The Blogger Genius Podcast

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#033: How to Be a Super Successful Creative Entrepreneur with Gabrielle Blair Sep 05, 2018

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You never know who you're going to get into a Lyft with at a conference. Lucky for me, it was Gabrielle Blair from the blog, Design Mom, and founder of the Alt Summit Conference. Listening to her, I learned so much about how to be a super successful creative entrepreneur. Gabby was one of the first design-focused bloggers, and she paired that with being a mother to six kids. In our conversation, we talk about how she started her blog and grew it, how she and her family started the Alt Summit Conference for other creative entrepreneurs. We even go deep and talk about Gabby's battle with depression, how so much of what we both do as bloggers isn't exactly "real," and how we both deal with comparing ourselves to others. Gabby is such a down-to-earth, honest, kind person, you will love our wide-ranging conversation! Resources: Design Mom Alt Summit Darlybird Dooce Apartment Therapy Design Sponge Oh Happy Day Say Yes Freshly Picked Solly Baby Tubby Todd Emily Henderson Kinfolk Books MiloTree Transcript: How to Be a Super Successful Creative Entrepreneur with Gabrielle Blair Host: [00:00:03] Welcome to The Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian: [00:00:10] Hey everyone. Welcome back to the show today. I am excited to bring on my friend, Gabrielle Blair. Now Gabrielle and I really we just met in a Lyft on the way back from the airport to the Mom 2.0 Conference Jillian: [00:00:30] But I have known you from afar. You are the brains and the creativity behind both Design Mom, which is a blog that you've had since you started in 2006. Gabrielle: [00:00:44] Yes. Jillian: [00:00:44] And you're also the founder of a conference that I've been dying to go to called Alt Summit, which is a conference for creative entrepreneurs and influencers and you have such a beautiful blog. So Gabrielle, welcome to the show. Gabrielle: [00:01:00] I am so glad to be here. Thank you for the invitation. Jillian: [00:01:03] And it was so serendipitous that we were waiting in line and you said screw this, we're taking a Lyft, and we got in the Lyft with a random group of people and you paid for the Lyft, which was so generous. And I said to you, would you be on my podcast? Gabrielle: [00:01:18] And I said yes. Jillian: [00:01:19] And you said yes. So will you, because I don't know your story. I've known you. But I don't know your story so you tell me from the beginning, how you started this and one other thing we have to talk about in this is that you have six children. Gabrielle: [00:01:34] This is true. I have six kids, but they're not all toddlers anymore. So whatever you're picturing, it's probably not what you're thinking. Gabrielle: [00:01:44] I'm happy to share my story. You bet. So Design Mom was started in 2006. This is 12 years ago this month, July and I had just had Baby Number Five two months before, and I worked and lived in New York. Gabrielle: [00:02:02] I worked in the city as an art director at an advertising agency. And I loved my job, but after babies, once we were getting so many kids at home, I knew I needed a break where I could do sort of like an extended maternity leave, where I can maybe work at home, do some freelance that kind of thing. Gabrielle: [00:02:19] And I also knew by this time having had lots of babies that I go crazy if I don't have something creative to do after the baby's born. It's just sort of classic postpartum depression, you know you get overwhelmed. And if I had something to engage my brain that was creative and exciting, I could avoid some of that. Dealing with depression as a blogger Gabrielle: [00:02:37] Which is great. And I'm very open about having dealt with depression and dealing with depression daily, so you can read about that on Design Mom if you ever want to. But we won't talk about that right now. Gabrielle: [00:02:52] So blogs were around, but were still pretty new and most of the blogs I read were essay blogs and I really loved them. But I attempted to write an essay on a blog post once, and just went, Oh yeah I'm not good at this. Gabrielle: [00:03:06] This is not, you know, I had barely done any writing at that point in my life, and was really just a designer. That was where my focus was, on graphic design and art direction. Early design blogs Gabrielle: [00:03:15] But then I found Design Sponge and Oh Joy. And they were both design blogs that are still around, but they were very new. And you'll remember this is before any kind of social media, it was just blogs. And so a blog post might be what would be like a pin now, where it would be cute shoes. I love the cat pattern or you know what I mean. Like just something so simple. And that would be a blog post on a design blog. [00:03:41] Like a product image and a statement or it could be so short and you might do this multiple times a day. Because again it's like an Instagram or a pin or or a status update. Gabrielle: [00:03:54] So I saw that and went, Oh well that I can probably handle, it's very visual, very minimal writing and I can fit that in if I'm in the middle of a night nursing the baby or whatever. I just have a few minutes it doesn't have to be like an intensive eight hour block of work time. So I called it Design Mom. Gabrielle: [00:04:17] And at the time again I'm in New York, and I was 31, and here I just had my fifth baby. But most of my peers were just getting married or having their first baby. Jillian: [00:04:29] Wow. How old were you when you had your first baby? Gabrielle: [00:04:32] I was 23. Jillian: [00:04:33] Wow. Being an early pro at motherhood Gabrielle: [00:04:34] So for my peers in New York, as they're just having their first one like I am a total pro. Right? You know, they're having their first and I just had number five so they're asking me for advice as a mom, but also you know, it's New York you want to be a cool mom. So they're asking me like where did you find cute cute toddler shoes? And do you throw a first birthday party? Who's invited? The kid doesn't really have friends yet. Gabrielle: [00:05:00] Anyway that just stuff like that. I'm getting asked advice or do you use a sling or do you you know, use a carrier pack and which brand and what was the best looking option. What about diaper bags and just everything you know maternity clothes all of it. Gabrielle: [00:05:13] So I was getting asked questions by friends, my neighbors, my co-workers, naturally and I thought well I could cover that on a blog and talk about parenting but kind of through this design lens. Design Mom and the tagline from the beginning was the intersection of design and motherhood. Gabrielle: [00:05:31] And this is what I'm going to cover and that's what I did. That's what I've covered it was just ideas I had, or again I'd find some great deal on something or a new product that was cool or whatever it might be, and talk about it. And I would post three times a day and that was the average sometimes more and it took off. So this was even before Google Analytics this is I mean 2006 was a whole different world. Jillian: [00:05:57] And this was the time where, tell me if this is how you did it, but you would have your favorite blogs and you check them every day. Gabrielle: [00:06:04] Oh yeah. Because again, no social media. This was amazing. So I didn't have Google Analytics but there was a product called Track-See, a little software that you could put on your blog and it would count how many followers or who was coming. Gabrielle: [00:06:21] It was revelatory for me because my blog post might get five or six comments. Usually people I knew in real life, neighbors or co-workers or family members. But I put Track See on and I could see,oh there are a hundred and fifty people that came to my blog today and I don't know any of them, you know you would just have their IP address. And maybe their city and I would go, whoa what in the world. I was just amazing. Gabrielle: [00:06:49] So so it was trying to figure out, well how can I get them to speak out more and you know like how could I get them to sort of acknowledge their presence. How do I do that you know? Because I think it's amazing that these many people are reading. It just blew my mind. Of course now I have much bigger traffic. But at the time that was a big deal to see that there were over 100 people reading. The first blog giveaway started with Design Mom Gabrielle: [00:07:12] So I said, well what if I did giveaway and I've been credited for inventing the first blog giveaway. I don't know if you can even track that down. But I thought I need to give them an excuse to comment. So what if there's a prize and you can say anything you want and you just have a comment to win? Gabrielle: [00:07:31] So my one of my husband's friends from high school, I knew she had started a cool little shop called Darlybird. And I reached out to her and said, Hey would you be up for offering a prize and it will be comment to win and it's just this idea I have, and then you know you'll ship the prize to the winner and we'll just randomly pick someone you know pick a number kind of thing and let's just try it. Gabrielle: [00:07:57] And she's like, sure. How about a pair of earrings and a bracelet, or you know she came up with a prize. So I did it and I had the instructions that said OK we're going to try something new. Comment. You can say anything you want, I even gave sample comments so you know to help them out. Jillian: [00:08:15] Wow. Gabrielle: [00:08:16] Like, Wow this is cute. Or you can say, Neato! or I want to win! You know you're basically just really simple because I knew there was a few barriers for that. You know, people weren't used to commenting that wasn't a thing. And then there was a little captcha. And that the first time you see it you're like What is this? You know that feels like an extra hurdle. Gabrielle: [00:08:35] And then of course it's intimidating to know you your words are just out there and your name might be associated with them, so I let them know. Oh you can. You can leave anonymous comment. You just need to have a real email address so I could contact you. But no one can see your email address. Gabrielle: [00:08:48] I'm kind of training them right. Teaching them how honesty works. And it was amazing so not all 100 plus readers commented but like 70 did. Jillian: [00:08:59] Wow. Gabrielle: [00:09:00] And I'm getting calls from all these people in real life that read my blog, you know neighbors are going. Who are these people? Where do they come from? Because of course they hadn't seen the stats from that. Jillian: [00:09:14] So they said this was just like a personal blog. Jillian: [00:09:17] Right. So they just thought OK so they're reading and the couple you know the few people commenting or reading, my sister's friends from church, friends in the neighborhood, you know things like that. Gabrielle: [00:09:28] And so they could not have been more shocked and I wasn't shocked because I knew I had seen the stats, but I still was shocked in that I didn't think 70 would, I thought I would maybe get 20 or something like that. Gabrielle: [00:09:40] So it was very exciting and immediately like the same day I got emails from must have been 10 or 15 different bloggers saying hey can I copy this? Can I copy and paste instructions? Can I do this because it was so effective. It's great way to sort of train people how to comment on a blog. Gabrielle: [00:09:59] And then of course it took off, and now it's just ubiquitous and of course are sort of obnoxious at this point. But it was a big deal at the time and I remember also having to explain to people. Every time there's a giveaway does that mean I get the prize. It goes directly to you, I usually don't even see it in person. Gabrielle: [00:10:20] Because they are already troubled with the idea that like I'm getting spoiled somehow by these I don't know. Anyway it was interesting. It's so intimate so personal, they don't like the idea that someone's making money from blogging at the time. Jillian: [00:10:38] Then how did you start monetizing online? Design Mom starting to monetize her blog Gabrielle: [00:10:41] OK so once I could see that there was traffic, once this giveaway thing took off. I was like, oh there's something here. No one was really monetizing their blog outside of display ads. I remember Heather Armstrong, Dooce had display ads and that was really kind of how you did it that, was it. Gabrielle: [00:11:01] And so but I felt like there was something there and I didn't have like an ad network to do to do display ads although within the next couple of years I got one but at first I just didn't even know how that worked or or how to how to go about that. Gabrielle: [00:11:15] So I started doing sponsorships right away just for trades. So one of the earliest ones I did is we were moving from New York, and we're moving to Colorado. And I approached I pitched moving companies. Moving moving across country is a big thing. Gabrielle: [00:11:35] And I approached moving companies and said I'm going to take these pictures on this blog post, you know gave them examples, showed them that some of that sample giveaways and just other stats I had at the time and said do you want to do a trade? Gabrielle: [00:11:50] I'll write about you, showcase the whole thing will do X number of blog posts. You know when we arrived, the unpacking all of this stuff make sure we're showing your trucks and let's trade. And Mayflowers said yes. So which was great because it is very very visual trucks so it worked really well. The green and yellow and they're really distinctive and for photography and stuff it was wonderful. Gabrielle: [00:12:18] This is pre-social media too. So blog content is really what the sponsor's getting. Then once I had that once I had built some of those trades I could actually start asking for money instead of trade. Gabrielle: [00:14:45] Trades are great, especially if you need it, but they don't buy groceries unless you're writing for grocery stores. I still I mean, I'm 12 years in, I'm established, I do this full time. I have plenty of paid sponsorships but I will still approach companies for a trade. If it's something that I need and I can get a great value out of that I'm totally fine with that. Jillian: [00:15:08] So give me an example of a trade that you recently did. How to approach brands about a trade as a blogger Gabrielle: [00:15:14] Sure, so I'm working on one right now for my boys' bedroom. My oldest son is getting home from two years abroad in Colombia. We haven't seen him for two years. He's been on a mission and he's getting home. Gabrielle: [00:15:27] We're redoing the boys' bedroom because while he's been gone it's been sort of half guestroom. It's just been in transition. So we're going OK he's getting home, he's older now. He probably won't even live in this room very long, but I want him to have a space when he gets home that feels like his own. You know just feel like he's got a spot. Gabrielle: [00:15:45] So I approached Room and Board, who I've worked with before and said, "Hey how about how about the social media package and blog package?" And I basically will price out OK I'm going to give you X number of post and X number of Facebook and X number of Instagram and I value that X number of dollars and then they'll trade for that amount of credit. Gabrielle: [00:16:08] And t…

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#032: How To Win On Instagram NOW With Sue B. Zimmerman Aug 29, 2018

