The Kim Doyal Show

BUT… before we get into that, it’s been a hot minute since I posted a podcast episode, and I want to share some updates with you.

I have a couple of interviews in the can and another solo show to wrap up, but this had to come first.

I had my back surgery on October 1st (in Costa Rica), and my dog, who had a second surgery on one of her legs, came home the week before my surgery (after being at the vet for 5 weeks!).

Having surgery in another country was an interesting experience, to say the least. I’m thinking of writing an article on Medium about the experience, but we’ll see if I get around to that. I trusted the neurosurgeon completely and have no doubt the surgery was done well.

The hospital stay (only one night) was another experience altogether. Not to mention there were more or less zero postop instructions or guidelines unless I asked.

Fortunately, someone on my list, shoutout to Alex Smith of Fluid Junction, who had a similar surgery and became my go-to with questions and postop care. One of my neighbors is also a nurse who worked for a neurosurgeon for years in the states, so she’s been a godsend too.

All that being said, I’m on the road to recovery.

Everything I read said about six weeks. You’d start to feel better (closer to normal), which was also true for me. I still limp a bit later in the day, my back gets sore, and I can feel pretty tired by late afternoon, but I’ll take it. I’m not in any pain, and things are progressing nicely.

The bonus to all of this was that my daughter came down for the week after my surgery to help out, so I got some extra time with her (and didn’t have to wait until Christmas to see her).

I’ve more or less been hanging out in my place, working, resting, and recuperating for the last 6 weeks. I go out to get groceries and a meal with friends here and there, but it’s actually been pretty lovely being able to focus (not to mention it’s been raining most of the last 6 weeks).

If you haven’t heard, Jodi and I shut down the Content Creators Planner a couple of months ago. I shared a podcast episode about our decision to do so. You can listen to “Time for A New Chapter” here.

It was during the closing of that business that I started to feel the pull to give it another go.

We didn’t shut it down because it wasn’t a good business, but we didn’t have the time for it as a team. Jodi has a successful full-time agency and is the primary person responsible for her aging parents. She has a lot on her plate.

Initially, I thought I would move on and focus on #FtheHUSTLE. Not just the newsletter but the business and life framework.

But that niggly feeling of “what if” wouldn’t go away.

What if I did a new planner?

Started a new company?

And did more with than one type of planner?

The wheels started turning, and I knew that this was what I was supposed to do.

Having successfully done this once, albeit, with a business partner, I knew I could do this again, but I had that much more knowledge and understanding of running an e-commerce business.

I could take all the lessons, mistakes, challenges, and wins and do things differently.

The one thing I knew had to be different this time was that I had to have a team.

It can be challenging when you can do just about everything you need in your business. Between the two of us, Jodi and I had everything...

Let me back up a little bit and explain where this came from (and yes, I’ll probably be creating a framework for this).

I came up with the term #FtheHUSTLE over six years ago.

At the time there were so many people preaching about hustle and grind it started getting on my nerves. It made me feel like no matter what I did, it wasn’t enough.

And I’m a doer.

I take action, I like being productive and seeing results from my efforts.

All that being said, I didn’t need to be bombarded with the message that I needed to do MORE or that I wasn’t serious about my business because I wasn’t working 24/7.

And can we just zip it about binge-watching TV already?

Do whatever works for you to refuel and recharge.

I didn’t do anything with #FtheHUSTLE until almost two years ago when I saw the logo in a dropbox folder and knew instantly that it was going to be the name of the newsletter (I had no idea at the time I would use it for my podcast as well).

Fast forward to today, and I’m much clearer on what #FtheHUSTLE is (more on that later…and surprise, I’ve met with a book coach to start outlining an #FtheHUSTLE book! I started doing it with AI last year, and it didn’t feel right. I want to write every word of this book).

#FtheHUSTLE is subjective.

Meaning it gets to be whatever it needs to be for YOU.

Whether it’s a shorter work week, limiting calls, more vacation time, not selling a product or service the way everyone else is telling you it needs to be done, choosing not to use social media or hiring someone to clean your house.

It can be business or personal, or better yet both.

