Episode 101 – Sarah St John

---

Automated Transcription

---

 

Sarah St. John 0:00
It’s basically to help people first of all determine where they want to go as far as if they’re starting a business or have already started it, but how to manage it on a budget, particularly online businesses because I have several businesses and I operate all of them for under 100 a month. And so that’s my goal. Because a lot of people think that starting a business is expensive, and it can be a force. But I try to, I guess, point people in the direction of what options they can do, primarily online, because that’s usually what you have to do online in order for it to be affordable, but the different things they can do and the different tools and resources they can use to be able to manage it for on a budget.

Richard Matthews 0:54
… 3-2-1

Hello and welcome back to The HERO Show. My name is Richard Matthews and I have the pleasure today of being on the line with Sarah St. John. Sarah, are you there?

Sarah St. John 1:57
Yes, I’m here.

Richard Matthews 2:00
Awesome, so glad to have you here and Sarah is joining us from Dallas, Texas. And for those of you who’ve been following along with us, we are still stuck in Florida again, we use the term stuck loosely for this whole COVID crisis because we’re on a little paradise stuff going out here. But Sarah is a very cool entrepreneur. I’m gonna introduce you to her real quick before we get into the interview. So Sarah St. John is a powerhouse entrepreneur, podcaster, host of The Frugalpreneur podcast, which I believe I’ll be joining her for a little while so you can check us out there. Owner of TheSarahStJohn.com, author of Frugalpreneur and Authorpreneur, and founder of SiteSeam, PodSeam, Podcast Resource Directory, and FunzieOnezie.com, animal lover, world traveler, you’ve created several startups, your entrepreneurial career which has been more than a decade and through your books. blog, podcast, your goal is to help show people how to launch and manage online businesses on a budget. You help people with how to make money without going broke. So with that introduction, Sarah, why don’t we start off with you telling us what it is that you’re known for now, what your business is like, who you serve, what are your main problems that you help solve in this world?

Sarah St. John 3:14
Well, as you mentioned, I have several different businesses, but my main focus right now is on my podcast, Frugalpreneur. And I have a book as well called Frugalpreneur and –

Richard Matthews 4:20
Awesome, so you focus on helping new entrepreneurs who want to get started in the entrepreneurial space?

Sarah St. John 4:28
Primarily, new people who are looking for, they’re not sure what they want to do or how to do it on a budget.

Richard Matthews 4:36
So you’re helping people who are maybe in the job space and they’re looking to get into starting their own business, that kind of stuff that’s cool. And under $100 a month is an insanely low number for those of you who are in the know. My business, we’ve just gotten to the point now we’ve got staff members, just our cost of labor is significantly higher than that. But we’re a few years into this now. So anyway, you can grow that as your business grows, I would assume.

Sarah St. John 5:09
So for me, I still do everything myself. And so that’s how I’m able to keep it so low. But of course, as your business grows, then, of course, adding on virtual assistants and things like that would make sense. And I hope to be there. Maybe by the end of the year, we’ll see.

Richard Matthews 5:28
That’s awesome. We just, uh, I started hiring a little over a year ago. And we have one full time and two part-time staff members now and we’re looking at over the next month bringing the other part-time members on full time so we’ll have four full-time people, myself and three, three others hopefully by the end of summer, which will be cool. And that’s a fun place to be in your business. But it is. It’s an interesting transition. If you’re looking at doing starting that part yourself here shortly.

Sarah St. John 5:58
Yeah.

Richard Matthews 6:00
So my next question for you is your origin story. We talked on the show, every hero has an origin story, it’s where you started to realize that you were different that maybe you had superpowers, and maybe you could use them to help other people. This is where you started to develop or discover the value you can bring to this world. How did you get started as an entrepreneur?

