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  • Why YouTube Is Actually a Coast FIRE Strategy + My First 30 Days (The Real Numbers)

    Why YouTube Is Actually a Coast FIRE Strategy + My First 30 Days (The Real Numbers)
    2025/10/30
    Most people think going all-in on YouTube is about becoming an influencer. It's not. This is a Coast FIRE strategy disguised as a content play. In this episode, I break down why YouTube isn't just a content platform—it's a financial one. I'm documenting my journey from negative $3,200 (gear investment) to $2,000/month in semi-passive income that I can route directly to our mortgage, shaving five years off our Coast FIRE timeline. In this episode:
    • Why every Coast FIRE resource assumes you have a salary (and what founders need to do differently)
    • The math behind using YouTube to accelerate mortgage payoff
    • Why YouTube is the only platform where content actually compounds
    • The real numbers from my first 30 days: what I spent, what I filmed, what worked, what flopped
    • The five skills you're learning simultaneously (and why that's what makes it hard)
    • How I'm treating this like a business experiment, not a creative outlet
    The raw truth: I'm at 99 subscribers. My thumbnails are embarrassingly bad. But I'm tracking every metric and sharing the journey—because no one else is showing this path for founders in their 40s building toward Coast FIRE without a traditional salary.

    Your Next Steps:
    • Work with Me: https://www.erintrafford.com/link-in-bio
    • Grab the Story & Somatics Private Audio Vault: https://erintrafford.com/story-and-somatics
    • Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/its.erintrafford
    • Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erintrafford/
    • Find Erin on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfZBA8F_znMYzT4pjtWCbhA
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    32 分
  • Falling Forward and Catching Yourself - Transmission Series Day 26

    Falling Forward and Catching Yourself - Transmission Series Day 26
    2025/10/26
    This episode is about what happens when you achieve the goal you set out to accomplish and suddenly realize you're ready for what's next. Erin breaks down the three phases of the Transmission series using a running metaphor that will make you see content creation (and life) completely differently. She shares why she's pivoting to weekly deep dives on the podcast, going all-in on YouTube, and what it means to lead by showing people it's okay to do hard things—as long as you do them with a different mentality. If you've ever wondered when to end something good to make space for something better, this is your answer.

    Your Next Steps:
    • Work with Me: https://www.erintrafford.com/link-in-bio
    • Grab the Story & Somatics Private Audio Vault: https://erintrafford.com/story-and-somatics
    • Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/its.erintrafford
    • Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erintrafford/
    • Find Erin on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfZBA8F_znMYzT4pjtWCbhA
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    25 分
  • What Happens When You Admit You Don't Know - Transmission Series Day 25

    What Happens When You Admit You Don't Know - Transmission Series Day 25
    2025/10/25
    It's the final Saturday of the Transmission series, and Erin comes to the mic with absolutely no plan—just a week full of processing, trepidation, and a growing realization that she's standing at a crossroads. This episode is about what happens when you're 43, running a business, raising kids, and you realize you need to go back to having a beginner's mind. Erin shares her decision to go all-in on YouTube (despite the fear of falling on her face), what's changing about the podcast and her content strategy, and why the version of her who started a website at 30 knew something she's having to relearn now. If you've ever felt like you're too late to start something new, or like you need permission to not have it all figured out, this one's for you. IN THIS EPISODE, ERIN TALKS ABOUT: The Crossroads Moment
    • Why her coach called her out: "You're at a crossroads, and this series has heightened your awareness of it"
    • The realization that she's been slowing down for a full year, not just recent months
    • How her energy, tolerance, and capacity have shifted from age 30 to 43
    Embracing Beginner's Mind
    • The decision to learn YouTube from scratch, knowing she'll likely have zero results for 6 months
    • What she learned from her 30-year-old self who started a website with no attachment to outcomes
    • The power of asking "let me see if I can do this" instead of "what will I get from this?"
    The YouTube Experiment
    • Why she's moving her Instagram Stories brilliance to YouTube (so it doesn't disappear in 24 hours)
    • The modest setup: $250 for a wireless mic and phone gimbal, filming in the car and on dog walks
    • Her specific goal: track how long it takes to grow YouTube to $2,000/month to accelerate mortgage payoff
    The Millennial Money Reality
    • How millennials got hit by the 2008 financial crisis entering the job market
    • Why so many are only now waking up to better financial strategies (unless you came from money or were extremely disciplined)
    • The conscious decisions she and her family made in the last 5 years that changed everything
    What's Next: The Slow Freedom Project
    • The podcast will shift to 1-2x/week, longer episodes focused on business and communications strategy
    • YouTube will be the home for Coast FIRE conversations, vlog-style processing, and real-time documentation
    • How she's restructuring content to be sustainable, not a rat race