Show notes

Today, I'm talking with Instagram expert, Sue B. Zimmerman. We talk about how to win on Instagram NOW -- what's working and what's not. Listen to me in the hot seat as Sue critiques my Catch My Party Instagram page. She was definitely blunt, but since I'm always looking to learn, I was interested to hear what she had to say. I think you will be too! Resources: Social Media Examiner Social Media Marketing World Sue B. Zimmerman Catch My Party Catch My Party Instagram MiloTree * May contain affiliate links. If you click and make a purchase, I might receive a small commission at no cost to you. Transcript: How To Win On Instagram NOW With Sue B. Zimmerman Host: [00:00:03] Welcome to The Blogger Genius Podcast, brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian: [00:00:11] Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the show. I am so excited to introduce my guest today because I am a fan girl of hers. This is Sue B. Zimmerman. Jillian: [00:00:24] I think of her as an Instagram guru. She's like a social media educator, she's a business coach. According to The Huffington Post, she's "one of the top 15 must-follow women entrepreneurs." If you are not following her, I recommend you do so. Welcome to the show, Sue. Sue: [00:00:43] Hey, it's really great to be here. And I love that you told me when we were pregaming, that you heard me in your ears when you were on vacation in Hawaii years ago. Jillian: [00:00:52] Yes. It was just as Instagram was this kind of cool platform, but nobody yet had cracked the code of how to use it for business. Jillian: [00:01:04] And all of a sudden I was listening to a podcast when you were on it, and you started talking about that and you made my eyes go wide. I think it was a podcast on Social Media Examiner. Sue: [00:01:18] Yes. Probably, because you said that you then met me at Social Media Marketing World this past year. Jillian: [00:01:22] Yes. And I stalked you. I ran off the stage and followed you, kind of into the back, where I shouldn't have been. And I said Sue, please come on my podcast. Sue: [00:01:33] Oh that's so funny. I do remember you now, and yes I do have a lot of stalkers but I love all of them, so it's all good. Jillian: [00:01:40] I feel like I want to start from the beginning, but I also want to make sure we touch on all the stuff that's happening on Instagram. Because there have been so many new things rolled out just in the last month or so. Instagram is a village Sue: [00:01:55] Yeah, this might set you up for some good questions, and I know that you have some in mind but let me just first say to everyone listening that, you know, Instagram is really a village. There's over 1 billion monthly active users now. Sue: [00:02:11] When I first started teaching six years ago, there was 140 million active users so the app is growing like crazy. And now there are neighborhoods in the village. That's what I like to say. On Instagram, your feed is your digital magazine Sue: [00:02:24] I use this analogy, I think it really makes people think more clearly about this app. So we have our feed which is what we've had all along, and that essentially is your digital magazine where the bio is the cover of that magazine; who you are, what you do, why you do it, and how you're different from everyone else that does what you do. Sue: [00:02:45] And then your feed is a representation visually of that content that you promised in your bio. And then we have another neighborhood which is our stories. Jillian: [00:02:55] Yes. Instagram Stories is another neighborhood in that village Sue: [00:02:56] And there's a street in that neighborhood called Highlights, because in order to have highlights, you have to pull down the content from the Stories and bring those resources into your highlights. And then we have Instagram Live, the third neighborhood. And then finally we have IGTV. Sue: [00:03:13] So there is a lot that we can talk about, but I want the listeners to know that no matter which neighborhood you commit to visiting and hanging out in, it's essential that you always show up with purpose focus and attention in a branded way that your followers will connect to you right now. Jillian: [00:03:35] What do you say though to entrepreneurs, so our audience is bloggers, small business owners, that kind of thing. And I always say this, their most limited resource is time. Sue: [00:03:48] Right. Jillian: [00:03:49] So you're telling me there are all these avenues, all these places where I might need to be. Sue: [00:03:55] Right. Well I mean I coach a lot of clients, and I have a lot of people in my VIP community for Ready Set Gram which is our signature course. And I tell people that you should not feel like you need to be everywhere because your competitor is, you need to be where you're happy being, where it doesn't really feel like work. Choose a social media platform that doesn't feel like work Sue: [00:04:19] If you're saying, oh my god, I've got to go post on Instagram it totally sucks, and I just checked it off my to-do list, next! You probably shouldn't be there, because so much of the success on Instagram happens after the post with engagement which we can get into soon. Sue: [00:04:33] But I tell my clients to master one social platform, know every nuance, every tidbit of information on how to excel and show up in a way that people are going to remember you so that you stay top of mind. Sue: [00:04:49] The more you spread yourself too thin and you just do random things, you're just going to get random results. Sue: [00:04:55] And that's the problem with most busy solo entrepreneurs, creative-preneurs is they just do random things thinking that they need to do all the things and and they don't have any traction. Jillian: [00:05:06] Got it. Okay. So if I were an entrepreneur today and given that you you laid out all these different features and places on Instagram, can you recommend one over the other? What part of Instagram should I focus on? Feed, Stories, Instagram Live, IGTV? Sue: [00:05:23] It goes back to what do you enjoy doing because a lot of people hate being on video. So they like have palpitations about like doing Instagram Live or doing IGTV, or maybe showing up in their Stories. Sue: [00:05:35] You know it has to be where you have a comfort level. And when you have a comfort level, you have confidence, and when you have confidence you show up in a great way. Sue: [00:05:43] The minute you are not comfortable doing something, it just doesn't translate well and again you get those mediocre results. Jillian: [00:05:53] Got it. OK. Because right now I have to say, a switch turned in me where I said I want to be more active on Stories. I was having those heart palpitations just feeling like Oh I don't know what to put on. And I don't think people are going to really care. Jillian: [00:06:13] And then I somehow shifted my mindset and said let's play around with this. Let's start exploring gifs and music, and all these new features and just have fun with it. And I know that for example, in my Stories they're going to go away in 24 hours. And that freedom has really helped me. Sue: [00:06:36] Oh yeah. I mean, first of all people, a lot of people really love my persona because I am so real and relatable and not perfect by any means, and I show up in that way in my Stories. What is the magic of Instagram Stories? Sue: [00:06:52] And so you get a real sense of the intimacy of that person and that, to me, is the magic of Instagram Stories. When you can craft a story that is entertaining, compelling, interesting, funny, behind-the-scenes, you name it. Sue: [00:07:06] If you can really connect to your followers in some way that makes them want to engage and converse with you, you now have a conversation. Jillian: [00:07:18] OK so I just have to interrupt, I see people though, in their Stories and let's say they have Etsy shops, or let's say they're creative in some way, but I'm watching their Story, their kids jumping in the pool and I don't care that much. So then I get worried like, I don't want to show my kid jumping in the pool. Sue: [00:07:43] Oh, agree. I know I am not interested in a day in the life of you as a mom. You know, what you do, what you eat, where you go that's on a personal-business account not a business-business account not a business Instagram account. Sue: [00:07:58] So I have two accounts, you probably know this. I have a personal, where I show the day in the life of a busy entrepreneur. Why you want a personal and a business account on Instagram Sue: [00:08:05] And yes I do show you my husband occasionally, and my kids, my dog, where I go, where I shop, where I eat, where I travel and people like that, because a lot of people live vicariously through my travels, because I am on the go, and I show them things that they never would have seen. And I do it in a way that is entertaining. Sue: [00:08:24] Now on my personal account, the Instagram Expert, I'm always showing up with and only with Instagram-related content for tips and strategies and news and tactics. And it's very laser focused. Sue: [00:08:37] I say stay in your lane. Stay in your lane and don't detour. The minute you detour and show me that you're having... you know cheers, it's 5:00p.m. somewhere, Margarita time like I don't care. Jillian: [00:08:50] Right. Sue: [00:08:51] Good for you. Exactly. Jillian: [00:08:53] Okay, I get it. So you then use both accounts very differently. Sue: [00:08:59] Oh yeah I'm very intentional, very very intentional. So Sue B. Zimmerman is literally me. If you want to connect with me as an entrepreneur. Sue: [00:09:11] I don't know if you know this, I've been an entrepreneur. since I was 13. I've had 18 businesses. I had my first million dollar business when I was 22. I was on QVC. Sue: [00:09:21] I've got lots of wisdom and information that backs up the claims of everything I teach and do. It's based on experience and not just you know "I'm an expert." It's like I had success in my store on the Cape using Instagram first. And I had a very very successful store. Sue: [00:09:42] I decided that I wanted to teach other people how to have the same kind of success because retailers were challenged and struggling and that's really how I got into starting to teach Instagram is as a small business owner who went through it. Sue: [00:09:57] I was on Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, doing everything to get more customers, and the minute I started using Instagram, my sales increased dramatically, so much so that I'm just like this is crazy. And so I just knew I was on a mission. Sue: [00:10:18] Do you know who John Lee Dumas is? Jillian: [00:10:19] Of course! Sue: [00:10:19] John Lee Dumas is a good friend of mine, he interviewed me on his podcast. And if you go search Sue B. Zimmerman, John Lee Dumas, you'll see he challenged me on that interview. Sue: [00:10:27] I said, I did a video kind of staking my claim teaching Instagram and that video's like five years old. I got back from a conference and just said I'm going to teach everyone all over the world how to use Instagram. Sue: [00:10:43] So like I just kind of manifested what I wanted and I don't stop till I get what I want. I'm that entrepreneur. I'm that focused that determined. Sue: [00:10:52] And so six years later. Yes, six years later I have a business that's thriving, it's extremely successful. I have two full time employees. I have five contractors. We're a mighty team of seven and I play to my strengths every day. Sue: [00:11:09] And not everyone has that luxury. I don't want to go down a rabbit hole here with you, but that's just to give a little context to everything I'm saying. Jillian: [00:11:16] Absolutely. Absolutely. OK so here's here's my question, is the goal with Instagram connection? Is it, I want people to interact with me? Or is it I just want to kind of blast out my life? Instagram is about connecting and having a conversation Sue: [00:11:33] No no no. I mean everything's always, like I said, with intention. I believe that a comment on Instagram, if someone leaves a comment on Instagram, a real comment, not a follow me BS but I hope I can say that on your podcast. Sue: [00:11:50] OK so if somebody leaves a real comment in my mind, that is permission for you to have a conversation, meaning you can respond. I mean you should. You should respond to every comment. Sue: [00:12:03] But meaning you could take that conversation deeper if you wanted, to you could strategically have conversations one to one in the Instagram Direct Message because conversations lead to building a thriving community. Sue: [00:12:16] And when you, and when you have a thriving community of people who champion for you and endorse what you do, and talk about you, when you're not listening and tag you on posts and repost your content then you have conversions. Sue: [00:12:29] And conversions, we all want them. Are things like growing your email lists or actually selling something but it doesn't start there. And that's where people have the biggest problem. They want to have a sale first without even saying hi or commenting or connecting. Sue: [00:12:48] You've got to connect with a comment to have a conversation, you know to take that conversation deeper. And I do this. I have blocks on my calendar, twice a day, where I am spending time engaging in real conversations, and people ask me questions I answer. I direct them to a blog post I've written I've direct them to an IGTV video I've done. I direct them to an Instagram post. Sue: [00:13:15] I give them the information they need and I build that trust and so when they are ready to purchase something from me, or maybe join my group coaching or buy my hashtag handbook or purchase one of my social media classes, like my instagram Story class or a hashtag class or a course I can direct them where they need to go and not sell them. Sue: [00:13:37] No one likes to be sold to. No one. People want the thing that's going to help them get what their pain point is, like what are their challenges. Jillian: [00:13:47] Right. As a busy entrepreneur I think that we think about Instagram as brand building. And by the way, that's really abstract. How Instagram is brand building Jillian: [00:14:01] I think we think about it in a really abstract way and what you're saying is very different. Sue: [00:14:06] Oh but also I believe when it's done well, absolutely it's brand building. If you have a branded look and feel an energy around your content, you will attract your tribe. You will attract those that you are trying to serve. Sue: [00:14:23] But if it's not branded or there's not a theme or a message or information that's relevant to attract that person you're not going to have results. Jillian: [00:14:35] Right. But I think though you're taking it to another level then I think I typically think, when I think of Instagram. Which is for me it's more amorphous brand building. Jillian: [00:14:46] So for example, Catch My Party, which is our first business. We have something like 150 thousand Instagram followers, and we show off content from our site which is all about parties. People upload their photos of their beautiful parties we show them off. Jillian: [00:15:04] And so for me it's always felt like this is our way of giving back to our community, to say here we want to highlight these people who've done amazing work, hopefully send some followers their way. But I think that I have not taken it to another l…

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#031: How to Make Serious Money with Affiliate Marketing with Angela Davis Aug 22, 2018

