Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Malena Permentier. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Malena , appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

Unpopular opinion, but I believe that a big part of becoming successful at anything is your ability to tolerate boring things.

When I started my blog in late 2020, I didn’t make money for months. No viral moments. No big breaks. Just hours of writing blog posts, doing keyword research, and handling all the tiny behind-the-scenes details that no one claps for.

It wasn’t exciting, but it worked.

Fast forward 1.5 years, and that blog became my full-time job.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

After graduating, I landed a regular office job, and quickly realized it wasn’t for me. I craved more freedom and flexibility, so I started freelancing in marketing and copywriting.

However, freelancing came with its own set of issues: instead of one boss, I had ten. I was overworked and burned out.

In November 2020, I launched my blog, Malenapermentier.com. I was broke and desperate for a way out, and blogging felt like the lowest-cost way to build something of my own. I applied everything I’d learned in marketing to grow it strategically, focusing on Pinterest, SEO, and writing posts that actually brought in traffic.

Eventually, my blog income matched my freelance income, so I quit freelancing and went all in.

By mid-2023, I started sharing how I built my blog on TikTok, and the content took off. That’s when I launched my first digital product: a pack of Pinterest templates. It sold well, so I created more products, including a course with all the Pinterest strategies I use to drive traffic to my blog.

All of this started from a $70 blog.

But here’s the real reason I built it:

I wanted to afford acting school in New York City. And now — that’s exactly what I’m doing.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

When I first started looking for a way out of my 9–5 and freelance burnout, I kept hearing things like “You need to invest money to make money” or “The American way is to go into debt.” That advice never sat right with me.

I didn’t have the money, or the desire, to go thousands into debt for a business idea that might work. I wanted something low-risk, but with high potential. So I started my blog in late 2020 with $70. No courses, no fancy tools, no ads.

I focused on what I could control: writing, SEO, and using Pinterest to get traffic. Slowly and steadily, it grew to become my full-time income.

I’ve learned that time, consistency, and strategy are often more valuable than throwing money at a business. And that being scrappy can actually be a superpower.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In late 2020, I was broke and burned out from freelancing. So I started a blog with $70 and a broken laptop.

Two keys were missing, one letter didn’t work, and it overheated unless I propped it up on books. I’d write blog posts that no one read, spend hours on SEO and Pinterest, and wonder constantly if it would ever pay off.

But I kept going.

1.5 years later, that blog became my full-time income.

Resilience doesn’t always look dramatic, sometimes it’s just showing up every day, even when your laptop is falling apart.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.malenapermentier.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/malenapermentier/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@malenapermentier

Image Credits

Gibran Garcia