Today I’m bringing you Elaine Rau, the creative mastermind behind the Ladyboss Blogger, a blog full of content by female entrepreneur for female entrepreneurs and it’s “contemporary way of advertising through CONTENT CREATION & CONTENT MARKETING.”
Ladyboss Blogger helps you market your business and build your credibility by interviewing you and accepting guest posts on your expertise that they broadcast to their audience of 100K+.
- The story behind why Elaine started LadyBossBlogger.
- How Elaine creates massive amounts of quality content for her blog.
- How Elaine leveraged her blog strategy to grow her audience.
- How LadyBoss Blogger was Elaine’s pseudo-business mentor.
- How she monetized interviewing and guest posting.
- How Elaine went from making $80,000 at her day job to being unemployed.
- How a lack of female mentors in her day job influenced the business she’s created today.
- How Elaine overcame a lack of confidence in her business.
- How Elaine didn’t let tech hurdles hold her back and how she creative ways to do things on a budget.
- How Elaine tested the pricing of her first offer.
- How her blog strategy exploded her traffic and email list.
Tell us all about your business. What do you do? How long have you been doing it? Who is your ideal client? Is it a side hustle or is it your full-time gig now?
I created a blog and platform, LadyBossBlogger.com, for current and aspiring female entrepreneurs to get the resources they need to start and succeed in business. My ideal client are ladies who want to start an online business, but unsure how, and they want step-by-step directions on achieving their goals in the most linear way. I work full-time on LadyBossBlogger.
Why did you start your business? What was the catalyst? What sparked you to put your time and energy into a side hustle? What’s your WHY?
I was kind of thrown into it due to my circumstances. My fiancé called me from overseas to tell me that his brother had just been murdered… so I asked my boss if I could go to the funeral and he said NO because it would affect sales. So, I quit and moved to Honduras to be with family, however, the transition was a lot harder than I had anticipated.
I didn’t speak Spanish so the only person I could talk to was my fiancé so it started to get really lonely. Plus that didn’t help with trying to find a job because all my sales industry skills were dependent upon being able to communicate! Additionally, Honduras is a developing country and the rate of unemployment is 80% there so it was next to impossible to get a job anyways.
Because of this, I knew I had to reinvent myself and develop a new skill, so I started blogging to learn about who I wanted to become – a LADY BOSS BLOGGER. I didn’t start it originally to make money, I just needed to give myself a reason to wake up in the morning, but since I was spending so much time on it, I knew I had to start making money from it somehow if I were to survive, so I started selling paid advertising spots on my blog and that is how it all started.
My “WHY” is my desire to elevate women in business so that other women can see that it’s possible for them as well. The more women are properly portrayed in the media, the more we will rise up in leadership and know our worth. Media plays a HUGE part in self worth and confidence and I truly believe that if you want to change the world, you start with changing media.
Has your business always looked like it does today? Did you start out doing one thing and then evolve into something else? Or does it look pretty much the same?
It’s changed gradually over time as I have listened to my audience and learned what they want from me. I blogged a lot about entrepreneurship at first, but as my blog grew and reached 150K followers in under two years, people started asking me how to start a successful blog. I never wanted to blog about blogging, but that is what people wanted from me, so I created a course to answer all their questions in one place!
What were some of the fears and doubts you had going into starting your business and how have you overcome them?
I wanted to quit a week in. I wasn’t making any money, I was super stressed out, and I honestly just had hit rock bottom in my confidence and really didn’t believe I could do anything of substance that would make me feel fulfilled. But instead of quitting I decided to see if there was some way that I could make just $5 with it and that is exactly what I did. That $5 was all the confidence I needed to run with it.
Tell us about making the leap from Side Hustle to Self-Employed? How did you make the decision? What was your money goal? (This doesn’t have to be an exact number, it could be like “twice my salary” or whatever)
It was never about money, it was about freedom. I left my extremely well-paying job that I had worked years to obtain because they made me choose between my career and family. However, even though I was making a ton of money, I was also spending just as much and when I moved down to Honduras I was close to broke!
So I used my last $12.18 to purchase my blog domain. It was sink or swim and I chose to learn how to do the butterfly stroke.
What were the first 6 months of self-employment like for you?
