As I’ve said before, I get tons of e-mail. Fortunately, I love it like Linus loves his blanket. It may take me a day or two (or more if I’m swamped, sick, or both) to answer the e-mail, but keep them coming. I love the kind words, the suggestions, and to the woman in Connecticut who sent me a recipe for a triple-layered chocolate walnut cake… I love you.
I received a great letter from a reader, Geoff Young, who is doing something that’s equal parts cool and gutsy. He’s changing careers, which is a lot like jumping from an airplane to a hellicopter, mid air. Without a parachute.
So, maybe it’s gutsy even more than it is cool.
Anyway, I think his story is inspiring. So, below are excerpts of Geoff’s letter, used with permission OF COURSE, and a link to his website. I know you join me in wishing him great success.
I am new at the whole blog thing. I have been a construction worker all of my adult life and earlier this year I lost the woman I love to her inflated ego. I was very hurt by this. I needed answers so I turned to my self help library. I have been a student of self help for a good 20 years. My great Aunt Betty was my inspiration for the desire to learn about myself since my early 20’s. She died about one and a half years ago at the age of 93.
Anyway, after the woman I was supposed to marry cut me up into little pieces I knew what I needed to do next. I studied Tony Robbins “Get the Edge” and The Secret intently. The problem I faced was that there is so much information contained in these programs that I found it difficult to retain a majority of the information these studies (that’s what I call them) had to offer. I also remember something I learned in a previous program by Tony Robbins. It was the 30 day program he marketed starting back in the mid 80’s. That program was called Unlimited Power if I remember right. In that program he talks about our three core learning styles; visual, audible, and “hands on” learning.
I remembered that and I developed a step by step program to help me retain more information quicker so I could make some necessary changes in my life faster. I wanted to be a better person instead of a bitter person because of our break up. As this system for better memory retention came about I began to discuss what I was doing and how I was doing it with close friends and family. They inspired me to think. So I gathered my thoughts and decided to make a presentation and I wanted to sell this idea to the Tony Robbins company. I knew he would immediately see the potential of how I mixed the three core learning styles into a unique step process.
I began talks with a salesman from the Robbins company and they were defiantly interested in seeing my idea. Than I began to really get cautious. I ask a personal friend of mine that owns a publishing company if she would be my publishing agent. She was happy to do so. I made a presentation on my lap top and showed it to her. She loved the idea so much that she convinced me to keep and market the idea myself with the full financial backing of her publishing company.
I really disliked the construction job I was in but at the same time I was also grateful to have this job. When they stopped paying me on time (which was only once a month) I quit and started working on The Learning Course full time. We now have a finished product and are in the internet marketing phase of the project. Michele (my publisher) suggested that I start using blogs as a marketing tool. At first I was really skeptical. She convinced me to move forward with this. The first two entries read just like advertisements. Then I started understanding what I really should be doing with this new blog thing.
I now am marketing on my myspace page and that is a high maintenance way to market. It takes up lots of my time and now I’m researching other avenues to get the word out about TLC. I just love this blogging stuff though. It is actually teaching me how to be a better writer. I have now posted six or seven blogs and five of them are really good. I know it takes time to become established and that is why I’m reaching out to you now. My blog entries are posted on Mondays on my myspace profile and at my web site www.thelearningcourse.com These blogs talk about my learning experiences I have had in my personal life on a daily basis. All the years of self help study have really come in handy for this. For example an entry for a couple of weeks ago is named “Do Your Friends Inspire You” and it talks about the company we keep. My last one is titled “Who Do You Love” and it’s about how hate perpetuates more hate. These are very well thought out blogs and I wish more people knew where to find them because I know they will inspire thoughts and feelings. I hope you may have some helpful suggestions as to what I might do better or different. Please take just a few minutes and see my entries. They aren’t that long and I hope they are may inspire you in some way.
