the bossbabe podcast - 155. My Media Company Made Me $5M in 2 Months Alone, Here's How: with Daniella Pierson of The Newsette

Episode Date: March 18, 2021

Join BossBabe Co-Founder and CEO Natalie Ellis and special guest Daniella Pierson as they pull back the curtain on what a realistic day looks like for a 8-figure business owner, the real hurdles of growing a business so quickly and the behind the scenes of what it really takes to have a successful email newsletter. Insta Influence Kit Waitlist: https://www.instainfluencekit.com/waitlist?affiliate_id=3009395 99designs by Vistaprint: https://99designs.com/bossbabe Follow:  BossBabe: @bossbabe.inc Natalie: @iamnatalie The Newsette: @the_newsette

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You pray for things to start working and then they start working and then all of a sudden you have 50 more problems but being an entrepreneur you just have to be committed to solving 100 problems every single day. Being a good manager but also hiring the right people, that never gets easier. The bigger you get, the more people you hire. Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast, a place where we share with you the real behind the scenes of building successful businesses, achieving peak performance and learning how to balance it all. I'm Natalie Ellis, CEO of Boss Babe and your host for this episode. I know I say this a lot, but I am so excited for you to hear this episode because I was really,

really excited to record it. And the things that I took away the most was how you can monetize the same kind of business in so many different ways. There are so many avenues that you can go down. And often the right one is the one that plays to your skills and strengths the most and hearing daniela's strengths in the partnership side was incredible and i learned so much i had so many light bulb moments of things that we get to do a boss babe and get to try so i know you're gonna love it i know you're gonna take away so much i mean in just two months of last year, she made $4.2 million and every single month she was crushing it. But that alone, that's a lot of money to make in two months.

To hit seven figure months, it really requires a whole different level of systems and being really committed to your goals and committed to putting in the work. Seven figure months don't just happen overnight. And so I also really wanted to dive into like what does your schedule really look like because if you're hitting this amount of revenue in a short space of time and you haven't been doing it this long what does your schedule really look like because my guess is it's probably crazy and she was so honest about that which again is not something you hear a lot of.

We try and bring things as transparently as possible to this podcast and she really, really did that. She blew me away and I can't wait for you to hear. And I'm coming to you from Texas, you know, for a second week. We have been settling into Austin. If you watched my stories yesterday, then you will have seen that a ginormous possum just wandered into

my backyard and up to the glass in my kitchen. When I tell you I nearly peed my pants. Trust me I nearly peed my pants. You don't get this in the UK really. I'm like I'm not used to having to be on the lookout for animals and I did not think you know I'm in a normal neighborhood I did not think I would have to be on the lookout for this ginormous possum wandering into my backyard but we are and that's what we're dealing with I was literally on a meeting when when the possum just wandered in so I'm on high alert I do not know what's next but thank goodness it wasn't a snake let's keep our eyes peeled I'll keep you updated follow it all on my stories I'm going to share my Texas adventure on my stories but yeah with that we're going to just dive straight in because you're going to get so much out of it just before we do I want to remind you make sure you get on

the waitlist for IIK so IIK is our insta influence kit and I personally have made you over 100 templates for social media it's basically like having me as your social media manager for less than a coffee a day. The price is going to just blow your mind when it comes out. It's incredible. So I've basically went in there and created over 100 templates that you can just continually use and reuse. So your feed's going to look so polished. You're not going to be, you know, wondering how to communicate your value. We're going to take the guesswork out of social for you and just have me guide you along I literally don't create graphics for anyone but boss babe so I really really wanted to do this because so many of you have asked and

it is so meaningful that I get to do this with you all so I think you're going to love it and I'm going to be selecting one of you if you're one of the first a thousand to buy you're going to be put into a draw and I'm going to select one of you and I will be personally coaching you on Instagram. So I will be your social media manager for 45 minutes. We'll get into a live call and I will fully audit your account for you and I'll let you know where you have opportunities, where you could strengthen things, how you can optimize, how you can be growing more, making more sales. I'm going to really, really deep dive into all of it. So if you want to be one of the first thousands, it's going to be really important that you get the waitlist. All of the links that you need are in the show notes. You can just hop on there, sign up, no obligation once you're on

the waitlist, but you're going to want to get it. You're going to absolutely love it. So make sure you do that. And let's just dive into the episode. You're going to get so much from this. A boss babe is unapologetically ambitious and paves the way for herself and other women to rise, keep going and fighting on. She is on a mission to be her best self in all areas. It's just believing in yourself. Confidently stepping outside her comfort zone to create her own vision of success. So Saniela, as a business owner, I'm so used to creating so much content. And for me, the only thing keeping me sane is the ability to prep content so ahead of time. Whereas, like I said, I read the news that

