Personal finance educator Dana Miranda's first target audience wasn't one she felt was a match. But when she made this shift, she started to grow. |

If Dana Miranda shifted her target clients to offer educational resources and education training to educators as well as non-profits, she discovered an increase in satisfaction and harmony her work.

Within the time Dana Miranda worked as a personal reporter for the financial industry, she noted the growing pattern. "Most of the financial content that is available is, and the majority of advice and education, is only viewed from one viewpoint, that tends to be male, white heteronormative, or with a middle-class upbringing."

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

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

Today, Dana Miranda is a personal finance teacher and founder of Healthy Rich , an online platform that provides comprehensive, affordable financial education. This is how Dana created her business online and made sure her efforts was seen by as many people as possible and even taking a different route.

The fact that a strategy for monetization is a hit doesn't mean it's the best choice for your company.

Healthy Rich began as a side hobby which Dana operated while she was Writer-in-Residence.

"I created Healthy Rich as a project to share different personal financial stories. It was just a blog and there was no money being made. I wasn't sure of how it would take to make money, but I knew that eventually, I wanted to grow it into an actual business."

"I decided not to earn money via affiliates and advertising," Dana explains. "That's really common in the personal finance space however I was not happy with the way I was seeing it on sites that I'd worked on for. In order to ensure that we were giving value to the customer, I decided to take ads out of the calculation."

Dana enjoyed the curriculum she had created. She also enjoyed talking to students, getting the feedback and answering questions. However, something was off with selling to her fans.

"I disliked everything about the launch. I hated the whole sales process of convincing people that they have some pain point and I have the solution-none did it feel right to me," Dana remembers.

Offering products only to specific users wasn't the best way to go and this was a major challenge. While this was Healthy Rich's strategy for monetization she wanted her fans to get access to this content at no cost. She needed to bring in cash, but didn't want that cash to go into the pockets of the people she was trying to help.

If the idea of creating products that appeal to your intended market, it feels unnatural You can try changing your target market

To get more perspectives, Dana had conversations with educators and community organizers. From those talks she realised that there was a massive need for financial education for individuals and she was the right person to help provide it.

"The need for personal finance education is growing," Dana explains.

"There are several states that have mandates that say you must take an individual finance course in order to be able to finish high school, however, the majority of them are unfunded and there's not any specific education path that allows someone to be a personal finance teacher. Teachers who are entering the field usually are instructed to teach a personal finance course, but they don't have the confidence for it."

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

"People employed by a non-profit organization may help people in another part of their lives, however it's always tied to finances. They're fielding questions about people's finances, which they're not comfortable in. I'm trying to assist people to understand the subject so that they're able to provide that information with confidence."

Dana discovered that she could avoid selling her products to consumers and instead serve educators and trainers with a much wider reach. Dana's message would reach many more people, her company would earn money and she would feel great with her contribution.

"I like to give information to those that need it, for free whenever I can. Serving community organizations and educational institutions is a means for me to offer this education available to the those who are in need because the people who attend these programs and classes for free," she shares.

"This created a whole potential new customer base for my company because I was able to enable instructors and facilitators. I am able to work with both audiences without directly advertising classes for each user."

When Dana began to design her own program for educators  and teachers, she realized it was a perfect fit.

"My first course launch was a good experiment. I'm happy that I absorbed from my mistakes, but I'm also happy that I got it right and moved into the next chapter."

" gives me the flexibility 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.

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"People are keen to share their thoughts on what they're working on. Follow the organizations that you'd want to partner with and see what they're up to," Dana notes.

"It's helped me to understand the market I'd like to work in, which is education and nonprofit organizations. I live in Wisconsin, so I'm starting local with groups in the local community. I'm able to reach out to an acquaintance and say, 'I care about the good work you're doing within my neighborhood. We should discuss how we can work together.'"

By reenvisioning her target audience and the goods they'll need, Dana transformed Healthy Rich into more than a blog about financial advice for individuals. Now, the blog has a chance to transform the conversation in our society about money.

"The way that we talk about money is a problem that I would like to approach it in a different way. I'm hoping to supply the teachers with the resources they need, and also make sure that the lessons are taught using a the most inclusive and broad lens, instead of just traditional financial planning and debt repayment I've been seeing."

By shifting her target audience away from individuals to teachers as well as non-profit employees, Dana stayed true to her values and found a better way to share her knowledge with those needing it the most.

Discover new paths and beware of making comparisons with others

Dana warns writers that "there's there isn't a perfect formula for how to pursue this profession. It's best to experiment and discover what's working best for you."

Part of finding your own way is not to compare yourself to other creators. Instead, Dana recommends looking to the past to see how much you've grown.

"Everyone is always at one point in their life, hoping to reach the next level. For me, the most beneficial thing is to think about my life 10 or five years ago," she says.

"When I first started freelance I envisioned becoming writing. I took on a few blog posts and freelance jobs in the first several years, I earned only a small amount. If I'm feeling frustrated about the state of my career, I glance back at me then and reflect on what I've done."

"I was able to get an employment as a full-time employee writer" she shares. "In the past couple of years, I earned six figures freelancing. This time, I'm moving into an entirely new stage where instead of my revenue primarily due to freelance writing I'd like to earn it directly from my own business .

"It's frustrating figuring out how to achieve this however, if you had said twelve years ago that this was my position in, I'd not think that this could ever happen. I'd be really astonished."

In the conclusion of the day, taking the leap in the direction of your own creativity is a huge win, and it's likely that you've come a lot further than you realize.

"I think that pursuing such a dream is an incredible thing to celebrate no matter which phase you're at."