The Kim Doyal Show

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. After the hustle is all about doing good work, building real relationships, and most importantly, creating a business that supports and 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 the Kim Doyal show. I'm excited today because we're gonna dig into something that I don't know a ton about. Obviously, I'm very aware of it. And my guest is going to peel back the curtain, so to speak. So my guest today is Kevin Ramsey. He is one of the co founders of Warren James. And we're gonna dig into that. But first of all, Kevin, thanks so much for being here today.

Kevin Ramsey 1:08

Thank you for having me. I'm stoked to be here. Yeah, so

Kim Doyal 1:11

this is great. And this is, I'm just gonna share this. And any of these little tidbits that you can share with your story would be great. But we connected via Twitter. And I've been saying to people recently, you know, having moved to Costa Rica, and like connecting with people here that I'm sure it's similar for you so much of my business has grown because of relationships. So I love that you just reached out to me, we had a little conversation, you're very patient, I'm like circle back in a month, we had a conversation. And so just the point in connecting and having real relationships with people can really shift the trajectory of your business.

Kevin Ramsey 1:48

Yeah, without a doubt, I've been trying to be more proactive personally, when it comes to platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn, and those connections are at your fingertips, it's just a matter of like, you know, putting in the time looking around, like for me recently, I've been really focused on the new phrase, you know, called the crater economy and seeing who else is involved in that space. And yeah, it really, really helps with your business and helps with your personal growth, like having those connections, whether it be something now or like, years from now, right? Like having that relationship. Who knows what that can mean for you.

Kim Doyal 2:21

Exactly, exactly. I'm, which I don't want to go sideways with my stuff. But I am doing an event down here next year. And it's crazy. I think I've landed a sponsor a pretty big sponsor already without even having a hotel book because of relationships. So it's it's just one of those things. And I love what you said too. I am obsessed with the quote unquote, crater economy. I love that it's this tangible thing. Now, it's not just what creators call themselves. And just a side note, if you're not following her follow Cody Sanchez, she is amazing. She has. This is a random thing. I don't know her personally. But she has a newsletter and a platform. It's called contrarian thinking. But she's all about diversifying in the crater economy as well. So it's pretty fascinating. Anyways, I want to dive into Warren James, which I'm gonna let you explain what it is. And then before we go too deep into the company, I'd love to know a little bit of your backstory. So feel free to jump in where it suits you best.

Kevin Ramsey 3:20

Yeah, totally. So I guess a quick little synopsis of Warren James. We've been around for a little under three years now. And we really work with the top point oh 1% of content creators out there. And we run their direct to consumer...

Looking back on 2021 is going to be interesting!

Surprisingly, I’m excited to do this year in review episode and share what’s on the horizon for 2022.

In addition to the world just being a little topsy-turvy, I’ve had some major changes in my life this year. I also decided I may start doing something a little “Pinteresty” for 2022.

You may have seen this before, but you basically take a mason jar (or vase or whatever floats your boat) and each day you write down something good that happened and drop it into the jar.

At the end of the year, you can look back on all the good things that happened.

Of course, you can do this in a journal, or digitally, but I love the idea of seeing this jar fill up as my year progresses.

Even though there isn’t a huge separation of my personal life and business life, I think it’s a little easier to break this year-in-review post into personal & business, then we’ll look at what’s coming in 2022.

It honestly feels like a lifetime ago when I was living in Boise, Idaho.

Yet a year ago at this time, I wasn’t planning on moving to Costa Rica (never doubt the power of a clear intention and decision).

I went from thinking I was going to stay in Boise for a while longer in February to the decision that now was as good a time as any to pursue a dream of living out of the country. Within a week I had found a place in Costa Rica and gave notice in Boise.

I sold as much as I could, got a U-Haul with a trailer to tow my car and drove down to California for two months to wrap things up there, and made the move to Costa Rica with my dogs on May 31st.

Best decision ever.

This move has without a doubt changed my life (as did Boise, but in a different way).

Moving to Boise was kind of like a test to see if I could move out of California and away from my family. I had already been looking at Idaho before my Mom passed away in July of 2019, but after losing her it really felt like it was time (and truth be told, it was easier because she was gone).

