Lately I’ve really been talking about content, and a huge piece of content is stories. Today’s guest is Mike Pisciotta and he’s going to share how his story drove him to get his business going. At the young age of 18 years old Mike woke up in a jail cell with no idea of what happened or why he was there. I had a Skype call with Mike before we did our interview and the second we started talking I knew I wanted to be a part of sharing his message. Mike's energy is infectious to say the least... and his enthusiasm for making the most out of his life will definitely light a spark in you! Growing up Mike experienced a lot of negativity at home, dealt with drugs,  and there really wasn’t any positive success that he could look to. At 18 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and he felt overwhelmed at the idea of going away to prison while everyone else his age passed him by while they started their lives and their careers. Mike spent a lot of time reflecting on his life and looking at what was ahead of him. He accepted that his choices and his actions put him where he was and he fully realized that he would give them 10 years of freedom, but he decided that he would not give them 10 years of life. At that moment he made that internal commitment that he had to focus on every single day because he knew he still had life. He knew he had 10 years to continue to live life and better himself in everything from exercise to foreign languages to business skills so he could prepare himself for life when he was done serving his time.  [Tweet ""Working hard isn't always working right" @freedomcatalyst"] That choice to continue to live his life to the best of his ability was a constant struggle that was challenged every single day, but his commitment to change everything that he was removed anyone’s excuses and/or doubts. Mike explains that we all live in little prisons, whether it’s a cubicle, excess weight, etc. we always have a choice to let that thing define us, break us, and hold us back, or we can let that thing be the catalyst that pushes us into success.  Often times we assume that we’re the only ones dealing with that little prison. We think that we’re the only one’s struggling, but we need to realize that there are so many people struggling with the same things too. So instead of continuing to let it pull us down, we need to let it fuel us and allow it to push us forward. Learn how to enjoy the small victories instead of always looking at what the next thing is.  Questions I Asked:  How did Mike transition from prison to life outside of prison? How did Mike start working online? What did Mike and his wife do to find clients online? What was it like to move into a consulting business?  How does someone go out and make a name for themselves? Things You’ll Learn  You are not your experiences.  Why “working hard” isn’t always “working right.” The importance of a traffic strategy.  Why content is such a crucial part of being online.  The biggest thing Mike doesn’t see people doing online.  Where to connect with Mike Website | Facebook | Twitter Other episodes you might enjoy  The Truth about Facebook Advertising - My Interview with Jason Hornung Breaking the Perfectionist Mindset - My Interview with Bob McIntosh Gratitude & Retiring the Hustle WPCP: 081

Every now and then you come across a tool that is a massive game changer. And you wonder "where have you been all my life?" ... That's how I felt when I found Scriptly. Email Marketing isn't as easy as you think it is (or should be). I have an old story in my head that I need to stop telling myself, and that is "I'm not good at copywriting". I love creating content and writing in my own voice. Once I stepped into that fully and owned that that was how I wanted to write, content became a piece of cake. Over the last couple of years my content has gotten better, I enjoy writing and take more time to provide as much value as I can. Here's the deal though. It's taken a LOT of practice. I don't know why it never occurred to me to apply the same principle to writing copy (slow learner much?). Kind of comical now that I think about it and put it out there. The cool thing is that all of that has changed over the last couple of months and I've started investing more time into understanding copy and testing what works and what doesn't. It started with using the free headline analyzer by CoSchedule (which is now built into the app so you don't have to go to the tool on the web to analyze your post headlines). By inputing my headlines, getting a score and re-writing the headlines to get the best possible score I could, I started to understand copy a little more. AND... it started feeling 'fun' to write headlines. Whaaaaaatttt???? I know. I kind of surprised myself too! One HUGE piece of online marketing and copywriting is email copy. I don't necessarily mean a broadcast email that you send out to your list... but email sequences. I'm O.K. if someone gets me started. As in, email #1 should be this, email #2 should be this, etc. And note that I said "I'm O.K.", that doesn't mean it's done really well or converts really well. I think in my head I had this aversion to 'writing copy' because it felt like I was being less than genuine. Which is kind of silly. As long as what you're writing is honest, all you're doing is crafting the words in a way that makes the reader think differently (you're appealing to something inside of them). Which is why I fell in love with Scriptly the second I saw it. I was introduced to