EP 0: What is an Impact Warrior? With Casey Zeman and DeKesha C. Williams

Welcome to the Impact Warrior podcast!

I’m your host, Casey Zeman, Founder and CEO of EasyWebinar. DeKesha Williams, (aka “The Webinar Queen”) and I are teaming up to bring you Impact Warrior, a show that we hope will inspire you, push you, and be your weekly reminder that in the difficulties you face as an entrepreneur, you are not alone!

I believe that to be able to create the impact you want, you have to be able to knock down walls, get back up when you’ve been punched multiple times, and multitask to move forward, even when you want to give up.

It’s not easy, and DeKesha and I have experienced it firsthand.

I wanted to have conversations with people who are doing great things in the world and talk to them about how they are doing it, and what they know that other people don’t. And I wanted to find a way to share it with as many people as possible, and create the impact they want to create in the world. That’s why Impact Warrior was born. 

In this introductory episode, we tell our entrepreneurial stories and explain why we’re creating this podcast. We let you know what to expect from future episodes and the types of people that you can look forward to hearing from.

Get excited: We have some fantastic guests lined up with powerful stories to share with you.

We’ll be releasing new episodes each week, so subscribe to Impact Warrior wherever you listen to podcasts to be the first to see when a new episode goes live.

Don’t forget to check the show notes after each episode for links, free gifts, and additional resources for our listeners! 

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• [8:00]   Why Impact Warrior was developed
• [11:05]   What to expect on the podcast and the meaning behind the name Impact Warrior 
• [20:07]   What’s to come for EasyWebinar?  Easy yet powerful updates on the way.

Links mentioned in this episode: 

• www.CaseyZeman.com for access to all available podcast episodes and more resources
• EasyWebinar 

A Special Offer for Our Listeners:

> Click here to take advantage of EasyWebinar's 14-day FREE trial and start making your impact today! 


Click here to check out a transcript of the show

Click here to check out a video of the show

Transcript

Impact Warrior 
Episode 0:

Full Transcript

Introduction:  00:00

You're listening to the Impact Warrior podcast. This podcast was created out of a vision of like minded entrepreneurs who have faced similar battles and understand how difficult entrepreneurship can be. We will feature guests who are here to share with you how rewarding the journey can be if you stay focused and disciplined to achieve the desires of your heart, every business owner will face a certain level of difficulty at some point, regardless of the industry. And we are here to share with you the story of warriors who have knocked down massive walls to inspire you to keep fighting on this journey. Let's conquer the journey together. And here's your host, Casey Zeman.

DeKesha:  00:43

I'm DeKesha, Your Virtual COO, also known as the Webinar Queen. And I am on a 10 year journey of building what I consider to be a legacy. And I started using webinars in my business. And so if you, if you think back to when I started my company, my kids were 5 and 11 at that time. So my son was going into kindergarten, my daughter was going into the sixth grade. So I was at a point where I wasn't able to travel. Like, I was in coaching programs. And and one thing that I heard them say is that you have to speak in order to build your business, you have to get on more stages. In order to build your business, you got to get in front of more people in order to build your business. So I'm sitting there like, well, what am I supposed to do? Because I can't do that. I can't do that. Like I literally walked away from Corporate America where I was traveling, I was flying somewhere, three days out of the week. So if I turned around and did that all over again, it was like, No, that's what you left Corporate America so that you can be home with your kids. Now, I didn't tell you that my daughter said I missed the first week of school three years in a row. But you know, that's neither here nor there now, but that's how it all started.

Casey:  02:06

Someone was going to be disappointed. I mean, that's the thing , entrepreneurial life, you're gonna be disappointing somebody.

DeKesha:  02:12

Oh, yeah, we had a conversation earlier about me missing the Webinar Con.

Casey:  02:17

See, there's FOMO everywhere. 

DeKesha:  02:21

And yeah, and that was like the last live event before the pandemic.

Casey:  02:27

That was my last time I flew anywhere. 

DeKesha:  02:30

That was the absolute last one. Because I think, if not, that was her last. That was her last meet or close to the last meet of that year. So um, I started using webinars, and I started and it's funny, because I always had to tell this story. I learned how to do webinars using the EasyWebinar plugin.

