In this Prime Talk Podcast Video Sponsored by GETIDA – Emma Schremer Tamir - The Founder of Marketing by Emma - talk about the creative side of eCommerce and content creation. Emma shares her life story and her incredible tale of eCommerce creativity.
Emma grew up in Columbus Missouri and wanted to get out and explore the world. After developing a career in political science, she quickly realized her passion was steering her in other directions. Off she went to live in Spain and Israel for a few years, got married, and eventually discovered that her creative talent is in growing need along with the explosive growth of eCommerce.
Now Emma is back in Columbus, fueled with a new appreciation for her hometown, and with a hard focus on growing her creative agency by helping eCommerce sellers all over the world.
Find out more about Marketing by Emma.
Find out more about GETIDA.
Yoni Mazur 0:04
Hi, everybody, welcome to another episode of fine dog today I'm really happy to have Emma with me and my tremor, Tamir. She is the founder and the main persona behind marketing by Emma, which is a leading agency for e-commerce content, Amazon listing, optimization, and marketing copy. Mo, welcome to the show.
Emma Tamir 0:28
Hi, Yoni, thanks for having me. I'm excited to speak with you today.
Yoni Mazur 0:31
Awesome. So where are you now which part of America?
Emma Tamir 0:36
We are in Columbia, Missouri, which is right in the very middle. If you closed your eyes and tried to point out the middle on a map, you'd probably land pretty close to where we are.
Yoni Mazur 0:47
That's awesome. You know, we should probably these days open like a big warehouse. If you run in the middle, it's a good place to be, you know, you can shift pretty quickly.
Emma Tamir 0:59
Yeah, there are a lot of warehouses, data centers, all sorts of things. Real estate is cheap. We're in good, kind of, you know, equidistant from lots of places.
Emma Tamir 1:12
I don't know that that's my passion. But I encourage those who are passionate about it to definitely consider Missouri as a potential great state.
Yoni Mazur 1:21
I think Columbus when he had the vision of you know, what he discovered when he discovered America, you know, a city named after him, Columbia, and right smack in the middle, you know, to dominate the land.
Emma Tamir 1:35
I like that idea.
Emma Tamir 1:36
We're right, we're pretty close to where Lewis and Clark actually started their expedition to explore the western part of the United States. So we have some interesting history here, considered the frontier of the West. But a lot of people also consider it as a flyover.
Yoni Mazur 1:56
You gotta think you know, it today is good, the good thing to be right in the middle, I think the middle you'll see in the next few decades, it's going to boom up because the East in the West is a little bit crowded. And it's a lot of fertile land in the middle. Okay, so today, the episode is really gonna focus beyond where you're living, which is Missouri, this is where you grew up, right? Or you grew up in a different state?
Emma Tamir 2:22
I grew up here.
Emma Tamir 2:24
Yeah, my family moved here when I was four, and I kind of moved in and out for the rest of my life.
Yoni Mazur 2:30
So okay, so this episode is gonna be all about you. We want to discover you see what you're all about? Where are you from? Where'd you go to school? How did you begin your career? So without further ado, let's dive right into it and have some fun. Go ahead. Tell us your story.
Emma Tamir 2:46
I grew up in Missouri, and I was really intent on getting out of here as soon as I possibly could. So I actually applied to a bunch of different schools and ended up choosing the University of Wisconsin, sort of at random. And I think what we'll see here is that it will begin what becomes a pattern, which is I was at University, University of Wisconsin for a year and a half I studied abroad in Ecuador. I was fascinated by the culture there and also really reconnected with my love of writing, and started a blog.
Yoni Mazur 3:19
Hold on. Let's back it up. You flew over Ecuador pretty quickly. So you went to Ecuador for a whole year? What age was this?
Emma Tamir 3:27
No, I went there for a semester, my sophomore year.
Yoni Mazur 3:31
20 years old?
Emma Tamir 3:33
I was 19 actually.
Yoni Mazur 3:36
That's the main city?
Emma Tamir 3:37
I was in Quito, I lived with a family. I actually went to a university in the Columbia Valley, which was about an hour by bus to get there.
Yoni Mazur 3:53
That sounds as wild and authentic as it can be. And over there, you kind of discovered copywriting in a way or your passion for creativity.