Scriptly from a good friend in his Facebook group. I checked it out and knew INSTANTLY this was a tool I needed! You're going to hear more about Scriptly in the interview, but to cut to the chase - Scriptly writes your email copy & sequences FOR YOU. Naturally when I find a tool I love and become a little obsessed with, I dig a little deeper (do a little more research on who is behind the tool) and ask them if they'd like to be on the podcast. To say I hit it off with Jason Drohn, the founder of Scriptly, would be an understatement. We had an initial skype conversation that lasted at least an hour, then scheduled the interview. Jason is a breath of fresh air when it comes to the internet marketing space. Mainly because he's been in the trenches and gotten out. You'll understand what I mean when you listen to the interview. The Questions I asked Jason: Before we talk about your current business, can you share with the listeners how you got into online marketing & what brought you here? What was your first piece of software? What made you switch from what you were doing to creating software? What were some of the challenges you faced while building your software company? I have fallen in LOVE with Scriptly.... fill the listeners in on what it is and how it works What would you recommend to someone who wants to get into software / SaaS model? What's coming next? [Tweet ""Software isn't easy. You have to do a really good job marketing it" @JasonDrohn"] What You're Going to Learn How Jason got into Internet Marketing What he did to build a great income with affiliate marketing Why he left affiliate marketing When he stepped into software development

We're going to go in a little different direction today. I thought about doing a 'Kim Snippet' version of the podcast for this topic but then realized this would probably end up being a full length episode. Not really a snippet. (Clearly I'm not great at keeping things short & to the point). I'm going to try with every ounce of my being to share the story of what brought me to this difficult decision without being too ambiguous (because I'm not interested in sharing names or making anyone or anything 'wrong'). I mentioned this in my year in review podcast,  The Truth About 2015, Showing up in 2016 and WAY More Fun. Last year was amazing, but it was also really, really tiring. So I sort of took December off. When I say sort of I mean I took the month off from the mastermind I was in (note the past tense, which is where this is going). My year was up at the end of November and I was just fried. I wanted to simply do my thing, trust myself and work at a pace that worked for me. As opposed to what I was committing to in the group or from a public accountability perspective. I wanted more 'ease' in my life and less 'hustle' (we all know how I feel about the word hustle, so I won't go into that again). During that time I had also made the decision to hire Jason Hornung & his team to help me get my Facebook ads dialed in and running. After a couple years of just hopping in and testing Facebook Advertising (with some direction), I wanted to do it correctly. I wanted to run paid advertising based on data (novel idea, huh?). I had NO idea that my decision to hire Jason & his team would completely turn my world upside down (in a good way). I don't want this episode to turn into another 'Jason Hornung FanClub' episode (you can't really blame me though... he's just that good), but you can't un-push a button. Once you've seen what's 'behind the curtain' you can't un-see it. [Tweet ""Once you've seen what's behind the curtain you can't 'un-see' it" @kimdoyal"] Not only did I get the support and feedback I was so desperately needing, I also got the step-by-step system. Which unfortunately put a spotlight on the areas where I wasn't getting what I needed. Hence the difficult decision. It was time for me to leave my mastermind.  I felt this in my gut when I took December off, but I was afraid. This is the EGO not only riding shotgun, but driving the car. FOMO (Fear of missing out for those of you who haven't heard the term). What if?  What if I can't do it on my own? Will I lose relationships (inevitable when people are involved)? Will there be any backlash? Regrets (no matter how much I try to stay out of that place, it still shows up) But then there's the side that really matters. How I want to FEEL. The gut instinct. The truth about how I want to move through the world and how I want to show UP! I'm not sure when this hit me, but all of the sudden I realized that I was trying to do things one way with my brand, but then another way when I was marketing. Let me see if I can explain that better. Last fall I started getting a little obsessed with content marketing. I dove into content marketing with the same fervor I had when I realized I wanted to build a business around WordPress. Something finally 'clicked' for me with content marketing and I was having a ball. Because of this new found passion for content marketing I started looking at everything I was doing through new eyes. A different perspective if you will. None of my mentors were content marketers. They were all great at what they did, but they didn't have the experience (or knowledge) to help me drive what I had spent almost 8 years creating. Which was a brand. With an audience. And a message. They also didn't see the value in content marketing (which is not an argument I feel any need to go into... to each his own). Something inside me was screaming "TRUST YOURSEL...

