Author: Winston Ash

by Winston Ash on Founder Journal

Traveling

I feel good when I travel. Allows me to focus. My mini-reboot.

Got to the hotel. Went running. 1st time this month and felt great.

And then ended up in my favorite place. A bookstore.

Sometimes, I look for an independent bookstore. And yet, I went with old faithful. Barnes and Noble.

Walking the rows of books I was awestruck. Think about this. The huge amount of knowledge in a bookstore. It is taken for granted. Not me, I respect it.

We live in great times. Our troubles are tiny compared to the generation that saved the world. The least we could do is get educated.

Read a book. That’s what I enjoy.

So, as I lay tonight in my hotel. I’ll read a new book. And think of times past. Strategize for the future. After, I finish documenting this day.

[clickToTweet tweet=”What you read when you don’t have to determines what you will be when you can’t help it -Oscar Wilde” quote=”What you read when you don’t have to determines what you will be when you can’t help it. – Oscar Wilde” theme=”style4″]

 
by Winston Ash on Entrepreneurship

October Journey: 0 to 10,000 Visits

We are wrapping up our first month following: Growing a Site from 0 to 10k Visitors in a Month: Noah Kagan Edition. My goal was to take my site AshMediaEmpire.com through the entire process.

In October, traffic grew 100%. We doubled the amount of traffic on our site. That wasn’t the hard part though. The hard part was gaining credibility and trust in the market place.

Background

I chose the Noah Kogan & Sumome plan for a few reasons:

  1. It’s documented,
  2. It worked, And;
  3. I can compare and contrast it to my site.

Easy enough, right. Take the plan and start. Well, I had to adjust it a bit to be more me. I got rid of the tight timeframe as I have other obligations and extended my timeline. My end goal is slightly different. I am not aiming for revenue from my content. My content is a gateway into my business. A tripwire, if you may.

S – Specific: I want to grow my viewship to 10,000 unique visits.

M – Measureable: Yes, the goal is pass or fail.

A – Agreed Upon: I agree to the goal.

R – Realistic: It has been done before.

T – Time-Based: Deadline is 6 Months from September 20th, 2016. Specifically, 5:00 PM on March 20th, 2017.

Document in Real Time

Documenting all of this in real time will allow me to make changes along the way. Also, you can see what works. I am open to feedback. So, don’t be shy.

October Numbers

What Works

The part of the plan that works the best is interviewing people. It works because you are providing them with value. You get to learn more about their business. Personally, the interview process helped me get more comfortable talking to business owners about their business.

The interview plan works for the recipient because it is a way for them to get more exposure. Each person on my mailing list and in my ecosystem gets to learn more about this business.

Basic Numbers: On Social Media, my 1st interview was viewed by over a 1000 people. 

What Doesn’t

Haven’t gotten started with giveaways yet. Next month, I will focus on implementing the whole plan.

Conclusion

Content Marketing is a long-term game and I plan to use it even if I don’t see results immediately. Patience is my ally. In the original plan, the focus was on 0 to 10,000 Visits in 30 days. I do not have that time constraint. My goal is to build that following within 6 months because of my modifications to the program.

Based on this month, we did extremely well. Social Media is our focus. And our viewership has grown into the thousands.

In November, my plan is to escalate the amount of content put out. We are going to add more interview, video, and content curation to my plan.

The struggle is real. And, I love it. 0 to 10,000 monthly visits and views.

What do you think of the progress so far? I’ve been happy with the viewership growth, but I need to focus on content creation. 

 
by Winston Ash on Entrepreneurship

The Way I Work

To outsiders, it must look like I don’t do much.

New ideas all the time. Slow progress on old ones.

But inside it’s pedal to the floor. Every day I’m learning. More and more things change. And, I adjust accordingly.

Every new day brings new decisions. I love the game.

So, yes. From the outside, I can see it looks like not much is going on.

But I wish you could see the messy work going on.

It reminds me of those sayings of overnight successes.

“Dude, one day he just blew up.”

There is no way it’s like that.

We toil in the quiet and the finished product is our result.

But that process of work. That is our real salvation.

I compare it to going pro in baseball.

I was the friend of a catcher turned pitcher who ended up winning a World Series.

Want to know what I saw?

Every day from the time we were little kids this guy worked on baseball. Not some days. Not a little.

But a full workout. Every. Single. Day.

No days off, no holidays. And to him, it wasn’t work.

He loved the game. Think about that.

That’s how I feel about my work.

It’s passion. Love. Dedication. Inspiration.

[clickToTweet tweet=”The Way I Work is For Love of The Game.” quote=”The Way I Work is For Love of The Game.” theme=”style2″]

 
by Winston Ash on Entrepreneurship

Sprint Velocity

Two ideas when combined describe my plan.

I want to go as fast as I can in a straight line.

Funny, that line goes up a steep hill called success.

So, my speed may be slow, but I’m moving with intense velocity and intent.

Easier said than done.

I compare it to a treadmill. Everyone at the gym goes fast on flat ground. The champions charge the hills and put in the work.

 
by Winston Ash on #Reviews

Show Your Work by Austin Kleon – Book Review

Just finished reading Austin Kleon’s Show Your Work: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered (Not an affiliate link). Overall, great book. Filled with advice, actionable knowledge, and funny insights.

http://austinkleon.com/

Visit Here for Book Information: http://austinkleon.com/

Here’s what Amazon says: Show Your Work! is about why generosity trumps genius. It’s about getting findable, about using the network instead of wasting time “networking.” It’s not self-promotion, it’s self-discovery―let others into your process, then let them steal from you. Filled with illustrations, quotes, stories, and examples,Show Your Work! offers ten transformative rules for being open, generous, brave, productive.

 

Bookmarked Pages:

Think Process, Not Product

Open Up Your Cabinet of Curiosities

Tell Good Stories

Teach What You Know

 

Parts I liked:

… have built sharing into their routine.

Become a documentarian of what you do.

Take advantage of all the cheap, easy tools at your disposal –

Focus on days.

What are you working on?

Don’t show your lunch or your latte; show your work. (emphasis mine)

“… draw people’s attention to things that I liked, to shape things that I liked into new shapes.”

Attribution is about putting little museum labels next to the stuff you share.

You get a great idea, you go through the hard work of executing the idea, and then you release the idea out into the world, coming to a win, lose, or draw.

pitches. They’re stories with the endings chopped off.

Choose You Own Adventure book … turn your listener into the hero …

Tell the truth and tell it with dignity and self-respect.

Strike all adjectives from your bio. Just state the facts.

“Make people better at something they want to be better at.”

If you want to be accepted by a community, you have to first be a good citizen of that community.

“the continual projection of interest.”

Make stuff you love and talk about stuff you love and you’ll attract people who love that kind of stuff. It’s that simple.

Put out a lot of work.

They give away great stuff on their sites, they collect emails, and then when they have something remarkable to share or sell, they send an email. (emphasis mine)

They all have been able to persevere, regardless of success or failure.

Recommendation:

Buy Now! Read it from front to back. Bookmark, write in the margins, and implement the strategies. I am.

  • https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/076117897X/wwwaustinkleo-20/ref=nosim/ (Not an affiliate link)

 

 

 

 
by Winston Ash on Founder Journal

Learning to Write

Writing is a skill.

Learned through repetition.

Like any skill, it dies without constant use.

So, I’ve committed.

Learning to write, daily.

Put my ideas on paper. Sort them. And present them to you.

I appreciate you.

Personally, I may not know you. But my writing has always been for you.

I like learning. And, writing well is a good skill to have.

Challenge accepted.