040: Ask Me Anything! Q&A Session

Speaker 9 0:00

Welcome back to the Success with Soul podcast. I'm your host, Kate Kordsmeier. And today at the time of this recording, it's December 31 2020. Oh, man, what a year. Now this episode is airing a couple weeks later. But I have to say, as I'm sitting here recording today's episode, I could not think of a better way to close out my year, then by sitting down with some of my beloved students and listeners and answering their questions in this kind of lightning round, rapid fire q&a format. So we've got a handful of amazing questions to go through. If you like this format of episode, let me know we'll do it again, we can open back up our speakpipe you can leave me a voicemail. In fact, you can actually do this anytime. If you go to successwithsoul.co/podcast at the bottom of the page, you'll see a place where you can leave me a voicemail, ask me a question. And maybe we'll even start doing something like this in the future in every episode, who knows? We could start each episode with me answering a question from somebody. So all this to say, if you can't tell I'm going not based off of a script today. All this to say I like doing these Q and A's. I love hearing from y'all and answering your questions. So if you like it to check out successwithsoul.co/podcast, leave your own voicemail, and you could be featured in a future episode. Now getting to today's actual episode, like I said, we've got about a dozen questions to go through here. And we're covering everything from advice for moms who can't delegate work off their plate to what my best investments have been how to drive traffic and get people to actually read your blog and so much more. So let's get to it. You're listening to the Success with Soul podcast with Kate Kordsmeier ex journalist turned CEO of a multi six figure blog and online business. But it wasn't that long ago that Kate was a struggling entrepreneur who lacked confidence, clarity, and let's be honest money. But all those failures, experiments and lessons learned helped Kate create a thriving business that impacts 1000s and brings freedom, flexibility and fulfillment to her life. If you're ready to do the same and make something happen with holistic, soulful, step by step strategies from Kate and other experts, you're in the right place. here's your host, writer, educator, Mom, recovering perfectionist, bookworm and sushi connoisseur Kate Kordsmeier.

Unknown Speaker 2:35

Hi Kate, this is Far Monin from she plants love. I'm a small business owner and a mom to a 17 month old toddler. My question to you is what is your advice for mom bosses who can't delegate work off their plate?

