#282: The Lost Arts

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Emma

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You're listening to the Beautiful Mess podcast, your cozy comfort listen. And this week we're talking

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about Elsie's new newsletter, why newsletters are sometimes even better than blogs, and our advice for

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how to make your newsletter stand out if you're starting your own. We are also going to be debating a

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listener hot take that's about homeschooling. Oh, get ready for that. It is hot as hell. It is a great is I

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mean it? I don't know if I should say it's great. It is an interesting I read it, and I was like, this is like,

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burgeoning into, maybe not a light hearted, hot take.

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Elsie

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I don't know. I think it'll be fun to talk. No, it's good. It's good, okay? But before we begin, I have the

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biggest news ever. I have a story, and it is about my haunted necklace, so pour yourself a cup of coffee.

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This is my greatest story of the year, I'm pretty sure. So the year just started. That's true. This is my

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greatest story of the year so far. It's pretty exciting. Okay, okay, tell them back story, yeah, to begin with,

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last March, and then I went on a trip to New Orleans, and I said to her, I would like to acquire a haunted

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piece of jewelry over in this town, because I am very, you know, I love the haunted stuff. And I had

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recently, I was looking on eBay and Etsy, and I was like, how do you know if these haunted things are

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real? There's these, like, listings for, you know, it claims to be a haunted necklace, but how do you trust

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it?

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Emma

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This is really how the AIs are going to get us, get humanity. You're going to be like, Oh, you guys want

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to know about ghosts. And we got you now we're gonna trick you into, yeah.

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Elsie

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So anyway, we went into a bunch of little secondhand shops in New Orleans, and we found this

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necklace. And I don't even know how much it cost, but whatever it was, it was worth it. It was like, in a

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glass case, and, like, I had to get the key, and it was, like, a big one. I was like, that's the one I can just,

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like, feel it, you know, so.

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Emma

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Kinda had a cool vibe too like, he was like, little glasses, older man, yeah. Like, you're like, you would

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believe that he could be like, Oh, she's getting the haunted neck right inside his head. But he didn't say

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anything.

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Elsie

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You know, in my memory, he looks like the bookstore owner from the never ending story, yeah, exactly,

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he had that vibe. Okay, so anyway, I get my necklace, I put it on immediately, and we're just kind of

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messing with it. And I noted, like, I think that it's a locket. Like, from looking at it, I think that it's a locket.

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It looks like a locket, but it will not open. So it is a locket that is permanently shut. And I was like, Okay,

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a little frustrated that it won't open, but, you know, it's haunted so it can do whatever it wants. That is

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fine. So throughout, I was like, It's not supposed to open.

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Emma

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Maybe it's a real Pandora's Box situation kind of thing.

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Elsie

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Yeah. So I wear it all around the world, like I remember I was wearing it in London. I was wearing it in

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Florence. Everywhere you can find me in 2025 I was wearing this haunted necklace. I started calling it

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my good luck necklace, even though nothing happened last year that was really that lucky. But I don't

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know, I just like, I like being superstitious. It makes me It brings me pleasure. So anyway, I was wearing

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it on New Year's Eve. Even though it didn't go with my dress, I kind of feel like it's like, I'm committed to

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this necklace at this point. It's like, my little bit. And you know what I'm saying, you mentioned it didn't

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go with your dress and you were wearing it. It doesn't go with my dress at all. There was another

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necklace that would have been perfect. But anyway, at the last minute, though, I was like, I have to

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wear this one because I want to be like, going into the new year with my special little charm, you know,

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and my little my haunted necklace that won't open, yeah? Okay, so, like, 10 minutes before midnight,

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my necklace opens to lock, it opens for the first time ever with it. Or was kind of, yeah, I was, and you

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were, like, Arrow bagged it. Yeah, I didn't know, though, if you were, I was fiddling with it in the way that

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I did the whole year. Like I always do that, you know, just like, try touching, trying to open it. So it wasn't

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like, a new I definitely wasn't trying hard, or I wasn't even really trying. I just was like, all of a sudden,

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like, oh my god, it opened. So anyway, it was right before New Year's Eve, so I was like, this is a sign.

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And I started, like, going around screaming about how it was a sign. I got to make a wish. And so I went

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and cut the tight, the world's tiniest slip of paper. And I was like, I could write any, any wish on the world

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on here. And I think technically, I could have probably fit like five wishes into it, but I was like, I think I

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need to put just one wish, and it needs to be my most extreme, unhinged, most unlikely, most beyond

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my control. Craziest wish that I actually want. Yeah, yes. So yeah, I think of my career, my future writing

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career, as a row of dominoes, where each and I have like a drawing in my journal of like the dominoes

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and what each one of them is. And it's like the first one is, like something I can push down. And then

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after that, there is an element in pretty much every other milestone of either, like luck or the universe

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has to have your back or something, you know, something in some way it's beyond your control, yep.

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So I put the very, very last one at the end of the row where, like, if this thing happens, I think I will, like,

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die, like, with the biggest smile.

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Emma

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That'll be creepy. We'll do close casket.

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Elsie

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I don't know what I'm saying, but yeah, like, it would make my whole life. So that's the wish I put in the

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locket, and right before midnight, closed it up and it's still in there. Actually, one of my kids lost it and I

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found it again. Put it back in. Don't worry, it's fine, yeah, so I'm gonna keep it in there as long as it stays.

