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Secrets of a Six-Figure Online Business Expert (with Alex Nerney) · The Daily Writer

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: What if you could make six figures with your online business?
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: How would that impact your life?
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: How would that impact your family?
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: The good news is that it's possible.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: And my guest today is here to reveal the secrets of how to do it.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, hello, my friend.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: This is Kent Sanders from Inquell Ghostwriting.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to this episode of the Smart Business Writing Podcast.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: This is the show that helps you grow your business, amplify your authority, and increase your impact through the power of writing.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for joining me on this episode.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm thrilled today to bring you this conversation with Alex Nerney, who is an entrepreneur and adventure junkie.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: It all started when Alex and his business partner quit their jobs, sold almost everything they owned, and went all in on blogging.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: And thus, Create and Go was born.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: And that's an online blog that teaches others how to start a blog and eventually make money with blogging.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Within their first year, they made$103,000 blogging.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: By year four, they're now making over$100,000 per month online.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: And the best thing is that Alex now lives his life completely on his own terms.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: In this conversation, Alex shares how he got started in online business, why he started with blogging, and how podcasts, video, and blogging can all work together.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: You'll also learn some next steps you need to take in order to begin the journey towards six figures.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: And this was a really packed interview where I learned a lot, and I know you're going to learn a lot as well.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: So let's get right to the conversation with Alex Snerney.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Alex, welcome to the Smart Business Writing Podcast.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited that we've had the chance to connect and um yeah, glad you're here.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm looking forward to our conversation.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Excited to do this, Kent.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Let's uh let's rock it.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Is that what the young people say?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think so.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a good idea.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't know what they say.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Rock and roll.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I think that's what Marty McFly said in Back to the Future is like rock and roll.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: So exactly.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm only 35 years out of date.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's all good.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: So or or I I could point this out this out also.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: So last night my son and I, this has nothing to do with the podcast, by the way, but so my son and I watch movies all the time together.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: Last night we watched Apollo 13, which is a great movie.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it occurred to me as we were watching that, that when that movie came out in 1995, they were closer to the events that they portrayed in the movie in 1971 than we are today in the year 2000 to 1995.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: And it just was like, oh man, that's depressing.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: Time flies, time flies.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I know you know it as having kids.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh for me, it's my little cousins growing up.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like I knew them, you know, right when they were born, you know, and so it's just like, and now they're 18 and going off to college, and you're like, Oh man, I'm looking at the mirror, I'm looking at the wrinkles getting a little deeper.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, uh oh, uh-oh.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is happening.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's all good.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Wrinkles are a sign of wisdom, I think.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think I'm gonna go with that for now, anyway.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: All right, I guess I should do this interview, right?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh, sure.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: People are not tuning in for my witty banter with this.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: So all right.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, let's start out with your story of getting started in online business.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: You're doing a lot of cool things.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: And as I look at your website, createandgo.com, and I mean, you've got all sorts of really, really cool stuff there.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I have to kind of rein myself in because I could I could ask all kinds of questions.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: But if you could share your story about how you got started in online business.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: So um was always interested in uh I have a similar entrepreneurial story that you know, back in 2010, I read the four-hour work week when I was in college.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Great, boy.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I was from yeah, from that moment on, um, I was like, you know, I just want to do something different with my life.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know specifically what it was.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: I just knew that I didn't want to work a typical job.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: So tried all sorts of things, um, but really didn't have a lot of success until around 2015.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: I was working as a personal trainer at the time, uh trying to sell ebooks online, trying to do all sorts of things.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And uh started um and was just getting more and more frustrated because I was personal training people and I was I loved working out, and everybody I trained hated working out.