Speaker 9 2:49

Thanks so much for a great question far as a mom to two little ones as well, at the time of this recording, my daughter is seven months and my son is 27 months, I can totally relate to being a busy mom boss and struggling to get it all done. But the first thing that came to me when I heard your question was, is this the truth? Or is this a limiting belief? I believe the way you phrased your question was asking for advice for moms who can't delegate work off their plate. Why can't you? I'm wondering if it's that there's not somebody to delegate to. If you have a control issue like myself and many other entrepreneurs have. If there's something else going on that of course I can't guess. But I want to question you on the can't piece of your question. So y'all know, I'm all about a little bit of tough or direct love, as I like to call it. And so I really want to challenge this thought of not being able to delegate. So in my own life, I found ways to delegate in business and at home. And I want to share a couple things that have worked for me. So one thing is by having a co parent, a partner who I can share some of the workload with. And there's a piece of this that I think a lot of moms can relate to, which is when a mom cares for their child, she is being their mom, but oftentimes when a dad cares for their child, we thank them for helping out. It's like we're asking them to babysit their own child or something. And now this is a total generalization and I'm not trying to shit on men or anything right now. But I do think that there has been a lot of internal work that Matt and I have had to do together. In fact, before we had our first child, we actually went to couples therapy specifically for this reason to talk with a objective third party about how we could sort of set ourselves up for success and not like resentment and keeping score and all of that. So in the early days, I think you mentioned your, your daughter was 17 months old. So I'm not sure if this is true for you anymore. But I know in the early days of our baby's lives, a lot of men say they feel helpless. Well, I don't have boobs, so I can't breastfeed My child, right? That's what we hear a lot. What we really learned from our therapist was that there are so many ways that father can be involved. And fathers can change diapers, fathers can give bottles, fathers can help with middle of the night feedings, fathers can spend time with their with their children, you know, there's a million things that fathers can do. The only one thing that a mother can do that a father can't, is breastfeed, and not all moms breastfeed. And even if you do, you can pump you can have your partner give a bottle. So what's been interesting is that after we had these conversations, Matt actually recently came to me and said, I just want to thank you for forcing me to really take ownership in my role as a father, because like, if you've listened to this podcast before, we had Dr. Valerie rain come on the show previously, and she talked about patriarchy, stress disorder, and this hurts women, but it also hurts men. And we have kept this this patriarchal system has kept men from showing up as their fullest expressions. So I think what Matt was basically saying was that, yes, it was a lot more work than he was, you know, maybe initially planning on because we have this cultural thing of like, this is women's work. And this is men's work, and you don't cross these lines. And even though it's 2021, we're still kind of dealing with some of this. But when we started to break down some of those barriers, it was more work, but it was so much more rewarding for him. So without going on more of a tangent about the patriarchy and delegating to a partner, I just want to start by saying that that is one way that if you have a partner, you can get some work off of your plate by truly giving them ownership and letting them do letting them help you it is hard for women to ask for help. It is hard for women to accept help without interfering. And again, these are generalizations, but I think that the first piece of advice I would say is if you have a partner, rely on them, really lean on them. And don't hesitate to ask for their help or even demand their help in some cases. Now, if you don't have a partner, or even if you do, and this is just still not working, I do think that there's another way to ask for help when it comes to childcare. And that's with either having a nanny or daycare or a babysitter. Now, COVID has certainly made this a little bit more challenging, but there are ways around it. And we're kind of seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. And I think the overarching piece of advice I would give here is like you're not a bad mom, because you need help with childcare. childcare is a full time job. And so how could you also have another full time job without having extra help? Maybe it's family members, maybe its neighbors, maybe you can create a pod, maybe you can create a nanny share of money is tight, I do understand that there are certain things like if resources truly are limited, and you can't afford support at this time, like hiring somebody, I think there are still other ways that we can find to help you delegate and get some things off your plate. And this is why I really like the 8020 rule of truly finding what moves the needle in your business. So basically 20% of the things that you do actually get you 80% of the results. So we might spend a lot of time doing things that don't really move the needle in our business. For example, spending time on Instagram, for example, spending time tweaking our website and making every little piece perfect spending time feeling like we have to have it all figured out before we can start doing something. And I hear this all the time with students in my six figure blog Academy, because they feel like Oh, I can't start my blog yet. Or I can't launch my blog yet until I have x, y and z in place until I have ABC figured out. And the truth is, nobody has anything all figured out ever. But the only way you're going to start to figure things out is by starting to actually do something to actually get things moving. So that's just an example if you're somebody who is maybe feeling really busy, but you're busy with the wrong things. Now there's a great quote that I actually got from Tom Brady, when he was on Dec shepherds armchair expert podcast and he talks about how when we are focused on the wrong things We're getting better at getting worse. And this was like such a lightbulb moment for me when I heard this. I've probably even talked about this on the podcast before because it just was like, so it was such an epiphany for me. But I'm wondering if you could reframe, or you could take another look at what are the things that you're doing? and figure out, what are the things that have to be done right now by you, and only you. And there's probably very few things that fall into that category. There are a lot of other ways that you can figure out how to either eliminate the task entirely, how to automate the task. So it's not something so manual that takes as much time or how to delegate the task to somebody else. Again, resources might be limited. But I do believe that in some ways, you do have to spend money to make money. And this is especially true when you're in growth mode. And I think if you wait until you have the money, and in some cases, now hear me out, because this is controversial. But if you wait until you have the money, you may not ever get to that point, because hiring even just a VA for five hours a week, doing something like that might actually be the missing piece that will propel your business forward enough. And as soon as you get a few months under your belt, and it frees up your time, and you're able to delegate and get things off of your plate, all of a sudden affording that isn't the problem anymore. So to summarize, I would say figure out what really generates income in your business, what really moves the needle, the most focus on that. And for everything else, either eliminate delegate or automate, this goes hand in hand with what we've talked about a few times on the podcast before, which is time management, productivity, really getting clear on what your actual priorities are. So if you go back and listen to let's see, it's Episode Four, it's part two of our series of why I don't believe in hustle, and it's the time and energy management episode. Now, there's something else in here that I want to highlight, because this has been really powerful for me in my business over the last couple of years, and is really important for any, especially for any menstruating women, which is cycle sinking. And I've created actually a resource called the mindful planning printables. It's got daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual planning prompts, worksheets guides, there's a cycle key for the Four Seasons of life which mirror a woman's menstrual cycle, and the phases of the moon, I explain exactly what each of them are, what are the best things to do during these phases? What are the best things to eat? What's the best way to move your body during this time? What are the best things to ask yourself when you're journaling? And we go really in depth in all of this in this resource that I've created. You can check that out at successwithsoul.co/mindful. Now if all of this sounds crazy, whoo, whoo and out of you know, completely wild to you. I highly recommend going to listen to a couple of our episodes where we talk about our periods and the power of our periods. So the first one would be episode it's actually a bonus episode with Lisa Hendrick Lisa Hendrickson, jack, called the secret to unlocking your intuition. It's in between episodes, 26 and 27. And then we have another one that is with viani Lee, which is Episode 34. Both of those episodes will really give you a good primer and deep dive into what I'm talking about here. So I hope that helps far. Thanks again for your great question.

