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For so many modern, driven women, life is about being more than one thing. We’re multidimensional—and so are our conversations. We carry multiple identities; we can be both mother and artist; both attorney and entrepreneur. Both clinician and CEO. Both humble and proud. Life for women like us is about both. About…all of the above. It’s about the “and”...
00:00.00
heymarvelous
Hello and welcome to the And She Spoke podcast I'm Jeni Barcelos hi sandy
00:05.80
sandy
You got some high energy today Jenny I love it. Hi Jeni hi everyone.
00:09.50
heymarvelous
Yeah, hello all right sandy what are we talking about today.
00:15.84
sandy
Um, we're talking about how to not write Shitty blogs. Ah.
00:18.67
heymarvelous
Yeah, that's right that may or may not be the title of the episode. We haven't decided yet you'll know by the time you're listening to it? Yeah, well it's important not to write Shitty blogs.
00:26.40
sandy
Yes, yeah, and I think like the last the previous episode was about this marathon running analogy and about the importance of like weekly content creation and so this week we're going to talk about. Because I think a lot of people do have blogs. But there's a bit of a misunderstanding of how to use them and why you would even have 1 and um, yeah, so we're going to talk about how to make it effective. Yeah.
00:53.84
heymarvelous
Okay, yes, so I will just start this conversation by yeah, well you know I yeah I can do a rant but I also will say I had 1 of these shitty blogs for a long time. It wasn't shitty to me but it was shitty as a business and so.
01:01.90
sandy
Um, we do a rant I have a Jenny Rand about blogging. Ah.
01:13.40
heymarvelous
I feel like I can speak from experience here as someone who started blogging in 2010 um in the that was just like the heyday of the internet I just I just have to give a moment here to twenty ten blogging it was just so much joy in that for me but I I so like okay.
01:26.20
sandy
Um.
01:31.75
heymarvelous
There's nothing wrong with having a blog that is you talking about your life So I had a blog where I talked about like health and wellness like a lot of us had these kinds of blogs like healthy living Blogs. We talked about what we ate every day and what exercise we did and we shared pictures from our day like really bad. Pictures that because we didn't have like really high resolution photos um cameras on our phones and so like that's fine and I also talked about K Craft projects and I talked about um, just be my pregnancy every week and I talked about. Like those are the things for years that I blogged about and what books I read and why I liked them and um, there's lots of blogs like this and there's nothing wrong with them if that is your hobby. But this in this context in this podcast Episode. We're talking about blogging for business. And that's what we really teach inside of our program visible and also in our program luminaries and so there's nothing wrong with having one of these blogs and it's not shitty in and of itself to have a blog like this like it can be a very powerful way to Journal. It's There's nothing wrong with it. But it does not help you. As a business at all. In fact, it's just wasting your time. So if you think that that's the kind of blog that you have um and that's going to somehow support your business.. It's just not right.
02:58.24
sandy
It's not have a blog for having a blog's sake. There has to be some reason and purpose and strategy and thinking behind what you write. So that people can find you and your business on the internet.
03:11.28
heymarvelous
Yes, yes, and that it's like it's like cohesive and makes sense because if it's just about you as a person and it's like your diary. Um, then that's not going to be for most of us very useful as like a framework for. Selling anything to anyone. So. The exception here is people who are professional influencers and so if I'm not an influencer sandy you're not an influencer. We certainly are in the space and have seen the rise of influencers and sort of how that business model works and have studied it ad nauseam. And I will say that even the influencers have a pretty intensive strategy behind what they're doing so. It's still not just random. It may look random but it's actually probably not very random like there's a particular influencer strategy that's still focused on getting as many page views and doing. Sponsored content and attracting the right kind of advertisers and so that's also not what we're talking about in this like when we're talking about blogging for business. We're not talking about become a professional influencer like we're not talking about becoming a Kardashian that's not the business model that we teach.
04:11.60
sandy
Um, like.
04:17.61
sandy
Right? So those like blog posts about their trip to Paris is actually a different motive behind because there's some like thing they're promoting like the hotel or something not.
04:30.16
heymarvelous
Yeah, it's a sponsor.. It's a sponsored post. Yes, So so that um, that's a hard thing to break into if it's 2023 and you're just getting started. It's not impossible. But if your dream is to become really really famous. Um, go for It. I Don't think there's anything wrong with it like it's a spectacular way to make a living while you can, but it is not what we teach So Let's just set those things aside and talk about kind of what what a helpful blog is for your business all right, all right helpful.
