The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 90. What We Would Tell Ourselves As Beginner Bloggers

Episode Date: September 5, 2023

Today, we are sharing with you the things that we would go back and tell ourselves as beginner bloggers. Although it’s important to not dwell on the past and focus on the future in our blogs, we want to share these things with you early in your blogging journey in hopes that it will help you! Tune in to hear these helpful tips!Thanks for listening! Connect with us on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsApply to the Ultimate Blog Membership! We would love to have you!Check out the show notes (link below) for more information including links and resources mentioned in today's episode!SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode90

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast with Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper. We're on a mission to empower women who want to start or grow their own blog. This podcast is for women who want to learn blogging basics and who crave inspiration and encouragement. Whether you're just getting started or have been a blogger for years, we're excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm, and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success, and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging

and work from home life, all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. Hey there, and welcome to this episode of the Ultimate Blog Podcast. Today, we've got something special for you. It's just me, Jennifer, and Amy today. And we are going to talk to you about all the things that we wish we could tell ourselves if we could go back in time as a beginning blogger. And so what we're hoping is this will be helpful to those of you who are just getting started out in those beginning stages of being a blogger, that this can serve as just some advice and can help you just make some decisions along the way in your blogging journey to set yourself

up for success or just to learn more about what to expect along this road. And so today we just have some different things to talk about and we are just going to jump right in and share with you some of the things that we think or we wish that we would have known as beginning bloggers. of the things that we think or we wish that we would have known as beginning bloggers. Yeah, I think the purpose of today is really just to kind of humanize this blogging experience a little bit and let you know, a lot of you who are listening are just starting, they're just beginning. And we just want you to know that that's where we started too. And we've been there and we get it. And just to encourage you today. And so first and

foremost, I think one of the things that we would look back and tell ourselves is it's much easier to look back and think what you should have done. And you could kind of get in this cycle of kind of beating yourself up about that. And don't do that. That's essentially what we're telling you. Don't look back and say to yourself, well, I should have done this. I should have done that. And don't do that. It's essentially what we're telling you. Don't look back and say to yourself, well, I should have done this. I should have done that. You're on a very specific journey. That journey is yours. Own it. Embrace it. You're going to learn lessons all along the way. You're going to learn things that you are so thankful that you did. And you're going to learn things that you would never do again. And just know that that's all part of the blogging journey. And no two blogs are the same. And I think that it can be really

easy to put ourselves in that comparison trap and look at the person next to you and say, well, look what they're doing and why is mine not doing that or vice versa. And the sooner that you recognize that blogging is very, very independent, and no two paths are the same, I think you're going to have a lot more freedom in your journey. I've shared that before on the podcast that that did take me personally a little while, because I was working so closely with Jennifer, who had been blogging prior to me. And we have two different kinds of blogs. but yet I felt like I should blog just like her. And it took me a while to really realize I need to figure out what's best for me and my

blog and my community and lean into that. It's great to take advice from people. It's great to learn things. But just know that you might not always get the same result or your journey on that specific thing might look a little bit different. It doesn't mean it's wrong. It doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. But just knowing that it's so independent. So that is one of the first things that we both... When we were brainstorming for this episode, really, that was the first thing that came

to mind is just owning your own journey and having confidence in faith and where you are in that journey. And not to look back and beat yourself up too much. I know that I'm guilty of that. It's easy. Like you said, it's easy to look back. Oh, I should have done this. I should have done that. But more just embracing and understanding that aspect that you're going to learn things along the way. And those are part of your journey. And things happen exactly as they should versus like, oh, I wish I could go back and change that because you're going to spend and waste time on something that you can't change. Absolutely. I think with everything,

this can be applied to blogging and life in general, honestly. But we do things and they produce the result of some sort. And it's not with... We don't need to look back and beat ourselves up. But say, what's the lesson I learned? So ask yourself, what's the lesson I learned? How can I take that lesson and apply it to the next decision I'm going to make in my business? Yeah. And when you're getting started, I think you get so excited and you're ready for things to start happening. And honestly, when you're blogging, we talk about this all the time. It's a marathon, not a sprint, and it is a long game. And so just embrace that fact and prepare yourself that this is going to

be a journey and things are going to take probably longer than you think they will. So it might take longer to grow your email list. It might take longer to get traffic. It might take longer to start making money. And not that you shouldn't set some goals for yourself, but just understand and be realistic about the amount of time and energy and work that goes into creating a blog that's going to be successful. And there's going to be different checkpoints along the way. So it's really important to just to know that that that will come in its own time. So you want to start out and just go ahead and present yourself and treat yourself like you're talking to the audience that you want to talk to that you're that you've got it figured out that you're talking to your ideal reader and spend your time on the things that will move the needle forward in those directions to help the people that you're wanting to help and just really focus on consistency. So do the things that are going to get you where you want to go.

