Time for a Business Reboot KDS: 078

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 emails.”

So yes, they’re coming back.

Like many of you, I’m sure I had been hesitant about email marketing. I knew that it was important (the “money is in the list” mantra of every bro marketer on the planet), but if you don’t fully understand something it’s easy to keep it at the bottom of the priority list.

I’m sure I sound like a broken record with this statement, but not focusing on email marketing sooner is my ONLY regret in my business.

The two things that have made the biggest difference for me have been podcasting and email marketing.

Both are content, but more importantly, they’re relational content.

They connect me with my audience on a more personal level, which is a driving force for me to continue with my business.

The beauty of where I’m at today is that I’ve learned to appreciate the mastery of the things I’m already doing. I love going deeper with something I feel pretty good about. There’s something magical that happens when you focus on mastery and truly connecting the dots.

The example I love to give is with copywriting.

I will never call myself a copywriter (mainly because I don’t want to do it for anyone else), but really grasping how to craft good copy, how words compel people to take action (or not) and being able to improve sales simply by reworking words?

Magical.

Although I should clarify that there’s nothing simple about copywriting. It takes work, but it’s so very worth it.

I’m grateful that things are busy and I’m loving what I’m doing, but I also know that if I don’t have time to create I know myself well enough that I’ll end up feeling resentful.

So expect more emails from me.

Content

Content burnout is real.

I don’t know if it was from talking about content for so long both here and with the Content Creators Planner, but man… it stopped feeling fun. Or even remotely interesting.

Anyone who has been on this journey with me for a while knows that I like change.

I have an innate drive within me to continue evolving and becoming the best version of myself. That’s why I still talk with my therapist/mentor. I do a lot less external searching these days (self-help books, etc.) and know that the biggest change comes from within (even when people can’t see it).

I made a very conscious decision 10 years ago to take complete responsibility for every condition of my life (nothing will give you more freedom than taking total responsibility for life) and it’s been life-changing.

So the idea of continuing to do the same thing or create content around one topic (or a few) feels less-than-exciting.

I’ve gotten really deep into a tool called ‘Excalidraw’ and have started mapping a lot of things in my business (more on the mapping in a bit).

I’m a very visual person and it helps me a lot to see things laid out.

I started with two things for my business: Offers and content.

Since you might be listening and can’t see the image (I absolutely love this tool, so I’d suggest checking out the post), I’ll explain what the visual looks like (and if you’re reading, I’d suggest listening because I’ll go deeper with each piece in the audio).

There are 3 types of content I’m committed to:

1. Podcast
2. Newsletter
3. Blog

From there I’ll drill deeper, but for now, that’s what I’m committing to doing.

Because one of my goals is to hire a few people in the first quarter of 2022, I’m also creating SOPs (standard operating procedures) for my business and processes for content.

Here’s the thing though:

I will ALWAYS be the one to create my own content.

I am a creator at heart and don’t have any desire to farm out the core content I create. Meaning, I’ll always be the one to write my podcast posts, the newsletter, and the blog posts.

I will happily hand off editing and social media thought 😉.

Offers

I have found my sweet spot here!

I mentioned Excalidraw and holy moly… this feels like a missing piece of the puzzle for me.

Being able to see how all of these things fit together helped me realize how I could streamline things. Because I’ve decided that #FtheHUSTLE is a mission (that will be a separate episode), I want to make sure that my business matches that mission.

Much like the map I did of my content, I created a map of my offers.

There were 4 categories of offers:

• courses
• community
• coaching
• mastermind

The courses will become part of the community (#FtheHUSTLE Insiders), I have 1:1 coaching, a group coaching (Email Insiders VIP, which I’m just starting the second cohort of now), and I will launch a Mastermind next June of 2022.

The model I used for the group coaching has been phenomenal. And I give credit to Nathan Zadworny for this (we’re going to do another live stream and you can learn more about working with Nathan and what he does).

