EPISODE 14: WHY RUTH RACKLEY DITCHED HER HIGH-END PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS TO SELL DIGITAL PRODUCTS​

Speaker1: [00:00:00] Today, I am so excited to welcome one of my students on the podcast. She has been a student of mine since twenty seventeen. She’s been around since the very beginning of when I started teaching people about online business. And I have watched her grow her blog into something so amazing. She helps so many people. And I’m so excited for you to learn more from her. Her name is Ruth Brackley and she is a mom of two who ditched her busy never at home job as a high end wedding photographer in pursuit of raising her girls, dogs, baby calves and way too many chickens to count with her husband on their family farm. Her goal is to inspire and teach busy moms like you to create and manage a profitable business so they can get back outside with their family enjoying life. Ruth is one of the sweetest and most humble people I’ve ever met, and she has managed to pour so much into her business.

Speaker2: [00:00:51] She helps other people learn how to use essential oils and change their lives. And I think there’s just so much that you’re going to learn from her and how you

Speaker2: [00:01:00] Can put out Free content and Give so much back While Also making money and providing for your own family at the same time.

Speaker1: [00:01:05] So let’s dive in and learn all about Ruth and her business and how she created her first digital product. You are listening to the Empowered Business podcast. I’m your host, Monica Froese, a mom of two and your secret weapon to creating a six figure digital product business. I’m on a mission to help 1000 women make one hundred thousand dollars a year. That’s right. One hundred million dollars towards financial independence for women. As an online business expert, I am teaching you everything I know right here week after week so you can join us on the journey to one hundred million dollars. Sound good? Then let’s jump in. Welcome to the show. I’m so excited you’re here.

Speaker3: [00:02:02] Thank you. I am absolutely pumped. I have been so excited about this. Thank you.

Speaker1: [00:02:07] Yeah. So can you tell us what your business is so everyone knows and then how you got started even online, like, how did you put this blog up and why?

Speaker3: [00:02:18] Ok, so I actually blog about essential oils and how to use them properly. And the reason I got into it is because I used to have a photography business that I actually built the six figures all online. But the problem with that is that it was totally service-based and if I wasn’t behind the camera and clicking, then I wasn’t making any money. And fast forward, I had kids who wanted to stay at home more tired of being away for the weekends. So I thought, what better to talk about than something I was passionate about, which is essential oils. And so I created the blog.

Speaker1: [00:02:58] Ok, so the blog is called By Oily Design, right?

Speaker3: [00:03:01] That’s correct, yep.

Speaker1: [00:03:02] Ok, so set up some timeline because, you know, I think probably once upon a time I knew that you did photography, but I think I forgot that. So. OK, how long did you have a photography business?

Speaker3: [00:03:14] I have a photography business for ten years.

Speaker1: [00:03:17] Wow. And what type of photography?

Speaker3: [00:03:19] I did high end wedding photography. So to give you an idea, one of my last clients, their budget was a half million dollars. So it was. Yeah. So when I did photography, I was leaving home for four days because that’s how long my weddings would last, because I shot from people arriving till the day after. And then I had all this work. And so I was fitting in 60 to 80 hours of work a week.

Speaker1: [00:03:46]  So you were a master photographer, or are a master photographer? I’m not sure I knew this before. So if you had told me, maybe I didn’t really think in two. OK, but this I mean, that makes perfect sense to me when you had kids because your kids are like nine, right nine?

Speaker3: [00:04:07] My youngest is six and my oldest is nine. And it took us 10 years to have our first one. So if anybody they know me. Family is everything. Being a mom is everything. Like when we went to Disney and went to Ohana to eat that big family meal, you know, they say, Ohana is family and family Is everything there, I am quoting Lilo and Stitch instead. It’s just it’s everything. And I didn’t want to give that up because it was such a blessing that I never thought I would have.

Speaker1: [00:04:41] And so were you doing the photography during those ten years before you had kids? OK, now when you had your first kid, is that when you started blogging?

Speaker3: [00:04:51] Yes. Well, basically, I continued my photography business for about two years, three years after I had my oldest. And that’s when I realized there was just no way I could keep pumping out the time, the product, all the things. And then that’s when I switched to blogging because I was like, you know, I just built a six figure business all online. That’s I mean, that’s that was my base. And so I knew that I could swap and create and a blog on something that I loved teaching other people. And I could turn that into a new revenue stream.