It’s about creating a life that allows you to be and do whatever it is you want.

This brings me to more creating, less producing.

I’m going to back into this because it will be helpful to hear how I’m focused on creating in a way that isn’t necessarily obvious.

First off, Align, Design, Assign is from an amazing book I’m reading called “free time” by Jenny Blake.

HOLY MOLY, I love this book.

Recently I shared that I got the updated version of Mike Michalowicz’s “Clockwork” because I want to remove myself from the aspects of my business that aren’t the best use of my time.

I’m also launching a new company (you’ll hear about that in the next month, I promise) and want to make sure it’s set up in a way that isn’t reliant on me as the brand’s voice.

I will 100% be part of the brand in terms of part of the company (and obviously, using what I’ve created to support the launch), but I will not be the primary content creator. In fact, I’m hoping that within the first 6 months, we have a tiny, effective team (also from free time).

Back to Assign, Design, Align.

What hit me with both of these books and the work I’m doing behind the scenes for the new company (the naming took a lot of work, now I’ve moved on to the messaging and voice of the brand while having hired a graphic design company to work on the logo) is how I’ve had to slow down to be able to build something phenomenal.

I’m going to share a few bullet points from the “Align” part of the book that resonated so deeply within me.

• Align is all about: Your values, your energy, your...

I am all kinds of excited today.

It’s been a challenging few weeks with everything going on with my back (and if you missed that, you can read/listen to what’s going on in the last podcast episode).

I did my border run to Nicaragua, which went really smoothly, but man was I exhausted afterward.

Fortunately, I was smart and planned to take care of myself the day after. I didn’t have any calls and allowed myself to go with the flow. Which pretty much meant working at my desk as long as possible and then moving to my bed- regardless of the time of day.

I brought a cooler with my ice packs for the journey, which made all the difference in the world.

Now I’m set for another 90-days. Which is so close to Christmas, but I’ll still have to do one more border run before I go to California in early December. I will apply for Costa Rica’s digital nomad visa after the holidays.

The digital nomad visa will allow me to stay in the country for a year without border runs, open a bank account here (bye-bye international fees!), get a driver’s license, and be a part of the national health care system here (called Caja).

I’ll pay into Caja, but I’m happy to do so.

Now that all that is out of the way, I can focus on business again.

I have 3 weeks until my back surgery, and it’s game on! There’s something about knowing you have a ‘sprint’ ahead of you with an end date (even if it’s just for a week) that makes it much more manageable to stay focused.

Shutting the door on self-doubt came up on a call with my therapist this morning (I’ve jokingly said that I will have to pay her royalties at some point 

).

We were talking about a new project I’m working on, and I was sharing my challenges with naming it. If you’ve ever been stuck on naming something, you know what I mean (and if you haven’t been stuck, can you share your secret with me?).

I had picked a name (or so I thought) for my new project, and two of my dear friends in this space whom I completely trust asked me if that name was right. The whole thing came about because I had hired a couple of people to have logos made.

Nothing felt right.

It’s time to #FtheHUSTLE! Sign up here!

Instead of trying to figure it out with the existing name, my friends asked if I could use a different name.

Holy lightbulb moment!!! 

I solved this (and will share the name and what it is) within the next month, but I returned to a book I read years ago when I wanted to name something else.

The book is called “Hello, My Name is Awesome” by Alexandra Watkins.

Side note: Go to her website for some before and after name makeovers her company has done. Her website is “Eat My Words,” and I LOVE the tagline on her site: “Your brand name shouldn’t look like someone got drunk and played Scrabble.” 

I highly recommend the book.

It’s pretty short (about 128 pages). She gives many examples of companies she’s worked with, brands needing help, and then very specific exercises for coming up with your name. And yes, she “names names.”

She has something she calls the ‘Smile & Scratch’...

100 Episodes!

Technically, it’s 277 episodes if we count the 177 episodes as The WordPress Chick.

I thought it was a lot more, but there have been some times over the year when the podcast went on sabbatical, and that’s O.K.

What matters is that I get back to it.

