Have you ever crunched the numbers on a traditional job and realized it would never get you to the lifestyle you want? Like, sometimes the math just ain’t mathing. Not to mention that job security is pretty much a thing of the past.
If you’re like many of us, that’s how you found your way to online entrepreneurship!
But how do you go from a dream of building your own thing to “making it” for real?
To explore this question, I knew my friend Nadalie Bardo would have to join me. She’s just the best!
Nadalie has absolutely been one of the most consistent and resilient people I’ve met in the online business space over the last ten years, even though it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for her!
Today, you’ll learn more about Nadalie’s journey from a PR job to becoming the go-to Pinterest marketing expert. She’ll share her incredible insights on creating your first products and building a business around your desired lifestyle.
Trust me, this is a very inspiring chat you won’t want to miss. Tune in and enjoy!
Today’s Guest
Nadalie Bardo
Nadalie Bardo is the founder of Hey, Let’s Collab and has generated over $200K in course sales and grown an email list of 10,000+ subscribers almost entirely through collaboration. As a collaboration strategist, podcast host, and bundle organizer, she helps online creators grow their audiences and income through strategic partnerships — not ads, content creation, or social media required.
- Find out more at YourPinCoach.com and HeyLetsCollab.com
You’ll Learn
- Leaving a traditional job to build a business around your ideal lifestyle
- Letting your audience tell you what your first product should be
- Why attracting your first superfans and collaborators is hard work
- Letting go of what isn’t working and doubling down on what is
- Following the path of cash, even if your goal is to serve others
- Mastering Pinterest and growing through partnerships
Resources
- Listen in on my chat with Nadalie on her Hey, Let’s Collab podcast
- Subscribe to Superfans Secrets—our weekly newsletter on the strategies behind building real relationships with your audience, delivered free, straight to your inbox
- Connect with me on X and Instagram
- Connect with Liz on Instagram
MM 002: Building a Business on Pinterest and Collabs with Nadalie Bardo
Liz Wilcox: All right, Nadalie. I’m thrilled about this, truly. I- if you don’t know Nadalie, if you’re not in our community, ’cause we already had her come in, if you’re not in the paid community, like Nadalie, ah, just one of my favorite people on the internet and beyond. What I, what I love about you and what I’m excited for everyone to hear is just how freaking consistent you are.
Y’all, I’ve been in the game for 10 years, which granted could be longer, but it could be a lot shorter, and in 10 years, a lot of people that I’ve met in Facebook groups, that I’ve partnered with even done paid products with, have come and gone, and Nadalie remains.
And it’s so… I don’t know if rare is the word, but to, to know someone for so long and to see them, similar to my story and similar to Pat honoring our founder here, to know someone that’s just doing it over and over and over again is really something. But at the same time, I also know Nadalie has not done the same thing throughout her career online.
She’s, she’s done several different things, but somehow still remains very, very consistent. So I wanna dig into that, and I w- just wanna s- like let’s just start with like where… What was your first business? Like, how did you get started making money on the internet?
Nadalie Bardo: Yeah, so I think my first one was actually when I was a photographer. So going before the blog, I was a photographer. I was a portrait and wedding photographer, and initially when I exited the nine-to-five life 10 years ago, I thought I would just be a photographer. And I just started blogging because I was kinda angry.
I was, like, upset, I don’t know, with myself or the world that I’d spent all this time getting all these degrees just to, like, get my first real job, and to be like, “Oh wow, that’s it?” Like, th- that this is what we’re gonna be doing for the next 40 years? Yeah, so it started with the photography, and then I started a blog.
Liz Wilcox: Okay, so what was your real job, quote, unquote?
Nadalie Bardo: So back, back, I have a master’s in international development studies. When I graduated, I was seeing that, like, every job listing was like, “You need social media.” So I got a diploma in communications and public relations, though that job was in PR. Which is kind of in a way, we’re gonna circle right back to that, ’cause-
Liz Wilcox: Yes.
Nadalie Bardo: Some skills-
Liz Wilcox: Oh my goodness. The way things come full circle. I love this. So photographer to blogger, but PR first, right? With a, with the aside of, “Hey, I was a professional.” Now, when you started the blog, was that a photography blog, or was that something like, “Hey, I’m done doing services. I wanna make money more passively”?
Nadalie Bardo: Yeah, so the blog started because I was curious about if other people were feeling how I felt. So I was going around asking everyone two questions. One, do you feel successful? And two, are you happy? And I was asking people who had made it, they had the job, and the vast majority of people said they were not.
