$1.5k in First Month from Ebooks & Workshops

In today’s episode of The Blogger Genius Podcast, Jillian Leslie digs into the fascinating story of gluten-free sourdough baker and food blogger, Natasha Levai, creator of Natasha’s Home, on how she made $1.5k in her first month selling ebooks and workshops.

The Power of Digital Products

Before diving dive into Natasha’s story, Jillian want to share a tool that has been a game-changer for so many non-techies. It’s called MiloTreeCart, a platform that simplifies the process of selling digital products. It’s currently available for a lifetime deal of $349 or three easy installments.

And guess what? If you purchase the tool by September 15th, you’ll receive a Customized Product Action Plan for FrREE that gives you the step-by-step instructions on how to create your first 3 digital products! Jillian usually charges $250 for this service, but it’s free until September 15th, so act now.

Natasha’s Journey to Digital Products

Natasha, who is based in Hungary, was inspired by the podcast episode of Eat Blog Talk, where Jillian discussed with the host, Megan Porta, the ease of selling digital products. Natasha felt that as a blogger, she should have a digital product to sell.

Despite her limited time, Natasha quickly created an ebook by compiling her blog recipes and styling it using Canva. She kept it simple, with sixteen recipes and notes, and priced it at $9.

Show Notes:

• MiloTreeCart
• Personality Quiz: What Digital Product Should I Create?
• MiloTree Pop-Up App
• Natasha’s Home
• Eat Blog Talk Podcast
• Join My Blogger Genius Email List
• Catch My Party
• Become a Blogger Genius Facebook Group
• MiloTreeCart Affiliate Program
• All Blogger Genius Podcast Episodes

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The Power of Niche and Community

One of her best ebook marketing strategies was to promote it to her Facebook group, which boasts over 22,000 members and is highly engaged due to its niche focus on gluten-free sourdough. She believes that the group’s engagement has contributed to its rapid growth.

They discussed the importance of finding a niche and how it has contributed to Natasha’s success. She shared her initial hesitation about narrowing down her focus to gluten-free baking, but ultimately found that it simplified her life and allowed her to become an expert in a specific area.

The Ebook Success

Initially skeptical, Natasha was pleasantly surprised when people started buying the ebook. She also tried selling the ebook on her website, but most of the sales came from her Facebook group.

Exploring Other Platforms

Natasha reached out to Jillian for advice on other platforms to sell her ebook. She had heard about Gumroad but was concerned about the percentage they would take from her sales. After discovering that MiloTreeCart didn’t take a cut from sales, Natasha became interested in our lifetime membership offer.

Investing in Your Audience

Jillian believes in the concept of karma on the internet, where putting out good content leads to receiving good things in return. She wants to help my audience grow their businesses because it brings her happiness and contributes to the growth of her own business.

Natasha’s Experience with MilotreeCart

Natasha shares her positive experience with MilotreeCart. She appreciates the templates and resources they offer for free, which have helped her make back more than she initially invested. She believes that investing in MilotreeCart is a great opportunity for those with an existing audience.

Launching Her First Workshop

Natasha’s experience hosting her first paid workshop was a significant milestone in her journey. After the success of her ebook, she decided to expand her offerings and create workshops to provide more value to her audience. She put in effort to plan and deliver a high-quality workshop, and the results were impressive. Hosting her one-hour live workshop, she made over $400. Natasha found out that creating successful workshops was something she could do.

The “B-minus Work” Concept

Natasha was initially skeptical and nervous about setting up and delivering the workshop. However, she found comfort in my concept of “B-minus work,” where it’s okay to not strive for perfection but still deliver above-average content. This mindset relieved the pressure of having a perfect setup and allowed Natasha to use her phone and computer to create her workshops.

Future Opportunities

Natasha expresses her desire to host another workshop due to its success in terms of sales and positive feedback. She contemplates starting a membership program, inspired by another guest on the podcast who offered a membership for $18.

The Importance of Experimentation

Jillian emphasized the importance of experimentation and seeking feedback from her audience. She praised Natasha for her inspiring work and expressed her excitement at her progress and future goals.

The Unexpected Success

Natasha shares her excitement about the growth of her blog and her ability to invest in essential tools and courses. She mentions the unexpected success of digital products and her dreams of making a full-time income from blogging.

In conclusion, Natasha’s journey is a testament to the power of digital products, niche communities, and the importance of investing in your audience. Jillian hope her story inspires you to start your own product adventure.

Other related Blogger Genius Podcast episodes you’ll enjoy:

• Hosting Paid Workshops to Increase Your Income with Ashley Greenwood
• The Secret Sauce to Food Blogging Success: SEO and AI with Marley Braunlich
• Writing an Ebook is Easier than You Think: Step-by-Step Guide – Solo Episode with Jillian Leslie

MiloTreeCart, the Best Tool for Non-Techies to Sell Digital Products

I also want to introduce you to the MiloTreeCart, a tool designed for non-techies to sell digital products easily. It comes with features like fill-in-the-blank sales pages, check-out pages, a sales dashboard, upsells, and customer support. MiloTreeCart is currently available for a lifetime deal of $349 or three easy installments of $116.33. Plus, there’s a limited-time offer of a one-hour free coaching call for those who purchase before the end of August.

Full Transcript: “Unlock the Strategy: $1.5k in First Month from Ebooks & Workshops”

Jillian Leslie (00:00:00) – My name is Jillian and I’m hosting the Blogger Genius podcast. Before we get into today’s interview, let me ask you a question. Are you wishing you could sell digital products like digital downloads or workshops, memberships, coaching mini courses, but you don’t know where to start? And are you tired of complicated tech and spending way too much money on monthly subscriptions? Well, you need a tool that makes all of this simple, and the answer is Milo Tree cart. So this is the tool we built for non techies who want to tap into a new income stream with military cart. You get fill in the blank sales pages, check out pages, a sales dashboard upsells over 100 done for you, marketing materials and support from people who seriously care. And right now, for a limited time, we are selling Milo tree cart for a lifetime deal of 349 pay once or in three easy installments and enjoy it forever. Hit pause right now head to Milo Tree. We offer a 30 day no questions asked money back guarantee so there is no risk.

Jillian Leslie (00:01:08) – And if you purchase by September 15th, I will give you a customized product action plan. We’ll get on a short call. I’ll hear all about your business, and then I will deliver you a step by step plan of how to create your first three digital products. I usually charge an additional $250 for this, but you get yours free before September 15th. So head to military.com to sign up.

Announcer (00:01:39) – Welcome to the Blogger Genius podcast brought to you by Milo Tree. Here’s your host, Jillian Leslie.

Jillian Leslie (00:01:47) – Hello my friends. Welcome back to the show. This episode has such a good story in it, it is all about possibility making money in ways you didn’t know you could. Today I am interviewing Natasha Levy from the food blog Natasha’s Home. She is a gluten free sourdough baker, and she went on a journey that she is going to share. On how she started selling an e-book that led to a workshop that led to another workshop, And now she’s made almost $1,500 in less than two months. She just kept saying yes and trying, and that’s all it takes.

