Marketing Happy Hour - How to Build a 6-Figure Online Business on Your Own | Hannah Pobar of Home Studio List

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey there, welcome to the Marketing Happy Hour podcast, where each week we're learning career-defining advice, powerful social media strategies, unique creative tips, groundbreaking influencer marketing tactics, and more from marketing experts that represent some of the world's leading brands. Let's dive in. Grab a drink and join your hosts, Cassieie and Erica, for this week's episode. Hey everyone, it's Cassie. I want to give you a peek at today's episode by teasing a free PR tool that Hannah and I discussed in today's interview. That's right, I said free, and let me tell you

Starting point is 00:00:43 that both Hannah and I have found success using this tool in both of our businesses. Harrow, or help a reporter out, is your opportunity to land press features and guest blog or article posts. It's a great way to align yourself or your brand as a thought leader in your industry. While Harrow does take some effort on your end, there are a few simple ways to make it work for you. Number one, be prepared to move quickly. When you receive the press queries in your inbox for the first time, you may notice that some of the submission deadlines don't give you a lot of time to send in your pitch. It's important to act quickly with your response in order to get in front of the reporters.

Starting point is 00:01:21 Number two, create engaging subject lines. Reporters receive hundreds and even thousands of emails a day from brands. Call the publication or specific reporter out in your headline and use text that's snappy and relevant to your submission topic. Number three, share unique thoughts and ideas. Like I said, reporters receive a lot of submissions

Starting point is 00:01:41 every single day. It's important to share ideas that aren't redundant or common. You can look for redundant responses by doing a Google search on your topic and omitting repetitive thoughts you find online. No matter how big or small your business is, Harrow is an excellent tool that I highly recommend. We'll learn about Hannah Pobar's success with the tool here shortly. Hey everyone, it's Erica. And this week we're chatting with Hannah Pobar, the founder of Home Studio List, which is a platform of styled homes in over 30 states that are available to rent for photo shoots, film productions, and content creation. What a fun concept. Hannah shares organic social media efforts that will

Starting point is 00:02:26 grow your business, how to build a six-figure brand all on your own, the importance of delegating, and why building connections with your online audience is essential for growth. Grab a drink and listen in with us. Hey, Hannah, how are you? Hey, I'm doing great. How are you? I am doing so well. I'm so excited to jump into this conversation with you and chat all things home studio list. But before we do that, we do have a very important question that we ask all of our guests because this is marketing happy hour, but Hannah, what is in your glass tonight? I love it. Yes. I'm always up for a drink. So this is really fun to be here with you today.

Starting point is 00:03:12 Right now, truly, I'm drinking a black coffee. It's the holiday season. Just trying to keep that energy up so we can get through the rest of this year. What about you? I am just drinking water. It is, I have to have water on my desk throughout the day or else I will not drink it. I'm very bad at drinking water. So, um, I am just going to sip on this all day and maybe even refill it, but that's, it's kind of boring, but that's all I have today. So productive. Yeah. The new year spirit. Absolutely. Yeah, no, I'm right there with you. I feel like my, my water or like if I haven't a cool water bottle that really inspires me. So I do have water here as well, but it definitely inspires me to keep drinking the water. I know,

Starting point is 00:03:58 I know. I was just telling you kind of off record, but we just moved. So I have cool water bottles somewhere. I have not unpacked them yet, but once I find them, that generally does help me to, you know, just refilling that throughout the day. So I love that. It's a good little health tip to throw in here to marketing happy hour. That is awesome. So can you start by telling us a little bit about home studio list and your experience building the company? Yeah, absolutely. So Home Studio List is a platform of real homes available to rent by the hour for photo shoots, film productions, and content creation. I like to say you can think of us like the Airbnb for content creation. So we have this two-sided marketplace of hosts who rent their homes, guests who utilize a real home environment for a production.

