Staying Paid

Balancing Mindset, Action, Image, and Twitter

Posted on May 29th, 2008 in Breaking Fear, Business, Creation Station, Empowerment, General, Marketing, Rant Al Green, Contact Me, Everything's OK, Just Isa, life, Mindset, Rockstar Marketer Desires, Song Lyrics, Survivor, Taking Action, Trench Warfare, Twitter

I realize that I post more on twitter than I do on my own blog. I probably should post more here, and I will — I got a link today from a blog listing me as one of their top picks for Personal Development, due to my focus on mindset. I wanted to talk a little bit about not only mindset, but action, the image I want to give (and what I probably show, ha), and of course everyone’s favorite little 140 character playhouse.

Let’s get something straight off the bat in the Mindset department: I play to win. This ain’t Staying Charitable, though I give a LOT of my time away (primarily offline, when I’m having people ask me what products are good, where they should start, how to advertise, the whole nine yards.) I remember when I sat down and wrote, “5 Ways To Break In, Move Up, and Take Over Your Niche, it was based on my experiences as a newbie stumbling into the wide wonderful world of Plus Size Fashion. My other niche site, DeluxeGrrl.com, is celebrating two years today. I couldn’t be prouder, and that’s even with an audience that still waits for me to post. In the future, I hope to deliver more content for them.

No, I’m afraid this is Staying Paid, with your host Isa Murphy, rocking you through the highs and lows of selling information in the digital age. I am working more in the trenches than I would like to admit: I’ve got a local meeting this week with a lady that has some delicious little websites that I’d like to devour…err, I mean flip for a nice profit.

There’s some strategic alliances building in the background as well. Behold the power of the physical letter, of the phone call. And no, I didn’t start my phone call with Ms. Juicy Website with a marketing pitch. We actually talked about Canada, men, and travel first. Realizing we had common interests (like going to Panama — April 2009, baby!), we danced gracefully into businessland.

And this is where my mindset kicked in — I love teaching people this internet business game. I’m working on a product (oh no, marketer trying to turn information into $$$ again - RUN!) for a very specific niche, and it’s going to be awesome. I’m taking time to produce quality content, and if I’m expected to give everything away here for free, well…might I remind you of the name of this blog one more time? ;)

Action is what I struggle with. The product for this niche should have been released in like, Feb or March that I’m just releasing now. So on my dreamboard, I now have a phrase I’m going to look at every day: “How much has your inaction cost you today?”

It makes me incredibly angry at myself that it’s taken me damn near 4 years to get serious. I’d get somewhat serious, then slide back to the good ol’ “Well, I’ll go get a day job, it’ll be more stable.” Yeah, right — when I finally settled into a day job I actually didn’t mind so much, that killed my motivation. I realized that for me (note: I don’t recommend everyone do this! You have been warned), the only way I was going to finally become an internet rockstar was if I jumped in with both feet.

See, like many of you, I have a metric pantsload of books, cds, audiobooks, bla de bla that I have bought. I probably have spent at least $3-5K in my marketing journey on marketing education stuff. The books are nothing without action, and yes, if I could do this all again, I’d probably still buy most of them — they taught me quite a bit. I learned the sales process, what to do, letters that made me buy in the first place. I began digging into the psyche and realizing how valuable  all of this stuff is.

Then it hit me: how many dollars have you left on the table due to your inaction? How many times have you dreamed about getting out of town for the weekend, or that new outfit, or even just being able to eat at that kickass place on the ridge, but you didn’t have the cash?

Yeah, I know it’s not in style to mention the obvious, but here I am: my name is Isabella  J. Murphy, and I love making money. I get a rush when I know more little green rectangles are finding their way into my bank account. I LOVE when my favorite bank teller goes, “Another check!” Heck, I got a couple of  tellers who were dying to know how to get some of them there affiliate checks coming to them too! Now that is why I’m in the trenches fighting so hard.

Which brings us conveniently to Image.