Jillian Leslie (00:02:27) – So without further delay, here is my interview with Natasha Levy. Natasha, welcome to the Blogger Genius podcast.

Natasha Levai (00:02:41) – Thank you for having me. It’s really fun.

Jillian Leslie (00:02:43) – Where where are you located?

Natasha Levai (00:02:46) – I am in Hungary. It’s Eastern Europe.

Jillian Leslie (00:02:50) – Not it. Okay.

Natasha Levai (00:02:50) – And close. Sorry.

Jillian Leslie (00:02:53) – Oh, no.

Natasha Levai (00:02:54) – I just wanted to add this really close to Ukraine. We’re like a couple hours away from the border, I think.

Jillian Leslie (00:02:59) – Okay. And is it safe where you are?

Natasha Levai (00:03:01) – Yes. Yes, it is. It was it was very uncertain when the war started. But right now it is.

Jillian Leslie (00:03:07) – That is very good to hear. Now, you are a food blogger and your niche is.

Natasha Levai (00:03:14) – Gluten free and specifically gluten free sourdough. I love.

Jillian Leslie (00:03:17) – That. So gluten free sourdough. Then this is a fun story. I came into your universe when.

Natasha Levai (00:03:25) – So I really like listening to podcasts. When I go on walks or when I’m doing dishes or something. And I like to be inspired about my blogging journey because I’m alone and it can be lonely.

Natasha Levai (00:03:36) – And there are a couple of podcasts that listen to is either blog, talk, podcast, the Food Blogger Pro and a couple of others. And so I was listening to her to Megan’s podcast on Digital Products, and you were the one speaking, and it was really inspiring to hear how easy it could be to sell digital products. And I think what inspired me, it kind of also convicted me a little bit is when you said that everybody should you know, that you don’t understand why if you are a blogger, you don’t have a digital product to sell. And I thought, man, I must be missing out on something that I should try at least, you know.

Jillian Leslie (00:04:14) – Right. And so because I was saying if you’re a food blogger and you’re not selling digital products, you are missing out. Okay. So you took that in and you and you thought to yourself, wait, I should create one? And what did you do?

Natasha Levai (00:04:27) – So I remembered I think Megan’s other episodes where other people were saying that they just take the recipes they have on their blogs and they put it in an e-book and sell it.

Natasha Levai (00:04:39) – And it seemed to me a little bit like it’s not going to work. It’s free on my site, like you’re always saying on your podcast as well, that that’s something that people always stumbling with. They think that nobody’s going to want to buy something that’s available online. But I heard that other people are having success with it. So I did that very quickly because I don’t have much time. I have about a couple hours every single day that I spend on my blog, and I didn’t want to spend a whole ton of time on that and then fail. So I just put all the recipes together. In Canva, I downloaded a free cooking e-book from some other random blogger to see how she styles it so that I can at least have an idea of what I can do. And then I styled it in a similar way, and literally all I put there is my recipes with some notes that I already have on my site, and I changed some things with ChatGPT, but I didn’t do much extra work.

Natasha Levai (00:05:34) – And then and I put it out there first and I said, If you would rather have an e-book, then go to the side for the recipes. Here is I made an e-book and you can buy it for like $9.

Jillian Leslie (00:05:47) – Okay. But wait, let me let me stop you for a second. How many recipes did you put into the e-book? 16, 16 recipes. Did you put a photo and the recipe? What was like in for each recipe? What did it look like?

Natasha Levai (00:06:02) – So I put. A recipe. And on the side there’s like a little glimpse of the photo because I didn’t want to stuff it with pictures because I thought if people are going through an e-book, maybe they don’t necessarily want to see huge pictures and have a whole ton of pages with text. And it was a little bit tricky like how big the text should be because it’s kind of small on desktop. I don’t know how it’s going to be on mobile. And then when you go to Kindle, you know, on Kindle also words are very small and it can people read this or not? But I Googled all this information and was able to create some things.

Natasha Levai (00:06:37) – So the pictures were kind of on the side. And I didn’t have full size pictures because I thought it’s unnecessary. I don’t know. I didn’t have step by step either because I thought there’s too much work and I’ll put it out there. And if people say they want step by step pictures, I’ll put it in. And it’s you know, and I $9 book. And so I’m not going to you know, it’s not something that I’m selling for $50 and then disappointing people. Yeah and so I put it out on so.

Jillian Leslie (00:07:03) – Okay so wait, so now we need to take a step back. You have a very big Facebook group.

Natasha Levai (00:07:11) – Yes.

Jillian Leslie (00:07:13) – And people are responsive in that Facebook group. How many how many followers, how many people in your Facebook group?

Natasha Levai (00:07:20) – So we have right now 22,000 people, I think. And it is a little bit like it’s not normal. I think it’s out of the norm. How does Facebook group formed? I started it four months ago and we are 22,000 and we’re growing even more and faster and faster.

Natasha Levai (00:07:36) – And I think the reason for this is the that my group is very, very, very niche down. We’re literally only about Gluten-Free sourdough. All you can talk about is how you made this recipe. And there, let’s say a few bloggers who blog about this. So there are many recipes people are trying, but pretty much all you’ll see in that group is people posting pictures of their bread and what worked and what didn’t. And I think that Facebook sees that it’s a very engaged group. So Facebook gives it as a suggestion for other people that maybe you should join this group. That’s my theory. I don’t know how exactly it works, but I don’t have any other explanation why my group is exploding because I’m not advertising it so much anyway. I’m doing like basic SEO for that group, you know, the keywords and the title. I put a link in my cover picture on my profile to that, and I did kind of promote it at first and other Facebook groups, but it was in the first maybe a couple of weeks and then I stopped because it wasn’t very authentic.

Natasha Levai (00:08:39) – People were a little bit frustrated sometimes, and even people who already joined my group, they were in those other groups and then that complain, Why do I post a link to my group and not to the recipe? So I was like, okay, I don’t want to upset people from the get go as I’m starting the group. And I think. Also, people feel that they are experts in something because they see people posting about the same topic all the time and then they respond to those people and they feel heard, they feel seen. They feel like they’ve got some experience because they’ve been on this journey for a while and so they feel good about themselves contributing to other people because this is a very, very narrow down topic and everybody feels like they are on the same page, you know, versus being in a group that is called, let’s say, gluten free recipes and advice. There is a group like this and I am in that group, but honestly, I’m not so interested in what people are posting in that group because it’s so broad.

Natasha Levai (00:09:38) – Like you could be posting about gluten free pizza you had in a restaurant and asking what options they have, let’s say, in that restaurant for gluten free. And I might be making gluten free chocolate chip cookies. And so we are so, so much in different pages that, you know, it’s not doesn’t bring people so close.