Casey:  02:52

So back in the day when we were yeah, yeah. Before we were what we are, we were a webinar plugin.

DeKesha:  02:59

Yes. So I literally practice setting up webinars, hosting webinars, when EasyWebinar was a plugin. So it's exciting because I, you know, Casey Zeman was like, on my dream 100 list. And here we are today, having a conversation about using webinars. That's how I came full circle, you know, to where we are today.

Casey:  03:26

I love that. That's, I love that because that's like impact right there. You know, when we created EasyWebinar, back in the day, like, I didn't know what I was doing. I just knew that as a course creator. I knew webinars, were the only thing that was working for me, you know, I tried all other stuff, you know, and that the time is, you know, it was like, what options do we have like posting in forums and, and Facebook and things like that. And I remember, you know, not being able to get my YouTube course off the ground because no one would buy it. I spent six months building it, this course. And I tried to launch it, and then it was crickets like no one would buy it. And then it was only after I decided to start creating videos in YouTube that would promote my workshops, I would, I would say, hey, do you want to get into-- "Hey, would you like to get on the first page of Google leveraging the power of YouTube?" sign up for my workshop that I'm going to be running this week, and I'm going to be sharing all the awesome stuff. Be sure to sign up. Right. And so I did that. And then from that I started seeing registrants coming into my webinars. And then I started to be like, started using these webinars. I mean, at the time, it was like we had Go To Webinar right. I was so scared of doing webinars. I had no idea even though I have an acting background, that was me in real life and coming up with a sales presentation, I was so terrified of sales that I stumbled through that journey. I've probably told you about that journey where it was like, you know, learning how to, I was so terrified of selling that I never sold, and I have people reaching out to me saying, "Hey, can I buy something?" And that's when I started to actually sell when they were like, "Do you have something to sell here?" So, but that's so funny, because webinars, were the only thing in that first year, first year, when I actually launched my course, that actually made a difference for me. And so, after we did after I launched, and I remember in 2012, when I launched my first course, and actually sold my first like, you know, made actually my first bit of money as a course creator. I was like, What is next? And I was like, I don't know if I just want to be a course creator. And so I had this harebrained idea of like, what, what can I create that will allow me to sort of do this over and over again? And so automated webinars were like, on the like, I heard about them. They were so new, there was only like one company doing automated webinars at the time. And, and so I, I said, What if we had a, what if we could create a WordPress plugin? That was a webinar platform? 

DeKesha:  06:29

Wow, yep. 

Casey:  06:30

And so I went to some developers, and we talked about it. And they said, "Yeah, I think we can do that." And so we I stumbled into that, and stumbled through that and had no clue how to do it. I didn't have any mockups. I didn't have any designs. I didn't have any plan. I just said, "Can we, could can this be done?" And so it was, so we eventually launched it as the EasyWebinar plugin. And that was the first. That was, that was a long time ago. That was a long time ago. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But that's amazing. That kind of shows like the impact because like, I don't know what kind of impact I was creating, even back then, you know, I was like, just trying to get this out there and trying to get it. so it, it worked and got results for people. And then we ended up getting good results for people. And that that was and it was that journey, was one of these challenges, these really difficult learning curves that I had to stumble through to get to the end, and I wanted to quit multiple times, in creating and developing the software, I wanted to quit multiple times in creating developing a course to sell online, you know, I wanted to create, I wanted to stop trying to be a consultant, or a, you know, a, or a coach, you know, multiple times, because I couldn't get enough retainer work. I mean, there were so many moments when I've had that same, you know, sort of block. And that's, I mean, one of the reasons why I feel like this podcast podcast was developed in the first place in first place, because to be able to create the impact you want, you have to be able to, to push beyond boundaries that are comfortable, you have to be able to knock down you know, impenetrable walls, you have to be able to get back up when you've been punched multiple times by life in general. And you have to be able to multitask. Even when you feel like you can't do one additional thing, you know. You as a as a mom of two and having to start at a point where your your kids were young, 5 and 11, you know, you know you have to be a full time Mom, you have to be full time and you have to try to create a full time business, it's not easy.