So here we are, officially at episode 100, and it’s GAME ON!

Before I get into what’s coming and my new non-negotiables, I need to bring you up to speed with the last few weeks.

One of my dogs needed knee surgery (on both back knees), so I had that done the first week in July. She didn’t heal correctly because she pulled something out that they had done, probably just from moving incorrectly or getting off the couch (I was trying to lift her everywhere also).

So, after taking her back to the vet twice (they didn’t do x-rays the first time), it was determined that she’d need surgery again on one knee.

Fortunately, they didn’t charge me for the second surgery but wanted to keep her at the vet (she’s still there at the time of this writing, which is 2.5 weeks later) so they could do physiotherapy with her to make sure she healed.

I’ve messaged them and am waiting for them to get back to me.

The day I dropped her off in Liberia (about an hour away), I started feeling like I was getting sick. Sure enough, I had a heavy summer cold, congestion, cough, and fever (tested negative for Covid twice).

I had a close friend’s niece come to stay with me a during that time (I said it was fine as long as she did her own thing and didn’t mind being here while I was sick), which turned out to be great because she made a couple of pharmacy runs for me.

The day I was taking her back to the airport, I went to get in my car and could barely walk.

How I managed to drive her, there is beyond me. I was in excruciating pain (I’ve had two kids and would take childbirth over that pain all day long). I had to stop my car 4 times on the way home to lay down in the back seat to get some reprieve.

I got a hold of a great massage therapist and asked if she had any time that day because I thought it was sciatica.

In the meantime, a friend brought me a muscle relaxant and some pain meds from the pharmacy during my massage (she knows the massage therapist too). I was sobbing I was in so much pain during the massage. I took the pain meds immediately, which did nothing.

I called my friend and said I needed to go to the doctor, so she & another friend’s husband took me directly to the emergency in Liberia. After a CT scan and a couple more rounds of pain meds (it took forever to get some relief), it turns out I have a herniated disc pressing against my spine, compressing the nerves.

Last week my same friend (who truly is an angel) took me to San Jose (my first trip there – it’s over 4 hours away) for an MRI. We stayed overnight (which was fun. We found an Outback Steakhouse – an American chain – and even a Starbucks! I got a Starbucks on the way out, but actually prefer Costa Rican coffee!).

We left San Jose the next day and went straight to Liberia to consult with the neurosurgeon for the results of the MRI.

He said I absolutely need surgery.

I had been doing a bit of research and reading before my MRI (which, holy hell, I’m way more claustrophobic than I thought!) and was determined to heal myself naturally.

Until I saw the MRI image.

I haven’t decided yet, but I am leaning towards having the surgery.

The next big decision is whether to have the surgery here or back in the states. I don’t have insurance here (and if I sign up now it won’t be covered because this is a pre-existing condition), or to sign up for medical back in the states and get the surgery later.

It really just depends on whether or not I can deal with how I feel right now for a couple more months (insurance in the states won’t go into effect...

Kim Doyal 0:01

Hey, what's going on everybody? Welcome to another episode of F hustle with Kim Doyal. I, of course, I'm your host Doyal. And I'm just doing a little preview clip for today's show because I jumped right into it saying, We haven't you know, we haven't done anything in a long time. And it was specifically referring to today's episode, which was a conversation plan conversation between myself and Joe Hirsch, my co founder of the content creators plan. So I thought I would just do a little preview clip here. So it makes a little bit more sense. When you listen to this. We did record this on video, which will be up on YouTube. And we'll be sharing in the content creators, Facebook group, and anywhere else, that seems like a great place to share it. So that being said, kind of big announcement to make. So enjoy the episode. Welcome to F the hustle. I'm your host, Kim Doyal. You want a life that is meaningful and exciting. In this podcast, we're going to talk about launching and growing an online business that meets your lifestyle. F the hustle is all about doing good work, building real relationships, and most importantly, creating a business that supports how you want to live your life. You don't have to sacrifice the quality of your life today to create something that sets your soul on fire. And yes, that includes making a lot of money. So we'll be talking about selling, charging, what you're worth, and help earning more means helping more people. My goal is to help you find freedom and create a business on your terms. Hey, what's going on? Everybody? Long time, no talk? No, see, we haven't done anything in video in a long time. So we've got a big announcement today. Of course, we are the founders of the content creators planner. I'm Kim Doyal. And of course, my cohort is God earth. Well played not passed off very well. But we're, we're excited we do have a big announcement. And I'm going to kind of pass this over to Jodi to start with the announcement. And we've got a lot to share with you. So stay for the whole video. But we do have an announcement to