Jillian Leslie (00:09:57) – So what I hear you saying is niching down is good. People come to me all the time and say, oh no, maybe I’ve niched down too small. But you gluten free sour dough recipes is very niche within food. So definitely if you are a food blogger, I recommend you think like Natasha and get even narrower, narrower and they feel this way. No matter what your niche is, try getting small because there are people all over the world who probably are obsessed with that specific thing. I got on a call once with a guy who. Cells, not trains. You know, like trains you set up in your basement. He sells the accoutrements to decorate the land around the train track.

Jillian Leslie (00:10:57) – So, like, the houses and the trees and the little people, he doesn’t sell the trains or the tracks. He sells all of these DIY kits and things to to make your train landscape full. And he has this thriving business selling these kits. And I thought, Oh my God, you don’t even sell the trains. And he’s like, No. Or the tracks. No. So it was such a lesson for me about being more niche than you think that you can the riches are in the niches and you’re an example of that because your Facebook group is exploding. You know, if somebody is in your Facebook group, they’re not just gluten free, but they’re interested in not just gluten free bread, they’re interested in gluten free sourdough.

Natasha Levai (00:11:50) – Yes. And it is very scary, I think, to niche down for people. And I think I can understand why because when I started my blog, I wasn’t a Gluten-Free blogger at all. I was just a blogger. And I decided I’ll figure myself out as I go.

Natasha Levai (00:12:05) – And it was scary to niche down to gluten free because I thought, I don’t want to be baking gluten free every single day. I don’t want to only eat gluten free for the rest of my life. But the truth is that I’m not photographing and posting about every single meal that I eat or make. And in reality I’m making two posts a week. So it is not so it’s not overwhelming my life. But what was overwhelming my life before is every single day thinking what next thing am I going to make? So it felt like my whole life is filled with my blog and my recipes, but it actually became less so focused around thinking, What’s my next thing when I niche down because it was simpler. Now I can do keyword research. I can kind of make a list of things I’m going to make and I can practice certain recipes. Like gluten free is a bit tricky. You do need to practice. You can just make a recipe from the first time and then post about it, especially if you’re developing your recipes.

Natasha Levai (00:13:02) – But I was very scared to do gluten free and gluten free specifically because it is such a hard thing. I think the reason why it is kind of successful for me right now is because gluten free dough is not easy to make. You really need to make it a few times because the starter is kind of like a home pet, you know, You don’t know why it’s not feeling like baking today, you know, and you need to feed it every day and at certain times and make sure it’s happy and then it dies on you and you have to grow a new one. And it’s a bit difficult. But I think since not so many people out there actually doing it so actively, that’s why it’s easier to fill niches like this. Another good example is, I think, macaroons to make a macaroon man, it’s hard. I also have macaroon recipes on my side, but are you know, you get a batch after batch that are not turning out and you think I’m wasting ingredients, I’m wasting everything.

Natasha Levai (00:13:57) – And but that’s where it is. Like if you can master those little niches that are hard and nobody’s working on, you will succeed eventually. And then you can become an expert in that and people will come to you for advice.

Jillian Leslie (00:14:11) – I love that. Let’s go back to your story. You hear me on Meghan Portas podcast. I say create an e-book. How long did it take you from start to finish to create this e-book using 16 of your own recipes?

Natasha Levai (00:14:26) – Uh, since I was doing it for maybe a an hour a day or I don’t know, that week was very busy. So I think it took me about a week, but I was also filming a video for a freebie in my group. So I think a week or a half, half of a week, okay. Because I wasn’t doing it a lot and because I haven’t put a book together before and I didn’t have a template. So I think when you’re doing something for the first time, it’s a little bit more time. But I, I know that you say that you can make an e-book within three hours, and I believe it.

Natasha Levai (00:14:57) – I think it’s like as long as you understand Canva or you know what you’re doing, probably.

Jillian Leslie (00:15:02) – Okay. So you make this e-book and you’re a little skeptical. You’re like, I don’t know if people are really going to buy this, but I’m going to try it. And you put it out into your Facebook group.

Natasha Levai (00:15:15) – Yeah.

Jillian Leslie (00:15:16) – And what happened?

Natasha Levai (00:15:18) – And people bought it. And I was surprised that that happened. I think I also offered some discount at some point. Oh, I think yeah. So what what happened is when I reached 15,000 people, I made a post saying, Wow, this is so cool. We’ve reached 15,000 people. You guys are awesome. Here’s a 15% discount on the book. And then a bunch of people bought it. And I think during that time I had the most sales during that discount time. Then I made it made an upsell for the workshop. You know that. That I created later. And then people also were buying my ebooks to that. And interestingly, from the side from the website, I don’t think I’m not sure, but I don’t think people have been buying it from the website at all.

Jillian Leslie (00:16:08) – Interesting. Okay. Now have you put it on all of those posts where that are in the in the cookbook, in the e-book?

Natasha Levai (00:16:18) – Yeah, I did at the bottom of the post, right above the recipe card. And I think people have been clicking there because I saw stats and I can see that like say 3 to 5 people a day click to that, but they end up buying it. I guess maybe because I’m not a big blogger on gluten free sourdough, I just have a big Facebook group. But there are other big bloggers that people know and I don’t know, maybe they don’t have an intent of buying it, but.

Jillian Leslie (00:16:46) – So can I ask you how much money you have made from this e-book so far?

Natasha Levai (00:16:52) – Who? Yes, I think of let me look real quick. Like $200 or $300, I think. Okay, let’s see. $288. Okay. Yeah.

Jillian Leslie (00:17:03) – So close to $300 then. Yeah. How did you then how did you end up reaching out to me?

Natasha Levai (00:17:12) – I asked on Megan Porter’s forum What is the best way to sell an e-book? And I actually I even made the title like Digital Products episode.

Natasha Levai (00:17:22) – And I said, I’m so inspired to make an e-book and I don’t know where to sell it. I just want something that I can start up for free. And then they take a percentage. At least I know if it’s going to sell or not. And then they said Gumroad or something else. And I saw Gumroad is simple. It’s free. Then they take 10% of what you make plus something for the processing, for the stripe, processing, whatever. And so I thought, okay, I’ll try it out. And after I think within 2 to 4 days I sold four ebooks and I saw that how much of a difference it is like what I made and what they give me, like what they pay that I thought if I actually do sell a lot of books is going to be frustrating to constantly give them like this much, you know? And so I started looking for another platform that maybe takes a smaller percentage for sales and and I reached out to you because I went on to your MiloTreeCart website and you guys said that you have a $349 lifetime membership.

Natasha Levai (00:18:22) – But I thought it’s too good to be true because. So I checked. What what percentage do you take from sales later? And there was no information on that. So I thought that must be the trick. Maybe they don’t tell me how much they take. And so there was like a chat window. So I just asked, what is the percent that you take afterwards? And you said nothing. Like I mean, you said.

Jillian Leslie (00:18:44) – That you don’t write fees. We don’t take a cut.

Natasha Levai (00:18:46) – Yeah.

Jillian Leslie (00:18:47) – Which are pretty, which are very normal. That credit card fees that you have to pay.

