Marc Guberti

E130: Designing Your Lifestyle With John Kim

April 5, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

John Kim is a published writer, speaker, life coach, and a co-founder of SHFT, an online support group which helps build your self-confidence. By combining what he learned in therapy school with life coaching, the Angry Therapist came to be. However, instead of thinking of himself as a therapist, he prefers to think of himself as a lifestyle designer.

Quotes To Remember:

“History alone is not enough to have a friendship.”

“It’s okay to have different tribes.”

“The high performance is the by-product. It’s what happens when you have authentic relationships with people who are going to push you and make you accountable.”

“If you have a growth mindset, challenge becomes education.”

What You’ll Learn:

How rebirth can set you on the right track to success
How to Design the Life that You Want
Finding the Right People
How to Get Back on Track When You Find Yourself Stuck in a Situation

Key Links From The Show:

John’s Site

Recommended Books:

The Angry Therapist by John Kim

The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida

Ego Is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday

The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday

Support Breakthrough Success On Patreon

Please consider supporting Breakthrough Success on Patreon. I publish five episodes per week which I carefully prepare for, and I choose to not run ads in my podcast to enhance the listener experience.

I offer my patrons various perks, and even a donation as small as $1/mo would make a big difference for growing and maintaining Breakthrough Success.

You can support Breakthrough Success by going here.

E129: Creating A High Converting Funnel Has Never Been Simpler With Chanti Zakariasen

April 4, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Chanti Zakariasen is a copywriter and funnel strategist whose content has been featured on places like Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, Greatest, Cosmopolitan, and more. She focuses on sales and systems and helps her clients from a funnel’s start to finish. Her past clients include a multi-million dollar spiritual development company, nutritionists, health coaches, online business moguls, biohacking specialists, supplement companies, life coaches and more. She teaches people how to create copy that converts as well as strategies that simplify your business and your life.

Quotes To Remember:

“The holy grail of copywriting and content marketing is establishing a sense of trust.”

“Something that is real, valuable and authentic is so much more powerful than an email.”

“You have to first establish connection before even thinking of getting into a sales pitch.”

“Every business is different and every business has different offers in place.”

“Fear is just false evidence appearing real.”

“Always create multiple streams of income.”

What You’ll Learn:

How to Plan a Funnel
Tips on Optimizing the Copy for your Funnels
How to Promote Products
What Happens at the End of a Funnel
Balancing Time to Your Clients and to Yourself
Why You Should Hire a Coach

Key Links From The Show:

Chanti’s Site

Chanti’s Free Quiz Funnel Course

Recommended Books:

Ask Method by Ryan Levesque

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

Tools of Titans by Timothy Ferris

Tribe of Mentors by Timothy Ferris

Support Breakthrough Success On Patreon

I offer my patrons various perks, and even a donation as small as $1/mo would make a big difference for growing and maintaining Breakthrough Success.

You can support Breakthrough Success by going here.

E129: Creating A High Converting Funnel Has Never Been Simpler With Chanti Zakariasen

April 4, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Quotes To Remember:

“The holy grail of copywriting and content marketing is establishing a sense of trust.”

“Something that is real, valuable and authentic is so much more powerful than an email.”

“You have to first establish connection before even thinking of getting into a sales pitch.”

“Every business is different and every business has different offers in place.”

“Fear is just false evidence appearing real.”

“Always create multiple streams of income.”

What You’ll Learn:

How to Plan a Funnel
Tips on Optimizing the Copy for your Funnels
How to Promote Products
What Happens at the End of a Funnel
Balancing Time to Your Clients and to Yourself
Why You Should Hire a Coach

Key Links From The Show:

Chanti’s Site

Chanti’s Free Quiz Funnel Course

Recommended Books:

Ask Method by Ryan Levesque

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

Tools of Titans by Timothy Ferris

Tribe of Mentors by Timothy Ferris

Support Breakthrough Success On Patreon

I offer my patrons various perks, and even a donation as small as $1/mo would make a big difference for growing and maintaining Breakthrough Success.

You can support Breakthrough Success by going here.

The Anatomy Of An Addictive Blog Post

April 4, 2018 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Not all pieces of content are created equal. Some blog posts are easy to skip over while others are addictive. They keep us engaged and leave us craving for more.

By crafting addictive blog posts, visitors will spend more time on your blog, and the trust between you and your audience will grow as the minutes go by. Once people trust you, then they buy from you.

