Chat 012 – Creative Parenting and Online Business with Sheila Rogers

It was really nice getting to learn about parenting and online businesses from my friend Sheila Rogers. I had a lot of fun talking to her as always.

Sheila runs a website about raising boys and had a lot of creative tips about doing so. We enjoyed discussing parenting along with our mutual hobby of creating online businesses in this episode.

Watch the video above or read about what we discussed in the text below.

Creative Parenting Tips Sheila Had for Parents Raising Children

Sheila opened my eyes to some cool parenting advice that she has tried and found helpful.

Baby Signs

This was one of the cooler things I’ve heard when it comes to raising kids. Baby signs are basically just a form of sign language that is meant to be easy enough for babys to learn. It’s like the building block from no communication to verbal communication (speech).

Baby signs would have been right up my alley as a child. I would have liked them even after I learned to talk as well.

How Parenting Has Changed Sheilas Life

Sheila talked a bit about how much more full her life is once she had a child. She also talked about how much more scary and nerve wracking it can be knowing you have a human who is dependent upon you for survival.

Sleeping less and worrying a bit more about another human has been well worth the upside for Sheila. I believe my mom would also agree about sleeping less and it being worth it too.

Sheila Rogers Thoughts on Children Reading and Why It’s Important

I told Sheila about how I never really enjoyed reading much growing up. My slight reading disability made reading difficult for me.

However, we realized as we talked that I do enjoy reading non fiction. I love learning about new ideas and gaining knowledge through reading. So Sheila suggested that I do like reading even though I didn’t enjoy most of the books I was forced to read growing up. Which happened to be mostly fiction books.

What Our Online Businesses Mean to Us and Our Careers

We have spent several years working on our online businesses now. Sheila has her Brain Power Boy website along with other sites she’s put together. And I have this website along with my gaming website where I teach people how to make and sell their own board game.

So we discussed our experiences in creating these online businesses.

How to Get Past Trolls and Haters When Publishing Content Online

This has been a really hard one for me. I have often times felt almost paralyzed worrying about people hating my content and being mean to me about what I make. Over time I have felt much more comfortable about being who I am but it took a lot of practice.

Sheila encouraged me to be brave and post what I want. And then when I do receive trolls comments to think:

Is it true?
If it’s true, then what can I do to fix the problem and focus on that.
If it’s not true, then there is nothing for me to do or worry about. Some people just like complaining and/or bringing others down.

Having empathy for trolls and haters is helpful as well. Most of the time people that say things that are offensive to me aren’t saying them to make me upset. And if they are, then it’s likely a deeper issue they are having with themselves. Not me.

This is quite freeing once I realized this about others.

Our Online Business Plans for 2019

Sheila plans on focusing more energy on her email list. Helping her readers in a genuine way and feeling more personable with them.

My goal is to continue making content on this website along with:

It’s a lot of work but it helps me come closer to achieving my life goal of helping others around me. Which in turn makes my life a little better too.

Different Ways to Make Money Online

We also talked a bit about different ways we have found to make money online. Neither of us are where we want to be with the online income in relation to time spent on our projects. But we have learned a bit about different means of income online.

Sheila and I have tried:

Affiliate marketing (links on our websites that make us a percentage of money from items purchased through those links. Generally they are links to Amazon). This is an example of one of my affiliate posts on my board game site.
Selling items on Ebay.
Creating content such as e-books and selling them on Amazon or wherever else we can find.

It’s been a lot of fun for me to at least try making some money for all the hard work I’ve put into my online businesses. Sheila and I both agreed that money isn’t the #1 reason we do what we do (otherwise we would have quit long ago!) However, money is helpful in that it allows us the time and freedom to focus more on our online efforts to help others through our content and experiences.

How to Find Your Audience and Where to Start Posting About Your Online Business

I’ve talked a bit about where I would begin growing my audience if starting over on my gaming website. Sheila had some similar thoughts as we discussed picking 1 or 2 areas online that you are comfortable with and going from there.

So if you enjoy using Facebook and Twitter, then start talking about what you are doing there. Once you are comfortable with that, then try and reach out to other platforms such as Instagram and YouTube.

Thanks for All Your Help Sheila!

It was a blast getting to talk to you about creative parenting and online businesses. I look forward to discussing more topics with you in the future, Sheila.

Let us know what you found helpful in the comments below. And feel free to ask any questions there as well.