Dec 4, 2019
Today, my guest, Brooke Riley,
and I are talking about how to grow a seven-figure business by
listening to your audience. And for Brooke, that audience has been
on Facebook.
We talk about whether Facebook
is really dead. Is it still possible to grow an audience on
Facebook and actually get your content seen?
Brooke has grown her
blog, Refabbed into a large DIY blog, coaching business, and
online boutique in 4 years, mostly through her Facebook page, which
currently has around 500K followers.
Many people in our industry
would tell you not to expend any efforts on Facebook; that it’s a
complete waste of time unless you want to “pay to play” through
Facebook ads.
And while it’s true that the
algorithms aren’t favoring bloggers or businesses the same way they
used to, if you go into it with a specific strategy and you focus
on engagement, you absolutely can build a community on Facebook and
use it to grow your business.
Today’s guest on the podcast,
Brooke Riley, shares with us how she did it, and why Facebook was a
great decision for her business. She also talks about how she has
expanded her business from just a blog, and she shares her tips for
folks just getting started.
Before we jump into our
discussion though, I have to say that I have been having loads of
fun over in my
Facebook group.
I am in there all the time,
chatting, going live, and helping you build your business. And the
group is full of other bloggers, encouraging each other and
answering questions.
If you haven’t joined us
yet, what are you waiting for? Come on over today and introduce
yourself. We’re all waiting on you!
My guest, Brooke Riley, has
grown her blog, Refabbed into a large DIY blog, coaching business, and
online boutique in 4 years, mostly through her Facebook page, which
currently has around 500K followers.
Brooke has invested in her followers and built
relationships with them, and now she has an audience that knows and
trusts her.
Starting a Blog Even if You Don’t Know What a Blog
Is
Brooke began her blog as a way
to document and share the projects she was completing around the
fixer-upper home she and her husband had purchased in western
Kentucky.
At the time, Brooke admits, she
wasn’t even sure exactly what a blog was.
Even though Brooke was spending
time creating content for her blog, and building relationships with
her readers, email list subscribers, and social media followers,
her pageviews weren’t growing as quickly as she wanted.
She knew she needed pageviews
for ad income.
And income was definitely her
goal from the beginning. She didn’t know what types of income were
typical for bloggers, but helping to provide for her family was her
goal from day one.
Over time, Brooke got to know
her audience well enough that she was no longer 100% dependent on
ad revenue.
She began to experiment with
affiliates and figuring out other ways to monetize. She learned
what her audience really wanted from her, and that led to other
streams of income.
Creating Connections with Your
Audience
From the beginning, Brooke wrote
her blog with the intention of being vulnerable and
honest.
She wanted her audience to know
her personally and she wanted to get to know them. Her
vulnerability allowed her audience to connect with her on an
intimate level.
When Brooke placed calls to
action in her posts and emails, she worded them in a way that her
audience would want to answer.
She also took time to respond to
their replies in a way that made them feel validated and want to
respond again.
Connecting with Your Audience on Facebook to Grow a
Seven-Figure Business
It’s one of the most popular
things to say right now... that Facebook is dead for bloggers and
online business owners. But Brooke hasn’t found that to be the case
at all.
From the time she started her
blog, Brooke focused on her Facebook page. Facebook was where she
saw the most interaction and the most engagement with her
audience.
Her page grew slowly, but she
kept putting in the time and sharing with her followers
there.
After two years of working her
page, Brooke realized that she wasn’t connecting with her audience
on FB the way she wanted to. And it was because even though she put
out a ton of great content for them, they never saw her.
They read her voice in her
content, but her face wasn’t something they
experienced.
So, she began doing live videos
on Facebook to build that connection with her
audience.
Planning a Facebook Strategy
After a couple of years at this
live video thing, you would suspect that Brooke has a special
strategy that she uses to get as many people as possible
watching.
Surely she plans out her live
videos and lets her audience know exactly what day and time they
will be, right?
Nope.
Sometimes, she doesn’t even know
what she’s going to talk about until 5 minutes before she gets on
there.
Brooke says it is important to
know that you don’t have to follow rules that somebody else has
set. You need to do what works for you and what works for your
community.
When Brooke first started going
live, she would go live once every two weeks or so, but now she
goes live once or twice a week.
Brooke aims to post at least 4
times per day on her Facebook page. It’s not the end of the world
if she doesn’t get 4 posts up, but she does try to keep it active
by posting regularly.
Brooke posts things that are
relevant to her audience, from her blog or other creators her
audience enjoys.