Starting point is 00:04:48 And the company is about five years old. So it's crazy to be here so many years in and see the evolution of the company go from a little side project into the company that it is today. No small feat in that. I bootstrapped the company. So we had no investment in the early days. And today we have a profitable business that's generated millions of dollars in reservation requests. And it's been such a cool ride. That is so awesome. So we've seen you been featured in Forbes, Dwell, Vogue, anded into our experience. And so in the early days, we were getting some, you know, just organic requests coming in, which was really cool. And obviously in the early days, that's so inspiring. You really want to get the word out

Starting point is 00:05:56 there. You want people to be, you know, knowing that your company exists and how they can utilize it. So I have always kind of had this like sensitivity to PR. When it's not coming organically, something that I love is a platform called Help a Reporter Out. It's HARO, I believe, H-A-R-O. Essentially it's an email listserv where reporters are out there putting out questions or looking for people to feature. And so you get a daily listserv in an email format in which you're able to see all

Starting point is 00:06:35 these questions and reply to ones that make sense for your company. So it's a really easy way to connect with reporters out there, get the word out about your company, speak to your expertise. And that's been super helpful for us. I probably once or twice a week look through the email listserv and start replying to things that would be relevant for our consumers, which are going to be in the home decor space or like content creation photographers. And we've gotten a lot of great press through those connections. Yeah, absolutely. I am a huge fan of Harrow.

Starting point is 00:07:17 I actually just got a hit for a client this morning, which I was so excited about. And it's something that's kind of, it's very rewarding because whether it's you or a VA or someone kind of filling out those forms, it's kind of your team managing it. It's not an outside, you know, company or an agency, which is awesome too, but you know, it's, it's a little bit more rewarding. I feel like, cause it's very involving for your team. But how do you feel, you know, PR for yourself as well? So you're doing this interview, you're talking about your business. How do you feel kind of putting yourself out there and getting your face known to people on social media? How important do you feel that is as well? That's such an interesting question. And it's fun to discuss this, I think, because I've been

Starting point is 00:07:57 thinking about this a lot. You know, as the new year is here and coming, I want to make sure we're trying new like marketing efforts. And so this is very much one of them. But I will say that I got into home studio list. You know, there's a whole like path dependency to get to where we are today. But initially, I was interested in content creation through blogging. So I started blogging 10 over 10 years ago, that is crazy to say, and really loved, you know, this digital format of, you know, having a place to take photos and like express myself creatively. And so for years, I was a blogger and put a lot of time and energy into that, that eventually led me to photography. And so I started pursuing photography as a career and I built a business.

Starting point is 00:08:46 I put myself through college shooting weddings and portraits and anything that anyone would pay me to shoot. And photography then led me to the wedding industry. The wedding industry led me to startups. I worked in San Francisco in startups for years. And then through a culmination of all of those things, you know, arrived at Home Studio List. So in the early days, blogging, everything was very much about my personal brand. And you know, your my face was on everything. And when I started Home Studio List, I actually wanted this to be completely separate and like agnostic of my identity. And it was really fun to have a new challenge. And I don't think there's a right or wrong way to do it. But it was interesting in the early days,

Starting point is 00:09:30 I really didn't want the company to be about me, I wanted it to be about our service. And obviously, that's the heartbeat of our company. But I will say that I'm almost back full circle where I've realized that people want to connect personally with the companies and the services and the brands that they use. And, you know, that personalized touch has always been something that's been in the background of Home Studio List in our emails, in our communication with clients and, you know, our processes. But I think in the coming year, I have decided to take the plunge and get back out there and be more, you know, a face for the brand for sure. So it's, it's been an interesting evolution. Yeah, definitely. And, you know, you talked a little bit about team and this is something I'm personally going through and my journey with building a business is just when is the right

Starting point is 00:10:20 time to really start building out the team more and adding more support and things that kind of draw back to your bottom line. But what was that journey like for you? What was that kind of like spark in your mind that led you to wanting to create home studio list something a little bit bigger, you know, add more team members, add more processes, that kind of thing. What was that journey like for you? Yeah. Like going back to the photography days, I had built this business in college and I, you know, had grown it. And so I was like, okay, on my own, I've been able to build this, you know, $100,000 company. Like, how do I take that to the next level? Like, what does it take to have a million dollar company? And so I eventually pursued a career in startups and there I was, you know, working at a company that had raised millions of dollars. It was operating at a scale that was unlike anything I knew how to achieve on my own. And so I started home studio list as a project really, and like a side hustle. And I was experimenting with the idea of renting my own apartment to

Starting point is 00:11:31 photographers. I had that network. I had that interest. I figured my space had beautiful natural light. It would probably be interesting to photographers. And it was. In a matter of months, I was making thousands of dollars letting companies into my home while I would go to my office for the day. And so started, you know, I had tested that for a year and then decided to build the platform so that other people could work with brands in a similar capacity to how I had. And then as that grew, obviously needed to bring on additional people to the team. And I don't know if there was necessarily a moment that I, it was more just like an evolution of first, you know, I started the company just with things that I had and I built her own website.