Then we all know what happened in 2020 (I literally moved to Boise in March just as Covid was turning our world upside down).

My year in Boise was all about healing.

My Mom’s death was unbearable at times and to have the space to process that felt like a gift. I did a lot of personal work with my therapist (who happened to be stuck in Costa Rica during 2020) and simply took care of myself in the best way I could.

I rested.

I also “got ready” to make the leap to Costa Rica, even though I didn’t really know that that’s what I was doing at the time.

I will forever be grateful for my time in Boise and I’m proud of myself for making the move.

With the exception of my daughter, all of my family is in the Bay Area (having my kids out on their own and doing their own thing also made it a lot easier to make that move. Someday when grandkids are a part of the picture that may change).

Technology makes it SO much easier to physically be further apart as we can see each other, send quick text messages, etc.

Now as we wind the year down I’ve already been in Costa Rica for seven months!

Time has flown by.

Just a few weeks ago I was pretty certain I wasn’t going to renew my lease when it came up (end of May), but after going back to California for Christmas (which was a great visit with family), that feels too soon to leave Costa Rica.

I’m pretty sure my next place is going to be North Carolina.

And...

Frustration is a funny word.

It means a lot of different things to different people, even though it has one definition.

My therapist had a great definition of frustration:

For the sake of this episode, we’re going to focus strictly on what frustration can look and feel like in your business.

I’m also going to give you 3 ways you can take your frustration to dig a little deeper and get better at what you do.

This episode was inspired by a coaching client.

She messaged me about her Black Friday Cyber Monday offer, which she had worked extremely hard on (in other words, she’s doing the work).

The campaign was set to go out over 4 days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, & Monday of the holiday weekend).

After the first 2 days and no sales, she messaged me that she was having an “insecurity attack” and even though she knew the people on her list weren’t the right people, she was really frustrated.

The day prior she was excited that even though no one bought it, she knew she was on the right path.

I’m going to give you a little context about where she was when we started working together (not her niche, market, or name, but you’ll have enough to understand).

When we started working together she knew she wanted to focus on a different market. Very similar work, but the message and audience needed to be changed.

In addition to some website changes, we started working on a new email opt-in offer (this is a long sequence based on the ‘Lesson, Bridge, Pitch, Survey’ strategy by Brennan Dunn): 9 emails with a very specific purpose, followed by an offer to purchase, followed by a survey to those who didn’t purchase.

Then we worked on the BFCM offer.

More emails, product images, sales page set up, etc.

A lot of work, right?

Here’s the thing…

She’s JUST getting started!

Where she was to where she is today is like night and day. She has been working extremely hard to build a solid foundation for her business.

It’s kind of like how working out and eating healthy feels if you’re trying to lose weight. You know your body is feeling better, your energy is better, your sleep is better, and maybe you’ve lost a few pounds.

Then you step on the scale a couple of months in and the number hasn’t moved.

Maybe even the inches haven’t dropped yet.

Does that mean that the two months prior, with everything you’ve accomplished aren’t worth anything?

Absolutely not.

You’ve created new habits and are establishing a level of trust within yourself that no scale can take away (nor does it determine your worth and value).

This is the biggest challenge with online businesses.

It “seems” like everyone else is having success.

But we don’t know how many times the person we’re comparing ourselves to has failed. Nor do we now how much work has been put into the knowledge and skills they have today.

Here’s an example:

I’ve made a couple of BFCM purchases. All have to do with writing.

The first was that I signed up for the 

Email marketing is the holy grail of online business.

(Stay tuned for an in-depth post with that title 😉).

I’m halfway through my second cohort of Email Insiders VIP and even with only running this twice I see the patterns and similar challenges.

As things start shifting to Web 3.0 (you can read more about Web 3.0 and what that means here), it’s never been more important to create an email list.

And here’s the kicker…

I’m not sure that it matters where you do it. GASP!

Most traffic sources work when you do the work.

Meaning, if you put the time and energy into Instagram, consistently post, and engage with people who are engaging with your content, I have no doubt you can drive traffic and business through Instagram.

I would say the same is true with Twitter, Tik Tok (not that I know anything about that), Linkedin, YouTube, Pinterest, and quite possibly Facebook (although my guess is you have to be going live in order to get any traction. I don’t spend much time on my business page anymore so don’t hold me to this).

All that being said, your priority on these platforms should be to connect with your ideal audience and drive them to subscribe to your email list.

Period.

Nothing else.

When you have a solid system running that is driving traffic from one platform to an email list you own, then move onto the next platform.

I was recently talking with a friend who does social media management (and am considering hiring her to help me with my own, because I’d much rather spend time writing, recording, and creating).

She spends a LOT of time on social and said “two platforms are plenty.”

Which works for me. Right now my platforms of choice are Twitter and Instagram (I’ll share the strategy and what I’m going to do with that in another episode).

My first priority though?

Join the movement! Get #FtheHUSTLE in your inbox!

And writing… ALL the writing possible.

When I started my business way back in 2008, I thought I could write fairly well. I never would have called myself a writer, but let’s just say at the time “ignorance was bliss.”

Because I was able to write papers in high school and college and do well, I didn’t think much beyond that (as I said, ignorance was bliss and maybe I was a little cocky. The older I get the more I realize how much I don’t know).

It wasn’t until I started my WPChick Podcast in 2013 that started appreciating and more importantly, enjoying writing.

Because of the way I talk I knew that I’d have to write my solo show episodes out first (and you can probably tell I’m not reading them, I simply use them as a guide so I follow somewhat of a cohesive flow).

I cringe a bit when I look back at older posts… for both the way it was written and how much needs to be edited and updated, but the bottom line?

I DID it.

And I kept doing it.

When I decided I wanted to put more time and energy into email marketing I had been following Ben Settle for a solid year before I really stepped into it.

Ben has a physical paper newsletter (Email Players) that he sends monthly and...

We’re going to start this episode off with a quote (because it’s SO perfect):

“Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.

-Victor Hugo

I am SUPER excited about today’s episode because I think it’s truly the most important thing we can master (as entrepreneurs but more importantly, as human beings).

I’m going to tell you what it is, but before I do, I want to ask you to do me a favor.

I want you to keep your mind as open and judgment-free as possible.

Ready?

The most important thing an entrepreneur needs to master is their thoughts.

I’ve gone down a huge rabbit hole with this lately for a few reasons (and I’ll go into a little more detail with each):

• First, I needed to do it with a few things in my personal life because they were sending me sideways
• Second, this is probably one of the things I’ve been most focused on with my coach as I get ready to launch my community
• Lastly, my mentor has been helping me with this a LOT lately… we did some amazing work last year which has all led to this

You hear over and over again in the entrepreneurial space that your mindset is everything.

And it is… you just need to know how to get there.

My goal with this episode is two-fold:

• to really buy into the idea that this is truly the best thing you can do for yourself (in your business and your life)
• to give you some tangible things you can do to start applying this

One thing to keep in mind: this is a practice. One of the sayings that my mentor has shared with me (that has taken me a while to really grasp), is that it’s “a process, not an event.”

Which naturally annoyed me… because I want to learn something and just know it.

Even though I may get pissy, I trust it now.

And it has made ALL the difference in the world.

O.K., let’s get into it!

Get #FtheHUSTLE in Your Inbox

For the longest time, I really thought I was doing a great job of managing my thoughts.

I first got into self-help and listening to things when I was the ripe old age of 22.

I purchased Tony Robbins Personal Power and progressed through pretty much anything I could get my hands on at the time (keep in mind these were cassette tapes, all pre-podcast and digital downloads of anything).

I was working in a bookstore at the time and we sold audiobooks, so I’d splurge every now and then on a new book on tape. Because I purchased Personal Power I also would get the “Guthy Renker” and “Nightingale-Conant” catalogs (yes, a paper catalog in the mail).

At that time I’d say 99% of what I listened to were male authors (something I never really thought about at the time). Most of what I was listening to was about goal setting, motivation, sales, and productivity. All of that was fine, but it always felt like something was missing.

Then I discovered Dr. Wayne Dyer.

If you’re not familiar with him, he’s an NYT best-selling author of over 40 books. He’s been called “The Father of Motivation” and had an academic career and private counseling practice before he wrote his first book.

