Episode 542: How to Make a Profit By Selling Products That Fill Your Creative Soul and Make Customers Happy with Kathie Lapcevic

EBT542 – Kathie Lapcevic

Intro 00:00

Food bloggers. Hi, how are you today? Thank you so much for tuning in to the Eat Blog Talk podcast. This is the place for food bloggers to get information and inspiration to accelerate your blog’s growth, and ultimately help you to achieve your freedom. Whether that’s financial, personal, or professional. I’m Megan Porta. I have been a food blogger for 13 years, so I understand how isolating food blogging can be. I’m on a mission to motivate, inspire, and most importantly, let each and every food blogger, including you, know that you are heard and supported. 

Megan Porta  00:37

A lot of us make products whether it’s a physical product, or a digital product, or maybe a service or a membership or something like that, outside of our blogs, but do we ever stop to make sure that that product or service fills our creative soul as well as making our users happy, and also making a profit because we can’t work for free all the time, right? Kathy Lapcevic, from Homespun Seasonal Living, joins me in this interview to talk about this very topic. She talks about some things that she has created for her users that are so creative and things that I never would have thought about. In episode we talk about how to brainstorm ideas for what products might be a good fit for you and your niche. Also how to test the idea so that you know it’s a good option to move forward with. Kathy talks about investigating your competition, so you have a good idea about what’s going on currently. An overarching theme of our conversation is just how to sell in a way that feels really authentic and sincere to you. Because that is so important when you’re selling anything. And we give a little bit of attention to the fact that we do need to make some money. So being cognizant of expenses and your time and all of that. I hope you enjoy this episode. It was such a fun one to record. It is episode number 542 sponsored by Rank IQ. 

Sponsor  02:03

Hello there, food blogger friends, I want to take a really quick break from this episode to chat about a few ways Eat Blog Talk can help you to feel connected as well as to get your hands on relevant, valuable information in 2024. It has been a bit of a tumultuous year so far do you agree? But you have come too far to stop now. This time is a minor blip in the journey. So buckle up and let’s do this journey together and come out on the other side stronger than ever. Eat Blog Talk now has a Facebook group. Go join the BlogTalk community Facebook group to get in on some great discussions. Once you’re inside, you will gain access to a free job postings shared document whether you’re offering a service or looking for a service. There’s also the new-ish accountability group that you BlogTalk offers. This group is a low investment membership for anyone looking to connect with peers and grow your business. This is for newer bloggers, intermediate bloggers and experienced bloggers we offer robust calls in Slack discussions and so much more in this group for the low cost of $34 a month. The Eat Blog Talk Mini Minds and mastermind groups are still being offered in 2024 and beyond. Mini minds groups start up again in October and we will start filling the 2025 mastermind group in late summer of 24. Join the waitlist for one of these groups and you will not be disappointed. And last but not least join us at an in person retreat. If you are ready to learn, grow and build relationships in person. Join me and a handful of your fellow food bloggers and an upcoming Eat Blog Talk retreat. This is such a great opportunity to convene in an intimate setting. So you can learn collaborate and connect. These retreats involve mastermind style peer to peer collaborating, and they’re incredibly powerful, delicious, so much good food and fun. For all the offerings mentioned head to eatblogtalk.com and you will be directed in the appropriate way. We are more than just a podcast go explore some of these other offerings as your time and budget allows can’t wait to see you in some of those other places. Now back to the episode.

Megan Porta  04:19

Kathie Lapcevic is a blogger and teacher living in northwest Montana. She is a quiet rebel, embracing a simple and seasonal life that isn’t exactly mainstream. She can often be found either making a mess in the garden or in the kitchen where she focuses on intentional living that showers love upon the important people in her life.

Megan Porta  04:38

Kathy, welcome to the podcast. How are you today?

Kathie Lapcevic  04:42

I’m just great. Thanks. Thank you for having me. And how are you today?

Megan Porta  04:45

Oh, thanks for asking. I’m good too. This is the greatest way to start my day talking to awesome guests.

Kathie Lapcevic  04:51

All right, thank you.

Megan Porta  04:52

We’re gonna talk about creating products today that actually make you feel up and make your customers happy and make you money. 