Natasha Levai (00:18:51) – Yes. Yeah. You have to pay that everywhere. Um, and you offered to go on a call, but I didn’t really want to do that because you said three like a $349 is lifetime and I thought it’s really good. But at that moment I couldn’t pay it all at once. And I think maybe on a thrive card or on your site, I went to look I went to the checkout to see if you offer payment plan.

Natasha Levai (00:19:18) – And I didn’t see a payment plan option, so I thought it doesn’t exist. But you said that you have a payment plan option and I kind of like invest whatever I make with my blog. I invested back into it and I’m able to pay that in, let’s say, three steps, but I wasn’t able to pay it all at once because I just started monetizing my site a few months, like a couple of months prior to that. And I thought that it is very doable. And with the rate that I’m able to sell my ebooks right now, it seems like very reasonable thing to do, especially if I’m going to continue my business for years to come and I will be with military for many, many years. Then it it actually didn’t make any sense to me how you making anything from it, right?

Jillian Leslie (00:20:05) – Why would you be this? You asked me. You said, I don’t understand. Like, are we like some sort of like, is this real? And I said, okay, one, we do have a three month payment plan.

Jillian Leslie (00:20:18) – And now you can see that on our checkout page. So for anybody who’s interested right now, we are taking $349 and dividing it by three. So there’s no additional charge for that. However, eventually we will raise that price. So if you want my guard now, go and get it for our three monthly payment plan. And what I said to you is a couple things. I said, one, right now we’re new. So we want our founding members who have like, I want to surprise and delight you because if I surprise and delight you, you will come on my podcast and talk honestly about your experience. You might become an affiliate for MiloTreeCart where, by the way, we pay you $100 a sale because I want to reward I want to put money in your pocket, not in Facebook’s pocket right now. And eventually we will be going to a monthly fee. Because you’re right, this is like just for our founding members. And in fact, it would probably it will probably be something like $59 a month.

Jillian Leslie (00:21:23) – But for now, because I the more I invest in you genuinely, the more you invest in this or are helpful or who knows. But hopefully you get like good feelings about this. And I’m a huge believer in karma on the Internet. I’ve shared this before. If I put out good stuff, I get good stuff back. So why? Like, I want to help you want your business because that ultimately, when it makes me happy to see you happy and then also makes our business grow. So we’re in it. Like you were saying, for the long term, we’re in it for the long term. So anybody just you know, if you buy my cart right now as a founding member, every feature we roll out will be rolled in. Because again, I want to reward these people who who take you took a leap of faith. So I want to I want to give you that back. Whereas eventually there will be, you know, monthly fees and all this stuff. But this is like a perfect time to get in on the ground floor just because you know, you’re taking a risk.

Natasha Levai (00:22:32) – I think that right now, if people really have an audience, then I think you offer more than what people pay you because you don’t only offer a platform to sell, you offer step by step. You know how to launch a workshop, how to launch a mini course, how to launch your e-book. And I take your email templates and I just copy paste and change whatever I need to change and I sell send them because I myself would not be able to come up with these kinds of emails that have these appealing little things here and there. Like it feels like it’s very thought through. And I think that, you know, there’s so much more in the whole thing, all these walkthroughs and checklists and PDFs that you offer, I think you could easily sell that, but you offer that for free with the military right now. And I think that, like I personally have made my second installment payment and I already made back maybe twice as much as I initially supposed to pay for my military. So it’s yeah, I think if you have an audience, that is definitely a very great investment.

Jillian Leslie (00:23:40) – Oh, well, thank you. Honestly, again, like this is exactly what my hope is like. You’ve made me so happy just talking to you about this. And so let’s go continue on with your story. So I say you’re like very skeptical. You’re emailing me and you’re like, Wait a minute, what do you what percent do you take? And I go, We don’t take any percentage. And you’re like, Do you have a payment plan? And I’m like, Yes, we do. And it’s three months, three months. And you were like, I can’t, I can’t afford 349 And I was like, okay. But just so you know, we have this payment plan. And you were like, I could just you’re like, Mm. Okay. And then you decided and I said, By the way, 30 day money back guarantee you don’t like it, I give you your money back. So you took the risk, you purchased it. And I said, Let’s get on a call.

Jillian Leslie (00:24:24) – Right. Like a coaching onboarding call. Because again, the more successful you are, the more successful we are. Therefore, we got on a call and you said to me, okay, so my ebook is working. I should create another ebook where I think you said this, where I make special recipes just for the e-book.

Natasha Levai (00:24:44) – Mhm.

Jillian Leslie (00:24:45) – And I said.

Natasha Levai (00:24:46) – Yeah.

Jillian Leslie (00:24:46) – One, I don’t think people will go, oh my God, I’m going to pay a premium because somehow this recipe isn’t on your blog. That’s just my hypothesis. I don’t know, maybe they will. But I said, have you thought about a paid workshop? So this is when I talk about your digital product empire. Notice you didn’t get rich. You haven’t gotten rich from your e-book, your first e-book. It’s been a nice little bit of money. You’ve been able to pay my for my cart, the whole thing. But I said paid workshop. And what was your thought about that? And then how did I convince you to do it or how did you get to say, All right, I’m going to do it?

Natasha Levai (00:25:26) – I think it was an unexpected idea because a workshop is not something you always hear people talk about.

Natasha Levai (00:25:34) – People talk about making a course. And I kind of thought of that. But the amount of work that has to go into it was overwhelming. And I knew I’m nowhere near being that expert that’s going to sell a perfect course or anything. And you said making a workshop actually makes you more relatable and people forgive you for doing little things. You know, that you would have to edit on a video and you have to rerecord it. And I thought, that’s true. I never thought about it this way, and I think maybe I even heard that on the podcast that you were talking about about that stuff and you said, Why don’t you do a workshop? And I think what also helped me a lot is that you help me redirect the kind of the path where I was going because you said the workshop. And I thought, okay, something like in blogging, you know, this long tail keywords that you just find something super, super unique and then you make a workshop on that or a post on that.

Natasha Levai (00:26:25) – And then I thought maybe I should do a workshop like this. But you said, No, that’s not what’s going to sell. You should do you solve the bigger problem? And I think that was the key to the whole thing because that’s what I was able to sell, is how to make a pseudo bread, right?

Jillian Leslie (00:26:39) – And to do like a very specific recipe. And I said, go where the big problem is. Go where most people are struggling or would want to see you do something. And then I think you said, Well, I said, what do people struggle with? And you said, sourdough starter. Yes. And I. And you and I said we’ll go start there, which you ultimately did bread, but something broad. And I said, What about that? And you said, No, it’s all over YouTube. And I said, It is all over YouTube, but it’s not Natasha teaching you. You know, it’s like other people are doing it. And what people will pay for is you.

Jillian Leslie (00:27:19) – Yes. And how did you respond when I said that to you?