Addictive blog posts help you generate and build upon that trust. All addictive blog posts follow a similar structure.

An Addictive Headline

We’ve read many headlines in our lives. You need to be very creative with your headline to attract people to your content.

Understand now that the headline you use for each blog post wields more influence than anything else when it comes to engagement and getting people to stick around.

I have two favorite tactics for crafting an addictive headline. The first tactic is to see what everyone else is doing so you know what to steer away from.

While I still have much to learn, I am getting better at removing words like tactics, tips, and similar words from my headlines. Those words are too common in current headlines for information-based content.

I could have called this blog post “X Ways To Make Your Blog Posts More Addictive” but that uses a common style. Addictive headlines shake things up.

If you want inspiration on what to do, look at BuzzFeed. They get so much engagement from their site, and their headlines play a crucial part in that engagement.

The second tactic is to write 10 headlines for each new piece of content you create. The first few headlines will be very bad, but as you write more headlines, you’ll start coming across deeper headlines. You’ll force yourself to think beyond common headlines since you probably wrote those headlines first.

The winning headline is almost never the first one you think of.

Content To Back It Up

Now, what if I named this blog post “You Won’t Believe What Happened To This Iguana After It Touched A Porcupine”?

To take a quick time out, if someone has that headline and an actual video, I’m curious myself.

Headlines like this make us want to learn more. However, you need the content to back up the headline.

If you come to this blog post expecting a video of an iguana touching a porcupine, you were very disappointed. However, if a blog post by the same title existed, and the iguana didn’t touch the porcupine, you’d also be very disappointed.

Addictive headlines without substance behind the content are nothing more than clickbait. Sure, you’ll get visitors, but they won’t stick around. Some will very publicly denounce your content if you use clickbait.

I know that you’re far beyond using clickbait. But it needs to be said. Make sure your content backs up the headline.

To flip from a negative like clickbait to a positive, the more you back up the headline, the more addictive your blog post becomes. I could have written three sentences for this blog post.

If I did that, it wouldn’t have captured the same value that you’re getting now. Some things can be said in three sentences. This is something that can be said in three sentences but much better said with several sections and paragraphs.

Easy To Read

Notice how my paragraphs are very short? Technically, a paragraph needs to be at least four lines.

Did you see how I started one of my sentences with but when talking about clickbait? Grammatically, I should have made it a conjunction and turned those two sentences into one sentence. But that would result in a long sentence.

Long sentences and paragraphs are hard to read.

Most of your visitors will be skimmers. You need to make it as easy as possible for visitors to glean the highlights. If your blog post is really good, you might get some skimmers to slow down their pace.

You can also use bullet points and bold font. I don’t always utilize these features. But I aim to use them when I can.

To make up for that, I have clearly laid out sections in each blog post. If you don’t like a particular section (i.e. the one you’re reading now), you can just skip to the next one. Speaking about the next section…

Beyond The Written Word

Blogging is a writer’s dream. While writing content about a topic you enjoy is very fun, you need to incorporate multiple media formats into each blog post.

Most people only use the written word in their blog posts. Some people add a picture at the top of their blog posts and that’s about it.

That’s not enough. Nowhere near enough. At least, if you want an addictive blog post.

You need a new piece of media approximately every 300 words. That ensures your visitors aren’t just looking through a wall of text.

And notice how I said new piece of media and not just a new picture. There’s nothing wrong with including videos within your blog posts. If you include enough videos, you can turn each of your blog posts into mini training courses.

Depending on the videos you choose (engagement, total minutes, etc.), some of your videos may spend more than 20 minutes on a single blog post.

I also recommend choosing YouTube videos because YouTube is good at getting people to continue watching videos. They offer tailored suggestions which would then be offered on your blog.

Some of your visitors may watch more of the videos YouTube suggested all while on your blog. That’s a lot of time to spend on one place, and that’s how trust builds at a rapid pace.

In Conclusion

Addictive blog posts are meant to keep people on your blog for as long as possible. The only way people will stick around is if you give them multiple reasons to do so. You can provide a legendary experience, massive value, and a stream of additional content.

We need to advance beyond creating valuable content. Valuable content is important, but we all know that creating valuable content is important. We need to think more about the experience and optimizing our content for minutes viewed.

Long form content is better optimized for a boost in minutes. But if you include engaging videos within your content, you’ll reach the next level in engagement.

