Ana is a blogging strategist and coach, Amazon published author, media graduate and the founder of The She Approach where she helps women start and grow thriving blogging businesses. Through her signature course Ebook Bestseller Bootcamp, she also helps entrepreneurs publish their first or next bestselling eBook, have massive impact and grow their online visibility, alongside their passive income.

Can you tell our readers about your background? 

I was born in Bucharest, Romania into a large and loving family. However, I learned from a young age to be independent and make my own way through life. So at 19, I moved to the UK to pursue a University degree in Media & Communications and started my online business soon after, when I was only 20. 

What inspired you to start your business? 

Being born into a family of entrepreneurs, I knew early on that I didn’t want to pursue a traditional career growing up. So I was always on the lookout for opportunity. 

At University, we were encouraged to start a blog for artistic expression and to showcase a few of our media and tech skills. I did that, but I took it a step further. I figured out how to monetize my blog, how to turn it into a useful resource for those around me. And in time, my hobby blog became my business and main source of income. 

Where is your business based?

After my graduation, I decided to stick around in the UK. I’m now officially located in London, but I work with clients from all over the world, including Europe and the United States. 

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

Once I started monetizing my blog, I realized that I needed a few systems in place to scale my income to be able to quit my day job, and that’s exactly what I did.

I started off slow, creating digital products such as eBooks and other offerings, and implementing a few other passive income strategies on my blog, alongside free content and trainings. 

This way, I was able to grow a steady following and slowly transition out of my job into my role as an online entrepreneur. Having a long-term plan to go hand in hand with my vision also helped me stay realistic and take focused action towards my goals.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business? 

The heart of every blogging business is the content that you create and put out there. By writing helpful and insightful articles for my blog, creating free challenges and trainings and sharing them intentionally online, I was able to grow a loyal following over the years.

In terms of generating traffic to my website, Pinterest & SEO have been crucial for me. I’ve also captured that audience to join my email list, where I was able to further nurture them and create deeper connections.

In time, once I established myself in my niche and industry, I said yes to every opportunity I got to get in front of a new audience - from podcast interviews, to participating as a speaker in online summits, to leading in-person workshops and making the most out of interviews just like this one.

I also believe that publishing a series of eBooks has been incremental to increasing my online visibility and drawing in a new audience.  

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them? 

A few of my biggest challenges early on were time management and the dreaded impostor syndrome. 

For one, I was trying to grow a blogging business, while also pursuing a degree, having to work full-time to support myself and raising a puppy. Managing all that at once was challenging and exhilarating, and although I don’t claim to be an expert at time management or productivity now, I do believe it was a period in my life that though me a lot about disciple and following through with my plans in order to meet my goals.

But attempting to make a name for my brand and establish myself as a blogging expert so young also came with a new pair of challenges that I never foresaw, such as the impostor syndrome. I spend way too much time in the beginning doubting my abilities to teach people - or to charge people for my teachings - which definitely slowed down my progress. 

Although I am much more confident now about what I have to bring to the table, and I’ve worked with thousands of bloggers who can back me up on this, I can’t say that these doubts never creep in anymore. I’m simply better at managing them now and breaking through that resistance in order to get work done and show up for my clients. 

How do you stay focused?

Since starting my main blogging business - The She Approach - I’ve also taken the leap and started additional online businesses. Including Blogging Mode, a gift shop for bloggers, and an eco-friendly UK pet brand.

So staying focused has never been my strong suit. But I believe focus is overrated. As long as you’re persistent and persistently strategic in your approach, you can still accomplish great things. 

And while there have been seasons and times where I’ve given each business the time and focus they needed, I believe that being able to manage more things at once and outsource things that can be done without you are a more essential skill that every entrepreneur should have. Luckily for us, women are born multitaskers and leaders in that department, so I’ve never met a female entrepreneur who’s not good at that. (In fact, a lot of my blogging friends successfully run multiple blogs or side-hustles.)

How do you differentiate your business from the competition? 