I seem to be on a kick lately of paying attention to tracking and numbers and along those lines you are going to love my next guests!  Benji Hyam and Devesh Khanal started a blog site about content marketing and converting call GrowandConvert.com.  These guys have an amazing blog that you should subscribe to! Before even interviewing these guys I realized what a goldmine their site was. If you want to get more traffic to your site and don't know how to do it... follow their journey with this blog. Every. Step. Of the Way. My guess is that even if you implemented one or two things you'd see a noticeable difference. It will probably also help you step back and look at your blog & business with a different perspective. [Tweet "We want marketers to take OUR concepts and apply them to THEIR businesses - Benji Hyam"] Besides running this blog, Devesh runs a conversion optimization agency called Devesh Design to help companies increase their conversion rates and email list size.  Benji is the Director of Growth for a company called Everwise in San Francisco and also has a company in San Diego called Founder Insights to learn about how founders grew their businesses. *Quick update since the recording of this episode: Benji has 'quit his life' (his words) and is going full time with GrowandConvert.com. You can read his post on 'Why he quit his life' in the link below on his personal site. I have to tell you too... I probably could have stayed on the interview for hours with these guys and will definitely get them on individually. It's probably also the quietest I've ever been on an interview. Questions I asked Devesh & Benji:  Before we get into "Grow and Convert", can you fill the listeners in on what you do outside of this project?  How did you guys connect?  Explain to everyone what Grow and Convert is.  What are you guys doing to grow it? Meaning, can you share some of the strategies you're implementing to take Grow and Convert to 40,000 visitors in 6 months?  You have until April 17th to reach your goal, how's it going so far?  Based on your background & experience, what are a few common mistakes you see people making when trying to grow a blog and get traffic?  If you could suggest ONE strategy that people could implement today, what would that be? [Tweet "If you start something and it doesn't work, it doesn't mean it won't work with some tweaks - Devesh Khanal"] What You'll Learn in the Episode:  The book Devesh recommends for a quick read that will have a big impact.  The formula for developing a good content strategy for your business.  Some good distribution tactics for sharing your content  Some of the challenges they've faced in their own businesses Connect more with Devesh & Benji: DeveshDesign.com BenjiHyam.com Other Episodes you may enjoy: Viceo, Advertising & Creating Connection - WPCP:080 Visual Content Builder - WPCP:052 List Building & Starting Over - WPCP:073

This is now the second post (actually it might be the third?) that I've talked about Jason Hornung. The difference with this post and podcast episode is that it is solely about Jason Hornung. This interview is also what led to me hiring Jason and his team to get a solid strategy in place for my Facebook ads. Instead of guessing what I thought would be the right message or right target audience, Jason and his team actually developed a real strategy for me based on data and KPI's (key performance indicators). I recently came back from an accelerator workshop in Madison, Wisconsin at Jason's and to say my brain was on overload would be an understatement. All in a good way of course. I'll continue to talk about my experience with Jason and his team as my ads start rolling out and I have actual numbers and data to share with you (I know, shocking. I'm not a huge fan of collecting and managing data, but there is no doubt it will be at the core of everything I do from now on). We launched a couple ads last week and I'll be launching more this week as well. One thing I do want to say, and this is kind of a bold statement, is that working with Jason and his team has probably been one of, if not the best, experiences I've had since I launched my business almost 8 years ago. They've set the bar pretty high and I'll be using them as my standard now when it comes to investing in my business. O.K., onto the interview! Questions I asked Jason What were you doing before building your Facebook Ad Agency? What is the Jason Hornung Agency? Can you share your journey into internet marketing? How did you transition into Facebook advertising? How should someone get started with Facebook Advertising? Where does content come into play with a paid traffic strategy? How do you work with clients? Agency? Products? [Tweet ""You buy one of these things and thinks it's going to magically start working for you." @JasonHornung]"] What You're Going to Learn How Jason started making money online as an affiliate marketer How a Google slap forced him to look at another way to grow his business How he built his team, after working 15 hour days  How you can profitably scale your offers online with Facebook Doing the RESEARCH! How Jason sets the foundation for their ad campaigns using a tool called 'The Inception Campaign Planning System' Who Jason studied in direct response marketing and advertising so he could apply the same strategies to Facebook Advertising Retargeting & Metrics... No doubt you've heard the term retargeting and you already know what metrics are. I'm pretty familiar with retargeting, but never have I heard it explained to the degree that Jason explained it. He talks about backwards engineering the process so you can get to your numbers before you even begin advertising. You need to know your numbers. Most people want to skip over this stuff because they're anxious to get ads up and think it's as simple as creating a headline, a graphic and a landing page. If you take that approach, you're going to set yourself up for a world of frustration. I'm going to stop attempting to share all the amazing knowledge Jason shares so you can get it directly from the man himself! [Tweet ""You need to establish what your numbers are going to be before you do anything." @JasonHornung"]   Where to Connect with Jason Website | Facebook | Twitter

If you haven't heard of CoSchedule, let me give you a little rundown of what it is and why I continue to fall in love with it a little more EVERY single day. CoSchedule is to content marketing what peanut butter is to chocolate (yes, Reeses is my favorite candy bar and I love me some peanut butter & chocolate ice cream). But I know, that's not really telling you what it is, right? I signed up for CoSchedule immediately when it first came out but didn't really give it the attention it deserved. After having worked with a social media person for a year and using another tool (Edgar, which was O.K., but truthfully I didn't see the ROI for it. You can create a library of categories and a schedule, but CoSchedule does SO much more) and not seeing enough 'results', I went back to CoSchedule and started consuming all of their training and content (their blog is FABULOUS!). Once I decided to 'overhaul the WordPress Chick' site and my content strategy I knew that I would need a solid editorial plan as well as a better promotional schedule. Which is where CoSchedule sort of 'starts' (because again, it does WAY more than provide you with a simple editorial calendar).  First, here's a brief look at what CoSchedule does, then I'll get into each element a little deeper: I'm in the process of creating a complete CoSchedule tutorial & review post, so I won't go into every single detail in this post but using this tool has been a game changer for me and I think it will be for you too. I had made numerous attempts in the past to use an editorial calendar but without having a solid content strategy in place (or working on one), it just took up space on my site. All of that changed when I drank the content marketing Kool-Aid. Kid you not, it's become such an obsession of mine that I'm seriously considering taking a speed reading class or course so I can consume more content. O.K., not really, but you get my point. Like I mentioned above, I originally went back to CoSchedule for the social media calendar aspect. When I started using it again I simply added my social media person as a user to my site and she went in and scheduled all the content to be shared in my dashboard (which was also great because I could see exactly what she was doing. Not that I couldn't before or that I didn't trust her, but since I was logging into my dashboard everyday I could see what was being scheduled without having to log into a separate site). After using it for social media for a while I started diving a little deeper into the editorial calendar, headline analyzer (which is probably one of my MOST favorite online tools EVER) and the data within the CoSchedule web app (btw, did you know you can use CoSchedule without WordPress? Although my guess is if you're reading this or listening to this podcast you're a WordPress user). What CoSchedule has done for me that I DIDN'T expect... Helped me create a content marketing plan that has made content fun, engaging and strategic (and yes, even the strategic part is FUN). The Best Business Investment I've Made In A Long Time I've mentioned this in a recent podcast episode, but since I'm deeper in the process of working through this I really wanted to give you an update. If you're new to what I'm talking about, I'm referring to my recent decision to hire Jason Hornung & the Jason Hornung Agency to help me launch a new campaign on Facebook for my podcast offer (I go into a little more detail on that in the episode, but this is really more about my decision to hire Jason and his team, what the process has been like and why I'm starting the "Jason Hornung Fan Club".. kidding. Maybe). As your business grows and you start scaling what you're doing you need to partner with the right people to help you grow. I've done some Facebook advertising and have had some success...I've also had horrible results, which is why I went looking for help. From the moment I first talked to Jason (for a...

