You Can't Skip the Hard Part of Building an Online Brand and Business
Here's What You CAN Do to Make It Easier
I first started creating content online in 2012. I used a free blogging platform called “Blogger” At the time I didn’t have any plans to make money with that project and didn’t even realize that it was something that I could do. That probably explains why I designed the project “Michelle is Money Hungry” in the way that I did and why when I eventually made money with it…it was so hard to do.
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There were moments when I resented how difficult everything was. It was so frustrating when I asked a friend “How did you grow your website” and they gave a ridiculously complicated answer to the question making me even more confused about what they were doing. I now understand that they grew their website with organic SEO while leveraging traffic from a popular television show that was directly aligned with the topic that their website was about.
It’s now 2024 and I’ve spent the last couple of years building out Creators Getting Paid with the idea of helping creators strategize, find and grow at least one recurring revenue stream within their business.
I would like to share some lessons learned and some tips to help with the mindset, but before I there’s something that I’ve noticed and we need to talk about. I have my headphones on an an external battery so that I can work from a patio for as long as I possibly can. Let’s do this.
Building an Online Business is Hard
You Can’t Skip the Hard Stuff
It’s important to share some context about what the “hard stuff” looks like in a brand building journey.
Starting-So many people spend a lot of time thinking about starting and they never do. They worry about what people will say about their project, grammar, how they look on video, the equipment that they’re going to use to start their project and more. Here’s what I know.
Just START-Starting will move you forward 100% of the people who don’t.
Perfectionism is a dream killer-Look at the beginning photos from Apple, Amazon, Tiffany the Budgetnista, Amy Porterfield, Pat Flynn and countless others. They started imperfectly and helped their audience while refining their projects along the way.
I literally started a blog using Blogger because it was free. I couldn’t afford to pay for a website service. Currently I pay for Flodesk and use Substack as well. I wrote for months on that platform until I decided that I would continue with blogging-that I was serious about it. Then my friend Eric moved over my blog for free over to Wordpress. He believed in me and had been watching what I was doing. This is a point that I will come back to later.
Free Conference Call (dot) com-That’s where I started my podcast. I couldn’t afford to pay for a service at the time. When it was time, I paid for a service.
Underestimating the Time-What I’ve noticed, more than anything, in recent years is that creators new to building an online brand are really resistant to the reality that it takes time to build what they are working on.
It takes time to build an audience.
It takes time to build trust.
It takes time to figure out who your ideal audience will be.
It takes time to recognize your strengths and weaknesses and how they directly and indirectly impact what you’re building.
It takes time to experience several “wins” and several “failures”-you have to do both.
It takes time to decide what your ideal platform(s) will be.
It takes time to build your list (start from the beginning)
It takes time to experiment with your content.
It takes time to figure out what you would like to sell.
It takes to figure out product pricing.
It takes time to develop your brand persona.
You get my point it takes time to do these things.
Lesson #1-Remember to Include the Years Before
(Going Online)
What do I mean? We often forget to include the time we spent developing skills before shifting to sharing them online. Many of us were using our writing skills at school, work, volunteering or other projects that we’ve worked on throughout the years.
Why is this important to consider? Time to kick imposter syndrome to the curb.
It’s likely that you’re using a different type of positioning of your expertise vs. not being an expert or super knowledgable in what you’re trying to do.
Perspective-None of us were born knowing how to leverage online platforms. We all had to learn how to use it.
Lesson #2-Pick the Right Mentor
Not Everyone Knows How to Teach
My friend that I asked to share how he grew his website was the wrong friend to ask for mentorship. He’s a great guy, super knowledgeable and knows what he’s doing. But, I’ve known him for years and he’s just not patient enough to patiently teach me (for free at the time) the ins and outs or to really recognize the question(s) that I was really asking at the time.
Find the Right Mentor or Tool
There are people out there who are sharing resources to help other creators learn. Start searching for those tools. Here’s an incomplete list of resources (free or paid) that you could look for
Video courses
Coaching services
YouTube profile
Newsletter
Books
Hybrid courses
PDFs
Lesson #3-Do the Work
People are Watching
What does “Do the work” actually mean. I’m a huge fan of using resources to strategically move your project forward. These tools exist for a reason. Many people’s businesses exist for a reason. Buy the tools but that doesn’t mean that you then skip the work.
