005 – How a Blog Brings in Sales with Kate Erickson of Entrepreneur on Fire

Gift Biz Unwrapped,

episode number five.

Hi, this is John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur On Fire,

and you're listening to Gift Biz Unwrapped.

And now it's time to light it up.

Welcome to Gift Biz Unwrapped,

your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop and

grow your business.

And now here's your host,

Sue Monheit.

Hi, I'm Sue,

and welcome to the Gift Biz Unwrapped Podcast.

Whether you own a brick and mortar shop,

sell online,

or are just getting started,

you'll discover new insight to gain traction and grow your business.

I'm so excited to have Kate Erickson joining us today.

Kate is a creator,

engager and implementer over at Entrepreneur On Fire,

a seven day a week podcast that interviews today's most inspiring

and successful entrepreneurs.

She's also the host of Kate's Take The Entrepreneur on Fire

Audio Blog and also author of a Beginner's Guide to Creating

an online business,

which was formally known as the Fire Path.

Kate is passionate about helping entrepreneurs create systems and processes to

promote efficiency and bring clarity to their journey.

Hi Kate,

how are you doing today?

I'm doing great,

Sue. Thanks so much for having me on.

I'm really excited to be here.

I'm thrilled that you're with us.

Is there anything you'd like to share over and above what

I've just talked about?

You wrapped it up with a nice little bow there.

I like it.

Wonderful. A bow and a gift.

Yes. Going along with a theme.

That's perfect.

Well, to get started,

I like to align the conversation around the life of a

candle. The light shines on you while you share your stories

and your experiences.

So, Kate,

shall we light it up?

Let's do it.

All right.

Now help us envision your candle.

What color is it?

The color of my candle is a nice vanilla cream color.

Ooh. And why is it vanilla cream?

You know,

I've always been drawn to literally drawn to candles that are

vanilla flavored in some way,

shape or form.

And it is very calming to me that color.

You know,

it's not overwhelming.

It's definitely not a sore sight.

And yeah,

I just think it's a beautiful color.

And what is the quote that resonates with you that goes

on your candle?

I love the quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

He said,

the creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

And what does that mean to you?

You know,

it, it all starts with just the very first single thing

and it can grow in unimaginable ways,

but it just starts with that first step.

It starts with,

you know,

that first action,

whatever it is that you're looking to create,

you don't have to think of it as this huge forest

that took thousands and thousands of years to actually grow because

everything started as just one single thing.

So I think that's good to kind of keep in mind.

As you know,

we're creating businesses and creating things for people to buy,

purchase gifts,

whatever it might be,

that it all starts with just one thing.

I love that because so many people try to look at

the end result and get the feeling that it's gonna be

overwhelming. It's too big for them,

it's too much for them.

So, you know,

to your point,

starting with one acorn and building into a forest just like

a business,

starting with that first step.

Absolutely. Yeah.

And many of our listeners already have businesses and so,

you know,

they're, they've met some of those challenges already and now they're

in a position where they're wanting to grow their business,

they're wanting to expand or make their business a little more

sophisticated or intricate.

And that was one of the reasons I really wanted to

talk with you because you know,

you've gotten into the whole blogging situation and then expanded it.

So I'd like to talk with you specifically about that.

Why don't you first talk to us about how you started

in the beginning in terms of blogging or just writing,

maybe even before it was even called blogging?

Sure. So writing has always been a really big passion of

mine. I went to school and,

and got an English degree.

I wanted to be a college professor,

which never really worked out for me,

but it's actually for the better now.

And writing was always something that I just loved.

I loved,

you know,

putting my thoughts down on paper.

I was always better at writing things out than I was

talking them through.

So, you know,

whenever, you know,

I journaled a lot.

So I guess prior to blogging as,

as that's how,

how I would categorize it,

you know,

I had a journal that I wrote in a lot and

probably I was quite late to the blogging game actually,

And it was just kind of like a personal blog.

It was a hobby blog.

I wasn't doing it to necessarily make money.

I was kind of doing it to chronicle a journey that

I was on at that time.

And, you know,

my love for writing just continued to grow from that.

And I saw,

you know,

the potential of creating content that could actually help people and

what that could do for your credibility,

your authority,

your ability to gain people's trust.

And as I kind of grew in my,

in, in my writing abilities and,

you know,

continued my journey,

I was working in corporate America at the time.

I was definitely not hobby blogging as my career,

but I was doing it on the side.

Cuz again,

it was something that I loved.

You know,

I kind of got very familiar with the WordPress platform.

You know what it,

I, I continued to get better at it because I was

doing it all the time.

And eventually I came up to the amazing opportunity to join

John, who is my business partner and my life partner in

his business entrepreneur on Fire.

