148: Pivoting to Find Success with Steph Jones

In this episode, I talk about 10 mistakes that bloggers make and how to fix them. And Steph Jones shares her journey of building a food blog, stopping a food blog, starting a new business, and finding success. Hey everybody, this is Bjork Ostrom and you are listening to the Food Blogger Pro podcast, which is brought to you by WP tasty, which you can find@wptasty.com it is the go to resource for WordPress plugins for your food blog. Or if you are interested in upping your Pinterest game for any blog. We have two plugins right now with wptasty, one called Tasty Recipes and that is for food bloggers who want to display extremely beautiful recipe cards that also perform well with search engines. And we also have Tastypins, which is a great way to optimize your alt text and your Pinterest text for your blog on the images for those posts that you're posting. We're not going to dive deep into each one of those plugins because that's not what the Tasty Tip is about. The Tasty Tip is about sharing something that you can apply to your blog to help it improve, to help it grow, and to help you build a successful business. Which is what we're going to be talking about with today's interview with Steph. But before we do that, I actually wanted to share with you one of the resources that Steph talked about using at as she was on her journey of building her blog and her website and her eventual business. And that is the 10 mistakes that bloggers make and how to Fix Them ebook. And this ebook is something that we put together a couple years ago, but it is still an incredible resource to help you understand and fix some really common mistakes that aren't that hard to fix. But lots of people make them as they're building their blog. So if you want to check that out, you can go to foodbloggerpro.com ebook and that will bring you to a page where you can download that ebook. And these are all things that were mistakes that we made as we were building our sites and have eventually fixed. And there were things that we noticed a lot of other people making a lot of mistakes that were really common. And Steph actually talks about that ebook and one of the mistakes that she made and in realizing that mistake that helped inform some decisions that she was making along the way. So I wanted to mention that as a resource for today's Tasty Tip. Again, you can get that by going to foodbloggerpro.com ebook. And this is the ebook that Steph talks about in the interview today. So let's go ahead and jump into the interview. Steph is a Food Blogger Pro member. She talks about building a blog and then realizing that wasn't the greatest fit for her, but then taking some of the things that she had learned along the way, both from her Food Blogger Pro and other places, and spinning that into a new business that fit better with her passion and her interest. And she talks about how she went through the process of using some marketing tools to have a successful launch and now has a successful business that she runs in the yoga niche. And I think you're going to be able to take a lot away from this interview, so I'm excited to share it with you. Let's go ahead and jump in. Steph, welcome to the podcast.

Hey, thanks for having me on.

Yeah, I'm excited to chat with you today because even just in chatting a little bit before the interview started here, it sounds like there's been some things that you've been able to take away from little bits and pieces of the different places where we live online, and you've been able to apply those. And I think that's the inspiring thing about your journey, is that you've learned and then applied. And we're going to talk about one of what those things are that you learned and applied and what the results of those were and how you got to where you are right now. But before we do that, let's rewind the tape a little bit and talk about what you were doing before this stage where you're interested in building a business online. What did life look like for you?

Yeah, so back, I guess it was now four years ago, I graduated from Virginia Tech with a finance degree and got what I thought at the time was my dream job as a financial analyst living in Charlotte, North Carolina. And I worked there for three years in their securities department, working in futures, and thought it was a great job, really was able to grow and expand and had a great group of people rooting for me, but ultimately just found the tediousness and the repetitiveness of the job just not to be a fit. And actually at the time, I would have my spreadsheets on one screen and I would be reading the income reports on the other screen, hiding it. Just like, really curious that I would say to my co workers, and I was like, gosh, how did they make this work? Like, this is crazy. Just in the back of my mind knowing I wanted to get to a point where I would have my own business. I just didn't know how that would take shape or form.

Yeah. So did you know that always, like when you were going into your dream job as a financial analyst, at that point, did you know that you were also interested in starting and building your own business?

No, not at all. I really thought that working at Wells Fargo was like the end goal. I was going to work there until I retired and that was the only place I really wanted to be. But I think once you, you kind of don't realize, like, okay, after, like reading the same emails and just feeling like you're being told what to do and there's a lot of limitations within the job and staying till 8pm and that kind of thing was just not a fit. So that was when I really started getting to a point where I was like, I need to do something else, I need to switch this up.

Yeah, they talk about that with the work that we do and having flexibility in decision making and the freedom to kind of craft your own schedule and make big decisions. And I can see how within certain jobs, when that's removed, how that can be for some people, not for everybody. I think for some people it's a really good fit.

Right.

For somebody who really has a strong desire for that freedom and decision and, you know, kind of crafting their day and making those decisions, how that can start to wear on you. So what was it like when you started to feel that feeling? How did you respond to that? And what were the different avenues that you looked down in order to kind of plan your potential next path?

