The Kim Doyal Show

One of the things I love most about connecting with new people online is that it reminds me that there are a multitude of different ways to create and build a profitable online business. Of course there's potential danger in this as well... it's easy to get distracted when you see that what one person is doing and it looks like they're making progress faster than you are, even though your business is completely different.

Today's episode is with another one of my fellow Mastermind members in Adam Spiel's Facebook Mastermind group, Trey Lewellen.

Trey's business model is not like anyone else I've had on the show. Also known as "Mr. ON IT", Trey has grown a very successful business through selling T-Shirts, creating membership sites and coaching people to do the same. I've watched Trey grow his business in a HUGE way in a very short period of time and am in awe of the massive action he takes on a consistent basis. From selling tea (yes, loose leaf drinkable tea) to creating an empire, Trey's story is inspiring and the interview is packed with a ton of valuable information you can implement today.

Trey's Business Model

Using Facebook as his platform:

 Build a successful Fanpage in a specific niche (driving the fanbase up to 10k - 30k fans)

 Sharing valuable content with that audience

 Engaging with that audience to see what they want (and then determining how you can provide it)

 Using TeeSpring to create t-shirts for that audience (using the scarcity model because the t-shirts are only on sale for a limited time)

 Moving the fans off of the Facebook fanpage into a membership site

 Creating and providing valuable content for members

On Facebook:

Trey and his team have a very strategic method for growing their likes for their Facebook pages. They start with 5 different images and the same copy, run the like campaign to see which image is the most popular. Once they've determined which image converts the best, they then test different headlines. From that test they're able come up with the winning combination of the right image and the right headline.

BOOM!

Sounds so simple yet it's not something that most people are willing to do (the testing part I mean).

Trey walks you through the exact process I mentioned above for growing your Facebook fanbase. He gives a great example of having a conversation with a particular audience and how he was able to drop the price of his likes from $.40 to $.04 by making one simple tweak that his fans shared with him.

Moving those fans into Membership Sites

You may or may not have heard people saying "Membership sites are dead"... regardless of whether or not you've heard that, Trey proves that membership sites are alive and well!

They have an automated process where they drive their fans into an opt-in offer, have a follow up email sequence that delivers valuable content and within a certain period of time offer them an opportunity to join the 'private community' at an average price of $10 a month (a price point most people will at least try out and is low enough to have high retention, assuming of course you provide valuable content as well).He's also built in an amazing upsell for a higher end membership where they provide multiple formats of content (think an interview converted to a transcript, then converted to a PDF) as well as physically shipping something to members every month (where they don't actually have to do any of the fulfillment).

You will get SO much value from this interview and the BEST thing you can do is implement something... today!

Be sure to listen to the full interview and check out Trey's offer just for my audience.

One of the things I love most about connecting with new people online is that it reminds me that there are a multitude of different ways to create and build a profitable online business. Of course there's potential danger in this as well... it's easy to get distracted when you see that what one person is doing and it looks like they're making progress faster than you are, even though your business is completely different.

Today's episode is with another one of my fellow Mastermind members in Adam Spiel's Facebook Mastermind group, Trey Lewellen.

Trey's business model is not like anyone else I've had on the show. Also known as "Mr. ON IT", Trey has grown a very successful business through selling T-Shirts, creating membership sites and coaching people to do the same. I've watched Trey grow his business in a HUGE way in a very short period of time and am in awe of the massive action he takes on a consistent basis. From selling tea (yes, loose leaf drinkable tea) to creating an empire, Trey's story is inspiring and the interview is packed with a ton of valuable information you can implement today.

Trey's Business Model

Using Facebook as his platform:

Build a successful Fanpage in a specific niche (driving the fanbase up to 10k - 30k fans)

Sharing valuable content with that audience

Engaging with that audience to see what they want (and then determining how you can provide it)

Using TeeSpring to create t-shirts for that audience (using the scarcity model because the t-shirts are only on sale for a limited time)

Moving the fans off of the Facebook fanpage into a membership site

Creating and providing valuable content for members

On Facebook:

Trey and his team have a very strategic method for growing their likes for their Facebook pages. They start with 5 different images and the same copy, run the like campaign to see which image is the most popular. Once they've determined which image converts the best, they then test different headlines. From that test they're able come up with the winning combination of the right image and the right headline.