Speaker 3 14:02

Hi, Kate.

It's Julie from living online.com.

My question is,

what is the single best investment that you've made for your

business? Yeah, keen to hear your thoughts on that.

Thanks so much. Looking forward to hearing from you. Bye.

Speaker 9 14:17

Hey, Julie, thank you so much for another great question. It's great to hear from you, too. And I love this question. And I had to think about it for a few minutes, because I've made a lot of great investments. And I made a lot of not so great investments in my business. But I think the the overarching theme that came to me when I was thinking about this question is all of the investments I've made have been good, even if I haven't gotten an ROI, even if they felt like a bad investment, because they've all been feedback, lessons information, not failure is not waste of money. I've always learned something in my investments. So it's kind of a cheesy answer, but I do that It's really true. To give you an actual answer to your question though, I would say that joining a mastermind, or a group coaching program has been by far the two best investments that I've made in my business. So at the start, let's see, in October of 2019, I joined my first ever mastermind. And I was in it for pretty much all of 2020. I mean, it was a year long program, so not the entire year. And the connections that I made with other entrepreneurs in that space have been invaluable. What I've found about masterminds as well is that it's not so much about who is leading the mastermind. Of course, that matters, you want to respect the leader, you want to be on the same page with them in terms of morals and values and, you know, feel like you can trust them. And whoever is hosting the mastermind, probably attracts a certain type of person into their mastermind. But what I have found is that it is the Pete, the other people in the mastermind or in the group that really make the biggest difference, because those are the people that you're talking to, in my case on a daily basis. So I also joined at once that one ended, I joined another, this one was a group coaching program, not a mastermind, but it was similar, it's a very high ticket offer both of these, I paid over $20,000 to be in so they're not cheap. But I have made so many amazing connections, I have learned so much from these other women. I've had a mentor who I can turn to, and it has just been invaluable. So I guess that's my answer to the single best investment I've made.

speaker 4 16:43

Hey, this is Emily from withinmyspace.com. I'm just wondering how can I direct more traffic to my website, and to my social media? I've been at this for a little bit, want to say close to a year, and having a hard time getting more people to read? Thanks so much,

Speaker 9 17:03

Emily, you are in such good company! I get this question all the time. And it is literally why I created the six figure blog Academy because so many bloggers, whether you're brand new, or you've been doing it for a year, like you said you have or sometimes even many years and still haven't been able to get any traction and momentum going. What I have found is that oftentimes it's like what I said about Tom Brady, it's because we're focused on the wrong things. And so we're getting better at getting worse. So here's what I would say my first answer is, are you focused on SEO? Are you focused on optimizing your content for Google and Pinterest, which is a search engine, not a social media tool, because getting organic traffic to your site is going to be the best way to grow your readership and your revenue without spending tons of hours on toxic social media. If you don't know how to do this, this is again, what we teach inside the six figure blog Academy. So if you're listening, and you're like, Yes, I want to do that. But I don't know how go to go get on the waitlist for 6FBA. It's successwithsoul.co/6FBA. And you can hear when we launch the next time we open our doors. But while I have you here, I also want to ask you about your content. In particular, are you creating content that people actually want? Have you talked to your ideal clients to get to know and understand them and their needs and their desires? And are you creating content based on those things, and that only, like talking to your ideal clients and your target audience will be super helpful. But think about what did you want to know when you were in that space? Now, you're a little bit ahead of them, right? Maybe a lot ahead of them. But you have the answers, you have the solution to a problem. And so what were the questions that you were asking during this time. So inside six FBA, what I really like to focus on when creating content is not just I'm creating content that's fun, and you know, lights you up. Of course, that is important. But it's in balancing that with creating content that people are actually searching for. So there's a lot of techniques that you can use when it comes to keyword research to figure out what are people in your space searching for? What are the questions that they have? What are the problems that they're trying to solve, and then creating content around that. So you're not just creating content and hoping that this is going to resonate with somebody, you're creating content with tangible evidence and knowledge that says, people are already asking these questions and going to Google or Pinterest and searching for it. And now I can create content that solves this problem, and has the search volume to get people to my site. So this is content marketing at its best. And this is This is part of why I like blogging so much because blogging, I think in 2021 and beyond and, and really for the last year or two, it's not so much about being an influencer and getting brand partnerships. And those things can be great. Don't get me wrong. But I think when you use your blog as a way to organically get people to your website, then the sky is really the limit on what you can do. From there. You can monetize the platform itself, like I teach inside six FBA. Or you can do things like launch a course or a membership, or a mastermind or group coaching program or one on one services. You can have consulting, you can sell products, but you'll have a more successful business when you have people organically finding your website all the time. So I hope that helps answer your question about traffic. Before I finish, I do have to ask you as well. Why do you want to drive traffic? Is it just for traffic sake? Or do you have a goal? So think about what is the journey you want to take people on? Is it to buy a product service course you know, etc? Is it to get sponsors is it to increase affiliate income, figure out your goal and then ensure that your blogs, your email, your social media, etc, is everything set up to take people on this journey. But remember that traffic for traffic sake is meaningless the same way that you might have 50,000 followers on Instagram, but it's still fully possible to not make any money from that followers. For followers sake traffic for traffic sake, it is totally meaningless. So make sure that the traffic is actually leading somewhere. You don't need a ton of traffic to make a lot of money from your blog from your course. Whatever it is that your business is, you know what what you offer in your business, you don't necessarily need a ton of traffic, even with Rutan rebel, a blog that is only monetized but on the platform itself, meaning I only make money from my Rutan rebel blog from ads, sponsors and affiliates. I don't sell anything. And we make over $200,000 a year on that blog, just from those things. And I am able to do all of that with a relatively small audience, we actually get less than 150,000 page views a month. Now, when I shared this inside of the ad thrive Facebook group where this ad thrive is my ad network. And a lot of super successful bloggers are in there, you have to have a certain number of pageviews in order to be eligible to be an ad drives network. So you're I'm in community with people who are, you know, at a certain level in their business. And when I recently shared, this is what my blog makes. This is what my traffic is, I get so many emails from people saying like, wait a minute, I have way more traffic than that, and I make way less money. So get really clear about why you want to drive traffic traffic is not the end all be all.