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was always told, you know, chase your passion, do these things, you know.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so what I found was that that didn't work very well for me and that I was just sick of waking up at 5 a.m.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: working out with a bunch of people that did not want to be there.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: I can imagine.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I went to a conference for entrepreneurs called the Millionaire Fast Lane Conference.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I just needed to be around a bunch of people to believe and to see uh that you know, this can still be done, that I don't have to give up on things just yet.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so I began down the road again that of multiple failures before this, of starting another blog or a website, essentially.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um that website failed, um, but then I kept after it and started one more.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's called avocado.com, a health and wellness website.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And um the first few months started to get a lot of readership.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: At the time, me and my business partner um we were working these jobs we hated, and we had saved up a little bit of money, and we were like, what if we just went all in with this?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what if we just tried to make this happen, like treated it like a job, and uh sold all our things, moved back into moved back into my dad's house, uh, eat eggs and rice every day, and just work on the business.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we did.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in the first month, we, you know, I typically tell people it's like, you know, it's like when you burn all the bridges, you know, the only way out is through.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sort of like when they hit the I forget it's like Troy when they, you know, land uh the boats and then they light them on fire and they're like, well, you gotta go through and storm the castle now.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it had a very similar effect on me, and it was what I needed at the time.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so my first our first month working at it, we made 100 bucks.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not a lot of money, and you cannot live on a hundred bucks.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: But it was that belief that started to grow and kept working at it 200 the next month, then it was 400, then it was 800, then it was 16, 3200, 9,000, 8,000, then 40,000 in a month.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a very life-changing like period of time where it was like, wow, we have like this successful website now and this successful blog.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um continued to escalate and continue to grow.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um learned that um, you know, if you're somebody's hungry and keep can keep pushing after it, you can keep growing.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the success we had on that blog, we were able to duplicate again to another blog called Create and Go.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that blog quickly rose to doing over$100,000 in a month.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then started another website, it's called Create a Pro Website on Web Development.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And now I'm starting a media company and doing a bunch of other things.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, that was that was it.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that that was the spark that started it all.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that's um my journey packed into a short period of time.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, there's lots of directions we could go with this, and and this spurs lots of different questions in my mind.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: But let me focus in because this is a podcast primarily about writing.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about blogging for a second, because that is that has been kind of the heartbeat of of what you've done and your success.
• 7:36
  unknown: Yeah.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Why blogging specifically as opposed to diving into video or podcasting or some other kinds of things?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: Was there something specific about blogging that attracted you and and where you've really made that the hub of a lot of what you've done, as opposed to other kinds of media or communication?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, at the time it was looking at where people were at, honestly, and and creating content centered around where they were at.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: And blogging was the way to do that.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: That was the that was the honest thing that happened, is that I saw that a lot of people were getting a bunch of traffic on Pinterest.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I decided that, okay, if I wrote content but wrote it specifically for this audience, um, that it would probably target them.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, people on Pinterest, they don't really care as much about video, they don't care as much about Instagram, things like that.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: They cared more about the written word.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so, because of that, that's why it gravitated towards that.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think there was any specific spark there that made me want to blog.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: I had experience writing before.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: I had written an ebook, I had I'd done some freelance writing as well for a website called the Bro Bible, which was like bro articles on working out because it's personal training.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: I like that.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh yeah, so I had some experience in it as well.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it was really more framed around like what the target market, target audience wants, which is kind of the central core principle if you want to run a business anyway.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Speaking to the right person in the right place at the right time.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: Are there certain industries or certain niches where blogging or writing is more ideal than say something like video or podcasting, or are all the mediums act applicable to any niche or audience?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: It just depends on what you want to do with it and what your particular strengths are and how you want to interact with that audience.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: How and I guess really my question with this is how does someone pick what medium they want to use to reach a specific audience?