When I first started reading & listening to Wayne Dyer most of his work was in the self-help genre. As his career progressed he moved more and more into spirituality and it felt like “this is what I’ve been missing!”

It was like this magic combination of “anything is possible” and “be gentle” at the same time.

(On a subconscious 

This has been a LONG time coming.

I feel like I have so much to catch you up on with this episode.

First, if you’ve stuck with me and wondered where the podcast is, Thank You.

Before I get into what’s coming (and yes, the podcast is coming back with a regular schedule), I think I need to update you on a few things.

Life in Costa Rica

I’ve now been in Costa Rica for 4.5 months! I can’t believe how fast the time has gone. I’ve written a full post on why I moved to a country I’d never visited on Medium here (and would love some claps & comments if it resonates with you).

It’s truly starting to feel like “home” here.

What’s been so fascinating about this move to Costa Rica are all of the realizations I’ve had. Some are deep and some are pretty superficial (guess I didn’t need to run to Target as often as I thought), but they’ve all made a difference in how I feel and where I’m going.

My understanding is that October is the end of the rainy season here. I haven’t minded the rain at all… the thunderstorms here are like nothing I’ve seen before. It can literally be sunny and dry one minute and pouring with thunder and lightning the next (I love it, the dogs, not so much).

The rain is probably the only thing that’s made it feel like fall here.

It’s kind of a trip getting on Zoom calls with people who are all showing up bundled up in cozy clothes while I’m still here in my tank top and shorts.

My goal would be a place somewhere in the states and a place here.

I like fall and Christmastime in cooler weather (note I didn’t say cold) and would be happy to have January through September here. We’ll see.

I finally bit the bullet and got a car here.

FREEDOM!

I think I was more excited about buying a 2007 Kia Sorrento than I was about my Audi Q5… it’s all about perspective.

I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve made some wonderful friends who have been kind enough to take me places and help me get what I’ve needed, but after 4 months I realized I needed a car.

One of the things I love about being in the car for any length of time is listening to podcasts and audiobooks (I can listen when I work sometimes, it just depends on the task at hand). I’m sure I’ll do more listening when the rain stops and I can do more beach walks too.

Long story short, life in Costa Rica is really, really good.

Time for a Reboot (and what that means)

I want to break down this “reboot” into a few different categories:

• Podcast
• Email
• Content
• Offers
• Facebook Group

Let’s start with the podcast.

When I pivoted the podcast from “The WordPress Chick Podcast” to “The Kim Doyal Show” – I essentially kept the format completely the same, I just changed the name, introduction, and artwork (although I should have kept the episode #’s continuing instead of starting over, but no point in crying over spilled milk, right? And I guess I could go back and edit them).

Besides the fact that the last 2.5 years have been challenging (losing my Mom, moving, Covid, moving again), I didn’t feel excited about the podcast the way I once did.

The goal has always been to do a solo show and then an interview, which is fun, but I think I’d prefer to do primarily solo shows.

Not because I don’t enjoy interviewing and creating new relationships, because they’ve been the foundation of growing my business.

Simply because I want to focus in a little different direction.

The podcast is going to get a new introduction and an “official reboot” (I’m thinking some sort of giveaway). That will happen in the next month or so after I launch my community (more on that in a minute).

I will definitely still have guests on the show, I just want to be more intentional about the conversation.

Email… and more Email

I miss my doing my “almost daily...

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as I get closer to launching a community of my own. I think we all have experiences of launching something and it doesn’t do as well as we had hoped.

We plan for it, we create the thing, and we get ready to start marketing it.

Then when the time comes to release our offer to our audience it falls flat (or at least doesn’t do what we had hoped it would.

I want to go deeper into this today because I’ve experienced both sides of the coin.

It also fits nicely with my #FtheHustle movement because doing better work should lead to less hustle and greater rewards.

What makes me most excited about this is it’s opened my eyes to a completely different (and more deliberate) marketing strategy which, if done intentionally, will always work.

Before I dig into creating the runway, I want to be clear that what I’m referring to is more like setting the stage and being in alignment.

As an example, when Jodi and launched the Content Creators Planner it wasn’t out of left field for me to be creating a physical planner for developing a content strategy. I had started the Content Creators group on Facebook two years prior, had been talking about content and content marketing, and was living by my #EverythingIsContent motto.

