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Julian Lloyd Webber spent half a century as one of the world's great cellists — and then had to discover who he was without the instrument that had defined his existence. In this bonus episode of Crisis What Crisis, Andy sits down with Julian to discuss his Crisis Compass. The four points of navigation that he turns to in order to help survive a crisis – a person, a habit, a comfort and a piece of advice. If you haven't heard the full conversation yet, go back and find it in the feed. It's well worth your time.POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY:I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters and build real resilience when the pressure is on.This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley, visit www.kingsleynapley.co.uk for more details.CHAPTERS:00:58 A Person – His wife Jiaxin, and why he's not sure he'd have got through it without her01:20 A Habit – A couple of pints of lager every night 02:49 A Comfort – Leyton Orient03:25 A Piece of Advice – "Don't waste a second."BUY JULIAN'S BOOKBows & Arrows – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bows-Arrows-Julian-Lloyd-Webber/dp/1837360588SEE JULIAN LIVEJulian's Irish tour with his wife, Jiaxin – https://julianlloydwebber.com/events/FOLLOW JULIAN LLOYD WEBBERInstagram – https://www.instagram.com/julian.lloydwebber/FOLLOW CRISIS WHAT CRISIS?Instagram – www.instagram.com/crisiswhatcrisispodcastTikTok – www.tiktok.com/@crisispodThis was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)

Did you like the episode? Send me a text and let me know!! Episode Title: The Skill Nobody Teaches You: Unlearning, Failing Forward & Building Brain Digits Episode Summary: What happens when an entrepreneur from Beirut, Lebanon starts a digital agency in 2011 — when Facebook was three years old and mobile websites were a novelty — and then bootstraps his way through banking crises, regional conflict, and the AI revolution to build a company now operating across the GCC? You get Jack Jendo, founder of Brain Digits, and one of the most globally minded conversations in the show's history. In this episode of Undiscovered Entrepreneur: Get Across the Start Line, Jack unpacks why bootstrapping beats fundraising, why unlearning is a skill most entrepreneurs never develop, why failure needs to be called failure before you can learn from it, and why the future of nations depends on what humans choose to do with the most powerful tool ever created. What You'll Learn: Why Jack left a remote work opportunity in 2010 — before remote work existed — to start his first ventureWhat Brain Digits does: AI enablement, VR training, and emerging technology solutions across hospitals, banking, and governmentWhy bootstrapping forces you to learn every step and makes you unbreakable in a crisisWhy getting investor funding can turn a founder into an employee — and how to know when funding is actually rightThe fire analogy that explains AI's dual nature better than any tech policy paperWhy "unlearning" is the most underrated skill in entrepreneurshipWhy you need to admit failure before you can learn from it — not relabel it as "a step"Jack's 10 entrepreneurial power cards: the priority framework he shares with every founder he meetsThe concept of co-opetition — and why competing less and cooperating more grows the whole marketWhy plans are useless but planning is everythingTimestamps: [00:00:00] – Introduction & Welcome[00:01:00] – Jack's Entrepreneur Origin: Not Built for 9-to-5 in 2010[00:02:00] – Starting a Digital Agency When Facebook Was Three Years Old[00:04:00] – What Brain Digits Does: AI, VR & Emerging Technology Across the GCC[00:05:30] – From Delaware to Dubai to Saudi Arabia: How Brain Digits Scaled[00:07:00] – AI as a Tool, Not a Replacement: The Fire Analogy[00:09:00] – PhD Research: The Future of Nations with Emerging Technologies[00:10:00] – AI as a Second Brain — And the Danger of Losing Critical Thinking[00:11:30] – Human Skills in an AI World: What Schools Should Be Teaching[00:12:30] – How to Bootstrap a Business From Zero[00:14:00] – Why the Founders Who Raised Millions Wished They Had Bootstrapped[00:15:30] – The Lebanon Banking Crisis: Why Bootstrapping Made Jack Unbreakable[00:17:00] – When to Get Funding — and Why Early Funding Makes You an Employee[00:19:00] – Job Security Is a Myth: Personal Accountability in Any Economy[00:20:30] – Why Even Employees Should Start a Small Venture Now[00:22:30] – Admit Failure Before You Can Learn From It[00:23:30] – The Skill of Unlearning: Why Your Brain Needs to Delete Old Files[00:25:00] – Zone of Genius: Working Light, Fast & Free[00:27:30] – Jack's One Piece of Advice: Don't Fall in Love With Your Idea[00:29:30] – The 10 Entrepreneurial Power Cards Framework[00:31:30] – Co-opetition: Cooperating to Compete on a Larger Scale[00:33:30] – Jack's Six-Month Goal: Leading the AI Conversation in Government, Education & Health[00:35:00] – How to Find Jack & Brain DigitsConnect with Jack Jendo:

Meet Sharon Cho, a two-time breast cancer survivor and head of the dessert table at The Rose's Annual Shrimp Boil. Sharon has been a part of the Shrimp Boil since 1998, baking countless delectable treats like her bestselling pineapple upside-down cakes to raise money for Rose patients. During this conversation, Sharon emphasizes the life-saving importance of getting regular mammograms and not delaying them. Her personal experience illustrates how early detection can make all the difference. Sharon knows exactly why all women need to prioritize their breast health. If you'd like to help uninsured patients access the breast care they need, and enjoy a sweet treat, purchase your ticket to Shrimp Boil today. Make sure to get to the dessert table early though, Sharon's famous cakes are the first to go every year! Get involved by purchasing tickets or tables. Donate auction items or become an event sponsor. With an 80s theme, this year's Shrimp Boil on June 22nd promises a totally awesome time for a great cause. Learn more at therose.org/shrimpboil. Key Questions Answered 1.) What is The Shrimp Boil and how does it raise funds for mammograms and support for uninsured women? 2.) How long has Sharon Cho has been involved with the Shrimp Boil? 3.) What kinds of desserts can attendees of The Shrimp Boil look forward to buying at this year's event? Chapters 00:00 Introduction: Sharon Cho and the Shrimp Boil 03:09 The Importance of Mammograms 05:04 The Shrimp Boil's Expensive Cake 10:25 Pineapple Upside-Down Cakes: A Bestseller 16:38 Advice: Don't Wait, Get MammogramsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Recorded live on-site at GDC, host Peggy Anne Salz sits down with Justin Graysmark, founder of Eplay Studios, to unpack the unlikely path from teaching English in Poland to building a portfolio of 25 competitive games and driving 2 million installs on the Skillz platform.Justin didn't come into games through the usual route. He started with a love of competitive trivia, a serious winning streak on the leaderboard and the conviction that real rewards could make skill-based games even more compelling. In 2016, that spark became Eplay Studios.What followed was not overnight success. It was persistence, testing, missed shots, hard lessons and a lot of getting back up.As Justin puts it, game development has plenty in common with martial arts: you get your butt kicked, you learn, you try again. That mindset helped him move from early misses to games players actually wanted to play.In this episode, Peggy and Justin get into:How Justin turned a competitive trivia habit into a full-time indie studioWhy fairness, balance and trust are make-or-break in real-money competitive gamesWhat 25 games and 2 million installs taught him about working backward from the playerHow Skillz helped Eplay focus on gameplay while handling matchmaking, payments and competitive infrastructureWhy the Skillz and Beamable combination gives small studios more tools to build, test and iterate fasterWhy Justin started sharing his journey on YouTube to show other developers that success is possibleThe big takeaway: competitive games are not won by one great idea. They are built through persistence, player feedback and the willingness to keep testing what flies and what fails.If you are building your first game, your tenth or your next shot at something bigger, Justin's story is a reminder not to give up too early. In his words: “When you stick with it long enough, that's where the magic happens.”Chapters00:00 – Martial Arts Discipline00:38 – An Unconventional Path02:54 – Starting Eplay Studios04:17 – Milestone: 2 Million Installs05:27 – The Importance of Fairness06:31 – Infrastructure for Small Studios08:02 – The Skillz/Beamable Bundle09:21 – Documenting the Journey11:07 – Future of Competitive VR12:45 – Advice: Don't Stop EarlyLet's Connect

What does it really take to build a workplace people want to stay in? In this wide-ranging, story-driven conversation, Jeff Gould sits down with Wendy Alexander, an HR professional (“HR guru”) with 20+ years in talent acquisition, coaching, employee relations, and workplace culture. #HR #Hiring #Leadership #WorkplaceCulture #AI #Burnout #Recruiting #EmotionalIntelligence #TalentAcquisition #jeffgould #americasstoryteller #wendyalexander Topics covered: • Why “balance” can feel impossible (and what helps anyway) • The iPad story: boundaries, structure, and staying sane • AI at work: helpful tool or trust-killer? • The real formula for a great hire (role + manager + team dynamics) • Generational diversity: strengths, friction, and how to train for it • Leadership as coaching, not pushing • Books that shaped Wendy (Jordan Peterson, Catcher in the Rye, Enneagram work) • A candid closing question: Jeff's biggest regret—and what saved him from it

Pool Pros text questions hereIn this episode of Mondays Down Under, Lee and Shane discuss a frustrating service case involving an ionizer sanitation system with an integrated salt cell that isn't producing enough chlorine to maintain a residential pool.The system is rated for pools up to 150,000 liters, yet the pool in question is only 60,000 liters and repeatedly turns green. Despite increasing runtime to 24 hours per day and raising output to nearly 100%, chlorine levels remain extremely low.After performing a full troubleshooting process—including cleaning the pool, eliminating algae, verifying circulation, and treating potential biofilm with chlorine dioxide (C5)—the issue still persists.Manufacturer Advice Raises QuestionsWhen Shane contacted the manufacturer's representative, the recommendation was to run the unit 24 hours a day at 100% output.This raised several concerns:It dramatically increases electricity costs for the client.It may shorten cell lifespan.It could exceed the unit's 10,000-hour warranty limit in just over a year.Even more confusing, the representative suggested adding cyanuric acid, despite the system being marketed as a “freshwater pool system” and the manual specifically advising against adding stabilizer.When Manuals and Advice Don't MatchLee and Shane point out the contradiction between manufacturer marketing, written instructions, and real-world recommendations. Being told to add chemicals that the manual says not to use places technicians in a difficult position if warranty issues arise later.Lee stresses an important rule for service professionals: If a manufacturer instructs you to do something outside their manual, request the instructions in writing to protect yourself.Not All Ionizers Are the SameShane also maintains another pool with a similar ionizer system from a different manufacturer that works perfectly, running 11 hours per day at about 80% output with no stabilizer in the water.This comparison suggests the issue may not be ionization technology itself, but potentially a problem with the specific unit or controller.Takeaway for Pool ProsThe discussion highlights an ongoing challenge in the industry: technicians often follow a careful process of elimination, only to be told the problem must be something else.Sometimes, however, the problem is simply the equipment itself.

On Scrappy ABM, Mason Cosby shares a “so simple and it seems so impactful” playbook with Jeni Bishop from Cordial: literally celebrating your customers by submitting customers and prospects for awards. It started with customers and “innovation awards,” then moved to prospects through an event award program—because “it's an incredible touch point.” The nomination email creates a joyous moment: “Congratulations, you've been nominated,” followed by a chance to reach out, congratulate them, and “send them a gift… a direct mail… a bottle of champagne… or a card.” The results show up as touchpoints, “brand affinity,” “brand advocates,” and “brand exposure”—while the advice remains clear: start small, keep a calendar, and prioritize “quality over quantity.”ㅤ

Feeling stuck in ND corporate grind or creative chaos? In this episode of Adulting with Autism, host April chats getting unstuck for neurodivergent entrepreneurs with Murielle Ungricht, autistic business coach (25 years experience, founded/sold businesses, certified master career coach). Late-diagnosed autistic, TEDx speaker/author of "Get Unstuck!" (self-help for procrastination/overthinking), and founder/CEO of Nuumani.com (AI-human coaching platform for accessible support), Murielle mentors "unconventional" creatives/ND folks to trade fear for joy—focusing on entrepreneurship/productivity/mental health/trauma/leadership/feminism. Key insights: Late diagnosis journey: From feeling "wrong" to embracing gifts (detail-oriented/resilient routines); measure personal wins, not NT standards. Unstuck formula: Recognize autistic strengths (structure/habits) for success; trial/error to build sustainable systems (e.g., batching content to avoid overwhelm). Perfectionism/self-sabotage: Rewire negative voice (mindfulness: "Is it true? What if opposite?"); drop bars gradually—produce "good enough" without procrastination. AI coaching (Nuumani): Democratizes access (free sessions/human network); combines her tech/coaching background for ND-friendly tools. Young autistics: Find formula for world not built for you—expose to new safely, forgive meltdowns, seek support; "so what?" mindset for fearless living. Advice: Don't worry—start now; connect dots with strengths (big picture + detail); consistency over blueprints (AI helps, but human touch essential). For autistic/ADHD young adults/entrepreneurs, Murielle's vibe: "Be unreasonable for amazing life—autism isn't barrier, it's superpower." Free session at muriellemarie.com; TEDx: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxligD1idto; Nuumani: nuumani.com. Subscribe for ND career hacks! Rate/review on Podbean/Apple/Spotify. Linktree:(socials/shop/Podbean). Holiday merch sale: 30% off tees/hoodies with code BLACK25 at https://adulting-with-autism-shop.fourthwall.com—unstuck your style fierce! #AutisticEntrepreneurCoach #GetUnstuckND #AICoachingNeurodivergent #CreativeCareersAutism #PerfectionismADHDSabotage #TEDxAutisticMentor #AdultingWithAutism #MentalHealthYoungAdults #PodMatch #Podcasts #BTSArmy #BTSNeurodivergent #Autism #AuDHD #ADHD #OT #OTTips

Neil's Advice: Don't Be a Yenta / Hockey Talk / Neil Goes to the Doctor / TV Shills / Dustin Hoffman is Not Dead / Old People (Lots and Lots of Hockey Talk on this Show)

Marti sits down with Glen Stevenson from Stevenson Construction, a renovation specialist based in Healesville, Melbourne. Glen shares his journey from apprentice to civil site supervisor, and finally to starting his own residential building company. Despite being consistently busy with word-of-mouth work and hitting $1.2M-$1.3M in revenue, Glen realized he had plateaued. They discuss the subtle but expensive profit leaks that happen in the "gaps" between projects, where overheads keep running but income stops. Glen reveals how getting clarity on his financials helped him identify a $75k loss on a single project and how shifting his mindset from "doing it all" to delegating has been the key to his recent growth. This episode is perfect for builders who are busy but feeling stuck at the same revenue level.

Segment 1: Host DiscussionSet Up: “What's that one sentence that changed your perspective?”Examples from Hosts: Lana: “Figure out a way to make money doing something you love.”Listener text: “Ask. If you don't, it's a guaranteed no.”Engage Audience: “We asked you to share yours—let's hear what you said!” Segment 2: Listener CallsCaller 1 (Craig): Advice: “Don't make it your emergency.”Context: Fire chief's wisdomHost reaction: “Great reminder—don't create a bigger problem.”Caller 2 (Amy): Advice: “The grass isn't always greener on the other side. It's green where you water it.”Host reaction: “Love that one!”Caller 3 (Jay): Advice: “Work smart, not hard. The money's better.”Caller 4: Advice: “Don't let someone else's bad attitude determine yours.”Host adds humor: “I remind myself of that every day when I walk in here with Lana!” Segment 3: Wrap-UpRecap Key Advice: Make money doing what you loveAsk, or it's a guaranteed noWork smart, not hardGrass is green where you water itDon't let others' attitudes affect yoursSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Friendships ending, relationship drama, and a horrifically embarrassing story we are so back. This week, our writer is trying to navigate the messy truth of maintaining friendships in your 20s. How do you know when it's time to let go… and when it's worth holding on? Thanks to our Sponsors: To sign up as a VIP and get 80% off check out https://Fabletics.com/ADVICE  Don't let your money sit around—put it to work with Stash. ⁠⁠https://get.stash.com/ADVICE⁠⁠ Follow the Podcast on Insta: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/UnsolicitedAdviceInsta⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow the Podcast on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/UnsolicitedAdviceTikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ashley: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/ashnichole/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Taryne: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/tarynerenee/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Become a premium subscriber today at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/UAPodcastSupercast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To watch our podcast on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/UAPodcastYouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/UnsolicitedAdvicePodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be amazing! You can text, email, Tweet, or send this link to a friend: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/UnsolicitedAdvicePodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To send us your questions/stories, email us at: AdviceUnsolicitedPod@gmail.com To check out our UA MERCH: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/unsolicitedadvicemerchandise Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, we dive deep with philosopher of physics Wayne Myrvold to puncture entropy clichés and reframe thermodynamics as a resource theory. He argues the “entropy always increases” slogan is a consequence—not the law—and shows that Clausius's entropy is defined only given the second law, while Gibbs vs. Boltzmann entropies answer different questions (“which entropy?”). We tour Maxwell's demon, Landauer erasure, available energy/Helmholtz free energy, and why, once fluctuations matter, Carnot efficiency is only a statistical bound. Along the way: macrostates vs. microstates, why “disorder” misleads, ergodicity's limited relevance, whether the universe is an isolated system, heat death as resource exhaustion, and how collapse theories would rewrite the story. We even touch QFT/stat-mech pedagogy and career advice. If you're curious about what entropy really is—and how information, agency, and objectives change the answer—this one's for you. Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Timestamps: - 00:00 - Is Entropy in the System or in Our Minds? - 07:12 - The Original Thermodynamics: A 'Resource Theory' of Heat and Power - 18:24 - The Second Law Doesn't Assume Entropy; Entropy Requires the Second Law - 30:58 - From Caloric Fluid to Molecular Motion: The Historical View of Entropy - 39:04 - Maxwell's Revelation: Why the Second Law Can't Be an Absolute Truth - 48:11 - Information as a Resource: How Knowledge Can Seemingly Defeat Entropy - 1:00:53 - Boltzmann vs. Gibbs: The Objective vs. Subjective Views of Entropy - 1:10:24 - Maxwell's Demon and Landauer's Principle: The Physical Cost of Information - 1:25:02 - The Inevitable "Heat Death" of the Universe? - 1:30:19 - The Fallacy of Equating Entropy with "Disorder" - 1:35:21 - The Ergodic Hypothesis: A Foundational, Yet Possibly Irrelevant, Concept - 1:43:52 - Why Statistical Mechanics May Be on Shaky Ground (Like QFT) - 1:50:50 - A Professor's Advice: Don't Jump on the Research Bandwagon Links Mentioned: - Ted Jacobson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3mhctWlXyV8 - Concerning Several Conveniently Applicable Forms For The Main Equations Of The Mechanical Heat Theory [Paper]: https://web.lemoyne.edu/giunta/Clausius1865.pdf - John Norton [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Tghl6aS5A3M - On An Absolute Thermometric Scale [Paper]: https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/2559_Therm_Stat_Mech/docs/Thomson_1848.pdf - Carnot Efficiency: https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Carnot_efficiency - Maxwell's Talk On Molecules: https://victorianweb.org/science/maxwell/molecules.html - Helmholtz Free Energy: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/helmholtz-free-energy - Boltzmann Entropy: https://chem.libretexts.org/Courses/Western_Washington_University/Biophysical_Chemistry_(Smirnov_and_McCarty)/01%3A_Biochemical_Thermodynamics/1.05%3A_The_Boltzmann_Distribution_and_the_Statistical_Definition_of_Entropy - Maxwell's Letter: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PH-CAVENDISH-P-00092/1 - Landauer's Principle: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S135521980300039X - On A Universal Tendency In Nature To The Dissipation Of Mechanical Energy: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14786445208647126 - Neil Turok [TOE]: https://youtu.be/zNZCa1pVE20 - Roger Penrose [TOE]: https://youtu.be/sGm505TFMbU - Sean Carroll [TOE]: https://youtu.be/9AoRxtYZrZo - Understanding The Infinite [Book]: https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Infinite-Shaughan-Lavine/dp/0674921178 - Classical Electrodynamics [Book]: https://www.amazon.com/Classical-Electrodynamics-John-David-Jackson/dp/1119770769 - Why Information Is Entropy [YouTube]: https://youtu.be/8Uilw9t-syQ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Week 2 of the 2025 fantasy football season is in the books, and some big names are off to a rough start. But should you really be panicking yet? In this video, we break down 9 players you need to be worried about after Week 2, analyzing whether it's time to bench them, trade them, or stay patient.We cover fantasy football Week 2 panic meter, buy-low and sell-high opportunities, waiver wire pivots, injury concerns, and rankings updates to help you make the right moves heading into Week 3. Perfect for PPR, standard, dynasty, and best ball leagues.Included in this video:✅ 9 Fantasy Football Players to Panic On After Week 2✅ Buy-Low vs. Sell-High Trade Candidates✅ Waiver Wire Pivots and Roster Moves✅ Updated Week 3 Fantasy Football Outlook✅ Expert Fantasy Football Strategy & Advice

Robert Masse is the founder of Astrolabe Analytics, a battery software startup improving safety and extending the lifespan of battery-powered fleets. Backed by grants and contracts from the U.S. Air Force and National Science Foundation, Astrolabe's work bridges cutting-edge research with real-world applications. Robert launched Astrolabe while earning his PhD in Materials Science at the University of Washington. With over 15 years of experience researching materials for batteries and catalysts at UW, Pacific Northwest National Lab, and University of Wisconsin–Madison, Robert brings rare technical depth to the fast-evolving battery industry.

