Contributing as a Powerful Professional

This episode of beyond you'd why is brought to you by our why App. Head over to yinstitute.com to take the why app so you can discover your why today. Knowing your why is the essential first step in having the clarity to move forward faster and have a bigger impact.

Welcome to beyond you'd why Podcast where we go beyond just talking about your why and actually helping you discover and and then live your why. So if you're a regular listener, you know that every week we talk about one of the nine whys and then we bring on somebody with that why and see how it's played out in their life. And so today we're going to be talking about the why of contribute people with this why feel compelled to be part of a greater cause. They don't want to be the cause necessarily. They simply want to participate and offer their contribution. They love to support and relish the success of the greater good that the company, the team, or whatever cause they may be involved with. You will often find them behind the scenes looking for ways to make the world a better place. You may also find them in more of a public forum trumpeting a movement or a message. Now people with this why are go to people, the ones you go to when you need help with just about anything. Now today I've got a great guest for you. Her name is Kim Walsh Phillips. Now she is the founder of Powerful Professional, a business coaching and education company. She was recently named number 475 on the INC 5000 and is a multi seven figure business entrepreneur with no business degree and a tendency to say crazy pants more than is socially acceptable. She is one of the top business authors by Forbes and the best selling author of the Ultimate Guide to Instagram for Business and the no BS Guide to Direct Response Social Media Marketing. Now she also added this fun fact that she uses a thesaurus when she writes or she would use the word awesome, cool or very 7,452,675 times more than she already does. Kim, welcome to the show.

Thanks so much for having me. It's a complete honor.

Well, let's start with that last little thing I said, that little fun fact. Let's now tell us about that.

The idea behind that is that people look at someone's success and assume that they must be so good at something and that's why they're doing it so right. In my bio, I want anyone who hears about my accomplishments to know that I'm not just doing all this by magic. I'm using Tools that exist that they can use too.

Awesome. Well, let's go back. Tell us how did you get into the social media world? How did you get into online marketing? Give us a little bit of your background.

I am an old school marketer. Starting before there was MySpace, I was back in the PR and event planning world. And we would make videos where we would get up on YouTube and then MySpace and we would use them to promote an event. So I worked with celebrities like the chefs from Bravo and from Top Chef and Nat King Cole's foundation and different folks to promote a restaurant opening or a gala. And it was very fluffy, really. It was all about awareness. And that's fun, but you can't show an overall roi. And I struggled for a while because our work was great and people would love it. But if they were trying to cut a budget, which I went through, I started in 2001-2008. Everyone's looking to cut their budget. That would be the thing that was cut. And so when I started looking at how can I change this? I knew I needed to find a way to show actual results for people. And we can get into that later. But I just found this other world of marketing that became trackable with results. I combined that with the PR stuff that I knew and that's how I ended up becoming an expert in direct response social media marketing. Just bringing those two worlds together.

So how about even before that? So you had, when you were in college or you decided or when you were, even before college, you had to figure out, what do you want to do with yourself? How did you get. Was it just by accident you got into marketing or how did that happen?

I have always loved writing. I'm thankful that I've gotten to do it throughout my years. I was editor of the literary magazine in high school and I had my own column there. I minored in English and majored in theater and communications. I thought I was going to be a teacher and I did my first student observation hour and I was bored out of my mind. And it was actually my advisor who said, maybe you want to look at pr. There really wasn't the degrees that they have now for direct response or digital marketing or social media. Back then they had pr and so that's how I got into that niche. I started working in a corporate communications department of a drugstore chain. We were being asked to lie to the media and I didn't want to do that. I left and soon thereafter our CEO was indicted. So you can guess who I worked for. And then I knew throughout my career that I would only ever work for someone I was willing to do, donate to, vote for, or be a customer of, because I never wanted to be in that situation again.

So what does PR mean to you? What did it mean? What did it signify to you? What drew you to pr?

Creating awareness for something that is worthwhile for others to know about.

So when you create awareness, what do you feel like you're doing for those people? What is the. The ultimate goal is to help them build their business, but show something that's gonna be good for other people.

Right. So that's still my purpose to this day, and I'm thankful that it's been that way all along. I believe that my purpose in my life is to help others change more lives so I can allow them to do that by using my gift, which is marketing, to help people know more about what they can do for others.

