Entrepreneur Conundrum

Virginia Purnell:Welcome to EntrepreneurConundrum with Virginia Purnell, where growing entrepreneurs share how they get visible online.Hi Everyone. Today I'm talking with James Hurst about how he incorporates marketing automation in his business. James is a veteran online marketer starting on eBay in late 2000. He is the creator of multiple softwares including ClickFunnels Follow Up Pro, which is a ClickFunnels Affiliate software as well as a creator of Email Slurper 3000, he has created five online courses including make Power Wheels Faster and Build an AWS IOT button slack bot step by step. He is a ClickFunnels dream car winner and a respected affiliate for multiple other softwares. He and his wife Amanda, reside with their four boys in Springfield, Utah.Welcome James.James Hurst:Hey, thank you so much for having me.Virginia Purnell:Thanks for being here today. So tell us a little bit about yourself.James Hurst:Okay, so yeah, like the intro kind of said, I've been doing this for quite a while ever since. I've been selling things since on eBay. And then I got into, I've worked for an agency doing pay-per-click, been doing SEO, I had a local business, so I kind of always had some business going on in some computer aspect of it. You know, website, lead gen and since you can tell even already, I'm like a little bit all over the place. I've kind of settled in a little bit as an affiliate marketer, which is good because that means I can, you know, if I think something's really cool and interesting, I can go check it out, review it, you know, make a blog or make a video post about it and then I can go to the next thing and, and review that.And so I'm kind of realizing that yeah, I don't just have one, one particular niche, but I kind of just, I kind of enjoy, enjoy soaking, soaking up a little bit of everything, if that makes sense.Virginia Purnell:So, whatever catches your fancy the moment, right?James Hurst:Yeah.Virginia Purnell:What inspired you to become an affiliate marketer?James Hurst:Affiliate marketer? Well, one of the big, one of the bigger products that I promote is ClickFunnels. And just this idea of making a sale once and then getting paid for it multiple times on the backend. So a big shift you'll see in the industry is everyone wants to sell a subscription. Seems like whether it's Netflix or ClickFunnels or Active Campaign, most or even Adobe, the Adobe softwares, they're wanting to sell a subscription so they can have a recurring residual income model so they can probably forecast better and everything.And so I figured, Hey, if I'm going to, if I'm going to sell something, why not sell something that people will use, you know, month in and month out. And then if I truly put in enough work and build up a big enough base, then it really is something that I could, I could take, you know, two weeks a month off from work, quote unquote work and, and still have that revenue coming in. That seemed like a very, that's seemed like a very powerful model. Something worth investing. Your limited amount of time into it is doing the work once and getting paid for it over and over again. I think whether that principle, I find itself, you know, in software, if I'm, if I'm creating a software, I work hard once, make a software, sell it over and over again. If I make a YouTube video that's really valuable, it sits there on YouTube and unlike Facebook where you know, the video's gone a couple of days. No, it's down in your feed on YouTube. It will grow, you know, in three years. It's just growing in, in, in views and it's essentially working for you. So this idea of doing work once, getting paid for it for the rest of your life, or at least for a good two, two to five years is something that I've always, always kind of have front and center when I'm working.Virginia Purnell:Well, what's nice about what you're doing, like with affiliate offers versus trying to sell someone a subscription is you did all the work at the front where now it's up to that company to keep those clients there. So you don't have to try to keep them there all the time.James Hurst:Exactly. And there's pros and cons to that too, which means that, you know, some of that's out of my hands. Like if that company doesn't support people very well, you know, or it's too complicated or the support, the support process is too, you know, then it's out of your hands. Whereas you know, if it is my own product and I've actually, one of the things you introduced was Email Sluper 3000 I'm just in the process of changing that from a one time fee to a small monthly fee. So I'm actually getting my feet wet myself as a product owner for Email Slurper 3000 of what's that like to have my own subscription, my own subscription based product. And it's exciting to think about, you know, and this one's only $7 a month. And so I just kind of dream about, you know, even just a thousand people.Like what if I had a thousand people paying $7 a month, then I could count on that. I could basically count on $7,000 a month, you know? And I would probably have some, you know, I would probably know about how much I'm growing at the time. And that's really, it's a really powerful model to be able to predict your, your monthly revenues, right? To have some sort of consistency there, whether it's on an affiliate residual model or whether it's software as a subscription for yourself. And I'm just doing that with ClickFunnels and Stripe. So I just set up, set up a recurring product in Stripe and I tie that back to ClickFunnels. And that's how I'm, that's how I'm doing that.Virginia Purnell:Utilize the platform that's paying you.James Hurst:No, and that's, yeah, typically, typically I don't....it's not a hard and fast rule that I have to be using the product, but it's typically a natural, a natural thing to promote the things that I recommend, you know, as a, as someone that puts my own name on the line for what the things that I recommend I, I'd have a hard time, you know, pushing things that I don't really believe in,Virginia Purnell:Which says a lot too. Because then if other people know that you recommend a product, then they're more likely to trust you too, right?James Hurst:Yep. Yep. And now the tricky thing, like, I don't know if you've heard of Kajabi or not. I have, yes. Yeah. So I have Kajabi as an end user. I've purchased many courses that have, so I know what Kajabi is like as an end user. Unfortunately, to promote it as an affiliate, you actually have to purchase, you have to, you have to be a paying member of Kajabi. And so that, that is it. That is an obstacle is that there's some programs that you have to be a paying member, and have to be able to promote them. And that's actually, in a way, it's a good, it's a good thing and a bad thing because it means that it means that the, the, the amount of competition that you're competing with, with other affiliates is going to be much less because you have to be a paying member to do it.So the trick is if I wanted to be, you know, if I'm paying for ClickFunnels, which does membership sites, and then why would I want to go and pay extra just to be using Kajabi so I can promote Kajabi or do or do a compare and contrast. So at a minimum I would not be afraid to start up a free trial of these softwares. You can, I mean within 14 days or a month you can do a good comparison review, that kind of thing. And actually have a, make an, an opinion about, you know, about the two different softwares. But if you wanted to go all in, it's tempting because I think Kajabi is great too. It's tempting to want to just say, well, I've got to figure out how a way to be, you know, to break even on my Kajabi subscription.Maybe throw, maybe throw a course up in there. And so that's, that's tough. There's another program too that I'm like that it's like, I don't use it, but I want to know about it and promote it. So I bought like sheep, like a lifetime version of it. So I could have access, make tutorials, do you know, do comparisons, and be knowledgeable about the subject. But yeah, it's a lot. It's, it's a lot. Definitely pros and cons to whether you have to pay or not to be able to promote, to be a paying member, not to promote something.Virginia Purnell:Yes. And like you said, like it, put something on Kajabi and then hope to get your investment back out of it. Right?James Hurst:Yeah. Yeah. 'Cause I'm pretty well ingrained. I have, I've got quite a bit of stuff in ClickFunnels so it would be, it would be a ton of work to get everything of mine out of there and I'm okay. You know, I'm kind of, my role out there is kind of to be the guy that does know, Hey, what's better, good job, your ClickFunnels for this purpose, what, you know, go high level versus ClickFunnels. And so as an affiliate, you know, I don't have, I mean I, I've done well as a ClickFunnels affiliate, but to try to, even though there's, we have bias for the things that we promote, I think the best way is to be an affiliate for both products. Do a review and, and be an affiliate for both. Let's say this is my honest opinion of this one. For these people. Here's my honest opinion of this. These ones for those people, I don't care which one you think is better for you. This is, here's my thing and here's, and either one or they're both my affiliate link. You know what I mean? Yeah.Virginia Purnell:So what do you look for when you go to promote an affiliate as an affiliate for a company?James Hurst:So I look for, I look for some excitement around something, right? I, you know, if I hear one person talking about it, that's one thing. If I hear it again and again and again, right? I see, I look, I'm joining the Facebook group. I can see kind of the trajectory of how it's growing and I kind of listen to it on the Facebook group. Are people complaining? Are people asking questions? What's, you know, people are there to support kind of. You just kind of get a vibe for the product and then like Kajabi, like for example, what's my experience like as an end user and just seeing, just basically keeping an ear to the wall on products that people seem to love. Right. And, and it seemed to be growing. I mean if it's not, it's nothing. There's no, I don't know, other than just intuition of, of just keeping your eye, keeping my ear to the wall on and what people are talking about, yeah. For what else I'd like to promote.Virginia Purnell:How do you stand out from all the other competition on the products that have a lot of affiliates promoting them?James Hurst:No, it is kind of crowded at the same time. A lot of people fizzle out too. Man. I, it has been a grind. Like, luckily I love, luckily I enjoy the grind. Otherwise I wouldn't like it, I'm just like, ah, this is not where the thing you do want to throw in the towel sometimes. But yeah, like I've been trying to grow like my YouTube channel and it's just like, it's literally, it's like one subscriber and then two days go by and then another subscriber and it's just, it's like pushing, like pushing the, you know, a rock up a Hill, but in the hopes that someday that thing will start rolling back down and, and gain that momentum. But how do you stand out? So yeah, even just showing up consistently, right. Will will separate you. Like that was really going to be consistent at first.And I had a thing that said, okay, you've got to publish at least one thing a week. Right. Whether it's a YouTube video, a blog or something. I tend to like video. Personally. I'm doing a lot of teaching, I'm opening up softwares, looking at, I'm teaching, that kind of thing. But yeah, I kind of had to commit to myself to show up at least once a week. And if you're really, you know, if you're really going to go all in, you've got to show up. You got to show up daily, right? If you're at the forefront of what you're doing, you should be having cool stuff that you're doing or thinking about or coming up with and sharing that with your audience. And there's also this idea of like when you're first getting started, like you may not be, you may not feel like you're the expert, but like pick that thing you want to be the expert in and start going deep on something.Like I just picked up a tool, I kind of literally picked up a product like a week or like a week and a half ago and I dove in, figured things out and then I made a, I made a tutorial on it. And I'm like on the first page of YouTube for this thing, I even feel like it's some of the best training out there. Like, it doesn't take that much. There's always going to be people that are like behind where you are and ahead of you. And so just don't worry about that, but just help anyone. Just whatever's on, I don't know, whatever's on your mind, you'd be surprised how quickly you can become like, you know, this little mini expert on a certain, on a certain topic.Virginia Purnell:I like how you said not to worry about the people in front of you because there's going to be people behind you that are just where you were not long ago. Right,James Hurst:Exactly. And in this case, like this specific case, like I'm on, I'm like a week, I'm like a week ahead of these people. Like I just, you know, but the fact that I took the time and that's actually a really cool place. It's easy to, Oh my goodness. Someone was just doing a tutorial on the most simple thing and people were raving about, you know, like, Oh my gosh, this is, you know, I was just like, you kidding me? Like I can't, like I almost would've never bothered. Like it seems so simple that why would I bother to make a, you know what I mean? But people need to just completely like step-by-step to talk to me like I'm a third grader or a fifth grader type thing and it's