Speaker1: [00:05:32] Ok, so here’s the biggest question, though. Why did you decide to do essential oils and not teach people how to do photography? Because we I mean, there is back when you started this, the market for people wanting to learn how to use like DSLR cameras. I was one of them. I never followed through. I think I have three of them, lenses. I don’t know I don’t know anything about photography. It never happened. Now everyone’s got their iPhone. And I would say a lot of photographers I’ve seen online have actually started pivoting towards teaching people how to take better pictures with their iPhone because nobody’s carrying around in everyday life their big camera anymore. But back then, before, you know, before phones were really

Speaker2: [00:06:11] Like the

Speaker1: [00:06:12] Only way to take pictures. Why didn’t you, what made you do essential oils instead?

Speaker3: [00:06:17] You know, I think hindsight, I probably should have been taught about photography, but I stumbled upon essential oils. They were a game changer for my health. And, you know, most people, when they start out blogging, they’re blogging about something that they’re passionate about. And yes, I was passionate about photography, but I was also kind of burned out and so essential oils were just kind of the thing. And I will say that one reason I closed the doors to the photography business is I ended up with a cyst on my left Retina, which is my shooting eye, and it stops me from being able to see if things are in focus and so photography, got to a point where it is very frustrating for me. And it was one of those things that I thought, well, if I don’t shut that door completely, even if I tried to teach it, I would probably still take jobs. And I mean, now, eight years later, I still get calls.

Speaker1: [00:07:25] My husband and I had an interesting conversation recently. He has a very funny hobby that maybe one point I’ll have him on the podcast talk about. He basically has a tape label, like a cassette tape label. So it’s very, this has always been a dream of his, like he just always wanted to, he loves records, he collects records, and he always wanted to have a label. And he never had the liquidity to do it. And then I started this business and we have extra money.

Speaker2: [00:07:51] And he wanted to start it so we did.

Speaker1: [00:07:53] And he always talks about it. He’s really good corporate job. And like this is not a profitable venture and is very much in the

Speaker2: [00:07:59] Hobby realm of things. And but he would

Speaker1: [00:08:02] Love it to be a business. But I’m skeptical that it could be like replacing his corporate income. And, but we have very good conversations about it. One of them that we recently had was once you turn your hobby into a business, it is not as fun. Like right now, he’s having so much fun. And it reminds me of the early days of my blog. And it’s not that I don’t enjoy what I do, but it’s not quite as fun as when it’s a hobby. So essential oils, they changed your life. They were they were essentially like essentially everything that you were probably researching endlessly of how to use them because you use them for. I know you’ve told me you use them for cleaning your health, everything. So when you started blogging, did you start losing some of your passion for

Speaker3: [00:08:49] For essential oils? Yeah, to be honest, I’m still at that stage where I still enjoy them and I still use them on a daily basis because it’s become more of a habit. That’s one thing about essential oils is that once you really incorporate them into your life, you know, it’s just natural to grab that cleaner that you’ve got made up and clean your house with it. And so where you know, with photography, there is the act of going and grabbing your camera and taking that photo and then sitting at a camera. It’s, it’s not quite as easy to meld into your lifestyle. And so there are times that, yes, I think it’s more the act of blogging? The trying to constantly keep up with content, the constant trying to keep up with social media and bringing in organic traffic. That is the part that if I had to say was causing any burnout for me, it would be that. The constant trying to keep up because you’ve got to feed the beast, you’ve got to be Google, you got to be Pinterest, you’ve got to feed Facebook. It never ends. And so that’s where for me the burnouts coming from.

Speaker1: [00:10:05] So two episodes back from when this will air. I did an episode called Is Blogging Dead? And the whole purpose, let me tell you, I put this on social media. I put it in my groups, I put it on social media. And there was like backlash. like no blogging not dead, well, actually, I see some people are like totally. And then other people are like, how dare you even insinuate it. I didn’t. I asked the question. It was, is blogging dead? I didn’t say blogging is dead. And the summation of it is I said blogging is not dead, if done right. And blogging is really content marketing and content marketing should be done to serve a purpose, which is to make you money. And if it’s not, that doesn’t make any sense. And that’s why I’m a supporter of digital products, because that’s just how I teach.

