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dustin stout

AoL 043: How to Place Your Knowledge on Auto-Pilot and Get Paid Repeatedly For It with Dustin W. Stout

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People start businesses for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes that reason is that they see a need in the world that they can respond to. Others, like me, start a business because we see it in the future as a means to create a lifestyle that we want.

The same can be said about this session’s guest, Dustin W. Stout.

Dustin, like many other entrepreneurs, stumbled into business. And over time, he became really good at being a consultant and helping other people with his skills. However, this was active time that he was putting in and it was taking away from time that he could be spending with his young family.

In this session, we find out more about where he came from, how he became well known in social media, and also why he basically changed his business to focus on building SaaS products.

If you’re currently a freelancer or doing work that requires you to put in a ton of active work from project to project, perhaps Dustin’s story will give you some insight in how you can build a business that gives you more freedom.

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • Why Dustin believes that performers do so well in the digital marketing space. 4:59
  • How he got started as a youth pastor after being a performing arts major. 6:11
  • How he stumbled into his first business. 9:45
  • How Dustin first met Michael Hyatt and was compelled to build his platform. 13:27
  • What his first blog was about. 18:15
  • What made his blog take off. 22:05
  • How Dustin created his first community online. 23:51
  • How he got his first paying client. 26:09
  • What the process is like to get recognized by Social Media Examiner as someone that knows that they’re talking about. 30:37
  • Where Dustin got the idea to start in the plugin / SaaS world. 32:37
  • What Social Warfare is all about. 35:37
  • Freedoms that Dustin has through his business versus the life he’d have if he went the actor route. 35:41
  • Would he ever consider going back to the acting world? 40:47
  • Three teachers that has catapulted him to where he is today. 44:01
  • Three truths that he’d share with others. 46:29
  • If he was to put in ad into the world, what would it be? 48:22
  • What he would say to his 20 year old self. 52:09
  • When he thinks of success, who is the person he thinks of and why? 53:23
  • What are some steps to “be like Dustin”? 55:06
  • …and MUCH more!

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

More about Social Warfare:

>

 

Dustin discussing Google Plus with Lauren Francesca on why you might want to check it out:

Dustin with Thomas E. Hanna on how to use images with your content:

An example of why Dustin chose to build a SaaS business like Social Warfare:

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

Don’t Be a Sell Out: What the Modern Entertainment Industry Can Teach Us About Creativity

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Growing up, I remember watching the Star Wars movies. I remember how I saw the first one and really didn’t think much of it at the time. As a 7 year old, I saw it as another action flick – boring when people talked, but cool when they shot at each other!

Like most kids at my age, we were too young to have seen the movies in the theatres. Instead we got to see them when they came on at night on the main network’s movie nights. I remember my mom telling me I just had had to watch them. In fact, I think one of the first movies that we ever recorded with our VCR was Star Wars: Return of the Jedi… or least attempted to. (I’m guessing somewhere in 1987 – 1989.)

As time went on, I became more and more of a action and sci-fi geek. That was probably one of the reasons that the Ninja Turtles stuck with me as much as they did. But, I also remember really getting into science as well. Seeing all those planets in the shows really made me interested in Astronomy.

By the mid 90’s, I had finally saw all of the Back to the Future movies. Sci-Fi series that I watched at the time included all the Star Trek shows including syndicated episodes of TNG. In fact, along with the X-Files, I remember Voyager being the shows I looked forward to that would literally help me get through the week. In today’s world, I realize how silly this sounds, especially in an age where so many people use their DVR to watch their shows. But it was the truth back then before everything was On Demand.

Needless to say I was definitely hooked on my sci-fi shows and movies.

 

The Best Summer Ever?

I remember the summer of 1996 as if it was last year. This was the summer after I got back from my 8th grade trip to Washington D.C.. During the trip, I was exposed a ton to what my peers listened to as far as music. Really, up until that point, when I heard music, it was my mom listening to her oldies music, or what I heard in school for band and music class. I really hadn’t developed an interest in it.

Nope, I was too involved in video games, TV, and, movies to care about music.

Well, when I got back from the trip. Things were different. In fact, it wasn’t very long at all before I signed up for what was called BMG Music Service. And, you might remember, back then being able to get 10 relatively new CD’s for a third of the price was awesome! Especially if you just had to have certain songs you wanted to hear over and over.