so it's, it's good to kind of make that. So I debated sometimes whether to make tutorials like as I'm learning it because then it's like, so let's say like an unboxing, like let's say I'm going to unbox this thing and figure it out right here, live in front of you so you can like kind of seen any like how hard is this thing to figure out?But instead, instead I think it's better to unbox the thing, get it all set up or take it for a drive and then like not too far out, but like just like a week or two out, then go back and make that video of the review about it. Because once you get a year or two out from the product, you forget what it's like to not know what, you know what I mean? You're, you're, you have a bias, you kind of forget what it's like to not know how to use something. So try to try to make that tutorial, you know, when it's still fresh on your mind when you are confused, you know, much better be able to relate to people when they're just getting started with something. So, yeah.Virginia Purnell:A little bit ago you had mentioned that one of your goals is to grow your YouTube channel. Do you have any other goals or how that you're hoping to achieve in the next year or two?James Hurst:Yeah, so I actually, I have a day job. I'm a computer programmer by day in AWS and it's good, it's a good, safe, secure, you know, job. I've been there five years, great people have been happy there, generous, you know, health benefits and generous paid vacation. Right. And so the, you know, the, a big dream would be to be able to have that stability in, in online marketing space to be able to, you know, typically make that big leap. Right. And I always debate whether I could or should. And then something like, you know, the Coronavirus happens and be like, Oh my gosh, I'm grateful to have so stability. You know, when things are crazy and you know, and, and so in the meantime, you know, I'm paying off, you know, paying off my car that paying off some debt, you know, trying to strengthen my position, my cash position, like with, with cash reserves and savings.And so, yeah, so the you know, a big goal would be to, you know, to go a hundred percent online, but at the same time like I don't want to, I dunno, there's, it's, I kind of in the mix of aye, I don't want to just just work from home and like have a bunch of like clients necessarily and like have 10 bosses instead of one and S but you know, I've been spoiled a little bit in having passive and cause I know what, I know what it's like to have passive income coming in and so in, in some ways the constraint to say, no, James, you have to figure this out with your little, with your, you can't, you can't have having extra time be a crutch, right? You need to think about these things in a way. Like you can, like, yeah, you know, you can't rely on making 40 hours of YouTube content a week to feel, I don't know.I'm trying to find that balance if I don't want to trade my time for money, right. I don't want to trade my time for money. But at a certain, there's a certain amount of that that you have to do to convert it into, you know, an asset. But I, I'm very, yeah, very cautious on, on how I, on how I think about things. So like I can make 40 different YouTube videos or I could make one awesome YouTube ad, right? That hopefully is for converting people for selling and then pushing that out to, you know, on a, as a YouTube ad. And so I'm very, I'm very cognizant of that. So I'm, I think I'm trying in a way that's like, I'm trying to figure out how to do scale things with having some of that security of the job. You know, cause I, there's, as an entrepreneur, you're, you're spending money on things and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. It's, it can be kind of brutal.Yeah, exactly. And advertising has been, I know the average advertising, like figuring out either a Google ads, YouTube ads, Facebook ads, like you know, I, I, I've had some success I've had success and failure with, with ads and so I know that, you know, you gotta get eyes, you gotta get eyeballs on your, on your offers and different things, whether it's affiliate offer or your own offers. But this space, there's a, there's a, it's an extremely long learning curve, which I enjoy. I just recently, like I don't like, I haven't done well with Facebook ads, but I was just like, at the minimum, if someone comes to my site, let's say I have like five or 10 people coming today for whatever reason, visiting my Facebook profile or YouTube, let's say just have five or 10 people a day, no big deal. I at least like James to retarget those people.Those should be like, that should be cheap. That should be cheap ads. And so, and also even before you run normal traffic to your offers, you would want to have the retargeting piece set up anyways. So I'm having like this breakthrough of like at least setting up your pixel and setting up a retargeting ad. And then when that's there, then you can go to the next step, which is try to maybe send some cold traffic or any of your warm traffic that does come. At least you're going to be able to stay in front of them. I don't, I kind of have this other idea, which is I don't have the budget to be in front of everybody all the time, but I should try to be in front of, I should try to be in front of a few people wherever they go. Once they've come into my world, I should hold on to them. And you know, with Instagram and Facebook and Facebook marketplace and how people are interconnected, if they, you know, with the retargeting, they could come in from Google and I could retarget them on Facebook. Right? Yeah. So I think that's a powerful principle, which is at least retarget your traffic,Virginia Purnell:Which is good to think about too, because a lot of people say it's between like 7 - 12 times of them seeing you before they'll actually buy something from you.James Hurst:Exactly. Exactly. So yeah, like I said, you know, I don't have thousands of people coming to my stuff, but for the five or 10 people that are, I should, I should feel like I'm everywhere now. And with today's modern, you know, advertising platforms, that's, that's very possible. There's still, but yeah, I mean there's still lots to learn. I was just happy because the other day I saw an advertisement of myself, you know, I saw on my own feed my own ad. I was like, yes, I retargeted myself. Virginia Purnell:You're doing a good job. Right?James Hurst:So, but yeah, there's so much, there's so much, there's so much overwhelm. There's so many shiny objects. And I actually, I know everyone says avoid them. I kinda like them. And yeah, from Facebook ads, YouTube ads, and making video tutorials and podcasts and blogs and YouTube channels and Facebook groups. And this cool tool in that cold tool. I mean they're, they're all great, but golly, use up a lot of time if you don't, aren't strategic with it all. Right. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You like to share that we haven't talked about yet today? Well, you know, I would love to just, I'd love to just make people aware of a few of the things that you know, I have made. So you talked about CF Follow Up Pro. Basically if you're a ClickFunnels affiliate you get a, you get a commission's report and in the commissions report there's the name, the email, the product that they purchased and it looks like an Excel spreadsheet and it pretty much is a spreadsheet.Right? Well, the stuff that I came up with was I took, if you're familiar with Zapier, I took those, the spreadsheet and I put it into, into Google sheets and from Google sheets I put that into a Zapier, which puts it into Active Campaign, which is my email tool. And those are, this is what it does. Let's say you sign up through my link for ClickFunnels for a free trial that would end up in the report, your email, your name, the fact that you're trialing, and today's date. I take all that information, I put it into Active Campaign, and 30 minutes later I've got an email out to you saying, Hey, welcome to click. Congratulations on your free trial, right? And then I drip out. Then two days later I say, Hey, it's been a couple of days. Just want to check in with you.Have you, have you made your first funnel yet? Are you stuck on anything? How can I help? Right? And then four or five days later, Hey, here's a free training. A couple of days later, this is in 14 days, Hey, show me your funnel that you've made. Here's a free training. Here's a share funnel. Just a few little things, keeping in touch. And what's really cool is I built up these automations that one of the, one of them, what it does on day 15 the email, the email automation, it asks the question, it says, Hey, does this person, does it still say that they're trialing or have they converted over to a paid subscription? Okay. Because if they pay, then there'll be another row in the spreadsheet that says your name and it says, you're on the startup plan and you paid, and I made $38 and 80 cents.Okay. So the automation, it looks at that and it says, Oh no, I don't see another record in here for her. That came through a, it's the last thing I saw was that there was a, that it was trialing, so that flips a switch that branches and it says, Oh, Hey, it looks like you didn't continue your trial with ClickFunnels or whatever with ClickFunnels. Hey, you know what? Something wrong? You need to make your trial longer. Do you need, you know, what did you get stuck on something? It's that. It's that feedback. And some people will, some people will never hear back from right. Other people will reply and say, Oh gosh, I was so busy. You know, they got sick, whatever. I'd love to. If I get this extended or you know, I couldn't get my domain set up. It was just a pain, you know?And so you get that feedback of why are people falling through the cracks? Same thing for a refund. If my little automations, they listen, quote unquote listening for a refund, boom, that kicks off an automation emails. Hey, it looks like you refunded. Let's like he refunded your last month. Did you know you can downgrade, you don't have to cancel. You can, you can downgrade to the smaller plan. You know, maybe they don't know. You're just trying. And so to have those emails going out perfectly that right time, like it's very, very powerful. And that's a, that's a tool I built. The other one, which is really, really cool too. There's a few competitors out there, but the other one's called Email Slurper for 3000. And do you have a, you have a Facebook group yourself? Virginia Purnell:Not quite yet. James Hurst:Not quite yet. So Facebook groups are really powerful. It's a great way to kind of congregate, you know, your audience, right? Whether it's your podcast listeners or people that are buying your tools or that want to get your trainings, things like that. And so a lot of people have Facebook groups and you get three questions as an admin to kind of filter out the spam of the internet. And you could say like, why do you want to join? How did you hear about us? Do you, you know, do you agree to follow the group rules of no spamming, no, no, this or that. What we did was marketers, we took those three admin questions and we said, well, we're going to use one of them to say, Hey do you would like this free training, a lead magnets, enter your email address, okay, enter your email address. And then another question could be, imagine this.Imagine, imagine the question is, do you have ClickFunnels? And they put yes or no as the answer. So now you're getting some market research about you, about your audience. And then you have another third question you could say, you know, what's your biggest, what's your biggest concern when it comes to getting visibility right out on the internet? What's, what's your biggest question about YouTube? So now you're getting ideas about content you can create. Well, where are people getting stuck? They're coming to you as the expert. Where are people getting stuck? What kind of content could you make? Let's say 50 people come in and they all have these top five questions. You can directly speak to them. Okay, so what my tool Email Slurper 3000 does is it takes, most importantly, it takes that email address, it puts it into a Google sheet, which it gets picked up by Zapier.I put that into my Active Campaign. And then I email people, Hey, welcome to this group that you just joined. Okay? And so I have a group that people are literally finding it every single day without me doing anything like just the way it's named, the amount of buzz around it. And people come and join every single day. He emails her, they put their email in email, super picks them up, and I started and I started dripping them 10 emails. This one I'm doing, it just has a little Amazon affiliate link that says a related thing, right? So you're just, you email out related products and services and so I just say, Oh, this is cool. You're welcome. This group, here's a link for this thing the next day. Oh, you should know about this. Oh and here's the link if you want to get it.I just every single day for like seven days anyways, so Email Slurper it. If you hit, if you didn't have Email Sluper, you'd have to copy that email address out of there. You have to copy it out of there manually. If you hit, approve, if you, if you hit approve its just gone. Facebook does not save the answers to those questions anywhere. That's a, that's a big painful moment when someone learns that for the first time that you, you know, if, if you didn't copy those emails, they're gone. So Email Slurper grabs them out of there and puts them into your tool. Here's a really cool thing to do, which I came up with is remember how I asked like you have ClickFunnels, yes or no? Yes I can take, I can take the answer to that question and map that to a custom field in my auto responder and then I can have an automation. What I'm, when I'm dripping them out, I can have an automation say, how did they answer that question if they, if they said no to the ClickFunnels, do they have ClickFunnels? Yes or no? Then I can send them other emails say, Hey, let me tell you about ClickFunnels and here's my, here's my link, right, to get them on a free trial of ClickFunnels.Does that make sense? It does and it makes me really excited. Well good. It's actually, I mean it's actually really cool cause I mean I just love, I love automation. Like you know, just little things like, and it's so simple. Do you have ClickFunnels, yes or no, and then the auto responder says, what do they say to the answer to that question? They say, yes. Okay, well don't bother telling them more about ClickFunnels. Did they say no? Then tell them this, you know, and then your third question, you could also branch them another, you know another way. The key with that question is it has to be something you can't say, what's your favorite color? Red, right. It can't be a free response. It has to be something that I can like, you know, get ahold of and and ask does it stay yes or no, like past to be something specificVirginia Purnell:And then information that you can utilize down the road. Right?James Hurst:Yeah, exactly. And I mean it's great. It's great. Let's, let's say this, they say no to ClickFunnels. I may be, I may be happy to, I may be happy to just do it with email automations. Like, okay, here's a trial ClickFunnels. You should try this, try that. Or if it's important enough or high value enough, you could then say, you could even send yourself an email and said someone just joined your group and they said they're very interested in your nine 97 plan. Then you notify them to get on the phone with this or get over on the Facebook messenger. So depending on the value of that thing, you know you might want to escalate your personal involvement. So those are good tips too.Virginia Purnell:I'm glad we talked today, so it was awesome. How can people find out more about you or find you online?James Hurst:So I'm pretty active on Facebook. Facebook.com/OJHurst, I think is my profile. I have a website, JamesHurst.com and find me there. So either of those two places. I have a Facebook group kind of geared around affiliate marketing and ClickFunnels, that kind of thing. I also have one on live streaming, the live streaming practice with James Hurst. There's just a few of us in there and we just practice that up and try to get better at the live stream, which I think is something everyone should, you know, should get better at and take advantage of. I think live, I think live video is a huge kind of untapped opportunity.Virginia Purnell:I really appreciate you being on here, James.James Hurst:Well, thanks so much. Nice visiting.Virginia Purnell:Have a great day.James Hurst:See ya.Virginia Purnell:Thank you so much for joining us today. Be sure to subscribe and leave some love through a review and I'll catch you on the next episode. Links of Interest:DistinctDigitalMarketing.comhttps://www.facebook.com/ojhurstJamesHurst.com

Virginia Purnell:Welcome to entrepreneur conundrum with Virginia Purnell where growing entrepreneurs share how they get visible online. Hi everyone. Today I'm talking with Mark Stern about how he builds stronger relationships to stand out in the marketplace. Mark Stern is a serial entrepreneur and founder of rough street digital, the custom box agency and live online. Prior to entrepreneurship, Mark was a top ranked strategy consultant from the world's largest consulting firm, Deloitte for the fastest way to its hardest through barbecue and tacos and he lives in Austin, Texas. Welcome, Mark Stern.Mark Stern:It’s good seeing you, Virginia. Thank you for having me on.Virginia Purnell:You're welcome. Great to have you here. Mark, you've done some pretty big things in the online marketing space and I'm thankful that you've graciously consented to this interview to share with us some of those cool tricks, tricks, and tips that you've been able to use to become visible in your space and I'm hoping that we'll be able to share those so that our audience will be able to implement them as well.Mark Stern:Awesome. No, I'm excited to share some, we have some great things that I'm excited to share with your audience.Virginia Purnell:Cool. Just jump right in. So could you tell us a little bit about yourself?Mark Stern:Happy to. So I was born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama and I was always raised with the idea that there's this perfect, you know, pathway to happiness. You go to high school, you graduate, have the dream job, eventually go back to grad school and then afterwards it's, you know, pick defense family and the rest is history. That's the fast way to happiness. And I would joke that like, I think I was like the poster child for it because I loved high school. I was president of my student body. Same thing in college, had my dream job, went to my dream business school. I went to Duke university, and was president of that as well. And then I graduated in 2012 with a job that was amazing. It was with Deloitte consulting, world's largest consulting firm. But I find myself locked into a two year minimum commitment to the consulting firm.Mark Stern:And I had just walked out of business school with $165,000 in student loan debt. And at that time for me, like I had those ambitions to want to be an entrepreneur, but based on the situation that I was in, when you work for a consulting firm, anything you produce is owned by the firm. So this whole idea about having a side hustle and addition to your day job that pays the bills, I couldn't have a side hustle because if my side hustle would be owned by the firm. So what I did instead, and I think a lot of people are in this, especially if you work for a consulting firm, or big tech. A lot of companies out there own what you produce. So because I couldn't really scratch that itch, I ended up going to every digital marketing conference out there. I'd read every book and I just dream until I realized I was using that as a form of medicine to address the bigger issue, which is I needed to scratch this edge. I needed to go all in and make the leap into entrepreneurship. So I officially did that in 2018. The thing I did right out of the gate, that was the game changer for me, was launching a virtual event. And so much of what I put out in the marketplace is so much of what you talk about, which is how do you increase your visibility online, and how do you stand out in a, in a way that attracts your ideal avatar.Virginia Purnell:Yeah. It's quite a journey that you've taken on. So you made the leap in 2018, correct?Mark Stern:Yeah, right at the beginning of the year. The second after New Year's Eve, I came back and was like, I've got to do this. If I don't do this, I'll regret it.Virginia Purnell:Kind of like a New Year's resolution.Mark Stern:Oh, unexpected New Year's as a little bit going into it, I didn't know that I was going to come out of it saying, you know, here's my notice.Virginia Purnell:So were you an overnight success when you did it?Mark Stern:I wish I were. I wish I could say I was. You know what I learned was I came from a corporate job that, I mean, it basically occupied my entire mental capacity. So, you know, I think I put a lot of unnecessary stress on myself to say, if I'm making the leap from corporate to becoming an entrepreneur, I need to have the business all figured out. And the reality was when I made the leap officially, I put my notice in January. It took me five months to transition out just because of the projects that I was working on. So when I left in May, I had no idea what I was going to do. And what I learned was that's okay because I knew that once I left, I could release all of the mental capacity from my corporate job and then really get into that zone of creativity to start to figure out what it is that I want to be when I grow up.And what where that led me was I knew that I loved conferences and the simple idea of doing a virtual conference where I can customize the message to who I wanted to serve and really attract them as well as build relationships. And then selfishly I was someone that really struggled initially putting myself out there online. It was another platform that forced me to get uncomfortable because I was trying to put myself out there in the digital realm, which is something that was brand new to me at the time. So I was not an overnight success, but it helped prepare me. I felt like I very quickly flipped on the switch to bring attention to myself based on the steps that I did take pretty quickly. And that was the virtual event.Virginia Purnell:So you had mentioned that it was hard for you to put yourself out there with promoting your company and getting visible online and stuff. What did you find helped you to do that?Mark Stern:So the first thing that I, for anyone in this, one of the easiest ways, especially if you struggle to get traction and take action, is to declare it publicly. So I started posting what I was going to do and I tied it to a specific date. So that was when I said... So I left in May and it was the end of June that I started posting publicly that I'm launching this fall conference in October. Here's the date of it. And I mean by simply declaring it to the public and just knowing myself, if I say I'm going to do something by a certain date, I'm going to do it. Whether or not I felt like it makes me uncomfortable or not. So putting myself in, forcing myself publicly to be in an uncomfortable position, I think was the difference between me taking that massive action in a short period of time. So declare it. And I've done this practice so many different ways and I've tried this again and again and I always find that the best things I put out in the marketplace or when I'm vulnerable and I declare it publicly as then you're on the hook,Virginia Purnell:Otherwise you make a liar out of yourself, right.Mark Stern:Yeah. And that was the other thing is that I didn't want to be, and it's funny because going through the process, I kept on telling people I'm doing this version and this is before everyone started like getting loud with virtual events like they have in the last, I'd say 18 months especially right after the pandemic hit and all live events got canceled. But a lot of people, it was so funny cause when I would declare it publicly to say I'm doing this, I'm going to do a launch, a virtual event, we're going to launch a publication off the back of it and do this, this, this, and this. People would be like, nod their head like, yeah sure you are. And then I do it and they'd all be surprised that I did it. So it's funny that like when you declare things and you actually follow through, like it's part of your brand, you know it's part of who you are,Virginia Purnell:Which is huge because you can build stronger relationships that way.Mark Stern:I mean totally, totally. Because people can find you. I mean any of these things that you do that you put yourself out there, even doing a podcast by just the act of doing this, like you're getting, giving people like a glimpse into who you are and you know what it's like to collaborate with you or work with you or have a conversation with you. So it's just such a powerful means that people are attracted to different personalities. You and I can teach the same thing, but there are certain people that may gravitate towards you and others that gravitate towards me. But being able to put myself out there, I can better attract the people that know that I could be their trusted mentor to serve them and get them to the next level.Virginia Purnell:I know you do a lot with custom boxes. How does that add to visibility and the effect that it has on your customers?Mark Stern:Yeah, it's a really good question. This is something that I've been having a lot of fun with lately and it was something I stumbled upon by accident. I did a virtual event. Most people who do virtual events sell as their low ticket item, the recordings from all the speakers so people can watch it on their own time. I didn't want to do that because I didn't, I just looked at that as selling more education. I want to sell action. So when we did a high ticket online, I think it was a year ago, we instead crafted a custom box and it's, you know, a custom box. It's initially like taking a typical box you'd ship in the mail, fully brand it. So it's like a beautifully branded box and then really tailoring the contents inside for your customers. So for me, we did as a means to say, if you buy our digital product, we're going to send you something physical in the mail to compliment the digital experience.So the idea behind it is to remove any barriers that are preventing your audience for being successful with your product. So if you have a digital course, if you require me to print out my worksheets to be able to be successful with your digital course, you just put up a barrier that's going to prevent me from that could prevent me from being successful because you don't want to take the excuses off the table. I don't want someone telling me that they weren't successful because they don't have a printer at home or they haven't set up their printer to print out those worksheets. So that's kind of why I liked the custom boxes. I continue swag, I continue some workbooks and worksheets and supporting collateral. I can send you a book in the mail. So that's