Thursday Lesson: Internet Content Promotion with Cody Lister

 

Quote of the Day: “The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential, these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.” —Confucius

 

Guest of the Day: Cody Lister is an online business professional from New York. He has a degree in finance from Fordham, a passion for online marketing, and is the CEO of Marketdoc.

 

Passion: Cody’s passion includes online blogging and content promotion.

 

Introduce the Skill: Content promotion is the concept of preoutreach: “Emailing the right people to plant the seed in advance, similar to how artists, musicians, prerelease their music in order to build up hype in advance to publishing a new album.”

 

Importance of Skill: Blogging allows you to establish yourself in your industry and content promotion gets your posts out there and enables you to build an email list. This, in turn, enables you to sell products to your audience and give value to them. Cody says, “The key is to establish your own platform, and part of that is getting as many email subscribers as possible that you can teach and also learn from. That is accomplished with content promotion.” “You can’t expect to build traction for a new blog without putting any effort into performing pre-outreach or content promotion.”

 

The Lesson: Internet Content promotion

WRITING

  • Don’t get overwhelmed by Internet content overload
  • Start writing and write daily (at least 500 words)
  • Write original content every single day
  • If teaching people through your blog, be honest about which stage of the process you are in, it is fine to learn with them

PRE-OUTREACH PHASE

  • To effectively promote content: use www.Buzzsumo.com (This identifies past posts that are similar to the topics you would like to right about. Find the most popular previous posts on that topic, then find the social media shares of these posts, and download that into an excel file or csv. You can acquire email address from this and reach out directly to the consumer. You may need either a freelancer from upwork.com or by using a tool, such as www.emailhunter.com. Email Hunter will only get you 10%, to achieve more, you will need to hire a freelancer from UpWork.)
  • To engage consumer: Once emails are discovered, pre-outreach by sending a preliminary email that offers an article in which they would be interested. Cody gets an approximately 30% response rate from this.
  • A content upgrade or a bonus information specific to the post you have written will entice people to opt-in to your list – in order to include them in bulk e-mails, they need to opt-in

POST-OUTREACH PHASE

  • Share on social media
  • Email more people, including companies/brands you have mentioned in the post, the day or the week after it publishes to let them know they are mentioned.

 

Suggested Resources:

 

To promote content…

Envision: Think about where you want to be a year or two from now. “Find one motivating reason why you want to blog by picking an end goal and taping it to the wall in front of your desk.” Figure out what you want and why you want it. Be specific and concrete, and make this your one goal that you work towards.

Explore: Start blogging on a consistent schedule. Explore who you are as a blogger. Write more of your own than you read of others.

Execute: Become a blogging machine. Write and at least 250 words a day and publish 2000-3000 words per post. “Use a step-by-step approach to teach others skills you already know.”

 

Advice to Listeners: “Avoid giving advice about something you don’t already know how to do, unless you’re actively learning how to do that thing right now. In this case, you should make clear to your readers that you’re new to this skill, and you wanted to teach everything you’re learning along the way. The main point is to just start now. Avoid reading every single blog post out there, and start writing as much as possible every day. Become a content machine and get aggressive about promoting your content before you even publish it.”

 

Motivational Go-Do!

Start writing 250 words a day – starting today. Get yourself on a schedule.

 

How Motivate Me! Ultimate Support System can rally around Cody Lister:

Website: www.marketdoc.com

Email: cody@marketdoc.com

Blog: www.marketdoc.com/blog

And, as always, on the Facebook page: Motivate Me! Ultimate Support System

 

CLICK HERE to listen to Cody’s interview.

 

If you enjoyed, a review on iTunes and Stitcher would be much appreciated!

 

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Chock-Full of Passion

 

Weekly Show Reflection:

Oh, today everybody is going to be chock-full of passion.

For those of you who are new to the show, Motivate Me! is a podcast designed to inspire listeners to incorporate a passion of some kind into their lives. We do this through the experiences of our guests. Our hope is that you can take bits and pieces from the passion, the experience, the wisdom, tools, and techniques of our guests and apply it to your life, to your own interests.