What if the secret to a sustainable music career isn't just making great music, but understanding every piece of the puzzle? What if radical transparency—not polished marketing—creates the deepest fan connections? And what if sometimes the best way to grow creatively is to completely "burn it all down" and start fresh?Complete Show Notes: producerhead.substack.comEpisode Chapters[1:46] Full Stack Musician Philosophy[5:30] Planning vs. Intuition[10:51] "How Serious Are You?"[14:24] Good Stress vs. Bad Stress[16:49] Music as Community[22:04] Embracing Popular Music[27:55] Social Media Comparison Trap[31:35] Patience as Competitive Advantage[32:33] Radical Transparency[36:04] Connection as Currency[42:26] Storytelling in Music[47:23] Nashville Perspective Shift[53:16] Others' Opinions[59:11] Creative Process Evolution[1:04:32] Self-Awareness Through Music[1:09:40] Time Management[1:15:36] Daily Routines[1:21:15] Quick Hits[1:26:33] Advice: "Don't Give Up"Connect With Basic Printer* YouTube: @basicprinter* Instagram: @basicprinter* Website: https://www.basicprinter.com* Spotify: Basic Printer* Apple Music: Basic PrinterConnect With Toru* Website: torubeat.com* Instagram: @torubeat* YouTube: @torubeat* Spotify: Toru* Apple Music: ToruMy hope is that this conversation helps you unlock a bit more creativity and find progress in a way that matters to you.Let's stay connected. I regularly share ideas that help develop creative process, along with music recommendations and free resources right here on Substack.This episode was co-produced, engineered and edited by Matthew Diaz. From ProducerHead, this is Toru, and in a way, so are you. Peace. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

   With host retail coach Wendy Batten   https://wendybatten.com/podcast-intro/   In This Episode:  Can couples successfully run a retail shop together? Absolutely! From a flash of inspiration on a trip to London to creating a beloved community hub in Thomasville, Georgia; Amy and Chris Hart join me on the Creative Shop Talk Podcast to share how passion, teamwork, and a little bit of "what's our widget?" can turn your entrepreneurial dreams into reality. Amy and Chris own The Hare and the Hart, a boutique inspired by the couple's time in the Cotswolds. They describe the shop as “English at heart with a Southern sensibility and a French twist.” Amy is an active member of the Retailer's Inner Circle and has been in the Level Up Mastermind for almost 5 years running. This episode is packed with tips for independent retailers, especially those working together as a couple. From finding your niche, connecting with your community, and navigating the ups and downs of retail life together, Amy and Chris are an inspiration to all aspiring retail shop owners. Takeaways for Retail Shop Owners: Finding your "widget": Identify your unique product (like Amy's Toile designs) Involving family: Amy and Chris have incredibly talented family members who showcase unique products in their shop.   Defining Roles: The importance of defining roles and communicating them clearly.    Build your community: Make it a point to connect with members of your community. Featuring local artisans in your shop is a good way to do that. Overcoming challenges: Amy and Chris know when their slow season is and have come up with ways to draw customers in and also keep their minds right knowing things do pick up.   Chris's Advice : "Don't give up your dream to somebody else.”  Listen in for more thoughts on what Chris and Amy could have done differently if they could rewind 7 years. “Don't give up your dream to somebody else.” -Chris Hart Need more? Join me and our supportive community of retailers in my Retailer's Inner Circle! There is so much to love about the Inner Circle: access to countless masterclasses on everything from inventory management to money matters, a supportive community of like-minded retailers to bounce ideas off of, a monthly playbook to track your progress and help you plan your events and promotions, and so much more. Check it out HERE.   Not ready to join but want to purchase the stand-alone Foot Traffic Made Simple masterclass? You can purchase it on demand HERE.   About Amy and Chris: Sweethearts since college, Amy and Chris Hart chose Thomasville, Georgia, as their adopted hometown in 2018 after many adventures. The Hare & The Hart is their shop in the beautiful, historic downtown, offering gifts and goods that are English at heart with a Southern sensibility & a French twist. They adore celebrating the beauty of the places people love, embellishing the spaces surrounding them, and sharing in the extraordinary joy of the everyday. Their family takes part by designing collections, including Amy's Toile of Thomasville. They are pleased to carry local artisans, along with those discovered on and inspired by their travels. Amy and Chris continue their adventures in a wibbly, wobbly 1850s house just blocks from the shop with their Labrador named Rugby.   Related podcasts we think you'll like:  Episode 78: Learning to Level Up with Amy Hart Episode 127: Level Up Mastermind Q+A: Invest in Yourself Episode 256: Retailers in the Wild: Elevate Your Retail Shop Using These Observations From My Time in New Zealand About your host, Wendy Batten In case we haven't met yet, I'm Wendy, a small business coach and founder of the Retailer's Inner Circle, where I help other independent shop owners learn how to gain the right business skillsets to see more profits, paychecks, and joy as they navigate running their retail business.  Through online classes, business coaching programs, speaking, and a top-ranked podcast, I've helped hundreds of retailers around the globe reclaim their dream and see the success they want from their beautiful shops. My signature private coaching community, The Retailer's Inner Circle, has helped retailers around the world build their retail business skill sets and confidence.  I am proud to have been featured in several major publications, including my own business column in What Women Create magazine. I have been privileged to be a guest on top-ranked podcasts and sought-after as a guest speaker and teacher for several brands, associations, and communities that are passionate about the success of independent retailers. When I'm not coaching, you will find me either DIYing and renovating my very imperfect old crooked cottage by the sea in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Lunenburg, NS, or blogging about our travel and RVing adventures and the weird fun things we get up to in our coastal village. I'd love to invite you to check out one of my free resources for real retailers at https://wendybatten.com/free-resources/    For more support from Wendy   Retailer's Inner Circle - Join Wendy inside the best retailer's community Free resources for shop owners   Hang out and connect with Wendy on IG    All of Wendy's programs and services for shop owners can be found HERE.  Subscribe & Review on iTunes Are you subscribed to my podcast? If you're not, I'd love you to consider it. Subscribing means you won't miss an episode! Click here to subscribe to iTunes! If you want to be more of a rockstar, I'd love it if you could leave a review over on iTunes as well.  Those reviews help other retailers find my podcast and they're also fun for me to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is. So grateful for you! Thank you!

Advice:Don't try to control your bf/gf.

Healing Through Motorcycling with Joseph

On today's MJ Morning Show: MJ's experience on the bridge Car dealer car jacking customer... We took calls. Morons in the news Crocs banned at some schools Denzel bit off part of his tongue? Michelle loves Uncrustables Friday's egg test, also, MJ nailed the time of kickoff Philly's celebration/damage after the game Advice: Don't go to bed angry Tom Cruise's face Is this the end of the penny? We took calls. Vince Neil's plane crashed Kid Rock walks off stage at a birthday party Airline passenger had a wifi hotspot named 'there's a bomb on the flight' New segment: "Boo Hoo" or "Screw You"... We took calls. This is the dirtiest article of clothing Egg prices at Trader Joe's and Costco Proposed ordinance in St. Pete Beach has some bothered, protest planned (6pm) Great Clips location trashed by parolee Kanye news Michael Bolton cancelled concert due to brain cancer Are Taylor and Travis doomed to break up? Harrison Ford... Why is he still making commercials with a net worth of around $300 million?

Daniel Shaw - Footwear Innovator | Building Iconic Brands and Projects from Brooklyn to Vietnam Empowering Businesses with 25+ Years of Industry Expertise. Sponsor The Jason Cavness Experience is sponsored by CavnessHR. CavnessHR provides HR to companies with 49 or fewer people. CavnessHR provides a tech platform that automates HR while providing access to a dedicated HR Business Partner. www.CavnessHR.com Go to www.thejasoncavnessexperience.com for the podcast on your favorite platforms Powered By Earth VC is on a mission to unf@#k the earth. They are doing this by supporting breakthrough scientific research, empowering outlier founders to build enduring climate businesses and investing in high-growth startups that decarbonize the world. Earth VC empowers founders who are Ambitious, Breakthrough and are Committed Earth VC invests in the pre seed to Series A round. If you think you might be a match reach out to them at rebuild@earth.vc Daniel's Bio My journey in the fashion industry began in 1992 with Walkerwear in New York City. Over the years, I gained invaluable experience working with renowned brands such as Maurice Malone, P-H-A-T Farm, and others before launching my own brand, Pure Players, in the late 90s and early 2000s. I went on to establish 1020 Blues and secured licensing deals with major companies like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Remy Martin, and Nayak. I also developed TRPL, a brand deeply connected to the hip-hop scene, collaborating with many prominent rappers. My career has taken me across the globe, including eight years in China. Where I focused on footwear and clothing manufacturing. For the past four years, I've been based in Vietnam, where we're expanding our operations. We're planning to open facilities and freestanding retail shops that not only offer apparel but also contribute to re-gentrifying local neighborhoods. Our most recent and exciting venture is the launch of Soul Alley, a brand that embodies the fusion of cultures and the spirit of innovation that has driven my career.  We talked about the following and other items Early Career in Fashion and Business Transition to Asia and Business Expansion Life in Vietnam and Business Insights Challenges and Opportunities in the Footwear Industry Cultural Exchange and Business Strategies Reflections on Hip Hop and Cultural Influence Future of Business and Technology Factory Visit and Production Challenges Global Fashion Trends and IP Theft Design Process and Market Dynamics Sustainability and Textile Waste Affordability and Market Strategy Opening a Factory in Vietnam Quality Control and Market Trust Finding Customers and Building a Brand Innovation and Manufacturing Personal Growth and Influence Future of Vietnam and Personal Goals Travel and Luggage Preferences Cultural Awareness and Social Responsibility Personal Reflections and Social Observations Daily Routine and Efficiency Advice  Daniel's Social Media Daniel's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielshaw-footwearspecialist/ Daniel's Advice Don't ever let anybody tell you you can't do something. I'm using myself as a guinea pig to that, because I came from Brooklyn. Grew up in the 90s. I lived in Vietnam, China, Korea, several other places and countries.  If you asked 100 people, they would have told you that this wasn't supposed to happen. So the journey, the destination is unknown. The journey is fucking dope. I'm staying on it, rocking it until the wheels fall off. You know, life is good. Life is good.

Welcome to this transformative episode with Dr. Chonta Haynes. Are you tired of living in the shadow of your past trauma and poverty mindset? Do you feel like you're stuck in a cycle of negativity and lack, unable to break free from the limitations that hold you back? In this powerful video, we'll explore the secrets to overcoming past trauma and poverty thinking, and reveal the steps you can take to break free from the chains that bind you. From letting go of emotional baggage to reprogramming your mind for success, we'll cover it all. Get ready to shatter the glass ceiling and unlock your full potential. Break free from the past and start living the life you deserve! Breaking Up With Broke Course : https://chontahaynes.com/offers/os3oJ69h Show Notes: 00:00-00:35 - Introduction: Breaking free from past traumas and poverty mindset. 00:35-01:10 - The importance of living an abundant life on earth, not just in eternity (John 10:10). 01:10-02:00 - Dr. Chonta shares a story about a woman's limiting beliefs regarding finances. 02:00-03:00 - The impact of negative past messages about finances and the importance of confronting them. 03:00-03:35 - Scripture from 3rd John 2: Prosperity and health as part of God's plan. 03:35-04:10 - Challenge: Breaking free from past traumas and poverty mindset today. 04:10-05:00 - Discussing the cultural mindset of working for minimal wage and not getting ahead. 05:00-06:00 - The importance of questioning beliefs passed down from previous generations. 06:00-06:40 - Story of a woman cutting the end off a ham and how inherited actions may not serve us. 06:40-07:30 - Advice: Don't learn finances from those who are struggling financially. 07:30-08:10 - Dr. Chonta encourages a deep dive into questioning beliefs around money. 08:10-09:10 - Working through the root causes of limiting beliefs with the '7 levels deep' technique. 09:10-10:00 - Realizing the power of your "why" to drive change and overcome obstacles. 10:00-11:00 - Overcoming scams and external challenges that affect financial well-being. 11:00-Conclusion - Final thoughts on breaking up with the broke mindset and embracing abundance. Connect with Dr. Chonta Haynes: Website: chontahaynes.com YouTube: Chonta Haynes Facebook: Chonta Haynes Linktree: ChontaHaynes

Go to www.LearningLeader.com for full show notes. The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver. Notes: The Pete and Leona story - What will people say about you at your funeral? "They changed my life and the lives of my entire family." Tough love out of 100% care for you. Be tough AND supportive. Don't lower your standards. High standards. High support. 10 to 25 - Find the right trigger for motivation. Find out what they care about. They need meaning and significance. They want status and earned respect. Are children less afraid of their parents now than they used to be? Dan Gilbert calls this the "illusion of moral decline." It's been happening for 75 years. The Parental Nagging Study - A common tactic adults use to get teens to “pay attention.” Research shows that nagging triggers the emotional part of a teen's brain, shutting down their ability to think logically. They're not ignoring you on purpose—they're simply wired to tune out. A better way? Speak calmly and neutrally to engage the part of their brain that handles planning and decision-making. This opens the door to real conversation. Satya Nadella's Model, Coach, Care philosophy at Microsoft. This is the opposite of Jack Welch's rank and yank style at GE. Remember, the stack ranking methodology limited innovation and stopped people from taking any type of risk. We want to model the right behavior, coach others, and ensure they know we care for them so they feel the support they need to take risks, sometimes fail, get back up, and work to innovate. Theory X = Rank and yank. It stifled innovation for fear of failure and getting fired. Theory Y = No stack rankings. Built on connecting leaders with their people. Still high standards and demanding. Followed the "Model, Coach, Care" methodology. This is what's happening today at Microsoft. Be a place where people want to work. The Mentor's Dilemma - Stef Okamoto - honest, direct, and supportive. The "mentor's dilemma" refers to the challenge of balancing honest, critical feedback to young people while still maintaining their motivation and self-esteem, as this age group can be particularly sensitive to perceived criticism and may easily feel discouraged or disrespected if not approached carefully; essentially, it's the struggle between pushing someone to improve and potentially damaging their confidence by being too harsh. The mentor mindset: A mentor mindset can be adopted by using practices such as validating young people's perspectives, asking them questions, and holding them to high standards. Questioning – Kate, a mom of two who lives in Chicago, whose oldest son was a sophomore came home one night from a party drunk and high. Kate responded with a combination of yelling and prosecuting… She instigated an interrogation and not a two-way conversation. Instead of interrogating, get curious. They had a reason for what they did. Figure out why. What's your plan? Ask questions to get them to own their thinking and share it with you. Advice - Don't accept some perceived path. Be reliable, show up, do the work, and ask for more work. Add surplus value. Whatever you're being paid, focus on delivering 10x more value. Find a way to do that and your employer will beg to give you a raise and promote you.

In this episode, we dive deep into the incredible journey of a top salesperson who went from closing zero deals in his first few months to becoming the number one salesperson at his company. Learn how he navigated the challenges of the 2008 recession, the strategies he used to turn things around, and his insights on the current state of sales and marketing.Chapters:00:00 - Introduction02:15 - The Early Struggles in Sales08:30 - Turning Point: Becoming the Top Salesperson14:45 - The Power of Being Different20:10 - Launching Bravado AI25:50 - Authentic Marketing Strategies31:40 - The Current State of Sales38:00 - Final Thoughts and Advice

Let's welcome Laura Bower to the show! I met Laura through 12x12 and other's I knew in her debut group, PBSOAR24. It was so much fun talking with her about growing the seeds of stories and all the joy there is to find in the kidlit world! Some Highlights: The power within words. Finding her way into children's writing from the back of a Cheerio box. The peace of writing outside of our homes (and to do lists). Finding friends in the writing world. The joy in connecting with others through stories. Carving space for a writing practice in the time you have. Final Words of Advice: Don't rush. Links Mentioned

Meet Sharon Cho, a two-time breast cancer survivor and head of the dessert table at The Rose's Annual Shrimp Boil. Sharon has been a part of the Shrimp Boil since 1998, baking countless delectable treats like her bestselling pineapple upside-down cakes to raise money for Rose patients. During this conversation, Sharon emphasizes the life-saving importance of getting regular mammograms and not delaying them. Her personal experience illustrates how early detection can make all the difference. Sharon knows exactly why all women need to prioritize their breast health. If you'd like to help uninsured patients access the breast care they need, and enjoy a sweet treat, purchase your ticket to Shrimp Boil today. Make sure to get to the dessert table early though, Sharon's famous cakes are the first to go every year! Get involved by purchasing tickets or tables. Donate auction items or become an event sponsor. With an 80s theme, this year's Shrimp Boil on June 22nd promises a totally awesome time for a great cause. Learn more at therose.org/shrimpboil. Key Questions Answered 1.) What is The Shrimp Boil and how does it raise funds for mammograms and support for uninsured women? 2.) How long has Sharon Cho has been involved with the Shrimp Boil? 3.) What kinds of desserts can attendees of The Shrimp Boil look forward to buying at this year's event? Chapters 00:00 Introduction: Sharon Cho and the Shrimp Boil 03:09 The Importance of Mammograms 05:04 The Shrimp Boil's Expensive Cake 10:25 Pineapple Upside-Down Cakes: A Bestseller 16:38 Advice: Don't Wait, Get MammogramsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SummarySuccessful integrations are required to achieve the full value of any acquisition. Most know that the odds are stacked against the acquirer from the start - so how does one move the odds in their favor? How should a SaaS leadership team plan and execute an integration process with an acquired team of less than 100 people and the acquirer is less than 1,000 (roughly)? This is a large company buying a much smaller company and the assumption is the buyer is a first-time acquier. Deal economics certainly impact acquired founder and employee sentiment, but how the actual people integration is run has an outsized impact on realizing the full value of M&A.In this episode of In/organic, we welcome Mohammed M. Baloch, Head of Integrations at Gainsight, a SaaS company backed by Vista Private Equity. During the discussion, Mohammed describes the key elements of a successful integration plan. He also lays out the key players, roles, and profiles of talent who can support an integration, even if they have never done the work before. We also discuss the role of an integration consultant (which is a must) and how to contemplate their role in the integration process.TakeawaysPeople integration is a critical aspect of post-merger integration and should be given equal importance as the economic goals of the acquisition.When selecting an integration lead, look for someone who is well-networked, has a strategic mindset, and possesses strong project management skills.Consider outsourcing integration if you don't have a dedicated integration team, and look for a partner who is flexible, experienced, and familiar with your industry.Start integration planning as soon as the LOI is signed, and define a clear North Star that outlines the goals and criteria for success in the acquisition.Clear communication and a formal onboarding process are vital for successful people integration.Consider having acquired employees interview for their jobs to ensure cultural fit and mutual alignment.Highlights00:00 Introduction02:22 Mohammed Baloch's Background and Gainsight04:01 Setting the Stage06:08 Key Players in the Integration Process9:56 Selecting an Integration Lead11:40 Considerations for Outsourcing Integration16:15 Defining the North Star18:40 Enabling Sales Teams for Cross-Selling19:49 Debate on Tiger Team vs. Full-Team Format25:36 Ensuring Success in People Integration 29:52 Interviewing Acquired Employees for Their Jobs31:22 Advice: Don't Wait, Start Integration PlanningConnect with Christian & In/organic PodcastChristian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/In/organic on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/inorganic-podcastIn/organic on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@InorganicPodcast/featuredConnect with Mohammad Baloch on LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/mmbaloch/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Word of Advice: Don't marry Ji-Won's husband. ... Maddie, Elle and Christina have a lot of thoughts about Marry My Husband. Were they hooked on the first 11 episodes? Yes. Were they frustrated with episodes 11 - 16? Also, yes. .... The ladies talk about how Min-Hwan and Su-Min stole the show and how they were team "first villians" when Ji-Hyeok's ex-fiance entered the picture. (Why, just why?). They are still bitter that Ji-Hyeok pushed Ji-Won OUT OF HIS HOUSE right after they kissed and felt like it was hard for him to redeem himself after that. They discuss how the story shifted in a direction that didn't seem necessary, how Ji-Won's character drastically changed, and how this show could have been 12 episodes. Period. ... Best part? When BTS was in involved in a big reveal. (Can you guess who was most excited about this part??) ... If this is your first time listening to YA GIRL, welcome!!! We are so so so happy you are here! .... HEY HEY come and chat with the girls on Instagram! @yagirl_kdramapod (https://www.instagram.com/yagirl_kdramapod?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr) ..... ... Finally, jump on YA GIRL'S Discord!! It's where all the friends of YA GIRL'S KDrama Podcast gather and talk about hot Korean men. You really don't wanna miss it. https://discord.gg/qkrUGAWVnG

Advice: Don't eat alone. Photo by Spencer Davis on Unsplash.

Rock has some do’s and don’ts if you plan on attending your work Holiday Party. Hang out with Rock as he tells some hilarious and embarrassing Holiday Party stories. Over/Under on getting a new job at this time of year, going down the YouTube hole and Rock’s changing habits for listening to Podcasts and a […] The post Rock’s Advice Don’t Preparty Before Your Work Christmas Party! appeared first on Radio Influence.

Rock has some do's and don'ts if you plan on attending your work Holiday Party. Hang out with Rock as he tells some hilarious and embarrassing Holiday Party stories. Over/Under on getting a new job at this time of year, going down the YouTube hole and Rock's changing habits for listening to Podcasts and a […] The post Rock's Advice Don't Preparty Before Your Work Christmas Party! appeared first on Radio Influence.

Advice: Don't Go Near an Aqueduct

Finding your authentic voice is important for any entrepreneur, but especially so when it comes to creating content. And that's why Nicole Kepic, a popular copywriter who helps coaches and course creators elevate their sales pages, has been able to separate herself from the pack. As a seasoned pro who for years worked in the corporate sector, helping market some of the biggest household brands, she was able to seamlessly convert her side hustle as a freelance content provider into a full-time business. It starts, she tells Host Dori Stewart on this episode of Teacher Turned Entrepreneur, with knowing your client's goals and defining the message in a catchy, relatable style. “You just have to know your own personality and skill set,” says Nicole, who encourages new writers or those of us with writer's block to keep it natural. She also recommends ditching the self-judgment and limiting beliefs. You'll learn some great tips for identifying the audience you want to serve and brainstorming the kind of compelling copy that attracts eyeballs and closes deals – without ever coming off as a hard sell. Is it magic? Nope. Says Nicole: “You can be really friendly and conversational and still be professional and trusted.” Your writing roadmap starts here! If you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Turned Entrepreneur, click here to hear past shows and leave comments! KEY TAKEAWAYS:· That's just what you did: How Nicole started out as a 9-to-5 copywriter on a traditional corporate path … until what started as a modest side hustle became much more!· What if the clients don't come? How Nicole overcame the initial fears and self-doubt that entrepreneurs commonly experience when first starting out. · Defining and differentiating herself has been key to Nicole's success. · Word of Advice: Don't try to be all things to all people. Scaling down and focusing your offerings will make your portfolio sharper and business easier to manage.· The importance of narrowing your offerings, enabling repeatable processes that are time- and sanity-savers.· Advice for Entrepreneurs with Writer's Block:o Go easy on yourself. You're probably better than you think!o Keep it natural and write the way you speak.o Try to be relatable and conversational with your message.· Is writing your superpower? Nicole has tips for wordsmiths looking to start a business:o Keep it clean, crisp and clear.o Don't let flowery or clever writing interfere with getting your point across.· Getting ready to work with a copywriter? Here's how to prep:o Get clear on your audience, who you're serving and the service you wish to provide.o Define the message you want to communicate so it doesn't get watered down or lost in translation.· How she stands out: Nicole's long experience with well-known brands is a big asset, but it's her friendly, approachable writing style that truly distinguishes her from the pack. · Want to retain clients? Make the user experience seamless and enjoyable!· Are You An Introvert? Nicole is, and she has surprised herself with a writing style that is light, fun and low-key – but still gets serious sales results!