So you've set your goals and you're just going to take them one tiny step at a time every single day to work towards those big goals. Because if not, we can start to become overwhelmed. And then we sort of shut down and we don't do anything because the goal seems so big and it seems so far away. So break all those things down and just know that doing one small thing a day is far better than doing nothing because you just cannot make yourself take some big, huge step and set unrealistic goals.

So if you stay consistent, at some point, things really will start to come together. And so you just need to give things time to work. It can take three months, six months, even longer in some areas before you really start to make an impact. You know, and we talk about this in the different platforms, like with Pinterest, it can take a year sometimes for people to start seeing your content there. So just remember that things take time. You're not doing anything wrong.

It just takes time. So don't give up before you get to that point where you start to see the success. Yeah. time. So don't give up before you get to that point where you start to see the success. Yeah. Not giving up, I think, is a really key thing there. Because a lot of times, we do things for a couple weeks and we're like, Oh, I'm going to get so much traffic or I'm going to get new followers. I'm going to get new email subscribers. And we get like two. And you're like, Wow, all that for two people or three people or 10 people or whatever. But what you have to realize, I think, from the beginning is those two people turn into four, who turn into eight, who turn into 12, who turn into more.

And they just slowly start to build upon each other. Everybody starts at ground zero. And just knowing that if that's where you are in your journey, as long as you stay consistent, like Jennifer said, it will grow. It will grow if you're focusing on the right things. Speaking of focusing on the right things, this is going to be great news for some of you. And others of you are going to hate me for saying it, but that's okay. It's more important to focus on growing your email list than your social media following. Why? You've heard us say it a million times. You don't own your social

media following, but your email list is yours. No one can take that list from you. That's yours. You've grown it. You're going to nurture it. And if you focus on what you own, like your blog and your email list and any products or services that you create under this realm of blogging, list and any products or services that you create under this realm of blogging, you have the most control. So focus on actually the value that you're adding to your community, to your audience. Focus on how you're helping them, how you're serving them. I think the thing I want people to understand is a lot of times when you go to an Instagram account or a TikTok, those are vanity metrics. And that does not equal... Just because someone has a lot of followers there does not equal necessarily value or impact that they're actually having

on people. I'm not saying they're not doing that. I'm just telling you that there are other ways that you can make sure that you are really nurturing those people in your community to stay with them. Because time and time again, accounts just get shut down and you have no access to the people that you've grown so hard to gain and have part of your community by adding them to your email list from day one. Even if you have literally one person reading your blog and that person is your mom, get her on your email list. Get your mom on your email list from the get-go. person is your mom, get her on your email list. Get your mom on your email list from the get-go.

That's important. Nurture that list. Those people are the people who want to stay connected to you. They are your biggest supporters. And when you someday have something that you want to sell, maybe you're creating a product or a course or something like that, those are going to be the first people who are going to be in line to support you and purchase from you. So from the get-go, nurture that list. And what we mean by nurturing that list really is just at a basic level, start with an RSS feed. And that essentially means that you're just sending out an email each time a new post goes live. It's automatic. It's sent out automatically if you use email platforms such as ConvertKit. And that is a really easy way to stay. You could do a newsletter. You could do just a check-in once a month or something like that. There's a lot of different ways you can stay engaged with that community that you're building there. But don't underestimate the value

of your email subscribers. Yeah. And I kind of want to circle that back to that one just a little bit, because it also goes hand in hand with knowing that things are going to take time. And I think one of the reasons that people will gravitate to social media versus growing their email list is it is much slower to grow your email list. Generally, it just takes a lot longer and you can get quick wins on social media. You can post a reel that goes viral and get a bunch of followers. But just really be mindful

of what those followers would mean to you and your business. And then make your decisions from there. And we're not saying that social media is not important and won't play a role. But when you're first starting out, just make sure you set your priorities first and focus on the things that will serve you the most in the long run, even if they are going to take a little bit more time.