Starting point is 00:12:19 I had been learning and working, you know, on websites and HTML and CSS and all of that since I was a kid. And so this was kind of like the moment that I just brought everything together and was able to start it with what I had, continue to grow it. And then I think my job in like the role that I have in the company now is I'm very much focused on trying new things, building them up, kind of validating that project or, you know, that marketing effort is going to be profitable within a matter of a few months, and then institutionalizing that into a process and giving it to somebody else to run. So I think just, you know, we've bootstrapped this business.

Starting point is 00:13:02 And so like profitability is really important to me. So I'm very much focused on how do we spin up new things, create processes around them, and then pass that off to somebody else so that my time can be used to go find that next, you know, nugget that's going to be beneficial to us. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's something that, you know, a lot of business owners, especially people who are new to creating a business kind of struggle with is that moment where they decide to start passing things off to people and delegating and, you know, creating those SOPs or, you know, things that they can kind of have internally for other people to kind of take on different tasks. But that's so important that frees up time for you to do things like this, to promote the brand, to get the word out about there. So it's so it's something so simple, but it's something so invaluable that, you know, a lot of people, like I said, do struggle with.

Starting point is 00:13:53 But once they start doing it, I'm sure it's been so beneficial to you as well. Yeah, that was a huge that was something I had never experienced was, you know, hiring a team and building the team. And so I will say it wasn't always the easiest in the early days. And I'm still, you know, learning. And I feel so grateful for like such a supportive team who totally has my back. And there's a lot of, I think when you're a solo founder, there's a lot of anxieties might be too strong of a word, but there's just sensitivity because, you know, you've

Starting point is 00:14:26 really touched every aspect of the company. And I think you approach things with a founder level dedication and mentality that, you know, sometimes can be difficult to find when you also don't have, you know, maybe the cash flow or the resources to hire. Like you might, if you have like venture funding or something like that. So it's definitely challenging, but you know, it's, it's so important and that's the only way to truly be able to scale, I think. Yeah, absolutely. So let's go kind of back to the beginning of home studio list. What were some of the things that you did to initially spread the word about the business and what marketing tactics have worked for you either in the past or are currently working and scaling the marketing platform as well? Yeah. So early days, we did not have, you know, necessarily like the cashflow and resources to

Starting point is 00:15:21 be out there spending money on Facebook and Instagram ads and having these like very targeted marketing approaches. And so something that was really effective for us early on was just straight up cold outreach. So we were, you know, daily sending emails, pulling our own lists, like scraping Google and really curating different personas and like groups of users that we could be reaching out to with cold emails, with direct messages, with messages on LinkedIn. I mean, you name it, we were all over it. And in terms of like social media and kind of just going back to that, initially that was me. Like I would, I would wake up in the morning, go to a coffee shop, go send out a bunch of emails before I would go to my full-time job. And I was just doing that and like learning what

Starting point is 00:16:09 worked and what didn't work and starting to formalize, you know, some like really low level tests in the early days around like what kind of messaging worked well. And for me, I think kind of just going full circle of our conversation here is what was really effective was, you know, just a really highly personalized message. And I think over the years, I've just learned to lean into like my authentic personality and that seems to derive the best benefit anyways. And so it's cool because that's, you know, naturally, I think how I speak and how I am. And in the early days, I thought, oh, that's not professional enough. Maybe I need, you know, this like sales copy that's going to, you know, convert people

Starting point is 00:16:54 better. And in testing actually found that the just more personal we were, the better things performed. And so that was really cool to see. Yeah, absolutely. And there's so many trends nowadays with businesses becoming more personal in their messages and in their experiences. And it's really working with businesses and it's businesses have seen such huge benefit to that. So the more that businesses can kind of hone in on that personal touch, like you said, because people want to connect with people personally, People don't connect with a brand or business itself. It's that personal touch behind

Starting point is 00:17:30 it. It's the people behind it that they really connect with. So I think that is so huge. So have you guys dabbled in influencer marketing at all or what's kind of your experience there as well? Yeah, not too, I wouldn't say like traditional influencer marketing. Organic social though is huge for us. And social has always been one of our biggest traffic drivers. And honestly, I don't have any like fancy tricks there necessarily, but just showing up consistently, like we have made it, you know, such a part of our process to always be like cultivating that community. Community is really at the heartbeat of everything that we do at Home Studio List. And so we're showing up