The O'Leary Review Podcast Episode 18 Guest: Wesley Schlemmer   Show notes available: https://briandoleary.substack.com/p/taking-the-orange-pill-w-bitcoin?sd=pf   Fountain.FM Listen and support us at the same time over at Fountain.FM We talk more about Fountain in the show!   Wesley Schlemmer – Quick Bio Wesley Schlemmer is a 26-year-old Chemical and Biological Engineer turned Bitcoin leader and educator. Wesley is a born and raised “Florida man” working to make America Florida. website: https://bitcoinbay.live/   Tom Woods School of Life https://tomschooloflife.com/   Tom Woods 100 One of the goals of this program is to get at least 100 people within the Tom Woods orbit on the podcast. “Tom's orbit” is loosely defined, but we have less than 90 to go now! WhoIsInTheTomWoodsWorld.com — A page with all the #TomWoods100 conversations.   Universities mentioned Tufts Boston College – the world's foremost university   “Crypto” The fall of FTX The Collapse of FTX: What Went Wrong with the Crypto Exchange? (Investopedia) Price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies CoinGecko – Cryptocurrency prices, charts, and crypto market cap   Bitcoin – Swallowing the “Orange Pill” A discussion that touches on the various “pills” one can take in today's crazy world: https://briandoleary.substack.com/p/revisiting-the-matrix-podcast-ep#details As far as I understand it all, being “orange-pilled” means that bitcoin informs nearly everything in one's life. Resource page: “Bitcoin - Taking the Orange Pill”   Buying your “coin” Bisq — buy and sell bitcoin privately and securely. No registration required. (bisq.network)   Storing your coin – “wallets” “Wallets don't store your bitcoin, they store your keys!” Sparrow Wallet — financial self sovereignty. “Despite being a wallet suitable for advanced users, Sparrow is not difficult to use.” Muun — self-custodial wallet for bitcoin and lightning (muun.com) “Everyone should download an easy-to-use bitcoin wallet like Muun.” Advice: Don't share your bitcoin keys anywhere. Keep them safe in a literal safe. “You are your own bank in bitcoin” - Wesley Schlemmer Seed Signer – Next level bitcoin security   Lightning Network Lightning Network — scalable, instant bitcoin/blockchain transactions   Mempool Mempool.space — “mempool and blockchain explorer for the Bitcoin community, focusing on the transaction fee market and multi-layer ecosystem, completely self-hosted without any trusted third-parties.”   Podcasts mentioned The Peter Schiff Show The Tom Woods Show The Bitcoin Standard Podcast (Saifedean Ammous)   Fountain.FM Listen and support us at the same time over at Fountain.FM “Fountain is the only place where listeners and podcasters get rewarded for the value they provide for others.” Fountain is powered by the Bitcoin Lightning Network, “the payment system which allows us to transact with other people or businesses around the world using Bitcoin - the world's first and leading cryptocurrency.”   Saifedean Ammous Saifedean.com Links to The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous at briandoleary.com/bitcoin -        Probably the best “starter book” out there if you want to get the background on bitcoin, but it is also advanced reading for those who are unfamiliar with any of the economics behind bitcoin and fiat currencies. -        The Bitcoin Standard comes highly recommended by The O'Leary Review.   Satoshi Nakamoto Does it really matter who he is or what he is? Satoshi Nakamoto Institute   Crypto Cloaks CryptoCloaks LLC was born from the love of 3D printing and the idea of Bitcoin.   Monero Monero is a private, decentralized cryptocurrency that keeps your finances confidential and secure. Monero is not bitcoin. “It's a whole separate blockchain.”   Wesley's Links Bitcoin Bay Bitcoin Bay Guides and Resources   O'Leary Digital Having problems with getting that podcast off the ground? Trouble coming up with an idea on what to blog about? Have no clue what equipment or services to use? We will help you. If you have 30 minutes, so do we. Book a time to talk about it at OLearyDigital.com.     Go to BrianDOLeary.com for more information.  

Ethan is the one who paced Melody the last half of Deadhorse 50 (if you listened to that episode you'll know who we are talking about!) She learned that he is 17-years-old and that he has finished multiple ultras, including several 100 mile races! Listen to this episode to learn how Ethan got into ultras at such a young age and how he navigates school and teenage-life as a new ultrarunner!Episode Takeaways:-Don't go consistently hard. Remember to take breaks!-"Be consistently good rather than occasionally great" -Nick BareEthan's Advice:-Don't let big runs scare you-Prepare well and FULL SEND______________________________________________________________________________________________Related Episodes:Learning Discipline and Mental Toughness from my 50 Mile Race with Melody | S3E17 _____________________________________________________________________________________________Contact Ethan on Instagram: @sophisticated_suffering_____________________________________________________________________________________________Links:~~~~~Leave us a review!~~~~~Click here to leave a review on appleClick here to rate us on SpotifyPrivate coaching/personalized workout plans to become a hardcore runner!: @pinetreerunningUtah real-estate agent who helps runners find a home near running trails: Jacob Bateman | Exit Realty Affinity | Bountiful, UT Real Estate | 385-314-1016 (ihouseelite.com)Self-Defense Course for runners: Run Without Fear | Melody Bateman's School (teachable.com)Our Instagram page: Melody and Jacob Bateman (@trailto100) • Instagram photos and videosJoin our beginner trail running community on Facebook: Trail to 100 | Facebook

Show Notes: https://wetflyswing.com/383 Presented By: Yellowstone Teton, Range Meal Bars, Zoe Angling Group, FishHound Expeditions Sponsors: https://wetflyswing.com/sponsors Joshua and Caleb Simmons from Dads on the Fly Podcast are here to share what their podcast is all about. We dig into some of their most interesting episodes and break down some of the best tips on being an angler dad. How can you influence your kids to be on the water without forcing them to? Listen to this episode to find out! Show Notes with Joshua and Caleb Simmons 05:25 - Caleb is a Pastor at their local church. Joshua is an 8th-grade schoolteacher. 14:10 - Dads on the Fly is about 3 things: fly fishing, fatherhood, and faith 16:10 - On this day DOTF already has 64 episodes published. 17:54 - Number 1 tip: Have enough snacks for the kids. 18:30 - Joshua talks about one of their guest who NC Wildlife Magazine coined as "The Man of a Thousand Streams." Listen to Part 1 here then Part 2 here. 20:00 - Tip: Manage expectations. When you take your kids fishing, the goal is not to catch fish. The goal is to spend time together with your kids.  25:50 - Tom Rosenbauer was on their podcast in episode 59.  26:00 - One of their biggest episodes was with David Coggins, episode 38.  29:20 - They had Wade Blevins on their podcast - a guy whose dad created the fly called One Bug that is rumored to catch everything. 31:50 - Tip: Don't pressure your kids into being on the water. 34:00 - Joshua tells us about this guy who emailed them about being reassured after listening to their podcast. That message stuck with Josh and made him realize that they're not going to quit doing the podcast.  37:00 - They also had Tim Cammisa on. Tim was here a couple of times too. 40:30 - In 2023, they are hosting their first Dads-Son retreat weekend in their backyard. (Sons aged 8-14yrs old only for now). Check out their website to learn more. 48:30 - Caleb mentions some fly shops around the area in Western NC. 51:30 - Caleb is the tech guy who does most of the production and Joshua brings in most of the guests and does most of the talking on the show. 1:02:45 - Advice: Don't let perfection get in the way of progress. 1:03:45 - They typically listen to Sturgill Simpson on the road. Show Notes: https://wetflyswing.com/383

NTD News Today—11/10/20221 Colorado U.S. House Race Too Close to Call2 Ballot Counting Continues in Nevada Races3 GOP Candidates Laxalt and Lombardo Leading4 Arizona Results Could Take Until Friday5 Deceased Pennsylvania State Rep. Reelected6 Mail-in Ballots Propel Fetterman to Victory7 Biden on Midterms: Dems Had 'A Strong Night'8 Analysis: What Do the Midterm Results Mean?9 Pelosi's Future as Top Democrat in the House10 Republican Candidates Received Democrat Money in Primaries11 Culture's Impact on the Youth Vote12 Martin: Left Focusing on Stories and Feelings13 Youth Fed Utopian 'Lies' for Their Vote14 Martin's Advice: Don't Get Deep Into Ideology15 Hundreds of Flights Canceled Due to Weather16 U.S. Tests Extreme Weather Satellite Launch17 SC Lawmakers Can't Agree on Abortion Ban18 Md: Couple Accused of Espionage Sentenced19 FL: TSA Finds Gun Hidden in Raw Chicken20 Railroad Unions Push Back Possible Strike Date21 Listeria Outbreak Linked to Deli Meats22 Latin American Countries Releasing Prisoners23 Biden to Draw ‘Red Lines' With China's Xi24 Germany Blocks Chinese Stake in 2 Chipmakers25 N.Korean Missile is Soviet-Era Says S.Korea26 Ex-S. Korea Leader to Abandon Kim's Dogs27 Russia's Kherson Retreat Worries Ukrainians28 Ukrainian Villages Brace for Winter29 Romania Holds Drills With Nato Allies30 Travel Chaos in Paris as Metro Workers Strike31 First-time Strike for British Nurses32 Precious Antiques Shown at Paris Art Fair33 Notre-Dame Window Restoration Underway34 Italy: 'Extraordinary' Ancient Statues Found35 Australian Brewery Produces Sustainable Beer36 Better Brain Health for Students and Seniors37 U.S. World Cup Team Prepares for Qatar38 Skateboarding - From a Plane!

Mari Anne Snow is a remote work/distributed team leadership expert with over 20 years of experience helping organizations operationalize work processes that maximize productivity within remote /distributed teams. Her two companies Sophaya and the Remote Nation Institute (RNI) provide operational support and specialized professional development training for employers with dispersed, remote, or hybrid teams and flexible workplace programs.Topics discussed in this episode:Leadership Principle:    Work with a plan, but with an eye on the future.Habits: Daily reflectionSense of humorFlexibility and agilityGreen Flags:Can you stay curious?  You can't know everything. If you're going to make it, accept your own skillset and bring it to the table. Confidence even though you don't know everything.Are you open to learning?Advice:   Don't get overwhelmed by all the things you need to learnThere are more universal themes than we care to admit. Adopt a global perspective - everyone is a friend you haven't metWhere to find Mari Anne:LinkedIn: Mari Anne SnowWebsite:  SophayaWebsite:  The Remote Nation InstituteWebsite:  Remote NationBecome an Intentional Optimist!All my links 30 Minute Free ConsultationLeave a rating and review!Apple: just scroll to the bottom, choose a rating and write a review.Podchaser (Android): you can go to this link here and leave a rating and review! https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/intentional-optimists-unconven-1406762 Noom: A Mindful Way to Eat Learn how to intentionally challenge your mindset in order to take control of your health.Skillshare: Spark your creativity. Get 40% Off Annual MembershipDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show

John Shaw entered the ultra-running world after back-to-back car accidents that ALL, coincidentally, happened in the same year. In this episode, he shares the trick for coming back after injury. He also shares what motivates him to keep moving forward and how YOU can keep becoming better every day, despite hardship. Some Golden Quotes:-"If you lost today, do better tomorrow"-"My 'why' became greater than my pain"-"pay the price today to pay any price tomorrow" John's Advice:-Don't give up on your dreams-A bad day does not have to mean a bad month-STICK TO IT-Work on the process-Become the kind of person you want to become______________________________________________________________________________________________________Related Episodes:Our first interview with Josh Bryant - Season 2 Episode 3: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7ft1baf9N0CWOPb1gy3F0j?si=7552ca5eb58e4e09Derek Fletcher's interview - Season 3 Episode 4:https://open.spotify.com/episode/4G65bWerIPDeF4yCMdBQeg?si=a875d31fc8bc41be ______________________________________________________________________________________________________Links:John Shaw's Information:Instagram: @johnshaw7.62Strava: John Shaw75 Hard Challenge: 75 Day Hard Challenge: Everything You Need To Know | CrossropeIron Cowboy: Watch Iron Cowboy The Story of the 50-50-50 Online | Vimeo On Demand on VimeoPrivate coaching/personalized workout plans for beginner trail and ultra-runners: Melody Bateman (@pinetreerunning) • Instagram photos and videosUtah real-estate agent who helps runners find a home near running trails: Jacob Bateman | Exit Realty Affinity | Bountiful, UT Real Estate | 385-314-1016 (ihouseelite.com)Teton Hammock Company: Best Camping Hammock | Camping Hammock Tarp - Teton Hammock (tetonhammocks.com)Self-Defense Course for runners: Run Without Fear | Melody Bateman's School (teachable.com)Our Instagram page: Melody and Jacob Bateman (@trailto100) • Instagram photos and videos Join our beginner trail running community on Facebook: Trail to 100 | Facebook 

Here is the subreddit used in today's podcast: https://www.reddit.com/r/Advice/ Don't forget you can check out all things casual at: https://linktr.ee/Casual_Empire Also you can email me at: mentalhealthcasual@gmail.com In today's podcast we talk about male and female dynamics as well as the importance of understanding when something is an addiction or just a recreational activiity.

Marriage is something we love to talk about, because it truly does help foster kids, and adoptive kids, and your bio kids to feel like they are in a safe and healthy home. The things that make marriages awesome are great communication and even great community! We are happy to have been able to host a Marriage Shower for Cate and Josh this week, and that's what prompted this episode. We start with why we have showers and gatherings, then we get into the advice that was shared at the shower. Chapters: 0:00 - Intro  1:13 - Today's Topic – Marriage 10:42 - Bits of Wisdom Shared at Wedding Shower 18:40 - Our Sponsor – Showit! 19:00 - More Marriage Wisdom 28:48 - Good Word Of The Day!!!   Marriage: Marriage is something we love to talk about, because it truly does help foster kids, and adoptive kids, and your bio kids to feel like they are in a safe and healthy home. The things that make marriages awesome are great communication and even great community! We are happy to have been able to host a Marriage Shower for Cate and Josh this week, and that's what prompted this episode. We start with why we have showers and gatherings, then we get into the advice that was shared at the shower. The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker “This book will forever alter the way you look at your next meeting, industry conference, dinner party, and backyard barbecue—and how you host and attend them.” Advice: Don't think you are competing or deserve something for serving your spouse. You are on the same team, not keeping score of stuff that doesn't exist, so set your spouse up for success. Have grace.  Envisioning your spouse in the other team's jersey is not healthy. Referenced Outward Mindset again, by the Arbinger Institute. Very important to have a healthy mindset in marriage! Surround yourself with great community in every season that will point you to Jesus. Desperate need for Jesus to make your marriage work - humility is necessary. And ask for help. Steadiness, and pointing others to truth. Be a safe place to confess things to each other and confess everything to each other. When you feel like things are coasting, that's when things fall apart. Communicate frustrations so they don't pile up. God created us with emotions. Part of emotion is connection. Learn how to understand what emotions are happening helps build intimacy. Untangling Emotions is a good book.  Allow yourself to go to bed angry. Think of marriage as a team sport- be willing to shift to cover. Go to bed at the same time- it's hard to have sex in different rooms. Decide roles (who is in charge of finances), decide how you will communicate about money.   Of course, since this is a wedding shower, we talked about sex: Communicate desires and drives ahead of time.  And “tiredness is the enemy of sex”, which is a good word from Grandma Watson Good Word of the Day: Say what you mean. 'It's fine', is never fine. – From Cate and Josh's Wedding Shower Connect with us! Fostering Voices on Instagram You can also email us!  We would LOVE it if you would SUBSCRIBE  AND please leave us a review on iTunes! This helps others to find our podcast so we can share these voices from the foster care and adoption community with more people! If you want to see how to leave a review, check out this handy little video! Good word of the day:  “It's fine” is never fine. Establish common communication habits. Say what you mean. Truth and love in communication. 

Read my new book, The Pursuit Of Excellence https://bit.ly/excellencehawk Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com Text Hawk to 66866 for "Mindful Monday" Jim Levine has been a literary agent for more than 30 years. Some of his agency's clients include Ray Dalio, Scott Galloway, Jay Shetty, Gillian Flynn (author of Gone Girl), Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft), Tom Brady, & Giselle Bundchen among others… He also is my book agent and he brokered the deals for my book deals for both Welcome To Management AND The Pursuit of Excellence with McGraw-Hill. Notes: Early in my podcasting career, I asked all authors I recorded who the best book agent was... And many of them said, Jim Levine. "Being an agent is a continuing liberal arts education, it's an opportunity to engage with experts and thought leaders in a wide variety of fields and help shape their work to reach the broadest possible audience.” Jim has written and published 7 books and over 100 articles for professional magazines… He's won awards for his work as a writer. He's the founding director of The Fatherhood Project – A 20-year long foundation-supported initiative to increase men's involvement in childrearing in all segments of society. Jim takes us inside the process from book proposal, selling to a publisher, and ultimately getting the book published. "Being an agent is so much more than just selling the book. The relationship is so much more intimate. You have to care." Building a company and a culture of growth... The best book proposals he's read: The Master Algorithm -- Pedro Domingos Welcome To Management Smartcuts by Shane Snow Jim has spent most of his career putting together ideas, people, and money; identifying, nurturing, and marketing talent; and creating projects that make a difference. Jim graduated Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude from Amherst College, winning Woodrow Wilson, Fulbright, and Ford Foundation Fellowships. He holds two advanced degrees in English Literature from UC Berkeley, where he specialized in Shakespeare and modern literary criticism, and a doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he specialized in child development and social policy. Advice: Don't think about a job, think about skills you have and challenges you could take on… The WHO is really important - Who you work for... Be a perpetual learner Follow your curiosity Have a wide range of interests What Jim looks for when hiring – Pat Lencioni's humble, hungry, and smart – It's about helping people solve problems.

This episode of Success Fundamentals features Joel Berg, CEO at Hunger Free America. An advocacy to end hunger at home set Joel on a nationwide tour of their different sites. It was an opportunity to lobby for change to show the reality of the problem.He describes what hunger in America looks like today, a stark contrast to the fact that obesity rates are also highest in America. He talks about the need for a social movement to create lasting change especially since hunger in America is an unnecessary problem.He mentions the responsibility of people in power to join the fight and how disruptive philanthropy helps causes like his. Joel also clarifies that he is not against wealth accumulation. He only wishes that everyone who makes it to the top will bring along the people that got them there in the first place. HIGHLIGHTS01:50 Social justice activism set the tone for Joel's advocacy09:14 Nationwide work in lobbying: Hunger is an unnecessary problem in the US14:52 Hunger in America: Obesity and malnutrition are two sides of the same coin20:51 Pro hunger forces have much to gain with ongoing hunger 26:16 A social movement to make healthier food available and convenient 30:48 Conversations with people who are hard to convince36:03 Be the next billionaire but bring the people that brought you there40:50 Disruptive philanthropy supports the fight to end hunger in America46:00 Advice: Don't start your own nonprofit group, support existing ones instead51:45 Connect with Joel and Hunger Free AmericaQUOTES07:56 "The idea that people can't eat is just so appalling to me. And as I said, it ties together the racial justice issues I care about because the largest number of people in America who are hungry are white, but there's no question that people of color, because of systemic structural racism are more likely to be hungry."09:43  "I thought I was capable of running a national nonprofit group, but the bias a non-profit to get this government so great, no national group would hire me to run it."13:37 "What really upsets me, really outrages me are things that are totally unnecessary, that are totally within our control. Hunger in America's totally unnecessary. It's totally in our control."21:11 "The forces that are lobbying against paying their workers enough to feed their family, they're pro hunger. The forces that are for cutting rather than expanding federal nutrition assistance programs, they're pro hunger. And the politicians that vote that way, let's be very, very clear, they're pro hunger."26:59 "How do we get our political system to do that? We do it by building the political movement to do it and make sure that the people most impacted are in leadership roles of it."You can connect with Joel through the links below.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-berg-53a7194/Website - https://www.hungerfreeamerica.org/Email - jberg@hungerfreeamerica.orgFollow Success Fundamentals on the following links below: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4XCvuwxnFi5_7C6Ncm12xQLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/success-fundamentals™Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/successfundamentalspodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/successfundamentalspodcast

Former Suite Owner, now Salon Stylist, Philanthropist, and Awesome Human: Keturah Kennedy of Washington, DC Weighs the Pros & Cons of the SALON LIVE vs SUITE LIFE. Takeaways: 1)SALON PERKS: Team, Collaboration, Support Staff, No rent, Good Place to Build Clientele 2) SUITE PERKS: Freedom of Schedule, NO BOSS, Work-Drama Free! Control! 3) ADVICE: Don't go straight to a suite from school, the Salon is not for everyone, make sure you have your "book" and DO YOUR RESEARCH before making ANY move!