And I just kept saying like, “Okay, it’s not the job, it’s not the degree, it’s all you, boo.” Right? And I was like, “Okay, is this, is this the name? Is this the thing? Okay, let’s just start the blog. Let’s just start the blog.” So it came out of this thing I, and I found myself repeating through these conversations, and the blog started as a conversation and this exploration of like what is success, what is happiness?
Like, and even if you get the thing, do you even feel like you’ve arrived.
Liz Wilcox: Oh my gosh, this is, there’s so much to unpack here. So first of all, if you didn’t get it, the name of the blog was It’s All You Boo, which is probably what attracted me to Nadalie anyway . Like, I’m always calling everyone Boo. I’m from the South. Deal with it. And I just… It’s, it’s so interesting that the blog was…
I mean, I just think a lot of us listening might think, oh, we’ve got to have a business around something extremely concrete, right? Like, I teach email marketing. I’m a Pinterest expert. I help people set up their podcast studios. Like, that’s really concrete, but I think what you’re talking about is a little abstract.
How… Did that ever occur to you, or was it, was your anger, like, an annoyance with life in general, or the path people think they should take? Was that enough to just get you started?
Nadalie Bardo: Yeah, so I had also in this time, when I was out of the nine to five, had discovered that allegedly all these people were just, like, making money from their houses, like, doing their own thing. So I think, like, subconsciously… And I was aware of what bloggers were. Like, I worked in PR. We worked with bloggers all the time.
So maybe subconsciously I was like, “Oh, this could become something.” But when I started the site and I started posting and started talking to people, I started building an email list, and the- honestly, my first 100 subscribers were literally 100 people I messaged on Facebook and texted, and I was like, “Can I have your name and your email? I’m starting a blog.”
Liz Wilcox: Listen, let’s slow that down for the people. Slow that down for the people. Hang on. Oh, good, my car, the top is down, and it just started pouring rain, but somebody’s putting the top up. Okay. I was like, “Oh, it looks like it’s gonna rain. Oh, it’s raining.” Anyway, we should leave that in. Why not? Okay, so when I think about blogs and I…
Well, let me pause here. I started my blog in a, in a way different way. So I started as a blogger too, but I wanted… I wasn’t angry, but I did want money. And so I started my blog for cash flow. I thought again, I was looking at these people that were making money on the internet, and I thought, “Oh my gosh, I could do that too.
Like, they just know something I don’t know, but if there’s anything, I’m, I’m good at learning, so I can figure that out.” So you started your blog a little differently, but you did end up monetizing it. Talk us through how that path went
Nadalie Bardo: So my first 100 people went through… I’m trying to remember if I created the product first. It all started with a survey. I still have that survey in my old Typeform account. And I literally asked, it was like, “What are your goals?” Or like, “What are you struggling with? Why haven’t you achieved them?”
Just general broad questions like, “What’s up? How can I help you?” Right? And from that survey, I created my first online product, the Slay Your Goals Planner. And if I had not asked what people were struggling with, I wouldn’t have realized that the issue they were having was not that they don’t have goals and dreams, but that they weren’t actually putting it into practice.
And if there’s anything I was good at, is doing the thing, right? So I created this planner that was just based on things I had learned and activities I’d done with myself to help myself to like focus, start the blog, like discipline and like all those things, like getting self-motivated. So it was from a survey.
Liz Wilcox: Listen, y’all, there are th- many themes in life, and this is one of them. Your first product should be built by your audience. So working to get those 100 people… And by the way, like, the fact that you DM’d and messaged these people to get on, I, like, round of applause because, wow, that’s so incredible.
And that’s, that kind of stuff, to me, indicates, oh, this person’s gonna make it, right? They understand, yes, maybe one day… And this is called smart passive income, right? But it’s all about working hard now so you can reap the benefits later. And a lot of people, and I’m, I’m not calling anyone out, but a lot of people might think like, “Oh, this, this is supposed to be easy,” right?
And eventually it gets a lot easier. It absolutely does. But for now, like, when you’re finding those first few subscribers, trying to get those first super fans, as Pat calls them, it that is work. That is absolute work. And then talking to them, because y- you have such an advantage with the early adopters, right?
Those are people that know Nadalie or she knew enough to say, “Hey, join, join my blog over here. Join my email list,” right? And so I did the same thing with my first product, and I think we did an Ask Liz episode a few months back about my first book release. And it was, yeah, it was, “Hey, why do you follow me online?”
And they said, “Oh, well, you’re funny. You tell a good story.” So what was my first product? A collection of funny stories. So if you’re driving, I know you can’t take notes, but make note of that. Like, this is how… This is grassroots effort, and I don’t care if you did this 10 years ago or if you do it today, it’s gonna work because those early adopters, they, they wanna help out, right?