Show notes

Angela Davis from the blog, Frugal Living NW, makes over six figures a year and works part time. She does this all with affiliate marketing. In this episode, we delve into her strategies and tips on how to make serious money with affiliate marketing. We go through what types of links to add to your posts, why patience is key, and what affiliate networks are the best. Join me and learn the secrets to increasing your blog's passive income! Resources: Frugal Living NW Catch My Party Amazon Associates MiloTree Affiliate Program ShareASale Commission Junction LinkShare Impact Radius Facebook.com/FrugalLivingNW MiloTree Transcript – How to Make Serious Money with Affiliate Marketing with Angela Davis Host: [00:00:01] Welcome to the Blogger Genius Podcast, brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian: [00:00:09] Hey everyone. Welcome back to the show. Today, my guest is Angela Davis. Angela is a blogger at the blog, Frugal Living Northwest, and she is also an affiliate marketing expert. So welcome to the show, Angela! Angela: [00:00:27] Thanks, I'm happy to be here. Jillian: [00:00:28] So I am really excited because one thing that I don't think I've delved deep into is affiliate marketing. So to have somebody who lives and breathes this is so exciting for me. Angela: [00:00:42] Well I am excited to share with your listeners how they can make more money off of the work that they're already doing on their websites and their platforms. Affiliate marketing -- how to make money quickly as a blogger Jillian: [00:00:52] And one thing is that when I've asked people in the past if you're new, you know, if you were to give advice for how new bloggers can make money quickly, a lot of them will say affiliate marketing. Angela: [00:01:07] Yes, I don't know about the quickly part. But I think that affiliate marketing is the place that you should start, especially if you're beginning or really, anywhere you are right now start adding those links in. Angela: [00:01:23] Because now is the time to start to start getting that money rolling in. It's we can talk about this little bit later as well but I feel like affiliate marketing is a slow burn. Angela: [00:01:35] You're not going to make a ton of money starting right out. It's more kind of like doing the work now, so that in the future you can continue to earn money on the work that you're creating. Jillian: [00:01:47] Ok, so before we get into it, can you describe what affiliate marketing is? What is affiliate marketing? Angela: [00:01:55] You could think of it kind of like making referral money. So when you promote another business or brands product or service that you get basically a commission when you make the sale. Angela: [00:02:10] So if you sell something to a reader, that business will give you a cut of the amount that the purchase of that item was. Angela: [00:02:20] So it could either be a percentage, so between you know zero point one percent all the way up to, it can be pretty big like 50 to 70 percent of that the price that the person paid. Or it could be a flat fee for you bringing that customer to the brand or business. Jillian: [00:02:37] Okay. Could we start with then how you started your blog and how you got into affiliate marketing? Angela: [00:02:45] Well back in 2008 I stumbled upon a blog I didn't know. It was a blog I guess it was a website. And this woman was sharing how she was using coupons at the grocery store in the drugstores to get a lot of stuff for free. And some of the stuff she was even making money on. Angela: [00:03:02] And so I am frugal by nature, or maybe I was taught to be frugal as a child and so I was completely hooked. I was like, "This is the most amazing thing I've ever experienced." I apparently have low expectations in life and so I started doing it myself. Angela: [00:03:21] I had at that point three little little kids and I would drag them around town and we would go couponing. And it was so much fun. Starting a coupon blog Angela: [00:03:30] Then about the end of 2008, I realized I was like I think I should start a blog. I should do the same thing helping women in particularly the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. learn how to use coupons and then help them learn how to use coupons to get free stuff and cheap stuff and help their grocery budget every single week. Angela: [00:03:51] And so a friend and I started a blog. I don't know how I figured it out. I think I Googled a little bit. That became became FrugalLivingNW.com. Angela: [00:03:59] Actually it was very good timing on my part because then that's when we all realized that the market had crashed and so many women my age in their late 20s 30s 40s, they were either losing jobs, or their husbands were losing their jobs and they needed to save money quickly. And so I had a captive audience from the very beginning. Angela: [00:04:27] And so we went along for a couple of years doing that and then in about 2010 my blog was still growing. I was just hustling because I enjoyed it so much. Why you need to treat your blog as a business and not a hobby Angela: [00:04:36] My husband and I went to a blogging conference and I had this aha moment that if I were going to continue to do this, I needed to treat the blog as a business instead of a hobby. So if I wanted to make money, and really in order for my husband to be on board with me spending so much time on this website, we needed to be making money. Angela: [00:05:00] So we decided at that conference that we were going to treat the blog as a business and give it the time and energy that it required to be a business, and to make money because there's one thing that my husband and I, we both love to save money but we love to make money even more. Angela: [00:05:20] Then back in 2010-2011 that started a journey for me to figure out how I could monetize my blog and my content while still having the type of life I wanted to have with my family my friends and my community. Jillian: [00:05:35] And wait, you've got five kids. Angela: [00:05:38] Yeah. Yeah I've added some since then. No I mean I still have five. But I'm glad I started out I had three and then we added two more. So yeah I have a boatload of kids. Angela: [00:05:51] So probably for the last eight years I've been experimenting with different ways to monetize my site using different strategies. All the while I'm helping women and families live well on a budget in the Pacific Northwest. Angela: [00:06:04] So like I had this mission to help women and families live well on a budget, particularly in Oregon, Washington, Idaho but also how can I make money while doing that. Angela: [00:06:14] So if there's a way to make money with a blog I have most likely tried it. So at this point with my web site I don't work a whole lot because again I never have been able to work anywhere close to full time because again the children. Working part time as a blogger and making six figures with affiliate marketing Angela: [00:06:34] But I make my blog earn six figures and I work probably a little bit less than what most people work part time. Jillian: [00:06:41] Wow wow. OK let's dig in. So tell us your secrets. How do you do that? Angela: [00:06:50] The secret is that there are absolutely no secrets. I know that people don't want to hear that, do they, but it's really the truth. Jillian: [00:06:59] It's funny because we have another site called, Catch My Party, and we have a lot of traffic and people tell me all the time like how did you do that? And I say it is a long slog. And if there were a magic bullet you'd better believe we'd be using it. Angela: [00:07:17] Amen. There is no magic bullet. It is hustle. There is some luck involved, like if you were to look at my story you know I started my blog 10 years ago when there weren't a lot of blogs and there were a lot of women who were at home looking for a way to contribute to their household income. Jillian: [00:07:38] Right. And the economy tanked. So you were right there. Angela: [00:07:42] Yeah and there weren't a lot of people around yet. So if I were to start the same blog today it would not take off. I would not be you know, earning six figures working part time. It would be a completely different story. Jillian: [00:07:55] OK. So yes so as I was saying, you don't have any secrets but what strategies? OK so somebody is a blogger, I mean let's start with the new blogger and what you were talking about which is how to think like an affiliate marketer. Do not be scared of selling as an affiliate marketer Angela: [00:08:14] First of all my biggest piece of advice is DO NOT BE SCARED OF SELLING. Jillian: [00:08:20] Ooh. Jillian: [00:08:21] You can not be afraid to sell. Now my website is a bit unique and deal blogs, the niche that I'm in, we're a little unique in that generally I have readers coming to me ready to buy. They're like, show me the deals. Tell me what's a good deal on Amazon, tell me how I can save money in different ways. Angela: [00:08:44] So they're already ready to purchase. So there are some of your listeners that are like, my readers aren't coming to me to buy something, they're coming to me to learn something to be inspired. But in general they are OK being sold to. And they actually expect to be sold to. Angela: [00:09:05] Now there's going to be a handful of people that are going to fuss at you about selling, especially if you have not been doing it, or you're trying to do it super covertly, like maybe I'll sneak this in and they won't realize they know what's happening. Angela: [00:09:20] It's not the 30s or 40s anymore, people realize when they're being sold to. You're going to get some people are going to fuss at you at first, and that's okay. That's absolutely to be expected. I still have people fussing at me. It's usually people emailing me in all caps and I see an email in all caps I'm like. See you later. Angela: [00:09:36] I don't have time for that. But be ok with selling, and once you convince yourself that it is okay for you to make money on the work that you are producing, a whole new world opens up. So, be okay with selling. Jillian: [00:09:54] So the first is the mindset shift and I know a lot of women who struggle with this. Angela: [00:10:02] Yes. I don't know any men who sit around feeling bad that they are earning an income from their work. But for some reason women do. Jillian: [00:10:13] Yep, somehow they're losing their authenticity. I was at a conference with a woman who is also an affiliate marketer but yet she struggles with selling. Jillian: [00:10:26] That somehow she's selling out, somehow she's she's not as credible. And I said, Oh no. You're even more credible because you're trying to help people, and saying I'm making a living at the same time so I can be more helpful. Angela: [00:10:42] Exactly. And you get buy in from your family and your community when you're making money off of the work that you're doing it. And there is nothing that we can do to fix the culture that makes us kind of feel icky or like maybe we should be giving away our work. That's just how it is. Angela: [00:11:01] You just got to tell yourself it is OK. But you have to overcome what you're hearing from people and what you feel inside, it is ok to hustle and make money from the work that you're doing and actually you're serving your reader well when you point them to products and services that you know will be helpful to them. Angela: [00:11:22] There is nothing more maddening for me as a reader or a consumer of content when I see someone that I think is really awesome, she's a good writer, she's giving me really good tips and she doesn't tell me how to get the things she's talking about. Jillian: [00:11:37] Yes. Angela: [00:11:37] Or she doesn't give me a call to action. That's almost disappointing. So there is going to be a lot of readers coming to you who are looking to purchase something because you're solving a problem for them. So give them that opportunity. Angela: [00:11:53] You may as well make be making money off of it. So that's my encouragement. Just get over that whole being scared of how people will see your work if you're making money. Jillian: [00:12:04] I like that. Ok, so I'm a new blogger. And let's pick a category. I am a kids' activity blogger. Angela: [00:12:14] Ok. Jillian: [00:12:14] Ok. I am the teacher. Let's say I was a teacher and now I'm staying home with my kids. I do really fun stuff at home with them. I've documented it. What would you say to me? How can I start making affiliate money? Start adding affiliate links to your blog posts Angela: [00:12:28] Well this is probably the lamest answer on earth, but really just start doing it. You don't have to have a plan. Angela: [00:12:36] What I want you to do is the post you were writing right now, I want you to add affiliate links to it. So you're going to look at just what you're doing right now. Start with that post. Angela: [00:12:48] So look at the posts that you're writing and say what products am I talking about? What products can I talk about that would feel natural and helpful to my readers, that would help them do what I'm doing, and then add an affiliate link. Angela: [00:13:04] So there's going to be a little bit of work involved, especially if you are just starting out, where you have to figure out where can help my readers buy this product? And then you have to go sign up to be an affiliate for that for that company or that brand. Jillian: [00:13:20] So sorry I was going to say. Do you recommend that just starting with Amazon Associates? Start doing affiliate marketing with Amazon Associates Angela: [00:13:27] Always. So what I always encourage people to do is to say, where is the easiest place for your reader to purchase this product? Nine times out of ten it's going to be Amazon. Now if you go to Amazon and you're like this product is $120 here, and it's $20 at Michaels.com, well obviously you're going to promote Michael's. Angela: [00:13:48] But most likely they're going to find a pretty reasonable price and that product will be available at Amazon. So start with Amazon. Angela: [00:13:56] The other great thing about Amazon or let's say Walmart or Target or a big brand like that is that you're not going to have to also convince your reader that that place that you want them to purchase, the product at is legit. Jillian: [00:14:12] Yep. Angela: [00:14:13] So like I as your reader, I'm going to look at this item that you're telling me that will make my life better. Doing activities with my kids. If you link to Amazon, I don't have to go over the hurdle of is this place reputable how much is the shipping? How long is it going to take to get to me? Angela: [00:14:32] So that's why Amazon and the other big names are good to start with because your readers are just going to have to decide if they want the product or not. Instead of also adding, am I comfortable with the platform? Angela: [00:14:46] The thing to think about with Amazon and the other big retailers is that the percentage that you will earn off of that when you sell that item is fairly small compared to some of the other things that are out there that you can earn money off of. But that's OK. Angela: [00:15:03] So I don't want you to go into your post today, put some Amazon links in there and then expect that you're going to make tons of money off of it. You will not. It's going to be a very slow slow bur…

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#030: The Easiest Ways to Make Money as a Blogger with Monica Froese (Part 2) Aug 15, 2018

Show notes

In this Part 2 interview with Monica Froese from the blog, Redefining Mom, we delve into the easiest ways to make money as a blogger. If you're trying to monetize your blog quickly, this episode is for you! Monica shares why Pinterest is the best platform for affiliate income and why you should invest in Promoted Pins. Plus we talk about how to pivot your business as you grow, and why you shouldn't be scared to do it! Resources: Redefining Mom Moolah Marketing ConvertKit Your Modern Family MiloTree *Some of these links may be affiliate links and I might make a small commission at no cost to you if you click. Transcript – The Easiest Ways to Make Money as a Blogger with Monica Froese (Part 2) Host: [00:00:03] Welcome to The Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian: [00:00:10] Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Blogger Genius podcast. I am here with Part 2 of my interview with Monica Froese. I don't know if you remember, but we left off with what to do if you've got six months and you need to make money and your husband isn't understanding what you're doing. So without further ado, here is Part 2 of my interview. Jillian: [00:00:35] Let's say I've done this and I've got a six month runway to make a business, to prove to my husband that this isn't just a pipe dream. Now what what are some of the easiest ways to start bringing income in? Easy ways to start making money as a blogger Jillian: [00:00:51] I put up a blog right. I get that up and running. Now I have no people. I don't even know what I'm doing. Where can I quickly make money? Monica: [00:01:01] The quickest wins I've ever had online came from Pinterest and affiliate marketing, these are the two quick wins. Especially affiliate marketing with Pinterest. You know they had cut it off for a while. They didn't allow affiliate links at all. Monica: [00:01:19] And I'm going to be honest, I'm not a big believer in putting direct affiliate links on Pinterest. I prefer to drive people to my site. Jillian: [00:01:30] OK so let's go through what each of those is. Monica: [00:01:35] The first way that you could do affiliate marketing on Pinterest is you could make a pin and link it to an affiliate link so that when someone clicks on it they're not going to your site. Make money with affiliate links on Pinterest Monica: [00:01:44] Let's say just as an example, you took a blogging course. You really love it. Now you're an affiliate of it and you want to promote it on Pinterest, so you would link directly to that person. Jillian: [00:01:56] And you would add your affiliate link to the pin. Monica: [00:02:00] Yes. Jillian: [00:02:01] Now Amazon is not happy about that anymore, is that correct? Monica: [00:02:05] That's correct. You cannot use Amazon affiliate links on Pinterest. Jillian: [00:02:10] OK, but you could for example though, let's say I love this pan from Amazon. Can you do this? I love this pan. I take pictures of my pan in my house. I then do a blog post about these awesome pans. Then I use that as a pin on Pinterest, it links back to my blog. But that is an affiliate. Monica: [00:02:33] Yes. And I strongly believe that is the better way to do it, even if Amazon was totally fine with you linking directly to them, even though they're not. Monica: [00:02:43] But even if they were, I strongly recommend getting the person to come to your site first. For so many reasons. The first reason being that you are, you're now getting the pageview. So you could choose to monetize your site with ads which could make you money. Monica: [00:02:58] But if you don't want to do ads, which I didn't do ads for the longest time and I'm actually just doing it now as an experiment, and I don't even know if I'll keep it. But right now I am running ads. Monica: [00:03:07] The other thing is I'm a huge huge believer in converting Pinterest traffic into email subscribers because once they're an email subscriber, you can market to them with affiliate links and all sorts of different ways forever as long as they stick around. Monica: [00:03:22] But if you think about it, if you get a click to an affiliate link to someone else's site you've lost them, you've lost all ability to do anything with them at that point. So that I just kind of take off the table personally. Monica: [00:03:34] Then if you take the tactic of getting them to your site with the purpose of explaining something affiliate driven. Whether it's like a course that you want to tell them about, or products on Amazon, that's great too. Monica: [00:03:49] But the method I actually prefer is giving them value in the post, a value driven blog post. And giving a single call to action that gets them on your email list and then once they're on your email list by all means direct them to your affiliates. Jillian: [00:04:09] Interesting. OK so you, because your business is all about helping moms grow businesses, you are picking affiliate programs or products that fit in with that. Monica: [00:04:23] So I have two sides a little bit. The side I focus on and my most revenue generating side is by far marketing tactics. So helping moms start their businesses and really understanding the data behind it. I like data driven stuff. Monica: [00:04:40] So how you can leverage different analytic things to bring traffic to your site. Mainly I focus on email marketing and Pinterest for that. Monica: [00:04:49] But I have a side of my business that is more passive that I have a lot of old content, mom driven content and especially when I had Maria this march. I had a lot of second-time mom content that I was putting up. Monica: [00:05:04] Like second time c-section stuff and things like that. And those I drive primarily using affiliate links I send them through a different funnel once they get on my email list, like a mom funnel kind of. Jillian: [00:05:20] That's so interesting. And then what kinds of products are you promoting? Promoting courses through affiliate links Monica: [00:05:26] So there's some Amazon but I have others. So Crystal Payne from Money Saving Mom, she has some really great courses for time management for moms with Make Over Your Mornings, Make Over Your Evenings which I actually found extremely beneficial balancing my own time. I took both and it really helped me. Monica: [00:05:44] So I recommend those, I try try to find courses, products, ebooks, checklists whatever it might be from other bloggers because I feel I would love to help other mom bloggers in the space grow their income and their following. Monica: [00:06:02] So when I was pregnant, and I was doing more c section posts and second time mom post I was looking for breastfeeding courses, and there is one that I found just by networking and Facebook groups and other blogging Facebook groups. I would just ask. "I have this post going up about you know C-section recovery. Do you have any products you recommend?" Monica: [00:06:28] So a lot of the products I linked from Amazon some of them from Target and I honestly I feel like that side of my business is very passive. Monica: [00:06:38] I know people say there's no such thing as passive income and it's not like I don't put work into it. A blog post is work, getting the affiliate links is work, setting up the email funnels is work and there's certainly work went into it and now they run pretty much on their own. Jillian: [00:06:53] Wow. So what's interesting about you is you've been able to take your life. The two sides of your life, your business side and your mom side and create small subset businesses out of both. Monica: [00:07:07] Under the same brand. Jillian: [00:07:08] Under the same brand, like you've been able to, and we talk about this on the podcast a lot of like niching down and not spreading yourself too thin. Monica: [00:07:17] So I just listened to your episode with Rachel Miller and I am in Rachel's course, her Facebook course and she is the niche down queen. She I mean she really hones in on things and builds them into explosive businesses. And she capitalizes on trends and all of that. Monica: [00:07:37] And I thought about this a lot. Especially when I was listening to that episode because I do feel like you can have a brand that is multifaceted but there are areas and different times within that brand that you are super focused. Monica: [00:07:52] Like right now, my business is super super focused on Promoted Pins. I found it as a spot that people needed education in. People were asking for it, so I created a course around it. Monica: [00:08:06] A lot of my day to day now is focused on helping people with Promoted Pins. Whether that's DIY or helping people actually get their campaigns up or running, campaigns for people. Monica: [00:08:21] I feel like I'm very niched there, but I didn't create a whole new website for it. I just pivot what I'm putting out at that time. And over time you get good at segmenting your email list, you send things to the right people. Jillian: [00:08:36] Right. And what email service are you using? Monica: [00:08:39] Convertkit. Jillian: [00:08:41] Convertkit. Yeah yeah okay. Monica: [00:08:43] So I have segments set up in there where I have a lot of funnels. I am a one woman show at this point. I have some contractors but very limited help that I get at this time, and I have a six figure business. Monica: [00:08:59] I'm a perfectionist and Type A, and I've had to learn to let go of some of that because not everything is perfect all the time. Sometimes I have typos and sometimes people cross pollinate in my funnels and so they might get more than one email in a day and it's unintentional but it happened. Monica: [00:09:21] I have this philosophy that I do the best I can. And I always have my reader at the forefront of my mind and I try to do what's best by her. And you know it might not be perfect all the time but it's as close as I can get it. Jillian: [00:09:36] Right and you know there was a previous episode with my friend, Becky Mansfield, and she is very similar in that she is a family lifestyle blog. Jillian: [00:09:46] But as her kids grow and she faces new things, she has seven different products, seven different lines to her business. And she too has different email funnels where she is being of service. But one could be about clean eating. And one could be about potty training. Monica: [00:10:09] Yeah I am follow her. Your Modern Family, right? Jillian: [00:10:12] Right exactly. Monica: [00:10:13] Yeah I watched her talk two years ago, that's where she was talking about her funnels how she sets them up. There are seven different ones that people go down each and they might cross over into the other one. Monica: [00:10:25] Actually I feel like she might have been one of the turning points for me, when I listened to her talk. Because I did feel the pressure that when I was pivoting. How to pivot as a blogger Monica: [00:10:34] Because I started as a working mom blog and it was a lot of corporate topics, talking to corporate working moms. A lot of time management, how to balance working outside the home. And as I got further away from that I couldn't really sustain a blog on that because I don't leave the house to work. Jillian: [00:10:49] Right. Right. Monica: [00:10:51] So I had to pivot but that doesn't mean the content that I had put up is bad content. It still drives me traffic. It still drives me sales and I don't even touch it anymore. So I don't see the problem with evolving with your brand. Monica: [00:11:07] My name was an accident. My brand is Redefining Mom. Which if you think about it, you can always redefine yourself like I can always use that brand for other things. Jillian: [00:11:16] Yes. You know what I like about this, is again your first piece of advice which is just start. And then it's like, you don't have to have all your ducks in a row. You don't have to know exactly what your niche is, like start with a niche and see how it goes. Jillian: [00:11:32] And as you change and evolve and as your baby grows or your family changes or who knows what, you can then do what you're doing. Jillian: [00:11:40] Which is now Promoted Pins. And again it's the internet, so maybe that will last forever, maybe it will be in six months you find something else. But that you can then figure out how to grow that. Monica: [00:11:58] There was a great post I just read from Michael Stelzner from Social Media Examiner. He said essentially that influencers come in and out of the space. People burn out of talking about the same topic. So they'll go. Monica: [00:12:16] And you can see it in a lot of big influencers, too. But someone will like hone in on Pinterest and they'll do it for a year or two maybe even three and then they'll get burned out and they'll start pivoting towards a different topic in the online marketing sphere. Monica: [00:12:31] And so it's OK to come and go from different topics based on where you are in life if you're a lifestyle blogger. You know in 10 years from now, I hope to still have my brand and you know I can't predict necessarily where I'll be in 10 years. But I know I'm not going be talking about c-sections in 10 years, I'm done having kids. Monica: [00:12:52] But that content is still there and it's just in the background. Even if you go to my site today, you're not going to see this splash page of c-section tips for new moms or second time moms. Monica: [00:13:04] Really the only way you're going to get to it is if you find it on Pinterest and I keyword it well. That's why I love Pinterest to be honest with you and Google, but I can't profess to be best at organic search on Google. But I am very good at keywording on Pinterest. Monica: [00:13:26] And so I could have all these different areas of my business because I can rank for c-section, I can rank for time management, I can rank for Pinterest tips on Pinterest. Monica: [00:13:37] But the people who are looking at that are not the same people. They're searching for what they need in the moment and arriving at that post that they need in the moment and they're taking action. Monica: [00:13:50] If I leave you with anything, it is that every post if you're a blogger should have a singular call to action. BLOGGING ADVICE: Every blog posts should have a singular call to action Jillian: [00:13:59] Singular. Yes. We talk about that. Yes. In fact we created MiloTree with that in mind. Which is one action. Jillian: [00:14:11] You know we have a variety of popups, but notice it's one pop up the shows to one user. It's not, hey follow me on Twitter. Wait, follow me on Instagram. Wait, join my email list, because you will burn out your user. They will have paralysis. So I am a huge believer in one call to action. Monica: [00:14:33] So now, I've actually had a student ask me that. So I think this is a good point with MiloTree. So when I was telling her about the single call to action she went to my site and she saw my MiloTree pop up and I have it set up so the first time you visit. you get the Follow me on Pinterest pop-up. Monica: [00:14:50] And she said OK is that your call to action? Because really the call to action at the post was to get on my email list which is 95 percent of the time what I want you to do. Monica: [00:14:58] I said, well if you think about it, if someone clicks the follow me on Pinterest, it's actually opening up a new browser so I'm not taking them away from my site. It's opening in the new browser for you to follow me on Pinterest but my sit…