Speaker1: [00:10:46] Like, there’s many ways to make money. Your content marketing could support your service based business. Like if you’re a photographer, it can support your physical products if you are selling essential oils, it can support your digital products like my budgeting stuff or my programs, whatever it is. The point is if you’re pushing out a bunch of free content with no end game, like what is it going to get you? It doesn’t make any sense. So that’s what that episode is about. So now you have this blog By Oily Design and I’ve been on it many times. You have tons of free content on there, like tons of great free content. When you started blogging, what was the intent of that free content? Was it just to get traffic like a lot of bloggers start? And then you’re wondering, why do I have this traffic or what was your intent?

Speaker3: [00:11:31] Well, it was kind of twofold. First, because I’m coming from a being an entrepreneur for so long and knew that I needed various revenue streams, just like with photography. I might do weddings, but I might also do children’s pictures, bla bla bla bla bla. And so I knew that with the By Oily Design, first off, my first goal was, OK, let me get some money flowing. And that was ads the more content I had that answered questions that got people there and drove traffic to the blog, then, yes, that revenue from ads was going to be really important. But then I realized really soon that that wasn’t going to be as profitable as I thought. Yes, I know that there are people out there that make, you know, a great salary every month running on ads alone. But I didn’t want to rely on ad revenue anymore. And so the other part was, is that I thought, hey, if I create this blog that teaches people that gives all this great content, maybe then those people will trust me to buy something, whether they buy oils from me or they buy a digital product. You know, I wanted that trust factor. And there’s actually some really cheesy videos on my blog where I tell them, hey, I’m giving you all this free content, you know, so you can trust me because I’m giving you my knowledge. And so it is twofold. Make money from ads, but also make money from products. But now I’ve realized I’ve got to be even smarter, not work so hard.

Speaker1: [00:13:13] So when you say ads just to clarify its display ads. So that’s the act of getting someone to your blog. The display ads are something you put on your site. Basically, you’re allowing other businesses to advertise on your site. And this happens in the blogging world with ad networks like a big one is Media Vine and one’s ad drive. And then I agree with you, there’s nothing wrong with making an income from display ads. But what happens is you get all you spend all this time giving this traffic and you’re offering this in your case. And I can vouch for this, great content, like really super in-depth, great content. But what happens is those ads are now taking them off your site. So you’re losing them. And so what did you get from someone consuming your free content if then they click on an ad and they’re off? You’ve got a few pennies.

Speaker3: [00:13:57] That’s right. That’s right. And sometimes those ads work for competitor products.

Speaker1: [00:14:02] Oh, so huge burn.

Speaker3: [00:14:04] I mean huge burn. And and I, I even contacted my ad network and said, hey, you know, if I’m an essential user and essentially people are coming to my site and your ads are targeting, you know, I’m running you know, I’m sending people away to a competitor oil company.

Speaker1: [00:14:24] Yeah. I mean, you know, and I’ve made no secret even on this podcast, I don’t care for display ads. I think they don’t make the best user experience either, especially because most people are mobile. I’m usually on mobile if I’m consuming content online, and I find them super frustrating from a user perspective. But then even from a business perspective, it’s like I get that that can be someone. I think you need high level, very high levels of traffic. And it’s just, it’s a different business model. Most people who are going to listen to this and who I teach, they’re not at that level where they’re getting so many page views that it really makes all that much sense for that to be like their big revenue source. So, OK, so then you also sold Young Living Essential Oils, but that is you don’t own that that check out. Right. So you’re a distributor of them, but you don’t own anything to do with the checkout process.

Speaker3: [00:15:15] So it’s just like Amazon. And, you know, a lot of people don’t realize that it’s affiliate marketing. So I’m promoting somebody else’s product and I cannot control the checkout.