speaker 5 22:56

Hey, Kate. This is Paige from eating friendly and I recently started a blog. But since a few weeks, I feel like my audience growth is kind of frozen. Like we're not getting any more new readers. We're just having the same people. And my Instagram followings isn't growing either. How would you solve this? Thank you. Hey, Paige,

Speaker 9 23:18

thanks for another great question. Very similar to Emily's question that I just answered, but slightly different. One thing I want to highlight here is that if you're getting a lot of the same people returning to your site, you are doing something right returning visitors is the most significant indicator of business growth. And if you are getting people to your site, and then they want to keep coming back, that is great. These are your superfans, and you you don't need 1000s and 1000s of superfans, there's even a common ethos in in online marketing that says you just need 1000 true fans. So you may not have 1000 yet, I'm not quite sure where your blog is at in terms of how long you've been doing this and numbers and all that. But I just want to remind you that returning visitors is awesome. So keep doing what you're doing, in some ways, because this is great. Now, if those same people keep coming back, but it's a very small group of people, maybe your mom is one of them. I've been there, don't worry. But there are some things that you could be doing to expand your reach. So one of my favorite ways to expand my reach is to guest on other people's podcasts. So have you pitched yourself to other people's podcasts? We have several episodes of Success with Soul that actually help you figure out how to do this. Check out Episode 29 of the podcast with make a saying we talk about how to be a guest on podcast and create sustainable visibility. And actually, next week, we have Angie Trueblood another podcast visibility expert coming on to talk about the same thing and how to create true connections. And build lifelong friendships with other people in your industry, this is a great way to expand your reach. And there's other ways you can collaborate with people to look at your network and figure out who are the people in your network that you could collaborate with in some way. Maybe it's doing a newsletter swap where you each highlight each other's business on your newsletter. Maybe it's doing an Instagram takeover on each other's account. Maybe it's going on each other's podcasts, maybe it's doing a guest posts, maybe it's coming up with some kind of fun series that you could do to collaborate. There are a lot of ways you can expand your reach into new markets, and I would highly suggest considering some of those. But again, go back and listen to Emily's question. Or go back and listen to my answer to Emily's question, as I talked about how to drive traffic and get organic traffic to your site without having to spend tons of hours on social media or money on paid ads. Again, I'd be a little bit remiss if I didn't say this is exactly what I teach inside the six figure blog Academy. So if you are interested in learning more about how to get more traffic, expand your reach and monetize your existing audience. Be sure to get on the waitlist for that at successwithsoul.co/6FBA.