BOOM!

Sounds so simple yet it's not something that most people are willing to do (the testing part I mean).

Trey walks you through the exact process I mentioned above for growing your Facebook fanbase. He gives a great example of having a conversation with a particular audience and how he was able to drop the price of his likes from $.40 to $.04 by making one simple tweak that his fans shared with him.

Moving those fans into Membership Sites

You may or may not have heard people saying "Membership sites are dead"... regardless of whether or not you've heard that, Trey proves that membership sites are alive and well!

They have an automated process where they drive their fans into an opt-in offer, have a follow up email sequence that delivers valuable content and within a certain period of time offer them an opportunity to join the 'private community' at an average price of $10 a month (a price point most people will at least try out and is low enough to have high retention, assuming of course you provide valuable content as well).He's also built in an amazing upsell for a higher end membership where they provide multiple formats of content (think an interview converted to a transcript, then converted to a PDF) as well as physically shipping something to members every month (where they don't actually have to do any of the fulfillment).

You will get SO much value from this interview and the BEST thing you can do is implement something... today!

Be sure to listen to the full interview and check out Trey's offer just for my audience.

Before I get into the details of this interview, I want to share something that a friend said to me over a recent Skype conversation. He's been listening to the podcast and the last couple of interviews have been with people in my Mastermind (Adam Spiel and Troy Broussard). Both have very profitable businesses and are running their businesses in a completely different way (there are definitely some methodologies they both use, but the model is different). He said something that made me realize I've been feeling something similar.

I'm going to paraphrase what he said, but here's the jist of his statement:

"There are so many different ways to do things and they all sound good, now I'm more confused as to which way I should build my business!"

Wow.

This totally struck a nerve with me because I realized that recently I'd gone off my own path.

It used to be that I would distract myself by buying information products (i.e, shiny object syndrome). But instead of the "shiny object syndrome" of buying products (I rarely buy things online for my business anymore unless they directly relate to what I'm currently doing) I'd become a collector of 'methodologies'. Instead of focusing on what I know in my gut I want to do and build (and how I want to do it), I was becoming distracted (and frustrated) with the way other people were doing things.

Which brings me to my interview with Tea' Silvestre of Story Bistro.

Tea and I connected at a WordPress meetup in the Bay Area a few years ago and I'm SO grateful we did. I don't go to WordPress meetups very often (I've spoken at a few) because it's not really my audience and there aren't any that are close enough for me to pop into. Needless to say connecting with Tea was a huge bonus (especially since her business isn't really about WordPress, she was going to the meetups to connect with people). Before I even had the pleasure of really getting to know Tea I instantly felt at ease with her and knew how she went about building and growing her business resonated with me.

You'll hear Tea's story of what she did prior to Story Bistro, how she decided to move from "The Word Chef" (although she's still 'The Chef') to Story Bistro and why she's so committed to doing things in a 'real' way.

We talked about doing things in an authentic way and without the Hype.

Tea shares her story of getting fed up with the corporate world, moving into local government and then the non-profit sector with her own business. Even then she was driven by doing good things and with integrity (and because of that Tea' has a high bullshit detector - my words, not hers, and is quick to call out what she feels isn't right. One of the things I respect most about her).

We talked about her move from The Bay Area to Oregon (I'll be trekking up this summer to visit her) and her contemplation of moving to Detroit (housing is really affordable in Detroit).

Tired of all the hype and feeling like there was no where to go, Tea created Story Bistro because she was drawn to the Story Telling of marketing and the real connection that can be created when you do things with intention, skill and integrity.

And I LOVE it!

BUT.. just to be clear, as much as I'm talking about authenticity and non-hypey marketing, Tea is brilliant at what she does and has the skills to back it up (hence the integrity).