And at the time I was working in corporate America,

I was a account executive at an advertising and marketing agency.

And again,

that was at the time that I was kind of hobby

blogging on the side.

And he said,

why don't you come join the team with me?

I'm, I'm running this ship all by myself right now and,

you know,

I could really use somebody to come on and help me

with content creation and,

you know,

starting to build communities for our audience because the audience was

growing quite quickly.

And so that was really my first introduction into writing as

an actual content creator.

Again, before I was kind of just chronicling my personal journey

on a blog.

I also was writing for examiner.com.

I was a skiing and lifestyle writer.

And so that also gave me just some really good practice

writing in a different genre,

so to speak.

You know,

I was writing on somebody else's website versus my own blog.

So all these different experiences really helped me kind of start

to shape my own voice.

And you know,

I've really been able to come into that as the blogger

here at Entrepreneur on Fires.

I, I create the blog here at For our Business.

I have to tell you,

I actually remember when you first joined John,

because I've been following him now,

I guess about two,

two and a half years.

Yeah. Wow.

I Remember exactly that time when he started bringing up your

name, like in the monthly bonuses and all.

So I remember it from way back when.

Oh, how funny.

Yeah. But I appreciate your sharing that because you know,

you've gone through how you started writing,

you had the innate love for writing,

writing in the very beginning and then you started and it

kind of evolved as you went from,

you know,

just enjoying it for yourself to kind of a,

you know,

hobby blog and now into a professional enhancement and a career.

Right. What would you see,

or what would you recommend to people who have more of

a retail shop?

Where would the value of blogging come in for them?

You know,

I think it really depends on what type of product they're

selling. I see it working really well for the handmade space

because I think that there's a lot to share in how

you create your products.

I'd imagine that a lot of the people who follow handmade

shops and the like are not only consumers of that they,

you know,

that they would actually buy it as a gift or for

themselves, but also that they might take an interest in actually

being able to do that for themselves.

You know,

you see somebody create a very successful handmade shop,

there's probably a good amount of people following that person who

are following them because they wanna know how they did it.

And so I think that in that respect,

that sharing how you've created what you've created could be really

powerful via blog.

But in other areas,

I think that in retail in general,

no matter what you're selling,

that I know,

I'm always curious when I'm up against,

you know,

Christmas or a birthday,

you know,

I wanna know the reasons why something might be a special

gift for somebody or how do I find the perfect gift

for a boyfriend for my dad,

for you know,

my brother.

And I think that these types of tips and things that

these shops could be providing to consumers,

I think a blog is a perfect platform for that.

That makes a lot of sense.

Plus, you know,

it seems like everywhere on social media now,

we talk about getting behind the scenes of people's businesses and

people are more credible when they share that,

you know,

when they open the curtain and show what their businesses are

behind the scenes.

And a blog can help with that too.

You know,

offering ideas and sharing really what the business is all about.

Right? And,

and I think that's just an incredible opportunity for you to

connect with your potential customers.

I mean,

there's a lot of repetition in the,

in the gifting space and you better believe that if I'm

going online or even to a brick and mortar shop to

purchase a gift,

if I feel that I have a connection to one shop

over another,

then I'm gonna buy from that shop.

That connection,

that opportunity to make that connection could definitely be through content

online like a blog.

Really good point.

Yeah. And it definitely separates them from other people,

from their competition.

So if someone was considering doing a blog,

what we talked a little bit about the type of content

they might do now you have done both,

you've done written and now you've turned it into an audio

blog. What's the difference or what's the value of one over

the other?

Well, I really think that it starts with understanding who your

ideal reader or listener is.

Who is that person that you're creating the blog for?

Are they the person that wants to know how you started

your shop?

Or are they the person who,

you know,

wants tips on what gifts they should buy for who?

So I think identifying that person and and understanding,

you know,

what their pain points are,

what information they're looking for,

that that would,

that's the very first step.

But through determining that,

I think you can get really close to understanding,

okay, now would this person be somebody that's sitting down and

reading a blog or an email newsletter or are they somebody

that's really busy on the go and they probably prefer to

listen to this content?

That's an easier way for them to consume it.

With so many channels and options for people to consume content,

you really have to make sure that you're offering your content

in the way that your consumer wants it.

So for me,

with the blog,

you know,

I'm not recreating content for the podcast,

I'm simply taking my blog posts and repurposing those into audio

episodes because I know that there's a really good chunk of

my audience who doesn't wanna sit down and read a blog.

They wanna listen to it on a podcast.

So it could be a matter of,

you know,

you doing both and repurposing it,

just recording what you've written in audio format.

Or you might find that you know,

your customer or your ideal reader,

you know,

they don't care about audio,

they, they would actually prefer to have it written.

So I think it's just really starts with gaining that understanding

of exactly who you're trying to reach with the content.

