Time for a Business & Site Reboot KDS: 050

On one hand, this business and site re-boot has been a long time coming. On the other hand, I absolutely trust the divine timing of this.

I’m going to explain what is happening, when, and the reasoning behind it all, but before I do that I naturally have to give a little bit of backstory.

Because I’m feeling particularly good right now I’m going to save you the long-winded, whoa-is-me tale of the challenges of the last year (and even the few years before that. Can’t say I saw this year coming. Who would’ve thought 2020 would be such a shit-show?).

I’m coming up on two major milestones.

My 50th birthday and the year anniversary of my Mom’s passing, which as I’ve shared, was unexpected and rocked my world.

Since then my life has changed dramatically.

I moved out of the Bay Area and stayed with my Dad for about 8 months after my Mom passed, then on March 30th, at the beginning of the epidemic, I moved up to Boise, Idaho.

My son came up with me to help me move, then he moved to Florida about a month ago.

Which means…

My house is MINE and it is GLORIOUS.

This is the first time in my life that I’ve lived alone and not been responsible to or for anyone. 

It almost feels like I’m playing hooky or something.

Here’s the crazy thing.

I am so proud of myself for doing this and making the move, but I’m not sure whether or not I’ll stay in Boise beyond my year lease.

I’m finally getting out and doing things, meeting people, had lunch with a fellow marketer, etc., but it feels a little bit like ‘same story, different city’, for lack of a better explanation.

I’m in a suburb, which is where I’ve spent all of my life living and wonder if maybe a beach would be a better option. Seriously.

Just a matter of finding the right one with good internet.

I’ve got 9 months to explore and figure things out. The thought of moving again is a little nauseating, but meh, that’s quite a ways away.

I know what I’d do differently next time ( note: it will be hiring someone to load and unload a truck but I will drive my stuff in a rented truck. I’m not sitting without my belongings for 3 weeks again).

I really believe this move was more of a stepping stone than anything else. Even moving up to my Dad’s and out of the Bay Area was a big move, even though I was beyond ready.

This has shown me that moving out of California wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Technology makes it much easier to stay in touch with family (although I may have to get my Dad the video version of the Amazon Echo. He has an iPhone but isn’t great with Facetime 😉  ).

Moving on…

All that being said, the last year has been a lot. Not to mention the launch of the Content Creators Planner at the end of 2018, and early 2019. 

Fortunately, having a great business partner like Jodi Hersh it was easy to keep that going during a very difficult year.

I finally feel like I’m on the other side of the intense grief with my Mom, I feel settled in Boise, and I’m finding my groove again.

And it feels great.

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Which brings me to my business & site re-boot.

I’ve got a very clear vision and plan for my personal brand.

When I first made the move to Kim Doyal from The WordPress Chick I wasn’t very clear on what that would look like in terms of focus, niche, and strategy.

It became clear over the last couple of years that it was content marketing, but I still wasn’t sure how I would approach that.

I don’t want to cannibalize one brand for the other (Kim Doyal for Content Creators Planner or vice versa) since both focus on content, but I believe I’ve found a way to navigate this.

The Content Creators Planner focuses on strategy and planning.

While I’m sure I’ll address that here as well, my focus will be on more of the intangible as well as different elements to strategy.

By now you’re all familiar with my #EverythingIsContent hashtag ( and btw, ask me how giddy I get when I see that on Instagram by people I don’t know…).

I created that hashtag a few years ago when I started writing more (my ‘almost-daily-emails’) and realized the power of storytelling first hand.

Too many people avoid writing or creating content because they have an unrealistic expectation that it has to be a perfectly crafted piece of content every time.

It doesn’t.

But you do have to start.

I’ve done a lot of personal work when it comes to beliefs, self-doubt, and worthiness. Most of our challenges are in our minds.

I feel a level of strength and conviction in myself that I haven’t felt in a very, very long time.

I’m working with my amazing friend Davinder Singh Kainth on my site revamp (and when I say I’m working, I mean I’m giving him all the copy and feedback on design haha).

The thought behind the design and the pages is very clear and no one will wonder what it is I do or how I can help them.

I LOVE the headline and copy that is the first thing people read on the site:

 

There are a couple of sections below the ‘hero section’ but then it takes you straight to a training/product section (I don’t think I’ve quite landed on a name for this) which will link to those product landing pages.

I’m moving as much as I can to an evergreen model with much of the heavy lifting being done via email and follow-up sequences.

Seeing the power of doing this correctly with Content Creators Planner has made me get over my aversion to digging into some of this stuff (I’ve always known it was powerful, but once you personally do it and really put it into action you become a believer).

I have a couple of products I’m going to do small launches for, but then it’s going to be paid traffic ==> landing page ==> offer ==> follow-up or webinar/training.

I don’t believe in the ‘on-demand’ webinar where people know you’re not actually live and you make them wait until a certain time. I’ll have it set to play on-demand and any offers will have an expiration date assuming it’s not something you can simply buy into at any time.

There will be a new lead magnet and a few courses for purchase.

This is what that will look like:

The two other things getting a ‘reboot’ (well, maybe a rebirth?) are the podcast and the Facebook group.

The Kim Doyal Show

The podcast is getting a new intro., back on a weekly schedule, and a whole new slew of guests. I’m sure there will be some repeat guests, but I’d like to dig a little deeper on the personal side of things. 

Specifically, how “who” they are impacts their business. 

I’m all about personal growth and responsibility so I would like to see how we can have those conversations more often.

And of course, I’ll continue sharing the behind-the-scenes work for myself, my brand, and the Content Creators Planner brand (we have some really cool stuff coming!).

Content Creators Facebook Group

Jodi is officially joining me in the group as my partner there as well. It’s a natural extension of the planner brand.

We’re going to change up the look, add new units, and revamp the posting and live streams.

We want it to be the place on Facebook where people go for their content marketing.

We’re going to have an official reboot party with a giveaway.

That will also be happening in July (nothing like dumping everything into one month! Fortunately, none of this is happening from scratch and is all already in the works).

Next Episode

Lastly, I’ve been working on an episode for my upcoming 50th birthday on 50 lessons learned.

It’s a mix of personal, life, and business lessons.

I guess I could have timed this better with the actual episode number, but it’s been too long and I didn’t want to wait (plus, it’s probably more like episode 200 and something. There were a lot more episodes under ‘The WordPress Chick’ podcast).

 

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Lastly (there’s always a lastly with me, isn’t there?), I want to encourage everyone right now to do one thing.

Simply Be Kind.

We are living through challenging times. There is much needed change coming but it’s not going to happen overnight.

I think we’ll be dealing with this virus for the remainder of this year at least and we still have an election to face in the fall (in the U.S.).

To borrow from Oprah Winfrey, here’s what I know for sure:

We WILL get through this.

We can’t control anything outside of ourselves, but we can contribute in a way that serves our soul’s purpose, the people we love, and what we believe in.

I believe with every ounce of my being that entrepreneurs can make a huge impact and contribute greatly to their audience, community, and the planet.

Much love to you all.