I know how timely it is. Something happens yesterday, I'm going to read about it in the news that morning. How do you manage kind of having to be so on top of content and not really being able to batch too far in advance? That's a great question. So when it was more early days, I like to say that there were three people in my company, me, myself, and I. And so I was in charge of every aspect, which meant making sure that the content was fresh and delightful for our subscribers

to keep them wanting to read. And so how I did it when it was just me, a team of one, I actually woke up 5am every morning when I was still in college. And I would write it early, early morning to make sure that everything Yeah, it was not a pleasant experience. But I was just so passionate and motivated that I didn't even need an alarm clock. Like I was ready to go so excited to do it. And so it took me a couple of hours in the morning, but then I would make sure that everything was fresh. And now we have an editorial team, an amazing editorial team that can do way better work than I was ever able to. So I'm very lucky

to have them and they work on it the night before. But we do sometimes, these editorial members of our team are so passionate about making sure that our reader has the latest and greatest. And so there have been times where our editorial director has popped in at 10 p.m. and said, oh, we have to write about this. Like, here's the blurb we should add in. Or even sometimes very early in the morning. But most of the time we're able to get to everything via the night before, and we don't have to wake up at 5am anymore. So that's been a great process transferring those responsibilities to the editorial team. But that is how the newsletter magic is done. No longer

are there 5am mornings. Yeah, that's so true with entrepreneurship. In the beginning, it's like you'll wear every single hat and you don't care what you've got to do, what sacrifices you've got to make. In order to really get there, you have to have that commitment. So it's always so fun to hear that kind of story. So I'm curious, now that you've been able to build this incredibly successful brand and bring in an amazing team, what do your days typically look like now? Because I am pretty certain they are very different to the 5am mornings when you're writing newsletters. Yeah, for sure. They're very different. It's funny, I had to write those newsletters every single day for probably three or four years. It's been over six years now since the inception of the company. And so

sometimes I'll wake up from a nap or wake up in the morning and look at the clock and be like, oh my god, the newsletter, and then remind myself that it is no longer in my hands. And for a very good reason. And so my day to day doesn't necessarily start that early. I have to be totally honest with you, like 2021, I am so committed to overhauling my routine to make it a lot more healthy, not just physically, but mentally, because I think that I've just been kind of pushing myself to the limit because I'm so passionate and it doesn't feel like work most of the time. But on a day to day, I'm mainly connecting with the senior leaders of our company. I like to talk to everyone. And so we're all on a Slack channel. We're still a

pretty small group where I can connect with everyone on a daily basis, but I have one-on-ones with the leaders every week. And then we connect almost every day based on the projects that we're working on or where people need me the most. I connect with my COO and our VP, Grace, the most, just about overarching problems or fires we have to put out or even exciting things that we're working on. And so I would say my day is pretty packed with meetings. That's something that is relatively new because I like to put my hands in everything. But now being a leader of a growing company, I have to trust that the very capable leaders of the orgs that we have set up are doing the

best job. It's more meetings to check in on things or even doing brainstorms. I love participating in company-wide brainstorms or even org-wide brainstorms where I can just listen and get inspired by the ideas that my team has for these different initiatives that we're bringing to life. So I would say in the morning, I wake up, I am in my email. We're hiring a chief of staff right now because I just really need an extension of myself because I am being pulled in many directions, which I'm so flattered by because in the start of this, no one wanted to pull me in any direction. I check my inbox.

