Business Growth Hacks

Alex Beadon 0:03
So you want to scale your online business while purposely prioritizing your most joyful, free and luxurious life. This Podcast is your weekly dose of connection and self reflection. As you set strategic intentions along the way, it’s time to prime your mind embrace your pace and take consistent action towards creating what you truly want from your online business without sacrificing the small moments all around you that are so worth treasuring. So, take a deep breath, relax, and let’s get you back to where you belong. On purpose. Hey, friends, you’re listening to season two, Episode 32 of on purpose with Alex Breeden. If you want to know a strategic and effective way to make more sales and get your digital offer into as many hands as possible, without having to commit to the hustle of building your own audience, then this episode is for you. In today’s episode, I speak to Natalie Bardot, an online business owner who sells digital products on the topic of Pinterest. She teaches people how to use Pinterest to grow their traffic subscribers and make sales although in this episode, we do speak a lot about Pinterest. My favorite part was actually picking her brain on the power of collaborations. She shares with us how she strategically uses collaborations to tap into other people’s audiences to grow her own business, which is really different to my way of marketing and selling because her strategy completely eliminates the need to grow your own audience at all. Now you guys know I’m always trying to bring in different perspectives speak to different kinds of online business owners who are doing different things. And so that’s exactly what this episode is all about. It is fascinating stuff. In this episode, I know you’ll leave feeling inspired, especially when it comes to dabbling in collaborations and of course, giving Pinterest a shot. I’m Alex speedin, your favorite launch strategist and your guide to the online business world. I’ve had an online business selling digital products since 2011. And I’ve been helping online businesses scale through launching since 2016. I’ve been featured in Forbes and entrepreneur and I’ve worked with clients ranging from solopreneurs and multimillion dollar small businesses here at Team Beadon. Not only do we help online business owners scale their sales through launching, we also help brands new online business owners learn how to strategically create an offer that’s built to sell. The strategic offer incubator is a 12 month container with eight modules of curriculum that guides you through step by step exactly what you need to do to get your online business off the ground. With a strategic offer that converts. Our goal is to give you the tools to create a wildly profitable online business while prioritizing your most joyful life so that you can truly experience time, freedom, location, freedom, and financial freedom. Like I said, I think you’re going to absolutely love this week’s episode, I am just getting back from my little vacation time I took I took a step away from the business after the launch. As you guys know, I love to do I love to take that time afterwards to rest, recharge, celebrate. And also to analyze and look back, you know, we have an entire month of that scheduled into our four month launch cycle. So I’m just wrapping up with that and now ready to get back into the game. So look forward to seeing me more over on Instagram. Now that I’m back. And of course, here on the podcast. One other major change I have to let you know as we move forward with the podcast is that we are going to be shifting our podcast schedule from once a week to once every two weeks. And the reason why we’re doing that is because right now it really feels like we’re churning out this content. And then I’m not giving myself enough time to digest it with you guys, and not giving myself enough time to have the conversations with you. And really let the content simmer. With you guys with me with everything. It just feels like we’re going from one to the next to the next to the next. And I want to take a slower pace, right. So we’re going to be experimenting with one episode every two weeks. Definitely make sure that you head on over to Instagram and let me know what you’re thinking about that. You know if you prefer the weekly schedule if you like having one episode every two weeks, have a conversation with me. I would love to hear from you. Other than that, let’s jump into this week’s episode with Natalie Bardot. Natalie, thank you so much for being on the show. I’m so excited to have you here.

Nadalie Bardo 4:31
Hi, Alex. Thanks for the invite.

Alex Beadon 4:34
You’re most welcome. I I feel like when we were together on the teachable Summit. I was just like I have to have her on the show. You said so many things that I was like, Oh my gosh, my audience would love to dive deeper on those topics. I’m really excited to chat to you today. I’d love for you to just get started by sharing a little bit of the behind the scenes about your entrepreneurial journey. How did you get started? How did you end up where you are today? I know that you now have this business where you’re selling digital products, and I don’t really know everything about your business. So I’d just love to hear a little bit of an introduction as to like, what got you here? And where are you now with your business?

Nadalie Bardo 5:14
For sure. So I think my story starts very similar to maybe a lot of you who are listening. Or you would like it to start this way, maybe you have that nine to five job that you work so hard to get. And you realize, wow, you know, maybe it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. So, you know, like, I had spent a lot of years getting education. So I have my master’s, I have a postgraduate diploma, so a lot of years, just to get like a nine to five job to realize, Wow, this is it. I don’t think I can do this forever. And, you know, life threw me some curveballs. And essentially, I was let go from a job. And I literally remember sitting in the car driving home in Toronto traffic, which is pretty bad traffic, I’d say. And I just kind of like started doing the math in my head, like, Okay, if I had a nine to five, I would be commuting two hours one way, every day, I added it up. I was like, 30 years later, I would have spent five to six complete years sitting in my car. And I was like, You know what? I’m gonna take this time to figure it out. So I never have to like work for anyone ever again. So at that time, I was a photographer, I thought I would just do that. Turns out, I don’t like shooting weddings. Like it was kind of the worst. I’ve seen some crazy things happen at weddings.

