Blogging a Book Makes Sense
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My first book consisted of fifty blog posts I had written on the topic of building a profitable business, based on using the power and leverage of relationship marketing. Early on, I didn’t realize I was blogging a book. It came about as a result of conversations I was having in early 2009 with two mentors at that time, Raymond Aaron and Alex Mandossian.
I had encountered each of these men purely by chance, and their impact on my life and business was miraculous, to say the least. It was too soon for me to realize that mentorship is the common thread with the overwhelming majority of successful people in any walk of life. I’ve since written a bestseller on Living the Mentored Life, but that’s a story for a different day.
Although I’d been online for three years at this point and was increasing my income month over month, I was floundering. I lacked direction and my goals were more like items placed on a “to-do” list. At the beginning of each month I felt as though I was starting back at the beginning and my productivity was slow as molasses.
It would take days for me to get the momentum needed to even know what I could be doing. Many months during this period, I was simply living previous months over and over again. The only thing that kept me going was the belief that if I didn’t, my income would fall off and I would no longer be able to meet my financial obligations.
My first speaking engagement came in the summer of 2008. Matt Bacak had invited me to present at his marketing event in Atlanta. I was so nervous and not sure I could follow through with this, all the way up until the first day of the event. His assistant had seen me checking into the hotel and told me I’d be following copywriter Ray Edwards and after I spoke Frank Kern was to take the stage.
I’m not sure what the look on my face was while the assistant was speaking to me, but inside my heart was racing and my breath shallow. How could Matt have asked me to share the stage with him, and with people of this caliber when he knew I was so new to public speaking?
I had the greatest respect for Matt, and had to trust that he knew what he was doing. I thanked his assistant and went up to my room. After beating myself up for being fifty years old and not as successful as I had hoped, I opened…