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#029: How to Start a New Business When You're A New Mom with Monica Froese (Part 1) Aug 08, 2018

Show notes

This interview with Monica Froese, from the blog, Redefining Mom, gets real. We discuss how motherhood changes us from the inside out, and sometimes it's not pretty. We talk about how to start a new business when you're a new mom because you can't do things the old way anymore. In part 1 of my interview, Monica and I talk about loving our kids, postpartum depression, the importance of taking care of ourselves, and what it's like to start a new business even when your husband doesn't approve. If you are a business owner and a mother, don't miss this one! Resources: Redefining Mom Postpartum-PTSD Blog Post The Female Brain MiloTree *Some of these links may be affiliate links and I might make a small commission at no cost to you if you click. Transcript - How to Start a New Business When You're A New Mom with Monica Froese Host: [00:00:03] Welcome to The Blogger Genius Podcast, brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian: [00:00:11] Hey everybody welcome back to the Blogger Genius podcast. I first have to say thank you so much for showing up. I am loving doing this podcast. I am learning so much from my guests. Jillian: [00:00:22] So today, my interview is with a woman named Monica Froese, and she's an online business strategist. So for this interview, I've split it into two parts. Jillian: [00:00:35] I do this because the interviews are long but they're so good that I want you to hear everything, but I don't want to overwhelm you with a podcast episode that goes over an hour or so. Jillian: [00:00:45] Would you reach out to me let me know whether you want them split, so they're in kind of bite sized chunks or you'd rather them be full, hour to hour and 15 minute interviews? Jillian: [00:00:59] So without further ado I bring you part 1 of my interview with Monica Froese, and if you are a mom with a business, you will love this. Jillian: [00:01:10] My guest today is Monica Froese and she is an online business strategist and she predominantly works with mom entrepreneurs. So welcome to the show, Monica. Monica: [00:01:21] Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited to be here. Jillian: [00:01:24] All right so first of al, you are one of our top affiliates for MiloTree, so that's why I wanted to reach out to you because, then I looked at your site and saw that you were doing all this incredibly cool stuff. Jillian: [00:01:35] But when I reached out to you, you said to me, "I need to get back to you because I'm about to have a baby." Monica: [00:01:41] Yes. It was like I think the week I was having her. Jillian: [00:01:43] OK. And then you had your baby and then you reached back out to me, and then we were just talking, before we pressed record about having a baby. And for you this, is your second baby. Monica: [00:01:55] My second, yep. Jillian: [00:01:56] But what we were talking about, which I thought was so relatable was how hard it can be when you have a new baby. The challenges of having a new baby when you're running a business Monica: [00:02:05] Especially when you're running a business. Jillian: [00:02:07] Especially when you are running a business. I was sharing a story about how I read all the books, my husband and I went into this we thought with our eyes open. We had our daughter and then it felt like our house burnt down. Monica: [00:02:24] I concur with that wholeheartedly. Jillian: [00:02:28] So you know you have all these plans and you and we were talking about this. Honestly how people tell you how magical and special it is to have a baby and a newborn. And for some of us it's not so magical and special. Monica: [00:02:44] Yes. So I have to be, I am careful when I talk about this in front of my 5 year old because she doesn't have the ability to necessarily understand what I mean when I say certain things, like having a kid is really hard. I don't want her to think, "Oh I'm really hard on my mom." Monica: [00:03:04] So I do try to be very clear when I when I state it, and I absolutely think that there's like a general feeling that you're given or at least I was given growing up and getting married that having kids was like this wonderful thing and it completed life and all of this stuff. Monica: [00:03:25] And then I had my first and then my second, and I love them both dearly like I don't look at them and think, "Man I wish I didn't have you." But I absolutely think it's the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. Monica: [00:03:40] And I tell my husband all the time, I could work 90 hours in my business a week and find that a thousand times easier than having kids. Jillian: [00:03:49] I have to say I agree, I totally agree. I think that people who don't have kids will come up to it. You know a couple of friends of mine will say like, "Oh my god, is it like the best thing ever?" And I say well it's not puppies and rainbows. For me though, it has given me depth and purpose and meaning. Monica: [00:04:09] Yes I agree with that. Jillian: [00:04:10] But not happiness, in meaning of wonderful happy moments and it's like it's joyous but it's also the hardest thing. And I don't think that that we hear that. Monica: [00:04:24] We don't. I don't feel like I heard it at all, to be honest with you. I didn't have kids super early, my first I had at 27 and I'm 33 now, and I had my second. So you know I'm like an average age nowadays I would say probably for having kids. Monica: [00:04:42] But I was still one of the first in my group of friends that had kids. And it was super hard to articulate to them what it was like because I felt like everyone expected me to be like "this is amazing!" And I did not feel that way at all. Dealing with postpartum depression as a blogger Monica: [00:05:00] Now, I did have postpartum PTSD with my first kid. I had a very traumatic birth which I wrote about on my blog and stuff, which actually has led to a lot of opportunity for me just by sharing that because I've come to learn that that's also getting a little bit more traction now I feel. Monica: [00:05:16] But talking about postpartum is also one of those things that either treat it as taboo or just not something that you share with people. And so now I talk about it a lot because acknowledging it was a huge turning point for me in life. Monica: [00:05:32] I mean that's actually, if I had a pinpoint how I got into treating my blog like a business, was because I was diagnosed with postpartum 15 months in and then after a lot of therapy for it, I knew that I had to change my own circumstances. And that was getting out of corporate. Jillian: [00:05:52] And if people want to find that blog post do you remember the title? Monica: [00:05:58] I'm almost positive the URL is redefiningmom.com/postpartum-PTSD. Jillian: [00:06:01] Got it. Got it. And how long did it last? It sounds like you came out the other end although, now you have another baby. How long did it take for you to kind of come back to yourself? Monica: [00:06:17] So I thought after I had her, that my turning point was around the first year. But then my husband came to me and said, I really want my kids to be close together. And I thought I was going to gouge out his eyes, which was a big red flag that something wasn't right. Monica: [00:06:31] And I kind of knew something wasn't right because when I went back to work, I saw all these moms that had multiple kids functioning way better than I was, and I'm like I only have one. Why is it so hard for me? Monica: [00:06:45] I was just stressed out all the time. And then he asked for another kid, and I flipped out to put it mildly. And I switched doctors because of the doctor issue is kind of what led to the birth trauma. Monica: [00:06:59] I got a new doctor, sat down with her. She almost hit the nail on the head. Within five minutes of talking to me like waterworks turned on and she she said you're you're definitely dealing with some postpartum issues and I thought that's kind of crazy you know at 15 months postpartum, really? Monica: [00:07:15] So she sent me to a therapist and then I would say around year 2 when my daughter turned 2 is really when I started to feel like myself again. And because of that I really did not want to rush and having another kid because it terrified me that that that it would happen again. Jillian: [00:07:33] Yes. When I was pregnant I read this book, I don't know if you've read it, called The Female Brain. It's a really good book and it goes through how our brains evolve over time, and there's a chapter on pregnancy and it talks about how our brains get completely rewired during pregnancy. How motherhood changes your outlook on careers Jillian: [00:07:52] And again I read it and I thought this is really interesting and then I had my daughter and I thought, oh my god. Because when I was a writer in Hollywood, I wrote movies and I was in the midst of writing a movie for Salma Hayek back when I was pregnant. Jillian: [00:08:10] I gave birth to my daughter and had not finished my draft of my script and totally panicked. And here I popped out my baby. My birth was not terrific either I had a big C section and stuff. Not planned. And then I had this script to write. And literally everything shifted. Like I didn't care anymore. Jillian: [00:08:34] All of a sudden I had this person and I had to keep her alive. And it just like my brain changed. And it was really because of that, that I ultimately then wrote another movie. And I'm in the midst of it, and I remember thinking, oh my god, like a part of me would have thought this was so cool previously. Jillian: [00:08:57] And I'm sitting in a meeting at Paramount and I'm thinking to myself, oh you guys, like yeah I like I don't care what you're talking about because I have a bigger job now. I'm Lainey's mom, I've got to get home to her. Jillian: [00:09:10] And I'm nursing, so like you know I'm like missing her and I'm like you know leaking, and I'm thinking, wow this is crazy. So I will say, for me again when I had my daughter everything changed. Monica: [00:09:26] And so first, I did not know that you used to be a script writer which is really cool. Sitting in a meeting at Paramount. That's a very cool fact. Jillian: [00:09:36] It was much cooler before I had my daughter. Monica: [00:09:39] Well, so you know I can completely relate on that. So I started my career pretty young. I started it while I was still in undergrad. Unbeknownst to me because I was I was on the path to go to law school. Monica: [00:09:49] I actually got into Harvard Law and turned it down because I started working for a big Fortune 100 technology company while I was an undergrad and then I graduated early so I had this gap before law school started. Monica: [00:10:02] And so I started full time. I transitioned from part time to full time. They came to me and said, hey you know we'll pay you to get your MBA. And I thought oh OK, you know I could stay locally and it just my life just sort of took off in that direction. Monica: [00:10:16] I worked at the same Fortune 100 company for 11 years, and when I said that when I was 31 people would be like but you're only 31. I'm like yes I started when I was 20. It's hard for people to like, how is that possible? Monica: [00:10:30] But I got it while working full time. My MBA I was working full time and I was on the career path. Like even when I got pregnant it was like I had a one track mind. I was climbing the ladder. I knew where I wanted to go, and in my mind was like why else did I get my MBA if I wasn't going to use it. You know, get to the suite someday. Monica: [00:10:50] And then I had her. And nothing about my career appealed to me whatsoever. When I went back to work it was nothing but a burden. Jillian: [00:10:57] Yep I totally know. It's super super weird because I too was crazy driven and again, the weird part was that after I had my daughter, I was still driven but in a different way. I wanted more control over my life. Monica: [00:11:20] That's exactly it. And I've done a lot of thinking about this because I'm naturally pretty rebellious I would say. But I've always been straight and narrow. It's so funny because my husband says, "You have so many opinions but you've always followed the rules in life." Monica: [00:11:39] I went to Catholic school my entire life up through college and I never got a detention. I never didn't do my homework. If I got a B it was like the end of the world. I never missed a deadline at work. It just was. Monica: [00:11:57] But I had this rebellious side of me that felt like I'm really sick of following the rules all the time. I was just burned out from constantly following the rules and I wanted to do something that was on my own terms. Monica: [00:12:09] I think in a blog post when I quit my job I said, you know how crazy is it that I had to ask permission to go to a doctor's appointment, like why do we have to ask other adults permission to go to a doctor's appointment? Monica: [00:12:23] So you know I just I knew. I did a live video on this group at one point about, I always had an entrepreneurial spirit because I did some crazy things even as a teenager to make money online. Monica: [00:12:38] Like before like eBay was a thing, Yahoo Auctions was a thing. And I mean I was like 15 at this point, and I learned how to get good tickets from Ticketmaster and how the Ticketmaster system worked. Monica: [00:12:58] I had an obsession in my teenage years with NSYNC so I would get really good tickets. Then I learned that people would actually buy photographs. This is with film. This was not digital. It did turn digital like halfway through this obsession. Monica: [00:13:17] I would take pictures and sell them on Yahoo Auctions and make a ton of money. And I got good at SEO without even realizing it was SEO. I just didn't realized what I was doing. And that sort of was at the beginning. Monica: [00:13:30] But like my dad was telling me all the things I did as a kid. I had the thing with Lisa Frank stickers, and I figured out how to sell them to my friends. And just really weird stuff that I did. Monica: [00:13:41] I found a book when I moved. It was a woman entrepreneur book. This had to have been like 12 years ago. And I took notes about all these different types of business things I thought of that would be a cool idea. Monica: [00:13:57] And none of them are really relevant anymore because the world changed so much with the explosion of the Internet. But I just I think I always had that inkling that I was meant to do something else but I only knew one way which was to fall in line, to listen to authority and that's just the way it's going to be. How motherhood makes you braver as a blogger and entrepreneur Jillian: [00:14:17] Right. And I will say for me having my daughter, has made me braver because I don't have as much time to obsess about stuff in my head. Jillian: [00:14:32] That I kind of send the email. You know a brand wants to work with me and I go OK here's how much it is. And I kind of gulp a little bit because you know what, my time is valuable and if they say yes, great. And if they say no, I'm going to forget I sent that email. Monica: [00:14:49] Well you know, you are hitting on so many points I feel like I talk to my husband about all the time now that I just had my second. I have this thing where people are shocked that I wanted to get back to work so fast after having my second. Monica: [00:15:06] I got 12 weeks the first time obviously becaus…

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#028: How Starting a Blog Can Lead to Multiple Book Deals With KariAnne Wood Aug 01, 2018