I used to go to school with Jessica. At Harvard, we met often between parties, travels and class breaks. But this time, we met to talk about life and business. Jessica is the Founder and CEO of Bonny, the only deliciously clean and sustainably packaged fibre supplements brand on the market. On her second start-up, Jessica has many learning points to share with us on her journey leaving corporate life and setting up 2 start-ups. Moments of change Jessica gets asked about her move out of corporate life a lot - people thinking about jumping out, people on the fence, everyone wanting to know what the right time is to make the move. For her, she was working already within the industry, so that allowed her to meet lots of entrepreneurs. In some way, being close to this world helped her lose the fear, even if she also had lots of questions. She reminds us: "There is never a right time to start a business" Jessica started to look for her first business while still at her prior job and came across an opportunity to set up something already backed by VC money, a luxury not many entrepreneurs have. That was Olika, where she spent 4 years as CEO of Olika, a design-forward brand reinventing hand-sanitiser. But they were ahead of the pandemic and Jessica exited in 2019. In business, timing is everything. Soul Searching meets pandemic "Entrepreneurship is an all-encompassing brain activity". When leaving, Jessica wanted to take time off.  She was soul searching and doing freelance consulting work - but when the pandemic hit she found herself unemployed and jobs dried up. She went through a period of learning and started attending all possible webinars, ensuring she kept her knowledge fresh. At the same time, she started working on her health and nutrition. She had exercised all her life but not really thought about her food or combined the 2. In fact, as she says, "she would exercise to eat". As she was tracking her calories and fibre intake, she realized it was super important but also VERY hard to get enough fibre. That's when the entrepreneur hat came back in. And Bonny was created. Launching Bonny during a pandemic Jessica had her product idea, it was time to get it off the ground. She reached out to manufacturers and had to launch the business in a whole different way. She had a factory tour over Facetime and all contacts had to be virtual. The physicality was a big difference, especially when people are also taking a bet on you as a new product business. Packaging was another challenge. Jessica was committed to fully sustainable packaging - plastic-free. But when the labels and packaging got put together, the labelling would not stick!! That is what you get by not being able to test and play with the paper in advance. Who would have thought something would not stick! Entrepreneur moments. First vs. second business There were more differences the second time around - and not all pandemic related. When launching Bonny, Jessica had then a track record as an entrepreneur, and people responded easier to her emails and calls. After all, she had launched a business and achieved traction before. That was key to get credibility with manufacturers in a period where many people were trying to get e-commerce businesses going.  Another key change was that Jessica chose not to go multi-channel on Bonny. For her first brand, she was everywhere from Target to Moms and Pops shops. However, for this product, Jessica decided to focus exclusively on the e-commerce channel, selling direct and making her website the best it can be. Whilst she knows she will go multi-channel in the future, right now she wants to control the story and keep people engaged at trybonny.com. Entrepreneur wisdom "Patient is a well-learnt virtue" When we talked about advice to entrepreneurs, Jessica was quick to react! She wishes she had known how long things can take, usually, beyond the worse expectations. Through this process, she constantly reminded herself that this journey was a marathon, not a sprint. She brought me back to Pridhee's episode, telling me how it was so important to just celebrate the small wins! This has definitely been a constant with the entrepreneurs I met. Whatever the wins mean to you, you need to celebrate those small moments because the speed of want is faster in entrepreneurship and can be even harder to come by. "It is serious but not that serious" That is Jessica's other piece of advice. Make sure you enjoy what you are doing because, at the end of the day, it is a journey and an experience. So it is important to try and enjoy and also have fun while you are on it. Life through covid Jessica stayed in New York through the pandemic and can attest to the fact that NY apartments are not geared to lockdown. It was through these times that she started devoting time to her health and fitness, and to taking care of herself. She focused on using time as wisely as possible, she engaged in lots of learning and she also focused on herself. It was important to recognise that time is precious and this period of life was about enduring time in a different way. As part of her journey, Jessica also started meditating, which helped ground her and centre herself. And naturally, nutrition played a huge role in this (and led her to create Bonny). A central part of her journey through Covid-19 was friends and family. It is important to have "a bench circle" of people with whom you can be your real self. These will also be the same people that will give you a safe space to communicate the good, not so good, and the bad days. Verbalizing is an important part of this. When Jessica realized the lockdown was not going to be 2 weeks but rather 12 to 18 months, there were no doubt some tough times. And in those times, it was ok to be able to say: "I am having a rough day today" Looking forward A post-pandemic environment opens up a lot of opportunities for Bonny. In her prior brand, Jessica had attended trade shows and had customers test the product. Now, all she has are virtual reviews. Taste is very subjective, so she is looking forward to getting out there and getting real-life customer feedback and sampling the product so she can continue to create and enhance flavours. Oh, and naturally she is very keen to meet her suppliers and to have moments of personal connection with her team, that she has built entirely remotely. As a hope or prediction, she expects the focus on health and nutrition to continue so she will be keen to continue to be part of this movement and get the word out! Before we go... Advice: Don't sweat it, pick something you like. 2020 Challenge: Being unemployed during the pandemic. And she knows her 4-walls a little too well. 2020 Lesson: It's time, use it as wisely as you can. 2021 Book: Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes, Richard A. Clarke 2021 Word: Hope Connect with us Meet Jessica on Linkedin  Get Bonny (US only) and follow them on Instagram Join our free community online and on Facebook Follow me on Linkedin, Instagram or Twitter Produced by Alice Stansfield

I met Amy a few months back via a common friend. John thought we would like to meet each other and find common interests. He did not explain much. But he was not wrong. Amy has launched a business dedicated to women empowerment - Fem-Foundry. I am passionate about women empowerment. It seemed like a good fit. So today, I decided to bring Amy to the podcast to bring light to our common passion. Why do we need Fem-Foundry? First, it may help you to know what it is. Fem-Foundry is a digital media platform exclusively dedicated to women. A space for women to be without fear of judgement, a platform for women to be what they wanted to be, to connect and collaborate, to express themselves freely, to learn and develop. The platform is not about competing with each other, but rather about collaborating. It is a space for every woman, whether you are 25 or 65. Women can choose their topics and they come from around the globe. One can find the more practical money courses or the more new-age spectrum on "how to manifest". Putting women in a box One of the things Amy really wanted to avoid was the tendency we have to put women in a box. The mother. The working-mum. The career trailblazer. The entrepreneur. The wife. The daughter. Fem-Foundry avoids bucketing women and gives them a space where they can choose what to be. One day you may go into a career "room", another day into a wellness one, or parenting, or money issues. You are not defined by any of them. Releasing right? So maybe there are very ambitious career-driven people on the platform, but there are also those that don't want to pursue it. And this is a place for both. "I personally think putting women in boxes is reductive and I think it stifles progress towards a more equal society" Amy Williams Building Role Models "74% of women globally don't feel like they have a positive female role model" Whilst there are a lot of mentoring programs, people are not always comfortable asking "silly questions". So Amy wanted to have leaders that people could easily reach out to. They are called the Foundry Leaders. Leaders may be smaller or larger influencers, and many you will know because they are someone influential in a specific community, not because they have millions of Instagram followers. They each matter according to interest areas, have a story behind them and are within arm's reach for people to ask their questions and connect to. Role models are a key problem for women advancement, so I am curious to see how it develops as a key part of the platform. Not on my watch As we discussed the women stats that have assaulted us during this pandemic, Amy mentioned she read about how the pandemic may have pushed women back by 20 years. Her immediate reaction was "not on my watch". That is why Fem-Foundry's timing is now. Whilst we thought we had done great advances in the opportunities that women were getting, the pandemic has brought a harsh reality forward. Women are dropping the workforce more rapidly. Many of them had more precarious jobs that did not hold "working from home". Others had to revert to be carers as the other part was often making more money. Many side-entrepreneurs had to leave their businesses behind to care for the children under home-schooling. The effects are still being felt. Fix the crown "Be the woman that fixes the other women's crown, without telling the world it was crooked" It is great to talk about women platforms, but sometimes, we must admit women are not the nicest to each other. So I am curious about how Fem-Foundry can establish a different culture. Amy is very focused on this fundamental concept of working together and being better together. It tries to teach women about the importance of operating in this way across any vertical. About how adjusting someone else's crown we eventually get a boost to ourselves. Having done this podcast featuring women leaders around the world, that is definitely something that I am trying to do. And I have certainly been learning from each woman that I have "visited" on this journey. Launching in the middle of the "waves" Amy launched the beta version of this new business in the second week of March 2020 as Female Tribes. Talk about timing! Naturally, the investment money that was on the way never made it there. It all got very challenging. However, the pandemic brought to light the importance of having a platform like this. "I have always been resilient, but this has really tested my resilient in every possible way" Amy Williams As they re-launched as Fem-Foundry in August, they benefited from everyone being online, but no-one was really into an app that promised to improve their lives. There was no time for that! Finally, this changed in December and since then the platform has been achieving solid organic growth. According to Amy, it is like a light was switched on! A country girl in the city For the first lockdown, Amy was in London and did struggle to find space. However, the lockdown allowed her to have no FOMO as she just worked through and put in the hours to launch her business. She has now moved to the countryside and space has boosted her creativity and severely helped her mental health. First thing in the morning she now gets the dogs out and does a morning meditation. Morning daily habits have been key to help lift her up. And we found out we both accepted to now like Yoga... Amy had her share of highs and lows in 2020. Trying to fundraise for a business during a global pandemic, when you so deeply believe in what you are doing can really feel disheartening. And as the platform starts to get traction, now the days have more highs as people join the platform and the conversations get more engaging. Not, it's onwards and upwards to lift up women. Better together. Before we go… 2020 Advice: Don't be impatient. Be easier on yourself! 2020 Lesson: To be grateful 2020 Challenge: Being a female trying to raise in a global pandemic. And trying to launch a business. Word for 2021: Optimistic Connect with us Meet Amy on Linkedin and follow Fem-Foundry on Instagram Join the Fem-Foundry platform Join our Make Space for Growth free community online and on Facebook Follow me on Linkedin, Instagram or Twitter Produced by Alice Stansfield Disclosure: I am now an angel investor in Fem-Foundry

  If you are a new leader, I will tell you, be yourself. Be your best self. Bring your excitement. Bring your enthusiasm. Love your job. Make sure you know what you're doing. Tell everyone what you're doing, and everything will sort itself out. – Neil Pasricha   Hi everyone! In today's episode, we talk about how to get back up when life knocks you down. This is the episode where we learn practical strategies about failure. We often talk about success, about over-achievement, disruption, innovation, but we rarely talk enough about when life really kicks us in the gut and how to get back up and keep moving.   Our amazing guest today is Neil Pasricha. Neil is a New York Times Best-Selling Author of The Happiness Equation, The Book of Awesome, and he's got a new book coming out called Back to Awesome, where he talks all about failure – what do we do with it, how do we become more resilient to move forward in our lives.   Neil is currently the director of the Institute of Global Happiness. He has a popular TED talk with over 3 million views. He has an amazing podcast called 3 Books with Neil Pasricha, which won an award as one of Apple's Best of 2018 Podcasts.   Neil is an all-around great guy, a down-to-earth human, and I'm really excited for all of you to listen in.         A Benign Envy You, as the leader, have to be the most excited person in the room. People can only match your level of vision, your level of enthusiasm, your level of commitment. Whatever you show them that you are willing to do, that is setting a high bar that people can aspire to and it creates inside them a benign envy. There's two kinds of envy. One is called malicious envy – that's the negative envy, something like jealousy. The other is called benign envy, which is actually something that we all want. It means that you're surrounded by someone you consider a role model, and it improves your own behavior and your own drive. Find your small pond One of the things I do whenever I'm going through failure or through a loss is I find small ponds. What does that mean? When I was at Harvard Business School, I was lucky enough to have lunch with the dean one day, the retired dean of HBS. He was like, “How's school going?” I'm like, “Bad. I'm stressed, school's really hard, I'm up late every night studying, and all the big, fancy companies are coming to campus… Not only are we supposed to do homework every night, but we're also supposed to have beer with people we don't know and apply for these jobs that we probably won't get…” You know what the dean said to me? He's like, “Oh man, that's terrible. Well why don't you just leave the beach?” “What beach? What are you talking about?” “Well right now you're standing on the edge of the beach, like there's a fence. If you look inside the beach, there's like 10 bathing beauties, but there's a thousand people like you outside the fence. The odds of you landing one…are super small.” “So what am I supposed to do?” “Leave the beach. Go find the broken companies, the bankrupt companies, the companies going through a hard time…If you can call them up, if you can work your way inside, if you can take a lower level position, then you will get unbelievable opportunities, because you'll be working something in there. You will be given a lot of responsibility, promoted, taken seriously in meetings, and they will want to hear from you and your learning will vastly accelerate.” So I did that. Neil's Advice “Don't take advice.” That would be my advice. Often when we're asking for advice, we're really looking for an alibi. We're looking to confirm something we already have inside ourselves. That's why some resonate, some do not. When it's resonating with you, it's something you already believe. The people you're asking are telling you the thing you want them to tell you, because you have something inside yourself. You can look at the most common advice of all – it all contradicts. ”Actions speak louder the words” OR “The pen is mightier than the sword” – which one is it? Is it “The early bird catches the worm,” or is it “good things come to those who wait”? Which one is it? You can't find objectively true advice that applies in any case. Links and Resources Connect with Neil: LinkedIn | Facebook http://neil.blog/ https://globalhappiness.org/ How to Get Back Up by Neil Pasricha The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha 3 Books with Neil Pasricha Neil's TED Talk: The 3 A's of Awesome The One-Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb Forest App

