Make More Money By Doubling Down On Your Strengths #FreedomFastLane

I like building a community. I like creating free stuff that is not content.

Build a business, invest the profits.

I'm Ryan Daniel Moran, and this is Freedom Fast Lane.

So, Mariana, tell me about your business and what you're trying to do.

Full story?

Yeah. Give me the whole background.

Okay. So it all started in 2015 when I started listening to Pat Flynn, which was actually in 2014. And I decided that I wanted to start my own website, which evolved at that time. At first it was related to career services and then. But I've always had a passion since I was late teenager to like learn Photoshop and figure out how to build a site online and that sort of thing. So then I was slowly moving to that direction. So then I started the Collective Mill and it provides resources and community for women who are interested in starting and running a successful blog. And I worked on it for two years.

At that time, it was primarily a blog. It had a free library of resources that had free stock photos, checklists, guides, that sort of thing.

Cool.

So most of my articles would have some sort of freebie to capture an email address.

I do not remember how big I grew my email list, but it was small, under 500.

And you were blogging and just creating content?

It was primarily content. So it was things like how to get your blog up and running, how to really narrow down the topic that you want to focus on. Design tips, SEO tips. All my background is in marketing, so a lot of that is connected.

And then I quickly jumped into launching a course. I watched a teachable summit. Probably I don't know how many years ago that was. Maybe three. I think it was their first summit, and they totally sold me. And I'm like, I can definitely do this. Created the course, but I did not validate it. I made assumptions.

You guessed?

I guessed. Totally guessed. It was a failed launch. I didn't know how to launch anything. I think I had less than a handful of people buy the course. I ended up giving some of them away for free when I had an online digital blogging conference over a weekend.

And so then I was kind of frustrated.

When Was that?

Maybe, 2016.

Okay.

And then.

I was also dabbling into affiliate marketing, and that was bringing in some income.

But I was doing consulting and freelancing on the side, and that was bringing in like all my income. But then dealing with clients for me can be a nightmare. And I wasn't really into that. So I was doing that for a while.

And so tell me about now and what you're trying to do now.

So I started working for another company. Two years fast forward, I quit. Now I am back and I'm running it full time.

And you let the blog go on ice for a while. You just let it sit.

It was just sitting.

You didn't do writing any content. You just let it sit there dead, right?

Pretty much. Bully dead for two years.

Okay.

So then I came back, I reached out to my audience, see if they're still engaged. My email list had grown from like 500 to about 17,000.

Just automatically.

Just automatically.

Do you know where the increase came from? Like, did you get a big jump in Google or did one of your pieces of content take off?

90% of my traffic is from Pinterest. 10% I think is organic from Google. But during that time, in the beginning, I set up literally all these content upgrades across my website. I offered a free email course, like a seven day email course. And they were just all coming in from these freebies.

Got it.

So it grew.

That's great.

Yeah, it grew dramatically. And I reached out to my audience. They're still really engaged. I surveyed them. I know their pain point.

It's all female bloggers, right? Female want to be bloggers?

Yep.

Great.

And so now that I'm jumping back in, I'm trying to figure out next steps. I want to create a course.

But my questions are, when do I create it and should I be? I mean, I should always be creating free, valuable content, but how much of that should I be doing before I launch my course?

So let me ask you this. What do you like to do and what do you want to have happen?

What do I like to do? Like literally, when it comes to my.

Website in business, what do you like doing?

What do I like doing?

There's a reason why you quit the job and went back to the collective mill, even though you thought it was dead. So what is it that you like to do and want to have happen?

I like building a community. I like creating free stuff that is not content. Surprisingly.

Okay. And what would it be free?

Like I am picturing that I have this page, multiple pages, that literally just has these beautifully designed, like step by step guides, checklists.

Great.

Stock photos.

Great.

Yeah.

Okay, Totally with you. Okay, cool. So you like community and creating free stuff that isn't how to articles, stuff that you're proud of.

Yeah.

Okay, great. I'm with you. Keep going. What do you want to see happen?

What do I want to see happen?

I would like to have a website. People are always sharing it because it's just like I'm starting out, I have no idea where to go. And this has all these beginning steps, literally templates that I can download to get started. And then from there, I would like to create a really strong community and create a course that literally just like walks them through the process. And I can handle them and it's not intimidating. Confidence was a big thing for them. They don't have the confidence to get started. So helping them with that and then really serving underrepresented communities that typically have barriers to do this sort of thing and helping them get their voice online.