kind of like how we got started in that space.And then we started to do this for all of our products and services simply because what was happening was our audience, as they would get these boxes, they would start to film themselves with the boxes, take pictures with the content, do unboxing videos. They were saving the boxes. So now we were taking up space in their home and it was such a powerful thing that the organic traffic and the social proof that was happening naturally was attracting more customers and we were getting higher conversion rates for our products simply because most people don't do a physical custom box to compliment their programs. They do digital only. So it's an easy way for me to elevate whatever I do because you get this cool everyone getting a gift in the mail and it's just, you know, building upon that just a really powerful, powerful means to do it. So that's where I, you know, we built out an entire business around, you know, how do we make this more accessible to people so they can provide boxes to their audience.Virginia Purnell:That's really cool. Like, cause you're right, like everybody loves getting mail and that's not something that really happens much anymore. Like it used to.Mark Stern:And look at what's happening right now with the pandemic when the pandemic hit live, events got canceled, all mailing vendors are still considered essential. So like the fact that I can't reach you in person anymore, but now I can like how else do you provide the, you know, the way I describe it as everything online is what you see and what you hear. And when we talk about your senses and how you connect with the world around you, touch, taste and smell. You can't do with digital only content. Even this podcast is simply what you hear. If I send you a physical box, I can start to tap into the other senses that you just can't get to when you, let's just say do a virtual event that is only what you see in what you hear. So that's like the, to me, the power of it that really just elevates that experience.Virginia Purnell:Do you think that there is only one niche or one type of business that could benefit from a custom box or is it more encompassing?Mark Stern:No. I think that this is where we're having a lot of fun with it. I think a lot of people look at custom boxes as just sending someone some swag in the mail, in the box. The way that I look at it is it's truly a means to think about, extending the lifetime value of your customer. You can use a custom box to the point of customer acquisition, fulfillment or retention until it kind of gives you some examples of that. At the point of fulfillment, I could send a custom box. It's a networking box to get on the radar of influencers who may be like, like to surprise them in a way to say, look at this thing that this person sent me with a call to action to be, I'd love to do a JV partnership with you or have you on my podcast.Other things you can do for acquisition is we're building out a box right now that's all about client acquisition, so how can I create a prospecting box that has a lot of cool resources so people hire us for what we do at the point of fulfillment? You could do a success box or an onboarding box. I see a lot of people do challenges. Now. A lot of people compliment their challenges with a physical box in the mail. They may have a workbook and a lot of supporting collateral to make you more successful with the digital. So the coaching program that you just purchased. So that's an example of a success box at the point of fulfillment. And then from a retention standpoint, you know we have clients who are using boxes that we call achievement boxes. So to keep you engaged in our world, we may cross something to save.If you, if I teach you sales, if you make $10,000 in sales using our system, I may send you a box in the mail as the achievement, a milestone for you to reach to, to try and achieve, to get that box and get the item that is, you know, going to recognize that achievement that you've done. So there's all different strategies you can use across the life cycle of the customers. So I like a lot of times what we're finding is that when people are purchased for boxes, they're not looking just for a swag box. They're looking for a couple of different boxes to really enhance the experience that they're having with their clients and their customers.Virginia Purnell:I like how you had commented that had mentioned the customer lifetime value because that's really where everything really happens.Mark Stern:That's where the magic is. You know, that's where a lot of people miss out because they fulfill and their customer has a great fulfillment experience, but they don't have the strategy in place to retain them. So they don't really think about retention. Once you've like had a good experience, clients want to buy more from you if they've had results from you. So that's where like the power of like studying those achievement milestones are really powerful.Virginia Purnell:It's another way of continuing that relationship. Like you can't just talk once and expect to stay friends foreverMark Stern:A hundred percent and to give you an example of an achievement piece, like ClickFunnels or the things that they do is if you make a million dollars, they send you a two comma club award in the mail. Like that is an achievement marker. There are people who are invested in the platform because their goal is to earn a two comma club award. Like that is the achievement that they want. So, ClickFunnels is going to keep them active and they're going to provide them with the materials to help them get to that level. But they've given you something to strive for. And now ClickFunnels has launched a eight figure award and then a $25 million award and a $50 million word in a hundred million dollar award. So part of this is they're always giving you those milestones to say, I've created this thing for you to achieve or strive for. That's the power of that. I mean, to me that's such a great market example of the power of achievement to extend the lifetime value of your customers.Virginia Purnell:Thank you Mark. So many good nuggets and things to think about. Is there any last tips or suggestions that you have to be able to keep that customer lifetime value or to be able to be in front of your customers or how to get there and stay there?Mark Stern:Yeah, I mean this is why I think it's so important to like to be very engaged. Whenever we're launching a new product, I'm really hands on with it, especially if it's like a new type of a high ticket program. Oftentimes if it's a course or whatnot, like I like to be directly in our face staying with a group of people and usually give them a lot more attention. So like I like to be very, very hands on at the launch of any new product or offering. And part of that is it lets me see how other people react and engage to it. And a perfect example is right now I have a coaching program that is teaching people how to launch high quality virtual events. And they came to me and said had I not been very engaged in interfacing with them, they wanted more training on Facebook ads, so I get to then go find someone who's great at Facebook ads and I get to give them visibility to this group that's bought into my program. So they're happy because I'm listening to their needs and I'm able to better cater to what they want to set them up for more success. Cause that's, that's what my goal is. If you create a product for your service, I want people to complete whatever I'm offering and get results. So that's kind of like looking at what can I offer them and then just listening to what they're saying and what they're asking for for future products as well.Virginia Purnell:I like what you said, like you want them to stay with you and to finish it right? Like not just read it all. That was nice and carry on.Mark Stern:Yeah. I mean, I think my belief is that people do not want to buy a bunch of products and services and courses from 20 to 30 different influencers in the marketing space or in the online space or whatever their niche is. I mean, I think that people are looking for two to three trusted mentors that they know that their learning style will get them to take action and they know that like if I were to launch a program on webinars or a program on setting up, you know, you're like anything how to set up a podcast, how to do this, that and the other. Even if it's the first time I'm watching it out of the Gates, if they were deciding between me and someone else who really specializes in it, like I want them to be in a position that they're going to say, you know what, I'm going to, I'm going to buy from Mark because I know the quality of his products and I know that his teaching style will get me results.And that's, that's the reality is I bought high ticket programs that I got no results out of because the way the influencer taught it, they may be good at what they do, but they didn't teach it in a way that resonated with me and got me to take action. So that's why it's important to invest in what you're putting out in the marketplace simply if you want to truly be in it for the long term game and be that trusted mentor. Yeah, I mean these are the steps that, like, for me that I have to take.Virginia Purnell:Great. Thanks.Mark Stern:And I'm having fun and you're having fun. That's awesome. I'm having fun every step of it.Virginia Purnell:That's the key point right there. Well thank you so much Mark Stern. It was such a great interview. How can people find out more about you and what you do?Mark Stern:Yeah, yeah. People are welcome to retail to me on Facebook, so feel free to hit me up if you want to learn more about custom boxes. We have a challenge, which is custom box challenge.com or done for you, which is custom box agency.com so you can learn a little bit more about what we offer there and if you're looking to launch a virtual event, Rovermethod.com is our do it yourself platform. That is a fun game of fight experience that people want to go learn how to do that.Virginia Purnell:Thanks again. You're welcome. Thank you so much for joining us today. Be sure to subscribe and leave some love through a review and I'll catch you on the next episode.Recommended/mentioned links:Distinct Digital Marketing.comCustomBoxChallenge.comCustomBoxAgency.comRoverMethod.com

Virginia Purnell:Welcome to entrepreneur conundrum with Virginia Purnell, where growing entrepreneurs share how they get visible online. Today I'm talking with Stephanie Blake about how she helps businesses grow and scale via funnels and Facebook ads. Stephanie is a techno geek that helps passionate and innovative entrepreneurs revolutionize their world by enabling them to get clear on their message and past the hurdles keeping them from their dreams. She enables business owners to create an implement, a plan to dominate their industry and live full out in their calling via high converting sales funnels, cutting edge Facebook ad strategy, and killer messenger bot strategy. Stephanie is a wife to red bearded hero and a mother to four extroverted blessings and a lover of all things marketing back to the future princess bride and blue bell ice cream. Welcome, Stephanie.Stephanie Blake:Hey. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to get to be here and chat with you.Virginia Purnell:I am excited for you. Ready to jump in? Oh yeah, let's go. Awesome. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?Stephanie Blake:I am the mother of four amazing children and married to a wonderful red bearded hero is who I call him. And I run a digital ads agency. So about four and a half, five years ago, my life completely and totally changed when I decided to make a career pivot. I was already pretty geeky. My background is in network engineering and management, so I love to build computers and make them talk to each other. But I got turned on to the digital marketing space by a friend who offered me a job and I fell into the world of sponsored posts, affiliates, funnels and traffic and landing pages. And I was just so in awe and just to be honest, it was almost like things clicked into place whenever I found digital marketing. And so it was, it's been quite the journey since we started. I started an agency about four and a half years ago called Social Sparrow and we're rocking along.We have an amazing team of eight and we just recently got our two comma club award for earning a million dollars in our agency, helping businesses grow and scale using Facebook ads and funnels. And so I'm just excited to be able to chat with you because it's so much fun to just share the passion that I have for what you can do with your life and your business if you are on purpose and deciding purposely to build the life that you want. Cause I just can't even believe, if you would've told me five years ago that my life would look like what it does right now, I would just not even be able to comprehend that. So it's just incredible how far you can come no matter where you start. Because we started in a rough place, things were not good. And the only reason I got the education I did and digital marketing space, I was working for someone else who paid for the courses. And so I really had no frame of reference for what was possible. And so anyway, so here I am. I'm a digital ads agency owner, and do business consulting and coaching. And I just absolutely love digital marketing.Virginia Purnell:It's so nice. Things can fall into place and then how good they feel when they do.Stephanie Blake:Yes, yes. It's almost like a fish that finally gets into water, right. Or a horse that finally gets its gallup for, you