BAND OF BLOGGERS: Alexis Schroeder from Fitnancials

This post contains affiliate links.

When I first met Alexis Schroeder, it was as the moderator for the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Facebook group. As a successful blogger and online entrepreneur, as well as a student, Alexis was on the ball. She was always crazy efficient with her responses to my inquiries and super helpful when answering my questions.

So I shouldn’t have been surprised with her insanely fast turn around on the questions for this interview.

For most of the people I’ve chatted with for Band of Bloggers, they take a week or two to read through and give their thoughtful answers to my questions. I know people are crazy busy, so it’s not uncommon for me to have to send them a quick email to follow up on how things are going.

But not Alexis.

She had the questions returned to me in a matter of HOURS!! HOURS people!!

I don’t know how she does it, managing to balance work, school, and her wildly successful blog, but somehow she makes it all happen.

And she does it with an ease and grace that belies just how hard it all is. She’s someone we should all pay attention to and learn from.

And I’m so glad we get to do that today!

Enjoy!!

Change Your Mind, Change Your Life!

What is one book that has greatly impacted your life (money related or not)?

You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero has impacted every aspect of my life.

I picked up the book as a quick read at the airport and didn’t realize how life-changing it would be. This book helped me break barriers in my mind which made me become more confident in every aspect of my life.

Me (In red) – I’ve seen this book EVERYWHERE!! It’s seemingly on the front shelves of every bookstore I walk into, on the best seller or recommended reads lists when I’m on Amazon, and it constantly shows up in my “you might like” feed on Audible.

I should probably take the hint and read it.

What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last year (or in recent memory)? The more specific details the better!

I recently purchased an app called Forest, which was under $3.

The app helps you stay focused and spend less time on your phone. It works by planting a tree every time you complete the allotted time you set.

Say you want to stay off your phone for 30 minutes. You would set the timer for 30 minutes and you can’t exit the app or else you lose and your tree dies. As you complete more of the timer challenges, you plant trees which eventually become a forest of focus!

The app is really cool because they’ve actually planted almost 300,000 REAL trees around the world from users spending their virtual coins on the app.

Ok people, I checked out the app and it does look really cool. I’m always having trouble focusing on a task or getting distracted by things that aren’t really important and are just time-suckers.

I think this app would help because it gamifies focus, which is AWESOME!

How has a failure or apparent failure, set you up for success later?

I believe failure and challenges help us grow stronger over time. I’ve had many blogging failures that have taught me to do things differently and focus on better things.

My blogging income was stagnant for years, and that was a huge failure to me. That failure made me realize I had to take my blog in a different direction and start working on things that work instead of what I had been doing.

I started taking several blogging courses and I repeatedly go over them just to stay refreshed and up to date.

Now I make over $10k per month from my blog.

If you spent any time reading my blog, you know that I’m a massive fan of developing a growth mindset, learning from our mistakes and failures and using them as fuel to power our future growth.

Alexis gets this.

I love the humility she exudes when she describes understanding that she needed to do different things, things that work instead of what she thought worked. This requires a level of self-confidence and humility that most people don’t have, but that are key to learning and growing whether professionally or personally.

For more ideas on how to develop a growth mindset, check out Read it and Reap: 5 Books to Master Your Money Mindset This Year

What is a quote that you live your life by or that you find yourself repeating to yourself?

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.”

I’m not sure who this quote is from, but I heard it from my boyfriend once and it has stuck with me ever since.

It’s easy to think that one person cannot do much when there are so many people in the world, but I think the opposite, especially after hearing this quote.

Hmmm, great quote, and one I’ve never heard before. An awesome reminder that we all have way more power to make a difference than we give ourselves credit for.

When it comes to blogging, it can be easy to get discouraged that our audience isn’t MASSIVE or that we haven’t made TONS of money off of our blogs.

But at the end of the day, blogging is all about helping people. When you create content, do it with the thought that you want to help just one person. Focus on that person hard and bring the force of your whole will to bear on just one thing: helping them solve their problem.

By doing so, you’ll actually solve LOTS of people’s problems and over time as you continue to do so, the audience and profitability will come.

What’s one of the best or more worthwhile investments you’ve made (money, time, energy, etc.)?

In the past year I’ve bought a mountain and a road bike. Both were the largest purchases I’ve ever made that aren’t related to travel, but I don’t regret them at all.

I spend a lot of time working on my blog and school work, so getting me time and spending time in the outdoors is really important to me. It helps me reset and get a breather from working a lot.

Ok, I LOVE to road bike! It’s just that with kids, and work, and this darn blog, well, it’s taken a back seat to a lot of other things.

But Alexis is right. It is SOOOO important to have some outlet to rest, recharge, and refocus. I need to get back on my bike.