Okay, got it.

And selling and having a very successful course launch.

Okay, great. Where are you running into challenges?

And how can I help monetizing my website? So.

I've created a course and it failed. And so now I'm nervous about the second course.

Was the course you made good at the time?

I thought it was pretty good. I'd give it a B minus.

Okay.

Now that I'm looking back at it.

Okay. So did the course suck or did your launch suck?

I think my launch sucked, but I also am not entirely sure if I was addressing the correct pain point.

Okay, got it. I'm going on a hunch here, but I also get the sense that you resented the fact that you had to do a course in order to monetize this thing. And so that came off in your launch. You don't really want to have a course, Arianna, are you sure? Yeah. Yeah. What you really want is for the course to pay for the engine so that you can go do the two things that you said you like, which is making free content and building community. The course is a route to you. This is just the vibe I pick up from you. You don't really want to have a course.

Now you can have the course, but part of the reason why you feel stuck is because you think you have to do the course first. But if you actually did the thing that you want to do, which is make free stuff and to create community, everybody would rally around your course when it was ready, and you'd have an easier time getting feedback and pilot participants when you already had those things humming.

So what would you recommend? My next three moves are in order.

Yeah, in order. I think you map out and create 10amazing pieces of content that you're really jazzed about.

And content is an article.

Well, content is the stuff that you said you really like. You said that. I think you said amazing piece of content that wasn't. You said amazing free stuff that wasn't content. Sorry. Yeah, so you go make ten amazing free things. And if you're already getting your traffic from Pinterest, put them on Pinterest and watch that organic reach continue to build. The number two thing that I would do is start to engage a little bit more transparently with your list. 17,000 is plenty enough to do damage. I mean, plenty enough to do damage. And so they're still engaged. They're still. I remember you telling me that they filled out surveys. Your open rates are healthy, your click through rates are healthy. They're still there. And if you continue to create content, communicating with that community, that list of people is step number two. And I would be really honest with them. Get this. You said that one of the biggest things they are struggling with is lack of confidence. And you have a lack of confidence around a course launch. Tell them, tell them where you feel lack of confidence.

Do I literally, like write it in an email?

Absolutely. Okay, here's your email subject line. Read this if you lack confidence. I recently surveyed my list and found that lack of confidence was a big thing that was holding people back. Guess what? Me too. Do you know that I've been trying to launch a course for the last three years? I love creating free stuff and I feel like I should have a course that pays for the whole thing. But I fear that people will resent me. I'm afraid to take the sale. I'm not as good a marketer as I am a creator, and that makes me feel insecure sometimes. Everybody's reading it is going, oh my goodness, me too. And now there's a community aspect starting to build. Yeah. And if you want to put them into an official community, like a Facebook group, that'd be a cool step three so that there's more of an engagement behind the. There's more of like a soul behind the following. And then you talk about doing the course and everybody will be happy to give you that feedback.

So let's say right now everything I'm creating is based on my survey and what they're asking for.

Yep.

So let's say I'm making sure to email them every single week. I'm making sure to even some of the articles I'm writing to include them in it so that way they can be featured and connect with one another.

It's good.

So I'm trying to nurture them. But let's say this next month I create free 10 free, whatever it is, pieces of something.

Yes.

Yeah, maybe I create like two per week. I email them, I'm like, hey, guess what? I created this for you, a month goes by. Those numbers don't add up. But a little bit more than a month goes by. And then. So then what would my next step be? Facebook group. Then start the course.

So you're really hung up on this course. Yeah, but the fact of the matter is, is if. If you found out that a dead relative left you $100 million, you wouldn't care about the course. But it's taking up. It should take up 20% of your time and mental energy. It's taking up 80% of your time and energy.

I think I will enjoy the course.

You do?

Yeah.

How could you do it in a way that you enjoy?

I think my problem before, like, what's been talked about is I feel like I had to have this Persona, and I'm naturally weird and awkward and getting on camera and being like, hey, like, thank you so much. That's just not my personality.

They do the whole thing via written word. You're a blogger. So are all your people. They like written word.

But so I geek out with a lot of video editing I can do for hours. I think that's fun. Photo editing, I think is fun. Like last night from 11:30 to 12:30, I was literally in my room editing photos that I wanted to create this.

