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mental focus

Increasing Mental Focus – 4 Simple Steps that Can Change Your Life

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Last Week I talked about how you can get more life satisfaction. There’s multiple reasons why someone would want more life satisfaction. With that post, I simply jumped into the how to of getting it started.

In today’s topic, we’re going to dive a little deeper into two of the 4 tactics mentioned in the previous post. Specifically, long term goals and having a growth mindset.

Here’s the thing, while you’re pursuing a long term goal, you’re going to grow as a person. There’s no doubt about it.

However, to do that growing AND achieve those goals, you’re going to have to put in a ton of work.

And to get that work done, you’re going to have to focus.

We All Make Choices

If you’re like me and many people I know, you probably have a busy life. For the most part, going to work takes up a ton of our time. If you have kids, that’s another layer of stuff you gotta do. And if you have extended family – there’s even more stuff you got to manage time for. And let’s not forget all the social things we might be a part of. Gaming, sports groups, you name it.


With all these things that we have to do on a daily basis, it’s hard to imagine how anyone has ever successfully done anything meaningful in their life after entering the workforce.

Seriously, who has the time?

Here’s the answer: You do.

“But how?”, you might be wondering.

We all have time. Everyone has 24 hours a day. Everyone has always had and always will have 24 hours a day.

We all make choices in how we’re going to spend our 24 hours.

Here’s a few that I’ve had to make in the past:

  • Go to a workplace that requires us to be there 7, 8, or even more hours per day.
  • Go to school and do the homework for the classes.
  • Be part of a sports team.
  • Go to the gym.
  • Keep working on that character in that video game.
  • Watch or hear that particular show so we have something to talk with people about.
  • Have friends or family that wants to hang out when we’re not doing work.
  • Sleep.

Many of these choices are things that “busy” people are probably already doing most (if not all) of. However, just because we’re busy doesn’t necessarily mean we’re being productive. And it sure as hell doesn’t mean we’re being satisfied by our lives. I could and will argue that many of these above choices can be distractions.

Most of our Satisfaction in Life Comes from Mental Focus in Working Towards Something

Outside of hanging out with friends and family, there are few things that give us all satisfaction.

Sure you might get some temporary satisfaction in playing games, watching shows, or getting that paycheck from your job. But again, I could argue those things are possibly examples of time that could be used more productively. Especially, if a person is interested in building a more satisfied life.

It’s not that we haven’t used mental focus before. You might have previously focused in school, sports, military… and even, believe it or not, playing video games.

Many would say that video game players are lazy – but they are as dedicated to their craft. Just as much as those who are focused on getting their degree, throwing a ball, or knowing what to do during an emergency situation.

Here’s Cam’s take on it:

In all four of these examples, we feel satisfied because we feel that the work that we’re performing is being put towards building something.

If it doesn’t require mental focus or we don’t feel like we’re building something, then there’s a good chance we’re not going to get satisfaction from the time, resources, or work we spend on a given activity.

Increasing Mental Focus:

So, how do we spend more of our time utilizing our mental focus towards building we care about?

1. Prepare for Prolonged Focus

The first part of being able to successfully focus on something we want to do is give ourselves the ability to actually focus.

If you’re the type of person runs on caffeine all day and doesn’t do much physical activity – that needs to change. You don’t want your body having to rely on caffeine to perform day in and day out – which can happen.

Also, stay hydrated. Personally, this is one that I struggle with myself. I know I don’t drink enough water. Having grown up on all kinds of sodas, juices, and other sugary drinks, I’ve never been able to make drinking water a part of my routine. So if you’re like me, make sure that you’re figuring out other ways of getting your water in. For me, I’ve become a tea-aholic!

One other way to prepare for prolonged focus is by making sure you get plenty of sleep. Seriously.

7 or 8 hours is what we should be shooting for. That means if you’re planning on getting up at 5 or 6 in the morning, you’ll be wanting to go to bed at 9 or 10pm at the latest.

2. Choose Your Most Important Tasks

Once you are rested up and have something to drink near you, you’ll be ready to get going. But before we do, we need to make sure we’re aware of the tasks that we want to do that particular day.

I’ve talked about how important it is to properly plan the tasks you want to get done that week and month. When it comes to doing something in a particular day, all we want to do is 1 to 3 things.

For example, I keep it simple by focusing on writing on Monday, podcast editing on Tuesday and podcast publishing on Wednesday. The rest of the time is committed to marketing, meetings, and specifically on Thursday and Friday, I try to learn and utilize new skills and systems to help with the other days.

3. Clear Space for Focused Work by Getting Rid of Distractions

Distractions come in all sizes. Having a dead end or uninteresting job, playing videogames or watching TV for 4 or more hours a day, or endlessly scrolling through social media or answering emails are examples of distractions.

The difference between distractions and other activities is that distractions are activities that aren’t helping you reach your goals or enriching your life.