Kathie Lapcevic  05:00

Nice. 

Megan Porta  05:01

But before we get to that topic to have a fun factor share with us, Kathy?

Kathie Lapcevic  05:05

Sure. You know, I thought about this because of course, I listened to the podcast and the thing I thought about was my name of all things is that my my full name is Kathy Nicole Lapcevic. And it was named after my paternal grandparents. So my grandma’s name was Kathy and her husband, my grandpa was Nick. So um, Kathy Nicole, and their last name was absolutely Lapcevic. And I’ve always just kept my name and it just everything I just, you know, I just, for whatever reason, I just love that that’s my name. And I relate so strongly to it, because my grandma Kathy was just such a huge inspiration in my life. And so that’s mostly my fun fact.

Megan Porta  05:42

Oh, I love that. And I feel like a lot of people don’t have that strong title, a name. I mean, we all kind of like our names, right? Because we were right, given them but to have a really deep emotional connection with that is so awesome. Love that so much. Thank you for sharing. So to frame our chat today, I would love to hear a little bit more about your blog. Just give us a framework for who you are as a blogger. 

Kathie Lapcevic  06:09

Sure. So I will be honest that I started blogging like so long ago, I started blogging when XANGO was a thing, which I think most newer bloggers certainly have never heard of, right, like, well before WordPress, like, you know, Live Journal, and all that kind of stuff so well before that. And obviously, things weren’t monetized back then it was just kind of you talk to your friends about gardening or whatever. And what I talked about, then is still what I talked about now, which was voluntary simplicity, and in living in harmony with the Earth and the seasons. And so that’s what I continue to do. Now, of course, now I do it a little bit, a little bit, a lot more like a business, it is a business. And my main blog is Homespun Seasonal Living. And we talk about living in harmony with the earth seasons, in a way that’s simple and doable, and skips all the overwhelm. And that includes, it includes a whole lot of food, of course, because we talk about eating in harmony with the seasons, we talked about preserving foods, so that you can eat, you know, peaches in the middle of winter, even if you live in northwest Montana. And, and it also includes some other things like gardening and voluntary simplicity and herbs and foraging and all kinds of good stuff. But food is a big component, because that is how a lot of people kind of get started on this idea of living simple. And food is just the thing that connects all of us no matter what I think. And I come from a long background of Serbian and Italian and so food is just a big deal. And so I keep that going as far as the blog, and it has grown over the years, you know, I started doing e-courses and newsletters and ebooks and all different kinds of things. And what has always been important to me is that I never lose sight of the fact that I want it to be simple for myself, but also to encourage other people who want to live that kind of lifestyle. And that I want it to be, you know, without overwhelm for myself to create. But I also of course need it to make a profit and do well. And feel good. Because you know, there’s no point for me and doing something that I don’t feel good about, like I don’t promote products I don’t like I don’t do affiliates, if I don’t feel good about it. So that’s like the most important thing for me. Money is important. Of course, we need to pay bills. But it’s not the only thing. And I think that resonates with my audience.

Megan Porta  08:24

Yeah, I love that. I feel like we all do those things that we don’t feel good about. And sometimes we can get a little too far down the road and be like, Oh, this doesn’t feel good. What do I do now, as a blogger, there’s so many options for things to do. And there’s a lot of opportunity to do things that you don’t feel good about. Right? 

Kathie Lapcevic  08:45

Right, sure is. And it’s really, you know, I don’t you know, it’s so easy to get sidetracked by the shiny thing. But yeah, it’s not that I’m perfect. I’ve done things later. And I’m like, Oh, I wish I hadn’t done that. But you just live live and learn, live and learn. No one’s perfect. 

Megan Porta  08:59

Exactly, I think if you’re a blogger long enough, you can say that about probably a lot of things and projects. 

Kathie Lapcevic  09:06

Yes, absolutely. 

Megan Porta  09:07

But I love that that’s a focus. And I think that should be a priority for a lot of us is just focusing on feeling good about the things that we’re doing, if not everything than most things, and then getting to the point where you do feel good about everything you’re working on. So I have a question about your blog. So at what point would you say that you just decided that you were going to make it a business you just kind of dug in? I think everyone has that pivotal time.

Kathie Lapcevic  09:35

Right? You know, I started doing a newsletter long before, like newsletters were really a thing for bloggers. And I think that was when it started right then in there. So that’s been at least 12 years. 

Megan Porta  09:49

Oh wow. 

Kathie Lapcevic  09:50

At least 12 years so and what hard it was I just started doing a newsletter and then I started doing e-courses this was before even like there were software to do e courses. I just did them through my email this, like, if you sign up for the course you got a special, you know, everything, your ebooks and everything for the course were delivered through emails, links to the videos on Vimeo and that kind of thing. So that’s how it started. And it was slow, you know, and I had Google ads because it was before like MediaVine and Raptiv and all those other things. So, and they didn’t make a ton of money, but I just slowly built and I had another another job at the time, you know, so it was just slowly building. And even now, you know, one of the things everybody always wants to build really fast, right? And everybody, of course, wants to be like an overnight success. But this is not how life works. I’m old enough to know better now, of course, and I’ve been down the road a few things times. But yeah, I think I just decided then, like, once I people signed up for my newsletter and wanted that delivered to their inbox. You know, I know, I still have some of those same original subscribers like 12 years later.

Megan Porta  10:53

Oh, wow. That’s amazing. 

Kathie Lapcevic  10:56

And I think that that’s the thing that’s always been the number one thing for me is I just really want to relate to people who come and find me. And so that was always the most important thing, and still is the most important thing. It’s more important to me than SEO, it’s more important to me, then. I mean, obviously, we need SEO, because people need to find you some way. But if the most important thing to me has always been connecting to the people who sign up for my newsletter.

Megan Porta  11:22

I love that you have carried on with people who found you so many years ago, do you still stay in touch with them? Do they reach out? Do you have communication?

Kathie Lapcevic  11:30

They do. And you know, they follow me on social media, of course, like on Facebook, which is where the majority of my audience is. And so they you know, they still comment and will leave me thing, leave me low notes. And I know they’re there. And they will send me emails and they are the people who still buy my product, right? If I come up with something new and so you I just want to nurture continue to nurture that and I value and respect them. And I think they know that they know that I don’t just see them as like, you know, as a cash cow. Right? I don’t see. Yeah. I think they believe that I really want to help them. And I do really want to help them. So that’s the good thing. 

Megan Porta  12:04

I love all the things that you value. You value relationships, you value sincerity and simplicity. 

Kathie Lapcevic  12:11

Yes, yes. 

Megan Porta  12:12

That is all just great stuff. Okay, so you’re talking about e-courses that you did a million years ago. I right. I think I did some of those too. And it was your right back then there was really nothing to like house, that sort of thing. We just kind of figured it out. Like how am I going to get this out? There? You just kind of hobble it to cobbled it together. 

Kathie Lapcevic  12:33

Right? Yeah, that’s for sure. 

Megan Porta  12:34

So aside from the e-courses, what other products did you start with creating to offer your people?

Kathie Lapcevic  12:41

I do have some ebooks I’ve always done, you know, some smaller eBooks are not huge things. But they’re you know, they’re helpful. Like, I have an ebook that’s like a, you know, seasonal guide to spring that includes some recipes. And some projects that are like spring focused, I have one for each season. And I have one on preserving tomatoes and hot drinks and things like that. So I done that and plenty of e-courses. And then last year, I kind of a wild hare which I support. I’m always i One of the things about me that’s either a blessing or a curse, or somewhere in the middle is that I will you know, whatever I want to do, I’m always just like, well, I’ll figure it out. Whatever it is, I’ll figure it out like the e-courses. Well, there’s no software right now, but I’ll figure out how to do it. And I figured out how to do it, it may not have been the best or the most streamlined, but it worked. And you know, and I just if anything ever goes wrong for a customer, I just always make it right. Of course, no matter what. But I try my best to figure out technology, it’s not my best. 

Kathie Lapcevic  13:39

But last summer, I had had this idea in my head that I wanted to do like a seasonal subscription box of some sort. And I thought, well, you know, maybe I’d like to do it in a way where like I could share like the herbs that I grow on our little homestead or like I could share some jams and jellies that we make or you know, all that kind of stuff. And then I started looking into the regulations of doing that and shipping it across state lines. And it was just, it was just really cumbersome. And I didn’t want to take it on. But the idea of sending actual mail to people didn’t just would not leave me alone. And so what I came up with, I called it the seasonal whisper. And it’s a kind of a letter, it’s a two ounce letter. So it’s a five by nine envelope and I fill it full of whatever I can that will fit for two out stamps. And it includes a letter about the season. I include some recipes, I include little projects or maybe a list of books or you know, things to help people along. And I include some stickers and a seasonal bingo card, which has been like credibly, like it was the thing I stuck in the first summer packet last year. And I thought well, we’ll see if people resonate with this if they like it and they really did. And love it. Like it’s the thing that gets shared on social media by subscribers the most. 

Megan Porta  14:55

Is that something you create yourself?

Kathie Lapcevic  14:57

It is yeah, it’s just a bingo card. template, right, just a standard bingo card. But it has things like the spring card for the issue that just went out in the spring was like eat a radish, right? Do some spring cleaning, those are the squares, right? Start a craft project, go on a picnic, eat a salad from local veggies, things like that, you know, in the winter, it might be like, make a cup of hot cocoa or something like that. So there’s just seasonal activities, and then you can get bingo. I mean, there’s no prize, right? It’s just to kind of, maybe help people focus on the season in a way they wouldn’t normally or just help them understand what is going on in their world. It’s a fun way to maybe kind of keep a very light journal, if that’s kind of what you’re into. And so that has been really popular. And I launched it. And this is what I would encourage anyone like when you have the idea, kind of pre launch it and see if people resonate. And then you know, if they don’t, you can decide what you want to do later. But it was, has been very successful. And it is the my favorite thing I’ve ever done without a doubt.

Megan Porta  15:58

I love the idea of mailing like actually putting something in the mail. People don’t do that anymore. So I bet people love that touch. 

Kathie Lapcevic  16:06

Right? And you know, I understand, obviously, that’s not going to be right for every audience. If you have an audience who’s super technical, you know, who really like all the gadgets and things that might not be for them. But for my audience, it’s absolutely the thing they love.

Megan Porta  16:19

Yeah, I would say especially with an older audience, I have a few food blogger friends that have fairly old audiences. And those people love mail. Yeah, so that’s so cool. How many, I’m curious how many people you send that to regularly?

Kathie Lapcevic  16:36

So the spring issue which would have went out right when we’re recording this are a couple of weeks ago, I had 220 subscribers, and that’s worldwide. So I’m in Canada. So I’m in I have a couple in Australia, which I appreciate and love, but the season is opposite, right? So since I’m in northwest Montana, but they subscribe, and I have some in Japan and some other places. So it’s very exciting. And my goal, my very big goal, we’ll just put this out here is to be at 1000 subscribers by the end of this year.

Megan Porta  17:07

Oh my gosh, yeah. So we’re gonna do it. 

Kathie Lapcevic  17:09

Which is really a stretch, but I feel like I can do it.

Megan Porta  17:12

Absolutely. That’s doable. And do people share a lot on social media about the stuff that you send them?

Kathie Lapcevic  17:19

I’m gonna say no, no, some do, of course, but there’s not a ton or at least I haven’t seen a ton of the sharing, you know? And I do look, of course, and I asked, I have a hashtag with a club, you know, hashtag the seasonal whisperer. And some folks of course, do and I see those, but not a ton. But I also think that my core audience are not super active on social media.

Megan Porta  17:38

Yeah, yeah, sure. That’s a key point. Yes. 

Kathie Lapcevic  17:42

Yeah. They’re just not super active. And that’s fine. You know, the people who do I really appreciate it. And of course, I’ve shared it with a few folks hoping that you know, who are influencers or other bloggers and hoping that they would share it, and I offer an affiliate program for them. So that’s great.

Sponsor  17:57

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Megan Porta  19:29

I love how you got that intuition and that little nudge to do that, like send something through the mail and that you kept with it. You didn’t let it go. How do you recommend other people brainstorm those ideas or if they come to them know how to know which ones to hold on to?

Kathie Lapcevic  19:46

One of the things because I’ve had a newsletter for so long and I’ve had subscribers who stick around and I have you know, I’m just gonna say it in the active engaged Facebook page followers. But you know, the algorithm can be a little funny so you can’t always rely on that to really reach everyone. But the number one thing is ask your readers, you don’t have to ask them. Like very specific questions like if I offered an ecourse for $30, would you be interested in taking it? I would rather you should ask them what they’re most interested in learning from you specifically. So, like, how can you help them with their lives, so that you understand and then once you know what they truly want, and what interests you from that bucket, right, because obviously, you’re gonna get ideas. And I would say, run a survey through your newsletter or through social media, give them very specific choices. Because you know, you’re, you don’t want to, like have everyone be like, Oh, we want something that you can’t do. So give them specific choices and then see what lands and then you know how to create a product from there, at least what to create a product on. And then, you know, hopefully, you know, your audience, whether they would relate to like an ebook or an e-course, I will say that I don’t, you know, I don’t follow the trends super closely. But I have noticed that my own e-courses aren’t selling as well as they used to. And I think people are kind of burned out. But I can’t obviously account for that in every way. I think if you can find something that’s different, and really reaches your core audience, your real fans, that’s what you want to do. And obviously, if it sparks joy for you, and they’re following you, it probably sparks joy for them, too. I think that’s important to remember, people follow you because they like you,

Megan Porta  21:31

And the things that you offer. Yep. And those little nudges, like you’ve talked about Kathy, I think we all have those. And sometimes we ignore them, because there are quote, other things we have to get done. But we should stop and pay attention to those nudges sometimes, or at least write them down and let them stew a little bit and come back to them later, right?

Kathie Lapcevic  21:50

Right. And I think a hit for me, that’s one of the things for me it that’s when I really know that I should do something like if an idea sticks in my head, and it just won’t go away. And I’m blessed with a really wonderful husband and I well, he doesn’t really understand all that like kind of technical ins and outs of blogging, and doesn’t it he doesn’t need to. But if I have an idea, and I kind of talked to him about it, he’s always just like, well, what’s the worst that can happen? Like, go for it? What’s the worst that can happen? I mean, obviously, we don’t want to spend 1000s of dollars, we don’t want to invest 1000s of dollars into something that might not work. But if it’s a low cost thing, you know, for like, for instance, for my my packet of mailing, okay, I had a really good printer, I bought a refurbished printer, but a really good printer. So I could, because I didn’t know how many I would sell. So I wanted to be able to just print at home, but I already had that. So it wasn’t a big deal to do that. And obviously I need postage and other things. So you know, you just have to investigate the cost and make sure you build that into your product. But I say go for it. If you have an idea, and it’s really sticking with you and you think you can make it work. You won’t know until you try.

Megan Porta  22:57

Right? Yeah, put it out there. Like you said, what’s the worst that can happen? People don’t like it and you try something else? Or you you hone your idea a little bit and you do something a little bit different. And then do you ever investigate, like what others are doing that may be something similar just to see how that’s going for them?

Kathie Lapcevic  23:17

Absolutely. And I don’t mean, you shouldn’t obviously steal someone’s idea. But you can look at products that are similar. What I did when I was interested in the seasonal whisperer, specifically in mailing packets was I went into Etsy. And I looked to see if anyone else was selling sort of a mail subscription and what they were doing. And there were other people who were selling mail subscriptions. And some were just these gorgeous, like letters like this woman, she traveled to France and she would draw these like kind of like journal entries. And she had these really beautiful like watercolor paintings and kind of thing that you could buy from her. And they were gorgeous. Not at all what I wanted to do, right, like I had no idea, no inclination to do anything like that. I couldn’t paint those things anyway. But it let me know that people were buying mailed things. Yeah. So like, I knew Okay, well, then at least people are buying this. And I don’t I still don’t list my product on the season on Etsy. But it was a good way for me to just kind of investigate and see. And then the other thing I did, of course, was just looked around to see what might be similar from an electronic standpoint. And of course, there’s lots of magazines and things right that people subscribe to. And while it’s not technically a magazine, it’s similar enough that I thought, Okay, this could work. This could work. And we’ll just try it and see. 