You like being behind the camera?

Yeah. And editing stuff?

Yeah.

So I totally could create a course and think it's great and fun in front of the camera. It's just like.

Then it's, you know, so. Got it. So your biggest hang up is being in front of the camera, being like, salesperson and being a Persona.

But isn't that important? It's like what Pat's talking about. Like, the fear. You should go conquer that.

No. Okay, so those are different things.

Yeah.

Conquering the fear is not faking it. Conquering the fear is feeling the fear and admitting it and talking about it so that you're free of it. Or conquering the fear doesn't mean doing things you don't like to do. Yeah, those are different. Very different.

Okay, so let's say somehow I ended up with a million dollars tomorrow. Okay, let's say I don't, because I'm not going to. So I'm creating all this free content. My audience is like, you're amazing. You're literally giving us so much stuff. Then how do I monetize to keep going?

You keep coming back to that question, which is interesting, because when you said what you want to happen, you never said much about money. You said about what you want to do.

Okay, let's say money.

What I'm trying to get you to realize is that the money happens really easily when you do the other stuff.

Well, is that true though?

Okay, you have a lot of tenseness around money. Like, you have a lot of tenseness around it's not gonna show up unless I work really hard for it.

Maybe so that's why you're a liberal.

But sure.

So the fact of the matter is, if you go all in on your people, they will tell you what they want more of. And if you give yourself permission to just look at being resourceful of how do I get them what they need next without needing to be the one who gets it for them.

Can you explain that again?

Yes. If you look at your people and listen to what they need without taking on the pressure of being the one that gives it to them.

It will free you up to go bring in those resources that people will pay for that might look like you find out that people really want some sort of a how to guide on how to launch their blog. And for you to go into creating that course, for you to create that course versus create more amazing content that you really like is a trade off. And you might decide, you know, what I need to do is go be an affiliate for the person that is the best in the world at creating that course specifically, and that will monetize your blog. Or it may be that people say, what I really want is a coach to walk me through this. And now you have 10 people who pay you $1,000 a month for you to help them. Or it might be a very specific course that you say, I don't want to do that, or I absolutely do want to do that. But you trying to figure out the engine first is just gonna keep you in this tense spot. Whereas if you give those resources to doing the things that you already want to do, you'll be really, really golden.

Okay. The more I talk about it, the more I think I wanna create a course.

Okay.

A course seems like fun.

Okay, good.

Yeah.

Then do it in a way that feels natural to you, not in the way that you think other people do it or in the way that you think you should.

I like that.

And. And following the fear means moving forward, not doing it in a way that you hate. There are plenty of good courses that are done only via the written word. I. I do my courses via audio.

Really?

Yeah. My best teaching is behind a microphone.

It's not a recording of your face. You're not in front of the camera.

I love being in front of the camera, but not in a course setting.

Interesting.

Just don't like doing it. And if I don't like doing it, I'm not gonna do it. I'd rather go broke. Okay, the point is, I think this will help you. The important thing in anything that anyone buys ever is the result and the experience that they have. Not in the content you create, not in the amount, in the type of content, not in the work that you put into it. It is about the experience they have moving towards a result. Funny thing, we have one course called Million Dollar Brands helps people define the three to five products that they will launch on their path to building a million dollar business. And we say if you complete the course and you fill out a form answering questions about the products you're gonna launch, you get all your money back. I know that the content I create is only a proxy for them to make decisions.

And if I can solve their problem in 20 minutes and lead them to the action, I've done them more of a service than if I took them through eight hours or 80 hours. The point is to reach someone to decision point, clarity and ease of moving forward. And if you can do that in 20 minutes or one blog post, or one video or spoken word or a great infographic, that's your job rather than to build it into what you see everybody else doing. None of your customers care about what other people are doing. They care about them getting the result that was promised to them.

Yeah, that's true. Okay, cool.

When things are right, they're really easy.

Maybe I'll make a list of all my favorite things that I like doing when it comes to my business and then go from there.