Kate Kordsmeier 26:22

What if I told you

Speaker 9 26:23

that you don't need a million followers for your blog to be insanely profitable, or that you don't need to spend hours on social media, spend a penny on paid ads, or add a ton of more things to your to do list in order to be wildly successful? Here's the thing. I know you're already working so hard to make your blog a success. And here's the honest truth. The solution to finally making money from your blog involves working less, not more. The key is knowing exactly what to focus on. If you're tired of struggling away at your keyboard without any real income to show for all that effort. I've created a brand new free masterclass just for you called three behind the scenes secrets to six figure blogging, go to successwithsoul.co/masterclass and sign up now for this free training where I share my top three secrets to help you start making money today. And just to thank you for showing up, I'll also send you my free imposter syndrome guide. By the way, this is the exact strategy I use to take my blog from zero to multiple six figures without relying on social media or spending money on ads. Plus, I'm going to share the one shift that you need to make right now in order to build a successful blog. And if you stick around till the end, you'll find out how to get a personal audit of your blog for free. I know your time is important and that's why I've packed a crazy amount of value into this 60 minute video trading. So head on over to successwithsoul.co/masterclass to register. It's totally free. That's successwithsoul.co/masterclass. I can't wait to help you start a business that brings you joy, freedom and fulfillment.

speaker 6 28:16

Hi there. This

is Aveline from bear good

fruits.

My question is, what would be your advice to somebody who hasn't made any money from their blog yet is just starting out and hasn't made a name for themselves yet? Do you think that blogging would be the good thing to do to start out with or perhaps more influencing? And then also how you made your first first amount of income on your blog? I would love to know. Thanks so much.

Speaker 9 28:45

Aveline, such a great question. I can definitely remember being brand new. It was not that long ago, I started my blog in 2015. and wondering, am I ever really going to make money from this? So I want you to first know that yes, this is possible, you can do this. And I do think that focusing on your blog rather than on becoming an influencer is a much more sustainable and satisfying way to build an online business that will last and that will really bring you purpose and fulfillment influencing. I'm not trying to hate on it. I think there is a time and a place for it. And it has been amazing for a lot of people. But it is not a scalable solution. And it is playing the volume game. And in my mind, the volume game is always a losing game. It's hard in 2021 to create a site quickly that's going to get millions of page views a month and as an influencer. The real money only comes when you start having audiences of that size. So I think it's just a much harder way to make a living. And it's it's not scalable. It's always To be trading time for dollars, you don't get paid unless you do X, Y, and Z for this brand. So while I think it can be a good way to complement your income, I don't necessarily recommend that as being your primary goal or source of income. Now, I want to remind you, too, that I tracked, I still do publish income reports. And I started my first one summarizing my second year in blogging and 2017. And you can go and check those out at successwithsoul.co/incomereports. So those will really break down how I was making money from my blog in the early days. But when I thought about this, like, Okay, how did I make money in the very first couple of months of my blog, and it was really twofold. The first was that I set up ads on my blog at the time, I just set them up with Google AdSense, it's not necessarily what I would recommend. But it is a way to easily install ads on your site, and you can start generating an income right away. Now, I wasn't making a lot of money from that, I think in my first month, I made like, $8, right. So nothing to write home about, I was not able to pay any of my bills with that. But it gave me sort of this proof of concept and got me excited of like, wow, if I can make $8, I bet I can make 80, and then maybe 800, and then maybe 8000, and you get the point. So it was a good thing to get some momentum built. And then give me this jumping off point. The second piece though, and this is what I recommend way more than doing ads is affiliate marketing. Affiliate Marketing is by far my favorite way of monetizing a platform. And it's so great because it's not trading time for dollars, you can earn money on affiliate income, long after the post has been written or published. So I want to give you an example here. And I might have shared this once on the podcast before so for any of my my super fans out there, this won't be new. But I wrote a blog post three years ago about online meat delivery services. And when the pandemic first hit in March 2020, everybody was trying to figure out how to get food delivered. That post got so much organic search traffic, that we ended up making $42,000 in three months from that one post alone. And it was something I wrote three years ago. That is the power of affiliate marketing. Now, that's an extreme example. But I have made tons of money, the bulk of my income over the last five years has come from affiliate marketing. And the great thing about it is there are no requirements. Whereas if you want to, if you're going to go the influencer route or the sponsor route, those sponsors are only going to pay you if you have a certain number of followers if you meet their eligibility requirements. Whereas most affiliate programs you can join and there are no requirements, you can start from day one. That's how I recommend making money from your blog from day one is by becoming an affiliate for products you truly believe in, and then sharing those affiliate links in an authentic and genuine way. And the sky is the limit. Truly one last thing to add here. And it's funny because I actually just had a good friend asked me the same question. She just started a new business. She's like, Okay, I know, I've been following along with you. She actually worked for me for many years. And she's like, I know how to do this. But I'm struggling a little bit. And I'm wondering, what what's the first thing I should do here. And I came up with a couple ideas that I think apply pretty much across the board, no matter what kind of blog or online business you want to start. The first is that I would spend my time focusing first on content, and creating killer content that's super valuable and helpful to your audience that solves a problem. And really, it's all about content in those early days, the first six months. Don't worry so much about monetizing and hitting up big and getting brand sponsorships and all of that I would focus on really providing value to your audience. And as you're creating that content, I would focus on SEO and Pinterest, which are basically the same thing. So the two previous questions from Emily and Paige I talk about this exact thing. So I won't repeat myself there. But that is what I would focus on in the first six months of blogging. Now, another thing I was thinking about, and this is not what I did, but this is what I told my friend when she asked and I thought if I was starting a brand new business and I had something to sell. Now this is only true if you sell something of your own. Maybe it's an E book. It's a course it's a coaching service, whatever it is, it just needs to be something Have your own that you sell. I would, I would experiment with Facebook ads. Now this can be a little bit tricky because if you don't know how to do Facebook ads yourself, I would recommend either hiring a Facebook ads expert to do them for you, or investing in a Facebook ads course to learn how to do it yourself. And remember we had Monica Louis on episode 35. And she talks all about Facebook ads, whether you want to outsource it or learn it yourself and DIY it. But I think that there could be a lot of power and getting a Facebook ad set up that leads to a free opt in. And when somebody opts in, they're taken to what's called a tripwire. A tripwire is where you have like a limited time discount on a product that you sell. And it's usually a product that's like 25 to $50 max. So what you might do is say, Okay, I have this Facebook ad, it goes to a landing page for people to opt in to get this freebie when they opt in the thank you page is a tripwire that says for the next 15 minutes get 50% off this ebook, and the ebook is related to the lead magnet that they just opted in for so that you know it's something they would be interested in. Again, it's valuable, it solves a problem, it's a quick win for them. And so basically what ends up happening here is that you're able to grow your email list and the trip wire, it's not necessarily supposed to be this big revenue generator or there's not even maybe going to be a profit on it, what it's going to do is pay for the cost of your ads, so that you're breaking, even essentially growing your email list for free. And then you'll have people on your email list that you can nurture, and then sell them into some of your larger programs or offers, get them to your blog, get them to your podcast, whatever it is, whatever business structure and model you're following. This essentially I think could could work if done correctly. I'm not saying this is like a foolproof strategy. If everybody just did this, they'd be successful. So take this for what it's worth. It's just an idea, in my opinion, I think that's what I would do if I were starting from scratch again. And then the last thing is, again, start pitching yourself as a guest on other people's podcasts. I think that is one of the best ways to establish your authority, get some know like and trust factor, get some reach into new audiences, and do it in a way where people really get to know you. So check out those episodes I mentioned in the previous answer for where we talk about how to pitch yourself for podcasts. Thanks, adaline. Hey, Kate,