Speaker1: [00:15:27] But you quickly learned when we started working together. So, I mean you and I work together. Oh my gosh. In twenty seventeen when she was in, Ruth was in the beta round of my Pinterest ads. Course that feels like forever ago. I know. Winter of twenty seventeen. And I remember talking to you about this because I said, you know you can run ads to this but what’s going to happen is you have no insight into the conversion into like, the actual sales process. You’ll see it come up in your dashboard. But what impact is that like following it through any time you don’t own some part of the process, that’s going to make optimization really difficult. So I think back then we had talked about, and I’m a firm believer this, I can get really jazzed about this, because so I have my, personality and the fact that

Speaker1: [00:16:13] I have no time. I don’t want to consume a bunch of free content that I have to figure out go to. You know, it’s because free content is just it’s just it’s never the complete picture.

Speaker2: [00:16:24] Right? Nobody’s getting the complete picture for free.

Speaker1: [00:16:27] And I just don’t have time. I’m very like, just give me the information I need. So once upon a time, I tried essential oils and it was a disaster. And what I was doing and honestly, it really when I think I was young living that I got,

Speaker2: [00:16:40] But like even

Speaker1: [00:16:41] Their literature about it, it was too they made it too complicated. I just wanted someone to distill down what I needed to know, like, very simply and probably I would venture to guess everything I need is actually probably on your blog. But the reality was someone like me doesn’t want to go and read a million blog post to piece together. What I would have liked was a nice guide and I would have paid you for it. And we talked about that.

Speaker2: [00:17:07] I would. And I know it’s

Speaker1: [00:17:09] Almost like people who start blogging that like when they enter this world and they’re blogging, it’s so hard for them to realize that people would actually pay for that free content in an aggregated fashion. And I remember when I told you that you’re like, no, like people aren’t going to buy that for me. And I’m like, I would. 

Speaker1: [00:17:27] So you did end up creating a digital product, though, but it wasn’t like a how to guide, right?

Speaker2: [00:17:30] It was a recipe guide.

Speaker3: [00:17:32] It was a recipe. Yeah. So basically the big thing for people entering into central oils, the easiest thing is to do diffuser use and make your house smell pretty. And so I created the diffuser guide of recipes and I probably should have done what you suggested. But a lot of it is is, you know, in my mind has changed that back then. I didn’t think I was enough. I didn’t think I knew enough. And now what I realize is that my customers journey isn’t where I am right now. I’m not trying to teach and instruct Ruth Rackley. I am out there to teach Monica and the women that are just like her who need the absolute basics. And so no matter where you are in your journey of whatever your digital product is, there’s somebody at the beginning.

Speaker1: [00:18:32] So, you know, and so we always take for granted how much we know everyone. I mean, I do it all the time, even like intellectually, because intellectually we’re I think we’re pretty good at understanding that. We do know a lot like you know that you know a lot of our essential oils, but emotionally and this is where men have an edge in business that drives me nuts. They don’t let emotion get involved. And I try so hard not to let emotion get involved as well, because I see it with my husband all the time. We talk about it because he’s like, who cares? You know, it just that the imposter syndrome in the mindset stuff doesn’t impact him like it does me and I found working with many men over the years. And that just it’s I mean, it’s pretty generalized statement. I’m sure there are men that suffer from imposter syndrome and stuff, I’m not saying they don’t. I’m just saying that they have an easier time just keeping their eyes focused on the practicalities of I have this knowledge and I’m going to sell it to you and I’m going to take the money and I’m going to feel bad about it. And then we get in our heads and we’re like, we don’t know enough.

Speaker1: [00:19:30] We have to be the premier expert before I can sell it. And the reality is, you know, more on the topic than anyone else. And people you only have to be one to two steps ahead of them. And people enjoy learning from people who have just recently gone through it. So, and that because you can connect, then, you know, so like once when the essential oils changed your life, that’s how someone connects to you and wants to learn from you guys are like, wow, look at what it did for her. And you show them through your transformation. You’re like, let me help you do the same thing. And then there’s that level of trust that goes into it. But if you were just like stale about it, like you just scientifically knew everything there was to know, right? Like you were like the scientist in the lab, you’d be boring and no one would want to learn from you, even though you might be more of an expert if that was the case, you know what I mean? So it’s all about like your personality and connection, in my opinion.