I think that's a good starting point. And step two, do more of those things. Step three, ask the people who are showing up to what you like doing what they want. More of you. See, most people will pursue the money so that they can do the thing they want to do later. Yeah, but if they just pursued the thing that they wanted to do later, they would attract customers, clients, and fans that support what they like to do. Most people do two different things. I do this for the money so that I can do this other thing. But if you do the other thing, the people who follow that already resonate with what you like to do. And when they pay you, it's really easy and natural for you to fulfill that. It's like you're fulfilling it on the journey of you doing what you like rather than in spite of the journey. Yeah, you hear what I'm saying yeah, when you launched your first course, you did it in spite. You did it so that you could monetize this thing that you want to keep doing. And it was so frustrating that you stopped doing the thing that you like doing.

Yeah, that's true. Okay.

What else?

What else?

You actually look lighter and happier.

So better than yesterday. Yeah. You were overwhelmed yesterday.

I'm trying to think of what other questions that I have.

Can I ask you affiliate marketing questions?

Sure.

So in my mind, I'm a numbers person, so I think.

I'm going to write an awesome article about something I'm interested in. I know my audience is interested in it. And now it gets X amount of page views and I have affiliate links on it. So it should convert, let's say at 1%.

Sure.

But it's converting at who knows what? 0.00001%.

Okay.

Do you have any tips on creating pages, affiliate pages with affiliate links that convert?

So a couple things here.

Is this Pinterest traffic.

Yeah.

Standard affiliate conversion numbers are based on organic search, not on social media shares. So you should expect Pinterest to convert much less than organic search. And if you want to increase those conversions, use the affiliate links contextually. Meaning you're talking about it in the product in context.

Yeah.

And then number two, prioritize getting them on the email list first.

So nurture them.

Even if all you did. Like I'm thinking of a recipe blog as an example. If somebody was selling.

Gosh.

If somebody was selling a high end blender on their smoothie blog and they were an affiliate for Breville and they're making 20 bucks a sale.

I always use smoothie blogs as my example randomly. Yeah.

So if somebody was doing that, they would talk about the Breville blog throughout this juice, the smoothie recipe. Right. They get a few clicks and maybe a few sales. But what would really convert is if their lead magnet was the number one blender I use for every smoothie recipe.

Yeah.

And someone opts in and it goes to their video review of the Breville 9000. That will convert way more people than just having links to my favorite blender.

Okay, so let's go to a page that I feel like everyone has. So bluehost is an affiliate. I have a page that's how to set up a new blog. I explain things about blogs and hosting, et cetera, and then I go into a step by step guide and then I have links in there. Maybe instead somewhere in there I say offer some sort of content upgrade, something where then they Go to a video maybe of me where I'm like, hey, if you're really serious, I use bluehost. I've been using them for five years. This is why I think they're great. Like, how would that. How would what would be the steps from a page like that?

Yeah. So you mean in terms of what the lead magnet might be? Yeah, so. So if you've got a. If you have a step by step guide on how to set up your blog, then your lead magnet is like, how. How to set up your blog in the next seven days. And it's like, first things first, we got to get you some hosting. Hosting allows you to have a website. I use bluehost. I've used them for five years. Here's why. Here's my link. Number two, you're going to need a page creator. I use squarespace. I use squarespace because blank. Here's my link for it. Number three, you should pick some articles. Here's my link on. Here's my resource on how to write some articles.

Okay, so let's say because I created a landing page recently and just drove, paid for ads and sent them to this page and then it had the link there. But in the past I've done something where I offer. You have a little.

I'm listening, I'm listening.

I offered a blogging starter kit. So I said, like, I recommend bluehost. I've used them. They are an affiliate of mine. If you go through my link, I will send you the starter kit that comes with like templates, stuff, photos, that sort of thing.

Yep.

And I feel like in the past that's converted better. Would that be like an example?

I don't think there's a right or wrong way, but that sounds, that sounds great.

So offer. Okay, I think I get it.

If it were me, I would not hold back the starter kit to incentivize somebody to use my link. I would just give them the starter kit and put my links in the starter kit. Because people are going to share that starter kit. It's really good stuff. So they're gonna share it. And even if they don't use your link, they're gonna go back to you for more stuff.

I think it might have been Pat Flynn that talks. No, I think Pat Flynn talked about someone who talks about the sandwich. And it's like you have the meat on the inside and the buns, and the meat's what you're selling. You need to offer value ahead of time, but then you need to also to get them to sell it, offer something that complements it. So they're getting an additional bonus with it.

Okay.

Which was my thinking with the starter kit, where it's like, well, why are you gonna use my link as a thank you, I'll throw in this extra freebie.