What are your thoughts on the anatomy of addictive blog posts? Do you have any advice to share about making blog posts more addictive? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

E128: An Author Of 40+ Books Teaches You How To Grow A Self-Publishing Brand With Dale Roberts

April 3, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Dale Roberts teaches people how to grow their own profitable self-publishing businesses.He is a Certified Personal Trainer, bestselling author, and self-published author of well over 40 books. Dale provides a wide range of educational videos on self-publishing which you can find on his YouTube channel.

Quotes To Remember:

“Ten percent of the process is writing the book. Ninety percent is marketing it and promoting it.”

“One of the worst things that you can do is being the weird guy.”

“At the end of the day, one of the things that’s going to build a longer term sustainable business is going to be out there building actual real relationships.”

“Identify who your audience is and how do they communicate.”

“Book covers make a world of difference.”

What You’ll Learn:

How to Market the Book You Published
Optimizing Your Books in Amazon
4 Valuable Areas when Optimizing Your Books
Avoiding the ‘Someday’ Policy

Key Links From The Show:

Dale’s Site

Dale’s YouTube Channel

Guitar World Magazine

Kindle

CreateSpace

Meetup

Recommended Books:

The 90-Day Home Workout Plan by Dale Roberts

Write. Publish. Repeat by Sean Platt and‎ Johnny B. Truant

Secrets of the Six-Figure by Tom Corson-Knowles

Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks by Mick Foley, Mankind, and WWF

Support Breakthrough Success On Patreon

I offer my patrons various perks, and even a donation as small as $1/mo would make a big difference for growing and maintaining Breakthrough Success.

You can support Breakthrough Success by going here.

March 2018 Performance Report

April 3, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

This was a month of reconnection after a stomach virus took up a week of February. Sometimes, I believe we can feel alone as we create content for our audiences. I know you and others will read this Performance Report and consume more of my content.

However, when I’m typing this Performance Report or creating any other piece of content, it’s just me. Then I get comments (which I will catch up on) and realize that there are people consuming my content.

I reconnected with the fact that I’m providing the content to real people who go beyond grouping terms like content creators and entrepreneurs. Hosting webinars this month helped me grasp this concept under a new light. I’ll talk more about that later.

iCalendar For Productivity

Now that I learned how to use iCalendar productively, I honestly don’t think I need another productivity tool.

One piece of advice I frequently came across in books was to schedule tasks into your day or else they won’t get done.

That’s why I wrote out different tasks and when I would do them on a sheet of paper. However, that took up time, and those pieces of paper got messy when I needed to make adjustments.

Enter iCalendar (or Google Calendar or your equivalent). I now schedule my entire day on iCalendar so I know what I have to do and when.

Here’s an example of what a day can look like on iCalendar (I could only get part of it in the shot).

I can look at this day and see what’s scheduled and when I have to do everything. I can also see how long each activity is supposed to last. This results in mini deadlines within my day.

I know I have a limited amount of time to pursue a task. If I go beyond that limited time, my schedule will soon become a mess due to the way I squeeze tasks throughout each day.

I’ll also print out each day from iCalendar so I can cross out each task with my pen upon completion. Crossing out your goal or using a checkmark with a pen is very different from just deleting it from iCalendar once you’ve completed the goal.

Webinars Are A Big Part Of My Future

I finally hosted my first webinar of 2018. While that one had no audio, my second webinar had audio and had a big impact on some of the attendees. With Twitter’s big changes having a significant impact on my traffic, I am now looking for new ways to drive traffic to my brand.

Webinars combined with ads will open the doors to more traffic, and more importantly, conversions.

I’ve already hosted a webinar for the Content Marketing Success Summit All-Access Pass. I plan on promoting Virtual Summit Blueprint next and working my way up to promoting the Content Marketing Plaza which is my flagship course.

For my first webinar (I’m referencing the webinar with audio), I got an EPC (earnings per conversion) of $1.38

That’s a small margin for error when using CPC (cost per conversion) ads to drive traffic to the webinar.

That’s why I’m promoting the Virtual Summit Blueprint at $197 in some of my future webinars. That way, I have more room with the EPC assuming everything else remains equal. In the everything being equal scenario, the webinar featuring my Blueprint would have a whooping $5.79 CPC.

That’s more than enough room for an ad.

