This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello, hello, what's up my friends, listeners, community, side hustle school. I'm so glad you're out there. I hope you are holding up okay. I hope you're holding up better than okay. I hope you are doing something for yourself, investing in yourself, making the most of whatever opportunities come your way, even in the midst of a challenging, uncertain time.
The world can often be turbulent, as we have no doubt seen in recent months, but generally speaking, the world is turbulent and chaotic. That's why it's so important to create your own security. I may not be dependent on a corporation or a government or an organization or any external factor. Be dependent on yourself. Your competence is your best security.
Okay, pep talk over. Welcome to Throwback Thursday. Where are they now? Where we take an in-depth look at someone whose story has evolved considerably since we first featured them. Today in our latest feature, we'll hear from a New Jersey school counselor turned blogger, who now has six employees and 20 contractors.
I often think of Jennifer's story when somebody's like, oh, can you still make money with the blog? I'm like, no, of course not, except for, you know, this person who has six employees and 20 contractors and is obviously doing pretty well with a very hyper-local focused blog. So apparently it is possible. I'll let us hear directly from her. I will come back at the end to wrap us up.
[Music]
- My name is Jennifer Tripuka. I am from Hoboken, New Jersey, and I run the website, which was a side hustle and now is a full-time hustle called Hobokengirl.com. It's a lifestyle media site. And it was episode number 902. It started as a blog and I and my team write about all different types of news, lifestyle events, and happenings in the Hudson County, New Jersey area.
We're a hyper-local media site. I started as a school counselor in a public school and I had moved to Hoboken, New Jersey. My grandparents had textile factories in Hudson County. So I did know the area. And when I moved there after college, I just fell in love with it.
And I said, you know what? I really want to explore this neighborhood. I loved to write. I had been, I'd started in eighth grade. I started a school newspaper just on my own accord.
So I'd always been a little bit into that aspect, but just started to, I bought a domain, started social media platforms. It was right around the time when Facebook, Twitter, all of that came out. So it was a really perfect serendipitous time to start. Lots has changed as it always does in the media world. So when I was featured, I had already left my job.
I was a school counselor. And then I took my Hobokengirl experience and said, you know what? I'm going to try my hand at the magazine world. Obviously, that kind of is a shuddering world as it continues on, but media is still booming. And so I worked at Brides Magazine at Conde Nast for two years.
And then from there, I took my experience and said, you know what? I'm going to do this on my own. And I took Hobokengirl full time. We now have a team of six employees and about 20 freelancers. And yeah, I mean, so much has changed.
We started a podcast in August of 2019, which has taken off. It's nothing compared to Side Hustle, but we have usually around 1,000 downloads per episode, which is pretty good for a local production. I would say the challenge no matter when it is pandemic or not pandemic, the biggest challenge I have is just trying to have off time. I'm the head of the ship. And as an entrepreneur, we always wear so many hats, Side Hustle or Full Time Hustle.
And really in the digital age, there just isn't a lot of downtime and there really aren't working hours anymore, it feels like. So that has been something that I've really been trying to work on. I actually think that I've tried to pick one day where I take off fully and just don't look at anything. And that's helped a bit, but that is a big challenge. And then growing our team, just figuring out what is really necessary to have an extra person doing versus myself or someone else.
So it's been a lot, but it's all good challenges. They're just figuring out what works best for our team and for our growth. The biggest advice that I would say, there are a couple of things, consistency. So when I started, I saw lots of blogs out there that were doing similar things and just not in my area, but just in general. And I think that when you are wanting to write, consistency is the biggest thing.
Posting daily, writing, not stopping, not saying, "Oh, I'm getting married, so I'm gonna stop," or, "Oh, I'm having a baby, so I'm gonna stop." Yes, of course those are big life events that of course need attention, but making sure that it is incorporated into everything that you're doing and just continuing on with it. Even if it's just a plan that you make of a few days a week that you know you're posting, make sure to do it. That was something with Hoboken Girl that I always did. And it grew to be something that people looked for instead of just, "Surprise, I have a new post up." It was, "Oh, four or five days a week, this is happening." And now we have three or four articles a day that go up seven days a week. And I think the other big thing that is so important for anyone, whether it's in social media or on a media site, is engagement with your platform.
I see a lot of businesses, a lot of media companies that share tons of amazing content, but you never see them ever responding to their followers or readers. And I think that that is what really separates a brand that has a community engagement versus not. We always respond to our DMs, we handle any type of questions. I actually have someone that I pay part-time to specifically comment and DM people when they've reached out to us. So I think that's crucial.
And then the last thing, be flexible. That just is a broad thing. But when it comes to something like starting a media site or starting a blog, think about things like TikTok. 10 years ago, we would have never heard of TikTok, but now it's here, embrace it, try it out. When I first started Instagram wasn't even a big thing yet.
I said, "Oh, you know what? I'm gonna just try this platform." And now Instagram brings us the most of our readers and engagement to our site. So just be open to change. We tried Snapchat, Snapchat seems to have fizzled. So you just follow it, but always be open to those new experiences.
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Awesome, thank you so much, Jennifer, HobokenGirl.com. Everybody go and check it out, not that she needs more readers because her blog is doing so well, but still go and check it out. The biggest lesson here, I think, is consistency. Consistency and maybe also engagement, like she was talking about there. Consistency in terms of, you know what?
This blog or whatever the thing is I'm gonna make, it's gonna come out on this regular schedule. You can expect it. If you choose to invest your time as a reader, a listener, follower, you can trust that's going to be there on a regular schedule. I think that builds so much trust and loyalty over time. And in her case, she's actually been able to publish more and more over time.
So consistency and then also engagement. I think she nailed it when she said something about how the difference between a brand and a community or a company and a community, not that a company cannot be a community, but whatever the distinction there is that it's that some people or some companies, it's just a one-way broadcast essentially. And there is no way to communicate directly with the people who are supporting that brand. And depending on what you're doing, that may be okay, but I would suggest if it is a blog or if it's a podcast or if it's anything that is personality-based or you're trying to put forward a message of some kind and recruit followers and fans, et cetera, the more engagement, the better. I've been trying to do that even more myself.
You may have noticed with the podcast shift that we did earlier this year to have a lot more listener questions and comments. I started a new YouTube channel in April where pretty much all I do is YouTube Live interacting with people. So I'm continuing to learn as well. That's my point with that, by the way. It's not just like, hey, look at me.
It's more like I have a lot to learn too. So consistency and engagement. So many blogs come and go, but this one has stayed and grown. And as you heard, whatever it was, six employees, 20 contractors. So good work, Jennifer.
And listeners, 2020 is our year of interaction, speaking of engagement. If you have a question, if you would like to update us about your side hustle, if you'd like a free trip to Hoboken, I don't have that thing, but everything else, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We'll be featuring them throughout the year along with updates from other listeners and more things coming up too. Got some special stuff planned for the second half of the year. Look forward to sharing that with you soon.
And I hope you will continue to listen. Thank you so much for your time and attention. I hope it's helpful to you. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
