Earlier this year, I did an interview on my friend, Brittany Krystal’s Beyond Influential podcast. I happened to be listening to it recently and I wanted to share the episode with my listeners. My goal has always been to provide my audience with as much value and inspiration as I possibly can. In this episode of Her Life, By Design, Brittany interviews me on my business. If you’re an aspiring digital entrepreneur, here’s how I grew my 7-figure business as a blogger from the ground up (and how you can too).
How I Grew a 7-Figure Business as a Blogger
Starting From Scratch
I operated under the name The Bold Brunnette when I first started my blog and Instagram account. The account initially focused primarily on luxury travel. I started landing great brand collaborations with travel companies like the Ritz Carlton. Because of that, I was able to leave my 9-5 to pursue a full-time career as a travel influencer.
It wasn’t until later that I decided to make the switch from The Bold Brunette to fully operating under my name. The decision to drop my blogger name came about because I wanted to lean into my personal brand. I wanted to make my name identifiable and to build myself as an industry leader.
To help prepare for the switch, I made sure to talk to my audience about the transition. Doing this ensured that they weren’t caught off guard when the time came.
From Travel Influencer to Digital Entrepreneur
At one point, I realized I had outgrown my blogger name because of the messages I was receiving on Instagram. In 2017, I had been working as a full-time travel influencer for about a year and a half. Around that time, I started receiving messages asking me how they (my audience) could become an influencer and do what I do for a living.
Although my audience enjoyed my travel content, they wanted to know how they could become influencers themselves. It was then that I realized that the key to your empire as an influencer doesn’t lie in brand collaborations. Instead, building a large empire means solving a problem your audience is struggling with. Although I loved working with brands, this was pivotal to growing my 7-figure business as a blogger
A New Alignment as An Online Educator
After listening to my audience, I decided to launch my first course — the Influencer Bootcamp. I wanted to take quick action to share my knowledge with my audience as soon as possible, which resulted in a messy and hasty initial launch. A lot of the first two years of my business were spent putzing around trying to make things work. It wasn’t until later that I learned more about sales strategy.
But despite my lack of sales knowledge at that time, I knew the information I had could provide my students with the transformation they wanted to see. If you’re an influencer or blogger hoping to launch a course, you need to make sure that you’re teaching something that you have firsthand experience with. For instance, don’t teach others how to land 5-figure collaborations if you’ve never done it before.
I dive deeper into the responsibilities course creators have prior to launching their product in this episode. Brittany and I also discuss how an online course’s value is subjective, and the different moving parts of building a course.
$0 – $500K – $1 Million in Revenue
The Influencer Bootcamp wasn’t an overnight hit. In fact, a lot of my business’ success could be boiled down to these few things:
- Listening to my gut about where my passions are headed (i.e leaning into the online education space)
- Making smart business investments
- Taking action and fleshing out ideas in detail
- A lot of hard work and hustle
You can normally tell if an entrepreneur is going to succeed based on their work ethic and drive. There’s no way around the hustle if you’re determined to build something — you have to put in the work. In two years, I was able to build a half-a-million-dollar business that was on track to $1 million in revenue. That wouldn’t be possible without serious trial and error and taking action, no matter how scary they were.
Making Investments in Your Business
If you’ve followed me for quite some time, you know that I am a huge advocate for making smart investments in your business. I would not have been able to achieve what I have so far without these investments. From online courses to mentors, the investments I’ve made in my business has helped me grow exponentially.
For many beginning entrepreneurs, the price tag of making these types of investments can be terrifying. Today, I can safely say that these investments have paid for themselves tenfold. In the episode, I share the best online course investments I’ve made that took my business to a whole new level.
Never Let Competition Stop You
More often than not, new influencers and course creators shy away from pursuing a career in that space because of competition. I advise all my students not to think of competition as saturation, but as noise. Truthfully, there is enough room for everyone in every space. People connect with different educators and influencers for very simple facts such as their personality, or how they write and speak. Everyone is going to be attracted to a different kind of person, so show up as yourself and you’ll stand out naturally.
As you’re first starting out, it’s completely normal to look at what other influencers around you have done to figure out your style. Eventually, you’ll grow your confidence and you’ll be able to add your own spin to things. At the beginning of my career, I surrounded myself with other influencers who were taking photos, writing, and speaking in a certain way. It didn’t align with who I was so I started discovering my own style. It’s a progression that takes time so be kind to yourself and be patient.
In this episode, Brittany and I dive more into detail about how to navigate entering a saturated field. We talk about why there’s room for everyone and why not being a trailblazer may work to your advantage.
I Built My Business From the Ground Up and You Can Too
It’s crazy to think that just a few years ago, I was trying everything I possibly could to figure out my business. At that time, I never thought that I would be where I am today. In this episode, I share all the steps I took in order to build my business into a 7-figure empire as a blogger.
Brittany and I chat about every aspect of my business from the very beginning. From brand collaborations to hiring my team, this episode will provide you with a road map on how you can take your blogging and influencer career to new heights.
relevant links:
Brittany’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brittanykrystle/
Beyond Influential podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-influential/id1264581842
drop some love in itunes:
If you enjoyed this episode, go ahead and hit SUBSCRIBE. There is a new episode every Wednesday and I would hate for you to miss a thing. Click here to subscribe on iTunes.
AND if you are feeling extra generous, take a few seconds to leave Her Life By Design a review on Apple Podcasts. Or post a screenshot on your Stories with some feedback. 😊Hearing what you think about this episode and the podcast as a whole means the WORLD to me. After all, this is all for you. More reviews = more listeners = better guests & content.
All you gotta do is click here to review, click “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review.” I’ll love you forever!
+ show Comments
- Hide Comments
add a comment