My inbox is crazy. I get hundreds of emails every single day and I definitely do not look at all of them just because of less time. And so conquering the inbox is definitely stressful in the morning, but that's what I try to do in the beginning. And then I like to lay out my day. So oftentimes I'm already pre-booked for many meetings, which is good for me because I think that I run on adrenaline and I love speaking to people, especially other heads of companies that inspire me. And it just doesn't even feel like work. It feels like I'm constantly learning and absorbing. But I try to plan out

things that aren't going to be touched upon in those meetings. I have a journal that's actually, it's exactly the one that Diane von Furstenberg uses my mentor. I kind of got that from her. I like just writing things out in the order that they need to be accomplished. And so basically on any of my little breaks in between meetings, then I make sure that all of those things are done. Definitely less structured than I think it should be. One of the reasons why I'm hiring a chief of staff to help me with that, because I just always want to be doing all things instead of focusing on certain parts of the business on certain parts of the day, like I know some of my other CEO friends do. But that's kind of how my day goes. It's full of meetings. So it's basically from 8.30am to 7.30pm, I'll be in meetings because

we have partners on the West Coast. So the meeting times do go into the evening. And then I like to take my laptop and sit in front of the TV and watch some trashy TV show. I don't even want to call it trashy because I love them like the reality TV shows. Oh my god, I'm obsessed. I have so many that I love. And then I like to you know, sometimes I get a very, you know, small glass of wine. I wish it was I wish I could drink more wine. But it just I'm like the person who I pour half a glass of wine and I take two sips, but that's more than enough for me to get in relaxation zone. And then I sit in front of the TV and I just do the rest of my work until probably like

11 p.m., sometimes later if we have crazy projects happening. But those hours from 8 to 11 8 to 11pm in front of the TV almost feel like I'm relaxing even though I'm working and relaxing. So that's what I'm doing now. Of course, I hope that that entire regime changes or regimen changes in the next few months so that I can work out maybe a few times a week within my schedule and maybe make a healthier eating decisions than just like going on Postmates and ordering everything on the left side of the menu because I'm so hungry. So yeah, that's how it currently is, but work in progress. Let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform, Kajabi.

You know, I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity, which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place. So it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and

making things as smooth as possible. I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students so if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial go to kajabi.com slash boss babe to claim your 30-day free trial that's kajabi.com slash boss babe yeah and we just hired a chief of staff too and it was such a good decision and really just gives you that chance to take a step back so I love that you're doing. And I also love that you've been so honest about what your schedule looks like. I think sometimes people don't often want to admit how hard they work because it might not be as glamorous. But at the end of the day, being an entrepreneur and running your own company

and growing so fast, it's really demanding. And I really appreciate when people are honest about that so that anyone listening who is wanting to start a business hasn't got this false idea that you work a couple of hours a day and make millions of dollars because it often isn't the case. It's definitely not the case. And I definitely need to have a call with you after this to pick your brain on your chief of staff hiring process and how it's going because it's so curious and so inspired by everything you're doing and your team is doing. But yeah, I like to be honest, just because that's the way I am. But it's six years into the company. Yes, like, am I make millions of dollars and all this incredible stuff? Yes. But I still don't have any free time during the day. I'm still a workhorse six years into this company. I think

a lot of the reason is because I never took VC funding or investment. And so I really had to grow this company sustainably and via every sale we made, then I put that money back into the company to grow the business rather than getting an investment and then being able to shoot for the moon from there. And so it has taken me longer than I think it would for an entrepreneur who decided to get VC funding. So I don't want to scare anybody about like six years and you're still like that. Some people can, you know,

pull a lot of stuff off with VC funding in just a couple of years and then exit. But I wouldn't change the journey for the world. And I feel like I'm so young. I'm only 25. I started this company, I'm only 25. I started this company when I was 19. I feel like my days should just be consumed by my baby by my company and my team, at least for now, so that I can just squeeze every single effort and value from myself

as possible until it's time to maybe slow things down a bit. But I love it. You know, there are times where sometimes I'm like, why am I doing this, but it's quickly remed maybe slow things down a bit. But I love it. You know, there are times where sometimes I'm like, why am I doing this, but it's quickly remedied by speaking to my team and seeing the awesome things that we're doing and that I believe so much in. But yes, do not go into entrepreneurship with the illusion that you will be working a few hours a day. What I have been able to do that, though, that I'm really proud of is I work almost every hour of the day during the weekdays. And then my weekends, at least one day is very sacred. And I don't do any work on one of those days. So that has been a tree for me now six years in to be

