Unless you are an ultra-rich b*tch, most of us influencers, online business owners and bloggers are a one-person show- "solo-preneurs" as they call it.
As a result, it is super important to prioritize your time and effort with laser-like precision (aka not chasing all the shiny-objects or spreading yourself thin engaging with every single social media platform known to man).
In today's episode, I am sharing how to narrow down all of the distractions, and find a platform that is aligned with your soul- not only so that your efforts are sustainable for years to come, but enjoyable AF.
As I mention in this show , for me personally, I consider my soul-aligned platforms to be my self-hosted blog and Pinterest (which I will link to in the notes below).
**For those of you who don't know what self-hosted means, it is when you pay a domain and hosting provider to host your website and domain name (mine is designingvibes.com). This is the only way to qualify for ads/monetization on your blog or website!**
Warning to the fellow mamas out there: If you have little ones around, you may want to listen with headphones on as I am a bit of a potty-mouth.
Also, I am still recording on my outdated I-phone with no editing capacity, so please excuse my barking hound-dog in the background. While this is definitely not one of my best recording scenarios, I hope you will find the gist of the message helpful. After all, done is better than perfect (episode 1)!
If you found this episode helpful, I would greatly appreciate it if you could leave a five star review, share with a friend or screenshot the podcast on your phone, upload it to Instagram stories and tag me (@designingvibes).
**I refer to passive income, which I go into detail with in Episode 2. **
Contact: email- info@introvertedinfluence.com or DM me on Instagram (@designingvibes)
Speaker 1:
Welcome to the introverted influencer podcast. I'm your host Erica van. Like my soul's mission on this planet is to help fellow introverts grow their online influence and estate, a feminine flow and ease while battling the WOS of depression, anxiety, and even mom guilt. I've somehow managed to build a six figure blog without the use of social media and without sacrificing my mental health, if I can do it, you can too. Hey, y'all okay. I am so frazzled right now because I cannot get my hand dog to stop barking. So if she starts barking, please just try to block it out. I have tried everything. I'm gonna have to figure out something, um, for in the future when I record podcast. So welcome back to episode three of the introverted influencer podcast. So last week was a pretty dry practical show on the basics of passive income, but ultimately the goal of this podcast is to approach online influencing from a holistic perspective. So I like the idea of maybe one week, I will throw out like a very practical topic on business and then alternate that the following week with more of a spiritual mindset and also for right now, you know, I'm still recording on my phone. So I'm trying to make these super concise because I really don't have the editing capacity. So I'm just gonna get right to the point. I, I really, I'm a busy working mom, so I kind of get annoyed at podcasts that are supposed to be giving you information, but they ramble on forever. Anyhow. So just know it's gonna be concise. And if you haven't figured it out by now, I am also a potty mouth. So if you have little ones around, you probably wanna put your headphones on and here goes my dogs again. Anyhow. So since last week was pretty practical this week, I want to delve to more of the spiritual components of building an online business from a place of ease and flow. So one of the main ways my approach to influencing is particularly unique is the fact that I do not use social media as a means of monetization or re reader conversion. Basically I just hop on Instagram right now when I'm feeling inspired to share something or to connect on a more personal level to my audience from my blog. But I, I don't really monetize Instagram. It's just not my vibe. It's not my thing. I am an introvert. And so I really try to avoid socialization and interaction as much as possible. And you know, in the early days of my blog, I rarely even showed my face on social media at all. Because as I mentioned in last week's episode, if the activity is not an income generating activity, AKA eyeballs or clicks on my website, I refused to waste my time with it. And no this mantra was not from a place of entrepreneurial genius on my part. It actually came out of sheer survival mode when I started my blog over six years ago. So SI I mean over six years ago, I was a work from home contract SEO specialist slash marketing consultant. I had an 18 month that hold at home with me, who needed my constant attention. And I was going through a major depressive episode in my life. And on top of that, I was pregnant with my second child surprise. And essentially I had no time to around with endeavors that were not absolutely essential to monetizing my blog. There was just no bandwidth for that whatsoever. And as an SEO specialist, I knew that generat helpful optimized content on a very consistent basis on my actual self hosted website was going to be my first priority. But in my years of SEO consulting, I understand that proper SEO is a long game. So I needed to find some other platform to just jumpstart my blog and my exposure. And so I went with Pinterest and my reasoning behind going with Pinterest for the two following reasons and keep in mind too. Pinterest is a search engine. It's a visual search engine. It is not social media. So this, when I say I don't use social media to make money, I legit mean it. Okay, reason one, I went with Pinterest. So in Pinterest, I knew I could link each individual pen directly back to my website. So if done properly, Pinterest would serve as a great source of traffic. Reason. Number two, I was already a Pinterest addict. And to this day it is my favorite visual platform. Like if my blog weren't of thing, I would still be pinning every day. I can't stay away from it. It's my favorite thing to do. It gives me hope. It inspires me and it leaves me feeling uplifted. Whereas social media to me often just leaves me feeling drained and it doesn't feel good at all to me, for the most part, I'm trying to change my mindset on this, but in the beginning days, that's, that's how it felt. So all of this to say, what is your Pinterest? What platform would you engage in? If money or business were never a thing. This is your soul aligned platform. The title of this episode is commit to a platform that is aligned with your soul and never work a day in your life. And I promise you, if you can find a platform that you would do, regardless if you got paid for it or not, you will never feel like you're working a day in your life. And there's never been a day that I I've taken off Pinterest, because I just love it. So For those of you who have still not figured out what your soul line platform is, those of you that don't really have the answer off the top of your head. You're probably gonna have to discover it via trial and error. And that is just through action. And regardless of what you, you don't kid yourself In the beginning, nothing is going to feel completely easy. There will always be the obligatory learning curve, but in some sense, even through the learning curve, it should still feel at the core, somewhat intuitive. And you should somehow have the enthusiasm behind the platform and to be excited, to continue to show up on that platform every day, to share the unique gifts God has placed inside of you source God, Whatever. Okay. So now maybe some of you have decided that Instagram is your Pinterest and that's fine work with it actually that's there's, I've got some great news for you. So it's become so much easier to direct traffic back to your monetized platform with Instagram now, where back in the old days, when I was of starting off, it required 10,000 followers to link back to your website and the Insta story feature. Now anyone can add a custom link to their story. And as a result of this, I'll probably be spending a little more time on my Instagram stories as well. So be sure to follow along at designing vibes. So for the Instagram lovers, fret, not your stories can be a source of potential traffic and eyeballs on your self hosted platform. The Okay, well, I somehow got through this podcast with a dog barking in the background and it's been a little nerve-wracking and frazzling, but I hope you had a light bulb moment today. It would mean so much. If you could give this show a five star review and or screen shot the episode on your phone, upload it to your stories and tag me in it at designing vibes. And I will also leave all of my contact info profile links and what I refer to in these episodes, all in the show notes. So I hope this helps and I'm sending you all my love.