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I don't know, and I don't know, I just think it's like a magical story, and hopefully you enjoyed that. It

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might mean nothing. I get it.

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Emma

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It means something. Yeah. It means something, yeah.

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Elsie

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Okay, so this week we're talking about my new newsletter. So Emma is also about to start a newsletter,

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so yeah.

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Emma

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But I've seen now hers, mine's, don't worry about it. I'll tell you about it when it's out. Don't worry about

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it, because yours also has a website, you're going the whole way with it, yeah. So we're going to talk

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about that.

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Elsie

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I did approach it as starting a new business in a like a miniature business, a small little baby business,

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but, yeah, but it's something that can expand over the years, so I had to, okay, so it's kind of like a

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suggested slash requirement before you try to get an agent to have an author website. And I didn't

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know that last time I queried, but this time I did. So I was like, Okay, I'm gonna have this nice website.

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But you know how I am, it's like, once I started working on it, it just got, like, more and more and more

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elaborate, and then it eventually became what this is. So you can go to LC larson.com and it will take

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you straight there, and it is a newsletter. It's also, like, in a way, it's kind of a blog, because, like,

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functionally, it's coming into your email box, but it's all there's also an archive page there, and you can

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sit there and read every post, if you want to, like you would a blog, and that's actually how I prefer to

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look at it, because I'm not a big like phone reader. I do open up almost all my emails on my computer,

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not on my phone. So anyway, I hope, I kind of hope, that's how people experience it, but I tried to make

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it like a decent mobile experience as well. Yeah, I'm a read my emails on my desktop person as well.

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But I know a lot of people use their phone. I just don't have my hooked up properly due to my inability to

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use technology. Yes, yes.

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Emma

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Okay, so tell them, like, the name of the newsletter. Let's just go back. Why you even want to do it, like,

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what's, you know, because you need an author website.

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Elsie

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I knew that I wanted to start a newsletter that was on my list for a while. It was kind of like, I should do it

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though, you know, like, when you have things on your list where, like, I really, I'm really excited to do

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this, and things that are like, I should probably do that, yeah, you know, like I should probably, you

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know, schedule an appointment, you know, I should probably, yeah, and it's like those things can go

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years without, you know, doing them, some of them. So this was kind of on my list for a while, like, I

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should probably start my own newsletter. I do understand the value of newsletters, although I have, I

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feel like I have more good things to say about it now, having experienced it, but yeah, what really

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changed it for me was our friend Elise, and her you can find hers at Elise joy.com started her newsletter

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last summer, and it's called scattering seeds, and it's just gorgeous. It is just beautiful. And I had never

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seen a newsletter like that. And I do subscribe to several informational newsletters that I love and sub

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stacks, but they're not pretty, you know what? I mean? Like, they're, they're like, like, I love, like the

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Sharon says so one to get news, and I love. There's a couple of writing ones that I enjoy, like I

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subscribed Oh, Alice Hoffman had one on substack. Anyway, I love sub stack. I think it's great. I think

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that, I think people thought that I had something with sub something bad with sub sack. I don't. I just, I

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was hesitant, though, to go on there. Because it does feel like a very chaotic full space where, like, I

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don't know, I kind of wanted a more quiet, solitary space.

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Emma

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I feel like, here's my perception, for no reason. No one needs to hear this. But so Elise's feel felt like an

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old school blog reborn, yes, where it's like, okay, back in the day when we all started our blogs, it was

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like you had your own website, which was your own little WordPress, or for us, type pad, or whatever it

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was, you know, and it was yours. And people went to your your site to see if there is something new,

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and your site, maybe you talked about other people's blogs. Maybe you had some in your sidebar, if

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you could figure out how to even do that. But it wasn't really a social media. It was really a website that

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had content on it. The true substack, I think, was pre social media, yeah, it really was. And substack

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kind of out of the gate to me, felt like, Oh, this is a social media thing. It is newsletters, for sure, and

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there's content, and there's lots of things to read, but it's kind of like recommending other things. Yeah,

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it kind of has its own little algorithm.

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Elsie

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It definitely functions as social media. And if you have the app, it is even more intense. I like, don't have

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the app anymore. I just have, I just have my subscriptions that come into my email.

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Emma

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Yeah, that's what I have. I don't have the app, but yeah, so just has a different vibe. And I think you

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were wanting once you saw Elise's, I think you felt that too, like the oh, this is kind of like a blog where I

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don't have to fit into an algorithm. I'm just going to do what I want to do. I'm going to write things that I

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want to write, and if people want to read them, they'll be able to read them. And they get delivered in a

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different way, because it's a newsletter, as opposed to back in the day, we didn't go into people's email

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boxes. We just had a website, a blog, and yours has both, so you can go into the archive page, so if

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you want to catch up, or whatever, well, if you have certain levels, and yeah, I like that, because I feel

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like I don't like feeling like you have to fit into an algorithm. I think if the content you want to write does

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great, then you're going to get recommended to other people, and that's great. But if not, then you find

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yourself in this place where you're sort of trying to make this stuff you want to write, or the content you

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want to make, fit into the algorithm so that you can have success on the platform. And that's tricky, and

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you know, it could be an interesting, creative challenge for you, and if it is great, then you're gonna have

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a fun time. But if it just feels like a big drag or that it's making your content worse, then it sucks, and it's

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almost like it'd be better if I could be somewhere else so that I can make the content I want and not feel

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this constant pull and push of, you know, trying to fit into this platform.