know, it's just, it's an amazing, amazing thing to really have things align and feel great as you're doing work that you love.Virginia Purnell:So what do you love most about what you're doing?Stephanie Blake:I think the thing I love the most is the impact because a lot of people have fantastic offers offline. Maybe they have a zone of genius, but they just can't seem to get it online. And with the right work, the right offer, the right messaging, the right traffic, the right audiences, it, all it takes are these little tweaks and twists and turns and someone can lock into place and it literally changes their life. So for example, one of my coaching students literally went from having around $4,000 a month income with his econ product that he was selling. And he started coaching with me about two months ago and this month was his first month to hit $27,000 in 30 days. And that's a major impact. Like his life is directly changed because of his ability to sell his product to the perfect customer and continue to do that at scale. And so that's, I think to me that's what it's all about. That's what I love the most is whenever you can have that kind of impact to help someone truly make their dreams happen as like there's nothing like it, it's the best.Virginia Purnell:Yeah. Such a great feeling that you were able to help someone achieve their dreams or definitely get one step closer to it. Yeah, absolutely. Especially from such a big jump that they were able to do.Stephanie Blake:Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't always happen that fast. But, but yes, even it's so crazy cause even small little changes and, and what some people might consider to be a small difference, if you're only making $500 online, then all of a sudden you find yourself making $4,000 online. That's, that's a huge increase. And that's a really, really big deal. It doesn't always have to be like a, we're making four and then all of a sudden you're at a hundred thousand dollars. It's just about what will make the biggest impact. And sometimes for some families the biggest impact is just simply being able to cover extracurricular activities and not have to worry about if they have to put something on a credit card or not, or they're not sure if they're going to be able to do X, Y or Z. Right. Because not sure if the money is going to be there, which is where we lived our life before I started my agency. It was really, really, really rough. Not knowing if we could afford to really put our kids in the extracurricular activities or fix the fence that was falling down or you know, all those things that come up. And then the difference being that, okay, you know what, I don't have to worry about that anymore because I can take care of that because my business has grown so much. Right.Virginia Purnell:So speaking of dreams and goals, what are some big goals that you're looking to achieve over the next one to two years?Stephanie Blake:Oh man. I think the biggest thing for me is that I've been in circles in a lot of really amazing masterminds over the past couple of years. And I also had the honor and the privilege of getting to coach inside of the Two Comma Club X program for Russell Brunson. And during that time I coached hundreds of entrepreneurs and one of the things that I loved the most was whenever you found someone who really caught their groove and they created their own ecosystem and these individuals, you know, they started off, they had this idea, they made an offer, and then from that offer they found another problem to solve that was related to the audience that they were already serving. They created another offer to solve that problem. Then another problem came up and they created another offer, solve that problem, and eventually they created their own value ladder.And there's this ecosystem and this tribe that they have. And I started my journey in the digital marketing world as an agency. And because I wanted to be able to scale, I very intentionally niched down at the very beginning. So a large majority of our clients were in our local businesses on purpose 'cause they're kind of a different beast. And so we still serve a lot of people in the online community for infopreneurs and things like that. But whenever I start that way, I am my head down to the grindstone. Like I'm working hard, I'm building a team, I'm learning what it looks like to scale. What does it mean to have employees, not contractors, like all of this stuff. Right. And I never created any info products based off of that because it didn't really fit who I was serving for, what I was doing at that time.And so because of that, whenever this, you know, this year one of my goals was to start to build my own ecosystem. So in the next year to two years, not only am I going to have my agency, but I'm creating ads for beginners.com which is training grounds for people to learn Facebook ads for beginners so that they too can start their journey. And then I really just want to serve and be able to help people have significant impact in their lives and change and go after what they want and see it realized in their lives, the learning Facebook ads and kind of going up that ladder that I'll build to serve people at different levels. So that's my biggest one. I want to look back a year or year and a half from now, and then see the evidence of an ecosystem where I have a tribe that I'm consistently serving rather than just an agency, which don't get me wrong, an agency’s a lot of work. It's not just anything, it's a magnificent, beautiful beast. And I love my agency and it's not going anywhere, but with that agency, I also want to have my own ecosystem where I am serving at a different level in the infopreneur space.Virginia Purnell:So having that ecosystem would that, how would that change your business or affect your business?Stephanie Blake:I think one thing that is really, really smart about having an ecosystem and really leaning into that is because it is, it's one pathway. And if you're like me and your creative visionary entrepreneur, then you have ideas coming at you, you know, a hundred to 200,000 times a day. Like there's always an idea. There's always something you can do. But whenever you build an ecosystem, everything inside of the ecosystem needs to fit right. You can't, you know, I guess you could go back to the ecosystems of you know, just what we're taught in school. And if you were to kill all of the spiders, then the bugs would be overwhelming and dah, dah, dah. And I think along those lines, the ecosystem that you build keeps you structured because you have one person that you're serving all along their journey at different places in their journey.And so I think that that's one of the major benefits of creating an ecosystem yourself, because you're not just serving everybody, which you don't really do with an agency either. But if you're just making these one off products, you're not streamlined, you're not focused. And so I think that's one of the main reasons why I feel like it's just so beneficial to do that because for one, it narrows your focus. And for two, it's going to create a logical way to generate revenue for you and your family. That makes sense. While serving at a really high level and solving real problems, what do you feel like the number one roadblock has been stopping me from doing that? Oh, 100% time. 100% and I think, you know, I can't use it as an excuse because what you want, you will create. Right? But I do because of the agency and what I want to do is to have a thriving agency.And I also want my team to be happy. I also want to raise children intentionally. Right? And so, I also want to be a good wife. So whenever you're really intentionally trying to make sure you're, you're plugged in with your children and that you are being a great wife and that you are taking care of yourself physically and you're thinking about the needs of your team and you're serving your clients, creating new systems and processes. And so I've found that I didn't quite understand how to truly catch a rhythm cause I felt like I was always trying to make it about what I could do every day and find the schedule that included every little bit of everything every day. But in reality, the way my brain works and what I've learned even in this past year is that, you know, batching is a real thing for me.I really kind of need to be able to settle into a, a creative thing that I need to do for a couple of hours for it to really come out of me and for it to actually work out and to be a good thing. If I'm trying to say, Oh, you're going to do that for 30 minutes, you're going to do this for 45 minutes is better. Get up cause you didn't go do this for an hour and then you got to call here and don't forget you're gonna break up that car and you're gonna go back to working on it. Then you worked on it at the beginning like forget it. Like my brain does not really work that way. I really struggle with any type of creative thing if I have that kind of calendar. So being able to literally say this whole week I am going to give my agency the first one hour of my time and then the rest of my day I am going to be working fully on this funnel and nothing else interrupts that until five o'clock whenever I stop working, check out with my team and then I'm my family's.Right? So these big time blocks I feel like are what's really, really helped me have some breakthroughs and I hope to continue to help me have breakthroughs as I'm building this ecosystem. Because time has definitely been one of the biggest roadblocks for me and not understanding how I can make time work for me as an individual. Right? Because what works for one person doesn't work for everybody. So true. So true. We're all individualistic. Right?What's working for you right now to attract more business? Oh my gosh. Okay. So I would have to say that for me it's all about networking. I don't intentionally, like, I didn't know I was doing a thing until someone called it out. They're like, gosh, you're such a networker. And I was like, I have. And it's just, I genuinely love people and I love going to live events. And so typically I meet a lot of amazing people and get to chat with them. And I really have a heart for people. So I just want to try to help. And so what has acquainted over the years is just this a mass of amazing, amazing people. Because I've paid to be in amazing masterminds. So whenever you pay to be a high end mastermind, you get to be surrounded with incredible people because they've done something to be able to afford to be in that mastermind.And so because of that, what's happened is, I have this beautiful network of visionaries who know how to make things happen and have, you know, fire in their eyes ready to go after things, right? And so, and becoming known by those individuals who, you know, have followers and they have needs and they know people who have needs. I think that's one of the biggest things that I've had going for me that was honestly unintentional. Now that I see it for what it is, I'm kind of like being a little more intentional about it. Like, Oh wow, I should go to that conference. Even if I don't need to learn the things that are at that conference, I would love to know those people. Right. And being a little bit more intentional about it without getting gross. Like, Oh, I'm going to meet these people because I have ulterior motives.But it's just so neat to look back and see something that came very naturally to me and it ended up benefiting my business and has benefited me as an individual. Just trying to make a way, you know, make my own space in this digital marketing world. So you've kind of explained what you're doing, let's say in real life, what are you doing to get visible or to stand out online? Okay. Again, one thing I learned to do unintentionally was a year, almost two years ago, I launched a course called bot boss where I was teaching how to use messenger bots. And so many people just had no idea what bots were. And so many people were curious, but very leery of bots. And so I just started talking to different people and I started volunteering to do a free training inside of people's masterclass or mastermind and, and it was just awesome.It was a total win, win. Some masterminds I would talk in, I do a one hour training for them, and some of them I would walk away with somebody who wanted me to do a belt build-out or wanting to buy my course when sometimes it was, I wouldn't walk with anything, which I wasn't really looking for. I was, I genuinely was showing up to give value inside of these, these people's inner circles and masterminds. But as a result, I was able to network and get to know people and become visible through small pockets of people. You know, this one might've had a hundred people, this one might've had 20 people, this one might've had 300 people. But they're all people who are anti-ing up to be inside of a program. Right? And so that really served me a lot. And again, unintentionally, I had no idea the value that I was bringing.Like I thought, Oh my gosh, yeah, I was bringing great value and these people were so thankful that I was willing to donate, you know, and do an hour of my time. And I was like, Hey, isn't no problem. This is fun. And then the value that in turn that came around for me, it was people started following me, checking me out or referring me. I would get tagged all over the internet anytime that bots got brought up because I was really getting out there and, and talking about what I was super passionate about. So if you yourself, you know, know people who have their own masterminds or anything like that, you know, reaching out to them and just say, Hey, I've got this really unique thing and here is what, how it could help your people. I would love to do free training and just offer not to pitch guys, you don't have to pitch.All you have to do is just be you and people are going to see you as someone who knows what they're talking about and they'll reach out if they want something or know that you're an expert in it or they'll remember you later. Great advice. Thank you. What would you like to share that I haven't asked you? Oh my gosh, let me think about this. You know, I guess just one thing I would share is just that I was talking to my group coaching group yesterday and one of the things we were talking about is this entrepreneurial journey and how there are so many highs and so many lows and sometimes whenever we're down in a low it feels like, like for instance the person I had just told you about a minute ago who is selling econ. He was talking about how, you know, just, I mean literally whenever he came into my group coaching program, he literally put the money that he paid to be in the program on a credit card cause they didn't have any money.It was literally a step of faith to jump in. And so he was saying it was so dark and it was so, you know, it was desperate times. It was really crazy. Right? Really a step of faith and we were about how we can get in the spots and we feel like, you know what? I just need to quit. I need to go find a nine to five. Someone can hire me. You know, I tried this entrepreneurial gig, this is just too hard and we just want to throw in the towel. But the crazy thing is, usually if we can get our wits about us and we can actually survey what's actually happening, what you might see a picture of in your mind is when you're climbing up a mountain, right? And you work really hard. Let's say you're climbing this mountain for a good 30 45 an hour, right?You come up, you find a ledge and you sit down and you're like, Oh my gosh, you look up and the mountain, I mean it is still like almost straight up in front of you. There's still so much more to go to get to the top, right? Let's, you sit down and you go to rest and you turn around and then you look down and you see how far you came, right? So it can, you can face one way and it can feel like you're never going to make it to the top and it's going to be so hard and like how could you keep going? But then you look back and you never would have imagined that you'd come that far in the time that it took you to come to that place. Right. So I guess the encouraging thing would be like no matter where you are in your entrepreneurial journey, just remembering how far you've come.Because whenever I look back and I think about this speedy journey, like I mean I have an 18 year old. Okay, that just blows my mind. I have an 18 year old, my youngest is seven. And I think about 18 years and I think about when he was born in 18 years. And then I think about my entrepreneurial journey and it's only been about five years. Like we're, we're just now coming around to five years where I really kind of put my foot in this industry and then I look now where I am and I know there's so much more to go. I'm like kicking myself cause I don't have an ecosystem. Right? I'm looking up that mountain and I'm like, Oh my gosh. Like, I've been sitting here and I've known about these ecosystems, I've coached people to build their own ecosystems and I don't have my own ecosystem and I'm looking up at the mountain and I'm like, Oh, what am I ever going to get up there?Right. When reality, whenever I turned around and looked back down, you know, I look how far I've come at th the struggles, how we, you know, lived in this small house and how we, you know, worked through having my first team member and then having to, having one of my team members quit on me for the first time ever. It wrecked me. I was so, I was devastated. I was so upset. And then, you know, having to fire somebody for the first time, what it meant to lead, how to have my own retreat, like the Two Comma Club stage for earning a million dollars in my agency. Like, like if you want to tell me at the beginning of this journey that I was going to build an agency that would make over a million dollars. Like I just, I would've been like, what?Like that would have been inconceivable. So as, as we've, as I've come up this journey and I look back down, I can have so much more appreciation and understanding that all it's going to take is one foot in front of the other to make it up the other side and to keep going to reach the top right because that's all that was. It was one problem and then you solve the next problem, solve that and then solve the next problem and you just keep going and you don't let those Valley days make you forget about where you've come to get to that part. Right. So I think, I think that's, I guess I could share that because that's been the thing that's just been kind of ruminating with me, just appreciation because it was like two years ago I posted on my profile a picture and it was the two comparison shots, right.Of looking up the mountain and then looking how far you'd come. And I was like, Oh, that's so good. And so just remembering how far you've come, no matter where you are, if you're experiencing the Valley and celebrating, just celebrating your wins and how far you've come and knowing that you have whatever it takes inside of you in order to figure out how to solve the next problem. And then you'll figure out how to solve the problem that's after that and you'll keep going.Virginia Purnell:I like that. Thank you so much. Thank you again for such a great interview. How can people find out more about you and what you do?Stephanie Blake:Okay. Yeah. So if you just basically just find me on Facebook and connect with me there, you can actually go to the Stephanie dub Facebook page and connect with me there. I've got a bot hooked up there and just let me know. You know, what's going on in your business. I'd love to connect and meet you and see if there's a way that I can help you or just learn more about what you're doing.Virginia Purnell:Thank you again, Stephanie. Thank you so much for joining us today. Be sure to subscribe and leave some love through a review and I'll catch you on the next episode.Mentioned Links:DistinctDigitalMarketing.comMySocialSparrow.comBotBoss.io

Virginia Purnell:Welcome to Entrepreneur Conundrum with Virginia Purnell, where growing entrepreneurs share how they get visible online. Hi everyone. Today I'm talking with Christina Szekeres about how she helps people become financially independent through affiliate marketing. Christina is an international keynote speaker and affiliate marketer for 15 years. She started when she was 14 and had no English, an independent business woman and was born and raised in Hungary and now living in Orange County, California.Virginia Purnell:Welcome Christina.Christina Szekeres:Hi Virginia. Thank you for having me.Virginia Purnell:I'm so glad that you're here. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?Christina Szekeres:Of course. I'm currently living in California, but I'm originally from Budapest, Hungary. I was born and raised there and I was born to a, you know, like very poorest in European family and when I was 14, my dad got me an ebook which was written by a female affiliate marketer and she was un affiliate marketing, how to make money with ClickBank offers on Google adwords. And back then I didn't speak any English. I dedicated my whole summer to that book to translate it word by word, using the old fashioned dictionary method, you know, and I was very inspired by this woman because I thought to myself, if she can make money as a woman, then I probably can make it work too. And, and given that my parents never really had money to go on vacations or they barely had any money to pay the bills, I was super driven and motivated to change that, not only for myself but for my family too.So I was always motivated to, to keep going. It took me about three years to find my first profitable campaign back then when I was just a teenager. That was pay-per-view traffic with running a lead generation offer. And then I, you know, from that point on, I, it was always like for me, a breakthrough when there was like a big, big when s**t hit the fan, sorry for my bad words. But when I'm under a lot of pressure, I tend to deliver very good. And, but I was about 2021 my dad does his job and he could no longer provide for the family and that was the point, the turning point in my affiliate marketing career because until then I was just treating it as like a game and like making pocket money. But then when really it got serious because if we're about to lose our home that was behind the beers by like three months and you know, he had a couple of mortgages that he had to pay and that was the moment when I was like, okay, I need to step it up.I need to figure out how to make much more money. I mean I know already that you know how campaigns work and how you can make money with affiliate marketing. I did it on a low scale, but then that was the turning point for me, a big breakthrough, a push when I was under pressure to to be able to provide for the family, stepping in to become the breadwinner. And in about two months I changed the family's life. I turned it around because I was able to pay off all of his dad and I moved my dad to. After that I started traveling with my mom and I moved my dad to the us to keep working for me and now they are both are being retired in California and they are hearing me. So that is kind of like my life story in short.Virginia Purnell:Such an inspiring story. Thank you. So what's the biggest thing that you do to get visible online?Christina Szekeres:That's a very good question and I love that question. Many people today think that social media and like Instagram is the way to go and like to get miserably. Now there are like two different things that we can talk about. One, we can talk about personal branding and the other we can talk about running actual affiliate marketing campaigns. I would say they're two different things for personal branding. What I put a lot of emphasis on is providing value in communities that are interested in affiliate marketing. So I, the way I got, you know, a lot of let's say visibility or like I was put into the spotlight when I was a meeting, I don't know if you're familiar with stack that money, the forum, but it's a big affiliate marketing community.And they had meetups all around the world. And the way my brand started was actually going to these meetups and I met the founders in Hong Kong. So for me, one of the main tactics to get visibility and people to get to know me, to actually go to meet ups and meet people in person. So they start talking about you and I saw her speaking at events that helps a lot and online being active in groups. So I was really active on, on SDN forum. People got to know me and they got really excited when they met me in person. Right? So they could put the username behind the face short put into a face. That's not my brand started. So SDN invited me to speak at their, at their first London event. And there are like 600 people in the room and you know, it, it just came naturally.So I think I was very passionate about it wasn't very well planned out and you know how I am going to have a lot of visibility but it definitely was a passion of mine to travel and meet all the people and learn more from all these people and also provide value. So I kept hopping around from one continent to another just to go to an STM Europe to meet the people who are like people who do the same like I do at flare marketing, right. To share and discuss tactics and then hosting my own workshops in the meantime and mastermind and being active, you know, in the whole whole industry. So whatever industry you are a part of, I would recommend if you're planning to do a personal branding and you're passionate, passionate about, you know, being active in groups and then go to meet ups impression to not just online because that will help a lot for people to get to know you and to start talking about you. So to sum it up, I would say networking in person and in groups, Skype mastermind groups that are grow, mastermind groups, Facebook groups where you want to be active to get any recognition and to provide relief for the topic that you are representing. So I love helping out people when they push the question in our Facebook group and giving value and showing them, you know, my expertise and more and more people will see that and then they will reach out to you for help. So our perfect approach if you're just starting out.Virginia Purnell:Awesome. Thank you so much for those words of wisdom, Christina.Christina Szekeres:Of course.Virginia Purnell:How can people find out more about you and what you do?Christina Szekeres:They can find out about me, by IM Queen consulting.com or if they go to Facebook, they can type in. IM queen, internet marketing queen. And then on Instagram IM FB Queen to to find out more.Virginia Purnell:Awesome. Thank you again, Christina for sharing with us and I'm excited to have you back on the show in a bit.Christina Szekeres:Thank you Virginia. My pleasure, had a good time.Virginia Purnell:Thank you so much for joining us today. Be sure to subscribe and leave some love through a review and I'll get you on the next episode.****Discover More:DistinctDigitalMarketing.comIMQueenConsulting.com