Well, again, being fairly new to the music scene, I didn’t really have any preference to what I was listening to. It was all new to me. So what I ended up doing was ordering a ton of soundtracks because they gave me a good sampling of what was popular. I felt that I had my own radio station.

I remember that in one particular catalog, it mentioned some of new releases which were going to be coming out in the next month. One of those was the soundtrack to Independence Day. I didn’t know much about the movie at the time, other than Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum were both going to be in it.

Will had just gotten off of Fresh Prince not too long before and had some success with Bad Boys. Jeff had already been in Jurassic Park, so I knew who both actors were.

Up until the movie came out, I knew it was going to be about aliens invading Earth and the military. I guess I just figured it was going to be something similar to Stargate (the movie) which I loved as well.

So, all of these parts coming together AND having seen a little bit in the making of, I knew that it was going to be a great flick.

That being the case, I ordered the soundtrack along with a few other CDs. I figured, “hell, if this is as good as any of my other soundtracks (especially Batman Forever), then it should be a great album!”

So, July 3rd comes around and I see the movie. I was blown away. (I think I ended up seeing it in theaters two other times – which is actually saying something for me.)

Shortly after, I get my soundtrack and pop it in a CD player and…

Disappointment.

Here I was hoping for the songs from the movie and I get the score. I didn’t realize what scores were until this point. But, you know what? Even though I was disappointed the first couple of times I played it through, the score started growing on me – especially as I saw the movie a couple of more times.

From there on, while I continued to order soundtracks from BMG, at least I paid more attention to what I was ordering.

 

Nice Story down Memory Lane, JC, but So What?

This past weekend, on July 3rd, 20 years later, I saw the sequel of ID4, Independence Day: Resurrection (does that make it ID4:2?).

For the most part, I enjoyed it. It was fun. I didn’t expect too much going in, because I knew Will Smith wasn’t going to be in it. It was interesting to see how they approached the story 20 years later.

As I was leaving the theatre, though, things didn’t sit with me right. There seemed to be something missing from my experience. A sense of awe that the first one left me with.

To be honest with you, a lot of blockbusters that have been coming out in the last few years – I’ve gone in thinking this might be the one where I get a sense of awe again.

Nope. No such luck.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until I searched on reddit for the discussion of the movie. And then it hit me. ID4:2 was a shell of itself. The franchise had sold out.

Perhaps I’m using too aggressive of a term here. I mean, isn’t that what Hollywood is all about? Going mainstream? Isn’t part of going mainstream trying to appeal to more of the masses?

I tried to rationalize what I was feeling…

It might simply be the fact that I’m older and I’ve seen everything you can do in a movie. That might be it. Because there have been only a few movies recently which were such an experience that after watching it I’m like, “That was cool!”.

Two of them have been animations: Wreck It Ralph and Big Hero 6 were pretty cool. Live action ones included The Martian and Interstellar. Those were pretty awesome. If we went a little further back, the first Iron Man movie was cool. So was the first couple of Spiderman movies.

As far as EPICNESS goes, nothing beats the Matrix or The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

However, I’ve still not gotten any big “Woah!” moments for a very long time.

Has Hollywood in itself sold out even more than what I remember of it in the 90’s?

 

Finding the Woah!:

A big part of the reason that I think that I haven’t gotten any woah moments recently is because I end up seeing movies that are formulaic. I’m seeing most of the blockbusters – and while these are neat, cool, and have great visuals, they just don’t seem as intimate or real as those that I remember from the 90’s.

Just an example: when you think of the Turtles from the 90’s, they sure aren’t the same guys from the most recent movies. The most recent movies just seem more fake to me.

One thing I’ve thought that it might be is all the CGI. Perhaps, I HAVE become a little too accustomed to all these special effects or maybe it’s that the writing is so much more predictable compared to when I was growing up. It’s hard to tell.

But, one thing’s for certain, it doesn’t just plague movies. There’s formulas for what sells in TV, video games, and especially in music. Everything seems to be a copy of each other.

But just because things sell over and over again does it mean it’s good? Obviously the answer is no. The entertainment industry is giving us very high filler and very low content.

Going back to ID4:2, I really think that’s why I felt something was missing. I didn’t have much connection with the characters. And what connection I did have from the first movie was all but taken out – if not from this movie, then definitely from the next. (Yes, there’s going to be another one.)

So what is Woah! when it comes to storytelling? I think it’s all about having deep connections with the characters, having amazing and out of the ordinary things happening to those people, while at the same time making sense (no plot holes).