Today’s episode is number 179, and so, there have been well-over 150 guests for you to listen to and learn from, over 150 different passions, over 150 different circumstances and challenges that our guests have had to overcome in order to make their lives a life they love. Some guests have added excitement into their lives and some have added meaning. Some added something into their lives that they do on a part-time bases, and for others, it has turned into a career or a lifestyle.

I seem to have, unintentionally, become the Love Your Life Girl, because that is what I want more than anything: For all of you to be excited about waking up tomorrow because you are going sailing on the open sea, or you are planning a new performance as a hypnotist or mentalist; or your book is being published, or you’re hiking one of the mountains on your bucket list.

For my mom, it’s making quilts – she REALLY loves making quilts. She loves picking out the fabric, selecting the design, challenging herself with each one, bestowing it with love. My mom could be quilting at 3am, 4am, 2pm. She’s obsessed…and it’s awesome. We all deserve to have this kind of passion in our lives. Something that has us plotting and scheming, anticipating and creating.

This is something you are going to see so whole-heartedly in the guests of this week: their undeniable passion. So much so that I have selected a separate quote to represent each of these guests.

On Monday, I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with athlete Daniel Hayes. Daniel is obsessed with competition. This obsession not only landed him in the 2016 Summer Olympics where he will represent Trinidad and Tobago in the boxing arena, it has inspired him to find creative ways to compete well into his seventies. This is a twenty-something man with a serious plan. Even if athleticism is not your passion, there is much to be gained from listening to this episode. Daniel is a motivational speaker himself, and he really reaches out to you in hopes to inspire. The dedication and sacrifice it takes to earn a spot in the Olympics lead me to select this passage from Donovan Bailey for Daniel: “Follow your passion, be prepared to work hard and sacrifice, and, above all, don’t let anyone limit your dreams.”

I agree with Mr. Bailey, don’t let anyone limit your dreams – including yourself.

Tuesday, Gerdi Verwoert was on the show. Now, if you are someone stuck in a corporate job that you excel at but don’t enjoy, this is an amazing episode for you. Gerdi gives us step-by-step details about how she walked away from the monetary success she was achieving in the Netherlands to live her passion, which is being a mountain-hiking guide in Austria. She tells us how she did it, how long it took, what her strengths and her challenges were, and how she is doing now. That is why I feel the words of Sheryl Sandberg really represent what Gerdi is all about. Sandberg said, “We can each define ambition and progress for ourselves. The goal is to work toward a world where expectations are not set by the stereotypes that hold us back, but by our personal passion, talents and interests.”

Gerdi really had to battle the perfect sense her parents made when they were concerned about her pension and financial stability, but in the end, she chose what she felt her body and person was craving for instead.

On Wednesday Kat Ellis McIntyre was on the show. Kat is a Shamanic astrologer from Australia who had personal barriers to overcome in order to believe in herself enough to fully embrace her passion for astrology.   Despite the fact that this has been a life-long passion of Kat’s, and that she is certified in both astrology and Shamanism. Richard Whately’s words, “To know your ruling passion, examine your castles in the air” could never truer describe Kat and her perspective on how it takes self-belief to live a life that is authentic.

Thursday, Cody Lister came on to teach a lesson on content promotion. The reality is: If your passion is to create content, such as Internet blogs, articles, podcasts, any of it, but you don’t get your work out and seen, you might as well be filing it away in a dark closet. So, if you are passionate about the time and effort you are putting in, and you feel your content is valuable, it’s vital that you take the next step and figure out how to get it seen – or find people like Cody who can help you. The other part of this equation is Cody’s passion for what he does. Having a finance degree in Fordham leads me to believe that Cody is not afraid of research, application, and analysis. Which is why Dave Ramsey’s idea “In order to be a great marketer, you have to be focused and intense and look at scarcity, urgency, activity and passion in the marketplace” is a great fit for Cody. But his intentions go further than that. Cody is inspired to help others with the knowledge he has gained, which is why this statement by H.G. Wells is so powerful: “No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else’s draft.”

Isn’t this the truth? The idea that we can “alter someone else’s draft” or have an impact on the writing of someone’s life story.

