Automate to Thrive with Jess Kotzer

Have you ever wondered, how do some of these solo entrepreneurs get stuff done, right? How are these people who are on social media saying they're doing all of these things, or even people you know who have been in business for years? What are they doing in order to show up and not show up at the same time? What's happening? Well, It's all about automations and systems. I totally use that in my business, and it's not the way that you might be thinking in a very technical way, but it also can be. And that is why I'm so excited to have our guest on the show, Jess Cutzer. She is a Lime Warrior, and she designs and automates systems and applications on the backend that have helped multiple people in their business to scale and grow, even using those same strategies in her journey as she has had different challenges with Lyme disease, relapses with the Lyme disease, and all of those different kind of things, and how she's combined the power of collaborations and automation in order to help create a successful and profitable business for herself and for her clients. So Talking about figuring out how to find your own system and your own flow, we really dive in. Jess and I are very conversational. You're going to hear a little bit about her asking a little bit about how I have incorporated my systems and the things that I have chosen to do in my business that gives me the flexibility and the freedom to grow. And the same thing for her. And you're just going to hear some gems along the way and definitely some questions and mindset shifts along with some automation tips to help you scale and grow your business with ease. So stay tuned.

Welcome to Crafted to Thrive, the globally ranked podcast for entrepreneurs living with chronic illness. I'm your host, Nikita Williams, and after being diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses myself, I figured out the surprisingly simple missing links to growing a profitable business without compromising my health. Since then, I've helped dozens of women just like you learn how to the same. If you're ready to own your story and create a thriving business that aligns with your health and well-being, you're in the right place. Together, we're shifting the narrative of what's possible for entrepreneurs with chronic illness. This is Crafted to Thrive. I am so excited to have Jess on the show.

You guys probably heard in the intro that I'm just, I'm so glad she's in my world, but I cannot wait for you to hear more about her. So Jess, welcome. Please tell us who you are, what you do, and where you're from.

Thank you so much, Nikita Williams, for having me. You are very important in my world as well. So I'm Jess from Toronto, Canada. Hello from up north. I, I do a few things. I started off really being a Lyme disease blogger, so we can talk about that a little bit. And I've moved into collaboration and business process automation because I just realized that those were the things that were sustainable and brought me joy in business. And it's really important to have a sustainable, enjoyable process to, to make it work in this world when you're an entrepreneur and you have a chronic illness.

Yeah, yeah. So Jess is so— okay, so you guys, I met Jess— has it been a year now? It's been a year or a little bit longer than a year.

I think it's been 10 months.

Okay, yeah, I love that you know that it's like a month thing. You'll have to tell me why.

I, I only know this because I'm coming to the end of a program, Summit in a Box, where I found out about you through someone else in the program who was hosting a summit, and then I saw your presentation and made me cry, and then I reached out to you.

Oh, that's so funny.

Wow.

Yeah, I remember getting an email from you from that summit, and it was the first email because actually it was the first summit that I had actually done with someone that I didn't really know. And you're— I was crying when I got your message. Like, when I got your email, I was like, oh my God, this is why I do what I do. And you're like, I'm so thankful that I have connected with you. And so that is probably the biggest reason why I do what I do is because I didn't see me. I didn't see people who look like me. I definitely hear women talking about chronic illness in business, and that is part of the reason why the podcast exists and why my business exists. So tell us a little bit more about your story with Lyme disease. And this is— it's so interesting. Caveat, side note, whatever we're going to call it. After connecting with you, I was introduced to so many other Lyme warriors. Like, they came— it felt like it came out of the woodworks. And this community has like open arms like completely loved me. I've been asked to speak on other summits. I've gotten emails to be a part of different blogs, other podcasts, and I'm just like, I personally don't have Lyme disease. I have a whole bunch of other stuff, but they just felt like we wanted to include me. And I was just like, oh, I love you guys so much. And so thank you for that because I think that's partially because of you coming into my world. And so thank you.

Wow, that's awesome to hear.

Yeah. So tell us more about your journey to like where you are now.