speaker 7 37:36

this is Nicole from seasonally creations.com. And my question for you is you recently published in your newsletter that you made over $40,000 from a single blog post that you published a few years ago, and was wondering if you could share first what that blog post was, and what you attribute its success to? Thanks,

Speaker 9 38:02

Nicole, this is so funny, because I actually just talked about this blog post in a previous answer before I got to your question. So this will be a little bit of a follow up. I answered part of it. What was the blog post that made me this $40,000 in three months, it was the best online organic meat delivery services. And it is a post that I wrote three years ago. Now I was able to earn $42,000 from it in three months during the pandemic, which was, you know, a crazy impressive number even to myself, I'm quite proud of that. But the great thing is, it's not like I was earning $0 on it before and then the pandemic hit and I skyrocketed. It had actually been in my top 10 posts of all time for several years. And it is 100% due to the fact that this post is super optimized for SEO for Google I got in the game at the right time when not that many people were doing a roundup like this. So I was able to rank on the first page for a long time, I was actually ranked in the number one spot if you googled organic meat delivery. I don't know if that's still the case. But what happened is I created something that was super valuable. it matched the search intent of people who were googling this. So what I figured out was people were searching for this and what did they actually want when they were searching for it? Well, when in the past when you were searching for it, what came up is a bunch of different companies. But there wasn't like a third party who was giving you a breakdown and a review of each of these companies explaining the differences between each who each was right for etc. So I found this hole in the market. I created a blog post that was super valuable to people and match the search intent of the user. I optimized it for SEO using the right keywords and some of the other techniques and I got a lot of good Google juice for it. keep it updated regularly. So sometimes we'll swap in new programs that we learn about, we'll take out programs that we decide and this actually isn't so great anymore. Or if maybe this this this brand went defunct or something, you know, who knows? We keep it updated regularly. And that is why it has been so successful. So I hope that was helpful.

Speaker 8 40:20

Hi, a lot of the stories, including yours of bloggers who are making 1000s started their blog before 2017. Do you have any success stories of bloggers making 1000s of dollars who started their blog after For example, 2019? That would be super helpful to hear.

