mental wellness

Mental Wellness & the Creative Entrepreneur

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Over the weekend, there was yet another mass shooting. 11 people were injured, 3 people – including the gunman – were killed.

At this point, we’re not sure what caused the guy to do what he did. But many would guess that it was the fact that he was upset that he didn’t do as well as he wanted. He took it out on those who, in his mind, he could blame for his failure.

In the last couple of years, we’ve seen all kinds of people acting out in similar fashions. Whether it’s the series of mass shootings we’ve seen or it’s those cases where the person opted to take  take their own life, creatives seem to be pretty prone to being involved in either situation.

 

Nature of Success

One might think that those of us who have had success in our lives, that we might be able to rise above these thoughts. Unfortunately, that just simply isn’t the case. As The Notorious B.I.G. said, “Mo Money, Mo Problems!”

I’ve mentioned this before, but those who are often the most depressed are the ones who usually have the fire to become successful. They think that money, fame, and freedom will solve their woes. But in the end, they don’t. They’re as unhappy as they were when they first started.

If these things made us happier with life, then there’s a good chance that people like Robin Williams, Chester Bennington, Kate Spade, and Anthony Bourdain would still be around.

 

We’re Aliens

Recently I came across a new video by the infamous group Die Antwoord. If you’ve never heard their music, then the best way to describe their work is if you mixed a hip-hop artist with an EDM DJ.

It’s not for everyone. However, the message they produce with their songs is one of the most creative I’ve seen in the last decade.

In the case of this video and song, they’re talking about not fitting in.

Here’s a few of the lyrics

I close my eyes and float into the night I like to let my mind drift

Make a jump into a new dimension

Thank God I got that gift

…

Sometimes it feels like coming from this planet people are so sick and twisted

I don’t wanna fit in anyway, I’d rather be a misfit

…

They laugh at me because I’m different, I laugh at them because they’re all the same

…

I am a alien

No matter how hard I try I don’t fit in

Always all on my own, sad and lonely

All I want is for someone to play with me

mental wellness

Do you feel like an alien? If so, know you’re not alone.

 

If I’m understanding this song correctly, I appreciate its message. When I was growing up, I was bullied constantly. Sure, I was the biggest kid in my grade, but I was also a pretty big geek compared to my classmates. And in my small town, that was two strikes right there!

However, looking back, I can now say that I was definitely a proto-millennial. I always had a better time interacting with kids who were younger than me. It’s one of the main reasons why I’m proud to be called a Xennial.

But man, when I was in the thick of it – where it got especially bad was my first few of years at Purdue. In high school, the one thing that saved me was that I was a good student. However, when I started at Purdue I struggled to get C’s in my classes. During that time, I’d try anything to make my grades better. So I can definitely understand why people can just do crazy things when they’re depressed. Depression and an overall feeling of not living up to your own or others standards can really make you into someone you’re not.

 

Coping with Depression

So how did I get out of my funk?

Well, first, I think the biggest thing I did was start hanging out with people who had similar goals in life. Luckily for me, just when I was starting to hit the bottom, I gained several good friends. Two of which were my groomsmen. They weren’t judgemental and really helped me take my mind off of worrying about tests all the time.

It was also about that time where I started actually thinking about working out on my own. I had always heard people talk about exercise as a stress reliever – so I started going to the Co-Rec pretty regularly. (In fact, that was one of the places where I’d see alumni cohost Laila from time to time!)

Another thing that I did was take advantage of free services provided by the Department of Psychology at Purdue. I think I probably had 3 different issues that I saw them for. I still remember some of the issues that people in my support groups had… and I don’t even remember why I went!!

That said, that last one there might be the only way that some people might be able to get help. Seriously, seek professional help. If it’s good enough for Lucifer, then us mortals can probably benefit as well!

If you’re having suicidal thoughts, get help right away. Call the suicide hotline at 1-800-273-TALK.

 

Keep Up with the Weeds

Now just because I got out of my funk, doesn’t mean that I stopped utilizing those habits that I developed back then.

Today, I try to be as social as I can. I still walk Max (RIP Sadie and Sable), and I try to be mindful of what I’m eating. And I also make sure I get a great amount of sleep.

That said, I’ve learned that there’s a couple of other things that I do these days that I didn’t back then. One thing I try to do is be as optimistic as possible by using the 5 Minute Journal – which can be found on the App and Play Store. Since using it, I’ve come to realize that affirmations really help drain your brain of negative thoughts.

Another thing that I’ve found that helps me is not “subscribing” to all the things that I could. Meaning, I don’t put myself into situations where I feel that I could become addicted to something. For example, even though I still call myself a gamer, I limit myself to playing a handful of games only a handful of hours per week. Even more, I could never see myself as someone who plays to get paid. It would take the enjoyment out for me by adding stress to it.

