Ep 008: Identify What Works, Then Double Down – with Lisa Bass

00:04
Welcome to the Shannon Acheson Show, Real Business Talk for Real Life.  I’m Shannon, creative business coach, digital product lover, and your strategy sidekick.  I’ve built a business that fits my life, and now I help other women do the same.  No hustle, no fluff, just smart, honest conversations about building a business that works for you.  Let’s dive in.

00:30
Hello and welcome to the show. I’m so excited to have Lisa Bass here with me today.  I’m going to read her shorts, super, totally matches who she is bio. Lisa’s a mom of eight and then some coming soon,  who is passionate about home design, home studying and making real food and a cozy home for her family.  Lisa, thank you so much for joining me today. I’m so excited to chat with you about your business and all the things. Yeah, thanks for having me.

00:59
Yeah. So, um, yeah, so you are a mom of eight, but I’m, I’m correct. It’s, that’s going to be nine this summer. Correct. Yes. Yeah. So that’s fun. Oh my gosh. And yeah. And so you’ve shared that online already. So yeah. Yup. Yup.

01:19
So we’re going to talk mostly about business. know like your everything sort of focuses around family, like how you’ve built your business and all of that. But can you sort of take us back to like the beginning? Like how did you start  Farmhouse on Boone to begin with, which is your blog? I know you’ve got other things too, but how did you the blog to begin with? Yeah. So yeah, the first thing I started was my blog, which  there’s not many of us like that.  What’s funny is it felt

01:48
not late, kind of already late to start a blog back then, which is weird. Like I was like, well, why would I start a blog now? Everybody’s already started a blog. And  it’s funny because that was in 15, well, almost 16 basically. Yeah. Early 16, late  15s when I started like tinkering  around with the blog. And so it’s really funny now because I’m like, that was not, yeah,  that was a nice long time ago.  It was not that late and there wasn’t like,

02:15
Well, Instagram was a thing, but it wasn’t a big thing.  I didn’t even have it. didn’t even have the app until much later. Not much later, but yeah. And then,  yeah, I just started the blog because I read blogs and I thought, you know, I have something to contribute here. I’ve already been a homemaker, a mom for  about 10 years at that point, or almost. And so I already,  you know, I already learned to make sourdough bread. I already learned how to sew. I already learned like some basic homesteading things.

02:45
I have something to offer, how to cook.  And so I started it just with that in mind. It was very broad and now I almost do exclusively food on my website.  So that’s changed a lot because in the beginning it was very much a mix  of projects,  recipes, DIY, sewing projects,  and now it’s pretty much only food. Okay.  So

03:09
Two questions. One, did you start it  as a hobby or as a business? And then two, did that niching down happen by accident or was that deliberate? So I started as a business, which I feel like is unusual. Yeah, it Usually people say it was just a passion and it turned into money. Yeah.  And  I didn’t start it that way. I definitely thought there’s an opportunity here, so I want to  take advantage of that.

03:37
My husband, the job that he worked, we knew we wanted to do some kind of family business. We knew that he wouldn’t be there forever. So this seemed like a really good avenue to start pursuing. So yeah, very intentionally started it as a business, but I definitely did not know what I was doing. So I wasted a lot of time.  But yeah, the goal was to make money, but I didn’t know how to do that. And then the niching down,  that was…

04:04
was the question was that intentional? It was intentional after realizing like what worked over the years, yes. Okay. Yeah, so it wasn’t, I have a lot of friends who get really like, and this is probably because I started it as a business, which it almost feels wrong to say, but like they have certain things. I started mine. It was as a business too, which was not the thing. Okay. I started in 2010. So. Yeah, yeah. Well, there’s friends of mine who were like, well, I could.

04:30
never transitioned to recipes because like my heart and my soul is in the home projects. And I’m like,  see, I’m cool with like whatever works because I’m, this is not like, okay, I don’t mean it like it’s not my passion project. Cause it also is like, really enjoy my work. I enjoy sharing with people and helping people and all of that. I’m not saying I don’t, but if the opportunity arises to pivot to some part of that, that I really love,  I’m going to take it. I’m not going to be like married to the fact that

05:00
Home project, as you know, content on a blog doesn’t work. And so I’m not gonna spend my time.  I love it, I still share it on my YouTube channel. We’re currently in the process of designing a new house, and so I’m very much doing that, and I’m sharing it, and I’m sharing it on Instagram. Just the website is not the place for it, and I’ve  learned that over the years. Yeah, yeah, think that’s a really good point, because I think…

05:25
whether people started for hobby or for business, think we  tend to get really stuck in what we’ve maybe always done, not even just like the stuff that we love, but what we’ve always done. And it’s like, can I actually like  put that on pause and pivot a little bit to something else that’s going to work better from a business perspective? think that’s a really awesome point. love that.  So  you have,  you wrote a book, you have a podcast, you have a