Okay, so I was really spoiled. I'd say superficial in hindsight. Back when I was 20, traveling and living abroad, just drinking, partying, eating junk food every day, and got really sick on the road. I can't say where it was, but somewhere in Europe or Northern Africa, I, I got a flu that never went away for years and years, and I had to come home I struggled to graduate, but did graduate university and then was basically unemployed and going to specialists all over Canada. And even I went to Cleveland Clinic and my nephew was born prematurely and we had to come home the day I was supposed to see the infectious disease doctor. So it took another year before I got the diagnosis. So for, for the first 2 years of my 20s, I was just degenerating and I couldn't walk. It was getting hard to talk and think. I had dementia. My mom would be driving me to see a doctor and I'd forget that we were in the car, kind of acting like the way my grandma acts now. Just like, what are we doing? Where are we? So it was a few years before I got the diagnosis. And then once I did, all I did was obsess. Over health. And I had never been into health. I was just a drunk party stoner kid who didn't care really about my, my education or my health. I was just having fun and not really thinking about the future. And now I was at a point in my life where my mortality was right in front of me, and just walking circles around the kitchen island was like a huge accomplishment. And I got really into learning about holistic medicine. I decided not to do the allopathic antibiotic route. I met all sorts of doctors. I spent tons and tons of money on my health and became a bit of a Martha Stewart, making my own bone broth and yogurt and tried all these diets. I did a fast for 30 days. I went keto, I went high carb. I tried all the things, right? And then I'd always wanted to be a writer, so I thought, this isn't exactly what I thought I'd write about. I thought I'd write fiction, but this was all I thought about. And I started to not just get better— and I'm talking 5 years in— I started to not just get better, but I felt healthier than I had felt ever. I had never been the most in-shape kid. I was a chubby kid. I was coming second last in gym, in track and field. But I was— it got to the point where I not just walking circles around the kitchen island. I was walking, I was listening to The Power of Now and all these spiritual self-help books. I was exercising, I was rock climbing, I was weight training, I was swimming. I got really into being healthy and, and there was some, there was one point when I could stop taking 60 pills a day and wouldn't relapse because there were a few years in there where I'd feel good and then I'd relapse.

Yeah.

Go back to it. Feel good, and then I'd relapse. So there was a point where that just stopped happening. So that's when I started blogging about it. And I wrote a book on Lyme disease and, and learned so much about marketing through, through this passion of mine.

Wow. I think it's so interesting that you're sharing all of the bits and pieces that I don't often hear so many of us talk about in general with chronic illness. I wonder when you were going through this. And especially when you got to the point of like, I want to live healthy, I want to do all of these things, were you looking for resources that were also out there, like blogs and podcasts and websites and people who were like, had gone through what you've gone through? Were you searching for those things and did you find them?

Yeah, I know there's a lot of, you know, doctors who have their ways and would suggest otherwise to a lot of the alternative stuff, but I was obsessed with forums. Just seeing, you know, a forum of 1,000 people commenting on some type of protocol that they practiced. Yeah, I, I lived in forums and blog posts, so I definitely became a sponge for, for other people's resources, especially other people with Lyme disease who are actually, you know, learn— learning how to cope and feel good and live their life. And, and, and then some doctors as well. I wrote Nicole's notes of Richard Horowitz. There's this like the book in the Lyme disease world that's kind of complicated. And after summarizing every chapter, I was like, he actually, he meant to make this complicated. So I really liked finding the simpler resources and reaching out to actual Lyme disease patients who are so dedicated to getting better or at least coping with their illness.

Yeah, I love that you shared that too because we all know there are forums and communities that are out there, especially living with any kind of chronic illness, where it is not about how to cope and thrive and finding ways. It's like the bashing of the bash, the most negative. You go there and you're just like, oh my gosh, I feel worse than I did looking at that. And I think there's more of those than there are, I think, honestly, than there are of like, hey, this is how you can cope and live and live your life and enjoy your life living with this chronic illness. Would you agree?

I actually wrote one article about working with Lyme disease, and I, I mentioned that some people cannot, and here's disability resources.

Yeah.

And, and was very— I thought very clear that this doesn't apply to everybody, and I understand people are different stages. And I got so much hate for this article from Lyme disease patients who are like, you clearly don't understand what it's like to have Lyme disease. I cannot work. I cannot do anything. I think the title was probably more triggering than the amount of people who actually read the article. But yeah, I think there's a lot of people who victimize themselves. There's a lot of people who really have the worst the worst of it. I knew a beautiful woman, probably not even in her 30s. We went to the same IV clinic to do these treatments together. The first time I, I saw her, I thought she just looked so cold because she's wearing these big glasses. She's beautiful like a model, not smiling. It's like, okay, who are you? But then I talked to her and she had Bell's palsy, hence the glasses to cover them up and didn't like to smile because it affect— the Bell's palsy affected her smile as well. And she really, she was disciplined. She was only eating like cauliflower and turkey and avocado every day and had a PICC line and had been struggling for, for years.