Speaker3: [00:20:21] That’s and that’s totally right. And I love that you brought up the fact about emotion. You know, that we get emotionally tied to what we think we’re putting into our computers and into the Internet and that whole worthiness that we go through. And I’m going to share just a little thing that Monica did for me back before, back in, I guess it was right around Christmas or before Christmas. I don’t know if you remember that, Voxer. I know where I’m probably going to get all emotional, but I sent her a call and I was like, I don’t know what to do. I’m to the point now, because I had watched my essential oil blog and business go through a really bad dip, a lot of it had to do with my mom has pancreatic cancer and I was trying to hustle and do all the things. I was waking up at four a.m. in the morning to create content to give away for free and then rushing two hours to be by her side and then rushing back to pick up kids. And I was doing all the things and everything was falling apart. And there was the only money I was really making was from ads because I was hiding my digital product that I did create behind a wall that nobody could ever find. And it was a whole big mindset thing. And I remember, you know, that Voxer saying Monica and I don’t know, something has to change. I either have to give this all up and walk away and focus on my family because, again, family is everything. Or I have to make this work and with your help and a lot of mindset and by the way, if you all have not listened to episode number eight or Monica talks about mindset, mind blown!

Speaker1: [00:22:13] That’s that’s the one with Chelsea. Yes. Yeah.

Speaker3: [00:22:16] Amazing! But a lot of this with the digital products, is complete mindset. And if you can’t get out of your own way, because I’ll be honest, when I put this latest digital product out, I literally physically got ill. My nerves were so shot, because I was so scared about what people think. And then I realized, you know, who cares? Who cares what they think? The person who’s going to want to buy from me, they’re going to be drawn to me. 

Speaker1: [00:22:51] That’s why I don’t care about unsubscribes. And that was I mean, business is like a gigantic journey. Right? So it’s funny. The mindset issues I had two years ago, I can I can sit there and laugh at that girl that had those mindset issues. But like, every time I think I’ve overcome my mindset issue, something else comes and smacks me over the head and makes me feel like I’m not good enough. Like, you can’t really escape it. But it’s funny because unsubscribes I mean, in the beginning days, it’s like, oh my gosh, these people don’t like me. And now it’s like whatever bye, you know, I’m here to help who the people who want to be helped. Like, I’m not here to, like, convince you that I should be your best friend. If you like me, like me. If you don’t you don’t like just unsubscribe. It’s fine. So when we talked in December, one of the first things I did was I went to your website and your product was hidden. And I said, because your Voxer pretty much went like this. Nobody is buying my stuff. And I said, OK, so I went to your website and I’m like, how do I buy your stuff? But this is a very common problem, I would say. I mean, Haley and I were just talking about this. I would venture to say seventy five percent of my students come to me and say I have a digital product that didn’t sell. So I don’t think people really want to buy my digital product or I don’t really think it’s good enough or they have all these reasons. And then you ask, well, how have you tried to sell it? And there’s crickets. You can’t find it on their blog.

Speaker2: [00:24:11] They’ve never talked about it.

Speaker1: [00:24:12] They were being told their best friend about it because they’re embarrassed. It’s like, so how are people going to buy this? Right? So this is very common. And I and I think that makes people feel better, that it’s very common. Of course, the whole point of what I want to see people do is actually attempt to put it somewhere where people can buy it. So we talked about that on Voxer. And then when you ended up joining the Empowered Business Lab, which is the program I do now, to help people create their digital products and then actually sell them. And you chose to instead of going

Speaker2: [00:24:45] The route of teaching people how To use essential oils, you’re teaching people how to have their own Young Living distributor business, right?

Speaker3: [00:24:54] That’s right. Basically, it’s how to be profitable with it. OK. And how to and when I say profitable, it’s just like a lot of people are, well, me back up a lot of distributors or what we call brand partners are women, they have never owned a business in their entire life. They get drawn into essential oils. I say, hey, I could sell these, but they have no clue how to manage it so that they are profitable. And when I say that, they’re spending a ton of money on oils for themselves, sharing it on social media, but they have no clue the eb and flow of all their things. And so I’m trying to teach that because that is a gap

Speaker1: [00:25:36] And huge gap.

Speaker3: [00:25:37] Huge gap. That’s what gives MLM such a bad name, because people don’t think of them as an actual business and they don’t look at them like I do as affiliate marketing.