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so this is a great question.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Run into it a lot because I will say for every specific niche that you run into, there will be a better way to talk to them.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there will be a medium that is better than the others.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: But what I tell people who are doing this is that you actually don't exactly want to focus on that.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: You want to focus on the medium that you enjoy.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of the day, you don't want to build a job for yourself doing something that you're doing just for the market.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like if you don't like being on camera, do not get on YouTube.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: It is going to be miserable.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to suck.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so it's just so um, and with blogging and with writing, there's rare a topic uh that you couldn't be successful in writing these days.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's just there are a few, I'm sure, um, but they they'd be more outliers than they would be um like rules, if that makes sense.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I'm so glad you said that, Alex, because I'm a big proponent of the heartbeat of what you do is is gotta be writing.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it and that this is not to say anything negative with podcasting your video, and I love those things, and obviously we're doing a podcast now, but when you have something in written form, you can repurpose that into any other medium that you want to.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: But if you don't have something in writing, you're really, really limited.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: You can't repurpose audio into a book unless you turn that into written form somehow.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm really glad to hear that that you have such a passion about the written word because you know, there's so many things that you can do with that.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's I I don't I I know I'm speaking to a lot of writers right now, and it's a beautiful way to articulate dumb thoughts that bounce around in your brain.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: I know that when I teach topics, when I originally, my original viewpoint on a subject usually changes a lot if I'm going through an article properly, because when I'm writing things down, I'm questioning the truth and validity of what I'm saying.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going, if I if I make a blanket statement like, you know, all bloggers need to be on this platform, right?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: I have to, I have to consciously question that statement and go like, is that true in all cases?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: It it sharpens your brain.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the reasons why I do enjoy it.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I have to, this is probably a good opportune time that I want to pause and I just want to compliment you on the quality of the post and the articles on your site, creatinggo.com.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: I was reading through a bunch of those over the last couple days, and they're so well written, they're so excellent.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the t and I'm kind of a geek for I'm a sucker for titles and SEO and keywords and all that stuff, you know, all the stuff all the word nerds get into, and they're just really, really good.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I would encourage everybody listening, and of course there'll be links to this, there'll be links to all this in the show notes too, to go to Alex's site and start to pick apart how you have constructed your articles because they're just they're perfect case studies of how to write a good post, I think.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: I I really appreciate that.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: So let's dive into uh a real specific question that those who are listening are probably thinking about.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: They're probably thinking, hey, Alex, this has been great.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: I love hearing your story.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: Good for you, but how do I actually begin to do all this?
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, what are some steps that people could begin putting into practice to actually make six figures online?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: I know that's a very broad kind of a question.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but um, but maybe this will begin to lead us down a pathway where people can put this into practice in their own writing and business.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: I I'd say the the beginning, I used to be such a logical step-by-step thinker.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And now I have to think a little more philosophically.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I think actually the first step is a bit philosophical in nature where you ask the question, where you ask the question about yourself, where you go, um, what am I interested in?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: What do I read?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: What do I enjoy learning about?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: What do I uh what content do I is what content do I love to consume?
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, by asking that question and knowing a lot about yourself, um starting a business and and creating success for yourself is is then technical.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: But if you don't get that part right, um you don't get anything right because you'll build a job for yourself.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that's so that's where I would start.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I can give you the technical steps.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: I can tell you, you know, the one of the biggest lessons that I've ever learned is to just do things.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like I can't emphasize this enough.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'll probably say it every day for the rest of my life, is that the world belongs to the doers.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: It belongs to people who take action, it belongs to people who make moves and make decisions.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know, if you're sitting there with a lot of indecision, which is where a ton of people end up in life, I would say just start something and you will learn as you go.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: You will uh I remember one story is that I started a blog called PT for Mom.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's a personal training website for mom, mom's.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: I paid$5,000 for the website because I had no idea what I was doing at the time.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just a young kid, just trying to hustle, trying to make make his way.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I remember sitting down and I started this whole thing, and I sat down to write the first article, and that cursor just kept blinking at me.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: I hate that cursor.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because I and I just sort of had this realization of like, first off, I don't know anything about this.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Second off, I don't want to write about this.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and while I think people would probably look at that as a failure in general, I actually view it today as it was an important thing for me to learn because it was just another another milestone in understanding, like, oh, I need to write about things I care about.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's why the health and fitness topic was the first one that I chose and the first one that I became successful with.