Welcome to the Scaling Success Stories series!
If you’re new to this series, I ask online entrepreneurs questions regarding growing and scaling their business.
This is the series description:
You can get your fill of online business tips by reading the other interviews on the Scaling Success Stories page.
Interview with Carly Campbell from Mommy on Purpose
It was my pleasure interviewing Carly Campbell of Mommy on Purpose, a popular mom blog that discusses parenting, personal finance, and work from home. Carly is also a Pinterest whiz and the course creator behind Pinteresting Strategies!
Check out what Carly had to say to my questions!
1. Why did you start an online business and how does your passion still drive your business’ growth today?
I started because I was DESPERATE to stay at home with my kids.
I was just pregnant with the first, and it was physically painful to do the math and realize that I would be working (after paying for childcare) to bring home only a few hundred dollars per month.
I KNEW there had to be a better way to live life than separated from my children for 8+ hours per day, making hardly enough to pay for groceries.
2. At what point did you realize that your business was “taking off” and that you could really make money from it?
Probably when I realized I wouldn’t qualify for maternity leave pay—but, in a good way.
I was a couple of months away from having the baby (so I had only been blogging for about 7 months), and I did the math and realized I was making MORE money with my blog than I was making at my part-time job.
I was in total disbelief that it could possibly have happened THAT FAST.
The plan had been to grow the blog while on maternity leave—we get a full year in Canada—but, you’re not allowed to EARN money while you’re taking maternity leave pay.
I had to choose between putting the brakes on my blog in exchange for the “free money” from the government, or to kiss maternity leave goodbye and go full speed ahead.
3. At what point did you realize you were living the life you wanted to?
Probably when my second was born.
The pregnancy was entirely different than the first because this time, I never even thought once about having to leave my baby with someone else so I could go to work.
And, I knew that I could still take a few months off if I wanted and my business would be there in the background, making me money passively.
4. One of the biggest fears of outsourcing is trusting the people you hire to run your business the way you would. How did you overcome this and where did you find the right freelancers and employees to help you grow your business?
It was very very hard for me to outsource. I am a control freak and I like to do everything myself.
I overcame my fear of outsourcing the same way I deal with having blood drawn…
Understand that this is NECESSARY for the greater good of the situation, breathe deeply, and look away.
Of course, to look away, you have to hire someone you feel that you can trust.
I have found that hiring people that come with references from someone I already know and trust has been good. If a friend personally refers someone to me, I know I can at least trust the referral.
5. A common myth is that as you grow and scale your business, you have to sell your soul to make money, especially when you venture into paid advertising. How do you debunk this myth in your business?
I keep this real simple.
Don’t say things that aren’t true.
Don’t let money be more important than your integrity.
You WILL face situations where bending the truth to make an extra $1,000 will look very tempting.
It’s your choice what you will do in those situations.
6. Why do you think most people fail to grow their businesses and what advice would you offer them to keep pushing, despite all the setbacks?
I think many fail to grow their business because they expect overnight success and because they waste time on low ROI tasks.
We must understand that there are endless nuances to online business and it is going to take TIME to understand them.
If you are not patient, this is not for you.
Secondly, we must be able to recognize what it is we are doing that is garnering results, and then choose to drill down on that thing. If you can’t tell where your wins are coming from, you can not replicate (let alone scale) them.
As far as advice to keep you going if you are feeling discouraged, I would just point out that each setback and failure is one more thing you’re adding to your list of “Well, THAT’s not the secret…”
Sometimes you land on those high ROI tasks just by identifying the low ROI tasks one by one.
Editor’s note: This is so true! I love what Carly had to say about noticing where your wins are coming from.
When I launched my interview series, I added a few more positions for my opt-ins. I found out that certain areas were converting at 60%, which is unheard of, but my exit intent pop-up hadn’t even made a conversion. So, I nixed the pop-up. I learned that relevant banner opt-ins were the way to go.
What’s something you’ve noticed doing well on your blog that you can scale? Let me know in the comments.
7. How important has niching down been (no matter how hard it hurts) to your business’ growth and profitability?
Eh—less important than you might think.
I still write a fairly broad blog…
But, I will say that my EMAIL list is niche. I think if you really want to capture the attention of an audience through email, you do have to be niche.