Emma Tamir 4:00
So I was always a little girl, I was always making storybooks and telling stories. And I was also just very expressive and artistic. But when I lived in Ecuador, this was before smartphones were a big thing where you still had to go to internet cafes. If you wanted to use a really patchy voice, Skype, I don't even think that video calls existed yet, which means that and when I was living there, I had a lot of time where I was in the home that I was staying in without the internet to waste time on without being able to always interact with my friends,
Yoni Mazor 4:40
No distractions, you can really look inside, introspect and bring the power out.
Emma Tamir 4:45
Exactly. And so I just felt compelled to document my experiences. And it also made it a lot easier to not have to write these really long emails to every single person instead, they could read the blog and then we could kind of talk about other things instead of having to keep them.
Yoni Mazur 5:03
So you started a blog back then meaning in Ecuador, in Ecuador? Where you launched it?
Emma Tamir 5:08
That's where I launched it. And it was really, it was really just for that, I think it was on blogger, this blogger still exists anymore. I don't know.
Yoni Mazur 5:17
I never heard of it. So...
Emma Tamir 5:21
And I started to get some feedback that my writing was really good and that maybe I should consider a career in writing. And it just so happens that the University of Missouri, which is located here in Columbia, is one of the top journalism schools in the country, and so I started getting a lot of encouragement from people saying, you should consider going to school there. And I was like, no way, I don't want to move back to Missouri. And then I was encouraged to just visit it and I visited and then I was encouraged to just apply, and I just applied, and then I got accepted. And before I knew it, I was enrolled at the University of Missouri and living back in Colombia and wondering what happened.
Yoni Mazur 6:00
Destiny didn't happen, literally. So I think it's great. I think you even though you tried to break out, you know, you found your talent, you found it, and it matched like a glove to where you grew up. But that's a, in a sense, it's kind of spiritual, almost, you know.
Emma Tamir 6:15
It is and it ended up being a really important time to be back home. My mom dealt with some health issues during that time. And I really couldn't have imagined going through all of that being far away. But Funny enough, I didn't even end up graduating with a degree in journalism, I felt really constricted by a lot of the rules of journalism and didn't really like writing that way. So I ended up actually graduating with a degree in political science, in Spanish.
Yoni Mazur 6:44
In Spanish, Spanish. So how’s your Spanish?
Emma Tamir 6:47
Right now, it's pretty rusty. And also because I've tried to learn Hebrew since then, as well. And so the two languages oftentimes get scrambled in my mind.
Yoni Mazur 6:57
Oh, it's interesting. You say that when I was I, you know, full disclosure, I also traveled South America for about six months, I did a trail from Colombia, all the way down to Argentina and pastoral countries. And I remember that you know, during that, during those six months, when I was trying to pick up Spanish, it was confusing my Arabic. You know, I have a background in Arabic. And I was always mixing the word though but said something Spanish and like this Arabic word pops out. So there's a thing to that when you're trying to add more layers of languages, it must scramble a little bit. So I'm glad to hear it's not just me.
Emma Tamir 7:31
No, I think they actually say that if it’s not your native tongue, if it's you know, or like that level, then all of the language vocabulary is stored, sort of in the same place in your brain. So it's actually really common to have that really frustrating cross-wiring.
Yoni Mazur 7:47
So it’s kind of a warehouse. Basically, it's the same warehouse and, some units might be on top of each other. If we had to relate it to the e-commerce world. It's one warehouse, and maybe it's some of the stuff is really stored and stored close to the same bin. They got the wrong word since.
Emma Tamir 8:04
So yeah, I graduated and I was actually all set to actually start a job as a lobbyist. We are our state capital and are about 30 minutes away. And I love
Yoni Mazur 8:14
Lobbying for what?
Emma Tamir 8:17
lobbying for a whole variety of different nonprofits and whatnot, I was not particularly interested in politics. You know, sometimes, opportunities fall into your lap, and you feel like, maybe I'll just see where this takes me. But then I got sick, and I realized I had no interest in even exploring the career of lobbying at all. So I canceled that and remembered seeing a flyer on campus about teaching English in Spain. So I searched high and low for more information about that and ended up finding the details, applying, and shortly thereafter, flew over to Central Spain.
