Black Sheep Creative, 469 Geranium Park Way, Winter Garden, FL (2026)

10/29/2025

What I wore to work vs the costume contest! I used mostly pieces I already owned to be Strawberry Shortcake, including the skirt I made! Not sure what that says about me. 😝 I won second place for most creative but I think I was robbed!

04/13/2023

February 8, 2023

I had no idea what I didn’t know.

When I started my photography business back in 2016, I knew how to take some great dance photos, but not much else. The first online course I ever bought was about how to use Instagram for business. As in, I didn’t know what a hashtag did. For real.

And one of the terms I ran across early on was “funnel.” Seriously. Most basic idea in online marketing, and I’d never heard of it.

Since then, I’ve taken dozens of marketing courses and even gotten a certificate from UCF in digital marketing. Let’s just say I know from funnels.

But if you don’t, no worries. We’ve all been there, so here’s a quick primer in funnels to help you get in the groove. Let me be your guide dog to the world of digital marketing—and the guide dog never judges.

First off—and here’s the thing I REALLY didn’t get when I started out—no one buys the first time they see an ad. That’s why running an ad once in a newspaper likely won’t bring in a single inquiry. We need to be exposed to an idea or product over and over before we buy. That’s where funnels come in.

So let’s say Moon Pie the Marketing Sheep is selling yoga mats online. She’s concentrating on Facebook because that’s where we old folks (you know, those of us born in the LAST century) are hanging out, and we love us some yoga.

So the top of our funnel is EVERYBODY on Facebook. It would be great if everybody bought a yoga mat, but they won’t—and it costs money, honey, for every eyeball that sees her ad.

However, Facebook lets us easily pinpoint the bougie yoga ladies and show them the goods. How? In our FB ads manager app, we select audiences that combine interests in yoga and maybe Whole Foods because nobody without some disposable income is shopping at Whole Foods.

So the funnel is EVERYONE on Facebook at the top, but if you’re not a WOMAN who shops at WHOLE FOODS and likes YOGA, you never see the ad for yoga mats.

If you DO see Moon Pie’s ad, you’re part of what’s called a cold audience. You’re not familiar with the brand but you might be a good fit. And if you click on it, you advance to the next level. If you see it a few times and never interact, Facebook stops showing it to you.

But if you are that chick who clicks, you get shown Moon Pie’s next video about the benefit of doing yoga for ten minutes a day. And if Moon Pie knows her stuff, which she does, that video doesn’t look like an ad. It looks like the kind of content you’re used to seeing come through your feed of cat videos, first days of school, and (ugh) political opinions.

Again, if you don’t click the video ad, Facebook quits showing it to you. See where this is going?

But if you watch 25% or more of the yoga video, Moon Pie and Facebook keep sending you content that either rules you in or out of the audience that might want a yoga mat. Every time you interact with Moon Pie’s content, you’re saying “Yassss, girl! Give me more!” or “Bye, Felicia.”

If you’ve stuck around in Moon Pie’s funnel to this point, you’re interested and becoming familiar with the product. That makes you a warm lead, which means you’re still in the market for a yoga mat.

After a few rounds of this, Moon Pie and the yoga mat folks advertise to you a sweet deal if you sign up for their emails. Something like free shipping or a free water bottle with your order. If you bite, they know you like them, you’re considering a purchase, and they should continue to email you and show you more yoga content within Facebook.

After days or weeks of this, you—the Whole Foods loving yoga enthusiast who has clicked on a few ads and handed over her email address—are a hot lead. This is GOLD for a marketer. They know you well, can recommend products, and can answer questions they know you have. You’re more likely to buy from them because you have a relationship, and they want to keep you interested.

That’s you, the consumer, at the bottom of the funnel. You’re getting the exact right product for you because the marketer didn’t expect you to buy immediately. They nudged you along until you were ready, and you made it worth their while.

That’s the beauty of a funnel.

If you’re interested in designing a funnel for your business, sign up for a FREE one hour phone consultation to see if your business would benefit from one—or another type of strategy that will bring you more customers! Click below to sign up for a time slot!