Show notes

Today I'm talking with KariAnne Wood from the blog, Thistlewood Farms. KariAnne is a DIY and interior design blogger, but really she's an excellent storyteller. In this episode we explore how starting a blog can lead to multiple book deals. We delve into how KariAnne started her blog out a feeling of loneliness and then built it into a booming business! Her blog lead her to a huge publishing career. But what most impressed me most about KariAnne is how she's built such a deep connection with her community, and it's all been through authenticity. And wait until you hear her stories! Resources: Thistlewood Farms So Close to Amazing (book) The DIY Home Planner (book) You've Got This (Because God's Got You) (book) MiloTree Some of these links may be affiliate, meaning at no cost to you, I may make a commission. Transcript: How Starting a Blog Can Lead to Multiple Book Deals With KariAnne Wood Host: [00:00:03] Welcome to the Blogger Genius Podcast, brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian: [00:00:10] Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Blogger Genius Podcast. Today, my guest is KariAnne Wood who is the founder and CEO of Thistlewood Farms. She is a lifestyle blogger, author, and speaker. So welcome to the show, KariAnne. KariAnne: [00:00:30] Thank you so much, I'm so glad to be here. Jillian: [00:00:33] So we were just talking about a whole host of things, the main thing I am curious about is, first of all, how you started your blog and how you ended up moving back into your childhood home? KariAnne: [00:00:49] Well, the blog kind of began out of necessity about 10 years ago, we were living in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex in McKinney, Texas, which is a very busy metropolitan area. KariAnne: [00:01:01] My husband and I, we were just tired of all the busy, and tired of the rat race and we wanted an adventure. So we gathered our four children up and we move to the middle of nowhere in Kentucky. KariAnne: [00:01:14] It was actually the suburb of a 500 person town. Cows were our neighbors. Target was crossing state lines. There were no stoplights in our entire county. And there I was in the middle of this rural paradise and I was lonely. KariAnne: [00:01:34] I wanted to really reach out and find a community of like-minded people that love to decorate and share their heart. And so I started a blog called, Thistlewood Farms. Jillian: [00:01:44] So wait, OK, so you move out there. You're living the dream and you're lonely. How do you feel? Like oh my God, we made the biggest mistake of our lives? KariAnne: [00:01:53] Well, everyone else, my four kids were like having the time of their lives. My husband was extraordinarily happy because we bought a business, and he was all consumed with the growing of the business and everybody was so happy except me. KariAnne: [00:02:07] And part of the reason why I was lonely is because we moved to an area where everybody was related. They came over on the Mayflower together, and they were all together and it was really hard to make friends and I definitely made some amazing friends. Building a blog to find a community KariAnne: [00:02:22] I'm not going to act like I was all by myself, but I just wanted people that had similar interests to me. And so that's really how the blog was born, kind of out of just looking for community. Jillian: [00:02:34] Interesting. And have you always had a designer's eye? Have you always been creative? KariAnne: [00:02:40] 100 percent. Like when I was younger, I had Barbie houses and I was like, forget about the Barbies, because I would just decorate their houses and then kind of plop them in. So yeah, I've always loved to decorate and I've always kind of been a very creative person. Jillian: [00:02:57] Now were you a professional decorator back in Texas? KariAnne: [00:03:01] No, I'm actually a decorator from the School of Hard Knocks. I say in all my books, I made every decorating mistake in the entire world. And so I went before everybody and made them all so I could save people from them, from making mistakes that I made along the way. Jillian: [00:03:21] That is that is terrific. OK. I have to just confess we are moving from Palo Alto to Austin over the summer. So if anybody, by the way, has been listening to this and is in the Austin area, please reach out because again I'm looking for friends, but I am now thinking about decorating and so I have a whole new interest, so tell me the biggest mistake people make. Design advice from a style blogger KariAnne: [00:03:44] Oh I think the biggest mistake that people made is following trends like looking online and finding something that looks very trendy, or someone is telling them this is the way to decorate and they go that route and it's not really them and it doesn't fit. KariAnne: [00:04:01] It's like trying to put a square peg into a round hole. And I'm always like, just go with what you like. Like if the current trend right now is all neutral and you love hot pink carpeting, you go for it. Embrace that and live that because that's how you are going to make your home truly one that you love, is by embracing what is truly you. Jillian: [00:04:21] OK here's one question, I go on to Pinterest. Let's say I type in kitchen remodels and they all look, they're gorgeous but they all look the same. KariAnne: [00:04:32] I know right. Jillian: [00:04:35] I feel like I'm being biased by the fact that I need a farmhouse kitchen with a big white sink and white cabinetry and you know like some bar stools and I feel like I love that now but I can't tell if I really love it, or if I'm being brainwashed into loving it. And if in six months everybody is going to be doing something else. KariAnne: [00:05:01] I am kind of with you in that you're second guessing yourself but I am a big fan of keeping your design, big design, expensive design choices neutral. Jillian: [00:05:13] OK. KariAnne: [00:05:14] In other words. So when you're looking at your kitchen I think keeping your cabinets relatively neutral, whether it's a white or it's a gray. KariAnne: [00:05:21] I think keeping those relatively neutral keeping your countertops relatively neutral and if you love color you can do that in other ways. So you have your big ticket items in your kitchen and those are all relatively neutral. KariAnne: [00:05:34] And then you're like you know what, there's too much neutral. You can always pop it out with like textiles in the room or you could pop it out with beautiful floral arrangements or adding in greenery or just baskets and different fun things in the space to liven it up so that you're not going the complete farmhouse route. KariAnne: [00:05:52] However, if you get in there and you love the neutral, go with it! Not just because people are telling you. Decorate with your heart, like look in that space and say, "Is this space something I want to sit across the Thanksgiving table from?""Is this a space I want to live in every single day?" If it is, go with it. Jillian: [00:06:10] OK. But I just feel like somebody is going to walk in, like in five years somebody is going to walk into my house and go oh my God, it's so 2018. KariAnne: [00:06:19] You know what, there is a chance they might do that, but that's why I think sometimes just making small changes along the way is good. KariAnne: [00:06:28] For example, I'll just give you a little story for me, I was all about neutrals. I mean my farmhouse, if you look at it it was all neutrals all into that. And then we purchased this home the home I grew up in. KariAnne: [00:06:43] And all of a sudden it's like I'm feeling like it needs color, like I went with a neutral look and now I'm going back and adding in color, pops of color, just because it's what the house needs. And so what worked at that farmhouse, is not necessarily working in this house. Jillian: [00:06:59] OK so now we can get off of my own little design issues and get back to your story. KariAnne: [00:07:06] You could always message me if you have questions. Jillian: [00:07:08] OK I'm serious because I love your aesthetic and I feel like I'm kind of flailing except for Pinterest and everything looks the same. Jillian: [00:07:15] So all right, so you move out to Kentucky. You're in the middle of nowhere, you're lonely. You want community, you start this blog. KariAnne: [00:07:24] Yes. And I had no idea of the world of blogging I had no idea people made money off of it. I had no concept of that. I was just doing it to join a community. What are the business opportunities that come from blogging? KariAnne: [00:07:33] And along the way these incredible business opportunities presented themselves and I kind of put on my marketing hat and I started marketing the blog. Jillian: [00:07:41] So wait, explain, what are these tremendous business opportunities? KariAnne: [00:07:44] Well along the way I have worked with, like for example, last year I worked with 53 different brands. Jillian: [00:07:51] Okay. KariAnne: [00:07:52] And so anyone from Wayfair to Sherwin-Williams to Frogtape and I work with them in a variety of different ways with different collaborations. Some I'm working on photography with them. Jillian: [00:08:08] What do you mean you're working on photography with them? KariAnne: [00:08:11] Like for example they would send me products and I photograph the products in my home and then they use it in their social media. How to collaborate with brands as a blogger Jillian: [00:08:16] So it's not you're not posting, you're like a paid photographer. KariAnne: [00:08:21] Well sometimes, it depends on the collaboration. Every collaboration is different. Some collaborations they send me the product, I post about it. I show how I've decorated my home on my blog. And then I give them the assets the photography assets to use on their own social. KariAnne: [00:08:35] Sometimes I'm literally just taking pictures of the product at my home for them to use on their own social or on their web site or in a blog post. Jillian: [00:08:45] And do they tag you? Do people know this is you or in that respect you're like a gun for hire with a beautiful home and a great taste? KariAnne: [00:08:57] It depends. Most of the time if they're using my images it would be written into the contract that they would tag me because I own the rights to those photographs. I mean depending on the contract and what's negotiated. But yeah they for sure would tag me. Jillian: [00:09:11] Okay. Got it. So you're a blogger, brands are I guess reaching out to you? KariAnne: [00:09:18] Yes. Well it's a little bit of both. I think when you're a blogger you know I'm the Queen of Hustles so I'm always like "Who did I work with last year? Let me approach them and see if they're interested in a new collaboration." or a lot of times brands do reach out to me. KariAnne: [00:09:31] I mean, probably one of my best tips as a blogger is a lot of times with a brand, I'll work with their PR agency. And that PR agency may have another client besides the client that I'm working with. KariAnne: [00:09:44] And I will say to the PR agency, "hey I've got this Bathroom remodel coming up, hey I've got this kitchen remodel, hey I'm redoing my front room. Do you have any clients that are a good fit for that?" And some of my best collaborations I've gotten because I worked the PR contacts that I already had. Jillian: [00:10:01] Got it. And then you end up hopefully getting free product. KariAnne: [00:10:06] Yes. Again each collaboration with a brand is different. I mean sometimes I'm using products that they send to me, sometimes I'm designing an inspiration board for them. I mean each collaboration looks different but typically it does involve some sort of pre product. Jillian: [00:10:23] Got it. Okay. So I mean, that's always a way for you. Lifestyle bloggers style bloggers DIY bloggers. Isn't that a nice way to reach out to a brand and say "I'm redoing my kitchen" like reaching out to say Whirlpool or something like that, how would you do that? KariAnne: [00:10:46] If I was going to go through a major remodel. I know I have kind of a long time ago when I first started blogging, one of the promises I made to myself, kind of one of the guidelines that built my business on is I never put anything in my home just to blog about it because then it's not authentic. And the readers know that. KariAnne: [00:11:05] So I there's many collaborations that I've turned down just because they're not a fit for my brand. It's not something that would work in my house. KariAnne: [00:11:14] Back when I was all neutral all the time. I mean if if a company that had a very colorful aesthetic with like super cool graphic prints and things like that that might not necessarily work in my space then that's probably not a company that I would have worked with. How to reach out to brands as a blogger KariAnne: [00:11:29] So a long time ago just set that forth. So if I was going, let's say I'm doing a kitchen remodel and I worked with a tile company in the past I've worked with a countertop company in the past typically I would reach out to them. KariAnne: [00:11:43] I have a pretty extensive network of contacts now because I've been doing this for 6 years. I would reach out to them say, "hey this is what I'm doing, is this a fit with your marketing budget? Is this something that you might be interested in?" KariAnne: [00:11:55] And sometimes it's a fit and sometimes not so much and sometimes the parameters that they would have, you'd have to wait a couple of months and I need the tile right then and probably that might not be a good fit or I need a countertop right then and it might not be a good fit. KariAnne: [00:12:10] But typically you're reaching out to the brands and saying here's my project can you come alongside me and partner with me. Jillian: [00:12:18] That's great. So let's say you're doing a kitchen remodel. How many brands would you want to partner with you with your kitchen? KariAnne: [00:12:25] I think it depends on the extent of what you're doing and kind of who you have in contacts and what would be a good fit. KariAnne: [00:12:33] So for example in my kitchen that I just redid I chose to reuse existing cabinets that we already had rather than reaching out to a cabinet brand. KariAnne: [00:12:44] Just because I already had the cabinets and I'm kind of frugal girl. And so it made more of a fit to do a post and show the readers hey look these were cabinets from another area of the house that we just repurposed added molding to and kind of redesign them to look like brand new cabinets for the kitchen. KariAnne: [00:13:02] So I think that totally depends on the scope of your project and what you need for that project. Jillian: [00:13:09] Got it. OK so let's let's go back to your story. So you're living in Kentucky and then all of a sudden you end up, because of family illness right? You end up moving back home. KariAnne: [00:13:26] Yes. We had some illness come up in our family that was it's a little bit overwhelming and so they just needed us. I mean it was kind of like step up time. KariAnne: [00:13:36] And so we knew that it was they just needed us and we needed to be home so I said to my husband oh my gosh if there's any way we could get back the family home that would be totally amazing. KariAnne: [00:13:49] My mom had sold it about five years ago to a wonderful couple. And I called her up one day and said hey yo…

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#027: How to Start a Blog with Your Friend with Cara Newhart and C.J. Oldenkamp Jul 25, 2018

