Transcript of Episode

Leah Gervais: Hey visionaries. Welcome back to the Your Biggest Vision show. I’m your host Leah, and we have Emily Hirsh with us today, founder of Hirsh Marketing and Emily Hirsh and everything Hirsh that she does. Thanks for being here, Emily. 

Emily Hirsh: Yay. I’m so excited. Thanks for having me. 

Leah Gervais: Yeah, I’m really excited too. So for those who might not know you so well, do have a few sentences to summarize what it is that you do? 

Emily Hirsh: Yeah, so I run a marketing company and we basically help influencers and people with digital products with their marketing strategy, Facebook ads, and Instagram ads. 

Leah Gervais: Amazing and you guys just for you listening. I’ve been listening to Emily’s podcast, I think she since she started it and I also get her monthly report. She knows her stuff and I’m always very proud of how much I know about Facebook ads, having really no background in it and much of it is thanks to you Emily. 

Emily Hirsh: That’s so awesome. I love that. 

Leah Gervais: Yeah. Great. Okay. Well before you had your amazing agency or you’re seven figures agency, if I’m correct, you’re like how they didn’t always look like this. So take us back to like when you were in high school, what did you think you were going to be when you grew up? 

Emily Hirsh: Oh Man. Like I definitely have always I had a business in high school. I’ve always known I was going to be an entrepreneur but I think I thought I was going to work for a little bit first and then do that. Like that’s kind of what my parents told me is you have to play the game and then you could be an entrepreneur because that’s what my dad did. So for a while I wanted to actually be in the health industry and I was majoring in kinesiology in college and was going to be like a holistic health practitioner. Cause I definitely have that interests side, which I guess is kind of like an entrepreneur cause you’d be running your own practice. But I always knew I was going to do my own thing for sure. 

Leah Gervais: Yeah. Okay. So you were fine to like go to college normally and then you were just going to play the corporate ladder, but you never did, right? 

Emily Hirsh: No, it’s actually… I dropped out of college. I only did two years. I did got like AA, which is almost like nothing. My AA degree and then my business was taking off. So I’m super young, I don’t know if you know that I’m only 24. So I was like in college while I was building this business and then had a baby and I was like, well, I’m just going to college to like make people happy like my parents. And so I was like, I can always go back in this fails, but my business is taking off. I have more clients than I can handle and I need to focus on that and I can’t do everything, I now have a newborn baby. 

Leah Gervais:

You’ve done more in the last four years than most people ever do. Probably, um, okay. So when you first started, was it a health focus business at all or did you first start within like the online entrepreneurship space? 

Emily Hirsh: No, so what I did was, my husband is in the health industry and he’s still is, so we met, he’s a, he was a personal trainer for a long time. I helped him kind of take that online. So we have an online membership site where he teaches kettlebells. And what I did was I did everything for that business but the content. So that’s kind of how I started with like what I could do because then I got clients doing that. So I was a virtual assistant to start and then I learned Facebook ads through that. But I was helping him in his health industry but I was using my skills now, which is marketing and building the website and the social media and growing the business. So that was my first client and then I would get other clients basically doing that. I just used my experience that I got with that business to get more clients. And then I got really focused in on Facebook ads maybe a year in. 

Leah Gervais: Okay. Okay. So what time or how old were you when you started virtually assisting or even working with your husband? 

Emily Hirsh: I was 19 I was pregnant and 19 and then I had my son at 20 and my business, I had definitely had a good handful of eight clients probably by the time I had my son. 

Leah Gervais: So were you scared when you didn’t go back or, well, I guess so much was happening. It didn’t probably didn’t seem like an option to go to continue school after your associates because you were pregnant. 

Emily Hirsh: Yeah, I mean I kept doing online classes for maybe six months after I had my son. And it was really just because it was like my parents were like, you have to do this. Because… I’ve heard it a hundred times from my mom,  at least you have a degree to fall back on, you know that like thinking if you fail then you’ve got that, which I don’t believe it’s true anymore. I think she doesn’t either because she’s watched what happened. But you know, and then at some point I was like, this is so dumb because I’m taking these classes online and like doing the minimum amount just to get the credit and what is the point. So then I stopped doing it. 