04/13/2023

Gratitude culture is BS, and here’s why
Dec 16, 2022

Notice I didn’t say “gratitude” is BS. The gratitude culture—you know, the one where well-off women are told to be grateful for every little thing we get in this big, bad world—is yet another place where women are taught to give up on their dreams in favor of the status quo.

Now, don’t get me wrong. If your dream is raising children, right on. If it’s volunteering, great. If it’s making art and taking care of the house while your guy is at work (as I did for years), fantastic. I’m not pushing you to do anything else just so you can claim to have “ambition.”

But I am suggesting you question whether you’re truly grateful in that job that doesn’t pay what it’s worth. I’m telling you to ask yourself if you’d LIKE to work in addition to raising babies. I’m wondering if you’re holding back asking your partner to do more around the house because you know you’re supposed to feel profound gratitude every time he or she empties the dishwasher.

Gratitude is one of those things that sound great until you scratch the surface. It’s packaged and sold to us in the form of journals and meditations and planning calendars, where we’re encouraged to schedule out every minute of our kids’ activity roster, without thinking about whether this activity that’s so good for THEM is actually good for US.

Gratitude culture teaches us to put our hair in a messy bun and get in line for the hour and a half school run because we’re just so damn grateful to have these wonderful children. It teaches us to buy that “blessed” wall plaque to remind us to be grateful that we have such a nice house to live in.

But what it also does is teach us that sacrifice is noble and rewarded. It teaches us that giving up our dreams is expected and we should be happy to do it.

But what if we want a bigger house and we want to work for it? What if we want to move up the corporate ladder AND raise babies? What if we want to take fabulous vacations and we’re tired of apologizing for not being grateful enough for what we have?

I say all this because I’ve lived in Europe, traveled all over the world, and didn’t HAVE to work for years. I had a very cushy life and a husband that spent exactly 7 minutes a week actually interacting with me. I convinced myself that I should be grateful. Actually HE and gratitude culture convinced me, and I fell for it. For 18 years, I didn’t rock the boat.

But 6 years ago I quit being grateful and started asking for more. I got an apartment by myself and a business and then a house. I got a guy that wants me to be ambitious, if I want. He wants me to work hard and live up to my potential. So now that I’m on my way to having the things I really want, I’m truly grateful, rather than participating in the gratitude culture that left me so empty.

I’m interested to know where you’ve given up on your dreams in favor of being grateful for what you’ve got. Is it having children because you’ve got so much to share? Or maybe NOT having a second or third child because you should be grateful for the healthy ones you already have? Is it being rewarded for not being one of those wives who spend money as fast as it comes in because you’re grateful for what you have? Or do you feel so grateful just HAVE a job that you won’t push for a raise that you really deserve?

Let me know in the comments!

04/13/2023

What you got there is an ugly baby…
Dec 14, 2022

My FB ads mentor calls bad offers “ugly babies.” You can dress them up and put bows on their bald heads, but there’s no disguising an ugly baby.

In other words, you may have a great product that solves all the customer’s problems. But if the offer you’re making stinks, nobody’s buying.

So what do we do with ugly babies? When someone tells me they have a great product that’s not selling, I take them through a series of questions to figure out where it all went wrong. Ask yourself these questions to find out where your bottleneck is. Then, get down to work to make that baby a lot more presentable.

Ugly Baby Diagnosis Questionnaire

Did you validate your offer? You might have had a dozen people tell you you’re a fabulous coach, but did anyone actually PAY for coaching? Did they think it was worth the cost? How many people have you made sales to through organic or paid channels at the price you’re asking? One or two isn’t enough validation. Depending on the price and the service, you might need a hundred or more takers to know if your offer is a good one.

Are people opting in to your lead magnet? If not, it means you haven’t zeroed in on the thing that lights them up!

If they are opting in, do you know if they’re using the information you gave them? If you don’t know, ask them to post their ideas using a unique hashtag. Or add a button to email you directly with questions. Your lead magnet is one place where your customers get to know, like, and trust you. Make sure it’s doing the heavy lifting to sell your product.

How much of your videos or webinars are they watching? Your software should tell you exactly how much is being viewed. You may need to sparkle a bit more to show off your personality, explain the offer better, or make it a little more tempting.

