Here’s a little story about how I made $97 in less than 5 minutes.
Now, you’re probably thinking, “Wow, dude… strippers don’t even make that kind of money!” right? I know… it sounds pretty incredible, but that’s just what I did, and as a result, I get FREE web hosting.
Curious? Well, check out the image below.
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According to the amazingly awesome Wordle.com, you can see the tag cloud for the top words from all of my blog posts.
Interestingly enough, it seems to run parallel to a new book project I started writing earlier last year, which is a motivational, self development book (name still yet to be determined) based primarily around goal setting and making plans.
The book has been slowly taking shape in various chunks in Evernote (my trusty companion) as I feel the inspiration, and something tells me that I should get back on it.
It’s a SIGN I tell you!!! I guess I better get moving.
Thank you Wordle for kicking my ass!
If YOU were going to write a book on setting goals and making plans, what would you call it?
I am having a terrible time coming up with a title, so here is your chance to be the superstar and tell me what I should name my book?
Leave a comment and let me know.
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The key to getting what you want in life is a lot like going to the counter at Starbucks.
My advice to you is to figure out exactly what you want and then just ask for the damn cake pop.
The world is your barista.
So, what is YOUR cake pop?
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I hold in my hand a Military Challenge Coin that belonged to my father. It was given to him by the man who is featured on the coin, Sgt. Chuck Taliano, who was a drill instructor made famous by the “We don’t promise you a rose garden.” Marine Corps recruiting posters printed during the 1970s and 1980s.
Mr Taliano served together with my father in the Marine Corps and was one of the very few men my father truly called his friend. Both he and my father passed away this past year.
Challenge coins are usually given to service members to commemorate special occasions both public and private, and as a sign of good luck.
I carry this coin in my pocket as a small reminder of my father and all the good things he taught me. It serves as a symbol of strength, hard work, the challenges that i face, of the promises I must keep, of the goals I must achieve, of the decisions I must make, and the ones I should never make.
There is a great quote by Zig Ziglar that says:
“People say that motivation doesn’t last. Neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”
I think it is important for everyone to have some sort of daily reminder. Something to keep you in check and on track. Something powerful and personal and symbolic that not only motivates you, but helps you motivate others to do the same.
What serves as your reminder? What helps to keep you on track on a regular basis?
Semper Fi, Dad! We love you.
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Let’s take a minute to think about plans. What exactly are they and why are they important?
The wiki says that: “A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with timing and resources, used to achieve an objective. A method to reaching your goals.”
When building a house, you have to have a plan. You can’t just start digging and hammering nails and expect to just come up with something.
In business school they teach you about writing business plans because if you don’t have one, you might have a hard time making any money, which is the point of a business after all.
So what about life? If you want to get to where you want to go in life, you will also need a plan. How else will you reach your ultimate goals and fulfill your dreams? You do have goals and dreams right?
So why is it that so many people go though life without making any plans?
The main focus of my job right now is Information Architecture for software development. This means I draw plans that focus on how a piece of software is supposed to work, look, behave, interact, etc. Needless to say, it irked me a little when I came to the shocking realization that, while I make plans all day for my job, I didn’t actually have much of a solid plan for my life.
So, over the new year I decided to sit down and make some lists and plans for myself and my family and our future. The result was a basic, one year plan and then an extended 20 year plan. (I wrote this post in January, but to be honest, after I made my plans, i was so motivated and busy following them, i forgot to post this, so here it is…)
List one is made up of 3 simple words I used to orient myself and stay focused on my key goals over the next year. (I got the idea from Chris Brogan)
My 3 words for 2011 are: Streamline, Ship and Share
This year is all about cut, trim, hack, slash and burn. This year I am stepping off the hamster wheel, and focusing on building oil wells and planting the seeds. I am managing my time more effectively and efficiently, removing obstacles, completing projects and streamlining anything possible to allow me to reach my 20 year goals set up in list 2.
Basically, if it doesn’t serve the 20 year plan, it’s outta there:
The 20 year plan is broken down into chunks of 2, 5, 10 and 20 year milestones.