When you think of movies like Jurassic Park, the original ID4, The Matrix, and even The Lord of the Ring Trilogy, and even as far back to the Wizard of Oz. What was so mesmerizing about these movies? It was that we, as the audience, felt that we were connected to the characters in the movie. Things started out normal, but when things started to pick up, we were in those experiences with them. And, we weren’t left in the dust to try to figure out how they got from Point A to Point B.

 

How this All Applies to Us as Creators:

When we’re building our creative business, we need to make sure that those that are from the beginning feel like they’re part of what we’re building. We need to build relationships and engage with as many potential fans of our work as possible.

When we start having success and reaching higher and higher levels of it, don’t forget those who were there in the beginning. If treated right, these can become your biggest fans and help you grow larger and larger.

If you don’t treat these folks right and just try to sell to them and keep stringing them along, then you might regret that in the long run. You might have your own success, but you won’t be seen as some epic people mover.

Also, make sure you’re showing who you are. There’s already a Gary V., a Pat Flynn, and a John Maxwell. Learn to understand and embrace yourself, and your story, like they have. The continuing of that story is what makes you original.

 

Action Steps:

As your working this week, realize that your story is original. Don’t try to be like someone else out there. It’s not going to work. Even if you’re just starting off on your journey, embrace the moment. Pull it all in. In the future as you meet more and more people, they’re going to wonder how you got started. Telling them that you put one foot in front of the other might help, but being able to give them exact examples will be even better.

Also, don’t be afraid to be authentic. Whether that’s through LIVE streaming apps or simply by writing your blog in a journalistic way. The more authenticity you have, the more people you’ll attract.

UK Entrepreneur

Brexit: What it means for the UK Entrepreneur and Personal Freedom

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As we’re coming up on another fourth of July, I’m happy for what I’ve been able to accomplish in the past year. I’ve successfully helped a book launch (which I’ll get into more next week). I’ve helped build a few sites. I’ve also started a podcast that I continue to refine. AND I’ve met and reconnected with plenty of wonderful people who are joining me on this path with me – including my contributors, the fine crew over at the Experts Community Facebook Group, and, of course, you guys – the readers of this blog. 🙂

One of the people (hi Ameeta!) that I connected with over at the Experts Community, was actually pretty upset about how her country let her down the other day in this whole Brexit thing. And I must say, it’s one of the things that I’m interested in the current world affairs. Not because I’m losing thousands in the stock market right now. No, I’m sure that will come back (it’s not the first time). But because I’m really curious as to how the UK people are going to take advantage of this situation they now find themselves in.

I mean, we could go on and on about why they chose to leave the EU. But it really doesn’t matter at this point. Or, as Hillary Clinton will go down in history as saying, “What difference, at this point, does it make?”

Really, the arguments that Scotland is arguing about “European” trade, jobs, and all of their opportunities disappearing – for now, yes. They have. However, in the long run, is that such a problem?

To be honest, the UK is/was the financial capital of the EU. Why can’t they just focus on building themselves back up on their own? Is the EU really going to be such a great place without them putting in their share of the funding?

 

How the UK Should Capitalize

Whether or not the UK makes it out of this entire situation is really up to them. They can either look at it as a catastrophe or an opportunity. If you’re a UK entrepreneur, I know how you already see it! That’s great. But, it’s up to the youth now to not say “oh, my future is broken now”.

They need to start figuring out like many of us in the US that the old ways just aren’t going to work. The old economy is broken. You can’t rely on the traditional J.o.B. as we once knew it. (In fact, we talked about this in depth in session 1 of the podcast.)

In fact, in reality, the way that our parents have grown up with a world of people seeking jobs as a “working for” a company vs what many of U.S. Millennials are realizing as a “working with” perspective is not new. Before the industrial revolution, everyone essentially owned their job.

In the US today, we see people owning their job more and more with the development of the sharing economy. Companies like Uber, Yerdle, and JustPark. Do they have to use the companies that started over here in the US? No, they don’t. Just like every town has plumbers, farmers, and car mechanics, they can have their own as well.

 

Personal Freedom

In the end, I think it’s this reliance on jobs and government that has weakened so many Millennials who, like me, expected a job to be waiting once we got out of our time in college. However, as I’ve said before, it’s not the rule anymore. And frankly Millennials as a unit shouldn’t “expect” all these gifts for just showing up. That’s never been how the world works.