Is your landing page doing its job? Is it making the offer look so good that the customer would be LOCO not to click “BUY”?

And finally, if you get that high ticket customer on the phone, do they pull the trigger or have to “think about it” and ghost you afterward? You may need a new sales script, new talking points, or a way to sweeten the offer.

Hopefully this checklist can help diagnose your ugly baby and give you some direction on bringing it back to life. The good news is that there are lots of cures—from rewriting your webinar to choosing a different lead magnet or funnel to brushing up your salesmanship. You got this! But if you don’t, shoot me an email and I can help with a treatment plan!

04/13/2023

“Graphic design doesn’t sell products.” —Emily, graphic designer
Dec 9, 2022

I went to school for graphic design a million years ago, and for a while in the early 2000’s, I ran a design-only studio. I quit doing it because I realized that GRAPHIC DESIGN doesn’t sell products.

No one ever bought a product JUST because they like the logo. Or stayed at a hotel because they liked the letterhead. Or bought from a website because of the font.

Don’t get me wrong. BAD design can tank a product in a second. People don’t trust companies whose packaging or website is confusing, messy, or ugly. But people don’t buy this thing that you’ve spent your blood, sweat, and tears on because of the logo either.

And if you’ve been in the online entrepreneur world for five minutes, you’re no doubt getting bombarded by business coaches telling you to work on that logo! Most programs or coaches will get you to waste far too much time on things like website, logos, printing business cards, writing personal letters from the perspective of your ideal customer avatar, etc. And they’ll have you spend far too little time on the MONEY MAKING tasks of your business!

And I’ve come to believe that, even in this day of organic social media marketing, the best thing you can spend money on is advertising. Why? Because no one will see your amazing logo (or pay you!) if they don’t know you exist!

So many people have said to me: If ONLY I had spent some on advertising at the beginning. Advertising (even a little a day!) is a great way to find out who likes what you're talking about and what kind of offerings they’re willing to pay for!

So here's the truth: Start advertising way before you think you need it. Start recording FB lives on various topics and promote them! Then, start using them to run paid (I know, scary!) ads.

All those courses and programs that you think will be the ticket to your success are NOT. They are, my friend, just another fancy distraction from just putting yourself out there!

04/13/2023

Feelings, Shmeelings
Dec 7, 2022

As an artist, I’m all about feelings. Knowing my feelings, visually communicating feelings, bringing out feelings in others.

But here’s a secret. Feelings in general don’t mean that much to me.

Why? Because they’re infinitely changeable. They turn on a dime. You hear someone died? How sad. She was 98? Too bad, but she had a long life. She barbecued puppies? Good riddance.

And we do this a million times a day. New thought? New feeling. I try (not always successfully) not to put too much stock in them.

But if you own a business, it’s easy to forget that selling your thing is 100% about feelings.

Desire for a product or lifestyle or experience is a feeling. Fear of missing out is a feeling. Belief in living a certain way is a feeling. And as marketers, we need to tap into the feelings and beliefs of potential customers in order to sell our stuff.

Beliefs and Potential Customers

When it comes to business, BELIEFS make up the 3 core reasons potential customers won't buy from you:

They don't believe in the product or service.

They don't believe in YOU.

They don't believe in themselves.

How do we address these beliefs as marketers?

First, we've got to show our potential customer how our product or service will truly solve their problem. Second, we need to show up in their social media and inboxes frequently to help them trust us. And—here’s the one people forget—We have to make them believe that THEY can achieve what the product promises. Because if they don’t believe they can lose weight, why would they buy a gym membership?

But what about after they’ve signed on as customers?

Beliefs and Current Customers

If you've ever lost a great client without being able to figure out why, then you KNOW beliefs run central to effective relationships and open communication with current clients as well.

In my agency now, I do my best to regularly ask: How do you feel? How does that sound?

Here's the hard part:

They don’t always tell the truth.

Some clients will always tell you because it's their nature and personality to be open.

But some clients are so worried about offending you or looking bad in some way that they clam up. Or perhaps they don’t even know how their feelings and beliefs are affecting the relationship.