See, that's right in the description of the why of contribute.

Right? Yeah. So cool.

Help others do better. What was that like for you when you took the why discovery and you saw that it came up with contribute?

It wasn't surprising. I also thought it was very flattering. So I was a bit narcissistic in believing everything that I was reading, but it was. It was great. I mean, it definitely. I'm a business coach to coaches, so what I do for a living and what we built our company on, obviously is in line with what that description is, which is fantastic.

One of the things that we talk about with the why of contribute is that oftentimes people with that why feel like they should be in the background helping others do better. But what's fascinating is when you put them in a leadership role, they do extremely well because they're all about helping other people do better. And so the most successful person I've ever worked with was a CEO of a $565 billion investment firm. And I asked him one day, why do you feel like you've been so successful? And he said, well, I personally interviewed everyone that works for me, and I have 6,000 employees, and I know something about each one, and when I can help each one do a little bit better, then we all do a little bit better. And that feels like what you're saying with what you've been doing.

I've had this incredible opportunity to work with individuals who literally change lives every day and help them reach more people. And so when I see them be more successful, I get to see the stories of the lives that they change. And so I Feel if I just went directly to people and coach them on one thing, I couldn't have nearly the impact I can have by helping coaches who coach others.

Yeah. So you get. It's like the ripple effect, Right?

Right.

And so now you started doing that with PR originally because you saw that as a way to have a bigger impact for companies that you like. Then you had a company you didn't like or didn't think was doing the right thing.

Right. I was hired to do marketing and promotion for a great program they had that was helping women who were uninsured get mammograms. So I was brought in for a social cause within a for profit company. But when the media would get ahold of me, they would start asking me questions about other things. And then that's when I started being asked to lie. So it did not align with my value set and purpose, which is why I headed on out. It also should have been a sign at the time because the CEO took all of the employees parking so he could park his helicopter there. And that usually is a sign that things aren't good in the background.

All about me, Right?

Right. Yeah.

A few blocks. Let me stick my helicopter right here.

Exactly.

So after that, then you got more involved with online. How did you get into the online world?

As a necessity with our clients, it was something that we saw as a cutting edge opportunity. When Facebook first started allowing you to have marketing, we added it to our services and ended up being so successful that that became our purpose and focus. We really stopped doing pr, stopped doing awareness campaigns, and only took on work that could show a direct result. Now I will sell you. My contribute factor is detrimental in some ways in that I would want to help all the people who would come to us, many of which could not afford us and should never have been doing paid marketing because they needed that result to come in right away or they wouldn't be able to pay their rent. And marketing doesn't work that way. You need a Runway to be able to test something. And so we were set up in some situations to not be profitable because we wanted to serve so many people. So in that way, it was not good. Once we understood more clearly that I do better as a coach, letting people execute themselves that are going to be the action takers. That's when I realized I really had to sell my agency. I do not make a great agency owner because I can't separate need from profit. And when I eventually did sell and we focused solely on coaching, not only did I have such a Higher joy factor. But my revenue tripled the first year that we had our coaching company versus the 20 years that I ran my agency.

So, you know, one of the things, the other descriptors in the. In the why I've contributed is the challenge in saying no.

Right, Right.

Because you want to help everybody. Yes. Yes. What do you need? Okay, I'll help. I'm in. I'm in. I'm in. And then you get so in that you can't do your own stuff.

Right. Or you say. You say in yes to too many people and you can't help those that are truly the ones who could be serviced best by what you do. I look at that too. Right. I'm not really just saying yes to them. I'm saying no to all the other people waiting over there that could be better served by me.

That's such a great way to look at it because everyone with your why has that same challenge.

Right.

And they struggle with. What do you mean say no? That's not in my vocabulary. It's. Yeah, let me add another thing and another thing, but I love the way you said that, which was by saying yes, I said no to all these other better opportunities.

I was talking about that with my husband last night. Actually. We're talking about this town I lived in for a long time that was a small town. He has some very negative memories of it because he loves me and he saw that I had some painful moments there. And what I shared with him was, actually, I have nothing negative of that time period because I learned a lot since then, of what I was trying to do at that time was to spend time with people who weren't my match, who weren't who I was supposed to spend time with. And if I had actually stopped worrying about those that I wasn't created for and focused on the ones that I was, I would have had a totally different experience. So I don't look at life as having happened to me. I look at life as happening for me. And what can I learn in that moment? And I've learned over time, with maturity and age and self discovery, that I have an opportunity to say yes every minute of the day. And I'm going to utilize it. Of how it could be the most effective way possible.