Sarah St. John 6:20
Well, I realized that I had an entrepreneurial gene, if that exists, from a young age, because when I was 5 or 10, somewhere in there, I would just gather up stuff I got for free, like pencils, candy, just stuff I would accumulate, and then I would try selling them to my friends. And so that’s just one example. But so I’ve always had that entrepreneurial itch I guess. And but I’ve always had full-time office jobs and there was one year in 2008 where I had six different jobs, not at one time. But over the course of that year, things just weren’t working out. I’m one that usually holds down a job for a long time. But just these different ones I was getting it, they just weren’t lasting. And so six different jobs that year, and I was getting frustrated, and I was like, I need to do something where I’m the business or I’m the boss. I don’t have to depend on someone else to keep me employed and whatnot. So I started a photography business. I did that for about seven years, we also added DJ services on to it. And the problem was, is that it was so expensive to maintain because to maintain camera equipment, lighting, all that stuff, and then the amount of time the editing took and –

Richard Matthews 7:50
Oh, yeah.

Sarah St. John 7:52
And I just realized I like taking pictures more of animals, landscapes, architecture, things like that, but not people. But at least starting out people is where you make the –

Richard Matthews 8:03
Where the money’s at.

Sarah St. John 8:04
Right, weddings, portraits, etc. Oh, yeah, I read that you had started in photography as well.

Richard Matthews 8:09
Yeah, I did. I did.

Sarah St. John 8:10
So anyway –

Richard Matthews 8:12
That’s why my camera’s all fancy because I had a fancy portrait photographer camera test for my podcast.

Sarah St. John 8:20
So I realized I wanted to switch to something online to keep expenses down. And also so I wouldn’t have to, because I feel in some ways, part of the advantage of having a business at least an online one is that you don’t have to go anywhere for the most part. And so I was tired of having to drive out two hours to do a wedding and all that stuff. And so it was a variety of things. And I eventually was like, Okay, I’m gonna start looking into online options. And so I started doing – tried different things drop shipping, affiliate marketing. Now I’m doing podcasting. There’s blogging, you could do content creation, course creation, there’s coaching, consulting, a plethora of things you can do. And so it was while I was researching that, that I was like, maybe it would help if I, maybe what I can do is help other people figure out what they want to do and how they can manage it on a budget. What tools and resources to use. So that’s, that’s how that got started.

Richard Matthews 9:33
That’s awesome. And it’s your story is strangely very parallel to mine. Because I started I was 13, I convinced my dad to give me a loan so I could buy all the big candy at the Big-box store. And I brought it to school and I was selling it out of my backpack like the New Yorker with his uh, his uh, his coach shirts, selling the fake Rolexes or whatever, so I got my start doing the same thing, selling candy to my friends at school and then I got into in college I was running a portrait photography business – portraits and weddings and school stuff. I was the school photographer, all the way through my college career and I discovered a number of things. The first one was that I didn’t like doing photography for other people. I don’t mind taking pictures of people, namely, my children and my family. But of other people, they’re very particular and I didn’t like that they don’t like my art style. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. It bothered me, I was like, this is the way I want to do it. If you don’t like it go, suck eggs kind of thing. And so I decided that photography was, was not a business I wanted to be and I liked it better as a hobby. It didn’t change the expense problem, because I still want to spend money on expensive camera gear and lights and stuff but you keep it as a hobby. Anyways, I did the same thing. And it wasn’t until after my college career and after that, that I got into the business I do now. So it’s interesting that we have a similar … little path there.

Sarah St. John 11:01
I mean photography is one thing but the selling candy to your friends that’s very specific so that is interesting that we have kind of the same story there.

Richard Matthews 11:12
I always sell I sold candy my friends that got shut down because they wouldn’t let me have a business license so I tell people I got a government shutdown when I was 13 and then they did this thing called the Renaissance Fair, like a mock Renaissance Fair on campus that we would set up in the field and all the parents who went out and you got to pick the booth that you did and I always picked the boring booth which was the water booth because I could go to Costco and buy the water and then sell it and keep the profits so that’s why I operated as a kid was always trying to find a way that I could turn it into money. But I think you’re right, it’s a bug like an itch. You can’t help it. You’re like, I want to be doing those things one of my yearbook friends said that I was – they put me down as most likely to be a millionaire. I haven’t hit that yet, but you can tell people thought that entrepreneurial thing about me since I was a kid.