Megan Porta  24:33

I like that you mentioned Etsy, because that’s not a typical like food blogger platform. But sometimes it’s good to just widen our scope a little bit and see what other platforms people are selling on or where they’re at, like LinkedIn. I think a lot of us can miss because it’s not, I don’t know, it’s like business and professional. But that’s really important too. For certain things, Etsy, there are all of these platforms that we don’t always think of that provide I hit us with opportunity potentially, right? 

Kathie Lapcevic  25:02

That’s right. Absolutely. And the other thing I did was like I went on to Instagram, I don’t really use TikTok, I’m, I’m an older gal. I’m almost 50, I just don’t talk, this isn’t my thing. But I did go on to Instagram. And I just kind of looked around like different hashtags that I thought would be similar, like snail mail and things like that. What I ended up finding was there, there was a few people who did kind of like advice columns, oh, by the mail, which I thought was kind of clever and cute. So again, not what I’m doing. But it was clever, and people were buying it. And there was a lot of people who were doing like little designs. So you know, they print small and do small runs of like magazines based on different topics. It might be recipes, it might be gardening, it might be, you know, sports, it could be any number of things. But people are buying those printed things and having a mailed to them. And so I knew there was a market because these other people were doing it, tapping into that market and selling that’s a whole other thing. But there is a market for it. And I think that’s true for food bloggers, right? If all these people are like, independently publishing small, little booklet full of recipes, you know, they might only be five or 10 recipes, with cute little illustrations instead of full color photos, people are buying those. So it’s a fun way to just kind of look around, you just have to maybe think outside the box, a little

Megan Porta  26:22

Something else that came to mind, because I’ve talked to a few food bloggers very recently who create art, like fine art, either like drawings or paintings or something. And they have this passion for it. Because I think a lot of us are creatives, and they want to put it out there and sell it and they’ve had this nudge to do that. Do you think that that’s something people could explore?

Kathie Lapcevic  26:44

Absolutely, absolutely. I think and I think you could combine those two things, you know, if you’re a really good artist, and you can create recipes, maybe you can illustrate the recipes instead of take gorgeous photos, and sell those because they’re easier and cheaper to print. And I think there’s a real market for things like, you know, postcards and note cards, with recipes on them that maybe have a drawing or have a really nice photo, of course, you you run into money with printing, color printing, but you there is a market for these things, you just have to follow your passion. And as long as it obviously aligns with your current audience, and if it doesn’t, if it doesn’t align with your current audience, then you got to build the audience that you want. 

Megan Porta  27:25

I have had an idea. Now I’m feeling a little nudge to do this. But I’m always looking for notecards with inspiring, like, I don’t know, quotes or statements or something on them. And all the ones out there are just, I don’t know, they’re just kind of dumb or like they, they just the repetitive and it’s like cliche, I just want something a little bit more unique. So I was thinking I should just create my own. And I’ve had that come up a few times in the past year. So… 

Kathie Lapcevic  27:55

There you go.

Megan Porta  27:56

 But yeah, like printing and all of that you have to think through and I don’t know how, how cost effective that would actually be? 

Kathie Lapcevic  28:02

Well, you know, and again, you just would have to investigate. But you have to just you know, and you have I think one of the things and this is the thing I had to do was like I really investigated the costs. And color printing is obviously a lot more expensive than black and white. And yes, you know, especially as food bloggers, you love the big gorgeous photos, right? This show-stopping photos, that’s gonna cost you a fortune to print. So you have to learn to find a way that’s different, that still allows you to share what you want, but at a cost effective way. And so black and white is the way to go for me and I don’t in my mail packets, I actually don’t include photos because there’s just it well, and it’s unnecessary. Like I do include recipes, but I just feel like they don’t need the photos to illustrate them. And, and no one has complained or thought that they needed them. 

Megan Porta  28:48

All right. And you can provide a QR code or URL for that. They don’t need to see those in your in your mailings, right? 