Creating and selling the Content Creators Planner was completely in alignment with how I had been showing up.

The time it took from our initial conversation about creating the planner together and launching it to the world was only four months.

It was a pretty crazy four months, but we did it. So even though that window was small, people were already used to hearing me talk about content marketing.

As soon as we had a logo and initial pages drafted, we started sharing it.

This is why it worked.

We went from a failed Kickstarter to a presale on our own website the week after Christmas (and announced the presale on New Year’s Eve) and successfully funded the production. We didn’t have the planner in our hands until March but people had been on the journey with us for months already…

They were perfectly happy because they knew we were invested in getting our creation into their hands.

This isn’t only about the launch of your product/service/offer. It’s making sure that when you’re ready to market your offer it’s in complete alignment with what you’ve been doing and how you’ve been showing up.

This is something I’ve been doing for as long as I can remember, but it wasn’t as intentional as it is today.

Join the #FtheHUSTLE movement!

This is where the magic happens.

Because you’re allowing yourself the space and consistency to be in alignment with what you’re doing, you can easily test the market for validation on offers.

So as an example: I have a friend who is in my Email Insiders VIP group right now (I’m running another group very soon). She does social media marketing for clients and is very active on these platforms.

She doesn’t just create images and accompanying text and then schedule it, she digs deeper into what is working for the different platforms and tests/tweaks engagement.

One of the things I asked her about recently was Twitter threads. As I’ve gotten more active on Twitter lately I’ve noticed how popular Twitter threads have become (well, it’s new to me, probably been around a while) so I asked her about them.

I was saying that I think Twitter threads would be a great way to share the newsletter every week because I could tag people I was mentioning and...

In this episode I talk with Darby Rollins, founder of the "Writing with Jarvis" book challenge. I connected with Darby in the Jarvis.ai Facebook Group (formerly Conversion.ai) and as soon as I was settled in Costa Rica jumped in to sign up for the latest book challenge.

The Writing with Jarvis book challenge is loaded with pre-work so you can do your research, plan the direction of your book (which journey you'll take the reader on), and creating your book outline, and writing your book. All with the help of AI... which in this case, is Jarvis.ai

I made it!

I’ve been thinking about how I would do this episode in hopes that I could create some structure and not simply ramble at you about the process. I’m sitting here writing the post watching men hang from the trees outside my window to trim branches (they started with machetes and are using chainsaws now).

The bonus is my view of the ocean keeps getting better.

At the time of this writing/recording, I’ve been in Costa Rica for two weeks. The first 8 were with my daughter and we were really busy trying to see and do as much as possible (which kind of bit us in the ass since we were pretty wiped before we got on the plane).

Today is only day 2 of a somewhat normal routine… and that was a little nuts (housekeeper, someone fixing the refrigerator, high speed internet install, and yes, tree trimming outside my windows).

My goal for the next few days is to get some rest while getting back on track with work. I need it and my dogs need it (they’ve done amazing considering everything they’ve been through).

*Fast forward a few days and I’m back to working on this episode*

Update: I’m sitting out on my patio writing. I’ve got my coffee, there’s a slight breeze, and I’m staring at the ocean listening to birds.

I’ve shared my reasons for moving here (and will probably go more in depth in another post on my PuraVidaJourney.com site), so let’s start with the journey here and the last two weeks.

Follow my life in Costa Rica at PuraVidaJourney.com

Best laid plans, right?

The truth is it actually went pretty smoothly.

The two months I spent at my Dad’s after leaving Boise was busier than I expected, but really nice. It was great to get to see family a few times as well as my friends in the Bay Area. I had a great night with my girlfriends (these are friends from high school who I’m so grateful for), saw some family friends, and basically worked on getting things (myself), prepared for this move.

My daughter drove up from LA on Saturday, May 29th so we could have a graduation party for her with the family. She left her car at my Dad’s because we needed my car to get all my bags, the dogs, and computer in and I’m letting her use my car for a while.