Oh, and she mentioned cooking rabbit and how it relates to marketing.

Really.

Enjoy the interview and be sure to connect with Tea at Story Bistro and the Digital Dining Room.

Before I get into the details of this interview, I want to share something that a friend said to me over a recent Skype conversation. He's been listening to the podcast and the last couple of interviews have been with people in my Mastermind (Adam Spiel and Troy Broussard). Both have very profitable businesses and are running their businesses in a completely different way (there are definitely some methodologies they both use, but the model is different). He said something that made me realize I've been feeling something similar.

I'm going to paraphrase what he said, but here's the jist of his statement:

"There are so many different ways to do things and they all sound good, now I'm more confused as to which way I should build my business!"

Wow.

This totally struck a nerve with me because I realized that recently I'd gone off my own path.

It used to be that I would distract myself by buying information products (i.e, shiny object syndrome). But instead of the "shiny object syndrome" of buying products (I rarely buy things online for my business anymore unless they directly relate to what I'm currently doing) I'd become a collector of 'methodologies'. Instead of focusing on what I know in my gut I want to do and build (and how I want to do it), I was becoming distracted (and frustrated) with the way other people were doing things.

Which brings me to my interview with Tea' Silvestre of Story Bistro.

Tea and I connected at a WordPress meetup in the Bay Area a few years ago and I'm SO grateful we did. I don't go to WordPress meetups very often (I've spoken at a few) because it's not really my audience and there aren't any that are close enough for me to pop into. Needless to say connecting with Tea was a huge bonus (especially since her business isn't really about WordPress, she was going to the meetups to connect with people). Before I even had the pleasure of really getting to know Tea I instantly felt at ease with her and knew how she went about building and growing her business resonated with me.

You'll hear Tea's story of what she did prior to Story Bistro, how she decided to move from "The Word Chef" (although she's still 'The Chef') to Story Bistro and why she's so committed to doing things in a 'real' way.

We talked about doing things in an authentic way and without the Hype.

Tea shares her story of getting fed up with the corporate world, moving into local government and then the non-profit sector with her own business. Even then she was driven by doing good things and with integrity (and because of that Tea' has a high bullshit detector - my words, not hers, and is quick to call out what she feels isn't right. One of the things I respect most about her).

We talked about her move from The Bay Area to Oregon (I'll be trekking up this summer to visit her) and her contemplation of moving to Detroit (housing is really affordable in Detroit).

Tired of all the hype and feeling like there was no where to go, Tea created Story Bistro because she was drawn to the Story Telling of marketing and the real connection that can be created when you do things with intention, skill and integrity.

And I LOVE it!

BUT.. just to be clear, as much as I'm talking about authenticity and non-hypey marketing, Tea is brilliant at what she does and has the skills to back it up (hence the integrity).

Oh, and she mentioned cooking rabbit and how it relates to marketing.

Really.

Enjoy the interview and be sure to connect with Tea at Story Bistro and the Digital Dining Room.

By now it's probably pretty obvious that I'm fascinated by people's stories and the path they took to get them where they are. Today's interview with Troy Broussard is no different. Having lost everything TWICE (yes, I said twice), to where he is today was no easy task. I decided to interview Troy after he shared a recent story about a webinar he ran where no one purchased and then with some follow up on his part - and coming from a place of absolute integrity - he was able to convert the no sale webinar to over $35k in sales with a little bit of follow up.

You'll hear Troy's story in the podcast (because of course you're going to listen to the entire interview, right?) but here are a few points that might drive you:

Filed personal bankruptcy

Rebuilt everything to a large real estate company, then the market crashed (and was too broke to file bankruptcy) and lost everything again

Went from working 70 -80 hours a week to working only 4 days a week in 2013 (and working towards 3 days a week in 2014)

Had a service based business that he enjoyed, but wasn't really his passion and built a successful 7 figure income

AND... my favorite Troy quote: Money is like Alcohol (and yes, I'm totally going to tease you with that because it's one of my favorite analogies).

