Monday Heart Stuff #5

Well, well, well, numbah five! This Monday Heart Stuff is me finally getting on the blogging band-wagon. I may have been posting content on my blog since 2006, but that doesn’t mean I got blogging. Getting blogging means having this blog participate in bloggy conversations everywhere, and that requires more than just putting my own articles out to read.

And, it’s refreshing, to tell you the truth. Back in the day, since 2001, I published an email newsletter plain text, and it wasn’t really possible to put other people’s stuff in there. I mean, I could. But plain text emails are just so butt-ugly that if there’s more than one or two things in there, it’s hard to find them.

You know how sometimes, in large pre-historic creatures, it would take quite a while for knowledge of an injury to reach the brain? I was feeling like that. Despite a fancy new html newsletter courtesy of Trisha at Blue Owl Designs, and despite actually having a blog up on the website for the last going on three years, the gestalt of blogging took awhile to reach me.

All of this is to say, here are people and things that have touched my heart, opened my mind, nourished my business. They aren’t necessarily from the last week–I see something cool, I bookmark it, and when I’m moved, I add it here. Not everything has to be “fresh off the press.” Sometimes things that have been around for decades are still useful. I mean, how about you or m e? How many decades have we been around?

Big Names Promoting Your Business?

I’m a big proponent of organic growth. You know, start small, build slowly, then scale it up if appropriate. However, sometimes your business is in a position to really launch something out there. To get it out in front of a lot of people quickly.

In which case you want someone like Dave Navarro, the Launch Coach. A simple tagline says it: “How to get more people to buy what you’re selling.”

Here’s the thing about launches, it takes a lot of coordination. There are a seemingly uncountable number of details to track and follow through with. Literally dozens of projects each with their own to-do lists. Someone like Dave can put it all together for you and shepherd you through the process.

One of those things that you will need is other people helping to get the word out. Some of this will come from sheer good will, people who know you and love you. And some of it will come from affiliates. Meaning people who will spread the word about you launch to their communities in exchange for affiliate commissions on sales they generate.

Make no mistakes, this can be done in a slimy, gross way. It can be manipulative and annoying. However, it doesn’t have to be. You can have a genuine relationship with people who just happen to have 10,000-100,000 readers on an email list or blog. After all, they are people with hearts, too. And many of them are very nice people with a lot of integrity.

So, how do you go about making those connections? It does take some time and money, but it’s kinda simple, and Dave lays it out for you.

Once you’ve read the article, ponder this for your heart: Are you purchasing/using materials from people you admire? Are you expressing the same generosity towards others that you are hoping to receive in return?

Making “It” Work

There are people who are artists who also have businesses. Some of them have businesses about their art. And some of them are making a living, supporting a family, and doing incredible stuff. One of those people is my friend Dave Billings, aka Mr. Sparky Firepants.

He wrote recently about how he makes it all work. I mean, there’s a lot to making it all work, and he didn’t write all about it in this post. But he wrote about something critical. That was after he pointed out how few people talk about freaking out when being self-employed, even though it happens to all of us.

But, really, the main thing he was getting at was 17 years of love that built his business. 17 years of “I believe in you” notes. Who are those notes from? Whose love is it? Kinda obvious once you read it, but I find the same thing myself. I’ve got 15 years of what he’s got, and I’m so incredibly grateful I’m blown away.

Read it up: How I make This All Work.

Question for your heart: who’s got your back? Who’s holding your heart in business? Who believes in you? Have you appreciated them lately?

And if you don’t think you have anyone like that, who could you cultivate?

What Abundance Takes Away

We live in the most materialistic abundant cultures the world has ever seen.

Truth be told, if we were transplanted back a few hundred years, most of us would be peasants or lowly tradespeople. And the kind of amenities we’re used to on a daily basis would be things we wouldn’t dream of. I’m not talking technological advances, I’m talking simple things like homes with more than one room, shoes that actually fit if they had shoes at all, and regular hot meals that include meat, white bread and other delicacies.

There’s been a cost to that abundance. A huge cost. Material cost, emotional costs, spiritual costs. And Charlie Gilkey writes about how much of ourselves we’ve lost in this trade-off that many of us never asked for. I’m loving Charlie Gilkey and his blog Productive Flourishing, and he has insights into productivity and work that really nourishes me.

Living in a modern city with two kids I’m as caught up as anyone else. And it’s a handy question for each of us.

For the heart: This coming year, what bits of “modern abundance” can you let go of to regain more of yourself?

And That’s Another Monday

I know these can be a lot of big questions, and maybe you’re not in the mood for any or all of them. Just pick one of the three questions and let it marinate in your heart. And share any insights that come to you here on the blog. It really does make a difference.