Natasha Levai (00:27:24) – I don’t know. I don’t remember what I was thinking. Is that. It sounds like there is something in it. It doesn’t make sense to a human brain when you think about it from money perspective, but it does make sense in relationship standpoint. I think just like a side note actually on this, I am listening to another podcast. It is not related to blogging. And there was there is a lady, this girl, she’s 25 or 24 and she’s super happy and bright and just so fun to listen to. And she made a book. It’s a Christian podcast and she made a Christian book. Wrote a book.

Jillian Leslie (00:28:01) – What’s the what’s the podcast? Just in case people are interested.

Natasha Levai (00:28:04) – Have you? It’s called Have you Heard? Have You Heard podcast? And she wrote a book called You Are You Are and then loved the Bottom. And I thought, man, there are so many books like Christian books that I’ve read and I’ve heard about.

Natasha Levai (00:28:17) – Definitely don’t want to read another book on theory and like Christian theory or something. But when one of the podcast episodes, she was saying that her story is in this chapter, that she doesn’t talk about on the podcast, you know, those struggles that you had in life. And I thought, Wow, I want to read this book. I want to buy this book because she writes about herself. She writes her personal stories. You know, and I, I noticed that thought. And I and I remembered, you know, what you were saying, too, that people want to connect with you. They want to hear your stories. They want people are missing connection in this world because we’re so much online oriented, especially after Covid, you know, Home Office, all that that we really miss connection that. I thought there is something in it and maybe people will actually want to connect. Um, in a workshop kind of scenario. Yeah. So at first I kind of asked my audience. I think that also was something that you suggested to ask them what works for them, what topics they want to explore.

Natasha Levai (00:29:19) – There were a few options like making bread, making a starter or something else specific, like a different recipe. And most people voted for bread, and then the next one was starter. There were a couple of votes for other things, but mainly those two. I asked them what time works best for them and somehow it was Tuesday at 12 p.m. I don’t know why, but that’s what people wanted.

Jillian Leslie (00:29:42) – That time zone. What time zone?

Natasha Levai (00:29:45) – Central Time.

Jillian Leslie (00:29:46) – Okay. Got it. Okay.

Natasha Levai (00:29:48) – For America. Because mostly most of my people there are from the States and yeah, so I sold, I think, 18 spots before the workshop and then two afterwards because.

Jillian Leslie (00:30:00) – Wait, how much did you charge?

Natasha Levai (00:30:03) – A 20. Okay. But the most, the most of the spots sold when I. So I offered at first, but the first ten people will offer a 15% discount and a couple of people signed up, you know, but then when it came to the point where like, I have one more spot left there, like ten people who signed up for the same, you know, because they feel the urgency.

Natasha Levai (00:30:24) – Like you also like to say that you make people feel the urgency and the scarcity that then they need to buy it. And it was interesting that the less you offer, the more people want to buy from you. And then some people did buy for the full price. But I think I had more discount spots and mostly from Facebook, some from email as well, but mainly from Facebook. And the reason being because I have, let’s say, 20,000 people on Facebook and maybe 1000 sees my post, which is a little bit frustrating because I have so many people. But what for, you know, if only 1000 sees it? But then in my email I when we talked with you last time, I had less than 200. Now I have close to 500 again, because I followed your advice for creating more freebies for people to opt in because I only had one video training that I thought people will sign up for and I’ll get more email subscribers. But you said make, you know, little checklists or, you know, little list of baking essentials you need for making bread.

Natasha Levai (00:31:24) – And I started making more and more and more of those and just putting them out. And for some, a bunch of people signed up and for some I didn’t even have one subscriber. For some I had three. And now I have constantly people are signing up every day, maybe like about ten people I have daily. And so now I have almost 500. But if you think about it, I have maybe 50 to 60% open rate. Wow. And then like 200 people will see and 2%, 1 to 2% will buy. Where on Facebook there will be a thousand people who see. So right now, Facebook is a little bit of like more lucrative place for me, so to say, because I have bigger reach. But I think once my email list is bigger than potentially, I will be able to sell better through that.

Jillian Leslie (00:32:15) – I wanted to take a short break to help you get started. Natasha began her digital product adventure with a simple e-book. So I have an e-book that I created that I’m offering to you for free today.

Jillian Leslie (00:32:28) – It’s an e-book on how to write an e-book using ChatGPT. I know very meta. You can grab this by going to military.com/ai e-book and you can write your own in under three hours. Plus I’ve just updated the AI prompts so definitely grab it. Go to military.com/ai e-book and I look forward to you starting your own product adventure. And now back to the show. Are you at this point? So you’re getting sales? Are you thinking, well, I said to you, if you get two sales, didn’t I say two people come do it because you’ll practice, You’ll have the recording and you can sell the recording afterwards like it’s an asset. And I think you are again, kind of skeptical, like, Oh, and I think you were a little nervous, like, how do I set this whole thing up? So like, I don’t want to put words in your mouth like talk me through this idea of like, Oh, no, I’m getting sales. I’m going to have to do this workshop.

Jillian Leslie (00:33:33) – And what that process was like.

Natasha Levai (00:33:36) – Yeah, I thought, Well, my job is to put it together. If anybody buys it, I’ll think about the next step. But then they bought it and I thought, Oh, now I have to actually do this. But I think what encouraged me is what you said, that this concept that you have about B minus work I listen to like I don’t know how many podcasts I can quote you now. So you, you say that you don’t have to do an A-plus job. You know, it’s okay if you show up and do a B minus because people on one hand, people don’t know you’re doing a B minus job, but it’s also above average. So people are getting what they want. They think it’s good, it’s not bad. You know, they feel that you put work into it. And then it took pressure off of me because I felt like I don’t have to have a perfect setup. I don’t have to have perfect camera, perfect lighting and everything for the workshop to work.

Natasha Levai (00:34:26) – I think I listened to Megan’s podcast, episode one where the lady was actually talking about how she does workshops and how she is able to make money with it, but she made it seem like she made it sound a little bit like more unapproachable, that it’s a little bit more professional. I need to have like a camera to shoot these and then that and you know, but I was able to do the same setup with my phone and my computer. So I have a phone with a good camera that I can make take pictures with as well. And I put it on a tripod on my kitchen counter and I had my laptop like right now. And so I did a presentation first, the theoretical part of like what bread is and how we make it and blah blah, blah, and then camera. So I signed into my zoom call from my phone like a different person, and then I muted myself, turned on, turned off sound on one device. Then I switched to the other one and completely turned off everything on the other one.

Natasha Levai (00:35:22) – And my video wasn’t perfect because, you know, it was just like showing my counter. But it was everything was visible. People could hear me, but it looked like I’m in my kitchen. I’m not in a studio. And I think that made me feel a little bit insecure because I realized afterwards when I was rewatching the video that I forgot to put away my cleaning rags from the window sill, like right behind me. And I thought, Oh, that looks so awkward. But I think people probably didn’t care so much about what is in there. They cared. Like what I’m doing right now with this bread and I really liked how simple it is that if you have a phone and you have a computer, you can actually just have. And have to be. I think one thing that I couldn’t figure out that first is how to flip the camera on my phone. I thought I have to do it with the front camera. And that was very bad video. But it wasn’t it wasn’t very intuitive how to flip the camera.