These are both personal and professional plans and I shared these with my wife so that we can stay in alignment. Basically a list of everything I want to achieve in a 20 year time period and a realistic assessment of when I can expect to do so.
We all have big plans, dreams and goals we want for ourselves. At least we SHOULD. Let me tell you, once you break down all of them into a 20 year plan, it forces both a scary and exciting kind of immediacy to your life. It gives you perspective on why and what you need to do to fill the gaps between connecting all of those dots of your life goals.
What are your 3 words for 2011? What are your plans? Do you have any?
Have you made any long term goals for yourself?
If not, you had better make the decision to do it now. The clock is ticking. tick… tick… tick… Think i’m kidding? Try it. You’ll see.
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As I sit here on the train with my laptop open, contemplating writing a blog post about my new year’s resolutions and what those would actually be, I slowly became aware of this older woman in the opposite seat staring at me, with a very intense, curious, thoughtful kind of look on her face.
Now, she didn’t appear to be a psycho or stoned on antidepressants or anything, so it wasn’t like a crazy sort of stare. She was well dressed in business attire, was holding an expensive looking leather briefcase, and seemed well off, professional and intelligent enough.
She seemed somehow familiar, as if I have seen her before or maybe she just resembled someone I know. Not sure, but regardless, she was obviously fascinated with what I was doing, which, to be honest, pretty much amounted to just spacing off, looking out the window thinking, and dripping coffee on my shirt
So what was the deal?
As I fought to restrain my first impulse to fire back a look of, “So what the hell are you staring at, weirdo?” and to make up a better explanation than maybe I just forgot to wipe the toothpaste from the sides of my mouth again and looked like an idiot, (i do that sometimes…) instead, a strange, elaborate alternate (MUCH more rational) explanation started to form in my mind.
What if: this woman was actually a time traveler from the future? What if she was actually some sort of tourist who liked to go back in time and witness, in person, historical world changing events?
What if: at this very moment in time, I was on the verge of an idea that would drastically change mankind? The very first spark, a lightbulb moment of an idea that would influence world peace or some massive change for good that would permanently change history for the better? What if that was why she was here?
What if: instead of some amazing, positive idea, I was on the verge of making the worst mistake of my life? Something that would negatively impact my life and the lives of my family, friends or the world?
What if: this person was a future relative? What if she were actually my 2 year old daughter, now all grown up, or her children, or children’s children just wanting to see for themselves what made Daddy, or Great Grandpa think up this crazy, amazing or stupid idea?
What if: that time was NOW and instead of me sitting here, it was actually YOU, and YOU were on the verge of making a very important decision that would dramatically effect your life for better. Or worse…
What would that idea or decision be?
What decision was right at the tip of your mind right this very second, but you weren’t aware of it because maybe you weren’t paying attention?
I bet that something IS right at the tip of your mind right now. You just need some motivation and the decision to act on it.
I know what mine is. That’s why this woman sitting across from me made such a strange impression. Call it synchronicity, call it a hunch, but I somehow knew it was more than that. I’ll tell you more about that soon.
For now though, just keep in mind that inspiration comes at the strangest times. Sometimes as a storybook moment with clouds parting, sunbeams, trumpets and angels singing with fireworks going off, and sometimes, we’re just sitting there on the toilet, picking our noses and humming Lady GaGa.
It would definitely be worth traveling back in time to witness some of these events, wouldn’t it? I bet we would be surprised at what that moment actually looked like. Like a random apple falling from a tree, or an “I have a dream” or just a simple “hmmm…”
I don’t know what my point is with all of this, other than I just wanted to share and give you some food for thought,
Think about it and let me know. (and by the way, don’t forget to wipe the toothpaste from the sides of your mouth…)
Send me an email or make a comment on this post. I would love to hear from you.
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All apologies for not posting much lately and the lack of activity on the social networks. After much thought and soul searching, as well as a very demanding new job, I had to make the decision to put off quite a few projects that I was working on and return down to the laboratory for some experimenting.
For one, this means that the Twitter book has been put off indefinitely in order to make more room for some much more important projects.