If you’re having problems figuring out what the distractions in your life are, then think about the things you do that others would consider a waste of time or you personally feel is “a grind”.

Your job might literally drain you and stress you out. This might grounds to look for another job.

If you feel like you have to play video games “like a job”, then figure out something else to spend your time on. Maybe you feel like you have to be on all the social media platforms that your friends are on. If this is the case, then just pick one and let them know they can actually call you if they need something.

The goal with this step is to make sure we are not being interrupted when we actually sit down and do activities that are meaningful. If you need more help with distractions, here’s a post for more info.

If you want to start small but have some really drastic changes in this department, here are three things you can do today:

  1. Don’t multitask. No one can multitask and if they say they can, they’re still living in the year 2000.
  2. Turn off notifications on your phone and computer
  3. Do not connect to social media or other things until your main tasks are done.
  4. Don’t leave email going all day. Check it twice – preferably mid-morning and before you’re done for the day. DO NOT check it first thing!

4. Get in the Zone – Your Zone

Being busy is something that many of us have grown up believing is the key to success. And the truth is that, being busy is often times a sign that a person isn’t in control of their lives. The busier someone is or seems to be, the more they’re probably at the call of someone else.

So the goal, believe it or not, is to not for you to appear busy all the time. Instead it’s to actually be doing something when you’re wanting to do it and committing to that action. This will get you “in the Zone” or “in flow”. When you’re in flow, you won’t have to worry about others perceiving you as being busy because you will be and the more times you get there, the longer you’ll be able to stay there.

Being in flow for long periods of time is called Deep Work or Slow Working. Interestingly, this type of work yields better results in the long run.

If you’re not used to doing work for a long period of time, shoot for at least a half an hour sprint. And then work your way up to longer periods of time. The goal is to train your mind like a muscle. Ideally you’ll be able to spend enough time in a deep work mode that you’ll be able to finish the task at hand before you need a break.

However, you need to take breaks from time to time. So make sure you do take that lunch hour and walk around for a few minutes every hour or so.

If your current job prevents you from going into the zone on a regular basis, you might want to consider finding another job. I personally believe that being able to be in flow is a vital part of having job satisfaction.

If you’ve never had a job that will allow you to get there, then that might be a sign that it’s time for you to start your own business. This will give you a way to do something you like to do in a way that you will like doing it.

Ending Thoughts

I hope that this post gives you a clearer sense of what focus and subsequently, your work life, should be like. If you believe that you’re not being able to clearly focus on your job or in your business, then it might definitely be time to change some things up.

Lack of focus will cause you unneeded stress. Period. With so many options and opportunities in the world today, it’s just not smart to strap yourself to a particular group of coworkers or a paycheck with a particular name on it.

That might have been expected with the Baby Boomers, but even they know that things are changing quickly. (For a great discussion on this topic, check out my discussion with Dr. Joe Albano)

Your goal is to not look at a job as “working for” a particular company. It’s to look at a job as “working with” them. If you can’t find the partnership you seek in your current industry, you owe it to yourself to find that partnership elsewhere – even if it means starting your own business.

Word of advice: Don’t expect for your current company to change for you. Just because you might be starting to find your own goals in life, doesn’t mean your current place of employment agrees with those goals.

You might have to move. But that’s ok, because you don’t want to work at a place you’re not appreciated.

If you find yourself looking for a new job, do your due diligence when you’re interviewing and find out if the position truly works for you along with the goals and culture of the company that you’ll be working with.

sandra bellamy

Sandra Bellamy: How to Embrace Your Quirky to Be Your Own Authentic Self (AoL 050)

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Society in general teaches us to not only care what other people think, but that we have to conform to those thoughts. For many people, that’s not a problem. But for us creatives it can be really hard. And often times we find ourselves asking two questions:

Am I living the life that I’ve seen for myself? And “Who am I going to live my life for?”

The answer to those two questions often times leads to the formation of one’s own passion based business.

In fact, that’s what happened to today’s guest, Sandra Bellamy.

Not only did Sandra come to this realization back in 2012, but she’s made it her mission to help other people figure out for themselves that they’re connected to a Matrix that has no interest in their personal desires. She calls it “Embracing Your Quirky”.

The truth is that once we unplug, we have to start believing in ourselves and take a big leap of faith – because no one else is going to on our behalf.

In this chat, we talk about how she learned to embrace her quirky, how you can do so in your daily life, and we also dive a bit into her experiences as a writer and why she believes that anyone can be a writer.