Another example is with it being the football season, it’s time once again for fantasy football. To make sure I don’t get too involved with it, I only play free leagues. The stress from watching the games is enough for me!

 

Action Steps

So, I hope that helps someone. The shooting this past weekend really hit me. Again, it could have been something avoidable. I can see why some people think that removing the gun from the equation might help, but the real problem isn’t the firearms. Guns are simply a tool. It’s the people behind the tool that we have to worry about.

That dude was going to kill one way or another. And it didn’t have to be that way.

If you or someone you know is having issues make sure to get help. Heck, even you reaching out and saying hi to someone you know that’s having some issues might be all it takes to prevent them from doing something drastic.

 

what to do when depressed

Surviving the Troughs of Life: What to Do When You’re Depressed with Anthony Hayes (AoL 087)

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Depression can be a heck of a struggle – and it can hit us at any time. For creatives, depression can be triggered by the simple feeling of being alone because no one understands what it is you’re trying to do. For a lot of people, though, it can set in from life not going the way we’d expect it to.

Personally, I went through depression 3 times in my first two years of college. I was used to being great in my academic studies and all of a sudden, I wasn’t. Eventually I found out that the cause of my depression was due to my major, and I switched soon thereafter.

For our guest, Anthony Hayes, he realized back in 2004 that he was chronically depressed himself. He set out on a mission to figure out how to not only get out of it, but then to not fall back into it ever again. Besides coming up with his M5 strategy, he also has written a book on the matter, and continues to help others with the problem.

Besides this mission, he’s the host of Me, Myself, and I Radio, and co-founder of the Facebook Community – Podcast Discovery Center.

Join us as we find out more about this journey of his and the purpose of his work that he does today.

Thanks for listening, and enjoy the show!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • How did Anthony realize that he was severely depressed? 9:55
  • How does he keep from entering into his troughs in life? 19:08
  • What was the purpose behind Anthony writing his book? 23:29
  • What’s Anthony’s podcast about and who should be listening? 27:13
  • What prompted Anthony to join Scott Doucet in creating the PDC? 33:25
  • What’s Anthony’s M5 Strategy and what effect they’ve had on his life? 39:27
  • What’s the big ambitions for Anthony in 2017? 47:10
  • 3 Top Favorite Books? 50:00
  • One thing he wishes was still a thing? 50:42
  • One gift that he likes giving others? 53:41
  • What’s one thing that all high school students must know? 54:25
  • How can someone be a difference maker in their community? 54:46
  • … 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:

Anthony on the Importance of Goals as a Podcaster:

Anthony on the topic of including descriptions in your podcasts:

Dr. Kasim Al-Mashat on How Meditation Redefines pain, happiness, and satisfaction:

Light Watkins on Debunking the 5 Most Common Meditation Myths:

what to do when depressed what to do when depressed what to do when depressed what to do when depressed

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!

veronica kirin

Veronica Kirin on Utilizing Personal Connections in Web Design and Coaching (AoL 051)

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Of course you’re worried about your business idea. You’re not sure if it has what it takes to do anything out in the wild of the market. Do people really want what you have to offer? Who knows?

For so many of us, this worry keeps us from moving forward with our idea. Many times we’re held back more by the fear of what we might lose than what we might gain – even if we don’t have anything to lose yet.

According to today’s guest, Veronica Kirin, women tend to feel this fear and other emotions even more. She herself has had to struggle with being an outsider looking in – in her home town. She says,  “both men and women burn out, but women have to deal with extra hurdles that men might not have to”. 

Knowing these differences allows her to design websites and coach her clients in a very personal manner. She gets it because she’s been there herself.

In this chat, Laila and I talk with her about how she got over her initial obstacles of starting a business. (Which included having people in her network that didn’t support what she wanted to do because she had other ideas.) We also talk a bit about her new podcast, Degrees of Separation, and we also find out more about her experiences with coaching.

The thing about business ideas is that there’s no such thing as certainty, only confidence. There is no way to tell if a business is going to work with 100% certainty, but we can find confidence. Perhaps hearing Veronica’s story, will help you start finding your confidence.