Yeah.

So I think it's complicated.

Yeah.

Health is not just mind over matter and it's not just, it's not just physical. But it's, it's really, yes, there's going to be some communities that are super negative and they're just so tired and want people to understand how hard it is for them. And then there's other communities of people who they're, they're not doing great physically. They're in wheelchairs and they're happy and they're positive.

Yeah.

So it's a mix up.

Yeah, it's such a— I like that you brought that out because there is— I have experienced that. I've also seen it of other like advocates especially with endometriosis, because that's one of my chronic illnesses. And when a person tries to put something out there that includes like, like, yeah, there are these things, there are— there's scales, right? There's the worst and then there's the like middle and then there's the not so worse, right? And you can't like appease everyone like in that kind of post. And I've seen people kind of attack those people who have a more positive outlook or more empowered outlook on how they choose that they're going to live or how they're going to deal with the challenge. And it is one of those things to me that really affected how I healed was depending on like the community I was a part of or the words that I was choosing to listen to. So in your journey with chronic Lyme, what was something that's really helped you from an emotional space? Because I always tell people like Living with chronic illness physically is a lot, but the emotional, mental aspects of living with chronic illness is like a whole different ballgame, I feel. What has helped you like really find a space in a community where you feel supported?

Yeah, so going back to work was really helpful, which is— I wish it was something more universal that everyone can do. Actually, one thing that really helps me was discovering Audible and just listening to audiobooks in bed when I was too tired to open my eyes and watch TV. Yeah, I listened to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Great, great first audiobook. But then when I started progressing and not just consuming books but actually could go back to work and have some more normalcy in my life, that was helpful just to, to feel like I'm more involved in the world.

Yeah.

And having communities, absolutely. Having all sorts of communities, whether it's my friends and playing board games or being a part of accountability writers groups or entrepreneurial groups, just to persevere. Sometimes you don't want to, and it's harder to do it when you're, you're tired and you're in pain.

Yeah.

But to find a way to do it anyways. And I've tried different practices with pain, body scanning, observing the pain. I did lots of acupuncture with this goofy guy in my neighborhood who had so many patients. He just lies all down on the martial arts mats because there's so many of us. And if a needle really hurt, he would just say, "Observe the pain," and walk away. And that helps a little bit too, was just being okay with, with the pain. I have a cousin, my favorite cousin, who, who struggles to deal with pain because he has OCD. So it's more about things just being off, and it, it makes navigating life really, really difficult.

Yeah.

I wish he could learn how to accept the pain, but sometimes it's just accepting it, habituating to it, like it's like it's normal so you can move on with the day. And this has not always been good.

Yeah, I can relate. Yes.

Do you ever dissociate from your body because of the pain?

Yeah, I mean, I think definitely when I first was like— I call it like when I first was in my healing process, that's the way I thought I was healthily dealing with it was by dissociating from it. And now I lean into it. It's a different experience. Experience, but I definitely know that that does happen because it's just something you always are going through. Like, it's, you know.

Yeah. So I think another thing was yoga and just exercise that brings you into your body has been helpful. And right now and at times in my life, I have not been very good at going into my body and exercising and taking care of it. And then it's like this overnight when I get sick because I haven't— because I didn't feel it coming. And that's not good either.

Yeah.

Yeah. Pilates is my jam. I always tell people, I'm like, it's like the thing that you hate doing. And the next day you're like, oh, I am amazing. You're like so excited about it. But it does definitely put you very much into your body in a less painful way, more like aware way. I feel like that's what Pilates does for me. And I've heard other people say that about yoga.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So when you started sharing your story on a blog, on a blog, right? Talking about your journey, did that help you any with like processing that whole several years of what you had gone through? And did it give you purpose?

