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Where small business meets your favorite pair of slippers.
A little quirky, not too buttoned up, one less accessory, ahhh… just right.
Welcome to Small Business Casual, where we focus on designing sustainable, cozy, and thriving businesses tailored to your LIFE. Not the other way around!
From general business and marketing to making sense of the behind-the-scenes chaos, I’m Emily Aborn, your host and Small Business Copywriter!
I’m here to walk alongside you as we make running our businesses less of a roller coaster and more like a scenic train ride (don't forget the snacks!).
Want to be a guest on Small Business Casual? Send Emily Aborn a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/member/smallbusinesscasual
150 Episodes
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Text Emily! Today, we’re digging into the ancient wisdom from Don Miguel Ruiz’s book and philosophy, The Four Agreements, and applying it to our modern businesses and creative endeavors. Marketing, content creation, client relationships, boundaries, and perhaps most importantly, your relationship with YOURSELF, we’re going to examine what it means to not take things personally and how freeing it can be. This is Part I in a four-part series, so make sure you catch each one and enjoy the...
Text Emily! AI is snatching personalities left and right... trends are threatening originality, and uniformity beckons at every turn. Ok, so maybe it's not that bleak out there, but personality is a fundamental piece to every piece of content you share. It's the signature and imprint of YOU in your business. It's how you stand out instead of blending in. In this episode, we talk about infusing your brand personality into everything you create. Because you can have the clearest me...
Text Emily! What makes a good subject line? How do you write podcast titles, website headlines, and taglines that actually work and get people to take action? In this episode, we cover simple dos (and dont's) for writing titles, headlines, subject lines, and more without overthinking it. I'll show you why clarity beats cleverness (almost) every time. You don't need the "perfect" title to create great content. Sometimes "good enough" is perfect, because it gets you creating and sharing ...
Text Emily! In a world where we're constantly choosing between analog vs. digital experiences, Kelsey Green offers simple practices and habits that help reduce your reliance on tech. In this episode, we explore digital minimalism and how going screen-free can help you find focus, build stronger relationships, and create space for what truly matters. What is digital minimalism? How to be more intentional with technology and make impactful changes as we switch from digital to ...
Text Emily! Stop trying to find just the right hook, quippy headline, or witty tagline, and start HERE first! Your Brand Messaging goes a lot deeper than just clever copy and a heaping serving of your personality; it needs to come from the inside out. In this episode, I share some of the elements of Brand Messaging so you can start gaining clarity on yours. Inside this episode on Brand Messaging: Why we fall into the Tagline Trap What actually is Brand Messaging and wh...
Text Emily! To Niche or not to Niche? It’s the question more often than we’d probably like it to be. That's the case for me anyway (no one puts THIS baby in a corner!) In this episode, we’ll get into three unexpected ways to define your niche and, of course, how to do it YOUR way. Is it pronounced, "neesh" or "nitch"? What is a niche, really? What can a niche provide your business with? How can you grow by niching DOWN? How to niche by who you're no...
Text Emily! What if the secret to a better life and business is doing LESS? Not less of everything. But less of the wrong things. In this final episode of 2025, we’re not focusing on what everyone else is doing… this isn’t your big goal-setting, vision boarding, new year, new you episode. Instead, we’re cleaning house! Deprioritizing, decluttering, and getting really honest about what’s NOT coming with us into the New Year. We’re taking a good, hard look at where you can decide, ...
Text Emily! “Our brains are sprinting while clocks stay still.” - Researcher, Helena Grieve In 2024, a Cambridge physics team tracking circadian data noticed the average human day feels 8% shorter than ten years ago—even though atomic time hasn’t changed. The cause: information velocity. The average person now consumes more data in a week than their grandparents did in a year. Each notification triggers a micro-adrenaline spike, speeding up neural clocks. In this episode, we get into leaning...
Text Emily! Every year teaches us something. (well, probably a lot of somethings). This year's lessons changed my life and business from the inside out. It was a year of sneaky, quiet, LOUD lessons and hard truths that made me question everything and get clear and grounded on what matters most. In this special end-of-year episode, I'm sharing my 3 top lessons of the past year and how each changed my approach to business and life. How you do one thing is how you do everythin...