Brooke knows her audience well
enough that she has been able to build other revenue streams and
businesses based on their wants and needs.
Creating an Online Clothing Boutique
One of these additional
businesses is an online
boutique for her female
audience that is just about to hit 7 figures in
revenue.
I realize that not everybody
would think to start an online boutique, so I asked Brooke to share
why she started it and how she knew it would work for her
audience.
She shared with me that she was
getting so many questions about her appearance (her hair, clothes,
and makeup), that she realized she could build an additional stream
of income based on that interest.
Brooke was doing all of the
affiliate marketing she could based on her readers’ requests, but
it didn’t take long to figure out that she was onto
something.
She knew she needed to
capitalize on the passion she felt for her style and her audience’s
love of it, so she decided to start a boutique selling the things
she liked and then share those products with her
audience.
Creating a Coaching Business
A
coaching business is
something Brooke never dreamed she would do.
Brooke has a passion for
teaching others how to do things. She enjoys showing her audience
how to do the crafts she loves, how to dress in a way that they can
express their true personalities, and even how to build an online
business.
She totally didn’t see herself
as a teacher, however, she kept getting questions about Facebook,
growing your audience, and making money online.
Her audience wanted to learn
from her and they continued asking her to teach them.
Even if you think you aren’t the
best at something or you don’t really know how to teach it to
someone else, you have a unique voice that others can appreciate
and want to learn from.
Building a Team
Brooke and her husband were the
only ones running the business for the first 3+ years. For the
first 9 months, Brooke still had a full-time job!
It’s only been a little over a
year ago that she hired her first employee.
Brooke eventually realized that
she could not grow the business any larger without having outside
help. There is only so much one person can do before they need
outside help.
Currently, Brooke has a
full-time assistant whose sole responsibility is to work with her
on the blog. Her husband, Brandon, came home full-time in May of
2019, and he works mostly on the boutique.
The boutique has a store manager
and an additional full-time employee, as well as a part-time
employee whom Brooke says is pretty close to
full-time.
Brooke also hires outside
contractors to handle things like Pinterest, etc.
What About Her Instagram Strategy?
Instagram is the hottest social
media platform on the block for most online entrepreneurs right
now.
Everyone is trying to
grow their IG following and engage with their people over there, but
until this past summer, Brooke had not focused on her
Instagram.
Now that Brooke is spending more
time on the site, her account is growing quickly.
Brooke likes that she can share
even more behind-the-scenes stuff about her life with her Instagram
stories. This allows her to continue to build that intimate
relationship with her audience.
Advice: Don’t Be Afraid to Break the
Rules
Brooke says that if she looks
back on where she thought her blog would go and where it has gone,
those two things would not be in the same
neighborhood.
Running a business is not always
something you can plan for. You can’t predict the opportunities you
may be presented with or where your path might take you.
Sometimes you see a need that
you can fill and your business is born from that.
Brooke strongly recommends that
you hold your ideas loosely and not worry about “following all the
rules” that other people set up. That’s a great way to lose the fun
of running your business.
Trying to keep up with what
everybody else tells you to do can cause you to lose that initial
passion that inspired you to start your business.
Okay, I don’t know about
you, but isn’t it just amazing how Brooke has been able to build
such a huge community relatively quickly? Four years may not seem
quick when you’re in the middle of it, but she took her blog from
zero to multiple businesses and over 7 figures in just 4
years.
I find that
incredible!
And she did it by being true
to herself and authentic. She shared the things that she loved and
took her audience along for the ride. Her audience relates to her
and that allows her to serve them with content and
products!
So, right now, click over
and
join my Facebook group if you haven’t already so that we can talk more
about this episode. I want to hear what your takeaways are and I’ll
be sharing mine.
TIMESTAMP
- Intro
- 3:00
Brooke Starts a Blog
- 6:14
Starting a Blog...Even if You Don’ Know What a Blog Is
- 7:45
Creating Connections with Your People
- 9:45
Connecting with Your Audience on Facebook
- 15:12
Planning a Facebook Strategy
- 20:05
Growing Additional Businesses
- 25:12
Building a Team
- 29:40
What About Instagram?
- 32:14
Don’t Be Afraid to Break the Rules
TOP 4
TAKEAWAYS
- When
starting a business, have a goal. Even if it changes, your goals
will keep you passionate while you build your audience.
- Find
ways to build intimate connections with your audience, like live
video.
- Get
to know your audience so well that you can develop products they
will want to buy.
- Don’t
be afraid to hire help; one person can only do so much. When you
hire people, you can grow even more.
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