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Elsie

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So what I loved about Elise's newsletter when I first saw it is two things the writing saw, like the long

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form writing. I was like, okay, yeah, I missed this in early blogging, because we still have our blog, but

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it's, it's kind of a food blog now. It's mainly a food blog, a beautiful mess.com it's the thing that it still gets

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a lot of traffic on, is recipes, yeah, and that is also what we spent the last few years optimizing for. And,

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yeah, so I did notice the last year or so, and then when I saw her newsletter, I was like, I think I miss

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long form writing. Like I miss being able to write, you know 1000 words, you know 1200 1500 2000

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words at the most, right? Like just a long, a long ass post in it's kind of like what our podcast is, in a

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way. But the thing that's different about a newsletter is also another thing I really miss is photography,

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because on social media, it is mostly videos now. And I like making videos. I enjoy the process. I think

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it's fun still, and I enjoy it, but I don't feel like fulfilled in a photography way anymore from social media.

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So yeah, I just once I saw hers. It kind of gave me a vision for like, what a newsletter could be, because

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I had never seen one that looked that way before. And I was like, Okay, I'm gonna make my newsletter

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have a lot of original photography, like, besides, like, a few, like, memes and stuff. It's all original

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photography. Actually, I use a little bit of public domain art too. I'll talk about that when we talk about the

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design. And then, yeah, just writing long, long. Like not rambling, but like just longer posts, like having

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more space to say. The whole thing feels really good and really exciting. And I think that long form

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content, obviously, like we love podcasting, and it was, until I started this newsletter, the only long form

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content I had in my life. So it's just really exciting to have another visual.

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Emma

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And this one is too, like, we're in our 40s, like, we grew up looking at magazines and not as like, Oh,

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isn't this? You know, it was like, no, no. That's what there was to look at. That's what you would take on

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the plane with you back when you're like, in your early 20s, you would take magazines, and so in

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magazines. Don't have videos in them. They have photos and text, true, and yours kind of, that's what

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they that's how everyone would describe blogs in the early days, they're like, it's an online magazine,

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Yeah, true. And that's kind of what yours feels like now is it's like a newsletter magazine. It's like little

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articles with photos and it's interesting and fun. It has little features. And, you know, it's like a magazine.

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Ah, I love that. Yeah. It makes me so happy to just have this, like, new format. It is a huge creative

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opportunity unlocked. So, okay, I made a list of what it is and what it isn't. And you already said the

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name. Oh, sorry. The name is the Lost arts. So I really scrutinized or agonized. I really agonized. Tell us

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the ones you didn't do. I always love to hear the names that got cut like not quite wasn't this.

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Elsie

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I don't even know if you know, yeah, I have to look at my notes out. But I think that the thing I was really

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hung up on was that I wanted to have the word curious in it. So there was a lot of different variations of

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like, like, one of them was, like, LCS Curiosity Shop, but I didn't feel like people would know what it

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was. And then there was like, cozy and curious, which I think is cute, but it kind of sounds like 2011 blog

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name, like, I don't know a lot of stuff like that. I really, really wanted the word curious, but I couldn't get

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there. And then when I saw this one, I was like, Okay, this this works. This is what I because I feel like

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the passion that I have right now, at least to share in the newsletter, is a lot of it is like to do with history,

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because my novel is historical fiction, and I'm really obsessed with art history right now, so I want to

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sometimes talk about art and and I really only have like, one favorite living artist. They're all dead. Like,

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it's all history. Mostly they're lost. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, like, yeah, once I got into my historical fiction

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research, like the idea of like things being lost to time. It's like, everywhere you look in history, it's and

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it's very inspiring, and if you have a wild imagination, I don't know. I was never taught to think of history

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that way when I was a child. And I want my I want to teach my children to think of history with that kind

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of mindset, because it's just so much, it feels so alive right now. So anyway, it's called the Lost arts. And

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then as far as like the style of the website, I wanted it to look very analog and like it was chopped out of

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a journal.

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Emma

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Feels like I'm looking at a journal. Yeah, I love it.

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Elsie

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Our friend Kelsey Baldwin designed it. So if anyone needs a designer, she she's actually a book cover

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designer. Is her layout? Yeah, she's a freelance book cover book Layout Designer. And she also just

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has, you know, general graphic design skills, and she knows how to build websites. So if anyone wants

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a website like mine, email me and I will send you her contact any day, anytime.

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Emma

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She laid out my Handmade Murder novel too. So if you're looking to self publish, you also need Kelsey

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Baldwin.