I love that. That's the positive version of kind of what you said before. Right, right. I love that. I'm stealing that.

Go for it.

So now you've been able to find a way to take the talents that you learned, the skills that you learned, and multiply it so that others can multiply it.

Right.

That's how you have a bigger impact.

That is how you can have a bigger impact. Right. It's not the give the man the fish, teach a man to fish, but then it's teach a man to fish who can teach others to fish too. That's how we can multiply our impact even greater.

So what do you think has been the secret to your success in the online world and being able to coach other marketers to do that? Do you coach other marketers or do you coach other businesses?

I coach other businesses. So the people that I work with are people who are incredible individuals who worked hard for a long time, but they've relied upon upon word of mouth marketing in order to grow their business. And they're looking for potential predictable growth and finally to feel some financial security and also to be able to reach more people. And so that's my ideal person. They don't know how to use any of the things they feel like they're behind and that it might be too late for them. And that's my secret gift, is that I can break all these things down for those individuals to a very basic level without using marketing jargon or complicated language. And so I keep myself in that space by paying attention to the questions that people are asking all the time that are beginners, not beginners in business. That's not my group of beginners in marketing. And so I believe the secret to my success and what I do is I've been able to stay authentic and relatable to the individuals that I'm reaching to. Even though we generate millions from online sales, I'm still focused on who my avatar is, which is someone who doesn't know how to do that yet.

So are you talking about like an expert that hasn't hit their stride. They don't even know what to do to get a bigger exposure, get more people to know about them. Is your avatar an expert?

They're an expert. They could be an attorney, an accountant, a coach, could be any of those things. But they maybe have a LinkedIn profile, they maybe have a Facebook profile where they have a couple of friends on it just because their wife set it up for them. But they don't have a business presence. They've never done online marketing. They always thought they should do something, but they don't know what it is. And they're almost paralyzed by fear for doing the wrong thing. That's my ideal person. So we have to work through. I attract them in with a message that's all about lead generation. But what I usually end up doing with them is working on their head trash, because they typically have some blocks that are preventing them from coming online in a visible way that we have to clear before they could start marketing their business.

That was my story, actually, as well.

Was it?

I'm a dentist as well. And so, you know, I spent 25 years developing my craft to the highest levels you can go in dentistry, and yet wasn't getting noticed. And so that's when you're probably familiar with John Assaraf. Do you know John Assaraf?

Very much so.

So I hired him as my coach, and I learned how to use the Internet and learned how to get my message out to the world. But the problem was, what am I going to say? Use the Internet and put it all over the place. But what am I going to say that a. Doesn't make me sound like I'm desperate.

Right.

Doesn't make me sound bad or see like I actually need help or need new patients. So I just stayed quiet. And you don't want to sound bad. So somebody like you at that time would have been perfect.

You know, it's. The thing is that most people who don't put their message online are usually focused on what their peers will think, and that's not who they were created to serve. Right. And so we focus a lot on that. Having them get really clear with that person that woke up today that needs to hear their message, having them focus so strongly on that that it doesn't matter what they sound like or look like, as long as they can reach that purpose, that person, they're fulfilling their purpose.

Back then, in that day, you know, this was 10 years ago, I. There was one of my patients was this attorney who was, you know, in every market, you have that one attorney that's on the TV all the time and these crazy commercials, ripping checks and crashing cars and all. Well, he was a patient of mine, and so he pushed me to move outside my comfort zone, like you would have.

Right. And people would look at that and think, oh, that's all about him. But it's truly not, because he knows that he was going to get criticized for what he was doing. He didn't care. He was focusing on who he had to serve and how they had to know about what he could offer. And so when we can focus on that, like, I'll be real. I have. Because I'm a female and I put myself out online, I have inappropriate comments that come at me all the time. Well, I could. I've had friends say, how could you do that? How could you put yourself out there when that happens? And my response is always, they're not who I was created for. I really don't care what they have to say. And it's just a completely different message because I focus on the lives that we're able to change by hearing that. And so I really don't care what anyone says to me online. If I'm not for them, they're not for me, and we're good. I'm going to reach the person I was created to serve today.

