Dana Miranda is a financial educator who teaches personal finance. Her first audience wasn't a fit. When she decided to make this shift, she started to expand. |

If Dana Miranda shifted her target customers to deliver educational resources and education training to educators and non-profits, she found an increase in satisfaction and harmony her work.

Within the time Dana Miranda worked as a personal finance journalist, she noticed the growing tendency. "Most of the personal finance content out there, most of the advice and education, is only viewed from one point of view, which tends to be male, white heteronormative and coming of a middle-class family background."

"I come from a working-class background," Dana shares. "I'm a queer woman. and I was constantly seeing there was a deficiency of representation and understanding of the subtleties of these different kinds of experience that people share in relation to money."

Instead of re-creating the same information shared by everyone else, Dana decided to change the story.

Presently, Dana Miranda is a personal finance teacher and founder of Healthy Rich , which is a website that offers comprehensive, affordable financial education. This is how Dana developed her own online venture and made sure that her mission reached as many people as she could regardless of taking a different route.

The fact that a strategy for monetization is popular doesn't mean it's right for your business

Healthy Rich began as a hobby for a friend which Dana was able to run while she worked as a writer for a company that was freelance.

"I began Healthy Rich as a project to write about different personal finance experiences. The site was just a blog and there was no money coming in. I wasn't sure of how monetization would look like however, I was certain that in the end, I'd like to grow it into an actual business."

"I didn't want to monetize via affiliates and advertising," Dana explains. "That's really common in the personal finance space however I was not happy with what I had seen on websites I had worked on for. To ensure we're offering value to the consumer, I wanted eliminate ads from the equation."

Dana loved the course content she developed. Dana also loved talking with students, getting feedback, and answering questions. However, something was off with selling to her followers.

"I hated the entire launch. I hated the whole sales process of convincing people that they are suffering from a problem and I've got the answer. Nothing was a good fit for me." Dana remembers.

The idea of selling products directly to audience members was not the way forward, which was a big challenge. While this was Healthy Rich's monetization plan, she wanted her followers to have access to the content for free. Her goal was to make cash, but didn't want that money to come from the pockets of the people she wanted to assist.

If the idea of creating products that appeal to your intended market, it feels unnatural, try shifting your audience

To get more perspectives, Dana had conversations with educators and community organizers. From those talks she saw that there was a massive requirement for financial education for individuals and she was the one to fill it.

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

"There are several states passing mandates that you need to take the class in personal finance in order to be able to finish high school, however, the majority of them are unfunded and there's not any specific education path for someone to become an instructor in personal finance. The educators who enter the field are often just told to teach a personal finance class and don't feel prepared to teach it."

This same problem was also present among non-profit workers and those who serve vulnerable populations.

"People working for a non-profit organization may help people in another area of their lives, however it's always tied to financial matters. People are asking questions about their finances that they don't feel at ease in. I'm trying to assist people understand this subject so they are able to answer those questions without hesitation."

Dana recognized that she was able to skip selling goods to users and instead provide educators and trainers with a much wider reach. The message she shared could be heard by many more people, her company would earn money and she'd feel confident for the impact she had made.

"I love to offer information to those that need it, for free whenever I can. Serving community organizations as well as schools is an opportunity for me to provide this education available to the people who need it because individuals are participating in those courses and workshops for no cost," she shares.

"This has opened up a brand new market for my company because I was able to empower facilitators and instructors. I have the ability to collaborate on both sides of the table without selling classes to each individual person."

When Dana began to develop her new curriculum for teachers  It clicked.

"My first course launch was an enjoyable test. I'm glad that I learned what I did, but I'm also happy that I got it right and was able to move into the next chapter."

" gives me the flexibility to create what I want. I am in love with it this way."

The possibilities are endless neither should your tech be either.

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"People love to discuss their work. Keep track of the companies you'd like to collaborate with and find out what they're doing," Dana notes.

"It's extremely helpful to me to know the niche which I'd like to collaborate with. That's educators and non-profit organisations. I'm from Wisconsin which is why I'm beginning local with groups in the local community. I'm able to reach out to an acquaintance and tell them that I am concerned about the good work you're doing for my community. We can discuss ways we can collaborate.'"

By reenvisioning her target audience and the items they require, Dana transformed Healthy Rich into more than just a website for financial advice for individuals. Now, the blog has a chance to change the way we talk about money.

"The manner in which we discuss about money is a problem, and I want to change the way we talk about money. I want to provide education with resources needed by educators as well as ensure that it's being taught with a more inclusive and nuanced approach, not just traditional spending and paying down debt I've seen."

By shifting her target audience from individual people to educators and other non-profit professionals, Dana stayed true to her beliefs and discovered a better way to share her wisdom with the people that needed it most.

Blaze new trails and avoid making comparisons with others

Dana informs the creators that "there's there isn't a perfect formula for how to pursue this profession. The only way to find out is to try and find out what works your best."

The first step to finding your personal path means not comparing you to others who have created. However, Dana recommends looking to the past to see the progress you've made.

"Everyone is at a stage wanting to be at the next level. The most helpful thing for me is to think about me in the past five or ten years," she says.

"When I first started freelance I was aspired to become writing. I began taking on blog posts and freelance jobs in the first several years, I made very low pay. If I'm feeling frustrated about what I'm doing in my work, I think back at me then and reflect on what I've done."

"I had the opportunity to obtain an employment as a full-time staff writer," she shares. "In the last couple of years, I earned 6 figures from freelance writing. In the present, I'm transitioning to a new phase where, instead of the majority of my income being from writing freelance, I'd like it to come from my own business .

"It's frustrating figuring out how to get it done, but if you told me twelve years ago that this is my position in, I'd not imagine that this would ever occur. I'd be really astonished."

In the conclusion of the day choosing to pursue your passion can be a major win and chances are you've made more progress than you thought.

"I think that pursuing this type of goal is something to celebrate no matter which phase you're at."