http://i.imgur.com/ZISHFIw.png

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Probably my e-mail signature?

http://houseofmadness.net/forum/show...&postcount=102

Relinking a bio

https://123.hp.com/us/en/devices/dj1110/downloading

setting up the printer

One woman found this out the hard way after she sought advice from a friend about cheating on her boyfriend. However, she neglected to realize that the text was sent not to the friend, but to her actual boyfriend. Who, of course, took a screenshot and posted the entire message on Twitter.

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I have no idea wtf this is. I must have copied it by accident.

http://houseofmadness.net/forum/show...8&postcount=36

probably part of my saves from yesterday

https://itserikaashley.lpages.co/booked-out/

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Adding my leadpage for lead gen in my IG bio.

http://www.justjared.com/2017/04/21/...fame-ceremony/

Sending something to Amy

monday musings #3


Why being "minty fresh" is hurting your biz


Y'ello [FIRST NAME GOES HERE],


It's Erika Ashley, back in your inbox with an e-mail that I'm actually really fucking excited about. Not that I don't love writing to you usually, but this one is some of the best content that I've sent to you in a while. Which is saying a lot because I put more mental and energetic effort into these e-mails than anything else in my business.

The Minty Fresh Marketing™ Principle

My e-mail this week is inspired by three life events:

-I'm getting my hair dyed mint;
-I had such a difficult time pressing the "purchase" button on a tube of toothpaste;
-An epiphany I had about failure.

We have a lot of pressure in business to be "minty fresh" - aka refreshing, inspirational, sparkly white, and perfect. You know that feeling after brushing your teeth where you're like: "Goddamn, I love brushing my teeth so much I just feel so minty and wonderful and like I can take on the fucking world because I feel so refreshed." That is how most entrepreneurs market to their people. With that super euphoric, "look at how amazing it is to conquer the world" feeling.

In other words, so many of us market in "minty fresh" mode exclusively. After all, that's way more sexy than the moments where we devour coffee or something with spinach in it and we have stained teeth or that inevitable piece of dirtbag spinach that's just there testing how uncomfortable you can make other people.

Where the Minty Fresh Marketing™ principle fails

It's tempting to stay in minty fresh mode because that's where the sparkly, nice stuff happens. It's where your ads are converting at stupid low rates, where you're booking clients left, right, and centre, etc. It feels good to live in minty fresh mode, the same way that running your tongue over your teeth post-brushing is one of the single greatest feelings on planet earth.

The problem is that the perfectly minty, amazing teeth and breath moments in your business are actually few and far between compared to the nasty coffee breath and spinach moments. And it sets an unrealistic expectation for potential clients about how things should be going and what their business will look like when they DO hit it big.

Yes, my ads are converting at just around a dollar right now, which is the lowest that my ads have ever converted. And I'm celebrating that hardcore (because that's amazing and it deserves to be celebrated), but the behind the scenes is that this is my third try with my freebie to get there. My first two freebies straight up didn't convert - I think I had 14 people in one after a week and 4 in the other after another week, whereas this one got 46 leads in 4 days. Clearly, this last one is a winner.

How this shows up in my biz

The temptation is for me to go around social media shouting MY ADS ARE CONVERTING UNDER A DOLLAR ALIGNMENT ALIGNMENT ALIGNMENT ALIGNMENT ALIGNMENT because that's the minty fresh" version of this story - that I'm a fucking ads goddess who has her shit together and is perfectly in alignment with her ideal clients at all times.

The reality is, though, that that isn't true. Sometimes, I still don't know what the fuck I'm doing and I think something's gonna be really great and it ends up being the business equivalent of a giant piece of spinach in my teeth. And that's okay. It's why my clients (click here to talk about becoming one) come to to me and it's why they get results; because I help them master and accept this one simple fact:

It doesn't detract from your business to admit that you only went to brush your teeth because someone told you you had spinach in your teeth; it humanizes you and your brand and your ideal client is able to relate so much easier to you.

The problem with being an idol

What alienates you from your clients is the perception of perfection; when someone thinks you're perfect, they start to get caught up in idolatry, which is a dangerous proposition at best and a nightmare client at worst.

Because when your client idolizes you, they don't want to learn from you, they want to be you and that's an impossibility. They can learn your strategies, techniques, process, etc. but they can't ever replicate your essence - and that's what they desire. They want the essence. But that belongs to you. So they get frustrated when they can't replicate your results or when the strategy that worked for you is getting fuck all for them or when they run into a snag because they just aren't good at something that you're good at.