04:51.62
sandy
So right.
05:00.40
sandy
Cape go what's a helpful blog. Jenny.
05:03.37
heymarvelous
Blog is a blog that is written strategically so you're going to have certain topics that you focus on over and over. We recommend 3 to 5 and we call them content pillars. So do lots of other people and so that way as you're building an audience. You start to get known for the work that you do the writing you do the podcasting you do the Youtube being you do within a particular set of issues or areas and so that way it's not just like totally random content like it's not to say you can't ever have a random episode or blog post. It just means that like the vast majority of your content fits within kind of this structured framework of these 3 to 5 topics and beyond that it means that you're producing content consistently ideally on this at least weekly. And ideally you're you're releasing content on the same day of the week because you start to build an audience of people who is expecting to see content at certain intervals like if you post every Thursday morning at 11 a m and you know you've built up a readership of your blog for example and then you don't post. Like you start people start to drop off like they get worried and or or they just start to forget about you? Yeah, so that's like a big part of it and then I think it will just help to talk about. Um, what a blog post is not if it's written strategically for your business.
06:19.44
sandy
Forget yeah.
06:35.97
heymarvelous
So It's not probably like um vacation recap. It's not a journal Entry. It's not like a diary.. It's not just like your morning pages where you're kind of doing a thought download of whatever is going on in your head. Like it's not a stream of consciousness like it's not any of those things. Um typically a blog post that's written for your business is going to be written to serve your audience not just to serve you and so like I think that that's probably the most important thing to have in mind is Like. What is the intention of the post like what is the goal of the post and you need to have that very clear. Um because when we are working as creators like you obviously have some creative self-expression there but your goal is to build a group of people that. Trust you and rely on you for information and and ideas. Um and you want to make sure that you're being clear to those people and that you're serving them with every single piece of content that you make.
07:42.88
sandy
Yeah, and I just I want to just emphasize a couple of points. You just Said. So I Think the most important thing is to put your shoes put yourself into the shoes of the reader your audience your ideal clients and what do they need to hear. What do you need to tell them what you need to teach them. You know it's about and for them. They're not reading it to learn about your life just because they're learning it because they're reading it because they want to learn something for them like they want to solve some problem or understand something or clarify and I think.
08:16.62
heymarvelous
And.
08:19.55
sandy
That does not mean to say that you don't get to add personal story like depending on the blog and the topic but you could always add story like this thing happened on the weekend and this is what I learned and this is you know you can move it into one of your content pillars and maybe make it into a call to action about. Coming into the program or getting this download or whatever right? So you can still use. Story doesn't mean you can't ever talk about yourself. But you have to come at it from the lens of what how is it that I can best help and serve my audience today when I write this blog post.
08:54.16
heymarvelous
Yeah, and I would say like it really does matter that you incorporate your story like I I think being too far on the other side is also a problem because then you just start to be like what's the difference between you and an Ai robot writing is like step.
09:05.51
sandy
Um, right right.
09:14.20
heymarvelous
Bistep instructions for something like it's you you need to not be that either. You need to be putting your own personal spin and weaving your own stories and ideas into your content. No matter what? Um, that's what makes people come back over and over is because it's your particular flavor of these topics that. That starts to interest them. So I just I think that like that maybe that balance is hard to understand at first and my best advice for someone as someone who has been writing and creating on the internet for 13 years my best advice is just like you figure that balance out by doing it like. Yeah, you, there's no instruction sheet for that like I think we do have this like wonderful content brief outline that we share in our visible program which is again also inside luminaries for our clients where we we provide a pretty specific.
09:53.31
sandy
Um, yeah.
10:11.17
heymarvelous
Prescriptive structure for how to outline content um to use in your business but it's just a framework. It's just so it like until you start to be a creator and actually like create content like it's it's like a it's a skill that you only can truly. Master by doing like you can't study its like ad nauseam and not take action and expect that you're really going to get it right? and I I don't know like as someone I think. You are you come up from a background in Science Sandy and I have a background in science and law and so I think that that's probably hard for people like us to understand like wait. You're you're telling me that there's like something magic that I just have to learn on my own and like yeah you do. You've just got to figure it out like you've got to find your own voice by doing it.
10:56.91
sandy
Um, but yeah, absolutely. But I think um there it is this like weird balance because you do have to be interesting. You do have to be interesting and I think.
11:09.34
heymarvelous
Um, yeah.
