For this, I thought CartFlows would be one of the best ways to make that experience both unique and profitable. I've heard Adam Preiser talk about it a lot and I think this is a good use for it, time will tell.

I'm not reviewing CartFlows now. But I've heard some people say that CartFlows is "just as good or better" than ClickFunnels. I've heard one or two variations of that phrase before and always makes me raise an eyebrow in slight disbelief.

I might get into all the features and review the product later, but so far, so good. CartFlows is different in many ways, but the most important differentiator about it as compared to ClickFunnels is that it is built for WordPress. Clickfunnels is a software as a service offering (SAAS), while CartFlows is a self-hosted software package.

As with everything built on WordPress, it comes with benefits and trade-offs. I will look into these as I progress through the project.

So many questions! I'm going to list the questions I have so far right here and maybe if this turns out to be awesome, I'll do a series of posts with tutorials or q&a. So here are some questions and notes.

• Can we use the Woocommerce standard check-out WITH the cartflows offers?
• Should we disable woocommerce checkout and use cartflows checkouts exclusively?
• If we use only CartFlows will the "shopping cart" be missed by customers?
• Can we tie multiple "flows" to each other and sort-of-daisy-chain them?
• The integration with Elementor is ok, but I was hoping for a bit more.
• It seems "heavy" maybe this is just me right now, bogged down with building, testing, designing, etc.
• How well does it integrate with its cousin, cart abandonment plugin.

The post My First Taste with CartFlows. A Clickfunnels Alternative. appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Believe me, I've been there.

So yesterday morning I put some of my thoughts in this little video, for you.

If you follow me on Instagram, you can also find it overe there.

The post I Know You Want To Give Up appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

As I was talking to a friend, all of a sudden she dropped a bomb. She was going through some tough shit and then, what I had to say seemed almost irrelevant, inconsequential even.

I stopped talking about me and what I wanted to talk about, and I started listening, hopefully, I helped.

But it made me think. It reminded me of how life sometimes sucks, and how life gets messy. Those were her words.

Here's the video, enjoy.

The odd thing is that life usually smacks you straight in the face when you least expect it. The lyrics I mentioned in the video are from Wear Sunscreen by Baz Luhrman, arguably one of the most formative songs in my life.

Here's the bit that matters:

The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that
never crossed your worried mind
the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday

I listen to this song every couple of months, just to remind me and to keep me grounded. It never fails me. So I thought I would share it with you after my conversation with my friend. It also just happens that I had my own set of circumstances that recently blindsided me as well.

Here are the video and song in case you want to listen to the whole song. If you were born after 1987, you may feel it's a bit cringe. You can still learn from it.

The post She Said Sometimes Life Gets Messy appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The first training day, actually considered pretraining has 2 videos. It was the 2nd video that triggered me to write this post. 2nd video I watched for the challenge is a video by Stephen Larsen where he talks about what to expect, how to expect it and how to handle it.

So one of the things he goes over is related to mindset. How we perceive the world and how we perceive ourselves and he called for us to be honest, to lay it out on the table.

Too Much Introspection?

Stephen said, be introspective. And that, that there might be my biggest hang up.

Introspection. Sometimes I overthink things, I introspect too much and that sends me down a deep rabbit hole, exploring a number of what ifs.

What if they react this way, oh, then I must prepare for that. What if this breaks, what if this doesn't work, what if I think about this again and I feel differently about it? I start thinking, oh, well I know how to do this, and this other thing so as soon as I'm finished, I'll do that.

The problem comes when it's time to do *that* then I'm exhausted from thinking about it and from planning.

That's one part. The other part if we're going to be brutally honest is that I'm broken. I'm broken right now in so many different ways. Financially, the dissolution of that company that shall remain nameless was really devastating, I talked about it in a previous video.

I'm broken at home, where I've lost my zest for many things in life, music, fun stuff, I don't even talk to most of my friends anymore.

The only thing that keeps me going is my kids, my wife, my family.

There was also something I can relate to that Stephen, something he talked about. Money. Money is a big obstacle for me, I feel the same way he described it I feel weird about charging money or collecting money for my services.

Somehow, or for some reason, I feel like I'm just not good enough. I know this is a false belief, I know this is not true. But for some reason, when I do work for others, I just feel it isn't good enough, I feel like they could do it just as well and they don't really need me, so it's hard for me to ask for what it is owed to me.