    Your Next Steps:
    • Work with Me: https://www.erintrafford.com/link-in-bio
    • Grab the Story & Somatics Private Audio Vault: https://erintrafford.com/story-and-somatics
    • Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/its.erintrafford
    • Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erintrafford/
    • Find Erin on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfZBA8F_znMYzT4pjtWCbhA
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    18 分
  • The Pricing Paradox - Why Lower Ticket offers are harder to sell - Transmission Series Day 24

    The Pricing Paradox - Why Lower Ticket offers are harder to sell - Transmission Series Day 24
    2025/10/25
    In this raw Day 24 update, I break down:

    The two types of objections I'm getting (energetic hesitation + money blocks)
    Why I've been afraid to directly tie embodied work to financial abundance
    How the "journalism wall" kept me from naming what this work actually does
    Why building somatic capacity IS building wealth (not an adjacent outcome)
    What happens when you attract people who want healing but can't connect it to revenue
    Why creative businesses (especially women) undercharge for transformational work
    What I'm changing: getting direct about the financial pathway

    The pricing paradox is real: sometimes your most affordable offer is your hardest sell. Not because of the price—because of the clarity gap.

    If this resonates, the Embodied Visibility Lab still has space. 10 weeks, group mentorship, designed to help you embody your visibility and build capacity for expansion. DM me if you're ready.

    Your Next Steps:
    • Work with Me: https://www.erintrafford.com/link-in-bio
    • Grab the Story & Somatics Private Audio Vault: https://erintrafford.com/story-and-somatics
    • Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/its.erintrafford
    • Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erintrafford/
    • Find Erin on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfZBA8F_znMYzT4pjtWCbhA
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    17 分
  • Is AI coming for my job? - Transmission Series Day 23

    Is AI coming for my job? - Transmission Series Day 23
    2025/10/23
    I've been watching AI eat my industry alive, one bite at a time. Most strategists are either pretending it's not happening or secretly panicking.

    Here's what I'm seeing instead: a clear line between what AI can handle (and should) and where the real moat is for consultants, creators, and anyone who makes things with their brain.

    In this episode, I break down:

    - The three things that create your moat: judgment under ambiguity, somatic awareness, and taste
    - Why letting AI handle execution actually strengthened my business (and doubled my profit margins)
    - What I eliminated from my workflow—including an entire expensive team member
    - The real risk: mediocre strategists scaling mediocrity faster
    - Why your value isn't in typing—it's in the layer above (or below) typing

    Plus: a transparent update on the Embodied Visibility Lab enrollment and what happens when something you launch doesn't go the way you expected.

    Your Next Steps:
    • Work with Me: https://www.erintrafford.com/link-in-bio
    • Grab the Story & Somatics Private Audio Vault: https://erintrafford.com/story-and-somatics
    • Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/its.erintrafford
    • Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erintrafford/
    • Find Erin on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfZBA8F_znMYzT4pjtWCbhA
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    20 分
  • [ANNOUNCEMENT] What is Slow Freedom? - Transmission Series Day 22

    [ANNOUNCEMENT] What is Slow Freedom? - Transmission Series Day 22
    2025/10/22
    After 22 days of daily transmissions, the fog has lifted. I'm announcing a major shift for this channel and podcast—one that's been emerging in real-time as I've built in public. This episode is about what I'm calling Slow Freedom: building something financially viable and meaningful without fragmenting yourself in the process. It's the third path between staying small and burning out chasing algorithms. What you'll hear:
    • Why I'm shifting from daily content to strategic cadence (2 pods/week, 3-4 YouTubes/week starting November)
    • The three pillars of Slow Freedom: Coast FIRE for founders, operational structure for freedom, and nervous system capacity
    • How my family is building toward Coast FIRE and why this conversation is missing for business owners
    • What's coming next: real numbers, real failures, true behind-the-scenes
    • Why holding onto money is actually a nervous system issue
    The Shift: Starting November 3rd, this becomes a show about building sustainable wealth and freedom as a business owner—financial strategy, operational excellence, and somatic capacity working together. If you've been following the transmission series, thank you. Your attention made this clarity possible. Now let's build something different together.

