We're going to go in a little different direction today. I thought about doing a 'Kim Snippet' version of the podcast for this topic but then realized this would probably end up being a full length episode. Not really a snippet. (Clearly I'm not great at keeping things short & to the point). I'm going to try with every ounce of my being to share the story of what brought me to this difficult decision without being too ambiguous (because I'm not interested in sharing names or making anyone or anything 'wrong'). I mentioned this in my year in review podcast,  The Truth About 2015, Showing up in 2016 and WAY More Fun. Last year was amazing, but it was also really, really tiring. So I sort of took December off. When I say sort of I mean I took the month off from the mastermind I was in (note the past tense, which is where this is going). My year was up at the end of November and I was just fried. I wanted to simply do my thing, trust myself and work at a pace that worked for me. As opposed to what I was committing to in the group or from a public accountability perspective. I wanted more 'ease' in my life and less 'hustle' (we all know how I feel about the word hustle, so I won't go into that again). During that time I had also made the decision to hire Jason Hornung & his team to help me get my Facebook ads dialed in and running. After a couple years of just hopping in and testing Facebook Advertising (with some direction), I wanted to do it correctly. I wanted to run paid advertising based on data (novel idea, huh?). I had NO idea that my decision to hire Jason & his team would completely turn my world upside down (in a good way). I don't want this episode to turn into another 'Jason Hornung FanClub' episode (you can't really blame me though... he's just that good), but you can't un-push a button. Once you've seen what's 'behind the curtain' you can't un-see it. [Tweet ""Once you've seen what's behind the curtain you can't 'un-see' it" @kimdoyal"] Not only did I get the support and feedback I was so desperately needing, I also got the step-by-step system. Which unfortunately put a spotlight on the areas where I wasn't getting what I needed. Hence the difficult decision. It was time for me to leave my mastermind.  I felt this in my gut when I took December off, but I was afraid. This is the EGO not only riding shotgun, but driving the car. FOMO (Fear of missing out for those of you who haven't heard the term). What if?  What if I can't do it on my own? Will I lose relationships (inevitable when people are involved)? Will there be any backlash? Regrets (no matter how much I try to stay out of that place, it still shows up) But then there's the side that really matters. How I want to FEEL. The gut instinct. The truth about how I want to move through the world and how I want to show UP! I'm not sure when this hit me, but all of the sudden I realized that I was trying to do things one way with my brand, but then another way when I was marketing. Let me see if I can explain that better. Last fall I started getting a little obsessed with content marketing. I dove into content marketing with the same fervor I had when I realized I wanted to build a business around WordPress. Something finally 'clicked' for me with content marketing and I was having a ball. Because of this new found passion for content marketing I started looking at everything I was doing through new eyes. A different perspective if you will. None of my mentors were content marketers. They were all great at what they did, but they didn't have the experience (or knowledge) to help me drive what I had spent almost 8 years creating. Which was a brand. With an audience. And a message. They also didn't see the value in content marketing (which is not an argument I feel any need to go into... to each his own). Something inside me was screaming "TRUST YOURSEL...