Kate Kordsmeier 40:43

Okay, so this question actually came from Gizelle, she didn't leave her name in the voicemail, but we got it in her input form. So thanks, Jill, for your question. I think it's a good one. And I can sense that there's a lot of maybe fear of feeling like you've missed the boat. Like, if you started now, it wouldn't be possible to make that kind of money. But here's what I'll say. When I started routing rebel in 2015, a lot of people told me blogging is dead, you had to start before 2010, in order to make money. And guess what, in my second year, I was making over $75,000, from blogging, and in my third year, I was making over $150,000. So I don't have a list, for example, of people who started in 2019, and are making six figures already, doesn't mean they don't exist, it's just not something that I have compiled. So I would have to do a lot of research to figure out who these people are, I know of a lot of online entrepreneurs who are doing this who have started a business online post 2019, and are making six figures and beyond, many of which are making seven figures and beyond. But what I want to focus on for you is that it is fully possible. And there's always gonna be people who tell you that blogging is dead, or you missed the boat, or there's, it's already oversaturated. And I just want to call bs on all of that, there is room for everybody. And the world needs your voice and your gifts. And only you have your own unique views, experience, life story, knowledge, skill, set, talents, values, all the things. So there were a million food bloggers in 2015, when I started my food blog, and if I had let that hold me back, I never would be where I am today. So first, I just want to get rid of that limiting belief to say it's not too late. And in fact, the pandemic has shown us anything, there are more people online now than ever before. So it there could not be a better time to start an online business. I think of your blog as your home base. your blog is what gets people into your sphere, it's how people find you. It's how you bring new people into your audience and provide them with free value. So I think that if you're thinking of starting a blog, and you feel like you've missed the boat, you haven't. And what I would do is set your expectations to say, okay, anything is truly possible. And it is possible to make six figures in your first year. However, it may not be totally realistic, especially if you're not going all in on this, if you're doing this while also working another full time job. For example, if you're not learning from an expert, and you're trying to piecemeal some free advice together from the internet, you know, you need to set your expectations that it might take some time. And blogging is a long game. Blogging in itself is the long game, meaning if you're only trying to monetize your blog, with the three methods, I mentioned, ad sponsors and affiliate marketing, it might take a little bit longer because it takes times, usually three to six months for Google to start picking up your stuff. And same with Pinterest. So I really don't want to set this expectation of like, Oh, you could create a blog and in your first three months hit six figures, it's going to take some time, and it is a slow burn. But it is so worth it. And when you treat it like your home base, and you see Wow, there's lots of ways that I can now monetize this platform. I can monetize the platform itself, which is what I teach in six FBA. And then you can also start selling some of your own products and services. I think when you do that when you combine the two, oh man, you can do a lot a lot faster. Because if you add products and services, you can make some income right off the bat while you build up your passive income streams and grow your traffic. So I hope that helps. Thanks for your question.

Speaker 9 44:54

Hi, Kate. This is Laura Barnett with the leaders lighthouse. I'd like to know what your thoughts were on moving from kajabi to Kartra as our caterer, I don't know how you pronounce it, as I'm looking to sign up for that service and trying to figure out which one would be best for me. Thank you.

Hey, Laura, thanks so much for your great question about kartra. I think that's how you pronounce it, K-A-R-T-R-A, we actually are an affiliate of kartra. Go to successwithsoul.co/kartra. But let me answer your question about why I switched. So this piece of software has truly revolutionized my business this year. So kartra is truly an all in one platform. Unlike other platforms, which promised to be a jack of all trades, but function more like master of none. kartra literally provides everything you need to operate your online business, all in one place. So earlier this year, I was using six different tools to manage these aspects of my business. And I was spending a lot of money on all this software. And yet, I was still missing some of the functionality that I really needed. So after a lot of careful research, I'm talking like months of testing out lots of different platforms, I decided to go with kartra. And I am so happy I did kartra has enabled us to streamline our systems, simplify our processes, easily track all of our metrics, and finally achieve that advanced functionality we needed for automations like segmenting, tracking, getting subscriber value. So we got all of these things in one place, I was able to cancel my subscriptions to the six other tools I was using those included Active Campaign kajabi, deadline funnel, Sam cart, lead pages, and we actually saved over $12,000 a year. So kartra gave me everything I needed with no sacrifice and quality. And at one point I did consider going all in with kajabi. Because kajabi also is an all in one platform. But what I found is that kajabi is much better for beginners. And then once you've kind of, I guess I outgrew the platform, there were things that I wanted to be able to do that kajabi did not allow for. So no matter what stage you're at at your business, I think starting with kartra would be a great way to go. Because if you're looking for an easy to use platform that has all the features, you need to operate your business seamlessly, and save you potentially 1000s of dollars at the same time. And then you don't have to deal with the headache of migrating everything, which I did, I highly recommend giving kartra a try. So we actually have a 14 day free trial to give anybody who's listening. If you go to successwithsoul.co/kartra you can get started today, 14 days free. And kartra actually also offers a 30 day money back guarantee. So don't be afraid to give kartra a shot again. That's successwithsoul.co/kartra.