Sarah St. John 12:12
I have a goal. It’s very optimistic maybe even unrealistic to be a millionaire by the time I’m 40, which is only three more years now. So I don’t think that’s gonna. So I’ve pushed it back to 45.

Richard Matthews 12:28
You could totally, you can do it. See now mine was I wanted to be in, I wanted to be a millionaire by the time I was 30. And I just hit 34. And I’m not a millionaire, so I missed it. But over the course of that trajectory, I realized that I wasn’t nearly as interested in the money as I was in the lifestyle. And I, I found out early as I mentioned, we’ve been traveling for three years, that the thing that I was interested in was the full time – the ability to travel full time and to have complete control over my time. And I’ve been doing that now for three years. So it took me – I was 31, I think when we started traveling, so my goal shifted. And once it came off of the money focus, it’s interesting is I will probably in the next two years or so we’ll probably hit that seven-figure mark in the business even though it’s not a focus anymore. So that’s an interesting transition that I’ve gone through. But my point in there is, I don’t think you’re too optimistic. Just set your things, build a plan for it, and if you miss the date, you miss the date. But you land on the moon while you’re shooting for the stars, you probably won’t be too disappointed.

Sarah St. John 13:45
Right. And I definitely would love to travel more and just the flexibility and schedule that’s, that’s more what I’m focused on as well than the actual money aspect, but it’s, I guess it’s a nice-sounding benchmark, I guess.

Richard Matthews 14:03
Or you have to have – I tell people, you should I call it contented ambition. Be happy where you are, but know where you’re going. It gives you the ability to be content, really enjoy your life and know that you’re going somewhere because you’re not going anywhere you want to enjoy your life, it’s hard to be content if you’re not striving for something. So you have to have something to strive for. And that’s a cool place to be. So my next question for you then is about your superpowers. And this is what you do or build or offer this world that helps solve problems for other people, the thing that you use to slay this world’s villains and the way that I’ve been framing this for my guests recently has been if you look at all of the skills that you have, that you’ve built up over the course of your life, you probably have one skill, that’s a common thread between all of them one that energizes the rest of your skills, so to speak, your zone of genius or in our terms, your superpower. What do you think is for you?

Sarah St. John 15:00
If I had to pick one thing, or the main thing that I’ve noticed is that the ability to – someone might be talking to me about all these different ideas or, or maybe they don’t even know they have an idea, but they’re just talking about something. And I’ll be able to come up with, like for example, I’ll be like, that sounds like a really good book idea. Have you thought about writing a book? Or have you thought about a podcast? Or have you thought about teaching courses or whatever? I’m able to pick out someone else’s knowledge and expertise and recommend options to them as far as how to monetize their expertise. I’m helping my dad a little bit with that. He’s thinking about retiring soon, but he’s been a teacher his whole life. And so he’s asking me questions about online courses and education, things like that. And then I have several friends who have some very interesting stories. And I’m like, that seems like it could be a book, just different things like being able to go through the muddy water. I don’t know if that’s the right expression, but –

Richard Matthews 16:21
You can see the invisible path to money, so to speak.

Sarah St. John 16:28
Right. And it’s usually not even them, for the most part, it’s not them asking me, it’s more like, we’re just having a conversation, and money isn’t our business. None of that is even being talked about. And I’m like, have you thought about blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I’m always finding a way to monetize stuff, I guess. And so giving people ideas on what that that those are options for them.

Richard Matthews 16:57
Yeah, that’s an interesting thing because one of the things that entrepreneurs tend to be good at is seeing where the money is. And since you’re, you’re in that space where you’re coaching other people. You’re helping people get their business started, you can, you can see the path, okay, here’s where your skills are, here’s where your expertise is, here’s where your unique perspective comes in. And those are all the things that people will pay for. So you can help them draw that connection. And then actually get a business started on that around that stuff.

Sarah St. John 17:33
And there’s something about it. I love being involved in that process, helping people start businesses, the idea of it, and then just formulating it and producing it. It’s just a lot of fun.