It’s a practical and exceptionally helpful episode. Enjoy!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • How can someone tell if they’re not embracing who they are enough? 22:23
  • Why she loves “the lifestyle of a teenager” to empower how she see’s herself. 23:14
  • How someone can “embrace their own quirky” more. 26:30
  • What are some of the experiences that she’s had working with others. 30:06
  • Why she has a wide spread of book topics and where each one came from. 34:42
  • How she’s able to write so much and why she believes that anyone can be a writer. 46:39
  • What she’s looking forward to in the not too distant future. 51:38
  • What are three thought leaders she recommends to other people the most. 54:13
  • One thing that’s under $100 that has changed her life. 55:15
  • One gift she likes giving others. 55:50
  • 3 truths that she would share with others. 56:06
  • Something she believed when she was 24 but now thinks is bogus. 58:00
  • When she thinks of the word success, who comes to mind and why? 1:00:31
  • … 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:

Stop Worrying, Start Living:

5 Lessons from Launching a Amazon Kindle Book:

Free Book and Review Opportunity from Red Door Publishing:

Andy Harrington’s story of how Tony Robbins Changed his Life:

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!

brilliance and business

AoL 049: From Homeless in High School to Expert Enabler and Community Builder with Mellissa Rempfer

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There’s so many things we have to do as an entrepreneur. Either we do it ourselves or we pay someone else to do it.

If you’re just starting out on your path, you might not have the resources to pay for all the help you need.

How do you get things done if you need help on graphics or grammar checking? Maybe you need help getting through a mental block or getting a new perspective on your business? Do you have the resources to pay for all of that?

Probably not. Perhaps bartering is the answer. But where online can you do that?

That’s what today’s guest, Mellissa Rempfer has been able to foster in her group, Brilliance and Business.

In this chat, we talk about where the idea of the group came from and more about what sets it apart. We also get into how she got her start in doing big things early on, and the three instincts of the human condition and how those apply in life and business.

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • How Mellissa didn’t even realize she had hit the bottom even though she was homeless in high school. 11:05
  • How she moved from being homeless to going to college 16:19
  • Why she decided that she wanted to be a pediatric trauma surgeon. 18:41
  • Where the idea of a student center came from and how she was able to put all the pieces together to get it built on her campus. 21:17
  • What she did immediately after graduating. 29:33
  • When she felt it was time to start a business. 34:24
  • Her initial experience in coaching and how Brilliance and Business originally came about. 38:30
  • What Brilliance and Business is all about. 47:09
  • How she feels has helped her grow the group as well as it has? 53:55
  • How do the three instincts of the human condition play into what she does? 57:57
  • More about the implementation of these instincts in the group 1:05:55
  • What are some of the things that’s she’s looking forward to in the future 1:07:30
  • What three things she would like people to remember her by? 1:10:21
  • Three truths she wants to share with others? 1:10:36
  • Where she would run a non promotional ad and what would it say? 1:11:37
  • 3 Favorite Podcasts 1:14:04
  • What she would say to her 25 year old self? 1:17:40
  • When she thinks of success, who does she think of and why? 1:18:37
  • … 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:

Tapping into and Embracing Your Brilliance:

Kim Eldredge and Mellissa talk about Mellissa’s book:

How to Communicate on Facebook:

Introduction to the Enneagram:

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!

skill hack

AoL 047: How to Skill Hack and Stay Engaged In Your Creative Work with Stephen Robinson

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On the show today, 2 friends and a host share what it’s really like learning for a living. That’s right, I said LEARN for a living.

What does mean? Well, I’m glad you asked!

Ginger joins me again in this one and we talk with one of her friends that she’s met in her travels – Stephen Robinson.

Stephen is founder of 52Skillz, a YouTube channel in where he discovers, learns, and shares a new skill weekly.

With so many “leading learners” out there, there’s a lot of conversation in how to do it.

While Stephen has had plenty of inspiration, he wants to make sure he does it his own way. He does it by one-upping people that are already out there.

So, is it as easy as it sounds? Or, as we ask him in the chat: How do you stay engaged and up-to-date in your work?

The answer, and the story of where 52Skillz came from is what we lay out for you today on the show.

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • How Stephen chose his major in college 10:42
  • How to not get your business lost in the ether of the internet. 14:37
  • Where the idea for 52 Skillz came from. 17:00
  • Does Stephen feel he was inspired by Tim Ferriss? 19:46
  • Does he feel like there’s any favorite skills that he’s learned? 21:53
  • Where he would recommend that people start if they wanted to start learning skills quickly. 29:02
  • How Stephen has a constant flow of content coming for his YouTube channel. 33:13
  • Does he do his own video production? 36:08
  • How he has the ability to work on a passion project while at the same pay the bills. 40:58
  • What’s a strategy that Stephen would recommend to transfer to do something they love? 44:34
  • How does Steven stay engaged in his work? 48:17
  • How he got ready for his TEDx talk 58:33
  • What is Stephen’s thoughts on having deadlines? 1:00:22
  • What’s Stephen looking forward to in the near future? 1:03:24
  • 3 Favorite Influencers 1:07:00
  • 3 Truths to share with others 1:07:18
  • What’s the message he’d put on social media? 1:08:42
  • What’s one thing that he used to believe but doesn’t anymore? 1:09:38
  • … 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:

Ginger comes through on her promise in learning to juggle!!:

Stephen’s TEDx Talk:

How He Prepped for his TEDx Talk:

Zephan Blaxberg Interview of Stephen:

Alexis Hillyard’s “Stump Kitchen” Crossover:

My Favorite Video of 52 Skillz:

 

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!

 

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.

AoL 041: Authenticity Rules – How a Performing Artist Can Become a Digital Marketing Maven with Mari Sauer

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No matter your age, background, sex, or culture, in the United States you’re free to pursue anything you want to in your career. Many people don’t realize this. They believe that what they’ve always done or what they’ve always been determines their future.

One of the best mainstream movies that come to mind that I recently watched the sequel to is My Big Fat Greek Wedding. In that movie, there’s a ton of traditions that the main character, Toula, has to deal with as she realizes more about the life she wants to live and with whom she wants to live it with.

I know my own previous thoughts of what I could be always included something “technical”. I grew up loving video games, reading n0n-fiction books about astronomy, being a sci fi geek in general, and thinking about places that I could travel to – and how their cultures were different. All of these things in a small town were hard to achieve. So as I got more involved in the internet, I found myself exploring the world wide web even more. I believed that my excursion into electrical engineering would help me understand the technology that goes behind how it worked – but I don’t know if I ever expected for it to be the focus of my job, in retrospect.

Today, I like to believe that part of my quest with New Inceptions is helping people reconnect to that in which they loved to do in the past, or even more so, help them realize that the silly interest that they care about but no one else does, might actually be the thing that sets them free.

The guest of this session is someone I believe has had a similar realization. She’s a great example of someone who is discovering her new inception.

She loves to help people connect with others about what they’re doing through digital marketing. She also has a love of performance and, in fact, wanted to be a professional dancer as she was growing up. However, as you might know, artists generally can’t make a living on their art early on in the career – so they have to pay the bills through other work. And like many struggling artist stereotypes out there, she became a waiter.

Funny enough, though, she developed an interest in her work there too and soon in the rest of the world of hospitality.

When I found out about her past in dance, I knew I had to have her on the show to talk about her transition to the role that she plays now. Needless to say, she’s not just some kid in their 20’s who just because she knows how to set up a social media account calls herself a social media guru. She’s someone that uses her experience in these other fields to make her clients not only feel great about the work they’re doing, but also plan it out so well that it’d be suitable for a five-star hotel.

In this session with Mari Sauer, we talk about her trek through dance, hospitality, and what brought her to digital marketing. We’ll also discuss why she believes why solopreneurs need to be more consistent with their social media. And we also talk about Gary Vee a bit and his interest in SnapChat.

If you feel like you’re stuck on an island that is closed off to opportunity to become a truer version of yourself, I hope that this talk inspires you to get out of your comfort zone of who you think you are professionally. Let’s learn to reconnect to the new version of yourself!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • Where her interest in pursuing a degree in dance came from. 7:06
  • How Mari made Hospitality and Tourism Management a big part of her career – even though she didn’t have a degree for it. 11:28
  • How authenticity helped her climb in the hospitality industry – including ending up working at the Four Seasons Maui. 16:02
  • How Mari ended up moving from Maui to Chicago. 18:20
  • What she learned from her time a PTA President when it came to dealing with volunteers. 20:29
  • How she eventually got back into the working world – this time in startups. 23:49
  • When she felt it was time to start her own thing vs starting again elsewhere. 30:10
  • How Mari gets paying clients and what she does for them. 36:52
  • How she keeps all of her client’s social media schedules straight. 39:40
  • What types of things she sees her clients doing when she first starts working with them. 42:41
  • Some of the hacks that she’d recommend to help solopreneurs out with their consistency in posting to social media. 47:05
  • Why it’s important to plan out your marketing and involve storytelling into your marketing. 48:21
  • What Mari is excited to be doing these days. 52:10
  • What she thinks SnapChat is a tool of authenticity. 53:22
  • What she’s looking forward to in the not too distant future with her brand. 49:42
  • How she wants people to remember her by from listening to her in this show. 57:30
  • Who are some influencers that she likes right now. 1:02:24
  • What she’d tell her 25 year old self. 1:09:23

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

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Episode 13 of #AskGaryVee: Gary mentions that SnapChat will be HUGE in 2016

Cliff Ravencraft’s guide to SnapChat:

Marie Forleo and Gary Vee talk about the future of Social Media Marketing (ca 2013):

Smart Passive Income Podcast Session 215 – How to Keep Up With Your Editorial Calendar (and How to Get Ahead):

Cjata3kVAAAxbag

 

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.

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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!