Personal finance instructor Dana Miranda's first audience wasn't an appropriate fit. When she decided to make this change, she began to increase her audience. |

Dana Miranda shifted her focus when Dana Miranda shifted her target clients to offer education and training for teachers and non-profits she noticed greater satisfaction and alignment in her work.

In the two years Dana Miranda worked as a personal financial journalist, she observed an underlying tendency. "Most of the personal finance content out there, most of the information and advice, comes from a singular point of view, which is usually white, male, heteronormative, and from a middle-class background."

"I have a middle-class heritage," Dana shares. "I'm a queer woman. and I was constantly seeing there was a lack of representation and understanding of the nuanced nature of these different kinds of experiences that people have when it comes to money."

Instead of reproducing the same data which everyone else had shared, Dana decided to change the story.

In the present, Dana Miranda is a personal finance educator and the co-founder of Healthy Rich , a platform for affordable, cost-free financial education. The following is the way Dana built her online business and ensured that her work could reach as many as she could regardless of going a nontraditional route.

Just because a monetization strategy is popular doesn't mean it's the best choice for your company.

Healthy Rich started as an extra-curricular activity which Dana ran while working as a writer for a company that was freelance.

"I created Healthy Rich as a project to share different personal financial stories. The blog was a mere website and there was no money coming in. I wasn't sure of how the process of monetizing would be, but I knew that I would eventually want to make it a business."

"I did not want to make money via affiliates and advertising," Dana explains. "That's really common in the personal finance space however I was not happy with what I'd seen on websites I had worked on for. To make sure we were offering value to the customer, I decided eliminate ads from the equation."

Dana loved the course content she developed. Dana also loved talking with students, listening to feedback, and answering questions. But something felt off about selling her products to followers.

"I hated the entire launch. I hated the whole sales process of convincing people that they are suffering from a problem and I have the solution-none did it feel right to me," Dana remembers.

The idea of selling products directly to users is not the right way forward and this was a major problem. Even though this was Healthy Rich's monetization plan, she wanted her followers to have access to the content at no cost. It was important for her to earn cash, but didn't want that money coming from the pockets of the people she was trying to help.

When creating products for your intended market, it feels unnatural, try shifting your audience

For a better understanding, Dana had conversations with educators and community organizers. From those talks, she realized that there was a huge need for financial education for individuals and she was the person to provide it.

"The demand for personal finance education is on the rise," Dana explains.

"There are several states passing mandates that you must take a personal finance class to graduate high school, but the vast majority are unfunded and there's not an educational path specifically designed for someone to become the personal finance instructor. The educators who enter the field are often just told to instruct a personal finance class and don't feel prepared for it."

Similar issues were encountered by employees of non-profit organizations and also the people who work with vulnerable populations.

"People who work in a non-profit organization may be helping people in another aspect of their lives however, it's inextricably linked to finances. There are questions they have about finances, which they're not at ease in. I want to help people understand this subject so they are able to answer those questions without hesitation."

Dana discovered that she could avoid selling her products to consumers and instead serve educators and trainers with a much wider reach. Her message could reach many more people, her company could earn money, and she would feel great for the impact she had made.

"I like to give information to those that need it, for free as much as possible. Giving back to community groups and schools is a way for me to offer these classes available to individuals who require it since individuals are participating in those classes and programs for free," she shares.

"This created a whole new audience for my business since I was able to help instructors and facilitators. I can work on both sides of the table without advertising classes for each person."

When Dana began to design her new educational program  It clicked.

"My first course launch was a great test. I'm happy that I absorbed what I did, but I'm also happy I was able to learn quickly before moving into the next chapter."

" lets me be flexible to create what I want. I love that it allows me to create what I want."

Your ideas aren't limited or your tools should be.

To meet potential clients Connect with LinkedIn by sharing work

"People love to discuss what they're working on. Keep track of the companies you'd want to partner with and find out the things they're working on," Dana notes.

"It's extremely helpful to me to identify the area that I want to work with, which is educators and nonprofit organizations. I live in Wisconsin which is why I'm beginning locally with organizations in the local community. I'm able to reach out to a fellow community member and tell them that I am concerned about the work that you're doing within my neighborhood. Let's talk about how we could work together.'"

Through reimagining her audience and the products they need, Dana transformed Healthy Rich into beyond a site that provides tips for personal finances. It's a chance to transform the conversation in our society about money.

"The method we speak about money is a problem and I'd like to change the way we talk about money. I'm looking to offer teachers with the resources they need, as well as ensure that they are teaching it with an inclusive and rounded approach, not just the same old spending and paying down debt that I was seeing."

In shifting her audience away from individuals to teachers as well as non-profit employees, Dana stayed true to her values and found the best way to impart her expertise with people that needed it most.

Blaze new trails and avoid making comparisons with others

Dana warns writers that "there's there isn't a perfect formula for what this career looks like. You have to just experiment and find out what works best for you."

Part of finding your own route is to not compare you to others who have created. Instead, Dana recommends looking to the past to determine the extent to which you've gotten better.

"Everyone is at a point in their life, hoping to reach the next stage. What's really helpful for me is to look back at me in the past five or ten years," she says.

"When I began freelance work I envisioned becoming an author. I took on a few writing and other freelance projects, and for my first few years, I made extremely low wages. If I'm feeling frustrated about the state of my career, I glance at my past and think about what I've accomplished."

"I managed to secure a full-time job as a employee writer" the writer reveals. "In the last couple of years, I made six figures freelance. In the present, I'm transitioning to a new phase where, instead of my revenue primarily coming from freelance writing, I want it to come from my own business .

"It's challenging to work out the best way to achieve this, but if you told me twelve years ago that this is the position I would be in, I wouldn't think that this could ever be happening. I'd be amazed."

The end of the day, taking the leap to pursue your passion can be a major win and chances are you've made more progress than you realize.

"I consider that having this kind of dream is something to celebrate no matter which stage you're in."