As a person building an online brand or business you will still need to:
You Have to Try-I’ve had people ask me questions and I’m happy to answer them. Then I’ll send over resources and advice to those folks as well. Then they will ask more questions WITHOUT REVIEWING THE PREVIOUS RESOURCES that I shared with them. It’s so frustrating and feels like they don’t value my time. More importantly, this issue is actually why I’m publishing this edition of the the newsletter.
You have to try.
You have to make mistakes.
You have to do additional research.
You HAVE to Take the Risks
If you don’t try, it’s communicating a couple of things that you might not have considered.
You’re trying to find the perfect formula to get you to your end result that avoids any pain that you may experience building your business. Pain will happen. Perfection is a dream killer.
By avoiding even reviewing the resources or tools that people shared with you you’re communicating that you’re not ready to grow the business/brand that you’re working on.
Risk could also be thought of as testing things out.
Lesson #4 You Want to Develop Intuition
Related to Your Business
Part of why it’s so important to do “the work” of building your business is that it helps you develop important intuition connected to the running of your business. What do I mean?
Learn the ebbs and flows of your business-When are people likely to make purchases? When do even your most obsessed supporters and community members seem to drop off the face of the earth? For Creators Getting Paid it’s become clear to me that summer is a slow time for the project. That gives me opportunities to do focus on tasks that may take up too much time during busier times of the year.
I share some examples below:
Prepping for Holiday sales
Batching interviews for the newsletter. I recorded guest content for 6 weeks and now have enough bonus content to get me through February 2025.
Building out products.
Learn How to Know What Your Community Wants tp Buy From You-Building this skill is so freaking hard! But, it’s one of the most important skills you need in order to serve your community and make money solving the problems that your community members may be having. Those problems that your community is struggling with-those are products, goods and services.
Lesson #5 People are Watching You
When You Least Expect It
This is one of the most important aspects of building an online brand to be aware of. People are watching what you’re doing as you’re working on and building your online business and brand. People that you know and many that you don’t are watching:
How you show up within your brand-Are you consistent based on what you said what you would do specific to your brand.
How you show up for other people-I closely look at this trait because it helps me decide if I’m going to feel comfortable putting myself out there for that person. Do they show up for other people? Example: I have a friend who is currently doing a book signing tour and is stopping in my town this week. I planned on going camping afterwards (it only cost $20 bucks, included transportation, food and water-I just had to bring my gear. If you camp you know this is huge. Black camping community) anywho-I cancelled my participation in the trip (my friend has no idea) because friends come first. I need to show up for her and help her get those books sold. I don’t network, but I do spend a lot of time nurturing friendships and connections with great people. Showing up 100% for them and shouting out what they’re working on is an important part of that.
Where you show up-Are you attending conferences, local meetups, online spaces, etc. Are you hosting these experiences as well?
Do you give or do you take-We’re humans so ideally we’re doing both. But, if we’re always “taking” people don’t like that. And it totally makes sense.
Amazon Affiliates and Substack
I have some incredible news about Amazon Affiliates and if you’re in the program, you absolutely want to check out what is going on. If you’re love affiliate marketing, have wanted to use Amazon Affiliates or are currently using it-You MUST read what I’ve recently learned and am sharing with my paying community members. And if you’re not a paying member of Creators Getting Paid-this one tip that I’m about to share will pay you significantly more than the $5 a month subscription.
Become a Paying Community Member Today
A paid subscription gives you access to the following:
📹 Pre-recorded and live-conversations with content creators who have grown online brands in thoughtful and empathetic ways.
🧠 🏛Pre-recorded or live-workshops on different topics related to monetizing an online brand. Free and paid workshops. Discounts on paid workshops are offered to paid subscribers
🙍🏿♀️ Zoom and In-person Q & A’s and meet and greets with Michelle and the Creators Getting Paid Community