Yeah. So it started out that I was staying late and I was kind of like, oh man, this doesn't feel like how I want my life to be. And actually at the time my dad passed away and I had this newfound respect on life where I was like, I am gonna go for what I like. I wanna live my life in a new way and I wanna live for this person. And I wish it didn't have to happen in that way, but it sort of was my wake up call where I was like, okay, life's gonna end and I'm gonna be sitting at this desk like, dang. I didn't get to impact anyone's. I mean, I can impact the people who were there. And I felt like I was helping, but I wasn't. And I felt like I had so much more to give. So I was really into yoga at the time, didn't anticipate getting into a place where I would be teaching it, but was just starting to kind of develop my spirituality and getting into a place where asking for the universe to give me something that I can impact people's lives with. And I just, I kept sort of thinking, like there was more. And I kept seeing life, like in a way where I could run a business, but I just still didn't know what it would be like. I knew that it would happen. I didn't know when, how, but I kept just sort of seeing that. And then I started reading as much as I could. So any self development book I could pick up was just sort of guiding me down the right path. And I was still confused.

Yeah. What do you mean by that? Confused.

Just didn't know where to go. So it actually turns out I end up quitting my job at Wells Fargo with nothing else lined up. And I'm in Charlotte, North Carolina at the time, and I decide I'm gonna move to San Diego. I've been there a bunch of times to visit friends and the lifestyle was just a better fit for me. And I was like, if I can be good at a job that I hate, then I bet I could be really good at a job that I love. Like, I'm gonna find it, right?

Yeah. And so that your trip to. The decision to move to San Diego was also a little bit of a pivot in your life to find something that you truly love. Knowing that if you find that, when you find that, that you'll be able to do that even at a higher level than you were at a job that you didn't enjoy as much. And so that was kind of the start of that journey. Yeah, got it. So a couple things I want to rewind back to. So you had mentioned your dad, obviously an extremely significant life event and something that in the moment, but also I think long term probably causes you to look at the world differently and just want to acknowledge how heavy that is and how hard that is. For those that haven't experienced a significant event like that, knowing that it impacts you, what. What would you. And this could maybe be a legacy piece for your dad. Like, what are some of the things that you have learned from him and also from grieving the loss of him that has impacted how you are operating in the world and some of the decisions that you make. And I think in telling that story, people can absorb that and also be impacted by it as well.

Yeah, I learned so much from him. And I think ultimately, like, at a subconscious level, I lived kind of to please my parents. Like, I think we grow up in this way where he Wanted me to be a financial analyst. And I think it was one of like the proudest moments for him to see me get that job. And I felt like pleasing him was, you know, it was really pleasing for me. So I think once I didn't have him around anymore, I kind of opened up that space in my mind where I was like, okay, you know, I don't have to live. My dad thinks it's a great job, but he's also not living my 24 hours. How can I best live this to still, you know, I want to live his legacy and like remember him and honor him, but he would ultimately want me to be happy.

Yeah.

So how could I do that?

Yeah, it's such an interesting thing. I was talking with a friend who's a psychologist and child psychologist, but we were talking about just the impact that our parents have on us and how we view the world and operate in the world. And it's I think, such a valuable thing to process and think about. How can you simultaneously, you know, honor and look to please your parents or, you know, your. If people have both parents, their mom and dad or whatever their situation might be, while also pursuing your path and finding that balance between those two and making sure that those are in balance, I think that's incredibly valuable and also a hard thing to do to process through.

Definitely.

Yeah. And another question that I had related to something that you said is you were reading a lot of books and self improvement books and things like that. What were some of the books that were most helpful for you along this journey?

Yeah, the start of my reading and I do a lot of Audible but I'll do like one book paper and then one also reading but just for the sake of time. Audible has been like a godsend. The first one, and this was recommended by a friend or someone who was in my yoga teacher training. She said you are a badass by Jensen Chero. You might have heard of it. Yeah, girls, even guys have really found that to be super inspiring. I loved. I think you recommended this. The Essentialist or essentialism by Greg McCown. Yep, that was a great one. The four hour work week by Tim Ferriss was probably one of the most inspirational like for building a business online.

Yeah.

I could go on.

Yeah, no, those are great. And we'll link to those in the show notes.

Yeah, for sure.

Because I think that's for me too. I was thinking just the other day about how influential just general knowledge is in informing the decisions that I'm making. And there's a. Every once In a while there's a big takeaway that you get from that that has a massive impact. But what I found is I think it's this slow but continual carving and like building of your foundational knowledge. And that only comes from a lot of consumption of that content over a long period of time. And for me, that's reading podcasts and then occasional audiobooks, like you said, audible. And so encourage anybody that's listening to really lean into that. And if you're not a reader, like you said, Steph, Audible is a great solution. And it's nice because you can fill in the normally not occupied time with really good information, like washing the dishes or doing laundry or driving, things like that.

