Kim Doyal 0:00

Before we get into today's episode, I have a quick message for my sponsor cloudways. cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that simplifies your web hosting experience. The platform allows businesses to focus on their growth and have complete peace of mind with 24/7 support and flexibility to scale. Can we just say support is hugely important when it comes to hosting and thanks to cloudways they are offering an exclusive discount for the Kim Doyal show listeners. Visit cloudways calm and use a promo code Chem 20 to get 20% off for two months on the hosting plan of your choice. Alright guys, let's get into today's episode. Welcome to F the hustle. I'm your host Kim Doyal. You want a life that is meaningful and exciting. In this podcast, we're going to talk about launching and growing an online business that fits your lifestyle. After the hustle is all about doing good work, building real relationships, and most importantly, creating a business that supports how you want to live your life. You don't have to sacrifice the quality of your life today to create something that sets your soul on fire. And yes, that includes making a lot of money. So we'll be talking about selling, charging what you're worth, and how earning more means helping more people. My goal is to help you find freedom and create a business on your terms.

Hey, what's going on everybody? Welcome to another episode of the hustle with Kim Doyal I am effing the hustle in Costa Rica. As you can see, welcome back. I'm so excited today for a number of reasons. But the to specifically one my guest is a dear friend and coaching client, love her energy, love everything she's doing. And the second reason is we're going to talk about something that I have jumped back into and I'm committed to mastering. So first of all, my guess is Karen Michaels. Karen, thank you so much for being here today.

Karen Michaels 1:52

Yeah, that was super fun. You are having the hustle all day long girl.

Kim Doyal 1:56

I don't know where that came in. You know, I don't always do that. Like, ah, but today was one of those days. And this is a total non sequitur. I bought the shade for this window over here. And I couldn't figure out how to roll it up. Right. Well, I figured out how to roll it up. So I was like, oh, like again.

Karen Michaels 2:13

Oh, you can see the ocean as a current desert dweller. I use the ocean waves as my regular focus sounds.

Kim Doyal 2:24

You know, it's funny to to because I've got all the everything shut with AC on. Yes, yes. From that down a little. Alright. So first of all, Karen, before we get into our topic, Mm hmm. Tell the audience who you are what you do. And you know how you run your business?

Karen Michaels 2:43

How I read my wells, oh, my gosh,

Kim Doyal 2:45

you're all day with that one. But I think really going in the right direction. And so a bit with sort of some off script, which is what I do, which will lead to why we're talking about this specific topic today. So

Karen Michaels 2:58

yeah, sounds fun. Your girl Well, I am. I am a solopreneur here in Las Vegas, Nevada. And I'm also a singer and a pianist who happens to love technology and apple and writing. And I had been dabbling, and it was 100% of side hustle, right? I was dabbling with social media. And I was helping friends or a client would say, oh my gosh, I love what you did. Can you mock that up for me right quick before the gig, you know, hilarious. And I was like, Sure, no problem. And then, of course, when the pandemic struck, and quarantine happened, I'm gonna be honest, my business took off. And thank goodness it did, right. Because there wasn't any live performing or any of that sort of, I'm also a teacher. And so none of that was happening.

Kim Doyal 3:50

Let me just clarify your voice teacher.

Karen Michaels 3:53

A voice teacher? Uh huh. Yes, yes. And so I would, I was like, wow. And then people came to me. I mean, dare I say in droves? Where, you know, Karen, how do I do this? What kind of camera should I use? How do I do my social media? What should I do what? And it? I am so lucky. In that sense. Just things just blossomed. I had a great time. And now now where I'm at is, you know, I have between five and 12 clients, depending on what's going on, because I do regular, you know, people, I have retainer clients. So those are monthly every month clients, and then I have campaign clients where they'll come to me once or twice a year to help them run something specific like to sell their show or sell tickets or sell their new course or costume or whatever it is. So yeah, so that's where I'm at.