Yoni Mazur 8:58
I got to ask this, this begs a question. Hold on Columbus, you know, excuse my ignorance he was Spanish? Yes. Because you see the pattern here from Columbus and Columbia, Missouri all the way to Columbus. It helped you discover you know, the land of the person that you know, you live in the town that was named after him. Wow, that's something pretty cool is happening. Oh, you're in Spain, Madrid or Barcelona, which?
Emma Tamir 9:28
No, nowhere that cool. I was in a small town about an hour and a half south of Madrid. Which was a no give a shout-out. What's it called? Oh, Casa de San Juan. Yeah. I think it means the fortress of San Juan.
Yoni Mazur 9:43
The House of Kwanzaa sense.
Emma Tamir 9:49
Yes. And it used to be a big railroad junction. But since then, it had sort of lost some of its...
Yoni Mazur 10:01
Traffic?
Emma Tamir 10:03
Yeah. And so it was pretty small and pretty lonely. But fortunately, because it had been a railroad hub, I was also really well connected to the rest of Spain, which meant that on the weekends, I could go explore the country, which is beautiful and vast and has a lot to offer.
Yoni Mazur 10:21
As soon as possible, it is probably beautiful. I hear good things, and they didn't get a chance.
Emma Tamir 10:26
Yeah, it's a it's a very different way of life.
Yoni Mazur 10:29
Mediterranean/
Emma Tamir 10:31
The Mediterranean, they definitely know how to appreciate family and food. And, yes, and the siesta.
Emma Tamir 10:39
I remember Actually, in high school, I was teaching that they were getting ready to go into their final exams. And one of the teachers was stressed because she lived an hour away. And she didn't know where she was going to be able to take her siesta. And so, fortunately, another teacher offered her home, because, you know, it would just be an atrocity if she couldn't get her hour siesta before having to go back to work.
Yoni Mazur 11:05
Unbelievable. Tell it to any American basically, assist means that you have to take a guess an hour to break in the middle of the day. Hopefully, you get a little bit of a shout I, for them, it's embedded in their culture. I mean, for me, there's no such thing. There's no way there's a middle of the day, that's my pig, that's when I know, I run on my top. And I like it. By the way, I can't even imagine just shutting my eyes. But hopefully, once I grew up a little bit, maybe, you know, get a chance to take it easy a bit more. So you're in Spanish teaching English, it's pretty nice. It's pretty off the beaten path, said list, and Okay, and what came next? And how'd you turn into e-commerce?
Emma Tamir 11:46
I’m telling you this story is really random and winding I actually. So in addition to teaching English, I was also teaching private lessons and got back into blogging. Because again, I found myself without very much access to a regular internet connection. And so I had a lot of additional time to myself.
Yoni Mazur 12:07
What year was this? You know, back in Spain?
Emma Tamir 12:12
This was 2010 2011 2012.
Yoni Mazur 12:18
Got it? Okay, that's not that long ago, they had no, they had the high-speed internet.
Emma Tamir 12:22
But you know, I think this was still in the time of iPhone four, maybe. And it's just things where things were different than we forget how evolution Yeah, things were not that long ago. And that was also my first experience really, with a little bit of entrepreneurship, because I was finding students that wanted my assistance, working with private lessons. And so that's what I really used in order to be able to travel not just around Spain, but also do some travels to nearby countries as well. But I didn't really, I gained a new appreciation for teaching. But I also realized that teaching was definitely not something that I was interested in doing. So I wanted to explore something that I'd done prior, which was I had spent a summer working on a farm. And that farm was run by some very talented chefs that had worked in Michelin star restaurants, but really wanted to change how the food system was working. And so I wanted to go back to working with them. And by this point, they had their first restaurant.
Yoni Mazor 13:40
This farmer in the States, right, and states, this isn't actually an Illinois
Yoni Mazur 13:47
So you move to Illinois?
Emma Tamir 13:49
Illinois. Yeah. And there is really where my marketing journey became a little bit more serious. Because they quickly realized that my skills at writing and marketing are something that they could get a lot of benefit from. And that's when I started to see my writing not just as something that could be used for personal expression, but it could also be a career in and of itself. I also didn't last there very long. I got a little bit stir crazy being in Illinois, and after being there for a little less than a year I went to Israel which I thought would just be a short trip, and turned into living there for three years.