Much of what we have now is from the expense of those that came before us. So what if we have companies giving us less than they had? How is it our right to have that standard of living? It’s not. And while the youth of the UK might have stumble forward in the short term, I really think that in the long run, they’re going to start coming up with their own sharing economy companies. Which means they’ll have their time back, something to show for it, and become a better person in the process.

Sounds like a rough deal, indeed! 😉

 

Action Steps

As with any post I’ve made, I have something for you to do next!

Take in the news about what’s going on this post-Brexit world. See how hard it is for people to accept change. Then read this article about what Gary Johnson had to say about the entire situation.

Once the dust does settle, I think many Brits might embrace what they have. They might even realize that they actually were paying more than the lion’s share for support of the EU.

Heaven forbid if they actually become an example for other European nations by standing on their own two feet.

Dating for Alpha Women

AoL 040: Understanding Alpha Women and Maintaining High Creative Performance with Moe DeCarlo

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Everyone has heard of the phrase Alpha Male. If you remember, they’re the type of guy who is normally thought of as a natural athlete and/or have everything going right in life, or just have many women around them at a given time. They’re a natural leader.

Have you ever heard of the phrase Alpha Female? There’s a good chance that you’ve heard that phrase too. When you think of the phrase, what kind of women come to mind? For me, I think of women in business, government, entertainment, and the military. All of them are leaders of some sort. And most of them probably don’t have time to be the center of a traditional family that society teaches us is the norm.

Personally, I’m married to an Alpha Female. I’m always joking with her that she’s 52% girl, 48% guy. Otherwise I don’t think she’d be able to have done as well in the military career as she has. Perhaps growing up with two brothers helps. But for the most part, I can joke with her like I joke with most guys – which is actually awesome. And for me, that’s normal.

Today’s guest, I imagine has married an Alpha Female as well. In fact, as he explains in the interview, he grew up with mainly women in his house. This forced him to learn how to think like the women in his life.

Today, Moe DeCarlo uses this power of his to be a translator for women and gets paid to do so as a woman’s social coach.

In this session, we’ll be talking about what got him into coaching in the first place, how he keeps up with all the work he does, and what he got out of his recent time at this past April’s Experts Academy.

If you feel like you have this special trait, or something similar, and not sure how to use it, perhaps Moe can help you learn how to utilize those skills in a way that you never thought you could!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • How Moe schedules his days and weeks to be masterful. 8:06
  • How Moe sees himself as a coach in relationships. 10:01
  • How Moe compares himself to Steve Harvey. 11:00
  • Why he works with women more so than he works with men. 12:28
  • 3 Ways that men and women are different. 15:10
  • When Moe realized he could be a Women’s Social Coach as a full time career. 20:01
  • Resources that Moe has used in getting better at coaching. 24:23
  • How he was able to secure his first paying client. 26:57
  • What Moe would have done differently as he was building his business. 30:45
  • What Moe believes will sap your energy quickly if you’re not careful. 35:19
  • How Moe gets past the societal label of a Player when it comes to him doing his work. 38:43
  • Why it’s important to start your business with boundaries and how you let others know that you have them. 43:09
  • Why Moe decided to go to Expert’s Academy vs buying a lease expensive online training. 46:33
  • Why he believes that the biggest take away that he got from the event was the new connection with other people. 49:28
  • Why you should market to aspirations, not demographics. 51:19
  • What Expert Academy helped him realize he should change in his future business. 56:12
  • 3 Life Truths He’d Want People to Know 1:02:12
  • 3 Favorite Teachers or Influencers 1:04:40
  • What Would He Tell the 20 Year Old Version of Himself 1:06:10

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

How to pick Alpha Girls out:

Dr. Gaby Cora’s TEDx Presentation on Alpha Women:

Finding out if you’re an Alpha Women through Astrology:

An example of what I imagine Moe does with his clients:

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

The Importance of Why: Learning How to Get Going when the Going Gets Tough

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People wonder where I get inspired for my writing. Sometimes I get inspiration from the people I’m working with. Other times, it’s just to fill a knowledge gap in my content.

Yet, other times, it’s when I’m constantly berated by a subject and I need to make an account of all that is coming my way.

I mean, when the universe tells you to do something, you better be listening and be prepared to act, right?