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: See, that's a great point.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad you pointed out this this idea of taking action because primarily people who are listening to this are writers, a lot of artistic creative types as well.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: People who sometimes have trouble making decisions.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm preaching to the choir here because that is me.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: What would you say to all the analytical, introverted, you know, Enneagram type five people who are listening who are just stuck and paralyzed because they see all the options out there for online business, for writing services, for all kinds of things, but they just don't know what to pick.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: What can they do to get moving in the right direction and silence this voice of indecision in their own minds?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think where you it I think it's because a lot of times like the joy or the enjoyment of something is coming from the wrong place.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: You think that the joy is going to come from uh being successful or whatever your idealized version of yourself is, um, where the actual joy and the success comes from producing and creating something that you're proud of.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I know that from writing hundreds of articles that I I know one in particular that I I just gave my all to.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I still look back at it fondly uh because of you know the the joy was in the creating the article.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like in the in the end result.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's it's a tough question, man.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's and there's there's a lot of there's a lot of tough questions.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: But what I and I know that people preach this all the time of like just get started, but there's just so much truth in like you gotta stop consuming and start creating.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I became more successful, and I and I don't want to, you know, dissuade anybody from listening to music or listening to books and things like this, but I for a long time was a a consummate consumer of everything without taking action.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: I was probably consuming probably 90% of things and then maybe taking 10% action.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: And um I flipped that script when I when I started that was one of the big things.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: When I burned the bridges, I would just didn't have time uh to be consuming.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: I just had time to be doing.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you did that and just focused on that and just paid attention to like, hey, I've watched five YouTube videos today.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: I should probably I should probably create something that will get you far.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: That that will that will break you out of that cycle of not uh not taking enough action.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: Man, that is that is so true.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm guilty of that as well.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many times where I sit and I just go, oh, I just feel so busy.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: I've got so much on my plate, I've got a job, I've got you know, client work, I've got my own writing, I've got family, I've got all these things.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: But then I sit and go, well, yeah, but I just watch like 45 minutes of YouTube videos on some random on like skateboarding people and people doing flips on BMX Box.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Why am I even watching this stuff?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so we do have the time, we just we just aren't using it well sometimes.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it you feel busy and you you are in a way, you're busying your mind, um, but learning and being kind of disciplined about turning off things.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh another big point that I'll bring up is to select people that you really, really vibe with.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like find one person that you're just like, this is the person to me, pay attention to them, and then kind of let everybody else go.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because a lot of a lot of indecision comes from as well, is that you just are shiny object syndrome for entrepreneurs.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's that there's always like the next thing and the next thing and the next thing, but you never see anything through.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where a lot of the problems come from, is that you've never seen anything through enough to know, oh, I love this or oh, I don't love this.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you would just be way better served uh if you just selected a few people that were like, these are my people, this is my jam.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm saying that it doesn't have to be me.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like, go find somebody else in the blogging world uh that you're just like, that's the person.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um once you find that and follow them and exactly what they do, uh, that can be helpful as well.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: Man, that is such good advice.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: And you've hit on something that I have struggled with a lot the last several years.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: Just in the last couple of years, I've really done a lot better with this, but it's the idea of you get into somebody, you follow them, you read their books or their blog or listen to their shows, and they teach a methodology, they teach you should be doing XYZ things.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, then you follow somebody else who says maybe even something that's totally the opposite, and then you get confused and you think, well, I don't know what to do.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: But at some point you just have to kind of pick a lane and and go with it.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: And and start doing stuff, and then you find out what actually works and what you're good at and what you enjoy, rather than just kind of sitting there twiddling your thumbs, analyzing everything to death and getting discouraged.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: You just gotta do it and take some action.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Again, guys, like I'm, you know, by all means, I'm I'm a success story.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and even today, I'm sitting here working on my personal brand, sitting and mulling an indecision, reminding myself that, you know, even at even at my level where I'm at today, it still creeps in.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: I am an over-analyzer and overthinker, you know, just like you.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just that I've gotten a little bit better at realizing when I'm doing it and just being able to be like, all right, I just need to create something, like I just need to do something.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope that encourages some people because um, yeah, sometimes like like I said, when I became successful is because I saw other entrepreneurs out there and I looked at them and I was like, I can do that, you know, and and sometimes like knowing that people who are who are in the places where you want to be still struggle can be helpful.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: Now, actually that brings up a great point.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I hadn't thought about this question ahead of time, so but you kind of have put this into my mind a little bit.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: Can you talk a little bit about okay, when you were starting out, there are certain problems that that you were trying to figure out?