Richard Matthews 17:49
It’s fascinating, fun to be a part of, that’s absolutely true. I also love doing this, not what I do full time, but whenever I get the chance to sit down with someone who’s like, Hey, can I pick your brain about some business stuff. I’m like, Yes. Let’s sit down and chat about it. Because I love that too. I’ve always imagined it like that. It’s like that invisible line. No one else can see it, but I can. And your friends and your colleagues start to realize that about – their like you, you see things that other people don’t see. So I have these ideas or these thoughts or these skills, how does that turn into revenue? And when you can help build that bridge for them? It’s a really cool, even at a bare minimum it’s a fun discussion to have, at least for me.

Sarah St. John 18:34
It is.

Richard Matthews 18:36
And so if I’m understanding correctly, you’ve turned that skill into your business. That’s what you do is you help new entrepreneurs build, travel that path, essentially.

Sarah St. John 18:46
Right. That’s correct.

Richard Matthews 18:49
It’s cool.

Sarah St. John 18:50
I think over the course of the past decade, I’ve launched 30 businesses myself, for myself, I only have maybe a handful that I’m still doing but it’s, I try something, I’m like, that’s not gonna work. And then I move on to the next thing. But five things are around there that I’m doing right now that seem to be working pretty well.

Richard Matthews 19:13
It’s really interesting too because I’ve done the same thing. Started a bunch of businesses and I was clear cut about what I wanted the business to do for me. And I would get into something and realize, nope, this isn’t gonna let me have the location freedom that I want. So I’d shut it down. Or this isn’t gonna let me have lunch with my kids. So I shut it down. And I’m just curious if that was, what were some of your – I’ve also learned a thing where people aren’t interested in this product or service the way I thought they would be. So you shut it down. What are some of the reasons that you’ve shut some of your projects down over the years?

Sarah St. John 19:49
That’s one like there wasn’t the market there that I thought there was, which now I know you need to do a little bit of market research before starting something. And then other things were, I just wasn’t as interested in it as I thought I would. I think sometimes as an entrepreneur, we’re so I don’t know if addicted is the word but to starting things. The higher something of starting things and then after you start it, you’re like, I’m bored now. But if you start something and your excitement continues, then that, I think signifies that –

Richard Matthews 20:33
That’s a magical place to be. I have been in a spot where I’ve actually – I learned that about myself early on that, I love the challenge of starting and figuring things out. But then the actual doing of the thing after I figured out all the problems, I don’t like anymore. I’m just like, Oh, this is dumb. So that’s where I got into the hiring of people because I was like, I have some things that I know the market wants that I will never be able to deliver because I would just hate it. And I want to be on the part where I’m creating and building the solutions and the systems and stuff like that because that’s the stuff that excites me. But then the actual using and implementing of the systems after I’ve created them, I don’t like that part nearly as much. So that’s where, for me, we talked earlier, hiring team members and growing my business that way was how I solved that. But you’re saying one of the other ways you can solve that is by making sure that you like the implementation of whatever it is you’ve built; the doing of the thing, instead of just the creating of it. If that excitement exists, you will continue to grow and build the business.

Sarah St. John 21:34
For example, with podcasting, Well, it’s interesting, because just a couple years ago, probably I had heard of podcasting, but I wasn’t listening to any of them. And I didn’t think you’d interest me because I’m a big music person. And that’s how I want to spend my audio time and but I kept hearing about certain podcasts, like Smart Passive Income and these other ones. I was like, well, that podcast sounds interesting. So I started listening to a few and then I got addicted to it. And now I listen to podcasts all the time. So then I had already started writing the book, Frugalpreneur. And I was like, You know what, I should launch a podcast with the book, to go along with it. And once I started podcasting myself, I got really into it. And I –

Richard Matthews 22:29
You got the bug.

Sarah St. John 22:30
I like all the aspects. The editing, the audiograms of this, that and the other. And I was like, why not create a business where I can help because a lot of people don’t like, a lot of people don’t have time for that. The editing and the transcripts and all that stuff. And so I was like, What if I started a business where I did that for other people because I’m already doing it for myself. So and that’s where PodSeam comes from, and then SiteSeam is from web design and liking to do that. And so it’s almost like when I do something for myself that I enjoy, I start thinking, well, how could I get paid to do this for other people?

