This week we had the opportunity to interview Emily Cretella on The Importance of Owning Your Mother Hustle. This was an amazing conversation with Emily about how she started her business Cursive Content and her side project Mother Hustle, and the importance of being a creative and a mom. We hope you enjoy this episode!
Takeaways:
Stuff we ask everyone:
Shrill on Hulu and anxiously waiting for Game of Thrones to come back. And she just got back on Goodreads.
A feminist, curious, and perfectionist
All of the things and coffee
In the morning
Reading, specifically historical fiction and mystery and right now a lot of books about writing
They would probably start off by saying I’m a writer, but if someone asked my mom she would say everything I just told you.
When people post things that make starting and running a business look easy and all they show is the pretty surface level of running a business. And they make money off of it and capitalizes on the fear in people that everyone else has it all together. Basically smarminess.
As someone to acted; someone who stood for something was vocal about their convictions. And as someone who was a good mom.
“Investing in good design is obviously worth it.” -Emily Cretella
“Investing in good design helps bring your ideas to life as a strategist and writer.” -Emily Cretella
We are reading and reviewing books on the podcast every quarter!
If you would like to read along, THIS QUARTER, we’ve been reading, The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair.
Go to Patreon and help support our podcast!
Find us on all forms of social media via @BrandiSea on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and you can email us any burning questions you want Brandi to answer on an episode at brandi@brandisea.com.
THANK YOU to the ultra-talented Vesperteen (Colin Rigsby) for letting us use his (“Shatter in The Night”) track in every episode of Design Speaks.
TRANSCRIPTION
Brandi Sea: 00:01 Today we got to talk to the founder, um, author, writer, marketer
Michelle: 00:08 Everything-er
Brandi Sea: 00:09 Everything-er from mother hustle, her name is Emily Critella. And um, I hope you guys enjoyed this interview cuz we had such a great time talking to her
Intro: 00:18 Welcome to Design Speaks. This lovely Podcast is brought to you by a graphic design geek and a regular human being AKA a non-designer. We’re here to chat about music, pop culture, cool places, and basically whatever we feel is relevant.
Brandi Sea: 00:36 This week we got a chance to talk with Emily Critella and um, she kind of opened up, opened up a little bit of a can of worms for
Michelle: 00:48 Both of us.
Brandi Sea: 00:49 Both of us.
Michelle: 00:49 Yeah. So Emily runs a business called Mother Hustle
Brandi Sea: 00:54 Side hustle
Michelle: 00:55 Side hustle. It’s, it’s her side hustle, she has another, she has another deal that she does, which we’ll talk about within the interview a little bit as well. But um, is this something that we’re really thankful, unexpectedly thankful for, I think, um, she is a mom. Both Brandi and I are moms and it’s something that we have always really struggled with within our work, including the podcast in involving, um,
Brandi Sea: 01:19 Especially the podcast
Michelle: 01:20 Especially the podcast and talking about, um, just because we don’t know where to keep, it’s a weird line of do we talk about this? Do we talked about being moms because that’s not the professional thing to do. And it’s always been kind of looked down upon, but the very realness
Brandi Sea: 01:38 And we’re not mom bloggers
Michelle: 01:39 We’re not mom bloggers
Brandi Sea: 01:39 So we’re like, there’s enough mom bloggers out there. We don’t need to do that
Michelle: 01:43 If we don’t. Yeah. Well yeah, and it’s like, I mean honestly it’s kind of weird to be looked down upon, but it is looked down upon.
Brandi Sea: 01:50 Yeah, like we’re seeing less professional if we talk too much about being moms
Michelle: 01:55 And, but the thing is we’re moms.
Brandi Sea: 01:57 Yeah. That is a huge part of who we are.
Michelle: 02:00 This podcast is less of a percentage of our life than being a mom is like
Brandi Sea: 02:04 By far
Michelle: 02:05 It’s like 0.1%. So it was just a really cool conversation that we got to have with Emily and we’re both really thankful for it and we’re looking forward to you getting to listen to it. So moms out there, women that aren’t moms yet, but hope to be someday. If you don’t, that’s okay. But if you like listen to these words because they’re so very important not to, not to pass this time up. It’s not like being a mom of young kids is not a forever thing. It’s a season of life as cheesy and cliche as that sounds. It isn’t forever. And it does go by fast. Like I blinked and my daughter’s four like that’s wild. And I don’t want to, I don’t want to miss it just because I’m afraid of not looking like I’m professional are dedicated
Brandi Sea: 02:45 Right and, and we, we talk all ah, on a lava I can talk. We talk a lot on here about, you know, that we feel like we’re feminists to some extent and we’ve had a whole episode about women and equality and all the stuff. But then we’re putting on, we’re putting on these, these things that we actually don’t believe in at all. We’re putting on ourselves. Um, you know, and like, oh, well maybe some guys won’t like this podcast if we talk about being moms.
Michelle: 03:12 So be it, I guess.
Brandi Sea: 03:13 Okay. You know what, there’s lots of podcasts out there for everyone.
Michelle: 03:17 Yeah. And so, um, again, just super thankful for Emily and her conversation and her, her words of wisdom in this time because she is a, she’s got a hustle and she, she’s doing it and she’s doing it well.
Brandi Sea: 03:30 Yeah. So full disclosure, I keep saying that all. I think it’s like my thing too. Um, we’re going to be talking about are our lives with our families and kids probably a little bit more, not because we want to turn this into something it’s not
Michelle: 03:45 Oh definitely not
Brandi Sea: 03:45 Like, trust me, I’m not the kind of person that just talks about my kids nonstop. That’s not who I am. But \
Michelle: 03:51 Even in real life.
Brandi Sea: 03:51 Yeah. That’s what I mean in real life. So on this podcast, we’re just going to be us and this is part of who we are
Michelle: 03:56 Hashtag no regrets. Um, and, and it’s not to like, it’s not to be like, Eh, okay, anything we say we want it to be valuable. Just so you know, if there’s something that if we go on a tangent and it’s not valuable, we recognize that and we cut it so we’re not wasting your time.
Brandi Sea: 04:15 Right
Michelle: 04:16 So it’s anything we say we want it to be a value and we love our kids and we, and we want to talk about them often, but not if it doesn’t have anything to do.