Today I'm interviewing Meredith Marsh, YouTuber and creator of the blog, VidProMom. In this episode, we explore how to win with YouTube! We talk about ways to monetize your channel, how much you can really make with YouTube ads, down and dirty tricks to creating video on the fly, what metrics matter most on the platform, how often to publish, and so much more! If you are new to YouTube, or an old-time YouTuber, there are a lot of great tips in this episode. Resources: VidProMom MiloTree Video Pursuit Podcast Fiverr Adobe Premier Rush Lumafusion InShot iMovie Filmora Transcript - How to WIN with YouTube with Meredith Marsh Host 0:03 Welcome to the Blogger Genius Podcast, brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian Leslie 0:11 Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Today, we are talking all things YouTube. And as I confess, I am a little intimidated by YouTube. So I love my guest today. Her name is Meredith Marsh, and she blogs at a site called VidProMom. Of course, she has a YouTube channel with close to, I think, 30,000 subscribers. She also has a podcast called the Video Pursuit Podcast. But she really breaks it down -- you'll hear what is important, what's not important, what works on YouTube, and really how to think about it. So without further ado, here is the episode. So Meredith, welcome to the show. Meredith Marsh 0:59 Thank you so much for having me on. Jillian Leslie 1:01 I'm excited because, to be honest, YouTube is something I'm a little afraid of. Meredith Marsh 1:07 I hear that a lot. Jillian Leslie 1:08 Do you? Meredith Marsh 1:09 Yes, I do all the time. Jillian Leslie 1:11 Okay. So can you share your background, and how you got interested in YouTube, and how you've built your business with YouTube? How to start a career in teaching YouTube Meredith Marsh 1:17 Sure. So I used to be a freelance web designer. Out of college, I just decided that's what I was going to do, so that's kind of what I did. I taught myself like WordPress development and stuff like that. And I did that for about five years. And then in 2013, I had an opportunity to take a full-time job kind of managing web design and social media stuff in like a local company. So I gave up my freelance business, took a full-time job. And I was there for about a year before I was like, you know, I think I kind of like working for myself. So I really enjoyed the job itself. I enjoyed the people I worked with, but I missed the freedom. And so I had been kind of thinking I don't really want to go back to web design, just like straight up working with clients, but obviously, I had web design skills and I really liked creating content. So I thought maybe I should just start a blog and turn that into my business. Jillian Leslie 2:28 Did you know what it would be? Meredith Marsh 2:29 No. I noodled around ideas for like a year and a half trying to find like a niche or an idea or a topic that I felt like I was passionate enough about, that I wasn't going to get bored in a year. Because at that point, I kind of felt like I was really good at having ideas and then getting bored with them after I started them. And I was like, I'm done with that, I don't want to do that anymore. I want to find something I can really be passionate about and stick with it. So at the time, my kids were small. I have two little girls, they were like 7 and 4 or something. So I'm working a full-time job, I've got these two little kids. My husband was working crazy hours. And I felt like if there is a way that I could come up with a topic for a blog that related to us spending more time together or being more intentional about having family adventures and kind of capturing those moments. I just felt like if I could just knit all that stuff together, that would be great. But, I mean, that makes it sound like, "Oh, of course. Yeah, that's a no-brainer." But really, I was not connecting the puzzle pieces in my head at that point. I was just kind of like very abstract thinking about what a blog would look like and what those topics would be. Jillian Leslie 3:56 And what year was this? Meredith Marsh 3:57 This was late 2013. Jillian Leslie 4:03 Okay. Starting a YouTube channel about GoPro Meredith Marsh 4:06 And randomly one day, it was probably like Cyber Monday of that year, I decided to buy a GoPro camera. And I was like, "You know what, we're going to buy this camera and we're going to go on family adventures and just fun everyday stuff." We're not very adventurous people but if we like go for a hike or something, we can capture it on video, and we could make family movies, and that would be a really fun family sort of hobby. And so I bought the camera. I opened it up and it just so happened that we had like a foot of snow on a Saturday morning and I sent my kids out. Jillian Leslie 4:42 Where are you located? Meredith Marsh 4:44 I live in upstate New York. Okay, so it was early December. I sent them out with the GoPro and I created this video of them just playing in the snow and then decorating Christmas cookies with their grandmother. And I put this video together, and I was like, "Wow! This is actually kind of priceless." And I feel like I need to teach other people how to do this, too. Jillian Leslie 5:08 Did you have experience like editing footage? I know you're creative, I bet your artistic... Meredith Marsh 5:17 I want to say no, I didn't really have experience but I had played around with iMovie before. And I put together like a slideshow of still images for my grandmother's memorial service. That was the first time that I created something that was essentially a video even though it was still photos that I created something that people watched. I kind of liked that like, "Wow! That's kind of interesting to see it on a big screen." And seeing people's reactions to it was kind of fun. And then when I created this family video, seeing my kids' reactions to it was was also fun. And I thought, I think I could probably teach other people how to do this. Using keyword research to find a niche on YouTube And that's when all of the puzzle pieces started connecting. And I started doing some keyword research. I'm kind of a nerd. And so I dove right into keyword research to see like are there tutorials on this, are there video editing tutorials. And what I found was pretty much everything online that has to do with video or video cameras or video editing is geared toward professional people. And so I kind of just dove in to how can I teach regular everyday people -- moms and dads, families -- how to create videos, how to use a GoPro, how to edit the videos and things like that. And so I started blogging and it just sort of made sense to me that I should create videos for YouTube. Because if I'm going to create a tutorial on how to edit a video... Jillian Leslie 6:54 Right now. Meredith Marsh 6:55 Like, who's gonna read that? Jillian Leslie 6:56 Right. It gets very meta. Meredith Marsh 6:58 Yeah. It needs to be a video, right? And so I saw YouTube as a place to kind of house those videos. And then as soon as I started publishing a video every week along with a blog post, people just started subscribing and commenting and saying, "Well, can you do a video on on this? And can you do something on this and that?" And it's just where my community and my audience was growing, was on YouTube, at which was a total surprise for me because I wasn't a YouTube user really up until that point. Jillian Leslie 7:36 Okay. And how quickly did you see it connect? Did you go, "Ooh, this is working?" When you know your YouTube channel is getting traction Meredith Marsh 7:47 I would say about six weeks or so. Jillian Leslie 7:49 Okay. Meredith Marsh 7:50 Because I was getting views. I mean, I didn't look at the views at first because I didn't realize that was like... it sounds so silly now. I didn't realize at the time that YouTube was like a platform that people grow businesses on. Jillian Leslie 8:05 Right. Meredith Marsh 8:07 It really was just a place to house the videos I was creating. And one day just logged in, I was like, "Oh," there's like people watching these videos that I published and there's comments. And like, I can't remember. I think it was maybe four or five-ish months I had about 1,000 subscribers, which I thought was funny because just a few months before that, I didn't know that there was this thing called subscribing. Jillian Leslie 8:37 Wow. Meredith Marsh 8:38 So it just kind of grew. And like it was probably about six to nine months before I realized that I wasn't just a blogger with a YouTube channel. I was really a YouTube creator with a blog. And I just kept going kind of full steam with both platforms. And because just my community and my audience just kept growing over on YouTube. And it's turned into, like, I call it my powerhouse platform. I think all bloggers probably have at least one platform that's like their big platform for them. Jillian Leslie 9:16 Yup. Meredith Marsh 9:17 And for me, it's YouTube. Jillian Leslie 9:19 That's amazing. That's amazing. Okay. And then how have you seen it evolve? So you started off by creating content for moms and dads, right, to say "Hey, this is an easy way to take your video that we all take and do something with it," right? Meredith Marsh 9:38 Yeah, exactly. Jillian Leslie 9:40 Because I don't know about... like I just have video on my phone and then it gets onto my computer. And then I probably never look at it. Meredith Marsh 9:47 Right. That's exactly... Jillian Leslie 9:49 How did you then start to evolve that? Or is that still who your main audience is? Meredith Marsh 9:57 That is my core audience of my blog and my YouTube channel. And I would say about a year and a half ago, I had other bloggers that were contacting me or messaging me and saying, "Hey, how do you do this whole YouTube thing? Is this something I should do? How do I get started?" How to teach about YouTube in a podcast And so just this year, I launched the Video Pursuit Podcast. So that's a separate audience from my, you know, from my core blog and YouTube audience. And so I started that as a way to connect with other bloggers and content creators and help them get started or get serious about YouTube, so that they can use it to expand the reach. Jillian Leslie 10:40 So you interview other YouTubers or other bloggers who have a big YouTube presence. Meredith Marsh 10:48 I mostly use it more as a teaching platform. So it's usually just me or I'll bring on a co-host and we'll talk about specific topics. Jillian Leslie 10:59 About YouTube for bloggers, or for people who want to use this as a business platform. Meredith Marsh 11:07 Well, for example, I just had someone on, we talked about Pinterest. And so we didn't really talk. We really didn't talk about video stuff at all. We talked about Pinterest, and Tailwind and some of the new features of Tailwind. And so, it's really a resource for bloggers and content creators. And I might talk about anything that has to do with blogging and creating content, but there's a definite spin on it with video and YouTube. Jillian Leslie 11:40 Got it. Okay. And so here is my question, which is, well, let's start with you. How do you then monetize and how do you use YouTube to monetize for your own business? How to monetize a business on YouTube Meredith Marsh 11:56 Yeah. So I monetize my YouTube in pretty much the same way that I monetize my blog, which is through ad revenue and affiliate revenue, sponsorship deals, brand deals, things like that, and lead generation. Jillian Leslie 12:16 What do you mean by lead generation? Meredith Marsh 12:18 I have a couple of digital courses on editing videos. So, you know, I'm using it to grow my email list and things like that. Jillian Leslie 12:28 Sell to those email subscribers. Meredith Marsh 12:31 Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Jillian Leslie 12:33 Yeah. Okay. So could we walk through then all of those different ways? Meredith Marsh 12:38 Sure. Jillian Leslie 12:38 Okay, so let's start with ads. Monetizing YouTube with ads Meredith Marsh 12:41 Yeah. So YouTube is owned by Google, so Google has their AdSense ad platform, and that's how you would earn ad revenue on YouTube. And recently this year, YouTube changed the minimum requirements to be a part of their ad program. So you have to have, I think, 1000 subscribers. And I think it's 4000 hours or minutes of watch time in the past 12 months or something. You basically have to be an active channel in order to earn ad revenue. And it's not meant to keep new creators out. It's really meant to keep people from stealing viral videos, and then setting up a YouTube channel, and immediately being able to monetize those videos. Jillian Leslie 13:40 Interesting. Okay. Meredith Marsh 13:43 And so the ad revenue on YouTube is, I mean, it's a lot like a blog where it kind of depends on your niche a little bit and what as far as how much you would make. So, you know, it's a supply and demand thing with ads. And so some niches might make more, some might make less. But yeah, ad revenue is something that if you hear some YouTubers will say, "Oh, don't focus on ad revenue, it's not reliable," or it's not this, or it's not that it has been reliable for me. It continues to grow as my channel grows and my views grow, and it's definitely one of my stronger revenue streams. Jillian Leslie 14:28 Okay. Because, again, I too have heard like, "No, you're not going to make a lot of money on YouTube in ads," that that is not going to be the way that you are going to, you know, buy that new car. Meredith Marsh 14:40 Right. I think it's, yeah, it's about perspective, I think, because I think as bloggers, we sort of know that we have all these revenue streams available to us where. I mean, I hope that as bloggers, we know that we have multiple streams that we can dip into and focus on. And for people who just focus on YouTube like an actual YouTuber or YouTube creator, they don't know about like how do you work with a brand, how do you get a sponsorship deal, what is affiliate revenue. Like, they don't know about those things. So they tend to focus on "Well, if I create videos and I'll get ad revenue," and they realize if you're brand new to the platform, unless you're somehow getting copious amounts of watch time on your videos, you're not going to have that ad revenue because you have to have the views and the watch time to get the ad revenue. Jillian Leslie 15:42 But I've even read that those huge YouTubers who have millions of subscribers, those people are not making their money on ad revenue. Meredith Marsh 15:51 Right. It's possible that they're not. Can you make a lot of money with YouTube ads? Jillian Leslie 15:54 Okay. So you wouldn't say to somebody "Go start a YouTube channel because you're going to make butt-loads of money with that." Meredith Marsh 16:03 Right. Yeah. I wouldn't lead with that, no. Jillian Leslie 16:05 Okay. And like, for example, do you make more money with ad revenue on your blog or ad revenue from YouTube? Meredith Marsh 16:13 Right now, YouTube is ahead by a little bit. But it's been pretty much neck and neck for me. Jillian Leslie 16:20 Now, what is nice about that is you have two passive income streams. Meredith Marsh 16:23 Yes. Yeah, exactly. The value of multiple passive income streams as a creator Jillian Leslie 16:25 And, you know, you take like, not a ton, but you keep finding these passive income streams, you add them together, it can become substantial. Meredith Marsh 16:34 Yeah, yeah, exactly. Jillian Leslie 16:35 Okay, so ad revenue is the first thing. Then the second piece, what would you layer in next? Making affiliate revenue on YouTube Meredith Marsh 16:43 Affiliate revenue. A lot of people don't realize you can do this on YouTube. You can put your affiliate links in your YouTube description. Just like you would in your blog, you have to disclose that it's an affiliate link and you might earn money if, you know, blah, blah, blah. You know, the disclosure that you have to have. But you can put those in your YouTube description. So what I like to tell people is look at the products that you use every day that you recommend to your readers every day, and you could come up with four or five different video ideas around that one product. Because you could do a review, you could do a, you know, alternatives to this product. You could do top five uses of this product, right? There's all these different things you could talk about around this one product and use those videos to drive affiliate revenue. Jillian Leslie 17:46 Now, I have a couple questions. One, I've heard that if you put a link in like an affiliate link and somebody clicks on it and drag those off the platform, that YouTube doesn't like that. Does driving people to a link off YouTube hurt your channel? Meredith Marsh 17:59 That is true. YouTube doesn't like people leaving their platform just like every other, you know, social platform. So there's always a trade off, right? So if someone clicks off and goes to Amazon and they make a purchase, and you make, you know, five bucks or something, then that might be worth it to you in your channel to have had somebody click off. And so there's a balancing act there. If you were going to build your entire YouTube strategy around people clicking off the platform to make affiliate purchases, that probably wouldn't be the best/strongest strategy, but if you weave in those affiliate style videos every once in a while, especially this time of year and during the holidays, then it can work out really well for you. Jillian Leslie 18:56 So would you say that you would not make all your videos affiliate videos? Meredith Marsh 19:02 Yeah, I probably wouldn't. It depends on your niche and what you want to do with your channel. It really does depend. If you can get people, if you can get your viewers to watch your entire video before they click off, then you'll be in a much better position with YouTube, if that makes sense. So if you can get people to come back, then you're, you're golden. So I like to get people onto my email list and use my email list to send people to make affiliate purchases. That way, they're on my email list. Now, when I publish a new video, I can email them and say, "Hey, here's this new video I think you would enjoy." Now I'm bringing in more views. So I got them to click off that one time. Using YouTube to grow your list Jillian Leslie 19:54 To join your list. Meredith Marsh 19:55 Yeah, but I'm sending them back so many more times now. I wish I had a statistic on like for every person I send off of YouTube, you know, I get them back 5 more times or 10 more times or something. But yet the YouTube algorithm will see people clicking off, but they see also people coming to YouTube through your content, and they'll reward you for that. Jillian Leslie 20:24 So how do you send them off to join your list? Meredith Marsh 20:28 There's a couple different ways. So you can put a link to, if you have an email opt-in landing page or something, you can link to that in your description. You can also tell people in your video that "Hey, I have a great cheat sheet for you." And I usually like to say, "When you're done watching this video, you can head down and grab the link in the description," just to make them kind of like "hold your horses, watch the video" and at the end, you can remind them again, "Don't forget, I have a link to this special cheat sheet for you." Also, YouTube has something called "cards" which are like you you can create a link that would pop up on your video at a certain point, you get to decide when. And it could be a link off YouTube to your opt-in page or it could be a link to another video. Or it could be a link to, I think, like another channel or something or another playlist. And so you could use that to send people off to your opt-in. You can also use the end screen element. So like you have 20 seconds at the end of your video that you can send people different places, and one of those places could be to your email opt-in. Jillian Leslie 21:53 And how successful has that strategy been for you? Meredith Marsh 21:59 Over time... I don't have any data on that. I should look that up, actually. What I did was in April 2017, I did 30 days of GoPros. So I set out to publish one video every day for 30 days. It ended up taking me six months to do the 30 videos. But what I did was I created a GoPro cheat sheet, a GoPro settings cheat sheet, put that on just a one-page PDF. So I have this 30-day series and so the first video in that series is me talking about this series and telling people where they can get the cheat sheet. And so in video number two, I'm doing the content and then saying, "By the way, I have this great cheat sheet for you. You can head back to video #1 to grab it." And so if somebody finds video #15 randomly through search or recommended video, and they've never heard of me before and they don't know about the series, then they watch the video and they hear me say, "I have a great cheat sheet for you. You can go back to video number one to find it." And they click on the card or the end screen element, or they click the link in the description. And now they're going back to video #1. So now they have the link to the cheat sheet to the opt-in page. Now they also know this is a series, so now they can start there at video #1, watch the whole series. And that month in April, I had 500 new people on my list just for that one GoPro settings cheat sheet opt-in. Jillian Leslie 23:49 Wow. And every video you would say, "Hey, if you're liking this, go back to episode one." Meredith Marsh 23:54 Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Jillian Leslie 23:56 That was brilliant! Meredith Marsh 23:57 Yeah. Thank you. Jillian Leslie 23:59 That was really smart. But I like how so many things were communicated in that without a lot of explanation. Meredith Marsh 24:05 Right. Exactly. How to grow your YouTube subscribers with your MiloTree YouTube pop-up Jillian Leslie 24:08 "Did you know that you could grow your YouTube subscribers with your MiloTree pop-up? In fact, if you go to Meredith's blog at VidProMom.com, you will see it in action because she is using the MiloTree YouTube pop-up to increase her subscribers. Head to... I invite you to go to MiloTree.com to set up your own pop-ups to grow YouTube, or Facebook, or Instagram, or Pinterest or your email list. You can set it up and get it up on your site in under three minutes. And if you sign up now, you get your first 30 days free and you get access to my weekly newsletters." And now back to the show. Before we go on to other different ways to monetize, I just wanted to stop and ask you what are the metrics that YouTube cares about the most. Like, you keep mentioning watch time. Meredith Marsh 25:14 Yeah. YouTube wants people to keep watching videos and never leave YouTube. Jillian Leslie 25:22 Like my daughter, by the way. Meredith Marsh 25:24 Yeah, my kids too. So for example, in your videos, if you're going to create videos, you want people to stay on your video for as long as possible, you know, until the very end would be the goal. But very few people watch to the very end.And so if you can get more than 50% viewer retention on your videos...To the end. Well, yeah, if you can have at least 50% of the people that start a video finish the video, then YouTube will start to see that as, okay, people are interested in this -- it's helpful or it's useful, or it's entertaining, or whatever it is, and they'll recommend it to more people. Because if YouTube feels like this is working, people are watching this, then they're going to want to recommend your video over someone else's video that doesn't have as good or as high of a viewer retention. Jillian Leslie 26:31 Okay. So what is watch time? What is watch time on YouTube and why is it important? Meredith Marsh 26:34 Watch time is the amount of time view a viewer would spend watching your videos. So, yeah, basically the amount of time, like the actual number of minutes. Jillian Leslie 26:50 Okay. And what is the ideal? I've heard this, you know, change over time that you want your videos to be at least 10 minutes. Is that true? Meredith Marsh 27:02 I think different people say different things. So like, for me, personally, I don't set a target. I mean, I try to make my videos more than three minutes. But if they're more than 15 minutes, it's just for me, personally, I'm like, "Okay, this is taking forever to edit. I need to do something different here." So I don't give myself like a hard... like it's got to be 10 minutes no more, no less. Because it's more important to me that I keep people interested in watching that video and not getting bored or distracted and clicking off. I would focus on the retention, keeping people on your video. I'd focus on that before I would start looking at, you know, have they watched for 10 minutes or 5 minutes. Jillian Leslie 27:54 And you can see all of this in your analytics. Meredith Marsh 27:57 Yeah, the analytics for YouTube is very, very detailed. It can be very overwhelming because it is so detailed. Jillian Leslie 28:03 Like Google Analytics, yeah. Meredith Marsh 28:04 Yeah. Jillian Leslie 28:04 Same company. Meredith Marsh 28:05 Yeah, it is very detailed. One of the nice things about it is, I feel like with Google Analytics, they're just like dumping data on you. And whereas with YouTube Analytics, it's sort of displaying the data in a way that is giving you clues about what it cares about, what YouTube cares about. So it will tell you like here's your watch time over the last 28 days, here are your subscribers, here's this, here's that. And it's essentially telling you what it cares about the most. And over the years, it's changed a little bit. Jillian Leslie 28:48 So what are you looking at when you go to your analytics? Meredith Marsh 28:52 When I go to my analytics, the first thing I usually look at is what's my subscriber number. Jillian Leslie 29:01 Okay. Meredith Marsh 29:02 Has it gone up or down? And it's actually kind of funny because it's very steady for me. I usually gain subscribers -- everyone gains and loses, but I don't ever have like a spike in subscribers or like a big loss. So I don't know why that's always the first thing I look at. Because it's pretty much always just like, yup, more subscribers... Jillian Leslie 29:26 And how many subscribers do you have? Meredith Marsh 29:28 I just rolled over 28,000. Jillian Leslie 29:30 Nice. Meredith Marsh 29:32 So I don't know if there's a big celebration at 30. Jillian Leslie 29:36 That's nice. I feel happy every time I roll over another thousand. I'm like, "Yes! Still going." Okay, so you look at subscriber numbers. Then what do you look at? What YouTube analytics should you care about? Meredith Marsh 29:46 Watch time is the next thing. For me, like, I look at subscribers, but YouTube doesn't really care about your subscribers. They care about watch time and views. And then I also look at my revenue, which the revenue is a little bit like it goes up, it goes down, you don't really know why it might have.. it usually doesn't have anything to do with your content. It has to do with the supply and demand of the ads. Jillian Leslie 30:15 Of the ads. So can you share like around for, say, close to 30,000 subscriber what that would entail in terms of revenue? Meredith Marsh 30:26 My revenue right now in the last 28 days is $430. And that's usually about where it is. Sometimes it's up closer to 500, but it really depends. Jillian Leslie 30:41 Got it. Okay. So you can see how if you have 3 million followers, how that number would grow. Meredith Marsh 30:51 Right. You would think so, yes. Although I have friends that have a lot more subscribers than me who make the same as me or less. Jillian Leslie 31:02 Interesting. Meredith Marsh 31:03 Yeah, but they're in a different niche. They're talking about different things. So the people that are watching their videos have different interests, so therefore, they're going to be served different ads. Jillian Leslie 31:13 Right. Meredith Marsh 31:14 I have a very consumer-focused audience. This is just me taking a guess, but I think that my ad revenue is probably fairly good for the amount of watch time that I get because my viewers are consumers, and Google knows that. Google knows everything. And so, that's just kind of my data. Jillian Leslie 31:44 And typically buying high-end products -- cameras, things like that. Meredith Marsh 31:48 Right. Yeah. Jillian Leslie 31:50 Okay. So let's go back to other ways to monetize. So we talked about ads, we talked about affiliates, we talked about driving people off to sign up for your list. So now, let's say working with brands, which is one that lots of YouTubers, that's how they monetize. Now, do you work with brands? Working with brands as a YouTuber Meredith Marsh 32:15 I do work with brands occasionally. And I have never had a brand ask me for just a blog post. It's always a video. And so when I go and I price out how much should I charge for a blog post versus a video, it's like double for the video. So I'm always basically pitching back to them you're going to get a video and blog post and social shares. And without having the video as a deliverable, I don't think I don't even think doing sponsorship would even be worth it. Jillian Leslie 32:59 Interesting. Yeah. Meredith Marsh 33:00 Yeah. Because they want to be in front of my exact audience. Jillian Leslie 33:08 So what kind of company would you work with? Like GoPro? Meredith Marsh 33:12 I have not worked with GoPro on a sponsored deal but I'm part of the GoPro family kind of like their influencer family. So they just put out a new camera in September. Yeah, September. And so they sent me the new camera so I can do an unboxing and a review and all that kind of stuff. So I don't ask them for money because I just want them to keep sending me new products. Jillian Leslie 33:41 New cameras. I totally get it. Meredith Marsh 33:43 I'm happy with my relationship with GoPro in that regard. This year, I worked with Adobe on some tutorials for using Adobe Premiere Elements, which is their consumer-level editing platform. I've worked with other brands like GoPro accessories or just different video editing software and stuff like that. Jillian Leslie 34:12 Got it. Okay. And do you ever reach out to brands? Meredith Marsh 34:17 I do. Jillian Leslie 34:18 "Hey, I've got this cool YouTube channel. Here's my audience." That kind of thing. Meredith Marsh 34:22 Yeah, I do reach out to brands and it's kind of a hit-or-miss with them. And sometimes they're like, "Okay, cool." And other times they're like, "Nah, not interested." Jillian Leslie 34:34 Right. And now, you also sell courses? Meredith Marsh 34:38 I do, yes. Jillian Leslie 34:40 And so how are you using YouTube to drive those sales? Meredith Marsh 34:45 Yeah, so I have a couple of video editing courses. One of them is very focused on Adobe Premiere Elements. So if I'm creating a video like a tutorial on Premiere Elements, and I'm getting people on to my email list because I gave them a cheat sheet, now I know that they're interested in learning Premier Elements. So they're an ideal candidate to be a customer. And so that's kind of how I'm using YouTube in that regard for for my courses. Jillian Leslie 35:21 Got it. And so if you sell that, then people get access to those videos, whereas they're not just up on your channel. Selling a course as a YouTuber Meredith Marsh 35:31 Right. Yeah, the courses are additional videos, they're not just YouTube videos. So they're more in depth more... you know, like I mentioned with YouTube videos, I'm trying to keep people on my video. So I'm keeping it kind of moving fairly quickly. I like to say I like my videos to be snappy and not boring because I don't want them to click off. But that's not necessarily the best way to learn. You want to sit down and actually learn the program, you need a little bit of a slower pace. And so that's what I have inside the courses. What is a playlist on YouTube? Jillian Leslie 36:08 That makes a lot of sense. Can we talk just briefly about playlists, what a playlist is, and do you recommend them? And how do you think about playlists? Meredith Marsh 36:17 Yeah, playlists are great. I like to think of a playlist in terms of it's almost like setting categories like you would on your blog. So similar, you know, related topics could be under one playlist. You can have your video in more than one playlist. And then what I like to do is on the homepage of my YouTube channel, you can customize your homepage, and I put my playlist there so that it's almost like I have one row is, you know, GoPro tutorials. one row is Premier Elements tutorials, and they're categorized and they're in playlists. And so the playlist themselves can actually come up and help you with your SEO because it's just another opportunity for you to put in your keywords and your topics. Jillian Leslie 37:13 Oh, interesting. Okay. Because I feel like all I have right now on our MiloTree YouTube channel are a bunch of my podcast interviews, but I haven't even organized them and I barely have put cover images on them, so I feel like I have a lot of work to do to optimize that with keywords, with everything. Meredith Marsh 37:34 Yeah, yeah. Jillian Leslie 37:36 In fact, I was just on Fiverr yesterday looking for somebody who could man it, like set it up for SEO and things like that. Okay. Here is the, I think, million dollar question. Meredith Marsh 37:51 Oh, boy. How to find the time to make videos as a blogger? Jillian Leslie 37:53 Ready? It's not that hard for you, but it's hard for us as bloggers. In fact, I was just talking to our MiloTree community manager, Paula Rollo, just before I got on this call. And I said, "What would you want to ask? I'm talking to a YouTube expert. What would you want to ask?" And she said, "How to deal with the fact that making videos takes a lot of time." And she's like, you know, "I feel like I've started and I've stopped doing YouTube. And I never know if I should keep going, like, I'm almost going to break through, but it just takes so much time to create content." Meredith Marsh 38:38 That is a fantastic question, which I would answer with another question. How much time do you bloggers put into creating their written content? Because when you think about the amount of time you're researching your topics, and then you're writing and you're creating your Pinterest images, sometimes you're creating loads and loads of Pinterest images for each blog post. You're scheduling your Instagram and your Pinterest, you're already spending lots and lots of time on a piece of content. And so you're really more than halfway there of creating a video because you've already done the research. If you've written the post, you've essentially written what could be a script or an outline for you. And so you're already more than halfway there. And the video part takes some time to get used to and learn but there is no one right way to create a video. And if you use your cell phone, that's perfect. And if you use your fancy camera, that's perfect, too. If you can create a video that doesn't need to be edited, that's outstanding. And if you create a video that does need to be edited, that's great, too. And so, just start wherever you're at. But I think bloggers in particular are really primed to be excellent YouTube creators because you already have so much content, you've already done more than half the work compared to any random person off the street that wakes up today and wants to be a YouTuber. They don't really know about creating content. They're just thinking "I want to be a YouTuber." Jillian Leslie 40:28 Right. Exactly. They don't know what SEO is, they don't know what keywords are. They don't know how to build an audience. Meredith Marsh 40:36 Right, yeah. So I can't argue with the fact that it takes time to create video content, but it takes time to create all of the content that I create. We're spending that time somewhere. And YouTube has just such great organic search components and things that that's where I like to spend my time. How to make YouTube videos in the easiest way possible? Jillian Leslie 41:00 Okay. So let's say I decide I'm going to start making video and I want to do it in the most down and dirty way, but where my content looks good relatively, you know, and so I'm going to use my phone. And let's say I have like a little tripod and I'm going to do a craft or something. Would you recommend that I try and just do it in one shot so I don't have to edit? What are some tricks to help me speed up this process? Meredith Marsh 41:34 If you are going to do a craft with your phone, I would use your phone to shoot your hands creating the craft and then when you're done creating it and you've shot that part, you can do a voiceover and explain what you've done, essentially. And then you can just shoot a little intro with your face on camera saying like, "Hey, this is so and so. And I'm creating a craft called such and such for, you know, for a Christmas craft for kids," or whatever it is and then have a little outro. You would then just have to put those pieces together and you can edit those on your phone. Jillian Leslie 42:18 Okay. And do you recommend I edit stuff on my... what is the easiest way to edit video? Meredith Marsh 42:24 Easiest way? Well, I would say the easiest way would be on your phone. That'd be the easiest and quickest. Jillian Leslie 42:30 Really? And what what am I using? Meredith Marsh 42:32 Oh boy, there's lots of options. Adobe just came out with their Premier Rush, which is an app for your phone or your iPad, but they also have it for your desktop so that everything you create on mobile is also going to be there when you open up on your desktop. So that's an interesting one, they just came out with that recently. There's also Lumafusion -- is a really, really good editing app for your phone. It's very robust, but it's still pretty simple. Jillian Leslie 43:08 I've never even heard of that. Meredith Marsh 43:10 That's a good one. I like that one a lot. Let's see. There's one called the InShot that I know a lot of people use for Instagram. There's Adobe Clip. I'm looking at my phone right now. Filmora has a mobile app. There's also iMovie for iPad and phones. So it's really just a matter of taking, you know, if you have five separate clips, an intro, an outro and a middle, you know, it's just a matter of putting them together. Advice: Don't over-edit your YouTube videos Jillian Leslie 43:49 Wow! Well, now speak to this, which is I think that as bloggers we're perfectionists. Like I find with my podcast, for example, I could spend days editing out "um's" and the phone ringing and all of that stuff. And so how do you deal with that with video so that you're not just overly editing everything? Meredith Marsh 44:17 Wow. That is such a good question. You know, done is better than perfect. Jillian Leslie 44:27 I love that, yeah. Meredith Marsh 44:28 I don't think in reality, nobody expects perfection from most people. I mean, I have trained my audience that you don't expect perfection from me at all. You expect me to show up and be useful and helpful and deliver the content that you came looking for, but certainly not perfection. And you just just have to publish and keep going. You can always improve. But if you don't publish, right, then you have nothing to improve. Right? Jillian Leslie 45:05 Right. I like that. I do, I agree. You know, it's that scary thing of putting yourself out there. And, you know, especially with video because I think that we feel more exposed. Meredith Marsh 45:20 Yeah, for sure. Jillian Leslie 45:25 And there's a vulnerability to it. Advice: Have bright light for shooting video Meredith Marsh 45:27 Yeah. One of my favorite tips for people who feel like "I can't do videos because I don't like the way I look on camera" is just make sure you have lots of great lighting, which means you could just stand in front of a window or be in your car. Because when you have not very much lighting, that's when all of your least favorite features will like be predominant. Especially I feel like for women who might have skin imperfections or wrinkle or something, light can just magically make those things disappear. Jillian Leslie 46:06 That is a great tip. Meredith Marsh 46:07 Yeah. Really, really just light it up. Jillian Leslie 46:11 Okay, one more question, which is, do I need to publish a video every week at a specific time? Do I need to? People talk about this, you train your audience to know that on Tuesdays at 9:00 there'll be a new video. Is that true? Consistency on YouTube -- Do you need to be? Meredith Marsh 46:29 I am going to say yes, it's good to be consistent. But, I mean, at the same time, if somebody said, "Well, I can't publish every week," I would say then publish every two weeks. Don't let consistency keep you from publishing once even a month, if that's all you can do. It's not like if you can't be consistent, you might as well not do it. That's not a piece at all. But it is good to be consistent and try to do once a week and try to do the same day, same time, if you can. And a really good way to do that is to just prepare four or five videos over the course of like a weekend and you have those videos ready to go. And maybe all they need is just to be edited and published versus actually creating a whole video every week. That gets really tiring really greatly. Jillian Leslie 47:27 Right. So like batch them. Meredith Marsh 47:29 Yeah, batching is really good, especially when you're first starting. It's really good. Jillian Leslie 47:33 And is it that Google wants you to be consistent or is it really that your audience knows, "Oh, it's Tuesday, there's going to be a new video." Meredith Marsh 47:42 Yeah, I think it's your audience. And I don't necessarily know that people are like looking at their watch, you know, like, "Oh, okay, it's 1:00 on a Wednesday. I know that Meredith is going to be here right now." Jillian Leslie 47:53 Right, right. Meredith Marsh 47:54 But it's that you're there when they when they do open up YouTube and they're expecting you and it's familiar to them. And, you know, they've just become used to seeing your face in a new video every week or every two weeks or whatever. Jillian Leslie 48:12 Oh, wow. Meredith, I have learned so much from you. Meredith Marsh 48:15 I'm so glad. Jillian Leslie 48:16 And you know what you've done? You have made video seem a little less scary. Meredith Marsh 48:22 Good. That's excellent. Jillian Leslie 48:24 The whole idea of editing video on my phone. Do you have a bunch of tutorials on that? Meredith Marsh 48:31 I don't have a bunch. I do have one on my, funnily enough, it's not even on my YouTube channel. It's on my IGTV channel. I have been on editing vertical videos in Lumafusion which teaches you how to use that. Back when IGTV first came out, people didn't know like, how do I even create a vertical video for IGTV? So I created that and I put it on IGTV. But mostly for me personally, I'm using my desktop to edit. Because I'm not in the editing apps a whole bunch. I haven't created tutorials on them yet. What are your thoughts on IGTV? Jillian Leslie 49:10 Got it. Okay. And tell me what are your thoughts about IGTV? Meredith Marsh 49:15 I don't have any thoughts on it really. I very rarely watch anybody's IGTV. I don't even really know that they're even there. I don't pay attention to it. I don't know, it's too early to tell, I think. Jillian Leslie 49:29 Right. it's too early to tell. Meredith Marsh 49:31 Yeah. Jillian Leslie 49:31 Well, Meredith, honestly, please tell people how they can reach out to you see your videos. Meredith Marsh 49:37 Yeah, so my podcast is the Video Pursuit Podcast, so you can find that at VidProMom.com/podcast or you can just search for it in your favorite podcast player. I do have a Facebook group called Video for Bloggers and Content Creators, and that's where I run my five-day challenges -- five days to a polished and profitable YouTube presence. And have a good community going there as well. So that's the Video for Bloggers and Content Creators Facebook group. Jillian Leslie 50:07 Oh, Meredith. Well, honestly, thank you so much for being on the show. Meredith Marsh 50:11 Thank you for having me. Jillian Leslie 50:13 Get MiloTree to grow YouTube and Instagram and Pinterest and Facebook and your email list and remember, get your first 30 days free. I welcome you to join the family. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE!