Take a Trip Down Memory Lane

I have a memory from 13 or so years ago, when I first started doing things on the side while I still had a corporate job.

I went to service a client. I did computer work back in the day. I left the client's site, the work was pretty much like any other time. I had done a few hours of work, and the total came out to like 120 bucks. I thought I'll just go home, finish up the invoice and mail it in, collect the money in a week or so.

For one reason or another, probably because of how I feel about money, I never sent that invoice out. The days turned into weeks and then into months and I never collected on that money.

After a couple weeks I thought, what did I really do for that person? I began doubting myself.

I still remember distinctly, I replaced a hard-drive and a bad power supply, installed 2 programs and relocated a computer from a room to an office.

But for some reason, because of my hangup with money I was inclined to think "oh, she could have done that herself" I don't need to charge her for that.

I never did, this happened a couple more times.

It's Not Just About Money

This money thing that gets in the way a lot where I spend time doing stuff for people and then feel bad about charging them for it. I know I've come a long way, and I'm able to charge a lot more now and I don't have any issues charging the money. But now things shifted.

Now the issue has moved to a bit of a self-promotion issue. Where I feel like if I'm charging this much, then people are going to question it and I have to justify it.

I know I shouldn't feel this way because my work speaks for itself, but somehow it's hard to get out of my own way and it's hard to pursue the sale. When someone says "no" sometimes, I'm like "ok" and I don't pursue that sale any more even though I know they need me, and I know they know they need me, but I just haven't clarified why, I guess.

The post What’s my Hangup? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

During the cruise, we had a great time learning about all the points of interest around the bay. We also got to see some of the NAVY ships stationed there alongside with some from our partner countries.

Really interesting stuff. I highly recommend you take a tour with them. The narration is informative and funny too.

We took the 2-hour bay cruise and it was great.

Although it was a gift for us, For the price, it's worth it. The two-hour cruise ends up being about 2 hours and 15 or 20 minutes because they go back after the 1st hour to drop off some passengers that are on the 1-hour tour and pick up new passengers to go for another 1-hour tour.

That was the only turnoff, but I guess it's necessary since the 2-hour cruise may not be for everyone so they split it into two 1-hour cruises, one that goes "north" and one goes "south."

The ship we went on has 3 levels, I think it's called the Spirit of San Diego. I think the top level provides the most scenic experience but there is no cover from the weather if it's sunny, windy or rainy.

It was sunny and windy when I went so we stayed on the 2nd level. They have a lot of tables so you should be able to find a place to sit with your party. But you can explore the ship throughout the cruise.

They have a pay as you go bar where you'll find some wine and beer as well as simple snacks.

Nothing to write home about, but the pricing is right. I wish they served something a little more elaborate but can't really complain and you can bring your own food if you want (I'm pretty sure).

After we got settled in, we left the docks and headed for the tour. All was great and the captain and crew narrate, pointing out all the various points of interest as you cruise along the bay.

It's fun and was worth it, especially with all the historical tidbits exploring the deep and complex culture of the area.

Here's the video, it's short and just the highlights of the cruise. I recommend it if you've never been. I hear they have evening dinner cruises as well, so I might try that another time.

Photos from the day aboard Flagship Cruises' Spirit of San Diego.

Flagship Cruises 2-hour San Diego Bay Cruise

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In case you're not familiar with San Diego, it is basically the biggest and south-westernmost city in the US, and it's really close to the Mexican border.

It's a beautiful city, also coincidentally it's home to some of the biggest Internet marketers and some great marketing conferences and events like Social Media Marketing World (SMMW19) and Traffic & Conversion Summit (T&C). I'm hoping that 10x Secrets comes to San Diego soon too, but that may just be wishful thinking.

While in San Diego, I enjoyed time with my wife quite a bit while the kids spent time with their aunt so we didn't have to worry about the kids for a whole weekend. Believe me, for parents this is a great relief!

We did some hiking and sightseeing, so I thought I'd share some of that with you.

On the first day, we headed to the Cabrillo National Park and followed up with a hike on the Bayside trail which I highly recommend if you're visiting San Diego. The area is really nice, it has amazing views of the bay, the city and it's in a historical area.