05:53
YouTube, which is really strong as far as I understand and then you have the blog but I noticed I’ve noticed in the past that well now and in the past that your Podcast is kind of separate from your blog, which is kind of separate from YouTube. That was on yeah, that’s  Explain that a little bit Well in  in the ideal world, they would all be very very connected. It’d be really easy. You could repurpose, you know your

06:20
blog, for your podcast, for your YouTube, for your Instagram. I used to do all that. Right. And those are very different platforms with very different expectations from the listeners, the viewers, the audience,  and just like the format. You’re right. It’s totally separate. They’re all separate businesses. If I had to,  like they’re all under the same business name, sort of. I mean, I guess  the podcast isn’t, but

06:46
I run them all as a business, but they’re all very separate and distinct parts of the business. Yeah. And how long have you been sort of, said you used to do it as like one big umbrella thing and sort of repurpose. How long has it been that you’ve separated them out? I would say when I really started building out my team, because there’s only so much bandwidth you have. So I would say it’s probably been about five years or so or something like that.

07:13
I mean, I still like my Instagram is still a lot of repurposed content from my YouTube channel, but it doesn’t do great. Like I know  if you want to do well on Instagram, you need to put your brain into Instagram and film for Instagram. And so I don’t have that capacity. So it still doesn’t do great. But  yeah, as far as like taking the same content from YouTube, stripping out the audio, making it a podcast, it just doesn’t, it doesn’t work to repurpose like that. Okay. Interesting. Very interesting.

07:42
No, that’s really neat that you have observed that, like,  because they are very different. I think it depends on what your end goal is. If you want to have your focus be Instagram, then obviously you’re going to shoot for Instagram. But if you’re there because people are there,  then it’s okay to repurpose. Yeah, and it won’t do as great. Like, don’t think you’re going to get the best engagement. It just, you won’t.  I have to…

08:11
I’ve tried to hand that over and I have, like I handed it over, but with the understanding that it  won’t be what it could be if I were to  decide that I’m gonna do Instagram. But I have learned that  with the parts that require a lot of myself personally, I can’t do that many things. Like I can’t think about, like my week I’m thinking about filming some things for YouTube. I can’t think about both. I always thought for the longest time, sure I can, like I’ll just film everything.

08:39
horizontally and vertically.  And then it’s just a whole different format. It’s not even a matter of filming vertically or horizontally. It’s thinking about,  just you present it in whole different way. Right. Yeah. No, it’s totally different from that perspective. That’s true. So the book is a few years old now. Yeah,  my first book. And I have a cookbook. That’s my more… I launched a cookbook last fall, and that’s  definitely like a more popular book, but…

09:07
my book that was in like the home and DIY type of niche. It was back in 2020. It actually launched in February of 2020. So it got kind of, it got kind of a difficult little start. Yeah. Mine launched, my first one launched in September, 2020. Okay. It was good and bad, I guess. Yeah. Sort of what sparked your, like what made you think you wanted to write books? Did people come to you? Did you just really have this desire to write books?

09:37
Would you write books again like you just did one last year? Has it been something that you have found to be beneficial business-wise or just something that you enjoyed or?  Books.  whole different world than online.  They’re hard.  Yeah.  would probably, I want to say I would never write a book again because of how much work they actually take. Both times it was because somebody came to me.

10:05
The  only reason I would say it would be beneficial to write a book, because it’s not money. You and I both know.  It’s not money. There’s way better ways to make money online.  Significantly better ways.  But right now, so there’s a big shakeup happening in the SEO world with Google, with AI, with helpful content. If you’re in that space, you know what I’m talking about. Helpful content updates, things like this.  And having a book.

10:34
puts a lot  of expertise behind your name, so a lot of authority behind your name.  So  my blog ranks for things that are sourdough. And so having a sourdough book really props that up and props me up as an expert. And so that was the advantage I saw in it.  Again, this is like all, I sometimes feel bad.  I’m so practical with stuff because- No, it’s good. My passion.  I mean, I do, was, it’s a beautiful book.  I liked the end result, but-

11:04
Again, I don’t take time away from my family unless there’s a good reason to do it. And so, yeah, just the money alone would not be enough. That’s fair. No, that’s fair. think you’re saying you feel bad about it, but I think, I’m thinking my audience is mostly creatives, and it’s something that creatives need to hear sometimes to be a little bit ruthless in the choices that you make and the things that you choose to spend time on, because we tend to get a little…

11:32
either shiny object syndrome or a little wishy washy in the creative world of things and don’t decide based on business principles. Like what’s gonna affect the bottom line. So I think that’s a really good thing.  I love that you’re saying that honestly.  So  I remember, you  have had courses too. I know you had Create Your Blog Dream and then you have had or have a YouTube course. I know the blog one you sort of just.

12:01
Yeah. When Hawas are shut down. just did. Tell me a bit about the course. What led you to create that? How it did for you business-wise, since we’re talking, those decisions? And then what made you decide to hit pause on that? So I built my first course, Create Your Blog Dream, the summer after my husband came home from his job. So he came home in May of 2018. And I was like, wow, I unlocked something.