11:11.45
sandy
So often we see a lot of writing that is not interesting because it's just about me me me and I did this I did this I did this and then this happened and it's like I don't care like how to apply to me. You know? So I think it is testing the waters to like learn what your voice is.
11:17.82
heymarvelous
Yeah, yeah.
11:29.17
sandy
And the way we've set it up and the way we teach it I think you did this is like the the pillars are really helpful so you have to kind of like pick a topic that falls into one of the buckets or the pillars and then how do you weave your own story but also like you have to bring your own flavor and personality and. To your writing so that you are interesting and that you are a little bit different doesn't mean that everyone's going to Love. You doesn't mean everyone's going to Read. You doesn't mean everyone's going to have positive things but you just have to figure out who you are as a writer who you are as a blogger who you are as a creator and.
11:57.38
heymarvelous
Ah.
12:05.53
sandy
And as an entrepreneur and like weave the facts and the motivation and the inspiration with your story and that is art.
12:11.44
heymarvelous
Yeah, it is it totally is and I think that that's the part that probably freaks people out and I think that it also is like super attractive to people who are who have a journaling practice and who like to write and yet it's not the same as that and I just think like.
12:27.35
sandy
Um, on hand. Um.
12:28.35
heymarvelous
There is a that's the balance right? So we've created ah a template like an outline template and framework for for our clients. But I just think for those of you that are listening if you if you know that this is the path for you like being a content creator on the internet is what you want to make a living by being yourself like Ai n't nothing better.
12:47.77
sandy
Um.
12:47.96
heymarvelous
Then I think it's worth just like diving in and starting to figure this out and I think it's like a little scary at first because it's doing this work in public like most of us when we're learning a skill. We're not doing it in public in front of the entire internet to see but guess what nobody's going to be reading it at first. So it's like it's okay.
13:01.31
sandy
Um, the entire internet is not seeing it. Yeah.
13:07.28
heymarvelous
And even if it's you're utubing and you're doing this like as a we say blogger right? But we're when we talk about blogging. We also mean youtubing and podcasting and writing.
13:17.85
sandy
But you know what? Danny I was just going to say this and you just made me ah give me a perfect segue. It was like when we talk about doing like the journal or diary make like writing a diary basically like the uninteresting not helpful for your business kind of It's always right? like nobody gets in front of a microphone just rambles off about ah what they ate their holidays and their whatever their story about their dog or whatever they don't do that like when you sit down to create a Youtube video or when you sit down to create a podcast. There's something different that you're like okay, what am I going to teach.
13:35.10
heymarvelous
Yes, it.
13:50.67
heymarvelous
Nothing.
13:52.19
sandy
What am I going to tell them what am I going to share like there's some higher value associated with that as opposed to just like creating a blog just so I can say I have a blog so I put these posts up and there's less that I don't know why that is you know what? I'm saying does that.
14:05.84
heymarvelous
Yeah, like Pete you like in your mind people will post a blog less strategically than they will post a podcast or a Youtube episode. Yeah I I think that there's some truth to that because it's just so it's just quite a bit more work to do the other things and so of course you're going to like take the time to think through.
14:11.33
sandy
Yes.
14:25.82
heymarvelous
What the strategy is um I get I totally get that I also think though I watch a lot of Youtube Sandy and there are people that just kind of like turn the camera on. So so for most for the most part that's true. But I do I do think like.
14:38.76
sandy
Ah, okay, yeah.
14:45.50
heymarvelous
Like Tiktok and Instagram reels have made people comfortable in front of the camera. So there's also a lot of kind of like stream of consciousness on video now too. So yeah I I think that there's some truth there and and I guess like our the reason we're recording this is because I think that it's like blogging.
14:53.70
sandy
Okay, yeah, that's um, good.
15:02.91
heymarvelous
Is such like this big topic and and like to be a blogger means a lot of different things to different people and I just I Just want to say like if your blog is part of your business and the purpose of your blog is to grow an audience of people some of whom will buy the things you sell in your business. Then it's a different.. It's a different thing than just having a blog to share your ideas or having a blog to keep in touch with your family that doesn't live near like it just is different and so it should be done strategically and I and I think that it's also I just want to say. The best investment in yourself. You can make like to me strategically blogging or creating content in some form is as important or more important than going to college at this point like I just I Just think Like. Don't write off what we're saying here. It's very very important. It is like for your career. It's extremely important like this is this is to me the most important skill you learn as like not just an entrepreneur but as a professional and in any field like the ability to. Strategically communicate with people and establish yourself as an expert an authority or a thought leader is is as important as anything Else. You will learn.