DeKesha:  08:54

And don't add on don't add on activities, sports activities. And you have to be a good mom, you still want to be a good mom, you still want to be you know, a good person in life without sacrificing your entire world to be able to become an entrepreneur. And that was that's me as well. I didn't want to you know, nowadays, back then when I started I didn't have kids I had, you know, my wife and you know, and we we had to like I almost lost my house a couple times, you know, in foreclosure. And in and me pulling my self out of foreclosure was starting this new business like, the only way I saw myself being able to pay for my house to pull it out of foreclosure before it you know, before I lost it all was to start this new business and that was why I needed it to succeed. But you know what? I think situations like that is what lights the fire under a lot of entrepreneurs. Like you said earlier, a lot of us have wanted to turn it all over and let it go. I can't even tell you how many times that I have applied for jobs and say, "Give me a cubicle." It lasts for maybe, you know, a day or two, and then I'm back. But there's been multiple times I'm like, I'm over it, give me a cubicle, I'll go back to work. And then I really think about it, I'm like, paycheck, close the deal. Now you're not doing that. But, you know, it's, it's situations like that, that really light a fire under and I think that, you know, even every person that we're going to be bringing on the podcast, is going to share, you know, their stories and their journey of how they have overcome similar obstacles, you know, in order for them to set themselves up for success to be able to make an impact, not only, you know, in business, but in their tribe and in their circle as well.

Casey:  11:03

Yeah, I mean, we this is why we created this podcast, so that we could show and highlight people that have have come before us that have struggled that have hit those barriers, you know, hit them again, hit them again, and again, push beyond boundaries that were completely uncomfortable. And so that, that you the listener can be inspired to know that it's possible, that know, that you can make this happen on your own, that you're not alone, that you're not facing this on your own, that you're not in some siloed thing. And, and the thing is for me personally, why did we create the Impact Warrior podcast and why? Why warrior? Also, like, you know, I think because 

DeKesha:  11:51

Yeah tell us the the story behind this.

Casey:  11:53

Yeah, well, but like, okay, so the warrior idea is like, you know, you have to, I mean, it's just, it makes sense, like, to be able to, to get where you want to be, you have to be strong, you have to, you have to find strength in yourself. And a warrior is obviously someone who has to battle the odds, right? And every single day, as an entrepreneur, we are battling the odds, we are having to problem solve, and defeat, you know, defeat the defeat the dragon defeat something, right. So I like the idea of warrior. So I came, that's why I thought well, this makes sense. And  is like someone who knows that they have to defeat this thing in order to create the impact that they want. And the impact is greater than, than the thing that they're trying to defeat, right? And they know that they can do it, they can create the impact in the world that they want. But they have to, to they need a support mechanism, they need a place they need a, you know, a soundboard where they can hear from other people who have also defeated that sort of, you know, "dragon" to be able to create the impact that they want in the world.  So that's where the Impact Warrior the name came from. And why we developed it. And, you know, the other side of this is that as founder of a platform, you know, named EasyWebinar, you know, and having having people every single day come to our system, we see people always using the power of webinars to be able to break through and, you know, create more impact for their audiences, by creating good webinars that present their products better, more effectively, more efficiently, that help them create more sales, and in turn by creating more sales, have more customers. And by having more customers, more impact in those customers lives. And so that was where this all came from. We were going to call it Webinar Warrior, but then Impact Warrior made more sense because-- and I'll tell you why. Because the whole idea of this podcast is to help inspire them to know that they can create impact in their customers lives. And so we wanted to pass that ownership of impact over to them because that they're the ones that are now creating impact in other people's worlds in lives. So that was the intention.  So that's why that's why I love this, you know this idea of this journey. And you know, from a selfish perspective, I have been over the last, you know, year during COVID in the time that we're recording this, you know, I was locked down. I didn't i did not I did not go out. I did not see people. I did not hang out. There were no events to go to. I didn't even do a lot of online coaching sessions, you know, like meetups, you know. So I was I have been craving that connection with other entrepreneurs who've been there, who have stories to tell. I need their stories, because every day is a new obstacle that I get to overcome. And I used to say that I have to overcome, but no, I get to overcome that obstacle. And yeah, it sometimes sucks. But at the same time, it's a gift that I am the one that gets to overcome this high level obstacle that I can, that I can handle, you know.  But at the same time, I was wanting to get connected with more people. And so this was a some somewhat of a selfish thing, that I wanted to get on with people that are doing great things in the world and talk to them about how they're getting through some of those obstacles, how they're breaking through some of those barriers, the impenetrable walls that have been placed in front of them. What are they doing, that other people don't know about? And how can I pull out that stuff and share it with other people? How can we do that,  DeKesha? And pull that in to the conversations that are done in this podcast, so that other people who are listening, that the listeners of this podcast can actually benefit from it, apply it, and then start creating the impact that they need to create in the world. That is kind of why Impact Warrior was born.

DeKesha:  16:37

Well, I'm excited. I'm excited, because number one, when when we are on this journey, a lot of times, we don't know the impact that we are making in real time. So this is an opportunity for us to highlight individuals in our community, in our tribe, in our circles, that have not only made an impact in their tribe, but even an impact in our lives. Because we're going to be inviting, you know, individuals that are making an impact in the EasyWebinar community, individuals that are making an impact in both your life, my life and your business, my business. And so I'm just excited to be able to open up this platform, to other high level entrepreneurs that will be able to give back to the audience and be able to see the impact (whether they know it or not), that they're making. And so it will show, you know, based on based on the feedback that we get, because we're going to ask you guys to give us a rating. Yeah, when we when we upload the podcast episode, so you have to give us a rating. And so that's going to show the impact that the podcast is making.

Casey:  17:59

Tell us how we're doing. I mean, if we're not if we're sucking, you got to let us know. We're doing all right, you know, give us a give us something. But if we're not doing that great, you got it you have to tell us you have to tell us.

DeKesha:  18:09

 Email us.  But email would be better. 

Casey:  18:14

So who is DeKesha and Casey? And why did we team up, and why are we doing this? So DeKesha is helping us, and me, with navigating the podcast world and also helping us to create more connections and relationships with our community-- Partners, other entrepreneurs, so  DeKesha is amazing at that and here's the thing guys because she is the Webinar Queen (and not that I have been deemed the webinar King or anything like that) 

DeKesha:  18:48

I gave you that name. 

Casey:  18:50

She did, that was from DeKesha. She did the thing where she like knighted me or something. It was amazing. 

DeKesha:  18:55

I did.

Casey:  18:56

Yes, she did. So that's why we also thought that this would be great that we could team up. Now is is the DeKesha going to be on all of the interviews? Possibly not. Am I going to be on all the interviews by my by myself? Possibly not. So DeKesha might be doing it, I might be doing it. I think that's what you can expect. So if you don't see necessarily DeKesha on or participating in the conversation, you know, some of those sessions were, you know, set up for me and the, the I guess the guests come in to explore the conversation. But some will be all all of us communicating and talking and discussing with DeKesha and myself and our guest or guests. Or it might be DeKesha and the guest, or me and the guest. So just so you know, there could be any combination of those of those three.

DeKesha:  20:03

So as we close out, let's talk a little bit, let's share a little bit about what's to come and what's the expect for EasyWebinar. And then we'll wrap up Episode 0.