12:30
My, we had five kids and my husband was home with me. And so I felt like that was a big success. It wasn’t like I was making like so much money, but it was enough to support our family. And then we could work together. We’d have more time. And I was like, that seems like a really good time to put together a course.  And it did very, very well. Like it was, it was a big  portion, percentage wise  of our business  for many years.  And it remained it.

12:59
And what was crazy about that course is it sold every day the whole time, multiple times a day. it never, it never did it. And that never stopped even when I decided to sunset the course. But what happens with the blog industry is every about six months I’d have to do a full revamp, like go through the entire thing and

13:22
That was really worth it for a long time because of the percentage of the business that seemed like very good time spent because  it was such a large portion.  But once the actual blogging and the other aspects of the business so far surpassed that,  it was still selling every single day, but that became a smaller and smaller percentage when things like a blog eclipsed that when you start ranking for things. And it just didn’t seem like, it seemed like it was getting to a point where it needed a significant update again.

13:52
And I’m like, but my time is so much better spent actually doing the thing that I’m teaching people.  And so it was a real difficult decision because it was still selling so well. Like it was, I was taking something that was selling every day and just being like no more. But I got to the point where it just really was starting to stress me out that I needed to update it so badly. And then my time was going to be so much better spent elsewhere. So that’s why I stopped selling it.

14:15
Okay. And you have the YouTube course too, or the videos course too, right? Yes, I still have the YouTube course. That world hasn’t changed nearly as fast as blogging, especially in the last couple years. Blogging, from what I was doing in 2018, and then, well, what’s funny is it’s had a lot of iterations over the years, and it’s sort of coming full circle, oddly. Okay.

14:41
where you’re creating a personal brand, you’re not just focusing on SEO and keywords. That has come full circle, but the course, it followed all of what was happening over the years and what’s odd is it came back around, but I mean in some sense, it’s not the same thing it was in 18, but in a lot of ways there’s some similarities that weren’t there even three, four years ago. Whereas YouTube’s been not near as volatile as far as the changes.

15:11
Okay, so that one’s still going. You still have that one. That one’s still going, yes. But it’s never been as successful as the blog course. Never.  It’s else, but nothing like the other one did.  Yeah, yeah. No fair.  Okay, so without getting into specifics or anything, so  now, so since you’ve shut that down, obviously,  where does your revenue come from now? So  there’s the blog, the podcast, the YouTube channel.

15:38
Like where, I guess, not in money specifics, but like… Like the biggest percentage. Percentages?  Yeah. Not percentage. You know what I mean. Yeah.  So the significant portion currently comes from the blog itself, just from the ads on the blog. I continue to build up my YouTube for a few reasons, because it’s very time consuming  and the blog pays so much better. In a lot of ways, it doesn’t make sense. Like, well, why would you keep…

16:06
spending  so much time on something when something else is earning so much more money. But for me, the reason for that, there’s a few.  One, again, it builds up my expertise and my authority because I share the same recipes on those videos in more of a lifestyle vlog type of format that I share on my website. So instead of it just being like kind of an anonymous website like most are, there’s like the real person who’s making the recipes in my own kitchen, testing them.

16:37
on the YouTube channel. And so it really is a great supplement for it. It helps people see like the actual hands-on application, how it’s put into meal plans and it’s used to feed a large family. And then also  I am a person who believes heavily in diversification because  if you’ve been a blogger in the last two, three years, there’s been significant volatility. Like  what has happened has been some bloggers have lost all their rankings, all their keywords.

17:06
Some have continued to go up and I’m one of those people. So it hasn’t been financially impactful, but I know it could happen. Like I’m not immune from that. I’m not like on, you know, some special list with Google that says don’t ever touch her. Like it’s, it’s not like that. And so I keep doing YouTube. keep podcasting, even though like money wise, maybe, you know, it doesn’t directly seem to be as beneficial, but I think overall like,

17:35
If Google hit me with some of those updates, well, I still have YouTube. So we’d still be good, you know. Right. Yeah, that makes sense.  so  a question about the podcast then. The podcast, you use more for, because I don’t think you have ads in the podcast. I do. Yes. I have dynamically inserted ads, they’re just, don’t even, they’re nothing compared to YouTube in the blog.  The podcast is more, I’m assuming then for like connections and

18:05
getting other people in front of your audience and your audience,  know, that sort of. Yeah, it all feels, it all feels very connected, even though there’s not like direct money from it in the same way. But  if, if ever bandwidth got super low, the podcast would be the first to go. Like I threatened it.  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s fair. That’s fair. Yeah. Do you think sort of

18:32
Do you think your niche of homesteading, simple living, homemaking, that sort of thing, do you think that has played into your growth a lot? I know you deliberately do recipes, but do you think that the overall niche that you have as being sort of a homemaker and large family and on a farm, do you think that plays into sort of your traffic and that sort of thing and your growth? Oh yeah, definitely. Yeah, I think that it became a very trending thing.