Are you a blogger and looking for a community of bloggers to network and learn from? We are so excited to share with you that we have created a space for people just like you to learn, connect, and grow in our blogging business. It's called The Ultimate Blog Membership, and we would love to have you join us. The Ultimate Blog Membership is a monthly membership that includes two coaching calls each month and a forum to ask questions and get answers from both of us and others in the community. Each month, we have a coaching call that will help you learn how to grow and improve your blog by bringing in guest experts and coaching ourselves on topics that will help

your business thrive. The other live call each month is a Q&A call where you can hop on and connect with other members and discuss live questions that you have or troubleshoot any areas that need assistance. This community has been incredibly encouraging and motivating since we created it in January of 2022. And we are excited for you to apply to join us. If you are interested in joining us, click the link in our show notes for more information and the application to become part of the group. We want to make sure that we can support you the best. So we have just a few questions that we need you to answer to make sure we'd be a good fit. We are so excited to connect

with you even more in the ultimate blog membership. Check the show notes to apply today. So another thing that we want you to do is figure out your confidence from the beginning. So I think it's really easy to minimize what we're doing when we first start out. We start our blog and we're like, Oh, I'm just going to quietly do this. And that's okay. Sometimes you need some time to think and process and all of that. But then you start creating your blog, you start posting, and you're still being really quiet. You're like, Oh, I'm not sure. I'm just going to dip my foot in there. I'm going to see how this goes. And you're flying under the radar. So nobody that you actually know in real life knows that you've done it. Yeah, you don't connect your personal to your blog accounts, all that stuff. You're trying to keep it all a big

secret. Although people tend to find it somehow or another usually. But we totally understand that feeling. But what we would tell ourselves going back is like, hey, be proud of what you're doing. Be proud of what you're offering. You have value. No matter what it is, even if you think it's small, even if it's decorating tips on a budget, even if it's meal prep for the week,

whatever it is, you're adding value to somebody and be proud of that. And just continue to walk forward in that confidence because that will come through to the people that are following you, that you are confident about what you're sharing. And the other piece of that is don't try to be somebody else, like be who you are, be what you want to share, share what you want to share and do it from a place of that confidence and not worrying about, well, this other person is doing it and they're so much more successful. I need to do what she's doing. I need to share in the way she's sharing. I need to post the kinds of things she's posting so that I can have that same kind of success.

And that rarely ever works out. People truly want you for you. Even if you think you're not that interesting or exciting, I promise you, you are. You will find your people who need what you are offering. And you'll also learn some things along the way. You'll learn about yourself. You'll change. You'll meet people who have other things that they offer to you that help you grow. So it's okay, even if you start out one way and you start to change and morph

the message that you're sending, the types of content that you're creating along the way. It's okay. So just accept the fact that growth is part of the process and always be okay with who you are and what you're offering to your people. Yeah, I think be okay with growth and anticipate growth being part of the process and knowing that when you first start your blog, it might look different three months later or it might look different six months later. It's going to look different five years later. I promise you that.

It's going to be very different than maybe what you had initially intended. And so being willing to also pivot... We didn't write this in our outline to talk about, but being willing to pivot, I think, is really important too. And it ties in actually to our next point, which is making intentional decisions without being afraid of making mistakes. Making mistakes is something that I think that we are all so afraid of. And it keeps us in this fear mentality of, I'm not going to move forward with something because I'm afraid I'm going to fail. I'm afraid it won't work. I'm afraid people are going to think I'm crazy. I mean, insert your excuse there. But you need to look at the decision that you're making and ask yourself, if this works, what would this mean? So ask yourself at the beginning of this decision

making process, because there's going to be a lot of little decisions that you need to make with starting a blog. What do you want to talk about? How do you want to talk about it? If you're talking about something that's more vulnerable, how much of your story do you want to share? How much do you not want to share? There's a lot of different things that you are going to be thinking about. But when you can learn as much as you can, and you can learn how to take the lessons along the way and make informed decisions, you're going to feel a lot more empowered instead of just kind of flying by the seat of your pants and just making decisions to make decisions. There's two slides to that coin though. It's kind of like flying by the seat of your pants. And then there's also