I had the good fortune of being introduced to Brock Cannon through a good friend. I'm SO glad he introduced us. I'm definitely a fan of The Switchback Approach. You might think I sound a bit like a nutty fan or over-zealous reader, but I absolutely LOVE Brock's approach to helping people achieve their goals. I often waffle between goals and intentions. I totally get the value in setting a concrete, tangible goal. I also know the value in setting intentions (which to me is a gentler approach and implies a lot of TRUST). Brock's approach to goals has totally shifted that for me. Questions I asked Brock: What is the Switchback Approach What made you decide to write a novel (as opposed to a business book) What is your current business? How do you work with clients? What are your plans for taking for your business this year? What You're Going to Learn: Why Brock has his clients ADD something into their lives first as opposed to taking something away How he helped a client lost 30 lbs. with this method Why I became a super excited fan of Brock & The Switchback Approach How you can apply the Switchback Approach to your own life to reach your goals How you can get a FREE copy of the book! Where to Connect with Brock Twitter | Facebook | Website

I'm kind of tripping out right now that I'm doing another "year in review" podcast episode. Where is the time going?! Do you feel like you say that every year? I do. The odd thing is that with the day-to-day it doesn't feel like time is flying by. I've made a very conscious effort to be present with whatever I'm doing so for that I'm grateful. I just can't believe we're about to enter another New Year. O.K., enough of my wonderings about time passing quickly... let's get onto the year in review shall we? The Truth About 2015 When I was thinking about the title for this post (and yes, I totally used the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer which I LOVE) I started laughing to myself because it almost implies I've been lying (or have lied) about the past year. Fortunately for me I think you guys know me well enough to know that it simply means I'm going to share it all... the ups AND the downs. No sugar coating here, although you don't have to worry about me being a negative nelly either. That's not how I roll. I'm going to structure this post a little different than previous 'year-in-review' posts I've done. Instead of going through the year in chronological order I'm going to start at the end. As in December of 2015. Why? This year kind of kicked my butt. I have a tendency to go and go until I hit a wall, then I crash, then I recuperate. This used to bother me until I realized that this was my process. Now when I feel the crash coming I honor it and check out for a bit. It works better for me to keep going when the inspiration is there (I don't really push myself anymore because that tends to backfire) and then when I can't go anymore I take the much needed rest. This usually happens for me around Christmastime but it hit me earlier this year. By mid-November I was FRIED. I needed to slow down, put the brakes on a few things and listen to what I needed most, which was simplicity. I decided to take the month of from my Mastermind, made sure I wasn't over scheduled and canceled any webinars or major promotions for myself or other people. I actually said No. A lot. And it felt great. The time away from the external influences allowed me to get really clear on what I'm doing and where I'm going. Before I get into where I'm going, I want to look back at 2015, the experiences, the lessons, the successes, all of it. This is going to be a mix of business and personal for me because I can't necessarily separate the two. I am my business and I love what I do. Travel I had some great trips in 2015, both for business and personal. I went to all 3 of my mastermind trips (Vegas in February, where we raced Ferrari's, Maui in June where we went snorkeling and Orlando in October where we went to Universal Studios). I brought my dear friend and project manager to Maui with me (that was a blast) and brought my son & niece to Orlando. Maui was probably my favorite because it was a great combination of relaxation and work (inspiration/motivation). While the kids were great in Orlando, I don't think I'll be bringing family on any of those trips again. I don't want to feel responsible for anyone other than myself when I go away for business and there's no way around that when you bring kids (of course The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was awesome). I also went to Vegas in May for the first Click Funnels event and then onto the south of France with my daughter in July for her graduation. I actually ended up canceling (rescheduling) a trip to Ireland for the beginning of November because I was simply done traveling and wanted to be home. What I learned: While all the trips were great, I need more down time for myself. I made a commitment to myself a couple of years ago that I wouldn't go to conferences or on business trips that weren't relevant to what I was working on at that time and it's made a huge difference. For 2016 I'm carrying that theme into the New Year but I'm going to take it a little fur...