Natasha Levai (00:36:16) – But then I was able to figure that out and I think that was good. Wow.

Jillian Leslie (00:36:21) – Wow. And I to reiterate, like, what I said to you is like it it’s if it’s not perfect, weirdly, you seem more human. Think about the difference between Instagram and TikTok and notice Instagram copied TikTok with reels. And during the pandemic, we I think we got a little tired of the beauty of Instagram. Everybody’s curated lives and people just showing up on TikTok with a messy kitchen. Doing a dance was entertaining. And even now, I find TikTok more weirdly relatable than Instagram. I like reels because they seem a little less perfect, and I don’t want to see people’s perfect lives. I want to see that they’ve got mess or that they’ve they’re they’re kind of in this struggle of humanity like I am. And then it feels relatable. And I otherwise, if your life is so perfect, I don’t I don’t know how to connect with you.

Natasha Levai (00:37:28) – Yeah. And I think it is trendy nowadays to have imperfect things.

Natasha Levai (00:37:31) – And if you notice, if you go to like Ikea or some other place that sells, you know, home, home, things that you’ll notice a lot of dishes or other things are kind of they’re not perfect anymore. They look like as if they were homemade. They’re unstable a little bit. And like, not not the round perfect everything. Like in food blogging, you see all these nice pictures with these plates and little dishes that look so crooked, but they look pretty because they are not perfect. And I think in everything we have this kind of not.

Jillian Leslie (00:38:00) – I’m going to say, I don’t know if this is true. If anybody listens. Isn’t it called wabi sabi? It’s like a Japanese term where you want that imperfect to make things relatable and feel good to you. I think that’s right. I’ll look it up afterwards. So you do the workshop. Well, first just to back up. So you you so with my regard, we do offer like product launch checklist. So you used our checklist, which is in depth for, I think it’s like maybe ten days or 12 days, like follow this on day one, do this on day two, do this on day three, do this.

Jillian Leslie (00:38:39) – Like set up your zoom settings and we’ll show you how to set those up. Send this sales email on day three. And then here’s a new I think we have like five sales emails. We have Canva templates. Did you go through the checklist?

Natasha Levai (00:38:53) – Yes, I did go through the checklist and of course, I filtered some things out. Let’s say if it’s a 12 day and if my workshop was a bit closer. So I took out some of the emails or I did some things in one day instead of two because they’re just like three steps here, three steps here. I can do it in one day. But basically, yes, I did follow it. And I think what really helped me is the zoom settings. And you have to get this plan and you have to this because it makes you feel safe that I didn’t forget anything. I like Jillian said, if I do this, it will work. Actually, it was interesting that on the test call that we did with my husband, it worked perfectly.

Natasha Levai (00:39:29) – And the recording started and then I did exactly the same thing. But on my actual workshop, the recording didn’t start. And one of the people right before I started the presentation, one of the attendees said, But are we recording this? And I thought, Oh, I didn’t. I didn’t hear the message that it’s being recorded. And then I had to manually start recording it. I don’t know where I lost that little setting, but I’m so grateful she she mentioned that. But yes, it was very helpful to have this worksheet. I think that helps you feel safe that somebody is kind of coaching you through it even without, you know, being there for you face to face. And I think it’s very, very valuable without it. I don’t think that it would be as easy to launch these little products, little products. And I think I even went back with book. I went back to look at what you suggest to how to sell it better. And your emails are really good because you really put them together in a very kind of enticing way.

Jillian Leslie (00:40:32) – Oh, thank you. Well, what we feel is how can, given that I’ve done workshops and I’ve had to dig into the zoom zoom settings and I’ve had to write lots of sales emails, if I can get you up that hill and make it easier for you. Then again, I help set you up for success. So and that you feel supported because as you know, building a business alone can be lonely. And it can be like, what happens when you have a question and then you have to go to YouTube or Google or whatever and try and solve it. And I want to take the roadblocks away so that you could do just what you did. Like, okay, I’m going to try and sell it up. I got sales, okay? Now I have to figure out how to do it and promote it and whatever, and that you just went step by step, but that by doing it that way, it didn’t seem as overwhelming. I don’t think. I mean, I don’t want to put words in your mouth that you were able to kind of go, all right, and B minus work the whole way.

Jillian Leslie (00:41:30) – And it worked. And you made money.

Natasha Levai (00:41:32) – Yes. Yes. And I think B minus concept is the key to everything, because then you feel like you can put this email together real quick and send it because nobody cares about you. Like you say again, nobody cares about, you know, you as a person. They just care about what you have to offer to them. So you put something together real quick, a PDF or something else, you put it out there. People don’t like it, don’t take it personally. Do something else, Do do it better, do different thing.

Jillian Leslie (00:41:58) – Okay. So will you finish it? What was the biggest learning for you?

Natasha Levai (00:42:04) – I think that as scary as you think it is on one hand and. That. There’s a lot of possibility, I think. Ooh.

Jillian Leslie (00:42:16) – What does that mean? Will you elaborate? What does that mean? What did it make you go like? What else could you do? What did you what did you think? Oh, Were you exhausted afterwards?

Natasha Levai (00:42:26) – No, No.

Natasha Levai (00:42:27) – It was really exciting. I was looking forward to it. I think the only period of time when I was a bit stressed out is about an hour right before it happened, because I felt like I have to keep so many things in mind. I was focusing on it and that was a little bit stressful. But I think the whole time leading up to it, I was excited about the workshop because I know what I’m talking about. And then during the workshop it felt it was natural again because I was seeing the faces of the people. And in our recording there is a funny part where I didn’t meet everybody and I don’t even know how to do this, and people just sometimes forgot to mute themselves and in the background something was happening. And then in the recording those screens came up and there was a guy who was talking with somebody and another lady who was in the call decided to tell him to mute himself. And he’s like talking back to her because he didn’t hear what she said. And then he’s introducing himself and she’s telling him to mute him.

Natasha Levai (00:43:22) – And it feels like you’re watching a show that people are talking to each other, you know, back and forth. And it’s a bit funny because of them, of the situation, the whole situation. And then you go back to what’s happening like a little ad break. So I think it felt relaxing for me to that I could see the people and talk with them a little bit and that they could share a little bit, you know, their struggle with sourdough. And I think also it depends on what you allow in your thoughts and your mind. Like, are you what do you what are you thinking? People are thinking of you. During the call, I think there were moments when I thought, Oh, this person has this kind of like smile on his face. Maybe he thinks that I’m being silly or that what I’m saying is like silly or that I’m I don’t know what I’m doing because all of the people on the call pretty much were older than me. I’m 29 right now, and all of them were, I think like 50, 60 or I don’t know.

