The Gurus are Dead (or maybe just in hiding)

The latest fad in internet marketing (aka - selling vapor on the net), has a predictable formula:

1. Find a niche, any niche - do some market research to see what ad words test the best.
2. Declare yourself an expert.
3. Come up with some expert content based product - webinar, online class, digital book, etc.  Don't actually print or produce anything tangible - this is all about the digital.
4. Offer some piece of this for free.
5. Flood all of social media with ads for your free thing.
6. Collect the contact info of all the people who take you up on your free offer.
7. Stick them into a sales funnel.
8. Market the crap out of that list.
9. Keep feeding new names into the funnel.
10. Make million$!!

Like any dumb fish in the lake, after you take the bait a couple of times you can smell it from a mile away. 


When the little man steps from behind the screen, you can see that the Emperor has no clothes. (Yes, mixing references to literature - it's the same concept - and can't you just see the Wizard standing there naked behind the screen? )

What if there are some things you  would seriously like to learn?  I'm talking some absolutely, legit, for real deal, skills.  How do you find the actual experts in this sea of phony baloney gurus?  They all tell a good tale, or sing a great song (maybe not all - some aren't even expert at the bamboozle.), but when you get about 3 pages of scrolling in you figure out that they don't have the answers you are seeking.  Unfortunately by this point you have double opted in, and are now in the sales funnel loop hell.  Yippee for an inbox full of emails with the latest offer and the biggest discount! 

If you write

So, we moved.  Life is no longer what I know.  It's all upside down, and inside out.  The core that matters is the same - C, R, Q, T, M, A, O - God/Church - thank goodness that's all the same, but the rest, well - it's all new.

I need to get unstuck and on track.  I'm not sure what or where that track is, so until I do I am going to do a couple of things that I think will help me figure it out.

I am one decision away from a totally different everything.  What I want is a totally different financial life.

Change you decisions, change everything - Mel Robbins.  Ok - Let's go!

I have decided that I will -
1. Write something everyday.  Use this gift I have been given until I write something important, sellable, meaningful, publishable, or I at least get some direction.  I feel completely inspired that if I write,  the opportunity I am looking for will come into view.  So, I will write.  For now, here in the privacy of the test kitchen.

2. Exercise - training for the big hike I am totally excited about.  I need to get my muscles and my legs used to this altitude and step inclines.  I am surrounded by roller coaster hills - my driveway, my back yard, up to the water tower, the street I live on.  So, I'm just going to do it.  I went up and down the driveway 3 times yesterday.  Tomorrow I will do it more.  Each day I will do more and I will get faster and pant less.

3. Read the Book of Mormon in the next 90 days cover to cover.  It's a great challenge from LH to the YW of the ward, and I have accepted it.  I am already ahead of schedule.  Daily Book Of Mormon.

4. Pray specifically for what I need.  a. The BEST money education - true, real, possible, fits my thinking style.  b. The BEST money making opportunity.  c. Success in all work  d. Means to pay all of my responsibilities now and prepare for the future, and repay old debts.

5. Be responsible for my own crap and do it well.  Stop assuming responsibility for other people's crap.  Help if prompted, but don't take over the responsibility.  It hinders them, overwhelms me, and makes me a nasty wench.

6. Meet new people.  Reach out and take the first step.  Find my friends.

Enough for today.  I'm off to bed.

Personal Space

You know your life is full when you turn to a blog for some privacy.   I need some alone time with my thoughts.  It seems so ridiculous all the things people get upset about.  Honestly, who cares?  Why does anyone worry about what someone else is or isn't doing with their life?  We proclaim a love for freedom and individual choice, then criticize and judge the heck out of the choices of others.  Seriously?  You want the freedom, but only you know how to use it correctly?  Those that don't do like you do are wrong?  Says who?  What's it any of your business anyway?  Are you God?  Are you the boss?  Are you even remotely responsible for the outcome of the choices of other people?  Just shut the heck up and go fix yourself. 

My life and my choices are MINE.  Yours are YOURS.  I have no right to question, criticize, or belittle you for the options you choose for your life.  I claim the right of personal revelation, which I follow in varying degrees based on my faith at the time.  I grant you the same right.  Please, please, please stop making comments about how I live life and how others around you live life.  Do your thing and let everyone else do theirs!

Thank you and Good Night.

Testing a link to a button

First & Last Name of Attendee

I am the Boss of Me!

Back in December and January work was slow, money was tight, and I panicked.  I was a freako.  Things have turned around and business is booming.  I'm busier than ever and the bills are getting paid.  I'm so grateful!!  What a blessing!