It, it made me feel like I was documenting my journey and that I wasn't just reading and forgetting information. I was writing it down so that I could refer back to it and other people could refer back to it. Because I went through a phase where I was reading anatomy and physiology textbooks for fun. Wow. I thought I might as well, you know, make this into something. And it was really exciting as a process for learning how to grow a brand as well. I never thought I would be a marketer. I don't think anyone as a kid and think, I'm gonna be a marketer, except today, yeah, a YouTuber. But it, it was just helpful to learn. I was geeking out over science but also over how to build a website and SEO and advertising and all these things that eventually led me to go back to school for digital marketing and just led me down this totally different career path I wasn't expecting that is really in-demand and exciting and creative. So it just led me on this whole journey that I wasn't— I didn't see coming. I don't know what I was going to do if I hadn't got sick. I'd just be galivanting around the world.

That is such an interesting thing. Do you feel that living with— and this is probably going to ruffle somebody's feathers when I ask this question listening, like Do you feel like if you hadn't ended up with chronic Lyme, that life would be a lot more difficult in a different kind of way than it is and has been with Lyme?

Could be dead. I don't know. I think that I would have taken longer to grow up. I would be more shallow. What I was thinking of doing back before I got sick was moving to Taiwan to learn Mandarin and be a copywriter, which would be great, but I had no real mission. I wasn't passionate about helping anyone really. I was a lot more of a hedonist, and I think that getting sick, it brought me home. I moved back in with my folks. I got to spend more time with my my dog before she passed away. I really got to reconnect with my high school friends. We all started rock climbing together, so I got into fitness because I came home. So I think I'm a healthier person, ironically, and will probably have a longer life because I got sick. And I just— I was one of those, those people who was drinking every single weekend. I don't know how long I would have kept that up. Yeah, so I think in many ways it has made my life a lot better. I have a friend who is now a cop, but before he— before that, he had leukemia twice. His mom had just died 2 months before of cancer when he found out he had cancer. And we, we kind of joke about how we were better people when we were both really sick because we were every day smelling the roses, every day was a gift. And now we're on the clock. Now life is better, you don't have to think about your mortality every single minute.

Yeah.

And that's great. There's a time to be young and pretend you're immortal, but there's also something really nice about accepting your mortality and really being close to it and taking those slow walks and looking outside and appreciating it, knowing it's not going to be there forever as well.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

So we're going to shift gears a little bit because I'm like, so everybody's listening is like, whoa, this was a heavy one already. I'd love to hear how have you been running a business and like dealing with, like living with chronic illness, chronic Lyme. Are you currently in remission with Lyme for the most part?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Are there ways, other ways that you have chosen to approach your business because of the, you know, I say the unpredictable predictable of chronic illness life with growing a business?

Yeah. I found that when I was building up my Lyme disease brand, I was actually burning out a lot because I was creating a lot of content. I was researching and spending days writing articles so that I could, you know, maintain my online presence. And I burned out. I was not thinking about how to make this sustainable and how to actually leverage my time so that I was worth more. When I sold thousands of books, so great. But when I thought about my hourly wage, if I broke it down, we're talking like pennies or dollars on the hour. So when I went back to school, I went back to school for marketing to figure out how do I make more money doing this because I have health bills to pay. I want to have a happy life where I'm not stressed out over money and can actually move out of my parents' place. So I went back to school and when I got back into, I guess, corporate life, I really wanted to make sure that I could not burn out and enjoy, enjoy my life while I made money. So I actually ended up working for my family business after doing a couple of years in as a junior marketer in different agencies. And I only went to work for my family because they had a director of marketing who'd fudged numbers. He had lost them millions of dollars. They were really not sure if they could keep their doors open after 50 years of being in business. And they're like, can you come in, replace that guy, let go of $200,000 in outsourced labor, cut ad spend by $450,000, and make more revenue this year? Because if we don't do it, we're not going to make it.

And well, yeah, and I'm like, the whole business family thing is on my shoulders. Sure.

