{"id":18280,"date":"2024-02-09T15:55:44","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T15:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webmonkey.com\/young-money-interview-11-how-leila-balances-blogging-youtube\/"},"modified":"2024-05-24T19:40:52","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T19:40:52","slug":"young-money-interview-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webmonkey.com\/young-money-interview-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Money Interview #11 – How Leila Balances Blogging & YouTube"},"content":{"rendered":"
If you're anything like me, you find it difficult to focus on just one <\/em>single thing.<\/p>\n It doesn't matter if it's side hustling, hobbies, or just life in general. It's incredibly easy to get excited about a new project or goal and to have a thousand different things on the go simultaneously.<\/p>\n Personally, I never feel as if there's enough time in the day to get everything done. I don't mind this feeling since I spend my days doing what interests me (freelance writing, blogging, spending time outdoors etc.) but the feeling is there regardless.<\/p>\n Now, what I love most about the entrepreneur we are about to hear from is just how many amazing projects she has on the go and how she manages to balance everything. I think it can be easy to let entrepreneurial pursuits fall by the wayside as life becomes busier, but this story is certainly an exception to this!<\/p>\n So, if you want to learn how Leila runs a successful blog and not one, but two <\/em>YouTube channels, stick around for this Young Money interview. Leila shares 5 crucial tips for other aspiring side hustlers at the end of this interview as well, so don't miss out!<\/p>\n Extra Reading – Checkout Other Young Money Interviews<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n My name is Leila (pronounced Lay-la), I am 26, and I am a microbiologist by day and a small online business owner by night!<\/p>\n I live a pretty simple and routine life that I\u2019ve grown to enjoy for the time being. I love working out, taking walks, cooking, reading, writing, and planning. <\/p>\n I strongly believe and encourage personal development and it has become my greatest passion. Additionally, I\u2019m passionate about finances, veganism, and health.<\/p>\n While I value my full-time job and the impact it may have in Public Health, my dream is to become an entrepreneur. The \u20189-5\u2019 life is not for me and I\u2019m so grateful to live in a time where we can make a living off of the internet.<\/p>\n I've dabbled with plenty of different side hustles or ways to make money online<\/a>, but I definitely have a few main hustles.<\/p>\n After graduating high school I started a YouTube channel<\/a> dedicated to beauty and other lifestyle topics. However, since I was in college and going through a new stage in life I wasn\u2019t very consistent with it.<\/p>\n YouTube was kind of just fun for me. While I wanted to make money from it, that wasn\u2019t really happening. Eventually I stopped creating beauty videos and started to focus on more lifestyle videos (workouts, meal prep, money, vlogs). While I am consistent with my uploads, I still treat YouTube as a fun hobby.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I've also created a second YouTube channel, which focuses solely on personal finance content. You can checkout my most recent videos for that channel here<\/a>!<\/p>\n Extra Reading – How To Make Your First $100 On YouTube<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Throughout my life I had always loved writing, and I had even created a blog through Blogger in the past. Again, I wasn\u2019t very consistent with this and it wasn\u2019t my best writing work. <\/p>\n I would upload videos and write posts every so often, but wasn\u2019t earning money from blogging<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n About 3 years into college I knew I didn\u2019t want to live a \u201cmediocre\u201d life. This was when I started listening to Tony Robbins and Gary Vaynerchuk and learned that I can actually become an entrepreneur one day.<\/p>\n So, in 2015 I created my blog, LivinglikeLeila.com<\/a>. I remember being so scared to tell anyone that I had started my own blog.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At the time, I knew I wanted to make a profit from my blog, but I don\u2019t know what I would do with my free time otherwise. I love writing, I love creating, I love a finished product. I blogged and made videos basically for free for years, and that is how I know these things are just my passions.<\/p>\n Living Like Leila now earns income. My blog was accepted into Mediavine, meaning my blog generates advertisement revenue every single month now. <\/p>\n More recently I launched a self-discipline course, self-discipline\/time management\/productivity coaching, and a second YouTube channel dedicated to finances.<\/p>\n Each of these things mean so much to me and my goal is to help people truly live their best life. I expect the most growth in these 3 areas this year.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve dabbled in multiple side hustles: Patreon, flipping, Etsy printables, working as a Pinterest virtual assistant, etc. I constantly think of new ideas and I like to try things out.<\/p>\n By experimenting with them, I usually find that I don\u2019t love doing them and then I can stop. I never invest too much money into these things so I don\u2019t feel bad giving them a shot!