It’s, it’s kind of harder once you get 1,000 people and you’re running ads or these people don’t know you personally or semi-personally. Then the surveys get a little harder. But especially in that beginning stages, let those people tell you what to create. So we created the Slay Your Goals Planner.
Love that, by the way. How did it go? How did you launch it? How did you sell it? What, what was the trajectory of that product?
Nadalie Bardo: So I created it, and a couple people bought it, but wasn’t really going great. So two things changed that. One, I got really into posting in Facebook groups saying, “Hey, I’ve got a planner. Would you review it for me? You wanna be an affiliate?” So that’s really what jumpstarted sales for my planner, and I think I’ve sold, like, I don’t…
It’s, like, couple thousand copies of that planner at this point. But getting other people to promote my planner, and it really just was like, “Hey, I have this product. Is anyone up for reviewing it?” Because the PR brain was like, ” I, I want people to be publishing on their sites about my product, them to use it. I want them to talk about it.” And that’s a great way to get started. Then the second way was when I started posting on Pinterest. That changed everything. And of course, I had a little funnel set up. I had a tripwire, so if anyone signs up for my email list, they had a chance to get my planner for a discounted price, and that alone was the beginning.
We had liftoff.
Liz Wilcox: Okay, so before we talk about, well, if that was the beginning, w- what’s, what’s the middle and the end, so to speak. But I wanna just pause first to label the audacity, okay? The audacity of Nadalie to ask people right? And I mean, I say that s- sort of in jest, but also truth. Again the, the same way she had to go out there and be gritty and find those first 100 subscribers, that, that is work.
That is work, work, work, work. But it it’s also work, but also a little audacious to go into these groups, “Hey, can somebody review this for me? Hey, will you check this out?” Right? You’ve… Again, there’s, there’s a certain level that not a lot of people get to of, of bravery, of audacity, if you wanna call it that, that really in those first 3, 6, 12, 18, 24 months, you’ve got to get to I think to jumpstart, to have the… and that was the beginning story, right? I, I just find the most successful people all, and not that we’re not all unique snowflakes, but we all have a very similar tale of, “I did this, and then I just asked, asked, asked.” I mean, how do you think I’m the host of this podcast? I literally just asked Pat Flynn.
I was like, “Would you sell me your business?” He was like, “What? That’s crazy.” And then he was like, “Wait, are you serious?” it’s, it’s the same. It’s the same. You have to be asking. So I love this. So you said that was just the beginning. Getting on Pinterest, which if y’all are sleeping on Pinterest, don’t.
Get inside our SPI Community. Nadalie has a whole freaking training on it. It’s fabulous. But so things started taking off with Pinterest. People start finding… I’m assuming people started finding your pins, started downloading or buying the book. And, and then what happened? I’m, I’m so invested in this.
I wanna know.
Nadalie Bardo: Okay, so I guess chapter two is Pinterest. We can name it Pinterest.
Liz Wilcox: Okay.
Nadalie Bardo: Basically, ‘ cause there were Pinterest courses back then. We’re talking, like, 2018, 2019, and you know me, I’m a chitchat. I love making friends online, and other bloggers were like, “Wait, what are you doing with Pinterest? You got a million views in 30 days?
What are you talking about? That’s not normal.” They’re like, “You need to make a course.” And I was like… It took me a while. It took me a while to, like, accept that Pinterest was supposed to be my thing. Because I feel like a part of the journey a lot of us don’t talk about is how hard it is to let go or move past something.
And it was to the point where I was talking with someone who was, like, my unofficial business coach. Like, she was, like, a friend of a friend, and she… We had to, like, talk about the blog, It’s All You Boo, as, like, an abusive ex or an abusive boyfriend. Like, yes, I love you, and I wanna pour all my time and my energy into it, and I did.
500-plus blog posts, y’all, but that was not easy. Before AI? Come on. But, like, seeing the potential between, like, trying to sell someone a soft skill, like personal development, versus selling, like, a hard business skill, it’s just different. Like, the wants and the, the willingness to invest. So yeah, it was like, it was very hard, like a tug and pull between, like, this blog that I had put so much of myself into versus this, like, new identity of, like, your Pin coach.
It’s, it’s hard to, like, let go, move on, and especially when you’ve put so much time into something
Liz Wilcox: Yeah. I feel like a lot of our listeners can relate to that of I, I… Well, I see two camps often, and you probably do, too, Nadalie. The first is we’re pivoting all the time. We never get to that a million views in 30 days or, or you said it was even more than that. We never get to that first product because we’re constantly changing our minds.