Talking about your imperfections places you back on your ideal clients' level in a great way - they don't idolize you, they respect you for being honest enough to share the spinach teeth along with the minty fresh aftermath. They're going to come to you for what you have figured out, but they're also going to know that you can support them in their moments of doubt and you can hold space for them because you've had to navigate those turbulent waters. It also shows them that your path is flawed and fractured and that that's what they can expect.

It humanizes you instead of turning you into a hallowed being to be worshipped with altars.

The glitzy, Paris picture-taking women that you see on social media are selling an ideal rather than an idea. They're selling you a seat in their church for the shot of someday having a church of your own. They're selling you minty fresh 100% of the time. But their lives aren't perfect - they just don't want you to know that.

Champagne problem: Keepin' it 100 when you're in expansion mode

I've been struggling lately with the fact that my life is becoming pretty fuckin' minty fresh because I want to be able to share without losing my relatability to my audience.

Here's the real deal: I only have 2 spaces available for coaching in May and 4 in June and then I'm shutting my 1:1 coaching down until October, so if you know in your bones that I can help you, the time to jump on a call is now.

Since my publisher wants my book to be released in late 2017 or early 2018, I need to write the book this summer. Aside from coaching, my only focus is going to be on my book - that means that this is actually the best time to coach with me ever because my focus isn't being pulled by a million things. I have one project to focus on and other than that, my attention is on holding space for my clients.

I'm also shutting down my coaching after June for several months because I need all my current and future coaching clients to be done by the first week of September; after that, I'll be in Dallas for several weeks to shoot a really exciting special project and I won't have time to be coaching more than 2 or 3 people who are already clients and are willing to be flexible about our meeting times while I'm on set for hours and hours every single day.

That's not relatable. Book deals are not relatable. Spending three weeks in a different country and new city as a cast member and producer on a really amazing, community-altering project is not relatable. At least not to most of the people on my list, and the idea that I might not be relatable is probably my biggest fear. Because I've built a whole brand around that.

It's a part of the growth process, though. Being a published author that didn't self-publish tends to come with certain advantages. Being involved in a game-changing project at a creative development and cast member level comes with advantages.

I'm still trying to come to terms with the fact that my business is changing and in 2018, my coaching is probably moving up to a multiple five figure price point because I'll have all the press credits and all the validation and all the social proof I could ever need about what's possible in a short period of time (2 years). The idea of everything upleveling to this point is something that I've dreamed about, but I'm still experiencing major resistance.

Hence my freakout over actual, literal, toothpaste this week. I saw an article on Marie Claire (sidenote: I thought it was on Elle and then I realized why I made that mistake - Elle's website and Marie Claire's website WTF Hearst Magazine. Y'all didn't even try to make these websites look different) about a new French beauty brand being available on Net-A-Porter.

The literal toothpaste mindset freakout

Some people spend their lives trying to find the perfect mascara (okay, I was that person until I discovered YSL "Le Shock") but I've been on a life-long quest to find the perfect toothpaste.

I originally clicked on the article for the moisturizer since I'm coming up on the end of my current one, and 56$ didn't strike me as being bad because that's about what I'd spend.

But when I clicked to see what else this brand had, I noticed that they had some toothpaste, and one immediately stuck out to me: As a Slytherin and someone born in the year of the serpent, this glorious bottle of toothpaste stuck out to me like very few things have in my life. If there was ever a toothpaste that screamed "Erika Ashley" this one was it.

Then I looked at the price tag, 29$. Was I really gonna be the bougie bitch who spends 29 dollars on toothpaste when I thought that Marvis was too extra with its 8 dollar price tag?

I added it to my cart that already had the moisturizer in it, but I must have spent a solid 25 minutes debating before pressing "purchase."