Alex Beadon 6:43
Natalie, we have a similar story. Did you know that I also started off as a photographer. No, I didn’t. Yes, I started up my first. My first business was a wedding photographer, or wedding photography business. And I’m with you. Like, it’s really hard to be showing up on the weekends and to be working on your feet nonstop. And yeah, I feel you. But interestingly, you got started there, too.

Nadalie Bardo 7:05
Yeah, then you’re spending weeks editing. Right? So it’s not like downtime. Um, so yeah, I realized that wasn’t for me. So I started my blog. It’s called, it’s all you, boo. And it was literally just me ranting and raving. And then somehow, it turned into like a real blog, where I was actually writing helpful articles. And that was like my first, I guess, technically online business, I created a digital planner. And that I started selling. And for me the thing that first good choice I made was launching an affiliate program for my product, because I quickly discovered that it wasn’t that my product sucked. It was I just didn’t have the right audience, or I didn’t have the audience yet. So that’s when I started borrowing people’s audiences. I would say I had one really great affiliate that was like responsible for like, 90% of the sales of my product, and really changed and opened my eyes on okay, this is possible. Um, I needed to grow my traffic, like maybe some of you can relate, you’re new and you’re like, Okay, I’m here. I’m doing the thing. But wait, you know, the five people I know is not enough traffic. And I discovered Pinterest at the time. This is like 2017. When, you know, I was reading a lot of blog posts about how people got traffic. A lot of people were talking about Pinterest. So I was like, Okay, let me try this thing. Let me do it. Let me do it. Right. And yeah, it changed everything. For me. I was able to, you know, get on media vine, I was able to grow my traffic, also to the point where people were then like, Okay, can you make a Pinterest course? And I was like, Fine, I’ll make a Pinterest course. So in 2019, I created my Pinterest course called Pinterest popular, launched the second business and have grown that through collaborations with other people who had the audience like I have the products you have the audience, let’s be friends, and let’s make money together is kind of my approach to everything on that. And yeah, my new next thing is I now I say like, I’m trying to be like, 90% nomadic. I’ve been traveling since the start of December 2022. What year is it? 2023. And I think I’ve spent a total of six weeks at home since last December. And I’m probably going to travel non stop till next summer.

Alex Beadon 9:33
And right now you’re in Thailand. Yes. And you’ve just been bopping around before we got on this call. She was like I was in when you were in Cambodia, weren’t you? Yeah, last weekend. That’s amazing. And I feel like you were somewhere else as well recently. You’ve just been jumping all over the place.

Nadalie Bardo 9:49
Is there for us, you know, so I’m really thankful and grateful that I get to do this.

Alex Beadon 9:54
Okay, I feel like there’s so many different places that I want to jump into a Hey, so at first he started off with the digital planner, which I find very interesting because this is something that a lot of people think, oh, you know, if it’s a low ticket item, that means I have to sell it to so many people, which is true, you are essentially able to make it a success through having an affiliate program. Yeah, that’s amazing. Are you still running that? Like, do you still sell that

Nadalie Bardo 10:25
the planter is still there, I’ll be honest, I haven’t been putting in the effort. with it. If I was, it would probably still be making a lot more like couple sales come in here and there, I know, come, the new year is when a lot of sales are gonna come in, because like my funnel is set up. And I have a lot of content that drives traffic, right, a new year. And yeah, but I guess for me, it’s hard, not hard in the sense that I have this personal development site. But I have the Pinterest business. And I just know that people, when it comes to spending money, they are, it’s like five times easier to get someone to invest in their business than it is to invest in themselves. So I don’t know what that says about this humans. But in terms of where can my time go, I invest my time into the Pinterest business, because I know that you know, the product is it’s like a $500 course, versus a $27. Planner. And it is it’s just a numbers game. And I wish that people would invest in themselves more than they would in their businesses. But it was just a matter of a choice. And I had this business coach, we would talk to my talk about my blog almost as like, my abusive ex boyfriend that I really needed to break up with. But it was like, I love it so much. And I’m like 500 blog posts in. And it’s really hard to stop working on something. When you’re 500 blog posts deep.

Alex Beadon 11:57
I know I know exactly what you’re talking about.

Nadalie Bardo 12:01
So it’s really hard to like to just be like, Okay, this is the thing I love and I built, but it’s not the best path. And it’s not the thing that is best worth my energy. But had I not made that choice to shift my energy to the Pinterest business. At the start of last year, I would have not been sitting here being saying like, I’m on continent five for this year. You know, I in the last 30 days, I’ve been to three countries like I would not be able to say that three new countries, I would not be able to say that. Had I not made that hard choice.

