When I was younger, I was a voracious reader. As adult life took over, that pastime sadly suffered. After I graduated college and got done reading all the required textbooks, I realized I missed it. I missed learning. And so, my love for audiobooks emerged. I listened to almost 30 books in 2020 and I'm sharing with you my very favorites. Some were fiction (historical fiction is my jam), but most are geared towards self-development and business. 

1. Untamed by Glennon Doyle

2. Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller

3. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

4. Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty

5. Super Attractor by Gabby Bernstein

6. Atomic Habits by James Clear

7. Stories That Stick by Kendra Hall (I later took her course that was great as well)

8. Superfans by Pat Flynn

9. Profit First by Mike Michalowicz (this completely altered my perspective and approach to money)

10. Braving The Wilderness, Daring Greatly, and Rising Strong by Brene Brown (sorry, I cheated but I loved them all)

I ...

Being an entrepreneur is hard guys. Like, real hard. Actually, just having big dreams in general is hard. It's lonely, and trying, and at some point, will test everything you have in you and then require more. 

Right now, I'm sitting alone at the kitchen table developing marketing strategies for two new clients while my friends are outside grilling and having a bonfire. Do I want to be out there right now with them? Yes. Am I experiencing a little FOMO? Yes. But I know that if I want to live like no one else in the future, I need to do what no one else is willing to do today. That means sacrifice and dedication. But many times, along with sacrifice and dedication come loneliness and struggle. 

It was my life's goal to become National Champion at an Arabian National horse show. As a child, I rode my horse every single day. So much so that the barn owner would suggest maybe I give my horse a day off here and there (haha). I skipped football games on Friday nights and lake days with my ...

Email campaigns are a great avenue to utilize in marketing your business, but it's only effective if the campaigns are executed upon several important pillars. They are: 

• a sense of community  
• it reads in a personal voice authentic to you 
• offers value that your audience is looking for
• consistency 

If you're not going to commit and build your email marketing strategy upon these pillars, you might as well save everyone time and just put your own email in the "to" box. 

Fostering a sense of community can be done by getting vulnerable with your audience, using your email platform's specific tags to insert people's first names into the copy, or asking questions and inviting readers to reply.

Using your unique voice throughout the email is very important. This might come at the expense of some professionalism but it's well worth it. Your voice will set you apart from your competitors and make you more memorable to those reading your emails. Phrases that you often say when speaki...

Whether you're aware of it or not, you are leading your customers through an experience every time they purchase from you. It can be positive or negative, purposeful or not, but it's there. What I want to show you though, is how to create a purposeful and strategic customer experience that will increase your brand loyalty and get you remembered by everyone that buys from you.

Chances are, other business out there offer something similar to what you do. So how do you set yourself apart from them? How do you get noticed in the crowd? Two words: customer experience. 

I have a digital marketing course for small business owners that I launch a couple times a year. When someone purchases my course, I send them a surprise gift package that goes along with the course material. How many other course creators do that? This is one aspect of my course experience that my students rave about. Do you think they're going to forget me and their unique experience any time soon? Nope! I want to make th...

Content creation can quickly become this dreaded thing, this thing that makes you feel like you're stuck on a content hamster wheel and can't get off for fear your business will crumble. But I'm here to tell you it doesn't have to be that way, and shouldn't be that way. The answer? Repurposing content. However, you have to do it in a way that makes sense and not one that comes off as repetitive and boring.

Here's what a typical content "cycle" might look like for me: 

1. Live video on specific topic on Facebook page. 

2. Save live video and upload it as an IGTV video on Instagram account.

3. Upload live video to Pinterest linked back to my website.

4. Create blog post on same topic. 

5. Share blog on Facebook page and Pinterest.

6. Create 5 different blog post graphics, each with a different but relevant title relating to said blog. 

7. Add one blog graphic to Instagram story and save to "Blog" highlight.

8. Use graphics strategically on Pinterest and Instagram to recycle blog...

Have you heard of curiosity marketing? Better yet, are you implementing it in your business? As someone who hates being salesy and using pressure-inducing tactics to make money in my business, curiosity marketing is one of my go-to strategies. 