19:01
Like it definitely was the right thing to be in,  unbeknownst to me. Like it was just something I was into.  But  it went from a very niche interest to a very mainstream interest. Like same with sourdough. I was writing sourdough recipes back  in 2016.  And that was just kind of like,  what’s that? Like nobody searched it, nobody cared. And then here I was with my starter and COVID happened and  it  became a very niche interest to a.

19:31
very popular, like people you never even thought would make cookies now have a sourdough starter. It’s true. It’s so true. Yeah, yeah, that grew up for sure. Yeah. Where do you think most of your new audience, so obviously you probably have people who come back again and again and again, but where do think most of your new audience is coming from these days? Is it sort of, this is kind of what I asked you, but YouTube, podcast, blog, Pinterest, or something else? Well, other than like,

19:58
Google searches because that’s for sure where the highest numbers come from.  those feel like sort of random people. Like I don’t think they, they might make my bread all the time and literally have no clue who I am. Like they probably never clicked about me. They could be like so far beyond my usual demographic. So I don’t know if you really want to count that, but like my audience that’s  more of a, I’m going to follow along with all the things you do. I think.

20:26
YouTube probably brings in the most of those. Okay. Okay. Yeah. That’s cool.  So are you  actively doing anything to grow your reach right now  or is it more just showing up consistently with your content  and stuff like that? Yeah, for years I’ve just been showing up consistently with the content. I’m always like, well, I just don’t have the bandwidth. Like if I wanted to grow by millions and millions and millions of eyeballs, what you would do is you would put all of your thoughts

20:56
into TikTok and Instagram and like capturing some of those, you know, big trends,  you know, all the things that work  on those platforms. But  I have not mentally been there for so many years. And so I just keep like plugging away at my YouTube and my blog and my podcast and just kind of letting people join in.  Consistency makes a huge difference. It like that will win out every time over someone who is sporadic with anything.  It’s worked for me in

21:25
People will ask me,  I have course students, I have private Facebook groups, and so I get a lot of questions, and people will say, well, how did you take a break during your,  when you had a baby? Because I’ve had, since starting, I’ve had five, no, not five, that’s not right, four babies, I guess? Yes, I’ve had four babies  all while having a blog, a YouTube channel, all of that,  and  I didn’t, and I still won’t.

21:52
You can, that’s totally fine. It just depends on what your goals are, but I’ll work ahead. So I do work ahead, and I also have a team and all of that. I’ve never had a time in the last, since 2016, that some kind of content didn’t go out from me every single week. OK. That’s some pretty good consistency there. That’s like 90%. Yes.

22:21
Okay, so let’s talk about team for a second. What was the first sort of position or what were the first things you passed off  and would you do that the same if you were starting over now? So I started building a team really early. The first thing I passed off was I had physical products where we literally sewed farmhouse soft goods  in my home and shipped them out.

22:46
And so the first thing I did was I brought in some local homeschool teenagers who sewed and shipped because  I could not do a blog  and sell the physical products. And I’m really glad I made that decision because at the time the shipping of those products was a more profitable thing for me.  But  ultimately,  I, you know, as soon as the blog and the YouTube and all of that, like the digital forms went above that.

23:15
That was the first thing to go because it was the most time consuming thing. You never have any  residual income from it. You make 10 bucks on that sale and that’s 10 bucks and that’s it.  And so it was like the first thing to go. But I hired someone out for that. And then I hired out, think the next thing I might’ve hired was  a blog writer. But you know, I’ve had like lots of things that haven’t worked out where I took that back on myself. And then I maybe found somebody who would be more qualified for it.

23:42
But  it’s been a process over the years. Yeah, yeah. And so now, sort of, what does your team look like? Like, what do you pass off? I’m assuming a lot. A lot.  A lot.  So much. great. That’s good. Yeah. I have a lot on my team. So I have, like, for the podcast,  my team will book the interviews, make the outlines,  make the supporting emails that go  after to promote it.

24:11
So the only thing I really need to do is show up  and talk for an hour a week, right?  All the editing, all of that.  Tons of help on the blog on helping with recipe testing and recipe photography and writing the post.  And I’m involved in it all, but tons of help with all of it. I even have somebody whose whole job is to communicate with all those people and keep everybody going.

24:40
in the same direction and  like just answer, like  dealing with all those little things. Like all of a Google Search Console sends you, know, we’ve found this problem on your website and kind of submitting that to NerdPress and  just dealing with all those little things.  There’s, have people for that because I’m like, I’m wasting all of my time  on the things that  I’m good at is like being in my kitchen, coming up with ideas.

25:09
sharing how to practically implement things as a mom, and I just need all of that to become content. Right, right. So you’re definitely treating it like you’re the CEO and you’re doing what only you can do and passing off the things that you don’t have to touch, you don’t have to be the one to do them. Yeah, and I forget who said it, but it’s called like your zone of genius  and only,  and there’s still things I do that, you know, probably like should be passed off.

25:37
But as much, I mean, I have a bookkeeper, have just literally all those little things that we spend all of our busy time in our office doing, I try to pass off it just like as much as possible. And half, yes. No, that’s awesome. Yeah. So with that being said and like your family and stuff, how many hours-ish a week are you working right now? I average about 12 hours a week.

