Your business. Your brand. Your way. — That’s the gist of what Kiss My Biz is all about.
You won’t get a lot of regurgitated cookie-cutter advice here. You won’t be handed some homogenized plan all visitors can replicate with promises of success.
Instead, you’ll learn how to think for yourself and develop the best online marketing, PR, and content strategies for your individual business.
You’ll learn how to take the things you’re passionate about and turn them into business opportunities.
You’ll learn how to stand out among your competition and make a name for yourself (without any sleazy promotional tactics that would leave you hating yourself in the morning).
And, ultimately, you’ll learn how to shut up every critic or doubter who told you that your dreams would never translate into a viable business doing what you love.
The Deep Roots of Kiss My Biz
The Kiss My Biz brand might have launched in 2018. But this blog has its roots in a site founded in 2006 — BizAmmo.com. And some of the content laying the foundation for BizAmmo was written even earlier than that.
For a few years, BizAmmo sat mostly static even though it used to be one of my “Big 3” sites in a large network of them, and even though it used to be one of my top earners. I just couldn’t get back into the site, and I wasn’t sure why.
Until recently…
I realized after yet another shooting here in the U.S. that my issue with the site was its brand. What was clever and effective branding over a decade ago (for the young male audience I mostly wrote for at the time) made me feel, well, dirty. Making money with a brand even loosely associated with an image of gun culture wasn’t “me.” So I let it sit while I pursued other projects.
After I figured that out, I realized the right move was to dig even deeper into my own roots — the approach and attitude that helped me build a successful and independent business from nothing, against the odds at the time, and in spite of a lack of support from most people around me.
From that place, Kiss My Biz was born.
I took just about 25% of my old content from BizAmmo to build this new site. The rest of that content remained archived at BizAmmo for several years before the site was shut down completely in 2022.
Moving forward with Kiss My Biz, my focus was narrowed to a few key interest areas — online marketing, PR, and content strategy (blogging, social media, and thought leadership projects).
More importantly, I opted to use my skills and experience with those things — not just in building my own business, but also those of my clients — to help readers do what I did…
I want to give you the fundamentals that will help you follow your dreams and pursue your passions both successfully and creatively. I won’t give you one case study after another and tell you “Do what I did!”
Bloggers who pretend their unique experiences can be replicated by any reader are full of shit.
What I’ll do instead of asking you to parrot me is teach you what you need to know to stay ahead of the curve — to be the one testing and reporting and building something in new creative ways that appeal to you rather than being anyone’s follower.
The simple truth is you won’t succeed trying to be someone you aren’t. I want to help you succeed while staying true to yourself.
About Me
This approach isn’t new to me.
Where many solopreneurs focus on generic marketing advice (the same old rehashed crap that’s often well past its prime by the time you hear about it), I come from a PR background.
I still have plenty of online marketing experience. But I know how to do something many marketers don’t. I know how to help you build an authentic brand and earned reputation — things that beat algorithm-chasing and quick-fix promotional tactics pretty much every time.
Instead of teaching you how to build quick links Google will devalue down the road, I can teach you how to be a true resource people link to regularly because you deserve it.
Instead of teaching you to build an image of expertise, I’ll teach you about building and becoming the real thing.
Instead of teaching you how to repeat the generic tactics so many marketers tell everyone under the sun to embrace, my goal is to teach you the underlying skills you need to figure out the best tactics for your business.
Who am I to teach you these things?
Well, I’m a bit of a pain in the ass for starters. And I’m stubborn as hell. I’ve never been much of a follower. And I’ve always been a bit of a rule-breaker, especially in business. (I’m breaking a couple of tired old “rules” right on this page, and for good reason. Can you guess what they are?)
I also just so happen to have my degree in PR, have worked in digital PR and online marketing for over 20 years, and have been writing professionally for 25 years (I’m primarily a professional blogger and freelance business writer these days, though I still take on some consulting).
I left a nonprofit PR job to launch a small music PR firm where I worked with the indie artists I was passionate about. And I’ve been working with creative professionals and solopreneurs following their own passions ever since.
I was one of the earliest specialists in online PR and social media promotion, especially for creatives and web-based solopreneurs (you know… before everyone and their brother with a social media profile thought they were qualified to label themselves experts in a professional sense).
I’ve run over 100 sites of my own (some for well over a decade, some industry-recognized in both print and online publications, others which were retired, merged, or sold). I’ve managed content strategies and editorial teams for clients and larger site networks.
I’ve worked with authors, musicians, professional athletes, CEOs, marketing firms, SEO firms, blog owners, nonprofits — countless people doing their own thing, trying to stand out online to build businesses pursuing whatever mattered most to them.
Again then… who am I to teach you how to think more creatively and effectively about your online marketing, PR, and content strategy?
- I’m someone who’s been there herself.
- I’m someone who’s helped others down similar paths for years.
- I’m someone who believes in making you smarter about how you do business so you don’t just get sucked into one money-draining “solution” after another that tries to make you be like everyone else.
- I’m someone who puts principles before a quick buck (real success comes from sustainability).
- I’m someone with a long history of calling out bullshit artists and bad advice.
- And I’m someone with the credentials, experience, and attitude to back it all up.
So that’s who I am. Now who are you?
If you’re one of those naysayers bringing aspiring artists and solopreneurs down, or someone trying to make an easy buck off their backs feeding them lazy, irresponsible advice or thinking you’re qualified to teach them because you have a whopping 10 minutes’ more experience… you can kiss my biz sweetie. This is a bullshit-free zone, and none of that is welcome here.
Or are you someone who has what it takes to turn your passion into a successful business so you can finally tell your critics where to stick their doubts? If so, you and I will get along beautifully, and I look forward to seeing you around.