As soon as I heard the title of this book I knew I wanted to speak with the author. I would bet that at one time or another most entrepreneurs have dealt with the 'perfectionist' mindset (and this is by no means exclusive to entrepreneurs). It's easy to get caught up in things being 'just so' before we launch, ship, publish and share our message with the world. If you've ever done this (or do this? Maybe you find yourself taking longer to complete something than you should?), then this interview and book are for you. Before we get into the interview itself, I want to make sure you have the details to get a copy of the book yourself. Get Out of Your Own Way!: How to Break the Perfectionist Mindset and Unleash the Floodgates of Prosperity in Your Business by: Bob McIntosh I recorded a solo show earlier this year titled, "You are the obstacle in your business"... so clearly this book and interview resonated with me. Plus, Bob is just a great guy! What You're Going to Learn in this Episode: What Bob was doing before he started his current business How he went from Real Estate to online business and Author That we're all at different points in our business and lives... we even discussed one of my least favorite words ('hustle') What you can do to achieve excellence in your own life & business How to identify your core values [tweet_box]"Perfection is defined by our internal standards, Excellence is defined by everyone else's perception of what we're putting out there." @thebobmcintosh[/tweet_box] Questions I asked Bob Is there a story behind the title? Where did the perfectionist mindset come from? What are some of the things we can do to get out of our own way? What were some of the things you learned from your mentors? What are some of the ways we can achieve excellence without worrying about being perfect? [tweet_box]"You VIBE attracts your TRIBE" @thebobmcintosh[/tweet_box] Where to Connect with Bob Book Website | Facebook| Twitter   Other Episodes You Might Enjoy: YOU Are the Obstacle in Your Business - WPCP: 051 Gratitude & Retiring the Hustle :WPCP 081 Not Another Friggin Idea! :WPCP 071   Leave me a comment and I will randomly choose one person who will receive a free copy of Bob's book!

As you all know, I am such a geek when it comes to the visual side of the web. I LOVE graphics, icons, info graphics, and tools and all that awesome stuff. So I’m super excited to be able to talk to Ching from Piktochart today. Before Ching founded Piktochart, she studied experimental psychology and worked at Procto and Gamble where she found that she really like info graphics. She looked to see if someone had created a tool that she could use to make them, but there really wasn’t anything out there. After talking to the now co-founder of Piktochart, Andrea, she decided that she wanted to create something people could use to create graphics they needed. Andrea was her then boyfriend, now husband, and he was more of the tech side of the team because he was very involved in the Wordpress framework and PHP; Ching was more of the creative/marketing side of the team so together they worked on their idea then they brought it to an Excelerator in China. 30 days after they pitched their idea, it took only about 30 days for them to step into the Excelerator.  Questions I Asked Ching: How can someone use Piktochart? What tips would Ching give to someone who wants to start making info graphics? What kind of people use Piktochart? What’s coming in the future for Piktochart? Things You’ll Learn: What differentiates Piktochart from other tools and programs. How Ching and Andrea make sure that Piktochart is always benefiting their audience’s needs. Different ways to use Piktochart without using data.  The importance of info graphics.  [tweet_box]“You’re not just creating a visual piece for a post, this is a way to generate traffic and connect with your audience…” - @piktochart [/tweet_box] Where to Connect with Ching Website | Facebook| Twitter Links Mentioned in the Podcast: Piktochart Other Episodes You Might Enjoy: Video Advertising with Gideon Shalwick Clammr for Content - Interview with Parviz Parvizi When it All Comes Together and You Still Feel the Doubts