Natasha Levai (00:44:17) – And it was a little bit intimidating because I feel like they know so much more about everything in life and I’m trying to teach them something. And so sometimes I felt a little bit deflating that, Oh, I don’t have excitement right now to continue talking about this, but I think you shouldn’t let those thoughts in because they’re not going to help you and you do what you do. And people probably don’t don’t think about, you know, you so much after all.

Jillian Leslie (00:44:43) – So after you finished, did you think to yourself, I could do this again? Did you have an idea of what like what your next thing is going to be? Kind of. How did you think it like after coming off of this, what did you.

Natasha Levai (00:44:56) – Yeah, I thought that I would like to have another workshop because this one sold really, really well. And it was, um, I made, I think, 360 or close to $400 with just this one hour workshop. I thought, Wow, this is so cool.

Natasha Levai (00:45:10) – I should do another one. And I, um, I experimented with like offering a 30 minute one on one counseling call with them for sourdough. But I felt like maybe people are not so in need of this personal kind of coaching with this. And I thought, I don’t want to do it for $10 for 30 minutes because I feel like workshop is 400 and then I’ll spend an hour for 20. So I didn’t feel motivated, so I figured it for 30 and nobody signed up for it. But I thought, well, it makes sense. Maybe they don’t like it was if only 18 people signed up for a $20 workshop out of like thousands and thousands. And of course they don’t want to do a 30 minute for 30 or something that they don’t don’t even feel like it’s an essential thing in life. But what I was thinking that another thing that people voted on was sourdough starter. And this is something that had a little bit more struggle with lately. I started, I think, selling it a week ago and it seems that people are just not so eager to sign up.

Natasha Levai (00:46:06) – I had six people or seven. I think that I a lot of them are returning from the first workshop. Ooh, good.

Jillian Leslie (00:46:13) – Sign. Good sign, by the way. Good sign. Thank you. That means I did it. And these are the people that you want to love on, so. Hey, Janet, it’s so good to have you back. Brian, how did the bread go? Like you building those bonds? Because they will buy from you again and they will be in your corner. And when you say, Hey, could you write me a testimonial about this workshop, they’re the ones who will do it or they’re the ones who will. When you say, Hey, Michael, go tell your friends about this, they will like, that’s how so. So again, like, my goal is to turn you into a true fan because then hopefully we roll out something else. Like we open up our membership which is coming and you’re like, I want to be part of that membership or whatever, whatever it is, because you go, I trust her and I like her.

Jillian Leslie (00:47:06) – And that’s exactly what what. So the workshops are a great way to make $400 and to invest in the people who will continue to help you make money.

Natasha Levai (00:47:20) – Yeah. And I. Yeah, I also felt relieved that there were people who came back. One of them wrote a testimonial in the Facebook group. And like you, you also suggested to go on calls with people and ask them for feedback. And that was also something super scary. But since I’m more of an extroverted, less scary for me, I guess, and sometimes I can just like close my eyes and say, okay, I’m going to take this step and see what happens. Because after all, I don’t care so, so much what people think. But I was I couldn’t get anyone to give me feedback. Maybe just they voluntarily gave me feedback. Some people just because they wanted to. I offered. So I DM’d I think two people and I sent an email to three with the likes of fat in my workshop on bread. If you just get on a call with me, talk to me about my book now.

Natasha Levai (00:48:11) – Didn’t even reply to me then. I sent 2 or 3 DMS, I think, and one lady replied to me saying she didn’t have time to get into the book yet. So that’s all the feedback I got. But one lady did give a feedback about the workshop and she and she said it was great. Then the other also another lady also said that it was worth the money and it was very good and that was encouraging for me. And also I was thinking about the membership and not so much even because I think that people need to meet with me twice a month and make something, you know, gluten free. But I think because people need community and connection and I listen to the episode with Summer that you had and she made her membership for $18. And I thought, well, I kind of like I want to make it more expensive, but I think 18 is such a good middle ground for people to feel that they are not committing to so much money a month. So maybe more people will actually sign up.

Natasha Levai (00:49:09) – And then it puts pressure off of me to perform more that people are going to, you know, pay 30 or 50 and then they will feel like like, is it worth my money or not? But they think, well, I’m only paying $18 for this. And we have calls twice a month and then we have this group. So it’s worth it, you know? So I’m thinking that maybe this it’s a little bit counterintuitive, but I’m thinking maybe it would make sense to offer a membership for 18. It’s a little bit unmotivated to think that what if only three people sign up and I have to, you know, do calls twice a month for like $50 when I can do a workshop for 400. But I think maybe it is worth it with looking into the future that maybe more people would actually sign up for.

Jillian Leslie (00:49:52) – The one thing you could do is start it for $18 as ready for it, your founding members. And then in my cart you can change the price and the people who get in early, they’ll stay at $18 and then you can experiment with launching it, say, in a couple of months, like relaunching it, do like, you know, kind of beginner in like insider launch for founding members.

Jillian Leslie (00:50:15) – Get it at this price It’s never going to be this this low then in three months or so when you feel like you’ve got your sea legs, you can launch it officially at $25 or $30, you know, But the founding members will still be at that founding rate. So be thinking about how you can again, give certain people that specialness like Brian or whomever to go, hey, I can’t you know, you’ve come to my like, I would offer it for all the people who came to your workshop at a special founding price. And see if that works. Also, have you resold the recording of your workshop?

Natasha Levai (00:50:57) – Yes, I sold, I think, two. Interestingly, I had I posted it in the Facebook group that you can still buy it. It’s still available. And I think maybe one person bought it and then somebody randomly in some comment was answering to me in some absolutely different post saying that, oh, there’s the workshop is still for sale. I had no idea I should definitely go buy it.

Natasha Levai (00:51:19) – And I’m thinking, okay, so I should probably post about it again just because people might want to buy it, but they don’t know and then they post about it. And out of 20,000 people my post reaches like 900. And it’s so frustrating because you think, Why? It’s my group. I’m the admin. I’m offering something people want. Just show it to them at least, you know, and there’s only reach of like less than a thousand. So yeah, I was able to sell two, but I think I’m not selling it in a right way. I think I need to market it some, some different way because right now I feel like it’s not. So I feel, I think inside about it that it’s not as good to pay for it because. Yeah, because I feel like there are those moments of people talking to each other and the screens showing up and me like being sometimes awkward or having those rags in the back and I feel like I can’t sell it because I don’t believe in it somehow.

Jillian Leslie (00:52:14) – Look at that limiting belief. Look at that story you’re telling yourself. Because what I would say is go to the digital download launch calendar in my cart. And I think it’s like six days or something and it has all the emails to send and to send to your list and sell it as a product new. Like, Hey, I’m doing this limited time offer, selling you this because in fact I heard this from Carrie from Clean Eating Kitchen, did a workshop on how to get off sugar, and then she like emails me one day and she goes, Yeah, I just made another $400 by reselling, by selling the recording to my email list. So it was like an event. It wasn’t just like, Hey, do you want to buy this? It’s available, but like use those emails because they have a progression where it’s like, Hey, I’m offering this for a limited time and you send the emails over I think like 4 or 5 days and it’s like, Hey, get it now. So it gives it that scarcity.

