The Creative Bodega with Em Connors | Email & Content Marketing for Solopreneurs

Download the one-page website audit checklist for solopreneurs: the 5 checks to run on your site this week. Grab it here

Your business changed. Your website might not have. After a DM from a follower, I audited my own site and found my newest offer hidden from Google, a homepage still talking about social media, and a Canva workshop button for a date that already passed. In this episode of The Creative Bodega, I walk you through the five checks I’d run first, and why I’m giving my website a new home after six years. If your site has been growing in layers, this one is for you.

Check out the full show notes for this episode CLICK HERE.

Things I cover inside this episode:

• The 10-minute site: search that shows which pages Google knows about your website
• The one hidden “hide from search” setting that kept my newest offer invisible
• Five checks to run in order, from diagnosing first to cleaning up your menu
• A simple page title formula: what you do, who it’s for, and your name
• SEO versus GEO, plus homework to see if ChatGPT or Perplexity mention you
• Why your website and email list are the two places no algorithm stands in the way
• Why I’m redesigning on a new platform, and what to do before you switch

🛠️ Resources

• Download the Takeaway OneSheet for this week's episode: website audit checklist for solopreneurs: the 5 checks to run on your site ASAP. 
• Google Search Console: free, and where I looked at the pages report
• ShowIt: the platform I’m moving to
• Spicy Margarita template from Tonic: the template I fell for
• Episode 81: where I said I’m going all in on email
• Episode 1: the margarita story (& the entire story behind The Creative Bodega)

Update (October 21, 2026): Since publishing, Podia has clarified a few things. You can set H1 headings, SEO titles, and descriptions in the editor, and Podia added XML sitemaps on October 19, 2026. Podia has also shared that text on Podia sites is readable by AI tools, which differs from what I said about AI readability. I shared that based on what I'd learned, and I'm not an SEO or website expert. Podia helped me get started, and I'm grateful.

Connect with me:
📲 Follow me on Instagram: @its.em.connors
💌 Join my weekly newsletter: 321 Create
🫶🏼 Check out The Content Coven Membership
💵 Snag 25% off Flodesk, or use the code: THECREATIVEBODEGA

Be sure to hit "Subscribe" or "Follow" so you never miss an episode! 

Grab the one-page cheat sheet on how to write a newsletter with AI and still sound like you, plus my cleaned-up banned phrases list: Download it here

You tried AI for your newsletter, hated the result, and wondered if everyone else is just better at prompts. You’re not alone, and the tool usually isn’t the problem. In this episode of The Creative Bodega, I’m showing you how I use AI to write my newsletter, what I give it so the draft sounds like me, and where it still gets things wrong. You’ll also hear my real numbers on time saved and what it did (and didn’t do) for my open rate.

Check out the full show notes for this episode: CLICK HERE

Things I cover inside this episode:

• Why most AI-written newsletters sound generic, and what’s usually missing from the prompt
• The three things I give my AI project so every draft starts closer to me
• How my newsletter went from up to an hour and a half to 30 to 40 minutes
• My real open rates from 2024 to 2026, and why I won’t credit AI for the jump
• How I edit every draft: five to six rounds, then reading it out loud
• The three mistakes that make AI writing sound robotic, and my coffee test for catching them
• What I said back to the commenter who called AI hustle culture

Resources & Links mentioned in the episode:

• My “Let’s normalize” Instagram post about deleting 39 out of 40 pages of AI freebie ideas (the one that started the comment thread)
• Anna Kornick, my podcast launch coach who first showed me how to use AI for my podcast transcripts
• My content trifecta episode (referenced as the system that feeds all my content from one transcript)
• Join the waitlist for The Newsletter System coming in mid-January!

Connect with me:
📲 Follow me on Instagram: @its.em.connors
💌 Join my weekly newsletter: 321 Create
🫶🏼 Check out The Content Coven Membership
💵 Snag 25% off Flodesk, or use the code: THECREATIVEBODEGA

Be sure to hit "Subscribe" or "Follow" so you never miss an episode! 

Want to grow your email list without adding more social media? SAME! If your list growth has stalled and you're one click away from signing up for another platform, you're so not alone. In this episode of The Creative Bodega Podcast, I share the 5 things I'm changing to make the content I already create work a lot harder, including the opt-in that brought me 53 new subscribers in 8 days.