Or it’s that I put so much time and effort into this, even when I’m ready to kind of shed the skin and grow into something bigger, it’s, it’s impossible for me to do that. And that was something even if you go back to the episode where Pat and I announced the sale, he said It was so hard to let SPI go.”
That is my baby. You wanna talk about blog posts . You wanna talk about podcast episodes 900 something podcast episodes over 16 years. Like, and that was something if I would’ve known Pat was struggling before, I would, I would’ve asked him to buy it sooner, right? And it probably would’ve been even better for both of us sooner, right?
But it was, it’s so hard to let that go. So what was that mindset shift for you? Like, was it, oh, I see, I see the revenue potential. Oh, but pause. I wanted to ask, how much was the Slay Your Goals planner, by the way?
Nadalie Bardo: believe it’s regularly priced at 27, and when I had the little Tripwire offer, 17. So it was like 10 bucks off, $17, and the vast majority of them was for 17 sold. And there was like bonuses sprinkled in there, but yeah.
Liz Wilcox: Well, that’s awesome because, y’all, she mentioned she sold about 1,000 of them. So that’s $17,000. Even if-
Nadalie Bardo: Oh, that was it.
Liz Wilcox: Right, even if that’s spread over a few years, like, I, if I found that on the street, I’d pick it up. So I just wanted to note that because I’m obsessed with numbers, and I’m super nosy. So back to the show.
How, what was the mindset of like, “Okay, I’m ready to let it go”? And obviously you still own the blog, correct?
Nadalie Bardo: Yeah, and I’m working on some new posts right now. But…
Liz Wilcox: but you were able to move beyond, maybe not move completely on, but you were able to move beyond that. So what was… Was there a flip that switched or a sw- did I say that right? Anyway, you get what I’m saying. What was, what was the mindset, darling?
Nadalie Bardo: Ooh, I guess like, like you said, you like money. We all like money, right? So at the end of the day, if I’m seeing that… Like, I was using the same skill set to try and make It’s All You Boo profitable, and it was profitable, but, like, not to a level that was, like, the kind of life I wanna live, because y’all, I like to travel, okay?
I can’t travel on planner money. But I was seeing the real potential in terms of dollars in my bank account when I’m using the exact same strategies to, like, sell my course. I had a $500 course over on It’s All You Boo, but it was the Pinterest course that was actually selling. I was using the same skills.
It was still, like, the same type of webinar. I was doing the exact same things, but the universe or the people voted and they said, “Yo, we want, we want Pin Popular.” Like-
Liz Wilcox: The tribe has spoken. The tribe has spoken in the words of Jeff Probst.
Nadalie Bardo: Had to put out that torch and realize that, like, we only have so much energy, and effort, and attention, and money that we can invest, and I could not do both.
Like, it was torture to try and do both. I was like… Like, it was almost as if the blog was becoming, like, a side hustle, ’cause I would be working on that on the weekends when I should be resting. But, like, I wasn’t resting because I couldn’t let it go, and it’s really hard to let it go. It’s really hard to break a pattern and a habit, especially if my habit was producing two posts a week consistently for, like, five years, is really hard to stop.
But yeah, I had to realize. I… It was just, like, literally a dollars and cents. Like, look at your bank account, woman. Especially when I started partnering with other experts like yourself and, like, offering my webinar, and I was like, “Wow, what? This… Like, webinars work?” Because, like, it wasn’t working for It’s All You Boo, even though I tried, and sometimes we try so hard, and it’s…
it is hard to let go. I sometimes still think about it.
Liz Wilcox: Well, I, I really appreciate what you just said, dollars and cents, because I just want you listening to know, like, sometimes it’s okay to follow the path of cash, right? You… I know you did not get into business, or you’re not looking into business, like, just for cash. A lot, a lot of it is maybe freedom, time, spending time with your family, et cetera.
But I, I saw an Instagram reel and it said, “I don’t wanna be rich, but I do want freedom. And in order to have freedom, I kind of have to be rich.” And ain’t that about the truth? And I mean, define rich, right? I I’ve always known my enough number, right? And it turned out… I always, “Oh, I want a million. I want a million.” And then when I did… I ran the numbers, I was like, “Ah, actually the business with the salary I want and hiring my sister and paying for all the things, like, I actually only need about half of that a year to, to live the way I want.” And, and I find that I am the most time-rich person. I had so much time I bought Pat Flynn’s business cause, ’cause I was literally, like, bored sitting around doing nearly nothing all day. But it’s… I love that you just mentioned, like, yeah, okay, maybe it was a mindset thing, but it also was just came down to I want to travel. This is what I want my life to look like, and so I have to go in this direction.
