[00:00:00] Hey friends, you probably notice or you may notice that I am coming to you on a Saturday instead of Friday, like usual. I was under the weather yesterday but still wanted to bring you three episodes this week. So also, kind of crazy, yesterday feeling under the weather, it was a beautiful balmy 73 degrees, and now that I'm feeling better, I'm It is snowing outside, but you know, if you know me, you know, I love the snow.
It's just kind of crazy the way the temperatures are here in Colorado, but I love it. Okay, so today I want to talk to you about four paradigm shifts that I hope you will consider embracing, and I think that for those of the of us in this business once we can embrace these paradigm shifts or the sooner we can embrace [00:01:00] these paradigm shifts, the sooner we'll get back on our feet.
So what's a paradigm shift? It's really a fundamental change in the approach that you take with something, in this case, with our business and a change in the. underlying assumptions. So for me, the biggest paradigm shift that I've experienced in my business. At all, or even since I've been working. So whatever that is, 35 years.
Yeah, I'm old. It is that Google is no longer the best solution for selling selling your products. I mean, it used to be that search was the best way to get in front of people. And that was what we, we promoted. You know, we know how to get, You are whatever in front of as many people as possible.
And, and it [00:02:00] made a big difference for people. I loved hearing beautiful stories about how we helped businesses stay in business how we made big impacts for them. And I. And we always did it with search. But the fact is, search is different now. So I had to go kind of back to the drawing board and, and think back to uni and business courses that I took and just rethink it all.
And so these are the four pieces. Paradigm shifts that I think are necessary for us specifically for our businesses as a blogger. Okay, are you ready? The first one is this, Google has changed. And the sooner you move on, the better. I I can't believe I'm going to talk about Taylor Swift, but I'm going to talk about Taylor Swift in this.
I'm not [00:03:00] really a Swifty and I never listened to her music until the Travis Kelsey thing. But I did hear. One of the tracks from her new album, and I thought it applied to us. So it's about heartbreak, I guess, but she said I cry a lot, but I'm so productive. It's an art. You know, you're good when you can even do it with a broken heart.
You're a real tough kid and you can handle your shit. And to me, that's really what I'm feeling just because I am sharing with you guys that it's time for paradigm shifts. It's time to move on. There's other opportunities for you. Don't think that I am not sad. Like I was looking through my blog the other day and I was thinking, good grief.
This is such good information. It's really sad that people can't find it anymore. And It just [00:04:00] literally breaks my heart, and especially after 14, you know, 14 years of writing and working and learning and sharing, and it just, it was just taken away with the stroke of a, you know, somebody's hand. So it is a reason to cry.
It is a reason to feel sad, but imagine, you know, imagine if Taylor just stayed sad and never, never decided to move on. We wouldn't have these incredible trans Kelsey stories, right? But the point is, like, I want you to know, I'm sad too, but we have to keep going. So you've got to dry yourself. You've got to focus on the future and stop looking at, you know, who to point fingers at.
That article came out recently about the, the guy who's running search and how he's run it into the ground. And [00:05:00] it's nice to read that and think, yeah, okay, this guy, you know, is the enemy. But it doesn't really do anything for you. It doesn't move you forward. So it's time to stop being a victim and and move on and be productive and do it with a broken heart.
Okay, that's the end of my Taylor Swift stuff. I can't believe I still can't believe I just did that, but I did. Okay, paradigm shift number two. And this is really the one that I wish I knew sooner. But listen, your blog is no longer your business. For ever, like for my entire blogging career, my blog was my business.
It's how we made money. We made money on revenue, ad revenue. We made money on affiliate revenue. We made money on our contracts. We made a lot of money on that and [00:06:00] that, that blog was the business. That, that possibility is no longer feasible because of what Google's done. And that doesn't mean you can't be in business anymore.
