Starting a Business: How to Turn Your Side Hustle Into a Full-Time Gig

Those classic Frank Sinatra lyrics, “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere,” are always on my mind when I start something, or someplace, new.  Born and raised in Staten Island, New York, ‘making it’ to me as a young woman meant:

• Having an Upper East Side apartment in Manhattan
• A city job that required a leather briefcase (when it was still cool to carry one)
• Scoring a good table for brunch on a Sunday at Bubby’s
• Getting in my 6-mile evening run around Central Park
• Paying all my own bills!

Maybe I watched too much Sex and the City.  But, I remember the first time I felt like I had truly ‘made it.’

Starting a Business: In the Trenches

It was July 1999, and I had successfully achieved all of the items listed above.  Yet my career was still on a low simmer.

I was standing in front of my office fax machine at New York City Parks & Recreation (well before Leslie Knope made working at Parks & Rec a cool place to be).  Our team was reviewing the final plans for ‘Moon Day in Central Park’, an event to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the landing on the moon.

At this time, I managed partnerships, fundraising, and events with NYC Parks & Recreation.  Yet this was my first big production in Central Park.

I had pitched a lot of brands to sponsor the event.   In addition to generating sponsorships, I was also in charge of public relations.  I pitched several newspapers and magazines each day to get the word out.  Keep in mind that this was 1999, long before the internet and social media had taken hold!

It was at this time, still standing at that fax machine, that I got the call.  Moon Day would be featured in the New York Times and a quote from me would be included.

It was a small piece, but I was giddy.  It was happening.

Gaining Confidence in Your Small Successes

The event turned out to be a big success for our team!  From Neil deGrasse Tyson to the CBS broadcast of the lunar landing.  In addition, a perfectly timed spot with Park’s Commissioner Henry Stern and Buzz Aldrin riding across Sheep’s Meadow in Omega’s Lunar Rover was the icing on the cake!

The day would not have been possible without generous contributions from CBS, Omega, and from Target.  At the time if you can believe it, Target was a small, relatively unknown company.  They would not open their first store in Manhattan for another decade!

Therefore, I was thrilled when Target said yes to my pitch for the title sponsorship of Moon Day and I’m happy that Target’s relationship with NYC Parks & Rec continues to this day!

Starting Up: Branching Out to Freelance Work

After Moon Day, my talent for coordinating logistics and raising awareness continued to grow.  I began freelancing.  And my experience in marketing and events for outdoor organizations, and landing good PR for high-profile clients, was on the rise.  I took on the following events:

• NHL All-Star Weekend
• Lake Placid Film Festival
• Dinner in Central Park with Isabella Rossellini (did you know she’s a big-time bird watcher??)
• UC San Diego Women’s Conference

However, my favorite freelance position was working as part of NBC’s Operations Team for 3 Olympic Games: 2002 Salt Lake City, 2004 Athens, and 2006 in Torino!

Creating a Home Base for Your Small Business

I traveled from New York to LA.  Sydney to Athens.  London to Milan.  To really start my business, I needed a new place to call home, and to keep track of my growing collection of outdoor and adventure gear!

I also needed to be closer to the outdoor and lifestyle brands I wanted to work with.

San Diego became that place in 2004, and although a far cry from New York’s Central Park, the incredible people, the never-ending sunshine, and the easy access to the great outdoors are hard to beat!

Even with a home base, the journey of turning your side hustle into a full-time business is ever-changing.  This idea of starting up Top Rope Media came about in 2015 when I still had a full-time job. Then it simmered along into 2016.  Finally, in June 2016, I left my full-time job at UC San Diego to start my business and grow Top Rope Media.

Starting a Business: Do What You Love

Now here we are in 2024, and from starting a business to scaling it up, I continue to remain focused on doing what I love.  I still enjoy meeting new people in the outdoor industry.  Learning about their marketing woes, and thinking, hey, I can fix that!

It’s still exciting to build relationships between big brands and small non-profits.  To grow memberships by helping people become better connected to a cause they love.

I even took some time to write a book with my 91-year-old dad last year!  You can learn more about it and pick up a copy here!

Although the days of standing in front of my trusty fax machine and sending out personalized press releases and proposals are long gone, I still personalize my messages and send out monthly communications.  However, I now use a more rapid-fire method of digital marketing!

