Welcome to the Brand Building Lab, I’m your host Michelle Jackson and I help online entrepreneurs design businesses that lead with empathy and intention while earning money. In today’s episode Jenn Ruiz from Jen on a Jet Plane shares her passion for travel and how she grew her business despite the pandemic’s impact on travel. What started out as a way to deeper engage in the world around her has become a mission to help others do the same without going broke and yes, she does fly Spirit airlines.
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When I moved into digital entrepreneurship, I found myself collaborating with brands, doing 1099 work and needing to send out invoices and set up systems to keep my business organized.
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Show Notes
Jen-I am the solo female traveler behind Jen on a Jet Plane
Michelle-I am curious about how you got into the travel content space and transitioned from free to paid?
Jen-The first paid gig that I had in general was as a freelance travel writer. I had a lot of posts going viral on Elite Daily. A lot of people thought that was a waste of my time, but I thought it was a part of my journey. That’s how the editor of Pace found me and asked me to write for their travel vertical. Then, as a travel content creator, having my first paid press trip was $100 a day with a “second tier” city but I remember feeling so accomplished. Now I do a lot of my payments through marketing packages based on deliverables. My first brand partnership I remember when I started to get paid Brand partnerships, I remember thinking that if I’m working to promote a product that I needed to get paid.
Michelle-It’s so funny that you mentioned the media/press trip. I didn’t know that I was on a media trip. So I just thought it was a random “hey, Michelle you want to join in” How things work in the personal finance space is a little different. One of the key takeaways that I left with was that you can’t do media trips as a travel hack. From a business standpoint you should only two of these for free in your first year.
Jen-A lot of times they think your compensation will come from the article that you write. But, some places won’t allow you to write articles about media trips. You will still end up spending money on these trips. It doesn’t make sense for you to come out in the red.
Michelle-How long were you doing the free freelance writing?
Jen-When I had my first blog, I just wanted to be out there and I wasn’t even thinking of this as a business. About a year, year and a half.
Michelle-There was a period of time that you did this and built your portfolio. I think people get concerned when people do free work without intentionality behind the strategy. Access to editors that helped you improve your writing skills. How did you start making a sustainable income? Walk us through what that looked like.
Jen-I wouldn’t do free now.
Michelle-You wrote a book!
Jen-Now, some of the ways that I monetize, I wrote my first book and learned everything that I could about self-publishing. I also didn’t get too hung up about it being the ultimate guide to everything. I focused on a book talking about affordable flights. I managed to get it out. My first book won awards. I was emboldened to keep writing books and scale the books understanding that most authors would need to write around 20 books.
Jen-I started taking my blog seriously. I was blogging for a couple of years and hadn’t made any money with it. One big investment was to take a full-day SEO workshop with Jemma and Laura from Make Traffic Happen. When I left TBEX it made a big difference. I decided to do a challenge in January 2019. I was seeing some traction and announced that I was going to do a 30 blog posts in January challenge. By February of 2019 I was invited to join Mediavine.
Michelle-I feel like there are some misconceptions about building a content business
Jen-I think everyone goes to Instagram. I think it’s really important to have a blog. Blogging isn’t dead. Anything else, you’re just a visitor. Instagram can make you pay to advertise, suppress who sees you. People have told me that they printed out my blog posts. I look at social media as a lead magnet. A lot of people don’t realize how important your email list is. Not an annoying pop-up, instead, relevant links with a reason for me to sign up. I have a resource that shares a list of flight alert resources and people opt-in. Use your email list! I have a 45% open rates and I send out an email every week.
Michelle-The hardest part of online entrepreneurship is working through all of the choices. That complexity of choice can stall people out. How do you know what to focus on? How did you pivot during 2020?
Jen-It’s like a Cheesecake Factory Menu, it’s super overwhelming. It can make people scared to get started and it’s overwhelming. During the pandemic, everything dropped from $100 a day to $4 a day. I remember being so angry and it was my main monetization strategy. All that work during the pandemic was gone, like all that work was for nothing. Travel was the most hard hit during the pandemic-you couldn’t even TALK about it. Everything that I built my business around was gone overnight. So, I joined TikTok-I wish I joined sooner. My first viral video got millions of views. Overnight I gained 30,000 followers. I was talking about remote jobs, etc. My 4th book was 25 Ways to Work From Home and it did well. I pivoted to work from home series. And, from Blog to Business. I decided to focus on getting a traditional book deal. In August I signed up for the Writer’s Digest Conference. Who you know vs. What you know. I went to the pitch slam and paid an extra $500 for the pitch slam and was assigned 7 different agents. Four of them expressed interest in continuing speaking with me. I ended up with representation.
Michelle-I love everything about this!!! For a content creator who feels like they’re spending their wheels. What is the one thing you would encourage them to do to build momentum?
Jen-Start. Pick something and start. Your biggest issue is going to be inaction. Pick one thing and do it. I think build in public. Tell everybody what you want. I told everyone about my 30 blog posts in 30 days challenge. If it had just been me…Own your goals. Collaboration vs. Competition. State your goals loudly and boldly.
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Upcoming Book: 12 Trips in 12 Months-Fall 2023
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How Travel Can Empower Women and Better Their Lives - #moneyhungry
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