26:06
I get an  afternoon block Monday through Thursday. And that’s worked for many years.  It works  by, you know, my husband’s home, at the baby’s nap. But if the babies wake up,  you know, he’s home too.  I have teenagers. I have older kids. But it’s funny, because still most of my time, even though people see, the part they see is all of that time, like when I’m filming, like right before I got on with you.

26:33
I was making some soup, some baguettes that’ll all go on a YouTube video, the recipes from the blog. So that’s what people see. But then this morning, and as soon as I get off of this, I have more kid stuff. Like we’re heading up to the farm, we’re gonna talk to the builder, we’re gonna, there’s just like, that’s most of my day. Yeah, no, I get that. I mean, when I started, I was homeschooling my kids too. They’re now in their early  20s. So, and they live here, but  they’re in their early 20s, either at school or at work.

27:03
And that was how I used to have to do it too. It was quiet time in the afternoon. Well, yeah. Right. yeah. Yeah. And I,  I did that like before my husband came home,  even the older kids. Cause at that time, if it was,  what was that? Seven years ago,  I guess my oldest was around nine,  but  I guess eight. No. Oh my goodness. Nine.  She’s 16.  However that works.

27:32
We did quiet time. So I couldn’t quite get away with three uninterrupted hours. And this was still not. just put the baby to bed right before this. But I can almost pretty much count on that Monday through Thursday now. And then Friday, we usually make some other kind of plan. Like we’ll go out to a field trip type of thing, the pool, something like that. But I can count on it better now. But even then,

27:57
It was interrupted because I’d have to maybe say, okay, we’re going to keep being quiet or we’re going to go back to our room. It’s not, you know, so simple, but we always did it. Yeah. Yeah. We did it too. We did it when our kids were really little and my, actually we started quiet time for us when I was pregnant with our third because the second one stopped napping the same, the same summer, the oldest stopped napping. So all of sudden you had four and one and a half and all of a sudden I’m pregnant and nobody’s napping anymore. I’m like, nope.

28:27
No,  so we’ve done quiet time, we did quiet time for  years. Like, would say like kids can be in their rooms, know, coloring, doing  Legos.  Yeah. Like you said, it doesn’t necessarily give you hours and hours of a block of time, but you can get things done and then just go, hey, we’re still being quiet, and then get some more things done. So that totally works. And you have to be really careful with what you do during those hours. That’s what I learned.  Because there’s certain things that are

28:57
Like we have all this work we have to do and there are certain things on that that are way more fun than others, right? Like there’s certain things that we hate and certain things that are fun  and we could fill those hours  with all like the piddly stuff if we’re not careful. True. No, that’s so true. That’s so true.  So  let me see. What other questions we have? Oh,  if you were starting fresh today, what would you focus on first?

29:26
So like if you were gonna start online business today, what would you focus on first? Would you do SEO research? Would you jump into YouTube? Would you do blog? What would you do? Okay, so this question’s different from what would you do if you were starting over back in 2018 when you started? This is 2025. Yeah, this, yeah. I mean, you could say what you would have done differently when you started then, but it may or may not I feel like they’re definitely different answers because, yeah, I would have gone,

29:55
all  in on the blog with all the knowledge I have right now,  if this was 2018.  If it’s 2025, I’m so torn on that. I am so, so torn because as a blog educator, I still see so many people having success with it, but then I also  have so many people say like, just doesn’t work the same as it used to.  And that’s another reason why the course,  it’s

30:24
It’s hard for me as someone who has had a blog for so long to really say what it would be like. I have not started a new blog since then. I haven’t. And so I know what works, but I also know what works for  somebody. I know what works for me. I know it works for me. I do keep a pulse on what’s going on, but there’s a wide variety of things that people say.  So it’s so hard to know.

30:55
I think I would go full  into if I had nothing going on and my goal was to maybe turn a profit as quickly as possible, I think I would go full in on YouTube for sure. Okay. Yeah. Okay.  And as far as sort of how you’d choose a topic or a niche, how would you decide that now? Well,  I would do  the same type of niche.

31:24
I will say that what I am doing right now on YouTube has become definitely way more saturated. Like  the style of videos that I make have become more saturated too. So maybe I would switch up the format, but heavily focused  on title and thumbnail ideas  and putting a lot of emphasis on those.  I would still be in the homemaking niche.

31:52
It’s hard, everybody has to find their own path in some ways. But for me, that’s been people that I have seen just start brand new businesses who had nothing before, no social following, know, no nothing, turn the fastest profit on YouTube. like on, and maybe I just don’t know what I’m doing, but like on Instagram and all that, I feel like you can get really high numbers that look really cool, but don’t really yield a ton of money.