Speaker 10 48:01

Hey Kate, Kim Barker calling. I wanted to just ask you what word of advice you would give someone who's in a a very lucrative six figure job right now who wants to get out of the healthcare industry and start her own lifestyle business. I have so much knowledge of homeopathy, alternative health, interior design, cooking, baking, I have so much knowledge all I really ever wanted to do was be kind of like a fun Martha Stewart, Joanna Gaines person. I don't have the money to be supporting myself for the next three years while this thing gets up and running. And I guess I'm looking for some words of wisdom there. So any advice would really be appreciated Kate, I so admire what you're doing. I think you're such a huge inspiration. And would love any advice you can give me? Thanks.

Speaker 9 48:52

Oh, Kim, I love this question so much. And I get it all the time as well. There's two things that came just straight to my mind when I heard when I heard your message. And the first is becoming a fun Martha Stewart Joanna Gaines person. So this is not to say that becoming somebody like them wouldn't be fun. I think they have a lot of fun. I also think they work their asses off. And so I just want to make sure that we set a realistic picture to say becoming a Joanna Gaines is not easy. And she worked for years before she got to where she is now. Is it possible? Did she enjoy most of it along the way? I think she would say yes. I don't personally know Joanna, but I just want to set it out that I think there's this misconception and maybe Can you don't have this misconception but maybe somebody else listening does is that you see bloggers you see influencers you see people like Martha and Joanna and you think that must be so fun. And I think there's this lightness to it where it's like we don't realize how much work actually goes into making something look so effortless, right? So I think about this all the time, or I used to when I was a food and travel writer and people were always say like, Oh my gosh, you have the dream job, you get paid to travel the world. And while that was true, I remember the first time that I brought my friend with me on a trip, I took her to Hawaii with me, we stayed at the four seasons in Maui. It was all expenses paid, they treated us like royalty. It was amazing. And I remember after the first day, she said, I am so exhausted, I cannot believe how much work this is. Because we were not just sitting on the beach sipping margaritas, we were in meetings, we were taking tours, we were going on different outings with different PR people and having to, you know, be on all day I was having to interview people. I know this is not what you're asking. But I just some I feel like I couldn't not say that. I'm sure it is fun. But it's also a lot of work. The second thing that came to me with your question was, was that you said you don't have three years to get this thing off the ground. I don't think it's going to take you three years. Now unless you're making close to seven figures with your current job. If you're in the $100,000 range, maybe 100,000 200,000, it is fully possible to make that kind of money in the first year or two. So it also depends on what your business model is going to be. So a couple questions for you to get the wheels turning. What do you want to be known for? Do you want to have an online store with products? Do you want courses or memberships that teach people specific skills? Do you want to work one on one with people and actually help them decorate their homes? Or remodel their space? or improve their health? Do you want to have all your content, be free and then monetize via big sponsors and affiliates and ads? Do you want to not have any free content and everything you do is like high ticket super luxury, high touch. So pick one thing to focus on and master that. And I think getting clear on what that is will be huge. Now depending on your answer to those questions will depend on where to start. So one thing to ask yourself after you've gotten clear on those first set of questions is what can you do to start making money ASAP and testing your ideas? So can you get a paying one on one client right away? Can you create a simple membership to launch and start testing your ideas, getting feedback and creating income? What can you do right away to start earning good money. And I think if you want to start making good money right away, then I think having a blog is a great again, it's your home base, it's a great way to grow, but the blog itself is a slower burn. So you probably are going to want to sell some of your own products, services, programs, etc. You'll just need to create an offer. But there are so many people that I've seen like I'm a student of Amy Porterfield, I've seen so many success stories inside her digital course Academy Facebook group of people who had nothing, literally no business, took DCA launched a couple times and now have multi six and seven figure businesses so it is fully possible. I hope that helps at least gets your wheels turning on where you could get started and getting some clarity on what is it exactly that you want to do.

Alright, y'all, that was it for our first q&a. That was super fun. Like I said at the beginning, I really enjoy doing stuff like this. So if you want to start asking me questions and having this kind of thing become a regular feature on the podcast, go to successwithsoul.co/podcast and leave a message and my speakpipe channel, super easy. You'll just find it at the bottom of that page. And all you have to do is send a voice message you just hit start record, send your message and off we go. And who knows if we get enough maybe we'll start doing more q&a episodes like this in the future. Thanks again everybody for tuning in to another episode of Success with Soul. I will see you next week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai