Bree Pair started her blog back in 2010 to show the process of making her first house into a home. And while she wrote about her life, her views organically grew.
Around that time, bloggers began coming onto the scene and completely changed the rules of marketing.
Many of these bloggers were students or stay-at-home moms sharing their lives and passion. They didn’t have a background in business or marketing, so they had to figure it out primarily alone.
In this interview, Bree shares that she didn’t know what was considered a lot of views or how to negotiate with businesses. And how she found this new opportunity isolating as she navigated these hurdles.
“I was hitting 20,000 page views a month and had no idea that was a big deal. And I was not making any money from it.”
bree, Owner/founder thrive blog
Bree fell into a category that many other bloggers fall into, starting to see success and not knowing what to do with it. Eventually, she started connecting with other bloggers and realized everyone was experiencing the same issues. This was a brand new industry and they were essentially carving the path themselves.
As she troubleshot and connected with others, she saw the power in the community and how sharing this knowledge could help empower other bloggers. She felt there was an opportunity to build a community and help others feel less alone.
“What I do now is education and helping bloggers because I didn’t realize what I had.
bree
A lot of it back then was just growing with the community. And that’s the thread of everything in my career.
It has always been community, which has gotten me to where I am today.”
The Catalyst that Started It All
So, how did Bree go from having a blog with 20k monthly views and no income to building an eCommerce empire with multiple income streams? Well, she took it step by step.
“It started from us having local meetups, and somebody said, “Oh, well, Amazon wants me to go on Instagram and take over their stories,” which, I mean, this was back in 2014. So this was all brand new real estate.
And she’s telling us how much she charged for it. And we were saying, “Oh, you should have charged so much more.” It was those moments of realizing that we need more people to tell us what to do. We need successful bloggers to teach us what to do.“
Bree
Bree really wanted to help teach and educate others like her to help see that this career has limitless potential. Especially when you have a whole community and friendships that can help you navigate it.
And ideally, she wanted to help bring other creative and like-minded people together to connect, learn, and walk away feeling like regardless of what happened in their business, they now know what to do.
She also knew she didn’t have all the answers, and she needed lots of voices and perspectives to make the biggest impact. And that’s how the idea of Thrive’s conference was born.
Not just one voice saying, this is what you should do, but multiple voices saying, “This is what we have done, and this is what you should do.”
At that point, Bree decided to gather with other bloggers she knew and teach a group of women how they did it.
“That’s how we started. We were like, “Okay, let’s do one conference and see what happens.” By the end of that day, we knew we would do it again.
bree
It was a game-changer for so many people that attended. And that’s what Thrive was for the next few years. It was a once-a-year, in-person conference.”
While the conference thrive-d this was only the beginning. Bree had gotten into the swing of things, however she wasn’t prepared for a global pandemic that would prevent her from having an in person conference.
When COVID hit, Bree had to branch out once again and think outside the box. And while the transition let scary, she’d navigated new waters before and knew she’d come out even stronger.
At that point Bree decided to make the information even more accessible which began a whole new next-level chapter.
Thrive’s Offerings Expand
Bree started a virtual coaching program allowing just about anyone to access this information without attending the in-person conference and she launched one and then two courses. One geared towards beginners, and the other, for seasoned bloggers.
Her career and business has evolved into many different things, but somehow she seems to constantly come out on top. Each new hurdle only made her business stronger as she reached and connected with even more people.
And why is that?
“It’s because of my community that has gotten me where I am today. I have business besties and blogging friends that have kept me doing what I’m doing.
bree
And that’s what got me to success back then and led to such an amazing career. I’m just so grateful that I randomly started a blog.”
And the most rewarding part has been giving a community to other bloggers and helping them build a career based on their passion. Because if there’s one thing Bree knows very well, it’s that no one can do it alone. We need a community to ‘thrive’ in this world.
“During a coaching call, a woman said, “I want to ask everybody how are you doing it all? I am a mom, and I try to do all of these different things. You guys are doing it all. How are you doing it?” My other girls immediately unmuted and said, “We are not doing it all.”
Especially in this industry where we are constantly online, constantly putting out content, and consuming content, it is very easy for us to get overwhelmed and freeze because it seems impossible to keep up.
How do I do all of this? How do I wear all the hats? How do I juggle all of the things? That’s something that I have dealt with. It’s something I still deal with.”
Bree
While a community can be so helpful when building a business, that’s not the only thing entrepreneurs need to consider. There’s this whole other aspect of how are you going to juggle all the hats?
As Bree mentioned, we can’t do it all. So how do we reach that point of accomplishing our dreams and being successful business owners without burning out and giving up?
Well, Bree has some great tips for just that below.
“We have to be very strategic with our time and what we commit to. Ask yourself, “Okay, how does this feel? Am I able to be consistent with it? Am I able to do it?” before you even take on anything else.”
bree
Bree couldn’t have accomplished as much if it hadn’t been for the help along the way. Her friends, the people who have volunteered or were hired by Bree, and one marketing tool in particular.
Tailwind also helped take things off her plate and connect her with more bloggers. Because of Tailwind’s scheduling and automated posting Bree was able to spend her time doing more entrepreneurial things.
Bree Signed Up with Tailwind
“A lot of what I look at for anybody in our community is how much time you actually have in a week. How can we get some of that time back? And where can we strategically put our time?
bree
And having a tool like Tailwind is such a strategic way to use your time because you can schedule things. You can batch schedule things.
Using a tool like Tailwind is a game-changer.”
Sure lots of people talk about the time-saving Tailwind gives users; just check out Tailwind users, Natalie Bardo and Sandy Dedeian’s stories.
But how has Tailwind specifically helped Bree in a way no other app could or has?
Well, let’s get into that next!
“Batching is my jam. Sitting down and doing all of your scheduling once or twice a month, rather than going in weekly or daily and doing things manually, is a huge time saver.
bree
And Tailwind is constantly adding new features and design options for pins.”
Batching and scheduling aren’t the only Tailwind features Bree loves. There’s another one that hits particularly close to the center of Thrive and what Bree does.
“I love Tailwind communities. It’s such a cool feature that nobody else does. Community is at the core of everything that I do. I am still in the blogging world, and an entrepreneur to this day is because of community.”
Bree
If you’re an entrepreneur trying to do it all and wondering how to balance more you can try a one-month free trial of Tailwind and see what else you have time for!
Spoiler alert, no one is doing it alone, and you don’t need to burn yourself out by trying to do it without help.
Let Tailwind take a load off your plate and see what you can do with that extra time.
What’s Next for Thrive
“We just started a new coaching program, so now we have two. One’s called the Profitable Blogger Society. That is for newer bloggers wanting to get a good foundation and grow.
And we just launched a program called Shift. And that is for established bloggers who have already started to make money, grow, and are ready to scale to the next level.
So we’re working on that and creating content through our podcast and just different resources and education that we can share.
This world is a constantly evolving machine. I’m always wondering how we can take what’s happening, digest it, and then give it back in an easy way for you to learn and apply to what you’re doing.”
Bree
You can also listen to Bree’s podcast to learn tips, tricks, and behind-the-scenes of influencers. And don’t forget to check out her Facebook group, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube.
Until next time, friends!
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