The Blogger Genius Podcast

In this episode I share my thoughts on the perfection of B- work and how to get stuff done in your business. This is a personal solo episode I recorded about my deep and conflicted relationship with perfectionism. I call myself a “recovering perfectionist” and believe I will be dealing with its affects for the rest of my life. There have been times my perfectionism has served me well, but in my life as an entrepreneur, I think it have held me back. In this episode I talk about why I recommend bloggers shoot for B- work and what that looks like in practice. I talk about how B- work helps you move quickly and test new ideas. I also share how putting B- work out there can be uncomfortable and even embarrassing. At the end of the day, I have learned that “Perfection isn’t profitable. So I have a Post-It on my desk that says, “B- work every day!” I recommend you put one on your desk too. Show Notes: MiloTree App Catch My Party The Blogger Genius Share & Grow Your Blog Facebook Group MiloTree Six-Week Blogger Coaching Group #136: SPECIAL EPISODE: A Guided Meditation on Perfection with Jillian Leslie Subscribe to The Blogger Genius Podcast: iTunes Stitcher YouTube Amazon Music Grow your social media followers and email list on autopilot… If you are looking for ways to grow your community whether that be email whether that be social media, right now head to Milotree.com install the MiloTree app on your blog and it will do the work for you. Let it do the heavy lifting for you. Let it pop up in front of your visitors and ask them to follow you on Instagram Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, join your list, check out the exit intent but really get your community growing. And we’d love to help you with MiloTree. And I will see you here again next week. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE!

Today I'm talking with my friend and Pinterest expert, Jennifer Priest, from Smart Creative Social, about how to be effective on Pinterest today. Pinterest is getting a bad rap these days because people are seeing their traffic from the platform plummet. Jennifer and I debunk some of the myths swirling around Pinterest, and talk about how there is no one way to have success on the platform. Understanding what your specific goals are for being there (traffic, sales, email signup, etc.) and what the algorithm is looking for (compelling images, specific headlines, keyword-heavy descriptions, etc), will set you up for success. Creating a ton of new pins without a clear strategy, following techniques and trick you read about in a Facebook group, or throwing spaghetti against the wall to see if anything sticks is guaranteed to lead to frustration. Your business is different from everybody else's. So, you've got to think really critically about what you're trying to accomplish, then test and learn, test and learn to fine-tune your strategy. Pinterest is a numbers game in that your analytics can teach you a lot, but it isn't a numbers game, in that if you put out 1,000 pins, one of them is guaranteed to hit. My advice is slow down, and take the time to see what works uniquely for you, then build off of it. If you are frustrated right now with Pinterest, I think you'll find this episode very helpful and reassuring! Show Notes: MiloTree App The Blogger Genius Share & Grow Your Blog Facebook Group Blogger Genius 4 Biggest Takeaways Email Subscribe to The Blogger Genius Podcast: iTunes Stitcher YouTube Amazon Music Other Blogger Genius Podcast Episodes about Pinterest You Might Like #143: How to Easily Design Pinterest Pins to Get More Traffic with Clarita Gerlach #135: How to Be Successful on Pinterest and Instagram Today with Jeff Sieh #128: What’s Working on Pinterest NOW! with Kate Ahl #109: How to Get Ahead of the Changes at Pinterest to Win on the Platform with Alisa Meredith #072: How to Make Promoted Pins Work for You With Monica Froese #053: Powerful and Easy Pinterest Tips from Pinterest Insider, Tori Tait Growing Social Media Followers and Email Subscribers Doesn't Have to Be Hard If you are looking for ways to grow your community whether that be email whether that be social media, right now head to Milotree.com install the MiloTree app on your blog and it will do the work for you. Let it do the heavy lifting for you. Let it pop up in front of your visitors and ask them to follow you on Instagram Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, join your list, check out the exit intent but really get your community growing. And we’d love to help you with MiloTree. And I will see you here again next week. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE!