Starting Up: Building Brand Loyalty

As a strong, competitive woman, I am focused on getting to the finish line and often forget to enjoy the journey.  It is important it is to keep people connected with your journey, your triumphs and setbacks. 

Building your brand and building brand loyalty means staying in touch with those who have helped you get to where you are.  Staying connected with your audience, ambassadors, and brand champions.

You can’t just keep selling and pushing your widgets.  You need to give your audience valuable content that they can use. That’s why we write monthly blogs with marketing tips.  In addition, we share curated content from industry leaders or unique stories we think our readers might like.

As an example, we provide step-by-step instructions for do-it-yourselfers to tackle the following:

• How to Set up Google Ads
• Increase your Social Media Followers
• Create Facebook and Instagram Ads
• Send Better Email Campaigns

Other ways to keep your fans engaged?  Fill them in on the latest successes for your company.  Ask for referrals!  You will always get better clients from a referral than you ever will by running an ad!

Final Thoughts: Enjoy the Journey

Reflecting on what you’ve accomplished gives you the opportunity to enjoy the journey again.  It’s similar to that feeling you get when you climb a mountain.

The sweaty palms, the adrenaline rush.  That whipper you take as you fall from exhaustion, or from a misplaced hand or foot.

Then a second after the fall, there’s the catch by your belay partner holding the other end of the rope.  You’re safe.  Yet instead of calling it quits, and being lowered to the ground, you steady yourself.  You raise your head and continue on your journey.  You start fresh.

– Meredith C. McConvill, Top Rope Media

generate better leads and grow your business

Want to learn how to use your website to generate better leads and grow your small business or non-profit?  Well, when we begin these projects with each client, we ask them to think about what a “lead” means for their company and how they plan to capture them.

A lead for us is an email address, but for some, it’s a phone call, a contact form completion or a follow on social media.  Be clear on what a lead means to you and your marketing team before you move on to the next step!

How to Spot a Good Lead: The Elusive Mountain Pika

A good lead is like the elusive mountain pika.  Rarely seen in the wild, this creature roams quietly through the rocky talus fields, making itself known only when in need of sustenance or to sound the alarm before diving back into its burrow.

When it finds a spot in the sun, the mountain pika may linger, basking in the glory of its warmth.  When spotted by the curious hiker, cameras and phones come flying out in the hopes of capturing this recluse of the wilderness.

Similarly, when we spot a good lead, we clamor for its attention.  We immediately email, call, InMail or the brave few may show up on their doorstep.  We are not providing the lead with any education or nourishment, we just want to sell, sell, sell.

And just like the shy mountain pika when it feels under attack, the lead disappears back into the wilds of the interwebs.

how do you capture a good lead?

Now that you’ve defined what a good lead is for your brand, how do you capture it?  And once you have it, where do you keep it?  This elusive mountain pika needs food and water, so be strategic with your planning of lead capture and lead nourishment.  Let’s set up your lead capture strategy first.  

Ways to capture a lead for your outdoor or lifestyle brand:  

There are a number of ways to capture a lead, but here’s the most common ways we capture an email address for our clients:

• contact form submission
• event activation
• download of gated content
• website footer – newsletter sign-up box
• landing pages

Where to store your leads

Having a good CRM or Customer Relationship Management system in place allows you to not only store leads, but also track additional information.  This might include how the lead came in and when, what their social handles are, and when your last contact was. 

We use Monday.com or Insightly at Top Rope Media, but have also worked with Blackbaud, SalesForce, Memberleap and Hubspot.  If your organization has a membership component, you seek financial contributions and membership dues, then having a CRM in place is crucial. 

Pro tip: Be wary of the ‘all-in-one’ solutions. 

Many companies will promise their CRM can not only help you track leads, but also manage accounting, do email marketing, social media planning, etc.  After 20 years of working in marketing and fundraising, we’ve learned there is no out-of-the-box solution that will do everything well.  Most larger brands and organizations will require some CRM customization.

If you need help selecting a CRM, or using a tool like Zapier to connect your CRM to say your email marketing platform, send up a smoke signal.  We offer consulting services to help get you moving quickly. 

Generate Better Leads by Producing Better website Content

Several of our clients have asked for a new website design, or major a refresh of their current site.  Why?  They want something more visually appealing, easier to navigate, and easier to help them generate better leads. 

Curious as to one of the primary ways we generate better leads at Top Rope Media?  We create better content.  Where does that content live?  On our website.