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: Problems that you were trying to solve.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like, okay, what do I write about?
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: Who's my audience?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: What website hosting platform do I use?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's all a lot of technical things.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: But what what is different about the problems that you have to figure out now or the problems you have to solve?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and now you've you've got some got a lot of experience with this, you've made some money, you've had success.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: What kinds of how are your problems different at your level now than they were when you first started?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: And later on, is I've suffered enough through enough problems to quickly move through things I know that are not going to work.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's gonna sound weird, but like for a lot of people, okay, starting out with a website, the WordPress is just the way to go.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: There's just no cutting it.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like the way to go for a website unless you're like really uh you can custom code something yourself.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: And WordPress is a pain.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: It is a pain.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: You get back there the first time, it is exhausting.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and it's just like, and it's it's brutal being back there.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I've suffered enough in WordPress that I can navigate WordPress easy.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's not some sort of rocket science, it's just that I've I've built up enough skills that I can move through to the next thing pretty quickly.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so the same goes with writing, same goes with almost any decision I make on a day-to-day basis.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's just I've made the mistakes enough that I can recognize, oh, like I don't need to do that, or I've learned that skill well enough to kind of get past that.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's the only difference.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: At the beginning, it just feels so slow because you haven't built up any necessary skills.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you have to you have to understand everything.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like you haven't written, you know, hundreds of headlines.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: So writing your first headline is gonna be really tough.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: But when you get to my stage and you get to 500 headlines deep, like I can write a headline in 10 minutes and be done with it.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: So that another important thing to keep in mind.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think that's a great point.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: That when you start out, you're you're pretty much gonna suck at everything.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah you know, there's a learning curve to it.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: So just kind of accept that and I I don't know, you have to have kind of a almost a stubbornness, like an unreasonable stubbornness to be successful at anything because you're just gonna push through and do it despite the fact that everybody in your life, not everybody, but a lot of people in your life aren't gonna understand what you're doing.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: They don't have the same kind of vision that you do, but you're just gonna press through it just because you're stubborn that way, you know.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's something to be said for that.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love it.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: I always say it's like uh I have unreasonable optimism about everything I try.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: And and is there anything reasonable at the end of the day about starting your own business to begin with?
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's not the safe thing, that's not what everybody else does.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: So there's something just by definition of starting your own thing that's not really reasonable, quote unquote.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: But then once you really start to get into it, then you find out it's actually the most reasonable thing that you could do.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's the interesting part.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Is that when you start to control your income and your finances, you go, oh, this is so much more reasonable than being out of control.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly, exactly.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: So, Alex, this has been a blast.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: Man, I feel like I could talk to you for three, four hours.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: This is this is really fun.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: But I want to make sure that people know how they can connect with you and find out all the cool things that you're doing.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and also you have a boot camp that they can be a part of, correct?
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the first thing you'll segment some people and say, you know, if you're really um interested in blogging and want to go down the path, there's the same way that I did to building successful websites.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: I have a blogging boot camp.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's five days.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just you're getting some email drip.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like we shot high quality, awesome videos with amazing video trainings.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's 100% free that you can go through.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um and we'll teach you how to set up your blog, uh, pick a niche that you vibe with, um, just get everything set up to go to potentially make money.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's there in that blogging boot camp.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's five days, it's it's awesome.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's we sold out for it, like we do with everything we create.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, uh that's that's the first place.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you're in the blogging sphere.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like to know about me personally and like what I'm doing, I have a YouTube channel.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's just my name, Alex Nerney and uh N-E-R-N-E-Y.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I have an Instagram and things like that, and um my personal website, Alexnerny.com, as well, uh, where I list you know multiple websites and the multiple things I'm doing.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the big thing that I'm super excited though about right now is like I'm in the process of building a media company.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we actually are signing the space uh for our first office today.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Congrats.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's exciting.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Very stoked about it.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's 3,200 square feet in Austin.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's in a creative spot.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna build a studio, we're gonna do a lot of cool things in there.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: So very excited about that uh as well.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where those are the best places to find me.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm gonna do something a little a little different here.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh normally I end the conversation with this, but you've brought up a question that I remembered I wanted to ask you about.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna backtrack just a little bit before we close this out.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: Something that a lot of writers struggle with is figuring out what their lead magnet should be on their website.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I love the fact that you've got this boot camp.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that is really, really a cool idea.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: What would you suggest in terms of how people should figure out what the lead magnet should be on their website?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's something I have struggled with.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: I need to change mine on my on my website, but I've wrestled with hey, should I do you know something like a boot camp with videos, or should I do like a PDF thing on how to write a good blog post?
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: People struggle with those things.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have any tips for how to figure out what the best lead magnet would be for your niche or for your audience?
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: So people get people get really messed up on this.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of it has to do with just articles written by marketers uh where they're like focus on these conversion metrics that are like the most important thing is you know, writing this specific, you know, just one-page sheet to get in like as many people as you can into your email funnel.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the main thing is like what is your end goal?
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then you work backwards.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, my end goal for people is to purchase our launch your blogging business program, right?
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: So we start there and then I step it back.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: I step it back all the way to you know what lead magnet is going to attract the right person that's gonna be in there.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so for us, it's the blogging boot camp.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, very simply, because I mean I could get more subscribers if I if I maybe just made like a blogging cheat sheet, fast track something.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: Right, checklist or something.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but it but it's more like the you got to think about it like this is that if you have a hundred people visit your website, maybe one percent of those people are are gonna really vibe with you.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: And you want to be selling out for that one percent.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: You people get caught up in getting 10% and the 20%, but the 1% are the people that actually buy and do the thing and and really love you and really love what you do.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to create things around that 1%.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's that's the easiest way I can explain it, is you gotta think about the end goal and work it backwards.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's the most important thing to creating a great lead magnet, is like is thinking about okay, I have this product, how can I attract the right person while making them fall in love with me?
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and that's what you're trying to do.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why our blogging bootcamp is so like professionally done, because it's like you know, that 1% that's gonna make it all the way to watching those videos, they're going to know that buying our product is a safe investment for them.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um so that's that's how I think about it.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's really no trick other than that.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: So if my main product is is ghostwriting books for people, then how would I how would I think backwards in terms of what my lead magnet would be?
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so if I'm if I'm ghostwriting for, let's say, consultants, coaches, uh entrepreneurs, small business owners, that kind of thing, then I would basically think back to what is their biggest problem associated with writing and try to address that.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: Would that be the correct way of thinking about that?
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it's so it's a product for it's called like ghostwriting books, how to ghostwrite books for other people and get paid?
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: No, this this is like the service that I provide, is like I I'm a ghostwriter.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: So um so then if I want to get people on my well, see, this is this is where I I struggle a little bit with figuring out what exactly my business model is because I do want to build up an email list, uh selling courses, you know, it's similar to the kinds of things that you're doing, but I'm also ghostwriting for clients, which is that that's kind of a whole different connecting with prospects for ghostwriting is is different than getting people onto an email list.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like people don't hire you to ghostwrit a book because they get on your email list typically.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's much more of a like a personal connection or it's a referral-based thing.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where sometimes I get a little confused about how the funnels are working and all those kinds of things.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: So so maybe this is irrelevant in a way.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: No, I no, I like it.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're offering that service on the back end, like what I would do is I would kind of start from where they start.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: So these people want ghostwriters.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's like maybe the secret to hiring amazing quality writers or something like that, right?
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because that will attract the right person.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is our are you know, another headache, right?
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: They want this ghostwritten, right?
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, what they want to do is they don't want to work.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: They want you to be the ghostwriting.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's like how to um be famous without having to put in the work, you know, something something along those lines are going to attract somebody who's interested in the ghostwriting.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then what you do is then you you bring them in and you offer them your ghostwriting services at like sort of a limited time discount, or are you set up some sort of thing that they want uh that encourages them to buy immediately?
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: That alone will raise up um the amount of conversions you have because you'll be getting the right people in the door.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um does that make sense?
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: It does make sense.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it really does.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that that's where you would start.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: You'd start playing around with like, how do I get this ideal customer like in the door?
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: What are they looking for?
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: What do they need, breaking it down in a way that you get them in the door and then building that relationship over the course of just seven emails where you're just like, this is me, these are my ghostwriting clients who've had amazing success, uh, et cetera.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: Here is a you know, limited time coupon.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you call me and we get on the phone in the next, you know, 20, you know, not 20 minutes, in the next like day or so, I'm gonna give you 20% off of my ghostwriting services to try this out.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that I think would convert.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think my confusion has been that I really have two sides to my business.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: I have the side where I want to grow the email list, do courses, or write my own books, you know, yeah, that kind of stuff where I'm really functioning more as a uh a writing teacher in a way, or writing coach, uh a content creator, but then I have the side where I'm actually performing services for clients.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm ghostwriting their books.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I just had a client sign a contract yesterday for a book.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm spending part of my time doing that, and I have wondered if those two sides of my business should be connected or whether they're really two separate things.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: I would consider I would consider them two separate, especially in the email department.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: Those people are so different that you need a separate segmented list for them and a separate segmented list for somebody else.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'd what I have found is that people who I've talked to about ghostwriting services who have hired me, those typically have nothing to do with my email list or my website or anything.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: It all comes through referrals and relationships.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: So but I have but I think they are related in the sense of I'm helping people with their writing.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_01: On one end, I'm offering free content like the podcast or blog post or whatever.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: Then they could buy a course, that's another level of help, or maybe even coaching or a mastermind or something like that.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: Or then the the other end of the spectrum is I'm using my writing on your behalf.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm actually doing the work for you, which obviously is much higher priced.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna speak to it's gonna speak to a completely different person.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then also you nailed an important point there.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's a high price person.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: So that opt-in should be focused on speaking to that.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I run into this a lot.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, is that like when I try to go buy a product on Amazon, you know, I want like the nicest product, I don't want like the cheapest, but Amazon serves me the cheapest.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so it's like um if you make an email opt-in specifically at somebody in that position, they're going to they're not going to see that ever.
• 34:35
  unknown: Yeah.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're going to immediately go, oh, that's something I really want.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: And you'll you won't get many opt-ins, but the ones you get, that's what matters.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: They'll they'll be all over it.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's that's so fascinating, and there's so much we can learn from Amazon.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: So we just bought a new uh garbage disposal for a kitchen sink just yesterday.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I went out, and it's funny how the psychology of Amazon listing bestseller, you know, on a certain item that really does impact you because you think, oh, well, if everybody else in America is buying this one, they must be right.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: Must be good.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's crazy how how that works.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: And even if it's not, and it wasn't the cheapest one by a long shot.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: But I was like, well, there's a cheaper one, but even if it has better reviews, that psychology of you know how Amazon positions that is so fascinating.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I know all that is connected with the psychology of sales and marketing and all that stuff.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we we like to we are really programmed to love what other people love or to need that approval from other people.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so those Amazon reviews, that's what that's what made them, you know, and then slapping that bestseller tag on it.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: I know my sister sells products on there.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: When uh yeah, when you have a bestseller tag, you uh your sales go through the roof.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Alex, this has been a blast.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um sorry for taking that little side road there, but uh hey, that's what podcasts are for, I guess.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's really qualified.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I appreciate what you're doing.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_01: You're doing some really, really cool work.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, I'm I just want to encourage people to go check out your site.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: You're doing some some great stuff and not just giving great information and helping people in a variety of ways, but for all the the anal retentive writers out there, which I hope that that they are anal retentive, you know, because that's how you become good at this, is to go pick apart your blog posts and headlines and see how you're actually constructing your writing because it's it's so well done.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I really appreciate that.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's actually a good article which should link on this, it's how to write a blog post.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: I've kind of broken down you know how we write ours and how we attract like our target fans and stuff like that.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'll make sure to make sure to include that as well.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think people will really like it.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: How to write a blog post article.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's very meta.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: A blog post about writing a blog post.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we already are writing meta blogging about blogging.