I love that we have a lot of listeners that are CEOs, a lot of listeners that are experts, a lot of dentists, lawyers, chiropractors. What would you say to them? What do you do with them? They're thinking, man, she's talking to me right now. What should I do? What's my next step? You start working with them. What do you do?

The first thing that anyone can do that's listening right now is simply start answering questions that your target market has. A really simple way to do that is go to a free site called answerthepublic.com that's answerthepublic.com and it's simply a compilation of questions people are asking on Google right now. You can put your topic area in and you can see the questions people have. And then you can go to whatever platform you are already on, whether it's your personal profile on LinkedIn, your Facebook, and simply start answering some questions. It's okay to use your personal profiles to start because you're just offering valuable content you're not pitching. But you could simply start from a place of value, starting to answer some questions. That's going to take away all that concern. Am I being pitchy? Am I seeming desperate? No, you're just being super helpful. And it's a really great way to start to become comfortable in being a content provider and expert online.

Awesome. Okay, now they've gone. They kind of see what works, what doesn't work, what people are responding to, and then what do they do?

I'd love for folks to create a Dream 100 list where they are focused on their top 100 prospects they would love to work with or partner with or get as a referral source, and they'll connect with Those individuals on LinkedIn, download their email addresses from LinkedIn because you can, and then upload them to Facebook as a custom audience. So now their marketing isn't just reaching everybody, it's reaching their dream 100 prospects that they want to work with and they could begin to share some of that content rich Q and A with the people that they want to serve more than anything else.

Oh, that's awesome. So just hand picks the people they want to talk to and then go talk to them.

Exactly. It's a beautiful way to start with your marketing being laser focused versus what most people do, which is they just throw this big pot of spaghetti at the wall hoping something sticks. Why not take your exact messaging and get it in front of your exact prospect? You can't do that in any other channel except for social. So it's my favorite way to market.

Why would you want to do something as obvious as that? Why not just spend a whole lot of money and throw it all out there and see who wants to talk to you?

Right. Let's do some pitchy posts and boost them. It's a terrible way to do marketing. And that's the funny thing is that people are like, this doesn't work for me. Right. Online marketing or social marketing, it's not the channel, it's the message and the strategy. Just like all channels are that way and most people are taking the easy way because it's really easy to get an ad up on social media. You can create something and press a little button that says boost. But that means there doesn't need to be a lot of strategy behind it. And so a lot of people unfortunately have wasted money because of that boost button. There's really effective ways to market using the channels.

So tell. If you can tell us a story about somebody that had that problem and you took them through and you were able to help them have a bigger impact which helped you feel know that you helped them have a bigger impact.

Well, one of them is a fun one because it's celebrity story. So I had an opportunity to actually it's a good hack. I can go both sides of this. So a group of entrepreneurs and I decided we wanted to get in front of Kevin o' Leary to get investment advice from him. And so, you know, most celebrities have a day rate to speak in an event just so you know, you can use that day rate to have them come in and coach you because you're just asking them questions. So a group of entrepreneur friends and I speak, split his day rate to bring him in for the day and be able to ask him investment questions. So we did. But I was going to leverage the opportunity and tell him about what I did, what I do and that I'm a direct response Social media marketer and he was blown away because he never saw direct response and social and the same person. And he hired me and I got to start working with him, Mr. Wonderful and all of his investment companies, which was amazing. And actually worked with him on growing his social media following in an ROI based way. The really cool thing about this is not only was I able to help him grow and reach more people, but then all of the amazing entrepreneurs that he invested in, each one of them were able to be coached because of his changes in the way he did marketing. And then all of their employees were able to do it differently too. So. So I was able to see that trickle effect right in front of me. One of the companies being this amazing brand called Snarky Tea. She used to be paralyzed by the idea of putting her face out there because she thought the brand was just supposed to be the thing in the front of it. But instead she started reaching out to her target market directly being very authentic and talking about the struggles of being a working mom. She created such an alliance with her customers that when she offered a subscription box service for the first time, she sold out in 24 hours without having to spend money on ads. And so you're able to see how this work impacts not just a message, but a business and a life, which is incredible.