The only challenge I have is that the first webinar I did was in-house. Everyone in the audience already knew me. Most of the people I get from ads may not know who I am which would affect the conversion rate.

CMSS II

One of my greatest successes in 2017 was the Content Marketing Success Summit. Over 50 speakers gathered together to share their insights and give attendees an incredible experience.

Now we’re in 2018, and I’m eager to run another virtual summit. I love the model, but I made two big mistakes last year.

The first big mistake was doing most of the work by myself. With the exception of video editing, I literally did everything by myself. I created the webpages while playing my part as customer service and the affiliate manager.

If you think that’s stressful enough, add the fact that I got excited and launched the Productivity Virtual Summit less than three months after CMSS. I was essentially working on two virtual summits at the same time. I believe this is possible with more preparation, but I definitely overdid it.

That’s why I’m only doing one virtual summit this year. My codename for it is CMSS II which will feature all past interviews and a bunch of new ones. The goal, which is very doable based on how many people I know and interview for my podcast, is to have a total of 70-80 speakers for CMSS II. It will be the same landing page and everything with a few minor tweaks.

Right now, the launch is slated for some time in November. I haven’t finalized dates yet since I want to see what other affiliate promotions are happening in November, but it is slated for November.

That gives me 7 months to prepare instead of the 3 months I got to prepare for the previous summit (while preparing for another one at the same time). I have more time to recruit affiliates and land top level speakers for the summit.

Books I Read

I didn’t keep track of this the way I should have. I read the books that I re-read each day, but I need to strengthen my reading habit for April.

I have 10 audiobooks that I haven’t read yet. The reason is that lately the bike has been bothering me, and that’s when I listen to most of my audiobooks. I also need to start biking again, so I’ll do more of a stretch beforehand to get on the bike and listen to more audiobooks.

I also need to read more paperbacks and hardcovers as well.

At the same time, I want to ensure that I’m reading books but taking action as well. This is the juggling act many of us face, and a focus on audiobooks will help me on the action taking part.

Review Of March 2018 Goals

#1: Run FB Ads For The Content Marketing Success Summit: While I do not have FB ads running for CMSS, I have hosted multiple webinars. Once I have a high converting webinar (likely in April), I will use Facebook ads to get more attendees.

#2: Get Involved With 4 Cross Promotions: This didn’t happen but I have reached out to several YouTubers about collaboration series. I’m excited about putting out daily content on YouTube soon and hope to collab with a bunch of awesome people.

#3: Plan Out A CMP Promotion: I have a vague idea of when I’ll promote CMP again. I know it will be after CMSS II, but I’ll run some webinars for it beforehand to get the conversions solid.

#4: Write The Draft For My Next Book: I made progress but not enough progress. I still have a decent way to go but can get it done in April.

#5: Delegate More Tasks: I either stayed the same or slightly improved.

April 2018 Goals

#1: Run A Webinar On FB Ads With A $3 NEPC: I intend on making a net profit of $3 for every opt-in to my webinar. I’ll test it first and then run FB ads right after. EPC stands for earnings per conversion, and I added the N for net. That’s why NEPC is there.

#2: Finish The First Draft Of My Next Book: I have two rounds for my book. The first round is me getting to 30,000 words and laying out all of the topics. The second round is more focused on storytelling and incorporating examples throughout the book.

#3: Confirm CMSS II Dates: This is something I can do in less than an hour, but I need to go back to last year’s launch and analyze what worked before I determine how long the launch will be and when it will take place. I also need to make sure my launch doesn’t conflict with another launch in my niche.

#4: Start Uploading Daily YouTube Videos: I am very excited about this goal. I’ve always wanted to hit 100K subscribers on YouTube, and while I am a long way from that goal (I’m about to break 3K), I am excited to be back in action. You’ll see daily videos from me soon enough.

#5: Get Traffic From Twitter Again: Twitter’s new rule about no evergreen tweets in a repeating cycle threw my traffic off towards the end of the month. My goal will be to regain traffic that I lost by using Twitter in new ways. I believe these changes are better for Twitter overall but will be a pain for marketers in the short-term.

In Conclusion

The biggest win, without question, was getting back in the webinar game. I see so much potential now that I’m taking webinars seriously.

The revenue I generate from the webinars will help pay off current expenses while expanding my horizons…all while boosting my profit (reminder: that’s different from revenue).

What are your thoughts on this Performance Report? Do you have any questions for me? Sound off in the comments section below.