I’d like to believe I’m fairly nice, for being such a little capitalistic diva about life (work hard, play hard, live boldly). I try to make myself as available as possible: nichelady at that there gmail dot com thing, nichelady on yahoo, nichelady at gmail dot com on that msn thinger, I’m on Warrior Forum as codeism, I’m on ESF as nichelady, I’m on twitter as nichelady…I am even on Skype as nichelady. You struggling? Need an action buddy? Doing well but want to network with another marketer that’s as passionate as you? Not to sound corny, but “talk to me, I talk back, let’s talk money, I talk that!” If you ever want to catch up and leave work aside for a couple moments, trust me — I’m a pretty gabby gal.

I don’t apologize for the way I come across, because I don’t know how to come across to you any other way. I used to sit and listen to people who would say this doesn’t work, or that doesn’t work. I test things, I look over my own findings. That’s why I’m usually not “here” on Staying Paid, I’m in the trenches. I’m a geekgirl at heart, and that’s where I grew up — tweaking, testing, and otherwise blowing stuff way up, falling down, coming out of a smoke filled room shouting “THAT WAS AWESOME” and hitting the trenches again with everything I’ve got.

I didn’t come here to become the most up-and-coming marketer, I came here to be Isabella Murphy. I want to be a rockstar marketer with a responsive list, a blog that people link to, and comments, but at the end of the day, if nobody ever commented on my stuff, I’d still be here writing it. I write for myself, just as I live for myself.

Offline, a friend of mine had asked me a few years ago, what I did. I told her I was a marketer, and she seemed shocked. “I hope I don’t offend you, but I’ve never met any black marketers before.”

Well, when I’m online, my job isn’t to be a black marketer. It’s to be Isabella Murphy, rockin’ niches, laughing on twitter, and writing with passion. Bein’ black is kinda like having fingers — it’s just part of the package, along for the ride. I opted out of the race niche early because I didn’t want to be automagically branded as only speaking to other black people, or locked into being expected to sound, act, talk a certain way based on my blackness. The only color I’m concerned with is green, if you know what I mean.

I am notorious for my silence on a lot of topics, and it’s primarily because some people honestly wouldn’t like my opinion. I don’t think marketers are always out to make a fast buck — hence the name Staying Paid rather than Getting Paid. Long term, baby, I plan to enjoy my work at home life for as long as possible.

I’ll try to be more controversial next time, I promise.  Starting now: there are customers and there are marketers, and while all marketers are customers, most customers will never be marketers. There. Discuss. Throw stones, I’ll turn ‘em into houses and mark ‘em up for the short-term housing crowd (*grumble*, *sidenote*: does short term housing HAVE to be as overpriced as it is? *grumble*)

Finally, Twitter. You love twitter. If you don’t, you should: I’ve met a metric pantsload (sorry, it’s my new fave word) of people. I’ve linked you to some folks before. Twitter excites me because I can write in 140 characters the essence of what I’m trying to make you understand, I can link you to posts that agree / disagree with what I’m thinking at the moment, and of course I can annoy you with song lyrics. “On another day, c’mon, c’mon…” OK, I’m mainly kidding about the annoyances. Follow me on twitter, you know you wanna. I strive to do mutual following on everyone who follows me. It should be a two-way conversation. I do, however, unfollow people that don’t speak to me. Maybe that’s just my inner rant, but what’s the point of following someone, posting and asking questions, then never replying back to that person? Yikes.

Oh yeah, and you don’t have to be a marketer/writer/trench warrior to follow me, either. In fact, it makes life interesting if you’re not into everything I’m into. Teach me, follow me, dream with me and for the love of soup, dream well. Boredom is the enemy, excitement is the goal. It’s a 4 Hour Work Week-ism. ;)

That’s all I got for now. I said a lot, and I’m gonna go make some appearances, and by “appearances” I mean my niche lovin’ self diving into some cold blue water. :)

Today’s blog song is from Al Green, “Everything’s OK”

“In a dog eat dog world, ain’t nothing safe, baby…you’ve got my heart, I’ve got your heart …everything’s OK….”