We should all be long past the days of buying lists and followers.  And yes, we certainly recommend paid advertising for many of our clients to help generate brand awareness and revenue.  However, we find the best leads come from the playing the long game and creating good content. 

Again, where should that content live?  On your website.

What types of content should you create

Now that you’re onboard with writing good content to help you generate more well-qualified leads, what type of content should you create?  Well these days content comes in many forms.  Video still rank as one the most-consumed pieces of content.  Accordingly to Wyzowl, 84% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.

If you’re new to video, we’ll tackle how to get started in an upcoming post.  For now, let’s talk about what other types of good content you should be creating to generate better leads:

• Case studies
• Infographics
• Blog posts
• Videos or Vlogs (upload to YouTube or Vimeo, and embed the link on your website!)
• Checklists or resource guides
• Comparisons, rankings or reviews
• How-to or explainer videos
• Articles for trade publications, or local/national news outlets
• Press releases
• Podcasts
• White papers or eBooks

How Good Content Can Improve Your SEO

Now that you’ve learned what types of good content you can produce, don’t let your content stream dry up!  By building a library of evergreen content for your readers or viewers, and having it live on your website, you can easily link to these pieces throughout the year. 

All this good content will also help you create better search engine optimization (SEO).  Not quite sure what SEO is?  Read more about it in our Website Design and SEO blog post.  So instead of paying an agency to manage your SEO, save your money and start by writing good content!

content marketing: What to write about or record on a video

What types of content should you produce and write about?  The first step should be to start a list with the top questions you are asked about your product, service or organization. 

For example, if you create a list of the 24 questions people most frequently ask you about your service or product, then an honest and thoughtful answer to each of those questions could be your first 24 blog posts or videos!

Create authentic content that focuses on your audience’s needs and addresses their pain points.  As an example, one of the most frequently asked questions we receive is a form of “What will this cost?”  So instead of hiding that from potential clients until they receive our proposal, we address it on our Services page.

Tools to Help You Write or record Good Content

Where else can you find what written or video content your audience needs and wants and therefore generate better leads?  Through your website or Google Analytics, look at the pages with the most views (besides your homepage) along with the pages people spend the most time on. 

Need help finding more keyword phrases to include in your content?  By using the tools listed below you can create a good list of keywords or keyword phrases that are often searched for in relation to your product or service: 

• Keywords Everywhere
• SEMRush
• Buzz Sumo
• Google Search Console
• Google Keyword Planner

More Tips for Writing or recording Good Content

Be consistent and stay on brand.  As an example, most people come to our website for two separate content tracks: adventure travel and marketing.  Although we personally have an interest in what the Utah snow forecast looks like for this week, or the latest puffy jacket to hit the market, we do not write about it in our blog.

We generate better leads by staying consistent with the content we produce.  So, stay focused on offering solutions to your audience’s most frequently asked or searched questions.

content creation vs. content distribution

So now you know what types of content you can produce to generate better leads. In addition, you learned what to write about or record in those pieces of content.  What’s the next step?  Distributing that content. 

Since you cannot expect people to stumble upon your great content simply through search alone, help them find it through content distribution.  That great blog you just wrote, or that video you just recorded for YouTube (which is embedded on your website) can be shared in a number of different ways. 

Here’s a few distribution channels we use:

• Email: via an email marketing platform like Mailchimp
• Social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn)
• Paid advertising
• Online forums
• Networking groups  

How do we keep track of the content we’re distributing?  We create a content calendar to stay organized and use publishing tools like Hootsuite to track when, where and what we’re sharing.  Examples of other tools you can use to organize your content: 

• Excel, Google Sheets, Buffer, Post Planner, Hubspot

Need Content Production and Distribution Help?

Need help getting started generating better leads, or want us to create and manage your content production and distribution?  If so, read more about our Services and Pricing to see if we’re a good fit for you.  Have a quick question for us?  Send up a smoke signal or leave us a comment below.

Lastly, if you’re seeking more tips on digital marketing, check out these posts:

• 7 Steps to Crafting Your Perfect Email Strategy
• Website Design and SEO for the Outdoor Industry
• 8 Steps to Kickstart Your Online Advertising with Facebook and Instagram

To learn more about what we do on the regular, follow Top Rope Media’s adventures on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Until next time, happy content writing!

Meredith