Interview with Kim Castleberry from Just Ask Kim

I recently had the chance to interview blogger and internet marketing whiz Kim Castleberry of Just Ask Kim. Most of you know Kim already or you might remember a post I did called Video Blogging Women on the Rise over a year ago. Kim is certainly on the move, and on her blog, she provides in depth tutorials and insights on everything from WordPress blogging and social media to internet marketing, IT and tech.[box]Before we get started with the interview, here's a reminder to check out Kim's Brand New Training program called Timelines For FB Pages[/box]

My Interview with Kim Castleberry

Tell everyone something about your background and what were you doing before you started your blog and consulting business – and who influenced you to get online?

My background is this hodge-podge of growing up in a small business focused family combined with my schooling in pre-veterinary and blended with my strong interests in IT and health. How’s that for a combo? I was blessed to grow up in one of the last mom & pop convenience store businesses, at the heels of my grandparents and really learn a ton about taking care of customers. My mom, who graduated with a degree in programing, before Windows even came out, made it possible for me to grow up around computers. This meant I had no fear of them and enjoyed them and set the stage for me being online from a very young age. That of course simply lead to me naturally wanting to build a business online!

I’ve been talking about YouTube on the blog a lot recently and I’m sure you remember when I did a post last year about you being one of the Video Blogging Women On the Rise. What’s your most popular video on YouTube and why do you think it got so many views?

One of my most popular videos is relatively “expired” now but gained a lot of traction over several months. It’s a very controversial video that spoke out about a product that was actively being launched and over-hyped. Not that it was a bad product but the problem was it was NOT the right product for many of the novices who were buying it! The company was so intent to sell that they were not pointing out the glaring reasons that it was a bad idea for many novices or that there were more sensible alternatives. That video was so controversial and hotly debated that its view rates spiked more than most of my others.

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I was interviewed by Holly Jahangiri from The Next Goal, and she asked me some tough questions about my personal goals so I want to pose some of those same types of questions to you. Why do you think people fail to reach their goals and what advice would you give someone who might be just starting out and needs to establish goals?

I think there is tons of great advice out there on setting goals and planning. You gave some excellent advice in your own interview. I’d like to take the goal setting a step further and say that it HAS to go beyond the planning stage. Lots of people do great things “on paper” and allow their fear of the unknown to keep it on paper. They fuss and fuss over planning it out just right and never take action. Perfection is another term for PROCRASTINATION. You have to be willing to take imperfect action. It’s the only way you learn. If you’re not making mistakes along the way you’re neither growing or pushing hard enough. Get out of “perpetual planning mode” and DO the things you’ve planned!

I know that you love to answer questions that people have about blogging and social media, hence the appropriate name for your blog: Just Ask Kim. But have you ever had a question that stumped you or that you had to do a ton of research to find the answer to? What was that like?

Oh yes… far more than anyone would believe honestly! I LOVE a good question that makes me do some legwork and WORK a bit LOL! While there’s no doubt I know my material forwards and backwards, it’s impossible for anyone to know the entire breadth and scope of the social tech industry off the cuff. My strongest skills that compensate for this however are really understanding how to find what I need in Google (asking Google the right question is key) and that I have an amazing network of people I’m connected to that I can ask for answers! I ADORE learning new stuff and when someone throws me a question that I don’t know, the hunt is on!

Let’s hear more about your blog. What going on over on your blog right now? What are some of the hot topics that people are commenting on or sharing on social media most often?

Right now, the site has just gotten a fresh coat of paint and I’m busy still setting up a lot of pages, links and theme elements that were not ready at the time I set up the redesign. I’m getting a lot of questions about the theme and it is a custom made skin/child theme for Thesis. I did a lot of the original coding myself but because I’m actually not a designer/developer, I enlisted the assistance of a lovely gal who is, Nile Flores to help me fix some things and work on the art and really help me make it “pop”.

At the moment, the most popuplar posts on my site mostly revolve around Google+ for business use. However, there’s a super-important post about setting up security on your main Google account that is seeing a lot of activity for VERY good reason!

Find out what's next for Kim

What’s next for you, are you working on any projects or products we should be looking forward to? Give us the behind the scenes exclusive – something you haven’t announced yet anywhere else!

Ooh behind the scenes tidbits! I am in the process of bundling up and supplementing a very nice WordPress training course (video format) that I’ve licensed and am planning to expand out. That will be ideal for a lot of the beginners in the community to really get a very solid foundation training. Then I’m also working on bundling up for sale the WordPress SEO course I taught recently that was so much fun. I had a blast with that class and the reviews were great. I really spend a lot of time working on course production and product creation which is a lot of fun.

Thanks for taking the time to do the interview and is there anything else you would like to share or any advice you have for someone who wants to start their own blog, online business or YouTube channel?

My best advice is simply to get out here and DO it. Take action. In fact, take IMPERFECT action because its the only way to learn. Don’t be afraid of “failure” because there is no such thing unless you give up. Don’t make excuses for why you cant… make reasons for why you can! Be sure however, that what you are planning to create content on is something you are 100% passionate about and TRULY would do even if there were no financial reasons. Anything short of this will result just not give you the results you’re hoping for. Treat your business like a business, don’t cut corners and don’t short change it. Everyone out here goes through the learning curve and understands the frustrations. Don’t be afraid to borrow the shoulder or emotional support of a friend who’s “been there, done that” because they can help you through the rough stuff. There has never been more amazing time in history for someone who is truly passionate about helping others succeed!