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Elsie

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Yeah, yeah. She's very many talents, yeah. And we went through more than 10 iterations because it

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was like, I really did. It was like, a month before Christmas when we started working on this. So it wasn't

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that long ago, and I bought a scanner from Amazon, and it sucked. It was like, it would, couldn't get

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anything. It was like, the worst, like, I think it was maybe just meant to scan documents and not meant

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to scan photos. You know what I mean? Like, it was just, like, really high contrast. So I still, if anyone

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has, like, a great scanner that you can use on photographs, please email me the exact link, and I will

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buy that for sure. I need one still, but I was like, taking all these pictures of old pictures with my phone,

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and my emails with her were so crazy, and so I have to give her so many props for the design, because

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I kind of just gave her some like ideas of like other websites that I had seen on Pinterest that I liked,

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and then I gave her a folder of public domain art, which a lot of, if you ever want to like, look for public

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domain art. A lot of art museum websites have download links for public domain art, and it's really cool,

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like, just Google Public Domain art, and you'll, you'll figure it out. It's, there's 1000s of, I mean, I think it's

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anything that's older than 95 or 100 years old. And there's, there's 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of

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whatever kind of niche design, especially if you like things that look old, which is what I like. Yeah,

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pretty much all famous paintings are in the public domain because they're old boss art. We used a lot of

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that, and I love that because, and then besides that, we, you know, had some like handwriting and a

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little bit of like hand painting and things like that. Included. Excited, but yeah, I really like the mix of

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design elements and the feel of it. I'm really proud of how it turned out, and I feel like there's still a lot

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more we can add and build on it for the future. So I'm actually meeting with her tomorrow to, like, make

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more email templates and stuff.

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Emma

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So it's exciting. No, yeah, as soon as I was on the website, because I got the newsletter, and then I

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went to the website, I was like, oh, it's live. It immediately made me so happy. It felt like something I

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would have loved in college. I think I told you, it reminded me a little bit of Sabrina Ward Harrison, her

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books, if you've never seen they're kind of, she might have new ones, I don't know, but I was obsessed

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with her in college. And it's very collage, very like, almost scrapbooky, but like, about yourself and about

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art and creativity and and your style isn't exactly like hers. But it just felt very looking at someone's

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journal, someone very creative, someone who's, like, interested in the things I'm interested in. And so I

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immediately was like, oh yeah, this is something that I would want to read, and you're my sister. But I

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just loved it. I was like, Oh, this looks great. She got it.

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Elsie

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Thank you, yeah. The homepage photo of me with the little red like shirt, with my belly showing that

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foot. I'm sorry I cropped you out. By the way, Emma's the baby in the picture cropped up. But that, I

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think we're standing in front of we're standing in front of a bus, and I'm pretty sure it's in front of Elvis's

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tour bus at Graceland, where we are. So that was kind of fun. And then a lot of the other old pictures

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are from my grandma's archive. Our grandmother recently gave us her a lot of old photos, and I've just

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kind of been in a sea of nostalgia looking through her old stuff. So got some photos from there. So,

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yeah, I just, I love old photos and, like, a variety, like, I love like, like Polaroids and photo booths and

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just like all that, don't, yeah, yeah, that whole era. I mean, I feel like it's still an era. Now, I got a new

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Polaroid camera for Christmas on New year's eve.

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Emma

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Much like the locket, it just wouldn't, although the locket opened.

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Elsie

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To be fair, I would never read an instruction manual for a Polaroid camera, but I think I'm gonna have to

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this.

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Emma

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It had like two buttons. So we were both like, oh, be able to do it. And yeah, I was like, no, yeah. So

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anyway, what is the newsletter? And then you can also tell us a few what is not going to be in the

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newsletter that maybe people would wonder or request.

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Elsie

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Yeah, cool, yeah. I just stole this list from there's like an early newsletter that was, like the first one that

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went out. That's like, why I started this newsletter. And okay, so the list of what it will be, it will be cozy, it

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will be curious. The photos are primarily photos taken in my home. It's a lot of photos of like, crafts and

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things I'm making and I am working on my novels. But like, I feel like a picture of me in front of a

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computer every single week is boring. So I'm also gonna share, like, my paintings and the stuff I make

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with my kids. And, like, you know what I mean? Like, there's just so many different projects all the time.

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It's actually, like, so fun to document. And then, yeah, curiosity. That's like I said earlier, like the main

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theme that I want to focus on is just like being curious about life. I feel like that's like, one of the biggest

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goals I have for my 40s and for the whole rest of my life is to stay curious. I think that it's a beautiful way

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to live. I want the newsletter to be a visual feast. So I felt like, as soon as I saw Lisa's newsletter, and I

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like, I felt so satisfied deeply in a special part of me. So I want to give that feeling to other people in my

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newsletter as well. Think that's really inspiring, just like, packed with photography and original images

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and then creativity focused that. I mean, that's like, kind of the only thing I care about, as far as, like, my

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outward social media and for this podcast and for the newsletter, I do feel like if I have, like, a purpose

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in this world, it is to cheer other people on creatively. I really like doing that. And I feel like it's something

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that, you know, I have some advice and like something to offer to the world. And then stories and

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essays I just, you know, I like, I like, a long story time, an occasional rant, writing updates, if I'm being

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honest, this is like, it's the only thing I want to talk about in my life. Right now, I am, like, 1,000%

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obsessed with writing my novels, and it's just like I could talk about it every day, but I do try to switch

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around and then making it entertaining. So I only recently learned the difference between a marketing

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newsletter and a content newsletter, and then I was like, Okay, that makes sense. So this is definitely a

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content newsletter. Its purpose is entertainment. I don't care if I do use affiliate links, but I don't care if it

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makes $0 on affiliate like, I don't care about any of that stuff. There's no purpose. Yeah, there's. No

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purpose other than entertaining you. And that feels really good and really nice. And then my last

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promise is that it will be extremely consistent. So it's every Sunday is the free newsletter, and every

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Wednesday is the paid newsletter. So if you're a paid person, you'll get two a week, and if you're on the

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free subscription. You will get one every Sunday. Yes. And then what it won't be is pretty much just like

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our old blog. Because I do know like, and it does, it does touch my heart.