Yoni Mazur 14:36
Reason Israel. Oh, we're gonna have to touch that for a minute. Okay, so you're in Illinois for almost a year on a dairy farm, doing marketing, your first dabbling into, you know, commercial marketing right. And then you switch to Israel. What was the trigger there?
Emma Tamir 14:54
I wanted to go somewhere new. It's as you see, I like that kind of stimulation.
Yoni Mazur 14:58
Yeah. For the new for unit to explore, I don't wanna say the unknown. It's not like you know, you're going over to Mars, but I guess the culture, languages, the mindsets of other destinations.
Emma Tamir 15:14
Yes, I find it fascinating. And I think that's actually really one of the things that I like most about marketing and where it's such a good fit for my skills, and just what I had started honing, even before I realized that that's what I was doing. Because marketing really requires this ability to think about the person that you're trying to communicate with and to understand them on a deeper level. And so when you're in a new place, your eyes are just wide open, and you're very receptive to absorbing all of this information. And it not only makes you question yourself, and why you do things in certain ways, but it also makes you question why these other people do things in this entirely different way.
Yoni Mazur 16:01
I got to point something out here was because what you said is super interesting. It's basically every time you expose yourself to new, new places, it just stimulates you all the sensors all around it keeps stimulating you. And then that's stimulated, basically, you have to challenge yourself, and it bursts out with creativity in order to deal with it. Right for you, at least every time. So that's pretty, awesome. Analysis, I know that you have on yourself, which I think is pretty cool.
Emma Tamir 16:29
Yeah, so I was just kind of craving that stimulation again, and went to Israel, just as a trip I hadn't been yet in my life and felt like somewhere that I wanted to go.
Yoni Mazur 16:41
This is what, 2013 ish?
Emma Tamir 16:46
Yeah. 2013, 2014.
Emma Tamir 16:48
That sounds about right. 2013 2014. And you're probably accurate, actually. And
Yoni Mazur 16:58
It's not a tax return, it's okay.
Emma Tamir 17:00
I was just going there for the summer and found that I just fell in love with Tel Aviv. And I never really lived somewhere because I loved the place. I'd always live there because the job was there or the school was there, or there was something else taking me there. And so this really felt like the first opportunity that I had to just live somewhere that I thought was so amazing. And I began studying Hebrew, which is also a really great way to learn more about your own language. Because a lot of times when we learn our native tongue, we're not necessarily aware of how all of those different rules and things are functioning together. But when you're forced to learn another language, it makes you reflect a lot on your own language as well. And so that I've always found that to be a really helpful and interesting process, not just in learning another language, but in strengthening my English skills.
Yoni Mazur 17:58
I agree, because I think you know, every language has kind of its own logic, right? And by tapping into that, and understanding that, that that's a very powerful thing that humans can, can utilize later, and especially for marketing, because, you know, what's the logic of this product? Why would logically somebody, you know, buy this, right? You got to tap into the logic or the minds of the framework, and in a creative way, reach out to that logic and entice it and generate interest. So they make the purchase, ultimately, yeah,
Emma Tamir 18:27
Yes, exactly. So I lived in Israel, I eventually got a job with a startup that was an online video software that people could use to make their own animated videos. I worked there shortly after I was about to start up. What was it called? PowToon
Yoni Mazur 18:47
Oh, yeah, I didn't know this film business, right.
Emma Tamir 18:49
Oh, yeah. They're pretty big. Yeah, they are. They're pretty awesome. Yeah, So near that time, I also met who is now my husband, Eris, and also my business partner. And when I met him, he really quickly started to push me to push myself with my career and my writing and felt like there were a lot of opportunities, if I would be confident enough to go take it. And he didn't even require confidence from me. He was happy to actually put me out there. And I just kept saying, No, no, no. And eventually, over time, he wore me down a little bit, but it took a while. So we ended up deciding that we wanted to move back to the states and see what life here would be like, we thought...
Yoni Mazur 19:45
Did you guys get married in Israel?
Emma Tamir 19:48
We got married here in the States.
Yoni Mazur 19:50
So you were three years in Israel. I guess you met your husband, which stage is the first year second year third year?