As my business grows and evolves I'm always on the lookout for people who are on a similar journey. Not in terms of what I'm doing but in terms of people who take their life experience and integrate it into their business and it's reflected in what they do.

If you've been online for even a few years you start seeing the same names and faces (if you don't branch out of the same circles or connections). Some of those people continue to evolve and it's reflected in their business and their offerings. More often then not though the 'big names' stick with the same thing they've been doing for the past TEN years (yes, literally 10 years). They might put a different spin on a product or reinvent it with a 2.0 attached to it, but it doesn't reflect their OWN growth.

Totally not for me.

BOR-ING.

That's what I love about what Troy is doing.

But the BEST thing about what Troy is doing is how he's doing it, which is with integrity and heart.

 

Working with the right people and surrounding yourself with the right people... is what it's all about for Troy. When he shifted his busines model from a service based busines to strictly to consulting he focused on getting into the minds of his customer.

What did they need?

What was their passions?

Their drive?

And he structures his consulting towards helping them attaing those goals and in turn has been able to reach some of his own goals (and growing).

I don't want to give too much more away, be sure to listen to the interview!

And if you'd like to work with Troy and see if he's a good fit for you you can click the button below & connect directly with him.

By now it's probably pretty obvious that I'm fascinated by people's stories and the path they took to get them where they are. Today's interview with Troy Broussard is no different. Having lost everything TWICE (yes, I said twice), to where he is today was no easy task. I decided to interview Troy after he shared a recent story about a webinar he ran where no one purchased and then with some follow up on his part - and coming from a place of absolute integrity - he was able to convert the no sale webinar to over $35k in sales with a little bit of follow up.

You'll hear Troy's story in the podcast (because of course you're going to listen to the entire interview, right?) but here are a few points that might drive you:

Filed personal bankruptcy

Rebuilt everything to a large real estate company, then the market crashed (and was too broke to file bankruptcy) and lost everything again

Went from working 70 -80 hours a week to working only 4 days a week in 2013 (and working towards 3 days a week in 2014)

Had a service based business that he enjoyed, but wasn't really his passion and built a successful 7 figure income

AND... my favorite Troy quote: Money is like Alcohol (and yes, I'm totally going to tease you with that because it's one of my favorite analogies).

As my business grows and evolves I'm always on the lookout for people who are on a similar journey. Not in terms of what I'm doing but in terms of people who take their life experience and integrate it into their business and it's reflected in what they do.

If you've been online for even a few years you start seeing the same names and faces (if you don't branch out of the same circles or connections). Some of those people continue to evolve and it's reflected in their business and their offerings. More often then not though the 'big names' stick with the same thing they've been doing for the past TEN years (yes, literally 10 years). They might put a different spin on a product or reinvent it with a 2.0 attached to it, but it doesn't reflect their OWN growth.

Totally not for me.

BOR-ING.

That's what I love about what Troy is doing.

But the BEST thing about what Troy is doing is how he's doing it, which is with integrity and heart.

Working with the right people and surrounding yourself with the right people... is what it's all about for Troy. When he shifted his busines model from a service based busines to strictly to consulting he focused on getting into the minds of his customer.

What did they need?

What was their passions?

Their drive?

And he structures his consulting towards helping them attaing those goals and in turn has been able to reach some of his own goals (and growing).

I don't want to give too much more away, be sure to listen to the interview!

And if you'd like to work with Troy and see if he's a good fit for you you can click the button below & connect directly with him.

Here's the deal.

I know that the headline of this episode is probably not sitting well with some people, but the reality is it's a fact and it's a POWERFUL story. Which is why I wanted to get Adam Spiel on the podcast (besides the fact that he's just a great guy).

I met Adam at a conference my second year in business. The conference was O.K., (I honestly don't remember much outside of the name of the conference) but the connections I made proved to be priceless (I know you've heard this before, so this probably isn't news). We met up another month later at another conference and had a chance to hang out a little more and I knew he was someone that I could truly trust and build a friendship with. In other words, no B.S.