Today I'm doing my first two-on-one interview with Cara Newhart and C.J. Oldenkamp, founders of My Haute Society, a community for bloggers, and are both bloggers in their own right. We talk about how to start a blog with your friend. We delve into balancing a shared business and a personal blog, plus how they dealt with the growing pains of working together in a new venture. Cara and C.J. are Instagram pros and share their Instagram strategies. You'll want to learn this!   Resources: My Haute Society Everyday Chiffon Never Skip Brunch Catch My Party MiloTree Canva Planoly Transcript: How to Start a Blog with Your Friend with Cara Newhart and C.J. Oldenkamp Host:[00:00:03] Welcome to The Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian: [00:00:10] Hey everyone. Welcome back to the show. Today I have two guests. I have Cara and C.J. from My Haute Society. So guys, welcome to the show. C.J. : [00:00:25] Thank you. Thanks for having us. We're excited to be here today. Jillian: [00:00:29] This is my first time with two guests so this is like all new, and you guys are so much fun. So I'm super psyched you're here and we just did a recording where I'm going to be on their podcast. And so now we're going to do it where you guys are on mine. Jillian: [00:00:48] So explain My Haute Society. What is Haute Society? Cara: [00:00:52] Yes. We are a community for bloggers and influencers. We are based online but we have a lot of in person events and workshops and then we have a ton of different resources like guides and workbooks and E-courses to help you grow your following, build your blog, and learn how to monetize your influence. Jillian: [00:01:12] Now you guys are both entrepreneurs, bloggers that kind of thing. Do you mind sharing your stories and then how you guys have hooked up? C.J. : [00:01:21] Yeah, so I'll go first. This is C.J. and I run my own personal blog, Everyday Chiffon, which is a fashion, travel, lifestyle blog and I'm just a new mama to be. I'm also really having a lot of fun kind of adding that family orientation part into my blog. Starting a lifestyle blog with a love of fashion C.J. : [00:01:41] But I started in corporate, right when I first moved out to Denver, right after graduating college and I was kind of the first of my friends to do so. C.J. : [00:01:52] I used to take the random mirror selfies, and as much as I don't love this I did that. I did random weird selfies of like my corporate outfits and everything, just because I was kind of the first of my friends to be in there and I had a girlfriend that recommended I start a blog. C.J. : [00:02:13] Being a very non techie side, I didn't know what a blog technically was. So I just kind of went ahead and started an Instagram page. How a blog evolves C.J. : [00:02:22] And I just had a separate place to kind of post my outfits and give inspiration to some of the girls that were just entering corporate, or thinking about entering corporate. And then it's just really evolved into this blog and a brand that I've kind of run with. C.J. :  [00:02:37] It didn't even start as Everyday Chiffon. It was like Professionista or something that I cringe at. But it was just something super random and a place for me to be inspirational with my fashion. C.J. : [00:02:49] I've always loved fashion my entire life. It's been something I have such funny pictures of me as a kid like dressing up multiple outfits. So it really just evolved into something that I had no idea could be a business. C.J. :  [00:03:03] I didn't know about blogging and now I've really brought in like the biggest thing for me and my blog that's made it a part of my soul and from me is my positivity post. C.J. : [00:03:13] And that's been like the main thing that I like to push on through everything if you look at my page I'm always smiling, I'm always laughing, and I really try and bring happiness as a mindset, it's kind of like my blog motto. C.J. : [00:03:26] So that's like a big big thing for me that's made it more like a space for me to connect with people alongside of connecting through fashion and through my travels and through everything else like lifestyle. C.J. :  [00:03:37] But that's been like the portion that's kind of a part of everything that I do. So that's really taken off and really evolved and really helped me make Everyday Chiffon what it is today. Jillian: [00:03:49] And they're super cute photos of you pregnant. C.J. :  [00:03:52] Oh thank you, it's been crazy getting used to these curves. But I'm having fun dressing them up. Jillian: [00:04:00] Are you more of like tight pregnancy maternity clothes or more of the loose maternity clothes? C.J. :  [00:04:07] You know I'm finding I really thought it because I'm a big Boho kind of dresser and so I love Free People and those types of brands, and I would have thought that I would have gone towards wearing a lot of Free People but with these added curves that I've never had before. I've always been very flat up top. I've always been pretty tiny. C.J. :  [00:04:27] I found that some of the bigger looser clothes kind of make me feel bigger and make me feel less sexy or as into like myself as I normally and so I've actually leaned towards wearing tighter clothes just because I can show that like yes I'm pregnant, I'm not just eating a pizza over and over again. Jillian: [00:04:51] Well you look adorable. C.J. : [00:04:54] I feel lucky to be pregnant during the summer so I don't have to wear tons of like jeans and sweaters I can just kind of be in dresses most of my life. Jillian: [00:05:05] Kara what about you? Cara: [00:05:07] Yeah, so I started out in corporate as well. I always kind of had a blog on the side, like it started in college with an art blog and then I did like a DIY blog, and then I kind of got into having my own online boutique so I designed different leggings and t shirts and stuff with my artwork. Starting a blog because brands were reaching out Cara: [00:05:27] Then I started to have brands reach out to me and offer to like put their products on my blog because I was blogging as part of my boutique. And at that point I didn't really know what blogging was or what influencers were. So I was like, "This is weird like this is my business. Why would I want to promote your product?" Cara: [00:05:44] So now looking back like they probably just thought I was a fashion blogger because I was featuring different people I was like styling my t shirts and showing different looks so they were just reaching out. Cara: [00:05:55] It's like a brand wanting to work with a blogger. But I was like a business and didn't even know what the whole world was so then I kind of decided like hey, maybe I should have an outlet where I could do this. And then I could say yes to these collaborations because they were like products I liked and brands I was interested in working with. Cara: [00:06:13] So I started a fashion blog and it's called Never Skip Brunch. I like love brunch. I always said I love snacks and sleeping. It's kind of a joke. Cara: [00:06:29] I just recently rebranded at the beginning of this year. And it's called Brighter Bold, and it's basically like a movement towards helping women to turn up the volume on their inner voice and kind of find their boldness. Cara: [00:06:44] And so I've kind of expanded out of fashion and now I have like recipes and some DIY projects. And it's a little more lifestyle oriented. So that's been really fun. Cara: [00:06:53] And that decision was kind of just because I realized this is what my audience wanted, like they liked fashion but they kind of wanted a little more in on my lifestyle, and all the little projects that I constantly had going on. So that's been really fun. Jillian: [00:07:08] That's cool. OK so how do you guys then monetize separately and then I guess together? Monetizing blogs through sponsored content, affiliates, and membership Cara: [00:07:19] Yeah. So for our own blogs. We both do like brand collaborations and then affiliate links. I would say for me personally brand collaborations are probably my primary source of income. I do have some affiliate links from people shopping products that I recommend, and all of that stuff but I primarily work with brands. C.J. : [00:07:39] Mine is kind of the same wa,y working with brands through sponsored or ad posts definitely like the biggest thing that I found. C.J. : [00:07:48] I know my affiliate links have definitely started to take off now this past six months, as I've been able to grow more of a connection with my following so I'm definitely seeing more growth there than I have before. C.J. : [00:08:00] But I would definitely still say that like sponsored and you know ads are working with specific brands and trying to kind of grow that long term relationship has been the biggest benefit for me on my personal blog. C.J. : [00:08:13] And with My Haute Society we have so many different ways of monetizing still through affiliate links and then obviously jumping a lot into products and resources that we give out to bloggers, that's like the biggest thing we want to be is obviously a resource. C.J. : [00:08:29] So creating those and being able to help through that has been helpful for us as a business as we try and grow and everything like that. Cara: [00:08:38] Yes I think our biggest thing is like our monthly membership which is just nine bucks a month and you get access to all of our courses all of our guides and then like monthly events whether that's like happy hours or meet ups. And then you get workshops. Cara: [00:08:55] And then you get our big Ecourses are super discounted so that it's kind of amazing. Working on your blog as a team Jillian: [00:09:01] How do you guys... Because my husband and I we run Catch My Party and MiloTree together but those are really different businesses. But again we do it as a team. Now you guys have your own separate businesses. Then you have this together. So how do you manage that? C.J. :  [00:09:20] It's been a lot of learning, to be honest. We started in September of 2017. We hit the ground running. We both were super excited about what we were doing that we just kind of ran with it. It was exhausting. C.J. : [00:09:37] We found a lot of times you know we were trying to work on our own blogs and we had to take away from something so we didn't focus as much on our own blogs as we wanted to. C.J. : [00:09:50] But we just like really couldn't because we just had too much going on in the holiday season and so the beginning of January and the end of December were a huge kind of sit back and take it all in and see where we really want to push our focus to what was most important in growing My Haute Society. And what was most important for like mental health. C.J. : [00:10:11] Because obviously if you look at our blogs, both of them are huge focusing on you know mental health and really being the best person you can be. And so stretching ourselves so thin was the opposite of what we were trying to put out through My Haute Society. So it was a huge moment. C.J. : [00:10:28] We had, I wouldn't say arguments, but we had you know really deep conversations of trying to figure out what was going to be best for both of us because Cara has a little girl and a husband, and I have a husband and had just found out I was pregnant. C.J. : [00:10:42] So it was like we had totally different lives and entirely different things we had to push our emotions into, aside from even just having our personal blogs. So we really did have to re-evaluate what was going on and to make it work. The importance of content calendars for bloggers C.J. : [00:10:57] I think the things you see for every blogger is that content calendars are huge. And we really had to figure out what to do and then when we kind of figured out a strict schedule of like who was doing what. C.J. : [00:11:11] I run all of the social, and deal with our Monday blogger moments, and then Cara does a lot of like the podcast edits as well as like some of the main resource or blog posts that we do and then we do like a little side by side of everything else. C.J. : [00:11:26] So once we really honed in and figure that out we've been able to streamline a lot of things and been able to have certain days where we specifically work on My Haute Society and then have certain days we're basically just working on our own blogs or living our own lives. Cara: [00:11:48] Yeah it's funny because like a lot of people that go into business together have years and years of a friendship or a relationship to kind of go off of. So they already really know the other person. The importance of defined roles as bloggers Cara: [00:12:02] And for us, we were really new friends when we decided to start. Yeah we had to learn who each other was like what our strengths and weaknesses were and kind of how we work together. Cara: [00:12:17] And then also kind of develop the business and define our roles and all of that all at once. So it was definitely a process but I think it was something we needed to go through to be able to be where we are now, where we're kind of like more efficient and we have a system and have more clear communication. Cara: [00:12:35] Like at first you know I would be building the website and putting out all these guides and I'm used to just working with myself and going rogue and like cranking things out. C.J. : [00:12:44] I'm like an over communicator. So I was like "Why are you leaving me in the dark?" type thing and she's just not really like that. So it was kind of me having to learn to pull things out of her as well as you know her just having to learn to like communicate better. C.J. : [00:13:01] So I think that's a good way of putting that though because we did just kind of fall into it, and the benefit of this is that we both tend to jump into change really well in our own personal lives. And I think that made it possible for us to do it. It was just kind of learning how to do it together. Jillian: [00:13:19] Wow what it is like. I mean it's a relationship, it's like a marriage in many ways. Cara: [00:13:25] So I call it business marriage. Jillian: [00:13:30] It's like how people have like a work spouse or you know like a work husband or a work wife you guys are each other's wives. That's terrific. Jillian: [00:13:41] How many hours a week are you guys working and how much of that time, this is if you can quantify it, would you say is working on each of your businesses and then together? Managing your time as a blogger C.J. : [00:13:52] I know I kind of laughed at this question because my answer is all the time. Some weeks are better organized than others but right now with doing a move and you know moving states and doing all this. C.J. : [00:14:09] We've had to be a little bit more scheduled out than normal because like my weekends are completely packed with packing or something like that or going to parties. But I mean as a social influencers I think anyone listening that does that can know that it isn't all the time thing. C.J. : [00:14:26] Like even if you're an entrepreneur and not just a social influencer even if you're not working on something on your web site for instance, I post twice a day on my Instagram almost every day so that's work in itself. C.J. : [00:14:38] You're waking up Saturday morning or Sunday morning and still having to post and then engage with people and then you might like to have brunch and kind of hang out with your husband or take some time off Saturday or Sunday. C.J. : [00:14:47] But then there's other Sundays right up until 11:30 doing something for My Haute Society for Monday, or something so I don't know. I mean it's really hard for me to know. Cara may have a better answer but it's really all over the place. C.J. : [00:15:01] Most of the days during the week are really well scheduled out because we have certain things for our personal blogs and certain things from My Haute Society that go live on specific days. So it's a lot easier to allocate those things out. C.J. : [00:15:13] But the weekend is totally a crapshoot. Sometimes I'm free and living my life, sometimes I'm like doing two hours of shooting and then writing posts and everything like that so it's just really up in the air. Cara: [00:15:26] Yeah it's also weird because it doesn't feel like work. To have to say, "I'm working these hours and these hours I'm free, like it's all just kind of living life and doing what I like doing alongside of the other stuff. Cara: [00:15:40] So if I had to put a number on it, nap time is definitely my go get it time. My daughter is almost 2 and she sleeps for a solid two and a half hours still which like I don't know how long that's going to last. Cara: [00:15:54] That's like my go time and I just knock everything out and then I'm kind of a night owl. So if there's stuff outside of that that I really need to do, I can stay up all night doing it and I love that. I'm at my best at like 12am. C.J. : [00:16:16] Now with being pregnant, for me, I've found that I'll stay up later but then I don't have the energy to get up like I usually did at 7:00 a.m. and kind of started doing things. C.J. : [00:16:26] I'm taking my mornings you know maybe catch up on my phone but like I have to eat breakfast. I have to do certain things, I have to stretch, like all these new things I didn't have to do before is becoming this additive into my days. C.J. : [00:16:42] So I'm learning to schedule around that, but that's like the huge benefit of not having to go to a 9 to 5 job. You can do mornings where sometimes I'll get up at 7:30am and be doing e-mails by 8:00 a.m. you know getting through things. C.J. : [00:16:55] And then other mornings I start working at 9:15am but I might take an hour to work out and then be working until like 8:30pm or something. So it's just kind of all over the place. Which I love because it doesn't stress you out as much because you can do it whenever you want to make time. Jillian: [00:17:11] Right, the funniest thing that I would say is trying to educate your family, like your parents, about what you do. Because we will go on vacation and visit my parents and to explain that the internet doesn't shut down, you know, that you can't put a like "We're on vacation and come back in a week." It just doesn't work that way. Jillian: [00:17:40] They're like, "You work all the time!" and I'm like, well, kind of. C.J. : [00:17:44] It's like what my dad said when we went to Europe. I was obviously making travel blogs and everything through it and taking images, or my husband would be like behind me with the camera and stuff. And my dad's like, "This world is just so different these days." C.J. : [00:18:00] You know you laugh and he's a super successful businessman so I can get where he looks at it but now that he's starting to learn the success you get from it's just connecting the dots and seeing the success just for being different. C.J. : [00:18:15] But then it's funny because he's like, "You're always on your phone" and I'm like, "Well, if you got paid money to be on your phone maybe you would do it too." C.J. : [00:18:25] My siblings are trained now when we are planning vacations or over holidays, they'll be like, "oOh we could go here, that would be really good place to take blog pictures." I'm like "Now you get it." Ways of using Instagram as a blogger to grow your business Jillian: [00:18:36] Can we talk about social media? You guys are very active on Instagram. It sounds like Instagram is your jam. Can you share a little bit about how you use it? What do you think the best ways are to connect on it. Like what do you love about Instagram? Cara: [00:18:56] Yes. I think it's kind of like the current go-to platform for influencers just because that's where a lot of brands want to collaborate with you, because it's the hot platform so that's probably why it's our go-to. Cara: [00:19:12] And C.J. probably has a lot of really good tips for you as far as how to really engage with your followers and connect. She's kind of always full of amazing pointers and I'm like, "Why didn't I know that?" C.J. : [00:19:26] Well the biggest thing with Instagram, because I run My Haute Society's and mine as well, and it is really just truly engagement which can be absolutely exhausting to be honest. I think trying to be on there all the time is what's hard for a lot of people. C.J. : [00:19:42] But I think building the most important thing like the one tip I can give with it is, we love our IG Lives on My Haute Society and sometimes there won't be 30 people on there every single time we do it or anything like that. C.J. : [00:19:58] We do a playback and just having that live and making that connection of being real with your followers is the biggest thing people are looking for on Instagram these days. C.J. : [00:20:07] They do love to see your perfectly curated feed. I don't think that's going away anywhere time any time soon because people love beautiful images and they love placing themselves in places that they haven't been and beautiful scenes that they've never been into. So I think people love that. C.J. : [00:20:20] But being through your Stories I think is the easiest way like IG lives and stories because people are yearning for that connection through real life. And once I started like really doing that, aside from still engaging and consistency and posting is a huge thing. C.J. : [00:20:39] I know a ton of people want to take like a week or two off and you need to understand that that's going to hurt your engagement. I think that's like a big thing but really just being consistent with doing Stories and connecting your face to people not just putting your curated image in your story or random things. C.J. : [00:20:56] That is what people want to see, they want to know what you're doing, they want to know your side of yourself that's not perfect. They want to know what you're eating. C.J. : [00:21:04] I think just things like that really makes people want to follow and connect with you and stay around, at least that's what I've found through My Haute Society and my own blog. C.J. : [00:21:14] It's just being consistent with posting engaging and really being active on my stories even though I might not look gorgeous in the morning or still just get used to kind of being on there and people love it. They love the realness is what I have found. Jillian: [00:21:29] So you're posting two images a day on your feed and how often are you popping in to do Stories? C.J. : [00:21:39] You know, some days are different than others, if I have a super busy day wanting to get multiple posts done I won't be on there as often and just because I need to focus like on any other kind of business. C.J. : [00:21:50] But most days I can do 10 to 15+ stories depending on what's going on. Yesterday, I went through my morning moisturizer routine because my face has been insane with this pregnancy. Hormones are on fleek at an all time high and so I kind of just went through some of the products I was using. And some like the face masks I just received from a different brand and I mean that alone was probably 10 to 15 stories right there. C.J. : [00:22:19] And then like I go through sometimes what I'm eating, because being pregnant people are really curious and that kind of started connecting with all these new moms to be. How you eat and everything and so even something like that. C.J. : [00:22:32] And then if I put on an outfit I'll do like what I'm doing that day and the like tonight I have like a blogger event so I'll be kind of storying throughout that whole thing. So it really just depends. C.J. : [00:22:43] But I try and pop on there as much as I can. Some people really focus on creating the perfect story. And it can take them a long time to get it out there. I just kind of go with it throw it up there and it is what it is. C.J. : [00:22:58] And then I found it to be really easy to just do a Story of like here's my breakfast and then I'm typing away at my post five minutes later, it's not like a 30 minute thing to get a few stories up for me. C.J. : [00:23:11] I'm a very real person so I just have turned my stories into like literally what I'm doing. Jillian: [00:23:17] Cara what about you? How often are you posting on your feed and what about your Stories? Cara: [00:23:23] So I post like once a day on my feed. I don't do weekends and occasionally I just take a string of random days off if I just don't feel like doing it. Cara: [00:23:32] I'm not as outgoing as CJ. So like all the engaging stuff drains me. It's not something that energizes me. So I love engaging with my followers, don't get me wrong, but sometimes I have to mentally prepare. Cara: [00:23:50] If I'm not in the mood to like really connect with people. I don't want to post because I don't want to be just throwing up a piece of content that's something to be looked at, I want it to be engaging and kind of like a starting point for those conversations. Cara: [00:24:05] Sometimes I just take a few days off and recharge and so I think it can go either way. And then Stories, so I kind of like creating graphics. I still do a bunch of different ones of things I'm doing. I do sneak peeks of, like I just re-did my powder bath, so I did like a little sneak peek video about that. Cara: [00:24:29] But I also like to do graphics little videos or moving things or like swipe ups that tell people there's a new post on the blog. So I try to involve my real life and what I'm doing but I would say it's a little bit more of graphic design type stuff because that's what I really enjoy doing. Jillian: [00:24:48] OK so given that you guys have been at this for a while. What is the one piece of advice you wish somebody had told you when you guys were both just starting out. ADVICE: Create a brand around yourself as a blogger C.J. : [00:25:03] For me personally I didn't know the blogging world existed. So I just kind of wish that I had known that was even a big thing and known it was like this business that people were really trying to do curated photos for. C.J. : [00:25:19] I guess I wish I would have known and would have been told to create a brand around yourself before just pushing content out. I was just posting, I was enjoying it and everything, but I would still have that same stress that I do today. But I didn't have like a why or brand behind it. C.J. : [00:25:37] So I think knowing your "why" and really creating what your brand is and