They will stay quiet when they are worried and keep things bottled inside. So while you may feel like things are going great, they're having worries and hesitations. And it’s the kiss of death if they’re giving up on you, themselves, or their product!

Nothing is more important than making this open communication a part of regular talks which I now do with my clients on a regular basis.

While it can be scary to ask your clients how things are going, I've learned it can make or break relationships and contribute to long-term, healthy ones.

My favorite clients—without a doubt—are the ones with whom I'm able to keep these lines of communication open and are willing to be honest with me when I ask.

04/13/2023

I hereby grant you permission to do whatever the f*ck you want.
Dec 12, 2022

I almost did NOT transition my business from photography to marketing because I was afraid of what people would think of me.

I mean, dance photography was very fulfilling, but it wasn’t paying the bills, and I felt like a HUGE failure. And moving into the online marketing world would mean that I couldn’t rely on pretty pictures of superhuman dancers to fill up my social media. I would have to show up AS MYSELF. Yikes!

I've only recently discovered that this FEAR of standing out has been holding me back big time.

I was feeling restless with my life, and with my business. It was not successful enough yet, and specifically, not going in the direction I wanted.

I LOVED photography and working with clients, yet I was thirsting for more.

My first thought was NOT to be greedy and be grateful for what I do have.

But, when the idea of turning my business in a new direction kept coming back to me without fail, when I felt that morning dread despite having a business that I loved, I knew I had to listen.

The hard truth is that most humans crave acceptance.

No one wants to be exiled from the tribe, and we certainly don’t want to ruffle any feathers.

It can feel super painful.

And moving away from dance photography felt like a betrayal of all the time and energy and expertise I had gained. I mean, I had moved my life and boyfriend clear across the country to Orlando to do this!

But the truth is, I was scared of the responses of all those friends who had encouraged me and told me how beautiful my work was. They would be so disappointed!

I was making up these excuses that if I do this thing I really want, the sky is going to fall. But the sky hasn’t fallen yet—since most people are BARELY paying attention to us. In fact, everyone I’ve told that I’m phasing out the dance photography has been super encouraging!

We have the right to ask for more. We have the right to switch things up. We have the right to add our unique twist to the world to accomplish the great things we have dreamed of. We are allowed to change course.

Regardless of what other people think!

If we don’t ask, I can promise you no one else will.

04/13/2023

“I’m just going to do it organically…”
Dec 5, 2022

I ruffled some feathers in a Facebook group (that I usually don’t participate in and now I remember why!) 🤦

The topic was: Can you succeed as an online business with organic reach alone?

To which of course I said NO WAY. On Facebook? It’s largely "pay to play."

This person maintained that since she had nurtured her page for the last ten years and had made a handsome revenue doing so and that advertising was all but a waste.

Now…she’s extreme but her opinion is not that far from the messaging we see in a lot of ads…

"Get x number of clients without ads!"

How often do we see these ads? All. The. Time.

Plus, in many coaching circles, people attribute “going viral” to the ultimate social credibility. I mean, what’s more validating than having your business take off all on its own (without even trying).

But this mindset is horrible for your business growth. Just think of this—all the biggest companies in the world, like Nike, McDonald’s, and Apple, continue to advertise, despite dominating the market, just to remind us they are still there. Why? Because it’s THAT important.

They know advertising is an investment, not an expense.

But people LOVE to see the silver bullets in their newsfeed. “Go viral in just 3 minutes a day with no ad spend, no funnels and no clients…”

Because it’s tantalizing to see a fake offer like that and people eat it up over and over.

But I always like to point out this is nothing more than marketing BS.

It’s the equivalent of those “magic pill” ads that say you can drop x number of pounds by sipping martinis at the beach.

But Emily, I thought you said organic posting was important? Oh, it is!

For a multitude of reasons, chief among them being that Facebook favors pages who post regularly, and it can help to dramatically boost ad results.

And I coach ALL of my clients on the exact process of posting organically and I get them to commit to doing this because it is THAT important. It also brings other benefits like market research, ample retargeting material, and rapport building with potential clients and existing clients.