Over the years we stayed in touch to check in with how our businesses were growing. Adam went through some major shifts in what he was doing (and what he was earning) and it always inspired me! During all that time I was still building The WordPress Chick (no complaints, everything happens in divine order, I truly believe that) and always loved hearing what Adam was currently working on (it changed and evolved until he moved his business model into what he's doing today and has been doing for the last year and a half). He always surprised me with either the leap of faith he had taken, the income he was earning or the direction he was moving in.

WHY?

Because as someone who, (until I found this business) has attempted multiple businesses I completely understood his drive to find his "right thing". What is most inspiring to me about Adam's journey is that he constantly put himself out there and still does today. With every new venture he stepped into he went into it FULL FORCE! He never doubted himself, he took risks every time and simply kept moving forward.

Adam's Story

I'm not going to re-tell the whole story here because I want you to listen to the interview, but like many of you Adam graduated college not exactly sure what he wanted to for a living and ended up in real estate. Which, we all kind of know how that turned out, right? What he didn't realize at the time though was that the skills he was using in his real estate business (direct mail and email marketing campaigns) would be vitally important to his business later (although, for what it's worth, most things we experience in our careers and business all have some built-in lesson in them, we're just not privy to when we connect the lesson with the benefit).

You'll hear how he got started in online marketing (websites, much like yours truly), how he got himself into 6 figures of debt his first year (and how he got out of it) to now... earning 6 figures a month.

Literally.

The Game Changer... i.e, Facebook Advertising

Adam went through a little period of reflection and realized he needed to venture out on his own and do his own thing for a while (you'll hear how he had done a few joint ventures with partners which were great but not the direction he wanted to go in). Which is when he got into Facebook Advertising.

Initially he just started testing the platform, trying some things out and measuring what was working (novel idea, huh?). The more time he spent on Facebook advertising the more intrigued he got...and the better his results were.

After running successful campaigns for himself in Facebook, Adam started advertising that he could teach other people how to get results in their business with Facebook Advertising.

And a business was born.

Adam took everything he learned, put it into a membership site and created a mastermind (this is the mastermind that I'm in and have mentioned a few times in recent episodes). From there he's been scaling, leveraging and building what can easily be called an Empire.

And like I mentioned in the episode, leave me your comments and let me know what you think.

Links from this episode

 

HEY! Before you go... if you're enjoying the podcast I'd LOVE a review in iTunes!...

Here's the deal.

I know that the headline of this episode is probably not sitting well with some people, but the reality is it's a fact and it's a POWERFUL story. Which is why I wanted to get Adam Spiel on the podcast (besides the fact that he's just a great guy).

I met Adam at a conference my second year in business. The conference was O.K., (I honestly don't remember much outside of the name of the conference) but the connections I made proved to be priceless (I know you've heard this before, so this probably isn't news). We met up another month later at another conference and had a chance to hang out a little more and I knew he was someone that I could truly trust and build a friendship with. In other words, no B.S.

Over the years we stayed in touch to check in with how our businesses were growing. Adam went through some major shifts in what he was doing (and what he was earning) and it always inspired me! During all that time I was still building The WordPress Chick (no complaints, everything happens in divine order, I truly believe that) and always loved hearing what Adam was currently working on (it changed and evolved until he moved his business model into what he's doing today and has been doing for the last year and a half). He always surprised me with either the leap of faith he had taken, the income he was earning or the direction he was moving in.

WHY?

Because as someone who, (until I found this business) has attempted multiple businesses I completely understood his drive to find his "right thing". What is most inspiring to me about Adam's journey is that he constantly put himself out there and still does today. With every new venture he stepped into he went into it FULL FORCE! He never doubted himself, he took risks every time and simply kept moving forward.

Adam's Story

I'm not going to re-tell the whole story here because I want you to listen to the interview, but like many of you Adam graduated college not exactly sure what he wanted to for a living and ended up in real estate. Which, we all kind of know how that turned out, right? What he didn't realize at the time though was that the skills he was using in his real estate business (direct mail and email marketing campaigns) would be vitally important to his business later (although, for what it's worth, most things we experience in our careers and business all have some built-in lesson in them, we're just not privy to when we connect the lesson with the benefit).