What is your passion and what role does it play in your life story? If you look at this week’s guests, their passions were not something that started later in life, it’s something that has always been a part of them – in all stages of their lives. Daniel says he has always loved athletics and been competitive, Gerdi has always been adventurer who loves the outdoors, Kat has always been fascinated by astrology, and teaching people how to market their content is new for Cody, but writing is not.

This brought me back to one of the most commonly quoted poems of all time. It was written by William Shakespeare and the title is The Seven Ages of Man. Now listen closely here as I talk about this poem, because I am about to read it to you, and the more you know about it before we start, the more impressed you will be by it.

In The Seven Ages of Man, Shakespeare uses the stage as a metaphor for life. He says that “All the world’s a stage” and that we are “merely players.” That we are but actors in a play. We all have our “exits and entrances” into this world, and that in life we play “many parts.” It is here that Shakespeare breaks life into seven separate stages. Stage one is the infant, two is a schoolboy, three is the lover, four is the soldier, five is the justice (think plump judge who can afford fine meals because he has earned this and is later in his life), six is what we would term a senior citizen, an aged person who has lost the robustness of their voice and stature, and the final stage, seven, is what Shakespeare refers to as the “second childishness.” This connects to a thought I have often had that we go out of the world in the same way we came into it: bald, toothless, in diapers, and unable to feed ourselves. Shakespeare will say the same thing here, and all you need to know is that “sans” means without.

So, for your listening pleasure and a little literary culture, let me present to you:

 

Seven Ages Of Man

by William Shakespeare

 

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players,

They have their exits and entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages.

At first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.

Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school.

And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress’ eyebrow.

Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon’s mouth.

And then the justice

In fair round belly, with good capon lin’d,

With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws, and modern instances,

And so he plays his part.

The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,

His youthful hose well sav’d, a world too wide,

For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,

Turning again towards childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

 

So that is without teeth, without eyes, without taste, without everything.

 

Shakespeare is doing so many things here. He is telling us that we are all the same and will travel the same road. He is showing us that life is merely a play and that we really shouldn’t take it too seriously. He is showing us that while it is inevitable for us to travel through these life stages, and it is inevitable for us to grow and change, we are in the end the same person we started with.

So, I say, what we do with our passions may vary throughout our lifetime, but our passion is connected to our process, and our process is connected to our purpose, and our purpose is a feeling we get and not a role that we play. So what are our passions telling us and are we willing to listen?

I would like to leave you with a final thought by Maya Angelou, because I feel it is the one that best represents my life’s mission and what lead me here to you. I invite you to join me on this mission. Maya Angelou stated, “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”

Are you with me?

Call to Action:

 

The Motivational Go-Do!

Maya Angelou stated, “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”

Are you with me?

 

CLICK HERE to listen to this week’s reflection.

 

If you enjoyed, a review on iTunes and Stitcher would be much appreciated!

 

Let us help you live a life you will be excited about…

the only regret you’ll have is wishing you had started sooner.

 

 

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Self-Belief Makes Everything Possible with Kat Ellis McIntyre

 

Quote of the Day: “One of the oldest and most generous tricks that the universe plays on human beings is to bury strange jewels within us all, then stand back to see if we can ever find them. Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you?” –Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert

 

Guest of the Day: Kat Ellis McIntyre from Australia. Kat is a shamanic astrologer, a writer, an entrepreneur and a blogger at www.katellismcintyre.com where subscribers of her site can receive weekly soulful insights and inspiration.

Passion: Shamanic astrology is Kat’s passion.

Challenges: “…there’s been a few on this journey, because it’s like, really, transitioning into a whole new role, and stepping away from…a completely different being in the world. So, there’s been a few things that really stand out, but I would say, a lot of it has been around learning to be comfortable with facing the unconscious stuff in order to be able to really let go of whatever it is that’s been holding me back from shining my light.”

Learned About Self: “There’s been a lot. I guess in terms of from really allowing myself to be vulnerable, that there’s a lot of strength that comes from that. And that when we really give back to ourselves… and when I learned to really look after my health and give to myself, and go back to that inner world. So, through really sitting with myself and spending time with myself, it’s given me more ability to really put myself out there in the world in a very authentic, meaningful way. In terms of my message, in terms of who I am, and I think, also, another huge thing is really knowing that anything is possible. And, it took me a very, very long time to be able to say that, even when I was caught up in a lot of physical pain in my body.” All of this helped Kat to change her mindset and get familiar with the feelings that come along with being authentic. She adds, “I do now know that anything is possible if we have that self-belief.”