Show notes

Today I'm doing my first two-on-one interview with Cara Newhart and C.J. Oldenkamp, founders of My Haute Society, a community for bloggers, and are both bloggers in their own right. We talk about how to start a blog with your friend. We delve into balancing a shared business and a personal blog, plus how they dealt with the growing pains of working together in a new venture. Cara and C.J. are Instagram pros and share their Instagram strategies. You'll want to learn this! Resources: My Haute Society Everyday Chiffon Never Skip Brunch Catch My Party MiloTree Canva Planoly Transcript: How to Start a Blog with Your Friend with Cara Newhart and C.J. Oldenkamp Host:[00:00:03] Welcome to The Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian: [00:00:10] Hey everyone. Welcome back to the show. Today I have two guests. I have Cara and C.J. from My Haute Society. So guys, welcome to the show. C.J. : [00:00:25] Thank you. Thanks for having us. We're excited to be here today. Jillian: [00:00:29] This is my first time with two guests so this is like all new, and you guys are so much fun. So I'm super psyched you're here and we just did a recording where I'm going to be on their podcast. And so now we're going to do it where you guys are on mine. Jillian: [00:00:48] So explain My Haute Society. What is Haute Society? Cara: [00:00:52] Yes. We are a community for bloggers and influencers. We are based online but we have a lot of in person events and workshops and then we have a ton of different resources like guides and workbooks and E-courses to help you grow your following, build your blog, and learn how to monetize your influence. Jillian: [00:01:12] Now you guys are both entrepreneurs, bloggers that kind of thing. Do you mind sharing your stories and then how you guys have hooked up? C.J. : [00:01:21] Yeah, so I'll go first. This is C.J. and I run my own personal blog, Everyday Chiffon, which is a fashion, travel, lifestyle blog and I'm just a new mama to be. I'm also really having a lot of fun kind of adding that family orientation part into my blog. Starting a lifestyle blog with a love of fashion C.J. : [00:01:41] But I started in corporate, right when I first moved out to Denver, right after graduating college and I was kind of the first of my friends to do so. C.J. : [00:01:52] I used to take the random mirror selfies, and as much as I don't love this I did that. I did random weird selfies of like my corporate outfits and everything, just because I was kind of the first of my friends to be in there and I had a girlfriend that recommended I start a blog. C.J. : [00:02:13] Being a very non techie side, I didn't know what a blog technically was. So I just kind of went ahead and started an Instagram page. How a blog evolves C.J. : [00:02:22] And I just had a separate place to kind of post my outfits and give inspiration to some of the girls that were just entering corporate, or thinking about entering corporate. And then it's just really evolved into this blog and a brand that I've kind of run with. C.J. : [00:02:37] It didn't even start as Everyday Chiffon. It was like Professionista or something that I cringe at. But it was just something super random and a place for me to be inspirational with my fashion. C.J. : [00:02:49] I've always loved fashion my entire life. It's been something I have such funny pictures of me as a kid like dressing up multiple outfits. So it really just evolved into something that I had no idea could be a business. C.J. : [00:03:03] I didn't know about blogging and now I've really brought in like the biggest thing for me and my blog that's made it a part of my soul and from me is my positivity post. C.J. : [00:03:13] And that's been like the main thing that I like to push on through everything if you look at my page I'm always smiling, I'm always laughing, and I really try and bring happiness as a mindset, it's kind of like my blog motto. C.J. : [00:03:26] So that's like a big big thing for me that's made it more like a space for me to connect with people alongside of connecting through fashion and through my travels and through everything else like lifestyle. C.J. : [00:03:37] But that's been like the portion that's kind of a part of everything that I do. So that's really taken off and really evolved and really helped me make Everyday Chiffon what it is today. Jillian: [00:03:49] And they're super cute photos of you pregnant. C.J. : [00:03:52] Oh thank you, it's been crazy getting used to these curves. But I'm having fun dressing them up. Jillian: [00:04:00] Are you more of like tight pregnancy maternity clothes or more of the loose maternity clothes? C.J. : [00:04:07] You know I'm finding I really thought it because I'm a big Boho kind of dresser and so I love Free People and those types of brands, and I would have thought that I would have gone towards wearing a lot of Free People but with these added curves that I've never had before. I've always been very flat up top. I've always been pretty tiny. C.J. : [00:04:27] I found that some of the bigger looser clothes kind of make me feel bigger and make me feel less sexy or as into like myself as I normally and so I've actually leaned towards wearing tighter clothes just because I can show that like yes I'm pregnant, I'm not just eating a pizza over and over again. Jillian: [00:04:51] Well you look adorable. C.J. : [00:04:54] I feel lucky to be pregnant during the summer so I don't have to wear tons of like jeans and sweaters I can just kind of be in dresses most of my life. Jillian: [00:05:05] Kara what about you? Cara: [00:05:07] Yeah, so I started out in corporate as well. I always kind of had a blog on the side, like it started in college with an art blog and then I did like a DIY blog, and then I kind of got into having my own online boutique so I designed different leggings and t shirts and stuff with my artwork. Starting a blog because brands were reaching out Cara: [00:05:27] Then I started to have brands reach out to me and offer to like put their products on my blog because I was blogging as part of my boutique. And at that point I didn't really know what blogging was or what influencers were. So I was like, "This is weird like this is my business. Why would I want to promote your product?" Cara: [00:05:44] So now looking back like they probably just thought I was a fashion blogger because I was featuring different people I was like styling my t shirts and showing different looks so they were just reaching out. Cara: [00:05:55] It's like a brand wanting to work with a blogger. But I was like a business and didn't even know what the whole world was so then I kind of decided like hey, maybe I should have an outlet where I could do this. And then I could say yes to these collaborations because they were like products I liked and brands I was interested in working with. Cara: [00:06:13] So I started a fashion blog and it's called Never Skip Brunch. I like love brunch. I always said I love snacks and sleeping. It's kind of a joke. Cara: [00:06:29] I just recently rebranded at the beginning of this year. And it's called Brighter Bold, and it's basically like a movement towards helping women to turn up the volume on their inner voice and kind of find their boldness. Cara: [00:06:44] And so I've kind of expanded out of fashion and now I have like recipes and some DIY projects. And it's a little more lifestyle oriented. So that's been really fun. Cara: [00:06:53] And that decision was kind of just because I realized this is what my audience wanted, like they liked fashion but they kind of wanted a little more in on my lifestyle, and all the little projects that I constantly had going on. So that's been really fun. Jillian: [00:07:08] That's cool. OK so how do you guys then monetize separately and then I guess together? Monetizing blogs through sponsored content, affiliates, and membership Cara: [00:07:19] Yeah. So for our own blogs. We both do like brand collaborations and then affiliate links. I would say for me personally brand collaborations are probably my primary source of income. I do have some affiliate links from people shopping products that I recommend, and all of that stuff but I primarily work with brands. C.J. : [00:07:39] Mine is kind of the same wa,y working with brands through sponsored or ad posts definitely like the biggest thing that I found. C.J. : [00:07:48] I know my affiliate links have definitely started to take off now this past six months, as I've been able to grow more of a connection with my following so I'm definitely seeing more growth there than I have before. C.J. : [00:08:00] But I would definitely still say that like sponsored and you know ads are working with specific brands and trying to kind of grow that long term relationship has been the biggest benefit for me on my personal blog. C.J. : [00:08:13] And with My Haute Society we have so many different ways of monetizing still through affiliate links and then obviously jumping a lot into products and resources that we give out to bloggers, that's like the biggest thing we want to be is obviously a resource. C.J. : [00:08:29] So creating those and being able to help through that has been helpful for us as a business as we try and grow and everything like that. Cara: [00:08:38] Yes I think our biggest thing is like our monthly membership which is just nine bucks a month and you get access to all of our courses all of our guides and then like monthly events whether that's like happy hours or meet ups. And then you get workshops. Cara: [00:08:55] And then you get our big Ecourses are super discounted so that it's kind of amazing. Working on your blog as a team Jillian: [00:09:01] How do you guys... Because my husband and I we run Catch My Party and MiloTree together but those are really different businesses. But again we do it as a team. Now you guys have your own separate businesses. Then you have this together. So how do you manage that? C.J. : [00:09:20] It's been a lot of learning, to be honest. We started in September of 2017. We hit the ground running. We both were super excited about what we were doing that we just kind of ran with it. It was exhausting. C.J. : [00:09:37] We found a lot of times you know we were trying to work on our own blogs and we had to take away from something so we didn't focus as much on our own blogs as we wanted to. C.J. : [00:09:50] But we just like really couldn't because we just had too much going on in the holiday season and so the beginning of January and the end of December were a huge kind of sit back and take it all in and see where we really want to push our focus to what was most important in growing My Haute Society. And what was most important for like mental health. C.J. : [00:10:11] Because obviously if you look at our blogs, both of them are huge focusing on you know mental health and really being the best person you can be. And so stretching ourselves so thin was the opposite of what we were trying to put out through My Haute Society. So it was a huge moment. C.J. : [00:10:28] We had, I wouldn't say arguments, but we had you know really deep conversations of trying to figure out what was going to be best for both of us because Cara has a little girl and a husband, and I have a husband and had just found out I was pregnant. C.J. : [00:10:42] So it was like we had totally different lives and entirely different things we had to push our emotions into, aside from even just having our personal blogs. So we really did have to re-evaluate what was going on and to make it work. The importance of content calendars for bloggers C.J. : [00:10:57] I think the things you see for every blogger is that content calendars are huge. And we really had to figure out what to do and then when we kind of figured out a strict schedule of like who was doing what. C.J. : [00:11:11] I run all of the social, and deal with our Monday blogger moments, and then Cara does a lot of like the podcast edits as well as like some of the main resource or blog posts that we do and then we do like a little side by side of everything else. C.J. : [00:11:26] So once we really honed in and figure that out we've been able to streamline a lot of things and been able to have certain days where we specifically work on My Haute Society and then have certain days we're basically just working on our own blogs or living our own lives. Cara: [00:11:48] Yeah it's funny because like a lot of people that go into business together have years and years of a friendship or a relationship to kind of go off of. So they already really know the other person. The importance of defined roles as bloggers Cara: [00:12:02] And for us, we were really new friends when we decided to start. Yeah we had to learn who each other was like what our strengths and weaknesses were and kind of how we work together. Cara: [00:12:17] And then also kind of develop the business and define our roles and all of that all at once. So it was definitely a process but I think it was something we needed to go through to be able to be where we are now, where we're kind of like more efficient and we have a system and have more clear communication. Cara: [00:12:35] Like at first you know I would be building the website and putting out all these guides and I'm used to just working with myself and going rogue and like cranking things out. C.J. : [00:12:44] I'm like an over communicator. So I was like "Why are you leaving me in the dark?" type thing and she's just not really like that. So it was kind of me having to learn to pull things out of her as well as you know her just having to learn to like communicate better. C.J. : [00:13:01] So I think that's a good way of putting that though because we did just kind of fall into it, and the benefit of this is that we both tend to jump into change really well in our own personal lives. And I think that made it possible for us to do it. It was just kind of learning how to do it together. Jillian: [00:13:19] Wow what it is like. I mean it's a relationship, it's like a marriage in many ways. Cara: [00:13:25] So I call it business marriage. Jillian: [00:13:30] It's like how people have like a work spouse or you know like a work husband or a work wife you guys are each other's wives. That's terrific. Jillian: [00:13:41] How many hours a week are you guys working and how much of that time, this is if you can quantify it, would you say is working on each of your businesses and then together? Managing your time as a blogger C.J. : [00:13:52] I know I kind of laughed at this question because my answer is all the time. Some weeks are better organized than others but right now with doing a move and you know moving states and doing all this. C.J. : [00:14:09] We've had to be a little bit more scheduled out than normal because like my weekends are completely packed with packing or something like that or going to parties. But I mean as a social influencers I think anyone listening that does that can know that it isn't all the time thing. C.J. : [00:14:26] Like even if you're an entrepreneur and not just a social influencer even if you're not working on something on your web site for instance, I post twice a day on my Instagram almost every day so that's work in itself. C.J. : [00:14:38] You're waking up Saturday morning or Sunday morning and still having to post and then engage with people and then you might like to have brunch and kind of hang out with your husband or take some time off Saturday or…

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Episode 026: How to Go From Hobby to Business with Abeer Rizvi Jul 18, 2018

Show notes

Today I'm interviewing Abeer Rizvi, from the blog, Cake Whiz. In this episode, Abeer shares how to go from hobby to business, and all the steps she took to turn her love of cake decorating into a successful food blog. We talk about how to figure out what to charge brands, how to leverage social media for traffic, and why ad revenue is worth pursuing! If you have no idea how to turn your passion into a blog, you're going to love this! Resources: Cake Whiz Catch My Party AdThrive MediaVine ShareaSale Everything Food Conference MiloTree Transcript: How to Go From Hobby to Business with Abeer Rizvi Host: [00:00:03] Welcome to The Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian: [00:00:10] Hey everybody. Welcome back to the show today. My guest is my friend, Abeer from the food blog Cake Whiz. So welcome to the show Abeer. Abeer: [00:00:23] Thank you for having me. Jillian: [00:00:25] So we met back in, I looked it up, 2015 and we were at BlogHerFood in Chicago, and we were both kind of standing somewhere and we just kind of struck up a conversation. Do you remember that? Abeer: [00:00:44] Yeah it was by the phone chargers. Jillian: [00:00:47] Yes I can totally picture it! And I had come to BlogHerFood because we had just rolled out MiloTree and I had these postcards and I was handing them out. Jillian: [00:00:59] And it took so much courage on my part to go up to random strangers and talk about it, and you were one of those super sweet people. Abeer: [00:01:10] Aw, well you were pretty amazing yourself. Jillian: [00:01:13] And you started showing me photos of the cakes you make. Abeer: [00:01:20] Yes, I don't know how it came to that, but yeah we started talking about your blog and my blog. Jillian: [00:01:25] Right, you knew Catch My Party, right? Abeer: [00:01:28] Yes. I knew about it, because I did some party posts on the blog and I've seen some of your parties and there very few party blogs out there. Jillian: [00:01:38] Right. Abeer: [00:01:38] Yours is one of them. So that's why I knew you, so when you were talking I'm like, 'Oh, that's who you are, I know you!" Jillian: [00:01:43] Totally. And there I was at BlogHerFood and it was so interesting because what I realized is that we are in these little silos. So I'm Catch My Party, and nobody there knew who I was, except you. Abeer: [00:02:03] I think it's because of the niches. Every blog has a niche. And if someone does a lot of savory food then they probably aren't in the same circle of friends or bloggers who keep a lot of savory food. Same with the low carb bloggers or vegan bloggers. Abeer: [00:02:18] That's not to say they don't overlap, like I have friends who are very healthy food bloggers. I don't do any healthy food right. We all know each other. Abeer: [00:02:27] But since yours was so similar to mine in a sense that, you do a crafty food, it's creative, that I was like "Oh there are very few bloggers that do that." Abeer: [00:02:37] So someone like that you get really excited. You're like, yes there's someone else out there! Jillian: [00:02:42] Totally, totally. And we bonded because we both have one child. Abeer: [00:02:46] Yes, we do and we started talking about that. Yes. My son was like maybe two or three at the time. And I was like yeah, I only have one. Jillian: [00:02:57] Yes. Yes. And then the other thing that I always remember about you is you are a scientist. Abeer: [00:03:07] I am, I actually have a Masters in Science. I have a Masters in Cellular Biology and Botany and I don't do anything with that degree now. But I guess there is some science that goes into baking. Jillian: [00:03:22] Yeah, isn't it all chemistry? Abeer: [00:03:24] I mean there's a lot of balance and ratios and measurements of all the but I'm not I'm not in a lab anymore. Jillian: [00:03:31] OK. And I remember that you had made such a big change. OK so let's step back. Can you share how you created Cake Whiz? How Cake Whiz started as a hobby Abeer: [00:03:43] So Cake Whiz actually started as a hobby. I have been baking my entire life. With my mom, and my family and this is something I truly enjoy. Abeer: [00:03:51] I never did cake decorating. I never threw parties where there were themes and so forth. When I got married and moved to Chicago from Canada, there was a cake decorating class that was happening nearby and I was like, let me just register for the class because it just looks like fun. Abeer: [00:04:09] So I registered and I was hooked! I haven't stopped decorating and I felt like it was all this creativity that I can channel into this. And it was just so much fun. Abeer: [00:04:20] So I started the blog just to document everything, and just putting all the stuff making or learning just for the sake of my family or friends. And they were the only ones who actually had the link. Abeer: [00:04:32] And next thing I know I've started getting comments from my readers, like regular people I've never met, saying thank you so much for the tutorial. Or, that was really great, can you share that recipe? Abeer: [00:04:43] And I'm like, oh my god. Who are these people who are you reading my blog? I mean it was it was exciting. Jillian: [00:04:52] And what year was this? Abeer: [00:04:55] About six years ago, I think yeah. And then I think things got a little more serious and brands started reaching out to me and they'll be like, "Hey, we wanted to work with you." And this was so new to me, I didn't even know you could make money with a blog. How to determine what price to charge as a blogger working with brands Abeer: [00:05:09] I do not know how to price myself. And obviously made a lot of mistakes along the way. Priced too low and I'm thinking, oh my god this is so much work. Abeer: [00:05:19] But I've learned a lot and I just love what I'm doing now. So the hobby just suddenly turned into this business. Jillian: [00:05:26] OK so were you at this point working in a lab? Abeer: [00:05:33] No I just finished a Masters. I did my thesis and I got married within a month. We'd been engaged for awhile so we were waiting. And then I moved from Canada to Chicago and I was exhausted and tired of studying. I was tired of researching and I was just taking some time off, well maybe a couple of months that was the plan and then blogging things just sort of took over and I just tried to have fun with it. Jillian: [00:06:00] So when you first realized this could be a business. What did you do next? Abeer: [00:06:08] When I realized that, ok. I started doing it with a proper schedule with a proper plan. The marketing of a post, like every other day really sitting down and creating a list of posts I want. Why I'm making those posts? Why am I blogging? Who am I blogging for? Abeer: [00:06:25] And then really creating a plan for myself. What do I want for this year. What do I want for next year, and really discussing those ideas with my husband as well, because it is a family and I need to make sure that all my plans are are in connection with our family as well. Jillian: [00:06:45] So you decided I'm going to make cakes? Desserts? What was your strategy? Abeer: [00:06:50] So initially the plan was just doing cake decorating and desserts because people are asking for the cake recipes as well, because they will not be able to see the cake inside. But they knew that I decorated the cake. Abeer: [00:07:00] So I started doing tutorials initially, and then we'll go into recipes for the cakes and cupcakes and cookies and so forth. Initially, I was just a dessert blogger. I did not even add savory recipes until last year. Jillian: [00:07:15] Really? How to expand beyond your niche as a blogger Abeer: [00:07:16] Yes. And I was actually terrified of doing that and took me that long to actually make the jump. I have always been a comfort food blogger or some other desserts they were fancy and cute looking and I could use those in parties. So do all that. Abeer: [00:07:30] But last year I was like, let me see. I mean you're not going to see kale salads or anything healthy on the blog. But I started doing comfort food savory recipes and then I was like, we could serve this at a party, too. Abeer: [00:07:44] Why can't you serve, fried chicken or a lasagna. These are things that I serve at parties. Jillian: [00:07:53] Did your audience come along for the ride? Abeer: [00:07:56] They did. And that was my biggest fear, and I'm pretty sure if I started sharing salads and like healthy dressings and stuff like that, it would not have worked because that's not my audience. Abeer: [00:08:06] My audience likes comfort food. My audience loves chocolate. My audience loves butter as much as me. It makes no sense for me to be making a jump and then suddenly jumping into a totally different angle. Abeer: [00:08:20] So what I was doing is yes, I made that jump in to savory as well. But I'm still like a 95 percent desert blogger. I still post more deserts than savory, and I made sure that my savory recipes are comfort food as well. Jillian: [00:08:34] Do your friends ever come to you and say, "Will you decorate a cake for me? Will you bake a cake?" Abeer: [00:08:39] Oh yes. All the time and I usually decline. A few reasons. Number one, Chicago has very strict rules about running a business out of your home. And I'm not going to do anything that's illegal. Abeer: [00:08:56] I have always declined because of those reasons. And it makes sense, I mean there are hygiene factors that you have to take into account, hire out the kitchen space and so forth. Abeer: [00:09:05] So I'm not going to suddenly run a business of cakes and pastries out of my house. And the other reason was sometimes you run a business like that, I feel like I might not be able to balance the blogging aspect of the business. Abeer: [00:09:18] And it just seems like blogging was something I enjoyed way more than actually becoming like a baker who is selling to people. Jillian: [00:09:27] Got it. Do you feel pressure though if there's a family event that you need to show up with a cake? Abeer: [00:09:34] Yes. In the past, like, I had a wedding last year, and my brother got married a few years ago actually. He asked me as well and I declined. Abeer: [00:09:41] I mean it's already stressful going to a wedding and getting ready, getting the kid already. Making sure we're on time, and as you know a family member you have to meet the people as they're coming in and be a host. Abeer: [00:09:55] There are already so many little things that I need to take care of that I was like I can not do a cake, in this situation. It's just not possible. I usually apologize and pull away. Jillian: [00:10:07] I love that. OK. So you started this blog and was the first thing that brands started reaching out to you? Did you think about putting ads up? The value of showing ads on your blog or site Abeer: [00:10:21] So ads are something that I didn't even know about. I had this weird, wrong impression that you don't make a lot of money with ads, and I was absolutely crazy. Abeer: [00:10:27] I did not even go on any ad network for a while. I was already working with brands, I didn't have any ads on my site because I had no idea you could make as much money as you do with ads. Abeer: [00:10:38] And I'm sure there are different networks and different CPMs and RPMs with different networks, and as you grow you can go to better paying networks. But at that time I had no idea. Abeer: [00:10:50] So initially I was just making money by working with brands. Jillian: [00:10:55] You were sharing with me though how you would underprice yourself. Abeer: [00:10:59] Yes, I did initially. I had no idea how to price myself because again, this was not something that I knew anyone who was doing and I could ask them. Abeer: [00:11:09] It was something that just sort of fell into my lap and I enjoyed doing. So brands were interested in getting me to work for them, but I had no idea how to price myself. Abeer: [00:11:17] So we sat down and we created different packages for brands like if they want just a blog post or if they want a blog post and social media shares. If they want just social media shares, if they wanted video along with the posts. Abeer: [00:11:32] Basically, knowing what they want and I could price accordingly because then I don't know how much time effort I would have to put into that project. And that really took the stress factor out for me. Jillian: [00:11:44] Did you think about it from an hourly wage? Abeer: [00:11:48] I tried and it got a little complicated for me, because there are some posts that take more work, like cake decorating or party planning. Those posts will take so much more time than like a recipe post. Abeer: [00:12:03] So it was becoming hard for me to figure it out. And then we just started doing a ballpark range of how long it usually takes of those posts and then just creating a round figure for that. That worked out better for us. Jillian: [00:12:15] Got it. And do you think of your husband as your business partner? Abeer: [00:12:21] No he's not officially a business partner, but yes, he's someone that I do run my ideas through, someone whom I discuss all the technical stuff for my blog obviously. Abeer: [00:12:31] And yes he's my rock, right there. He's helping me along and he's been very supportive. Jillian: [00:12:39] At what point did you think to yourself "This is a business." Abeer: [00:12:42] I think when my husband and I actually sat down to create those prices that was probably a turning point for me. Abeer: [00:12:52] Because up until then it was more like, "Oh yeah sure. Here's a little money," and so forth. This little extra income coming in. Not a big deal. Abeer: [00:13:02] But when we sat down and we decided on how we are going to promote our posts, and really sitting down creating a plan for everything. That's when I felt like this is really a business. Abeer: [00:13:19] That's why we decided to put ads on our site as well and who we are going to go with why we're going with them and so forth. Jillian: [00:13:26] And you guys use AdThrive, which is who we used for Catch My Party. Abeer: [00:13:30] Yes. And I love them. They're great. I mean there's Mediavine as well, people really like them, too. I think they're both great, they both have their advantages and people should definitely talk to both before making a decision. Jillian: [00:13:44] So today you're monetizing via ads, via sponsored posts. Any other products or things that you sell or promote? Abeer: [00:13:55] Oh we've been talking about it, me and my husband. We want a product like books or something. But it's very early stages that we haven't really formulated a plan yet as to what we'll be doing. Abeer: [00:14:08] If we do something it will probably be, maybe the end of this year during the holiday season. But again we're still discussing it and figuring out what we want from the product for our blog. Jillian: [00:14:20] And are you thinking more like a digital product? Abeer: [00:14:23] We would prefer digital only because everything is so digitizing everything everyone is on mobile iPad. So it just seems to make more sense that way. Abeer: [00:14:32] But we're are also thinking of the actual products too, like baking products maybe. We haven't really decided what baking products and what's going to be written on them or how we're going to go about it. But that is something definitely that we have been discussing as the next step. Jillian: [00:14:50] Got it. And do you do affiliate sale…