Speaker1: [00:25:52] I was just going to see that you pointed this out earlier, that you treated it like an affiliate marketing relationship. And that’s always to me, what has made you different, like you viewed it as a true understanding. It’s like a lever for you to pull in your business. It wasn’t your whole business. But you’re right that when people when people go to learn about essential oils makes start buying it. That’s that’s sort of the push of MLM is that they want you to be a distributor. But what ends up happening is and I’ve seen it time and time again, across so many different products, women do put a ton of money into it and they get a whole ton of products, but they end up upside down. And I’ve seen some unfortunate circumstances in the past with these types of things. And so but if you’re going to teach people already how to use the essential oils through your blog and they’re going they’re interested in signing up under you, which is a perk, if they do that to you, why not teach them how to do it right. Which is essentially what you’re doing, because there are a lot of people who will sign up just by nature wanting to use the oils. So now you’re going to help them do it in a non skeezy, all the things that people think negatively about MLM, like, let’s just not do it that way. Let’s do it in a profitable way where it benefits you and it, you know, helps help people in your life and you can be profitable with it and actually have like, a real thing. So. OK, so now you create this product while you’re going through the lab with me. And there was a point where you said to me and the group you said, so I’ve created my product. It’s all ready, you can buy it. And I have an email list. I think you told me you’d fourteen thousand people on your email list and then you dropped the nice bomb that, but I haven’t emailed them in a year and a half.

Speaker3: [00:27:34] That’s right.

Speaker1: [00:27:35] And that made you nervous because then you’re like, now I’m going to pop in their box and they’re going to be judging me about who is this girl that I haven’t heard from, why she’s emailing me, like the whole mindset thing. They’re right.

Speaker3: [00:27:47] Total mind set. I mean, if you want to talk about the negative mindset going on in my head, you know. Oh, it was so it was so scary. But I will tell you that when I got in there and I was talking to them like a friend and just saying, this is what’s helped me, I want to help you, I got such a great response. And yeah, I got, let’s see, I think two hundred unsubscribes. But you know what? I was really close to the five thousand mark and they saved me money!

Speaker1: [00:28:21] And so

Speaker3: [00:28:23]  Them Unsubscribing was a blessing is what I think.

Speaker1: [00:28:26] And yeah I mean two hundred unsubscribes after not emailing for a year and a half is like nothing. I mean I get I was just looking at my Convertkit today. I had one hundred and fifty seven people unsubscribe from last Thursday’s email telling them about my podcast. Now granted my list is a lot bigger than that. But still like you don’t want to hear about my free podcast. OK, bye. You know, it doesn’t. And honestly, to what was the worst someone was going to say? I mean, that’s really what it comes down to. This is for everyone who’s listening to that is ever hesitated. Like, why would I grong emails? What am I going to say to them? What if they don’t like me? What if they think I’m stupid? Who cares? You don’t even know these people. They’re in cyberspace. It’s like, you know, what are the worst they could have said was how dare you tell me about free essential oils.

Speaker3: [00:29:12] I mean I have gotten some nasty ones, but then I realized that if

Speaker2: [00:29:16] they took the time

Speaker3: [00:29:18] To send a nasty email, there’s more of an issue with them and going on than there is with me. And here’s the other thing, if I wasn’t there giving my point of view the information that I have, somebody might get it from somebody else who’s not as honest as me. And I honestly want to help other people build their businesses in an ethical way. And if I can’t if I’m not stepping up to the plate and presenting them with a product that can help teach them how to do that, somebody else who skeezy and nasty is going to slide in and woo them and not be me.

Speaker1: [00:29:59] And think about it like this to someone like me, who, if I’m going to get back into the essential oils, I really just want shortcuts. Like I don’t want to go on Google and Pinterest. I do not have time for that.

Speaker1: [00:30:12] I just want a simple guide that’s going to make it about is like dumbed down as possible. So but I think what people sometimes don’t understand is like I’m sitting there ready to spend the money right. When I make up my mind that I’m going to get the oils. And I just want the

Speaker2: [00:30:25] Simple guide to teach me how

Speaker1: [00:30:26] To use it. I’m going to spend the money. So whether you’re offering me to spend the money or not, I’ll just find someone who is.