Right. And that's just like those margins of your day, like when you, it's kind of just making something that I think is less enjoyable, like a little more enjoyable by learning. And it's like we don't have a dishwasher here. So I'm like, okay, you know what? I'll get in my 30 minutes, 1.5 speed, I'll learn.

Yeah, absolutely. So you're at this point where you're making some big decisions. You've left your job as a financial analyst, you're starting to lean into learning about some of these things and reading some of this information, listening to podcasts and audiobooks. At what point do you say, hey, I'm going to take this first step into attempting to build something. And what did that look like?

Yeah, still pretty fearful at this point. I kind of almost like needed permission. Like you're, you're. I'm pretty lost. I've moved to San Diego, but actually prior to moving, the week before I quit at Wells Fargo, I'm still in Charlotte, packing up and I went to a yoga class and I, my intention was still like constantly thinking of what I'm going to do. And I have this sort of freak out moment in my mind. I'm in dancer pose, gazing at myself in the mirror and I have like this rush over my body where I'm like, this is the only space. I'm so present. I so want to be here. I'm not waiting for a time to strike five. I want to make people feel the way this teacher is able to make me feel. So I'm going to do this and.

Do this means what?

I'm going to pursue teacher training. I'm going to become a yoga teacher.

And so what does that look like? So you have this realization that this is going to be the perfect fit for you or Potentially a really good fit for you. You've left your job and this looks like the next step. So how do you pursue that?

Yeah. So I researched some teacher trainings online. In order to become a yoga instructor, you have to go through a 200 hour teacher training and they just teach you the philosophy behind yoga. Every posture. It's in Sanskrit. I don't know how familiar you are with yoga, but not very. Yeah, there's a lot that goes into it. It's really like running an orchestra. It's a lot. So the 200 hour teacher training, I started researching that I was moving to San Diego the following week. So I was like, I'll just try out a few studios and see what's affecting fit. And ultimately landed at one in La Jolla called Buddhi Yoga. U d d h. I went to a class there, met an instructor, Goldie, and she was incredible and basically gave me the encouragement I needed and was like, this will change your life. You should do it.

And one of the things that you had mentioned in the email when we were going back and forth was. And was, was this before or after you'd said you had started a blog and you were posting some recipes and doing some food related content? How did that tie into things and where was that at?

Okay. Yeah, so I'm just still super curious about pretty much anything. I am just like, okay, I'm gonna go for it. If something kind of lights my attention, I'm gonna try it. So I was still doing the yoga thing, but I didn't. After you graduate from teacher training, like, you don't have a job, you're really no good. So that's a really long build. And I was kind of like, okay, why don't I just try this food blog thing? I've seen Pinch of Young grow it from the ground up. They've laid out the building blocks. I just need to brick by brick, figure this out. So go ahead.

And that was after you'd wrapped up with the teacher training in San Diego. So you had made the move, you were there and you said, okay, in this, in between, after I graduate from teacher training, let's look at building this site maybe alongside looking for teaching jobs for yoga.

Right, right. I'm doing both. So I joined Food Blogger Pro. I think I'd been a member for a couple months and been watching all of the videos and I was like, all right, I'm gonna take the plunge and start sodelish.net and it was, I think about this time last year that I was going And I started building recipes. I announced the launch of the blog. I was like, I'm gonna be a pretend food blogger for a month. See what this feels like. Because the idea of it sounds great, but in actuality, do I wanna do this? Is this for me? And I was like, before I let people in on it, I'm gonna make these recipes, test them, photograph them, write all the articles, and just have content ready for the blog. So I enjoyed it. Like, it was my flow activity. I felt so immersed in it, but. And I launched the blog, and it was amazing. I did it for, like, three or four months, but ultimately I was like, spending maybe eight hours from start to finish building one post. And I'm sure Lindsey. I don't know if I'm sure she's gotten it down to a science now, and she's good to just, like, batch and get out. But I was, like, creating these recipes, testing them multiple times, learning the photography was taking away from yoga. And I didn't know if it was like, was it going to my end goal? And my end goal in mind was to do yoga. And I was like, this is just distracting me.

Yeah. And one of the things that you'd said is we were talking back and forth about the podcast interview was you'd said, I know yoga, not food. And it sounds like it kind of ties into this idea of you kind of recognizing what your ultimate goal is. And before we get into that, I think to rewind. I think that's one of the things that's so important, you know, a piece of this story that's so important to point out is it takes a ton of time and energy. I think even now, like, Lindsay probably spends eight to 10 hours on a piece of content. Like, it's. It's just such a involved process. And for you, it sounds like you were enjoying that process, enjoyed the content creation, but also knew that it wouldn't necessarily lead you down this path of where you wanted to go. So you had this understanding of, like, this is what my ideal would look like. And even though you could see yourself potentially maybe doing this, you knew that it wasn't the best fit for it. So can you speak to how you went about kind of crafting that vision of where you wanted to be and how you knew that you needed to change what you were doing in order to reach that vision.

