She sang all over the world on cruise ships. Now, she can make your pockets sing, too. Marketing expert, Emily Claire Hughes, wrote one email that struck a chord with readers to the tune of $127,000. As founder of Emily Claire & Co, she now helps female founders generate their own money-making emails through her 10K Email Club.
Stages, Spotlights & Sequins
"I lived the life of a performer," Hughes recalls, speaking of her impressive performance career. A professional singer/actor/dancer by age fifteen, she performed in Maryland theaters before making the leap to New York City at eighteen to pursue her Broadway dreams. After graduating from Pace University with a BFA in musical theatre, she toured with the USO Show Troupe and was featured in off-Broadway productions. "It was just magical,” she beams.
Hughes’s talent and determination opened exciting doors, including an opportunity that would change the trajectory of her career: a contract with German cruise line, AIDA Cruises. She spent sixteen months traveling the world as a lead soloist performing for thousands. "It's not every day that you wake up in Russia, right?" she says, highlighting the extraordinary adventures of life as a cruise ship performer.
But despite the excitement, the lifestyle wasn't sustainable. Missing family holidays and the inherent instability of performance work led Hughes to consider what might come next.
From Songbird to Wordsmith
To document her unique travel experiences with AIDA Cruises, Hughes started a blog. "It blew my mind," she says about her travel adventures. This personal project evolved into writing for travel blogs, allowing her to build a portfolio that eventually led to paid copywriting projects.
After a few years of getting her feet wet as a copywriter and marketer, Emily set her sights on a bigger goal: starting a business. She strategically searched for contract opportunities on LinkedIn, knowing a traditional nine-to-five wasn't for her. Within two weeks, she secured a two-year contract working 20 hours per week—earning enough to cover her living expenses without sacrificing independence. “I genuinely think my life changed,” she shares.
Testing, Testing (Is This Thing On?)
Hughes’s journey from contract copywriter to her current business model wasn't linear. As she built Emily Claire & Co., she experimented with various offers over the years before finding her sweet spot with a membership model.
- She created an online course on Udemy that, while not profitable on its own, proved fruitful when four students upgraded to her higher priced coaching offer.
- She provided one-on-one coaching for influencer marketing in a three-month program.
- She tried scaling through an agency model but quickly realized that wasn’t for her.
- She offered done-for-you email newsletters, which didn't initially find market demand.
"You adapt because you have to," she shares, speaking of how experimental the entrepreneurship journey can be. These pivots eventually led to The 10K Email Club, a “done-with-you" email marketing membership community for female founders.
Starting with just one member using Slack and Google Docs, Hughes has grown the club to approximately 40 members.
Steal These Moves
If you’re looking for ways to chart your own course to self-employment like she has, consider the following steps.
1. Recognize your strengths. Like Hughes instinctively started blogging, what skill sets or activities come naturally to you? Ask those around you or try strengths assessments if you’re still unsure of where to start.
2. Start building proof of concept. Hughes’s blog led to travel writing, which helped her build a copywriting portfolio. In what ways have you demonstrated and documented your new skills?
3. Be strategic with your next steps. Think creatively about how you can test your idea for self-employment without compromising your livelihood. For Hughes, it was searching for contract work on Linkedin. What strategy would work best for you?
4. Be flexible. Not every offer will succeed, but each effort will provide valuable data to inform your next decision. Get comfortable with testing and iterating throughout your entrepreneurial journey.
The path to fulfilling work on your own terms rarely follows a straight line. Like Emily Claire Hughes’s journey from sequin costumes on live stages to building a thriving business helping female founders harness the power of email marketing—we see that the path calls for creativity, persistence, adaptability, and alignment between your skills and market need.
"Communication became my superpower,” Hughes shares, “and copywriting unlocked doors all over the world for me." What superpower might be waiting to unlock doors for you?
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