Extremely hard. I didn’t have the funds to outsource or to get a mentor so I had to do everything myself. I basically used my blog as a means for me to get knowledge from others for free by interviewing them! And in so doing, I accidentally created a resource for other people as well who liked to learn via interview.
Additionally, I hired interns from day one to do my “outsource” work for me. The reason I was able to get interns early on is because delegation is a strength of mine. The platform I created wasn’t about myself, it was all about highlighting other women and in so doing, I unintentionally created a platform for myself.
What are you most proud of when it comes to your business?
How much I have learned. I feel like a different person, I am more confident, more curious, and am a better person in general. I was making 80K in my previous job and didn’t donate a PENNY, now my entire business is wrapped about donations and giving back to the community, specifically the charity called The Micah Project.
If you could go back in time and change one thing about how you started your side hustle, what would you change?
I think everything is supposed to happen the way it’s supposed to happen. Of course, I wish I knew more back then and wish I had started creating courses earlier or started my email list, but honestly it’s a learning experience. Sometimes you can learn something and not implement it until a few months later when you’re actually ready. I wouldn’t change anything because that’s not how I function – I look forward not backwards.
How do you manage your time? What does your daily and weekly schedule look like?
Every morning at 9am I talk to my interns and delegate out tasks. The tasks vary according to what the projects I have going on at the time, so some weeks it’s heavy on design, other weeks it’s heavy on writing. Once I delegate those tasks, I have rough goals of what I personally want to accomplish, like work on my course or schedule out 1 month worth of content on the blog. The only deadlines I have are that I post one new blog post every single day at 6PM CST and one new post on each of my Instagram accounts – personal and professional.
Let’s talk tech. Did you build your own website and set up all of your own tech? What was that experience like? If you could go back in time, what would you do differently?
I built everything myself. It was super hard, every time I thought I had something down, another technical error popped back up and back to Google I went to learn how to solve it. If you have the funds, definitely invest in someone to do it for you so you can focus on creating business, but if you don’t, well you don’t have any other option!
What have you spent under $100 on recently that has made the most impact in your business.
A Pinterest course which I got on sale for about $100 that helped me learn how to use Pinterest properly to boost my traffic.
What have you spent OVER $100 that has made the most impact in your business?
I created my online course using Teachable, it’s just $39 a month but I got their Black Friday Deal for the entire year for around $200. I also became their affiliate and have made a ton of money from promoting them. They are a great company to work with and are always running promotions, contests and handing out freebies.
What online courses have you taken? Which ones have had the most impact and the greatest return on investment for your business?
This affiliate marketing course. That course helped me learn the basics to affiliate marketing and that is when I started understanding the concepts behind how to create PASSIVE INCOME. I’ve now set up a few more income streams with my affiliate marketing training.
If you participate in coaching or a mastermind, what is the most notable transformation you’ve gotten from that experience.
Taking online courses are my form of masterminds. I prefer to do it myself but with a little guidance.
What one podcast would you recommend to someone just getting started? How about a couple years in?
Darren Rause’s ProBlogger podcast! I find his podcast to be extremely applicable and useful, every blogger should be listening to it!
What one book would you recommend to someone who is side hustling with the goal of becoming self-employed?
5 Day Weekend. This book transformed my way of thinking. My favorite quote from the book is, “If you don’t find a way to make money in your sleep, you will work until you die.”
What belief about yourself did you have to change to get where you are today?
I truly believed that I had no skills when I first started. I was both passionless and purposeless, a terrible combination! But honestly, believing that it was up to me to change my circumstances helped me pull through and get out of the rut I was in.
What advice would you give someone who is struggling to grow their side hustle?
Stay committed. The key to becoming successful is simply staying CONSISTENT. Find one thing you love then hone it, perfect it, and master it.
Where can our listeners find out more about you online?
Instagram @ladybossblogger, @elainerau
Facebook @ladybossblogger, @elainerauofficial
Twitter @ladybossblogger
LinkedIn @ladybossblogger, @elainerau
Websites LadyBossBlogger.com, ElaineRau.com
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Ladyboss Blogger Website (hint, get on Elaine’s email list)
Elaine’s “12 Most Profitable Niches” Pin
Find her everywhere @ladybossblogger or @elainerau
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