Media entrepreneur took on big challenges long before pandemic

Ruth Soukup is living example that being afraid shouldn’t derail anyone’s business dreams. She has a $5 million business to prove it.

By Mark Gordon
| 5:19 a.m. March 6, 2020
| 0 Free Articles Remaining!

Courtesy. Ruth Soukup founded Charlotte County-based Ruth Soukup Omnimedia in 2010.

Entrepreneurs

Self-help media entrepreneur Ruth Soukup — her credentials include 2 million podcast downloads, 1 million email subscribers, 11,000 blogging students and six books — got her start in the business by arguing with her spouse.

Pandemic update

In some ways, Ruth Soukup’s life experiences in overcoming adversity have helped her adapt to running a business during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We tried to have perspective,” says Soukup, of the early days when the economy began to shut down. “We said, ‘let’s not panic. Let’s be strategic.’”

First, they went from having quarterly goals and meetings, with a sprint at the end, to recalibrating into what they could do now. “We had a special meeting to see what are our risks, and what are our opportunities,” Soukup says.

A big risk, or problem: They had $500,000 in payment plans in jeopardy of zeroing out, if customers were losing their jobs. “We also knew selling monthly memberships was going to be tough,” she says. “We decided we had to come up with content that’s so good people will know they want to keep paying for it.”

Their answer? Move up the timing for the Living Well Academy, a live web course planned for the fall that instead was up and running by early April. “Normally it takes us three months for that launch,” she says, “but we did this in three days.”

Soukup has other projects, including a new children’s book, she hopes will keep the brand top of mind during the next few months. The book, How Big is Your Brave, is scheduled to debut May 5.

Soukup says in addition strategic brand awareness moves, another key to navigating the crisis is to not think too far ahead, if possible, and avoid worrying about elements out of your control. Says Soukup: “Try to focus on what’s right in front of you.”