Yeah. So it actually was just one day in particular where I had spent so much time trying to move, like, one box on the blog. And I was just like. And one huge recommendation that comes from you is don't tweak things. And I completely went against that, but I was, like, spending. I was like, I just spent three hours moving a box three centimeters. Like, that was a ridiculous thing for me to do. And it's like, don't be such a perfectionist, which I'm getting close to being over. But I was like, seriously, this is a ridiculous amount of time. And I called my brother, and I was like, I think I'm gonna just focus on yoga and stop food blogging. And he was like, oh, my God, Rip. Oh, my God. It just, like, made this big deal about it. And he was like, we never thought you would do that. And I was like, okay.

Yeah. But I think. I think that's so. For context, for those that aren't familiar, one of the downloads that we have talks about 10 mistakes that bloggers make and how to fix them. And one of the first ones is this concept of changing or tweaking things. And especially in the early stages, it's so easy to get lost in wanting to get. I feel like your example is a great one, like wanting to move a box and get it in that perfect spot, and it can become so distracting. Um, and. And also for somebody that's a perfectionist, you want it to look right and to. To feel right. And so you kind of stepping back, realizing, like, I'm getting lost in this. I'm going too far down, you know, this rabbit hole with this. This site. So I'm going to take a step back. It's not leading me to where I want to go, so I'm going to change things up. But can you talk a little bit specifically about the vision that you had and what was your vision and how did you develop that vision? Because I think it's important for people not to get lost in the work just for the sake of doing work and showing up every day, but to be working towards something. And how did you know what that was for you?

Yeah, and I had been using, like, visualization tactics since I was living in Charlotte, and I sort of would just get into this, what's my perfect day like? We can all live our perfect day. How am I gonna get there? And at this point in time, when I was ending the food blog, I was sort of like, okay, my perfect day is I go on the beach, I run. I've gotten that. I do yoga, and I'm teaching yoga. And maybe I'm working on an online website in some form because I wanted to have both something I could do in person. But also something online. I was just super interested in building an online community. I just think that's where everyone is and it's a smart place to be for business. So I kind of. That was just like the conclusion. I was like, being in this food blog space is only taking me away from getting to that perfect day. I'm not going towards this end goal at all. I'm just like, off the course. I've gone way left.

Yeah. And for those that listen to the Food Blogger Pro podcast, you might think, well, that's a little bit weird that on the podcast you're talking about somebody shifting away from a food blog. But it's actually something that I really wanted to hone in on and talk about because one of my hopes is that the takeaway that people can get from listening to this is that what we're doing is we're building something that is an asset both to us and other people ideally. And that might not look like the thing that you think it will look like or the thing that you see somebody else building. There has to be some flexibility in and some evolution of the thing that you're building in order to get to the point where you want to get. And where you want to get might not look like where somebody else is. So how do people have flexibility in their thinking about things and their, you know, visualization of what something could be? And I think it really helps to have an end goal. So for somebody who's never done a visualization, you talked about doing visualizations and kind of crafting what your ideal day would be. How does somebody go about doing that?

Yeah, I think it's almost just getting rid of any fear. Like a lot of us have fear based thinking and so we can't see how. How this will happen. And when you release any resistance to how you can just think about what you want. And we all have a different vision of what that would be. And I think it's easier to rely on a path that is already built. Like, if you want to make a food blog, you've seen Lindsay do this and you want to just do it in that exact order. And I fell into that trap. I was like, I just want to be Lindsay. Like, I want to just make these posts and this looks amazing. I'll make 50,000. It's done. And that just wasn't who I was. I wasn't someone who could write about food. It didn't make sense for me. So just getting into the vision of what does make sense for you, and maybe it's just like picking up pieces from other people and then develop, developing your own, like perfect day.

Yeah. And I think that's such a good point there to observe, to look, to see what other people are doing and then use your self awareness of who you are and what your ideal would look like to build your own, like complete your own puzzle using the pieces from other people. And it's not that by any means that you're not learning from other people. It's not that you're intentional, not intentionally sitting down and observing what other people are doing, but you're not trying to produce an exact replica of what that is. You have an understanding of what you are hoping to build and how you're hoping to impact people and then gathering those pieces and building your ideal situation. And so for you, you had an idea of what that was and started to refine that a little bit. You said, okay, I know that it's not specifically something directly related to food or in this case building a food blog, but you do know that there's a community element to it. So what did the next evolution of what you're building look like?

Yeah, so it just so happened. And I feel like this was thanks to just me knowing I was going to build this business online. I attended. I think it was teachable. It was a summit online. And they were like, you need to transform someone. If they're going to buy something from you, you need to get them from A to B. And so I kept being like, what are problems that I can solve for people? What is something that I can put out there that has helped someone get from point A to point B? And we developed a class at the yoga studio that I actually ended up getting a job at that was a form of yoga using hand weights and ankle weights. And I started teaching that last year in January. And the class ended up transforming my body. Like it was the answer to me any workout worry I had. Like I would go from studio to studio trying to work out doing cycling, pilates, a whole bunch of things that were never actually getting results. And this program or class ended up sort of transforming my body. And at that point I was like, how can I make this more? We're only teaching it at my one studio.