Brandi Sea: 04:26 We want to be genuine
Michelle: 04:27 Yeah, for sure
Brandi Sea: 04:28 And we want to be legit, authentic, not Instagram, authentic. Like we want to be real and this is real life, which is why we’ve also stopped like editing out kids. If you can ever hear them, they’re there
Michelle: 04:39 They’re there
Brandi Sea: 04:39 Because they exist.
Michelle: 04:41 It’s like a dog. The dog is gonna bark because it’s a dog. Dogs Bark. You can’t get mad at your dog for barking except dogs you can leave at home alone.
Brandi Sea: 04:51 Oh
Michelle: 04:52 It’s weird
Brandi Sea: 04:52 Before they’re 15
Michelle: 04:53 But yeah. Is that, is that the age these days?
Brandi Sea: 04:56 I’m not sure if I’m even comfortable with that. I’m so paranoid anyway, so enjoy this interview with Emily. We had such a great time talking to her and we we’re really looking forward to having less pressure on us and just being more of ourselves than we already are, which hopefully that’s not overwhelming for you guys.
Brandi Sea: 05:15 Hey everyone. I’m Brandi Sea
Michelle: 05:17 And I’m Michelle
Brandi Sea: 05:17 And you’re listening to
Michelle: 05:19 A very special episode of Design Speaks.
Brandi Sea: 05:21 We have a, a special, exciting, really super fun guests. Uh, Emily Critella and she is joining us via facetime video, so we get to see her, but you just get to hear her, um, from Connecticut. Welcome, Emily.
Emily Cretella: 05:37 Hi, thank you so much for having me. I’m super excited.
Brandi Sea: 05:42 We are too. So Emily, um, I found Emily through her project, her, her, uh, passion, Mother Hustle and um, I guess let’s just start out, can you tell us
Michelle: 05:54 Passion made career
Brandi Sea: 05:54 Yeah, passion made career, can you tell us a bit about, um, what Mother Hustle is and why you started doing it.
Emily Cretella: 06:02 Yeah, sure. So, I guess I’ll have to start with a little bit of my background. I am a copywriter and marketing strategist by trade and I come from that creative agency world. I was the director of strategy at an agency for a number of years and Mother Hustle really stemmed from when I up and quit my job. When I found out that I was pregnant with my second daughter, I found out 10:00 PM the night before and quit in the morning.
Michelle: 06:33 Wow.
Emily Cretella: 06:35 With really no plan. And um, I, I wasn’t stopping working, but I knew that I could not do the creative agency life anymore.
Brandi Sea: 06:46 It’s very demanding.
Emily Cretella: 06:48 Yes. And I had a, and I had an eight-month-old at home. Um, and so I had already seen how demanding and frazzled and just unfulfilling that first year was trying to, you know, become a mom and working in an agency. And so I left my job and started my own business and with really zero plan. And as I was doing it, I was always thinking back to the other women who worked on my team in the agency or just the graphic designers, the women there who were just so amazing in their work. And yet they were having the same struggle that I was for a lot of them, a lot longer than I was with trying to figure out how to be a mom and how to be a creative and get paid for it at the same time. And so once I figured out my own new business and, um,
Brandi Sea: 07:44 Which was, was actually a business?
Emily Critella: 07:45 It’s a marketing and it’s, it’s, it’s cursive content. I still run it today. That’s really where I make my money. Um, and realized that I could be successful in that and do it on my own. I wanted to kind of share that process and that inspiration and just a, a glimpse into how I was doing that with other creative women who were also moms. Um, so I started Mother Hustle as a newsletter and I would send it out to my former work, um, work colleagues. And um, it’s, it kind of spread from there for a couple of years actually. And then almost two years ago I decided that it wasn’t, and I didn’t want it to just be my voice. So I brought on a panel of other women who are also moms all in the creative space to kind of share their stories. And there were tips and advice and just get really real with what it’s like to run your own business while being a mom. Um, and so that’s what it is today. We have a community, we share essays, we have themes every month. And it’s all about working and life as a creative mom, entrepreneur.
Michelle: 08:59 So on Design Speaks, we’re both moms, but we don’t really, we talk about how, yeah, we have kids and we have husbands one each
Brandi Sea: 09:11 We have multiple husbands, it’s a lot of work
Michelle: 09:19 But we don’t, we don’t go into the hardships of juggling being a mom and a creative. So again, just thank you for being here today because I don’t think we shed a light on it as often as we as we should.
Brandi Sea: 09:32 Probably should, yeah.
Michelle: 09:32 Yeah, so thank you again. Like I just really appreciate you being willing to speak up about this and tell us some of the struggles.
Emily Cretella: 09:39 Yeah. Awesome. And I, and I think, you know what, it is something that I, I mean I started my business now, um, I think it’s, it’s almost been eight years. Um, my Cursive Content business and at first I was still in that mode of when I would get new clients of not wanting them to hear my kids in the background or talk about my kids and talk about my flexible schedule and when I work and when I don’t because in the agency world that was like a big no, no, you just didn’t. You pretended like
Brandi Sea: 10:09 Yeah, leave life at home.
Emily Cretella: 10:10 Yeah. You were a robot at your desk. You can be creative on demand. Like this is my job. I sit here in and be creative for you. And once I started like kind of bringing that into my life a lot more, it was like my clients are all like, oh I’m working at home too. And my kids, sorry, you might hear my kids yelling in the background and um oh I totally get it. And it, it made life easier. It made my client relationships easier. And so yeah, I don’t think it’s something that we still talk about enough, although I do think that it’s changing.
Michelle: 10:40 Oh I think so too.
Emily Cretella: 10:42 Yeah, yeah.
Michelle: 10:43 Like do you remember that video of that guy? He’s on a really important video conference. Like with like the UN or something and then come in. So that was one just hilarious. And then cause he was just like, get away a kid, get away, get away kid. But then they did a parody, I don’t know if it was like SNL or something, but they did a parody of the like what it would have been like if the mom was doing that. She doesn’t like feeding the baby and bouncing and burping it and changing a diaper
Brandi Sea: 11:10 And still having a perfectly normal conversation,
Michelle: 11:11 And having a normal conversation
Emily Cretella: 11:13 Totally, totally. I know she wouldn’t have been frazzled at all.
