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Let’s talk about building your business with one of my favorites, the wonderful Laura Tremaine. She has been on the show before, talking about friendship and life. Today, you’ll hear the behind-the-scenes you have not heard anywhere else and get some of her favorite advice.
Laura Tremaine is an avid reader, writer, and enthusiastic podcaster who believes that sharing yourself will make you less lonely. Laura Tremaine grew up in Oklahoma and moved to Los Angeles sight unseen when she was twenty-two. She worked in film and television production for many years before pursuing writing full-time.
In her book, The Life Council: 10 Friends Every Woman Needs, Laura Tremaine offers a fresh and unique perspective on friendship. She provides women with the tools to rethink their approach to friendships, leading them to discover true connection, freedom, and joy in their relationships.
Let’s dive in!
In Laura’s early blogging days, she said she published every weekday. She was very disciplined when it came to writing every day, and she quickly figured out what worked and what didn’t work. However, she had not realized how slow growth is. Her initial thoughts were that she would blog every day for two years and then be granted a book deal, but clearly, that wasn’t what happened.
Laura says that, initially, she didn’t think of her blog as a business because she didn’t have that mindset. So, she would have said yes to any opportunity because she was only thinking about it as an emotional story, a prestigious honor, or even an opportunity. She says she didn’t have a business background or know anything about business, so she said yes to many things that didn’t actually serve her or in building her business. In the big picture way, saying yes to many things, she learned a lot and eventually was able to sift through and make better decisions. But it was a longer process than she would have liked.
Her mindset changed when Laura realized other bloggers were her peers and not necessarily ahead of her. She learned an important lesson from a friend once who said, “If you carry yourself like you belong in the room, you know what you’re doing, people will believe you.” And so when she changed her medium from writing to podcasting, she built upon that.
Laura said she learned that using her voice enhanced her writing. She went from being a cohost on a show to having her own podcast show and eventually landing a book deal. But everything took time – it took time to build the blog, it took time to build the podcast, it took time to land the book deal, which isn’t talked about often. Many times, mainly because of Instagram, people think that these overnight successes really happen overnight, but it takes years to build anything and grow a following. And slow growth is important, especially in building your business.
Everything takes longer than we think it should, and we go into new experiences thinking, give me six months to a year, but it actually takes about five years.
Laura says she loves being on Instagram, but it’s become impossible for her to grow over there. She loves her podcast, but sometimes it’s hard to heard above the noise. Two things that she feels are working is:
Although Laura says it’s hard to grow a paid community, she enjoys the conversations she has every other week on Patreon. And when she took a break from her podcast to write her second book, the paid community helped her financially.
With courses, Laura created a journaling for adults course, which she has taught for two years, and both times, it has exceeded her financial expectations. And even though it feels like everyone is creating a course, the balance ensures there is enough content that provides value but not so much content that it’s overwhelming and people don’t complete it.
What do you think is working in 2024 in building your business? Alright, let’s go on to coaching for this week.
If you haven’t started using it, I need you to start; it’s ChatGPT. Now, when I talk to people, they either haven’t tried it at all, or they really love it. If you haven’t tried it at all, do not feel intimidated. Don’t feel overwhelmed. It’s super easy to use. I have an app on my phone and I use it on my laptop. I use it now instead of Google when I want information because it literally has the internet’s information already in it.
If I want to know how to cook something, I ask it. If I’m reading a research study and it’s confusing, I will link it or upload it to ChatGPT and say explain this to me like I’m five years old. I feel like AI right now is how it was for me when I went from having to look everything up in the encyclopedia to the beginning of the internet. Like this is our next step up. If you haven’t signed up yet, sign up for a free account and get familiar with it. It’s not going away, and it is super helpful.
“Mindset will only take you so far, but if you don’t have the right mindset, it can sink you fast.”
13:11
“If you carry yourself as I belong in this room, I know what I am doing, and I am good at this, people will believe you.”
13:51
“It all builds upon each other. I wouldn’t have been a successful podcaster had I not been writing for an audience for years beyond that.”
18:03
“I don’t think you can have success if you don’t have a heart and a passion behind it.”
36:47
“Whatever your business is, to share yourself in it in an open and honest way is always going to lead to more connection and fulfillment than clocking and tracking your sales numbers.”
37:36
Order your copy of Remaining You While Raising Them here.
Hope you loved this episode! Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and slap some stars on a review! 🙂
xo,
Alli