It was a lot, and I would not have done it because of my, you know, my medical history and the fact that I didn't want to burn out. And I only did it because my parents, my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, like 2 dozen employees I've known my whole life, were, you know, their livelihoods were at stake. So I really needed to think about how to make, how to do this, first of all. And this is where collaboration and automation became huge for, for the way I do marketing. So collaborations in like the corporate setting for a toy store, in this case, I was thinking about what are charities we can collaborate with, what toy bins can we bring into the store. Once the toy bins are in, like Toys for Tots, then the news, like local TV and radio just wants to be involved because we all serve the same audience. And then when it comes to automation, just automating things like cash flow reports so that you're not stuck in this decision fatigue. Sometimes as entrepreneurs, we are clicking and clacking in dozens of interfaces a day, doing social media, looking at reports, or, or doing data entry manually so we can generate reports, looking at our ads and Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Trying to redistribute our content. So there's— there are all these little tiny things that need to get done that aren't even complicated, but it's the click work and the repetitive task work that just kills your, your brain space and keeps you in a robotic brain space instead of a creative, high-value, high-generating thought process, or just an existential brain space to ponder life. Yeah. So how could I automate all these processes? How could I leverage other businesses so that we could cross-pollinate. And those were things that really, really helped us make an extra million dollars that same year that all the, all the things went wrong. And I brought these, these frameworks into my own personal brands in 2021, in the summer of 2021, and have built a following and an email list really quickly by doing cross-promotions, by podcasting people who I, at the time, I really want to build up an author audience. So I was podcasting publishers, author marketing coaches, and other people who essentially I wanted to build rapport with. So I was like, hey, I love what you do, do you want to come talk about yourself? And that is where I had the content, where we're making content together, but more importantly hitting the stop record button and getting to know each other. And a lot of people after you stop recording, you're like, how can I pay it forward? How can I help you? So it was actually really easy to build up a list of thousands of authors by being collaborative in the online expert space. And then automation, I can talk about— that's a whole other episode. But I'm— I don't know how I got so nerdy.

I just—

it has paid off so much in my life to automate the work of $200,000 in outsourced labor and do it better and faster and more efficiently than, than humans. So I just, I love having all of these custom— I build custom applications to really make everything faster, including my collaborations. I want to click as few buttons as possible and have a series of triggers and actions go off, whether it's social media, event planning, podcast planning, all the workflows that we have. There's lots of nooks and crannies that we can automate with things like Zapier and Airtable. So I do a lot of that too. It's not just let's automate your email marketing or sales funnel using MailerLite. There's all sorts of ways that you can think like a programmer without doing any coding with, with no-code tools like Zapier.

I think, yeah, we could talk about automation in so many— it's the, it's the world of, for me, that's always— my husband is a techie, he's an engineer, so we're always— he's always like, how can this be automated? Like, how can this be automated? Because this seems It should just be automated. You do this too much. And it's like, if you're not in that space, I definitely think it's more difficult to think like, oh, how can this be automated? But I think it's pretty cool for you, especially like building a business in a community. It allows you also to have those downtimes, I would imagine, when you aren't feeling that well or life is happening and you need to be more present with yourself and, you know, life, right? Having automation helps it. Feel better, be better.

It helps you reclaim your time. If you can automate 40 hours a week of work, you can replace yourself in many instances, and you can replace the need to hire as well.

Yeah.

So when it comes to your business, Jess, mindset, I always feel like, is a huge challenge, especially for us living with chronic illness. Sometimes we get our— we we are our worst block, right? Sometimes what we think we're able or capable or want to do. What has been some fears that you've either had to overcome or really work on when it comes to growing a business and being in the space of online world and being kind of the CEO of your business?

I think it's FOMO. I think just committing to one niche and one offer for me has been really hard and I find myself changing brand colors and brand messaging and spending time on these things that I could set and forget and walk through a door and just keep walking. So for me, and I think a lot of people not sticking to something long enough, I'm afraid of sticking to something too long. But typically I don't stick to it long enough and then I try something else before I'm getting traction. I think that that's my biggest fear and it's an unproductive fear because the thing I should probably be afraid of is, you know, the question of what would happen if you stuck to it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's so, that's so real. Fear of missing out in any capacity when you're running a business. It is. And I love that you said it that way because I don't think I've had anyone break it down, they've said the part about sticking with something. But really, it is kind of like a fear of missing out on something. And to your point, just being able to embrace, like, but what if I did stick around and this becomes like the best thing since, you know, Chuck E. Cheese? I don't think Chuck E. Cheese is the best thing, but I just mean like in general, like, you know, like it's the best thing that you could have done. I deal with that too, Jess. Like, I totally have those moments. I have a coach who's like, stop changing things, Nikita. She's like, stop changing things. And a lot of times it is, it's totally— you do not wait long enough to see what you can reap from the seeds you've planted, you know. And I think that's probably one of the biggest things for a lot of creative people, a lot of women specifically, because we are good at so many different things that we kind of like want to do them all.

Yeah.

And it kind of feels like pressure sometimes to like stay in one spot, but I like that you brought out that it's like, really, it's just if I just think about it in the opposite direction, I'll be more likely to stick to it.