16:28.92
sandy
Um, yeah, and I think like if we talk about like if you're not an entrepreneur and you're working corporate or whatever I see a lot of that happening on Linkedin like people will write pieces and and posts.
16:39.51
heymarvelous
Yeah, yep.
16:43.68
sandy
To for that exact reason, but it's just they're discoverable in a different way. They don't own the platform obviously but that's like people find them because of what they write? No yes.
16:46.58
heymarvelous
Um, yeah.
16:51.81
heymarvelous
Yeah, and I think it's that like we're not talking in this episode about reposting. But there's that's also like a wonderful strategy I would encourage all of those professional corporate Linkedin people to also have their own blog on their own domain with their name. But yes.
17:04.17
sandy
Blog. Yeah that they control.
17:10.28
heymarvelous
Yes, and I and I That's why I think it's not just about entrepreneurship like I I think that this is now your like safety net and the economy is to be established and to have a reputation for being known for certain things and this is both true as an entrepreneur and. And as an employee like I Just don't think there's that much of a distinction anymore.
17:29.52
sandy
Um, yeah, no, that's interesting. That's interesting. Okay.
17:34.74
heymarvelous
Yeah, and I hope we didn't hurt a lot of feelings in this like I just because I am a blogger at heart and I'm like I I don't think blogs that are personal are shitty and like like for real I Just think they're shitty for your business like they're not shitty in and of themselves.
17:48.77
sandy
Right? And I just.
17:53.42
heymarvelous
Because I love them and they're very sacred to me. Yeah, right.
17:54.50
sandy
But our angle and what we teach is it taking women to make money and you're not going to make money out of that so that is why we wanted to have this episode to just clarify have a blog but think about what you're posting be strategic about who you're trying to attract.
18:06.83
heymarvelous
Yeah, ah.
18:11.94
sandy
Attract them sell to them and make some money.
18:13.22
heymarvelous
Yeah, absolutely and think about like what your end game is right? So for for those of you that are listening to us. You're probably in the online business entrepreneurship space in which case like listen to us and please follow our advice because it will help you and if you're like hey I I actually think I'm I'm like.
18:19.45
sandy
And associates. To us and please all.
18:31.65
heymarvelous
An influencer I Want to be an influencer then this is it like what then don't listen to us because it's a different year you need to to be listening to someone who's teaching you that model and that's not the model that we're talking about because there's also like if that's your game. The strategies are pretty different like you shouldn't have your content buckets. You should try to be like as loud.
18:36.16
sandy
Yeah.
18:51.90
heymarvelous
And um, as provocative with everything you do as possible like that is your strategy just to get as many people watching you as possible. So that's different. It's just not the same and then if your goal is like to have a blog for your own self because it's fulfilling to you and.
18:53.89
sandy
Um, controversial. Yeah yeah.
19:10.22
heymarvelous
You know you want your friends and your family to read it and maybe a few other people but you don't need to make a living from it then this is also not the same like then it's different too right? So I just like I read a number of blogs that are this sort of friends and family style blogs and it's like 1 of the best parts of my day is reading those people that i've.
19:19.92
sandy
Um.
19:29.19
heymarvelous
No and have known for decades and reading about what their kids did that day in Homeschool like that's fine. There's nothing wrong with it. It's just not the same business model and maybe not a business right? So I just I just want to also like just.
19:32.33
sandy
Right? Correct right.
19:44.15
heymarvelous
Say that because because writing and creating content in general is a magical process and there's nothing wrong with any of the ways of doing it in and of themselves.
19:51.23
sandy
Awesome! Okay, got it so join hustle. Ok so on the weekend I went to the ballet I don't know that I've ever been to the ballet before but it was amazing.
19:55.47
heymarvelous
Yes, you have the joy.
20:06.28
heymarvelous
Fabulous.
20:08.94
sandy
And part of why it was the ballet has never appealed to me before but this was um Lenny Kravitz ballet it was called love love rocks and it was by a um by a particular troop out of New York city and they're called complexions dance and complexions is spelt with an x um, so their website is complexions.
20:15.69
heymarvelous
Oh.
20:28.63
sandy
dance.org and it is worth just going on there and watching the video and the photos of these incredible athletes and what I love so much about it. First of all, it's Lenny Kratz music so it wasn't like orchestral. Um and they also did so much.