Jodi Hersh 2:06

make. Yeah, so the big exciting announcement is that, like all good things, CCP is coming to an end CCP being content creators planner. It's a mouthful for us. So we always call it CCP. And while we love the product, and we have loved working with everybody and helping everybody with through content creators planner, we're finding that we're both just way more focused on and excited about other things. And we're really doing a disservice to CCP, and to our audience. So we thought that we'd share a little bit with you about kind of how we got here, some of our favorite moments and highlights and things that we've learned along the way. And a little bit about what we're each going to be doing moving forward and what all of this means for you guys than our customers.

Kim Doyal 3:06

And first and foremost, of course, we want to thank you all for being on this journey with us. And just so you guys know, Jodi and I love each other life is good. This is not some weird, like, oh, you know, but we're not breaking up. We're still we're still very good friends. And, you know, confidants and counsel to each other about business. So I want to do that. But a huge thank you. It's been such a fun, amazing journey. No regrets. It's, it's been wild, you know, starting something and launching something here before the world went upside down. But let's go God has prepared some really great kind of questions and take away so we're gonna jump in and say that, but again, thank you so much for being on this journey with us. So let's, let's get into your little structured thing you got to do there. I love it.

Jodi Hersh 3:57

Well, why don't we do like a quick sort of like, timeline of what what brought us to here. So back in the summer of 2018 It's crazy. I was literally on a cruise. I've been on one...

Kim Doyal 0:01

Welcome to F the hustle. I'm your host, Kim Doyal. You want a life that is meaningful and exciting. In this podcast, we're going to talk about launching and growing an online business that fits your lifestyle. F the hustle is all about doing good work, building real relationships, and most importantly, creating a business that supports how you want to live your life. You don't have to sacrifice the quality of your life today to create something that sets your soul on fire. And yes, that includes making a lot of money. So we'll be talking about selling, charging, what you're worth, and how earning more means helping more people. My goal is to help you find freedom and create a business on your terms. Hey, what's going on everybody? Welcome back to another episode of EFF the hustle with Kim Doyal. I am your host, Kim Doyal. I'm really excited today because I swear to God, come on. I feel like my good friend come on. And we've known each other like two months or something. But this I feel like it's been a long time coming, but it hasn't we met a few months ago. My guest is C'mon Chung. Did I say your name correctly?

Unknown Speaker 1:04

That's correct. Very good.

Kim Doyal 1:06

Okay, I was like, you know, it's funny, I have a tent, I do this. And I'm like, Kim, you need to clarify this before you actually get on the interview. But anyway, Kibana and I connected through Twitter. And I just kind of fell in love with his content and what he was doing. I signed up for his free email course, which he's going to talk about everything he's doing. And one of the best things that I just love this is in his follow up sequence. He said, hit reply, and tell me, he said I reply to every email. And he did. And I just thought, this is friggin brilliant. I shared what he was doing. It was it was just a real fun engagement. And so come on. Thank you for being here today.

Unknown Speaker 1:45

Yeah, thank you, Kim, for having me here. Seriously, I reply to 100% of my email. But sometimes like seven days, late 14 days late, like today, I was replying emails 14 days late. But late is better than never showing up. Right. So that's my, that's my way of doing things.

Kim Doyal 2:04

Oh, absolutely. And you know, it's funny simply, I obviously love email. I do so much with email. I still it's kind of my almost a preferred choice of communication. But I like to get into conversations with people. I think it's, it's fantastic. So all right. We're gonna talk about everything. I love starting with the backstory. And you do this full time now you're a full time creator, and I should we should clarify for people. So our time zones are a little bit off. It's eight o'clock in Costa Rica. Where are you? And what time is it for you right now?