Jillian Leslie (00:53:13) – But that way you might be able to get out of your own story, the negative story, and just go, I’m just going to follow this checklist and then please report back to me and see how many sales you get.

Natasha Levai (00:53:25) – That’s a good idea. Although I feel like I’m doing sales in my email all the time because I did my workshop. Then a week later I started advertising the new workshop. And so I maybe had like one email in between the two where I simply gave out information for people that, Hey, there are some tips for sourdough starter. And I feel that all people get from me is like, Hey, buy this, buy this, buy this, buy this. Well, a.

Jillian Leslie (00:53:50) – Couple things I don’t know. I have a podcast going live soon on selling, which is also you’re providing value. And my hunch is in those emails you might be giving them tips. I would do that, but I would say people aren’t really thinking about you. They are not necessarily focused so much on your email.

Jillian Leslie (00:54:09) – I would add some value emails interspersed as well, like sending them to, I don’t know, some, you know, a blog post like maybe back to school and then you can do some back to school easy crescent rolls or whatever it is that would be like useful, but I wouldn’t be afraid to sell. I wouldn’t because you’re providing value and people have your Facebook group and they have your blog and so send them to some cool blog posts as well. But this is again where I think that like this podcast, I’m, I’m, I’m calling it something like get out of your own way and find joy in selling because I think we all struggle with this. I struggle with this and it’s and I’ve been selling for a long time. And it doesn’t mean that, but it does get easier. It is a muscle that you work at, but it doesn’t mean that those doubtful, you know, thoughts pop into my head all the time. So I think that’s just part of it. And I think having somebody kind of like having this conversation of me saying, okay, no, that’s a story.

Jillian Leslie (00:55:18) – And yes, give value and also believe in what you’re selling and see if that helps you. And if people complain, then you go, okay, maybe I’ll come back. It’s okay. No, but I would just again know that you are creating tremendous value for people and creating community and giving real good information on like on sourdough to like gluten free sourdough, like such a like random niche thing. And yet you’re building like a, I don’t know, a whole group of people who are really into this, like the train guy selling the accoutrements for the train tracks. Like, that’s so weird. So I just have to say I like what you’re doing. I find so inspiring and watching your journey through this process has been it’s like, what? Honestly, this is what gets me up in the morning, is being able to kind of be that older sister saying, You got this. Like, how about this? You know, try this, see if that works. And if it doesn’t work, that’s okay.

Jillian Leslie (00:56:28) – And by the way, it is kind of back to school time and people are due on vacation. And so you have to always be factoring in where people are in their lives as to whether this might be a good time. So back to school or like September here in the United States, that’s a big time where I was just emailing somebody, another blogger who teaches blogging to say, hey, we should do something in September because that’s when moms who have their own blogs. Kind of get back into business.

Natasha Levai (00:57:02) – Yes, that’s true.

Jillian Leslie (00:57:03) – So be thinking just seasonally where people are in their lives and how you can kind of reach them at the right place. And a lot of it is experimentation because you don’t know. And in fact, I feel like when we were having this conversation coming up with like, what could this idea be for your workshop? And you’re like, well, it could be this, this and this. And I’m like, okay, well, I could say sourdough starter sounds like a good idea, but I don’t know.

Jillian Leslie (00:57:27) – And I said to you, Go ask your group. Like, go test it. Go see what they say, because they’ll know much. You know, I’m just one person and who knows? So that’s where it’s like, okay, so you, you know, next time probably I won’t run a workshop at the end of August. Okay. But maybe it would work in September.

Natasha Levai (00:57:49) – Yeah, that makes sense. You didn’t think about that.

Jillian Leslie (00:57:52) – You know? So, okay, so first of all, when by the way, I don’t think I even asked you this. When did you start your blog? How new is it?

Natasha Levai (00:57:59) – In 2021, in November.

Jillian Leslie (00:58:03) – Okay, So let’s see.

Natasha Levai (00:58:05) – Almost, almost two years.

Jillian Leslie (00:58:07) – That’s amazing.

Natasha Levai (00:58:08) – Almost two. Yeah.

Jillian Leslie (00:58:09) – Okay. And what right now about your blog, are you most excited?

Natasha Levai (00:58:15) – Actually, I am super excited about right now because I. I started and I decided I’m not going to invest a whole ton of money into it, although I know in business you have to invest.

Natasha Levai (00:58:24) – But it was a little bit scary for me. So I decided I’m going to pay the minimal things that I need to pay, like hosting like the needed plugins. And only I paid for plugins. Like a year later, I think like hosting domain name, everything. And so for me, I got accepted, let’s say April, maybe Douchey Media with my 15,000 sessions. Now I’m at like 20 and I had, I made goals that, okay, so I want to get a feast plugin because that’s good for your SEO, for your site, or I want to get cooking with keywords course, and I kind of made that plan for myself that according to what I was making with my site, with my ads, I was able, let’s say, to buy cooking with keywords by like August 6th, then feast maybe in September, and then better hosting like, let’s say in October. But actually after selling the digital products, I actually already did the cooking with keywords and already and that’s super exciting because I feel that like all these goals are just now, you know, they’re completed and now I can actually dream about the next step and actually think like, okay, what could be the next step towards the big dream, you know, of actually making full time income with this whole blogging thing.

Natasha Levai (00:59:32) – And I think digital products is something that came on the scene very unexpectedly. But yeah, that’s exciting. Just the development of things, I think.

Jillian Leslie (00:59:42) – I love that. Okay, If people have questions or they want to get into gluten free sour dough, see what you’re doing where and your Facebook group, where should they go?

Natasha Levai (00:59:57) – My website is Natasha’s home and I have all of my recipes there. Then I have linked my Instagram and my Facebook group there on the website. And our Facebook group is called Gluten Free Sourdough Bread Baking Community. And so you I think if you just write in Facebook gluten free, you’ll find it. And the reason it’s such a long heading is so that anybody who writes in gluten free bread or gluten free or baking, they will find us.

Jillian Leslie (01:00:22) – Well, Natasha, I have to say, it has been so satisfying, so exciting watching your progression. And I can’t wait to see what you continue to create, what you continue to do. And I’m so I don’t know.

Jillian Leslie (01:00:36) – I’m so happy to call you my friend. So thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

Natasha Levai (01:00:41) – Thank you so much for all your help and for having me.

Jillian Leslie (01:00:44) – I hope you guys like this episode. For me, this was so satisfying just hearing Natasha’s journey, and since we recorded this, she has been reaching out through email telling me all of her latest product successes. And what’s so cool is how quickly Natasha made back her 349 and then some. And now she can use my cart for free selling any kind of digital product she wants. I hope this episode inspires you to start your journey and if you want to get on a short call with me so we could talk about your business and I’ll be honest with you to tell you whether I think this could work for you. Just head to military.com/meet because I would love to meet you and I will see you here again next week.