So I think that's fine and that will work. I also can tell that that puts you in your head and keeps you out of doing what you want. What you're really pumped about is the Blogger starter kit. Cause it's really awesome. And if people started sharing that voluntarily, it'd make you really happy. And if you got paid to produce that really great stuff, it would make you really happy. So you're prioritizing something else. You're prioritizing what you don't like so that you can keep doing what you do like.

Okay, well, I think the thing I like the best is literally having just a page of all sorts of freebies.

I think that's what you should do then.

So literally someone can come and they have like everything they need. They can download it, watch it, just take it all for free.

I feel better hearing you say that because it was like the first time that you said something and there was no tenseness around it. If that makes you feel good, do it and people will come back and they will share that and you put your affiliate links through it.

Okay, last question.

Sure.

My free library of resources, that page right now is behind an opt in. And that's how I've grown my email list. And an email list is obviously critical.

Do I keep it behind? Do I keep it blocked like that? So it's like they have a password to access it.

I don't consider that blocked because it's still free.

Yeah. Just an email.

Yeah.

And technically if they're on that page, they can share it. No, they do need a password. I take that back.

Okay, so on my list of concerns, that's like ninth.

Okay.

So if that. And that seems to be working really well for you. So I. If you want to take certain pieces from that that you're really excited about and share those publicly, make them their own free page.

Maybe that link back to the whole thing page where it starts to show some of them and those are free and then they can see it. It's like this in depth page. But then like to get access to the whole thing, they put in their email address.

You seem excited about that, so go for it.

Okay.

There's like no right or wrong way to do it. The wrong way is doing it the way that stresses you out and prioritizes things you don't like. The good news for you is your stuff is so good that it has started to pick up a community in a life in spite of you not doing anything for two years. Which means that if you did more of that stuff, you would grow really, really quickly. And the monetization piece can be 10% of your energy rather than you putting the whole thing on ice because you couldn't figure out the money part of it.

So let's say I spend the next few months just doing what I love.

What you're about to ask me is, what if I'm wrong?

And then I come back to you and I'm like, hey, I can't even afford my groceries at this point.

What do you do then? Yeah, you go to your customers and you say, what do you want? Why do you read my stuff? What are you here for?

And then I create a course.

Or you can do what we talked about, which is, hmm, that's very interesting. Who do I know that has a solution to this problem? Who do I know that has a course around this that I could do a webinar with? So affiliate stuff, that would be one option. Yeah.

What about Pat talking about, you know what? Affiliates are great, but create your own stuff.

So did you hear me any of the times I've been here? Like, doing what feels good rather than what everybody else says you should do. So if you want to do that, do that right now. You're too tense around it to do it.

You remind me of. Both my parents are psychologists, and talking about me being tense, just fine. I feel like I'm in, like, a therapy session.

I have been called the business therapist every once in a while.

Yeah, I could see that.

Yeah, you have. Every time money comes up, you close down your energy around it. But you have these little peaks in which you don't worry about that, and you get all of these cool ideas for what you can create.

You're a creator. Like, you would be a really good.

Product manager because you look at the fine details and think of how people will consume them and the experience they'll have on it. You're really proud of them.

Like a UX designer.

Yeah. Yeah. I have a sense that you would have an eye for that.

I think so.

So when you go into money mode, someone in your brain is like, this is a waste of time. I shouldn't have to think about this. I shouldn't have to. Like, it's more valuable in the world when I just create things. You're right for you. You just need to go create things.

Did you watch the first presentation? The Artist Skateboarder?

I haven't been in the room one time.

Okay, never mind. But he followed. He wanted to be an artist and he followed it and he's like. And then it worked out. He's like, if I do what I.

Love, eventually, yes, that is correct.

Okay, so do what I love.

And then when money becomes an issue, become resourceful about how you partner them with the resources they need. Not you have to go step out of what you love to do things you don't love.

Okay.

And then if you stay committed to that zone, one day you'll be like, I know the type, of course I want to create. And it will feel easy, fun and effortless rather than this tenseness that takes you out of what you should be doing, which is doing what you love. So pay attention to your people rather than worrying about the numbers. Because if you care about people, the numbers work out.

I like that. Cool. Well, thank you.

Anything else? If you do what we're talking about, you will have a very different business in one year.

Okay, I'll contact you in one year.

Sounds good.

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