Today we’re talking about why it’s worth growing an engaged Facebook audience and how this could be a game-changer for your business. I’m interviewing Melanie Ferguson from Southern Crush at Home. Melanie has a Facebook page with over 100k followers. We talk about how valuable followers are when growing your online business because they show up for you. And Facebook is one of the best ways to get quick and easy feedback from your fans. Many people are underestimating the power of Facebook right now. They believe it’s hard to get organic reach. But if you are willing to go live on Facebook regularly, and engage with your audience, Facebook will reward you. Melanie shares strategies she uses to grow her page, how she’s built different businesses by leveraging her audience, and tips you can use for going live on Facebook. After listening to this episode, I think you might want to reevaluate your relationship with Facebook. It might not be as cold and unloving as you think.  Show Notes: MiloTree App MiloTree BlogStart Southern Crush at Home Southern Crush at Home Facebook Page Southern Crush at Home Christmas Craftathon Episode #017: How To Use Facebook to Go Viral with Rachel Miller MiloTree WordPress Workshop Blogger Genius 4 Biggest Takeaways Email Subscribe to The Blogger Genius Podcast: iTunes Google Play Stitcher YouTube Amazon Music Imagine a world where growing your social media followers and email list was easy… If you are looking for ways to grow your community whether that be email whether that be social media, right now head to Milotree.com install the MiloTree app on your blog and it will do the work for you. Let it do the heavy lifting for you. Let it pop up in front of your visitors and ask them to follow you on Instagram Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, join your list, check out the exit intent but really get your community growing. And we’d love to help you with MiloTree. And I will see you here again next week. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE!

Ready to learn how to win selling on Shopify? If you are a blogger, you know I recommend finding something to sell to your audience, and Shopify might be the perfect platform for you to do it on. This is why I'm excited to share my interview with Shopify expert, Elle McCann. In this episode, we delve into lots of important Shopify strategies and tactics including: Selling on Shopify vs. Etsy What to consider when opening a Shopify store The importance of doing B- work to get your store open fast Common mistakes people make when selling on Shopify How to drive traffic to your shop How to use social media to sell The importance of using email marketing in ecommerce And so much more! I think every blogger should listen to this episode because even if you are not ready to open a Shopify store yet—notice I said "yet"—this episode might get the wheels turning for you on what you can sell to your audience. Snag My 4 Takeaways Weekly Cheatsheet Hello friends. It is me, Jillian, serial entrepreneur, founder of Catch My Party and MiloTree. I take what's working now in online entrepreneurship and I break it down. So, you can take these techniques into your business. If you'd like to get an email from me once a week where I send you my four biggest takeaways from every podcast episode, please head to bloggergenius.com and sign up. It's like a cheat sheet every week. So, you can stay on top of what is happening now in online business. Again, head to bloggergenius.com and sign up, I would love you to be part of my community. For today's episode, I have Elle McCann on the show and she is a Shopify expert. Imagine a world where growing your social media followers and email list was easy… If you are looking for ways to grow your community whether that be email whether that be social media, right now head to Milotree.com install the MiloTree app on your blog and it will do the work for you. Let it do the heavy lifting for you. Let it pop up in front of your visitors and ask them to follow you on Instagram Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, join your list, check out the exit intent but really get your community growing. And we’d love to help you with MiloTree. And I will see you here again next week. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE!