📝 Grab this episode's FREE takeaway cheat sheet: RIGHT HERE

💻 Check out the full show notes for this episode: CLICK HERE

Things I cover inside this episode:

• Why my new subscribers dropped from 329 last August to just 97 this August. 
• The week I almost signed up for every platform with a login screen
• The show-notes opt-in that brought in 53 subscribers in just 8 days
• Why I'm leaving my website host after six years, and what GEO means for AI search
• How podcast guest swaps inside The Coven get us all in front of new audiences
• The one-line question that got me 25 newsletter replies in a single week
• A quick audit to find the list growth hiding in what you already make

Resources & Links mentioned in the episode:

• Grab this episode's FREE takeaway cheat sheet: RIGHT HERE
• Episode 86, optimizing your Instagram to grow your email list
• Episode 87, the one Pinterest automation that got me a pin with 50,000 impressions
• Flodesk (where I pulled my month-by-month subscriber numbers). Snag 25% off, or use the code: THECREATIVEBODEGA
• Heartbeat (where The Coven lives now) I absolutely love this membership & course hosting platform
• Want to swap podcast guest spots? Reach out here: [email protected]

Quick correction: in this episode, I compare my list growth to summer 2023, but those numbers weren't accurate. The real year-over-year comparison is 329 new subscribers in August 2025 vs. 97 in August 2026, about a 70% drop.

Update (October 21, 2026): Since publishing, Podia has clarified a few things. You can set H1 headings and SEO titles and descriptions in the editor, and Podia added XML sitemaps on October 19, 2026. Podia has also shared that text on Podia sites is readable by AI tools, which differs from what I said about AI readability. I shared that based on what I’d learned, and I’m not an SEO or website expert. Podia helped me get started, and I’m grateful for it.

Connect with me:
📲 Follow me on Instagram: @its.em.connors
💌 Join my weekly newsletter: 321 Create
🫶🏼 Check out The Content Coven Membership
💵 Snag 25% off Flodesk, or use the code: THECREATIVEBODEGA

Be sure to hit "Subscribe" or "Follow" so you never miss an episode! 

📝 Grab this episode's one-page cheat sheet, [the 4 steps to one freebie that converts], right here! → https://thecreativebodega.myflodesk.com/podcastonesheet

Made freebie after freebie and still nobody's opting in? Or maybe you've got a 40-page guide you know is good, and your list hasn't budged. I've been there. I've made over 45 freebies in six years, and most of them cost me way more time than they ever gave back. In this episode of The Creative Bodega, I walk you through The One Good Freebie Method: the foundation only you can build (AI can't touch it), plus the 4 steps to create one freebie that converts and keeps working for you. If you're tired of building freebies nobody downloads, this episode is for you.

For the full blog post show notes, CLICK HERE.

Things I cover inside this episode:

• The question that stumped me: what can you create that AI can't?
• Why your freebie should serve your whole umbrella, not one tiny slice
• How to find your freebie in the one question people always ask you
• Why a 10-minute win beats a 40-page guide nobody ever opens
• The stranger test for naming your freebie (and why clear beats cute)
• How my simple opt-in page converts at just over 69% with one button
• The 8 places I promote one freebie every single week

Resources & Links mentioned in the episode:

• Ash McDonald, my business strategist (her question sparked this whole episode)
• The One Good Freebie Method, free training replay (the full hour with slides and Renee's build)
• Episode 69: my content pillars episode (referenced when talking about pillars under your umbrella)
• Flodesk, my email platform (use code THECREATIVEBODEGA for 25% off your first year)

Connect with me:
📲 Follow me on Instagram: @its.em.connors
💌 Join my weekly newsletter: 321 Create
🫶🏼 Check out The Content Coven Membership
💵 Snag 25% off Flodesk, or use the code: THECREATIVEBODEGA

Be sure to hit "Subscribe" or "Follow" so you never miss an episode! 

📝 Grab this episode's one-page cheat sheet with all four moves and the exact steps to implement them right here!

Ever pull up your own Instagram profile and realize a total stranger would have no idea what to do next? You post, you show up, you pour hours into it, and then you cross your fingers and hope the algorithm sends the right people your way. If you're tired of building your business on rented land you don't own, you're in the right place. In this episode of The Creative Bodega, I'm walking you through four low-lift, mostly free moves that make Instagram actually pull its weight for your email list. No new apps, no new subscriptions, nothing added to your already-full plate. If you want your list to grow without living on the app, this one is for you.

Check out the full show notes for this episode CLICK HERE.