Emma Tamir 19:56
In the third year,
Yoni Mazur 19:58
Third-year and you guys are You know, I have a good connection and you're able to, I guess, you know, discover new limits, right and with your talent, and then you guys relocate to Columbia?
Emma Tamir 20:10
Yeah, we, we thought we would just be a temporary landing pad.
Emma Tamir 20:15
But it's four years later, and we're still here.
Yoni Mazur 20:19
The temporary, you know, the permanent temporary story. So this is I guess, 2016, you land back in your homestead hometown, right? Yeah, four years, you guys are grounding nice, and you got married. That's another step.
Emma Tamir 20:34
And we certainly thereafter, we began our various entrepreneurial endeavors. So in our early days, we were just trying to figure out what we wanted to do. So we ran an Airbnb for a while, we, I did a little bit of private chef...
Yoni Mazur 20:52
You were cooking, you mean?
Emma Tamir 20:55
I was cooking.
Yoni Mazur 20:59
Sounds like a good thing to have a good meal.
Emma Tamir 21:03
And then Eric has also started to ask more about helping me find marketing.
Yoni Mazur 21:13
Jobs?
Emma Tamir 21:14
Yeah. And this is when he kind of became not just asking but started just doing. So he started finding me jobs, whether I was eager to take them or not. And that's really how marketing by Emma started, he saw this potential, and this need, and whether I was on board or not, he was going to make it happen. So he started to not only recognize the need here locally but then also quickly realized the need more specifically in the e-commerce and Amazon space for really high quality, English marketing writing. And we thought that it would really be something small that would allow us to travel and work and sort of be rootless. And it quickly showed itself to be something very different, which I'm grateful for. And so what's, you know, in the past, I was always looking for this newness and this stimulation through living in new places. And what I found so interesting is now I have a lot of those same experiences, but rather than going somewhere different, it's through the lens of having a business which is endlessly challenging, and lots of new frontiers to explore and certainly never boring.
Yoni Mazur 22:40
Wow, that's an unbelievable turn out. I’m pretty startled to realize what happened here. So yeah, through business, you're able to find a constant ability to stimulate yourself and connect with all these cultures, because I would assume at this point, you guys, you guys have customers from all over the world, right?
Emma Tamir 22:59
Yeah.
Yoni Mazur 23:00
You guys are playing on a global dimension, which is awesome. You got the languages which you can know, you can communicate in the language that you already possess, and maybe develop even more along the way. And you're doing it all locally. So this is the kind of the story of the fusion of technology also, the advancements of technology and e-commerce, you guys have no idea where you're coming into you're basically entering the gold rush of the modern age, you know, with e-commerce booming and the need for all these private label sellers or, you know, online retailers to market themselves properly to tell a good story on the highest level. And this is such a great need and demand for talent. And you guys kind of knocked on the door very gently here and like yes, we are and just sucks right in. You guys are having a global event daily in your hometown of Columbia, Missouri, which is wow, what a turnout.
Emma Tamir 23:49
I know, I always thought that I needed to get out in order to experience the world. Funny enough, bright here in the town that I grew up in, I get to daily have the good fortune to be able to communicate with people all over the world. It's really, you know, it's a lot of times with business, you kind of get caught up in the hustle and bustle and daily grind.
Yoni Mazur 24:14
Yeah, the routines.
Emma Tamir 24:16
And it's I feel like it's so important, but also really hard to take those steps back and to pause and to really kind of recognize what you've achieved. So thank you for giving me a little opportunity to enjoy that form.