Leah Gervais: Right, right. Okay. So it sounds like that was kind of a no brainer to you, but what was it like getting a business off the ground and having a newborn baby? 

Emily Hirsh: I mean it was hard, but I’ll also say it gives me purpose. I don’t think I realized that piece to it when I was building my business. With my son, I saw it as like, oh, I’ll be able to work, contribute and also be home. Because I knew I didn’t want to put him in daycare. I knew like for sure especially, yeah, like I did not want to do that and we were nursing and that would’ve been just really difficult. So I saw it as that at first. But then it also became this like purpose because when you become, especially like the first time, if anyone’s becoming a mom for the first time, it’s like nothing can prepare you for how much your life changes with that one change. And it’s like at least you still have something that’s yours. And you know, even if I got two hours in the day to go to a coffee shop and my husband watched him and I could work, it was my thing. I think that’s part of the reason I’ve grown it so much is because I love putting my energy into that thing that’s mine and it’s still my identity apart from being a mom. 

Leah Gervais: Right, right. So I love, I love, love, love that point. I think it’s so inspiring. Thank you for sharing because I’m sure that a lot of moms there kind of need to hear that, that you still can be your own person separate of just being a mother. Now you have two kids, right? 

Emily Hirsh: Yep.

Leah Gervais: So, it sounds like that’s giving you a lot of purpose. That’s why you’ve grown it really quickly. Has there been any equal challenges that have come with that? Have you experienced any guilt or other people telling you? 

Emily Hirsh: Totally. Yeah. I mean there’s definitely, there’s always going to be like the mom guilt. I always have that. But I think, and there’s just overall challenges because you know you’re, some days I feel like everyone needs me. It’s like my team needs me, you know, all day and then my kids need me for the rest of the day. And like I don’t ever get a break. And that’s a lot of the days what it honestly feels like I’m going to, I have a four and a two year old and they’re intense. And you know, I run a big company with 30 people and that’s not easy. But I like it. I still like it. So there is a lot of challenges with that. And the one thing that I always come back to is just being present with like what I’m doing in that moment. 

So if I’m working, I’m fully working. I have hours of like I work until about three or 4:00 PM everyday and then I kinda transition and then I’m in my mom time. And sometimes that transition is really hard for me because you’re going really fast in work mode and that’s actually how I like to live and be in that mode. And then you switched to mom mode and you’re like playing legos and my brain sometimes is still not ready to be in that slow pace, but I try so hard to be present and like off my phone and I’m not perfect by any means. I mean, I definitely like sneak on my phone, reply to Voxer messages, but that’s my struggle is kind of like that transition and it’s just constantly having this set aside time. Like, that’s what helps me is I know if I can get at least, you know, three hours that’s really quality time with my kids in the afternoon, in the evening. I feel good about the fact that I worked all day and I liked that my kids see that I do this. They see that I’m passionate about this. They see how much I like to work and they see that I do something for myself. 

Leah Gervais: Yeah, absolutely. It’s such an amazing way to be a role model for your children, especially as a woman, as a working woman in a working mom. So when you were in those earlier days, uh, did you plan or even dream of building your business to what it is now this quickly or yeah. What was it like and like that? 

Emily Hirsh: Definitely not this quickly. I knew like, okay, I want a million dollar business. Cause I think that’s everybody’s first big goal. Right? You don’t realize how little you actually on the net side of that. I mean it’s not little, but not like you actually are a millionaire, but it grew way faster. I think. I, I think I wrote something like, Oh, I want to have $1 million business by the time I’m 25, like, and my business at 3 million and I’m 24. So it definitely grew a lot faster. My team grew a lot faster than I expected and it really comes down to just delivering a really good service is my secret. Also staying focused. I haven’t gears on like what I do once I found that thing and I’ve been able to really grow and become that industry leader in that space, which has helped a lot with how fast we grow. 

Leah Gervais: Right. What do you think it was or probably several things that made you so good at Facebook ads, like so clearly knowledgeable on what it is that you do. 