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Emma

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There are things about it that feel like the old blog, really? You mean, though, like, DIY, okay, or yeah,

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let's be more specific, because the Sunday newsletter is kind of 10 things that you're into that's true,

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kind of 10 Things I love Sunday.

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Elsie

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It's kind of exactly like the old blog.

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Emma

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Yeah. Okay, so there's pieces that are like the old blog, but there are some things that you're like, I'm

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not doing this, so don't request it, or don't expect it. Yeah, yeah. So what are those?

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Elsie

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Pretty much writing, DIY, so for a beautiful mess at the highest point, we had like, 7000 blog posts on

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our site.

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Emma

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9

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Elsie

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9000 blog post that we wrote all ourselves. And we did, we did a lot of like, what do you call it?

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Curating? What's a nice way to say? What's it? I was trying to think of a nice way to say, deleting. Yeah,

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we did a lot of we curated it curating the last few years to optimize our under 4000 now, yeah, but at its

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highest point, I definitely know it had more than 7000 it could have been 7000 it was a lot. It was many,

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many, many 1000s of posts. Most of them were teaching. Most of them were DIYs, even stuff that was

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extremely simple, like sewing a button on we would teach it with photos and that kind of work I do not

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and, you know, in recipes, we still do recipes, so I guess I will continue doing that a little bit for our

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website. But yeah, that kind of teaching, I feel like I'm burned out for the rest of my life on I don't want to

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do step by step tutorials, because I just did so many, I mean, and there was probably, like more than

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1000 that were just mine, you know, and more than 1000 that were just yours. And, like, we just did so

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much of it for so long, Emma wants me to say, like, hers was like 5000.

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Emma

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I don't know, probably, I have no idea.

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Elsie

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Yeah, because you wrote almost all the recipes for so long anyway. So I just don't want anyone to ask

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me for a DIY. And I promise you, I won't do one ever. I just just can't, but I can explain things, but I'm

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just not going to take a step by step pictures and like, you know that just that kind of format. And then

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the other thing is, just like any kind of, like reliving of the past, like our blog had many different eras,

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because we did it for almost 20 years. But I would say, like one of the most popular times was, like 2011

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when we were just getting married, and we had our shop still, and we we posted, we post outfit photos

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still, and just kind of like, I like, I feel like we did, like, a very well rounded lifestyle blog where you kind

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of covered everything, but yeah, I don't want to relive any part of the past. I just want to focus on the

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future, so I'm always going to be looking forward, and then the last thing that it won't be is written by AI.

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I feel like that should always be obvious. Like, I don't even know why I have to say it, but I feel like, in

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this day and age, you might as well just promise it, because sometimes, like, you shouldn't make

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anyone have to, like, guess and like, I don't want people to be suspicious that I'm like, writing my

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content with AI. I'm not at all, and I'm not even using it to spell check, so don't worry about it. No way.

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Emma

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So here's some Q and A it's from Instagram. How often will you post the free version sounds like every

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Sunday, yeah, you said that and every Wednesday is the paid version?

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Elsie

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Yes.

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Emma

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Okay. And can you tell us a couple of like, so you've had a paid version go out, right?

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Elsie

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Yeah, a whole bunch.

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Emma

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Okay, so give us a little taste of like, What things are you missing out on?

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Elsie

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If, yeah, let me just go on there right now, and I'll tell you what the archives page has. So if you

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subscribe, which you totally don't have to, yeah, and a free version, i She said a free subscriber is still a

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subscriber. And thank you so much. If you just want to subscribe for free, that is great.

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Emma

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And also, we're business women. If you've gotten this far and you didn't know that, surprise!

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Elsie

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Elise talked me into it, and honestly, I don't think she was wrong. I am going to answer a question about

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the financial stuff at the end. So okay, the ones the locked post right now that are available for

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subscribers. There's one that's called my journal tour, and it shows a just like, what are all the little

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books in my. My Louise Carmen adjacent Etsy journal, uh huh. And then let's do a goal audit. So that is

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a ton of like journaling prompts and things to think about for your new year's goal setting. You could use

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them anytime. And then I have 10 paintings worth traveling the world to see. So I pretty much just like

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talk about why, why certain paintings are so special and important to see in person. And like, which

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ones I've seen, which ones I want to see. There's one where I'm gonna, like, travel to a city that's like,

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nowhere close to my, wouldn't it be anywhere close to my, like, top 10 bucket list. But it's like, I have to

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see this painting. So I will probably be there in the next two years, my 2026, vision board. So I show like

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pictures of it and talk about making it, and kind of show you how, if you like that kind of stuff, how I

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learned to write my novel. This one is just like a story about the last four years and how I went from

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being like an absolute beginner on the very first day to having a finished, completed novel that I'm

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proud of, and then books that changed my life, that one's just like five books and how they changed my

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life, so and so. And if you're a paid subscriber, then you get both newsletters into your inbox, yes, on

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Sunday and Wednesday. And then you can also look at the archive, but if you're not a paid subscriber,

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then you can see that there's an archive. Yeah, you don't get to read, right? Okay, great. I'm just

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describing it for people. I haven't been on the website yet, so that is all accurate, yeah, and if you have

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any problems, you just email me. I am there answering people. It's totally fine.

