I first heard Lauren McManus on an episode of Teachable.com’s podcast. She and her partner epitomized what I would call ‘the thoughtful pivot’.

Then while writing Side Hustle Spark 204, I once again ran across Create and Go and Shannon Mattern’s 2020 chat with Lauren—Building a Multi-Million Dollar Blogging Empire with Lauren McManus of Create and Go.

A few highlights:

• “I think about nine people, including both of our mothers attended this webinar to try to sell a product and that didn’t end up working out.”
• “we targeted a few different other weight loss, affiliate products at them just to see what kind of products they were interested in. And it was from this whole process that we…learned a lot more about our audience and what they wanted.”
• “we were getting…all these different responses that allowed us to kind of create this customer avatar. And we used these things to then create our own product again. But this time we knew who we were talking to and how to sell it…so that was the biggest turning point.”
• “we try to tell our (Create-and-Go) students all the time is that our YouTube channel for the first like two or three years…it was just the most unpolished casual.”
• “they can just relate to you a lot more. And I think it [the ‘unpolished casual’ vibe] is so, so, so important in everything that you do…it just helps you connect with your readers better…I think we’re a bit more approachable than, than some people.”
• “Yeah, absolutely. I think that the biggest, the biggest hurdle to overcome is honestly just getting started.”
• “figure out kind of what you want to do, and then just start it because no matter what this project, this business, whatever you’re starting, it’s going to end up drastically changing in the first, you know, six months to a year.”
• “And…the longer you put it off, it’s like all those things that you want and all those fears that you have…all you’re doing is making them come true by sitting on this information and waiting around, waiting for perfect opportunity to arise.”

Here also is Shannon’s interview with Lauren’s partner, Alex Nerney.

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