Ok internet world, I’m making a commitment (kind of scary, but I’ll assume the only people reading this are my wife and mom 😉

I’m going to do another triathlon this year (Well actually in the spring. It’s too cold where I live to do one in the winter. But in the spring of 2019, I’m doing it.)

Keep me accountable. Raz me if I start to slack. And use Alexis’ example as the nudge you need to make your own healthy choices.

You’re much better, whether it’s as a blogger, parent, employer or employee, when you take care of yourself.

So take care.

In the last 5 years, what new belief, behavior or habit has most improved your life?

In the past couple of years, I have realized how much the fear of failure has held me back from so many things in life. I am still working on releasing that fear and getting better with that behavior. Fear has held me back from going further in my blogging career which is something I’m constantly working on.

When I release the fear of failure, my work is stronger and I generally make more money because of it.

This, again, is growth mindset in action.

When we hold onto our worries, when we nurture and care for them like they’re our children or pets, always thinking about them and letting them dictate how we live our lives, we miss out on so much.

I know because in a variety of areas of my life at one time or another, I’ve been guilty of this.

But when you let go of your fears, when you just say, for lack of a better phrase, “Screw it. I’m doing this and whatever happens, happens,” not only is it incredibly liberating, like Alexis said, it’s often the prelude to some of our best work.

It may be in our careers, our health or our relationships. It doesn’t really matter. Fear touches every part of our life if we let it. But if we can root it out, we can let those areas flourish and grow into what they’re truly capable of becoming.

What advice would you give to a smart, industrious, newbie blogger as they start out?

I’d tell a new blogger to not give up and stay consistent.

So many people start a blog to only eventually quit, usually because they aren’t seeing any income coming in from their blog. Blogging is difficult and earning money from it may take awhile, but once you start making money, it’s incredibly rewarding. Even better, once you get to a full-time income, it’s one of the best jobs in the world. I recently wrote an article specifically for new bloggers so they don’t make the same mistakes I do, which you can check out here.

Ya know, I’ll tell you, blogging is hard.

I’ve been at it for almost a year now and it’s some kind of roller coaster.

You never know how you’re really doing. You’re constantly second guessing yourself.

“Should I focus on SEO (yes), Pinterest (yes), creating amazing content (yes), developing my own freebies (yes), growing my email list (yes), designing my own course (yes), affiliate marketing (yes).

The list goes on and on. To be honest, it can be depressing at times.

Starting a blog is at once both the easiest thing to do (only 15 minutes, use my affiliate link! 😉 ) and the hardest thing.

It’s a true test of grit and endurance.

But I’m not going anywhere.

I haven’t reached the goals I wanted for this year (yet). I’m not even CLOSE to where I would’ve liked to have been at this point. Sure, it can be deflating when I read the posts about people who have 50,000 pageviews in only 3 months.

But ya know what? I’m gritty and I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to keep learning and growing, one step at a time.

Sometimes the steps are more like leaps, like being featured on Rockstar Finance or guest posting on amazing sites. Those ones feel GREAT!!

But more often, they are slow, painful steps. Small and seemingly inconsequential. Sometimes they’re even stumbles and backwards steps.

But to me, it’s all part of the journey. I’m committed.

And I’m here to stay.

What one thing has been most effective for increasing traffic on your blog?

One thing that has been very effective for increasing traffic on my blog is creating higher quality content and pushing it on Pinterest. Whenever I create a post, I make sure it’s something I would genuinely enjoy reading. I also make sure I create content that helps make life easier for everyone that reads it, whether the topic be finances, healthy living, or traveling.

Like I was just talking about, creating great content is one of the common refrains from successful bloggers. I think that might be because it’s true!

If we focus on creating content that is truly helpful to our readers, that brings real value to them, that helps solve a problem they’re struggling with, and if we promote it well using platforms like Pinterest and others, then we can be sure that the cream will rise to the top.

Bringing It All Together

When it comes to being a success, in business, relationships, or anywhere, mindset matters. Alexis is a great example of what having a growth mindset can do for your life.

She’s been incredibly successful in all areas of her life, and her mindset has played a critical role in that.

I’d like to thank her for taking the time to share her wisdom with the Method readers, and for her openness and honesty.

Alexis is a personal finance and fitness blogger at FITnancials.com. She helps readers pay off debt, handle their finances responsibly, live healthily and travel on a budget.

Do you want help passing on a growth mindset and winning money values to your kids? Sign up below for my FREE course How To Teach Your Kids About Money! And share in the comments what you’re doing to build a growth mindset in yourself and your kids. You can also join the conversation on Twitter @method_money or on my Facebook page Method To Your Money.  You can also find me on Pinterest.