Virginia Purnell:Welcome to entrepreneur conundrum with Virginia Purnell, where growing entrepreneurs share how they get visible online. Hi everyone and welcome. Today I'm talking with Cory Carter about how he helps business owners find the right partners to potentially 10 X their audience. Corey is a leader of leaders. He helps the many reach new Heights in their business and careers while teaching them to figure out their why's, set the right goals, and then work the best strategy to achieve those goals. Corey and his business partner Ron cool, have a podcast called Hindsight HacKing and a Facebook group of the same name that is all about hacking others hindsight to give you a clearer foresight. Welcome Corey.Cory Carter:Thank you so much Virginia. And I'm excited to be here. Really really looking forward to the launch of this.Virginia Purnell:Thanks. I'm excited too and thank you for joining us. So can you tell us a little bit about yourself?Cory Carter:Yeah, definitely. So my story is basically I grew up knowing that the only way to get what I needed or wanted was I needed to work hard for it. And so at a young age, 13 I started delivering papers at five in the morning and literally ever every bit after that I would put in 60 hours a week. You know, as as I was 16 years old going to school, I would just know that I just needed to put in the time and I would get the money back. Right. And so it took me years of doing that until my first son was born that I was always around, always trading that time for the money. And then my son was born, my wife actually hemorrhaged and ended up in a pretty bad state. And I was at work two days after my son was born.Cory Carter:And you know, like I knew at that point I needed to find something, find a different way, find a better way, work smarter, not harder. And so yeah, that kind of led me on this journey of figuring out what's, what's the best way and how do I do things and how can I provide, you know, and serve people and what do I love doing? And all these questions you ask yourself, right. Finding my own why and helping other people find their why. It became kind of a passion for me. So that's really the number one thing. Like I was always working for somebody working, you know, as hard as I can, as many hours as I could to now where I don't sacrifice the family like I once did,Virginia Purnell:Which I bet your wife and kids appreciate.Cory Carter:Yes, yes, absolutely. It's you know, it took me, it still took me another 10 years after that time when I, when I needed, when I was, when my, my wife almost passed and that literally it's now, I mean, my partner Ron, like he always commends me on, on the, I won't, I won't flex. Like, you know, if I'm at home during certain times, like I'll still work hard and do things I love. But yeah, it's definitely made for a much, much better house, much better home life for sure. Well, I'm glad that you can separate the two, the work life and the home life. But one quick question for you. What is the biggest thing that you do to get visible online? Does. It's funny, I could, I could go into a long story on this for sure, but I'll try to keep it somewhat short.So when I, I was, I was always this voyer when it came to social media, like I, before I transitioned into working on all this online business, I literally would have had like a hundred friends on Facebook and their friends and family and even my closest relatives and closest friends, I never interacted with them. I literally watch them put their photos up of them, their lives, and I never put my own photos up. Now my, my wife would put photos up, a boss and people would comment. But again, I was this big Voyager and I never did anything online. And up until about two years ago when we move, we shifted to some online online business and a different way of networking. So if this became this thing where instead of just looking at it as I'm doing this for fun, I literally was like, okay, well this is for work and I can be, it can be for fun at the same time.Right? And so the number one way to that I became visible was literally you just go in, you like certain people's things or you provide a little bit of value here and there and, and before you knew it. And like, not that I've, they're all close friends, but I've got like 4,000 friends on Facebook now. And again there's, there's probably several that aren't real friends, but I think it's so many contacts and connections that just because provide a comment here, provide a comment there. And next thing you know, you're, you're hanging out with someone like a Jamie Atkinson who is, you know, King of podcasts, right? Like you just get in these circles where you provide a little bit of value at the right times. And next thing you know, you're, you're B, you're a little bit visible. Now obviously the last piece to that is you have to publish in some way, shape or form online.So I can go into a group and comment and like and do different things, but if there's no reason to come and watch me follow me or anything on my own stuff, then you know it's, it's irrelevant what you're doing. And so that's kinda like the last piece of getting visible to anything online for sure. So consistency is key. Yes, absolutely. Even with our podcasts, I mean, it's releasing every single week at least once a week. Like that's no matter what we make sure to get it done right. And we've found that we started a Facebook group and just a little bit of the little bit of consistency and posting and providing information. And next thing you know, we're, you know, go from five people in a group to 40 right? Like this and that. And that's not even trying, that's literally just, okay, I'm going to start adding some value and some content consistently.Virginia Purnell:Thank you so much for sharing. I'm excited to have you back for another episode and how can people find out more about you and what you do?Cory Carter:Yeah, absolutely. You know, my favorite thing is definitely the Hindsight HacKing community. So either on Facebook under Hindsight HacKing or on our podcast. That's probably the, my favorite two things that we're doing right now and having a lot of fun with and hopefully providing some value for some folks.Virginia Purnell:Okay, awesome. So thank you again, Cory Carter for sharing with us and thank you to each of you for joining us for this amazing interview. Thank you so much for joining us today. Be sure to subscribe and leave some love through a review and I'll catch you on the next episode.Discover More:DistinctDigitalMarketing.comHindsight HacKing

Virginia Purnell:Welcome to Entrepreneur Conundrum with Virginia Purnell, where growing entrepreneurs share how they get visible online. Hi everyone. The day I'm talking with Jodi Chaffee about how she helps families live more intentionally by creating systems and strategies for thriving culture.Jodi is a seasoned podcaster, homeschool mom, and a family culture expert. She has hosted our modern heritage, the home and family culture podcast for three years and recently released her 100th episode. During this time, she has interviewed dozens of experts from Paralympic athletes to entrepreneurs and authors. For more than three years, Jodi studied business culture and looked for ways to apply it to families. This resulted in a powerful framework for hacking successful cultures and applying it to families who want to live intentionally and question the status quo. She has been featured on several podcasts, presented at homeschool conferences, and is a published author in a digital magazine. Welcome, Jodi.Jodi Chaffee:Thank you so much, Virginia. I'm excited to be here.Virginia Purnell:I'm excited to have you here. So tell us a little bit about yourself.Jodi Chaffee:So like you mentioned, I have my podcast to the home family culture podcast and I'm excited. I'm going to be relaunching it as the family culture movement and so get going to get some more clarity on the direction that I want to take. That, that whole cultural shift that I want to create around family culture. And like you mentioned, I'm a homeschool mom. I have four kids and my husband and I are both self-employed and so we are, you know, we're used to this whole quarantine type of thing. That's our normal everyday life. And so, you know, I, it just breaks my heart when I hear about people who are really struggling and trying to do school at home and realizing like, wait, that's not how homeschoolers live. You know, I just want to reach to the screen and be like, no, let me help you.You know, it doesn't have to be so difficult. You can, you can actually even walk away from the system during this time so your family can be happy and not have to be so stressed out. But yeah, it is what it is and there's only so much I can do. I'm a strong believer in just helping families to live with intention and to break from dysfunctional patterns and live with, you know, with kind of culture that will help your family to thrive and in a trust and trust environment and an environment where you can cope with, with this daily day to day, day by day, you know, stressors of life. You know, it's not like it ever goes away, but we can learn how to cope with it in a way that helps us to have a thriving culture for our families.Virginia Purnell:Great. Thank you. Now the question for today is what's the biggest thing that you do to get visible online?Jodi Chaffee:So my podcast is a big part of my business visibility. Like you mentioned, I've been doing this for over three years with podcasting and, and recently a hundred episodes and it's something that I actually feel very passionate about. It's, it's really been life transforming to have this podcast to be able to talk to so many amazing people and meet them. And then, you know, being able to collaborate with them, to have them share their episodes out to their audiences. And post on social media about the podcast and about the episodes and having a strategy around when to post and what to post and how to attract people to the show so that they can learn about more about me and about my guests and things. And so podcast is a really is a really big part of the publicity plan because publishing consistently is a really good way to get more people engaged and to give you that visibility because it really works well with, you know, algorithms of like social media and things like that.If you're consistently posting and publishing then you get more and more exposure. And I love podcasting because I'm able to have awesome conversations with people and talk about things that I feel like are really important and impactful for our families and for our culture. And so to me that's, that I think is my number one and both podcasting and then publishing about the podcast on social media is a really big deal for me.Virginia Purnell:Awesome. Thank you so much. And how can people find out more about you and what you do.Jodi Chaffee:So you can come and find me on Facebook. Just Jodi Chaffee, facebook.com/Jodi Chaffee and my business page is facebook.com/family culture podcast. And I have a Facebook group that is, I go into a lot and post a lot and do a lot of work in there. And that's the group is called family culture hackers.Virginia Purnell:Thank you again, Jodi for sharing with us and thank you to each of you for joining us for this amazing interview. Thank you so much for joining us today. Be sure to subscribe and leave some love through a review and I'll catch you on the next episode.****Discover More:DistinctDigitalMarketing.comFacebook.com/JodiChaffeefacebook.com/familyculturepodcastFacebook group: family culture hackers

Virginia Purnell:Welcome to Entrepreneur Conundrum with Virginia Purnell, where growing entrepreneurs share how they get visible. Hi everyone and welcome. Today I'm talking with Kaci Brown about how she helps businesses serve and scale through impact and integrity. Kaci is a business consultant and marketing strategist that helps visionary entrepreneurs who want to make an impact as much as an income launch, grow, and scale online. She leverages her unique experience and background in relationship marketing to help others turn their passion into a scalable, profitable business that creates a ripple effect to pay it forward in big ways. She is one of a handful of individuals selected to coach within Russell Brunson's two comma club coaching program. I click funnels and number one Amazon bestselling author, cofounder of the amplify coaching program and host of the amplify my impact podcast. Welcome, Kaci.Kaci Brown:Thank you so much for having me, Virginia. I'm really excited not only to be here with you because I love and adore your mission to serve, but it's just exciting to be a part of the podcast launch and what you're doing just to continue to, to share your message and to serve your audience in this way.Virginia Purnell:Thank you. I'm excited to have you here. So can you give us a quick little brief backstory on you?Kaci Brown:Oh, okay. So brief. My first entrepreneurial adventure was actually as a wedding photographer and that was one of the things that really taught me that whatever, whatever lane that I chose was sort of like a ministry for me. So when, and working with brides and their parents and their families, like it was such a huge milestone moment and relationships had always been really, really important.But that was the foundation for me with my business growing 100% through word of mouth, just based on the experience of the clients and the brides and their families working with me. And so that transitioned into a little bit of small business consulting. After my husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor, it was one of those things where I had to stop and evaluate my current business model and and and plans for scaling because as a wedding photographer you