Kim Doyal 4:44

Okay, so and I want to say that the retainer clients and the campaign client sees your social media, where you're on social media, it's all social media. Okay, good. Yes. Which it's really fun because I have this love hate relationship with it. You'd have a love love relationship with it. So, I love it though I love it. I love your enthusiasm. And I want to I was just thinking about this I want to pull out sort of a side note for our listeners and viewers is that how many years ago did we connect?

Karen Michaels 5:14

I was thinking about that this morning. Okay, because I found you because my, in my music life, I'm chick singer. And that's my moniker. And that's you can find that icon my socials. And then you I was searching for a WordPress thing and WordPress chick popped up. Right. And so I'm like, check, oh my gosh, this, what Insta friends. And so I think is it? I mean, is it 10 years ago?

Kim Doyal 5:42

True. It really could be 10 years ago, cuz it was early on. And yeah, when I was doing sites and stuff. So but what's really fun to do we do a website for you. Do we do a chick singer site?

Karen Michaels 5:54

Yeah, you like helped me? Because of course, I was like, hey, I really like doing this myself. Yeah. Okay. Can you show me things? So you would do something and then you would say, Hey, I blah, blah, blah, or I use this plugin or so it was like a half and half. You were so gracious to help me do that. So okay, I was trying.

Kim Doyal 6:11

I was trying to, because I remember the chick singer. Yeah. But my whole point in bringing this up is then we couldn't we reconnected. You stayed on my list. We reconnected, you jumped into email insiders, the first cohort of that? Yeah. You know, I've been coaching you. And yes, so great. So but I mean, the whole point of that is that I want people to pay attention to the long game. And to understand that, you know, curation and relationships, you have no idea when somebody is either ready for your products and services, or how it can collaborate. And now, based on the work we've been doing, like, we've got this thing that I basically was like, Would you please do this? So?

Karen Michaels 6:52

Yes, and it's so amazing, right? Because that, and that's the key. That's why That's why I love social media so much, because it is about connections and relationships and engaging with each other. It's social. And so that's why I always tell all my clients and the clients that I work for, that posting is not your only job. In fact, it's probably may, you know, 50% at the best, because you want to be commenting on other people's stuff, and, you know, liking it and supporting what they do. And then they'll reciprocate and then it just turns into this beautiful boss blossom flower. You know, I love it.

Kim Doyal 7:32

Well, and where do you think? And just for the listeners, also that I promised, we are going to get into the other topic. For those of you who are wondering, we're gonna go all in with Twitter. And we'll fill you in in just a second. But where do you think things went sideways with social being? So here's an example this morning. I was listening to a I guess it was an interview. I don't think they have a podcast, but it was Justin Welsh and who it was Nicolas Cole and Dickie Bush friendship 30. Yes, for those who share. Karen did the ship 30 back in the fall. And then I asked her about it. I did it and fell off the ship. I keep saying in January when I got sick. So I'm doing the the march cohort. I just I love these guys. Albert from you're doing, but it was amazing. Like, where was that going with Justin Walsh. Oh, so listening to him talk about how he grew his company. And you guys, I don't know this guy from Adam. But it was a really, really good, great talk his previous life. He was like a CEO or SAS guy or something. Yeah. And you he literally shares no links on Twitter. But he tweets, right, he created this tweet schedule. And he's like, I'm promoting anything. And he has it. He has a LinkedIn course I guess it's like 150 bucks, but a site but he said, I never do an ask on Twitter for a link or a buy or a promotion. And he's scaled his one man show to like 1.5 million a year, or 1.5 million. But either way, the whole point being Yes, his point was in just being there and connecting, engaging and talking. So that's just to support your it's social. Let's go back to being people right.

