(or… why I’ve been so quiet lately)

You may have noticed that I’ve been a little quiet for the past few weeks. For once, it’s not because I went into hermit mode. In fact, it’s just the opposite… I’ve been getting my virtual face out in front of the internet marketing crowd again.

It’s all Napoleon Hill’s fault too! I haven’t even progressed beyond Chapter Two in Think and Grow Rich yet because I was so fired up to get doing that I just dove right in. I’m really hoping to continue reading this week though… I have a feeling if two chapters can do this to me, it’s gonna be amazing what happens when I get further into the book. :)

So what have I been up to, you ask? Or maybe you don’t, but it’s my blog so I’m gonna tell you anyways. :)

Well, I’ve been jumpstarting the Ritchie Media brand again. To celebrate my birthday I set up a giveaway where for 30 days I’m giving away a PLR package every day. And because I didn’t want to just send out a boring old link every day, I set it all up on a blog where I write tips on using PLR as well. We’re up to day 21 now and lemme just say being disciplined enough to write a blog post every day is hard work! I now see why it’s such a big deal to actually complete a whole month over at NaBloPoMo. (I’ve tried it on my self improvement blog and never made it past the first few days.)

In addition to the giveaway on my own site, I’m playing in the JV giveaways again as well. I joined the PLR Giveaway put on by Leon Klepfish because it fit with what I’m doing on my own site, and so far I’m pretty pleased with the results. There’s a lot of pros and cons to dealing with giveaways and I’ve been pretty leery of them in the past.

I also started a new system for getting things done. It really bugs me that I didn’t meet my goals for the year so far. So from now until the end of this year I am being really focused on the big prize(s) and I am determined to meet at least one, if not all of the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year. I know that it’s probably unrealistic of me to think I can accomplish everything I wanted for a whole year in just 4 months, but hey I’m the queen of unrealistic goals. And I’m firmly subscribed to the theory of go big, or go home.

One thing I’ve noticed throughout the last couple of weeks is that when I get really focused on a project, I forget to talk to people. I haven’t tweeted much until this morning, and I haven’t been to facebook in who-knows-how-long. Another thing I haven’t done much lately is visit my friends’ blogs. It’s like being “in the zone” and everything else but the pen and paper ceases to exist. I kinda like it because it means I get things done, but I also know now why I don’t have many physical friends around here.

I need to work on balancing work with the rest of my life. I haven’t even been out taking pictures in about two weeks now. I managed to get a few shots at the driving range last weekend, but that’s it since my long Sunday hike about three weekends ago.

I’ve noticed a few other things too, but I’ll save them for future posts since this one is getting too long as it is. :) But I do promise that it won’t be another three weeks between posts. :)

Have a great day!

So I decided that I’d try my hand at making videos. I really wanted to make the first one an introduction type video for my birthday giveaway, but that didn’t work with the camera I have. Instead, here’s a glimpse of what I get to see every morning when I’m out walking.

Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think. This is so far outside my comfort zone it’s not even funny, so feedback is very much appreciated.

On Thursday I read Chapter 2 of Think and Grow Rich, and I have to tell you it absolutely blew me away. It’s taken me a couple of days of thinking and pondering the topic to actually come up with a coherent post about it. And it isn’t just the step-by-step method Hill outlines for turning any definite goal into a physical reality, although I’ve already put that to use to plan my birthday giveaway and the outcome I expect from it. I think what got to me most was the fact that even though this was written in the 1930s, it is so relevant to today and what’s happening in today’s economy.

This passage really hit me in the context of internet marketing and of thinking about where I want to take my own business over the next few years:

“We who are in this race for riches should be encouraged to know that this changed world in which we live is demanding new ideas, new ways of doing things, new leaders, new inventions, new methods of teaching, new methods of marketing, new books, new literature, new features for the radio, new ideas for moving pictures.”

For someone like me who creates content, that statement is like a blanket validation that what I do is a good and useful thing. Believe me, there are days when I wonder if anyone is even reading what I’m writing. But I read that and I thought, “Yes! I can be that person. I can write new books. I can create new audio products. I can create new videos. I can teach people new ways of creating content.”

For the first time in years my fears of not being good enough, of being laughed at, of being told that no one likes me and why would anyone want me around have taken a back seat to thoughts of “Why not me? I have useful and valuable experiences to share with people and I can stand up and share them!” And that is a very huge step, and I am really proud of myself for not just thinking it, but being able to say it out loud.

Now, you wanna know the really cool thing about all of this? In the past two days since I read this and had those amazing thoughts I’ve had someone offer to do a teleseminar with me, another person say that my experience would be an asset to their group, and yet another person called me inspiring. I’m taking each and every one of those incidents as confirmation that yes, I can make my desire to help people a reality. And yeah, I’m blowing my own horn a little bit here, but I honestly don’t think any of that would’ve happened had I not been reading this particular book at this particular time. Sure it might have come somewhere down the road, but the odds are pretty good that for the immediate future I would still be slinking around in the shadows wanting desperately to help but being afraid of stepping up and doing it.

Hill says “No one is ready for a thing, until he believes he can acquire it.” I truly believe that because I’ve always had the desire to create a business out of helping people but until now I never had the belief in myself that I could do it and be successful at it.

Now that I’ve taken the first step, I can’t wait to see where the road leads. :)