Speaker2: [00:30:32] That’s right. 

Speaker1: [00:30:33] That’s that’s the weird part. I find with this mentality of selling oftentimes with women particularly that I run into, is there are they think that for some reason it’s wrong to ask for money, for their knowledge and it’s OK. But if I’m not going to pay you for it and you have the knowledge, I am just going to go

Speaker2: [00:30:51] Pay someone else. Why?

Speaker1: [00:30:52] Why shouldn’t it be you? I don’t I don’t understand. Like, you know, and I do, I do understand it. But then, like, when you really think about it and peel back what that is, it’s like you’re not forcing anyone to spend money with you. You’re just offering something that can honestly that you truly believe in, that can help them and you’re supporting your family off of it. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Speaker3: [00:31:14] Exactly. And here’s the thing. There is no digital product out there that’s rocket science that somebody hasn’t already created. But you know what? What I’ve created is going to help some people. And it’s OK if  I, and here’s the new thing that I have learned. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You can sit on creating a digital product for a year and keep saying it needs to be perfect. People don’t want perfect. They don’t like you said something easy and fast. I can’t tell you ever since covid started, I mean, I had bought digital products on cluttering my house, how to get my kids to do chores. I mean, this momma needs some help. And there’s mamas out there that need help, too, in all kinds of different ways, that there are people listening to this podcast that they can fill that need. All they’ve got to do is sit down and create a digital product. And again, it doesn’t have to be rocket science.

Speaker1: [00:32:13] It doesn’t have to be perfect.They want to put too much in oftentimes because we make so much that we think we have to put it all in a product. And I always say a $47 product can’t boil the ocean like, yes, it can’t because and you’re going to lose people. People want easy. They want to get from step to step and the easiest way possible. I always my mind always thinks of the logic tables from Algebra.

Speaker1: [00:32:35] Logic is like my thing. And I love piecing together like I’m at point eight and I need to get to point D and B and C might be like scattered all over. And I want someone to take B and C and make it a linear line for me. Like that’s basically what a digital product does. You’re just taking instead of making me go to ten people’s blogs who have ten different opinions about how to make the same cleaner an

Speaker2: [00:32:55] Essential oils, you’re just taking

Speaker1: [00:32:57] Out the squiggly lines. You’re giving me a linear path.

Speaker3: [00:32:59] Well, and here’s the thing, too. If you feel like you got to add that extra, make it an order bump! 

Speaker1: [00:33:04] But yes, you learned something! I did because I’m off before we were recording, she said her first digital product, she didn’t have an order bump, that’s one of the core things I teach. I’m like, it’s all about increasing the average current value order bump, order bump, order bump. It’s like a no brainer. It’s a little button that’s on the checkout page. Like I it’s when you get

Speaker3: [00:33:27] That right order bump like this current digital product that I’m using for businesses, I created an order that is so naturally connected to my product that I have yet to have somebody not add on that extra seven dollars.

Speaker1: [00:33:45] I feel like you actually, you really listened.

Speaker3: [00:33:49] I did. Finally, you know, it took me I think we’ve known each other five years. It finally took me five years of mom brain to get like to let it sink in because I’m one of these people. I think I should know it and understand it and master it like the first time I hear it. But one thing that digital products is kind of humbled me is that sometimes I got to get out of my own way and and listen to Monica and just do it. You just got to do it. And the amount of money that I’ve made in this first quarter compared to last year, I mean, because I listened to you finally and quit being scared of my own self, it shows.

Speaker1: [00:34:31] So when you emailed that list after a year and a half, you got sales, didn’t you, because you had this product ready to go and you got sales from that very first email, even though they hadn’t heard from you in a year and a half.

Speaker3: [00:34:41] That’s right. Yeah, right. And stuff that goes to show that, I think to that when they sign up, if you do your work with your initial opt-in and, you know, they can trust you that like no one trust factor happens, then, yeah, you can slide in life. What’s going to happen to people. And it happened to me, you know, and year and a half later I had people buying,

Speaker1: [00:35:07] Which is incredible, isn’t it?

Speaker3: [00:35:09] Exactly. And I think back, you know, if you, Monica, had to stop for a year and a half, in which I cannot imagine, because you were like the email queen, I would still buy for me because that absolutely, like, know and trust you.