Unknown Speaker 2:33

Well, I am based in Hong Kong is 10pm over here. But if you ask me, I am living in my computer right now. Because most of my friends are actually online, I just feel more connected to people like you, who were doing similar things where we're passionate about what we do, and it's hard to find it locally, honestly.

Kim Doyal 2:56

Oh, you know, it's crazy. I was I'm from Northern California, San Francisco Bay Area, and I was out in the suburbs. So it was very, it felt very difficult for a long time. Like nobody gets what I do. Nobody understands.

Unknown Speaker 3:09

I guess I feel the same way.

Kim Doyal 3:12

Yeah, absolutely. And I'm a big believer online friends are friends. So how long? I'd love to hear your backstory, like I said, what got you into doing this? You know, a lot of people, you know, maybe it's just a desire or quit a job, whatever. But how did you start your online journey? What were you doing before?

Unknown Speaker 3:30

So you know, the...

I first came up with the hashtag #JustShowUP about ten years ago.

I know mine has. My ego tells me it’s taken too long, my higher self tells me it’s taken exactly as long as it’s supposed to take.

Talk about freedom.

Years ago, when I was in a mastermind, a woman was just about done writing a book when her computer crashed. She didn’t have a backup of her book.

Her response?

“It was supposed to happen. How do I know it was supposed to happen? Because it did.”

HOLY MOLY.

That’s a level of zen I hope to achieve (but I can guarantee you my initial reaction would have been as far from zen as you could imagine… and hopefully, I will always have a backup).

I’m a little in awe that after all this time doing this. I’ve stepped into something that has me as nervous and excited as I was the day I started.

Don’t get me wrong, plenty of projects over the last 14+ years have kept me excited and motivated, but this is more than a project.

It’s a calling.

A calling to Just ShowUP in a WHOLE new way.

When I first came up with FtheHUSTLE, it was out of frustration.

Now it’s a passion and an obsession.

Hustle and grind were being glorified by every male entrepreneur I was following. At the time, I felt like this was how I was supposed to build a business.

Then it hit me…

Most of the men preaching this had partners at home taking care of everything else in their life, or they were twenty-somethings with no responsibility to anyone but themselves.

Piss off.

At the time, I felt super defensive. I was a widowed mother with two young kids at home. I literally could not work harder than I was working.

I was constantly feeling like I had to justify what I was or wasn’t doing.

It was exhausting.

Not to mention, I wanted a quality of life too.

I’m all about doing the work. Focusing on mastery, shipping, hitting publish, and showing up. But fuck me if I’m going to do it the way anyone else preaches or expects anymore.

In many ways, the toxic mentality of hustle and grind has become a new version of bullshit corporate America expects from you. But guess what?

This is worse.

Because YOU’VE created it.

You set out to create something you love that would give you freedom and quality of life. But instead, you’ve created something that makes you question what you’re doing.

At the same time, realizing that you’ve created this is also the moment you gain freedom.

Because if you’ve created THIS… you can create something different.

Enjoying your life today does NOT mean you don’t want it bad enough.

It doesn’t mean you’re not committed or hungry enough.

No one gets to decide what matters to you except YOU.

As much as #FtheHUSTLE is a clear statement, it’s not really about being ‘against’ the hustle as much as it’s FOR what works for you.

What YOU want.

How I’m creating my movement

At the risk of sounding trite, I’m creating it one step at a time.

The first step is showing up fully with this message. I’ve been using #FtheHUSTLE for a while now (the newsletter is almost two years old, woohoo!), but it was more a part of my business than the business model.

I’m figuring out the frameworks for using #FtheHUSTLE to create and grow a business you love while enjoying every freaking moment of your life.

It’s time to challenge the narrative.

I swear I feel like I’ve...

I’m just back after having my last visitors for a while (my sister & niece were here for 10 days, it was fantastic!) and after a couple of nights of good sleep, I feel ridiculously excited about everything that’s going on in my business.