Emily Hirsh: I think it started with I love it. It’s one of those things that you just naturally start doing and you’re like, wow, we never knew like this existed and I love this and it’s so cool. And it came naturally to me and then I definitely got some really good experience. So that’s really what now what makes us so good is like we manage over $1 million a month in ad spend. So the amount of data and experience we have, because with marketing you can take in all the information, but unless you actually like do it and test it and see what is and isn’t working, it doesn’t really matter. So now that is what makes us the best and I just got those great experiences and in the beginning said yes to a lot of opportunities and like just got that experience. And the experience is what helped me grow a lot. Then I just have a really good marketing brain. I can think, not just marketing, but then also like customer journey and relationships and value and I think that’s something that kind of stands out with our process and what we do. 

Leah Gervais: Yeah, right, right. You’re definitely gifted. I know when I started Facebook ads, and I’m sure a lot of entrepreneurs are, you know, people that are just starting out, whether if it’s like with a blog or even an Instagram account or anything online, I wanted to cry when I looked at the power editor. It was so foreign to me. I think one of the reasons that I didn’t you know, take the plunge in it for a long time, which stunted my growth for a long time. It’s no coincidence that things really took off for me when I got serious about this was because I was told or what the research that I did from people like you that clearly knew what they were doing, really emphasized the importance of testing and that nothing, there is no secret sauce. There is no one way that you can put something out there and expect the exact same results from anyone else, no matter how similar they are. 

To me in the beginning I was like, oh my God, I do not want to test things. I don’t have any money to test things. I only want to do this if it works. And now I can, you know, I couldn’t think of it any more opposite. I love that I get a test things. I think being able to test Facebook ads not only has made my Facebook ads better, but it’s made me understand everything about my business better because it informs everything. So, do you hear that from people? Am I alone in that? How do you kind of help people understand that this is an investment in not just your ads but your whole business? 

Emily Hirsh: Yeah, I totally in one thing I talk about a lot is the importance of actually buying data because you know, a lot of people ask me, you know, what’s the right image to use or the right copy or like the right ad. And it’s like, it’s different for everyone because everybody has a different business. They’re targeting a different audience, they have different priced products and different type of products. So there’s no way there’s a cookie cutter and that’s actually what’s cool because how boring would that be if everybody was like literally doing the same thing and it was working, that would never work. You know? People would just totally ignore that. So what we talk about is buying data, which is actually shifting your mindset to think that just adds is like, oh, I spend money and I should make it back really fast. In the beginning you have to actually spend money to get like Intel on your business on your market, on your messaging, and even when you fail with something, it’s actually a good thing because then you’re not going to do that again and you realize like what is and isn’t working. So that data you kind of have to commit in the beginning and say like, okay, I’m comfortable with a monthly budget of $500 going into my marketing and I might not make it back in the beginning and that’s okay, I’m committing to this expense because I want to grow because I want to get that data and obviously be as strategic as you can with it. But don’t hold yourself to if I don’t make that back I’m just going to quit, you know, marketing and Facebook ads because I didn’t make it back in the first month. 

Leah Gervais: Right. That’s such such, such good advice. And I love the phrase buying data. So my next question was going to be, but I think you slightly answered it, like if someone’s listening to this and they, you know, have gotten some of their business off the ground and they’re wanting to get started maybe building their list, maybe they have like 500 people on an email list or a thousand or something like that. Do you think $500 is a good amount of a monthly budget to start with? 

Emily Hirsh: Yeah. 500 to a thousand building your list. It’s definitely fine to go on the lower end, but I want to make sure that you have something to sell, like you know like not that you do like six months of just list building because we can’t actually test as it working until we make an offer. So there needs to be in the next three months that you have at least something, you know a lot of people will list build and then the live launch is like a model or you could be list building to a webinar funnel that’s selling to somebody. But we don’t actually know if anything’s working until we make money. Right. So we have to have a plan for that before we start ads. 

Leah Gervais: Right. Okay. So I know on your podcast a lot, you talk about how the amazing thing you can do for people is when they come to you, they have a proven product and they’ve already sold it, people love it and you can help them scale so much. What would you say to someone who feels like, okay, my product is like kind of proven they’ve sold some of it but maybe not that a lot or they think that something, you know what I mean? They’re like kind of in that gray area. When do you pull them out of that? 