Here's a condensed version of my thought process:

Am I really gonna spend 29$ on toothpaste?
Do I need to spend 29$ on toothpaste?
I have the money to invest on it so why not?
Holy shit, I'm in a position where I can feasibly spend 29$ on toothpaste without having to go check my bank account and that's a gateway drug to Balenciaga handbags and walk-in closets
Why do I feel so guilty about this?
I'm afraid i won't be relatable anymore.
Do I even want to be relatable with struggle anymore though?
No.
What do I want people to relate me with?
Success and proof that the "every day girl" can be successful. I don't have any of the attributes of someone who should be successful - I'm not conventionally pretty, I grew up in a family that told me I had to be 100 or I was crap, I love my body when society thinks I should hate it, I didn't need 8 million fancy techniques I just had to be smart and discerning about how I showed up.
Does being successful mean that I can't be relatable?
No.
Does buying 29$ toothpaste make me unrelatable?
No. It means you've actually hit a point in your mindset and your business where you can actually have the chutzpa to charge what you want, stop identifying with "the newbie struggles" cause you ditched those a long time ago, and celebrate where you are.

So I purchased. And you can bet that when it comes in, I'm going to turn the toothpaste crisis of 2017 into a piece of content and it will be relatable because it's to my audience, told in my way, to illustrate a point: That you can be successful and still have lots of shit coming up. I was afraid to uplevel because that felt like I would be losing my relatability, but the fact is, I don't want everyone to relate to me. If you're debating between buying sliced bread as sustenance and working 1:1 with me, I don't want your money. I don't want to be my clients' "this has to work or I'm fucked" option.

I want to be your "this is a stretch, but it's going to motivate me that much further to ensure that I not only recoup this investment, but also 10x it by taking absolute complete advantage of everything Erika is offering and show up and do the work week after week so I don't have to take 2 years for my book deal and tours and future TV development projects, I can accelerate the process cause dis bitch made a lot of mistakes along the way and she's going to help me avoid them" option.

If that sounds like you, then it's time to book a call with me.

I want you to reply and share where you're stuck in between the poles of vulnerability and perfection in your brand. I read every single e-mail

Some of you said you wanted to see this back so here it is:

This e-mail was written to the sounds of Hard Times - Paramore
Mindset reset for the week: My precious cupcake Thomas Sanders used comedy this week to show you how you may be making shit in your life worse than it actually is. Click here to watch it.
Video that slayed me like a dragon this week (warning: scenery porn ahead): Click to watch it




P.S. Have you joined my free FB group, Partypreneurs™ with Erika Ashley yet? You'll find exclusive FB lives, a fun and vibrant community, and I'm in there all the time to answer your questions.​

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E-Mail I'm sending to my list tomorrow. Didn't wanna lose it since my internet's been a little wonky.

Whether or not Brooke intended to make it sound that way, George felt like all the work that he was doing as her husband wasn’t being appreciated and it made him feel like shit. He honestly wished that he could be everywhere at once, because his life would be so much easier. He knew that a second kid would put a strain on their relationship, he just hadn’t expected it to affect him so much and George wondered if they would keep fighting about this till both Josie and Jordan were a little older and able to take care of themselves. The thing was, George knew the kind of pressure that Brooke was under and he totally understood it, but it was the same thing for him really. Just a different kind of pressure and it was incredibly unfair that he didn’t get a little slack for being exhausted all the time. But these were all thoughts he kept to himself, because what he was going through wasn’t the same as what Brooke was going through and George understood that.

Listening to Brooke, George nodded and looked at his feet, trying to figure out a way that they could do this without putting too much stress of pressure on both of them. “We really need to get a nanny, Brooke,” he said softly, even though he remembered how it went the last time, “Or have one of our moms come over and help you for a while. I can take time off now and then, but it can’t be for longer than a weekend at most and as much as I hate being away from you and the girls, I don’t get paternity leave when my contract is in play.” He scratched the back of his neck, realising that if Jordan had been born as per their plans, they wouldn’t be in this situation at all. But both his girls were far too enthusiastic to just stay put and make their lives a little easier.

Blowing out a breath, George rubbed his face and looked at Brooke as she worked on breakfast. “I can take over night and early mornings, so you can sleep through the night without worrying about it. You do need to sleep and rest and I can help there,” he added carefully, chewing on his lip as he stepped away from the counter to check on the kids before turning to Brooke, “I’ll be gone for two months before I come back for a month before press. I know it’s not ideal and I know it’s difficult, but I think we can find a way to make this work, just till I get a break.” Whenever that was going to be. George could technically skip a press tour, just not the one for Thor because that was also part of his contract. Marvel was great and all, but their contracts were so air tight it was impossible to even slip out of it accidentally.

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posting the babe.

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