sitting on your rear end and not making any decisions because you're too terrified to make decisions. And so you just stay in this freeze mentality and you don't ever take action. I'm sure I just described some of you. I just described Jennifer and myself in a nutshell. I fly by the seat of my pants and Jennifer sits on her rear and waits to make a really informed decision. Overanalyzer. And so it's nice that we have each other because I make her brave and she reigns me in sometimes. So ask yourself that. Have two parts to that. Before you jump into something, ask yourself, have I really thought through everything that I need to? And if you feel like you have analysis paralysis, ask yourself, am I overthinking this? What is the absolute worst thing that can happen

if I move forward with this decision? If it's not a make or break, if it's not a like, I'm going to lose all the money in my business, and you don't have to invest for X amount of time or whatever, go for it. Just see what might happen and see how that might propel your business forward. My mom has always said to me, you have to spend money to make it sometimes. And so being able to gather that... And this isn't just about making money. This is about other things. But knowing that sometimes you have to take a risk on yourself because the work that you want to do in your blog is that important. And you know that the impact is great on the other side of fear. all the things that we've talked about, but you kind of keep yourself small.

You're just working on this in the nooks and crannies and those things are totally normal, but it's okay to have the confidence that you want to make this into a business and you're going to carve out the time for yourself to focus on that in the beginning. Even if you don't have followers, even if you don't have subscribers yet, it's going to take time to get there.

So go ahead and set those habits in place now that you are working towards the things that are going to make this business successful, that you're allowing at the time that it deserves. Your dream is valid. And blogging is an actual career for many, many, many people. There are lots of successful bloggers. And I would say generally when people are not successful, it's usually just because they burn out because they haven't thought through.

They didn't set the right expectations about the fact that this is a business and it takes time to grow and develop. And so it's just giving yourself that permission from day one to carve out time and to create consistency so that you can work on it like a business from day one. Even if it's just you, which it likely is when you're getting started, you're not probably hiring people and doing all that just yet. Go ahead and start to structure yourself in those ways. So whether it's grabbing yourself a project management tool, so you can start to keep track of what you have to do,

when you should do it, be able to prioritize all those things, documenting some of your processes so that when you are able to bring on a virtual assistant, you're all set and good to go. I mean, I wish I would have done those things from the beginning. And yeah, just really giving myself more structure to my business instead of being like, Oh, well,

it's just me and whatever, I'll get to it. You know, go ahead and do those things from day one. And I think that only helps with the things that we've talked about, like creating the consistency and taking yourself seriously when you put that structure into place and create that time in your day and your week to work on your business. And part of that too, is when you sit down to work and you've carved out that time. Oh my gosh, I feel so guilty right now because I do this all the time. Don't consume content. Don't get on Instagram and say, I'm just going to see, I'm going to get

ideas. I'm going to get inspired. You're going to waste every minute of your time. So create before you consume. Yeah. I love that tip. That was something that we talked about with somebody at the conference that we went to earlier this year. And they said, when they sit down, they create before they consume. And I think you'll find that you're more effective that way. Because that's when the comparison trap comes in is when you sit down and you might have an idea of something that you're wanting to do. And then you're like, well, I'm just going to see how somebody else did this and then see how I can make it better. And then you get on this hole and you're like, well, I can't do it as good as they did it, or it's not going to look the same or, well, they're better at their job or whatever. And then you don't do it

at all because you've wasted all of your time. And then you've told yourself that it's not going to be good enough. So I think take yourself seriously from the start is really important. I think with anything that we've talked about today, that's a really important key thread that I want you to really understand is that take yourself seriously. Consider yourself a business. I don't care if you have five blog posts and you're only able to put out one blog post a week. Take yourself seriously. Yes, you own a business. Yes, I am a blogger. Be proud when you say that. And don't feel any certain way about sharing that with people. And when you have the confidence, that trickles down to your community. And they want to be part of that. They want to be part of a community with someone who

is confident. And so take yourself seriously. And the last point that we want to talk about is if you are in this to be a blogging business, know that there is a cost to getting started. And yes, blogging has a very minimal cost to get started compared to some other businesses that you can start. But you have to ask yourself some important questions. One of them being your time versus your money. Is your time valuable? I hope you answered yes, because it is. And ask yourself, what am I actually capable of doing? I think that's a really interesting thing that we see a lot when people join the bootcamp. They realize, oh, wow, this is actually more than I realized. There's a lot more to blogging than just sitting down and writing. So when you've really set yourself up, you know what it takes