And in doing so,

you'll be able to kind of get closer to what format

they'd actually like it in.

So you're still doing both written and audio?

Yes. Even today.

And do you have a certain schedule,

a certain time when you sit down and write and then

then record?

I do.

I really find that I'm most productive when I theme my

days. So in any given week I have a theme for

an entire day,

which means that I get to fully focus on one area

of my business for that entire day without worrying about being

pulled in multiple directions.

Or you know,

having to shift my mindset from writing something to then recording

something. So for example,

Monday, that's my writing day.

Anything that needs to be written,

written content on the blog,

a newsletter,

any of the site content that we might be updating,

Monday is my writing day,

that's when I fully focus on that.

And then Tuesday might be my podcast day.

So if I'm recording,

editing, doing any marketing or anything for the podcast that's gonna

happen on Tuesday.

And in setting myself up that way,

again, I'm able to focus on that task specifically without being

interrupted by other things that,

you know,

can seemingly jump on your plate without notice.

And it also allows me to be just uber productive in

that one area.

And then it becomes doable too,

because you've locked it into your,

to your schedule.

Exactly. If Someone was just starting out,

I'd like to make the podcast actionable.

So when people leave,

if they're interested in doing something like this,

they know exactly where to get started.

What would you recommend as the first three steps someone would

take if they were interested in creating a blog?

The first step that I would recommend is what we talked

about a bit before,

and that's identifying who your ideal reader is.

Who is the person that you're creating that content for?

You don't actually have to go out and meet them and

shake their hand.

You can define them on paper.

Do they,

you know,

are they looking for content about,

you know,

how to start building a handmade shop?

Are they looking for content on the best amount of money

to spend,

depending on who you're buying a gift for?

You know,

I'm not super familiar with a gifting space,

but these are just some of the questions that you might

ask yourself about who your ideal reader is.

So that's the very first step because until you understand who

you're creating content for,

you're gonna be stuck on what to actually create.

And then the second step after that would be to just

start writing something.

You have to actually put something out there in order to

figure out if that is what's gonna work for you.

So it's not,

you know,

something that's gonna happen overnight.

It's not something where you're gonna publish one blog post and

you're gonna know whether or not people like it or not.

It's gonna be a long game for you to continue creating

content consistently over a long period of time and continuing to

take in feedback and improve that as you go.

So if the first step is identifying who you're writing for,

the second step would be to just write your first post

that you're gonna do.

And then that third step I would say is to really

listen for that feedback.

You know,

when you have customers come into your store,

when you have somebody buy something from you,

when people are visiting your site online,

everything should have a common goal.

So if your goal with your blog post is to get

people to sign up for your email list or to take

action on a special that you're giving them,

then all of your pieces of content,

the receipt that they receive,

what you're saying to them after they make a purchase,

all of those things should be working together.

So everything should have a common goal and what you're looking

for your customer to ultimately do.

So I would continue on with that third step to be

figuring out what your goal is with that,

and then working that into everything that you do.

It might be putting on your receipt,

you know,

hey, check out our blog,

we just started writing about X,

Y, and Z,

and, and have a URL for them or give them an

incentive to head over there so that you can start getting

that feedback to understand if what you're doing is working and

if not,

that you can continue to improve that.

That's great advice.

Real quickly,

I wanna expand on the second one for a second because

you make a really good point.

You know,

you just need to start writing and maybe the initial articles

that you put out,

maybe some of them will resonate,

maybe some of them won't,

but you need to keep going.

Can you think back to a time when you might have

written something that didn't quite work the way you wanted?

Yeah, like probably 30 times.

You know what happens a lot?

And that's a tough thing with writing,

is sometimes you're gonna put something out there and you're not

gonna hear anything from anyone.

And you know,

other times you're gonna put something out there and you're gonna

get a lot of really great feedback and you know,

people reaching out and saying that it real,

it was really helpful for them.

That's the challenge.

Like you said,

Sue is to continue going.

And for those pieces of content that I've put out there

that didn't really feel right or like they didn't work,

I always take everything,

whether it's a verbal response,

a non-verbal response,

a lack of something that I'm looking for,

that's all feedback for me.

So if I put a post out there and nobody says

a word about it and I don't get any feedback and

nobody comments on it and nobody shares it with anybody,

then that's feedback to me that something about that post did

not work.

So I wanna take that feedback and figure out how I

can improve it,

change the subject matter,

change the format of it,

and continue working towards what it is that my audience actually

does want.

Because once I put that post out there where I do

get feedback and people do comment on it,

then I know that it's working.

Right. And you're never gonna know until you put it out

there. Exactly.

Yeah. So again,

the three steps that Kate is recommending,

number one,

to identify your customer,

some people call it an avatar.