able to do. Yeah, I think you really need that. And we're similar to, we never took VC funding. So it's very much like, okay, I'm going to hire someone when we can afford it. And that's really how we've built the business. So I'm seeing a lot of similarities for sure. So I want to talk about the money piece. Am I right in, I did my research, I think I seen you made 1.2 million in September and 3 million in October, the year that the entire country has been in economic downturn. And we've had coronavirus. Is that right? Yes, that's correct. And it is very shocking because 2020, like, please don't be under any illusion that we just were fine the entire time. There were some very scary months

right after, you know, March, April, May, where we almost didn't make anything. And we were very scared about the future of the company. And luckily, we've always been very, I don't want to say frugal, but we've definitely been kind of frugal with our funds, because we don't have we didn't have a big nest egg from a VC firm or anything. And so we were able to weather that storm. But luckily, the bit right after the shock of the coronavirus, we were able to really not only survive, but thrive. So yes, we did have many multi-million dollar month at the end of the year. And actually now in 2021, just one month into the year, we are almost surpassing our entire

2020 revenue, which I'm so proud to say because it's truly a team effort. And I couldn't have done that without every single person on our team. And it's very weird because in a time when people are getting laid off and some companies are shrinking, we're growing very quickly. And so we're constantly hiring and you ask me what I do every day. Most of my day now is doing a lot of interviews for the positions that we're hiring for, a lot of LinkedIn stalking to see if there's anyone that we can pull on to our team. It's been a very lucrative and fun last six months.

That is incredible. And just such a testament to how hard you work and how important impact is for you to be able to pull that off during that kind of year and to keep it continuing. I mean, seriously, just entrepreneur to entrepreneur, I have so much respect, admiration and inspiration from you. Take me behind the scenes of that. What did that look like? Was it brand partnerships? Was it crazy working behind the scenes? Was it you've been trying to pull these off for 12 months? Like what did that look like to start upping your revenue

in that way? Yeah, for sure. And thank you so much. I mean, you're obviously someone I admire. So to hear that from you is just magic. But yeah, so behind the scenes, we really at that point, when after the few months of Corona, the first few months passed, a lot of companies were saying, okay, we have media budget to still spend, but they were really, really looking and taking a magnifying glass to those budgets and saying, how can we spend this money most efficiently? So things maybe like billboards or magazines weren't on the top of their list. And as a newsletter and fellow newsletter companies, we are such a powerful mechanism for brands because instead of a website that maybe gets 50 million uniques a month, but that's within 30 stories published a day. And so when you really get into the nitty gritty, that's only

tens of thousands of views, not the 50 million number that you're thinking because of that media kit. We are able as a newsletter to guarantee almost an amazing click through and amazing engagement and impressions because our advertisers are the star of our newsletter, and every single subscriber opening it is seeing those placements. And so it's not us having one story on a website with 50 other articles and hoping that our readers see that branded story. We're really able to be an incredible billboard tactic for these advertisers in a way where they're right at the top if it's a sponsored logo. And then we have incredibly compelling integrated content within the newsletter and every single person opening it is seeing those placements. And so that's why the newsletter industry is blowing up now because

publishers and advertisers are realizing, wait a minute, we can take our ad budget that we usually spend, you know, a print magazine or even a website, and we can basically 10x the value by going to a newsletter because the powerful nature of the publication platform and the way that a newsletter is such an intimate experience between the subscriber and the company and the way that subscribers are so much more valuable than just a person who randomly stumbles upon a website link. We really own that relationship and we've been able to prove that in the newsletter agency and a lot of other newsletters who have even just been acquired have proven that to the market of how powerful

a subscriber can be rather than just a website view or even you in the magazine. And so I think that that's really the behind the scenes look. People kind of woke up and realized that every dollar they were spending, even these behemoth companies with millions and millions of dollars to spend every month, realized that they wanted to really get as much value as possible. I think also us being so focused on our mission to empower women was very helpful because we were a marketing tactic where people who were reading us from these big companies

were championing us to their bosses or their leaders who are approving these marketing budgets and really pushing for us to be one of the tactics they consider not only top five publishers that they always work with. And once we were able to get those people through partners that we are worth these big investments and that we are worth brand dollars because we truly do have incredibly valuable engagements that we provide via our newsletter. That's amazing and so interesting to hear. We actually got one of our biggest brand partnerships ever also because someone at the company was listening to our podcast and it just goes to show you never know who's watching or listening.