32:21
No, Yeah, vanity metrics, right? Yes. And so, or doing something like that, but then having a very clear product you’re promoting, like a course or an e-book, something like that. Yeah.  Yeah, I think a product is a good thing for pretty much everybody to have, regardless of whether that’s your main thing that you’re focusing on or whether it’s ad revenue or something else or coaching or whatever.  Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I think…

32:51
Like you said, there needs to be some  variety  or different places that you’re getting your income from, I think,  is a good thing. Yes, being diversified.  Yes, that’s the word.  Yeah.  What is your favorite? If you’re doing research on keywords and stuff, what is your favorite or research on business stuff in general? What is your favorite tool or go-to?

33:15
I listen to lot of podcasts. I’m in a lot of Facebook groups. I try to stay really up on what’s happening in the blog world specifically because that impacts me a lot. There’s a lot changing with AI  so much.  So I try to stay up on it all. But I find all of it very interesting.  This is what’s fun for me to listen to. would be business podcasts and  interviews like this one. I listen to them all the time. think they’re…

33:45
very interesting, I like hearing how different people do different things.  And it’s so funny too, because with anything online business, everybody has something they swear by. This is how it’s done. This is what you need to do.  And there’s just so many different ways to do it. And so that’s another thing that’s been kind of hard about being an educator for online business type stuff is there’s a lot of ways to do it. And I try to present it like that, but you hear, you could literally listen to two back to back experts who say the exact opposite thing.

34:15
And I have my own perspective. I’m like, eh, neither one of you are right from my perspective, but you know, like it must work for you. Yeah. And I think that’s where you find like when you’re gonna learn things, you find someone that sort of meshes with what you think or like you tend to be on the same page about things, right? And you kind of just go, eh, I’m not gonna listen to like something else. Yeah, right. Exactly. Cause people have different lives too. Like I’m in a season of life where

34:44
There’s just certain things I can’t do. And when I hear people say it, I’m like, yeah, I can’t do that. Like, that’s just not gonna work. I got too much going on.  Yeah. And that’s good to know that. think that’s another takeaway is you need to know what season you’re in and what your bandwidth is for what you can do, right? Like, yeah, I mean, Instagram has never been my focus, you know, and other people are like, oh yeah, do everything on Instagram. Yeah, exactly. I’m like,  no, like,  no.  I know. And then I, course, want to be

35:13
just like that on the other end, be like, well, it doesn’t work at all. And I’m like, well, actually it does work too.  It works. Like if you go full in on that, you have products to sell on Instagram, you’re building your email list through Instagram. That does also work because you’re building up an audience of people who need what you have. And it just comes back to those basic principles, those basic business principles. I think we think of it as like a whole different thing. Like this is like not regular business, but it still is. Like you have something that you’re offering.

35:42
You’re trying to find people to sell it to, so to speak. Like in a lot of ways, mine is  advertising, but some people have an actual thing. Like they have physical products, they have a course, they have an ebook, they have like their coaching, their mentorship.  And there’s a lot of places to find the people. You know, don’t have to be so married to one. I’m glad I did what I did because it feels a lot more passive,  but  that’s just all in hindsight. Right. Yeah. And I think sometimes you…

36:11
you know, you have to know where you’re at, but you have to choose where you’re going to focus because you cannot, unless you have a ginormous team, you cannot be all the places. You cannot do all the things perfectly. You do have to choose to some extent at least for each season and where you’re, you sort of, your bandwidth is at. Well, even if you have a big team, because  I have like, I have a profitable business so I can hire more people, but there’s certain things that because  I’m

36:41
the face,  it doesn’t even work to hire it. You can’t just throw more money at some sometimes.  There’s certain things that you can’t be replaced on and those are where you have to put your focus because  there is just only so many places you can put your brain. just can’t do  it. That’s  true. I’d love to just touch on  the whole thing we were talking about blogs coming.

37:09
almost full circle, not quite, sort of  in the, we were very, it was very, very much like personal, even if it was for business, it was very much  us and what we were doing and, you know, sort of our voice and things.  And then over the last few years up until sort of recently, the last year or two, it was very much, let’s write it for SEO and what people are searching for and sort of almost  take your personality out of it.  And then now it’s come back around to know if you’re gonna

37:38
get anywhere you need to be, like there needs to be personal brand. Like,  speak to that a little bit as far as like personal brand and how that looks like,  what that looks like. Yeah. Well, and it’s really in some ways it’s anybody’s guess. I feel like even the SEO experts right now are saying things that you’re like, that’s not what I’ve observed.  You know,  but  it seems like maybe possibly that Google has, you know,  obviously Google is

38:05
the current search engine that people use. And this might change.  But right now, the sought after,  what everybody wants is they want their topics to rank on Google. And it seems like in the last couple years, they’ve really prioritized the people who are the real people who have real experience. They’re not just like finding on a SEO. You can go onto little websites and find, little websites, you can go on websites  and find topics.