Yoni Mazur 24:32
Yeah, you guys in four years you are rocking it, I definitely see your impact all you know, all over the marketplace, you know, with sellers that you work with and their satisfaction rate and the accomplishments and the acknowledgement from the industry. It's something that doesn't come authentically naturally. It's a very competitive industry. It's a very competitive landscape. I'm sure there's competition left and right. today and now more than ever, you started four years ago, I guess it was kind of fresh, but, you know, bounce it for years today. Everybody knows Oh, everybody's smart. Now knowing that, you know, Amazon e-commerce is the place to be, and especially now more than ever, because of COVID-19, the biggest biggest firms, the one that were entrenched in the brick and mortar in a world, like now, I see, look what happened, we're on total lockdown, the only way out to survive as an organization is tapping into, you know, electric commerce, e-commerce, we got to offer our products online, but actually, so I think that will be the probably the next stage for you guys, this opportunity where big brands established brands are out and lookout to, to expand into, you know, e-commerce, and they're going to need the best talent out there to tell the story. And that kind of perspective, I think it will create new opportunities for yourself to reach new heights on the business level, right, hopefully, in the economical level. But, you know, hopefully, there's still gonna be a soul on the creativity level, maybe it'll be able to tell the story of big brands, brands, you know, the household brands. And that's something that can be even historical. I know that, you know, diamonds are forever, you know, that expression. Diamonds Are Forever, you know that, catch phrase? So you got all these catchphrases and stuff like that, you know, they were made by very creative people behind the scenes. And if you Wikipedia, you'll know where it is. Yes, so you're able to get a little bit of a stamp of history, if you get to work with some of the big brands.
Emma Tamir 26:25
I can't say that I'll be able to contribute to something that monumental. I don't know if you know, the history of the Diamonds Are Forever, but it was not a tradition to give diamond engagement rings, until the De Beers family decided that they wanted to market that. And so the Diamonds Are Forever, and that whole campaign suddenly transformed something that nobody was really doing into what 100 years later, is we feel like is this deep tradition that probably in our minds goes back hundreds and hundreds of years.
Yoni Mazur 27:05
It's a remarkable achievement, because it's on a global level, you know, the global you know, today's culture, you know, yeah, sure, you're gonna get a diamond, you need to get a diamond when you want to establish a relationship. And that's just because of a marketing need, you know, a way to market and it's ingenious.
Emma Tamir 27:22
It's pretty phenomenal.
Yoni Mazur 27:24
I wish you to find that kind of kind of corner, you know, and then your industry that, you know, to build something monumental is kind of what a wish for you guys, it will be great to see. But let's talk about a little bit about challenges. You know, we can talk about the biggest pet challenges you had thus far or you know, or, you know, your life or just are literally with your business, if you don't mind? And if and more importantly, how are you facing the challenges? Sure. So
Emma Tamir 27:50
I think for me, the biggest challenge is really that the name of the business is marketing by Emma. And the logo is my face, which was not my idea, by the way, my husband was the one that really pushed for that.
Yoni Mazur 28:07
Although I think that's great. That's my first try. I think it's great. Having a face today more than ever is something that's authentic, you can't copy that. It's all you can be sure nobody can copy your logo or your whatever it is. So that's authenticity. That's something that you gotta appreciate. And I know you're very humble, I see that. But you know, don't you know, I think it was a Remo.
Emma Tamir 28:25
Thank you. So, but because of that, it also means that my stamp is on everything, whether I create it or not. And I'm a perfectionist, which is something that I've struggled with my whole life. And so then when we bring that into the business space, and the only way that you can grow is if you begin to delegate to other people. And so when I needed to start letting go of things, and allowing people to help, that was a really big struggle for me. And so with each thing that I delegated, there was always prior to that this feeling of there's no way that anybody else can do this as good as I do it, you know, because that's what business owners like to tell themselves.
Yoni Mazur 29:08
And then people, especially creative people, you know, or business owners, right? How do you secure that touch? How do you feel like it's so personal, so original? So what did you do? How do you face that?
Emma Tamir 29:22
I just faced it by really needing to, you know, I'm only one person and I can only do so much. And if I needed to be growing the business. I can't also be doing every other aspect of, you know, production and writing and editing and all of those things. And so it was just one of those things where I started to replace myself. So originally I was writing and doing all the emails and everything like that. And I realized that I can't be doing all of the writing and doing all of these other things. And so I started to look for writers and what I also learned is That there are lots of people that can do things just as good if not better than me. And it also relieved me from needing to be at that level of the business. And so that I could begin to focus more on our systems. And I think what's one of the really difficult things about a creative business is balancing that need to create creative space, but also having systems and processes in place, so that you can really grow and create consistency, and reliability, and all of those things that are really important in order to serve the clients.
