Which comes first: your passions or the money?

February 3rd, 2010 6 Comments

at the farm, my not so far away dreamBecause the hubby and I have been in debt for years, we have spent lifetimes focusing on making a buck just to make ends meet. In fact, doing anything else was completely foreign to us until just recently. There comes a time when you just can’t do it anymore. You’re mentally and emotionally exhausted, you’re certainly not a pleasure to be around, and your life revolves around work, work, work. When I got to that point, it hit me: I was a slave to everything I owned and everyone I owed money to. It was not a good life.

When our family started budgeting, we were freed, in part, from this hum-drum existence. When you’re working Dave Ramsey’s plan, you have to put in the hours of work it takes to get out of debt, but once you start making progress, the things you dream of someday doing become a closer reality.

I’ve always wondered which came first: your passions or the money? Some people seem to have it made, doing something they are passionate about from Day One and making a modest income doing so. But for some of us, this isn’t the case. In a consumerist society, I would argue that things come first, and we all put our blinders on so we can focus on generating income to pay for those things. If we’re lucky, we will end up doing something we enjoy. But mostly, our true passions soon become one-day or when-I-retire dreams.

Last year, I decided that I wouldn’t hold off on passions on hold any longer. I’m getting out of debt as fast as I possibly can so that I can start doing the things I love doing. I am passionate about marketing, the internet and small business, so I started freelancing to explore this further and how it will fit into my overall long-term goals. I also love crafting, farming and the simple life, and I want to own a small-scale farm someday soon. That’s my one when-I-retire dream that I will make happen in the next couple of years.

Everything I do today is a step towards living a spirited life. And you know what? I’m having a lot of fun doing it.

What about you? Are you doing today what you are most passionate about? If not, what’s holding you back?

Image Credit: Joaaso

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Promoting your work on Twitter: A follow-up from the latest #ILM tweetup

February 1st, 2010 2 Comments

Sarah from Fuss Budget Promo was kind enough to ask me to speak at the most recent Wilmington NC tweetup about my experience using twitter to promote my blogs and podcast. We ended up getting a room that was more noisy than expected, so instead of speaking last Thursday, I am writing today the blog version of my mini-speech written for that evening.

If you’re new to my blog and came here from the #ILM tweetup, welcome!

marketing your blog on twitter

I am @lisaashby on twitter and have been tweeting since early 2008.

(Hi, Lisa.)

At first, I didn’t quite get twitter. But once I started meeting other people through twitter, it became a fun thing for me to do. I quickly became interested in the marketing aspects of twitter and started experimenting with bringing traffic from twitter to my personal blog. Today, I know that the connections I made on twitter helped to build a small community on my personal blog.

I discovered the power of celebrity when Richard from Akira Media retweeted a post about a Pee Wee Herman stencil craft I did. Richard’s tweet was then retweeted by Pee Wee Herman and the traffic to my site went up 100x that day alone. My subscriber count doubled and the traffic to my blog has increased significantly since then. The “Pee Wee page” as I call it continues to be one of the top 5 content pages on my site each month.

In June, my husband and I started Rebound, a podcast about becoming debt-free following Dave Ramsey’s baby steps. I instantly started promoting the podcast on twitter and it has been the most successful campaign thus far. We have connected with listeners through twitter and our Facebook page, and our little podcast is growing exponentially. We have had 18,000+ downloads since June, 8,000 of which came in January 2010 alone.

I recently started promoting my freelance marketing services on twitter and have already made a few promising connections.

To ensure success, I focused on quality followers instead of quantity followers. I follow people that are passionate about the things I do – crafting, finances, marketing and entrepreneurship. I also engaged my core group as it started to emerge and continue to engage them on a regular basis. These are the people that believe in what I do and cheer me on, and I don’t take it for granted. I thank them for RTs, ask them questions, get their opinions, and promote what they do. When your core group is talking about you, they are promoting you. And I wholeheartedly believe in giving back to each person in this group what they have given to me.

I talk about anything and everything on twitter, although I try to stick to the topics of work, life and crafting. I use Twitterfeed to feed my blogs and podcast to twitter and to share what I find interesting in my Google Reader. Although I sing its praises, there’s a fine line between putting your work out there and overdoing it on the feeds. Don’t be that guy – don’t turn your twitter stream into an RSS feed that rehashes information 24/7.

I get the most responses from others when I talk about the things they are passionate about. It makes it easy when you choose to connect with people that are into what you’re into. I also participate in industry-specific chats on twitter to make connections with others that are in the same field I am.