My first official day back to work was yesterday (July 7th), and I didn’t schedule much other than a couple of calls (I did a little work while my family was here but not much).

The only reason I kept the calls scheduled was because they fill me up: a mastermind call I have with two dear friends and my call with Jason Resnick (my partner with Deliverit). Jason and I hadn’t talked in a couple of weeks because of my schedule so we had a lot to catch up on.

If I hadn’t had a massage scheduled we probably could have talked longer (we schedule an hour but went about 90-minutes). It was my call with Jason that inspired this episode, so thanks, Jason!

The idea for this 90-day plan was Jason’s idea based on something he’s doing for himself, and there’s something about setting up accountability for me that just works. SO.. here we go!

What inspired this 90-day sprint

Planning and doing things in 90-day blocks isn’t something new, I’ve done it plenty of times. The difference with this was instead of deciding to plan for 90-days a specific goal inspired this 90-day sprint.

I’ve been anxiously waiting for ClickFunnels 2.0 to come out ever since I saw the preview video from Funnel Hacking Live last fall. It was supposed to be released in March of this year (2022) but didn’t quite make it. They finally announced that it will be available on October 4th (which falls in line with the 90-days quite nicely. thank you Jason 

).

Initially, I thought I’d just use it for funnels and products… but right now I think I’m going to move my ENTIRE business to ClickFunnels.

WHAAAAT?!?!

I know, I know… I haven’t even used the new platform yet, so let me explain where this is coming from.

I moved my brand from The WPChick to Kim Doyal in 2018. Ever since I made that pivot I’ve gone much deeper into everything I do. This includes:

• Marketing (general)
• Copywriting
• Email marketing
• Newsletters
• Sales
• Funnels
• Content (what I enjoy creating)
• Traffic

It’s not that I wasn’t doing these things before, but so much of what I did had to have a connection or tie to WordPress that I felt limited.

I felt massive freedom when I pivoted to my personal brand.

As much as I love tech and tools (I’ll continue to share them in the newsletter), my heart is in entrepreneurship and growing something that makes an impact.

The deeper I got into these things (more writing, creating different products, etc.), the less time I had for playing with tech. I’m grateful for everything I’ve learned and feel like I’ve got a very solid foundation when I need to do something (i.e., can’t hire someone), but at the end of the day?

I can’t be bothered.

In fact, I was an early adopter of ClickFunnels (and have used it on and off over the last 7+ years) and shared it with a friend (who went on to make millions in e-commerce with the platform).

When ClickFunnels came out the only other tool for creating anything similar (that wasn’t WordPress), was LeadPages. And still… they didn’t have the entire ‘funnel’ piece in place.

There were a handful of WordPress tools at the time (OptimizePress) and I don’t remember...

There is nothing like sharing something publicly that makes it feel that much more REAL.

I’ve known for a long time that accountability works for me, but instead of making myself accountable to other people (meaning someone specific), I share things as a way of being accountable to myself.

Being accountable to myself means putting it out into the world.

Most of the time the things I publicly share get done (although not always in the time frame I hoped), but sometimes they don’t.

No one is knocking at my door asking me where the “thing” is that I said I was going to do.

I let go of what that looked like a long time ago. The truth is that most people are too busy thinking about themselves to worry about what you said you were going to do.

And the bottom line is, it’s your life.

This episode is going to be another ‘processing’ episode in that writing and recording this is helping me get clearer on what I’m doing and where I’m going.

My intention is that there’s value for you as I share this process. As much as I need it, I know someone else out there needs to hear this too.

This is Who I’ve Always Been

I’ve always had an optimistic, and positive disposition.

My Mom used to tell me that even as a little kid I treated everything as an adventure.

I was naturally drawn to the things that made me feel good and intentionally chose not to engage with things that felt heavy or dark. I didn’t know it at the time, but this is what I was doing (it didn’t take many horror movies for me to realize “why the HELL would I watch something that scares the bejeezus out of me?”).

I know this might sound obvious and I believe that a lot of kids are hard-wired to be optimistic – then the longer we’re in school our optimistic, cheerful, and dreamer attitude is taught “out of” us (and I’m not negating that there are plenty of children that have hard childhoods and deal with trauma, that’s not what I’m talking about here).

