Maybe your product sucks. But if you're confident it doesn't and you're not making the money you want, then you need better marketing.

If profits aren't where they should be, you're either not reaching enough people, not reaching the right people, or not resonating with those people. That is where effective marketing comes in.  

So how do you reconcile this? It's simple. It's not necessarily easy, but it is simple.  You need one or more likely, a combination, of the following: 

+ a stronger brand

+ more relevant content 

+ a defined and strategic marketing plan in relation to specific platforms (email and social media)

+ a more memorable customer experience

These encompass what I call "The Profitable 5 of Digital Minimalism." That is, the five pillars of marketing that will actually move the needle forward in your business. The other so-called strategies and trendy "must-dos" are time-wasters that can be decluttered and purged.

If you're intrigued and could use some more mon...

Mental health. Let's talk about it. I don't actually want to, but I feel like it needs to be done because I know others are feeling what I'm feeling, and I don't want you to feel like you're alone in this.

I don't have mental health issues because I'm an entrepreneur or because I have big aspirations, but they do exacerbate them. I've struggled with anxiety all my life. There was no name for it when I was little, I'd just have seemingly random tantrums for reasons my parents couldn't figure out and I couldn't find words for. I'd get overwhelmed and upset about things others typically wouldn't. It would often manifest as anger and we all just joked it was "that Italian temper." It was anxiety. All along, it was anxiety. 

As I've grown older, and dealt with hardships and trials just as everyone does, depression reared its ugly head. I didn't realize what it was at first because it's not like I was suicidal, but I couldn't sleep at night and then slept all day, I wasn't eating, drinking...

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 ...

Even as a kid, I was always responsible with money. I grew up with parents that dealt with finances completely differently, so finding a healthy balance between the two when it came to a relationship with money was challenging. But I was always counting the coins in my piggy bank, keeping track of how much I had and scheming ways I could make more, like the lemonade stand at our garage sale or selling toys I no longer wanted.   

My relationship with money is still a work in progress and I'm no financial advisor, but the following is how I paid off $40,146.11, if we want to get specific, in just 3 years. I had saved up all through college, because I knew come graduation, I'd have some significant loans to pay off and the thought of paying interest makes me want to dig a 6 foot hole right here and now. I had even received multiple academic scholarships and the sad part is, my loans were relatively insignificant compared to what many graduates come out of school with. 

If you're familia...

This is how it all began. I was 25. I had just gotten passed over for a job I had literally already been doing as a temp and felt a lot of pride in the work I had done so far. I knew a lot of people felt I was too young for the position, too young to be taken seriously and make an impact. So now I wanted to prove everyone wrong. ⁣
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Fast forward to my very first course launch ever with the business I had started after failing to land that job. Cart opens day 1... no sales. Ok it’s fine, it’s only day 1. Live webinars come and go... no sales. A steady, thrumming panic starts to take over my body. Just under the surface, but it's always there. Doubt seeps in... maybe I was right to get passed over for the job. Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this at all. Maybe I should stick to what I’ve been doing. Day 7... I finally confide to my boyfriend that I’m scared I won’t make any sales. My thought process before was if I don’t say anything, it won’t be real.. but I couldn’t take the incessant thrummi...

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...

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...