And that's when you started to think about, I would assume, transitioning it into some type of online version of that. So we'll get to that before we do rewind. Just real quick. For those that aren't familiar with teachable, can you explain what that is? And is that a class or course that, you know, if. Is that available for other people to watch or. I'm sure people are interested to hear a little bit more about that.

Yeah, I haven't looked at it much. It was just I went to their summit. But if you want to sell a course online, it's kind of a one stop shop for you to set up your course. I looked into it for my website. It's, I would say like almost the equivalent of you owning a membership site. Right?

Yeah. And we've actually, we use it for wptasty for. We've used it for a couple other things, but it's a really.

And you guys had the video on there, I think too.

Yeah. So, yep. It's a really easy way to set up content site, like a membership site for people that don't have membership sites. And you wouldn't have to use WordPress or something like that. It's kind of like a course builder. And we don't use it for Food Blogger Pro, we don't use it for other classes, but we do use it for wptasty actually to help people learn about how to use the plugins. So super easy, easy way to create it. When we get to that point, we'd love to hear how you went about building your site. But before we do that, I want to hear what were the first steps into it. So you say, okay, I know that this is something that maybe will work. We've seen it work with people in our brick and mortar location. And I want to transition into doing this online. What do you, what are the first steps that you take in doing that?

Yeah, this is a very long, long, slow build. I am like starting to put a couple of the moves that we do in the class on my Instagram just to gauge interest. I was like, does anyone care? Like, does anyone want to know what I'm doing out here in California? A lot of my friends are back east. How can I sort of engage them with this program? It's really helped me. I'm getting compliments that I look better. And I was like, all right, let's see if anyone cares. So most people like, oh, those are awesome moves. Like, I'm saving them. I want to use those in my workouts. And then one person in particular is my cousin's wife was like, you should start a YouTube channel. I was like, maybe. I don't know if that's for me. I don't really know if I could put my class on there because I really like it to be to the music. And there's so many legal issues with that. So I said to her, I was like, I'm gonna start filming my classes. I'm gonna make a specific routine that's gonna help you. And would you mind doing the classes three times a week and taking before and after picture and let's just experiment and see how you look.

Yeah, that's great. I think what, whether intentional or not, essentially what you're doing is this little beta group. Like, yeah, you're thinking, hey, this is something I'm interested in doing. Before I go through the process of creating a bunch of content that I'm going to sell to people, I'm going to use a small group to kind of test a very basic version of it. In the tech world, they call it an MVP minimum viable product. But it's like you're creating this thing that is the most basic version of what you think might eventually work. So in doing that, what did you learn?

Oh my gosh. So much so I didn't really realize like how to get those huge 45 minute files online. Like there was just a lot of little things and like I would be filming it just with a small tripod and it would stop in the middle or just small little things that you just really need to be so over prepared. Because I knew I wanted to get her a new video every week and if something happened on the one time I was recording it, I would have to rerecord and redo the entire workout, which was super taxing for me.

Yeah. And so you're kind of working the kinks out, essentially getting into it and saying like, okay, what are the just ground level things that I need? How do I record a video? Or once I have that video, how do I get it online in a really effective way that's not on YouTube? But eventually you work those kinks out, you kind of get through it and you're able to send these video files to her. I'm guessing what happens then is it's a generally positive experience for her. Is that kind of how it played out?

Yeah, yeah. She absolutely loved it and she was thrilled. She had been working out herself like four or five times a week and not seeing the results that she felt like for the time she was investing. So she was super happy that she only had to work out three times a week, could do it from home because she had two kids and saw great results in her after pictures was just like completely blown away.

So you have now beta test. You've figured out how to actually create the content to Upload it to share it. And now you're at the point where you say, okay, what does it look like to open this up a little bit more to additional people so you know that it works. At least it did with this specific individual.

Right.

How do you decide to make that jump into creating an actual piece of content that would be available for people online?

Yeah, so the quality of the videos were terrible, so I knew I would have to re record them. But before I went and did that, I went and bought a WordPress domain stephyoga.com and made a landing page. So it was really simple and I'm surprised that it even worked. But I used Elementor to create it and then it was just a picture of my before and after telling people that you can work out for 45 minutes three times a week, join the wait list and let's just see what happens.

And a couple things with that. So what were you. In order to allow people to sign up for a waiting list which. And to have the landing page, I think that's a really great takeaway. So for anybody that's thinking about any idea, I think one takeaway that you can jot down is as soon as you're starting to think about it, create a really basic landing page for people to not only allow them to sign up to be informed of it, but also it allows you to gather some feedback as to how many people would actually be interested in it. So huge takeaway, really smart move on your part. In terms of what that looked like to build it. You mentioned a couple of things, but how do people go through the process of putting in their email and their name and where was that being saved in terms of the email provider that you had and kind of any other tools that were helpful with that?