I don’t have to leave my boo. I don’t have to leave my blog. I can keep it up. It’s running on Pinterest, sort of on autopilot, and now you have a little bit more time freedom, so you’re doing… Going back to the blog here and there. I just, I just think that’s a really valuable lesson, especially for those listening that want that time freedom.
Sometimes you, you have to make those money decisions where it’s, “Oh, I don’t wanna be salesy,” or, “I don’t wanna just follow this for cash.” But you are born with certain, I don’t know, gifts and talents, and to not spend your time on those gifts and talents and to share them with the world, and yes, even charge for those gifts and talents, I think is a real disservice for not only you, but for your family.
So I’m excited for you guys to hear this story, for sure. Now, you mentioned in your life you want to travel, and that is how I’ve always known Nadalie. We’ve done many interviews. We’ve done many webinars that, yes, worked and allowed us both to have a little bit more time freedom, and I’ve never met anyone that traveled more than me except Nadalie.
So I’ve seen her, what? I think you were in Vietnam at one time. Maybe, was it Brazil or somewhere in South Amer- America. Now you’re back in Toronto for who knows how long. But has that been something, like that, that true desire, that true vision of your life? I mentioned earlier n- I admire the consistency you have to show up online every day.
Has that been a driving factor, like just knowing, “I want to travel”?
Nadalie Bardo: Yeah, 100%. Like, and I need to be able to do that and also work if I need to or not work. Like, if I, if I just wanna be offline, I want the freedom to be offline. I want, like, full autonomy of, like, my body and my time. So if this body doesn’t wanna be sitting at a desk, it is not gonna be sitting at a desk, right?
So to me, this is the best way to secure that, that freedom in that sense. And I do… Like, when I think about, like, what do I want from my life, like, where do I wanna be, and yeah, it’s 100% avoiding winter until the end.
Liz Wilcox: So, spoken like a true Canadian. I love that. Who is over it? Has there been anything else that has kept you consistent, has kept you online? Cause I, I just know that our listeners, they’re… It really is hard. It is hard. Not everybody makes it, so to speak, and we’re, we’re truly focusing on what’s important now, and a lot of that is consistency.
So what, what other factors, other than your own vision of, “Let me avoid winter in Toronto,” have helped you s- stay on the path?
Nadalie Bardo: Like why haven’t I given up? ‘Cause it’s been a-
Liz Wilcox: Yeah. Yeah.
Why, why haven’t you quit?
Nadalie Bardo: And girl, trust me, there’s been many times I’ve wanted to quit. There’s been many times I have cried on this floor especially in the beginning when I didn’t know how to use WordPress. Yeah. I think back to… Okay, so this is the story.
I had a job in PR. I quit that job because I wanted to circle back to, like, doing good, right? ‘Cause my, my degree is in international development, which is, like, very much about like, charities and working for nonprofits. So I got a job at one, and then they fired me, like, a couple of days before my probation was up. So within a few days, like, they wouldn’t have been able to fire me without cause. So I’m driving home, and I don’t know if, if y’all know Toronto, Toronto is two hours from Toronto. The traffic is probably the worst in all of North America. And I’m driving home, and I wasn’t even upset. I was just like, “You know what?
I’m done.” I was just like, “I’m done. I am never trusting anybody with my security,” right? And I just did the math. I was like, okay, if I had a job where… ‘Cause the reality is, is, like, if you live here and you have, like, a proper job where you have to, like, commute, that’s like three to four hours of your day every single day.
So I did the math. If I was good to do that for 30 years, it’s like five full years. Like, 12 months of full 24-hour days just commuting. So in that moment, I made the choice. I’m like, “I’m gonna take those five years, and I’m gonna build something that will free me from ever having to do this again.” And if I could give, like, six years to university, like my undergrad and my master’s, and I’m not even using that, I can give this to building something that will free me forever.
So I hate nothing more than being stuck in traffic, so that’s also probably why. And yes, you could say, “Nadalie, you can get a remote job,” but all these remote jobs are pushing their people back into offices, and there I would be stuck in my car, stuck in traffic, hating my life. So I think the math, like the equation of, like, all the hours that would be spent just trying to get to the work has kept me here.