Alex Beadon 12:32
Yeah. And I think it’s interesting as well, because it’s like, so often people want to do a million different things. And sometimes that can be a form of self sabotage, where if you’re spreading yourself too thin, and you have like three businesses running at the same time, it’s like how can you expect for one business to do really well, if you’re trying to keep all of these things afloat? And I can relate, I think it’s interesting as well, from a perspective of you evolved, and you allowed yourself to evolve. I know, for me, when I was a photographer, my first digital product was actually photoshop actions. And it was a super successful, highly profitable business. You know, it did really, really well. But I lost my passion and zest for it. And sometimes I look back and I’m like, should I have just like, kept it going on the side. But the truth is, if you have a business, it takes time, effort, energy, love. And if I had put, if I was trying to split my effort between two different things, that would, of course results in the end result as well, you would see that affected. So I think that’s really interesting that you were you had the courage. And obviously having that business coach as well must have been such a support for you to be like, Okay, I’m confident enough to say I’m done with this. I’m moving into this new area. I find it interesting as well that you are someone who didn’t have the audience when you started talking about Pinterest. I know you had a few people saying, Teach Pinterest, I want to learn more about Pinterest. But you said that, you know your entire strategy behind it is I have the product, you have the audience. Let’s make money together. Talk to me about that. Because I think so often people create these incredible products. They get their first few people in through the door. And then they tell themselves well, I’m not getting enough traffic. I don’t have the audience and they throw in the towel. It seems like you are someone who’s like, No, I’m resourceful. I’m gonna figure out a different way to do this. Talk to me about that process. How do you go about finding the right person with the right audience? Getting them to actually partner with you? I’d love to know more about that.

Nadalie Bardo 14:32
Yeah, so like I said, having the planter taught me that this lesson very early on that. So if you’re watching this, your product doesn’t suck. It’s just that you don’t have the right audience. It’s not the product. It’s not a product problem. It’s not a you problem. It’s just an audience problem. So I for example, what I do is you know, I have I I’ve been doing this for While so I’ve made friends like, I would encourage everyone to be friendly and to take every opportunity to have a conversation with someone to slide into someone’s DMS to shoot someone a Facebook message to send someone an email, who you also see in your space or like adjacent spaces, because you don’t know what will happen and you’re not doing it because you want to get something you should be doing it because, hey, sometimes this is kind of lonely, and we should make friends. So I had that mentality. And when I first launched the course, I sat down and I was like, Who do I know, that has an audience that’s made of business owners and bloggers, people who would want to learn how to do Pinterest. So you know, I reached out to those five people, we did joint webinars together. And when I started, I was doing like a 50%. Split. So you got half the money, I got half the money, I made it as easy as possible. I provide swipe, I provide graphics, I even set up an evergreen funnel for you that you can promote till the end of time, right? And if they’re happy, then it’s like, hey, let’s do this again next year. You know, let’s do it again, the year after, let’s just keep doing this. And at the end, I’m like, okay, but who do you know? Can you quickly introduce me to a couple of connections that you have, if you think their audience is also a great fit? So because of that alone, I have made friends, like lifelong friends, like visited and stayed in their house with and like, their babies. And like, because of this, who do you know, right? So kind of like a saying that I’ve come up with is like, one plus one equals three. So it’s not who do I know? Or, you know, it’s like, it’s who do you know that I can also connect, so you meet one person, you’re meeting two people, at least. So you can see how it could essentially just like branch out, if every successful connection leads to a couple other connections, right. And it’s been amazing, because fast forward a couple of years, I’m hosting my first online summit in 2019 days from now. And it only took me two weeks to find 50 speakers. And they’re not like, not like, some of them have huge audiences. And it’s all because I literally just did the same thing. I was like, Who do I know, that can offer training? And then they were like, Oh, hey, do you know what need someone like this? Do you need this person. And within two weeks, I had 50 experts. And I even have more people I can reach out to but I need to stop. So it’s really just about who do you know, and it could just start with one person, and then you go from there.

Alex Beadon 17:49
That’s so beautiful. Okay, so another question on this topic. You said that you reached out to five people, you did joint webinars with them. Number one, is this something where you’re like befriending them online on social media for like, a specific amount of time before you ask them? Are you just like going up to pure strangers and being like, hey, I want to do a joint webinar. Like, what’s that process?

Nadalie Bardo 18:12
Yeah, I don’t know. If you I wouldn’t cold pitch that I would cold invite someone to participate at my Summit. But I don’t know if I would cold invite. Maybe like, Did we do something together? Were we in like a teachable panel, or read a summit together, then maybe. But I think my point I’m making is like you need friends. And for the sole reason that you’re likely doing this alone, and nobody in your real life understands anything that’s happening. I don’t say that is it? You need people and you need community. And it’s just a happy accident that maybe a little bit down the road, y’all can collaborate. That’s my approach. I’m not out here trying to find people to help me make money. I’m out here trying to find people who see and understand me and who I understand as well. And maybe we can make magic, you know?