Yeah, I went through all of the videos in Food Blogger Pro to set up my WordPress site initially and then after that I used ActiveCampaign and I think I had like a 15 day trial with them and I ended up spending the $15 a month or whatever for their basic and I don't know if that's quite necessary, but I just really like the look of having the boxes on my website for people to sign up. I was just. I felt like the quality of my brand sort of. I wanted to match it to the site and it's just look really slick and clean.

Yep, great. And for those that aren't familiar, ActiveCampaign is email marketing tool. We've also talked to Nathan from Convertkit on the podcast. It's Similar. Activecampaign is maybe a little bit more advanced in terms of the tagging and automations that you can do. And I think biggest takeaway is just have something that allows people to sign up. Activecampaign is what we use for Pinch of Yum Food Blogger Pro, but know lots of people that use other solutions as well. So what. What did you find when you put this page up and how did you get people to go there?

I was shocked. I was just like, okay, this is pretty standard. I don't even know if I would sign up myself. But first day, I think we had about 30 names. And that was just through my own Instagram. I didn't do any sort of marketing, paid advertising or anything of that sort. It was just like, hey, this is my before and after picture. This program has really helped me. I want to help transform you. Just give me your email and I'll let you know more details.

So you posted an actual post on Instagram that said, I just put up this landing page. I'm thinking about doing this class. If you are interested, you can go to this URL, which I'm guessing you put in your profile, and then sign up for the waiting list. And you had 30 people sign up?

Yeah. First day, and I was like. I was getting emails and it was sort of like the most exciting time. I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, people I've never met are emailing me. What? This is crazy.

And how many at that time, how many Instagram followers did you have? Like, what was the conversion rate for that?

700.

Okay, so that's incredible.

No, it was crazy.

Yeah. So now you know. Okay, people are kind of interested in this. How do you build on that initial momentum?

So I felt like that was enough to get going. I sort of made a drip series for them explaining what the program is and that they need a set of ankle weights and likely open up for enrollment or purchase in two months. I still didn't know because I hadn't even filmed the videos yet. Like, the product's not even made. Yeah, because this was just for me to see. Is this something people want?

And so you. For those that aren't familiar, can you explain what a drip campaign is and the basics of how you went about setting that up?

Yeah. In ActiveCampaign, you can basically set up a series of emails that goes out to your email list where it almost looks personalized. You can say like, hey, Bjork, thanks for signing up for the wait list. Be on the lookout for more information. The upcoming Days. And then maybe your next or your next email will be more information about why they signed up, what they'll be receiving. And you can kind of just keep like sending emails to people without you actually having to be involved. So I'll put like the wait time of seven days. I don't want to bombard people, but I also want to keep them, you know, excited about it.

Yeah. And you know that people are interested in it, they signed up for it. You don't want to email them 10 times in a day, but you want to give people adequate amount of information. And the great thing with any of these email service providers, whether it's Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign or ConvertKit allows you to do that in a really easy way to build the strip campaign where you can say on the first day, right. When they sign up, send to this email. The next day, send this email immediately. Yeah, Yep. So you build out this drip campaign. Now you have kind of a little funnel going. You have people landing page you can direct people to. You have a drip campaign that goes out after they sign up. And are you using your Instagram account as the primary source of driving people to that landing page? Or how did you get the additional people to sign up for your courses as you were preparing it and building it?

Yeah. So Instagram and Facebook, just my personal pages was the main driver and I think other people were sharing it. So they were telling their friends about it was another driver, but it was just those two.

Got it. And at this point you weren't paying for anything. This was all organic.

Yeah. Completely cool.

And so you're telling people, hey, it might be kind of two month range for this to happen, for this to open up. Now it's kind of pressure time. Right. That was like for us for Food Blogger Pro, we pre sold Food Blogger Pro and then we said in three months we're going to launch. So it's kind of a stressful time. How did you go about creating the content and then when you did have it created, want to talk to you about what it was like to launch, but just talk about the content creation process right now.

Okay. So the actual sequences were already built because I had used them for my beta test. So I just had to record them in a high quality manner. And I was like, oh, I really want to be at the beach. I want everyone to feel like they're in San Diego. So that was a terrible idea. I would go down.

Not exactly a controlled environment.

Yeah. I was just like, what am I thinking? It'd be windy, you couldn't hear me. And that was like trial and error, like three weeks and I just wouldn't, wouldn't give it up. And then I was like, okay, I'm just gonna go to the studio. I don't think anyone actually really cares about the background. They probably just care about like the yoga aspect. So I started filming. I just used a tripod and would run out the studio for an hour and a half film, come back home, edit it in my 30 day trial of final Cut Pro.