And that rug pull feeling of, like, thinking I was safe in a job and then just having it being pulled out from under me with no warning, with no approval from their boss just to get rid of me yeah, I’m like, “I’m never feeling that way again.” So even if it’s hard, and it is hard. Even if, like, the world keeps changing and you have to keep evolving, we’ll figure it out again and again
Liz Wilcox: Wow. I don’t, I don’t even know how to follow up with that, ’cause it’s so, not heavy, but that’s like so inspiring and im- impactful. Impactful is definitely the word. And very similarly, it was just… It, it boils down to like, well, I have no other choice, because what I thought over here was secure wasn’t. And even, I love that you did the math, right?
It was literally a the math is not mathing situation, right? And I invite you listening to do the math for yourself as well, right? Because it’s, again, this is… You’ve got to work hard now to reap the benefits later. Nadalie already shared a couple things that were getting those first 100 subscribers, sending out the survey, asking people for reviews.
Like, that’s, that’s working hard, but it’s, it’s no harder than sitting in traffic for three to four hours a day. It’s no hard than, no harder than giving five years to that versus giving five years to what she’s done now with her blog, with her Pinterest, and now she has a new podcast on collabs. Now she’s done five years twice, right?
Nearly a decade. And the, the rewards are so much better, right? No oil changes required, baby. And so like, what is, what is the thing that you… Right. Like, maybe you’re driving right now to your job, or you’re doing the dishes, or you’re walking your dog or your kid in the stroller. Like, what is it that you’re spending time on right now that you eventually don’t want to?
And how can you spend that double down and spend the time right now creating something online, whether it’s a digital product, a membership, a course UGC content is something that’s really hot right now. Like, how can you spend your time right now so you can have it back later?
And that’s the kind of mindset that I think, as Nadalie is showing, will take you very, very far. I love that so much. So you’ve had success with a planner. You’ve done the webinars. I want to know, so what were you selling on the webinars, and how much was the product? Because we’re nosy around here.
Nadalie Bardo: So you know what I was selling. It’s my … This is like, “Tell me like I don’t know.” Okay, so through the webinars, it’s my Pinterest course. It’s called Pin Popular, and like when people sign up for the webinar, there’s the tripwire. You have 20 minutes or maybe it’s 30 minutes to get a pin template pack for $9, and then you show up on the webinar and I’m pitching you my course, let’s say roughly $400 course around there.
Maybe something special happens when you show up on the webinar. That’s for you to discover. Yeah, so those are the two things that through the webinar-
Liz Wilcox: I love this. Y’all, Nadalie’s webinar game is on point. Like, not only… So she does it with partners, right? So we’ve done her webinar four or five times now over the last few years, and it’s always so fun when I send out the initial sign-up for the webinar because, like Nadalie said, she has a tripwire, right?
It’s like $9, get this template pack or whatever. And I just love getting those little notifications because… And y’all, to be honest, because I’m co-hosting the webinar, I’ve never signed up for the webinar, so I don’t see I don’t… I’ve never seen the sales page, or I don’t remember seeing it. So I don’t know what kind of magic she’s got going on over there, but I’m getting dozens and dozens of tripwire sales.
And so not only is Nadalie making money, I’m making money as the partner, right? We have an affiliate relationship. She made the product. She’s giving me a cut because I’m sharing with my audience, and that’s been a great way to make money. And I can always… We’ve been doing this so long, I, I actually count on some of that affiliate cash.
Like, sometimes we’ll do it in April, sometimes we’ll do it in June, but I now have it where that’s part of my monetization plan and part of my revenue projections is Nadalie’s webinar. So y’all don’t sleep on webinars. They can really work. She’s got it, she’s got that sort of webinar funnel really, really dialed in, and I’m, I’m so happy because every year I get someone that signs up, and then they reach out to me and they say, “Oh, Liz, this has been amazing for growing my email list full of warm leads.
I’m selling more. I started a webinar of my own,” or, “I launched my first e-book,” or whatever, and they’re, they’re just getting so much value out of the course. But one thing that you promise that I would love to hear how you do this, and again, like why you stay so fired up about it or how, is you promise, like if I bought your Pinterest course today, it’s going to be updated tomorrow, right?
If Pin- Pinterest changes their mind about something you are on top of it, unlike a lot of courses. And a lot of people, this is an objection they have. “I don’t wanna create a course, because what if they change it,” right? So how are you able to keep that promise? Like, what, what is your process for that?
Nadalie Bardo: Yeah, so because I’m always on Pinterest, like I use it for myself. Like, you can’t… Y’all can’t sell something that you don’t actually use because, like, things will pass you by and you’re, like, not paying attention. So I… Like, if something changes, I’m not gonna automatically go update a video because sometimes they change things back.