 

Suggested Resources:

 

To take astrology to the next level…

Envision: Astrology is a big picture, the big scope of things. Because astrology is so personal, you must discover what it looks like for you to step into your personal light. Envisioning and “getting in touch with the deeper side of ‘self’ and knowing that every single fear, every single emotion, and that fear is such a big part of this journey into stepping more into the light. So, the more that we can really go within to, kind of, own those emotions and sitting with fear and sitting with all of these things, the more that that vision can really come out into the light.”

Explore: Explore the inner-self and then get support: see an astrologer, enroll in a course, see a counselor to “unlock and uncover.” There are certificates available in these fields.

Execute: First step is to sit with yourself, get back into your self, acknowledge your internal world. Once you do that, identify one change you need to make right now to bring this new path into your life. Start small.

 

Advice to Listeners: “I would say, it’s really around, as we said, taking things one step at a time. So changing something very small and really taking that one small step. Learning how to be really comfortable with yourself and being really comfortable in your vulnerability. I guess that involves really owning your story to really become…best friends with yourself. And then, I think, really, nothing can substitute experience, so with taking risks or changing things…even though it’s not known what’s on the other side a lot of the time, it’s that experience that really gets us through to the next step.”

Motivational Go-Do!

Because it has just been the lunar eclipse, journal about what is coming in for you right now in regards to closing old doors or opening new ones. Set an intention over what you want to bring in over the next six months.

 

How Motivate Me! Ultimate Support System can rally around Kat Ellis McIntyre:

Website: www.katellismcintyre.com

Facebook: The Souls Journeys

And, as always, on the Facebook page: Motivate Me! Ultimate Support System

 

CLICK HERE to listen to ’s interview.

 

If you enjoyed, a review on iTunes and Stitcher would be much appreciated!

 

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Love Your Life, like Gerdi Verwoert

 

Quote of the Day: “Be a mountain-seeker. Most of us try to avoid mountains, but what’s so good about that? Think about it: flat tires, flat hair, flat returns, and the ultimate, flat lining. Life happens on mountains. They’re opportunities to prove to yourself that you’re stronger than you ever imagined. If you never attempt the ascent, you’ll never know what it’s like to be swooshing down on the other side.” –Self Magazine

 

Guest of the Day: Gerdi Verwoert was a project manager and consultant in the Dutch corporate world for over seventeen years, and she left corporate life for the mountains of Austria. Her relationship with the mountains inspired deeper relationships with people that then inspired her to become a certified coach who coaches people while hiking. Guiding people on the mountain and guiding them in life is Gerdi’s goal.

Passion: Gerdi’s passion is the outdoors, more specifically, mountain-hiking. She has become a mountain-hiking guide in Austria.

Challenges: “…I spent years thinking about: I would love to do something else. Not knowing what that something else was, but definitely knowing it was something else.” She watched as others she knew did this and looked at them with “admiration and awe,” but never thought she would walk away from her pension, home, and security. She says, “…I think the fear of insecurity of not knowing where my next, in my case, euro was going to come from was what held me back the most.” Gerdi also had no idea, since she had been with only one company her entire career, what her “worth in the marketplace was going to be.” Physical symptoms, such as being overweight and having sleep apnea, were the determining factor.

 

Learned About Self: “What a really important lesson for me was the fact that I found that I could live with all the insecurity that comes from freelancing, and from not knowing where your next paycheck or your next euro or your next dollar is going to come from.”

 

Suggested Resources:

 

To live a life that is passion-filled…

Envision: Pick your mountain tip – real or virtual. Do the Go-Do! Visualize your goal.

Explore: Research the talents you already have, analyze the capabilities you possess, and determine what experience you need and where to get it. Gerdi says, “…it’s sort of like if you’re going to hike to a mountain top, you’re going to get the maps, and you’re going to go to the Internet, and you’re going to study the root you’re going to take. And if you don’t know, yet, how to read a compass and how to read a map, you’re going to learn that because you might need it.”