Karen Michaels 9:17

Yes, exactly. I mean, listen, if we're talking about business, I'm obviously not telling you to post your dinner every night. Although that's not a terrible idea to post that you are a human once in a while. Hello. But just you know, if you want to, I just think sometimes people they they have conversations that maybe they wouldn't have in person. They feel they become the keyboard warrior. Oh thing in the negative sense, right? Yeah. Yeah. And and um, I always say to people, you know, if you would not say that in person I recommend I welcome you to think as I love one of those sentences that I've learned to say I invite you to say, Yes, I invite you to not type that sentence and said, I'm just thinking out loud, you know, because come on, there's enough of that kind of silliness. And my and, and like you said, I have such I really do have a huge verb for social media. And I love what it does. I was on MySpace, sir, back in the day with my little daisies, and flowers and butterflies and all that junk that I love. But it's just big. And I met some great people there who are still my friends today. How is that even possible? You know? Yeah,

Kim Doyal 10:33

I think we've we're past the point where all my friends are friends that just yet. But oh, God, I lost my train of thought. This is like the third time I've done this today. This is gonna be awesome. Let's pivot a little bit because, okay, I want to hear it's so funny because I, when I decided to put a little bit more time and energy into Twitter, it was sort of I don't say accidental. I mean, I'm almost at 20,000 followers. I bet on there, right, since 2008. And so now I've got like, this sort of resurgence and sometimes I feel like I'm slow with the deploying of stuff. And I'm like, but I trust myself, right and not Yes. Anyways, what I started noticing with Twitter one was friends like you, Jason Resnick in our people, like, Oh, I'm getting a lot of traffic from Twitter. I'm getting this from Twitter and also because Facebook feels like a ghost town and it just doesn't feel good period. Right now, which was a state of flux for it on one dad on the other hand, it's like I like that they're getting kind of called to task for lack of a better word. Yes, exactly.

Karen Michaels 11:42

I want to do some housecleaning for sure. Right.

Kim Doyal 11:45

Let's hope you know, I think all I actually think all the platforms need to do some housecleaning graters thing, we're tired of being the product. So that

Karen Michaels 11:53

exactly, I just I talked about that in my most my new podcast, I just uploaded my episode for I feel so excited. And I talk about that, you know, because it's, you know, they've allow they we've allowed them to have us be the product for free.

Kim Doyal 12:11

And then all the paid traffic is going up because it and so there's there's going to be a reckoning, I have no idea what that looks like or what it means. But yes, anyway, I agree. You know, so, so friends are telling me about this. So where I kind of started, I've always pushed content on Twitter, I think I was probably way more active on it years and years ago. But I would push content. And so I went in and I you know, I use missing letter to schedule like a campaign that goes out for the air. And it's nuts, Karen, we're all looking at like a link clicks. And I think it's clicks through. I should double check. I don't know if it's bio link clicks or just link clicks anyways. Okay, there might be one post, and I'll get 39 from Twitter, and I'll get one from LinkedIn. And one wow is like, it's nuts, the amount of traffic or clicks or whatever. And I'm like, Okay, this is definitely worth paying attention to. And anyways, so I've kind of been going down this deep hole. And it's a whole different way of looking at it. So all that being said, before we get into why I've been begging you to do a Twitter threads class, which by the way, you guys is gonna be free. That's why we're doing this episode. I want as many people deciding, let's, I want to hear your thoughts and feelings, honestly, about Twitter and why you think it's a great channel?

Karen Michaels 13:30

Oh, gosh, I mean, I What? Well, what I really love about it, so many things. Oh my gosh, what I love about it is sometimes when we have a constraint, it actually allows for more creativity, it seems, you know, that seems a bit unbalanced to say that, but when you have the constraint of now it's 280 characters, you have to really think about

Kim Doyal 13:57

what was 160 Way back in the day, when it started, right. I

Karen Michaels 14:01

was on there then to a well with my other account. Um, and so what I love about that is that it's these quick thoughts that you can put out there in the world. And then what happens then that's where the magic happens. Somebody says something that inspires you or makes you think, or you want to jump upon or whatever it is, and then you say something back to them. And that of course still is in that constraint of the 280 characters. And then they talk to you and then someone else jumps in. And before you know it, there is this beautiful conversation going on all over the place. And oh my gosh, I just think that and what Twitter Twitter has been very, very careful, I think to to keep itself as clean as possible. I mean, it is, you know, it does the best it can with all the craziness and, you know, with with people posting a lot of crazy things, but they're really good at it. watching out for that sort of thing. And not only that, I personally think, because as I think with every platform, you should be curating your platforms so that you don't see things you don't want to see.