There are things in this world that demand way more focus than just simple shallow marketing and social media blah blah, and I feel my talents and energy would be better spent in better places, so consider this a little warning of an eventual shift in focus towards something much bigger, much different and hopefully much more impactful on many levels.
Mecha (derived from mechanism)
1. a term to describe a large robot usually humanoid; or in the original Japanese definition, machinery in general.
And
phil·an·throp·ic
Pronunciation: ?fi-l?n-?thrä-pik
1 : of, relating to, or characterized by philanthropy : humanitarian
2 : dispensing or receiving aid from funds set aside for humanitarian purposes
I will see you very soon.
-Sean
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Nothing short of cutting words in stone somehow seem adequate enough to bring proper attention and tribute to the memory and passing of a life.
On Friday my father passed away.
And no level of technology or screaming or flags or firing cannons from a mountain-sized monument shaped with dynamite can pay enough tribute and respect due to him, nor solace to the pain, sadness, anger and frustration I feel and the rest of his family feels from his unnecessary passing.
You will be dearly missed, but your footprints in this world have only just begun.
I love you Dad.
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Twitter Lists are an awesome way to sort and categorize lots of people that you follow, but did you know that they are also a very powerful tool for growing a targeted base of followers?
Let me explain.
If you follow a lot of people on Twitter, you will quickly start to realize the usefulness of Twitter Lists. After you follow around 50 people or so, your main Twitter feed starts to turn into this huge unmanageable waterfall of random stuff and it becomes nearly impossible to follow all of it.
Don’t worry, nobody expects you to follow every post. At some point, there becomes simply too much information rushing by to read everything getting posted
To remedy this, Twitter created lists, so that you can organize and categorize all these people in to smaller manageable groups of lists to follow, so you don’t miss anything important.
To create a list, simply find the list icon located on the top right of a Tweet. (See image below) When you click it, it gives you a drop down menu that lets you create a list.
You can then access your lists via the Lists area in the right sidebar of your Twitter profile
At the time I am writing this, I follow about 800 people, so I make LOTS of lists. Twitter lets you have 20 currently, and I usually have a few main ones I follow instead of my main twitter feed on my home page.
Most of my lists are private, but I have a few that are public for strategic purposes.
My Private lists are mostly for research and organization:
As you can see, creating private lists for following certain users are a great way to keep things organized, but why would anyone want to make their lists public?
There are two main reasons:
Followers – Public lists are a great way to share all the cool people you follow on Twitter. If you make a great list of interesting people based on a certain topic, people will see it, follow it and better yet, follow you back. It is an excellent way to build a highly targeted follower base, because people of like minded interests have a much better way of following each other.
Reciprocity – Second, adding people to your list it is a way of forcing reciprocity. If you are familiar with Robert Cialdini’s book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion(Amazon Affiliate Link) you will understand the power of reciprocation. People love getting listed and are usually compelled to at least follow the list back, if not follow the person who added them, just to be nice. Yep, it’s sneaky but it works.
If you offer a specific type of product or service, create a public list for it and add yourself. Then go out and find other people or businesses related to that topic and add them to the list as well.
They can be complimentary or even competition, either way, it groups you in with the rest for others to discover. The more lists you are on, usually the better it looks because it shows you as having more value and gravity.
Before you know it, those others you added will check out that list and follow it back. It may not happen immediately, but I have found that within about a month, my followers start compounding like crazy.
Note: Please make sure when creating lists to add people to, that these lists are positive in nature. Nobody wants to be on the “scumbag” list for example…
Just like you can promote your mailing list, you can also promote your Twitter List. Try building a public list and then post a link to it via your blog or a forum signature and watch it grow! Heck why not just tweet the link to your list and see who follows it?
For example I recently created a public list called marketing minds. You can follow it here and if I like what you tweet about, maybe i’ll even ad you to it. Give it a try and see what happens!.
Follow my List Here: http://twitter.com/seanearleyrocks/marketing-minds
If you like these tips, be sure to Sign Up to My Mailing List via the sidebar for more great ideas and marketing insight form yours truly. I also love comments, so feel free to leave a comment let me know how this works out for you.
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