Passion is Half the Battle:

In the last two blog posts, I wrote about building a website. While this might not necessarily be the most interesting to me, it is a question that I can answer and have a knack to help people get started on. It’s kinda like me and math. Can I teach it? Sure. Do I have a passion for it? Well, I have a passion that people are educated. So… in a way I guess? But not directly.

Same thing for building websites. Is it something that I can help people with? Sure. I had to figure it out on my own and if I can help someone else figure it out, then I’m happy.

Also, it’s a question that I’ve been meaning to respond to in a blog post form for awhile.

Today’s post has a little bit of both: “Something I want to make sure people get because it’s important” and something that I’m asked about quite a bit.

How did I find my Why?

The Secret is in the Why:

Pursuing your Passion with a definite Why, I believe, is one of the critical parts of being happy, building a successful life, and building a thriving business.

I share this belief with a well known author, Simon Sinek.

If you’re unfamiliar with Simon, there’s been a big TEDx speech of his out there on the web for several years now. Time and time again I recommend it to people if they’re having trouble finding their Why.

Good stuff, huh?

Bonus: He also just recently did an interview with Marie Forleo that came out last week about his newest book.

Don’t Forget about Being Happy:

As Simon was saying in that last video, many times we get so focused on the small details of a job that might actually be part of our Why, that we forget about why we started it in the first place. When this happens, we might actually become unhappy.

I was listening to a really interesting conversation between Jordan Harbinger and Raj Raghunathan that was paralleling this thought as well.

Among many of the great points that Raj talks about in the discussion, he points out that we all need three main things to be happy: Mastery, Belonging, and Autonomy.

  • Mastery: We need to feel that we’re good at something.
  • Belonging: We need to feel a sense of intimacy or connection with at least one other person.
  • Autonomy: We need to feel a sense of freedom in what we’re doing. (Not to be micromanaged.)

Just a note here: Mastery is another way of describing passion. Those that don’t have a passion in a particular subject rarely care to develop a mastery in or of it.

A Recent Example:

Say you’re interested in starting a podcast. You want to have really interesting conversations with people and get those out into the world and inspire others to take certain actions.

That focus – having really interesting conversations with others – might meet the three criteria of being happy.

However, when you start figuring out the details of where the host for the recordings might be and what the your site looks like that you’re posting the talks to, those might be things you don’t really want to deal with.

As you get lost in the details of getting technical things prepped to do the show, you might actually start asking yourself why you started thinking that you wanted to do podcasts in the first place.

Right?

Well, for starters – the two are not mutually related. Technical parts of doing a podcast aren’t the same as actually being the host. In fact, the only “technical” thing a host should do is hit the record button. In the ideal world, you’d have people to help you with all the other stuff.

You don’t necessarily have to pay those folks, either. There’s plenty of trading that goes on in the business world behind the scenes – both online and offline. Maybe you have a talent that they need as well? They help you, you help them.

And the other thing is that this is where the Why gets you through. Without a strong Why, you might just tap out early on in your endeavor of being a podcaster. There’s a saying that goes, “If you want something bad enough, the facts don’t matter!”.

More Resources to Help You Find Your Why, Your Passion, and Find What Makes You Happy:

If you’re wanting to make sure that you’re on the right path, that you’re on it for a good reason, and that you want to make sure you can make it all the way through to completion, then there’s a few resources that I think you should check.

  1. Pat Flynn’s Book: Will It Fly
  2. Cal Newport’s: So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
  3. Mark Nathan and David Anderson’s Book: The Delusion of Passion
  4. Raj Raghunathan’s HappySmarts Project

Action Steps:

As I was writing this post, I took a short break and ran across an interesting piece that I wanted to share with you guys:

When you think about this family – is it clear to you that Garrett knew his why when he was building his business? Do you think it was what he started with or did it grow over time? Or perhaps he realized it when he sold his business?

Regardless, the Why was deciding factor of the life that they have now.

The best thing you can do with yourself before you ever start your business is to figure out what really motivates you to start working and to keep going when it’s hard for you to do anything. Us solopreneurs, we have very wild emotional roller coasters. One day we feel like we’re on the top of the world, the next day we could feel like “meh”.

If you don’t get the books that I’ve mentioned in this post (which I think might be a mistake), I’d definitely check out interviews that they’ve done, and talks they’ve given across the web.

Also, another something that I think would help you is making a bucket list for yourself as well as a list of things that would be fun to do with your family (if you have one). Make each one at least 10 to 20 items. Let it be as wild as you want.