Richard Matthews 23:16
That’s where our Push Button Podcast service came in. Because we know a lot of podcasters we particularly focus on the bigger businesses that are manufacturers and chiropractors and doctors and like that, that they have a business and they want to run that business, but they also want the preeminence that comes from podcasting. But if you’ve done any podcasting, which I’m sure you create an hour’s worth of content, you’ve given yourself six to eight hours worth of work on the other end. You don’t have time to do that. And that’s where Push Button Podcasts come in and say, Hey, you can just show up and record your podcast and we’ll do everything else for you make it push-button easy, that kind of thing. I get that. And it’s cool to be able to – we built that because I needed it for our show. I was like, I hated doing all that work. So we built the systems for it. And I was like, the next question is, how can you get paid to do this for other people? And then it makes it worthwhile to build all the systems for yourself.

Sarah St. John 24:11
Just like people do software or plugins, they like it. It comes out of their own need or desire to help them, and then they’re like, Well, why not sell this to other people?

Richard Matthews 24:26
Absolutely. So if your superpower is one side of the coin, the flip side of that coin is your fatal flaw. So just like Superman has his Kryptonite. Your fatal flaw is something that you have struggled with in your business, something that’s held you back and that you have worked to get rid of, or worked to overcome what do you think that is for you? And I think more importantly, how have you worked to overcome it for any of our audience who’s listening who might struggle from the same thing you’ve struggled with?

Sarah St. John 24:57
I think having to launch so many businesses over my entrepreneurial career is I think that’s a problem. Launching businesses and not sticking with some of them. And I think that was a problem I had, for the first several years. I think I’m getting better at it. In a way, it’s still maybe a flaw because I’m constantly thinking of new ideas. And I’m like, Oh, I should do this. I should do that. But at least now, instead of jumping into and doing it, I think it through and I give it time, and I try to think, is this marketable? Is this something that people want? How much could I charge for – I ask myself more questions now. And a lot of times I can talk myself out of, especially if it’s a product like a physical product because I always think of these physical product ideas, but I never really want to get into cuz of the investment involved in that, and I love watching Shark Tank, and I’m just like, Oh man, I don’t think I’d have, well, I don’t have the money and I don’t feel like I’d have the patience to create a physical product and all that. So there are things like that that are easy to let it go. But I think a lot of entrepreneurs have that problem, where they’re constantly thinking of new ideas. But I imagine most of them probably don’t try a lot of them. So that’s, I guess, the flaw that I have and then how it’s better now is that I give it more time, think it through.

Richard Matthews 26:48
You aim a little bit first before you fire.

Sarah St. John 26:51
Yeah.

Richard Matthews 26:54
That’s the whole ready-fire-aim mentality that a lot of entrepreneurs have. Instead of ready-aim-fire. And that’s it’s an interesting place to be. Because I know, I was that way for a number of years where it’s like, I’ve got an idea and you just jump in both feet. And then you’re like, Oh, wait, I don’t know how to swim yet. And you got to learn to swim. And so you end up with a couple of problems there. One, you may not know all the problems that go into actually building that style business. And as you get more experienced, you start to see the other problems. It also helps you ask smarter questions at the beginning. So nowadays, the questions you have to ask, okay, let’s do some market research. Maybe let’s do some market testing. Let’s see, emphasize something, I’m gonna enjoy the work on the other side of that, and you have you ask yourself smarter questions, you get smarter answers. It doesn’t mean you say no to everything. It just means that you say no more often. And know when to say no. Yeah, it’s a –

Sarah St. John 27:50
Know when to say no –

Richard Matthews 27:52
It’s an important skill to learn as an entrepreneur. Yes, it’s knowing when to say no.

Sarah St. John 27:57
Because I think part of the problem is when you are launching so many different things, especially at once is that everything gets diluted. It’s like when you can’t progress with one given thing if you’re working on 12 different things at one time, or you can’t master one thing. And so I would just like to get to the point where I have one or two businesses. And that’s my main focus.

Richard Matthews 28:33
Absolutely. So, the next question I have for you is your common enemy. And the common enemy is in reference to the clients that you work with. So probably when you work with people on a regular basis, people who are paying you to go through your stuff and work with you, you probably run into some regular issues, things that you bang your head against the wall that you see over and over and over again, with everyone that if you could wave your magic wand, people would get better cheaper, faster, higher degree of results, something like that if they can just remove this mindset or remove this roadblock, what is the common enemy that you constantly are doing battle with your clients?

Sarah St. John 29:11
Um, I guess it would be the time that it takes because currently I still have a full-time job. Because I have a number in mind, I need to get to this amount before. So just balancing it all, I guess and being able – because some people want 24-hour turnaround or whatever. And so, I guess that would be but people know people are aware so. But someday that won’t be an issue I suppose.

Richard Matthews 29:47
Absolutely. So the flip side of that, then of course is your driving force. Your mission, just like Spider-Man fights to save New York or Batman fights save Gotham or Google fights to index and categorize all the world’s information. What is it that you’re fighting for? What is your mission, so to speak?

Sarah St. John 30:03
Well, I guess my own personal mission, I guess would be like you to travel more to have freedom, lifestyle, financial freedom, lifestyle freedom, to be able to work for myself from home from an RV, whatever. And then from the perspective of other people would be able to help them either create a business or even just a side hustle as an extra income. But be able to do that successfully.

Richard Matthews 30:47
So it helps people get their side hustle started and hopefully at some point, Turn that side hustle into maybe a full-time income.

Sarah St. John 30:53
Yeah, exactly.

Richard Matthews 30:56
Awesome. So my next question for you I think might be your favorite. Cause it’s one of the things that you have mentioned, you talk a lot about, which is your HERO’s Tool Belt. So very practical stuff, tools, and stuff that you use. Maybe you got a big magical hammer like Thor or a bulletproof vest like your neighborhood police officer or maybe you just really love how Evernote helps you organize all your thoughts, what are some of the practical tools you use to run your business, keep track of all of your stuff to do client work or whatever, something, a couple of things that you couldn’t live without?

Sarah St. John 31:24
Okay, well, obviously, the first is the website. But as far as tools, I have a list here of tools that I use well for, I mean, as a podcaster. Podcast hosting which is currently Spreaker that I use. And then I use Crowdfire for my social media management and scheduling. That saves a lot of time because you can spend a couple hours and schedule out a month’s worth of stuff. And then I use Repurpose and Headliner, both of those to create audiograms or clips or videos from my podcasts. Let’s see. And then for my website, I either use Privy or Convertful. I think the biggest one out there’s Sumo. They’re kind of like Sumo.

Richard Matthews 32:34
Help create options on your website.

Sarah St. John 32:36
Yeah. And then there’s also one called Beacon.by, and that helps you create lead magnets. So let’s see. And then I use Squadcast, Podcast Interviews.

Richard Matthews 32:57
I haven’t heard of that one. What does that one do?

Sarah St. John 33:00
Well, it’s like this, kind of like Zoom. But it was made with the intention of podcasters. The audio quality is a lot higher. They don’t have the capability yet to record video. It’s just audio. I mean, you can see each other when you are in an interview. But they’re working on that to have video recording. But the audio, the audio just sounds good. And so there are tons on my website, I have all these tools listed under resources that I use and recommend. But basically, everything I use is around 10 bucks a month, probably. And so that’s how I’m able to keep everything under $100.

Richard Matthews 33:54
We use Headliner ourselves for a lot of our own content meant for the content for some of our Push Button Podcasting clients, to help them create some of these short little clips that they share that we share on social media for them. So that’s a cool app. And I have used Repurpose before. We don’t use that anymore. But we did use that in the past. So there’s a lot of cool stuff in there, especially if you’re in the space doing podcasting and lead generation from your business.