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#025: Why You Need To Treat Your Business Like A Business From The Start with Kate Kordsmeier Jul 11, 2018

Show notes

Today I'm interviewing Kate Kordsmeier, from the blog, Root + Revel. Kate and I discuss why you need to treat your business like a business from the start, in order to grow. As you'll see, Kate has been able to explode Root + Revel using this strategy. Kate started as a food journalist, but transitioned into full-time food blogger after experiencing a health crisis. We talk a lot about the people Kate has hired to help her grow her business, and why she's not afraid to spend money. If you're thinking of outsourcing your business as a way to grow, you don't want to miss this! Resources: Root + Revel Sway Group Blog Meets Brand TapInfluence Tailwind ShiftCon Butcher Box ConvertKit Food Blogger Pro LeadPages MiloTree Transcript: Why You Need To Treat Your Business Like a Business From The Start with Kate Kordsmeier Host: [00:00:05] Welcome to the Blogger Genius podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian: [00:00:10] Hey guys. Welcome back to the Blogger Genius. I am here today with Kate Kordsmeier. She is the blogger behind Root + Revel. So welcome to the show, Kate. Kate: [00:00:23] Thanks so much for having me. Jillian: [00:00:25] So we were just chatting before and I want you to share your story with everybody because you have an interesting journey. Kate: [00:00:34] Yeah definitely. So you know I went to journalism school for college and graduated, and pretty much immediately started freelance writing for magazines and newspapers. Kate: [00:00:46] So I did that for about seven or eight years. It was amazing. I got to travel the world and I was a food writer so I basically just got paid to eat at the best restaurants around the world. It was, it was great. Jillian: [00:01:01] Wow. Kate: [00:01:02] Yeah. But it was also you know a lot of work and really exhausting. And I started having a lot of health issues around 2014. Kate: [00:01:12] I was really kind of for a while ignoring some issues, and then around 2014 is when I couldn't ignore them anymore. Jillian: [00:01:22] What were you feeling? What were you going through? How healing her body lead to starting a blog Kate: [00:01:24] The biggest thing was that I had a lot of digestion issues. So it was some constipation. And then I also would have these really debilitating bouts of nausea and they would just knock me out and they would come on so suddenly. Kate: [00:01:45] The only link I could ever find to the instances was that it always happened when I was really excited about something. Kate: [00:01:52] So if we were like at a special dinner or on vacation, or I wrote a cookbook and we had a launch party and I was really excited about it, my wedding. Things like that. Kate: [00:02:05] So it was kind of ruined a lot of the most important things in my life. It was really kind of depressing. So that was sort of what kick started it. Kate: [00:02:16] I started going to all these different doctors trying to figure out what was going on with me and to make a long story short. I saw a million different doctors. I tried a bunch of different medications. Nothing was working. Kate: [00:02:28] And so I decided to go go cold turkey on all medication and just see what my body was doing and that included going off the birth control pill, which I had been on for like a decade. Kate: [00:02:39] When I did that my body really freaked out, then I started having a lot of other symptoms from like irregular periods and acne. I had really bad fatigue and just low energy. I had really bad anxiety and it just was kind of this storm of terrible terrible health. Kate: [00:03:01] And so I decided to go the natural route since I had tried everything else and nothing had worked. And that led me really to healing. And so when I saw what a huge difference in my health I found from natural and holistic remedies and just changing the way that I ate it really changed my life. Kate: [00:03:24] I felt like I needed to share that with other people. And so I decided to start a blog. And that was at the end of 2015. Transitioning from freelance food writer to full-time blogger Kate: [00:03:34] And so now I do that full time. I ended up transitioning away from freelance food writing and now I'm with Root + Revel full time. Jillian: [00:03:43] What's it like not having all those fancy meals all over the world and focusing on health? Like how has that been for you. Kate: [00:03:52] Definitely some ups and downs. You know I certainly miss it. And you know you realize like man, this is really expensive to do on your own dollar so that that's not as fun, but I feel so much better. Kate: [00:04:07] And I'm making more money so I can actually afford to do those things on my own and and really enjoy them to their fullest and not have to be working through some of those special meals and beautiful vacations and that kind of thing. Kate: [00:04:21] So yeah it has its pros and cons but I'm much happier now than than I was. Jillian: [00:04:27] Right. It's like that thing where all of a sudden you take your fate into your own hands. Kate: [00:04:32] Yeah yeah definitely. Jillian: [00:04:35] And I find in certain ways it's scarier. But in other ways it's like I could never go back. Kate: [00:04:41] Right. Well for me, I've always been self-employed so I never worked for one publication. So part of it is very similar. Kate: [00:04:51] You know it's a lot of the same, the same issues of running a business and you know, not necessarily having a steady paycheck and having to wear a lot of different hats so it wasn't maybe quite as scary than somebody who is used to working in like a corporate office job and then leaves that to start their own thing. Helping other bloggers with their businesses Jillian: [00:05:13] Got it, okay now on your blog you do some interesting stuff, so you share about your health and your journey of healing yourself through food. And you also have resources for bloggers who want to start blogs and monetize and stuff like that. So how were you, like how did that come about? Kate: [00:05:31] Yeah so I just started doing that this year because I didn't want to start it you know before I had really figured it out myself. And there's definitely a huge learning curve with monetizing a blog and getting it to a place where you can actually earn a full time income from it. Kate: [00:05:47] Once I felt like I had done that kind of again, you know, I think this is kind of a theme in my life that I learned how to do something. And I think that it's really amazing and could positively impact other people's lives and so that I say I want to help other people do the same thing. Kate: [00:06:03] And so I just sort of started sharing some of my tips and tricks and you know what I've learned throughout the last few years and that kind of thing. So it's fairly new content on the blog. It wasn't something that I did in the beginning but I'm really loving it. Kate: [00:06:21] It's really resonating with a lot of people and I also have started doing one on one coaching, and that's awesome to be able to connect with people in that more intimate capacity and really help them you know target what they're specifically trying to do. Jillian: [00:06:37] So OK so you decide that you're going to start a food blog. And so what was your process? Were you a chef? Did you have any training or were you really just learning learning as you went? Starting a food blog by being a professional food journalist Kate: [00:06:53] I'm not a chef but I was a professional food journalist for eight years before that, so I've spent a lot of time in restaurant kitchens. I've worked with tons of chefs. Kate: [00:07:03] I've done years of research on what makes food delicious and what makes food healthy and and that kind of thing. So you know, it is I guess a little bit more self taught. I didn't go to culinary school. That kind of thing. Kate: [00:07:20] But I didn't feel like I was starting at square one when I started the blog. I already had a very solid background in food. Jillian: [00:07:27] OK. So you would start then creating your own recipes, photographing them, and putting them up. And then when you thought about well I want to make a living off of this, kind of what were you thinking and how did your process go from there? Starting a blog with the intention of it being a successful business Kate: [00:07:44] Well I didn't start the blog and then decide I wanted to make money from it. I started it very much with the intention of this as a business. Kate: [00:07:53] And so it was never something that I just thought, Oh I do this as a hobby or as this is just something I'm passionate about. Of course, I am very passionate about it. But it was very much a business decision. Kate: [00:08:06] So I started you know one of the things I did do in my freelance career is recipe developed for magazines so that was not a new skill for me. That was something I had been doing for many years. Kate: [00:08:20] So there wasn't a learning curve with that. Photography though, there definitely was and I tried doing it myself for a little bit and ultimately decided I'm terrible at this. I hate this, it stresses me out, but I know I need it. Benefits of hiring a professional photographer Kate: [00:08:35] And so I started working with a professional photographer pretty early on and she does all of the photos for Rool + Revel. Jillian: [00:08:43] Wow. Because I was going to say your photos are beautiful. Kate: [00:08:46] Thank you. Yes. I cannot take credit for that. I mean I'm the one making the food and you know it's my hands in the photo and we work together to kind of style and everything. But she 100 percent takes the photos, edits the photos. I would be totally lost. Jillian: [00:09:02] How does that work? You say, OK Mondays we're going to do some recipes, come over? Kate: [00:09:08] Yes, pretty much we meet every other week and we usually knock out like six different shoots in a day. Kate: [00:09:17] Sometimes it's six recipes sometimes it's you know a combination of, we work a lot with brands and so we have some like styled product shots or headshots or you know just depending on what kind of content we're working on. Kate: [00:09:34] We do a bunch of different things and we also do video. So yeah she just comes over every every other week and we just knock it out. Jillian: [00:09:41] How many hours do you guys do it? How long does that take? Kate: [00:09:45] Right now we're usually doing about a half day so probably like four or five hours each time. Kate: [00:09:52] We're also good friends so I'm sure if we work we could get it done faster but we end up talking a lot more which is really nice. But yeah. Kate: [00:10:02] So but it used to be we would meet like once a month and we would do like 20 recipes in a day. And that was like first thing in the morning through you know 9 or 10 at night. It was really long days. Kate: [00:10:16] And then we both were like you know maybe if we split this up and just that more often we could make this a little more doable. Jillian: [00:10:25] So are you super organized? Kate: [00:10:27] Yes yes I'm very OCD. I've always been that way. Jillian: [00:10:34] I'm picturing like, spreadsheets. Are there spreadsheets? Are there you know big shopping days? Kate: [00:10:41] Yes lots of spreadsheets. I am a total spreadsheet nerd. And we have emails going back and forth all the time with our shot list and what we're working on. Kate: [00:10:52] You know I have an editorial calendar that we work on usually two to three months in advance so rarely unless we get behind which sometimes happens but rarely are we like okay this is what's going up on the blog next week. Kate: [00:11:03] It's usually like this is what's going up next month. So we're usually working at least a month in advance. Jillian: [00:11:10] Wow. OK so then you've got your 6. So go back to, this is a business. So you say I need to hire a photographer, you get your photographer and you go. Then what was your next thought? Kate: [00:11:29] You know really, in the beginning it was just like getting as much quality content up on the blog as I could. Kate: [00:11:38] And there are so many hats that you have to wear as a blogger. And I really didn't realize a lot of that until I got into it. You know there's so much behind the scenes stuff that you're constantly working on and everything from social media to SEO. Kate: [00:11:58] And you know just things like coding stuff and making sure you have the right alt text on your photos and you know, networking with other bloggers and working with brands and getting sponsored content deals and that kind of thing. Kate: [00:12:15] So the beginning was mostly just like creating the content. And then after we got like a good library going then I started slowly adding the other aspects to my plate. Jillian: [00:12:28] OK so how did you start monetizing it? How has that changed or has it not changed over time? How to monetize your blog from Day 1 Kate: [00:12:35] I started monetizing from day one. So of course it was much smaller then, but I started just by doing Google Adsense. Jillian: [00:12:45] Got it. Kate: [00:12:46] And so I just had a few ads up on the site and I joined a couple affiliate programs. Amazon was one of the first ones I joined. That was a no brainer. Everybody shops on Amazon. Kate: [00:13:00] So I basically just started with a few affiliate links and ads and you know I'm sure thing in the beginning I was probably making like 20 bucks a month or something like that. Kate: [00:13:09] It was small but it was at least something that felt motivating, like OK if you know if I'm making this much and I only have like 100 readers a month, what if I had 1000 readers a month or 10,000? Kate: [00:13:22] And so it started with that and then I would say maybe about six months or so, I started working with brands doing sponsored content. And so that's changed now, again it's mostly just my rates have changed as we've grown. Kate: [00:13:41] But in the beginning you know I think I've got maybe 100 or 200 dollars for the first post. Jillian: [00:13:47] And do you reach out to these brands? Do they come to you? Were you using one of these intermediary companies. Kate: [00:13:55] Yeah it was a combination. I joined a few of the agencies. So it was like the Sway Group, or gosh, I don't use any of them anymore really but they try to think what the other ones are called, Blog Meets Brand. Kate: [00:14:13] So I joined a few of those Tap Influence I think was one of those, and that was really good in the beginning because they connected you with these brands. You basically just applied to any of the opportunities that you felt like were there. And if you got it you know, great. How to reach out to brands for sponsored posts Kate: [00:14:29] And so that's mostly how I started in the beginning. But the more I grew, and the more sponsored stuff I did with the agencies, the more I started also reaching out to brands myself. Kate: [00:14:41] And so again I created a spreadsheet and basically just made a massive list of all the brands that I already used and loved and would be happy to promote that it was a very natural fit for. Kate: [00:14:55] And then you know spent a couple of days going through all of their websites, getting their contact information, and then pitching them some sponsored content campaigns for Root + Revel. Jillian: [00:15:06] And how did that work out? Did they get back to you? Did they say yes? Kate: [00:15:12] Yeah for the most part I mean it definitely works. It's it's kind of a numbers game and so I recomme…