Starting point is 00:18:11 consistently, we're engaging with our followers through comments, direct messages, keeping, you know, those relationships really like tight and, you know, making people feel special as much as we can. Yeah, absolutely. I love that. You're a female founder. What are some of the challenges that you've faced in building the business as a female founder and how have you worked to overcome those challenges? Yeah. It's, you know, it's so interesting because honestly, I don't personally feel like I run into challenge specifically because I'm a female founder. And it kind of comes back to, I think you create your own reality, right? And so either way for any founder, I think there's just such a unique experience. And I think overall, we see that female founders make up less than 3% of all venture capital money. And that went down even in the pandemic. So I think due in part to,

Starting point is 00:19:26 you know, that disparity specifically, you see a lot more women like me turning to bootstrapping, which is a big undertaking, you know, to not have investment and to be, you know, be pulling all these resources together with what you have and using like your current cash flow to make it happen. But while difficult, I think it's afforded me so much in that I write the rules for my company. I don't have to pay attention to those disparities. They really don't affect my day to day. I don't have to put on a show for anyone or prove anything to anyone. I'm just out here kind of doing me and doing what's right for my team and my company based on my values. So I think in the early days,

Starting point is 00:20:05 I was very aware of those things. And I would, or, you know, just those particular disparities, and I was paying attention to them. And I think as my company has grown, I've been able to just kind of put blinders onto it, because I don't have to engage if I don't want to. And I've really found a lot of freedom in being like just totally myself and knowing that, you know, there's power and it resonates with my customers when I'm just who I am. And I, you know, use a lot of exclamation points. Like I have a lot of joy in my life and I hope that that transcends into, you know, our relationships with our hosts and our guests. And I think it does. And it's cool to see that personality reflect back in the company and actually build the company.

Starting point is 00:20:49 It's so funny. You mentioned the exclamation points because I catch myself when I write emails to certain people or clients, you know, I'll write an exclamation point. And then the next sentence exclamation point. And I find myself like second guessing myself. It's so silly, but I look at it and I'm like, oh, that's too many. Like I need to remove it. I need to put a period instead. And it's like, you're right. You know, just kind of doing you being who, who you are and whether it's written communication or video photo, just letting yourself, um, kind of be represented through your writing or through your content creation. I think that's so important. Even something as little as an exclamation point too many in a sentence. So

Starting point is 00:21:29 I love that you mentioned that. Do you have any founders that you currently look up to or have looked up to in the past when kind of building out your career? Yeah, I, I totally am with you though on that. And I think you just had to like embrace who you are and not be self-conscious of that in any way. And I feel that early on I was, and you know, that always had me second guessing. And now I'm like, I lead with the fun parts of my personality and the people who get it, get it. And the people who don't, it doesn't matter, you know, I have had incredible mentorship from both women and men throughout my

Starting point is 00:22:08 career. But I do think that, you know, there is something really special about the women in my life who are founders or who have had, you know, amazing career success. And I'm so grateful for the time and talent that they've given back in to helping me develop personally, professionally, develop my company. So it never, never goes unnoticed. And I think giving back in that way is also super important to me. And at Home Studio List, we've designed programs around that concept too. We have an incredible internship program that we started in COVID that really is focused on helping people break into a new career. And so, you know, we have opportunities for experience and like portfolio building for different areas of a business that people might want to break into that are traditionally kind

Starting point is 00:22:58 of defined by the past work that you have to show. So I think a lot of that is like social media management, virtual assisting. We have like a really cool UI UX have to show. So I think a lot of that is like social media management, virtual assisting. We have like a really cool UI UX and automation program. So it's cool to see, it's cool to be able to help develop people in that way as well through the vessel of Home Studio List. Is there any podcasts, books you recommend, anything that you're loving right now or have enjoyed in the past oh that's a good question there are some books that I love um I really I love all Malcolm Gladwell books I think um those I think he's an incredible writer and I love the way that he really brings psychology and like business concepts together I think um I've always I'm a big business book person so always reading something in that in that area but I think I really especially appreciate that like mix of

Starting point is 00:23:51 psychology um that he brings and there's so many cool like anecdotal stories that he pulls in that like really help you remember these concepts um specifically so one that I love by him is what the dog saw that like comes to mind as an immediate favorite. I'm not, I'm trying to think on the podcast side, I really am into, while it's not per se business related, I think it's like life and inspiration related. I am a big Abraham Hicks proponent and her like her area is the law of attraction. And so I think, you know, whenever I'm just having a moment, it's always nice to put on some Abraham Hicks, go on a walk, like really reset and focus back on like getting into that flow of inspiration.