You can not be all things to all people.
8. What do you attribute your success to and how do you explain it? Do you think the same strategies will help you reach your next monetization goals? Why or why not?
For my blog’s success, I would say understanding the Pinterest platform was the key there. From user intent to board names and everything in between, you have to have a reason to do what you’re doing—you can not just pin and hope!
For my business outside of the blog, I believe that engaging my audience was key.
People want one on one interaction and they want to know and trust you.
If I had further monetization goals, I don’t think the Pinterest platform would be as important. There is only so much you can do with traffic from Pinterest.
It is a phenomenal starting place. It is not as high quality as search engine traffic and you will tread water there for a long time. You don’t want to be having to scale with Pinterest.
Engaging an audience, however…
Yes, THAT is huge for scaling.
9. To scale, you really need to have a systemized business. What steps have you taken to build those systems and how do you optimize them?
This is something I am still struggling with, but it’s because of the season my life is at right now.
I have small babies at home and very limited work time. Systems have never been a natural fit for me—and, I am TERRIBLE at routine. I have the attention span of a goldfish. I’m also a little unsure of what direction I want to go in…
Business in and of itself bores me, so I spend very little time working ON my business—I like to work IN my business, and that is not always ideal for growth.
But, this is all ok…
The greatest thing about my online income is that I can just accept where it is now and enjoy what I have worked for—and know that when I have more time in my life, I can choose to scale up relatively easily.
10. If you could speak face-to-face with yourself when you first started your business, what pearls of wisdom would you impart?
I would simply tell myself that there is no rushing this. The things I have to learn have to be learned through trial and error…and, that’s that.
Be patient, be persistent.
Perhaps, I would also mention that it is a bad idea to choose a platform based only on price and not functionality.
I have spent hours and hours and hours switching platforms. I would like to save myself that trouble.
About Carly Campbell
Carly is a full-time mom and full-time blogger at Mommy on Purpose. After realizing her own dream of being a work from home mom (with no boss), she is passionate about helping others do the same. You can learn more about her blog monetization journey here on her blog income report page.
Interested in Learning From Carly?
Carly has two courses that I absolutely adore!
Let’s explore a little more about these!
Pinteresting Strategies
This is my go-to Pinterest course for advanced Pinterest techniques (but, it does cover the basics).
In fact, it’s what inspired me to write this article on Pinterest hacks.
A few of the topics discussed in the course are:
- How to manually pin
- How to create viral pins
- Understanding the “science” behind Pinterest
It’s constantly updated and at $47, this 31-lesson course is a steal.
Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers
This is my go-to course for advanced affiliate marketing strategies. While I think Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing provides a great foundation, Carly goes into more depth.
Some of my favorite lessons include topics such as:
- A case study on making thousands with an email promotion
- How to draw attention to your affiliate links
- How to make money with affiliate marketing through emails
- The secret to getting conversions
It’s updated frequently and at $79, this 37-lesson course is a steal.
Conclusion
Thanks for participating in my series, Carly!
As you can tell, it’s NOT EASY growing and scaling an online business, but there are some things you can do to aid you in the process.
Inspired by Carly Campbell?
Now, it’s your turn!
I assembled the Scaling Blueprint to show you how to…
- Outsource Effectively
- Systemize Your Business
- Shatter Your Revenue Goals
After working with six-figure and seven-figure clients, I know the difference between how they function.
Let me help you start scaling successfully.
Cheers to future success!
Easy extra income for all
Hey Sares! I definitely don’t think blogging or online business are easy, but they certainly can provide extra income 🙂
This was great! Very good tips and advice! Thank you so much for sharing, Carly and Drew!
So glad you enjoyed reading Carly Campbell’s story, Kari! I hope it gives you some inspiration 🙂
Great article! I love how honest Carly is about what works for her given her circumstances (two babies at home). I work full time and have two teenagers, so I can’t get as much done on my blog as I’d like. But I’m getting traffic and making money, and having fun, which is what I need right now.
Thank you so much, Katie! I think the blogging lifestyle isn’t one that can be prescribed, but one that has to be tailored. We all have different lives and we have to find out what works for us. I have faith you’ll get there. Make sure you subscribe to get all the Scaling Success Stories delivered to your inbox 🙂