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#024: How to Sell to Moms by Being a Giver with Laura Fuentes (Part 2) Jul 04, 2018

Show notes

Today I'm returning with Part 2 of my chat with Laura Fuentes, creator of MOMables, food plans for moms. In this episode, we talk about how to sell to moms by being a giver. Laura proves that by being helpful, you can grow a hugely successful business. Also, don't miss all of Laura's favorite marketing mentors. You're going to love this! Resources: MOMables LauraFuentes.com Marie Forleo's B-School Food Blogger Pro Go Giver Gary Vaynerchuck Amy Porterfield Derek Halpern Lewis Howes The 5 Second Rule: Transform your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage MiloTree Some of these links may be affiliate. Subscribe to The Blogger Genius Podcast: iTunes Google Play Stitcher Transcript –How to Sell to Moms by Being a Giver with Laura Fuentes (Part 2) Intro: [00:00:03] Welcome to the Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian: [00:00:10] Hey everyone. Welcome back to the show. I'm still in my echoey Airbnb. So I'm going to make this short. But welcome back, because this is part two of my interview with Laura Fuentes, where we talk about how she nurtures her list, how she provides value to them, and how she sells to them. So without further ado... here we go. Jillian: [00:00:35] So let's go back now to your newsletter and how you build a relationship and how you ultimately sell to people. How to build an authentic relationship with your audience Laura: [00:00:43] Yeah. So if you're listening and you sell anything, like at some point in your blog you may want to create like an ebook or course. But also I feel like selling includes when you work with a brand and maybe you're doing a promotion or discount. Laura: [00:01:02] And they can seem very forced and awkward to say, "Buy this," or "Try this," for a lot of people. It feels odd. You have to kind of rethink the relationship that you have with your audience. Laura: [00:01:16] Which is what your original question was is how do I really form that and so when people come to my list -- Jillian: [00:01:23] But I just want to interrupt for one second. Definitely get on her list. Right. It's MOMables.com But that way people can get healthy meals, but also see how you do it because I think you do it so well. Laura: [00:01:39] Thank you. Yeah. Either you go to my website LauraFuentes.com or momables.com You get the same on-boarding experience. Laura: [00:01:50] So and also you know like a lot of brands, you get to think of this as a brand. And I think of Momables as my food brand. But at the same time people see my face all the time. Right. It's a real person speaking behind the brand. Laura: [00:02:06] And so most people think of growing their list as a way to send them the new blog content every week. Right. So somebody opts in, you offer some kind of freebie, and then you give them the freebie when they sign up and then you send them the blog posts that are happening that week. Laura: [00:02:26] But what you have to rethink is that that is a very automated and impersonal process. I used to do it like that and I learned that that really didn't build a relationship. Send a series of email so your audience can get to know you Laura: [00:02:40] I felt like my job was to, once people opted in, was to send them a series of emails where they got to know me and what I'm all about. Laura: [00:02:53] And then after that after they kind of go like OK. So she's got kids, she works. Here's her most helpful content, here's her best recipes. Here's some downloadable freebies from a series of emails. Then I send them my weekly newsletter. Laura: [00:03:10] Because I've just started doing that a couple years ago maybe two years ago and the relationship that I have with people is so much stronger than because imagine like you know if you signed up this week and you get my Sunday newsletter and I'm telling you how I just bombed this week or something, you're like What is she talking about? Right. Laura: [00:03:34] Like you don't even know that I have kids. You don't have a perspective of my life. So before I send them on my newsletter I create a series of emails where people received some of my best content, the most helpful content, and some free downloads. Laura: [00:03:52] I send them to my videos so they got to see me and get to know me on video and then I send them what's happening this week. Jillian: [00:04:00] Got it. So it's like a welcome series. Laura: [00:04:02] Yes. It's a welcome series. Jillian: [00:04:05] And how many emails are in your welcome series? Laura: [00:04:05] I believe there are nine. Jillian: [00:04:07] OK. And do they come out once a week or? Laura: [00:04:10] They're timed. And we still I think we're still a/b testing. But basically it's like the download after you sign up and then there's another one that day and then two days later, and then three days later, and then five days later, and then day seven, and then day eleven or twelve. Using email to build a deeper connection with your audience Laura: [00:04:42] You know so like they're staggered right. You know basically it really, imagine it as you and I just met and the first time we were at the coffee shop. And I'm like, Oh look I got an extra coupon. Here's a dollar off of your coffee because I got an extra one so you know, she's nice, she's helpful. That's your freebie, right. Jillian: [00:05:04] Yeah. Laura: [00:05:05] And then while we're waiting for a coffee drink, at the end of the bar, then you and I are like, Oh so you would probably thank me for your coffee or the coupon, and then I'm like also what are you doing here. Do you work around here? You know, it's kind of like get to know me, and you're like "oh I'm visiting my..." oh you're visiting the area, then check out this restaurant on the right, that's me being helpful to you. Laura: [00:05:30] And then after that, it's like you know, we move on to, oh well next time you are in town, let's grab coffee again and you're like, oh I'm going to be or I'm still here for a few more days. Awesome, we'll get coffee again. Laura: [00:05:47] So there's kind of the same way you would naturally develop a friendship with someone that you click with. Right? I do that via email. Some things are helpful, some things are freebees tangible items. Laura: [00:06:01] Think of it as a coupon, even though I don't give out coupons, but there are tangible things that people can use right away. But for the most part, and all of that what that creates is them understanding my life, and what the content that I'll be sharing on my blog is all about. Jillian: [00:06:19] So OK, so now I've gotten through your welcome series and now I am in your weekly emails. So talk to me about them and how you're sharing your content for the week. Jillian: [00:06:32] You're sharing about your life and then how do you sprinkle in "Hey, if you're stuck figuring out what to pack for lunch or what to make for dinner. You can check out my meal plans." Jillian: [00:06:47] And how often are you selling that? Laura: [00:06:49] Not as often as I should. From a marketer's perspective, from some people's perspective more often than I should. You can't please everyone. Laura: [00:07:04] OK I'm going to answer your question, and then I'm going to make a very important point on this. The short answer is that now I have a sales series where it's almost like here's the problem. It's like a sandwich here's the problem, here is where you want to be, and here's how you're going to get there. So my meal plan is the solution. Laura: [00:07:27] So that could be from a picky eater... I mean you know it doesn't matter what it is but it's a separate series of emails, separate from that Sunday email. The Sunday email doesn't mention the meal plans because I am a meal planning company and that is what you know. Laura: [00:07:53] At the end of the day, like that's one of the products that I sell. And I feel super strongly about meal planning as being the solution to relieving stress in the kitchen, to feeling better about yourself because of the foods that you eat, and it's feeling better as a parent because you are providing good nutrition. Laura: [00:08:17] So honestly, I have no problem telling people that if you're not meal planning, you really are doing yourself a disservice. Laura: [00:08:29] Because being unprepared does not give you the opportunity to feel your best. And planning is the way to achieve whatever mealtime goals may have for you and your family. So honestly I had to make a mind shift. Laura: [00:08:47] I feel so strongly about it for my family. Why not share that as much as I could. So some of the email I do mention, hey this is what our meal plan people are going to be eating this week. If you want to grab the recipes you can go here. Changing your mindset from selling to being helpful Laura: [00:09:04] So sort of give them a preview. But they have to buy a meal plan in order to get the five recipes that done for you and your shopping list. The meal prep sheet so you really do get a lot of value for two bucks a week or less. Laura: [00:09:19] So I kind of had to get out of my mind that I was selling. I am not selling I am being helpful. Jillian: [00:09:27] Yes! Laura: [00:09:27] It's just that planned help costs money. You can DIY yourself a remodel of your house on Pinterest or you can hire somebody like an interior designer to cut the work for you. Jillian: [00:09:40] I like that. Laura: [00:09:42] So I don't feel like I'm selling, but of course there's people on my list who are like, "I just want your free content so you could just stop selling to me." And I'm like OK well then you need to unsubscribe, because I do sell a product that helps thousands of families. Laura: [00:09:58] So if it's not helpful for you, you can come to my website. Of course I don't say these things but you have to be prepared to not be liked by everyone. Jillian: [00:10:07] Yes. Laura: [00:10:08] That's OK. Jillian: [00:10:09] Yes. Yes. And there are people who do expect your content for free. Laura: [00:10:17] And that's ok but not in my newsletter. Like it costs a lot of time, effort, and manpower and intention for me to sit down and build the content, and create the video, and it's totally fine that people will sit on my newsletter for free for years. Laura: [00:10:37] I literally have people that email me and go, gosh I've been on your newsletter for X amount of time, some of them years, and they're like I've never bought a product. Is there a way I can send you money? Laura: [00:10:48] And I'm like, oh my gosh you just made my day. I say to them it's really my honor to have somebody that's like minded. All I ask is that if you find my content helpful. Share it with your friends online. Laura: [00:11:03] So it's really not about selling. It's really for me, it's always been about creating that relationship and having people understand that I feel super strongly about meal planning. And hopefully they'll give me the opportunity to do that for them and their family. Jillian: [00:11:21] Right. Well the truth is that you can draw a line from meal planning to love, to love of your family, to love of yourself, to living a better life. Yeah. What could be better. Laura: [00:11:38] Yeah I mean in meals. The reality is that meals are something that's very stressful for a lot of people, and I don't understand sometimes how people come to my list, and they tell me that they're just, it is the most stressful meal everyday. Laura: [00:11:51] They don't know what to make, they go through the drive-thru more often they should, like there's all these things at the at the end of the day they're telling me, even in their own words and point blank that they don't think they're doing a good job. Laura: [00:12:05] And I'm like here's a solution for you. And they don't buy. And I'm not sure why. Like we're just so stubborn about accepting help and two dollars or less a week. That is that sometimes I'm like if what you're doing is not working you have to change something. Laura: [00:12:22] You know and the only reason I look online like I've it together is because I plan to death, and not because it's my job to plan, it's because it's the only way that I can make sure that I personally eat good for me food, that my family eats good food and that I can actually make it happen. Laura: [00:12:42] When we get home from karate at 6:45 or 7:15 at night and my family is starving, so it's really easy to go through Chick-Fil-A or something like that on a Wednesday night when we get home at 7 or 7:15. How to solve a problem for your audience Laura: [00:12:56] Or I can say you know what, I have something in the slow cooker, or I already made the meal yesterday with leftovers. All I gotta do is heat it up. Jillian: [00:13:07] I've got say that one thing you've been able to leverage is the fact that you are a planner, so you're able to say let me be the planner because that comes naturally to me, and let's say you're a mom who is not a good planner. I can give you a little bit of extra planning. Jillian: [00:13:24] Like I I'm providing that service for somebody who might not be able to get it together. Laura: [00:13:30] Right. And I would go a little bit further to say that if I looked at me, I've learned to plan because I was not good at it. Jillian: [00:13:40] Interesting, I would have said that you are a natural planner. Laura: [00:13:44] I'm a really good executioner. Like if I have a plan, I can execute like no other, right. I can also wing it because now it's my job and I'm confident the kitchen. Laura: [00:13:54] I look at the ingredients in my fridge and I'm like you know what, I can make something out of nothing. And when in doubt when in doubt serve breakfast for dinner. Laura: [00:14:02] But at the beginning you know, I had to learn myself as well. And it created a process which is what I sell is the process of doing that for any family. How to set up a sales funnel Jillian: [00:14:13] That's great. So you said that you have these funnels to help them sell your meal plans. And can you explain what that means? Laura: [00:14:24] Right. So I think oftentimes we hear the word sales funnel and we think of it like this sleazy marketing way of like some funnel. That all these people go to the top and then they kind of go down. Right. It's really not like that. Laura: [00:14:38] The way we do it it's really about understanding that not everyone is going to open every email that you send. Laura: [00:14:49] And so therefore while you feel like, gosh if I send them an email about my product every week they're not going to like that. Laura: [00:14:58] I mean of course there's a right way of crafting this email with email copy. But the point is is that the reality is that they're probably not opening that email, they're opening one out of every four emails that you're sending out. And people read information differently. Laura: [00:15:12] So in my funnel, I call it funnel but it's really a series, because it's linear more than it's not like, buy the small product. And then the next natural fit is to buy the more expensive one. Laura: [00:15:25] Like for me is a continuous introduction, an education about the products and services that I have to offer that help the…

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