who you are behind your brand is the most important thing to do before starting out. C.J. : [00:25:47] Because without that you're just going to go on a circle of posting things and trying to figure out what you want out of it. Each post in changing things up and if you keep changing things up it's going to be extremely hard to grow a following. C.J. : [00:26:01] Instead of knowing your "why" and knowing your brand and running with that and then you're down the road you know if you want to add something or take something away you can play with that because you've had this connection. C.J. : [00:26:11] But without knowing that, that's a huge thing. I wish I would have because not knowing the blogging world and then not knowing my brand. It took me twice as long to get to a following that other people can get to maybe in six months just because I had no idea what I was doing and what was behind what I was posting. Jillian: [00:26:32] Interesting. OK so really having a point of view. C.J. : [00:26:35] Totally and knowing what you want people to get from your content instead of just like ,"Here's my outfit," which is great but like what do you what do you hope they get, and how does it help them? C.J. : [00:26:46] And so without that it took me a while and then once I started figuring that out that's when I really became Everyday Chiffon and what I wanted from it and was able to play around with things and became fun instead of what the heck am I gonna do. Jillian: [00:27:00] And what about you? Cara: [00:27:03] So I would say, I wish I knew the importance and value of community which sounds funny but as an introvert I really didn't know how valuable it was to really have people to surround yourself with and support you and bounce ideas off of. Cara: [00:27:20] And I am kind of a competitive person just naturally, so in my mind for a while, community and success were kind of mutually exclusive. It was like I had to go do it on my own and be successful. Cara: [00:27:36] But really what I've learned through the whole process of what goes into My Haute Society and our community, is that community is a competitive strategy. To be successful you need others to support you and help you along the way. ADVICE: Don't compare yourself to other bloggers Cara: [00:27:52] And then kind of a second piece of that is not comparing yourself, realizing that the community means that you can look at other people's success and you can celebrate with them and be excited, but that success for them isn't what successes look like for you. Cara: [00:28:08] So trying to achieve that by looking like what they're doing is going to be really unfulfilling and it's going to lead to burnout and you're not going to find your best way of doing things in your best type of success unless you really dig in and define that phrase like that. Jillian: [00:28:26] I like that. I think that the same themes keep coming through my interviews on The Blogger Genius which is, it is about helping each other grow. Jillian: [00:28:40] And it is also about working hard not to compare yourself, like those are two themes, because when you work together all of a sudden the Internet can feel really small. Jillian: [00:28:51] Like the internet consists of the six other people that I work with and we all kind of help each other grow. But it's really hard not to compare yourself to these people and you lose sight of the scale at which you work. You know that the Internet is a very big place. Jillian: [00:29:10] So what is the one tool that you guys use that you couldn't live without? Blogger tools you can't live without C.J. : [00:29:20] This one is really hard to choose one tool. I can let Cara talk more about Canva. We both love love love Canva for our personal blogs with creating like Pinterest images and that kind of stuff. But I don't think she could live without Canva for My Haute Society. C.J. : [00:29:35] And then for me for My Haute Society and still my personal blogs I couldn't live without Planoly or Social Pilot. They're kind of different apps totally but like, they do some of the same things are scheduling for social media. C.J. : [00:29:57] Planoly really lets you help see your feed. And like for My Haute Society with running my own social media I have been in the great habit of planning every caption and every photo out Monday morning or Sunday night and have that on auto post so I can still go on there and engage with everyone. But it's more about like when I want to do that instead of having to have a specific high point to do it as well as my own blog. C.J. : [00:30:23] So planning for my own while I don't do auto piloting but I am able to kind of like figure out my feed from there which really helps my weeks go by a lot easier if I've already had like an image and a caption kind of ready. C.J. : [00:30:36] And then Social Pilot is huge because we try and reach people on LinkedIn, Twitter like the Denver blogger page, our My Haute Society page. Then we also have our own personal ones hooked up to that. And so as a business you know Cara can go ahead and create these super cute things on Canva like videos and everything and these really cute graphics. C.J. : [00:30:55] And then I'll just go in there being the community person and make a really fun caption for it and then I'll actually go ahead and schedule everything out for like weeks and months and that's sort consistently posting on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. C.J. : [00:31:11] Every single day if not you know two or three times a day with different things so all of our things are constantly being pushed out there without us having to do a ton of work and people can continue to see us as a resource. C.J. : [00:31:25] So those would be the two that like I cannot live without with social media just because with how much scheduling it goes and behind two different platforms it's huge to be able to have things to be scheduled now and really only use an hour or two out of my Mondays to kind of get it all set. And then just have to poke around and fix things as I go. Jillian: [00:31:44] OK so how about you Cara? Cara: [00:31:50] Oh yeah Canva is my number one. I can do all the design in Photoshop and InDesign but Canva is just so easy. We have templates set up where we make, for example Pinterest images for every single blog post so that at the bottom there's like a couple images that people can pin to save the post. Cara: [00:32:11] So having templates set up for those or I also use them a lot to make Instagram stories like swipe ups or little like moving video gifs so just having like a template and then I make a bunch of different copies and move stuff around and they're so easy. It's amazing. Cara: [00:32:29] I have it for my personal blog where my fonts are uploaded and my colors are uploaded so that I could use my actual like font. That is my branding and everything is ready to go. Jillian: [00:32:45] How can people connect with you? How can they learn more about My Haute Society and also your individual sites? C.J. : [00:32:58] We're all over social. As My Haute Society so like Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter Instagram. Cara: [00:33:08] And Haute means like classy fashionable. That's kind of why we chose that name. Cara: [00:33:14] I like thought it was "hot" for the longest time, even when we named it that. Staring at me I thought CJ was just saying Haute because she's from like the Midwest. Like that's how you say it yeah. Yeah. Cara: [00:33:28] And then our website is My Haute Society.com and we have like a ton of blog, posts that's where you can find our podcast. Cara: [00:33:35] All our resources if you're interested in like looking into membership you can just go to like MyHauteSociety.com/join and learn all about that. Cara: [00:33:44] And then my own blog is NeverSkipBrunch.com. C.J. : [00:34:01] And then mine is Everyday Chiffon, and for chiffon I get asked out a lot and it's like a type of material. My favorite one that I found I wear the most. That's why I named it that. C.J. : [00:34:12] But I am all over everything as well Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook probably more that I don't even know that I'm still on somewhere. And that is EverydayChiffon.com for my website. Jillian: [00:34:27] Cara and C.J., thank you guys so much for being on the show. Get more Instagram followers fast and free with MiloTree! Jillian: [00:34:37] Are you trying to grow your social media followers and e-mail subscribers? Well if you've got two minutes I've got a product for you. It's MiloTree. Jillian: [00:34:46] MiloTree is a smart pop up slider. 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Welcome to episode 009 of the Blogger Genius Podcast. My guest is Kate Ahl founder of Simple Pin Media. In this episode, we discuss how to grow Pinterest now -- what's working today and what's not. We also discuss the value of niching down in your business, how to create growth by staying focused, and the importance of not chasing other people's success, but finding your own. Resources: Simple Pin Media Simple Pin Pinterest Strategy Group Visual Marketing Certification Course MiloTree Transcript - Latest Pinterest Tips To Grow Your Account Host: [00:00:03] Welcome to The Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian: [00:00:10] Hi, welcome to the show today. My guest is Kate Ahl, who is the mastermind behind Simple Pin Media. So welcome to the show, Kate. Kate: [00:00:21] Hey, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited about your podcast. Jillian: [00:00:25] Thank you. And I'm inspired by you because I've been a big fan of yours for so long, and I've been on your podcast twice. Kate: [00:00:32] Yes, you have. They're both great conversation. Jillian: [00:00:36] And the thing that we both share is love of Pinterest. Kate: [00:00:40] Yeah it's true. Jillian: [00:00:42] So what I want to start with is a) - How you discovered Pinterest. And b) - how you built a whole business around it. Discovering Pinterest Kate: [00:00:52] Yes. So the first time I discovered Pinterest was actually at a good friend's house, and it was just after Pinterest started late 2009 early 2010, and she had made these really amazing outdoor candles chandelier-type-things with like mason jars and pallets. And we live in Portland, so that kind of all comes together even more perfectly. Kate: [00:01:17] I said, Where did you get all these ideas? This is crazy. And she's like, Well it's this new site called Pinterest. And I remember standing at her kitchen and we were looking at the computer or iPad, I can't remember at the time, and I was like I don't. But this is a great solution to bookmarking, because you would bookmark everything on your computer and try to save it for later, and that didn't feel like this cohesive place. But Pinterest didn't look like what it looks like now. At that time it was really confusing, like you couldn't figure out who you're following, and you had to have an invite. So. I said, Can you send me an invite? And it took like forever. It took like six weeks. And so my other friends were talking about Pinterest, and like what is it and how is it going to work> And so I got the invite and I created an account. I don't even know where that account is actually, I should try to dig and find it. But I loved it. I loved the sheer fact that I could organize content. Kate: [00:02:20] But I should also say I was really still confused by it, like the user experience in the beginning was not easy. Like you couldn't really figure out like, Who is this person I'm engaging with and what's their stuff. Kate: [00:02:33] They wanted you to follow artists and it didn't seem like it matched me quite yet. So I did take a step back from it for a little bit. Well during that time too, I started working with a friend who had a blog and she was feeling like it was growing pretty significantly. It was 2010 which means we we're still like mid-recession and she did deals, couponing for a living, which was going crazy during that time because people needed to save money. So she asked me to come on and do Facebook marketing for her initially, which I did and I loved. And then she asked me to come on to her blog to do a lot of affiliate marketing, blog management, kind of jack of all trades and that slowly merged into Pinterest, and what I ended up doing was that Pinterest account essentially became my personal Pinterest account. I was falling in love with Pinterest. Falling in love with her content too at the same time, but also falling in love with just using Pinterest in general, and so we really didn't know how to market on there. It was more, we had heard of people getting traffic and this was probably bringing us up to like 2010ish. And she discovered a Pinterest course. Turning Pinterest into a business Kate: [00:03:49] And she's like I took this Pinterest course to talk about naming your boards no longer cutesy names, like really thinking business. And we spent like three or four hours in her living room. It was spring of 2012 and really looked at what were we going to do with Pinterest, right? So we got the strategy. We're just playing around with it for a good full year. And then 2013 probably like November 2013, is when Facebook changed their algorithm pretty significantly. It was like the first big Facebook Armageddon where business pages weren't getting seen as a deal blogger. That's how you got most of your click throughs and affiliate sales, and everybody took a huge hit. Kate: [00:04:42] The question was like, We've never seen that before and we didn't really know what to do with it. Everybody's getting this amazing traffic. So we looked and said you know, maybe we need to do something different and at that same time, personally we were going through still the downturn of the economy. And my husband couldn't find a job and his unemployment had run out. And so at that same time the unemployment was running out and Facebook was changing their algorithm, she had said to me, the friend I was working for she said, Well why don't you try managing people's Pinterest accounts?And I thought she was nuts and I literally remember sitting at the kitchen table watching her say this and thinking I don't even know how you would do that. I was just on her account all the time. So I thought I can't be on someone's account all the time. Kate: [00:05:36] This is crazy. But she said just research everything you can do. Start Googling and see what's happening out there. We knew from this previous Pinterest course, that there was at least some idea of Pinterest for business. But yet there wasn't a lot of conversation about it. Kate: [00:05:52] I found one other Pinterest course that I joined. I found a small Facebook group of women just getting together to strategize about Pinterest. And I discovered ViralTag in the beginning as a scheduling service to use because there really wasn't anything out there, and I said I'll test with yours over two months. This was November-December. And then we sat at the beach one weekend and created a couple of different packages. I bought Simple Pin Media as a domain and thought, Here we go. Let's try this. And so she asked two of her friends to be beta clients. Jillian: [00:06:34] That is terrific. And how many clients do you have now? Kate: [00:06:38] A hundred and one. Jillian: [00:06:39] Wow. So you manage 101 clients' Pinterest pages. Kate: [00:06:46] Yes we do. We definitely have a big team. Jillian: [00:06:48] And how many people on your team? Kate: [00:06:50] 30. Kate: [00:06:51] Oh my goodness. Wow. And do you manage other social media accounts like Instagram or anything else? Kate: [00:06:59] No we've thought a little bit about Instagram. I have to say that that been in my thoughts, potentially on the road map. But it would be something along the lines of taking the model of Simple Pin and either franchising it or duplicating that model underneath different socials. Advice: The benefits of niching down Jillian: [00:07:24] This is a piece of advice that I continue to give which is the internet is a really big place and that you can grow a really successful business by niching down, by being the Pinterest experts. That you don't have to be the Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube expert. That actually by knowing your niche so well, you could really grow. Jillian: [00:07:52] People think oh, and then I need to move into this area and this area, and I'm like, if you go deep, not that many other people will do it. So you can own that space. And so when I think of Pinterest and I think Pinterest marketers, you're the person I call. Kate: [00:08:14] Thank you. Jillian: [00:08:15] Because I'm not thinking, oh I want a general social media marketer. I'm like, ooh, were noticing something with our Pinterest accounts. I'm going to check in with Kate and see if she's seeing the same thing. Kate: [00:08:27] Hmm yeah it doesn't make it easy for anybody who is thinking of doing any business. I will definitely say that niching down allows you to immerse yourself so deeply in a certain platform, that that's all you study. And I've found it feeling overwhelming. And that's why we haven't gone into Instagram because if you're dealing with two different animals, like one drives traffic and one drives engagement and there aretwo different methods of using it, and you can't apply a one size fits all social strategy to all social platforms. So absolutely it will just drive you into the ground. I don't want to be driven into the ground. Jillian: [00:09:10] Like another piece of advice I give is figure out what your goals are for your business, and pick the social media platform that a) - speaks to your audience, where your audience already is, and b) - which delivers what you're looking for. And yes you should own your name on every platform but to think that you need to be on every platform actively is... You will drive yourself insane. Kate: [00:09:40] Yes I have felt that. So for me socially as far as Simple Pin, my first focus was just Pinterest that's where I put my content. That's where I spent my time. That was my big drive and I did focus a little bit on Facebook, and building a really strong Facebook group. The group was more important to me than the page. And since then, I've just I have a social media manager who does all my stuff for me, because I don't want to keep up with Facebook I don't want to keep up with Instagram, right. I just want to interact with people. Jillian: [00:10:11] I will definitely say you are one of the top Pinterest experts, but Pinterest is always changing. So it's not like you ever own Pinterest. I'm always amazed at how often these social networks are changing. Kate: [00:10:34] All the time. Jillian: [00:10:34] So you know Pinterest today, but then you've got a keep on it and then you get to tell me what I need to do, because again it's not like oh I've mastered it. Oh no. They'll pull the rug out from under you. Advice: The moment you become unteachable or unwilling to learn is the moment your business dies Kate: [00:10:48] And I've always heard and heeded this advice, that the moment you become unteachable or unwilling to learn is the moment your business dies. The term expert is really tough for me to digest. And mostly because it's hard, it's just hard to see it that way and semantics right, like you could say thought leader, and I might wrap my brain around that a little bit better, but I think the thing is that even I as a person who studies Pinterest, teaches Pinterest, is only in Pinterest. I still have days where I will email some colleagues and say. There's not a trick I'm missing. Right. I'm not missing something and they know to expect it. You know, every six or eight months for me, because I just go... it's that moment of insecurity to go, did I miss something? Have I not learned this? And I appreciate people in my life who are willing to accept those questions from me in a way that says no, Kate you're fine. Like keep doing what you're doing. Jillian: [00:11:59] Absolutely. And again I like that idea of, if you have an online business you have to stay nimble. You have to stay hungry because you're absolutely right. You can't rest on your laurels like when you're talking about 2012, let's say Pinterest in 2012. That's not that long ago. And yet in the world of the Internet that's a really long time ago. Jillian: [00:12:25] So I will say that for us, for Catch My Party, or our first business, we stumbled into Pinterest. What I was doing was using it as a way to save content from Catch My Party, so that I could write blog posts, right, because my husband who's the technical part of our partnership, I kept saying to him build me somewhere I could have a clipboard or something. And he never built it. So then I discovered Pinterest. I was like oh I could just do it here. And then what I weirdly found was we were getting traffic. It was like weird we didn't plan on it. It was really just for my own personal use. And then we said to ourselves really early, which was good. This is driving us traffic and we're not even trying we need to try. And Pinterest now, of course, is our biggest traffic driver and the way we monetize with Catch My Party is traffic. So that's why we've then built MiloTree for example, or pop-up, because we recognize we need to grow Pinterest so we doubled down on Pinterest. Jillian: [00:13:33] So it's why I read whatever you write, because Pinterest matters to us in a huge way. And so it is about finding that area where you can build your business, finding the social networks that support that. And then being willing to learn as much as you possibly can about that platform, or whatever that thing is whether you're selling courses whether, you're selling products, whether you're creating stuff for Etsy, whatever it is. Jillian: [00:14:02] The more you know just the more you have to leverage. Advice: If you spread yourself super wide, you become less efficient and less productive Kate: [00:14:11] Yeah definitely. Fully agree and I think there's that feeling too of spreading super wide because we want to make sure we're covering it all. But yet when we spread super wide, we become less efficient or less productive. And we're only skimming the surface of everything instead of going to focus here, and that's hard in our online world and you and I have talked about this before. Because we are being pulled in so many different directions, kind of like with the dangling carrot of like, if you go here you can make money, if you get here and you are constantly in this push pull. And I was saying this to you before we started. I can't listen to podcast anymore about marketing unless I need the specific tool, because it's almost it's information overload for me, and it feels like dangling carrots in my face when I have this big team of people saying especially my leadership team, saying, we need you to do this or we need you to lead this, and lead us in this direction. And firm up these processes. That's where I got to continue to focus back my time, because that's where my business is and that's hard because there's a little bit of like the FOMO. Jillian: [00:15:28] Yeah. Kate: [00:15:29] Like, yeah I couldn't miss out on this tip, and yes my business is going to go down, and then you realize your business is going to go down the tubes if you spend all your day listening to podcasts and never implementing. Jillian: [00:15:41] Absolutely. And I am a big believer in just doing at least one thing a day. One thing a day to move your business forward and then to give yourself credit for achieving that goal. And I agree with you about stepping away. I've mentioned this previously, that I've really stepped away personally in Facebook. I know that's now kind of in the news, but I took a Facebook break personally. I noticed how much better I felt. Yes. And I know that's like, you know, I work in the world of social media. Advice: Don't fall for the FOMO trap Jillian: [00:16:18] But it's about figuring out that I don't have to be where everybody is and I don't have to follow that thing were, Oh my god everybody's making a ton of money here. I need to be there. It's a good lesson. Digging deep and figuring out who you are, what you want, what you want to grow, why you're doing this like those deeper questions, because you could spend your life going from trend to trend to trend. Kate: [00:16:48] Yeah yes you could. And you would drive yourself into the ground. Jillian: [00:16:52] And by the way. You won't be successful. Kate: [00:16:56] Yep I agree. It is hard in our world to have laser focus. But I would say like that is the place where you can find out the most about your business. That's where you can grow the most. And I agree with you I'm not on Facebook anymore very much, except to look at my group, right. That's where I get the greatest value from. Jillian: [00:17:20] Will you tell everybody what your group is? Kate: [00:17:23] So it's a Simple Pin Pinterest Strategy Group and it's just a group to talk about Pinterest we don't even do group board threads because we find that it kind of muddies the waters of the group. Jillian: [00:17:35] And what is a group board thread just so people know? Kate: [00:17:38] So there are specific Facebook groups on Pinterest group boards, so what it means is you can go into these Facebook groups, and you can look at what group boards on Pinterest people have available for you to join, and submit your content to that. So there's this one it's called Pinterest Group Boards. it's a fantastic group just dedicated to that, and I love it because again it's just dedicated to one thing. So knowing that that was happening over there I decided to really create a culture in our Facebook group that was just about Pinterest. So if you are experiencing a glitch, you could go there, ask a question and someone who would answer if you were frustrated or if you had a joy to share, or whatever it was in relation to Pinterest marketing. I wanted this to be the place where that conversation could happen without drama. It's the big thing for me. Yet without being solicited to get other members, without feeling like you were asking a dumb question, that there are no dumb questions. We want every single question there is and we want this to be the hub where you go to get up to date information on