Now from there, start categorizing these into things that don’t cost anything or very little, all the way up to those that cost a fortune (like a prolonged trip, a boat, or a better house!)

Those that don’t cost anything or cost very little, you should plan to do them as rewards soon.

The more the something costs, the higher up on your success ladder you should place it. Think of it as a reward for getting to that level of success.

Now find some pictures of these rewards and place them on a bulletin board, tape them on the back of a door, or, put them up on a refrigerator. These are forms of what many people call Vision Boards. If you need help of what I’m talking about – here’s an example:

Vision Board

I’d love to see what you all come up with!

AoL 039: Overcoming Obstacles in Life, Building a Church, and Pursuing Passion in Life and Business with Brawn Lide

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The road to success is often not very clear. That’s one of the reasons I’m in favor of having a roadmap for your business. For many, however, even having a roadmap isn’t enough. Sometimes, an entrepreneur’s situation is so unique, that they simply have no idea where to begin. Or other times, the journey might be going smoothly, it’s just that it isn’t going fast enough for the goals that they have.

For me, my major problem was getting over my paralysis by analysis. I’m glad I finally started focusing on building New Inceptions last year. I’ve gotten a ton of experience and I’m definitely looking to ever larger opportunities.

For this session’s guest, however, even though things seem to have been going his way, he didn’t have a very long runway. In fact, when he first started his coaching business, he was mainly going on Faith that things would work out. Besides paying for his coaching training with his tax return that could have been used elsewhere (like supporting his 5 kids), he also committed to a mentorship program that almost cost nearly as much as the training itself.

When I met Brawn as my roommate at the John Maxwell Team training event, he would tell you that he was “hurtin'”. A big reason for that was that he had been a full time church planter for a couple of years at that time. What income he did have was coming from being involved as a math teacher for homeschooled kids.

Through all of this (and a little more), he’s been able to persevere and is now not only a full time JMT coach, speaker, and trainer, but a successful one.

In this session, we’ll learn why he left his stable job as a mechanical engineer to become the church planter, how he was able to grow that church from 23 to 350 members, and why he took a sales job during the time that he was building his coaching business.

If you or someone you know thinks life might be too complex to leave their comfort zone, I’d strongly urge you to listen to this chat. Brawn’s story is truly inspirational and is probably one of the best stories that I’ve heard thus far about overcoming obstacles in life. I’d especially listen if you need that extra kick in the pants to leave your comfort zone or you need help being honestly truthful with where you are in life.

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • How Brawn decided that he was going to go from a stable income as a Mechanical Engineer to being a church planter. (7:20)
  • What kind of struggles he had when he was trying to shed his label of Engineer (13:27)
  • How Brawn was able to be a full time volunteer for four years of his life with a family by helping with home school teaching. (17:48)
  • How he was able to help grow his church attendance from 23 to 350. (22:12)
  • What the John Maxwell Team, and JMT Mentorship program has meant to Brawn. (25:07)
  • What Brawn would tell someone if they found themselves having to suddenly lead from a position where they never saw themselves in. (31:43)
  • Why he went into sales when he wasn’t able to achieve his financial goals with his coaching business. (37:01)
  • How he was able to focus on his sales job, his business, and his family during this period in his career. (42:26)
  • What were some keys that lead to his success in speaking and coaching (44:35)
  • How Brawn was able to build his business outside of networking. (47:31)
  • What he likes the most about being a professional speaker and coach (51:58)
  • What are projects he sees himself doing in the next 5 years. (55:39)
  • If he had money to buy commercial space on TV, what would the message be? (1:01:06)
  • What purchase of $100 or less has most affected his life? (1:01:50)
  • What are 3 truths he’d want to share with others (1:03:00)
  • If someone wants to get out of their day job that they don’t find fulfilling? (1:08:06)
  • … and MUCH more!

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Brawn on what he does:

Brawn’s first interaction with John Maxwell:

Getting into Mechanical Engineering Wasn’t Easy:

John Maxwell and Brawn on what the word “Potential” means:

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

DIY Business Site

Getting Started on the Web (Part 2): Basics of Setting Up WordPress for your DIY Business Site

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In the last post, we looked at some of the options that are out there in building your own business site.

Just as a recap, there are those that are fairly simple to use but still require you to know how to actually use the editors in them when you’re in.

Wix, Squarespace, and Kajabi are some of the most common “easy to use” site makers out there. However, all of them come at a price that is above what you’d pay for simple hosting and a WordPress install.