You'll hear how he got started in online marketing (websites, much like yours truly), how he got himself into 6 figures of debt his first year (and how he got out of it) to now... earning 6 figures a month.

Literally.

The Game Changer... i.e, Facebook Advertising

Adam went through a little period of reflection and realized he needed to venture out on his own and do his own thing for a while (you'll hear how he had done a few joint ventures with partners which were great but not the direction he wanted to go in). Which is when he got into Facebook Advertising.

Initially he just started testing the platform, trying some things out and measuring what was working (novel idea, huh?). The more time he spent on Facebook advertising the more intrigued he got...and the better his results were.

After running successful campaigns for himself in Facebook, Adam started advertising that he could teach other people how to get results in their business with Facebook Advertising.

And a business was born.

Adam took everything he learned, put it into a membership site and created a mastermind (this is the mastermind that I'm in and have mentioned a few times in recent episodes). From there he's been scaling, leveraging and building what can easily be called an Empire.

And like I mentioned in the episode, leave me your comments and let me know what you think.

Links from this episode

HEY! Before you go... if you're enjoying the podcast I'd LOVE a review in iTunes!...

I've been back from a trip to San Diego for a mastermind and conference and am just now feeling 'recovered'. Anyone who has attended a conference for a few days knows exactly what I'm talking about (and in this case was at the end of the week and I didn't stay for all of it). 

You're motivated and inspired to go, suck up all the information and inspiration you can and come back and kick ass and take names. Then of course by the end of the first day your brain is on overload, spinning with ideas and all kinds of ways you're going to 'take things to the next level'.

I know you know what I'm talking about.

The mastermind was only 2 days (one day of Baja ATV racing in Mexico, which was amazing) followed by a full day of mastermind (mastermind-ing? is that a word?). The ATV racing was a blast (although I don't need to do that again) but was a LONG day (we sat in traffic for 2 1/2 hrs. crawling to the border), then had a quick shower and a dinner out with everyone. Our mastermind was the next day from 9 - 7 and was amazing.

And exhausting.

But brilliant.

I had one day in between the mastermind & conference and had more or less made up my mind on my 'free' day that I was going to skip the conference entirerly. Partly because I was a little fried (I drove down to San Diego on Sunday..  7-8 hr. drive), but really because I simply did not need MORE information!

I gained SO much from the mastermind and I knew exactly what I needed to do and implement. More information would just have overwhelmed me (and frustrated me to be honest with you).

Of course I woke up on Thursday morning with a slight change of heart (very slight) and went to the conference for the keynotes on Thursday.

And I'm glad I did.

The information I got from the 3 keynotes was completely in alignment with what I did at the mastermind earlier in the week and that was enough. My brain was on overload, I was emotionally tired and I just wanted a few days to myself.

Aah the wisdom that comes with age.

I actually think I might take a 4 day sabbatical every month, where I'm not available online to anyone and just checkout, or I could start with taking Fridays off. hmm...

Why a Blog Isn't A Business

There is a LOT of noise online and I'm the first to say that sometimes it can be hard to filter. But the key, and I'm SO not kidding here, is to find your own voice and trust your gut!

Which I really just started doing this past year, but it has paid off in ways both measurable and immeasurable.

One of the things that people seem to have a HUGE aversion to is List Building. They don't want to use pop-ups (I asked people on FB and pretty much EVERYONE agreed that they hate them, but they work. So someone is opt-ing in through them, right?). What people do is put this little opt-in box off to the side in their sidebar hoping people will subscribe for their 'newsletter', or e-zine as they were called (can we just retire that phrase already?). Hear my heart on this (thank you @AllegraSinclair for that saying... brilliant), you DON'T have to use pop-ups, but you DO need to put your opt-in in front of people and in a way that motivates them to opt-in.

Here's a question for you...