Speaker1: [00:35:23] Yeah. You know, I will say it is pretty incredible when you email people regularly.

Speaker2: [00:35:28] I was at

Speaker1: [00:35:28] A conference right before covid hit and it was a conference I’ve never been to and it wasn’t even in my niche. And I had people coming up to me being like, oh, like they knew me. They were talking to me about my kids. And I didn’t, I didn’t know them. I was really weird. I was like, I mean, then I of course, their names and they’re like, only I’ve been telling you for years and like the news stories that I told an email and I’m like, wow, this is like incredible, the power of what email did. I mean, total strangers recognized me. I’m like, I am. This is weird. I had a couple people with me, a couple other bloggers, and they’re like, are you like a celebrity? And I’m like, no, this is seriously strange. But that’s the power of email. Some of the people I was with had bigger online presence than I did in terms of like traffic to their site and stuff. But I spent so much time getting people to know and like me through email that they weren’t the ones getting people to come up to talk to them. They going to talk to me because they felt like they knew me, because I told stories about my kids and my postpartum struggles. And they’re like, oh, oh my gosh. Like I’ve had people tell me I’ve helped them with their migraines and they’re and going on to have a second kid because they had postpartum like I did all this crazy stuff. And it’s like, wow, OK. Yes. It’s been a pleasure talking to you today and I’m super excited to see how the products. Well, first of all, I’m excited to see how the business products are going to go teaching other people how to sell living young essential oils. But also, I

Speaker2: [00:36:49] Know you’re going to

Speaker1: [00:36:51] Create really amazing guides

Speaker2: [00:36:53] To help people use essential oils. I will be one that will actually purchase it in the. Maybe actually use my essential oils after all these years, because I know you’re going to do it and it’s going to be great and you’re not going to hide and it’s going to be like a buy button on your website, right?

Speaker2: [00:37:06] That’s right. That’s right.

Speaker1: [00:37:07] OK, so if people want to get to know you better and come learn from you or buy your product, where can they find you?

Speaker2: [00:37:15] They can find Me at By Oily Design Dotcom on Instagram at By Oily Design and Facebook. Again, the group By Oily Design. Awesome.

Speaker1: [00:37:28] I’m going to link this in the show notes.

Speaker1: [00:37:31] All right. Thanks so much for joining us, Ruth.

Speaker3: [00:37:34] All right. Thank you.

Speaker1: [00:37:35] I hope you are leaving this episode as inspired as I am. Ruth has truly been an inspiration to me for many years, and I am just so proud of everything that she has accomplished. And I am so proud that she decided to put herself out there and help other women grow their own essential oil businesses and help other women learn how to use essential oils to benefit their life. I mean, she is just such a wealth of knowledge. And to see her be able to share

Speaker1: [00:38:00] That knowledge with all of us is just,it’s so great to see. Now, one of the things we talked about in today’s episode is about our program called The Empowered Business Lab.. Now, this is our six month signature program that empowers you to create a digital product sales machine. And it’s a complete solution for creating, strategizing, building and selling your digital products. The system can be used over and over again, and you don’t have the pressure to show up live to deliver your content. You create the content once and you can sell it over and over again. Inside the program, you will create a sales machine for your digital products that brings consistent leads

Speaker2: [00:38:35] And cells into your business

Speaker1: [00:38:37] Every single day. It’s simple, repeatable and scalable. And guess what? It is open. As this episode airs, the cart has officially opened. You can go and roll if you’re interested in sharing your knowledge with the world and getting paid at the same time. To do it. You can enroll in the empowered business lab right now and you can do that by going to empowered business dot co forwardslash lab. I just again want to thank Ruth for sharing her journey and story with us. And if you resonated at all with her story and there’s something in you that you want to show and teach the world, I really, truly believe digital products is a great way to do that. So I hope you’ll consider joining us inside of the empowered business lab again. You can go to Harvard Business School Board slash lab to learn all about it. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode of the Empowered Business podcast. Be sure to subscribe and leave a rating and review. I read each and every one in love hearing from you. As always, you can find all of the links and information mentioned in this episode at Monica Froese, Dotcom or Slash podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in.