So putting your best foot forward all the time is so incredibly important. I love that you called that out. So when it comes to sales and brand partnerships, I'm guessing this is something you probably jumped into with two feet completely blind, not even knowing where am I gonna start with this. And so over time, I'm sure you've become an expert

in it. Would you say you have a mix of you go out or your team goes out and pitches to companies, or do you get a lot of deal flow coming to you? Yeah, that's a great question. And yes, you are 100% right. That when this journey started, it was like, oh shit, like I'm the one that has to sell these ads and I have no idea what I'm doing. Great. Definitely a lot of learning along the way. But I have this incredible person on our team. She's now our head of marketing named Grace, and she joined the team about two years ago. And she didn't really have a ton of sales experience, but she was so passionate about the product and a value that we're able to deliver to advertisers that she has just killed it and truly been responsible for millions and millions

of dollars of sales. And so she is an incredibly valuable part of our team. And we were really getting a lot of our biggest deals from people who read us and reached out to us, which was incredibly flattering and really proved to us that we were maybe doing something right, which is great because you're always doubting yourself in the beginning. And it was also a combination of outreach and reaching out to brands and showing them ability that we have in terms of getting clicks to their website or the impressions we're able to drive. Because a lot of the time, it was a wake up moment for these brands who are used to paying a certain amount for a certain amount of clicks or impressions and didn't even realize that there were options out there where you could get so much more for your money. It was an education process for sure. We did with partners that either reached out to us or we reached out

to. But I would say a good majority of our biggest partners have come to us, which has been incredibly, again, like I said, flattering and much easier on the sales process because when someone comes to you, they're already interested. There's no really convincing to do there. But then there's also brands where we do quite a bit of reach out and we are keeping in touch with them. And then they come back to us when they are planning or they are looking for partners for a new activation or launch that they have. And so there's a quite a few outreach opportunities that we plan for on a weekly basis, but most of it has been inbound, which is great. And it really proves your point that if you build a great product, people will come. It takes time and

patience, a lot of hard work, but that's been a really amazing part of this business, seeing the incredible brands that I've looked up to my entire life and want to use us as a vessel to advertise their product. Yeah, I bet. It must just be a total pinch me moment all the time. So digging into the technical of it, because there's probably a lot of women listening who are using e-marketing as part of their business, whether they have education companies, e-com companies, things like that, they're using mailing lists. Can you dig into a little bit in terms of industry standard for open rate and click-through rate? What should people be trying to achieve? Because I think a lot of people really have no idea when it comes to their mailing list, just how powerful it can be and what those KPIs should be. Yeah, you're totally right. A lot of retailers and startups utilize their email list a lot because it is an incredibly warm connection. These people signed up to your list. They're interested in your brand. They want to know more.

And so there are great people to go out to with a new product release or even an edit of products on a weekly basis. And the number one, I guess, piece of advice that I would give to anyone using a newsletter as an e-commerce tactic, or even to drive to content, if you're a blogger, an influencer, is really to continually provide value. So you can't just have, you know, a newsletter about this product that you should buy. You really need to editorialize those products, provide value in some way, maybe their tips or an interview with the founder of the company or something that make consumers want to open up that email. In terms of benchmarks for open rates, it really

depends on the industry. For publishing, anything above 25-30% is fantastic. For e-com, I know that it can be sometimes lower 15 to 20% because those are more sales related materials that you're not opening for content. You're basically opening to buy. And so I would recommend that anybody trying to improve their open rates, really look at the content and the deliverability of that content and how often they're providing that content. Because if they're providing that content. Because if you have subscribers that are waiting for you to send an email every single week and you miss a week, then all of a sudden they're maybe not going to come back the following week or they're going to maybe unsubscribe. And so I think that there's a huge programming aspect of

having a successful mailing list as well to make sure even if you're an e-commerce company that you are hitting the person on a regular basis and maybe even the same time every week so that they kind of grow I guess they know that you're coming to them and they know that you're coming to them with something valuable got it okay we're going to take a quick break right now to hear from our sponsor. This episode of the Boss Babe podcast is sponsored by 99designs. Now, if you haven't heard of 99designs, it is the go-to graphic design platform by Vistaprint that makes it really easy for you to work with professional creative experts from around the world and build your brand through custom memorable design. From logos to apps and merch, book covers, 99designs is where you can get an incredible design you'll love. There are two

