Ep.177: 5 things that I have learned in the 3 years podcasting and starting my business.
Hey friends, Today’s episode is pretty special because we are celebrating the 3 year anniversary of The Offbeat Life Podcast!
Listen Below:
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My Offbeat Journey: New business changes
I can’t believe that the years have gone by and we are here. It just seemed like only yesterday that I was nervous and unsure about hitting publish on this show.
Now here we are 3 years later!
I originally started this podcast because I had a need to start living a remote lifestyle that would allow me to have freedom of my time.
This curiosity led me to interview a ton of amazing remote workers and entrepreneurs, some of who have become some of my closest friends.
I am so thankful for this show and the community that I have built because now I am able to live a remote lifestyle and create income from my passions!
There have been a lot of failures and even more, lessons learned and today I am sharing the 5 things I learned in the 3 years since starting my podcast and business.
1. You have to learn to love the process and systems more than the result
Throughout the 3 years since starting the show, I have come to find that the result is not always the most important thing. It is actually the process and the systems that you create that will really build your business. And at the results can change at any given time, and for the better.
So I have learned that instead of focusing solely on the result, I learn how to make the systems of my business work. Which means, how can I make it more effective for my clients and audience. How can I create content that will create the most impact, how can I provide services that’ll be beneficial to both parties, and often times your results change bc of the strategies that you have created.
For example, when I first began my journey as with The Offbeat Life, I didn’t realize that I would eventually create a program that will help people launch their own podcast and create a freedom lifestyle with this platform.
When I started, I was clueless, I was not technical savvy and had to learn a lot to become successful. But instead of focusing on the result, I focused and listened to what my audience wanted and they wanted a program to help them launch a profitable show!
That’s how I not only created The Offbeat Life, but now have another site and program that I am super proud of at HowtoCreateaPodcast.com. And how awesome was it that the domain name was still available, am I right?! I still get a ton of comments from people telling me “how on earth, did you get that name!?”.
But as you can see, trusting your process, learning as much as you can, and listening to what your audience wants and needs can really be the driving force to your business!
2. Learning to market is gold
Another huge lesson that I have learned since starting this business, I did learn this from the 3 other businesses that I started, but I think The Offbeat Life, has really shown me how important it is to market your products and brand well!
Marketing has always been my Achilles heel, and I was super afraid to do it. Before my business now, I just really focused on making sure that my content was great, worked super hard on it, and then barely or if any worked on marketing my product and content.
This resulted in a loss of profit and feeling deflated because it felt like, it didn’t matter how much work I did, it just didn’t make money or get seen by anyone.
This time around, I have learned to really enjoy and began to seek out marketing techniques that can help me grow my business. By doing this I have gained more authority in my niche and more profit with my business.
A few things that I learned to do was:
- getting featured in large publications
- learning how to work with other creators and cross-promotion
- understanding paid ads, especially on Facebook
- learning about sales funnels and the psychology of the written copy
Every day I am learning so much, and it definitely gets overwhelming at times, but then I go back too what I first learned which is that finding and perfecting the right systems will get you the best results.
3. Focus on content that you own
Many of you may have heard about the controversy regarding Tiktok and how it may not be available in the US, and some of you may remember the no longer existing social media platform Vine. And all of you know what it’s like to struggle on Instagram and Facebook.
I have come to learn that I have to think of these social media platforms as the icing on top of my marketing efforts and not my main source of income because they can be taken away or their rules could change and can greatly affect my business.
That is why this year I have really been focusing on my websites, podcast, and digital products so that I can grow the platforms and income sources that I have full control over.
I began this journey because I wanted control over my life and business and if I solely rely on other platforms, then if something happens my business and income source could be gone in the blink of an eye.
Because of this effort, I have tripled by traffic on my website, have doubled my downloads on my podcast, and have created a new stream of income!
4. Having a kickass team and delegation is crucial to success
One of the biggest lessons that I have learned in my years of starting an online business is that you have to learn when to do the job and when to delegate!