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • Where her interest in helping others came 13:55
  • Why she majored in Social Anthropology and how she put it to use after graduation. 15:21
  • Why she decided to start a non-profit disaster relief organization. 20:21
  • How her first business, Green Cup Design, got started. 23:30
  • What she learned from Fuse West Michigan 28:53
  • How she knew it was time to enter into coaching 33:01
  • What she likes and dislikes about coaching 38:30
  • Why do entrepreneurs struggle with getting past point A? 43:44
  • Why she wrote a presidential speech when she was 17 49:08
  • Struggles women might have when starting an entrepreneurial career 50:18
  • What her new podcast, Degrees of Separation, is about. 55:21
  • What other projects she’s looking forward to releasing. 56:37
  • Who are 3 of her favorite influencers? 58:53
  • What are 3 of her favorite podcasts? 59:53
  • One gift she likes giving others. 1:00:18
  • Something she’d tell her 21 year old self is bogus. 1:00:45
  • Message or ad that she’d put out into the world where lots of people would see it. 1:01:57
  • When she thinks of success, who comes to mind? 1:02:49
  • … 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:

Interview with Chad Bostick:

Trailer for Untold Stories:

Where Untold Stories Came From:

Virgil Westdale on why he’s happy Veronica is doing Untold Stories:

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!

 

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!

enthusiasticlay

AoL 046: Why Finding Your Clarity and Focus is Vital to Achieving High Performance with Clay Green

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“Why is it that some people seem to get more done in a short period of time, where I’m effectively just treading water?”

Here’s the deal — you’re a small business person. You’re the little guy. You only have so much time to do all of the things that need to get done in a given day. As I’ve mentioned in The 6 Cornerstones eBook, there are 6 things you have to do to be successful online. When you’re doing those things regularly, you still might feel as if you’re simply not moving forward as fast as you’d like.

As I also mention in the book, the first thing you need to do when starting any business is to embrace your Why. I’ve talked about this a couple of times on the blog – it’s that important.

When Brendon Burchard had his infamous accident, he asked himself at the time (because he didn’t know he was going to make it), if he had the opportunity to “Live, Love, and Matter.” That simple question helped him find his Why.

Similarly, today’s guest, Clay Green, has had a similar brush with death on a motorcycle. He actually hit a deer as he was out on his motorcycle. Since that moment, he’s been able to come to grips with his Why and it’s because he was able to encapsulate the focus that he felt in that moment.

Through his work with his clients, he helps them find that focus and clarity that so many of us struggle with – not only when we’re just getting started, but also as we’ve been working for such a long time that we’ve forgotten what we’re doing.

In this chat, we talk about the wreck, how people can live a Charged life, and what it’s like to be one of Brendon’s Certified High Performance Coaches.

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • Why Clay believes his career in military has lead to his success today. 4:31
  • How he believes that people can go from a comfortable or caged life to a charged life 14:25
  • The “Deer Incident” and what he got from it. 34:19
  • Why someone might actually want to have their own business. 46:15
  • What Clay got out of the Deer Incident 49:05
  • What’s the difference between going through Brendon’s High Performance Academy and becoming a Certified High Performance Coach? 54:15
  • How can someone realize that they’re struggling with one of the areas that Certified High Performance Coaches can help clients with? 1:00:44
  • What are three thought leaders he’s suggested the most to people? 1:13:10
  • One book that has catapulted him to where he is today. 1:14:35
  • What are three truths he’s learned over time that he’d share with others. 1:15:06
  • If he could say any ad on any social media, what would he say and what platform would he use? 1:18:13
  • What’s something he believed when he was 30 but he considers bogus now. 1:19:50
  • When he thinks of the word success, who comes to mind and why? 1:20:50
  • … 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:

Clay and Tara Howisey discuss SnapChat to Drive Engagement and Increase Revenue:

Clay on Personal Branding:

Why you might be avoiding Success:

Bootstrap Businessmen Dale Roberts and Kevin Allen interview Clay:

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!

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!

Repurposing Content Roundup

Repurposing Content Roundup: How to Use Your Content Sawdust

/by

As online content makers, we all put a ton of work into the content that we create. That work takes time. And unless you’re some 5th dimension alien being that has no problem traveling in the 4th dimension (which is time), then you probably don’t have the minutes in a day to make new piece after new piece of content for each platform you’re on.

However, that’s not too say you should just throw one piece out there, forget about it and move on to the next. On the other hand, it also doesn’t mean that you should go out there and post “20 posts on Facebook a day”.

There is a happy medium between making one post and moving on to the next (which is highly ineffective) to repeatedly saying “Hey everyone! Check this out!” 10+ times a day (which is another highly ineffective way to get your message out there).

What’s a way to produce that content in a way that isn’t overwhelming? And what’s the correct amount?

Content “Sawdust”

In a video that came out last week, Gary Vaynerchuck dropped this word to describe macro-content. While I had heard of his strategy from Brendon Burchard, in how he uses quotes for Instagram and Facebook, I hadn’t really thought about applying it to anything else than that platform.

Essentially content sawdust is little snippets from the main content. As Gary said, when people think of .gif pictures, that is a form of sawdust. When you see a trailer for a movie, that consists of sawdust. Heck, you might even be able to think of sawdust as that thing that Paul Harvey used to do before he did his Midday NEWS or The Rest of the Story.