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business grow and thrive. Head to 99designs.com forward slash boss babe. And we're back. Let's jump straight into today's episode. And then in terms of click-through rate, if someone's promoting something within their newsletter, what kind of things should they be aiming for? Yeah, so click-through rate also definitely varies by industry. I would say 10% to 20% is great for click-through. And I think rather than click-through rate, looking at it, just like a holistic number, it's like, what are your customers or readers clicking on and using those insights to whatever, if you're starting with a two percent click rate to try to make that go up every single day. And so rather than just establishing a bench line of where you should be,

I think there are so many tactics of if you're starting at 2%, how you can double it and then how you can triple it. And I think that a successful click-through rate is when you are incentivizing people every single day to click on your products or click on your content. Also, some newsletters, they don't really care that much about the click rate. Their content is within the newsletter and they don't really want people to click out. And so it can really vary depending on your goals and what you're trying to achieve with your newsletter.

Yeah, that makes total sense. Okay, so going back to the growth you've experienced, because I know that I have definitely faced this. When your company grows so quickly in such a short space of time, it can almost feel like chaos. And there are so many things that pop up where on the outside, it might be like, wow, look at this company. It's growing. Things are amazing. But on the inside, you're frantically like, oh my God, I need to hire like five people. I need to do X, Y, Z. What were some of the struggles that popped up for you when you were growing so quickly?

Oh, wow. There are many hurdles, especially, you know, when things start working. So it's funny, you pray for things to start working, and then they start working. And then all of a sudden, you have 50 more problems. But being an entrepreneur, you just have to be like, just committed to solving 100 problems every single day, and knowing that those are going to come. So you're totally right. And what you just said, but I think some of the biggest problems or barriers that I faced growing my company has been hiring the right people. So when I started out, I had no idea what I was doing, really understand who I needed in my company. And so I think evolving as a manager has been really enlightening for me, because I've been reading books, and I've been hiring people who

are much older than me to or more experienced than me to share how they've been managing the past. And it's really I feel like I've grown so much as a manager. And so that was one of the obstacles is being a good manager, but also hiring the right people that never gets easier. The bigger you get, the more people you hire and you want to preserve that culture that you've built because culture really is everything. I used to roll my eyes when people said culture because I was like, why is it so hard to build a culture? But now I understand that it truly is so hard to build a really kind and empowering culture. And so that's something we strive to do every single day and something you have to work on every day. Another barrier I think was not having any experience actually working at a job. So I didn't have any real job before I started the news that and so the expectations of how many days of the week people are working, what hours they're working, how to structure a foundation of the company and processes, and all of these things that I never experienced firsthand somewhere else. So I think kind of making it until you make it has been the biggest hurdle or barrier for me, just needing to

rely on outside information instead of firsthand experiences for the way that I run my company. Yeah, I can really relate to both of those. I didn't have any experience. I was kind of like, wait, what does a boss do? What's the situation here? And then I was going to ask you about that too, evolving as a manager, because you were talking about meeting with your team and things. And for me, I mean, I didn't even know what a one-to-one was, let alone how to run a one-to-one. And so I feel like that's the kind of thing people don't often talk about when it comes to business. It's like, you need to learn how to actually run

meetings and do all of these different things. It's so nice to hear someone else talking about this because it's definitely been a learning curve for me. Have there been any books in particular that have really helped you see things another way? I'll just share one of mine. I've been reading Trillion Dollar Coach, which is an incredible book. It's about one of the best coaches in the world. And just seeing the way he worked with people is incredible. And I've made so many notes. I'm curious what's been a really good one for you. For sure. And thank you for that, Rek. I am definitely going to pick that up or order it right now. I think a lot of podcasts have really helped me because what I do is I like to look up female leaders that are really inspiring to me and listen to all of the podcasts they've ever been on. So what you do is absolutely incredible. And even listening to you as a podcast host is so inspiring

because you are a badass in business, a boss babe. But a lot of podcasts have really taught me a lot because people do talk about the way that they manage people and the way that they've learned and bad managers and kind of absorbing all of that. But the single best book that I've ever read in regards to all of this is Traction by Gina Wickman. And it basically kind of lays out this incredible guide to how you should run your business and the rocks, so goals that you should have for 60, 90 days and the way that you should be collaborating with your team. And so that's been a really, really helpful resource to me. And you have to do what's best for you, what feels right for you. I know people who are extremely harsh and very strict and serious that are managers. And that's not how I want to be.