When I look back I realize how many times I made decisions based on the approval of other people (mainly my parents, who, as much as they always believed in me and supported me, brought their own “stuff” to the table).

The more I stepped into things that made me feel good, the more I was criticized (not at home). The criticism went two ways: it was either “you can’t do that” or “who does she think she is.”

I did a great visualization with my therapist last week and I had two very distinct memories show up: both were times when I was feeling really good about myself and someone (an authority figure /adult) felt the need to “put me in my place.”

The thought that comes to mind with this is “jealousy is an ugly emotion.”

We’ve all had those moments where we get a sideways comment from someone that has nothing to do with us and is completely about their own shit.

Here are a couple of examples (and I’m going to bullet list them here but there’s a story attached to each that I will share in more depth in the podcast):

• Answering the phone too happily at a business I owned (my business partner leaned towards the negative side)
• Having a boss say “can someone else besides Kim answer”… at a work meeting (my boss wasn’t being negative, but everyone else was sitting there like a bump on a log)
• Collaborating with a woman online years ago who made a snide comment that “everyone wants to talk to the WP Chick”
• Internet

It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this much excitement and nervousness about my business.

This has been a LONG time coming… in fact, I’d go so far as to say this is what I was put on this planet to do.

As nervous as I am, I know I’m going to do it.

I recently shared in the FtheHUSTLE newsletter that I was going to be sharing more about mindset, psychology, and life in Costa Rica through the newsletter.

What this really means is that I’m going to go ALL in with FtheHUSTLE on KimDoyal.com.

I’m not going to stop talking about digital marketing, because it’s what I do and is what ‘birthed’ FtheHUSTLE to begin with.

But there’s a bigger message with FtheHUSTLE that goes far deeper than being “anti-hustle and doing the work.”

It’s about what you want your life to look like.

I’ve shared a lot on the podcast throughout the years about my beliefs, mindset, spirituality, self-help, therapy… you name it.

But I’ve held back.

I’ve held back mainly because I was afraid of how it would be taken and I didn’t know how to merge that side of me with the business side.

I see a path now… and I’m freaking THRILLED.

I’m going to share this (process this?) with you like this:

• What led me to this decision
• What that means for my business
• How I’m going to do this

I’m also going to share the fears, the doubts, and how I’m working on managing my thoughts in order to achieve what I want.

What led me to this decision 

I’ve been very transparent about the transitions in my business. I’ve never really thought twice about it because everything fell under the “digital marketing” umbrella.

I went from The WordPress Chick 

 outsourcing company 

 coaching 

 done-for-you podcast services 

 attempt at a SaaS 

 pivot to my personal brand 

 launched the Content Creators Planner 

 focus on Email & Newsletters (under the personal brand).

Whew…

Here’s the interesting thing.

As I was living this, it all felt like a natural transition.

I would get super bored if I had been doing ONE thing for 14 years. I know this about myself. Even when I worked in retail management – I took every opportunity to open a new store, get promoted, or take on a new challenge.

In the entrepreneurial space, you’re supposed to niche down. Pick ONE thing and focus on it. Which I did, but nothing grabbed me enough to want to do it long-term. Something about that made me feel stuck.

I think this is also why I love this space.

Tech and the web move SO fast.

As much as it can be challenging (you master one thing and need to learn something else), I find it exciting. I love how new opportunities present themselves ALL the time.

The trick is mastering the fundamentals so you can apply them to new opportunities.

I don’t feel I’ve mastered the fundamentals, but I am always practicing them (i.e., working on mastery).

Those fundamentals for me are writing (specifically for the web), publishing, sales, traffic, and lead generation.

The fundamentals of each of those are study and practice. Boring, I know. But hot damn if they don’t work.

I shared in the last episode that a recent launch didn’t go the way I wanted (When Disappointment Leads to Clarity and Ultimately Freedom).

That was a little painful to share, but I KNEW that in order to make the transition I’m making I had to get the ball rolling.

Let’s back it up a little...