Speaking of heroic tools, I want to take a few minutes to tell you about a tool we built that powers The HERO Show and is now the show’s primary sponsor. Hey, their fellow podcaster. Having a weekly audio and video show on all the major online networks that build your brand creates fame and drive sales for your business doesn’t have to be hard. I know it feels that way because you’ve tried managing your show internally and realize how resource and intensive it can be. You felt the pain of pouring 8 to 10 hours of work into just getting one hour of content published and promoted all over the place. You see the drain on your resources, but you do it anyway because you know how powerful it is. Heck, you’ve probably even tried some of those automated solutions and ended up with stuff that makes your brand look cheesy and cheap. That’s not helping grow your business. Don’t give up though. The struggle ends now introducing Push Button Podcasts done for your service that will help you get your show out every single week without you lifting a finger after you’ve pushed that stop record button. We handle everything else uploading, editing, transcribing, writing, research, graphics, publication, and promotion. All done by real humans who know, understand, and care about your brand almost as much as you do. And powered by our own proprietary technology. Our team will let you get back to doing what you love. While we handle the rest. Check us out at http://fivefreedoms.io/wp-signup.php?new=pushbuttonpodcast.com for 10% off the lifetime of your service with us and see the power of having an audio and video podcast growing and driving micro-celebrity status and business in your niche without you having to lift more than a finger to push that stop record button. Again that’s http://fivefreedoms.io/wp-signup.php?new=pushbuttonpodcast.com . See you there. You’re listening to The HERO Show, unlocking the power of influence and success.

So, my next question for you then is about your heroes. So just like Frodo had Gandalf or Luke had Obi-Wan to Robert Kiyosaki had his Rich Dad, who were some of your heroes, were they real-life mentors, speakers, authors, peers who maybe a couple of years ahead of you, and how important were they what you’ve accomplished so far in your business?

Sarah St. John 36:20
I would say it’s mainly other entrepreneurs. I would say the biggest ones would be Pat Flynn, John Lee Dumas, Chris Ducker. A lot of people in the podcasting space or online marketing space and just learning from them. And reading their books, some of them have books, Pat Flynn, for example, has helped a lot I think and it’s encouraging because they all started from nothing, and they were able to build their businesses and brand. I mean, maybe it took them 5-10 years, but where they are today is

Richard Matthews 37:06
It’s pretty amazing. I love John Lee Dumas’s story too. I’ve been watching him since he just got started and keeping track of – he puts his income statements out and it blows me away that money that he drives through that, just that podcast. So that’s fascinating to me. And because the name of the game today is like its attention. And if you can create the attention, you can turn that attention into revenue. And that’s where things like podcasts and YouTube shows and Facebook shows and whatnot come in as you can create and gather attention. So anyway, it’s really fascinating to see that growth of that space and to see the people that you mentioned, grow their businesses over the last 10 years.

Sarah St. John 37:49
I was looking at his income report last night from April.

Richard Matthews 37:56
Those are fascinating. If you’re, if you’re listening to this and you haven’t checked out the income reports and you have any interest in podcasting, check out Entrepreneur on Fire, he does an income report every month, you can see the see behind the curtain, so to speak of what it looks like to run a podcast as a business, which is different than what we do for Push Button Podcasts. A lot of our clients are running podcasting as a way to create free minutes for their regular business. But if you’re running podcasting as a business, he’s got some cool resources. So anyway, that’s uh, he’s a cool guy and cool, I consider him a personal hero of mine as well, just because watching what he does, that’s cool. So, I’m gonna bring it home for our listeners a little bit and talk about your guiding principles, top one or two principles or actions that you put into practice every single day that you think have contributed to the success and influence that you enjoy in your business. Now, maybe something you wish you’d known when you first started on this entrepreneurial journey.

Sarah St. John 38:54
Well, one thing I recently implemented is that for every hour I spend learning, spend another hour implementing because I found that I get so caught up in education which education is good you should learn and read books and watch webinars and all of those things, take courses. But I was doing it, it was getting to the point where that was all I was doing. And I wasn’t implementing it or spending that same amount of time on my business. And so then it’s like, well, what’s the point then? So that’s something I’ve recently started to do was, for every hour, I read a book, I watch a webinar, I take a course, I listen to a podcast, whatever, spend another hour either implementing that thing that I learned or just anything to help my business. That would be the main thing.