That is awesome. I wondered why all of a sudden I started to see his picture all over the place and getting emails from him and he's doing a lot of different things and that's because of you now, huh?

It was taking his messaging from being about products to being more about him and personality based branding so he could connect with his audience. They resounded around him with that and it was incredibly effective strategy. So it was great.

So how do you go from expert branding to taking. So when it's all about the person, when the person's gone or wants to sell the company, it may not have as much value. Right. If you don't have that person. So how do you take it from expert branding to I guess back to product branding or back to something like that? Do you know what I'm asking you?

Right. There's never going to be a product brand. There might be a product community. That's how you want to look at it. So it's the alliance that the individual is going to get from the product. So it used to be with Apple, would be Steve Jobs, but instead they flipped it and made it about the consumer that you have a specific identity by your purchase of this product. And so what you need to do in the relationship model is that first you're being attracted to the individual who should not be the hero. I'm not the hero, I'm the guide. You're attracted to me as the guide, but then you become the hero. So my community is who I feature in all of my marketing, the individuals and their hero stories because it makes my customers actually the focus of my brand and not me.

That's exactly kind of what I'm going through to a certain extent is I developed all the processes, I created all the intellectual property and it's been about, and it initially was about me quite a bit. And now I want to start moving back towards not being so totally about me. But now I love what you said. So I need to really focus on the client as the hero and me.

As the guide 100%. And so you look at them as a way to create even naming levels, color sequences, all things that they go through in a process. So it makes the journey and the customer the focus instead of the individual that started it.

Do you have an example of a situation where you've done that that you can think of?

We do that in our membership program. So we are giving awards away on a continual basis. And actually, I'll be honest, any of you know, clickfunnels completely took this from their awards program that they have that 2 comma club award that they give away from people hitting a million dollars in revenue through their funnel. And we do that at different levels of achievement within our programs. Everything is recognized for outcomes. They become the levels of achievement that are what we celebrate. So we're able to focus on the outcomes of the journey and those are the things that are recognized.

So I guess I'm not sure if that's what I was asking or not, but so if you took like Mr. Wonderful and now it's all about him. But let's say he wants to create something where it's not about him. It takes his strategies and his processes and helps them continue on past him.

He's created actual things so he would be a unique entity because he is a brand asset that would necessarily be saleable. He's trying to get as much as he can right now for his television contracts and speaking gigs. So his brand needs to be elevated personally. But he's created products like he's been stock and investment app. That's not his face. He just does some of the commercials on it. But they do make the individual investors, the celebrities as far as celebrating the choices that they made in fractional investments. For our actual programs. Every product and course that we have is not named after me on purpose. It has a specific name and it's a system, a proprietary system that we have named and that's what we focus on. So you would not need to have me in the picture at all to be able to sell the things that we teach.

So you have both. You have you as the product and the face, and then you have products as the standalone.

Correct.

Or I guess companies as the standalone that you market.

Not companies, but the products we sell within our business are not connected to my name. I'm just the one that's the spokesperson for them at this time.

I got it. So at some point you step away and somebody else comes in and is able to continue that. Right.

Which I think is different than something like I did a lot of lead generation for a company called Sandler Sales Training, and it was all based on the philosophies of David Sandler and they have continued to utilize him and his messaging. So they're still playing recordings of the guy who's died a long time ago in their training programs. Well, that was built completely on that individual where we have created our training programs that you don't need to have anything connected with me in order to understand them and follow them.

Awesome. So what have I not asked you? Let's talk about some of the things that you've just got so much passion for and so much energy for. Give us your. What are you working on?

Currently growing our. Definitely growing our coaching. It's my favorite thing to do. I have a new book coming out in May, the no BS Guide. Direct Response Social Media Marketing, Second edition. The guru that I wrote it with got a note. He sent a note out to all of us that he was passing away in three days while my book was being due to the publisher. He made a miraculous recovery during the entire year where the book was being edited and published. So this has been the craziest journey ever. That comes out in May. Yeah, he's alive. Dan Kennedy is alive. Yeah. Which is great. But we did not think that that was happening. In fact, he messaged the whole world and said that wasn't. So this has been a really interesting. So the first chapter of the book has changed many times. Talking about that story. That's exciting. And then just having an opportunity right now with all that's going on in the world. It's been awesome that I've been able to use my skills in a way that have helped businesses who've never had to market and do business online before do it. So I feel like I was created to be here right now, which has been awesome.