How many 'newsletters' do you sign up for? No opt-in offer, no value provided, just "hey, let's stay in touch?"

Be honest.

For me? Unless you're Brene' Brown or Dr. Wayne Dyer, then it's highly unlikely that I'm going to subscribe just for updates (updates on what exactly?)

And no, you don't need to be a 'celebrity' but it is human nature to think "What's in it for me?" How many emails do you get in ONE day?

Let's apply this idea to an 'offline' business, and in this case, because I spent the majority of my working life in retail (until I started my business 6 years ago), we'll use a retail store as an example.

You open the doors, provide TONS of free stuff to your customers, don't ask for a way to stay in touch with them or communicate with th...

I've been back from a trip to San Diego for a mastermind and conference and am just now feeling 'recovered'. Anyone who has attended a conference for a few days knows exactly what I'm talking about (and in this case was at the end of the week and I didn't stay for all of it).

You're motivated and inspired to go, suck up all the information and inspiration you can and come back and kick ass and take names. Then of course by the end of the first day your brain is on overload, spinning with ideas and all kinds of ways you're going to 'take things to the next level'.

I know you know what I'm talking about.

The mastermind was only 2 days (one day of Baja ATV racing in Mexico, which was amazing) followed by a full day of mastermind (mastermind-ing? is that a word?). The ATV racing was a blast (although I don't need to do that again) but was a LONG day (we sat in traffic for 2 1/2 hrs. crawling to the border), then had a quick shower and a dinner out with everyone. Our mastermind was the next day from 9 - 7 and was amazing.

And exhausting.

But brilliant.

I had one day in between the mastermind & conference and had more or less made up my mind on my 'free' day that I was going to skip the conference entirerly. Partly because I was a little fried (I drove down to San Diego on Sunday.. 7-8 hr. drive), but really because I simply did not need MORE information!

I gained SO much from the mastermind and I knew exactly what I needed to do and implement. More information would just have overwhelmed me (and frustrated me to be honest with you).

Of course I woke up on Thursday morning with a slight change of heart (very slight) and went to the conference for the keynotes on Thursday.

And I'm glad I did.

The information I got from the 3 keynotes was completely in alignment with what I did at the mastermind earlier in the week and that was enough. My brain was on overload, I was emotionally tired and I just wanted a few days to myself.

Aah the wisdom that comes with age.

I actually think I might take a 4 day sabbatical every month, where I'm not available online to anyone and just checkout, or I could start with taking Fridays off. hmm...

Why a Blog Isn't A Business

There is a LOT of noise online and I'm the first to say that sometimes it can be hard to filter. But the key, and I'm SO not kidding here, is to find your own voice and trust your gut!

Which I really just started doing this past year, but it has paid off in ways both measurable and immeasurable.

One of the things that people seem to have a HUGE aversion to is List Building. They don't want to use pop-ups (I asked people on FB and pretty much EVERYONE agreed that they hate them, but they work. So someone is opt-ing in through them, right?). What people do is put this little opt-in box off to the side in their sidebar hoping people will subscribe for their 'newsletter', or e-zine as they were called (can we just retire that phrase already?). Hear my heart on this (thank you @AllegraSinclair for that saying... brilliant), you DON'T have to use pop-ups, but you DO need to put your opt-in in front of people and in a way that motivates them to opt-in.

Here's a question for you...

How many 'newsletters' do you sign up for? No opt-in offer, no value provided, just "hey, let's stay in touch?"

Be honest.

For me? Unless you're Brene' Brown or Dr. Wayne Dyer, then it's highly unlikely that I'm going to subscribe just for updates (updates on what exactly?)

And no, you don't need to be a 'celebrity' but it is human nature to think "What's in it for me?" How many emails do you get in ONE day?

Let's apply this idea to an 'offline' business, and in this case, because I spent the majority of my working life in retail (until I started my business 6 years ago), we'll use a retail store as an example.

You open the doors, provide TONS of free stuff to your customers, don't ask for a way to stay in touch with them or communicate with th...