20:31.50
heymarvelous
Hey.
20:45.87
sandy
Like it was a mix of I think they call it contemporary ballet and I don't really know very much about dance. So for those of you that do apologize for my my not understanding at all, but it's like ballet but also modern lyrical like the a little bit of hip hop like with a flex foot as opposed to pointed foot like these little subtle things just made it unbelievable.
20:47.79
heymarvelous
Smile home and. 9.
21:05.78
sandy
Was super emotional. They also played with gender which I loved so that it wasn't like there would be um, you know a dance with like all the men and that men would lift up men like it wasn't just like men lifting up, you know the lifts with the women so there is this this fluidity to it that was it was. Beautiful. So I bringing I'm bringing it up now because it's amazing and it's still they're touring with love rocks um, and it's all going to the states now. So it's worth if that appeals to you I don't I don't remember what the tickets were but it wasn't unreasonable. It was. It's worth I would see it again. I would have gone the next day
21:40.39
heymarvelous
He.
21:42.87
sandy
To see it again. It was so good. There's so much happening. But even this lighting they're all backlets. They're almost always in shadow which is so interesting because they were sort of mysterious like you couldn't really see their faces and that's why went on the website to see who these unbelievable people are so yeah complexions with an X dance.
21:48.48
heymarvelous
Her.
21:57.49
heymarvelous
Wow.
22:02.74
sandy
Dot Org Loved it.
22:03.12
heymarvelous
Looks amazing. Yeah, it looks like they have they have some shows coming to California leader in the beginning of the summer that looks amazing. Thank you for sharing that. That's great I love going to the ballet. Um, okay, well my hustle is also kind of a joy and it's also maybe obnoxious but I mean it's going to go for it.
22:10.48
sandy
Um, yeah, yeah I was amazing. Um, and.
22:22.54
heymarvelous
So my it's like a joy hustle and it is um, our Tesla and I just I had a lot of like big feelings about getting a tesla a lot of big mixed feelings. There's a lot of politics involved in the Tesla and I just. We took advantage of the nice little lower prices when when Elon just um, tried to play the market here like a couple months ago and we got one finally and I just have to say that the reason it's a hustle is because I can watch Youtube in car line. And I just I actually feel like sometimes I've been karlene for like 45 minutes and for those Ah oh it's like school pickup. Oh and whole thing like talk about it like a ballet. It's like this orchestrated complex experiment of like weaving in and out of cones and.
23:04.94
sandy
What's car line mean what it where the oh right? right? right? Okay, ah.
23:18.90
heymarvelous
Just it's a whole thing and so I'm sitting in the car for car line for a long time every day and now when I have the tesla on the days I have the tesla I can actually watch Youtube and I can be that's like working for me. This is my job and I just feel like it's like fantastic like it's just so.
23:20.42
sandy
Um, okay.
23:29.45
sandy
Right? That's amazing.
23:37.72
heymarvelous
It's so nice to be sitting in carline watching Youtube on like a big giant screen in my car and it's so comfortable and the same thing like you go to pick up take out food and you can like sit there and watch Netflix while you're waiting for your food to be like it's just I know you can use your phone. It is so much better than using your phone.
23:53.65
sandy
Yeah, oh yeah, way better way better.
23:57.12
heymarvelous
And it's just so quiet. It's just so it feels just so comfortable. They have dog mode. You can leave the dog in the car and that like keeps the car the right temperature. It's just the best and so to me, it's a joy but it's also a hustle because I feel like it is improving my life and improving my productivity.
24:05.89
sandy
Is but efficiency. Yeah.
24:16.11
heymarvelous
And I'm all for it and I actually think it's like there's so many things that are different about it than just being a car like it's not like getting a different car. It's like a different experience to drive a tesla.
24:21.30
sandy
Right? environment. Yeah, that's so cool. Yeah, you were driving it when I came down to see you last month and so I've always I would never it would doesn't make it makes zero sense up here but I always wanted to drive in one and see what it felt like so it was incredible to to.
24:29.50
heymarvelous
Yeah, yeah.
24:40.42
heymarvelous
It was fun. Yeah, it's fun. So anyway if you want to have extra time in carline to watch your Youtube I recommend but just just go pick one up all right, all right? everybody we'll see you next time i.
24:41.18
sandy
To do that with you? Yeah, okay.
24:51.11
sandy
Loads grab a Tesla all right? Thank you bye.