Starting point is 00:24:41 She talks about that a lot. And I think as it applies to business too momentum is so important and so however you find momentum and get yourself in that like source of inspiration flowing like however you need to get there get there and so for me that's that always takes me into that place for sure oh that's so great I will be looking those up because I've not listened to her podcast or read any of his books. So I will definitely be doing that. So thanks for sharing. So what is next for home studio list and for you personally? Um, do you have any exciting projects coming up in 2022 or what's happening for you guys? Yeah, I think it's going to be a huge

Starting point is 00:25:23 year. Um, Coming out of the pandemic, we grew like crazy. So this year we're just focused on keeping up with that. We are growing our platform and we are looking to work with new hosts all throughout the U.S. So if you have a beautifully styled home or have a friend who would be a good fit, we would love to have them apply. You can do so at homestudiolist.com slash host. Same thing on the creative side. We are growing our guest community as well. If you're ever in need of a beautiful space for content creation, a photo shoot, a place to record a podcast, you name it. We work with businesses, large and small. So we'd love to team up and help bring a

Starting point is 00:26:04 creative production to life. You can browse all of our listings. We have over 800 in pretty much every state for the past couple of years. I've been saying we have spaces in 30 plus states and I counted the other day and it's like 45 states. So I think there's a couple that we're still missing there. But yeah, in 2022, we'll definitely be rounding that out and taking over the US. But yeah, those are the big, I mean, really just focus this year on growth and doubling down on what's working. And so for us, we see so much on social. And so really going to dive into that this year and hopefully continue to see improvement there. Well, congratulations so far on the success. We're so excited to watch you guys continue to thrive and just do a bunch of

Starting point is 00:26:52 exciting things in the near future. But before we close out, we do have one last question that we love to ask all of our guests. Is there anything you know now that you wish you knew early on in your career? Yeah, I, we touched on this a little bit, but when I started Home Studio List, I was living in San Francisco and, you know, that's the tech mecca of the world. There is, there are so many startups there. It's very competitive. And I think in the early days, I really thought about that a lot. And I really was focused on, you know, participating in that competition. And I wanted to stand out. And I found it very difficult to in such a saturated place. And so looking back, I'm really grateful for that experience. Because

Starting point is 00:27:41 while I felt that I maybe necessarily wasn't at the same level as some of these other startups out there, I really realized now that none of that matters. Like every journey is different. No two things work exactly the same. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to, you know, have to embrace that mistake and learn from it and move on. And I think I was very fixated on fitting in and, you know, wanting to stand out instead of just embracing my like unique journey. And so I'm grateful for the experience and I have loved what I've built and I'm excited to continue on the path. Excellent. Well, we would love to know where we can follow you and Home Studio List.

Starting point is 00:28:28 So any handles you want to share, anywhere we can find both you and your business on social media so that we can spread the word about you and make sure everyone follows you guys online. Totally. Our website is homestudiolist.com. We are on Instagram at homestudiolist.com. We are on Instagram at homestudiolist. And my personal Instagram is at Hannah Pobar. I'm always down to, you know, connect and help in any way that I can. So would love to chat. Well, thank you so much, Hannah. I appreciate you taking the time to chat with me. It was such a wonderful conversation and can't wait to see what you're up to next.

Starting point is 00:29:12 Thank you so much. Loved chatting and excited to keep in touch. Hannah's story is just incredible and we are so thankful that she was able to join us on the podcast. If you would like to be a future Marketing Happy Hour podcast guest, follow us on Instagram at Marketing Happy Hour. That's at Marketing Happy HR and click the link in our bio. We can't wait to meet you. If you're loving the podcast, please remember to rate and leave a review. It truly means the world to us and helps us continue producing the content you want to hear. Thanks so much for listening.

Marketing Happy Hour - How to Build a 6-Figure Online Business on Your Own | Hannah Pobar of Home Studio List

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.