Execute: “And then you, literally, take the first step. You go out and you start walking.” Expect an uphill climb, valleys, and obstacles that may cause you to retrace your steps. “But, like it is in the mountains, it is in life: You will always be able to find a different trail that will take you to that mountain.”

 

Advice to Listeners: “I regularly tell myself to abandon all fear, to dare greatly, and to be a mountain-seeker. It’s sort of a mantra I tell myself when I am looking at something…or I’m going to do something or I want to do something where I am afraid, because it’s new, it is something outside of my comfort zone. And lately, when I tell myself: ‘Just abandon all fear, just do it,’ it almost always is not as bad as I thought it would be.”

 

Motivational Go-Do!

Make a list of twenty careers you would have been interested in as a child. What is the common thread between them? This is your passion.

 

How Motivate Me! Ultimate Support System can rally around Gerdi Verwoert:

Website: www.daregreatlycoaching.com

Facebook: Gerdi Verwoert

LinkedIn: Gerdi Verwoert

And, as always, on the Facebook page: Motivate Me! Ultimate Support System

 

CLICK HERE to listen to Gerdi’s interview.

 

If you enjoyed, a review on iTunes and Stitcher would be much appreciated!

 

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Passion can Land You in the Olympics, like Daniel Hayes

 

Quote of the Day: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards.” –Steve Jobs

 

Guest of the Day: Daniel Hayes, from Los Angeles, California, is an actor, a mixed martial artist, and a boxer who will be representing Trinidad and Tobago in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Passion: Daniel’s competitive nature has lead him to a passion for boxing.

Challenges: Daniel says that having no “combat sport experience” initially is the first challenge when learning how to box. Not closing your eyes or not looking away way when you get hit is another challenge. He says that boxing is the only sport where you tap into the “fight” of “fight or flight.” He adds, “Being able to manage your adrenaline levels and your heartrate is going to also be…a challenge when you get into the sport.”

Learned About Self: “…I’ve learned that you can be weak! For me, I’ve learned…in the sport of boxing, it’s a very, very honest sport, meaning it’s gonna strip you to your bare bones, both mentally and physically. So, what I’ve learned about myself is my extreme strengths and my extreme weaknesses, and how to cope with when I am weak, both mentally or physically…those are two challenges that I still face in the sport, because I’ve never as much had to face them before, because I’ve always played team sports before.” He adds that what is also different is holding himself accountable, versus being held accountable by a team.

 

Suggested Resources:

 

To bring boxing into your life…

Envision: “…visualize wrapping your hands, visualize the feel of sweat because you’re going to get used to that feel. Visualize the mental and physical fatigue that you’re going to be going through, as well as the feel of the ring, the feel of those hot lamp lights hitting you when you’re in the spotlight and the ring. Visualize moving around, and visualize yourself being at its most fatigued and trusting your body that you’ve put in the work that you’re gonna recover and everything’s going to be OK.”

Explore: List the materials you would need, research resources online: groups, gyms, fitness facilities.

Execute: “Anthony Robbins said it best in his book…Unlimited Power. He said: The most important thing is just getting started and to build momentum, and the importance of building momentum.” Daniel suggests using this idea and not focusing on perfection to achieve anything you want to accomplish. This will build confidence.

 

Advice to Listeners: “…step outside your comfort zone, because it’s usually what we feel most uncomfortable doing is what leads to our biggest strides and growth.”

 

Motivational Go-Do!

Do something you’ve never done before. That one thing you keep saying you are going to do – set a date and go do it.

 

How Motivate Me! Ultimate Support System can rally around Daniel Hayes:

Website: www.daniel-hayes.com

And, as always, on the Facebook page: Motivate Me! Ultimate Support System

 

CLICK HERE to listen to Daniel’s interview.

 

If you enjoyed, a review on iTunes and Stitcher would be much appreciated!

 

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Friday Reflection: Be Daring to Live a Life You Love

 

Quote of the Day: “Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.” –Cecil Beaton

Weekly Show Reflection:

Hellooo, my fellow Motivators!