Alex Beadon 19:09
Yeah, it sounds like a bit of both, though, because I like that. It’s like strategic community building. You’re listing out people you’re like, Okay, these people have shared audiences with me. Maybe you’re starting to reply on their stories, get to know them respond on their feed, whatever for like, however many weeks, whatever until you feel like, okay, I know this person. I like this person. This is someone who I feel like our brands would align. I’m sure there’s people who you became friends with. I’m using little quotations Mark marks online with who you were like, actually, this person is not a good fit. I’m not going to go ahead and suggest this to this person. How many people would you reach out to like, were you getting more nose than yeses? Or through this strategy? Is that mainly more yeses? Because you’ve built a friendship?

Nadalie Bardo 19:54
Who I’ll say one of the few people who said no to me as you but very rare, very rare. Are I’m pretty convincing, I feel like I’m also the having someone else introduce you, lets you bypass all that we had, like I can be through. So like, literally like the email introductions that someone sends out for me, it’s like Natalie plus your name equals whatever magic. And then they’ll just be like, Hey, Alex, I want to introduce you to my friend, Natalie. She has this really amazing Pinterest course. And I think you guys would be amazing to collaborate together. Take it from here, Natalie, that’s all I need. Then I’m like, Hey, let’s hop on Zoom and chat. Like, I’d love to tell you more about my class. It’s really fun and engaging. It’s going to be a win for you and your audience. And PS, of course, I will pay you are, of course, like affiliate commissions are, you know, are part of the deal or whatever, I don’t even say deal. But you know, I’m happy to hop on Zoom. Here’s my link, hope we can chat soon. And most people click that link and book that call. And then we see if we vibe. And if we vibe, then I’m like, so let’s do the thing. You know,

Alex Beadon 21:07
it’s so great, because it makes it so much easier than you having to rely on creating content or doing this or doing that. It’s like you’re just hopping into their audiences, it’s a win for them. It’s a win for you. It’s a win for their audience. It’s just a win, win win. How many of these collaboration webinars do you do every year?

Nadalie Bardo 21:26
Oh, good question. Depends on the year. Um, so I have a folder with every all the assets I did 123456789 this year.

Alex Beadon 21:40
Right. And we are in the 10th month, so you’re doing about one a month

Nadalie Bardo 21:46
810 12 Last year, the thing that’s hard is like now, because I’m in Asia, and it’s like a bit of Central time, it’s a little challenging. So I’m, I don’t want to host webinars at midnight, it’s very hard to have like high energy at midnight. So I’m putting that on pause till I’m back on that side of the world. But yeah, like one a month, I think in a perfect world. I’m going to like hopefully next summer, I’m going to scale this and try to do one every single week. But like how I’m planning to get there is that I’m hosting my Summit. I now am becoming very close to all my speakers. And I’m going to do the same thing I’m going to follow up with Hey, I also have like, you saw how I ran this summit, how everything was easy. I was super organized. Like I think it’s also important. If you want to collaborate with someone, you need to make it so easy. Like it should not be a struggle, like you should have everything they need. And like, so it’s like an easy, yes. And then it’s an easy recommendation, because you don’t want to have someone collaborate with you and think it was like the worst decision they ever made. Or like it was, you know, hard, right? You want it to be so easy that they are going to be like, yeah, that was awesome, I would do it again. And I would recommend you to other people. So I’ve had people ask me to speak in summits about doing joint ventures, but I’m like, I’m not there yet. You know,

Alex Beadon 23:12
I’m already in my brain because we obviously have together we launch. That’s our signature program. And one of the main things that we recommend people to do to build their audience and to grow their leads is to do collaborations. And this is such a beautiful way that you’ve set it up like it’s so easy. I’m assuming as well that you’re doing the same webinar again and again and again. And again.

Nadalie Bardo 23:33
Oh, it’s the exact same webinar. I slightly tweak it to make it better every single time. But like to give you some perspective, like I did a joint webinar with someone who has a giant audience, and she sent me 700 new email subscribers. Wow.

Alex Beadon 23:50
That’s why. Yeah. And then what is the split? Because I know you said it used to be 5050. Have you changed it now? Or is it still 5050

Nadalie Bardo 24:00
I have changed it. There are still my OG affiliates that might still be at the 50%. For them, I am trying to reduce everyone to 45 because of how the split is I actually make less than they do they take the fees out of my half. So now if you’re like a special partner, I give you 40 Everybody else, it’s 30 because it’s just too much of a split. Like I get it, especially if you’re starting out, you might need to, you might need to give more. And that’s fine. I think, you know, we all have to like pay the dues sort of until kind of built up that trust. Also, they’re like your first partners and you’re just figuring it out and you might need some grace because like systems aren’t smooth yet. So yeah, I think there’s no shame in offering half of it to somebody else, you know, especially if they’re getting you started and helping you go from zero sales to like any amount of sales. Um, Are we? Yeah,

Alex Beadon 25:01
yeah, that’s phenomenal. Okay, so my next question is you said you got 700 leads from working with this big person in the industry? How do you track those leads? Like, how is it that 700 people came to you? Was it just that you did the joint webinar? And then they came to look for you? And how did you know that they came directly from that? So

Nadalie Bardo 25:23
I, every time I do a webinar with someone, I create a dedicated signup page just for them. So they have their special page. So I know that the form is them like it, like I use ConvertKit. So there’s the form the automation, the email, sequence, everything. So it literally it will say like this person has

Alex Beadon 25:43
died for the webinar, or is that for the offer?

Nadalie Bardo 25:47
That’s for the webinar. Okay, so I have the signups for the webinar. I know it’s them. And that also way I can also like track like conversions and things like that, because data is power. Number Sense. But yeah, so every person has their own form. And then when we’re no longer doing the live webinar, I just switched the page to an evergreen version where the same webinar they sign up, and it plays, so their link is never dead. Like, I hate dead links. I have no dead links, every link, like redirects to something else. So yeah, people can still sign up for those live webinars.

Alex Beadon 26:25
I love that so much. I hate dead links. Never lose a lead based on a dead link. Everyone take notes. And then within the webinar itself, is it just you or is that person there as well?

Nadalie Bardo 26:40
Oh, no, that person is there. That person has been given access to my courses, that person has provided a testimonial. That person is there on the class nodding along saying yes, yes. Yes. You know, I think that’s important, you know, to not just especially if they don’t know you, like, yeah, like these verification signals, I guess, like, the you being there means like, oh, yeah, I know, Natalie, I trust her. I’m here. I’m telling you. I’ve seen I’ve been inside her course, I’m telling you, or I’ve taken her course, or I’m telling you, you know, I think to me, that translates, you know, more than, Oh, just here’s a it’s it’s more work. It’s more commitment. But for me, that’s how I do it.

Alex Beadon 27:29
Yeah. I love that. And then for your webinars, what is the average conversion rate, like, based on how many people sign up for the course versus how many people opted in for the webinar?

Nadalie Bardo 27:43
It really honestly depends. And I used to be really into looking at these numbers. But I’m gonna be honest, I think something in the last year has made my conversion rates take a dive. And I don’t know if it’s the fact that people are hurting. I don’t know if it’s the fact that the image that people have of Pinterest has changed. And they’ve really tarnished their relationship with creators. And I’m seeing it like, I’m seeing that my conversion used to be like 8%, like 8% of people who showed up live would buy my product, and it’s not for sale anymore. Obviously, I’m still making money. I’m here, chillin. But yeah, I’ve noticed that there has been a dip. And I just hope that yeah, I’m trying to figure that out, you know, which is probably why a new pivot is coming. But

Alex Beadon 28:39
does it also vary depending on who you’re collaborating with? So do you see big differences based on who you’re working with?

Nadalie Bardo 28:48
Yeah, so some things I’ve noticed is initially, when I first started, it was easiest to convert audiences that were bloggers, for example, or content creators. But this now that it’s the people, my collaborators who are ecommerce focus, so whether they’re digital product coaches, or Etsy coaches, or they teach people how to use Etsy how to create and sell digital products, their audience converts higher than the bloggers and the content creators. So I think once again, I’m learning that same lesson, that those who want to invest in their business, they are more likely to spend that and those who want to invest kind of on themselves. And I think it’s the sellers that have money, have money to spend and are ready to spend not as much as the bloggers and the creators who maybe the blog is more just like a hobby. And yeah, they would like traffic but they’re not as like this is what I’m These are mostly assumptions, but it is kind of based on the conversion rates of the types of webinars. I also make sure that I have strict minimum subscriber list rules. So if you have less than 5000 subscribers, we’re not doing a lot Have an AR, because it’s just not going to convert, I would even say like 10k needs to be my new, my new low. Like, if you don’t have more than 10 ks 1000 subscribers, there’s no point, you know, there is a point, but it’s like we’re doing this live and it’s a lot of energy. So. But like I said, I’m like, these are lessons I’m learning. And I can be more strategic about the types of partners I want to seek out. So if I want to seek out digital product coaches, or then I need to strategically find them. So how am I going to do that I actually have been having my VA make a master list of experts. So every time I see a summit, I’m literally send her the link. And I’m like, add all these people to our spreadsheet. So I have a spreadsheet of probably like 1000. Experts at this point with listing exactly what they’re experts on. So my plan in the new year is to actually strategically reach out to all of them, and try to have a webinar every single week. And I think now that I have the credibility, I can say, yeah, like I’ve partnered with some pretty big names, I hosted a summit that brought in whatever, whatever that kind of credibility, I think can open doors. Whereas I’ve been relying most on connections to open doors. That’s my assumption.

Alex Beadon 31:25
What I love about you is that, and I hope everyone is paying attention to this is that you are paying such close attention to the markets, you’re listening to the trends that are coming back to you, you’re paying attention to what’s working and what’s not working, you’re making tweaks along the way, you understand that as your business ages, things aren’t going to be the same. And that’s okay. And you’re making tweaks along the way to strengthen your position without taking it personally, you know, you’re not getting angry that it’s not the bloggers who aren’t converting highest anymore. Now, it’s maybe the digital product educators that are working better, I think something that people struggle with, is they they have a business, it works. And then the market changes, you know, as it’s going to, and they start taking it personally that it must be me or whatever, you know, and it’s never you it’s just you need to pay attention to the market and provide for the market. None of us can control the market.

Nadalie Bardo 32:23
Yeah, like I know, it’s not me. Like it’s almost like when summer slump happens, I plan to make T shirts. It’s not you. It’s summer. It’s literally just summer.

Alex Beadon 32:36
I love it so much. Oh my gosh. Okay, so let’s jump into Pinterest. I my entire history with Pinterest is that I’ve kind of dabbled in it here and there. Maybe it used to work for me like 10 years ago, but I kind of have just stopped and have left it alone and have completely ignored and abandoned it. I want to know from you like what makes Pinterest unique compared to other social media platforms. And why do you love it so much for small businesses?

Nadalie Bardo 33:02
Yeah, so number one, it’s not social media. It’s a search engine. So I think that’s like one quick mindset shift we can make about Pinterest. And we don’t necessarily categorize it with social media. I think the best description is if like Instagram and Google had a baby, that baby’s name is Pinterest. And for a while there Pinterest thought that tick tock was its daddy, but it’s not. Okay. It’s Instagram. So things are kind of going back to how they used to be. Pinterest has backtracked some of the changes that pissed off creators recently. I honestly based

Alex Beadon 33:38
I don’t know what you’re talking about. Is it that they moved more into video?

Nadalie Bardo 33:41
Yeah, so they had this whole idea pin thing. They had this whole obsession with like, oh, we want people to stay on our platform not to click and get off of our platform. So they thought they were social media, when in reality, they are a search engine. So they have backtracked. And they’re like, Okay, we’re going back to how things used to be, but my conversion rates that they’re not convincing anyone. So I’m trying to convince people that Pinterest is worth your time. And I say like if you are time, strapped, like I think most of us are. And if you’re like, Okay, well, what’s a platform I can put my energy into and actually get something in return. I do believe that it’s Pinterest. And with all of us, we should put our energy into search engines, because for one, whether we’re talking about optimizing for Google or YouTube, or Pinterest, it’s all about keywords and optimizing our content. So the beautiful thing is with a search engine is like you put the work in upfront, you hit publish, and for Pinterest that you save to Pinterest or you pin it the work is done. And as long as you optimized everything properly. The search engine takes it across the whatever yard line sorry, I don’t know if I don’t know why I went to football. I don’t speak football. But you just let the search engine do the rest of the work. for you, as long as you did the work up front where I feel like with social media, the work is never done. And it’s like a hamster wheel. And you’re just like going and going and going. But I will tell you guys like I have 1000s and 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of pins on Pinterest linking to my blogs content. And I’ve pretty much barely been posting since last December and my traffic went up. So that’s when you

Alex Beadon 35:25
say barely posting, do you mean barely posting to Pinterest or barely posting to your blog? Both?

Nadalie Bardo 35:33
Why traffic is still going up. So that’s to me is the power of a search engine is once you’ve built that presence, and you have this deck of content that can be found, you will continue to be found. And some of those pins are from years ago, and people find them again, and they still click on them. Whereas I say, point like I have pins from four years ago that people still click on, like an Instagram post or a Facebook post or a tweet from four years ago that is doing anything for you today.

Alex Beadon 36:02
Absolutely not. So the next question is, and I think it ties into what we’re speaking about what is the lifecycle of a pen, because what you’re essentially saying is you create a pin, you put it out there, it lasts and lasts and lasts. Whereas on social media, you put it out there and then by next week, or maybe next month, it’s forgotten, right? So what you’re saying, essentially, is that on Pinterest, it’s more of a numbers game, because the more seeds you plant, the more findable you’ll be. So that’s why you want to keep posting, whereas on Instagram and Facebook, it’s like you want to keep posting because you want to be top of mind because people are seeing a newsfeed that’s always getting refreshed. It’s never ending.

Nadalie Bardo 36:39
Pretty much. So one you’re planting seeds, and eventually you’re going to have a beautiful forest. The other one, you’re just had to keep planting because your plant dies in 24 hours. So, um, yeah.

Alex Beadon 36:51
How long does it take to build momentum on Pinterest like so let’s take me for example, I have a ton of content. Let’s say that I decide okay, for the next month, I’m going to really focus on every single day, I’m going to post a pin and lead it back to my blog where people can sign up for my newsletter or whatever. If I’m just looking at it from like a traffic generation perspective, how long do you think it will take me having to post a pin every single day before I start to see

Nadalie Bardo 37:20
traffic? Sure. So one thing is you would want to schedule those. So it’s not like burning actual energy. You just set it up, schedule it and come back next month to schedule more.

Alex Beadon 37:33
And what do you use to schedule Do you something like later?

Nadalie Bardo 37:36
Um, you could use later I am 200,000% A fan of tailwind instead. I’ve never used later. But I’m a fan of tailwind because they were the OG Pinterest scheduler and they haven’t are powerful and that you also want to get that will help you grow. Okay. Um, but I would say that one month is not it’s that’s not commitment. So it’s like, would you give a month to Instagram? Probably not. I think people like to be a little more like, oh, it’s not it’s it’s too long. It’s not giving me anything. But I’m like, you’ve been posting on Instagram for like five years and nothing’s happened. But I would say you definitely a good good test, even four to six months. Yeah. And I’m saying a month is not long enough, because it can take three weeks to over a month for your content to even be indexed and start showing up in search engines. So a month is not a good enough test as Pinterest search results. Sorry.

Alex Beadon 38:37
Is Pinterest. Going to favor my content? The more I post? Oh, definitely.

Nadalie Bardo 38:43
I think every algorithm favors and oak rewards consistency. So yeah, I would if you have some content, I would design couple pins, couple pin templates. You want to post which you sell. Yeah, I saw pin templates. I have a Pinterest course where I teach you all the things. I have a webinar, you can sign up for that one I’ve been talking about. Yeah, maybe we can give that link because I bring up mistakes you want to avoid on Pinterest. And we go like pretty deep into SEO pin design and how to schedule your pins or what your strategy should be all in less than 60 minutes. Um,

Alex Beadon 39:24
definitely give us that link. We will include it in the show notes and description. So anyone listening who’s interested can go and check that out. For sure. I love that you said four to six months is a good test. I feel like that’s doable and like a good goal in someone’s mind. Like okay, I can commit for six months to posting once a day and I think as well you know, if you are going to commit to something like this signing up for your course and learning from someone who’s already done it is only going to help you because like why do something halfheartedly

Nadalie Bardo 39:51
yeah and just make sure you’re doing it properly. Okay, so we’re not just posting randomly. You need to know how to use keywords you need to make sure your graphics are on point and you need to make sure you’re scheduling properly and not breaking the Pinterest rules. So that’s why you should watch my masterclass. I lay it all out for you. So yeah, the time alone is not a good enough test, you need to make sure you’re doing it properly.

Alex Beadon 40:15
Love it, love it.

Nadalie Bardo 40:18
Okay, suddenly I posted and nothing happened, I’ll be like, bro, or do what do you do?

Alex Beadon 40:24
Properly? No. So one of the things I’m always telling my clients is to look at their online business in three different categories. One is lead generation, lead, nurturing, and lead selling. And so I want to speak to you a little bit about those three things for you. The first one I think we know the answer to, but maybe not what is your top strategy for growing your email list?

Nadalie Bardo 40:47
I will say like, if I look to see what the biggest spikes are, it’s definitely some sort of collaboration. So whether it’s a joint webinar or whether it’s I just did a summit whether you know, I’m hosting a summit or hosting a live bootcamp, these are the big, big jumps in subscribers, right? Like I’m over 20,000 right now.

Alex Beadon 41:10
Amazing. And I just want to highlight that to everyone, because I always say the exact same thing I’m like, if you have some kind of live events that people can sign up for and get excited about that, for me as well is the number one way to grow my email list. So I’m happy to hear that. Next up is lead nurturing. I’m really curious, like, what are you doing on a regular basis to be in touch with your audience? You know, how often are you sending out emails? Are you on Instagram? I know you are. What are you regularly committed to posting and nurturing your audience?

Nadalie Bardo 41:44
I’d say that this was probably the one that I’m not being the best at. My strategy used to be and I hope to get back to this after I survived my Summit, was that I would create a new YouTube video every Friday. So it was something that people look forward to a whole new training. When I get back to it. I’m going to probably start with a podcast that will also be a YouTube video. So I think like just giving value every week like little tip little some. But right now they’re saying occupied with live events. So I just wrapped a five day Pinterest bootcamp where I was live twice a day had 1800 signups. Yeah, like it’s at the point now that I’ve started reaching out for event sponsors for things like that. So that’s like a new way to collaborate with companies, you know, instead of just individuals, which is really fun. So I’d say live events are a really fun way to like grow your list, but also engage the list you have simultaneously, I think, is a fun one. And then some type of weekly content, like some consistency, something they can rely on, you know,

Alex Beadon 42:57
and in between your live events. Are you sending out emails?

Nadalie Bardo 43:03
Um, let’s see. Yeah, either promoting my event or other people’s events. Yeah, it’s just Alright, like, before the bootcamp, I was promoting a live webinar that I was doing. So I try to always make sure like, even though I’m traveling, and I will be honest, I’m probably not as not as consistent as I should be. Or it could be. But I know that like, when I show up, I show up. So I give myself grace that, okay, I didn’t email for a couple of weeks. But you know, we’re talking when we’re allowed to be tired.