Yoni Mazur 30:39
So essentially, you have to make sure you scale the output, yes, but without compromising the quality. Exactly. That's pretty much the challenge on a high level. And the way you do it is by harvesting and developing talent, which is cousin, a cousin, it's kind of the next step for you, as you know, as a business owner, as a leader, as a business leader, which is a great place to be because it's it's very powerful, because if you are going to build a network of that, the impact will be felt. And that's pretty awesome. Good.
Emma Tamir 31:07
And it's really leading a team of creatives provides unique challenges. Because as a creative person, I was very aware of a lot of the difficulties I experienced in a traditional workplace where I felt like rather than helping me to grow my creativity, it was being stifled. And so those were things that I was really aware of when I began to just even think about hiring writers was wanting to make sure that we didn't do that with our business, and that not only could we create a safe space to be creative, because that's one of the things that you need more than anything, in order to be your most creative, you need to know that you can take risks, and that you're not going to be punished for taking those risks. And sometimes the risk isn't going to work. But it's more about learning from that risk that you took, and maybe why it didn't work, and then what you could do differently next time. And so wanting to create a space where you felt safe and supported, but also that we're all striving to always be better. So I take that very seriously, both as a personal practice, but also as part of our team as well. And that doesn't just mean growing in terms of how many clients we have, or projects that we do. But also growing our skill sets and seeing where we can, you know, make something more efficient, or automate that or just, you know, a learning opportunity where we can all learn a new trick that will make us better marketers, whatever the case may be, there's so much room, and that's where I think business can be one of the best tools to just grow as a person.
Yoni Mazur 33:01
Yeah, it's amazing how you put that connection of recognizing your need to grow up, I guess, professionally, creatively, economically, right, all these elements you're able to find a new composition in business. And only that you you are involved in adding more people into to their vision into their mindset and you growing them hopefully, you guys are acting more more like a family, you know, closer distance physically doesn't matter. Today, everything can be done global. You share a vision, you share a dream, and you're taking all of them into a journey together. And you're taking leadership, I guess it's something maybe you haven't expected to do. All right to take leadership, awesome a leader because, you know, there's, there's customers, you know, their their lives, you know, livelihood is on the line, I got my, my employees, their livelihood is on line, and it's you got to have all this, all these elements put together in harmony. And that's this equilibrium is a challenge for any businessman, or businesswoman and you're facing it everyday challenging you But nevertheless, I think your past experiences of exploring the world, you know, connecting with new cultures, having very, very good perspective on things. And also politics, you know, you have a little touch of politics, that never hurts, right? And you're able to make it all into one successful story of, you know, you know, having a successful business that's, that's growing, it's really in the best place it can be. Or one of the best industries it can be, especially now with the during the challenges of the COVID-19. I mean, I guess everybody can clearly see that e-commerce is, you know, raising the flag, you know, I'm here to help anybody stuck at home with a product. And that's kind of a winning position at this point, which is great. Very good. So, you know, it was so far it's a it's been super interesting. And then I appreciate you sharing the story with us, but I want to kind of end the session with, I guess, your message of resilience for entrepreneurs or Amazon sellers or businesses. out there during the COVID-19, what's your message?
Emma Tamir 35:04
So my message, I don't know that I have this flag that I'm waving.
Yoni Mazur 35:11
It doesn’t have to be a world changing, just what your takeaways are, I guess in terms of, you know, what can they do? It can be small, tiny, big for, you know, resilience, you gotta, you gotta survive this.
Emma Tamir 35:22
So I think a lot of what can be done right now is reflection. And that's something that can be really tricky to make space and time for when things are going a mile a minute. And regardless of whether your business is booming or not, we all find ourselves with more free time. And it's a great opportunity to look at where you're going, and make sure that that's also the direction that you want to be heading in. And so that's something that we've really taken with both levels of life, you know, because we do business, for fulfillment and to make a living and to, you know, there's many different reasons why we're in business, but we also have lives and the business is supposed to help serve our lives, not replace our lives. And so for us, this has also been an opportunity to take a step back and think about the lives that we want to build for ourselves and what we want that to look like. And it's been wonderful, since we don't have this action packed travel schedule, to be able to take regular evening walks, and to have more meals at home and then linger over the dinner table for a couple of hours having good conversations. And we'd really, that was something that Eric and I, when we first met, that we would always do, and then we started a business together. And so that sort of took over so much of our lives. And it's just been really wonderful to be able to take a step back, and to enjoy some of those parts of life that got shoved to the side. And I think the other thing that's important to remember is, you know, there's a lot of people saying a lot of things about how to make this time count, and how to come out stronger and better and bigger than ever before. And I think that that can put a lot of pressure on people. And it can make them feel like they're they you know, if if you just felt too down about the state of the world and spent the afternoon watching something stupid on Netflix, then you have the added layer of shame and guilt for wasting that time that you should have been using productively. And so I think it's also just about having a little bit of patience and understanding that this isn't, everything's not going to go back to normal tomorrow. And we don't entirely know what the future is going to look like. And so we don't need to make every moment count. But as long as we can be reflective, and still find some of that time to think forward and think about what we want to build and create, then we can still lay a really strong foundation to be able to approach whatever is going to be on the other side of things.