Here's the short video of the Bayside Trail hike:

Here are a few pictures from the Cabrillo National Monument & the Bayside hike we did.

Cabrillo National Monument and Bayside Hike

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The post Visiting the Cabrillo National Park and Bayside Hiking Trail appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I think this is an interesting topic to discuss because many people look down on the consumption of animals.

So what does this have to do with Online marketing? Well, the pig's head is a brilliant piece of marketing. I'll explain in a minute.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm going back to the roots of this blog a little bit by sharing more personal updates and food updates like I used to. This is also part of me, and this is my blog, about me, about my life but also, I can easily connect it to the Internet marketing experience.

The pig's head attracted the attention of Food Insider and they recently did a feature on location. You can see it in my other blog post, linked below.

If you look at their Instagram, everything looks appetizing and inviting and when you come across a picture of the pig's head, whether you love it or hate it, you stop to look at it.

The Pig's Head Viral Marketing

It is worth mentioning that the pig's head at The Recess Room is a brilliant dish for viral marketing. It's not the only restaurant that offers such a unique item, but it's one of the few in the area.

I found another place in Manhattan beach that may offer it, although it's not on the menu on their website, and I think there's another place in San Diego that offers their own version.

But back to the Recess Room.

If you go to eat there, you'll want to eat the pig's head. Because it's such a big item, you'll need a couple of friends to go with you. And you'll probably end up ordering a lot more than just the pig's head.

Then you'll be taking pictures and posting them on Instagram and Facebook. We all did. I even wrote a full review, and my friend John made a great video about the experience.

You can see everything we ordered in this other blog post, a review of the pig's head at The Recess Room.

Driving With Oscar Vlog

No Such Thing as Bad Publicity

We also had people come by just to look at the dish and ask us how it was. You can't pay for that kind of marketing. Not even with "influencer marketing."

Apparently, there were also some protestors outside the restaurant just a few weeks before we went there.

They have the right to protest, and their cause is noble, but their anger is misdirected. But as far as marketing goes, and as the adage goes, there is no such thing as bad publicity.

The post Vegetarians Vegans & Meat Eaters: Vlog appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

But that's not what I wanted to tell you about.

I'm creating a tutorial, coaching and special resource center for Internet marketers and budding online entrepreneurs. This will be my first paid membership site and I'm very proud of it so far. It's also a portal to my coaching services.

While I was getting bogged down with a faulty system over the couple weeks I started designing the framework for the platform and it's getting close.

I'm going to need a group of my readers and VIP members to run through some of the courses and give me some feedback, in exchange I'll be offering access to courses and discounts for future products.

You can read the email I sent out in my broadcast archive. It's titled "hey..." And let me know if you're interested. While you're at it, make sure you're subscribed to my email list so you don't miss important announcements like this one, click here to join my VIP list.

The post I Sent an Email to My Vip List the Other Day. Did You Get It? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.

- African Proverb

It took me a long time to realize what this meant, but when it finally clicked I realized the honesty of it.

It really comes down to another cliched quote now that says basically, just show up. That's half the battle. In this case, whether you're the lion or the gazelle, you gotta get up every morning and get to running.

That's the only way you're going to succeed.

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The post Every Morning in Africa a Gazelle Wakes Up appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

It doesn't matter how your hand turned out in life, you can still find opportunity to succeed and win. It's up to you.The Internet is the great equalizer, you have the same access to opportunities as anybody else. The cost of trying out new opportunities is negligible compared to past generations and the rewards are unbelievable. So what are you waiting for?

Photo credit ? 20-20homes.com

Tweet this quote:

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The post You can have the worst hand at the table appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Last year when the craze started, I played with chattypeople (site is no longer available). But it was too early for me, and the tools were not as easy to use as they are now. Then about a month ago, I started anew by a friend's recommendation using Manychat, then the same friend changed the recommendation to Chatfuel.

I recreated the bot I had in Manychat on Chatfuel and added some new content. The entire transition was manual, so it was a pain in the you-know-what, but I did it.

Now it seems that Chatfuel is going through their own growing pains and having some tough decisions to make in regards to levels of service and pricing. They have a long thread going on in their FB support group.

All of the sudden, the very impressive platform has lost some of my confidence.

But if you're on a similar boat as I am, or you're starting to research chatbots for yourself, you may find this article really really helpful. It goes through some of the most popular chatbot builders out there. The article is good, highlighting the pros and cons and the most notable features on each platform.

