Staying Paid

Life Update: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Posted on May 17th, 2008 in Breaking Fear, Business, Creation Station, Empowerment, General, Marketing, Rant Different Path, Doubt, Energy Drain, entrepreneurship, Focus, Toxic People, Weariness, Web 2.0, Web 3.0

Man, I already have 10 posts in the draft folder — need to start cranking these bad boys out. I had seen something on twitter about sharing “more of yourself” with the audience, and since this blog is about staying paid and creating revenue streams, I figure I’d take a lazy Saturday morning post and fill you in on the good, the bad, and the downright ugly (Supa Ugly! please, someone catch the reference.)

The Good

I’m having the time of my life. I haven’t completely erased the alarm clock, as I’ve learned I’ll sleep forever, but I do love getting up when I want to. I’m feeling better emotionally, and not having a set schedule has let me work in a lot more time to exercise. I’m not in shape yet, but I definitely feel some benefits to getting more pep in my step.

I’ve met a lot of really cool people: Justin and Chaunna Brooke, Scott Bechtel, Adam Des Autels, Alejandro Reyes, Doug Knoodle, CoachDeb, Tony Blake, Lisa Weisberger, Naomi Dunford, Chris Brogan - check these folks out, and yes, they deserve all the link love we staying paiders can give ‘em. I’ve gotten the chance to chat with most of these people. Social media has exposed me to an immense giving culture - in the short time I’ve been on twitter, I’ve gotten helpful tips for my blog, offers of support from fellow professional writers, and hanging out at an awesome forum - ESF is fun.

I’ve been chilling out chatting it up on the Married Marketers show - it truly is one of the most interactive shows I’ve watched online — you feel like Justin and Chaunna Brooke are right there with you. They aren’t gurus, they don’t want to be gurus - and both know all too well what the rest of us up and coming entrepreneurs are going through.

I love what they do because they are strong enough to turn a microscope into their lives — the phone rings during the show, and Justin answers like a human being. Chaunna mentions dinner to their son. They laugh at each other, tease each other, and empower us to see the lighter side of this internet marketing game. I like that. It makes them feel real to me, and not so distant. I know I could write an email to Justin and/or Chaunna (sorry, I keep mentioning them together, but they are two seperate people!) and get a reply, and I have. Having them on twitter helps too. They answer all my questions thoroughly, reminding me that the only stupid question is the one that wasn’t asked.

I’ve also gotten to read some new SEO and writing folks — Ellen Wilson, Slightly Shady, and Gab Goldenberg. Ellen has personally reached out to me a couple of times on my marketer’s journey, and Slightly Shady’s blog gives one of the most interesting approaches to “blackhat” SEO I’ve read in a while. I don’t play in the blackhat world, but I do like to stay informed. Coming from the “ethical hacker” security world, I know how important it is to know what the other guys are doing in order to protect what’s yours.

I’ve learned a lot about the sales funnel, or what I like to call “The Search for Solution Z”. I’ve got a post actually lined up that talks in detail about my direct cash funnel project. I’m getting to immerse myself 100% in a great environment, and I know the rewards are only up from here.

I also got accepted into the Brazen Careerist blog network. I’m really excited and can’t wait to share more Staying Paid insights and bull–err, I mean wisdom :)

One last good before we go downhill: I wrote a guide on how local businesses can increase their customer base with a good online mailing list. So far, I’ve gotten some positive reviews on that. I’ve decided once I finish the guide I’ll release it as a multi-page article for my business website, and just link to it from here. We’ll see. I have some other reports for my mailing list ;)

The Bad

OK, let’s cut the crap and give you the other side of Staying Paid. I know that a lot of people sit in their air conditioned office dreaming of exactly what I’m living. Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but it isn’t all sunshine and frolicking on some rolling hillside drinking lemonade and doing folk dances. As an entrepreneur, I don’t want to make this sound like it’s all hard work and no reward, but it’s not the Staples easy button either. My biggest regret would be to pump you up and not give you the dangers as well.