There are so many reasons to have a strong organic posting presence!

But can you ultimately “succeed” that way?

Nope. Not unless you’re just looking for a side hustle.

In 2023, you’ve got to embrace paid traffic. And if you’re a business with big goals and aspirations, why wouldn’t you?

Never has it been so easy to advertise to the exact right person!

Let’s be grateful for this opportunity.

Never has it been so easy to find out market data about people and about topics that your potential customers like.

Are Facebook ads getting harder?! Of course!

But if you follow the right leaders and adopt the strategies that are working now, you can still CRUSH it with Facebook ads. It’s an investment worth its weight in gold.

Advertising in your business is smart.

Advertising for your business is an investment, NOT an expense.

And this is the key mindset difference that separates the side hustlers from the truly serious business owners who have big goals and a mission to achieve.

Advertising in your business is SMART!! :-)

Thank you so much for reading. Thoughts?

04/13/2023

Do as I say, not as I do.
Dec 2, 2022

I know, I know. I SHOULD be posting on FB several times a week. I SHOULD be doing video. I SHOULD provide value for free as often as possible.

But there’s a reason I work from home. It’s so I don’t have to look pulled together enough to leave the house. I sure as hell don’t want to be on camera.

But the truth is, I don’t have to be on camera. I just have to show up by writing (I can definitely handle that) and reposting funny, relevant stuff.

The problem is that people grossly underestimate the importance of regularly posting to your page. We get discouraged and think no one is noticing nor engaging.

But you know who does notice? Facebook. Yup. In fact, we’ve done some recent experiments and noticed that running ads from pages that are posting and active at least once per day and have LOTS of engagement see their ads costs reduced by as much as 88%. 88%!

So simply do not underestimate just HOW important it is to post to your page daily.

What do you post? Post 10 inspirational/engaging posts like memes or entertainment, 4 information posts and 1 direct call to action. The 10x4x1 rule 😊 Watch the magic happen!

I’ll be working on those posts for my own business. Let me know if I can help you out with yours!

04/13/2023

If you’re offered a guaranteed ROI, run.
Nov 30, 2022

"I'll invest in ads when I know there will be a good Return on Investment."

I heard that from a prospective client recently. And one last week. And three last month. And it sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard every time. “I’ll pay for ads if you can guarantee a good ROI...”

My skin was crawling. And as usual, I suppressed the urge to scream, “No one is afraid to invest if they KNOW THEY WILL GET A RETURN!”

That's like saying, "I'd be happy to get married if I could be guaranteed divorce, sickness, or death won't happen."

Good luck with that.

I won't insult your intelligence by saying there are no guarantees in life, but it always strikes me how many people think this is a valid approach to advertising.

"I'll invest so long as I know there will be an ROI." Let me guess. You’ll buy a lottery ticket when you know you’re going to win.

And I get that it's not entirely the prospective client’s fault.

Many well-meaning entrepreneurs have been led to believe that in order to invest in advertising, we've got to know there's going to be a clear return on investment.

We see SO MANY people flaunting how they make $10 for every $1 they spend in ads, it's no surprise we have these totally unrealistic expectations about what's "normal" online. Ten to one ROI isn’t normal.

What’s really normal is testing several strategies to determine which one works best. Normal is using ad spend to get data about your ideal audience. Normal is tweaking the creative and copy and offer and audience in a hundred different ways.

So here’s a secret from someone who's spent a LOT of time pulling back the curtain on my clients’ FB ad accounts:

A guaranteed ROI doesn't exist. This is never possible.

Building a business is a risk. Advertising is a risk. The person who gets the biggest reward is the one brave enough to take the leap. Do we want it to be a calculated risk? Most definitely! Do we want to make sure we have the best people on our teams? No brainer!

But can any product or service be "guaranteed" to succeed? Just like the lottery, we don’t know a winning combination until it happens. But unlike the lottery, running ads is not random, dumb luck. You don’t have a one in a billion chance of succeeding with ads if you know what you’re doing. And working with a trained FB ads specialist who knows what metrics to focus on will increase your likelihood of success many times over.

Black Sheep Creative

10/29/2025

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