Richard Matthews 39:57
That’s an important thing to learn. Is that you have to get out there and, and do the thing, which is funny because you talked earlier that your – a part of your fatal flaw was just doing all the things. So you have to find that balance of where do we educate? And where do we work on?

Sarah St. John 40:13
And I would say that that’s the other thing is, maybe pick one or two things, especially if you’re not sure where you want to go or what you want to try and focus on those things and not do 20 things. So –

Richard Matthews 40:30
Absolutely, focus. Focus is an important skill. It’s hard to learn. But once you get it, and one of the things that I found was important for me in that area, was figuring out what the things were, that led to growth in my business, and then making sure I did something in that realm every single day, even if it was only something that took 10 or 15 minutes. As long as I did it every day. I was having good progress. That basically at that point, wraps up our interview. But I do have one last question that I ask all of my guests. It’s a simple challenge I do. It’s called the HERO’s Challenge. And it’s this: do you have someone that you know, in your network that you think has a cool entrepreneurial story? Who are they, first names are fine, and why do you think they should come to share their story on our show?

Sarah St. John 41:19
So someone who’s probably not necessarily well-known or whatever. I found you through Poddit and I found Mark Kumar through Poddit, which he’s already been on your show, I think and vice versa. So, I would say –

Richard Matthews 41:34
He has.

Sarah St. John 41:35
I would say to him if he hadn’t been, um, let’s see. I would say I mean, the guy that started Poddit was really interesting. I interviewed him and just his ability to create something because there’s a lot of other websites out there that connect guests and hosts to each other. But I don’t think, in my experience, I feel like Poddit is the easiest to use, the most user friendly, and the most affordable. And it’s basically where I’ve gotten a lot of my interviews either from them being on my show or me being on theirs. So that might be an option. His name is Brent.

Richard Matthews 42:31
Awesome.

Sarah St. John 42:33
Brent Basham is his name.

Richard Matthews 42:35
Brent Basham. So from Poddit, and I would say I don’t know. Didn’t even know that we were on Poddit because my assistant handles all of our bookings. So they probably know who that is. But that’s cool. So we’ll reach out and see if we can maybe get him to come on the show and share a little bit about their service and what they’re doing. But at that point that brings us to the end of our interview. Sarah, thank you so much for coming on, and sharing hearing your story and giving us a little peek behind the curtain of what you’ve been doing for the last 10 years. Last thing, where can people find you? If they are in that space where they’re looking at, maybe they want to get started as an entrepreneur, get started building their own business, maybe start a side hustle, where can they find you? And more importantly, who are the right types of people to reach out and be like, I would be a good fit to work with Sarah.

Sarah St. John 43:22
Okay, anyone who’s looking to start a business, particularly an online business, because that’s what I specialize in, on either on or off a budget, but I do mine on a budget. So I would say the best place to find me is if you can get a free copy of my first two books Frugalpreneur and Authorpreneur. I’m coming out with a third one pretty soon called Podcastpreneur, and that’ll complete the trilogy, but you can get a free copy, a PDF of both of those books. If you go to https://www.thesarahstjohn.com/free/ . And that Sarah with an H. And then St.John as s-t-j-o-h-n. And then as far as social media, it’s The Sarah St.John pretty much everywhere.

Richard Matthews 44:13
Awesome. That’s cool. So thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story with us today, Sarah. And if you are listening to this, make sure you check out for free books. I think they probably, particularly the Frugalpreneur sounds like an interesting read to see how you do what you do on such a small budget. So that’s, that’s fascinating. So again, thank you for coming on. Do you have any final words of wisdom for our audience before I hit this stop record button?

Sarah St. John 44:39
Oh, and you can also find my podcasts as well. Sorry, I forgot to mention that that’s also Frugalpreneur. Final piece, I would say, well, basically the stuff that I failed at initially which would be a focus on one or two things and implement, as you learn, don’t just, you should start learning and maybe initially spend more time learning than implementing but a certain point you need to start implementing. So that’s what I would say.

Richard Matthews 45:14
Awesome. Thank you very much for coming on today, Sarah, really appreciate it.

Sarah St. John 45:17
Well, thank you for having me.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai