PP 639: Marketing and the Multi-Passionate Entrepreneur with Marc Guberti

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Quick Show Notes – Marc Guberti:

“If you do want this – like, your work – to be your full-time thing, it is something you have to invest in – with your time, but also with your money.” – Marc Guberti

As a teenager, Marc Guberti’s mother suggested he create a blog to stay occupied. What nobody could have expected was that Marc’s blog helped Marc become a multi-faceted, multi-passionate entrepreneur who, within a decade, has written over 20 books, hosted three podcasts, amassed a surprisingly large audience on social media AND developed multiple streams of income.

Listen as Marc and Kim chat about how Marc chooses his projects, how he maintains focus, the definition of good marketing, Chronic Idea Disorder, the quirks of being a multi-passionate entrepreneur and more.

Highlights:

04:17 What Marc was going at 17 versus Kim’s kids
05:44 Excuses vs. progress
06:17 Getting intentional with your time
11:53 How Kim gamifies productivity
12:29 How Marc sets his daily schedule
13:16 Ignoring the advice of gurus
16:08 Why Marc went to college
18:57 Controlling the flow of ideas
23:45 How keyword research impacts Marc’s writing
28:59 Testing to see what works and what doesn’t
37:01 How email marketing databases work their way into all aspects of our lives
38:40 Good marketing
42:43 Keeping himself from spreading too thin as a multi-passionate entrepreneur
46:34 Retargeting people who sign up for your freebies
47:17 Investing in support

Listen as @MarcGuberti and @thekimsutton chat about their definition of good marketing, Chronic Idea Disorder, the quirks of being a multi-passionate entrepreneur and more: https://thekimsutton.com/pp639 #marketing #positiveproductivity #podcast #chronicideadisorder #focusClick To Tweet

Resources – Marc Guberti:

Inspirational Quotes:

“Stop making excuses and start making progress.” ~Kim Sutton

“If I’m going to be consistent with all my goals, I need to be consistent with all my goals. And if I give up halfway through the time I committed to myself, that’s not showing myself anything.” ~Kim Sutton

“My peak creative time really depends on what it is that I’m doing.” ~Marc Guberti

“I went to college because it was what was expected, and I chose a career because it looked glamorous, and it was only after I was out in the real world — and paying for those student loans — that I realized ‘Oh my gosh — I don’t want to be doing this’.” ~Kim Sutton

“I’ve found that staying true to me and my passions has proved to be far more lucrative than doing things just because I can. Just because I can doesn’t mean I should.” ~Kim Sutton

“If you do want this – like, your work – to be your full-time thing, it is something you have to invest in – with your time, but also with your money.” ~Marc Guberti

About Marc Guberti:

Marc Guberti is a USA Today and WSJ bestselling author with over 100,000 students in over 180 countries enrolled in his online courses. He is the host of the Breakthrough Success Podcast and Radio Show where listeners learn how to achieve their breakthroughs. He coaches content creators on how they can attract more traffic to their content and boost revenue.

Connect With Marc Guberti:

Website: https://marcguberti.com/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/marcguberti
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marcgubertiblog
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marcguberti
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/marcguberti
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/marcguberti

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

Kim Sutton:
Welcome back to another episode of Positive Productivity. This is your host Kim Sutton.

Listeners if you’ve been with me for a while, while you’ve already gotten used to my bloopers, and there was one for you, but you perhaps heard episode number two, which was my first ever guest episode. And, in that episode, Mark Mason and I were chatting about influencers, and about building a small business building relationships.

Kim Sutton:
And Mark reminded me, before we even hopped on to that call, because I was actually in awe of having him on the show with me, that everybody that you hear, everybody that you listen to on podcasts, are just people.

I’m a person. Our guest today is a person, Mark Mason is just and I don’t mean just in a bad way, but just a person.

We are all approachable.

Kim Sutton:
Back then, though. I was just in awe. I need to eliminate that word, “just” from my vocabulary.

I was in awe because I had been listening to him for such a long time and following him on social media, that in… that actually having a conversation with him, blew me away.

Kim Sutton:
Well, today’s guest is no different.

Although we have been able to form a friendship since I first became introduced to him way back when probably 2012, 2013, our guest today is Marc Guberti.

I didn’t even ask you, Mar if that’s the proper way to…

Marc Guberti:
Perfect.

Kim Sutton:
Oh my gosh, okay, good. So when we’re talking, I mean, it’s not like I say, “Hey, Marc Guberti” to you.

When you and I are talking it’s, “Hey, Marc, how you doing? You know, like, how do I pronounce your last name?“

Kim Sutton:
No. So when I started my business in 2012, I… I jumped onto Twitter pretty early, because that’s where I thought I needed to be. And, I remember seeing a list of influencers, social media influencers that were recommended that we all follow. Do you remember this list

Marc Guberti:
A while back? I’m not I don’t think it was the Forbes on but something else?

Kim Sutton:
Yeah, it was. You were on it. And I remember following you. Now, I am ashamed to admit that when I went into Twitter this morning to tag you, at some point point in my journey, I unfollowed you.

But that doesn’t mean that I unfollowed you, Marc. I have to admit that I was doing an follow-unfollow strategy for years, which so many entrepreneurs do and I’m not going to ask you if you ever did that. But I was doing this follow-unfollow strategy. So I just don’t want you to be offended. It might have been, like, unfollow, like my tool.

Kim Sutton:
But I am so happy to have you here.

Listeners, you won’t even believe how much Marc has inspired my business. And, while we’re not going to focus on it, because I think there’s so many other better things to focus on, Marc has… Marc is not as aged as I am. I’m just going to put it that way. Okay, we don’t have to put a number on it unless you want to, Marc.

The amount that he has accomplished in his young years blows me away and, Marc, sometimes I just want to send my 14 and 17 year olds to you so that you can rub off on them and be a really awesome influence.

Marc Guberti:
Thank you. I appreciate that.

Kim Sutton:
I mean, seriously, I don’t know what you were doing at 17, but I know it’s not what my 17 year old does, which is get home from school, launch Steam and Discord and play video games.

I mean, weren’t you writing a book, hosting a podcast, speaking from stage at 17?

Marc Guberti:
Something like that.

Kim Sutton:
So how did you get started? Where did the influence come from?

Marc Guberti:
This started just as like a hobby. So I wrote a blog about the Boston Red Sox.

I guess, depending on when this interview gets published, who knows what the news is on them, but I did write a blog about the Red Sox. I’m still a dedicated fan.

And, pretty much what ended up happening is that evolved into content marketing because I wanted to figure out “How do I get more traffic to this blog?“

And then that turned into… My love for the topic turned into, “How can I help others grow their visibility and gain revenue?”

Marc Guberti:
So, that’s how I got started. And that evolved into three podcasts, 20 something books and a lot more growth from there.

Kim Sutton:
Jeez. I mean, I just want to praise you because how many events have we been at together now? Like, three?

Marc Guberti:
Two or three…

Kim Sutton:
Two or three. And I had no idea that in the midst of attending those events, you were also working on your college degree. You were also writing books. You were also hosting your podcasts. You were also speaking from the stage.

I mean, I work with clients all the time. And I… I have to, let’s just put myself in the category of my clients… to where I want them to cut the excuses.

Stop making excuses and start making progress.

Kim Sutton:
And, sometimes it’s so hard. I finally kicked the excuses out. But there are those days when I am just flat out exhausted.

How do you… How do you manage — and I know you’ve since graduated — But how do you manage to do it all without depleting your energy and just depleting your your self care?

Marc Guberti:
I mean, that’s a really great question because you there’s usually two different ways people view it, you know.

You do just enough work to get by or you do so much work but then you end up drained you really sacrifice your body to get to your income goal finish line.

Marc Guberti:
But the way that you really have to approach it is get a lot more intentional with how you spend your time.

So, you know, everyone has their version of break because you can’t be working nonstop, just because you know, your energy’s gonna get depleted. You lose focus if you overwork. So my version of break is to run to exercise.

So I’m only doing things that are going to that are either the work itself, or something that is going to enhance me. So exercise Spend time with my family. That’s really all there is to it when it comes to break, and, you know, there’s TV, there’s other things like that. But I really cut those out so I could solely focus my time on the business and things that are going to enhance me. Things that I look at a week later, see how my day played out and I’m happy with how it all came out.

Marc Guberti:
So, with the exercise, like it gives you energy, like eating the right foods, it gives you energy. So we’re working on a you know, at the start of the day, we’re at our peak energy and then the energy slowly diminishes until the end the day. That’s just how it works. But there are ways to increase your energy, like what I’ve just mentioned, instead of doing things that like the version of taking a break is just draining yourself even more. And if you are watching TV, or if you are like looking at a screen like a phone screen, you’re not really getting the break your mind is still in work mode because you’re still looking at that screen. Especially if you’re just scrolling through Facebook, on your computer, which is the same one you used to work.

Kim Sutton:
I love that you’re bringing this all up. And I must admit, because you know how fully transparent I am, I made myself a promise this year that I was going to exercise five days a week. In full transparency, I rode my bike two weeks ago. We’re on day 16, folks, okay, of the year, I rode my bike two weeks ago, and then yesterday morning, for some reason I woke up extremely early for me and I decided, “Okay, I’m going to get on it.”

About 15 minutes and I wanted to quit. I’m, like “Heck with this!“, but I just kept on pushing.

Kim Sutton:
Because one of my words, or my three primary words for this year are faith, family and focus. But then I have a side word. That’s consistency.

I realized if I’m going to be consistent with all my goals, I need to be consistent with all my goals. And if I give up halfway through the time that I committed to myself, that’s not showing myself anything.

So I pushed through. I’ve learned in these last two days — oh, and I did it again this morning — I learned yesterday, however, that riding my bike without music bores the heck out of me. It keeps me going. I was trying to do it while reading, and every two seconds, I was looking at the clock to see how much time I had left.

Kim Sutton:
Is there a point — I’m just asking out of my curiosity — is there a point when this is actually going to become enjoyable?

Marc Guberti:
I mean, as you do it more often, it’s more enjoyable and it depends on the type of pace like for me, like running a mile all out like it’s enjoyable city and time but in the process, it’s not enjoyable. It’s just one of those things where it depends on what you’re trying to do. Like if you just go from Like a casual pace, and you build up that casual pace does become enjoyable over time.

Kim Sutton:
Okay, thank you. That’s what I needed to hear this morning. Because I actually… So my faith is really important to me as you heard one of my words is faith for this year, and I did actually make a promise to God this morning that I’m going to be consistently riding.

I actually told him every day. I told him December 2 of 2019 that I was giving up alcohol. Marc, I can’t even tell you how hard it has been to give up alcohol. Some days I just want to drink a whole aquarium foot full of Margarita. I have five kids. But I’ve stuck with that now for seven weeks, haven’t been drinking.

I mean, I… I was not an alcoholic. I just need to put this out there. But once a week, a good Margarita.

And I thought that was my stress relief.

Kim Sutton:
But I’ve also realized that going into this year that there are so many sides effects of stress, namely, and one of our mutual connections actually told me this, that increased stress increases your cortisol, which can increase your weight and produce so many other side effects your health. And I had been joking with her — I don’t remember if I just said her name, Devi Adea — I had told her that I felt like my stress had an appetite of its own when…

Your’re stick thin, so I wonder if you’ve ever had this experience with cortisol, but I noticed that in 2019, I was eating less and gaining more.

Listeners, this is a real thing.

Stress leads to more cortisol, which can lead more great, great weight gain. And it’s not nice.

Marc Guberti:
It’s a bad cycle.

Kim Sutton:
Yeah. Going back to what I was talking about with my kids, though, my husband is a video game designer. And I don’t know if you even know this, Marc, that when we started dating, he was surprised that I had a game that he played on his computer and I have been a gamer.

But, I set myself now daily goals. When I reach my goal, if I choose to play, I can play, but I will not play until I reach my daily productivity goals.

Kim Sutton:
So, I have my Prioritized Purposeful Action list, and until I hit a minimum of three of those checked off, then I have not earned game time. And that has really kept me going.

Do you set your running into a fit with a fixed time schedule in your day?

Marc Guberti:
I usually don’t. I’ve tried doing that. And for me, it’s just more of I would rather run when it feels like it makes the most sense. Like, I could definitely see myself running after this interview because it makes the most sense. But if I’m deep in work, I’d rather be working and at the same time, like I want to make sure I run before it gets dark out.

So for each day, like I know what I’m supposed to go out and do and then I just frame the running at some point that makes the most sense around like eating and day and work schedule.

Kim Sutton:
I get that. And, for me, riding the bike first thing in the morning before the kids wakes up, makes the most sense.

Kim Sutton:
Listeners, please do not feel pressured to listen to the advice of all the gurus out there who tell you when you need to do things.

You need to listen to your own body and know your own productivity. And know your peak creative times to be able to figure that schedule out for yourself.

When is your peak creative time Do you have one?

Marc Guberti:
I’ve actually figured out that my peak creative time really depends on what it is that I’m doing.

So in the morning, that is my peak time to write. But, in the evening is my peak time to like do videos. And anytime past midnight is a good time for me to be coming up with new ideas and thinking more creatively about like overall stuff.

So, I don’t have too many post midnight days because then that would affect the writing. But if I do want to, you know, come up with a lot more creative ideas, my business and stuff like that, I do stay up past midnight to map some things out.

Marc Guberti:
So sometimes it’s not a matter of at this time I’m the most creative. It’s like, I’m the most creative doing this at this time. I’m the most creative doing that at that time. And really, pay more attention to yourself and reflect allows you to figure out those answers for yourself.

Kim Sutton:
See, here’s the perfect example how I just said don’t listen to what the guru’s tell you is the perfect time for everything. Because, my peak time for videos is first thing in the morning when I get into my office, and my peak time for writing is usually after the kids go to bed. Because then I have all the ideas from the day just coarsing through my body and I can hear them and I start seeing how they all fit together. I love that.

Yeah, in the past midnight thing I must admit I am a night owl. But I also do like waking up early. I love the morning hours before the rest of the house gets up. It is like the only quiet time in the house.

Kim Sutton:
So going back to your, your Red Sox blog, how did you get the idea to start that?

Marc Guberti:
That was more of a hobby thing. It was my mom kind of pushed me in that direction because I was looking for something to do. And, you know, that was the idea that really popped up.

So like, I can’t really say like, I was passionate searching this out there was a part of me that always wanted to be an author. But again, it wasn’t like I was searching for this because you know, at the time, I’m really young. So you think that you know you have to get a college degree and get out there before you can really pursue your career. So that’s pretty much how it started for me.

Kim Sutton:
You touch on something interesting there. I mean, you did just graduate from college but you already have a career. What was your intention? And I’m curious because of the fact that I have two teenagers. What was your intention behind going to college?

Marc Guberti:
Well, part of it was that I did Division 1 for a bit running. But I also like I wanted to go to college, not just to, you know, pass, get the grades, stuff like that.

College is a really big investment, so I wanted to go into college and be able to learn some things that I would not naturally pursue on my own. So like becoming a marketing major for me wouldn’t have made any sense because I’m at the point where I host all these podcasts. If I don’t know something, I just find an expert who knows what I don’t know and I interview that expert. But I decided to major in finance because that’s something that I was a little weaker in before I went to college and majoring in that allowed me to learn more about finance.

I know now, it allowed me to do more research to learn beyond the classroom and the classroom like really helps you with figuring out like, what are the principles? What are the core concepts, and then you can choose to go deeper on your own.

Marc Guberti:
But, I think it’s troubling if you go to college just because society wants you to go to college and you don’t really have a plan for what you want to do in there, because that is a very high investment. And unfortunately, people don’t think about that type of investment until they’re out of college. And they can’t go back and take certain classes that can help them in certain areas of their life.

Kim Sutton:
Amen to that. I mean, I’m 40 and I’m still paying for college. But I also I went to college because it was what was expected. And I chose a career because it looked glamorous, and it was only after I was out in the real world and paying for those student loans and I realized, oh my gosh,

Marc Guberti:
No do overs.

Kim Sutton:
Yeah, I don’t really I don’t want to be doing this. And to the listener who’s listening for the first time I went to one of the top art schools in the country. I will… I don’t even want to imagine how many more years I’ll be paying for that for those student loans.

And, I got a degree in interior architecture. But I realized that I mean, if you were to look at my house today, you would wonder where any sign of Kim having been an interior architect is evident.

Kim Sutton:
Interior architecture is very similar… I mean, it’s basically interior design. There is no sign of interior design in my house. And I’m okay with that. I would rather be comfortable than have a $20,000 couch that my kids will probably spill kool aid on.

Kim Sutton:
You said earlier 20 books. You’ve written 20 books?

Marc Guberti:
Yes. Over 20.

Kim Sutton:
How do you control your flow of ideas? Because you sound like one, you know, we’ve never talked about this, who has a regular flow of ideas?

How do you control what you’re going to focus writing on right now versus what has to wait?

Marc Guberti:
So before I write any book, I’ll do research to see if it’s a popular keyword to see if it’s going to be something people want.

So, when I was writing my first few books, I would write whatever came to mind whenever I felt like writing. The problem is that there would be some of those books that wouldn’t do very well, because I didn’t do my research to see if this was going to be a book people would actually want so…

Marc Guberti:
But (now when) I have different ideas. I check them to see if they are, you know, popular enough for me to decide to write them because there are some topics that I could write about, but they aren’t popular. They wouldn’t have the type of impact I would want them to have. So with that shortlist, then I just pick which what I’m going to start with and I don’t pursue any other book idea until I finished writing that one book.

Marc Guberti:
Now sometimes what I will do is I will record a video on a topic related to book number two, and then I will have that video transcribed. So that’s like thousands of extra words that I have all ready to go for book number two when I am ready to work on it.

Kim Sutton:
What do you use to write your books?

Marc Guberti:
I just use basic like Pages and stuff like that for writing the books. I use otter.ai for transcribing any of my videos to give me the text version of the video.

Kim Sutton:
Okay, I am using Scrivener right now to write my book.

Marc Guberti:
Great tool.

Kim Sutton:
I’m still trying to figure it out. I know I just need to go to YouTube.

Marc Guberti:
I don’t know it. I just know it’s a great tool.

Kim Sutton:
It is it’s amazing. I love that no matter how big my book is … Chronic Idea Disorder: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Overcoming IDea Overwhelm…

What happens is as I’m writing is that I come up with an idea that I know needs to go somewhere in the book, but I’m not sure quite where it’s going to go yet. So I write a variety of, I’m going to call them chapters for lack of a better word right now, but I don’t know where they’re going to go in the flow quite yet. And Scrivener makes it so easy to drag and drop the flow around, so that in the end, I will have a cohesive book. I just don’t know what it looks like yet. And I love that.

Kim Sutton:
I love what you said also about sticking with one idea through to 100% Have you always been like that? Or is that something you needed to learn?

Marc Guberti:
I’d say that’s something that I needed to learn. I mean, I’ve had like narrow focus, where if I was like, pursuing something, I would strictly stick with that. But, you know, you even have like, you know, different distractions can pop up for anyone. So I’d say for all of us, it’s something we have to learn as Especially in today’s digital world where distractions are very rampant, and you have to be very conscious and intentional just to remove some of those distractions.

Kim Sutton:
One of our mutual connections Molly Mahoney introduced me to the Facebook Eradicator… Mewsfeed Eradicator and I can’t even tell you how many distractions that has eliminated from my day. If I want to go in and see what people are posting, I need to go on my smartphone or else I have to…. If I go on my desktop, I have to specifically go to that person’s profile to see but they’ve recently posted and unlike a lot of the entrepreneurial community, especially in the US, I am not tied to my phone. I mean, most days, my kids have my phone somewhere and it has likely died and I need to figure out which couch cushion it’s stuck in. But I am not tied to it.

So, when I go on onto my desktop though and go into Facebook, I’m not seeing anything except for the quote of the day which is absolutely amazing.

Kim Sutton:
I want to go to what you said about keywords.

I do understand the value and I’m not picking on you here I just have a different opinion.

I do understand the value of looking up the quantity of searches on based on keywords, but at what point do you come into this? How do you stay passionate in what you’re writing when… When I know what I’m trying to say, I just don’t know how to say it… When the significance of the keyword is so important.

Does that make sense?

Marc Guberti:
Yeah, I mean, I could pick like, let’s say, I’ll throw Paleo out there because that’s like, I feel like that’s a really popular keyword, especially recently but I’m not going to do videos or write books about Paleo I mean, for like the self-publishing space you hear about people who they hire ghost writers to write about a certain book based around the keyword or you hear about people coming out with a lot of no content books was pretty much just workbooks like generic but all you really do is your change.

So instead of like writing about something you’re passionate about, you say okay, Paleo workbook.

Marc Guberti:
The… Now, there are people… your listeners and if they’re passionate about Palio, like, that’s you. But that’s not me. That’s not the type of thing I would cover.

So instead, I look for things around digital marketing, which is my actual thing. Content marketing, that I enjoy talking about.

Marc Guberti:
So, it’s a matter of figuring out what your broad niche is and then getting a little more narrow to find the keywords that make the most sense, because I’m all down for doing keyword research and figure out what makes the most sense. I am not down for writing about something or creating a video about something just because the keywords tell me to and I do not care about that topic, or I just don’t know enough information about like, I’m not going to read a ton of books, just so I’m an expert on a topic and I could do videos on it. So you do have to find your different mix.

Marc Guberti:
But keyword research will help you so that maybe for instance, blogging tips, is it better keywords than blog strategy? So that’s some of the ways I use the key Research.

Kim Sutton:
Okay, that’s awesome. So you already know what you’re passionate about. You’re not using the keywords to set your topic, but you’re allowing the keywords to help you define your titles.

Marc Guberti:
Exactly. It’s inspiration for the topic, but I know the pool that I’m in.

Kim Sutton:
Okay, fabulous. And it’s so fascinating what you were just talking about with Paleo too. I remember listening to a few podcasts where –and there’s a number of people who have done this — where they were looking up the, the trending keywords, looking to see what the, the market saturation was, and then they would create a blog if the market saturation was low. Even hiring people to write the articles for those blogs so that they could in turn, start setting selling ads on it or are, you know, linking to an Amazon shop where they would sell related topics, and some of these top… some of these keywords that they ended up building blogs off of they weren’t even passionate about. They just saw the dollar signs.

Kim Sutton:
And, for a crazy hot minute, that idea struck my head and I was like, “Oh, I should totally do that.“

Thankfully, I have Chronic Idea Disorder, and that idea quickly passed, and I’m so glad it did because I found that staying true to me and my passions has proved, has proved to be far more lucrative than doing things just because I can.

I mean, just because I can doesn’t mean I should.

Marc Guberti:
That’s really great advice.

Kim Sutton:
I want to share with listeners that I recently read your book. And, you know I read it because I mean, I’ve shared with you the progress that I’ve been making. I read Marc’s YouTube Decoded… Let me make sure that’s the right title.

Marc Guberti:
Yeah, you got it.

Kim Sutton:
I forgot to pull it off my shelf before I said that. And, Marc does cover keywords in the book.

But one of the biggest things that made an impact for me was some of the simple tips. And, Marc, you already know this because I was showing you, but I was putting up YouTube videos and putting up a image that was all words, color blocks and words for my YouTube videos. And then, thanks to Marc’s advice in the book, I started putting a picture of me on my thumbnails.

And, the increase in views is mind blowing. And I’m not talking thousands I’m not even talking hundreds of views at this point. Do I hope that it will grow into that? by all means, yes, I hope it will grow into that.

Kim Sutton:
But when a video with only color blocks and text got two views, now I see a video with a thumbnail with a picture of me on it that gets 50 something views, it’s it’s mind blowing

How did you discover I mean, I, I know from your book that you did a lot of testing to see what worked and what didn’t, but was that just another one of those examples you tested to see what thumbnails work the best?

Marc Guberti:
I tested different things to see what will work the best, like based on what thumbnails I would use, like, including a picture of me what the backgrounds gonna look like. So there are a lot of different variables to test thumbnails. And I was doing a bunch of that on my own. But I did bring in a YouTube coach to help me out even more because, like he showed me things that I wasn’t seeing properly. And then that helps me to get better results from my thumbnails from my titles and from my retention rate.

Kim Sutton:
I do have a curious question about the testing.

I have clients who want to test want to see if something — let’s just say on a landing page –would work better. But, rather than change one element at a time and see if the results improve, change a whole bunch.

So, when you say that you were testing, were you using the same exact video and changing a thumbnail? Or were you testing it on a different video? I’m just curious and don’t want to pick on you.

Marc Guberti:
I only test thumbnail styles because if you upload like the duplicate video that’s gonna hurt you. So

Kim Sutton:
I thought so. So that’s why I was curious.

Marc Guberti:
Yeah, so like, a really good like… Sometimes it’s like more things than others that I try to experiment with just because I want to get a variety of thumbnail styles out there that I could play with them later.

But the best example is I came out with two videos, one of them how to make 100,000 per year in dividends, like the math behind it. And then another one the math behind making $100,000 per year with books. And in those thumbnails, it’s all the same except that dividend one has money in the background and the book one has like a bunch of books in the background.

So, sometimes I even do something just like that where I will only change the background or I will only change the picture of myself.

Marc Guberti:
So, I mean, you do change other things like the title. And you have to change a little stuff like the text of the thumbnails for like dividends versus books. But in that thumbnail, I literally just changed the background.

Kim Sutton:
Another thing, which I learned out of the book was, and I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me, but besides that I just hadn’t heard it before, was asking people to like, comment and subscribe. I mean, I’ve seen it on so many videos.

I… My husband watches YouTube all the time, and I hear his people say it, but it had never occurred to me, “Yeah, they do that on purpose.” You know, there’s a, there’s a purpose behind asking them to do it and a lot of people, myself included, don’t think to like and comment on a video or subscribe to the channel until the host asks me to see with podcasts.

Kim Sutton:
It doesn’t occur to me sometimes to go over to Apple podcasts and leave a rating and review. But the moment that a host says it, yeah, I’ll go leave a rating and review.

By the way, listeners, when this episode is done, go over to Apple podcasts and rate and review both Marc and my podcasts and there will be links in the show notes which you can find that. TheKimSutton.com/pp639.

Kim Sutton:
Complete side topic mark, what would you do about Episode 666? Would you skip it or record it?

Marc Guberti:
I would just record it. I mean, I just feel like it gives you the continuity.

Kim Sutton:
I’m still debating that one. It’s it’s been troubling my mind for quite some time and it’s getting very close. So, listeners that that episode won’t be going out for a few months, but I think I might actually turn it into a blooper episode. I haven’t done a solo episode on the podcast for nearly a year now — I’ve been taking those to YouTube.

Yes, listeners, go over to YouTube, subscribe to my channel, and you will find a whole lot of the content that used to be on the podcast over there. But maybe that’s what I’ll deal with it that way no guest has to feel like they’re cursed with Episode 666. I don’t have any problem taking that for myself.

Kim Sutton:
What are you most excited about — and I’m just… I am going to timestamp this but I know that this could be relevant in the future — but what are you most excited about in 2020?

Marc Guberti:
I’d say the thing I’m most excited about is being able to see what I could do. Like, as you mentioned college, and we talked a little bit about that, like, this is my first, like, full time year so I’m excited to see what I’m able to do with all this extra time to expand my business and do all the different things.

Like, running is also like a big thing for me because I’m running marathons. I want to qualify for Boston, all those other big ones. But I’m very excited to see what I’m going to do the first of all, I’m here.

Kim Sutton:
For some reason. I thought you were in Connecticut. Are you in Connecticut? Massachusetts?

Marc Guberti:
I’m in New York. But…

Kim Sutton:
New York, okay.

Marc Guberti:
Boston’s like the oldest marathon but New York City Marathon, obviously, like, that’s a big one too.

Kim Sutton:
Okay.

Well, that just put a lot of stuff in perspective for me.

Now, what was it like… And I just have to ask this question, because I’m so curious… Did your classmates have any idea what your social media reach was? Like, did that ever come out during your time in college?

Marc Guberti:
Uh, it was never something I would say — it would always be something that was leaked, but eventually they would figure out my numbers and stuff like that.

Kim Sutton:
Wow. Yeah. And the reason I asked that listeners is what do you have like 400,000 plus on Twitter right now

Marc Guberti:
Yeah, on Twitter

Kim Sutton:
I thought I had a lot it like 20-something thousand. I mean, I don’t get me wrong. I am thrilled with 20,000 I the fact that I have anybody more than just my mother and my husband following me is awesome.

Right?

Kim Sutton:
Are you an only child?

Marc Guberti:
No, my brother.

Kim Sutton:
Okay. Is he an entrepreneur as well?

Marc Guberti:
Yes, he is

Kim Sutton:
Older? Younger?

Marc Guberti:
A little older than me.

Kim Sutton:
Okay. So is it in your whole family’s blood?

Marc Guberti:
Yeah, I mean we’ve all had entrepreneurial ambitions at different points and me my mom … and or my dad had… like he did some entrepreneurial stuff as well. So it’s very much a big background of the family.

Kim Sutton:
I love that and I… my 17 year old is taking his ACTS and his PSATs right now and…

Marc Guberti:
Oh, I remember that.

Kim Sutton:
Yeah. And he’s, he did really well on his PSATs. I’m thrilled that he beat my scores. verbal and math and I was quite happy with mine. But he’s I will not uh, but he’s also getting the the emails from colleges, you know, and he received one from Brown the other day. And he got all stoked.

And I was like, I feel bad even admitting this that I did this public. And I won’t I won’t share my kids names anymore. But I said, “Sweetie, just so you know, you are on an email list.“

He said, “What do you mean?“

And I was like, “Well, they have a database of all the kids who are going to be graduating college in the next couple of years. So please don’t get your hopes up, if that’s where you want to go, of you don’t get in.“

Kim Sutton:
Like, I want my kids to shoot for the goals, by all means, if that’s what you want, you go get it. But I don’t want him to think that this was an individualized email just for him.

Right?

Marc Guberti:
I got the idea.

Kim Sutton:
Yeah. But he It was amazing to me though, that I actually had to explain an email list to him, because I don’t think he understands what I do day in and day out. I mean, I’m building funnels,

I understand that, you know, they didn’t have a funnel, they didn’t collect his name from a pop up on their website. They got it from some big high schoolers database. But I don’t think a lot of us often give thought to where these databases come from.

Kim Sutton:
I mean, I got an email this morning from Kroger, which is my local grocery. And it went through my mind. “Hmm. I remember when I gave them my email address when I signed up for my shoppers card.”

You don’t really think about those things in the moment, but it really is… It’s genius. And it’s interesting to see how its evolved.

Kim Sutton:
I was about to say something and now I guess I have to say it some face since I said I was about to say since when I was your age, I mean, there was no email marketing.

Well, it was the start of it when I was your age when I yeah. It’s just interesting to see,

Marc,. I grew up in a time when AOL was still dial up. And the fastest internet speed that we could get was 26.8. k.

Marc Guberti:
Yikes.

Kim Sutton:
Yeah. And, you know, we didn’t have Ethernet. We had to use our phone line. So if anybody called in, they got a busy signal. I can’t even imagine getting a busy signal. I don’t remember the last time I heard one.

What’s the last time you heard a busy signal?

Marc Guberti:
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of one.

Kim Sutton:
There you go. listeners.

I would love to know when the last time you heard a busy signal was. Yeah.

Marc, what do you feel makes good marketing?

Marc Guberti:
I think it’s just being connected with all the different things are doing because it’s really easy to just create, create, create and not really think about how does this all add up.

So, I think good marketing is providing value. Build trust, but in the areas that match up with your products.

Like, my book was… Like, YouTube Decoded, for instance, one of the things I do is I share YouTube advice, and that it’s not just all… Like, I’m getting to know, like and trust Marc.

Marc Guberti:
It’s I’m getting to know, like, and trust Marc, and what he has to say about YouTube. So if you’re really able to connect your free content with your opt in to get people on your email list with the thing that you want to offer, having all those things connected, and then getting people to talk about you because you know, they know, like and trust you, to me, that’s what good marketing looks like.

Kim Sutton:
What do you want to be known as?

Marc Guberti:
My motto again, and again, if you guys have heard me on other shows, “Age is not a limit to success.“

So, I want to be known as the guy who did a ton of work. who really shows to other young people around the world that it is possible to follow your dreams.

It’s not one of those like, “Look at me! I’m doing it, you can do it too.” regardless of what people say because I had, like, you know, people were talking about you know my age and stuff like that especially when I first started. But, yeah.

Marc Guberti:
I mean that… That thing that I want to be known for but obviously like you want to be known as like the kind person and stuff like that which is stuff I want to be known for to like, I don’t want to be like this guy who works hard until his last day but I do want to be known as that like example for young people who maybe they feel like it’s too early for them to pursue their dreams.

I want to tell them they can do it now.

Kim Sutton:
You’ll you’ve actually got me thinking and I don’t know if they’re in different leagues. Okay, I haven’t been following baseball, football, any sport really in the last decade. Just need to put it out there.

But, my younger brother started a blog about the Blue Jays. We grew up in western New York, I don’t know if you know that I grew up outside of Rochester.

Marc Guberti:
I’ve been to Rochester a few times.

Kim Sutton:
Yeah. And my, my father and my brother would often go up to Toronto and watch the Blue Jays play. And my brother got extremely passionate to the point that he actually wanted to go get his master’s degree in Toronto, just so he could be closer.

Yeah, but he didn’t go up there. I think he actually went down to Massachusetts of all irony.

And yeah, but he started a blog and I know he’s been working for years on a book about the history of the Blue Jays. So I think I I mean, I know they’re different teams. I don’t know if the rivals I don’t know any of that. No blue. Red Sox and the Yankees right?

Marc Guberti:
Yeah.

Kim Sutton:
Okay. Yeah.

So when I lived outside of New York City when I started my career in interior architecture, was right when Derek Jeter was starting to play for the Yankees. If that puts any perspective on that timeline.

And I remember, I know the Yankees had been to multiple World Series since, but I remember that… Well, it was 2001…. They were in the World Series that year. I was going to say something.

Welcome to the positive productivity podcast where you get bloopers.

Kim Sutton:
Oh, that’s what I was going to ask.

You are… You are obviously a multi-passionate entrepreneur like I am. How do you keep yourself from spreading too thin? Because from what I know about you, you support entrepreneurs with their podcasts, with their becoming an author, with their YouTube. with their speaking.

Am I right on those?

Marc Guberti:
Yes.

Kim Sutton:
So how do you how do you keep yourself from spreading too thin and maintain your expert? Miss? I’m making up words now, in those fields,

Marc Guberti:
I mean, that’s a really great insight. Because you can branch into all these different areas of like what it is to become an influencer, there’s so many things to that.

And then you know, you do have those scenarios where you do overstretch, and I’ve definitely been guilty of that a few times. But I’d say that what’s been working for me a lot now, and it allows me to do all these different things without feeling like I’m overstretched is to continue to put out products, things like that. But then let the advertising do most of the marketing for me.

Marc Guberti:
So for my books on Amazon, a lot of the marketing is now through Amazon ads. So now instead of having to do an intense like book promotion for each of my books, I now run Amazon ads, and it won’t be too long before I’ve got Facebook ads. Hey, you can google ads set up where I will be doing that for my landing pages. So it’s, to me it’s more about like, figuring out what are the things I can use ads for to scale and automate, so I don’t have to think about the marketing and I could just go into create, create, create and then just do some initial marketing to my email list.

Marc Guberti:
So it’s really just like cutting down a number of things I have to continuously do repetitively, and being able to let advertising get me my audience.

So I’m like, not there yet with the Facebook ads, because that’s just the way it is. But like, I’ve seen it with the Amazon ads, and I’m going to be exploring all the other ad options. So I don’t have to worry too much about marketing every single thing I create, and that I could only focus on marketing a few things.

Kim Sutton:
I can’t remember I think this was a message I sent to you a few weeks ago. And listeners, I shoot random ideas that I come across to mark once in a while. Full disclosure, but I think I’m going to be setting this up in my business shortly.

Marc, I’m… I’m a multi passionate entrepreneur myself, and I’m working my way out of the just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

I mean up on my website right now, there are at least nine opt ins.

Kim Sutton:
Listeners, there might not be nine opt ins up there by the time this episode is released because I’ve become really clear on what I specialize in, and I’m working on cutting that down to three. I really just want to have them finished by the time I take down the others. So someday in 2020, there will only be three different options: one for funnels, one for the work smarter, not harder challenge and one for my next level tracker sheet which goes right with the work smarter, not harder.

But Marc, what I was realizing — and then I’ll go back to the Facebook ads — was that I was creating lead magnets just because I could do something and they had no funnel to back them up. And then I wasn’t making any money. You know, off that lead magnet I had no emails. No, you know, no email sequence, no nothing.

Kim Sutton:
So I realized I was putting a lot of energy into creating content that was a spur of the moment idea, and then had nothing, no substance on the back end with an exception, I would have to say, is the Pinterest course. But that’s come out of people realizing that I’m doing something there.

But, I’ve also realized I don’t want to become known as a Pinterest expert. And it’s hard sometimes, I mean, I would have to imagine that this could be the same for you sometimes, what you become known as is not necessarily what you want to be known as.

Kim Sutton:
But anyway, okay, so going back to the Facebook ads, one of the things that I realized is that when people opt in, and they get to my thank you page, I can be targeting them with an ad on Facebook, on YouTube, on Instagram. “Hey, you just signed up for how about following me over here so will you find out about future content?“

And that would cut down my ad spend so much while also increasing my followers, which would increase my business ability because you would think that there would be more engagement on my posts.

So I’m like, yes, this is going to be the ticket. I just need to get it set up.

Kim Sutton:
But that is not my focus right now. And, really getting clear on what my focus right now is and not trying to do everything has been such a business changer.

Marc, what is one piece of information that you think would be the most helpful for our listeners today?

I know that’s such a big question.

Marc Guberti:
Yeah, I mean, I would say the big thing for me and for everyone listening is to if you want to go go full time with your work, you really have to think that like a business, I mean, I mentioned I had a YouTube coach earlier. I’ve also invested in a podcast coach, I’ve invested in Kim. I’ve invested in events and different things like that I’ve invested in assistance.

So, if you do want this, like your work, to be your full time thing, it is something you have to invest in with your time, but also with your money. To get the necessary knowledge you need to delegate some of the different tasks around you. So you could focus on the high impact activities rather than just the things that take up space. So that would be my recommendation for everyone.

Kim Sutton:
I love that you said that. For years I had not invested in my business how I should because I thought I could do it all alone. And I think there’s too many entrepreneurs who do just that they think they can go at it alone and then they hold themselves back in the process.

Marc, where can listeners find you online connected, learn more about what you do in the products and services you offer.

Marc Guberti:
So if you just like type my name, Marc Guberti. You’ll find me on different places. I’m doing a lot more stuff on YouTube. So definitely on Amazon because that’s where all my books are.

But, I do want to give you guys a gift. I help people launch grow and monetize their podcasts, and I do that from a coaching capacity.

But I recently came out with with a mini training course – five days to launching your very own podcast and being on your way to building your authority platform so the link to that is MarcGuberti.com/5daypodcastlaunch . All one word. So you guys can figure out how to launch a podcast in five days or less.

Kim Sutton:
I accidentally muted myself. There’s one for the blooper reel.

I know that was an earful. But you can head on over to TheKimSutton.com/pp639 and that link will be in the show notes.

Marc, thank you as always for being inspiring, enlightening and educating, educating and what was I trying to say there? Another one for the blooper reel, but this one’s going to stay in

Marc Guberti:
I heard enlightening, inspiring and educating.

Kim Sutton:
Is that the right word? “Educating”?

Marc Guberti:
We’ll make it work.

Kim Sutton:
Good. That works for me.

And thank you for your friendship and support. Like, it’s amazing.

Marc Guberti:
It’s a pleasure. Thank you.

Kim Sutton:
Do you have one last piece of parting advice or a golden nugget that you can share with listeners?

Marc Guberti:
I would just say that when it comes to your goals, I mean, you could say that this this and that are stopping you. But saying this, this and that are stopping you doesn’t change it. The goal is not done.

So I would just think more of how can you change the situation instead of complaining about the situation? I’m not trying to say that people listening are complainers. But I do feel like we all like look for ways to cushion the blow of us not accomplishing goal and try to make ourselves feel a little bit.

I would remove the cushion and just acknowledge that like, you know, you did not do this goal. And then instead of crying about it, figure out how you can change yourself. Have that transformation. So you do get the goal accomplished. It helps you with future goals as well.

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