IAM069 – Entrepreneur Helps “Infopreneurs” Launch & Grow Profitable Online Enterprises

In 2014, Bailey Richert left her corporate career to study entrepreneurship at MIT and launch her own online, location independent business with the goal of earning her own income from anywhere in the world. Today, she helps others realize that it is possible to achieve the life you truly desire if you put in the effort to create the financial means to support that life. Through her books, blog, courses, coaching programs and events, Bailey helps individuals launch and grow profitable online enterprises as “infopreneurs”: respected experts in their fields creating value and generating income by sharing their life experience, knowledge and passions with others in a manner that supports their ideal lifestyles.

• CEO Hack: Click Funnels
• CEO Nugget: Create your business around your own name as a personal brand and build your business around that
• CEO Defined: Not being tied to the title but having a vision and strategy and being a leader to your team. Also focusing on the results.

Website: https://baileyrichert.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bailey.richert
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/baileyrichert
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/baileyrichert
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/baileyrichert/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baileyrichert
YouTube: http://youtube.com/user/baileyrichert
Free Virtual Summit Resources: https://virtualsummitschool.com

Transcription:

The full transcription is only available to CBNation Library Members. Sign up today!

Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Bailey Richert from baileyrichert.com. Bailey, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Bailey Richert 0:37

Thanks so much for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:38

Awesome, awesome, awesome. But what I wanted to do was read a little bit more about Bailey so you can learn a little bit more about her and all the awesome things that she's doing. In 2014 Bailey Richert left her corporate career to study entrepreneurship at MIT and launch her own online location independent business with the goal of earning her own income from anywhere in the world. Today, she helps others realize that it is possible to achieve the life you truly desire. If you put in the effort to create the financial means to support that life through her books, blogs, courses, coaching programs, and events. Bailey helps individuals launch and grow profitable online enterprises as infopreneurs, and respected experts in their fields creating value and generating income by sharing their life experience, knowledge, and passions with others in a manner that supports their ideal lifestyles. Bailey, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Bailey Richert 1:31

I'm ready. Let's do this.

Gresham Harkless 1:32

Awesome, awesome, awesome. The first question I have is just to learn a little bit more about your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

[restrict paid=”true”]

Bailey Richert 1:38

Sure. So I think like a lot of people, I was really brought up believing in the American Dream that if I worked hard enough and went to school, I could be successful. And I could find myself a corporate job and eventually retire with the White House and the picket fence. Right. So I was pursuing that career for quite a while I went to school to be an engineer. When I graduated, I eventually wound up in California working as an environmental engineering consultant. And I was doing that for a few years until around 2013 or so I was about 25 years old, and I had what you might call a quarter-life crisis, I just started to realize that the path that I was on wasn't what I really wanted. And when I sat down and looked at what I really did want in life, to travel more, to see my family more to have more freedom and all that sort of stuff. I said I think the only way I'm going to be able to achieve this is to be a business owner to be able to own my own business.

So I looked at all the different kinds of business options that were available out there. And the truth is, you know, you were mentioning the word infopreneurship, and I'm sure we'll talk more about that. But in my bio, I didn't know what that was. And that didn't make any sense to me at the time. All I really knew was I really love travel. And I like teaching people about travel. And I'm a good writer, and I'm a good speaker. So I'm going to share my passion for travel with other people through books and online courses and public speaking and things like that.

So that was actually the first business that I really owned in this sort of online space. And I did that for a few years, I eventually decided that I wanted to leave my corporate job and go back to school to study entrepreneurship. And that's where I was pursuing this sort of travel business. When a couple of years down the road, I had been doing pretty well in it. And a lot of other people that I knew, as well as some people that I didn't know, even some strangers on the internet reached out to me and said, I'm curious if you could tell me a little bit more about how you self published your book for free? How did you create this online course and make money from it? How did you get those speaking gigs? And so there was this sort of side interest that people had in my business, not to learn about travel, but to learn how I was doing info products and services. And eventually, I was coaching them on the side, just really just to help them out. It that grew so big, the side hustle actually started to overtake my first business. And I said, Okay, I'm basically trying to do two things at once. And I can't be successful that way. And I have to make a choice about what I really want to do.

So I decided in 2015 to pivot full time to actually becoming a coach of what I call infopreneurs, people that want to start businesses based around info products and services, ebooks, regular books, online courses, virtual summits, workshops, mastermind coaching, public speaking, all that sort of stuff. And that is what I do today.

