...And Content and Metrics. In my last solo show I shared with you guys that there were a couple of opportunities for me to collaborate with people. Well... I almost jumped the gun on yet another collaboration with someone else! I know, I know. We both got caught up in the moment, sat with it for a few days and when we had our next call both decided that it was a complete distraction and NOT the direction either of us wanted to be heading in. Which brings me to the  IDEAS part of this episode. As an entrepreneur we're NEVER lacking ideas... in fact, there's often a plethora of them that tend to be more of a distraction than anything else. The crazy thing is that for me, I allow these distractions in, even though I know in my GUT that I need to stay focused. What I've learned about these distractions lately is that it's more a part of my process than anything else. And I don't buy into every distraction. I usually have a few different things going on at any given time. I've read all the books (The ONE thing, Essentialism, etc.... which btw are GREAT books), but I also know myself and how I operate. I have two VERY clear priorities in my business right now. And then there are a handful of 'side' projects that I have going for me. The difference with the side projects for "me" and the collaboration projects is that I'm not responsible to anyone else for the work that does (or doesn't) get done on these side projects. They're something I play with when I need a break from everything else I'm doing. When I want to 'play' with something that doesn't require me showing up as Kim Doyal. Part of my journey in ALL of this is to genuinely show up as myself, which I love (as scary as that can be). But it can also be a little tiring at times. When you make a conscious decision to put your name and face on things you want to do it in a way that serves your audience AND you. No one can do that 24/7. So what do you do with all these fantastic ideas? That's up to you. You need to figure out what works best for you and run with it. Here are a few things I do with these ideas: Here's what I DON'T do: Shift my priorities so any of my new 'ideas' overtake my focus and before you know it I'm exactly where I was a few months ago. I see this happen over and over and over again with people. What they're doing isn't working the way they want (hear producing the income they want) so they jump ship too early. Instead of tweaking and measuring what they're working on, they give up and jump into something else. There's also that entrepreneurial rush that kicks in when you come up with an idea that lights you up! And it's pretty addicting. Which is where the Content and Metrics come in. Unless you have an unlimited budget for advertising, you're going to have to create content. [tweet_box]"Unless you have an unlimited budget for advertising, you're going to have to create content."[/tweet_box] It's not just that 'content is king', like we've all heard over and over again. Content is REQUIRED. Content isn't just about SEO, indexing and keywords. It's about building relationships and trust in a way that makes people want to do business with you. It's providing value before people hand over their hard earned cash. Lately I've seen a LOT of discussion around people who aren't going to keep giving things away. Some think the 'free model' doesn't work anymore, do people really care about opt-ing in for your free guide, ebook, cd, audio, course, etc.? I don't have the answer to that (nor do I care to get into a discussion or debate around it. Not because it's not a worthwhile topic, I simply don't have the energy). What I DO know is that people who do content marketing RIGHT are killing it. Take a look at Dan Norris as an example (founder of WP Curve and author of The 7 Day Startup and newly released Content Machine). Dan literally is a machine when it comes to content (I'm hoping to have him...