In today's episode of The Blogger Genius Podcast, we're digging into how to easily design Pinterest pins to get more traffic. Face it, there's no better way to get traffic to your blog than Pinterest. And now that Pinterest has come out and said it wants "new content," it behooves you to create lots of new pins for the platform. But how do you do that without burning out? I've got my friend and graphic designer, Clara Gerlach from 5tips.co, on the podcast to share her strategies for creating effective pins easily and quickly using Pinterest templates. Clara also shares her five tips for effective pin design, and the five photo types she recommends you capture to use in your Pinterest pins. If you are not a designer, you can still create eye-catching pins that "stop the scroll." You need to know a few design rules that Clara outlines, and have a plan in place before you start creating your next pins. It's totally doable! Show Notes: MiloTree Pop-Up App Blogger Genius 4 Biggest Takeaways Email MiloTree Six-Week Entrepreneur Group 5Tips.co Clara's Pinterest Templates Canva Catch My Party Subscribe to The Blogger Genius Podcast: iTunes Google Play Stitcher YouTube Amazon Music   Sign Up to Get My 4 Favorite Takeaways Email Hello friends. It's me, Jillian, serial entrepreneur, founder of Catch My Party, founder of MiloTree, business coach and really, business translator. I take what is working right now in online entrepreneurship. And I break it down so that you have tactics that you can go and take into your own business. If you would like to get a weekly newsletter from me, where I take my most recent podcast episode. And I share my four biggest take aways with you kind of like Cliff Notes, please head to bloggergenius.com and sign up. I would love you to be part of my community so that I can get to know you. Imagine a world where growing your social media followers and email list was easy… If you are looking for ways to grow your community whether that be email whether that be social media, right now head to Milotree.com install the MiloTree app on your blog and it will do the work for you. Let it do the heavy lifting for you. Let it pop up in front of your visitors and ask them to follow you on Instagram Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, join your list, check out the exit intent but really get your community growing. And we’d love to help you with MiloTree. And I will see you here again next week. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE!

If you want to know how to use analytics to increase your end of the year blog income, this is the episode for you! Who doesn’t need more money over the holidays? As we approach the end of the year, I always recommend bloggers dust off their holiday content and give it a refresh. But a good question to ask is what posts should you update, and how do you do it successfully during this unusual holiday season? I’ve got my friend and SEO expert, Paula Rollo, back on the show to share how to use analytics to guide you, whether that be Google Trends, Google Search Console, or Google Analytics. The goal is to create content that you are confident will do well for you—that will help drive traffic to your site and help you sell during the holidays. We also talk about how to strategically go after high traffic keywords in your niche, so you can continue to build your traffic from now into 2021. With this strategy, it’s all about the long game, creating individual pieces of content that support the larger keywords you’re targeting. With a little forethought and patience, this is definitely achievable. Listen to the episode to learn how step-by-step. Then please reach out and let me know which strategy from the episode resonates with you the most, and how you’re upping your game in Q4. Join My Newsletter and Get My 4 Takeaways From Each Episode I'm a big believer in doing B-minus work, so you can actually get stuff done, embracing the mess and getting used to being uncomfortable. If that sounds interesting to you, please join my newsletter, head to bloggergenius.com and sign up. And once a week, you'll get an email from me, where I'm sharing my four biggest takeaways from each episode. And you can also become part of my community, I'd really love to get to know you. So please bloggergenius.com.

Here are the 5 secrets successful bloggers know to grow their blogs. Given that I work closely with bloggers in our MiloTree Coaching Group, and I interview successful bloggers on my podcast, I get to see consistent patterns. In this podcast, I share what I see works for many bloggers and online entrepreneurs today. The word I use over and over again is "intentionality." The more intentional you can be about the choices you make, the better. Listen to the episode to see how many of these secrets you can incorporate into your own blog. 

