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#209: How to Grow Your Income in 2022

ByJillian Leslie

Don’t miss my solo episode on how to grow your income in 2022 without having to rely on social media algorithms.

Please don’t build your business on shaky ground. Make sure you are building your business on something more solid… like your audience. Serve them, teach them, and they will buy from you.

Check out this episode to learn how and join my 5-Day Email Challenge to set up a paid workshop!

How to Grow Your Income in 2022 | The Blogger Genius Podcast with Jillian Leslie

Show Notes:

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Intro 0:04
Welcome to the Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here’s your host, Jillian Leslie.

Jillian Leslie 0:11
Hello, my friends. Welcome back to the Blogger Genius Podcast. I am your host, Jillian Leslie, and I’m super happy that you’re here.

How to Grow Your Income in 2022 Without Relying on Algorithms

Today, I am doing a solo episode. It’s almost like a manifesto, where I want to talk to you directly on how to grow your income in 2022. So, my two words for 2022 are monetize and engage. I’m going to talk about both of them.

But first, I need to share that I am an Enneagram 6. And I don’t know if you follow the Enneagram. But being a six means I am fear-based. I am a trooper. But really, I think of being a six is I can’t stand when people are dishonest with me. I am a truth seeker.

In fact, I was on a call recently doing a recording. And the woman I was interviewing said, “Oh my God, your podcast. It’s my favorite podcast. And I learned so much from you.” And I said, “Thank you.”

And then my next question is, “What can I do better?” I want you to tell me what I can do better how I can improve. Even if it hurts my feelings. I want you to be my girlfriend who tells me I have spinach in my teeth. I will love you for it; I will feel safe with you.

In this podcast episode that’s what I want to do. I want to tell you where I see people being honest, and where I see people being dishonest. So, I hope you enjoy this.

How to Grow Your Income in 2022 | The Blogger Genius Podcast with Jillian Leslie

How to Get Social Media to Work for You

First thing I want to talk about is social media. We all now love to hate social media yet it’s a big part of our business.

I have a whole strategy, a way of thinking about this, which is how do you use social media for your advantage so that they are not then taking advantage of you.

They want you to create content for these platforms, and they might even pay you with their creator funds. But it’s like building your business, as we know on quicksand, look at Pinterest; it was driving all this traffic and no longer.

Therefore your job with social media is to build an audience. And of course, you’re going to go duh, of course, that’s what I do. And I build my followers. But I say you get known by creating content that you can share on social media so people find out who you are.

Move People From Social Media to Your Email List

And then your job is to move those people off of social media onto your email list. I cannot stress enough how important your email list is, it’s a really valuable asset.

Because at the end of the day, these are people who know, like and trust you and ready for it… they will buy from you. We’ll get to that in a second. How do you move them from social media to your list?

A couple things. One, you can use a pop-up like our MiloTree pop-up and have them join your list. You can offer them something of value in exchange for their email address.

Go create something in Canva, you know the problems they are struggling with and chances are you’ve got a solution. So, if there’s one thing I beg you to do it is get those followers off of those platforms, and move them on to your list.

Think of social media as top of your funnel; it is not your whole funnel, it’s actually hard to make conversions on social media. Yes, you can do it. But it’s trickier.

But the end goal is not lots of followers or the end goal is eventually it’s going to drive so much traffic to my site, I’m going to be able to monetize via ads, or sponsors. If you can do that, that’s great.

The way you build a solid business, to grow your income, is if you can sell to your audience. So the bigger your audience, the more potential customers you have.

Jillian Leslie

So, now I know you’re sitting here going okay, well, what do I sell to my audience? I don’t have any ideas. Or maybe I’ve tried selling products and it hasn’t worked. What do I do?

Well, this is actually why David and I built MiloTree Easy Payments. So this is where I’m going to tell you the truth. If you see anything that says hey, buy my course and make a million dollars or this is how I made a million dollars.

Or all you need is my $1,000 course and it’s going to change your life, please run. It’s not the way you build a business on the internet. It feels really good. It might have worked for some people, but I would say be very skeptical.

I’m going to use the analogy of wanting to find your life partner, somebody that you can settle down with start a family with and live a beautiful life with. I’m going to paint two pictures. And you tell me which one seems like it’s going to give you more success.

Because you’ll see this connects to business building. So one is what I’m going to do, I am going to go off for six months, and I’m going to lose 15 pounds, I am going to rework my entire wardrobe.

I’m going to buy a bunch of courses that talk about relationships and how best to be in a relationship. I’m going to hire somebody to optimize my account on Hinge. I think Hinge is the new dating app.

Then what I’m going to do is go on one date with the most perfect person because I have read their dating profile. Our eyes are going to meet we are going to fall madly in love.

This is my life partner. In fact, we should just cut to the chase and get married. So we could live happily ever after.

You hear this and you go okay, that is crazy.

For any of you who have found their life partner, you know, this second picture I’m going to paint is much more real. It’s how the whole thing works. It’s messy; it is about going on a bunch of dates, and getting into relationships.