We turned around Sunday morning and hit the road back to LA (it’s about a 6 hour drive) and checked into a hotel near the airport (the intention was to do a park & ride… then we found out they weren’t running shuttles because of Covid. They didn’t have the staff to clean them. Tip: make sure you’re talking to the actual hotel and not a reservation line).

We decided to stay there anyway (it was only 5 min from the airport) and found a parking garage that would shuttle us over…there was no way we could Uber with all our stuff + the dogs).

To enter Costa Rica right now you have to purchase medical travel insurance, which I did. The night before our flight I logged in to fill out our health certificate, which then gives you a QR code so they just scan it at the airport. This was snafu #1.

My daughter couldn’t find her passport (and she is super on top of things so we had a moment of freak out). Fortunately, she lives in LA and her place was only about 25 minutes away. We drove to her apartment and she couldn’t find it (where she thought it should be).

I had a feeling it was there so went out to the family room to look around and it had fallen on the floor.

Hallelujah! Crisis averted.

We allowed for plenty of time in the morning to park the car and get to the airport, which is good because we needed it for snafu #2.

I had bought the wrong dog kennels for the dogs.

Of all the things to NOT...

I spent way too long making this a much bigger deal than it needs to be. In this episode I want to talk about making the offer, what offers look like, and how to simplify the process.

But first…

HOLY MOLY!

I made this decision three months ago and it’s been go-time ever since. Getting out of Boise was a lot of work, which took me through the end of March. I’ve been down in Northern California for 6 weeks since leaving Boise and the time has flown by.

After selling, donating, and dumping as much stuff as possible in Boise (I literally got rid of as much as I possibly could), I’ve still got a storage unit here by my Dad’s house (where I’ve been staying). I’ve got a handful of my daughter’s stuff in my storage unit and am still condensing and getting rid of more of my own things (I’d be content to only hold on to photos and all my scrapbook stuff… eventually I’ll pick that up again).

I went down to the Bay Area twice so I could see people and take care of a few things and it’s like all of the sudden here I am.

Two weeks from moving out of the country.

The closer this gets the more emotions I’m experiencing.

The majority of what I’m feeling is pure excitement! I feel like a little kid counting down to Christmas. I’ve been pretty goofy about it… when I check out at a store and someone asks me how I’m doing I respond with “great! I’m moving to Costa Rica in a few weeks!” 🤣

It’s a little bit nutty but I don’t care.

Not only is this a huge move for me it signals the beginning of an entirely new chapter in my life.

As strange as 2020 was, it was exactly what I needed.

I needed a year to myself after losing my Mom, to heal, rest, and have some quiet.

I moved to Idaho as a first step to seeing if I could live out of California (born and raised and all my family are here, not to mention lifelong friends). I was open to Idaho being “home”, but it was only meant to be a temporary move. Realizing I wasn’t cut out for the cold and was craving a new experience (it felt a little like “different city, same story”), I made kind of a last minute decision to move to Costa Rica.

My lease was set to renew in 5 weeks and I knew Idaho wasn’t where I’d be putting down roots and it just felt like “why NOT?”

Within a week I had given notice and found my place in Costa Rica. 😊

Fast forward to today (May 17th), and I’m finalizing all the details for my move (there are a lot of moving parts).

All I have left to do is:

• Get the dog’s health certificates (they have appt.s on the 28th)
• Buy my medical travel insurance (required because of Covid)
• Transfer my car registration back to California after getting a smog check
• Buy my return flight the day before I leave (and will refund within 24 hours… you have to show you’re going to leave the country at 90 days. I’ll be doing a border run to Nicaragua… at least until they pass the Digital Nomad visa – fingers crossed!)

Probably not that exciting to hear about, but it helps me to repeat it, so thanks for that.

I will be sharing my journey living and working in Costa Rica on a new site, called “PuraVidaJourney.com” (if you’re not familiar with that saying, Pura Vida in Costa Rica means pure life or simple life). I’ll have a newsletter that sends updates and am *thinking* about doing a podcast where I interview other digital nomads/entrepreneurs living in Costa Rica (this sounds fun as well as being a great way to meet like-minded people, although I don’t want to only connect with other entrepreneurs).

Man… if only I had understood this sooner.

Most people don’t fail online because they don’t have the skillset or something valuable to offer