I’m not going to lie - making a name for yourself as a blogging educator is hard. There’s a lot of us out there, and there’s also a lot of conflicting blogging advice. 

So my approach has always been to be approachable. (Pun intended.)

When I started off, I was struggling. I would reach out to these blogging gurus and educators to ask them questions (even people who’s courses I invested in) and so rarely heard back.

So I decided that I wasn’t going to be that kind of educator. I wanted my students to be able to reach me, to interact with a human. And I also wanted to be able to offer personalized advice and learn from my clients - and that’s what I’m doing now.

This is still a huge part of my mission today, and I believe that’s how I’m able to stand out as a blogging strategist and business coach. 

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business? 

I’m in the business of educating women on the best practices possible to help them grow their blogs and digital empires. Something that helped me effectively market and position myself as an expert was being shown in the context of an educator.

So I created free challenges, courses and trainings. I participating in online summits that my target audience attended and even spoke at live events such as Blog Con London, as well as co-hosting a workshop with the Google Digital Garage initiative in England. 

I got my business out there by getting myself out there. It’s scary but effective! 

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs? 

Stop overthinking. That font that you spend 2 hours choosing? Not that important. That article that you postponed publishing because it’s not perfect yet? It’s costing you readers and sales in draft mode. That business idea? It should’ve happened yesterday. 

No matter how much you know, you won’t know what you don’t know until you put it out there. Until you start. So do your do-diligence, but stop postponing real action. Because that’s the only thing that’s going to help you get your business off the ground. Then reevaluate and adapt. 

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

My favorite app at the moment is Tailwind. It’s helping me drive so much traffic to my blog from Pinterest, and it’s all automated, so it saves me a huge chunk of time.

My favorite blog at the moment is Her Paper Route. Chelsea shares super insightful blogging & business tips gained from her experiences, with super clear takeaways. 

My favorite book at the moment is The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier. Evolving as a coach and getting better at working with people 1-on-1 was on my to-do list this year, and this book helped me ask all the right questions.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

My favourite business tool at the moment is HoneyBook - my client onboarding system. It helps me take coaching client leads and manage them all in one place. It also creates a client portal, where my blog coaching clients can find and communicate with me, and it’s overall a system that has saved me a lot of time and peace of mind this year.

Who is your business role model? Why? 

This might be a bit cliche, but my business role model is currently my sister, Felicia. She’s founded one of the biggest children’s clothing company in America, while raising two children and growing a beautiful family of her own. She’s a problem solver, a true entrepreneur and a hard worker - everything I aspire to be. And it all started from an idea and a discussion that she and her husband had years ago, after not being able to find a hat to fit their son.

How do you balance work and life? 

One of my biggest motivations for starting my business and wanting to really make this work has always been so I could take time, whenever I needed, and be there for my family. And that’s still a priority for me to this day.

So to answer the question, I manage to keep a good balance between work and life, by focusing on my why, and why I initially wanted to do all this. (But to be totally honest, if I’m in the middle of an exciting project, I definitely blur the lines and become a little bit of a workaholic.)

What’s your favorite way to decompress? 

I spend a lot of my free time with my dog Flicka, either taking her on walks or teaching her new tricks. (Playing dead when you pretend to shoot her is always a crowd-pleaser.) And we spend quite a bit of time cuddled up on the sofa watching the new Netflix craze, which always helps me switch off and differentiate between working from home and being at home.

What do you have planned for the next six months? 

My plan for the next few months is to be able to serve my audience in bigger and better ways than ever before. From working on a new eBook that I’m planning to launch in 2021, to creating a series of free workshops for bloggers to help them grow their traffic and income (the first one is coming soon!), and a few fun collaborations, I plan to do it all.

How can our readers connect with you?

You can find me (and a bunch of free blogging tips, courses and freebies) over on my website at TheSheApproach.com, or on social media - @thesheapproach for everything. 

But my email list always gets my best content and advice, so be sure to sign up for it here.