Pinterest. Jillian: [00:18:49] The thing I have to say, I love that you are popping in with updates and what's new. Like if I get in my feed, if I see that you have been on, talking about something I know to listen. Like I will stop what I'm doing and listen to you. Kate: [00:19:08] Thank you so much for the support, that means a lot. Because you know when you're on the other side of the computer, you never know what people are responding to. Jillian: [00:19:16] I have to say again, because you are my expert. So if you're talking, I'm listening. Kate: [00:19:22] I love it. Thank you. I really appreciate that. Most up-to-date Pinterest tips Jillian: [00:19:24] Okay, so so let's do this. Let's talk about Pinterest, just because you are the expert. And if I say group boards, give me your like 30 second thing on should people be focusing on group boards. And group boards again or where a bunch of people can share to a board, and the hope is that you can get your content in front of people that aren't necessarily following you. Kate: [00:19:53] Yes, that's correct. Group boards Jillian: [00:19:54] So that we can give some value to the listeners. Like group boards. Should people be finding group boards? Joining group boards? Kate: [00:20:02] Yeah, I think they're a valuable part of a bigger strategy on Pinterest with marketing, but I always tell people to keep it about only 30 percent, because what can happen is that you chase the idea of getting other people's followers to see your pins, ny joining group boards. And then you forget that you have your own followers, and they're following your personal boards, and they want to see what you're pinning. Kate: [00:20:26] So I tell people if they're going to do group boards, I always have them join group boards that fit their niche. Jillian: [00:20:32] Got it. Kate: [00:20:33] And that the content on there is something you would want your people to see. It's nothing sketchy, or just super general, or even not appealing. It has to have a specific title that is a very strong keyword on Pinterest so I don't want it to be like "Best Blogger Recipes. Jillian: [00:20:51] Or "Awesome Pins." Kate: [00:20:53] Exactly. I'd rather have it be something like "Instant Pot Soup Recipes." That means on the board is only Instant Pot soup recipes and if you have that content, that's a great place for you to put it. Not just for followers, but for the search factor, that when people search that title of Instant Pot soup recipes, Pinterest will see that that's a place where there's a lot of content on that topic being shared. So there's that, and then also joining with people you know is really important as well, and sharing from that group board especially if you have relationships, is also super important too. Pins per day Jillian: [00:21:30] Great okay. Now in terms of success on Pinterest. How many pin per day do you recommend somebody pin? Kate: [00:21:39] I have thought about this a lot actually, in the last couple of months. I have a data analyst who's going through a bunch of our data of the last four years, and analyzing a lot of this based on a number of pins per day. And one thing that's really interesting to us is our baseline package is ten pins, then we do a midline package of 20 pins and then 30 pins per day. Kate: [00:22:01] And the reason we started that in 2014, was because Pinterest was based on a chronological feed. So the more pins, the more you got seen in the feed. Well now that we've moved on to image and search based, what we realized is that the number of pins per day isn't as relevant as your keywords and board descriptions, or images and how much they capture the pinners attention. So I'm less likely to tell people it's a certain number of pins per day, and I'm more likely to ask them, what do your images look like? Because you can slap up 50 pins of crappy images, and not end up getting return. Or you could have ten amazing images and drive tons more traffic, and we find that with some rare clients lately, that those who really have had head down focus, they know their avatar. They have really strong keywords, like three to four pillar keywords that they really focus in on, and that that is increased engagement and it's increased their page views over time with just 10 pins a day. Text overlays on Pinterest images Jillian: [00:23:08] That's terrific. OK. Text overlays on the images or not? Kate: [00:23:15] Yes I really like them and I like them especially because Pinterest feels a little bit like billboard advertising. Jillian: [00:23:23] Yes, that's a good way to describe it. Kate: [00:23:25] Like you're coming by and what's going to catch their attention? Kate: [00:23:27] So I always tell people before they go into creating text overlays on their images for their own business. Do two things. One, start paying attention to billboards as you're driving. And just really pay attention to the patterns that you see and, two, go on to Pinterest on your phone. Try not to do this on desktop, and see what catches you. Scroll by and save it all to a secret board. And then you can see, what is it that stands out to me and why? And chances are it's going to be very "call to action" type statements. Something that could even be a provocative statement or a question. And then also really really bright colors. That's another thing to add if you're dealing with recipes or any type of food. I've seen a couple of things worked well which is showcasing the ingredients in the pin image somewhere, because then I can look at five o'clock if I'm ready to do dinner, and I can see that I have everything in your image. I'm much more likely to click, and make that meal. Jillian: [00:24:30] Ooh, I like that. Kate: [00:24:30] Or you can really tell me if it's easy, if it's healthy, if it's five ingredients. People on Pinterest love numbers. You're going to do something like twenty five cruise tips. That is amazing. Or you're going to do five ingredient brownies. Those do so well. And making that number pop too in a different color is really good too. Jillian: [00:24:54] That's awesome. Hashtags on Pinterest Kate: [00:24:54] Okay. Hashtags. Hashtags is new. So Pinterest released the use of hashtags in August of this last year, 2017. And that was a big surprise to us all. In fact, it felt a little bit like whiplash. What did you do? Because they were very dead set on it since the beginning. We don't use hashtags. We don't use hashtags. So they released it. And what they did with it was they created what's called the hashtag feed. So that means when you pin something to Pinterest with a hashtag, it goes into this hashtag feed that's run chronologically. So it's very wise for you as a business owner to create your own branded hashtag. So for me, I have the hashtag Simple Pin Podcasts. So when anybody clicks on Simple Pin Podcast, it goes to all of my pins. Then in addition, Pinterest is set up to do 20 hashtags on a description. But I would not go that many yet. I would just do about four to five and then, make it pretty specific. We're not like Instagram here so I would do something like "instant pot" or "instant pot soup" or "easy dinner." So not just "recipe." You don't want to go that route. And then, you don't want to go back and update your pins. That's one thing that's gonna be a waste of time because it's only done when a new pin enters the platform. So if you update with hashtags on your pins, it's not going to automatically funnel over into the chronological feed. It just stays where it is. Jillian: [00:26:33] Right. Right. Kate: [00:26:34] So the only update I would tell people to do is on your top 10 pins that are driving traffic to your site from Pinterest. I would go into your Pinterest description or wherever you want to have Pinterest pull the description from, and I would add hashtags there because people are already sharing once they get to your sites, so that does put the new pins that they're sharing on your behalf into the chronological feed. Jillian: [00:27:01] I love this. I'm like taking copious notes right now. Okay, video on Pinterest. Video on Pinterest Kate: [00:27:08] Video is also new as of this last summer. The only way that you can get access to their native video player is if you run a promoted pin ad, and it's based on views. I have not tested it yet. From what I've heard from other people, it's a little bit expensive. And video, it is being used by the big brands. So if you wanted to throw some money behind it, I would definitely. If you're a food blogger, I would go that route for sure and just set it up or have somebody set it up for you. But beyond that, video's on Pinterest that are just uploaded by YouTube are still a little bit of a speed bump, like people don't quite interact with them yet. Jillian: [00:27:51] Yes. Do you think - Again, as we're talking about niche-ing and that different niches are different, that Pinterest has really wanted to break into video but people have talked to me about it, and said, it makes me uncomfortable to watch video on Pinterest. I want to just be scrolling. It breaks the good vibes. Kate: [00:28:14] Yes, it does. It feels intrusive. Jillian: [00:28:16] Yes. Kate: [00:28:17] Yeah. I would say that's because - So we look at the Big Three which is Pinterest, YouTube and Google, and YouTube owns the space on video. So we are all conditioned that if we want a video, we go to YouTube, right? If we want a quick cooking video that just happens upon our stream, we will tolerate those on Facebook. Kate: [00:28:39] But the best path for video as it relates to Pinterest is still to create that solid pin image and lead them to your site or lead them to YouTube. We have seen some people doing that, and that works fine as long as the pinner knows on the image that they're going to a video. Yeah, if you - you can't interrupt their flow. If we're shocked into something or just it jars us a little bit, then we just were like "What? Where am I? What is going on?" But if you have a pin image with that little play button in the middle, people are more apt to try to push the play button because that's what we're conditioned to do. And then when they get over there, they find what they've expected which is a video. So that's really - I don't know. It'll be interesting to see what Pinterest does in the next year with video but I don't think we're quite there yet where the masses are ready to consume it. Promoted Pins Jillian: [00:29:37] Yes. Okay. One last Pinterest expert question, promoted pins. Who are those good for? Kate: [00:29:46] I think everybody. I definitely would say that promoted pins are continually getting better and better and better as they go along. I believe that an organic strategy is really, really good combined with a promoted pin strategy and that when you do a promoted Pin, you need to have a goal in mind. So we're doing a bunch of promoted pin campaign testing. We're building a promoted pins team like a services team here in Simple Pin. And so we're running a bunch of tests and my goal, because I'm going to use my account as a guinea pig, my goal is email sign ups. I want as many people on my email list is possible because I love talking to them in my email. It's my favorite thing to do. And it's the way that I can hook them in and continue to teach them and then hook them into my Facebook group. I'm not as concerned about course sales or promoting my services because those are two things that take a little bit of time to warm up. So my goal is always, okay, I have this amazing post there, and I'll say it's not an amazing post but it's gotten an amazing amount of traffic from Pinterest, about how to clean up Pinterest boards and it has an opt-in on it. That's the one I'm promoting because I'm getting so much traffic to it that I want to take my promoted pin and give it another 10 to 20 percent boost, just to see how it performs. Jillian: [00:31:10] So then you're sending that pin to a landing page where people can sign up? Kate: [00:31:15] No, it has the landing page built within the post. Jillian: [00:31:18] Okay, so it sends it to a post and then, they read the post and there is a sign up. Kate: [00:31:23] Exactly, it has a good conversion rate on it already. It's about 50 percent. Jillian: [00:31:29] That's terrific. Kate: [00:31:31] Yeah, so we're really trying to funnel as many people towards that. Jillian: [00:31:34] Got it. Okay, because we were experimenting with some promoted pins for MiloTree and what I found was when I just promoted like "Hey, grow your social following especially Pinterest" because again, the idea is I want to advertise on Pinterest that this can help your Pinterest. It was working okay but when I promoted a pin that was an article that was like "How to grow your Pinterest. Here are our top tricks and tips", that did much better by getting people to click when it was "I'm going to give you free content here. Here it is", or which did much better than "Hey, here's just an ad for us. Kate: [00:32:26] Yeah, I would agree. People need to be warmed up for sure. Jillian: [00:32:30] Yep, they need to trust you, and they need to see that there's real value there. Kate: [00:32:35] We have run ads to the landing page just for my Pinterest planner and that's like our big main opt-in. And we found that that hasn't actually converted as well as sending them to the podcast where I talk about it and they can get warmed up. Jillian: [00:32:53] Interesting. Okay. This is the thing I would say: When you do ads, test. Try things and you have to be willing to lose money. That's painful, super painful but it is true that you have to think about the fact that it's like paying for a course that you put some money behind stuff to see how it performs. And then, you try to learn as fast as possible. What is a KPI - key performance indicator? Kate: [00:33:32] Yes exactly. You try to catch up before you lose too much which is not much. It's a good idea. Yeah we were talking about a podcast I just recorded is about KPIs, key performance indicators. Jillian: [00:33:44] Can you just explain what a KPI is? Kate: [00:33:46] Yeah, so a KPI is just that key performance indicator and for Pinterest, the common KPI is our followers, sessions and then saves but we wanted to take it a step further and look. Do we actually know when a user is coming to your site from Pinterest? How much is that user worth or how much is that post making? So we could either want more traffic and spend more time doing that or we could spend some time really being strategic about where people are clicking, and what's making us the most money and try to optimize that. Kate: [00:34:26] And then once we know the cost of a click, then we could put money behind it. And we'd actually know how much we're spending on an ad, that the illustration that my guest gave was you could put a 20-dollar bill into an ATM and get out a 40-dollar bill or you could put in - That's not the best analogy but you could put in two to three cents and get back a dollar. We'd stand there all day, right? Even though it feels painful to lose 50 cents for a lead, they're worth down the line. But if we don't know that, that makes it harder. That's another element of Pinterest marketing that I think is easily forgotten. Because we are caught up in follower's sessions and saves. But a follower or a session doesn't mean anything to us if we don't know the value. Jillian: [00:35:16] Right. If you're not making money from it or you don't know how much because the idea is that you want to figure out where I can spend a dollar but I'm making a dollar fifty. And you know what? If that's the case, then you want to put as much money as you possibly can into that because you will be making money. And that's what I call finding that flywheel where you put money in, but you're getting more money out. And so those are, you know, but there can be a situation where you're putting money in and maybe you're putting in a dollar. So it doesn't feel that bad. But the truth is that it's cost two dollars for a sale even though you're like "Well, I'm just losing a dollar." You know, it's ultimately not making you money. Kate: [00:36:06] Right. Yeah, and it's hard to face some of those numbers. I mean, I will say sitting down and doing a cost analysis of my post sounds like I want to poke my eyeballs out. But once you know it, then you're more empowered to make better decisions than if you didn't know it. So it's kind of like "Do I want to bury my head in the sand or do I really want to know the numbers exactly?" Jillian: [00:36:31] Exactly. And one thing that I think happens with social media is when you get new followers, it feels good. But when you're running a business, it's not about that kind of hit of dopamine. It's about making money, and those can be very different things. Kate: [00:36:55] Yes, drastically. Jillian: [00:36:57] So I know a bunch of people who put a lot of emphasis on Instagram to grow their followers and when I say "Well, why are you growing your followers?" They don't really have a good answer. Kate: [00:37:07] Right. Because that's just the thing we've been taught to do. Jillian: [00:37:09] Exactly. So first of all, I just have to thank you because you have been so supportive of MiloTree. And you really, like way at the beginning, you put us on the map. So I just have to tell you that. Jillian: [00:37:25] And then, what I want to ask you is if you had one piece of advice for people who are starting out, and this can relate to Pinterest or not, what would it be? And maybe something you wish you knew when you were starting. Advice: Don't chase after other people's success Kate: [00:37:44] Well, I think I might have the same answer for both but a slightly different bent. And I think it would be "don't chase other people's successes." Jillian: [00:37:58] I love it. Kate: [00:37:59] Because on Pinterest, I hear it over and over again and that so-and-so has this many sessions or pageviews, so-and-so has this many followers and I want that. And when we go after that, we're distracted away from who our person is, and we're distracted away from our avatar and our focus and our vision. And the same can go for growing a business. I found, for me, probably about, I think it was two and a half years into my business, that I was reading emails from another person who was teaching Pinterest, and listening to a couple of podcasts and when I would do that, it would distract me away from what I was doing and specifically because I am a services based business. Kate: [00:38:48] My main focus is not my courses and their main focus was their courses. And so I felt this kind of push and pull away from "I'm services based and I'm gonna focus on these clients but yeah, all these people are making so much money doing courses and I want to go there," and I finally have this moment, that comparison is the thief of joy, right? So I can't chase their success. I don't have their email list, and I don't have their wiring, and I don't have their personality so I have me and me as a person who does really well in a services-based environment, who does really well with clients and loves that part of it and I have been able to scale it pretty aggressively. And I naturally fit into it, and that is okay. And so I think that would be the biggest piece of advice: "Don't chase other people's success. Chase your own because you are unique, and you have your own strengths and gifts and talents and personality." And I'm not somebody else and their take on Pinterest. I'm not going to focus on certain things and there's certain things I will and will not teach on, and that's fine. Other people are going to teach on those things. But sometimes, it's not for me and I have to be okay with that instead of trying to be all things to all people who want all types of Pinterest marketing. I'm not going to be the expert for somebody who wants a different type of philosophy with Pinterest, and I've finally come to the place where I can say "That's okay." Jillian: [00:40:24] I love it. I completely agree. It's like you have your own special sauce. We all do. And it's how do you figure out what that is and typically, I would say it's two. For me, it's two things. One, does this feel good? Do I leave this happier than when I started? So for example, for me, I'm really enjoying podcasting in a way that I didn't even know I would. So it's like "Ooh, that feels good. I want to continue" and then the other side is "are people responding in a positive way? Are people liking what I'm doing, liking what I'm selling..." So that there's this kind of feedback loop and I feel like if you can find your own feedback loop where people like what you do and you like what you're doing, that is kind of your sweet spot. Kate: [00:41:17] Right. Yeah. Agreed. Jillian: [00:41:19] So now, what about your business are you most excited about? Kate: [00:41:24] I am really excited about a new step that we're taking to teach people how to be a Pinterest account specialist and are certified in a Simple Pin Method. Jillian: [00:41:35] So explain what that is. Kate: [00:41:36] So here at Simple Pin, we do services for Pinterest account management and I have 30 team members that I've trained to be Pinterest account specialists, so I realized that teaching and training how to do this specific skill comes very naturally to me. So we realized we could take that and transfer into helping other people find work at home jobs to be Pinterest account specialists if they needed to supplement their income, or they need to find a full time income. So we took the methods that I've used, the systems that I've had and we created a whole course training as to how you can be a Pinterest account specialist being trained in our method. So we would endorse you as a provider, kind of similar to how like, I don't know, Dave Ramsey has this great method that he does with budgeting, so he endorses people to be like endorse local providers. So that would kind of be similar as to what we're doing is training people on how to do this, and how to grow their Pinterest account specialist business. Jillian: [00:42:40] Oh wow. So if you're a person and you love Pinterest and you want to make money, kind of delving in and then helping others, this is an awesome way to do it. Kate: [00:42:51] Yeah. And there was not anything like that when I was around when I was starting. There was nothing. Jillian: [00:42:56] Well, I have an assistant, and she does all of our Pinterest. And I think it is one of the - like it's her happy place because she gets to go onto Pinterest and find beautiful pins and pin our content. And I really think that when I was explaining that part of the job, I think that she's like "Oh my God. You're going to pay me to hang out on Pinterest all day?" Kate: [00:43:20] Yeah, exactly. That's what most of my account specialists say. They're like "People don't understand what I do. But I love it." Because many of them, they are young moms and they get to stay at home and do this during nap time or in the evening or they have kids who are at school or they even don't have kids, summer in college. I mean, there's a lot of things that they love about it and the freedom to be able to do it whenever it works for them and they're on Pinterest. Jillian: [00:43:45] Exactly. See, I find Pinterest very different than when I'm on Facebook. Pinterest to me is like, and I'd still get this even all these years later, just this feeling of like "Oh, filled with possibilities." Kate: [00:44:00] Pretty, pretty things. Jillian: [00:44:03] You know? It puts me in my happy place. Like "look at all this food." It just makes me happy. Kate: [00:44:10] Me too. Jillian: [00:44:11] So, okay, will you share how people can learn about you, learn more about your services, whatever, you know, so people can connect with you? How Simple Pin Media works Kate: [00:44:21] Yeah. So first of all, Simple Pin is kind of broken up into two parts. One is the services side. So if you are somebody that you've a business blog or you're corporate, whatever it is and you want to just take Pinterest management off your plate, take that chore away, that's what we primarily specialize in, and you can find more about that at simplepinmedia.com. And you can see, there's a services menu at the top and we also offer a variety of onetime services as well, and we do teach and train teams how to do that as well. So if you have a virtual assistant that you still want to do your Pinterest management but you need more support, we'd do that as well. And then there's the DIY side. So I had the Simple Pin Podcast. Jillian: [00:45:03] Which is terrific. Kate: [00:45:05] Thank you. There is I think where one episode I recorded, episode 89 today, so there's quite a bit of information and we try to keep it. The goal is to give you information to make you not feel overwhelmed because there's a lot of things out there that can feel very heady or tricky, or whatever it might be, and we try to stay away from that and just give you the most up to date information as it relates to how they're currently working on the platform. So we have that, and as with the blog too, and you can also find at simplepinmedia.com a free Pinterest planner, a year round planner, that I did in conjunction with TailWind. We partnered together to create one this year. And that has a month by month of what to pin, what to promote, content, planning ideas, tips for the month as it relates to Pinterest and then monthly action items that you can take to keep your business moving forward. Jillian: [00:45:59] Kate, thank you so much for being on the podcast. Kate: [00:46:03] You're so welcome. Jillian: [00:46:05] If you're trying to grow your social media followers on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterestm plus trying to grow your email list, definitely check out MiloTree. It is the smart pop-up you add to your blog or your site, and it asks your visitors to follow you on social media or subscribe to your list. Jillian: [00:46:27] Just a couple of things: It's super easy to add to your site. We offer a WordPress plugin or a simple line of code. It's Google friendly on mobile so you don't have to worry about showing pop-ups on mobile. It's lightning fast. It won't slow your sight down, and you can grow multiple platforms at once. So check it out, milotree.com. We also offer your first 30 days free!