Entrepreneurs with influence: Maren Kate

By Matt Dunlap on June 22nd, 2010

1 comment

Tweet Tags: interview, SMO

If you haven’t heard of Maren Kate, you will soon. The overly honest entrepreneur is growing a huge following with here blogs and Youtube videos. and I’m honored she gave me the opportunity to interview her.

I often see the label of blogger or affiliate marketeer, but it gets so distorted.. So, in your mind, what do you do?

I have a social marketing business www.OracleLaunch.com which I am soon rebranding and relocating to another URL that is my main source of income, we used to build websites but now focus on SMO solely. I also am in the midst of starting 2 other businesses that I hope to grow to 5 figure a month babies and one I have a goal of selling for over 7 figures. I’ll start to monetize Escaping the 9 to 5 when I switch over to the new design so far I haven’t tried at all but have still made money through referrals and affiliates.

Your pretty honest in your posts. Do you ever write a post and then think, Jeez… why did I write that?

Almost every time. I have misspells and sentences that belie the fact that i was an English major in college. I often put out things and then think “that was so dumb”… but it’s all part of being authentic – I’d rather be criticized for the real me than put on a show and trick people into thinking I’m better more eloquent than I am in real life.

What other bloggers or websites do you have in your feed reader?

Pat Flynn
Everett Bogue
Diggy from UpgradeReality.com
SocialTriggers.com (Derek)
Glen of Viperchill.com
Jun Loayza
Clay Collins
The Middle Finger Project
Instigationology.com (Andi)

I see you do a lot of interviews… Is that your niche?

I just fell into that – I’ve always found that the #1 way to get to place X (say X = your dream life) is to find people who have done it and then mimic their patterns. Now note I don’t say mimic them, so don’t go out and do EVERYTHING Richard Branson has done, instead note HOW he did it and follow in his footsteps. Everything has a road map whether people realize it or not. So that is why I started to interview people, it was one of the ways I could talk to successful entrepreneurs without wasting their time. Then it just evolved from there. I want to share what they say with others so now it is a regular feature on my blog – and more importantly has just got accepted on iTunes as a podcast under “Business > Marketing & Managment” under the name (Drum roll please…) “Escaping the 9 to 5″…

We all know that working from home/coffee shops/traveling is great, but there as to be drawbacks… What is the the worst thing about building a lifestyle on the internet?

It’s lonely when you work on your own 8 hours a day… Sometimes I miss having more human interaction at “Work”, that is probably why I spend more time in coffee shops than in my home office which is far nicer. At least with coffee shops I “feel” as if others are around me and I’m not so isolated.

Do you have any pet peeves?

I despise people that talk or text on their phones issensantly while in line, at dinner, or addressing another human being. Affliction shirts. People that complain about their lives but won’t get off their lazy bum to do anything about it.

What are your goals in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years…

I will sell one of my businesses for $5,000,000, then invest it in mutual funds and live off the 5% interest for a year while I travel the world. I will be a multi millionaire by the time I’m thirty. I will start a charity after that called ‘AnOption’.  it’s where we offer the choice to pregnant women  and not prepared to go back to school, to start their own company, to get education and mental support in exchange for them adopting their baby out to a loving home who can take care of it properly. It’s not meant to be political, religious or take a stance against other forms of contraception – it’s just meant to offer people who aren’t ready “an option” and a chance to start over and really do something with their lives.

I personally think video is the future of content, but it’s so hard to get in front of that camera. I see you are a pro at it. What tips can you give to anyone trying to make
videos for their blog. How are the videos working for you?

Haha, I am sooo not a pro. I want to do a video 5 days of the week but most of the time I don’t because I either

A. freeze up
B. think I look ugly and don’t want people to see my like that or
C. forget what to say.

Videos are extremely beneficial to a personal brand and any business – I am still developing the huevos to do them regularly regardless what my insecurity tells me. But so far they’ve been great – one thing I suggest, never read Youtube comments. Many are nice, but some are nasty. So I don’t read them, I don’t need to have my confidence shaken or be affected by negative people. It seems like people are always ready to rip on someone who puts themselves out there and is different, it’s human nature I guess but it is best if one avoids reading it when possible.

Thank you again Maren, for this interview. It’s always goo to see how other web workers are breaking out and making their own future.