Emily Hirsh: Yeah, so that’s where like you need to buy data. So as long as you’ve sold some of your product, you know at least people want it and at least, and, and now are you getting good feedback from that? That’s great because Facebook ads can’t fix that. They can’t fix what’s broken. They really amplify what’s working is what you wanna do. But you also have that phase where you’re like, I don’t know what’s working because I haven’t, I’ve like maxed out my organic traffic. And that’s where you get into buying data, which is used. Just commit to an amount and you try and get as many people into your funnel, into your customer journey, and ultimately as many people as you can to buy your product. So you can get that customer feedback on, is my cost per lead good, is my sales percentage conversion from lead to sale. Good. And all of those numbers. So then you can fix it and then you eventually can scale because you know when you fix it and you spend enough time doing that, you will be able to scale. 

Leah Gervais: I love that way of thinking of it. Like try for organic traffic if you’re still trying to find tune by data and then you can actually scale it. Amazing. Okay. Well I got, I can talk about Facebook ads for forever. So actually I think on do you a little bit, you mentioned that you have 30 employees. 

Emily Hirsh:  30 yeah, it might be over that now. I think we just hired two people. 

Leah Gervais: Wow. Wow. Okay. So tell us a bit about what it was like when you first started at hiring. He must, must’ve done it relatively quickly. 

Emily Hirsh: Yeah, it’s growing. My team has been the biggest struggle because managing people is just really hard. It even still is my biggest struggle is days where you’re like, are you serious? So I mean it was I grew way faster than I thought because I remember being like, oh my gosh, a full time employee that’s so much responsibility and so expensive. Like I can’t have that. But I quickly like just realized how much help I needed and then how powerful it was growing a team and pulling myself out of the day to day and being able to grow. I mean my team is what’s taking me from 1 to 3 million. Absolutely. I couldn’t have done it without a team, without a real team. It’s really been my number one focus for the last year and a half is just like systems. So my team is set up for success and processes and growing that team and we’re constantly working on that. Everything that you can think of with process and it’s so rewarding to do that because you’re able to, especially in the service industry when there’s so many moving parts and so many client accounts and it’s really hard. It honestly is. And it’s why most people haven’t grown an agency to the level I have because they give up on the team piece. They’re amazing strategists. They’ve got the marketing strategy, they could do it, but they can’t do it on the level of 60 client accounts that they have to look after. 

Leah Gervais: Right, right. So this is so incredible to hear because I think one of the common complaints I get from my clients is that they kind of go into entrepreneurship because they have a great idea or they’re good at something. So in your case, the example here would be you’re very good at marketing and then that’s not the best example because I hear like the first complaint I get from them is that they went into this because they love to, I don’t know, wright. And then all of a sudden they have to market and they don’t know how. And they think that everything isn’t going well because they just don’t know how to use social media or they don’t know how to build the list and blah, blah, blah. And they think that they’re not good enough. And that’s usually not true. It’s just that you don’t usually go and entrepreneurship to be a marketer. You’re the exception. But then you kind of have to roll that anyway. So for you, it sounds like you went into this because you loved marketing and you wanted to be your own boss. You then had to learn how to be a leader and you know, be a manager and not even be on the forefront of ads that much anymore and be a strategist. And so how have you, have you enjoyed it kind of moving up throughout those hats or has it been sort of like, do you ever miss like doing what you kind of started with? 

Emily Hirsh: Sometimes, but I also feel like I love leading. I really do. If you can get to the point where you are doing that everyday, it’s really powerful because, you know, I have 30 people every day, like all working towards this one thing that’s for me and like doing way more than I could ever, ever do on my own. It’s so cool to see that actually in motion and the team and the culture. It’s the most rewarding thing honestly ever. Like that’s why you keep doing it when it’s so hard because there are such rewarding moments. We just actually did an in person team retreat. I flew my whole team to Austin in early June and everybody met each other in person for the first time. Like I had, you know my whole team’s virtual like some in Canada, all over the U.S. so it was so amazing. 