38:34
that have high search, low competition, and you can write for it and just all of a sudden you have all these page views.  And they realized that users were, instead of going to those websites, they were typing in the word Reddit after their keyword that they were putting into Google because what they wanted to find out was somebody who really did it. Like not just once, but like…

38:59
25 times, like they used their grandma’s old recipe. This was a tried and true thing because they really saw through  what was happening. They realized that there was people who were just writing for whatever was going to work.  And they were like, I want  to know what really works. And so Google, I believe, uses lots of metrics. Like how  much of a following do you have on other platforms? Do people search your name when they search?

39:28
for your niche, are they saying like, you know, are they like putting your name  after it because they want to hear what you have to say and they’re starting to use all of those metrics to find out if you’re a real person who’s really done it, who really uses the recipes or the projects that you’re sharing depending on your niche or if you’ve really traveled there and you’re not just finding some stock photos because it’s a good opportunity for a keyword to rank and they really penalize those websites, at least in theory. And I do think a lot of people got penalized.

39:58
wrongly and I think that Google didn’t always match those up perfectly. So like I said, in theory, that’s the idea is they’re looking for users want  real and they want experience and not just  the opportunistic type. Yeah. Right. No, that’s fair. That’s fair. So that is a whole lot more personal. Like one of my,  one of, on my other, on my home website,  my, one of my posts that does the best is like our

40:26
IKEA ektorp sofa review. They’ve discontinued that sofa, but people are still looking  for what our experience was with it. And that’s like one of the gets the most paved page views. Okay. Yeah. personal experience, right? Not  generic, like, because I’m also a teacher at heart. So like, I want to teach people how to decorate their hosts. But when I go and I write a post about here are the steps to do x, y, it doesn’t do anywhere near as well as something that’s right.  personally, I find that a tough one because it’s like, oh, yeah, so

40:56
Okay. Yes.  Well, and now AI will tell you, AI will pull from your website, the steps for decorating a room. It’ll be in the overview. And so writing for stuff like that is kind of pointless now. But  yeah, they’re, they just found that users like they, know, Google’s a business and so they want, they want their users to continue to use Google. And they found that they were kind of bypassing the posts they were serving and trying to find like a forum or something.

41:25
where people were sharing real experiences. Right. Yeah, that totally makes sense. Yeah, no, that makes sense. That explains a lot of the stuff about, you know, people looking up Reddit and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. Like, a real person. Yeah, interesting. Yeah, because it’s hard to tell, right? On some sites. Yeah. Oh, yeah, it absolutely is. And so I think having like a lot of supporting

41:52
throughout the internet. You’re in all the places people are looking for you to be the expert in that area. Right. Yeah, that’s fair. Okay, sort of general questions. What are you excited about in your business right now? How’s the house build going? And then any other new projects that you’re quietly dreaming up? So what are you excited about in your business right now? I don’t even Just plug it along and be consistent.

42:19
I have no huge things I’m working on. Well, we are launching a  whole grains course. So have a sourdough course, a sewing course, and then we’re launching a whole grains course because  we’re trying to build out more of like the homemaking because business courses are really hard for me to like tie in because it’s not my main niche, which is fine and people, you know, buy them, but they’re hard for me to like stay involved mentally in as much as the homemaking ones.

42:48
So that’s something that’s upcoming in the business.  Other than that, like  just the same old stuff to be honest with you. That’s good. Yeah. YouTube podcast blog.  And building out those, the home market, I forgot about the other courses. The, the, yeah, I forgot. Oh, that’s, that’s okay. Yeah. Those are what we’re trying to, those are lower price courses and we’re going to make it to where you can bundle them together and like get like a homemaking type of thing. But that’s just very slow process. Like once a year.

43:17
we’re compiling some stuff and doing that.  Because  I  feel like the last several years, my bandwidth for being really excited about launching things has been very low.  Like, you get very excited in the beginning because you’re building something and it’s like, wow, it’s working and  we’re gonna reach our goals. And then you kind of move into a phase of where it works, we reach our goals, we’re continuing to reach our goals.  And I don’t have that same like.

43:44
Just I’m so excited to get to work on this.  I don’t stay up late at night or anything like that.  So I’m in that phase of my business. I guess excited’s a, I’m sure I probably could get excited at some point about something  with the business.  It’s okay. No, you know what? I think it’s good.  And I think it speaks to your stability a little bit too in your business that it’s not so much like this. It’s a little more even  keel. Yeah. Yeah. There’s different phases of  running a business.

44:14
And  I’m in a different one than a lot of people who are starting out are in mentally, excitement level, know, knowledge level. Cause I remember too, in the beginning thinking, wow, there is always something new to learn. am constantly just like fire hose. Like I’m always learning and now like, yeah, I, you know, I hear things, you know, but I pretty much like have the basics like very much down. I’m not.

44:40
You know, there’s like little things, but nothing like massively always learning and all that.  Yeah. Yeah. And then as far as  the house, it’s, are  fully, fully in it right now.  We went up this morning.  We’re going down this afternoon. Oh goodness. So  yeah, I go up. Is that because you’re excited? Like,

45:04
If there’s the word again,  excited to go see it or because you need to be on site for like decisions and direction. We need to be on site for decisions and things like that. We’re building a, and when I, feel like when you say the word custom, like only like fancy comes to mind and I don’t really mean that, but like we’re building a  very, very custom house.  Like  I don’t think I realized just how custom of a house we’re trying to do here.