<\/p>\n I grew the most on both platforms by being consistent<\/em>.<\/p>\n I publish my content and send my emails on the same days every week. For my blog, I also noticed more growth when I started writing longer posts (1500+ words) and creating multiple Pinterest images for each post.<\/p>\n For YouTube I have grown the most by sharing more of my life and just being myself. People just like to watch other people\u2019s lives!<\/p>\n For my second YouTube channel, I\u2019ve noticed my channel is growing much faster. I believe this is because it covers one specific niche rather than branching out on multiple topics. Promoting a second channel is also easier once you have established an audience on social media and YouTube initially.<\/p>\n I would say one of the most exciting parts about being a blogger and YouTuber are the people I get to connect with. It still amazes me that strangers around the WORLD watch my videos and read my blog posts. <\/p>\n Kind and supportive comments are still priceless, and I love when people tell me that I inspire or motivate them, since that ultimately motivates me.<\/p>\n I know that one day I will be a full-time online business owner and that\u2019s really exciting. In 2019 I made about $6,000 from my online work and that\u2019s pretty incredible to me! That money allowed me to reinvest back into my business and pay off a bit of my debt.<\/p>\n From 2018 to 2019 I increased by income by 6x. In 2020 I am hoping to do the same but I am aiming to make about $24,000 from my online business.<\/p>\n I wouldn\u2019t say I have any huge wins, but I\u2019ll never forget those big moments throughout this journey such as: reaching 100K pageviews for my blog in a month, getting my first coaching client, and getting accepted into Mediavine.<\/p>\n Throughout this journey I\u2019ve faced many challenges. The internet is filled with information and stories of other people achieving success from blogging or YouTube at a rapid rate, but that has not been the case for me.<\/p>\n There have been multiple times where I\u2019ve thought about giving up, but I never will.<\/p>\n My growth has been very slow and often plateaus. However, I have gained so much patience from this process and I\u2019m so grateful for what I have accomplished.<\/p>\n Because I am multi-passionate AND someone who likes to do 10 projects at once on top of maintaining my health, relationship, personal development, etc., I\u2019ve realized that the success I want to achieve will take longer to reach and I am OK with that.<\/p>\n I have many goals in life but in relation to my business and finances…<\/p>\n My long-term goals (next 10 years) include:<\/strong><\/p>\n My short-term goals (for 2020):<\/strong><\/p>\n There are so many tips I could share but I\u2019ll try to keep this brief.<\/p>\n I know this is so cliche but it\u2019s so true. If you try to be like someone else you won\u2019t be able to maintain it. You\u2019re also going to come across so many blogs or videos talking about, \u201cHow I made $100,000 in my first 6 months of blogging.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not impossible, but that\u2019s not how it works for most people! Don\u2019t get too caught up in those articles, just focus on your own actions.<\/p>\n Success takes time, and consistency\/perseverance is a big part of that. If you only publish content once every few weeks don\u2019t expect much growth.<\/p>\n Online work comes with many setbacks and struggles. From slow growth to my website being hacked to losing a whole blog post, I\u2019ve experienced it all. You have to get used to failing and failing fast.<\/p>\n It still amazes me that I can come home from my full-time job and work a few more hours at my desk and make more money. There are so many opportunities on the internet world to make money and we should all take advantage of that. And no, the market is not too saturated! Most people who start an online business give up pretty quickly, so if you\u2019re willing to commit you\u2019re more likely to succeed.<\/p>\n Create a clear plan including your niche, target audience, content, product to sell, sales funnels, and so on.<\/p>\n I would recommend learning a lot, but implementing what you learn even more. There is no need to buy a million courses. Just learn the basics and then create a clear plan for your business. That\u2019s definitely something I wish I did better when I was first starting out.<\/p>\nAbout Leila<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What Side Hustle Did You Start & Why?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
YouTube<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Blogging<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Other Side Hustles<\/strong><\/h2>\n
How Did You Scale your Side Hustles?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Results<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Wins, Losses, & Challenges?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Future Goals?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n
\n
Tips For Other Entrepreneurs?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Be yourself and don\u2019t compare your success to others.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
2. Commit to consistency.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
3. Have patience.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
4. Take advantage of this generation we live in.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
5. Have a plan.<\/strong><\/h4>\n