Alex Beadon 43:37
That is so true, we’re allowed to be tired. And I think the important thing is like, it’s what you said there around giving yourself compassion and giving yourself grace. And it’s like, it’s okay. Like, I’m not gonna beat myself up about it, it is what it is. And now for lead, selling what has worked best for you from a sales and marketing perspective to bring in new sales.

Nadalie Bardo 43:59
I would say it’s a combination of the collaborating, but also just having like the funnel, so having a sales funnel, and eat like, particularly probably the emails is the most important. So that’s like, you sign up for a freebie, what happens, you see a thank you offer, you’re added to the funnel, where I’m telling you to sign up for the free webinar or what happens when you sign up for the webinar, you go through a lovely nine email sequence, you don’t buy, there’s a down sell, you know, like it’s just all set, you know, sweet and easy. So I think having those introduction pathways that lead to sales and let people know what you’re offering, because even if they don’t, by that time, you’re gonna be launching over and over and over again, right. So no, I think having emails a sales funnel. That’s it.

Alex Beadon 44:55
And when you are creating those emails, Are you the kind of business owner who created them? and just kind of lesson there? Or are you the person who’s going and like looking at the open rate, looking at the click through rate tweaking them to test them to try to make them better? Like how optimized are your funnels?

Nadalie Bardo 45:10
Yeah, so the ones that are for the webinar, because like I said, I do that webinar, like every month, so I tweaked the webinar, I tweaked the emails, so they just get better and better. There was a point where I even got the collaborators to send me screenshots of their click through and open rates. And I had a spreadsheet where I literally looked at the numbers and all the worst performing headlines got like rewritten, the emails get rewritten constantly. I might rewrite them again. Like I feel like sometimes you just got to shake it up. And don’t let it get too stale.

Alex Beadon 45:47
I agree. But I’m glad that I’m glad to hear that you’re like looking at what’s performing well, what’s not. And I think that can be overwhelming for some people. But even if you just look at the worst performing emails, and just make tweaks to that, like, that’s good enough. So glad to hear that. And then I’d love to hear from you. What would you say to someone who wants to have a digital product, but doesn’t exactly know where to start? Like, maybe they have the idea? They know what kind of course they want to have. But they’re like, is this going to be worth my time? Should I do this? I’m feeling really afraid. I’m worried people will judge me. What advice do you have for those people?

Nadalie Bardo 46:24
Yeah, I’m just do it anyways, like, who cares? If people judge you? What is the literal worst thing that could happen? People judge you anyways, people judge you for just existing, it’s kind of just their thing, you know, um, I would say, push through the muck, like, literally just push through the feelings, and just reading the line. You know, you could even lie to yourself that you’re, I’m just writing it down, I’m not actually going to do it. And then, you know, figure out what the next step is, like, oh, maybe I’ll actually create this product. Or maybe I’ll start playing around in Canva. And make it pretty or maybe just work on like, slot. It’s a little like, I don’t know, you can Loki lie to yourself that you’re not actually doing it, and then realize you’re actually doing it. Because I think sometimes when you put the pressure on yourself that I’m doing the thing. You might like chicken out so like, yeah, like even. And I think there’s also something to be said about, like, just letting it flow and letting it happen. Um, so if you ever feel inspired, just just write it, write it out, or, you know, record something like, Don’t doesn’t have to be like labor. You know? I don’t know if that makes sense. That might be a bad answer. Sorry. No, I

Alex Beadon 47:39
love that answer. Essentially, you’re saying just do it. Don’t let the fear stop you take action, even if it’s messy action. And don’t worry so much about the end results. Just take forward action steps, which I love. Natalie, thank you so much. I’ve absolutely loved having you. I feel so inspired myself to lean more into collaborations like I’m definitely anti-collaboration. And I have loved hearing how you do it. And I’m so glad that you’ve been so open and honest and shared so much with us today. I know that our audience has thoroughly enjoyed it as well. So thank you so much. Before we wrap up, can you share with everyone where they can find you online?

Nadalie Bardo 48:18
For sure. So I am at Natalie Bardot. And that’s Natalie with a D. on everything. Literally, if you just search my first name, you will find me there’s not many of us. But yeah, you can find me at Natalie Bartow on every platform. And yeah, that’s you’ll put links right.

Alex Beadon 48:39
Perfect. Thank you so much, Natalie. If you made it this far into the episode, I want to say a huge thank you for listening. Please take a moment to head on over to Instagram. You can find me at Alex Beadon and send me a DM What did you think of this episode? What were your big takeaways? I love when this is a two way conversation. So I’m really looking forward to hopefully hearing from you remember that, you know, we’re all human. And this is just so much more fun when I get to hear from you guys. So I’m really looking forward to hearing from you. Other than that, just reminding you again that we are switching up the podcast from one episode a week to one episode every two weeks. So you will be hearing from me again right here on season two of On Purpose. Alex Beadon in two weeks’ time and I very much look forward to it. I’ll talk to you soon. Can’t wait to share all that we have going on behind the scenes. Keep an eye out because it’s juicy