An Interview With Kelly McCausey

Kelly McCauseyFor those of you who haven’t yet found Kelly McCausey, you’re in for a treat! And for those of you who have, you already know that!

Kelly is a busy lady, running the amazing Love People + Make Money, Mom Webs Hosting, and White Label Perks.*(affiliate link). She’s also a mastermind coach, an in-demand speaker, a live events host, and in her own words, a ‘PLR fanatic’.

Wow. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired just reading that. Excuse me a minute, while I pour myself a bucket of espresso!

And we’re back.

Welcome, Kelly! Thanks so much for taking the time to be here today. I’m thrilled to have you.

Here we go with the first question:

For those who haven’t met you yet, can you tell us a little about your business and how you got started?

Love People + Make Money is my brand, content marketing and community building is my business. I believe 100% when you sink your roots deep into a community of people you love, seek to serve their needs and shine a light on them, you can grow an income at the same time.

I got my start back in the early 2000’s. I started an internet radio show in 2003 and it opened amazing doors that changed my life. When I look back, I see that I stumbled into a secret. When you shine a light on other people, you start looking pretty good yourself.

I completely agree. There’s a great quote from Zig Ziglar, isn’t there: “You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.” I think that’s very true.

Next question: You certainly know how to pack a whole lot into a day. Any tips for us mere mortals on how you get so much done?

It’s all smoke and mirrors at this point. I do not work that hard in any kind of a consistent basis. I hustle in a season in order to lay low and enjoy my life in another.

I benefit a great deal today on hustle I put in years ago. For that I am grateful for many smart mentors who spoke wisdom into my business, keeping me focused on projects with long term income potential, not always the instant paydays.

That said, I do have a team. Starting with a Project Manager, I also have three different project partners who carry the load with me.

Finding great mentors and building a team can definitely move the needle on a business, and allow for better work-life balance.

Moving onto content marketing, what advice would you give to someone who is completely new to writing and sharing content?

Cast your eyes on the community you want to serve. Content creation is a flowing river when you focus on their needs and problems.

What do they need and what’s your opinion on the subject? Be yourself, let your unique perspective shine through in everything you write or record. In my opinion, new content marketers get caught up in writer’s block when they think too much about ‘doing it right’. Just do it!

When it comes to sharing, take every opportunity to engage in relevant communities where your people are hanging out. Show interest in others first and they’ll be interested in what you have to share. Whenever someone opens up a thread for sharing, take advantage of it. Don’t hold back.

There’s a sneaky voice in your head that will suggest ‘they don’t want to hear from me again’. Just ignore that Trickster thought. It’s your ego working to protect you from risk and fear of failure and it does not serve you.

I’d rather step up and shout out at every opportunity and risk someone thinking I’m full of myself than hold back and not have them think of me at all.

Thanks so much. That’s brilliant advice for anyone just starting off. And for those of us who’ve been at this a while!

So, what would you say the DON’Ts of content marketing are?

The biggest in my opinion is being boring. So much content published these days leave me asking ‘So what?’. It’s just dull. It lacks an opinion. It reads like they’re repeating what others have said.

You can crush any possibility of boring your peeps by telling your own personal experiences with the subject matter. Case studies, personal stories, gutsy opinions – they stand out!

Another don’t: Don’t think ‘I’ve already written about this.’

If a topic resonates with your audience, find a dozen different ways to approach it. They’ll love it! Think about some of the best known content marketers. They are known for certain topics that they talk about all the time. The same will work for you.

Absolutely true. How do you think content marketing can help in building a community?

Great content attracts a community. A yummy example is found in interviews. I love podcasting and webinars because it lets me tap into someone else’s expertise and they usually partner with me in sharing the content with others so it spreads faster. I meet their followers and they meet mine.

It’s a beautiful give and take. You create content that attracts and serves people. They respond and ask questions that help you create more content. They share the answers and more questions come in. If you keep the conversation going, a community grows all around you.

Exactly. It’s win-win, isn’t it? Which I think is the only way to do things. Can you tell me why you think community is so important?

So, this is personal. I grew up in an abusive home. My parents were alcoholics. My mother was physically and emotionally destructive. My dad loved me and I felt close to him, but he didn’t protect me. I never felt a part of the family – the first little community most people get to experience.

Coming out into the world mostly damaged, I found it difficult to be part of community. I feared intimacy and held back from most relationships.

Later in life I finally got an opportunity to know what a community really feels like. First at church, then later in business. I found friendships and encouragement in online community forums, created relationships that gave me courage to start my podcast and later a membership.

I can’t imagine where I’d be if I hadn’t risked joining those communities and let people love on me. I’d surely be a hot mess!

In the last five years since I’ve been hosting and cohosting live events, I’ve seen community at a whole deeper level that’s amazing.

Wow, thanks so much for sharing such an incredibly personal story.

If you had to build a community from scratch now, is there anything you’d do differently?

I can’t think of anything. I didn’t say to myself, ‘Hey, I’m starting a community’ so I can’t claim to have been highly intentional back then. I’ve spotted what worked well though and I’m intentional about it now.

That makes complete sense.

So you’re a self-described PLR fanatic. Can you tell us about that, and how you think businesses can make the most out of using PLR content?

PLR is content someone else has researched and written. You are buying the right to edit, tweak, add to , delete from and overall make it your own. It’s the ultimate ‘speed ball’ for your content marketing.

I use it to fill gaps in my own knowledge in some cases and to speed up blog post creation for one of my businesses.

There are so many wonderful options for using PLR. Use it to create an optin gift, as starter content for audio or videos, to teach your tribe a special skill – or even create a whole product.

I agree. I love to write anyway, but I do use PLR for inspiration and ideas, and sometimes to learn.

How do you think people can improve their content marketing skills?

Seek out feedback. My first big online writing opportunity turned into a wonderful learning experience when I submitted my article to a writer’s group for critique. They slaughtered my writing and taught me everything about ‘writing tight’. It was awful and fantastic at the same time.

We must not be too attached to our writing. We need constructive feedback. We especially need feedback on writing for the web because it is different than writing for academia or a corporate situation.

Loop yourself in with a great writer’s group and throw your writing at their feet. They’ll be tough and you’ll be grateful.

Yes, it’s all very well if your friends and your mum tell you your writing’s brilliant, but you don’t learn anything from that. And there’s nothing like professional feedback from people who know what they’re doing.

Writing epic content on a regular basis can take quite a lot of time. Do you have any tips and tricks to produce great, original content faster?

You don’t always have to write content to be publishing something of value to your community. Have you heard of Content Curation? When I want to publish something fresh and don’t have time or mojo for writing, I will look around at my favorite niche blogs for something good to share.

I curate the content by clipping out a paragraph or two, grabbing a screen shot of the original post – and I publish it on my site with a quick personal intro from me and a link to go read the full version on the other website.

This gives me something to share with my people, on social and even through email. It serves my community and connects me to the other blogger – as I’ll always tell them I’ve curated them because they’re content is so great.

Content curation is really helpful if you don’t have the time to do a full post. I think repurposing can also help, though it takes a bit more effort, as can switching up formats and perhaps recording a quick video instead.

Finally, can you tell us about the Exposure & Profit event that you’ve got coming up in August?

I’d love to! EP is my fifth content marketing conference. I’m hosting it in Atlanta, Georgia. The dates are August 10-12th. Three days, 14 speakers delivering great content marketing and community building topics.

You can expect between 50 and 60 content marketers. Such a nice size for making new connections, even for introverts!

If you’ve never been to an event before, EP is a great starter opportunity. If you’ve been to other events and felt overwhelmed, you’ll be pleasantly surprised that I don’t overpack the schedule and leave plenty of margin for you to socialize and recharge.

I’m doing something special this year. I’m raising $5000 for St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a non profit that provides for childhood cancer research. On Saturday afternoon, I’ll be shaving my head! (Yes, for real!)

We party on Saturday night and the theme this year is Wigs – so everyone will be supporting me with a fun wig of their own. I can’t wait! (By the way, you can support the fundraiser even if you can’t make it to the event. Learn more here: https://lovepeoplemakemoney.com/im-shaving-my-head-again/)

Thanks so much for visiting, Kelly. You’re welcome back any time.


There you have it, folks. I thoroughly enjoyed the interview with Kelly, and I certainly learned a lot. I hope you did too.

If you can get to Atlanta for the Exposure & Profit event, it sounds like you’ll have a great time and learn so much you’ll be inspired for months! Here’s the link for more info: http://www.exposureandprofit.com/.

And here’s that link again if you’d like to support Kelly’s fundraising for St Baldrick’s:

https://lovepeoplemakemoney.com/im-shaving-my-head-again/.


Want to get on my list so you don’t miss any more interviews like this one, and other help to make your content writing rock? Sign up below for my Unstuffy Content Marketing Tips newsletter. I’ll also send you a free copy of my book, 3X Your Traffic and Turn Complete Strangers into Warm Leads.

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