Kajabi, being the most expensive, comes with all the bells and whistles that you’d have to add on elsewhere.

Wix is free to start from, but you have to add parts that cost a premium to do certain things. (Collecting emails for an example.)

Squarespace, I haven’t personally used, but it’s almost three times as much as I pay at Hostgator for my plan. And knowing that I could easily throw up a theme (additional software that makes a WordPress install look nice) that I only have to buy once, then it just didn’t make sense to me to use.

The Basics of Hosting:

When it comes to installing a WordPress based site, there’s a few things you need to do before actually installing it.

Find and subscribe to a Host:
First and foremost, our first step is to figure out who you want to be your host. I use Hostgator, Pat Flynn is well known for using BlueHost, and others use other providers.

The plan I get with Hostgator is the Baby Plan. It has most of the stuff we need. (Be sure to go through my affiliate link so you can save on your subscription if you go with Hostgator.)

Essentially a host does a couple of things that we’re interested in:

Holds your site’s contents (including WordPress and your creative content).
The actual local address of your site. (You point your domain name here.)
Where to find any email addresses associated with your domain name.

Once you get access to your new host, you should have some sort of dashboard in the back to utilize your new subscription with. For now, most things in there won’t be of too much interest to us. However, I wanted to get you a video that shows a little bit more about what Hostgator uses as their dashboard. It’s called cPanel.

Setup Your Domain:

Your domain is the name of your site. For example, my site’s domain is newinceptions.xyz. I registered it originally at GoDaddy. They’re known for cheap domain registration – but not necessarily hosting (even though they provide it).
GoDaddy isn’t the only domain register I’d suggest. While GoDaddy has good first year registration prices, NameCheap is another place you can get cheap domains and they’ll continue to be relatively inexpensive after your first year.

Also, another thing they give for free is the ability to block the name and location of the person who registers the site. This is something that you have to pay additional for on GoDaddy and other domain registries. This is a big selling point if you want to keep your privacy.

Once you register with whomever you choose (there’s others out there too!), you’ll have to give your register the nameserver’s addresses. Usually there are two in your cpanel (if you go with Hostgator, it will be on your bottom left near the bottom – they’ll look something like nsXXXX.hostgator.com and nsYYYY.hostgator.com.)

Here’s a video that will get you started in this section.

Setting Up Your Professional Email:

It’s simple to say why this is important. What’s the point of having a website if you’re email is [email protected] or something similar? Wouldn’t it be better to be [email protected]? 

Most hosts will allow you to host your own domain based email on your share of the server. What they fail to tell you is that whenever you are checking emails, you’re usually using up what’s called a “Process”. With my service from Hostgator, there are 25 processes that I can use. Each open email account will use up to 4 of these processes. Why? It’s a little detailed.

However, there are other providers out there that you can get your email hosted with. All you have to do is prove you own your site and then tell the host that you want to get your email from that secondary email host. There’s different ways of doing that, so I won’t drop into that too much here.

However, there’s two big players in this department: Google and Zoho.

Google everyone knows and trusts (to an extent anyway!). When you get your professional email with them, then you can use it to login into other Google applications such as Google Docs, and Google Calendar.

However, there’s a price to pay for Google. I believe it’s like 5 or 10 bucks each month. Plus additional fee for other emails you get.

At one point Google was free. When they started charging, Zoho got in the act to host business emails. They host up to 10 for your domain for free. Each email address can save 5 gigs of data on their account. (As a hack, I tend to backup all my emails on a secondary Gmail account.)

Both work similarly. So, unless you only want to have one address for everything, then I’d go with Zoho for your business email and use Google for your personal email, apps, calendar and possibly a backup account.

Here’s one video that should help you figure this process out.

WordPress Ins and Outs:

Initial Setup:

Each host will be different when it comes to setting up WordPress. Some you can install with a few clicks. Others will be a little more manual.

Hostgator again comes through here in that it makes it relatively easy to setup. There’s a Quick install feature that takes about 5 clicks and 6 fill in the blanks to finish. (The linked video is a bit old – but should do the trick.) It will send you an email when it’s done installing and you’ll be ready for the next step.

Inside WordPress (the Backend):

Once you have WordPress installed, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the Dashboard. You can typically reach the dashboard by going to yoursite.com/wp-admin. You’ll have to supply a login and a password. This should be in the email you get once the install is done.