Kathie Lapcevic  28:54

That’s right. That’s right. And then the other thing, because we said that I always include in the packets, I actually have made a custom sticker, every mailing, and it has a quote about the season on it. You know, Spring is the time of plans and projects with Leo Tolstoy quote, and so I just had I have an I hire a graphic designer to help me make it look nice because it’s not my thing. And then I have it, you know, printed and they’re not that expensive in full color to do. So you know, you can do something like that you can do those stickers and sell them there cheaply. People love stickers.

Megan Porta  29:24

They do and there’s so much opportunity for creativity with everything we’re talking about. Do you have any other ideas for people like we’ve talked about an array of things, maybe some more digital products or something like that, that people can get their minds going? Sure.

Kathie Lapcevic  29:42

I absolutely think that ebooks can be a wonderful thing and there can be low ticket and they don’t have to be super hard. I think the thing to remember is that people pay for convenience. So you can take your recipes and compile them into an ebook and maybe just add one or two new ones that they can’t find anywhere else, and package that and sell it, because people will pay for the convenience of having it in one spot. So I think, absolutely investigate those things. And you know, check again what your audience really wants, maybe it’s an ecourse. Maybe they want a membership, if you want to do a membership. Memberships are more intensive. Yeah, in a long term kind of way. Yeah. Right. You know, they require that you pay a lot more attention. Whereas when you sell an ebook, you’re you know, you’re done. But the nice thing about those kinds of products is once you create it, you can theoretically just sell it forever. And it can be really low stress for you.

Megan Porta  30:36

Yes. So I love your advice that you gave earlier. Just pay attention to those nudges, check in with your audience. Be specific, and don’t just, I’ve done this before. They’re like, hey, what do you want for me? What sounds good. And then you get a whole slew of things that don’t really align with anything you’re working on. Or people just don’t know. They’re like, I don’t know what I want. You tell me. 

Kathie Lapcevic  31:00

Right? And they often don’t you’re like, Henry Ford once said, If I’d ask people what they want, they would have said faster horses. Yeah, exactly. So people don’t always know. So if you just guide them, and you’re guiding them into not telling them what they want, but what you can provide, yeah, that’s what needs, you’re telling them what you can provide.

Megan Porta  31:19

What your skills are equipped to handle, and also what you feel you want to do? So you’re giving them those options. And then maybe when you present those things, other ideas or opportunities will come to you. You never know. Like the I don’t know, like things come to me all the time, where I’m like, Oh, where did that come from? I never thought of that before. 

Kathie Lapcevic  31:39

Always write, I think always write those things down. And you just never know, you may not do anything with it right away. But always keep track of those things. Because it may really help you later.

Megan Porta  31:49

We talked about the just like the printing and being cognizant of cost, but how much do you stay in tune with making profit, when you sell products?

Kathie Lapcevic  32:03

I stay very in tune I you know, I keep track of everything to make sure that the the book work is gonna work. Because it’s, I mean, I can’t, I can’t blog for free, I can’t work for free. So I have to I keep very close track of my book work. I obviously, I have a CPA who helps me, you know, who does my taxes and that kind of thing. And if I have real questions, I can ask her. But I keep track of my book work very closely. I just every day I do bookkeeping, you know, I make sure I keep track of, you know, the PayPal fees, and the stripe fees, and the different software fees, all of that adds up, and I make sure that it’s all built into the cost of my products. I personally don’t need to make a million dollars a year, because I live a simple life. But I have to make some money. And so I just make sure everything is built in. And I feel good about the price, but I’m also making a profit. And only you can answer that for yourself based on you know, based on your own, you know how much time something is going to take and whatever the one thing I didn’t build in well to the seasonal whisper was how much of my physical time it would take to put together the packet. Right? And I just didn’t know it at the time. And now I do know it my husband and I are able to edit, you know, like anything, the more you do something, the more efficient you become. Yeah, the first one takes forever.

Megan Porta  33:17

Yes, yeah, no, but time is money. Like you have to factor that in. Because, like resources wise, it can make sense. And then you start doing it. And it’s like, wait a second, this is costing so much time that it’s not worth it anymore. So you do have to kind of experiment with that, I think.