Nice.

And just to do it as cheaply as possible, I just had to bang it out in those 30 days.

Yeah, good for you. I think that's so awesome. They talk about this concept which I've mentioned a few times, which is ramen profitability. But with anything online you can create something for a really affordable amount if you're willing to hustle. Like if you're willing to learn Final Cut and edit things in the 30 day free trial period, you can have really well produced video shot with, you know, maybe a decent camera or your iPhone or Android phone and have really decent quality content that then can guide people along the way. If you, if you know what you're doing. And for you, you did with yoga, that was something that you understood and you knew. So you've gone through the process, you edit it now. This is what I feel like is one of the hardest things. How do you figure out how to deliver that kind well, so before we get there, let's talk about how did you know you were ready to launch? At what point did you say, okay, I'm going to now send an email to these people and say, you can purchase my course, talk about that moment.

So once I think I had about at that point maybe 60 emails and I was like, okay, I need to give them a date. People are really ready to try this product. They keep asking me about it, they keep wanting to know the price. I don't even have any idea. I just need to set a deadline. And I felt like for relevancy purposes, January 2nd would be perfect. Like people are going to want to get in shape. They're excited about it. Let's do it then. So I think it was maybe end of November. I told them it'd be January 2nd. So I knew my deadline was set and I hadn't finished filming, but I had at least one video. So I knew that I was going to be able to produce the first week. So as long as I had that going, they would be able to receive one weekly.

Yep. And that's something that I've heard people talk about before, is not even having the complete content finished, but building it as you go with that first time around. So were you going to deliver that content via email and then direct them to a password protected page or how. What did that look like?

Okay, yes. So that came about. Then I realized I tried to create my own membership website and it was just entirely too much like with this deadline, I was like, oh my God, I'm learning HTML css. What am I doing? So I hired a web developer. I just posted an ad on Craigslist and sifted through all of the applicants and found a guy who was willing to do it for $800. And I was like, okay, if I have 60 people and I feel like my conversion rate is going to be high, this is a really targeted email list. This is worth the investment. I'm going to do it.

So you went for it. This individual built you the website. Do you know what they used to build it and what platforms they have?

I think it was MemberPress. And I knew you guys. I actually talked to Alexa because I was like, you guys have a really clean, sleek site, but you guys use what, Expression engine, Correct?

Yeah. You've done your research. Good job.

Yeah, I did, yeah.

So Memberpress is a WordPress plugin and that's one that I'm familiar with. It's actually the one that is recommended by the membership guys who. There was a podcast interview way back, and so It's a popular WordPress plugin for membership sites. So. So you have that. Somebody has built that for you. You make a little bit of a risky decision and say, I'm gonna put $800 into this. I don't know if I'm gonna get it back for sure or not, but I do know that I need this in order to run my site and to have this membership site. So now you have all the components, you have the first pieces of content, you have the site built, you have a waiting list of 60 people. And the time comes to say, okay, I'm gonna officially open this up, how do you go about doing that? And also how do you know how to go about pricing the course and the content that you're selling?

Yeah, that was a little tricky too, but I figured. So for the pricing portion, I said, okay, if I'm giving them six videos, your typical drop in for a yoga class is $20. So I want to make this affordable and I want, and I, I don't feel like anything over 100 is worth it. So I said 97. I knew you guys ended in seven. I was like, I think that's the golden number. And I emailed everyone, I think a couple or like the day of, and said it was open for enrollment was how I just basically launch it. And I think I actually looked at how your guys sequence was set up and modeled mine similar to that. Sort of like, okay, this is open for enrollment today. I'm actually only accepting 25 members was the original plan. Because I was like, I don't know what will happen. This is a little risky. And I think within two hours, there was 15 signed up.

Wow. And do you remember what that was like to see those first couple signups come through? Or you're like, this is working. And I didn't even think it would.

No, I was static. Well. And it opened up the night before, like, because we had it all ready. And he just made it available. And people actually three or four people bought the night before. And I was like, wow. Like, this is wild. And I said it was only open for the one week. So I did do the open closed model, which I think is really the way to go.

Yep. And that's something that we do for those that follow along with Food Vlogger Pro. We do four public enrollment, or we do. Yeah, four enrollments each year. Two are public, which we talk about here on the podcast. We talk about on Pinch of Yum. We talk about on Instagram. We talk about it everywhere. If we really lean into it and encourage people to sign up. And then we do. In between that, we do two periods where it's adjust to the waiting list. And the idea with that is it works from a marketing perspective where you have a specific time period where people have to sign up. But for us, the other really, really important piece with that is it allows us to not be constantly inundating our audience with exactly like, hey, sign up for Food Blogger Pro. You know, we're not having to mention it all the time on the podcast. It allows us to have a marketing season where we bring it up occasionally and then we don't. And obviously we can bring it up in conversation here and there, but it works. It works really well for that. And then the third thing that that works really well for that is it allows our community, especially the forums, to have this season where people are coming in and they are the new members, they're kind of part of this class, and then it closes back down again. So we've found the same thing. It works really well for us from Multiple different perspectives. And it sounds like the same was true for you. So you did this first launch. Have you done another launch since then? And how did that go?