Kim Doyal 15:11

Go a little bit deeper with that. How would somebody do that on Twitter?

Karen Michaels 15:14

On Twitter, there are lists, and there are groups. And then you know, I follow women in marketing. It's a whole list in a group, right, I follow. And then I'm very choosy about the notifications I receive about Twitter, Matt Nevarez, a top one, because he talks a lot about social media. So I'm watching him to make sure I'm on trend with things. Obviously, Dickie bush and Nicolas called those guys from ship 30. I'm really watching what they're doing, because they're always offering fantastic insights, and beautiful ideas about how to write and what to write about and how to create content. So

Kim Doyal 15:49

I feel like they have flipped side note non sequitur, that they have flipped the narrative about what writing online means, right? I

Karen Michaels 15:59

think so.

Kim Doyal 16:00

I think the narrative, I'm all about your website and SEO, but they're like start writing. And here's where you can do it. And you can actually build an audience, while you're getting clear. And while you're creating your category, which sadly,

Karen Michaels 16:12

because exactly you get because one thing I really love as a social media person, Twitter has beautiful Analytics, you don't have to go to any third party site, you just put in, you could literally Google Twitter analytics, if you're signed into your account, and poof, it will pop up and tell you what your what all your stats, your top posts, you're the top person who follows you, your most recent follows. What did well, what didn't do as well. It's an incredible analytic backend insight. And, and it's free, it's just part of the platform. And it's very clear. It's not like some of the other platforms where I feel like I'm constantly like, what is this? And, you know, and I look at this stuff all the time. And I always think, gosh, if I'm thinking, if I'm confused, and I look at this stuff, literally daily, what is the regular average person who is just a small business person working to market their stuff, you know, as a solopreneur, what is happening to them? So that's what I really love that about Twitter. I love that about Twitter.

Kim Doyal 17:22

The other thing I love about Twitter is it's funny I was you know, it's like our saying, I'm not on Facebook a whole lot. I still don't know, I'm with my Facebook group. It's almost 10,000 people that I'm like, there has to be something here. So do we rise Anyway, moving on. But I'll go into Facebook, and I go to my notifications. And I'm like, no, no, he's like, there's so much. You know, nothing's on on my phone. But I mean, I'm just sitting here going, this person that I don't ever engage with is going live, I don't care. Like it's, it's sort of irrelevant, weird. Anybody that's in my, my realm right now, like getting a notification like this is, this is dumb. And maybe it's partly because so many people are not on the platform, that the notifications are going in that direction. But sure, either where,

Karen Michaels 18:15

but I do I just think that that's one of the biggest responsibilities we all have, I think is take responsibility for what makes you feel good, what uplifts you what teaches you, you know, those are that's on you, if I may be so bold to say that because, you know, and especially on Twitter, you know, all it takes is one or two tweets, you kind of know where someone's going. And it's so great, you just head on over to their profile, you can scroll through, you can see instantly who they're retweeting and what they're posting, and instantly know what kind of person they are.

Kim Doyal 18:49

So it's so can we talk a little bit about the content then? Because, yes, the crazy thing, Karen, I am not blocking words, right. I like to write like to create, but I feel like I get into this judgment mode about what to tweet or how to do it. And it's it's so bizarre. I don't there, there's a little bit of a block, which is also a big drive. I wanted to do ship 30. So can you give some suggestions or how to approach like, using your voice on Twitter in shorter characters that's engaging and hear my heart really quick? I when I was listening to that, the thing was just almost this morning, so many people will come at this from the...