Casey:  20:16

Yeah. So as you know, Founder of EasyWebinar, we have some fun, cool stuff on the way with EasyWebinar, we have a version two that's rolling out very soon. So at the time of recording this, it's not out yet, but we have it coming out very, very soon in the next, I think in the next quarter. Yeah. And it's been a long time coming. Because as as a EasyWebinar, you know, we're a powerful tool, that that people use all the time to, to basically scale their businesses up, right. They use it all the time. And the people that really create the most impact in their business and using our platform are people that are selling and using it 24/7, using the Evergreen features and automated features, right. And so we're a very powerful tool. And we don't take our responsibility lightly in the world, because we have some customers who are literally sending hundreds of thousands of leads a month into our system. And so, so we're a powerful tool. But one thing about EasyWebinar is that the interface that exists as it is right now, has been not not challenging, but it it hasn't been as fluid as we've always wanted it and we go back to our, our beacon of "Easy". So our name is EasyWebinar, we want to be easy. And so we we have we have been working tirelessly on a new version, that redefines easy for us, right? And that's always been a challenge with softwares. Like how do you make it simple yet powerful, right? And, and that's actually what we're doing right now, we are working as hard as we can to make it simple yet powerful. Keep all the powerful features, add in some cool new stuff that you guys haven't seen yet. But also simplify the flow. And so we're we're on a mission to simplify this flow. And ad EasyWebinar is just the beginning, there's more to come, but I'm not going to share that, I can't go into detail. I can't go into detail on all that stuff, which you know, goes into some other tools. But I'm gonna stop there. But be on the lookout for our next version, be on the lookout for a fun challenge that will be on it on its way coming soon. And, and more importantly, be on the lookout for hearing from entrepreneurs, and people that are trying to create an impact and difference in the world. Trying to create more freedom in life trying to you know, you know, be able to create a legacy in their lives. And, and so be on the lookout for hearing stories from people who do that, who embody that. That can also be inspiration for you to be able to create that for yourself. So please, it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be exciting. They're gonna be cries, they're gonna be laughs.  I don't know if there's going to be anger. 

DeKesha:  23:41

I mean, I hope not.

Casey:  23:46

I hope not either.

DeKesha:  23:47

You know what, I tell you what.  Sometimes, throughout the interviews, we may hear some things that may trigger us, and hopefully it will impact us to do better to learn. So you never know. 

Casey:  24:01

I mean, wouldn't it be interesting if we aired something where someone was like, threw the mic down and kept the video running, hopefully. Yeah, 

DeKesha:  24:09

Thank god it's video. 

Casey:  24:11

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. We decided to do video for this by the way as well. I don't know why considering the fact that right now as I as I've mentioned before, I'm in Iowa. So I'm in my wife's childhood bedroom. And that is why there's a big tie-dye black hole over here, or whatever you want to call this thing right here.  But this is what I call it. I want to extend us this energy everyone. This energy is coming at you. Okay, I want to give you all these colors, all these beautiful energy coming to you, okay, that's what this is. That's it. That's why I'm in a bright cheerful room. 

DeKesha:  24:50

It kind of puts you in the mind of the chakra colors to. I don't even have my chakra bracelet.

Casey:  24:55

I don't know anything about chakra but that that's what that makes me feel anyway. It just gives me a bundle of light that's there you go this purple door behind me. But as you point out, you said like, the idea is that you know, me and my family and I can travel you know when we want and and be gone for two months and still be able to do our work still be able to create the impact and, and so it doesn't really matter where I'm at. Even I can be you know, as, as I am right now in the middle of nowhere on a farm and still do these interviews and sessions, so it's pretty cool.

DeKesha:  25:38

I love it. Well, we look forward to more episodes. We appreciate you listening to episode 0 of Impact Warrior podcast, hosted by none other than EasyWebinar founder Casey Zeman and DeKesha C. Williams. Your Virtual COO.

Casey:  25:57

 That kind of looks like a zero doesn't it? 

DeKesha:  25:59

A couple of zeros, a couple of them, like you outline them. I still go with the chakras. 

Casey:  26:06

Let's go, with chakras.

DeKesha:  26:10

Alright guys, we'll be signing off and we look forward to make sure that you make sure that you leave a comment, leave a rating, so we'll be uploading multiple, multiple episodes, hit the subscribe button so that you are notified when our episodes go live. And also check out the show notes. We'll be giving away some free gifts, some awesome free tools, free resources as well. And you can go to CaseyZeman.com to get access to all podcast episodes. Again, my name is DeKesha Williams, Your Virtual COO. Back over to you, Casey.

Casey:  26:48

This is Casey Zeman, Founder of EasyWebinar, and we'll see you next episode.