How Having a Mission Can Fuel your Growth with Miriam Illions

Sometimes the audience you set out to capture is not the audience you end up attracting. No one knows that better than my guest today, Miriam Illions, the CMO of Hometalk, the world’s largest DIY home and garden platform. In this episode, Miriam gives us the details of how she and her team pivoted the business to align with their audience and provides some helpful advice for bloggers and other content creators just starting out. She also shares the start-up story behind Hometalk and how the success of Hometalk has allowed their company to branch out to pursue other passions.

In 2011, Miriam and the Hometalk team set out to empower every person to create a home they love. Ten years, 21 million members, and 2 million email subscribers later, this goal was achieved with Hometalk. Originally intended as a place for home improvers to go for research before hiring contractors; Hometalk blossomed into a massive DIY forum with impressive and continuous growth. It is now the go-to site to find home improvement content from bloggers, video creators, Instagrammers, and more. The Hometalk team continues to launch new projects and platforms such as FoodTalk and UpStyle.

In this episode, we cover:

The importance of listening to your audience and being flexible enough to pivot your business to service the audience you have and not the one you originally set out to snare.
Making intelligent partnerships with bloggers and other content creators to to the benefit of both.
How to stay focused on the niche you’ve chosen when there are different options coming at you from all directions while staying open to potentially lucrative opportunities.
Setting OKRs: Objectives and Key Results to keep you and your business on track to achieve your goals.
Carving out time dedicated to working towards your objectives.

Links and resources mentioned during this episode:

Visit the official Hometalk website, Hometalk
Connect with Miriam on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Tiktok @hometalk
Check out their new projects: Upstyle: Create Looks You Love to Wear and Foodtalk: Recipes for Everyone and Every Meal
Fill out an application to work with Hometalk or to apply for one of Hometalk’s paid opportunities
Read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear
Connect with Melanie on Facebook and Instagram
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