And by being in the relationship. And being in the muck, you learn stuff, you learn what it’s like to fight and what it’s like to make up and what qualities you want in a partner.

You learn about yourself, and you are constantly learning, as you’re making it up as you’re being challenged. This is the way you learn and you grow.

And here’s a perfect example. So David, who is my business partner, and my life partner had a girlfriend and his girlfriend told him that when she would get haircuts, that his job was to compliment her hair.

He would never have known this had he not been in this previous relationship. And guess what, he learned that and he took it into his relationship with me. So when I get my haircut, he compliments me on my hair. That’s the way we grow.

And we learn, and guess what, he’s a better boyfriend, partner everything because of this. I want you to think about this when it comes to building businesses.

So, I recommend you stop planning and researching and watching YouTube videos and listening to experts. And you just do.

The concept of “Make to Know.”

There is this very powerful concept called “Make to Know”. You have to make stuff to know at the end if it is something if it’s going to work. So, please stop trying to get your ducks in a row.

Jillian Leslie

You know this as somebody living life, you never get your ducks in a row, I always have tried and it’s never worked. And I’m sure you have felt the same way. And for somebody like me who can be kind of anal, I have to keep relearning this lesson.

For example, I’m recording this, I have some notes. But I’m winging it here. Because I feel like I have something meaningful to share. And by the way, when you’re in a relationship, the more vulnerable you can be the better.

If you’re guarded, it’s hard to really break down barriers and become intimate with somebody, you’ve got to take risks. And I want to say it’s the same thing with business building.

So when somebody says, hey, take my course, or sign up for my very expensive platform that you are then going to have to use to put up all this content, let’s talk about it in terms of creating a course.

You sign up for Teachable or Kajabi or any of these platforms, and you get your first 14 days free, but then you’re going to start paying. And now you’ve got to go create the lessons and the videos and the PDFs and figure out the modules and all of this stuff.

It’s like you are going to be going on that first date and you’ve hired the fashion consultant and the relationship consultant. And you got the personal trainer but you haven’t even stepped out the door.

Again with business building, you see the parallels here. Therefore, how do you know that people are going to show up for your course?

You’ve now spent six months building it, but you do not know if you go on this date that it’s going to be a love connection, same thing. So what do you do?

Start Small and Create Products to Test

Well, instead what I recommend you do is you start small but you create products to put in front of your audience to see if they are interested. And you say, “How do I do this?”

Well, to be honest with you why we built MiloTree Easy Payments, what we said. So here are some truths ready. Technology is hard. I talk about this a lot; I’m pretty good at technology.

And yet, I will tell you there are times I send myself five password resets, and I cannot get into my account. This just happened to me three days ago, on TikTok, I don’t know what my username was, something got messed up.

And every time this happens to me, I feel bad about myself, I do. It’s hard. And I say to David, “Oh, my God, technology is really hard.”

So this hot idea like I’m going to sign up for one of these all-in-one platforms, it’s going to make it super easy. Never trust that. There is no such thing as an-all-in one platform.

And I know this, because as we were building out MiloTree Easy Payments, what we noticed is people who were using, one of these learning management systems to create a course or membership or whatever, they were hacking together other solutions.

They’re saying I want my email service provider. And now I’ve got Zapier connecting to this, this this. And I cannot tell you how complicated their setups were.

And this was a big moment of realization for David and me saying, when people are saying it’s all-in-one, don’t trust them. Therefore, we set out to create something that’s kind of like a hub that connects other pieces of your business together.

Meaning with MiloTree Easy Payments, we give you a way to set up a product like a paid workshop, which is what I’m going to talk about. And we give you a way to have a link so somebody can buy it.

We give you free sales pages, infinite sales pages, so you can put your offer in front of people. Here’s the thing, we don’t offer email, we connect to your email service provider, we give you a dashboard where you can manage your subscribers.

And we help with things like payments. But that’s all we do. And then we say to you, we’ll help you set up your product, your product details, give you a way for people to sign up.

And then godspeed, go host a paid workshop on Zoom, see if people are interested in this. But set it up, test it don’t build it out. And see if people are interested in what you’re offering.

This is like going on a date. And not getting all dressed up. But just going you know what I’m going to have to go on a bunch of dates to figure out who I then want to potentially even get into a relationship with.

No Monthly Fee with MiloTree Easy Payments

Being an Enneagram 6, and somebody who is always looking for people to be honest with me. When we were setting up MiloTree Easy Payments, what we decided is we were not going to charge a monthly fee.

We were going to charge a percentage of somebody’s sales, 5%. And the reason we wanted to do this was because we didn’t want people signing up for $99 a month, let’s say and it takes them three months, and they don’t create whatever this product is.

And now we’ve made $300 and they’ve made nothing. And they’re probably going to churn but that’s okay. Because if we can just get more people signing up and maybe using our product, maybe not we don’t care that felt dishonest.

Therefore, we are completely aligned with our customers. If you’re not making money, we’re not making money. And guess what, if you are making money, you’re happy to pay us 5%. Because it’s just easy. And you know that we’re on your site.