45:32
So because of that, there’s so much communication with the builder, like so much. Like just for like a small example, the thing that’s currently the big thing  is we bought  antique doors for  all of the like 30 doors in the house,  which sounds like, you know, when I was buying them, no big deal, right?  But are they the same length with? No.  Are they, do they have frames around them?  No.

46:02
Do they have hardware, hinges, they  need? the current thing, because the house is basically framed at this point,  is like meeting with the guy who’s going to make the things around them and then matching them to the right spots. Because we have a good idea of where they all go, but then communicating like down to the three quarter inch, like  what that opening needs to be, because it’s different from all the other closets. Of course.

46:32
Because I genuinely want a house that looks old. Right. that is very great in theory, but it’s very hard. so  it’s all the brain can do right now.  Just like so  many little details  we’ve been ironing out lately. So like the cabinetry design has already been fully underway.  And I went and met with them.  And because I’m working with somebody that

47:01
is kind of specialized in new old houses, he kind of hooked me up with people around the country. And so there was like traveling involved. What’s funny is I have a feeling at the end, it’s just gonna be like, cool house. I’m like, there’s a lot that goes into this cool house. So. Yeah, no one else will quite see all the crazy that went into it. Yeah, because it’ll just look like a house. like, we’re, you know, this.

47:26
On Friday, we’re going to an architectural salvage place because there’s a few plumbing fixtures that we need and there’s a few more doors that we need. And then we’re going to go to the appliance place. And I’m sure it’s like this for everybody when you build a house to some extent, but I feel like I’ve definitely complicated it a little bit more than average.  By not having things be standard sizes. Yeah, nothing is standard. There’s just  so many,  so many details  that are quite weird.

47:55
Um, yeah, like another example is  instead of having it look like an addition, we want it to look like an enclosed porch. Okay. And there’s a lot of rooms that are in this enclosed porch with windows and it’s, it’s been like the most complicated, mind blowing thing for, for everybody involved.  Um, seems simple enough, but it is not.

48:19
Making those guys use their brains, guess. Big time. Yeah, yeah. I thought something about like there’ll be five windows instead of four or something on one of your… Yeah, so yeah, we caught lots of little problems in the framing that  stemmed from not understanding that it’s supposed to look like an old porch because, well,  it’s  a long story.  And then we’re simultaneously doing a barn  and…

48:49
So they’re gonna like pause on the house for a second because we’re waiting on a few things and they’re gonna go over and do the barn. And so we ordered like all this roof sheathing because we want it to look like an old barn.  And  it came in like very yellow, like it’s rough sawn pine, but it’s very yellow. And so now Luke’s taking this  stuff that you spray on it all, but he has 2200 square foot of sheathing that he to like lay out and spray.  And it’s just, we’re really in it right now.

49:16
So there’s no excitement for anything. You’re like, you’re for your business? I’m like, I don’t have a business. I don’t know. I don’t don’t know. Oh my goodness. Yeah. OK. So that was all the questions I had. Is there anything else that you wanted to add or say or I don’t know? I’m excited for your podcast. Sounds interesting. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, no, I’m excited. I’m excited to get it out. So. Yeah, when does it officially launch?

49:44
Um, I, my goal is the end of June. Okay. And so you’re banking up some interviews that you can start. Yeah, I had a couple of people reschedule. So that’s why I say my goal is the end of June. Right. But then a couple of people had things scheduled. So I’m banking up so that I have a several to, um, release that once and then, um, some to put out weekly after that so that we’re not playing, not playing catch up. Yeah. I don’t feel like there’s very many like good interview.

50:11
business shows, especially for like creative businesses, honestly.  There’s not that many, or if there are, I just don’t know about them.  But I love them. Yeah, I don’t think there are. think there’s a few that are very specific to certain things.  You know, either building your personal brand or, Yeah, that’s true, yes. Right, like there’s some very specific ones, but anyway. Yeah.

50:35
So where can people find you  online so that I can sort of give them direct them to come find you? Yes. Okay. So Instagram, FarmhouseOnBoone, YouTube FarmhouseOnBoone website, FarmhouseOnBoone.com. The only thing that’s different is my podcast is called Simple Farmhouse Life.  And I do a wide variety of different interviews, everything from home stuff, like home decor design.

51:01
to  food and canning and preservation and homesteading and there’s just like all the things I’m interested in. Just you could find it there on that show. That’s awesome. Yeah. That’s awesome. Thank you so much for joining me today. It was so awesome to talk to you and to listen to your perspectives on business. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.

51:30
That’s it for today on the Shannon Acheson Show. If you found this helpful, follow the show and share it with a friend.  And hey, if you’re not sure what kind of business actually fits your life,  take the free quiz at ShannonAcheson.com.  It’ll point you in the right direction.  Thanks for listening. Talk again soon.