I’ve helped a couple of other people map this type of offer and it’s one of the easiest things to sell.

IF… you’re willing to do the work and show up.

Now that I’ve got a visual of how everything fits together, it’s so much easier to create the structure and processes to implement.

Part of me wishes I had figured this out sooner, but then I remind myself that “it takes what it takes.” And I’m here now.

I don’t have any doubt that I’m where I’m supposed to be doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.

And let me clarify that by telling you it took me almost 14 years to get here.

It doesn’t have to take that long and it may take you longer, be easy about it and KEEP GOING.

What I will tell you in terms of “how long it takes” is that the sooner you realize it’s more about the internal work (mindset, commitment, responsibility, intention), the sooner things will happen.

You know me, I love me some tools, hacks, tips, etc. – but remember that they’re JUST that.

Being willing to peel things apart and iterate is where real change and growth happen.

Facebook Group

For the love of all that is good in the world… I need to make a decision on this group.

When I started Content Creators (4 years ago maybe?), I was super active in the group. I was doing a lot of live streams, hot seats, I even sent a weekly email about everything that went on in the group.

What I didn’t do was use the group in a way that helped drive business.

(remember, it takes what it takes, so I’m not going to judge myself on this one).

I’ve been wanting to do a reboot of the group for a while now (probably a year and a half?), it’s just never been a priority.

The three goals I have for the group are:

• New subscribers (remember: you have a BUSINESS. Free content should have an end goal unless you are conscious and choose otherwise)
• Sales: Yep, I said it. I expect to make sales from my own group
• Connections: I posted a while back about making “connections” in the group in terms of JV partnerships. I’d like to figure out a way to have people support one another – and not just by sharing content, but to actually reach out and support one anothers products, launches, list growth, etc. So there is a REAL strategy behind the relationship. What that looks like is up to the individuals (and I’m not policing anyones behavior either, so people need to do their due diligence).

I know that to make these things happen I need to up my own game in the group. I’m willing to give it 6 months once I do the “official reboot” and if the results aren’t what I want, then I’ll close it or sell it (if that’s still a thing).

Facebook seems to be floundering a bit these days (and of course this is simply my opinion. I don’t care enough about the topic to want to do any real research on it).

I may look up and see if I can find any data on business pages (I don’t do much other than push content) and see how people are using them now that organic reach has dropped so significantly.

We’re hitting a point where creators are tired of creating free content for these platforms knowing you have to “pay to play” to get any reach (and I still believe in paid traffic). If you’re going to create content, make sure it’s on a property you own first (and maybe gate it all?).

Whew!

I think you’re up to date now.

As far as a timeline on all the above goes, here’s where I’m at right now:

• Podcast reboot by the end of November
• Emails: ASAP
• Content: this is in process now and will continue to be a work in progress
• Offers: all in progress now! The #FtheHUSTLE Insiders community launch is coming in early November. I’ll share more on that soon enough
• Facebook Group: Not sure I’ll get to this until December or possibly January. It will also be a process and it will probably be easiest to map out what that looks like and then start making changes (maybe it doesn’t have to be an “event”?)

I’m heading back to California for Christmas. I was hoping for a 10-day trip and now it’s just about two weeks – simply because of the cost of airline tickets. Cheap flights would have meant a 20+ hour journey (when in reality it’s a 6-hour direct flight to LA) and I wasn’t willing to do that.

I’m looking forward to it (a few days with my daughter, Disneyland with one of my best friends, then up to the Bay Area for Christmas and back to LA with my daughter for a few more days), but I’ll probably need a little bit of a vacation from that trip.

That being said, I want to work as little as possible during those two weeks.

My point in sharing all of this today is two-fold:

First, to update you on what’s going on and what to expect. I appreciate all of you who have been with me on this journey and stuck with me.

The second is to show you that YOU get to create your business on YOUR terms.

No matter what anyone else is doing or how they’re doing it. You have to find what works for you and go all in.