We recently connected with Bridget Willard and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Bridget, thanks for joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
I started my career with office work, went to college for a teaching degree, and ended up back at the office a year later. But things were changing. I started dabbling in social media in 2007 (Twitter/Facebook) and after the housing crash of 2008/09, I began doing social media for the commercial contractor I worked for in addition to being the office manager.
Through that activity, I began attending Meetups and WordCamps and was introduced to people in a totally different field from construction: marketing and website development.
I started taking on side work. And then more work. Until I was working 16-hour days. That isn’t sustainable. But I knew it was temporary. I was offered a position as the Marketing Manager for an advertising agency called ThoughtHouse. That was exciting but also, scary.
In the fall of 2015, for the first time in my adult life, I took a risk. I quit a stable job with health insurance to work for a tech startup in a niche market.
In 2015 that was scary, but I learned so much and traveled all over to speak at conferences and meet like-minded professionals. It’s what made me feel alive for the first time in my life.
In 2017, I started freelancing. Some would say that’s a bigger risk than working for a startup. Truthfully, it’s really hard to be in business for yourself. It can be lonely. You can doubt yourself. Money can get tight. There were tears. I’m in my eighth year now and can’t imagine anything else.
It’s not all rainbows and unicorns. There were times when I had to take a part-time job to keep my business going. There were times I had to lower my prices. But it is all worth it to keep your dream alive.
There is no dream without the work.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Like many people, I have a diverse background of experiences in my life and career. From being a pastor’s wife to becoming a widow, from working in construction offices to teaching math, from small marketing conferences to speaking internationally, and even a partnership in a chicken hatchery, I’ve risen to the top while empowering everyone around me.
I love reading nonfiction and watching documentaries. I’m fascinated by colloquialisms (do you say “do the wash?“) and love absorbing information (did you know nitric oxide is a vasodilator?).
Every interaction I have — be it a client, peer, or student — or even with an animal (cat, dog, chicken) is one that makes me think differently, improve marketing strategies, and ensure I am leaving a legacy to be proud of.
This is what makes me different. I love being to offer specific advice and strategies to my small business clients through marketing consults. I love helping them draft up a marketing plan that we can execute step-by-step, that fits their product and budget.
I help people find out where they’re stuck and give them a plan to execute. Empowering people to believe in themselves is the best feeling in the world. You can see their face light up when they realize they have achievable goals.
My favorite service offering is X (Twitter) Management + 4x/Month Blogging for my niche. So many people offer content but they don’t offer distribution. Not only that, but I work their account with the mindset of outreach. We’re not trying to amass a following, we’re building relationships. I’m honored to be that BizDev/marketing partner for my SaaS and WordPress clients.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Without a doubt, my reputation was built on Twitter (now X). And to be frank, this is where most of my clients come from. But that was just a starting point.
I attended Social Media Masterminds in person, made friends — went to lunch. I attended WordCamps and met even more people. But I kept those relationships alive on Twitter — originally by live tweeting their talks.
I’d sit there with my laptop (research handles beforehand) and type out quotes as they hit me. (Thank God for typing class in 9th grade.) Because these conferences ran on hashtags, other attendees would see my tweets. We’d follow each other and even chat in the lunch line. Speakers would see my tweets and come to thank me for giving them extra publicity.
I even met folks on Twitter who invited me to give talks at Engineering conferences. I eventually started to apply to speak at WordCamps all over the United States and even in The Netherlands. Originally, my employer sponsored the lodging and travel to some of those conferences, and later, clients sponsored me as well.
In 2022, I joined the Chamber of Commerce in San Antonio and met even more folks. I volunteered for the Welcoming Committee and the Small Business Committee. They also invited me to give presentations.
The point is this: you can say all you want online, but you must back that up in person. I’ve always made it a point to be myself. Rather, to be the best of myself online and in person.
That reputation gets you leads, clients, and other opportunities.
And then the quality of your work backs up that reputation.
Reputations, just like relationships, have to be built and maintained.
If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?
Every business should have various lead magnets and income sources. In 2021, I came up with the idea of industry-specific packs of blog posts for WordPress. This product is called Launch With Words.
This product is intended for a web developer to purchase and use on a roofing site, for example, so that there are blog posts published every month. A crucial part of a website’s role is findability (aka SEO). I like to talk about it as validation and discovery. People may search for a roofer near them (discovery) but they’ll validate them by reading their website. If you get a referral, you probably look them up.
Service industry folks need articles to share on social media so they can increase their website’s traffic. Launch With Words isn’t intended to be the only content on a website, but it’s a great way to start the website.
So many companies undervalue their blog, under budget for their blog, and underestimate the power of it.
Especially with the use of AI, you have to teach it who you are. You do that by publishing — the same way you teach people who you are.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bridgetwillard.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetmwillard
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bridgetwillarddotcom/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bridgetwillard
- Twitter: https://x.com/bridgetmwillard
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BridgetMWillard
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/bridget-willard-corpus-christi