only have 52 weeks out of the year so you can't get any more Saturdays. And that meant as our kids got older and involved in sports, so there is a lot of evaluation process that went into it. And then with Adam's diagnosis I knew there was going to be a ton of research, dr meeting surgeries and everything like that. And quite honestly I didn't, I didn't have the mental capacity to, to juggle it all.And it was one of those eye opening permanent perspective shifts in our lives where what is really, really important. We had already been about the type of life that we wanted to live as being an entrepreneur. We already both sort of worked from home and had that freedom. But with his diagnosis at 30 years old, it really thought it really taught us that we're not guaranteed tomorrow and all of this time that we think that we have to plan and save towards retirement, that that mindset needed just needed to shift to the here and now. What could we do to not only pour into our kids but in each other and the way that we wanted to live life right now. So with that mindset, he successfully navigated the surgery. There were some complications and he did 30 days of inpatient rehab. So it took me about five years before I really got back into business.And was, was to the point where I was, I felt the pull, like I needed to contribute more like that, just, just that God had made me for more with the gifts and talents that I had had. I felt like I was just sort of like sitting on them and not really paying it forward. And we had felt so many blessings with just people sending love and support and cards. And, and you know, gift cards like and just rallying around our family through that time of his diagnosis and recovery, that that just became like my mission. Like how can I, how can I pay this forward? How can I help other people navigate this set of circumstances? And so that's pretty much where my path begin with the online digital scaling and consulting. I got my first client helped them scale from barely making six figures to over a million dollars and the rest is pretty much history.I was very fortunate to join the right communities and get the right coaching and mentoring at the right time when when I knew I needed to level up at every different part and growth phase of my business, I joined the two comma club as a student and was mentored by Jorge Vasquez who was the coaching lead there. And they offered me a coaching position, which, which blew me away because it was one of those things I did not even expect or anticipate or it just, it wasn't in the game plan. Like I was growing a digital agency and somehow, not only Jorge, but the whole leadership team of two CCX and just just saw that like, and so my heart to serve like was just reinforced. Whereas like serve first build your relationships and figure out how you can always add value. And I, I just, I've never seen a negative impact or return on that yet.So that's what we've grown and built our businesses around. That's what we teach our, our clients and our, our coaching partners to do and their business. So I feel like it's one of those things where if we can just continue to share that message, responsibility and leadership that we are making an impact and we are just increasing our capacity of spreading that message throughout the world because we can only do so much as individuals. But if we rally together and, and let people know just the power of serving first, we collectively shift the industry. That is such a powerful story and I'm excited to have you back on so we can talk more about your business more. But just for the sake of this episode right now, can you tell us what the biggest thing you do to get visible online? Yeah, so for me the biggest thing is, again, it's a foundation of relationships.I love meeting new people. I love lifting other people up. And so I lead with the service always. It's a shift from like how can people see more of me versus how can I help others, you know, amplify their message and be more visible themselves. So it's honestly through serving that keeps us publishing and serving because I feel like we, we help bridge the gap of courage for those who are first starting out or they have an existing business that gets incredible results, but they may just not know how to, to get that message out there to Gail and reach more people with, with the solution that they have. So that's sort of like the niche that we found ourselves in and the more visible that we can be like that beacon of letting other people know, like, you don't have to be quiet.You can, you can stand up for what you believe in. While also serving is really what drives us forward. So I would say getting visible online, keep it about what you can do for others, 100% and that's the easiest formula that you can rinse and repeat and follow.Virginia Purnell:I love it. I love how your focus is outward and to other people rather than just like me, me, me, me, type of idea. Thank you so much for the great interview. How can people find out more about you and what you do?Kaci Brown:Yeah, so we have an online community called Amplify My Impact. So if you just search Facebook, you'll find us there. And we also have the amplify my impact podcast and we've made it super crazy easy for people to find us. Just the search online at www dot amplify my impact dot com so that was definitely a blessing where everything was able to come together with our mission and purpose and, and just making it easier for people to participate and, and, and rally together. Cause we all have the mindset of together we rise and it's, it's just one of those things where we can accomplish more. Working together with that abundance mindset versus there's not enough in the marketplace like that. The saturation and the fear or worried about competition or someone's going to be better than me or take my customer or client. That's one of the biggest myths that we try to dispel with our community.Virginia Purnell:I love it. I love all of the working together and everyone support each other. So thank you again, Kaci, for sharing with us. Have a great day. Thank you so much for joining us today. Be sure to subscribe and leave some love through a review and I'll catch you on the next episode.****Discover MoreDistinctDigitalMarketing.comAmplifyMyImpact.com

Virginia Purnell:Welcome to entrepreneur conundrum with Virginia Purnell, where growing entrepreneurs share how they get visible online. Hi everyone today talking with Angie Norris about how she helps businesses understand the opportunities that exist in streaming TV and how to get on their own shows. Angie Norris is a former director level corporate marketer, a speaker coach, best selling author and a business owner. Welcome Angie.Angie Norris:Hey guys, how are you guys doing today? Virginia Purnell:Thank you so much for joining us. So tell us a little bit about yourself. So my name is Andrew Norris. I am the founder of TVpreneur's entertainment network and I am known as The Stream Queen. I'm on a mission to help businesses get on TV and focus on getting their presence out there into the world so they can profit from their online space. And so it's been a really good run this year because I have a lot of people who are going on TV through my programs and I'm just so excited and thrilled to see them on the big screen.Virginia Purnell:That sounds pretty exciting. What's the biggest thing that you do to get visible online?Angie Norris:I'm focused on omnipresence at the moment and Omni mediums and channels, meaning that I want to be not only in the TV space, so I'm helping brands, not just myself, but other brands get on TV using Roku and Amazon fire TV and Apple TV, but I'm also getting ready to launch something where I'm helping them simulcasts not just do TV, but they can simulcasts at the same exact time to Facebook and YouTube and web portals in addition to Roku and Amazon fire. So it's pretty cool because I feel like right now, namely in this kind of pandemic that we're in that virtual revolution, that people are even more embracing that streaming live is the new future of how we're going to be communicating. And so I'm helping brands understand those opportunities, how to actually implement those into their marketing strategies and then also migrate those into one uniformed place so it automates across all of those platforms at the same time.Virginia Purnell:Great. Thank you. Angie. How can people find out more about you?Angie Norris:My website is TVpreneurs.com and you can find me there. You can message me on Facebook or look me up and I'm happy to chat or have a conversation about how I can help you guys leverage the power of TV.Virginia Purnell:Thank you, Angie, for sharing with us. Thank you so much for joining us today. Be sure to subscribe and leave some love through a review and I'll see you on the next episode.****Find out moreDistinctDigitalMarketing.comTVpreneurs.com

Virginia Purnell:Welcome to Entrepreneur Conundrum with Virginia Purnell, where growing entrepreneurs share how they get visible online. Hi everyone and welcome. Today I'm talking with Mark Stern about how he builds stronger relationships to stand out in the marketplace. Mark Stern is a serial entrepreneur and founder of rust streak, digital and custom box agency and live online. Prior to entrepreneurship, Mark was a top ranked strategy consultant from the world's largest consulting firm. Deloitte fastest way to his heart is through barbecue and tacos and he lives in Austin, Texas. Welcome, Mark.Mark Stern :Welcome. Well, thank you. I'm thrilled to be on here.Virginia Purnell:I'm thrilled to have you too. So Mark, you've done some big things in the online marketing space and you've graciously consented to sharing with us some of the cool tips and tricks that you've used to become an entrepreneur and get visible in your space. So tell us a little bit about yourself.Mark Stern:Yeah. I'm from Alabama originally, but I was the guy who in a nutshell was told that there's this pathway to happiness. You graduate college, you get the dream job, you go back to grad school, you get the dream job, picket fence, and you know everyone is happily ever after after that. And I found myself, like I used to joke and say I was the poster child for that pathway to happiness, but it was 2012 that I had graduated gamete MBA from Duke and found myself $165,000 in student loan debt. And that's what made me pause and say, let me reevaluate the path I'm on to make sure that this is that path that leads me to fulfillment and happiness. And that kind of jump started my journey into entrepreneurship.Virginia Purnell:Wow. That is crazy. So what is the number one thing or the biggest thing that you do to get visible online?Mark Stern:The biggest thing that I do is collaborating with other people. I think the number one trap that entrepreneurs fall into is they feel like when they get started that they have to do it all themselves. So they lock themselves into a room and film products or create these programs that they think other people want. But they're not collaborating. So to me, the easiest thing to do to get visibility in the marketplace, start engaging others. When you engage others, it's so much easier to build content and, and it just helps really amplify your message because it's, your sphere of influence isn't limited by your own network. It starts to seep into the network of those that you start to collaborate with as well.Virginia Purnell :Awesome. Have you found certain ways that help with engaging others?Mark Stern:Yeah, there's a couple different strategies you can do. What I like to do, there's a couple of things I like to do. Virtual summits or virtual events where you create a virtual experience that you'll activate come lots of sessions, workshops, interviews around a common topic. And for me, those are so much better when you collaborate with other people to do it. So when you promote it and get loud about it and they promote it to, again, your sphere influence increases. Other things like for me, I like to evaluate where are the gaps in what I'm creating and who is really good at fulfilling those gaps. So I'll go and interview them, whether it's within my page, my Facebook group. It's just such an easy way to get quality information and quality inputs because you're not limited by the data points in your head. You can tap into people that that is their zone of genius. So those are just some of the things that I like to do.Virginia Purnell:Awesome. Thank you so much, Mark. Where can people find you?Mark Stern:Yeah, if you want to find me, you can always look me up on Facebook. Just search for Mark Stern. I mean, if you're interested in learning more about custom boxes, you can head to custom box agency.com or if you want to learn how to do virtual events, Rover method.com.Virginia Purnell:Great. Thank you again, Mark for this great interview. Thank you so much for joining us today. Be sure to subscribe and leave some love through a review and I'll catch you on the next episode.****Links to learn more: DistinctDigitalMarketing.comCustomBoxAgency.comRoverMethod.com 

Hey! It's Virginia.Join me as I speak to growing entrepreneurs in the different ways that they are trying to become subject matter experts. The unique thing about this show is that we are not talking to people who have been and done it and are all over the internet as superstars. We are talking to the average growing entrepreneur who is trying to get visibile in their market.And in this episode you will learn a bit about who I am and why I am living this entrepreneur lifestyle. Join us on social media; handle across the platforms is @distinctdm