Things I cover inside this episode:

• How to rewrite your Instagram bio so one clear next step points to your list
• The three-pin grid audit that turns your profile into a list-building invitation
• What to do the moment a post takes off (hint: edit the caption)
• Adding a simple comment keyword so a post delivers your freebie automatically
• Turning on free auto-publishing so Instagram feeds Pinterest and Facebook for you
• The one free setting that pushed a single pin past 10,000 Pinterest impressions

Resources & Links mentioned in the episode:

• The takeaway (this week's one-page cheat sheet): all four moves and the exact steps, free.
• My pinned freebie post (the one I said I'd link so you can see exactly what a clear list-building pin looks like)
• The Email List Starter Kit (my freebie, referenced as the clearly named opt-in in my bio)

Connect with me:
📲 Follow me on Instagram: @its.em.connors
💌 Join my weekly newsletter: 321 Create
🫶🏼 Check out The Content Coven Membership
💵 Snag 25% off Flodesk, or use the code: THECREATIVEBODEGA

Be sure to hit "Subscribe" or "Follow" so you never miss an episode! 

✨💌 DOORS ARE OPEN: The Newsletter System: my 6-week program for building a newsletter you'll actually keep writing. Doors are open this week only. Limited spots, we begin Sept 24th!

Have you ever felt called to change direction in your business, but froze because you were terrified of what people would think? You are not the only one. I spent six years known for one thing, quietly sensing I was meant for another, and doing almost nothing about it. In this episode of The Creative Bodega, I walk you through the real story behind my pivot from Instagram and Canva to email marketing: the tiny signals I ignored for years, the moment two out of forty women broke my brain, and the trust recession that makes a weekly newsletter the smartest bet you can place on your business right now. If your gut has been tapping you on the shoulder, this episode is for you.

Check out the full show notes for this episode CLICK HERE.

Things I cover inside this episode:

• Why a pivot that looks sudden from the outside was six years in the making
• The trust recession, and why a weekly newsletter is your best answer to it
• What made me stop being the posting girl and go all in on email
• Why I shrank my list from past 25,000 down to 11,000 on purpose
• The five minutes I froze at the confirm button before changing my handle
• What owned versus rented means for your business, and why it changes everything
• Who The Newsletter System is built for, and who it honestly is not for

Resources & Links mentioned in the episode:

• The Newsletter System: my 6-week program for building a newsletter you'll actually keep writing. Doors are open this week only. 
• Start and Grow Your Email List From Scratch: my original email course, the one that came straight out of that two-hands-out-of-40 moment. 

Connect with me:
📲 Follow me on Instagram: @its.em.connors
💌 Join my weekly newsletter: 321 Create
🫶🏼 Check out The Content Coven Membership
💵 Snag 25% off Flodesk, or use the code: THECREATIVEBODEGA

Be sure to hit "Subscribe" or "Follow" so you never miss an episode! 

✨💌 Join the Newsletter System waitlist - hop on for first access when the doors open September 14th

You keep meanIng to start the newsletter. Or you started one, then quietly let it go. And every time you think about picking it back up, a little pile of excuses shows up first. No one will read it. I don't have the time. This probably isn't for a business like mine. I've had every one of those thoughts myself, so there's zero finger-pointing here. In this episode of The Creative Bodega, I pick up the five biggest excuses one at a time and hold them up to the light, because most of them fall apart the second you look at them straight. If an email list has been sitting on your someday list, this one is for you.

Check out the full show notes for this episode CLICK HERE.

Things I cover inside this episode:

• Why "no one will read it" is the wrong fear to have
• How the platform you send from matters way less than you think
• Why an email list works whether you sell a product or a service
• The reason a newsletter is subtraction, not another plate to spin
• What I'm doing right now to grow my list without relying on Instagram
• Why the people most likely to buy are quietly drifting away right now

Resources & Links mentioned in the episode:

• The Newsletter System waitlist — hop on for first access when the doors open September 14th
• Episode 81, my pivot episode — the full story of why I went all in on email after six years of teaching Instagram and Canva
• Flodesk — the email platform I use and recommend (my code THECREATIVEBODEGA gets you 25% off your first year)

Connect with me:
📲 Follow me on Instagram: @its.em.connors
💌 Join my weekly newsletter: 321 Create
🫶🏼 Check out The Content Coven Membership
💵 Snag 25% off Flodesk, or use the code: THECREATIVEBODEGA

Be sure to hit "Subscribe" or "Follow" so you never miss an episode! 

✨💌 CLICK HERE to hop on The Newsletter System waitlist (join for first dibs on the limited spots plus a behind-the-scenes tour of my full newsletter process)

You want to email your list. You know you should. Maybe you even have the list sitting right there, ready to go. But you sit down, the cursor blinks, and your brain goes completely blank. So you close the laptop and tell yourself you'll figure it out next week. And next week? Same exact thing. If that loop feels familiar, you are not broken, and you are not out of ideas. In this episode of The Creative Bodega, I break down why the blank page was never a creativity problem in the first place, and the shift that made "what do I even write?" stop being a question I dread every single week. If staring at a blank newsletter makes you want to throw your laptop out the window, this one is for you.