And it doesn't mean your blog is an important part of your business. It just means that it, it shouldn't be your business. You want to utilize email marketing, selling products, focusing on high dollar affiliates offering other things of value in exchange for revenue that allow you to reach the same group of people.
But that means that That you have a product, now your product could be a service, but your product is not your content anymore and that is a really big mind shift. I know I didn't even want to go there. I was like, Oh God, I, that's not. That's not how I want to think. Like, that's not what I've been [00:07:00] doing.
That's not who I am. But again, it's the same thing. Once you can make that that paradigm shift, the sooner you can make it, then the, the more likely you're going to, to recover. So for me, it's going to be products. I'm, you know, digital products for other people. It, you know, it could be books, it could be It could be t shirts.
It could be, I don't know, courses. It depends on what your audience is looking for but it needs to be something besides your content. Okay, number three. this shift from your blog being Your business to your blog, just being a marketing tool for your business cannot be done successfully without email marketing.
[00:08:00] So there's a study from McKinsey. It was 2023, not 2024, but they said that email is still 40 times more effective than social media. So if you're using social more power to you, that's awesome. I just want to make sure that. As you begin to embrace this new paradigm that you're not depending just on social, that you are investing in email.
And I know there's so many of you out there that hate it. You think, I don't want to do newsletters emails on my hate list. I don't, that's not where I want to spend my time. But email marketing, effective email marketing Has the potential to save your business has the potential to save you from going back to that nine to five and The sooner you can embrace it the better just like all the others and Finally, I think the paradigm shift has to [00:09:00] be that you are are capable of recouping your lost revenue and, and potentially even making more.
You, you, you can do this. So are you going to do it overnight? No, but you can break it down into manageable steps and begin. And you have to, I really want you to believe in yourself. Most of the people who are listening to this are entrepreneurs. Now you might not think of yourself as an entrepreneur, but if this blogging is your business, then.
You know, or was your business, then that's what you are. And the people who are drawn to entrepreneurship are people who are problem solvers who are risk takers, who are just think, think a little bit [00:10:00] differently than other people. And I don't want you to forget that. What you're good at. You might have you might have been associating what you're good at it with I'm a good writer, or I'm a good writer.
I don't know. Let's say writer. I'm a good, I'm a good blog post writer. I'm good at SEO. That's what I thought of myself. I'm good at SEO. But the truth is that you're good at so much more than that. What you're good at is solving problems for people. What you're good at is helping people. What you're good at is being strategic.
What you're good at is taking risks and reaping the rewards. So you've got to change that thought about yourself as well. You've got to get out of your own head and look yourself in the mirror and say, we can do this. We can absolutely do this. [00:11:00] So here's the other thing. Most people, when they start a business, let's think about like shark tank or whatever.
Even if they're selling, you know, a 5 cent thing, I don't know what's 5 cents anymore, but you know what I mean? They are starting, you know, they looked. And they saw a problem, they came up with a solution, and they're starting with a product. And they have no audience most of the time. They have no means of getting their message out into the market unless they're paying for ads, or they're starting a blog from scratch, or they're starting a social media account from scratch, or they're starting an email list from scratch.
You've got An audience already. Now it might be smaller because you're not reaching people in search, but you've got an audience, you've got content that will draw people in. You understand because you've been blogging for a while. You understand those people, you know them. You [00:12:00] know what their problems are.
You know what their desires are. You have the ability to bring a solution to them and you don't have to wait around to build your audience. You're starting with an audience. So you're already ahead of the game, friend. Of course you can do this. Okay. That's my pep talk for the day. It's a pep talk for myself too.
But just remember Google has changed and it's time to move on. With a broken heart and all, move on. Your blog is no longer your business. So you've got to come up with what your business is now that allows you to utilize your blog and your email list and your social channels as a marketing tool. If you haven't already, you've got to start email marketing.
If you are doing email marketing, it's time to double down, triple down, quadruple down. Is that even a thing? I don't know. And you've [00:13:00] got this friend. I know you've got the fire in you.