Platforms are always testing stuff, so you can’t just, like, jump in and be like, “I’m gonna redo this video.” like, I’ll just, like, put, like, a little notice above a lesson, be like, “Hey, this tab is now called this. Like, it’s just at the top, just so you know. Like, if you watch the video it, that’s incorrect, but it’s up here.”
And I just do my best/am committed to at least updating it once a year. And yeah, I have my slides, and a pro tip is don’t show your face in your course videos because it’s… Imagine, like, trying to, like, update the course videos and you, like, try to make yourself, like, look like how you looked in the recording.
So I don’t ha- I have, like, one face, talking face video, and it’s, like, the first one in the course, ’cause I’m like, “This is important.” But otherwise, like, it’s just my voice, so I find it a lot easier to update your course videos when you can just pull out the part that’s changed and you update it, and then you just re-export it and upload it. So that’s something that’s made it a lot easier for me to yeah, just don’t show my face.
Liz Wilcox: Wow. Blew my mind so… That’s so smart, and that’s so sustainable, right? A lot of us, we just overthink things and, “Oh, it’s gotta be this way. It’s gotta be perfect,” and, “So and so does it this way, so I have to too because they’re successful.” Well, let me tell you something. Nadalie’s successful too, and this is how she’s doing it.
So here’s your permission slip if you needed it. I, ugh, you’re so smart. You’re such a smart cookie. I- we should have you on the show.
Nadalie Bardo: Ooh.
Liz Wilcox: It’s really good. So do you have any other, other… On, in that vein, like that’s such a good sort of tip that you, you wouldn’t think to Google, right? Like, do you have any other tips you’ve learned in the last decade of like, “Oh, I thought I had to do it this way, but really I can do it that way”?
Nadalie Bardo: Yeah. Like, okay, so I feel like you might feel pressure to, like, run ads. I feel like a lot of people have… When you’re like, “I started a business,” everyone and their mom has advice for you, and usually it goes like, “Get on Instagram.” And the second one will be like, “Run Meta ads,” right? Like they know what they’re talking about, and they don’t.
So I would say, like, honestly, Instagram is just a thing I started and it’s only because I met someone f- who’s, like, making it fun for me. But like, otherwise, like, I would not be on there. Like, I- I’m just doing it for the fun and for the credibility, but everyone is still gonna tell you, like, “Oh, you need to get on Instagram,” or, “You need to get on TikTok.”
And I would say, like, you actually don’t need to do those things to grow. There are like, easier ways to grow that have more longevity. Like a Reel, a TikTok is only gonna get you views for 24 hours, right? Which is why I would say, like, if you’re gonna focus on something, you wanna focus on Pinterest.
Pins get views for 24 months, even longer, and clicks, right? You wanna focus on YouTube because it is long-term sustainability. And the whole thing about ads, I feel like so many people will say, like, “You gotta run ads to, like, grow or whatever,” but, like, I’ve tried running ads and I still get the best value by just reaching out to someone and partnering with them, right?
Like, the value I get from just being like, “Hey, Liz. It’s that time of year again. Let’s book this,” right? And rinsing and repeating. Tiny tweaks, there are tiny tweaks every year. I I try to make it better. I update the class. I update the emails. I make sure it’s relevant for right now. But I would say, like, you can just do the same thing over and over and over again if it’s working.
Like, I think so much of why we get burnt out in this, like, online business thing is that we’re, like, trying to do all the things. We’re like, “I gotta be here, I gotta be here, I gotta be here,” but then it’s hard to be consistent when you’re, like, trying, like, 10 strategies. So if you find the thing and it’s actually working and it’s making you money, how about you just do it again and again and again and again, and just, like, make small tweaks to, like, make it better.
Liz Wilcox: I love this, and it, it’s so true. And even with I think one of the themes of this podcast episode is not, not being afraid to let go, right? And so even a lot of people, again, they just, “Oh, I gotta do this, this, this, this, this.” And that burns them out, which makes them think, “Oh, it’s not… this is not working, so I’ve gotta do something else,” when really sometimes it’s, it’s about subtracting rather than adding, right? Okay, what can, what can I focus on today? What’s important now? Team win, right? What’s important now? Is everything actually important right now? No. So if you’re gonna run ads, like maybe that’s the thing you focus on.
If you’re gonna take Nadalie’s advice, do Pinterest, that’s the thing I’m gonna focus on for the next six months, right? I remember the first… Honestly, it was like the first seven years of my business, and I’ll probably have to go back to this with getting SPI under my belt, is w- every year I had one theme, and that was the only thing I would learn.