Brandi Sea: 11:18 It would have been like, this is just what we do
Michelle: 11:19 Welcome to my life, also I gotta make some important decisions for the country. So
Brandi Sea: 11:26 Yeah, I think that authenticity is, is starting to be very much more valued now than like trying to put on this facade. Um, and honestly like to be perfectly honest, I think that that’s something that we, we try to do here but in the, in regards to like being a mom and us being mothers and bringing that into even the podcast, I know that one of the very first bits of feedback that I got from a friend, who is a guy, it was like within our first few episodes was like, I don’t really think the podcasts my thing cause it just, it seems, I don’t know, it was something to the effect of like a couple of girls talking just doesn’t appeal to me. And I was like, Whoa, we’re not even talking about like mom things. But I think like that,
Michelle: 12:13 That like put something on us
Brandi Sea: 12:15 It did. It puts something on me somewhere along the way that I was like, okay, well if we’re going to appeal like we really want to appeal to designers at large, not just women designers. You know, maybe we should like kind of chill on talking about our kids or whatever. And I know that we have done that, but now talking to you, it kind of reminded me of that like why are we doing that?
Michelle: 12:34 This is, this is more than like half of our life.
Brandi Sea: 12:39 And we do talk a little bit, but not, not enough.
Michelle: 12:41 Not enough
Emily Cretella: 12:41 Well that doesn’t sound like a very good friend and that should be on him not on you.
Brandi Sea: 12:45 Yeah. And he has, he doesn’t listen anymore. He like, he’s like, I’m sorry. It’s just not my thing. Cause I was like reaching out to friends for honest feedback within the first few episodes and it was like nothing against you guys. It’s just not really my thing. I don’t really want to listen to girls talk. And I was like ouch
Emily Cretella: 12:58 Oh, oh ew, disgusting.
Michelle: 13:01 I know, I know. It was really frustrating.
Emily Cretella: 13:04 Yeah. And the thing is, it’s the whole idea of flexible work and working around your life and being able to, especially as creatives to be able to work when you are most inspired and when you are, um, you know, when you can do your best work, whether that be at midnight or at like six o’clock in the morning
Brandi Sea: 13:25 Or when you just can like
Emily Cretella: 13:27 Or what yeah. Or when you just can
Brandi Sea: 13:28 You have to make it happen when you can.
Emily Cretella: 13:30 Yes. That is not a mom thing. That’s like a family thing. That’s an everybody thing.
Brandi Sea: 13:35 That’s a person thing
Emily Cretella: 13:36 You know, it’s a person thing and so it shouldn’t be, if you’re talking about how you have kids at your house and you are building this amazing business and podcast around that, like that is advice for everybody who wants to live like a flexible life that involves their, their souls and not just, you know, that nine to five that I think. Hopefully, we’re moving away from.
Brandi Sea: 13:57 Yeah. Michelle and I finally decided I don’t know, it was probably over a year ago now. Like we used to kick our husbands and our kids like out of the house or like shush them with like major discipline. If something is heard from your mouths on this podcast, but like we don’t even care anymore. It’s like, okay, you can leave if you want, but if you stay like people know we have kids, it’s whatever now.
Emily Cretella: 14:19 Yeah.
Michelle: 14:20 Yeah.
Emily Cretella: 14:20 Yeah.
Michelle: 14:21 Yeah. What would you say has been the hardest part for, uh, like just starting this off? Like what were some, what were some things that you went through in the beginning that were just like, oh, this is scary?
Brandi Sea: 14:33 In Mother Hustle specifically.
Michelle: 14:35 Yeah, Mother Hustle.
Brandi Sea: 14:36 Okay.
Emily Cretella: 14:37 Okay. Well, I think that I mean Mother Hustle is still a baby to me cause it’s two, it’s almost two years. It’ll be
Michelle: 14:44 Oh, that’s exciting though.
Emily Cretella: 14:46 Yeah. Um, I think the hardest thing is kind of goes back to a mom thing is the time. Because I am really devoted to my clients. I obviously I love my job, I love my, my service-based work. Um, and ha not having enough time to focus on Mother Hustle is probably the biggest struggle because I as a strategist and a marketing person know what could be possible if I
Brandi Sea: 15:16 You know what you’re supposed to be doing.
Emily Cretella: 15:17 Yes, and I know exactly. And I, and I talked to, um, my business bestie, her name’s Stacy about this last week. Cause I was like, I, I think knowing all of the things I’m supposed to be doing and all of the strategies and tactics puts a damper on anything good that happens because I feel like I’m not doing it justice. You know, I feel like I could, it could be way more than what it is now and growing faster if I had more time,
Brandi Sea: 15:46 That is like one of my biggest struggles.
Emily Cretella: 15:48 And she said, well then why, what’s so wrong with it being slow growing and the way it is now? And if you love it and you’re enjoying doing it and you know, don’t look at that stuff, you’re doing a great job now. And so I think it sometimes takes that reframing of you just when you have an idea and you have a limited amount of time and you know what could be possible. Like setting more realistic expectations for yourself can be, can be challenging.
Michelle: 16:17 Well, and then also, um, maybe this isn’t specific for you, but just all, some people go through where they, they are looking at someone else’s story. Like, like, oh well, like for us it’s like, well, look at this person’s podcast. They’ve been around for one week and they have a million followers.
Brandi Sea: 16:34 Yes
Emily Cretella: 16:35 Yes.
Michelle: 16:36 Like what?
Emily Cretella: 16:36 Actually
Brandi Sea: 16:39 What am I doing wrong?
Emily Cretella: 16:39 I forget which episode and I’m going to link this, this podcast with one of your other ones. Oh, what was the name? I think the, um, your interview with Scott Belsky. He talks about, I had never heard of him and I had never heard of the Messy Middle. I’m probably one of, you know, zero people, but when he was talking about that whole concept, it really resonated with me of this, like, just kind of figuring out that middle portion and where you’re still passionate and where you think that you have a good idea and being like, okay, with that for now, you know, so I think
Michelle: 17:15 You’re in the messy middle.
Emily Cretella: 17:18 I am with my, with my Mother hustle baby. I’m in the messy middle.
Brandi Sea: 17:22 I have to ask you, what is your Enneagram number? Do you know it? Do you know what your enneagram is?
Emily Cretella: 17:27 I don’t
Brandi Sea: 17:28 Because you sound a lot like me, you’re probably a three but I’m not going to put that on you. You should figure that out and text me back.
Emily Cretella: 17:35 I will, I will, I will take that later. And um, and people ask me that all the time and it’s one of those things where I just always, I have never done it. So now I’ll put it on my list
Michelle: 17:44 It takes like diving in. It like I, it’s, it’s a big deal and I’m just obsessed it. So like every time I bring it up to somebody, I’m like, hi, I’m really sorry to put this on you. Um, but I’m wondering, do you know?
Brandi Sea: 17:56 I know that’s me too. She’s rubbing off on me all kinds. So I have to ask you about some design, kind of like design related questions obviously, because this is a design podcast. Um, what part do you think design has played? You know, you, you’ve been in the marketing thing, so you know how important design is, but when it, when it became like your own business, what part did design play in the beginning of Mother Hustle and how has that evolved to like how it’s, how it’s kind of manifest now?
Emily Cretella: 18:24 Yeah, so I, especially coming from the agency world, I always knew that investing in good design
Brandi Sea: 18:33 Thank you for using the word investing.
Emily Cretella: 18:34 Yes. Is oh good. I mean it’s honestly worth it. So I’ve never skimped on that. I do because I’m bare bones with Mother Hustle. I had, I started out with a creative director and a graphic designer and help me kind of bring that vision to life and then created the tools so that I could, um, you know, create, cause there’s a ton of graphics that go along with mother hustle. We’re posting on social media, we’re po where we’re creating, we’re posting essays. Um, there’s just a lot of graphic work that goes into it. But I did not attempt to do that myself. Those were all set by templates and by a really strong system that kind of empowered me to, to take that and make it what it was. But I had a vision for it. I did a lot of my own research, but it was really brought to life by her and, and that’s, um, could tell from reverend the reverend, Reverie Lane designs. So she was, and she’s also on the Mother Hustle panel and she did the graphics for that. But even with my Cursive business, I just went through a total new rebrand, um, and invested again in design because it had been too many years since I did that.
Brandi Sea: 19:45 Yeah, I feel you
Emily Cretella: 19:47 Um, yeah, but it’s, I, you know, it especially now with the way that we are with social and online, it’s, it’s, it helps bring your ideas to life as a, as a strategist and a writer.
Brandi Sea: 20:00 So what would you say if you had to, or if you already did, um, what was the concept, um, behind Mother Hustles design strategy?
Emily Cretella: 20:10 Yeah, I think it was really intentional um, an intentional shift away from a lot of the like flat lay white clean mothering designs that we saw that were really soft and
Brandi Sea: 20:25 Super Trendy
Emily Cretella: 20:28 Trendy and also like aspirational in an icky way that like we know that we’re not going to ever get that. So why are we torturing ourselves with looking at that all the time? So I wanted it to be a little bit more, I guess edgy in a way to reflect what I’m trying to do with the content of like telling real authentic stories about what it’s like to, you know, try to make this type of life work
Brandi Sea: 20:57 Nice. I love the, I love the like little sketchy accents that you put around, like some of your graphics.
Emily Cretella: 21:05 Yes
Brandi Sea: 21:05 That was part of what kind of drew me into was like the fact that there’s so many mommy blogs, you know, quote-unquote or, or even like mom boss type stuff that just looks, it does, it all looks the same. And when I, when I saw Mother Hustle, I was like, one, you’re using black and white as part of that, which is my heart. And then the other thing was like, oh, and there’s like these handmade elements which gives it like this, more like authentic and
Emily Cretella: 21:31 Authentic
Brandi Sea: 21:32 Like natural feel. So
Emily Cretella: 21:35 Less polished and it’s, and that, and the hard thing is, and, and which is why I really liked the design is because we can still mix, you know, none of us are. I’m not a bizillionaire where I can go out and do photo shoots all the time or have an or even have the time to do that. So I’m using stock photography, but mixing it with this, these design elements brings that, you know, brings that to life in a new way.
Brandi Sea: 22:01 That’s awesome. Sorry, I’m just writing a little note
Michelle: 22:03 No. Yeah, no, that’s what I, what I love about what you just said is that you have incorporated the edginess into it, which isn’t something that we see at least right now with, um, like Brandi said, like mom blogs or like the mom boss. It is the very clean whatever look. But what draws me away from that specifically is that I am a little bit more like edgy. I’m quoting that because I don’t want it. I don’t know. It’s kind of weird to say about yourself.
Brandi Sea: 22:34 No, it’s not, it’s not
Michelle: 22:34 You know I wear a lot of
Brandi Sea: 22:37 You have tattoos.
Michelle: 22:37 I wear a lot of, I wear a lot of black, I don’t, I’m not like high in fashion so
Brandi Sea: 22:42 We let our kids listen to like Bohemian Rhapsody like I don’t know.
Michelle: 22:46 Like this morning on the way here my daughter asked me to put on Justin Timberlake. So that was pretty cool. It was like a mom moment. It’s like yes! Yes I will
Brandi Sea: 22:54 I know. Celebrating that your kids aren’t just listening to the Wiggles.
Michelle: 22:59 Yeah. So like I really, I’m more drawn to things that I’m going to, I’m going to be able to like associate with and feel connected to. So I do like that as well.
Brandi Sea: 23:12 So two things you are working on right now in addition to like all this other stuff. One is a book.
Emily Cretella: 23:19 Yes.
Brandi Sea: 23:20 And in relation to the book, something I wish I had the time and energy to help do with you is your hundred-day thing
Emily Cretella: 23:28 Yes
Brandi Sea: 23:28 So do you want to tell us both of those?
Emily Cretella: 23:31 Sure. So I have been a writer my whole life and I, I basically went into marketing because I wanted to write and I wanted to get paid, um, so as it, it, it’s kind of a weird progression that I haven’t, didn’t really recognize until I’ve been asked about it. But, you know, starting my business, that kind of lead, Mother Hustle and Mother Hustle, these stories about women and even in the workplace, in creative fields. And now working from home inspired me to kind of write this book, which is fiction. Um, and I’ve never written long-form fiction before. Um, it’s my first attempt at a novel and it’s the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. Um, I started it for Nanowrimo and so that’s national novel writing month back in November. And that challenge is to write 50,000 words in a month. And I did that and now I’m working through the second draft, which is very painful.
Brandi Sea: 24:34 Yeah
Emily Cretella: 24:35 Because I am. I am a total perfectionist so I will get hung up on everything. And um, it’s, it’s very hard not to judge your own stuff when you’re writing, you know when you’re writing anything
Brandi Sea: 24:47 So do you try to edit as you go. Cause they say when you’re writing don’t edit as you go just write. So was that like for you?
Emily Cretella: 24:54 I didn’t, I didn’t edit it all in November. I just wrote, wrote, wrote, wrote, and now I’m like, okay, now I have to make sense of all this. It’s really fun. It’s like the most fun. I’ve had the most challenging fun I’ve had in a long time, so it’s totally worth it. But it’s very frustrating for like, uh, like I said, like a type A like perfectionist. Like I like being able to move forward and be like, okay, this is great, it’s done. And I’m like, I’m proud of it right now it’s not close. So I’m taking part in the 100-day challenge coming up. That is just an open creative challenge where people can kind of set their own projects and decide to do something for 100 days in a row. So a lot of people draw, paint, you know, you can announce they do any anything. I think someone was saying they’re going to give compliments every day for a hundred days. It’s a really interesting kind of challenge. I find that I am work well when challenge externally and have some kind of
Brandi Sea: 25:55 Accountability
Emily Cretella: 25:57 Accountability on myself. So I’m hoping that by taking part in this and making sure I am consciously working on these edits every day for the next hundred days I will maybe finished draft number two. We’ll see.
Michelle: 26:11 It’s got to be harder because you’re like trying to make sense of what you wrote back in November but also cutting stuff and adding as well.
Emily Cretella: 26:19 Yes. Right now I have like spreadsheets again, total type A. I’m like, this chapter should go here and these details need to go here. And it’s like A Beautiful Mind in my office.
Michelle: 26:29 Oh that’s so funny. As long as are you’re not talking to someone else like your good
Emily Cretella: 26:35 Right, no everything except for my cats.
Michelle: 26:37 The cats are fine. They’re really there
Brandi Sea: 26:38 They’re alive,
Michelle: 26:41 Spoiler alert for anybody who’s not seen A Beautiful Mind. Sorry about that.
Emily Cretella: 26:44 Yeah, right. Sorry.
Michelle: 26:46 Sorry. But it’s been like 15 years so your bad.
Brandi Sea: 26:49 You know what’s funny is I haven’t seen it. but it’s okay. This spoiler for me, I mean I kind of gathered
Michelle: 26:56 I think I saw that for like my birthday in eighth grade. Weird.
Emily Cretella: 27:01 Oh my gosh
Brandi Sea: 27:01 Woah, has it been that long? Oh my gosh, I’m so old.
Michelle: 27:02 It’s been a while. Thanks, Russell Crowe for that. And what about, um, did you, did you kind of go into the other question that Brandi had? What was the other question?
Brandi Sea: 27:12 No. That was both It was the book and the hundred-day thing.
Michelle: 27:15 The hundred-day thing. Okay cool. Sorry, they blended together and I got really into the book.
Emily Cretella: 27:21 Yeah I answered both
Michelle: 27:21 Good job because usually, people forget to answer one of the two, so that’s good.
Brandi Sea: 27:27 So what does your, um, what does your process kind of look like? Um, from the start of whether it’s writing or whether it’s like putting up a new post or you know, planning out your week. Like what does your process look like for Mother Hustle?
Emily Cretella: 27:45 Sure. So I am definitely a morning person. I cannot work or do any kind of strategy or good writing past like noon. I’m like done for the day. So I know that about myself. So I will get up really early, um, 4:30 5 o’clock and work. Um, right now I’m working on my novel the first thing in the morning because it’s the hardest thing. So I always do the hardest thing first and then I move on to a client project. Um, Mother Hustle is like easier for me so I can do that in the afternoon cause a lot of it at this point is task oriented. So it’s, you know, creating the imagery or editing someone else’s essay
Michelle: 28:30 You have like your workflow down
Brandi Sea: 28:32 It’s not like creatively draining to do Mother Hustle at this point.
Emily Cretella: 28:35 Exactly. But that’s, yeah, that’s exactly how my day kind of flows. It’s like the hardest to the least hardest tasks are at the end of the day. I batch my time. Um, I plan out my whole week before the week happens so I know what’s due when and kind of put it in my planner at specific hours of the day of when I’m going to work on each project. Because you know, with kids you need to do that.
Michelle: 28:59 There’s something like playing, is that music on your side?
Brandi Sea: 29:02 I don’t know.
Michelle: 29:03 Do you hear that music?
Emily Cretella: 29:04 I do hear it.
Michelle: 29:05 That’s so funny. Do you hear that?
Brandi Sea: 29:10 It’s the echo? It started playing
Michelle: 29:11 Oh, that’s so funny.
Emily Cretella: 29:12 Did I say something that turned Alexa?
Michelle: 29:15 You probably said something about like, Alexis
Emily Cretella: 29:19 That’s really funny.
Michelle: 29:20 I was like what is that noise?
Brandi Sea: 29:22 Okay, everything really just got very clear to me. My daughter’s alarm clock has not been going off in her room in the morning and I couldn’t figure out why. And it plays this Zelda Legend of Zelda, like operatic sort of song thing. That’s what was just playing on the wrong echo. in the wrong room, at the wrong time.
Emily Cretella: 29:41 That’s amazing.
Brandi Sea: 29:43 Sorry
Michelle: 29:43 Oh, that’s so funny. I don’t even think I’m going to cut that from the podcast because it’s really funny. And we’re like talking about like being moms.
Brandi Sea: 29:57 The, I’m not gonna say her name, the echo app on my phone, trying to figure out why my daughter’s alarm is not waking her up in the morning
Michelle: 30:05 And there it is
Brandi Sea: 30:07 Now it is, going off at 10 o’clock. I don’t know what happened.
Michelle: 30:09 It’s the wrong time is what it is
Emily Cretella: 30:11 My daughter can, we have like old iPhones around an iPad and she keeps finding them. I, I have an eight-year-old and she keeps setting alarms on different ones and they’re all over the house until I’ll be working
Brandi Sea: 30:24 It’s like a scavenger hunt.
Emily Critella: 30:25 And I’m like, where is that alarm coming from? Like how do I turn it off?
Michelle: 30:30 Oh, that’s such a funny problem.
Brandi Sea: 30:32 So your kid,
Emily Cretella: 30:33 I’m like stop setting alarms.
Michelle: 30:35 Yeah, stop
Brandi Sea: 30:36 You have an eight-year-old daughter and
Emily Cretella: 30:38 I have an eight-year-old and a six-year-old, so they’re almost seven and nine. Um, so which does make a difference. When I started my business
Brandi Sea: 30:46 They were so small.
Emily Cretella: 30:48 I was pregnant and had like a one-year-old, like an 18-month-old when my second daughter was born and trying to work then versus trying to work now. I mean now they’re in school. Um, I mean they still are. I feel like kids are hardly ever in school. They’re in there until I had to pick them up at three o’clock. So, um, but it’s a lot easier because you have like these, these chunks of time rather than trying to find time in
Brandi Sea: 31:15 Chunks and some slivers.
Emily Cretella: 31:17 Yes. Chunks instead of sliver’s, that’s a really good way to look at. Definitely.
Michelle: 31:23 What has been your most fulfilling part of Mother Hustle so far?
Emily Cretella: 31:27 Definitely connecting with all of the different women and like hearing all the different perspectives and stories, you know, that’s, that’s really why I wanted to open it up and create it as a website rather than just my newsletter. It’s being sent out because I was like, I’m just one voice in my experience, does not mirror everybody’s experience at all. So being able to kind of connect with these different women who are creating really interesting, um, careers for themselves and their own way. Um, it’s just always inspiring and I always am surprised whenever I connect with someone new and read their story. It’s always surprising.
Michelle: 32:07 Yeah. And I, I feel that because I’m feeling that right now and like if you didn’t do what we can do it. Like that’s so cool
Brandi Sea: 32:14 I know, and I’m like, super like an overachiever, when you were talking about the hundred days, I know I already liked messaged you and was like, I wish I could do this with you. Then I’m like, yeah, I think I can do this.
Emily Cretella: 32:23 Yeah.
Brandi Sea: 32:23 I could do a hundred things. But I don’t know
Emily Cretella: 32:28 You could. They said, on the day they said that the makers of the rules, I know whoever they may be sad, it should be something that you can do in five to 10 minutes a day. And I’m just going to share it on Instagram stories. I’m not going to stress myself out with trying to post a picture every day.
Michelle: 32:45 Make it look nice.
Emily Cretella: 32:45 Yeah, cause that’s more stress than I need. I just want to hold myself accountable and I’m going on vacation. I’m not going to probably post every single day, but you know, I’m gonna, I’m gonna do my best at it and we’ll see
Michelle: 32:58 I think that’s another thing we struggle with. I know, I know Brandi really struggles with it. If it’s not, if it is not done by the rules and she does not do it every single day for 100 days, she’s going to feel like a failure. But that’s where we, that’s where I think I come in. I’m like, no, it’s okay. It’s totally okay if you forgot that day or just didn’t have time to do it that day. Move on like you’re doing great. Just keep going.
Emily Cretella: 33:22 Yep.
Brandi Sea: 33:23 Yeah, then I feel like I’m a liar. If I only did ninety-nine days, I can’t, I can’t say I did this challenge.
Emily Cretella: 33:32 I hear you. But you can also look at it at the same way of, um, you’re committing to the 100 days. It doesn’t have to be in a hundred days, you know, you can just get
Michelle: 33:42 See, see. perspective.
Brandi Sea: 33:47 Look at you giving me a way out of this.
Michelle: 33:47 So it is possible. I know that we’re running really short on time with you.
Brandi Sea: 33:51 We can start on section two there
Michelle: 33:52 We have, we have stuff that we ask everyone. Um, so this is the fun like, well all of it’s been really fun but it’s really fun for us to ask these questions cause we get to hear from everybody on these specific things. What’s something that you’re listening to or reading or watching right now that you’re just loving?
Emily Cretella: 34:09 Oh my goodness. I just watched um, Shrill. That was that, that show on Hulu. Um,
Brandi Sea: 34:15 I saw a preview for that. Was it good?
Emily Cretella: 34:17 It was really good. I would say it wasn’t like my most favorite show of all time, but the way that they tackled some like just really interesting issues was like surprising and just joyful to watch. Like it was just like joyful to watch it and enjoy. Um, so that, that just came to mind because I was, I was just, um, I just finished watching it and I had binged. I think there’s only like six episodes.
Michelle: 34:42 Nice.
Emily Cretella: 34:42 Um, and I’m anxiously waiting for Game of Thrones to come back.
Brandi Sea: 34:49 You and everyone else in the world. Besides me. I don ‘t watch it
Emily Cretella: 34:54 We’re trying, we’re like watching the best epis our favorite episodes back from the last like seven seasons right now. Those are both shows. So that makes me sound terrible. Do read a lot of books.
Brandi Sea: 35:05 No of course not
Michelle: 35:05 Oh you’re just writing 50,000 words in a month. No big deal. Like I’ll cut you some slack
Emily Cretella: 35:10 And I, and I, you know what I’m obsessed with. I just got back on good reads. And again, this is, I am such a crazy challenge person. I think I’m just realizing this because I love tracking how many books I’m reading and like setting a challenge for myself. Like this is how many books I’m going to read this year and like sticking to it. Like I, I sound like a maniac
Michelle: 35:32 So funny. You prob you really, you really aren’t. I’m not competitive with myself at all. And so I’m like, I opened an APP, I’m like, oh 0%, zero-day streak. Good for me. Like
Brandi Sea: 35:44 Yeah, I’m learning French on Duolingo and I wasn’t, I, I’ve, I’m on like a seven-day streak and I was like, I’m going to keep doing this.
Michelle: 35:52 Oh my gosh
Brandi Sea: 35:53 That’s me too.
Emily Cretella: 35:54 That’s awesome.
Michelle: 35:56 And I can be like, if I got to seven days, I’d be like, I can stop now.
Emily Cretella: 36:00 Yeah, that was good.
Michelle: 36:01 That was good for me
Emily Cretella: 36:03 That was a good run
Michelle: 36:03 Good for me.
Brandi Sea: 36:05 Okay, next question. This one might be harder. Describe yourself in three words. Everyone hates this one, but give it a shot.
Emily Cretella: 36:13 Oh, goodness. Um, probably pull words from this interview. I would say, um, I guess I would say um. A perfectionist, but, and that’s not necessarily, I don’t know. Let me think. Um, a feminist, a, um, a, um, I’m curious person. Um, I’m curious about a lot of things and trying new things and I guess we’ll just keep perfectionist because I can’t, I can’t hide from it.
Michelle: 36:54 You also keep saying that you’re like, really you like the challenge. So
Emily Cretella: 36:58 Yes, I was trying to think of a way like what another word?
Michelle: 37:02 Yeah
Emily Cretella: 37:03 Challenge lover or challenge? I don’t know.
Michelle: 37:05 Challenge oriented. It’s good. It’s good. Um, so you kind of answered this. I don’t even want to ask it because I was on the next question again, have just skip it because it’s, the question is what’s the first thing you do in the morning but you’re very productive.
Emily Cretella: 37:21 Yes.
Brandi Sea: 37:22 All the things
Michelle: 37:22 So we got that
Brandi Sea: 37:24 All the things. She does all the things in the morning
Emily Cretella: 37:25 And coffee. Tones of coffee.
Michelle: 37:28 Okay. That’s a good one because you already asked the next question too that I have for you. When is, when are you most productive? In the morning
Emily Cretella: 37:36 I set my car. I have one of those coffee pots that grinds the beans and I have it set for 4:30 so it goes off and it like
Michelle: 37:43 That’s what I needed.
Emily Cretella: 37:45 Yes. I’m like, I really want a hot cup of coffee. So I got, I have to get out of bed so my coffee is hot.
Michelle: 37:52 See, that would give me, oh my gosh, that is what I need because I want a hot cup of coffee, but I don’t want to make it myself.
Emily Cretella: 37:58 Yeah. you set it
Brandi Sea: 37:59 Well my problem is, I don’t want to wake everybody up making my coffee.
Michelle: 38:02 Oh, I don’t care
Emily Cretella: 38:03 My kids are so used to actually sleep right through it now
Brandi Sea: 38:06 Maybe that’s the thing. More, it’s more, probably more the dog cause he gets them noxious.
Emily Cretella: 38:10 Oh
Michelle: 38:10 Makes sense.
Emily Cretella: 38:11 That would be annoying. Yeah.
Brandi Sea: 38:12 Okay. So what do you geek out about?
Emily Cretella: 38:16 Oh, um, reading. Um,
Brandi Sea: 38:19 What sorts like fiction and nonfiction si-fi
Emily Cretella: 38:22 I like to do. I like to, to read fiction. I like to read, um, hit like historical fiction and um, some like mystery kind of things. I try to, I try to alternate so I don’t get sick of a genre. And then right now I’m reading a lot of books about writing too because it’s really, I’m learning how much I don’t know. And so it’s just great to have a lot of resources out there.
Brandi Sea: 38:51 Have you read Jackaby?
Emily Cretella: 38:53 No
Brandi Sea: 38:53 Have you read the Jackaby books? You should put it on your list.
Michelle: 38:57 What is it about?
Brandi Sea: 39:00 It’s like
Emily Cretella: 39:00 Adding it to my good reads.
Brandi Sea: 39:01 How do I explain it? It’s sort of like, um, Sherlock Holmes meets, um, Supernatural sort of. Yeah.
Michelle: 39:11 So it’s fiction?
Brandi Sea: 39:13 Yeah, it’s fiction.
Michelle: 39:13 Cool.
Brandi Sea: 39:13 Yeah.
Emily Cretella: 39:14 All right.
Brandi Sea: 39:15 There’s like what made me think of it as like, there’s, there’s like historical elements to it, so it’s really fun.
Michelle: 39:21 Um, what would you say, what would your mom or your dad say that you do for a living?
Emily Cretella: 39:29 Oh, well they’d probably start with saying, I’m a writer. Um, cause that’s probably the easiest. But then if someone asks my mom, she’d probably tell them everything I just told you. So like, get really into like, well she did, it runs this business and she also does this thing with Mother Hustles and she’s writing a book.
Michelle: 39:45 I love it she’s so proud.
Emily Cretella: 39:46 Yes. She’s very proud. So she would, she would say it all.
Michelle: 39:51 I love that.
Brandi Sea: 39:52 That’s the first time we’ve gotten that. Most people who are moms or dads, generally moms don’t really know how to explain
Michelle: 40:00 What the creative child does
Brandi Sea: 40:03 Yeah.
Emily Cretella: 40:04 She loves, she loves Instagram. So she follows everything I post that gives her insight, I think into what I do
Brandi Sea: 40:12 Yeah that helps. My Mom’s just got Facebook and that was like a chore to get that.
Michelle: 40:17 Oh, Facebook, good old Facebook.
Brandi Sea: 40:20 Okay. What drives you crazy?
Emily Cretella: 40:23 Oh goodness. Um, I think the what, what drives me crazy.
Brandi Sea: 40:33 Pet peeves
Emily Cretella: 40:34 Pet, I, yeah, my pet peeves are, um, the, the some of the things that are shared on social media that make running a business look more glamorous than it is or easy than it is. Um, I hate, I hate seeing when people post, um, just the pretty surface of things and are trying to like make money from it and that’s whole
Brandi Sea: 41:08 And do make money
Emily Cretella: 41:11 And do make money from it and capitalize on this, what we talked about earlier in our conversation of like you thinking that everyone else is, has it all together and is doing it better than you and kind of capitalizes on that fear within us. That just kind of, it makes me feel icky and drives me nuts.
Michelle: 41:28 And as a creative, that is a huge fear within each of us in some way where like I don’t feel like I can do anything after I look at those types of posts and people. So it’s, it’s hard.
Brandi Sea: 41:43 Some of them are little confusing too because I follow a few people that I appreciate what they’re doing, but um, they, their photo shows like the perfect pristine. Then the text says up all of the, like their struggles and like how they want to be authentic and real and all, you know, they are sharing authentically in the caption but the picture is like but I’m really confused where’s the real part of your life then?
Emily Cretella: 42:11 Exactly. Exactly. And so I think I, and that’s another thing I’m hoping that people are tr maybe that’s in that attempt to try to move away from this where, you know, it was everyone’s stressed out about finding the perfect image and posting the perfect thing that, you know, we can be a little bit more real with, from entrepreneur to entrepreneur conversations and, and how we sell to each other and how we, you know, connect with each other. Um, so I think hopefully we’re moving in the right direction, but when I see that the kind of like smarmy stuff, that’s blatantly
Michelle: 42:42 Hm smarmy, that’s a good word
Emily Cretella: 42:43 You know. Yeah. Yeah. That is my pet peeve
Brandi Sea: 42:49 Smarminess is a good pet peeve.
Emily Cretella: 42:51 Smarminess
Michelle: 42:51 Smarminess
Brandi Sea: 42:52 All right, last one, Michelle.
Michelle: 42:54 Um, how do you want to be remembered?
Emily Cretella: 42:57 Oh, I think I want to be remembered, um, by someone as, as someone who acted, um, who like stood for something and, um, and, and was vocal about their convictions and I, and by being a good mom in that sense too, and trying to, you know, make things that I don’t like about the way things are easier for my kids.
Michelle: 43:26 I like that. I think you’re, you’re doing that right now, so, and you’re well on your way to being remembered by that as well.
Brandi Sea: 43:32 Yes.
Emily Cretella: 43:32 Thank you.
Brandi Sea: 43:33 Well, thank you, Emily, so much for joining us. This is a really fun conversation.
Michelle: 43:39 How can people find you on all of the social media and inner web?
Brandi Sea: 43:43 Your business, your Mother Hustles,\ where, where are all your things?
Emily Cretella: 43:48 So I am. Everything is @motherhustle for that publication. If you’re interested in seeing my business and how it’s run, it’s @cursivecontent, um, or cursivecontent.com and then I have kind of like a professional page where I talk about my writing and my books and things like that. It’s on Instagram @emilycretella.
Michelle: 44:07 Nice.
Brandi Sea: 44:08 Cretella. I still was thinking you were about to say Cretae
Michelle: 44:12 It’s Cretella.
Emily Cretella: 44:14 Oh Cretae. You can say whatever you want
Michelle: 44:16 Just here though. We love it. Thank you again so much. We’ve really enjoyed this conversation with you.
Emily Cretella: 44:23 Thank you, me too. I really did.
Michelle: 44:26 There it is. That’s Emily Cretella from Mother Hustle. You can check out all of the show notes and transcriptions provided by the wonderful Joelle. Um, for more information if you forgot how to get to see her on the, on the interwebs. Um, she was so great, wasn’t she?
Brandi Sea: 44:42 Oh my gosh. I am feeling much more motivated to embrace like my mom-ness.
Michelle: 44:48 Yeah. That’s just something I’ve been so afraid of. Just specifically with Design Speaks and I guess I didn’t realize I had been, like repressing that.
Brandi Sea: 44:55 I don’t think I did either until she started talking about it and then I’m like, Dang, I think I’ve actually been doing this and not that we want to turn this into a mom podcast because that’s definitely not our focus, but like not our lives
Michelle: 45:06 Not shy away. Yeah. Not shy away from something that is so deeply woven into who we are
Brandi Sea: 45:14 Now I feel like we’ve been just tiny bit inauthentic because we had left that out.
Michelle: 45:17 Yeah. dang, it!
Brandi Sea: 45:19 Okay. Thank you, Emily, for helping us realize that and you know, embrace who we are as women and entrepreneurs
Michelle: 45:28 And mothers and creatives and all that jazz. You can find us on all forms of social media, Instagram, Facebook, even Twitter if you want. I guess it’s @brandisea can you spell your name for them?
Brandi Sea: 45:38 B R A N D I S E A
Michelle: 45:41 And you can find a specifically Design Speaks Instagram. It’s designed @designspeakspodcast. So go check us out. We’ve got some fun stuff.
Brandi Sea: 45:49 And Patreon.com/designspeaks. If you guys want to give us a buck or two and help us continue to make these episodes for you
Michelle: 45:57 That would be fantastic. We heard from someone really great this weekend, week, weekend.
Brandi Sea: 46:02 This time
Michelle: 46:03 This time, um, her, it’s Mila, Myleah Amy. I hope I’m saying that right Mia. Myleah Amy, I like,
Brandi Sea: 46:12 It’s hard with usernames.
Michelle: 46:13 I knew a girl named Mila growing up, so I’m going to go with Mila.
Brandi Sea: 46:16 Okay.
Michelle: 46:17 She says, I started listening to this podcast one week ago and I already heard more than one third. It’s so inspiring and interesting, not only for people that are already designers, but also beginners or only creatives. Um, it’s really a joy for me to hear the voices of these amazing women and it empowers me as well as it helps me grow in my creativity. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Mila.
Brandi Sea: 46:38 Thank you.
Michelle: 46:39 We really
Brandi Sea: 46:39 We are still at a solid five stars.
Michelle: 46:42 Yes. Oh, addictive for design. Addictive for design addicted. Oh, that’s so good. That’s what she said on her iTunes.
Brandi Sea: 46:48 Oh my gosh. I’m gonna steal that
Michelle: 46:51 Be like, Mila, thank you so much
Brandi Sea: 46:52 Can I please steal your peer review title.
Michelle: 46:56 Addictive for a design. Wow. It’s kind of like a mouthful. Addictive for design addicted. I like that.
Brandi Sea: 47:03 I like that too.
Michelle: 47:04 So thank you again. And also shout out to the one and only Vesperteen
Brandi Sea: 47:09 As always
Michelle: 47:09 For letting us use his song Shatter in the Night as the intro and outro to Design Speaks
Brandi Sea: 47:14 Till next time.