Oh, that's great. Now how valuable is it for someone to have a book? Is a book critical?

A book is not critical. However, a book is the only way you can get paid every single day to generate a lead. It is my favorite lead generation strategy for profitable lead generation. Now, is it the easiest one? Oh, heck to the no. It's like birthing a baby every time. But it is so effective because people are engaging with you as a thought leader for pages and days and they paid you to do that. So it's amazing. I love the Kindle platform. I have a publisher. Entrepreneur Press is my publisher. I have paid book contracts, but then I also self publish with the Amazon platform on Kindle and print books. Those make me more money. But I love the distribution channel of my publisher, so I use that also. But I crank out books because it is a profitable way to continue to create leads. Our readers are my most profitable leads. We have come in individuals who are experts track. You will find the same thing. Because someone had to go on a site, purchase a product or go to a bookstore, buy a book, they had to pay for it, they had to pick it up, they had to read it. They then had to go to a site and enter their information. These are action takers. They're my favorite customers we work with.

I have had a book, 90% done for about six months now. So off of this call or I'm going to connect with gentleman that's helping me with this. And I'm going to finish it during this break that we've got.

Okay, good. Why haven't you finished it in six months?

I got sidetracked on other things and I just got frustrated with it and it wasn't exactly how I wanted it. I helped. I hired an organization, organization to help me with that. Somebody that you probably know. And it just wasn't. I was just frustrated, you know, I didn't come out exactly how I anticipated. And I know I just got to focus on good enough. But it's hard for me sometimes not to. You know, my why is to find a better way. And I always want it better and better and better and I'm not ever happy with it. So I just need to say this is good enough and go with it.

Is it the editing? Is that the last phase that you're in?

Yes, it is.

Okay, so I have a challenge for you. Before you do, what is the first thing you do for Work each day.

Every morning when I get up, I read and then I journal.

Okay, Read and journal. Those are great. When is the first time you get on a computer?

Probably about 7:15.

Okay. And what is the first thing you do when you get on the computer?

Well, depends. A lot of times it will be email, which I just got an executive assistant, so I won't be doing that as much. But it depends if I'm coming into my dental practice here and then I. Then I have a meeting. But let's hear what you tell me what you're thinking.

It is just the 200 word exercise that you do. Write 200 words of editing or 200 words of writing before you get on your email. That's it. It will take you no time, but it will get that book project done within a week or two. And it's just that requiring yourself. And the reason why you're doing it then is because you're anchoring it to something you're already doing and you're already at the computer. So you're not changing modalities. You just do 200 words of editing or you can come up with 20 pages however you want to do it. Small little chunk of time that you're going to get done before you open up that email and you'll get that project completed.

I love that, you know, I know I've needed to do it and I, you know, forever. I knew I had promised that I was going to journal, right? I'm going to journal. I start that. I bought my journal. I got this fancy journal. I got all this stuff and then I didn't even look at it for months and months until finally this friend of mine, Navy SEAL guy says, Chris Smith, he says, all right, every morning you're sending me a text that says done when you're done. And I'm sending you done. So I need that same thing for the finishing my book because it's been ready. It's just me getting around to doing it.

So I'm sending you an email Monday to make sure that happened.

Okay, thank you. I'm going to need that. So for people that want to connect with you, that are listening and they're saying, you know what? I love what Kim's saying. I would love to work with her or at least find, explore that. How should they get in touch with you?

We have a great site@Powerful Professionals.com that's PowerfulProfessionals.com and it is full of resources and blog posts and great ways to connect with us. And if individuals Want a quick way to get started in the online marketing space, because those are my dream people who just want a quick way to jump off. I have a great gift for them@kwpgift.com that's kwpgift.com and they get a quick download, which is three pages, an opt in page, a thank you page, and a sales page, which is the easiest way to start marketing online.

So you do. Before we end, I want to ask you this because I get a lot of emails from you and I. And I saw the one. It was yesterday. Well, pretty much every day I get something from you.

It feels like I do daily emails. Yeah.

So tell us the advantage in that. Is it staying top of mind? What is the thinking behind all the emails? Because you write great emails too.