I want to be very close and kind and supportive to my team. And so you take things and you leave other things. But just absorbing as much information as you can of how other people do it and then choosing the way that works for you is my advice and the way that I at least have been conquering the whole management process. Yeah, I love Traction. It was one of the best books I read and we implement Traction in our business too. And in fact, when we were hiring our chief of staff, we hired someone that had experience in implementing Traction. Yeah, which has been great. So for anyone, everyone listening, they use something called the Entrepreneur's Operating System. And like you said,

it's such a good way of running the business. It completely changed my perspective on things. I love that. Well, Daniela, thank you so much for being so open and sharing so much on this. I feel like this has been such an honest interview and I'm obsessed with everything you do. I read the news at every morning and I have for a really you do. I read the news at every morning and I have for a really long time. Can you give everyone all the links they need to be able to go and sign up? Yeah, and thank you again.

I mean, you are somebody that I have looked up to for years and so it's so flattering to know that you read us every morning. So thank you for being a subscriber yourself. And yeah, anyone listening, if you want to feel like you can kick ass every day and read us, you can go to thenewsette.com and just type in your email. We'd love to have you on our list and a member of our community. And then you can follow us at

the underscore newsette on Instagram. But thank you so much for having me. I feel like I learned more in this podcast from you. So I have to thank you for giving me all of those incredible tidbits and advice. And it's just been a pleasure talking to you today, Natalie. Thank you. Before we jump off, because this audio has been amazing, would it be okay if I just ask you those two questions that I asked you at the beginning, and we'll just repeat it now? Yes. Amazing. No problem. Thank you so much. Okay. Daniela, can you explain the business model behind the Newzet? Yeah.

So the Newzet is a media company first. And so that means that advertisements are the way that we primarily make our money. I hate to call them advertisements because they really are brand partnerships. And what I mean by that is, you know, we have a specific mission that we try to relay to our subscribers every single day. So empowering women, sharing empowering stories, inspiring our readers. And so whenever we can fit a brand's messaging and KPIs, key performance indicators into that dream of content is where the magic happens.

And so for instance, you know, a partner like Amazon, where we're able to actually, as part of this activation, spotlight female founded small businesses for International Women's Day, for example, that is just kind of the dream, because we're working with a partner that we really align with. But we're also at the same time as we're supporting our revenue model, being able to amplify these incredible small businesses. And so our main revenue model is advertisements, but we really do refer to them more as partnerships because we are very picky on who we partner with. And we only want to create content that really does delight, empower, and inspire our readers. And so we want to make sure that our editorial content and our sponsored content are both fantastic and highly valuable.

And so speaking of that with brand partnerships, I know for me, when I've been using a product or brand for years, and they connect with us and say they want to advertise on podcast or Instagram or wherever it is, I know for me, it's just a total pinch me moment. Like, wait, I get paid to talk about something that I'm already obsessed with. What's been like one of your favorite brand partnerships that you've done that's been a total pinch me moment for you? I feel the same exact way. And even now that I am not super involved in the brand partnership side, we have an incredible person on our team named Grace, who just handles all of that. It does still make me so excited every time we close a deal with a brand that I just love and authentically use. And those are most of the

brands because again, we have a really strong filter of who we allow to partner with us because we do respect our readers so much. And so most of these brands are brands that either I haven't used before, but love and then end up using. I left the newsletter convinced me to be a purchaser or a user or products that I've or brands that I've looked up to forever. And so one example was Ulta Beauty. That was the first, you know, big brand that we got. And I believe that the people at Ulta were readers of the news that and that's why they

advocate for us to be part of their, you know, 21 days of beauty program. And that was a truly a pinch me moment. I've been shopping at Ulta my entire life. And my mom and I both screamed when it happened because she's a huge fan of Ulta. So that was one big pinch me moment. And also just Amazon, being able to work with them. And like I said, using those partnerships to empower small business owners have been absolutely incredible. And so those would be two big marquee pinch me moments, but there have been quite a few along the way.

I feel like every day is a pinch me moment. I love that so much. If you loved this episode, please subscribe, download a few more, and please leave us a review. I really want to hear what you enjoyed, what your main takeaways were, and I also want to know what you want to hear us talk about next. To say thanks for leaving us a review,

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