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Emma

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I feel like we kind of talked about why a newsletter instead of Instagram or blog, and we talked a little bit

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about substack, so maybe tell them, like, what beehive is, okay, in case anyone wants to start their own

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newsletter, like, what's your experience with it?

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Elsie

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So previously, when we were just doing our beautiful mess newsletter, we did, we used flow desk. And I

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think flow desk is amazing. If you are not creating a paid newsletter and is only going to be free, I would

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choose flow desk. I think that it has everything you need. It's really easy to use. It's what I'm going to do

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with my newsletter, because I'm not doing a paid Yeah, it's really affordable. Flow desk, because it's

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great. I had no complaints with it. And I'm not sure if you can do a paid subscription on flow desk, but

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the reason why I chose beehive is because you can kind of make a website and a newsletter in one

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and I really wanted to have a nice website to go with it. So yeah, like I said earlier, I'm using it as my

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writer website, so over time I will, it will be like the place, if I have, like a published book, or like

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something I'm promoting, or like a book tour, or like things like that, it will that will be the place.

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Emma

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When your book gets made into a movie, right? Have some stuff on there about it, yeah, right.

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Elsie

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Oh, my God, I will be such a monster if my book is ever made into a movie, and I will, should? I will

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make a newsletter about it every single week, I promise Yeah.

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Emma

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And all the actors will be like, stop taking photos of me on set. I told you, once.

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Elsie

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My Polaroid camera will be banned, I promise you. Yeah. No, I, I was born, like, in my I already, like,

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made a deal with the double that in my next life, I want to be bored straight into Hollywood like nowhere

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else. I'm just kidding. But okay, so yeah, beehive we I chose it. So I was between that and there's this

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other site called kit that makes that also has, like, a lot of cool newsletter stuff, but I picked beehive

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because they have a little bit better, like, website customization. That was pretty much the only reason.

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And the other reason was because that's what Elise used. And, like, I've kind of said, hers is the only

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newsletter I follow. Lots of newsletters that I love the content, but hers was the only one that was, like,

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this compelling visual newsletter. So I feel like I kind of followed in her footsteps for that reason as well.

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Emma

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Yeah, and I also like her website, and also I get the newsletters, and I'm in her paid and I also go visit

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the archives sometimes when I feel like I want to read something that I just enjoy, yeah, you know, you

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want a little break. That's what I would read blogs for a little bit where you're like, I'm going to take a

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little 10 minute break because I just finished. Because I just finished cleaning out my inbox. And this is

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my reward, and it's nice to have a little place. Does scratch that same itch? So yeah, for sure. I love

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that. Is it financially worth it?

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Elsie

00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:42.000
So okay, I did get a couple questions about, like, is it worth it to start a paid newsletter? And do you

00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:43.000
recommend this to people I don't know? Okay, so I will say, for me, the thing about it that I think you

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need to know is that a paid newsletter can make good money, but it is a long term project, so it is not a

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way. It's not like publishing like I think if you just. Just wanting to make a lot of money, you maybe you

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should do like a course, or there's lots of other things that could probably, you know, be like a one time

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effort, one time sell, you know, but this is more like a thing that I think it's a good side thing. I think it's a

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good like thing to add on to your current workflow. I'm happy to do it, because for me, I'm writing the two

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newsletters a week, and it is I'm using all the skills that I have from blogging that were kind of just

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wasted now. So I feel like I'm happy that I get to use my old skills again for something, you know,

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because on social media, I can't really use them, you know, because it's just making videos, which is

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like different skills. So, yeah, I would say it is financially worth it if you're willing to do it for years. And I

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think that it's probably not a quick win, and it's nothing it takes a long time to build up.

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Emma

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It's a lot like being a influencer on Instagram, yeah, blogging, or, you know, it's usually, like, one build it.

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There's a lot of work, but yeah, you can make good money, yeah? And it's also a good side thing, like a

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secondary.

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Elsie

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Yeah. But like, my primary objective of why I did it, I really went back and forth about, like, the paid

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thing. I want to do it. The reason why I chose to do it is because I want to have, like, a base income in

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addition to trying to have a career in writing. Because a career in writing is like an unpredictable, you

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know, up and down income. And everyone knows that, and most people think it's like, not even realistic

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to like, expect it to be a full time income for most people. So yeah, I'm just kind of trying to, like, build on

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that and think about the future. But yeah, I don't know, in a way, if you want to just do the free one,

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you're not hurting my feelings in any way. I'm so happy you're there, and it's still going to be like, better

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than anything I've done in the past for newsletter.

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Emma

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So yeah, so since we're kind of talking about money, we also have this question from Katie, oh, okay,

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on Instagram, which is, is it no longer worth starting a blog? So would you tell people do this instead of

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blogging, or is blogging different in some way?

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Elsie

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Okay, I would tell people to do this instead of blogging. I think that this is a better I would say that for

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this year. That's true, because if you're wanting to make content that is search friendly, so things that

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people search on Google or any of the search engines, I still think people expect that content to be free.