In my panic, I decided to take a job working in town (hate the drive), for lower than I usually make, doing stuff that is super easy for me, but it's admin work, and not really what I want to spend my life doing.  The place is chaotic and dirty. 

I find myself tired all the time and rushing from one thing to the next.  The things I love are the things on the bottom of the list and often go undone.  Priorities are upside down again...

I don't remember the last time I wrote something that meant anything to me.  My FB comments are kind of profound sometimes - lol.  It's been ages since I have hiked, or gone to the beach.  I have a super awesome new project that I need to get launched.  I've done a limited release, through another avenue, but not in the format it deserves. It feels urgent, like if I don't do it soon, someone else will do it and my chance will be missed.

I have so much that is half done and those are the things I want to spend time doing!

So, today, I didn't go in to work.  Rescheduled for tomorrow, and I am writing.  I am going to write and get my brain straight.  It's what works for me.  and ... then ... I am going to get that website LAUNCHED!!  There is money to be made, and beautiful things that the world needs to see! 

I have things to do for other projects too.  BUT - they will have to wait in line.  Today, this afternoon, this bit of time I took back from the chaos, is mine.  I'm going to put my desires first.  I will get to the other things, for other people, but I will do my stuff first.  I have taken care of all the essentials that others count on me for.  I am not leaving anyone hungry, stranded, neglected or ignored.

I have my happy hippie oils to set the mood - patchouli, Hawaiian sandalwood, etc.  My rock n roll is blasting, by feet are up, and I am in my zone.  I'm the boss of me :)

One of these days I will do the same and head to the mountains and the sea.  Oh gosh, how I need to get outside and play!

Mediocre Oblivion

There has to be a better way. I am not as smart as I once thought I was.  I don't know the best way to do everything.  I don't have life all figured out.  I am missing some key information, or skills, or something.  There are things I don't understand and I am not sure I have the capacity to understand.  Knowing this makes me feel defeated.  As long as my superior intelligence was a certainty, I had confidence in my ability to eventually maneuver successfully through life. 

Apparently I am an idiot on some levels.  I don't know how to move passed a certain level of competency.  I am stuck, plateaued and stalled in the center lane.  I know how to work hard.  I know how to figure a way out of most situations.  What I have come to realize is that I don't know the BEST way out of most situations.  What I know is A way, one way, one possible solution, and that it isn't always the best answer.  There are other ways of doing things that I am completely oblivious to.  I don't want to be.

How can I rise above the oblivion?  I need a teacher, mentor, role model, hero, example, something.  I need to see how it is done and then I can try and follow.  I look around me and I see more mediocrity.  More minds stuck in the oblivion.  Some might have a little piece here or there, but where is the stellar example of excellence?  I don't see it in my life.  I hear a lot of talk.  I see a lot of try.  I see a lot of want to.  I see a lot of people who are like me.  I want to find a group, or individual that is doing better.  This so-so, scrape by the skin of my teeth junk is getting seriously old. 

I am not satisfied with the get by mentality.  It's better than the give up mentality, but it isn't good enough.  There MUST be a way to rise above and really succeed at something.  I know there are doors that I don't open because I feel I am not capable of walking down those paths.  I know I shut my mind to options that seem out of reach.  I am ready to start looking down those unfamiliar paths.  I would rather not go it alone.  If that is the only way, then I will.  I feel too old to be starting this kind of journey.  I should be wrapping things up, and looking for a comfy way to enjoy retirement and grandparenthood.  Instead I feel like a 20 something still trying to figure out what the heck I want to do with my life. Too many years wasted thinking I had it all figured out.  Too many years of lying to myself.  I am not the smartest person in the room.  Well, at this moment, I am, because I am alone, except for my dogs, and I can unequivocally state with no doubt, that I am smarter than they are.  They are confused by the concept of wrapping their leash around a pole and all they need to stop the torment is to back up, one step. 

Heavenly Father, show me a door, and I will open it.  I promise.  I will do the hard things and I will be humble and teachable.  I am open to learning what I am missing so that I can finally move beyond this same, stuck, almost there place that I have been far, far, far, too many times.

Looking for new ways to make some CA$H

In an effort to up the income without seriously impacting the daily schedule, I am experimenting with affiliate programs.

The first one I am trying is i declare.  It's pretty jewelry with customizable engraved charms.  I like it.  I hope it works!

Click this link - buy some jewelry!  Do it!