When we are all starting out, it is understandable for us to do everything under the sun. Because first, we are still learning and second we don’t really have the revenue to hire out.
But as your business grows and you start creating income, I have learned that delegation is key to success. I have learned what I should and shouldn’t know and that hiring someone who is more knowledgeable creates better results.
It is easy to want to constantly save or say “ok, I will take the time to learn all of these skills” but realistically we can not do all of it ourselves. You just don’t have enough time in the day and if you do not enjoy the task you should hand it over to someone who not only enjoys it but will do it way better than you.
Once I realized this and delegated the tasks that I did not enjoy or were honestly just tedious, is when my business began to thrive.
That’s why I have such an amazing team behind me who has been doing incredible tasks for my business.
Here are a few people that I have hired and their current tasks for my business:
- Marck who is my virtual assistant. He handles the day to day tasks and correspondence with podcast guest, sponsorship relations, site maintenance, and social media shares.
- Ben who is my incredible editor. I am not super tech-savvy when it comes to my podcast, that is why Ben is such a godsend!
- April who is the main writer for my blog and she also helps to research the new online jobs my email subscribers receive every single week.
- My Pinterest manager Katie who does such a great job handling that platform and has helped to drive up to my website traffic.
- And I have recently invested in an incredible copywriter Joni who has helped me with my email sales funnels for my digital products!
Without these incredible people, I would not have had the time to learn new marketing techniques and create new products that drive more revenue for my business.
And this is why delegation and having a team that is more knowledgeable than you is so crucial!
5. You have to pivot, not give up
Can I just tell you how many times I have almost given up? Being an entrepreneur feels like you have bipolar. One day you are on top of the world and the next day you want to hide under a rock.
Starting an online business is not for the faint of heart, but what I have learned after a ton of failures is that you have to learn how to pivot, not give up.
Remember when I said, you have to love the process and not the result? Well, this mindset will help you along the way because there will be a ton of setbacks.
Don’t get me wrong there were days and even some weeks where I just wanted to crawl in bed and do something easier.
But I have learned that all of these setbacks have really allowed me to become better in my craft and business.
That is why learning and pivoting have been the strategy that has worked extremely well for me during these 3 years I have started the podcast and business.
I still can’t believe that it has been 3 years! I can still remember being so unsure of myself. Not knowing that within a year a half I would be a full-time podcaster and have an online business.
I can not thank all of you enough for being on this incredible journey and for allowing me to do what I love for this long! Without you, I would still be lost and miserable, having panic attacks every few months.
That is why I have made it my mission to help as many of you as possible! Whether it is to help you find an online job, start an online business or launch your own podcast. I am here to help.
For those of you who are unsure about how to land an online gig, make sure to go to learnremoteskills.com to join our waiting list for a new program that I will be creating to help you learn the skills you need to land a remote job.
And if you want to launch your own podcast visit howtocreateapodcast.com to get free resources and to sign up for my free how to launch a profitable podcast masterclass, where I share with you my tips and tricks on how to launch your show like a pro.
Since this is our special 3 year anniversary episode, I am also giving away my How to Create a Profitable Podcast program for those of you who are interested in launching the show.
Can I just say, how proud I am of this program bc it has all the information that has literally changed my life, and I am so excited to share all the lessons and techniques that I have learned these last 3 years!
From launching, marketing, to monetizing it has it all!
All you have to do are 2 things:
- Go to theoffbeatlife.com/3yeargiveway and sign up to win
- Click the link on that page to give as a rate and review on iTunes. If you do not have iTunes. You can send me an email with your review that we will then share on our socials!
And that’s it!
So again go to theoffbeatlife.com/3yeargiveaway to enter for a chance to win my how to create a profitable podcast program and a one-on-one call with me!
Alright friends, see you all next time, and thank you again for allowing me to live my dreams. I hope to help to continue to do the same with you as well.
Until next time!