Kathie Lapcevic  33:35

Right. And I think that’s the one nice thing, a very nice thing about like ebooks or other kinds of e-products that are that are repetitive is that once you’ve done it, you’ve done it. And so once you earn back your initial time, everything you sell from there on out is pure profit beyond the fees and whatever, so… 

Megan Porta  33:52

Oh, this is so great. I feel suddenly very creative. Like I want to go just start making art and selling it and sending it around the world. Do you have any other ideas, Kathy for people, if they’re just wanting a little bit of help brainstorming about what they can jump into?

Kathie Lapcevic  34:09

I would say you know, I don’t again, I don’t condone stealing, but definitely look at what other people are doing in your space. And one of the things I do have done for a long time I subscribe to a lot of newsletters, not because I want to see well first of all, I schedule a lot of things to social media. So I like to when I get a newsletter, it’s easy for me to just be like, Oh yeah, that strawberry recipe looks great. I’ll schedule that you know what I mean? But also just to kind of see what other people are doing. And kind of I’m not very in tune to kind of like pop culture and things like that. And so by subscribing to newsletters, I can see what other people are doing in my niche or niche adjacent. If you’re an instapot food blogger, then maybe you want to just look and see what other instapot bloggers are doing. But if you’re something more general like desserts, look at a variety of desserts and see what they’re doing and what resonates with their audience. Maybe look for ways to even collaborate, which I think is really important too, is to just reach out when I have a new product. I’ve been blogging a long time. I know a lot of bloggers, I reach out and ask them if they’d like to see a sample, I use send out to deliver my eBooks and things. And they have an affiliate program. And so I offer a commission to other bloggers if they want to, if they like what I have, and would like to sell it to their audience. So I think it’s important reach out.

Megan Porta  35:24

That’s such a great idea. I’m glad you mentioned that. Because we do work in such a silo, sometimes we work alone, we just assume that we have to do everything by ourselves, when that’s not true. Actually getting together with other people who do similar things can take time pressure off of you and reach a wider audience and all of those things that we just don’t always remind ourselves of.

Kathie Lapcevic  35:46

And you know, I think it’s fine to reach out to someone that you’ve never talked to before. I mean, obviously, we all get the like, crappy, spammy emails, like, can we insert a link? We’d love to collaborate, don’t do that. Be genuine and reaching out to other influencers, or bloggers because they have the same kind of stuff happening all the time. But be genuine. I’ve been following you for a while I really liked your stuff. I think you might like this, I can offer you and commission or I can send you samples, I can do whatever can we collaborate? And I think that is just a wonderful way to do that. And I think it’s important when you see other bloggers doing something that you really like that you tell them so and maybe promote them in a way even if even if it doesn’t offer you a commission, it’s okay to like, share their things on social media or put a plug in your newsletter or whatever.

Megan Porta  36:33

Yeah, so inspiring. Kathy, thank you for all of this, this was so valuable. And I hope this gives people just some creative juices to go out and create products that align with them and their audience and all of that good stuff. So thank you so much. 

Kathie Lapcevic  36:49

I hope so too. Thank you. 

Megan Porta  36:51

Yeah, it’s been such a pleasure. Do you have either a favorite quote or words of inspiration to leave us with today?

Kathie Lapcevic  36:57

Or, you know, it’s funny, because you mentioned the quotes earlier. And this was probably cliche, but it really is my favorite, which is, Comparison is the thief of joy. So, I love that quote, and I remind myself of it all the time when I see somebody who’s maybe who has, you know, a bigger following or seems to be doing really well I just remind myself that I shouldn’t compare myself to them because you know, I don’t really know what’s happening to them and just, I want to be joyful and what I’m doing so that’s my favorite.

Megan Porta  37:26

Oh, love that. It’s so simple, but it really does steal your joy. It does absolutely get other people to closely. Yeah, thank you so much. We’ll put together a show notes page for you Kathy, if you want to look at those head to eatblogtalk.com/homespunseasonalliving. Tell everyone where they can find you, Cathy?

Kathie Lapcevic  37:44

You can find me at homespunseasonalliving.com And I’m @homespunseasonalliving on Instagram and Facebook.

Megan Porta  37:50

Awesome. Thanks so much for being here. And thank you for listening today, food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

Outro  37:58

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. Please share this episode with a friend who would benefit from tuning in. I will see you next time.