That was so rewarding to stand in front of them in the room and be like, oh my gosh, like this is my team. So it’s hard. It’s worth it and as far as missing the day to day, I think some people, if you’re like more visionary, creative, I could see that happening. I like leading but also I like being at the top and being able to get all this Intel of the day to day but not actually have to be vantage or duplicating the ads. A lot of times the tactical work you have to do is not what we want to do as entrepreneurs. A lot of us are not crazy detail oriented and we don’t want to do that really small task that we have to do in the beginning when we’re wearing all those hats. So I love having, you know, 11-12 ads managers who I get to hear on our huddle or on a meeting like here’s everything that’s working and I’m like, wow, you guys did that? That’s so cool. And I just get the top level that I take it to my podcast a lot of times, you know, sometimes I do have to go to them and be like, guys like my podcast is going to turn into a teambuilding podcast if you don’t give me some strategies. But I don’t miss doing the tactical stuff. I actually prefer getting the Intel of we did all the hard work and now here’s our Intel for you and you’re going to learn from that because it’s pretty cool what we get to learn and what we get to share as a team with everything we manage. 

Leah Gervais: Right. And I’m sure that the information that you’re learning from them and the results they’re getting, like you’ve kind of alluded to throughout this time is so huge because there are so many of them and when you’re doing it on your own it’s just, you know, you don’t have yourself to  side track you or to think differently. It’s just a totally different dynamic. 

Emily Hirsh: Yeah definitely. I also say like one thing to add, I think like being a CEO is what you define it too. So if you love writing, leave time in your schedule to write and, and hire out the marketing eventually and delegate the things you don’t love doing. So you know, a lot of us end up in a content creation. I spent a lot of time content creating cause like I’m the face of the brand still. So, you know, I think also remembering that you can get to a place where you’re defining what your role looks like as long as you’re not being a bottleneck for the company by staying somewhere and not delegating something. But if you like creative things, you don’t have to give that up to grow your business. You just have to eventually, like at the beginning you have to wear all the hats. Usually marketing, sales, like all of it, but you want to delegate those things as fast as you can. 

Leah Gervais:

Right, right. Have you ever had to fire anyone? 

Emily Hirsh:

Oh yeah. Yeah. That’s all the time. I mean, not all the time, but yes. We’ve fired a lot.

Leah Gervais: 

Yeah. What tips do you have for people that are nervous about hiring? But more importantly, nervous about if they have to fire someone. 

Emily Hirsh: I really do live by hire slow, fire fast. Like we do do that. We have like a seven step interview process. I mean, I have an HR team now, so I don’t do any of that. But I did and I was terrible at it. I do not like confrontation and even now like having to do that is really hard for me. It’s where I grow for sure. But I think that what do you can remember a few things. One, if you’re really uncomfortable with the person and the way they’re performing and it’s not working, they’re probably also uncomfortable. And so, you know, like just remembering that it’s a good thing for them and you that like nobody’s in a position where they aren’t happy or comfortable or like thriving because most people want to do a good job. 

Also, you know, using every experience. Don’t leave someone in there cause you’re ever afraid to fire them. That will cause so many problems down the road if it’s even like the next two weeks which is why  I fire fast like as soon as I know, because in my gut a lot of times or I just know like they’re not a cold, true fit, they’re not a high performer that are working fast enough, whatever it is, we gotta just move on faster than just letting it get worse. But also firing someone when it comes time to fire them should never actually be a huge surprise for them. What you have to make sure is that you’ve given feedback up to that point that like, Hey, this is not working and this is why. Here’s what I need to see instead. And when it comes time to like fire them or discipline them, if you’re at that phase, there shouldn’t be a huge surprise. Otherwise you fail, that’s how I look at it. Because if somebody is like, wow, I thought I was doing a great job and you’re firing me, there’s something way off with my communication and our team, they should know that it’s coming. 

Leah Gervais: Right, right. Wow. Really that’s all such good advice. I know that hiring and firing is like one of the hardest things entrepreneurs have to do and they’re very afraid of it. But I over and over and over hear entrepreneurs say that it’s the one thing they should have done sooner or it’s the one thing that they can’t recommend enough and stuff like that. So yeah. Thank you for sharing this with us. Yeah. So with your team, do they help you, like being the visionary still and helping you grow or do you still feel like that’s mostly you? 