So what do I recommend? Well, with Milotree Easy Payments, you could set up a membership quickly in a Facebook group or using Zoom or email, you can offer coaching or services or classes or contract work.

How to Grow Your Income in 2022 | The Blogger Genius Podcast with Jillian Leslie

Set Up a Paid Workshop to Sell to Your Audience

But where I would start is offering a one-hour paid workshop on Zoom. Because I know that you know things that can help people. And all I want to help you do is identify that in yourself, and then help you get paid for sharing what you know.

So definitely, sign up for my five-day free email challenge to set up a paid workshop, super easy. You get five emails from me and I give you tiny tasks to follow each day to get your paid workshop set up.

And you go, “I don’t know what to teach.” And I go, “No problem. I bet you have an inkling a possible idea.” And so I say I’m going to give you some worksheets to explore that idea. I’m going to help you set up your product. I’m going to help you set up your sales page.

And then I say go put this out in front of your audience and see if people buy from you before you build out anything. See if you are onto something. Think about this in terms of dating.

That life partner is out there, and it’s about you finding that person. Therefore, you put this offer in front of your audience, and you see whether there’s any interest.

Get on the Phone with Your Biggest Fans

Now here is the piece about engage, go to your biggest fans, get on the phone with them, see if this is something interesting to them. See how they would want you to tweak it, like you reach out to get close to your community and they’re individual people.

So, go reach out to five people and see what they say, because your job is to learn from them before you build anything. You see, what they are really struggling with. And how can you help them in their lives.

Now, where it applies to me is I want you as you’re going through this process to engage with me, I’m going to send you an email, great. Reply to that email; tell me what it was like for you to build out this little stage.

And remember, these are tiny tasks; you can do them in a very short amount of time. But you’ve got a question, reach out to me, I’d love it if you took photos of your worksheets and email them to me.

It’s almost like I want to be your relationship coach as you go through the messy process of going on dates, to find your life partner. And remember, your life partner is out there.

But you don’t want to spend $1,000 on an outfit for one date, it doesn’t make any sense. And by the way, I want to do this all for free because I want you to be successful. Because if you’re successful, I’m successful. I call this a win-win.

And when I think about my mission in life, my mission is to help others grow businesses so that they can live the lives they want. So that they have financial freedom. That is what gets me up every day. That is why I love this podcast.

Sign Up for the Free 5-Day Challenge to Build a Paid Workshop

And I love helping and I want to grow a business myself with David, I want to make MiloTree Easy Payments a success. But I want to do it honestly, authentically. I really want to create a platform that helps you make money.

Therefore step one is sign up for free email challenge. Head to milotree.com/challenge.

Because I know you have a one hour workshop to teach something to your audience where you can give them a win that helps them in their lives that moves them forward on their journey. And you can start to monetize that.

Will it be your first idea? I don’t know. But is there an idea out there that you can be successful with? I promise you there is. I call this as you know, mining for gold?

Once you find a little bit of gold guess what? Chances are there is more gold there. So you do one paid workshop. And guess what? You listen to your audience and you figure out what else they’re struggling with. And you offer another one and another one.

And then there are coaching services that you can offer. And then it might lead into a membership. Who knows?

But one thing I want to say you will not get rich from your first workshop. I hope you do. But chances are it’s really a way to continue to build that relationship.

So, in 2022 I feel the way we are going to build businesses that are not on quicksand, where we’re constantly in fear of algorithm changes.

We dig in and we serve our people they become our North Star.

It is not the Instagram algorithm or how well I’ve optimized my posts for SEO that is not the end game. The end game is having people to serve who pay you for your expertise.

And I say this your “expertise” with a small ‘e’. But some way that you can touch others and ready for it, monetize at the same time. This is kind of my manifesto. It is time we relied on ourselves.

It is time we use social media for our good and we stop feeling manipulated and like we’ve got to serve all of these masters who changed the rules on us.

Instead, think about yourself as somebody who can make somebody else’s life a little bit better, whether it is through a recipe, parenting tips, a craft. Anything that you can do to lighten someone else’s load, how wonderful does that sound?

And you get to get paid. Go to milotree.com/challenge and sign up for my challenge. And you’ll get the first email and then please engage with me, there’s that word engage with me. And I am going to recommend you engage with your people closely.

We’re in this weird digital world, but we are real people. So as you’re going through the challenge, there’s a challenge and a Facebook group and join the Facebook group. And I would love to jump on a Zoom call with you for free.

Because remember, if you’re successful, I’m successful. So that I can help you build a real, authentic business. Really, that is my passion. And that is my dream. So if you have any questions about this, reach out to me at Jillian@milotree.com.

Again, get on the challenge. It’s totally free. You’ll start getting some emails from me reply to the emails. I’d love to hear from you. And it is milotree.com/challenge. I can’t wait to be part of your success. And I will see you here again next week.

Other Blogger Genius Podcast episodes to listen to:

Imagine a world where growing your social media followers and email list was easy…

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Let it pop up in front of your visitors and ask them to follow you on Instagram Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, join your list, check out the exit intent but really get your community growing. And we’d love to help you with MiloTree. And I will see you here again next week.

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