Who are they?

What do they like?

What are they looking for from you?

The second is just to go ahead and start writing on

the topics and then analyzing the receptivity of your customers to

the articles.

And then finally have a common goal for everything you do.

So you have continuity between the blog and then when people

come onto your online site or walk into your shop so

that everything looks the same,

you're marching towards a common goal with all the different things

that you're doing for your business.

Okay. Kate,

we're gonna transition over now into the reflection section.

This is an area where we take a look at you

and see what's helped you build your success.

Awesome. What is one natural trait that you have that's helped

you to succeed?

I Would say my drive.

I've always had drive to continue going,

even if I get knocked down or something doesn't work,

you know,

the drive to try again.

What tool do you regularly use to keep productive or to

create balance in your life?

I love the online tool Rescue Time.

And what that does is once you install it on your

computer, there's a free version of it.

For me,

it works quite well just because I'm online based.

But what it does is tell me where I'm spending my

time. So right now it would tell me that I'm spending

time in Skype,

cuz that's where we're having our conversation.

And so you can imagine it over a week,

over a month's time,

when you look back,

it will give you kind of a graph of where you've

been spending your time,

social media,

and you know,

Microsoft Word in Photoshop on the internet,

you know,

whatever it might be.

So it really helps you hone in on when you're being

most productive and gives you a true look at how much

time you're spending in different places.

Sounds great.

Just to stay productive.

Do, is it,

is it available for Mac and pc?

Yes, it is.

Oh, I'll have to check into that.

I, I don't know about this one,

so That's a good one for me.

Yeah, it's a great tool for anybody who works online or

even if you do anything online,

you know,

it's just sometimes you are,

you know,

in a program or you're working on something and you don't

really realize how long you're actually spending doing it.

And so it's quite eyeopening actually.

Kate, what book have you read lately that you think our

listeners would find value in Book that I read recently that

really resonated with me a lot and would be great for

anybody who's feeling overwhelmed,

not productive or not as productive as they could be.

And it's called Essentialism by Greg McEwen.

And in the book he talks about only working on the

most essential things.

It's great for anybody who runs a business because as you

know, Sue,

oftentimes we say yes to more things than we can actually

handle. And therefore we put ourselves into a tailspin of overwhelm

and feeling like we're not getting anything done.

This book has really opened my eyes to the power of

saying no and only working on the things that are most

essential for you and your business Gift Bizz unwrap listeners,

just as you're listening to the podcast today,

you can also listen to audio books through Audible with Ease.

Get an audio book just like the one Kate is recommending

for free.

All you need to do is go to gift biz book.com

and make a selection.

That's gift biz book.com.

Okay, Kate,

my favorite part of the podcast,

we're gonna go into the Dare to Dream question.

All right.

I would like to present you with a virtual gift.

It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.

This is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable heights

that you would wish to obtain.

Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.

What is inside Sue?

This is such a big question.

I get excited just thinking about it.

I can only imagine how much this makes people think and

I'll love to go back and hear all the answers from

all of your guests.

For me,

what's inside of that box and thank you very much for

that, is the support and motivation that myself and those who

I love,

those who I wanna support around me,

you know,

the ability to give that support and motivation in order to

always continue pursuing what it is that we want in life.

What makes us happy?

I think so many people lack the support and the motivation

that's required to continue pursuing your dreams.

And I would always want that support and motivation for myself

and you know,

for those around me,

cuz I know that that can make all the difference.

So that's what would be inside of my box.

That's a wonderful gift.

I'm gonna give that to you right now.

Thank you.

And Kate,

how would our listeners get in touch with you?

You can find all the content that we create and our

social media channels and all that good stuff over@eofire.com.

And I think you had something to offer our listeners today.

Yes, absolutely.

I would love,

love, love to offer a free download of a book that

I recently published called The Fire Path.

And it is a beginner's guide to creating your online business.

So anybody who's looking to just get started in that area,

it's a step-by-step look at the way that John and I

created our business.

Very specific in depth how to type content about how you

can get started with your online business.

So that free download is over at eo fire.com/tfp.

Buck. Thank you so much.

That's so generous of you,

Kate. I really appreciate it.

Yeah, definitely.

I hope that it helps some people out who are looking

to get started.

I know it absolutely will.

And if you didn't catch that link or anything else that

we've talked about today,

you can jump over to gift biz unwrapped.com

and you will find the show notes here for Kate with

all the information that we've talked about today.

Kate, thank you so much for your tremendously valuable gifts that

you've shared.

And may your candle always for invite.

Thank you,

Sue. Learn how to work smarter while developing and growing your

business. Download our guide called 25 Free Tools to enhance your

business and life.

It's our gift to you and available@giftbizunwrap.com

slash tools.

Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the

next episode.

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