to be a blogger. You know how to create content. You know how to do keyword research and writing. So when you've really set yourself up, you know what it takes to be a blogger, you know how to create content, you know how to do keyword research and SEO, you know how your email marketing strategy is going to be and how you're going to promote your posts, things like that. Then ask yourself, how am I going to break up my week in order to make this happen? And can everything stay on the table? Or do I need to hire something else? And I understand when you're sitting here at the very beginning, I can remember sitting there at the very beginning, like, I could never hire anybody. What are you talking about? There's no way. This is my business. But what I'm going to tell you is, we all have our own zone of genius

and what we should be working on most of the time and what we feel fired up and excited about. If you spend a lot of your time focused on areas of your business that you absolutely hate, that do not bring you joy, and quite frankly, you're not good at, that will show. And it will not allow you to step into the parts of your business that you are meant to be part of. Blogging is like all of these things in one. You're an accountant, you're a marketer, you're a content creator, you're a photographer, you're all these things. And let me just be kind and say this, we're actually not all those things. We are not the best at all of those things. So if you get to a point that you can, we would suggest hiring one person to do

something that maybe you hate doing and you can find somebody who they are like, Oh my gosh, I love doing that. I want to do that all the time. That is what I'm best at. And you pass that one thing off so you can focus on the areas of your business that you are in your zone of genius and you are the best at. So I know that the thought of hiring somebody is a little scary. We're actually going to have somebody on the podcast here in a couple weeks talking about that, when to know to hire and what to look for and all of that. Because that's a piece that even Jennifer and I, this many years later, are still working through is hiring people in our own businesses and with

Spark. And how can we show up in ways that allow us to do that. So I want you to know that this is not just us saying, Oh, that's really easy to do. We've had to navigate the inconsistencies with that ourselves and the pushback of, Okay, I'm going to invest more in my business now. I'm going to take less profit in hopes that there is more profit in return because we're able to focus on the things that really matter. in hopes that there is more profit in return because we're able to focus on the things that really matter. So setting yourself up for success right from the beginning, knowing what you're capable of, knowing where you want to spend your money, I think is really important. And it honestly doesn't have to do with just hiring people.

It can be as far down to your logo design. Guys, when you get started, you don't need a $600 to $1,000 logo. You don't need a brand kit to get started, quite honestly. Start minimally and you can add all those things later down the road. Focus on the things that actually matter and that are actually going to move the needle forward. Any business that you would start is going to require some type of capital. It just is. When you're going to start a business, nobody starts with $0. And if you go into blogging thinking that it's never going to cost you anything, I think that you're setting yourself up for failure a little bit because you're going to need to have furthering education.

Conferences are something that we recommend, obviously, within reason. There's lots of online things that you can be part of in order to continue learning. We have a membership, for example, that we allow bloggers to come into each and every month. And we have two coaching calls every month. That's an investment in their business. And I think it's a worthwhile investment because you're learning and you're networking and you have no idea the impact that you can have with the connections that are made in that group and the things that you learn. So this isn't just hiring things out. It's also what can you do to learn more in your business?

There's a lot of different ways that you can invest in yourself and in your business. Yeah, we've talked about a lot of good ones today. And I think the thing is, it's not like we have these all figured out. There are things that we still work on on a daily basis too, I think. And so our goal is really just to provide you with some insight all these years down the road as to what we would have liked to have known all those years ago. Maybe it would have, I don't know, helped us a little bit along the way or probably just caused us a little bit less pain, a few less tears. I'm not sure. Yeah. But I think we can always look back and say, Oh, I would have, could have, should have.

But when we really just say, Oh, okay, this is how the journey unfolded because this is how it was meant to unfold. And I think when you just take note of that, you learn so much with every experience. And when we focus on the lesson versus like we've said is beating yourself up, then I think we can really just continue to move forward and continue to grow a successful blogging business. Yeah. Awesome. Thanks for joining us today, guys. I hope that you've felt inspired in some way, especially if you're at the starting line and you're getting started. I hope that there's one area of this that you can really take to heart and move forward with today after kind of hearing some

of our tips that we would go back and tell ourselves as beginners. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with us, please find us on Instagram at Spark Media Concepts. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration. You can sign up by finding the link in the show notes for those of you who are ready for the next step and want to start your own blog, join the wait list for the ultimate blog bootcamp. The link to join the wait list is also in the show notes, go out and make today a great day.