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That's so you're going to need to make just a blog, and they're not really expecting it to show up in their

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inbox, because that's not how they're for. That's not how they're finding it. They're finding it by Googling,

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yeah, like, if you're gonna do I still think it's worth it to start a I still think it's potentially worth it to start a

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recipe blog or something like that that is just completely based on SEO, but if you're just writing about

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your life, I would do it as a newsletter, because it's it's sort of like the best of both, because functionally,

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from my experience, it's this kind of the exact same thing as blogging. The workflow is the same. And

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then, from the reader's experience, you can read it like a blog. So if you want that, you know, you can

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get on your laptop, you can pull it out, it kind of looks like a blog, but it has this huge extra perk that you

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get to send the blog post into the email boxes instead of waiting for people to come to your site. And I

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just think that's more engaging and just fits better with like current culture and current expectations.

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Yeah, I agree. But, you know, we're old school bloggers. We had to live through a solid 10 years of

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people. I mean, like, seriously, as recently as, like yesterday, someone said to me, oh yeah, my sister

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used to love your you know, like we had, like, we've been in that era for a long time, and so.

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Emma

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You used to be relevant. I find a different way of saying that every time, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, it's cool.

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It's cool, it's cool, it's cool. Man, yeah, yeah. Okay, so it's time for our hot take debate. And this one is

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pretty hot, hot. Okay, it is from Katie, a different Katie, different Katie, not that it matters, but different

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Katie set you should not be homeschooling your kids without a teaching degree. That's the hot take.

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Elsie

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Okay, so I'm gonna go on record saying that I disagree. Obviously, sorry, obviously, some of my closest

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friends are homeschool educators, home educators. So I cannot, in good conscience, agree with this.

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However, I think there is something to be said, and there's definitely, like, some things I want to can we

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just do a round table? A round table for two.

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Emma

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Yeah, I feel like, what's tough about. Talking about anything like this is, if you give me a specific

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example, if you're like, here's the person homeschooling, I could tell you my opinion on if I think that's

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gonna work, yes or no. But when you're talking about a big broad like, should this be, you know,

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allowed, generally, it's like, okay, well now we have to think about every situation that might occur, and

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that's like a whole different thing. Because, you know, if we believed as a society that you should not be

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allowed to homeschool unless you have a teaching degree, then we would have different laws, and that

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those laws simply don't exist, certainly not in our state, yeah, maybe in some state they do, not that I

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know of.

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Elsie

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I don't think it would be a popular enough opinion to become a law.

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Emma

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I don't think so, and I can't see a politician running on it, yeah, right, so maybe we should start there a

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little bit. It's like, with Katie's hot take, you should not be homeschooling your kids without a teaching

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degree. Yeah. Let's start with like, Okay, why could this be true? Okay, what would make me agree with

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this? You know what I mean? Yeah, because, I guess what I'm thinking is, I think we could all kind of

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agree that we think every kid should have a great education. So, you know, that's, I think, part of what's

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behind this. I don't know, I don't know what Katie had in her mind, but you know the idea that, Oh, what

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if someone gets a homeschooled education and it's very poor, it's much more poor than what they

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would have gotten at a public school where they would have a teacher with a teaching degree. Yes,

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that's required. So, you know, maybe that's part of the idea there is. And I would kind of agree with that.

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I think that would be a bummer if you get a much poorer education than you could have at a public

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school with someone who had a teaching degree or multiple people over the course of your you know,

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because you wouldn't have just one teacher, you'd have many over different years. So, yeah, I think,

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you know, the premise that we all think every kid should have a great education. Yeah, I think every kid

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should have a great education. I agree with that.

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Elsie

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Yeah, I'm gonna agree with that. I think that evading education is the problem. And I have a lot of

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homeschoolers in my life, like it's like crazy, like we are magnets for home schooled people. So many

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homeschoolers, dozens of people we're friends with. So I have had several friends in my life whose

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parents straight up evaded education, did not educate them. They were not homeschooled. They were

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not schooled, right? And they used the word homeschool as a cover. And that should be illegal. I agree

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that that should be illegal. I have a good situation. It is child abuse. I think that it's definitely wrong. And

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I think that when you know someone who as an adult, is still dealing with the consequences of their

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parents actions. It's not fair, yeah, and it's not right, fair. And I think we all agree on that. I think probably

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every single person agrees on that. So that's obvious. But then we also have, like, one of our longest

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employees, Laura was a homeschooler, and she has her master's degree.

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Emma

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She's more educated than me. She's certainly a harder worker than me. She's and I know a lot of me,

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but I think her, one of her parents was, did have a degree in teaching? So she kind of would be exempt

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from this.

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Elsie

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That's true, yeah. But I know a lot of people who are very happy that they were homeschooled and feel

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like they received a full education. And I also will say Jeremy and I, my husband, both graduated from

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private schools, and we're really thankful our parents, like, made sacrifices to be able to afford them

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and everything. But like, they were both, like, Christian religious, for sure, it was. There were some

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things in those like, everyone who has gone to like a private Christian school has some kind of story,

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some kind of weird.

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Emma

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Some private schools are very focused on academics. Some private schools are focused on other

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things, like religion or sports, or I don't even know.

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Elsie

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So I will say that I definitely had teachers in high school who did not have a college degree like for sure,

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that's a fact. So that sounds so strange, I don't know. So okay, the thing I would say about

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homeschooling is, first of all, I think that people who choose to do it already are undergoing cultural

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stigma, and so this is something to have compassion for and have an open mind for, is to just know

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that, like, people who choose to homeschool their children for any reason are being grouped in with

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people who don't educate their children, like, illegally, right? And like, that's not fair, and that's not cool.