Gresham Harkless 4:21

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, that's great that you obviously had that, you know, that pivot that you had, where you started to realize that something needed to be created, you started to create it yourself, and then people were reaching out to you in order to do that. So I wanted to drill a little bit deeper into this idea of infopreneurs. And exactly what that means and what you do to help out those clients that you work with.

Bailey Richert 4:39

Sure. So an infopreneur that word it comes from information and entrepreneurship. So it just means starting a business where you create and sell info products and services. And essentially that means that you're going to be teaching somebody how to do something else.

So a lot of times we're leveraging our own life experience knowledge, and passions in order to do that, so it's you know, a lot of people think that you have to be educated in a particular topic or field or have a particular credential in order to become an infopreneur or to be successful at it. But that's not true. In fact, so many of my clients have really just harnessed something that they're passionate about, and have spent a long time either studying or doing in their own lives and perfecting their expertise and sharing it with others.

So to give you an example, I had a client once who was an origami expert, a self-taught origami expert, and he wanted to bring his love for origami to the world and teach other people how to do it as well. So that was a really cool project to work on with him. I had somebody else who was an expert in African American women's hair care. And so she had a cosmetology license. But she also developed all of these techniques and products for taking care of hair and wanted to create some info products to teach people how they can take care of their hair.

So it's been such an interesting journey for me, as well as the coach because there are so many incredible people that I get to meet and so many awesome and interesting topics and areas of expertise that they all have all my clients have that they've gotten to share with me. And so what I do is I bring to them the business knowledge, the marketing know-how how to get your website set up, how to get your business up and going profitably, what's the best way to design a sales funnel for that online course you're thinking about creating? And so when their expertise matches with my business, know-how magic happens.

Gresham Harkless 6:31

There you go. And that's what everybody's always looking for. And it's great that there's it sounds like there are so many different niches that people have that they can kind of expose like you mentioned the origami or the African American haircare products, it's like, whatever people's passions are, wherever they're experts, and they're able to kind of impact that or create products and services around that.

Bailey Richert 6:48

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 6:49

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Now, I wanted to ask you what I call like your secret sauce, which might be your differentiator, what do you feel kind of sets you apart from maybe other entrepreneurs and business owners?

Bailey Richert 6:58

Well, one thing that I think that I particularly focus on in my business is action-oriented results. You know, there are so many different approaches to how somebody might tell you to start a business, you might see a lot of things out there about manifestation or money mindset or anything like that. And those things are definitely important, and they absolutely have their place. But whenever you visit my website, or whenever you come and talk to me, it's really about the practical steps that you need to take forward in order to achieve the results and success that you want to have.

So if you decide to talk to me, we may be having some you know, conversations that might be a little difficult for some people, we are going to discuss your budget, we are going to discuss how much time you can actually spend on this project, we are going to discuss what your previous business know-how is and we are going to discuss what gaps you need to fill in your own knowledge in order to be able to get you to where you are. So I think that's one of the reasons that a lot of people do like working with me is that it's a lot of no-fluff strategies, action-oriented business results.

Gresham Harkless 7:58

There you go. And that's what everybody's looking for. Because at the end of the day, you sometimes want results. And to be able to have the no-nonsense, like you mentioned, to be able to get to wherever you want to be is exactly what people want at the heart of it. So I think that's awesome that you're able to do that.

Bailey Richert 8:12

Thank you.

Gresham Harkless 8:13

And I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And the CEO hack is an app or it could be a book or it could be like a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient as a CEO, entrepreneur business owner.

Bailey Richert 8:25

Well, I want to tell you that there's actually this one software out there that I use to run my entire business. And so perhaps it's a little bit more than a hack. But I find that so many people are not taking advantage of it. And they should be it's called ClickFunnels, not sure if you've ever heard of it. But essentially, it's an all-one marketing suite or sales funnel software that allows me to create landing pages in order to form sales funnels for my business, it's truly incredible. And honestly, there aren't too many additional pieces of software that I need in my business. That's the number one thing that helps me run at all. So for those people out there that want to become infopreneurs and create successful sales funnels that can actually help them sell more of their products that aren't using ClickFunnels, they definitely need to look into it.