I want to give a little shout out to Jan, one of our members of our private Facebook group. She likes the name Motivators because she feels that’s what we are ALL doing, so I’m running with that. Thank you, Jan, for all of the insight and humor and motivation you bring to the group. It makes me insanely happy to see you there.

So, today. Today I have been reflecting on the guests of the week, and I am pretty moved. I feel like what they’ve done is powerful. I am moved by the daring they have had, the nerve to step away from judgement, and to step away from the hefty investment they had made in something in their lives to start something new. And “Stepping away” from it feels like the perfect terminology because they were quiet about their actions. They just followed what they knew was right for them, and they quietly transitioned into that.

For example, Monday’s guest. On Monday, Dr. Sharon Livingston PhD was on the show. There are probably, and I don’t think this is an underestimation, 100 topics I could have discussed with Dr. Sharon. Since the interview, she and I have probably discussed twenty of them. But, Sharon could have come on to speak about one of her many passions, or she could have come on to teach us a lesson on one of the multiple skills, techniques, or tools she is familiar with. However, when I realized that she wrote a novel about being dumped by a best friend, I asked her if she would come discuss this with us. Creative writing is a new passion for her, one she started late in life but has fallen in love with. This book is only the first of many she plans to write.

Writing this specific book: Get Lost, Girlfriend! How I Found Myself When My Best Friend Dumped Me was part of a healing process for Sharon. The thing is: It took a lot of daring for Sharon to write this. She had to block out the judgement she knew would be coming in order to find a true place to tell this story from. She says on the show that there are many places one can find support when they lose a loved one through death or divorce, but when it comes to friendships, we are just expected to get over it. How difficult of a decision it must have been for her to put this story on paper and out into the world, even in a fictional way.

I just keep envisioning myself writing a similar story. In my real-life relationships, I have been the one who has left, and I have been the one who’s been left. Even though this story is fiction, fiction is based on reality. The hardest part for me in writing a story like this is knowing which parts of the story my friend would know and recognize. Because the whole time I was writing, I’d be thinking about how her perspective would probably differ from mine. And how she would most likely be reading this at some point in time. I presume Sharon had a similar experience, and that she had to shut down those voices, or she could have talked herself out of writing this story. I mean, imagine writing a story about your best friend, you know how your friend thinks, and that would be the hardest part in the writing process. I think the other hard part is that writing a book like this one pretty much says that you’re walking away from the years you had invested in a friendship. Regardless of any, or all, of this, Sharon wrote the book anyway. The girl has, what’s the word: kahonas?

Tuesday designer/decorator James Swan was on the show. James is an interesting person with an interesting story to tell. Personally, I think James could and should go on the road speaking to people about following your truth and overcoming hardship. James went to college, got a degree, started a job – in the field others felt he should, but he was not satisfied. He, then, traveled back to who he was and what he loved as a child, and for him it was a sketchbook full of images and rooms, history and mystery. And, despite the fact that judgement could be cast, and that he already had much invested in a degree he didn’t desire and a job he didn’t care for, he quietly, subtly, confidently jumped ship, looked out onto a new horizon, and designed a new life. One that, this time, was true to him. Listen in to that episode to hear James talk about how his design firm was flourishing and he was living the life of his dreams, and within ninety days it was all pulled from underneath him, even his home.

James has had a tough road at times, and he has learned to continue to adamantly, purposefully forge ahead. And that when his forging is exhausted, all that is left to do is release your needs to the universe and wait for it to answer back. From where James sits now: the author of an extremely successful book, the host of an exciting podcast: Million Dollar Decorator, he can see that all of the challenges in his life have served their purpose.

I just want to say to James that there is a wisdom and a tenacity that exudes from you. And I don’t care if you are dressing elephants in a circus, they would walk with style and grace because you willed them to. I believe chutzpah is the word that best defines James.

So, Wednesday, oddly enough, we had Dr. Sharon’s husband, Dr. Glenn Livingston PhD on the show. Now, again, you would think this psychologist was coming on the show to teach us a lesson in something, that is not the case. I was really surprised and flattered that Glenn shared with us some very personal thoughts and conversations he has had with himself regarding an issue of his own that he has battled, which is binge-eating. If you struggle with this, definitely go back and listen to this show. If you have an addiction of any kind, this is an episode for you.