    Your Next Steps:
    • Work with Me: https://www.erintrafford.com/link-in-bio
    • Grab the Story & Somatics Private Audio Vault: https://erintrafford.com/story-and-somatics
    • Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/its.erintrafford
    • Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erintrafford/
    • Find Erin on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfZBA8F_znMYzT4pjtWCbhA
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    17 分
  • Stop Pumping Out 100 AI Clips (Do This Instead) - Transmission Series Day 20

    Stop Pumping Out 100 AI Clips (Do This Instead) - Transmission Series Day 20
    2025/10/20
    You've seen the pitch: "Sit down for an hour, answer questions, and we'll pump out 100 pieces of content for you." It doesn't work. And I'm going to tell you why. I spent 20 years as a broadcast journalist. I now run Story Studio Network. I know what compelling content looks like. The problem with "100 clips from 1 hour": There's no intentionality. You're creating NOISE, not communication. The intentionality is in sitting down for the hour. But you lose connection with the 75 pieces of output because you're outsourcing that to AI or a VA. You're not thinking about what each piece is trying to communicate. You're just... filling channels. The newsroom approach is the opposite: Intentionality in EVERY piece. Not just the input—the output. Because newsrooms don't create one story and chop it 100 ways. They create multiple distinct stories, each with purpose. What this episode covers:
    • Why role-based processes beat content-based processes
    • The 4 problems killing your corporate comms
    • The 5 newsroom roles you need (Assignment Editor, Reporter, Producer, Anchor, Director)
    • Why your CEO should be the anchor, not the entire newsroom
    • How Story Studio Network runs the same process for every project
    • The "say it three ways" technique (better than 100 AI clips)
    The shift: Stop asking your CEO to sit for an hour and blather. Start building a TEAM with clear roles who create intentional content. That's how you build real thought leadership.

    Your Next Steps:
    • Work with Me: https://www.erintrafford.com/link-in-bio
    • Grab the Story & Somatics Private Audio Vault: https://erintrafford.com/story-and-somatics
    • Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/its.erintrafford
    • Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erintrafford/
    • Find Erin on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfZBA8F_znMYzT4pjtWCbhA
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    28 分
  • How I Sold My Blog for Six Figures (The Process No One Tells You) - Transmission Series Day 19

    How I Sold My Blog for Six Figures (The Process No One Tells You) - Transmission Series Day 19
    2025/10/19
    In 2021, I sold my lifestyle blog for six figures USD. But nobody talks about the actual PROCESS. The timeline. The mistakes. The things that almost killed the deal. Today I'm walking you through exactly how it happened—from start to finish. What we cover:
    • What I was actually selling (multi-six figures revenue, 200K-300K monthly page views, 10K+ email list)
    • Multiple income streams: display ads ($5K/month passive), sponsored content, affiliate marketing, brand consulting
    • What made it sellable vs. what made it complicated (personal brand trap)
    • Why I decided to sell (burnout + strategic timing + sensing AI was coming)
    • The 6-8 month process of "sanitizing" the website (removing myself and my kids from 800+ articles)
    • How website valuations work (multiples of MONTHLY profit, not annual)
    • Why I took it off the market (lowball offers)
    • The private sale to a US investment firm
    • The 16-month payment plan (lease-to-buy structure)
    • What I'd do completely differently now
    • The owner's trap: building a business too reliant on YOU
    Key lesson: In 5 years, if someone said "I want to buy your business," could you hand them the keys? Or how hard would it be operationally?

    Your Next Steps:
    • Work with Me: https://www.erintrafford.com/link-in-bio
    • Grab the Story & Somatics Private Audio Vault: https://erintrafford.com/story-and-somatics
    • Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/its.erintrafford
    • Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erintrafford/
    • Find Erin on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfZBA8F_znMYzT4pjtWCbhA
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    29 分