Check out the full show notes for this episode CLICK HERE.

Things I cover inside this episode:

• Why the blank page is a structure problem, not a lack of ideas
• The free assignment I give every week: subscribe to newsletters and study which ones you open
• Why the section that connects most is almost never the strategic one
• Where my 3-2-1 format came from, and why borrowing a structure is the point
• The reframe that ends the panic: you are your own ideal client, one problem ahead
• Why an unsure email that gets sent beats a perfect one stuck in your drafts

Resources & Links mentioned in the episode:

• One of my early newsletters sent 4/7/21 via Flodesk (referenced when talking about her short, unsure first j)
• James Clear's 3-2-1 newsletter (the original format Em's 3-2-1 traces back to)

Connect with me:
📲 Follow me on Instagram: @its.em.connors
💌 Join my weekly newsletter: 321 Create
🫶🏼 Check out The Content Coven Membership
💵 Snag 25% off Flodesk, or use the code: THECREATIVEBODEGA

Be sure to hit "Subscribe" or "Follow" so you never miss an episode! 

You started an email list. You were proud of it. And then...you never emailed it. 😅 Now every time you think about sitting down to write, the cursor blinks, your brain goes blank, and you tell yourself you'll do it later. Later never comes, and the guilt just keeps stacking. If that's the loop you're stuck in, you're not lazy, and you're not flaky. You're missing one thing. In this episode of The Creative Bodega, I break down why consistency with your email list was never a discipline problem, why a small list of people who trust you beats a huge silent following, and the one small move that breaks the blank-page spell. If your list has been collecting dust, this one is for you.

Check out the full show notes for this episode CLICK HERE.

Things I cover inside this episode:

• Why creators with huge accounts and silent lists are quietly losing money
• How a list of 100 people who trust you out-launches 50,000 followers
• The real reason the weekly blank page keeps beating you (it's not you)
• Why Instagram is a slot machine, and what owning your list changes
• The two-creator test that shows exactly why the inbox wins the sale
• The reframe: consistency is a system problem, never a willpower problem
• Your one small move this week to break the blank-page spell for good

Resources & Links mentioned in the episode:

• 💌 The Newsletter System waitlist. My 6-week program doors opening September 14th, built to take the blank page out of your weekly email for good. Getting on the list means first word when doors open: join the waitlist.
• 🎙️ Listen to last week's episode (81) on why every solopreneur needs an email list, not just a personal brand. It sets up everything in this post, so start there if you missed it!

Connect with me:
📲 Follow me on Instagram: @its.em.connors
💌 Join my weekly newsletter: 321 Create
🫶🏼 Check out The Content Coven Membership
💵 Snag 25% off Flodesk, or use the code: THECREATIVEBODEGA

Be sure to hit "Subscribe" or "Follow" so you never miss an episode! 

💌 Join The Newsletter System September Waitlist — first access when doors open September 14th, limited spots available!

Have you ever been genuinely good at something, even known for it, and still felt a quiet pull that it is not the thing you want to keep doing forever? For years, I couldn't name that feeling. I just felt scattered and a little off, pouring most of my energy into the platform that gave me the least back. It took three weeks completely off Instagram to finally see it clearly. In this episode of The Creative Bodega, I share the biggest pivot I have made in nine years, why I am going all in on email, and what my two fiddle leaf fig trees have to do with all of it. If you have felt scattered too, this one is for you.

Check out the full show notes for this episode CLICK HERE.

Things I cover inside this episode:

• Why I am walking away from teaching Instagram after nine years of posting
• What three weeks off the app made impossible to unsee
• The difference between rented attention and an audience you truly own
• Why Instagram tactics keep expiring while email stays a durable skill
• The moment in Nashville that quietly cracked this whole decision open
• What is changing, what is staying, and what it means for you

Resources & Links mentioned in the episode:

• The Newsletter System September Waitlist — first access when doors open September 14th, limited spots available!
• Flodesk — the email platform I use and swear by. Grab 50% off your first year with code THECREATIVEBODEGA
• Click here to see what a fiddle leaf fig is!

Connect with me:
📲 Follow me on Instagram: @its.em.connors
💌 Join my weekly newsletter: 321 Create
🫶🏼 Check out The Content Coven Membership
💵 Snag 25% off Flodesk, or use the code: THECREATIVEBODEGA

Be sure to hit "Subscribe" or "Follow" so you never miss an episode!