Before you go on to that article, here's a thougth I have about the whole chatbots world right now. It's the wild wild west, even today just about a year after Facebook opened up their api to messenger. That's a great start.

But you know the pain I had, moving the chatbot from Manychat to Chatfuel? When the chatbot industry grows a little and gets a new wave of entrepreneurs, by the natural progression of the market there will be someone that comes up with an importer and exporter tool. That will be interesting.

That is a good idea.

As of right now, I don't know that I love Chatfuel, and in some ways, I miss Manychat.

I wonder if these companies are already working on their own importers. That's a feature that many people would pay extra for, I think. If you have a great chatbot builder and I found you after I started with a competing product, make it as easy as possible for me to get into your platform.

Exactly what an importer would do. I bet you there's a smart developer out there that can create a "listening chatbot" to walk the entire tree of responses of your chatbot and copy and save them elsewhere.

This whole importing feature is an interesting idea to explore don't you think? That feature will put that builder at an advantage.

The post Which One Should I Use? Chatfuel or Manychat or Something Else appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The balance between giving you a great topical blog post and a personal update. I think I've got it and this is the first blog post to be written with this new paradigm shift.

You see, I've been adviced a couple times that I should, #1 drop the "notagrouch" name, and #2 focus 100% on knowledge and a single topic.

But I can't, this is who I am, I have a few other niche sites that follow that advice, but those are strictly strategic. I don't have my heart in them.

I also overheard at Social Media Marketing World (SMMW) something that caught my attention and I'm sure I could look it up really quick and find out who said it, but I want to finish this blog post and publish it. The quote was basically, stop trying to be a "brand" and be a more human.

Just be a person. Maybe this was just a big theme for some of the speakers and attendees and I just absorbed it, who knows. But I know it really resonates with me.

I understand my friends' advice about focusing on one single topic. Both of them have tremendously successful blogs and are known. But at the same time, I want to connect with you on a personal level, I want to give you more of my thought processes and ideas, a lot like this post.

But don't cringe just yet...

I'm not going to be posting mundane, journal-type of entries, like "what happened today". Instead, I'm simply going to add a mix of topics into a new category that I'm going to call "This is Oscar Gonzalez" -- You can see this post is categorized as such.

In this category, I will be sharing some raw blog posts about thoughts, commentary, trials, and experiments as I dabble in other stuff loosely related to digital marketing. Perhaps the topics will be related or may loosely parallel another solid category.

If I see that I'm blogging a lot about any one thing, then that topic may become one on its own as a permanent category on the blog. We'll see how this goes, this is also its own experiment and I may drop it at any time.

The reason for doing this is that I have a format set for blog posts where I want to give you a long, well researched or expert level blog post every time. I try to have graphics or photos and, or video and digestible nuggets, as well as a call to action and everything that you could possibly want on a blog post and those, take time and a lot of effort.

If you know me, you know that I don't shy away from work or effort, but I need to be able to write a little faster and go back a little to my blogging roots, when I would just sit down to write without worrying about the proper linkettiquete, and headlines and bullets or seo-best-practice-must-do-advice-you-will-die-if-you-don't, or being vulnerable, and all that stuff, yes, linkettiquete is a word,  thank you very much, you heard it here first.

Sometimes, like this blog post, I'm just going to write and not worry about that perfect blog post with all the media I mentioned, like photos, graphics, screenshots, and videos.

This also follows a little bit of a shift going on with my fan page on Facebook. I'm using it a lot more and I'm mixing a little more personal stuff into it as well, and posting a lot more. I realized I made a couple of posts that should have been blog posts instead, but at the same time, they attracted a nice response and some productive chats, so I'm doing a whole bunch of integrating more of "me" into "my brand" and mixing things up a bit.

In addition to the motivation I got from SMMW, this shift was also pushed a bit forward by me converting my Instagram account into a business account, ironically. The reason I say this is because when you change your Instagram account into a business account, you cannot --it seems-- share your posts to your personal Facebook profile. I'll circle back to this topic in another blog post, for now, let me finish this one.

I am Notagrouch, that's my brand, so check this out...

Two people, I didn't know recognized me at SMMW, that was humbling and rewarding and reassuring. Maybe my brand is actually working. One said they watch my videos, the other said they read my blog, they were both aware of various social profiles I have.