You’ll notice several tabs. Two that I want to bring to mind right now are Appearance and Plugins.

The Appearance tab is where you’ll find your themes. There are free ones available through this tab, and others that you’ll have to buy at sites like Themeforest. Mine is called Enfold. There are plenty of other choices. You just need to search around and see what fits your site’s needs. For example, another one I use is Gameplan for the America Multi-Sport site.

My biggest recommendation with themes is to make sure it’s responsive (most new ones are) and that it is built around an editor. Enfold has it’s own native one, while Gameplan uses a 3rd party solution. Having a theme built around an editor will make it easier for you to work on your future site.

Also, when you have a premium theme installed, more than likely it will also add another tab. Make sure you click on that tab and explore everything that’s in there. There will be plenty of options and things for you to go through and modify.

(Note: If you go with Enfold, you can actually import a demonstration site and modify it to how you like it. Otherwise, you’ll have to start with scratch. But this is no different at this point from if you had used Squarespace, Wix, or Kajabi.)

Here’s a video that shows more of the backend of WordPress with Enfold being enabled as the theme.

The Plugins tab is next on the list. When you are done installing your basic theme, you’ll want to start turning some things on that will protect and optimize your site. This is where you’ll do that. A few plugins that I always use on all of my sites is Akizmet, a firewall plugin (like Wordfence), and a cache “optimizer” (like WP Super Cache). Also, be sure to install a backup plugin like UpdraftPlus so if you’re ever hacked or lose access to your site, you can install it elsewhere.

You can continue to add free and premium plugins to your heart’s content to do different jobs in your site and outside of your site. Some will only be on the backend (like I’ve mentioned already), others will be on the front end. Those plugins might show contact forms, social media buttons, or image rotators. (The end user will see these plugins working – but hopefully won’t realize it.)

The next two tabs that I want to call attention to are Pages and Posts.

The pages tab will take you to all the pages that your site has. One of those pages is the Homepage – the page you see when you first access your site. Other pages then can be linked off of this page to discuss everything you want to. Typical ones you might find in the online business world include “About”, “Contact”, “Resources”, and “Blog”.

Speaking of blogs, the post tab comes into play here. Each post is sort of like a page, but they’re not part of the main skeleton of your site. If you think of posts as limbs and branches of a tree, then your leaves are the posts. Posts can consist of all kinds of media. They can be text based, photo based, or even be where you find someone’s podcast. Right now you’re looking at a post as you read this. (Is that an example of being meta?)

 

Outside WordPress (the Frontend):

Ok. So now that we have ourselves somewhat familiar with the inside, let’s look at what everyone else is going to be looking at.

This is where it’s important to get an idea of what it is that you want to create. So from here, I’d suggest finding three sites that look like something that you’d want to have. That way you know what to design.

If you’re using Enfold (or another theme) and already created a demo site – then really all you should be doing is tailoring smaller details with your native editor. (This is what I’d recommend doing, by the way. :))

However, if you didn’t use a demo site to start with, then you’ll be starting from scratch. Again, look at other sites that you like. Start with with your homepage and start playing with your editor and start creating some pages!. In Enfold, it’s called Avaya Layout Builder.

Here’s a video in how you can use it.

Note: Before I forget, you might notice that there’s a section on the right that is static. On my site, for example, I have a Facebook section, some social media buttons, and a place to subscribe to the Newsletter. These are called Widgets. You can find these as a sub selection of the Appearance Tab. For more information on Widgets – feel free to check out this video.

A trick that I do is have two tabs open. One side views the frontend of the page you’re working on, and the other is looking at the backend. Work on the backend, hit preview. Opens up another tab. Do you like what you did? Hit Update. Then check your work again on the original frontend page to make sure that the change actually took hold.

Here’s a video to show you what widgets and sidebars are all about.

Once done with that, check out this video on how widgets work in Enfold. 

Wrap Up and Action Steps:

I know that this is a ton of info to throw at you. But really, it’s barely touching the surface. I just wanted to put something up that might get some of you going on your websites.

I do hope to get a course up that will go more in depth into this in the future. But for a quick start, I thought I’d go ahead and get you all started at least in the right direction if a lack of a site has been keeping you back.

If you get stuck, remember what I said in the first one. Make YouTube your friend! If you have a question, search for it on Google or, better yet, find it on YouTube. Tons of tutorials there.

If you can’t find or don’t understand the answer you find, you know how to get ahold of me!