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We can all have compassion for that. And another thing is, like, when our mom quit teaching at public

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school, she was a teacher for a few years at a co op, I think if you're willing to supplement your kids

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education with things like that, with like, taking them in for like, certain courses, and hiring tutors for

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certain things, and like, just being. Honest about your own abilities. You know where your strengths are

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and where your strengths are not, you know, whatever. Like, I think that that's good and important.

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Emma

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Yeah, well, I think too, like when we're thinking about a whole big group, like your state or country,

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which would be even bigger here in the US, you have to know that, like whatever public school you

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might live in, like whatever options are in your area, that may not be the case in other people's areas.

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Yeah. So twofold, one, the schools available, public or even private, might be inaccessible in some way.

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So they might be really terrible. The public schools could be a very poor situation, or it could be that the

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private schools that are near you you cannot afford, or you can't get to them or something. They're all

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religious. They're all religious, and you don't want your child to go to a religious school, whatever. So

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there's those things. I think there's also, like, you don't know another person's situation. It could be that

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there's, you know, you move a lot. Your partner has to move a lot. That's how you have your income,

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the other partner moves with them, and they are in charge of educating the kids, and they wouldn't be

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able to complete a school year unless they do something like this. There are situations like that, so you

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have to take that in consideration. And I think, you know, we want kids to be educated, so if the option

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is they're not going to be educated, or we're going to homeschool, obviously the homeschooling is

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better. I think it's more of just, you know, every person needs to probably have some requirements of,

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like, making sure it's a good situation. And for some people, that will be a no brainer. And for some

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people it is not, yeah, I think that, like, this is just based on my own friends who have, you know, told

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me their experiences. I think if you're willing to admit when you're getting behind, and always, you

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know, compensate for that, just like, be honest, like, beginning, middle, end, through the whole process,

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I think that there's a lot of good things that can come from it. So, yeah, I don't know. I'm definitely not

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against homeschool as a blanket statement. And I also don't think that having a degree, oh, I don't

00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:02.000
know, Emmett, like I did not graduate from college. So I think that's also just like something that I have

00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:03.000
in life, as you know, like, I understand why, like, a doctor or an attorney needs to have a degree,

00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:04.000
obviously. And there are some degrees out there like that, but I think that your life experience and your,

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like, just your personal, yeah, I think your life experience makes a big difference too. So yeah. And I

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also think so I have a degree, but I don't have a teaching degree, yeah, exactly. So would that mean I

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would be a poor homeschool parent. I'm like, for the record, according to Katie, I think I would be a poor

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homeschool parent. But that's not why, for different reasons. And actually, also, we are considering, you

00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:09.000
know, we might homeschool our kids, especially if they get into schools and we feel like it's not a good

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fit, and which case, I will definitely be going against Katie's thing, because I don't have a teaching

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degree, and I don't plan to get one that doesn't fit my schedule and that doesn't really fit my budget, but

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I would gladly take an online course to be better at teaching certain ages or certain subjects, yeah, but I

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cannot go back to college like I just It won't fit my schedule. Now that I have kids and I have a job,

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there's just no chance. So yeah, and I think that's, you know, pretty understandable to most people, but

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would I be willing to educate myself more from where I am right now to be a better homeschool

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teacher? Yes, I would, yeah, but I can't go back and get a degree.

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Elsie

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Agree, Agree. Agree. Yeah. I think if we feel like we need to homeschool our kids in the future, which I

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think kind of most parents have this contingency plan, it's not my top choice, but it is a option that we

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might be pursuing in the next few years, and we've already decided we would hire a professional

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teacher to teach our kids. But we have, we have, like, extreme financial privilege, and not everyone has

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that. And you know, I think that that's fair to consider too. Yeah, yeah, okay, was that fun? Or what was

00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:23.000
that fun? Or what I think it was kind of fun, actually. Can I say one more thing before we get off this

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topic? Yeah? Okay, this is just my own personal thing that makes me so happy. So in my life, there's

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three kinds of people that are magnetized to me to become my friends. And this is what the end one of

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my friends has all three of them. Oh, it is homeschoolers, yeah, people who grew up in homeschool or

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Christian school, Scorpios, any and all Scorpios. And the third one is ex evangelicals. Yeah, come here.

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Yeah, I'm ready to be friends. Anyway, yeah, so that was fun, but now we're done, we are gonna pass it

00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:29.000
off to a joke or a fact with Nova. Hey, Nova, what do you have for us this week?

00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:30.000
Nova

00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:31.000
A joke.

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Elsie

00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:33.000
A joke. Okay, I'm ready.

00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:34.000
Nova

00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:35.000
What kind of superhero hits?

00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:36.000
Elsie

00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:37.000
Home runs, ooh, hmm, I can't think of any. What is it?

00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:38.000
Nova

00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:39.000
Batman.

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Elsie

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Ha, all right, have a good week.

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Nova

00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:43.000
Bye.

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Emma

00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:45.000
Thank you so much for listening. Next week, we'll be back. We're going to be talking about things that

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we want to learn, so learning something new throughout the course of your life. And we'd also love to

00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:47.000
do more hot takes. So if you have any hot takes you want us to talk about, you can email us at

00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:48.000
podcast@abeautifulmess.com That's it. We love you. Bye.

00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:49.000
Elsie

00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:50.000
Bye.