Yoni Mazur 38:11
Nice. So if I have to kind of summarize that, you know, take the time to reflect, have patience, this process will be long. So we might as well you know, reflect a little bit, maybe even allow yourself to have some fun, you know, this opportunity to go out for a walk, you know, the basic things in life, appreciate life. Right, that's a good moment to do that. Because you know, when things will balance out, it's just gonna be hectic again, it's gonna be hectic, it's gonna be more, it's gonna be busier than ever. So maybe it's, you know, a person has a chance to take a little break fresh air, before they're gonna have to haul it into the long run and, you know, reach new achievements and success points in life.
Emma Tamir 38:51
Yes, definitely. And I think when it comes to businesses, when I say reflective, I think that a lot of businesses aren't as connected as they could or should be to their core story and their core values and what they're really wanting to create in the world. And this is a good time to do that. Because whether you're outwardly expressing that every day, or you're just expressing it through your actions, customers are paying attention to that. And they're paying even closer attention now more than ever, because they have the time and they have the abilities. And we've seen good examples of people and businesses and how they're responding to this pandemic. And we've also seen bad examples of that. And so since everything is moving more online, you need to be really thoughtful about how you're communicating with your customers, what you're saying, but also what you're saying even beyond just the words on screen, you know on the screen on a keyboard.
Yoni Mazur 39:55
And social media. Yeah, it has to be authentic and has to connect to some sort of real truth somewhere. So it resonates properly, you know, long term.
Emma Tamir 40:03
It has to be cohesive, because I think like, I think that's a huge missing piece where people, they have their emails, and those are giving one perception and tone and an experience. But then their packaging doesn't reflect that at all. And then their weights or their ads on Instagram, they're all sort of disjointed and more about figuring out, okay, how can I make, you know, make this sale here, instead of How can I not just make the sale, but actually really build a community around what I'm doing. Some people just want to make quick money and get out. But a lot of people that get into business, they want to establish something that's going to have a legacy and be, you know, be lasting,
Emma Tamir 40:55
Such that, you know, that they'll be able to decide whether it's passed on to their children, or just grow into something that has a substantial impact. And that's, that means that they're going to be times that it will be difficult, and you'll need to find ways through them. But if you build those strong relationships, then once you get to the other side of it, you'll be in a much better position to be able to both regain what you lost, but also then continue growing beyond that.
Yoni Mazur 41:24
Nice. Alright, so we got to wrap it up. So if somebody wants to find out more about you or reach out to you, where can they find you.
Emma Tamir 41:33
So we are Marketing by Emma. We're also on Facebook Marketing by Emma, feel free to send an email Emma at Marketing by Emma, we're pretty much available on all media and we would love to help whether it's taking a look at your Amazon listing. If you feel like it's maybe not performing as well as it should be. We're happy to provide some free insight about things that you may need to consider doing to improve its performance. We're also happy to help with creating, creating your listing if that's something that you're not interested in doing. If you're looking to expand to sell on your own site on somewhere like Shopify, we'd love to help create your customer story and please feel free to reach out.
Yoni Mazur 42:20
You heard it, folks. Emma, thank you so much for taking the time. It was fascinating and fun. I think it is also inspirational on a few levels. So I appreciate it so much and I wish you much-continued success. Stay safe, stay healthy. Goodbye, everybody. Take care.
Emma Tamir 42:36
Thank you, Yoni. Bye