Emily Hirsh:

No, they help I tell them come to me with our monthly goals come to me and with our quarterly goals, my leadership team, because I’m not in the day to day, so I don’t actually know all the projects we need to work on, cause I don’t know all the problems like to solve. So I have a marketing team and they help and I definitely contribute with ideas, but it’s way more powerful when there’s multiple people in there all like contributing. So, we do like monthly and quarterly planning as a company and I require my whole leadership team to show up to that meeting with their own, you know, based on their department goals for either the month or the quarter. And then I just kind of add if I have things to add or like say, hey, that’s not actually a priority, let’s move this around. So I think it’s a bit of both. I definitely still have my own visionary and I have masterminds I’m a part of and you know, friends who have successful businesses. So I get a lot of ideas from that and bring it to my team as well. But they also know in terms of like the day to day and what is and isn’t working and then what we need to improve better than I do because I’m not in that in the day. 

Leah Gervais:

Right. Okay. So my final question for you about Facebook kind of specifically in what you do is have you guys ever, have you, do you ever get nervous about the changing algorithm, bad press in the news, like all the crap that happens with Facebook and you know, I know you well enough to know that your agency is not a Facebook agency. Like you are a marketing team. So it’s not really a threat. But have you had to navigate any trickiness with that? 

Emily Hirsh: I mean yeah, I think you’ll always like we just pay attention and we have some contacts at Facebook and I think a lot of what’s happening is for the public, honestly like Facebook is making tons of money on advertising. They’re not going to stop. Like that’s how they profit their business. So I am not worried about like Facebook going anywhere and they own Instagram too. So it’s like, yes, we’re definitely seen a transfer because you notice like Facebook’s getting heat. Instagram’s really not at all. Nobody’s talking about that and it’s like the same thing, you know? So ads might shift more and more over to Instagram as what we’re seeing, but it’s like it’s, it’s the same, you can still have the same success. So it’s just watching and staying on top of. The cool thing is that, you know, we’re spending $1 million a month in ad spend of other people’s money and testing and then coming back and being like, here’s what is and isn’t working. So we’ll always be ahead of that curve of what is right. And one other thing I always talk about is why I’m so passionate about building your influence and your brand and doing that visibility and brand awareness because you’re building followers and loyal followers and if shut Facebook did shut down tomorrow, you still have those loyal followers. Right? Right. So you can take it in market somewhere else. Nobody can take that away from you, which is why it’s so important that you prioritize that. 

Leah Gervais: Yeah, I love that way of thinking. And that’s, I think one of the biggest messages I try to send to is don’t freak out about the or the content, care about your message and the actual thing you want to make happen and you can do that amongst any platforms. So it’s not really like you are pigeonholed into one particular one. I think that’s where people freak out is they’re like, oh my God, my entire business is on Instagram. That’s how I make money. And it’s like, well, what’s your business about them? Because if you really have the core to it, it’s not going to be about the platform. Right. Okay. Amazing. Emily, you are just a wealth of knowledge and congratulations on all your success. It’s amazing to see that you’ve grown from, what do you say, zero to 3 million in four years? 

Emily Hirsh:

Yeah. Yeah. And I, yeah, maybe a little, I mean, yeah, I guess I started as a virtual assistant, like you $15 an hour four years ago and then it grew. I’ve been doing the Facebook ads for about three years. So that’s when I really started like this company where we’re offering this service. 

Leah Gervais: Wow. Wow. Amazing. Well, congratulations. I just have a quick few last, um, your biggest vision questions for you. Are you ready?

Emily Hirsh: Yep.

Leah Gervais: What do you do when something feels like it’s fighting against the vision that you have? 

Emily Hirsh:

I just change. I stop. 