What's your thing that you know deep down if you stick to it, this will happen?

Yeah, my thing has been this podcast, honestly. Like, as much as I love— I love my podcast. I love doing it. I love talking with other women. I love especially when you were talking about like collaboration. Collaboration is a huge part of my marketing, like, yeah, I know, plan and strategy.

Always send introductions to you.

Yeah, because that's how I've grown and that's how clients have come to me. The other way clients have come to me is through my podcast. It doesn't produce the kind of like stream of like hundreds of, you know, leads. But whenever I have a client come from a podcast, I know 100% they will convert. Like there's never a question. But when you hear everyone talking about like, oh, if you do this marketing strategy and that marketing strategy, you know, you'll like get so many more leads and so many of all of these different things. And I know that being— I used to do digital marketing. I know that the funnel of that being the case, I have to go through so many more people for me to get the one client versus doing one episode on a podcast. And 3 months later I have 2 or 3 clients come in.

I much prefer that.

But at the same time, I'm in an industry as a coach where the noise— and I do consider it noise— that how I should quote unquote be marketing is in a different capacity. And so it's like, I feel like maybe I'm missing out. Maybe I'm missing out on doing it a different way. And I have to keep it very like, my podcast is one place, Instagram is another place, and my email. That's all I'm going to do. People tell me all the time, maybe you should start a YouTube channel. All of the things. Yeah, all of the things. And I'm just like, nope, I'm gonna stay where I am because that's how I've grown, you know?

Yeah.

So yeah, that's mine.

Good, keep doing it.

Yeah. So what is a mindset that you feel like you have embraced living with chronic illness that has served you in multiple different areas of your life?

A mindset. I, I feel like this might be a very female thing to do, but I do so much research and strategy. I, every single day I write in my planner, and it's not great for the environment, but I will rewrite my to-do list every day, even if— yeah, I'll rip out the paper and rewrite it because it it feels like I'm putting it in my mind for the next day. So I do a little bit every day, and I have the big vision that I'll, I'll check in with and reevaluate maybe once a month or once a quarter. But I'm very focused on minutia of day to day. I think very small and wake up knowing what I'm doing, what I need to accomplish that day. I'll do at least one thing so that I feel like I did something that day, but Yeah, really being intentional with my day so I don't end up waking up and thinking, what do I do? I'm going to go on social media and like things and repost things. I know what I'm doing when I wake up.

I love that.

Yeah, the mindset of doing what you can when you can and being intentional about what that is. I think that is a mindset that I learned too living with chronic illness because there are some days you are not getting out of that bed. You're just not. You're not getting out of that bed. But maybe— I love, like you were saying, maybe you listen to an audiobook. That's something I can do, right? That's something I can do that still pushes the needle a little bit forward into where I'm going, because now I have more awareness, I have more knowledge, all of those different things than me sitting there beating myself up about not being able to do the 3 things I had on my list, right?

Yeah. And I try to get things done early, and I try to have very loose deadlines when possible.

Yeah.

So that when you do wake up and you're like, I'm not getting out of bed today, you have the list, you know what's next tomorrow or when you're ready to do it. And I've definitely had COVID last year and had— it was bad for 2 months. I was just so tired. And for 1 month I was barking. I had a barking cough and—

So tiring.

It's tiring. And then you realize I, it's very humbling as well because I can be go, go, go. And I've mentioned this to you before, but I can pretend Lyme disease never happened. I'm healthy for the most part. I wake up and I hustle and it's fine. But then you get sick and have to cancel 50 meetings and cannot do all the things. And it's a huge wake-up call to just not book yourself like that. If possible, and to spread things out a little bit more and live a healthy, balanced life all the time. Not just, okay, I'm good, I'm in remission, let's go, let's run a marathon. But be like, okay, let's sustain this.

Yeah, yeah. It's definitely— that is a skill, that thing that you're talking about. Like when you're in remission and you're feeling good, not to be like, oh, I'm going to go— oh, now I'm going to go from 0 to 100. And then you're like, you're at 2 and you're like, oh my gosh, I can't even get to 10, right? And I think it's a skill to know that the sustainableness of everything in flare-up, not in flare-up, in remission, not in remission, comes from being gradual all the time. Like being gradual, being like harmoniously intentional about slowing down makes it a lot easier.

Good word.

Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. This year— not this year, 2022— at the end of the year, most of my clients took kind of like a— I don't want to say sabbatical, but they just did less. And it was partially intentional. I always do this every end of the year. I always do less, and I'm always surprised. And I shouldn't be surprised because this is my thoughts, and I've seen it, and I've done it intentionally enough times not to be surprised, but I still am. It's how much income we generated by doing less. And we already do less. Like, most of my clients are already doing less because of that gradual, harmonious, kind of sustainable business model. And where I'm always surprised when I calculate the numbers of what people made within those slower, slower months, I think we were at $50,000 in 2 months doing less. And we're like, just looking at those numbers, I'm like, that's insane, that's insane, that's insane, that's insane, right?

How did you do it?

I know, right? I'll have to do an episode about that.

Yeah, I think what we forget is that the ball is still happening.

The snowball is still happening even when you are slow. I think we think the ball has to like keep creating new balls, but the one ball that you're pushing down the hall, like the, the hill, at some point you don't have to push anymore. Yeah, it just takes on its own world and does its thing. And I think for most of my clients, they did the intentional work throughout the year, so when they get to the end of the year, they don't have to put the same type of intention into their work because they're— they can receive, you know, I think sometimes we'll push too hard at the end of the year trying to like do the extra or like, you know, prove something or whatever that we actually miss out on the abundance that's coming our way because we haven't slowed down. I think that's really the reason why I work in e-commerce.

So the Toy Store e-commerce, right? And I follow with other brands to see what they do. And Black Friday is huge and Cyber Monday is huge. But Loxi 10, I, I mean, I don't like following e-commerce brands and getting a bunch of emails in my inbox, but they never do Black Friday or Cyber Monday. They wait, they do promotions when they want to do them. And I really love that because everybody else is doing Christmas and Boxing Day and all the things. So if you sleep on those, then that's rest. And that means that you are showing up when other people have slowed down because they're burnt out and they're done with Q4, trying to rest in Q1.

Yeah, so true, so true. Well, what advice would you give someone? Because I know you do a lot of self-publishing, self-authors. What would you give to someone who is wanting to share their story and like maybe start writing their own book, or, or not even, like, maybe they want to start blogging, maybe they want to start their own business because of living with chronic illness, what would be one piece of advice you would give them?

Find someone who is doing what you're doing. Ask them out for coffee so that you can pick their brain, or watch, watch YouTube videos. But start with finding out, you know, learning things you don't know, because there's so many things in in, let's say, publishing. Besides— I mean, first there's writing the book. How do you structure it? Plot and character and, and dialogue and line editing. But then there's also marketing, production, distribution, cover design. There's all these little things, and it's a little overwhelming. But to understand high level what you're getting into is really good, because then you have an idea of what's coming and can still take it one step at a time. Like, you know, You're not ready for promotion yet, you need to write the book. But it's, it's so nice to have an idea of what container you're about to put yourself in, if it's publishing, if it's blogging. And also have an idea of who you're doing it for. Yeah, other than you, is it you 2 years ago? Who, who you're trying to serve? And make it about serving.

Yeah, love that.

Such a Good, good advice.

Love that.

So Jess, how can people connect with you? Where can they find you? Where can they work with you? Where can they be a part of your community?

Okay, well, if you're interested in author collaborations and meeting other authors, then they can find me at Sell With Collabs, my collaboration, sellwithcollabs.com. We're running an author conference. It's really like a networking event on steroids in— well, I don't know when this podcast is going out, but that's in January. You can connect with me at jesskotzer.com if you're interested in automation and marketing services. And if you're interested in joining an author mixer, I have a weekly group. And just reach out to me at hello@jesskotzer.com and ask ask what that's about and I'll give you a link to join us. We're kind of goofy, we meet every single week and it's great for accountability.

That's awesome. Well, Jess, this has been great. Thank you so much for being on. I really appreciate you.

I appreciate you too. Thank you for having me.

That's a wrap, y'all. Thanks for tuning in to Crafted to Thrive, the podcast that helps entrepreneurs with chronic illness to thrive and build a holistic artistic business and life. Check out our website at craftedtothrive.com for this episode's show notes and all the gifts and goodies. Connect with me on Instagram @thrivewithnikitawilliams for more tips and behind the scenes and more. Tag me to share what you loved about this episode and I'll feature you on an upcoming episode. So until next time, remember, yes, you are crafted To thrive.