In this episode, Lauren Myers from the Etsy shop, Ohh How Charming, and I talk about why Etsy is a great platform to be selling on now. Not only does Etsy handle much of the hassle of running an online store, but they have a built-in audience of millions wanting to buy from you. With Etsy, you don’t have to worry as much about driving traffic to your shop. You get to focus on product creation, photos, optimizing your titles and listings with keywords, and creating content to drive awareness of your products and brand. Lauren has made over 55,000 party supply sales on Etsy over the last five years, and she says that during the pandemic, her business is booming! The most successful online entrepreneurs and bloggers I know all have products to sell. Maybe this is the right moment for you to open your Etsy shop and experiment with selling your own goods. If you’re considering it, this episode will inspire you to do it!  Show Notes: MiloTree Pop-Up App Blogger Genius 4 Biggest Takeaways Email MiloTree BlogStart Service MiloTree 6 Week Coaching Group Ohh How Charming Shop Ohh How Charming Blog Catch My Party Subscribe to The Blogger Genius Podcast: iTunes Google Play Stitcher YouTube Amazon Music Hello friends. Welcome back to the show. I want to ask you, if you would like to get a weekly email from me on Sundays, where I talk about my most recent podcast episode and I share my four biggest takeaways from that episode. That way, it's like a cheat sheet. It'll save you time. You can see what we're talking about what is happening in the world of blogging and online business. I'll also put the podcast in the email so if you want to listen to it, you can right then and there. If this sounds interesting to you, please head to bloggergenius.com and sign up. It's really easy, again easy to remember, bloggergenius.com and I would love you to be part of my community.

n this episode with my friend and SEO expert, Paula Rollo, we talk about how to use Google Analytics to know what to blog about. How many time have you asked yourself, what kind of content should I invest my time in to grow my business? How do I get the biggest bang for my buck? We’re discussing ways to use your analytics to figure out, not only what your audience wants from you, but also what Google thinks you’re an expert in. Paula and I talk about how all that information is in your Google Analytics and Google Search Console if you know what you’re looking for. We talk about targeting keywords in your niche to grow your traffic, how to find hidden opportunities to get your content found, how to piggyback off of what’s working for you on social media, and how to think about riding cultural waves to get your posts to show up in search. After listening to this episode, you’ll never wonder again what kind of content to create to be successful in your business. I think  you’re going to find this episode super helpful! Show Notes: Blogger Genius 4 Biggest Takeaways Email MiloTree App MiloTree BlogStart Service MiloTree Mastermind Facebook Group MiloTree Google Analytics Cheat Sheet Paula Rollo/SEO Catch My Party Subscribe to The Blogger Genius Podcast: iTunes Google Play Stitcher YouTube Hello friends. Welcome back to The Blogger Genius Podcast. Before I get started, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to receive an email from me on Sundays, where I talk about my most recent episode, and I share my four biggest takeaways from that episode. So, think of it as a cheat sheet, or like Cliff Notes. It will save you a ton of time because you can decide whether it's an episode you want to listen to. But if not, you will stay up to date on what is really working in online business and blogging today. It's easy to remember, bloggergenius.com and just add your email address.

Today I’m talking with Damon Oates from DecoExchange about how to build a profitable business by following your audience’s lead. What is an emergent business? An emergent business is one that “emerges” out of your audience’s wants and needs. You come up with a hypothesis of what you think your customers will buy from you. You launch your offering, and test the response.Then you listen closely to what your customers tell you about your product. You continue to iterate based on their suggestions.Then you discover what other “adjacent” problems your customers are having, and solve them, too, by selling them solutions. The exciting part about building an “emergent” business is that you don’t know the direction your business is going to take, but you follow your customers wants and needs and continual feedback to keep building. Damon's business is such a great example of what this looks like. I also think you're going to love what a caring, sweet person he is.Definitely listen to this episode and reach out and tell me what your biggest insights are. Sign Up and Receive My 4 Biggest Takeaways From Each Episode If you are enjoying the Blogger Genius Podcast, and you want to receive a weekly newsletter from me, where I talk about my most recent episode and share my four biggest takeaways from that episode. Please head to bloggergenius.com and sign up. It’s almost like a cheat sheet and this way you will stay up to date on what is really happening in online business and blogging today. Show Notes: Blogger Genius 4 Biggest Takeaways Email MiloTree App MiloTree Mastermind Facebook Group DecoExchange How to Make Wreaths Makers Mean Business Podcast