Tracie Fobes: From $35,000 in Debt to Blogging Superstar

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 Tracie Fobes from Penny Pinchin’ Mom

It was my pleasure interviewing Tracie Fobes of Penny Pinchin’ Mom, a popular personal finance blog that helps families achieve their goal of living a debt free life. 10 years in as a veteran blogger, Tracie also teaches beginner bloggers on her personal site.

Check out what Tracie 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?

Honestly, I did not even know I could make money blogging. I started my site only to help others do what we were doing, which was to get out of debt and save more money.

Fast forward 10 years and I’ve learned a lot and now want to help others, which is why I started a second site—so they, too, can learn about blogging.

My passion has faded a bit on my first site, but that is because I am more interested now in helping others.

2. At what point did you realize that your business was “taking off” and that you could really make money from it?

I started my site in January 2009. My first check for $65 arrived in August of that same year. I remember thinking…

Wow! You can make money doing this—for real!

I started reading and researching more. I started implementing more monetization strategies and things took off. I think we really realized we made it when our tax bill was more than 5 figures for one year.

Not a good way to figure it out, but when you end up owing a lot to Uncle Sam, you know you are doing pretty well. 😉

3.  At what point did you realize you were living the life you wanted to?

It was different for me because I was a stay at home mom when I started.

That was the goal we wanted.

But, when we were able to finally make that last payment on our debt, buy two cars with cash and take our kids to Florida without going into debt, we knew we did it.

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?

I started by looking at the things I was doing that would make me the most money and those that needed to be done, but really were not income drivers. I found people to start doing the small things on my site that I needed, so I could focus more on the income makers.

Now that I have more than one site, I am in the process of hiring a manager for my main site. I just can’t do it anymore.

When you feel overwhelmed and that there is too much to do, you have to realize that you need help. You need to find someone who can take some of the workload off your shoulders so you can focus on doing what you love.

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?

Nope. Not at all! I’ve never had ads on my site that I did not want. And, I don’t even use them on one of mine!

For me, I look at this as one of many income streams. Diversification is very important so I have to find several methods to make this happen.

When it comes to the partners I consider, I ask myself one very important question.

Would I promote this company if there was no money at all?

Money can’t be the driver for all you do, you need to stay true to your message and ethics.

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 that all too often they try to do what others are doing.

They see someone is successful so they redo their site to look like that one. They read a blog post that ranks well on Google and try to write the same thing.

You are you. You aren’t anyone else. You can’t try to do what someone else is doing and expect the same results.

The minute you start to be yourself and do your own thing, you become more authentic. That is what people want. The authentic you—not the you that you think they want.

7. How important has niching down been (no matter how hard it hurts) to your business’ growth and profitability?

It is so tempting to see different niches offer more in the ways of affiliate programs and even traffic.

But, I always consider my audience. If I started writing about Topic B, would it make sense to them? Does this even fit into what I talk about? Often it does not.

I can’t let the success of other sites make me change what I offer on my site.

When I decided to blog about blogging, I knew it was something my audience would probably not be at all interested in. Not only that, but I wanted to rank for it and that would not happen since it was unrelated content.

I started a new site and some of my readers are finding me there. But, that is all they see. There is not a confusing message on my site. Doing that has allowed me to capitalize on increasing my revenue as my message resonates better with those who visit my site(s).

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?

Honestly, I am successful because I am not trying to do what everyone else is doing. I just focus on what I want to do for my readers and to help them with whatever issues they have.

And, I think that definitely helps.

I am in the process of developing products that others are not doing. I found a gap in bloggers’ education and am working on filling that. I believe that will be the difference.

For growth, you need to see what others are doing and what they may be missing and see if you can answer that question.

That is often where you can find success.

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?

I can’t work without a daily to-do list.

Each week, I review the projects I want to work on and then break that down into daily pieces. That is what is on my list—not “work on the course”— it is work on videos for module 1 (for example).

10.  If you could speak face-to-face with yourself when you first started your business, what pearls of wisdom would you impart?

To relax and not force it.

It will happen if you just have faith and believe in yourself.

Make sure that you are always looking ahead and never get too comfortable when something works as it can all disappear in the blink of an eye.

About Tracie Fobes

Tracie Fobes began her online business more than 10 years ago when she started Penny Pinchin’ Mom. Her goal was to help families learn to budget, get out of debt and be smarter with their money. Her experience blogging has led her down another path to help bloggers learn how to do what she does. She now helps bloggers scale their business at TracieFobes.com.

Interested in Learning From Tracie?

Tracie’s flagship course, Learn Grow Earn, teaches you how to learn to grow a blog so you can earn.

It’s designed for those who have just set up their blogs and are wondering what the next steps are.

I took this course back in June when it was still in BETA testing and it 100% revolutionized my trajectory, even after just the first module!

She helped me change up the colors on my site and really knows a thing or two about branding. Not to mention, I learned how to nofollow a link from her.

There’s a reason Tracie is one of the most well-respected bloggers in the blogosphere. She holds your hand throughout the entire process and is always there to support you toward your next goal.

Purchase Learn Grow Earn today!

Conclusion

Thanks for participating in my series, Tracie!

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 Tracie Fobes?

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.

Get My FREE Blueprint!

Cheers to future success!