Burn out is your worst enemy. If you have even a drop of workaholicism in your veins, take my advice: find a friend that doesn’t. My greatest strength, determination, is sometimes the worst thing that can happen to me. Left to my own devices, I’m more than happy to tweak a campaign, to research a niche, to dive so deep into work that I forget English and start speaking in broken phrases. Long tail?

One solution I’ve been trying to implement is an idea file. When the new project siren starts talking sexy, I think I’m going to write down the idea, run it through a short research run (read: “How much work will this idea take, and can it be outsourced?”) and then stick it into this cardbox I bought.

I had some unexpected things that came up in my personal life, killing a lot of my savings faster than I could blink. Ouch. No more time for theory then, action from here on out.

That’s one of the reasons why I’ve been so quiet — I’ve been trying to get my action steamroller going. The truth is, I do enjoy being at home, but I had to grow into enjoying working from home. It’s very easy to get lulled into watching Family Guy, or long talks with friends — after all, you’re home! You can do that!

Being unstructured and glued to the computer has cost me unnecessary wheel spinning. But as Tim Ferriss says, everything is reversible.

My business partner, Joshua, is on limited communication due to issues outside of my control. We’ve mutually agreed to part ways and do our own solo projects from here. That doesn’t mean we won’t work together in the future — he is still a huge part of my life, in a lot of ways — but for right now, I just need to let Isabella do Isabella and not worry about everyone else.

The Ugly

Lack of confidence can be killer. It’s easy to beat yourself up. And it’s easy once you’re in the trenches of entrepreneurship to look around you and go, “Why am I working so hard? Why am I being so careful saving when everyone else is spending?” I haven’t received my stimulus check, and I already know where that money’s headed — right into this business. I want to pick up a clickbank seller account for my first product, though I might just go and sell it at paydotcom (their marketplace is a really weak to me, just saying.)

Sometimes I feel like I’m in over my head, that I really don’t have the burning passion to do this. I look at too many other people in my family that have the life I want, save for the lack of freedom. My father just got a rocking job, straight federal, making great money, practically guaranteed promotion. He’s moving in with his girlfriend, a rockin’ lady with some awesome fashion sense and a sound head on her shoulders. He’s thinking about a house, so it’s operation get out of debt. He’s got his Master’s Degree.

I used to be on that path — rockstar in college, interned with a massive aerospace/defense company, tons and tons of friends, no debt, no worries — my biggest groan was a $500 credit card I got from USAA, and what the professor was going to throw at us on the quiz tomorrow.

Obviously, my worries are a lot bigger now, but I still count my blessings. Things change when you put your money where your mouth is, or in my case, when you close down your safety net and get back on the tightrope. I didn’t want to be yet another person going, “If only I had the time…I’d have a business then.” Not an approach I recommend for everyone to take, but I needed that fire up my behind.

What I’m trying to say is — sometimes I feel like I’m doing the wrong thing, that I ought to go back to the 9-to-5, vacation time, running to catch the MO-65/I-44 shuffle everyday to get to work on time. It would be easier — I show up, do what I’m told to do, and go home, leaving the job at work for another day.

It’s damn scary noises in the background — I’ve had to cut out so many people to get to this point, and frankly, I miss them. However, friend or not, I won’t let anyone tell me not to follow my dreams. Everyone’s got a dream. My best friend’s dream is to meet her dream man and have babies so she can buy those frilly nightcap thingies. She giggles at me, her complete opposite: uber Careerist workaholic, twitter-ing and definitely hunting for that triple-word-score kind of man, but certainly not for baby production — I’m happily childfree by choice.

If everything were to suddenly combust, I probably could find work around here - something I checked into before turning in my two week notice. My previous employer isn’t the only game in town.

Overall

I’m going to keep taking action, keep writing guides, get involved more into social media creation stations like Squidoo, Hubpages, and the like. I would like to get more active on Sphinn and Mixx and Digg — and maybe even out StumbleUpon Joshua’s father, the king of stumbling. We’ll see where it goes.

I wasn’t going to write this type of post, because I know quite well that most readers come to learn how to fill their bank accounts using AdSense gold or what affiliate programs are best right now, but part of staying paid is having the right mindset. Trust me!

Oh yeah, what would a post be without a call to action? Follow me on twitter!