That’s awesome. I think that’s one of the best ones I’ve ever had on it. No, that’s okay. All right Emily, well. Thank you so much for being on Creator Stories with us. We enjoyed having you so much.

Emily:
Oh my gosh. It was a pleasure. Thank you.

Jessmyn:
Of course. All right guys. And lastly, where can people find you online?

Emily:
Yeah. So you can find me @EmilyKund on Instagram, and you can find me on my website, www.emilykund.com.

Jessmyn:
And that is K-U-N-D?

Emily:
Oh yeah. It’s K-U-N-D.

Jessmyn:
If they watch a video, they’ll see it or read the transcript, but just in case you’re listening, that’s how you spell it.

Emily:
Yes.

Jessmyn:
All right. Well, thanks guys. And we will see you next time. Bye.

Emily:
All right.

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Jessmyn Solana

Jessmyn Solana is the Partner Program Manager of Interact, a place for creating beautiful and engaging quizzes that generate email leads. Outside of Interact Jessmyn loves binge watching thriller and sci-fi shows, cuddling with her fluffy dog, and traveling to places she's never been before.