So first, email marketing. I learned everything I could about email. Then it was blogging and SEO, right? Then it was collaborations. How can I… That’s my theme of the year. How can I meet and network and collaborate with as many people as pod- as possible? Then it was, “Oh, I’m gonna start my own podcast,” et cetera, et cetera.
But I, I agree with Nadalie here. We, we try to focus on so much, ’cause everyone is screaming at you. And people like me and Nadalie, we are convincing. We truly are. But it’s up to you to practice your discernment and only focus on that next right step.
Nadalie Bardo: I was just gonna say, like, increase with your capacity, right? So you, like, can’t… Like, for now, like you said, like you’re adding on collabs, you’re doing this, you’re adding, you have the podcast because your capacity has increased, right? And anyone who’s listening, if you’re overwhelmed right now, like, get to the core of it, get consistent with that, and it will become easier, and then you’ll have the capacity to add on a new strategy, right?
And then when that becomes easy, then you add on another one, right? It’s almost like you’re at the gym. You’re not gonna start, like, trying to, like, bench press 1,000 pounds. Like, that’s not gonna happen, right? You’re gonna break yourself. So start with the five pound, the 10 pound, right? And once those muscles are strong, add it on.
And y’all, I don’t go to the gym, so if that analogy doesn’t-
Liz Wilcox: It made sense. It made sense.
Nadalie Bardo: Fine.
Liz Wilcox: Made sense. She’s doing great. Pause, leave a five-star review. Tell us Nadalie did great. So I wanna pivot really quickly. Speaking of adding on, adding on Nadalie, she talked about she had the photography thing. Then she was like, “Oh, wait, blogging,” right? “Let me add that on,” right?
And then she had to learn to let go of the photography to go all in on the blog, right? And the same thing went in on Pinterest and had to let go of the blog a little bit, and luckily, the blog was kind of running by itself with Pinterest. It’s still going. But now, Miss Nadalie is doing something else, right?
She’s, she’s mastered this Pinterest game. She’s, she’s leveled up. Her capacity is larger. Oh, I’m getting so excited like, this is so great, and this is such a… It’s a… such an accurate depiction of, yes, you’re building that muscle. We’re going up to the 30-pounder now, right? And now you’ve started your po- a podcast of your own.
You started talking about collaborations. So talk to us about how you started that and how it’s going really quickly.
Nadalie Bardo: For sure. So when I sit down and I’m like, “What is actually working here? Where is the money coming from?” I just, I realize, like, the most important thing I do every year, like, the start of every year, I have a traditition, tradition. I’m like, “Who are my top partners?” And I send out my email. I’m like, “Happy New Year.”
I think one, one year I was like, “Live from Hanoi, Vietnam.” Like, “Let’s get this booked in.” So I reach out to my people because I, I, I believe in, like, repeat collabs. And I realize that sending those emails is the most important thing that I do every single year. So I realize that collabs is that girl.
So I started a podcast called Hey, Let’s Collab because honestly, that’s literally what I say in my emails. And I wanted to know, how are other people growing with collaborations? And I, I didn’t wanna just, like, hear the story. I wanted to know the pitch, and I wanted to know the results. And I asked my guests to literally send me the DM or the post or the email they sent that landed them a collaboration, and it’s been so fun.
And I’m hosting events. And yeah, it’s been really great. I enjoy it.
Liz Wilcox: Okay. This is so amazing, and I, I love that you’ve been able to slow down at these sort of pivotal moments and understand for yourself and for your business and for that vision you have of being able to ignore winter at all costs to, to say, “Okay, what’s the next thing?”
And it’s always, as far as I’ve known you, as long as I’ve known you, been a good thing, and, and you’ve grown not only professionally, but personally too. And I cannot wait to see where the podcast takes you. As y’all know I did List Building Live back in August. Pat and I, this has been the collaboration of my life.
I am pro, pro, pro collabs, and so I cannot wait to see you help more people in that area, ’cause it, it goes back to building something sustainable and looking at what you want your life to look like, how much money do you really need to make and who do you wanna serve? So I love this for you, Nadalie.
If we want to learn from you, Pinterest collabs, blogging, all of that how, how can we find you online?
Nadalie Bardo: For sure. So for all things Pinterest, you wanna go to YourPinCoach.com. And for all things collab, check out HeyLetsCollab.com. And for that podcast, just check for the Hey Let’s Collab podcast. Would love to listen. And my first episode is with your girl, Liz, so go tune in.
Liz Wilcox: That it was. Thank you so much, Nadalie. I feel so inspired to get out there, have a little bit more bravery, audacity even, and yeah, thank you.