Text Emily! As you will hear in this episode, podcasting can change your life. Each year, I love the opportunity to reflect and learn from what went WELL, what didn't go so well, and what NEW things I want to experiment with and try in the coming year. In this episode, I share industry reports with data and stats, plus 7 takeaways full of insights and wisdom to provide you with info you can use for your podcasting year ahead. We get into: Niching vs. not nichingThe power of...
Text Emily! Feeling tired? Drained? Run-down? Exhausted? Insert your adjective of choice here, and buckle up as we get into the seven reasons WHY your tank might be empty. I get into Dr. Saundra Dalton Smith's 7 Types of Rest, why they're so important as business owners, and simple ways to incorporate them into your workday and life. The goal is to help you move from depleted to restored by listening to what YOU need most. Inside the episode: Why you might still...
Text Emily! Words of appreciation, thanks, encouragement, and gratitude have been continuously shortened in today's fast-moving world: "I Love You" has become "luv u" "Thanks" has become "thx" or simply "tsm" and many are just double-tapping, dropping a "Congrats!" or "Love it," to the comment thread. Hearting it doesn't exactly cut it when it comes to showing GENUINE support for other small business owners. Showing up for them takes a little more time, intention, personalization, and ...
Text Emily! Join us in kissing those awkward networking situations goodbye in this special guest episode featuring, Ande Lyons. In this episode, you'll get anything but cookie-cutter networking advice as Ande helps to reframe networking from schmoozing and dead fish handshakes to spaces of curiosity, connection, and community. We get into: Why networking can often feel icky, transactional, boring, and scary Where traditional networking advice falls flat and misses the ...
Text Emily! ...Lead magnet, website, funnel, email list, newsletter, Substack, social media presence? When it comes to all these things your business supposedly "needs", a lot of it is just unnecessary pressure to be everywhere. Doing all the things, creating all the optins and freebies and video content can lead straight to exhaustion, a diluted message, ineffective strategies, and more overwhelm. Success doesn’t require omnipresence. More platforms/places/spaces/faces ≠ m...
Text Emily! Sometimes saying "yes" can cause us undue stress and leave us feeling overcommitted, behind, and even resentful. Yes can cost you time, money, energy, burned bridges, quality, and more. In this episode, I talk about building a thriving business that isn’t about saying yes to everything and everyone; it’s actually about saying NO more often. This two-letter magical strategy can change your entire life. Inside the episode: Seasons for yes and seasons f...
Text Emily! You are in for a TREAT with this bonus episode. No tricks, I promise. When I listened to episode #96 of Jenny Belanger's podcast, Small Business Website Design Made Simple, I reached out immediately to ask if I could share it on my show with YOU! Jenny is a WordPress website Designer and Creative Director at Jenny B Designs as well as a fellow New England Podcast Group Member. As a website design-copywriting duo, Jenny and I often get to collaborate and help people cr...
Text Emily! How do you know if a decision is good or bad? Can a good decision have a bad outcome? Can a bad decision have a good one? In this episode, we’re going to turn over this concept of what makes a good decision good and a bad decision bad AND I’ll give you some curated tips on making BETTER decisions, no matter how great or small! What a Taoist parable can teach us about the decisions we make Distinguishing quality decision-making from outcomes 4 Things th...
Text Emily! It seems no matter what you do (or don't do), someone, somewhere has something to say about it. You can't and will never make everyone happy. Certain people will never be happy no matter what you do, and you most certainly can't make everyone and yourself happy at the same time. In this episode, we discuss choosing the right strategy for YOUR life and business for your marketing, networking, boundaries, pricing, content and more! Showing up in a way you love&nbs...
Text Emily! You might think it's saving you time, but what's AI costing you and your business? “When I see a post from friends or colleagues that screams, 'AI WROTE THIS,' I scroll right by. You might think it’s saving you time, but it’s causing you to lose a member of your audience. I want more of you and your authentic voice. Not the voice of a tool you’ve outsourced your talent and transmissions to.” -Anjel Hartwell I'm back with more AI talk! This time, I'm not looking on the...
Text Emily! All sorts of ghosts can haunt our businesses… from missed opportunities, forgotten content, and neglected relationships that are all but decaying away. Don't worry, you can put away your sage... And you won't need your book on exorcism or spell-breaking... This episode has all you need to look the ghosts that haunt your business in the eye and shoo them away. Time to breathe some fresh life into our business as we explore some of the ghosts that will be way less spook...
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