Think of curiosity marketing as a mutual engagement of information. Content is purposefully created in a way that will leave your audience wanting more. Instead of you as the seller trying to get people to listen to what you have to say (or sell as it may be), they're reaching out to you with questions or wanting more information. Pretty nifty, huh?

You can do this in all kinds of creative ways, but here's an example: maybe you run your own beauty business. You might make a post featuring a customer wearing the eyeshadow you sell and a caption like "Kim says this is, hands down, the best eyeshadow she's ever worn." So instead of naming the eyeshadow brand, the color, the price, and all its features, you're instilling a sense of curiosity in yo...

If you're not converting at the rate you'd like to be, take a closer look at your brand. I can say right now, with confidence, that your brand isn't strong enough. It might be enough to gain a decent following, maybe, but it's not quite strong enough to convert followers to paying clients. 

So how do we fix that? Let's first see where we're at now and then we'll identify where we need to get to. If you asked one of your followers what you're known for, what would they say? Would they be able to come up with anything at all? Or whatever they do come up with, is it in alignment with how you want to be known? If it is, you're off to a great start. If it's not, we can fix it but you've got some work to do. 

From now on, before you post any piece of content, ask yourself if you want to be known for that particular thing? If not, if it does't align with your brand, don't post it. Ask my audience, and I'm known for digital marketing, minimalism, my love of hats, tiny houses, and animals. Th...

You've probably heard that you should be doing live videos. They're great for engagement, give your audience a chance to get to know you, and increase your visibility. I agree with all of that. But what if you want to take it one step further?

This is where we get into the nitty gritty of video creation. Thought reversal videos will take your lives to a whole new level. I'm talking:

• even greater engagement
• brand growth
• higher conversion rates from viewers to customers

Brandon Lucero is the pioneer of thought reversals, so I highly suggest you check him out, but let me give you the basics. Thought reversals challenge a widely held thought or belief. This will create polarity in your audience which is actually a good thing. It's a "if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything" kinda thing. To get your gears turning, a few thought reversal videos I've done are "Millennials Make The Best Entrepreneurs," "Working Hard Won't Make You Successful," and "Algorithms Actual...

Do you feel like you're marketing to crickets? You're putting out content consistently but it just doesn't seem like it's resonating with your audience? I know how discouraging it is. Try my simple approach that will prevent this from ever happening again. 

First, you'll need to decide which search engine will better serve you in this exercise. The options are Pinterest or Google. The way you'll choose which search engine to use is by identifying where your ICA (ideal customer avatar) is hanging out. Are they present on Pinterest or would they visit Google to answer their questions? Whatever your answer is, use that.

Second, type in key words related to your industry/business. These search engines will auto-populate what people are searching for most in relation to those key words. For instance, when I type in marketing, the results I get are: 

1. marketing ideas

2. marketing strategy

3. marketing strategy social media

4. marketing quotes

5. marketing plan 

6. marketing tips

S...

Email marketing feels tedious and loathsome for many business owners. I'm not one of them, personally I love email marketing and list building, but I do get it. So in an effort to make it a little less loathsome, I'm providing you with several email prompts that have gotten me my highest open rates. I have an average open rate of 60% with my list whereas the average business' open rate is a mere 20%. So in the interest of higher open rates, let's do this!

1. Introductory email sharing your story. You can do this every so often for your newer subscribers that have joined since your last introduction or welcome email. 

2. Email that relates to something trendy to your niche. For instance, I recently wrote an email on how to digitally declutter. This email received my highest percentage open rate EVER! With Marie Kondo and the minimalist lifestyle becoming extremely popular, people really enjoyed this topic.

3. Address frequently asked questions that you're approached with by customers...