Gresham Harkless 9:08

Yes, absolutely. That's an incredible CEO hack. And definitely probably, like you said a little bit more than a CEO hack just because of how robust it is and how many things you can do to kind of help build your business especially like you said, as an infopreneur. So I think that's a phenomenal CEO hack. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this might be a word of wisdom or piece of advice or something that you would tell like your quote-unquote, younger business health, but do you have a CEO nugget that you can share with us?

Bailey Richert 9:32

Absolutely. So one of the things that I constantly see people trying to do is to create businesses and blogs with really catchy names. I think this was a trend that maybe was happening around five to 10 years ago where people were trying to define themselves more as bloggers rather than business owners who try to come up with these kinds of cutesy names for their websites. But the reality these days is that most infopreneurs are actually successful by creating a business around their own name, their actual name as a personal brand. And so the nugget that I would say for people that are just getting started or there may be thinking about journeying into infopreneurship is to really consider the personal brand as the way that you want to create your business. And even if you're not sure what you're going to do with it quite yet, go to godaddy.com or whatever domain registrar you prefer, and go and register your personal name as your domain name. And you'll always have it so that you can build your business website there should you choose to.

Gresham Harkless 10:34

Absolutely, yeah, that's a phenomenal CEO nugget, just because like you said, a lot of people are just getting started in one thing, you know, that probably won't change too much, it's going to be your name. So to be able to get that domain name and start building upon that is an incredible opportunity. So I wanted to ask you now, which is my absolute favorite question. And we're hoping to have different types of CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners on this show. So I wanted to ask you specifically, what being a CEO means to you.

Bailey Richert 10:58

Well, you know, it's actually funny, because one of the things that I see a lot of people doing, and this isn't a trend that I particularly like is that there's a lot of solo infopreneurs solopreneurs, we sometimes call them, you know, individual business owners of which I am one, you know, running your business on your own. And they often like to call themselves a CEO. And so they'll put the title in their LinkedIn profile, or something like that I'm the CEO of baileyrichert.com or something. And I think that that may not necessarily be wrong, depending on what your business entity and structure is. But I think that there are people who do that may sometimes be missing the point that, you know, they're trying to be perceived as a little bit more prestigious than they actually are because they're just really interested in that title. Not recognizing that being a CEO of a company, or being the leader of a company, whether you're the CEO or not, is about so much more than just title, it's about truly having a vision for where your business is, and where you want it to go and developing a strategy that's going to allow you to get there. But it's also about being a leader to the staff that you have, even if you don't have any staff colleagues that you work with, virtual assistants, contractors, or any people with whom you are collaborating. And so when I think about that question, you know, what does being a CEO mean, to me, it's definitely more about, again, those results, and what you can actually accomplish as a leader rather than just the title.

Gresham Harkless 12:25

I love that. And yeah, it's definitely something to kind of keep in mind to understand that. It's not just those three letters, so to speak, there's so much more to it. And as you mentioned, vision and leadership are all things that makeup what is being a really strong CEO, whether you have that title, or you don't, those are kinds of skills that we can all kind of take into account. So Bailey, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule. What I wanted to do was pass you the mic, so to speak, to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know and how best people can get a hold of you.

Bailey Richert 12:53

Sure. Well, thanks so much for having me on. And for giving me this final opportunity to share a few last words, I would say that you know, people that are thinking about wanting to start their own business but are really exploring their options right now should definitely keep an open mind and consider infopreneurship because there's probably a lot of expertise in life and life experience that you have to share with others that you might not even realize is quite valuable. And it's also in my opinion, one of the easiest and least costly ways of starting your own business. And it's certainly in my opinion, one of the most fun ways as well, because you get to pretty much every day engage in the topic that you absolutely love and would spend your spare time doing anyway.

So I know that business owners out there have so many different options, you know, retail, drop shipping, e-commerce, all that kind of stuff. But I love info products and services and building a business around my personal brand and serving others in a way that allows me to leverage my own life skills has been truly a blessing. And I know that it has for all my clients as well. So for those people out there who have been thinking about becoming a business owner, but aren't quite sure about what route they want to take. Infopreneurship might be for them. And they can definitely learn more about infopreneurship at my website baileyrichert.com. You can even grab a free infopreneur toolkit there, which will give you some initial resources to get started.

Gresham Harkless 14:15

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And we'll make sure to have those link that links in the show notes so that anybody can follow up with you, Bailey. But again, I truly appreciate it and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Bailey Richert 14:24

Thanks, you too.

Outro 14:26

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

[/restrict]