Leah Gervais:

What do you do when, when something goes really wrong? Like a client is mad at you or you’ve taught something like what or, or your kids, like when things are just…

Emily Hirsh: Yeah, I mean it’s hard. So you acknowledge that like when there’s, there’s definitely bad weeks and bad, bad days, but then I always turn it into a learning experience. It’s like every time, how do we make sure this doesn’t happen again? Because, you know it’s the same with buying data. When you fail and like you realize like it’s a waste if you don’t actually take back the Intel and do something about it. And so bad things are going to happen. It’s going to be bad weeks. Like it just, that’s what we signed up for when we decided to be an entrepreneur is have that pressure and that happened. If you can learn from everyone it won’t happen again and you can improve and that’s how you grow. 

Leah Gervais: So do you feel like you’ve gotten very good at sort of separating the emotion from reflecting and looking back and instead just learning and not like beating yourself up about it? Cause I think that’s one of the reasons people don’t learn as much from their mistakes is because once they’ve made a mistake they like don’t want to think about it. They avoid it. And you seem to have a very level head about it. 

Emily Hirsh: Yeah, I mean I definitely sometimes struggle. Like if there’s a big client issue and I feel bad about it, I feel like I care a lot. So I wouldn’t feel bad. I think also as you grow, you have to protect yourself. Like with your team, like protect you from what do you need to know, what verses you know everything. When you put yourself out there you’re going to see rude comments and all the time. Right? So it’s like what do we actually need to know? And then I really do those separate. I can really separate things and look at like the logic behind everything and take out the emotion. I think that is something that’s helped me grow my team because I don’t really get super emotional and like, man, they’re my friend. I can’t fire them. No, it’s like here’s the facts, here’s what’s happening, here’s the decision that we need to make. Like so you kind of have to do at, you know, in, in a business setting. 

Leah Gervais: Good, great advice. What are you most proud of so far in life or business for anything? 

Emily Hirsh: I mean definitely my team. I think because I, that’s one thing, it’s like I figured out marketing, I knew how to do that myself, but I had no idea how to grow a team and we’re a real business now, you know, it’s like, that’s basically what I’ve done the last two years is make it so we’re official with employees and like, you know, they get vacation time. All those things that like I think qualify as a real business. And so I didn’t know how to do that. I didn’t really have the guidance to do that. I, my dad’s an entrepreneur, but it’s weighed like he’s not in the virtual, he did not have a big team. So I really just kind of have figured it out, make mistakes, learn from the mistakes and, and move forward. I think that your team is your most rewarding thing if you can get past the struggles that are there to grow one. 

Leah Gervais: Amazing. Do you have a go to business book or podcast you recommend [inaudible]? 

Emily Hirsh: I love, so I’ll say, I just recently read the book powerful, by Patty McCord. I think she worked in Netflix for like 15 years in their head of their HR. And it was an amazing, amazing book about team building if you’re in culture, if you’re ever interested in that. I also love Alex Charfen stuff, so he’s a huge part of how I’ve grown my team and he’s got a great podcast on team building and systems in your business and I wouldn’t be here without him, so I totally recommend all of his stuff. 

Leah Gervais: Great. We will put those in the notes to this and what is something you’re looking forward to or that’s coming up in is exciting from you? 

Emily Hirsh: So we just launched our new course ignite and so we’re coming off of that. The doors are closing. Probably by the time this comes out, the doors will be closed, but I’m just excited to have the students in this new kind of piece to our business to watch people go through it. And we’ll open the doors again probably towards the end of this year. But I’m really just excited with the product that we put out and that we get to serve people in a different way than just our one-on-one service. 

Leah Gervais: Great. Amazing. Congratulations. And where can people find out more about you? 

Emily Hirsh: My website is the best place. So Hirshmarketing.com. I’ve got a podcast that comes out twice a week. I give a ton, a ton on that podcast because I know my ideal client doesn’t want to do it themselves. So I just give everything on that podcast, their short, really actionable because marketing can get overwhelming episodes. And then we do release that monthly marketing report where we tell you guys like our Intel from that month from our client’s ads. 

Leah Gervais: Great. I highly vouch for both. Thank you so much Emily. Congratulations on what you’ve filled. Thank you for sharing your story with us and some of your team building secrets and I’m excited to keep seeing and hearing and learning from you. 

Emily Hirsh: Thank you. It was super fun. 

Leah Gervais: We’ll talk to you soon. Bye. Visionaries have a good one.

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