(Speaking of Paul Harvey, Mike Rowe – yes, from Dirty Jobs – is starting a new podcast that Paul Harvey was an inspiration for. Check that out here!)

Know Thy Platform

Before you go posting content sawdust, you need to know how to work the platform that you’re posting that sawdust on.

For example, the topic of this post came to me last week from one of my favorite Facebook Groups: The Expert Community. If you don’t know about Facebook Groups and how they’re helping online business in 2016, then you have a few things to learn about how Facebook currently works.

In the old days, before Pages, Groups were the place where people could come together and discuss things that they had an interest in. I know that when I was going to Purdue, that I made several off the wall ones. So did some of my friends.

One of the ones that I was proudest of was called the 10/22 Club. It started of as a club at Purdue who members had their birthday on October 22nd. Very elitist, right? Haha.

Back then, you could search for people by birthday. And, if I recall correctly, I had 25 members at one point. However, by this point, it had grown beyond Purdue itself.

Eventually, Pages did come into the picture, and when they did – groups essentially stopped having a purpose. If you had a Page, you could essentially create a profile for an organization, game, or anything else that wasn’t just one person. Dogs, cats, birthday clubs… you name it.

Just like you can on your own wall, a Page could post something and people who liked that page would see it on their feeds. Groups never had the ability to really do this.

Technically, that’s still the way Pages work. Unfortunately for us business owners, things changed again about 2 years ago. To get more than 10% of your followers to see what you posted on a Page, you have to pay for it – regardless of what the Page is being used for. I call this the Page Pay to Play. It’s very one direction.

In retaliation(?) to this, groups started making a comeback. However, instead of just passively posting things on your page wall, with groups, you have to pay attention to the rules of the group. Many don’t support posts to external links. They fear that the use of external links will drive people away from the group. A greedy owner of the group might see this as a threat.

Personally, I feel the more the merrier. As long as posts are relevant to the group and are offering free value to the members – it’s a great thing to do. However, if spam starts entering then, you might just have to draw some lines. Simply come up some rules in which the community has to follow. That’s why big groups with 1000+ members often have themes and rules when it comes to what’s going on each day.

Another thing about groups is that you actually have to engage and become connected to the people in the group. To do this well, I think you really have to think of it more as a community and not so much of an authority page.

That said, I think Facebook has become community driven. You just have to be willing to friend up to the max of 5000 people if you want it to work that way for you. Otherwise, go with the Page Pay to Play method.

That all being said, you’ll have to figure out how to use the platform that you want to connect with your audiences on. Do you use Instagram? What works over there? Do you use Snapchat? How does that work? Periscope? Again – figure out the best way to package the sawdust to those audiences.

If you want some specific examples of how you can package sawdust from your blog posts, specifically, you can check out Pat’s examples here.

Correct Amount to Post

If you feel I haven’t answered this part indirectly already, then I’ll go ahead an answer it directly here. The correct amount to post is… ::drumroll::

…up to you.

Brendon posts 4 times a day. He uses 2 posts that he made that morning. I’ve seen him do 2 images on Instagram and 2 on Facebook. Specifically he says his times are 7am, 11am, 3pm, and 7pm for those posts. He posts many of his YouTube videos on Sunday (who does that?).

Pat posts several times a day. I wasn’t able to pin down exactly other than a 9am post, a midday post, and an after work post. Generally speaking he does a good job of posting on the weekends a couple of times. However, when he’s traveling – he kinda goes through all the platforms. On his trip to the Food Blogger Conference in Salt Lake City this past weekend, he ended up Instagramming a pic of his luggage during the day. Then later, he did a ‘scope and then a couple of Facebook Live posts in the evening. As well as saying thanks to the people he had dinner with and the tours he got though the rest of the weekend.

Gary posts… well, I haven’t been able to pin it down yet. But I’m assuming it’s similar – AND he has a guy shadowing him for DailyVee. So, it’s not necessarily a one man band. If you’re really interested in when his accounts post (or anyone) – make an account on IFTTT and create a recipe that monitors certain accounts and posts the message on a spreadsheet. Then from there you can see patterns after a week of monitoring.

Action Steps:

So this week, as you’re creating your new epic posts. I want you to start going through some of the work you’ve already done. See if there’s anything in there that you might be able to say to yourself “man, that was good!”. Quote it and repackage it.

So many people don’t reuse the evergreen content they have. If you’re on a budget (like me) use what’s free and what you can afford to spend. If you have some extra funds to try some other stuff, get a subscription to Edgar or something similar. Spend some time coming up with a daily and monthly plan of how you can line up content. Make themed weeks. If that goes well, start doing themed months!