Yeah, I ended up doing a flash sale maybe early February. I was getting a lot of emails from people who were interested in the program because of the people who were currently in the program had been posting a lot about it. So people were like, I really want to get in. They were sharing this on my behalf, which was kind of the best way for other people to find out about it. I kind of already exhausted the audience I had. So I did another flash sale and I end up. So I end up getting 35 people on the initial run. And then I think we had a flash sale with 25 more. And then now I have it open because I was like, let me just see what this feels like to have it open. And I think I only got four or five. So I am gonna go back to the open close. But it is currently open. It may not be when this airs, but yeah, right now. And then that. I just. I don't know, it was like, kind of confusing for people, I think.

Yep. Yeah, that makes sense to have those true, like, hard open close. Especially if you have the waiting list. I think sometimes, especially when we do an open enrollment period, right after somebody signs up for the waiting list, they're like, wait a minute. Is this. Is this something that, like, I just have to sign up for the waiting list and then you will market to me after?

Oh, yeah, right. I know.

And so what we found is. Yeah, it's. And even for us as a team, it's nice to have that scheduled out. And there are some things where obviously it doesn't make sense to have a waiting list. An example would be wptasty. Like you can just buy that anytime. Any of those plugins or tasty food photography. At any point, you can go and purchase that doesn't make sense to have a waiting list for that. So it only works in certain instances where there's multiple different checks, check boxes that would need to be checked. But I think for what you're doing, it's a great example of that. So what are the biggest takeaways that you've learned in this process? Knowing that you're at a point now where, hey, you have a successful online business and it hasn't been easy, though. You've had to walk a journey that has been a lot of time and energy and hard work, closing down some things that you realize wasn't a good fit. What would your Advice be for people that are looking to walk a similar journey or to do a similar thing to what you've done.

Yeah, I think really mindset has been one of the major things for me. I know I've had some really big hurdles that I had to jump. Like the whole website was deleted. Different things where I could have totally just quit. And knowing that my. It's just going to be something that I'm going to do for the rest of my life, and it's not something I'm going to do for three months, but. But it's such a long time horizon has been able to keep me going. And knowing that as long as I improve a little bit every single day, that one day I will get to this point. But there's also never a destination. I always will be on this journey.

Yeah, that's awesome. And one of the things that I appreciate most about the work that we do, and it sounds like lines up with what you're doing too, is this idea that we're. It's not like we're going to one day wrap this up and say, okay, now we're done forever. Like, we're work. And the things that we do are, I think, one of the greatest gifts that we have. And figuring out how to align that in a way that feels really good, not only for what we're doing, but also for the people that we're serving. And if we can line all that stuff up and in a way that that feels good and is helping people and also allows us to grow and build, then we're really lucky to be doing that. So. And hopefully podcasts like this help people do that. I know that your story will play a role in that as people listen to this. And we've heard countless times from people following up and saying, hey, this podcast had a really big influence on me, and I know that will be true for people that listen to this. So really appreciate you coming on. Steph, before we wrap up, can you talk about where people can follow along with you and learn more about your site and on social media? And I'm sure that we have some yogis that would be interested in learning a little bit more about the specific program. So where can people follow along?

Yeah, Stephyoga Underscore is my Instagram, where I mostly update there. And my website is stephyoga.com and getting into the Facebook thing, I think it's Steph Yoga 6 on that one.

Cool. And what we'll do is we'll link to those in the show notes. So people can find them as well. So thanks so much for coming on the podcast, Steph. Really appreciate it. Super fun to talk to you and a huge congratulations on your success.

Yeah, thanks for having me. I really enjoyed it.

Hey, friends. Alexa here, bringing you the reviewer of the week. But first, how great was that episode? Isn't Steph just super inspirational for following her passions, figuring out what makes her happy, and just pursuing them? I just loved her story, and I hope that you got a lot out of it. And now for our reviewer of the week. This is from Alexa, another Alexa, which I'm seriously excited about from the blog, Girl in Healing. And it says, I seriously love listening to Bjork talk. His laugh makes me smile. He asks all the questions I'm thinking when he interviews. And I know he has felt unsure in the past about his solo episodes, but I have found those to be so motivational and they create a deeper connection. Keep it up, Bjork. Wow. That's awesome. Thank you so much, Alexa. Bjork is awesome, and we are so, so, so, so thrilled and honored to have him as a part of our team and as our fearless leader here at Food Blogger Pro. So for all of you listening out there, thank you so much for tuning in. And until next week, make it a great week.

Sat.