Thank you. They're friendship emails. I call it the friend format. So I'm just connecting something that's been going on during the day and then giving a call to action. So it's just like you would check in with a friend daily. I started doing it about two years ago every day. And if we ever skip a day, which I don't, but if someone thinks we did because our message went to spam or something, I get comments from people asking where that email is. So for people, they have come to expect it and not that they all read it every day. So of course they don't. But that becomes a familiar sense of almost security that they're going to get my message. This is a crazy stat, but we have about 35% open rate on a daily email. We have that level of engagement because it's strong storytelling and based in relationships. So now no one's gonna go from zero to daily. And I don't tell you to do that. But if you're not communicating at all with your list, start at least once a week. And that's how you begin to have a relationship. And all you need to do to go from zero to once a week is just tell them we're starting a weekly email. That's it. And then you just start emailing them.

How do you come up with something to talk about every day and how do you have time to write it? Is that your morning thing or do you have help with that or how does that work?

I do write all my emails. It's part of a morning routine I call my power hour. It's when I write all my content. But I also. That's all I do for my living. I love to speak, coach and write. And so that's all I do in my company, I have staff for everything else. So it's my love language is to spend time typing words out and you train your brain that I will think about it before I go to sleep at night, what I'm going to talk about. It comes to me while I'm sleeping. When I wake up in the morning, I know about what I'm going to do. So I use that psycho cybernetics technique of training my brain and you start to look for things in your day. And I thought, gosh, this is going to be really. Because when you and I are recording this, I've been in quarantine for four weeks. And so I thought this is going to be really hard because I'm going to just be talking about crazy kids stories every day for four weeks. But we still have crazy things that are happening here. So it hasn't had to. It still is. I'm still getting ideas every day. So once you start training your brain on how to operate and come up with fun facts that you can connect back to a business lesson, it becomes much easier.

How important is persistence when it comes to online marketing?

Consistency is everything. Only start doing it if you're going to keep doing it and for at least six months. You might have no traction for six months, but if you are willing to keep doing it now, do it in a way that works. So for a while there, my husband travels and I have little kids. And so for a while there, I was doing a Wednesday night at 9pm Facebook Live show because I know I could have the kids to bed at then. Was that the best time for my audience? No. But I could be consistent doing it at 9pm on Wednesday nights. And so pick whatever you can do consistently and then do that consistently and be willing to stick with it for several months until you see that ROI come in.

Yeah, I know when I started this podcast, you know, I didn't even know what I was doing. I just said, I'm going to try it and I'm just going to keep doing it. And it's scary the first time, right? You get a microphone next to you and a camera on you and it's. At least for me, it was a little nerve wracking. And what am I going to say? How am I going to sound? All that kind of stuff. But just like you say, if you just keep doing it every week, it really compounds. It's so surprising.

How long did you have to go until you started getting a significant listenership?

I would say, well, I had a little bit of Help. Because the first few. So let's say the first. I'm in a mastermind group with a lot of pretty big marketers. And in that group, they had very large lists and very large followings. You know, they'll put a video out and get 3 million views. And so it was very helpful to have them on the right away. I don't know if I had started just, you know, in my garage or something, if I would have had access to them, but because I did, that grew it pretty quick. So I would say within six months, it had gotten pretty big.

That's fantastic. But then think about it like you were willing to do that even though you were uncomfortable with the idea of putting yourself out publicly. So if you had and you waited longer, it would have been harder. It's harder now to get publicity, but every day will get harder. So anyone who hasn't started today is the best day to start because every day it gets more difficult. And so just launching and leveraging your context makes a huge difference. Yeah.

And what I was asking you about was persistence as well as consistency and hanging in there as part of the. It has to be part of your success. Right.

Being willing to go that extra mile because it's a lot less crowded there has served me well over and over and over again. You know, it doesn't mean that you keep doing the thing that isn't working and more of it, because I certainly did that for a long time and that doesn't work either. But when you can find someone who you're willing to trade places with and you get their blueprint for how they did it, you keep doing it until it start working for you. Yes. I've been persistent and consistent in all the strategies we've used in our company.

That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking your. Now it's going to be afternoon for you to be with my audience, be with me, and I'd love to stay in contact as we're on our journeys and see how we can help each other.

Thank you so much. It's been so fun and I love your show and what you're doing for people.

Thank you very much, Kim. Take care.

Sam.