• 36:55
  unknown: Yeah.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: Or a you know, a podcast about how to do a podcast.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks so much, and uh, I look forward to getting this out to people so they can be helped.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, thanks again.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Kent.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that was a very fun conversation with Alex.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: He shared a ton of great information and inspiration with us.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: But let me boil it down to the three biggest takeaways.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, use the medium you enjoy.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I know we talk a lot about writing on this podcast, obviously, since it's called the Smart Business Writing Podcast, and writing is going to be involved in whatever it is that you do, probably.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: But Alex emphasized putting out content in the medium that you enjoy creating the best.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: And that's a really great point.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: If you like to talk or especially if you like to do interviews, then do podcasting.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: If you love to do video, then do videos.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: If you love writing, then focus on writing books or articles.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: If you love sales, copy and marketing, focus on copywriting.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: If you love blogging, then do blogging as your main thing.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you get the point here.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: Focus on whatever you enjoy doing the most because that is what you will tend to be most consistent with, and that's probably what will lead to your biggest success.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, someone recently they asked me why I chose to do an audio podcast instead of video, you know, why I didn't do stuff on I mean, I do stuff on YouTube sometimes, but not very often.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: But they said, why do you do an audio podcast instead of, you know, having like some big YouTube channel or something?
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, to be honest with you, I just don't like the hassle of doing video.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_01: And that was the honest truth.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: I just like podcasting.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes there's really not a lot of rhyme or reason as to what you're drawn to.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you just like something because you like it and you don't really know why.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: And that's totally okay.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: Just don't overanalyze it and just go with whatever it is that you really enjoy doing and start with that, and then as you gain more success, you can branch out into other forms of content if you want to.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: Number two, the world belongs to those who take action.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's a consistent theme that you hear many times from guests on this podcast is taking action.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I love how Alex emphasized taking action on what it is that you need to do as your next step.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I come from the academic world, as you probably know if you've listened to this podcast for any length of time.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: And in the academic world, sometimes we move kind of slowly.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the whole idea of academics many times is philosophy about something, you're studying the principles of something, you're doing a lot of writing and talking about things.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: But when you move into more of a business sphere, and especially if you want to create income from your business, you have to focus more on taking action on things.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_01: You can't sit around analyzing and dissecting and discussing everything.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_01: And while all that stuff is great, if you want to have an actual business, you have to take action on what it is that you know you should do next.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there comes a time when you have to just stop trying to make the perfect decision and just move forward.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_01: Take action on what you know.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_01: So Alex shared some great advice there.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_01: Then finally, takeaway number three is stop consuming so much and start creating.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_01: This was my favorite takeaway from what Alex shared with us.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: And this is related to the last point in terms of just taking action and not analyzing everything to death.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_01: And man, I struggle with this as an analytical person, as an introvert, as a person who loves to dissect and organize things.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: I love listening to audiobooks and podcasts and reading and taking courses and watching videos and all that stuff.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: But you can get information overload very easily, and you can get stuck in analysis paralysis when you just focus on taking in loads of information, and then you get paralyzed and you don't know what decision you should make because you've got all these voices coming at you, all these books and all this other content.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_01: So if your business is not growing and you're not making progress, I challenge you to scale back and stop consuming so much content and start creating way more content.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I want to give a huge thank you to my very special guest, Alex Nerney.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure to check out his website, createandgo.com, where you can sign up for his free five-day blogging boot camp for beginners.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: That is really great, and I encourage you to sign up for it.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_01: And thank you for listening.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: As always, I truly appreciate it.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_01: Remember that you can find lots more resources for writers at KentSanders.net.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_01: And until next time, remember that your writing has the power to change people's lives.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'll see you in the next episode.