I’m really talking here today about daring to be yourself, to live what we call in coaching an authentic life, one that as I said about James, is living a life that is true to you and who you are.

Glenn was very honest about why he wanted to be a doctor and how much he thought it would mean to him emotionally, and in the end, he realized that what he truly desired is to coach people on an issue he himself had to overcome. And I say coach because, as Glenn said, this type of relationship with a client is not the type that calls for medical charts and insurance companies. And so, while he has a few patients, the majority of his clientele is just that: coaching clients. Wow. I think this is how you really know you are following your passion. When you walk away from things that once were so important to you – even if it was more important to those closest to you. It takes guts to do this.

I am quickly becoming a fan of Thursday’s guest, business coach Butch Bellah. Butch and I met in person at the National Speakers Association’s winter conference in Austin, Texas a few weeks ago, and he is just the kind of guy you find yourself drawn to. He is funny, big-hearted, super intelligent, and just out to help people succeed. This guy exceeds all boundaries, there is no keeping him in. In his twenties he was achieving the success of business men in their 40s. As if that wasn’t enough, while he was doing it, he was also appearing on stage as a stand-up comedian. No, not at the place down the street, he had to get on airplanes to perform the shows he was putting on. And, when his business had achieved the success that most people wait for so they can sit back and coast, he sold.

He battled back from bypass surgery and back surgery, he has written books, he is on the speaking circuit. He could rest, but why should he? That is just not the way this guy likes it. And he came on to teach you, fellow Motivators, how to do the same. How positivity and productivity go hand-in-hand. Butch sees no limits because he is a sky’s the limit kind of guy.

  1. Friday. What do I have in store for you today?

All of this week’s guests were successful in their lives when they made the conscious decision to dare for more.

Sharon could have stayed heartbroken and quiet about the loss of a friendship that crushed her. James could have stayed working a job that was worlds away from his childhood passion: decoration and design. Glenn could have continued to allow the prestige of travel and high profile clients to steer him away from something as personal as helping clients overcome the same binge-eating issue that plagued him for much of his life. And Butch could have coasted, either in the business he grew or the retirement he acquired early. But they didn’t. Why? Because they dared to want more. They dared to dream. They dared to believe they could.

This reminds me of a conversation I had recently with past guest Paul Ames. Isn’t that what’s so awesome about Facebook and the Internet, you get to actually stay in contact with people from shows like mine. And, Paul is a member of our private group, like almost all of my guests, so we get to stay connected and banter back and forth a bit. Well, Paul had a business success recently and I, trying to be a nice friend, made a meme in his honor. And, if you’re not familiar with what a meme is, it’s just a picture with words on it that is shared online.

So, I said to him, through this meme, something I share on the show frequently, which is that with belief, hard work, and true intentions, you will be successful. But today, I added something to that in a new conversation with Paul, and I know it was inspired by my conversation with James this week. I typed: “Believe, work hard, have true intentions, let go.”

This conversation with Paul stemmed from a picture he posted that showed a bright red injured hand clutching a rope and it said: “Sometimes holding on does more damage than letting go.” And the final image was one of a healthy hand.

My point to you today: Let go. Dare. Dare to dream. Dare to achieve. Dare to live a life that twenty years from now you want to tell people about. Not necessarily because it was adventurous or outlandish, but because you just loved it that much. Because you were excited by it that much. Because it was everything you wanted.

That’s it for today everybody. Please know that I, on a daily basis, attempt to envision you. I try to see who you are, what you’re traveling through, and how your time here is motivating you to make positive change in your life, and that you are happier because of it.

I hope I get to meet some of you while I am out on this amazing 50-state journey. Whether it is at our send-off party on the Seaside Heights boardwalk on May 4th, in any of the United States as we make our journey, or at our return celebration party on August 1st. I’m excited. I’m excited to know that you’re out there listening and dreaming and daring.

So to you America, and to our listeners in each of the other 82 countries, I hope you are living a life you love, and if you’re not, please let me and my guests help you!

Call to Action:

 

The Motivational Go-Do!

Are you living a life you love? If you’re not, please let me and my guests help you!

 

CLICK HERE to listen to this week’s reflection.

 

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