We talked shop for a bit but before we went our separate ways -- and dammit I got caught in the moment and didn't take a picture--  I was caught off guard with what they said.

They both said they love my updates on social media when I include my kids or my wife or the non-work stuff in addition to what I know, and tutorials and all that.

It made me wonder, how many people feel the same way but never tell me.

Maybe we need to be more human, I think it was Pat Flynn that said that during the final keynote, I'm pretty sure now. I'm usually very hesitant of making decisions based on the exception, for all I know these two people could be the exception, right? The rule may be that people only want to read about my expertise and how it can help them right now.

I don't really know, but I'm going to find out. In the meantime, here I am making a notable change on the blog based on that interaction and idea that was dropped into my head, thanks, Pat. But I guess I have a gut feeling that he may be into something.

I am human and I want to connect with you at that level. Do I have stuff to sell you? you bet. Are posts in this new category going to have affiliate links? Maybe, from time to time... does this one? Sure thing.

But this really means I'll be sharing with you a little more, sometimes it will be about a new hobby or something I tried, sometimes it will be about a reaction video, or just something slightly different than usual. I'm not going to spend too much time editing the post, will just do a quick spell-check and grammar check with Grammarly give it a title and schedule for publication.

Please let me know if you see any totally glaring, embarrassing mistakes or typos. Those I will correct, but for the most part, this will be like my captain's log. That's a good analogy.

You'll also notice that this post isn't in the normal front page rotation, I did it like this because it allows me to post without having to have even a featured image. Other than Snapchat, this might be as raw as it gets.

But this also means something deeper, the fact that you're reading this means you're awesome and smart and you're paying attention. And maybe, if I actually have them, you're one of my highly adoring fans or followers.

j/k #notreally, are you?

I'm guessing I have at least a couple because the only way you would be reading this is if you genuinely look around my blog on a regular basis, and found the link to the category and this blog post, or if you're in my VIP email updates and I told you about this blog post.

Either way, thanks so much for making it all the way to the very end, almost...

But with this, I want to pass off this to you. Maybe you have feedback for me, maybe you don't care. Either way, drop a quick comment below to let me know, or if you feel more comfortable, come tell me on my re-energized Facebook page here.

The post I’ve got it — VIP announcement appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I headed out to Eisenhower Park in Orange with a group of friends to do a 5K walk. It's a shame that I used to run 5K just as a warm up when I was a teenager, but I guess our priorities change as we age.

I should walk more often and maybe I'll even get back into running. For now, let this be a reminder and a motivator to get in shape and do better today than we did yesterday!

The post 5k Walk to Kick off the New Year 2018. Vlog appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

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The post Don’t fall into the trap. appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

And yes, they gave me a free lunch to check them out, but I still feel like their food is awesome. Healthy, locally sourced, and an amazing value.

Cava Grill is a fast-casual Greek restaurant. You order your food like you do at Chipotle and then bam! You'll be sitting there enjoying your Cava Grill bowl or salad like a boss.

Checking out Cava Grill

Cava Grill - Yelp

Cava Grill - Google Reviews

Cava Grill

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The post What’s for lunch? Try Cava grill appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Good for meat lovers, vegetarians or vegans. And only for fans of flavor.

I've written about this Mediterranean gem in the middle of Irvine. I know Southern California and especially Orange County have some of the best food in the world.

We're just lucky that way. By the way, this is not the first or only time I've written about Cava Grill, you can check out all the other posts right here under Cava Grill.

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We covered DSLRs and regular video cameras and how they work, why you want to use one or the other and other stuff.

This is John Chow and Eva Rickert, members of our Dot Com Lifestyle group.

Learning about DSLR vs Video cameras at Youtube Space LA. Good stuff!

Photo taken at: YouTube Space LA

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Happy hour at Urban Seoul.

Pork belly slider.

Photo taken at: Urban Seoul

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Also Watch the Urban Pork Belly Pozole at Urban Seoul

Also watch Visiting Urban Seoul at Diamond Jamboree Plaza:

The post Happy Hour at Urban Seoul in Irvine. Pork Belly Slider. appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Tell me that burger doesn't look appetizing? I want some right now!

Photo taken at: Wilson Creek Winery

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