Most importantly, I’m authentic. No response from or interaction with me is automated or regurgitated. I don’t auto DM. I don’t spam my stream. I believe that twitter is all about interaction, and that is the aspect that I most like about it.

Every blogger should be on twitter, but only if they are willing to do two things: One, you have to be perfectly fine with being transparent. If you’re not okay with that, blogging may not be the best platform for you anyway. Two, you have to be passionate about building and engaging your community. That’s what blogging is about anyway though, right? But before you get started, have realistic expectations. It will take time to build a following, and it will be lonely at first. Once you get the hang of it, it’s a lot of fun.

That’s my twitter story and I’m sticking to it. :)

Are you on twitter? Leave a comment and let us know who you are on twitter. How are you using twitter to promote yourself and your work?

Image Credit: Sasha Wolff

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Grow: A new series for the green-thumb-impaired

January 29th, 2010 2 Comments

seedling Grow: A new series for the green thumb impaired

A while back, I promised a series about gardening for those that are new to gardening or that had tried it a few times, like me, with little success. I had no idea I’d be writing my first post in January, but that’s also probably a small part of why I failed the first time.

Did you know that most people start planning their spring gardens in November and December? And depending on when your last spring frost date is (ours is March 17th) and whether or not you use a greenhouse, you’ll probably be planting flowers a couple of months before that date and vegetables shortly afterwards. The key is getting them started as early as possible so that you have the largest possible harvest. (Funny thing is, I never even considered the weather any other times I tried to grow a garden. The planning is pretty intense but for an organizational nerd like me, it looks like a lot of fun.)

I met with Ryan the second week of January to start planting flower seeds. It was cold. In fact, it was so cold that it took me about 3 hours after I left that day to thaw out. I learned a lot, though – little things that may be intuitive to others but certainly not to me. I had a few aha! moments, and I felt right at home playing in the dirt.

Here are a few tips I learned on starting seeds:

  • Seeds like fine soil and even the tiniest particle of wood or mulch will prevent a seed from sprouting. Instead of spending the big bucks on special seed-starting mix, take the regular stuff and sift it with a old fryer basket. Save the mulch so you can use it elsewhere, and use the sifted soil for your seeds.
  • Fill your cellpacks or containers with the mix and press it in lightly. Thoroughly water the soil, then plant the seeds. (I know this sounds like common sense, but I always did it the other way around which causes tiny seeds to wash away.)
  • A dull wooden pencil is the perfect seed-planting tool. Use it to create a little pocket in the soil for your seed, and use it to pick up the tiniest of seeds to place them in the dirt. Trust me, it’s much easier than using your fingers.
  • Check the seed package to see how deep the seed needs to be planted. If it says “light required”, sow it directly on the surface. If it should be 1/8″ deep, just poke a small hole in the dirt and place the seed in it. You’ll be surprised how shallow 1/8″ actually is.
  • You only have to plant one seed for each plant you want to grow. If you’re using good seeds and sowing them with care, they will grow just fine.

I totally forgot to take my camera, but I will remember to bring it next time. I’m so excited about the weeks to come and can’t wait to play in the dirt again! :)

I will continue this series on Fridays – probably not every week right away, but consistently. Subscribe via RSS or email for updates.

Image Credit: hijukal

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Paid off car? Check!

January 28th, 2010 1 Comment

dave ramsey snowball paid off car

I came home from the #ILM tweetup tonight (more on that Monday) to find out that the bank had accepted our offer to payoff one of our cars and that my dear sweet hubby had already gone to the bank, got the check cut, and overnighted it to Chase. As of tomorrow, we will have a PAID OFF car!

We haven’t had a paid off car since the hubby drove a $500 Datsun and I drove my mom’s old Mustang.

Let the switcharoo begin!

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Even if things get heavy, we’ll all float on.

January 27th, 2010 3 Comments

While my 6-year-old and I were listening to Modest Mouse’s Float On today, he looked at me and said, “You know why sometimes this song makes me cry a little bit?” His face was vulnerable, pained and sincere.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because it’s so pretty,” he said. “The sounds are so pretty that sometimes it makes me cry a little bit.”

When you find beauty in something, don’t be afraid to allow yourself to feel it with all of your heart. Sometimes it’s the smallest things that take our breath away. In a life full of moments, capture the ones that push you to the edge, the ones that make you cry just a little bit. Those are the ones worth savoring.

I said, “You know, sometimes songs that are really pretty make me cry a little bit, too.”

He smiled and started humming along with the tune.

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