"I'm not a blogger, I'm a business woman."Ever since I shared that epiphany during the Idea to Income webinar I recently hosted, it's really caught on! I didn't realize how many other female bloggers would be interested in making the same mental shift, but apparently, many of you are.

A photo posted by Courtney @ Think & Grow Chick (@thinkngrowchick) on Mar 25, 2015 at 8:55am PDT

People are so interested, in fact, that branding maven, Rana Campbell, recently interviewed me on this topic exactly. If you've ever wondered how I started my blog, grew it into a brand, and recently pivoted it into a business, you'll definitely want to check out this interview! Check out the snippet below:

What inspired you to start Think and Grow Chick?

As the name suggests, it had a lot to do with that famous book Think and Grow Rich. I came across the book at a time where a lot of things were going wrong in my life. I was borderline failing out of school, in credit card debt, and all this craziness. I wanted to get out but I wasn’t sure how.I attended a Women’s Entrepreneurship conference and there was a life coach there who was hosting a session and she kept raving about this book Think and Grow Rich. I went home and read it. It was the first time I was ever exposed to the goal setting process. I had always been ambitious and I knew that there were things I wanted to do, but I didn’t realize that you have to make a plan and then determine what sacrifices you’re going to make and chart it out in order to get there. I just thought that you want to do something and you try to figure out a way to do it and it just happens. The book opened my eyes to the power of goal setting.There were a lot of things I needed to get together in my life. I still had wanted to start a business and get that going. I said why I don’t I just become the Think And Grow Chick and I’ll create a blog and hopefully I will get a few readers and they can hold me accountable. It was just supposed to be a diary of me just talking about my journey to accomplishing these goals and I made it public as a way to just accountable. I didn’t know it would turn into what it is now.

What were the early days of Think and Grow Chick like?

My major goal was trying to get out of credit card debt and get squared away with school. I was also very much into natural hair and that was a goal. The business was a goal. Getting back in shape was a goal. The original blog was just a hodge podge of different things I was learning and found interesting. I would post about natural hair along with the finance and entrepreneurial posts. I would get so many emails asking me questions about natural hair so there was a period of time where I tended to focus more on the natural hair just because it was what people were asking me for. It was never my intention with Think and Grow Chick for it to be a natural hair blog.After about three years into it when I had a really dry spell where I just felt uninspired and I couldn’t figure out why. I admitted to myself I had gotten too far away from what the original mission of the blog was.I was doing what was popular and what was getting me hits but that wasn’t what I wanted my work online to be.

I was doing what was popular and what was getting me hits but that wasn’t what I wanted my work online to be.

I didn’t want it to be about hair. I wanted it to be about personal growth. Towards the end of 2013 after I had graduated and was finally in a place where I could focus on doing the blog. I had more free time and I said I really want to pour back into Think and Grow Chick but this time I am going to shift away from the natural hair stuff and just focus on the original mission: Personal growth, Finance, and Entrepreneurship.

What kind of challenges did you face early on building your blog?

When I first started the blog it was just me doing whatever I wanted to do and what made sense to me at the time.There’s so much information online about how to have a successful blog. I really struggled with trying to learn best practices and principles that I should apply to make my blog grow but then still not lose my voice and what I felt made Think and Grow Chick unique.

Visit Rana's blog at http://ranacampbell.com/2015/04/21/how-to-grow-your-business-think-and-grow-chick/ to check out the rest of the post!P.S. - Because this "blogger to business woman" concept has really caught on, I thought it would be cool to create more resources to help you make the "pivot" too.Now before you can make the transition from blogger to business woman, you first have to make the switch from blog to brand. This is something I focused on really hard in 2014 and it's what I believe allowed me to grow my business this year.If you have a blog that's kinda struggling - it's not getting the readership and attention you were hoping for - I invite you to join me on my free Blog Branding call next Tuesday!

During the call, I'm going to share:

• Common mistakes newbie bloggers/online brand builders make
• How new and intermediate bloggers often have the wrong focus and what they should be focusing on instead
• How most bloggers misunderstand "Content is King" and why it's costing them their readership
• How to never run out of blog post ideas
• 3 simple tricks to make the blog post writing process faster and easier
• Free & cheap tweaks to make your online brand look more professional
• The difference between Wordpress, Squarespace, and Wix, and which one you should go with
• How to keep you brand cohesive on social media
• What it takes to grow your audience
• The real reason why most bloggers don't make money

and a lot more! I'll also be taking questions from participants at the end.I've been meaning to do this for a while because I get asked these questions all the time. If you're a blogger ready to grow your brand so that you can one day make the shift to business woman, join me on the call next Tuesday! Just click the button below to sign up The class and replay are no longer available, but you can click the button below to sign-up for the waiting list:

Even if you can't make the call, you should still sign-up because I'll be sending out a replay. Sign-up here You can sign-up for the waitlist here: http://thinkandgrowchick.com/free-blog-branding-call/

Talk to Me:

Are you interested in making the shift from "blogger" to business woman? What have been your biggest challenges in making the shift? Leave a comment and let me know!