Inspiration
10 Empowering Quotes About Writing and Living the Creative Life
From Writing FAST by Jeff Bollow
“And the reason you hate writing so much is because you start analyzing your work before you’re done pouring it onto the page. Your Left-brain won’t let your Right-brain do it’s job … Your Right-brain gets the words on the page. The Left-brain makes them sing.”
From Escaping Into the Open by Elizabeth Berg:
“There are people who have never studied writing who are capable of being writers. I know this because I am an example. I was a part-time registered nurse, a wife, and a mother when I began publishing. I’d taken no classes, had no experience, no knowledge of the publishing world, no agent, no contacts … Take the risk to let all that is in you, out. Escape into the open.”
Are You a Perfectionist? If So, Watch This. Marketing That Makes a Difference.
Worried about failure. Don’t be.
This is a Nike commercial, and a great example of marketing that makes a difference.
“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that’s why I succeed.”
- Michael Jordan -
Things I Wish I’d Said About Marketing: Bob Gilbreath
“I believe there has never been a better time to start a business than the present. Large companies’ advantages in mass scale are falling away as people become more interested in niche products and meaningful brands – and marketing is as simple as telling your story on a blog, tweet, or Facebook page. The future of business might look like millions of passionate owners connecting with a handful of customers by adding value through products, services, and marketing.” – Bob Gilbreath, Marketing Lessons from an Oil-Change Business
Monday Morning Masters: My Top 10 Nuggets of Web Wisdom from the Week that Was
1. Charlie Gilkey in Aligning Strategy and Compassion:
“As I see it, the point of entrepreneurship is to help people. At its core, it’s inherently compassionate, and the more I grow and see, the more it drives home to me that an entrepreneur’s ventures aren’t about her – they’re about the people she’s helping.
“At the same time, to be an entrepreneur, you have to know strategy. You have to know how to market and promote yourself. You have to learn about pricing, market trends, distribution methods, and competitive analysis. In short, you have to know what works if you want to do it for the long haul.”
2. Marie Forleo in Pre-Launch Lessons Learned: Q&A With Marie Forleo by Dave Navarro:
“My ideal clients don’t need to be sold. They know who I am from my book, videos, interviews, newsletters and social media. They just want me to tell them what’s up, why I’m doing what I’m doing, what’s included, how much it costs and basically – help them see if my program is really a good fit. Plus, I hate ‘formulas’ and ‘blueprints’ so just being straight up works way better for me.”
Monday Morning Masters: 14 Bites of Blogging Brilliance to Nourish the Blogger’s Soul
If you want to be great at something, it helps to study those who are already great it. I’ve read a lot of informative and inspiring stuff over the past week, and it only makes sense to share some of the it. May it be as inspiring and informative to you as it is to me.
I plan to make this a weekly series, so if you have some bites of brilliance you’d like to contribute, feel feel to leave a comment or hit my contact page.
Brian Clark: You Must Respect My Authority:
“Good blogging creates authority, plain and simple. Writing consistently about your area of expertise makes you an authority figure within your industry and niche. You will enjoy a definitive advantage over competitors who do not blog, and likely even over those who have been blogging for shorter time periods.”
Inspiration from Will Smith
If you’re a Will Smith fan, and even if you’re not, you’ll find the bits of wisdom in this video quite inspiring. Here’s one of my favorite quotes:
“You don’t try to build a wall. You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t say ‘I’m going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that’s ever been built.’ You don’t start there. You say ‘I’m gonna lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid,’ and you do that every single day, and soon you have a wall.”
How Do You Stay Inspired Every Day?
Not to sound like a Baptist preacher, but we should all rise up, and give praise for the existence of the Internet. Every day. I mean really. Never before in history has it been so easy and inexpensive for you to share your ideas with an audience that could potentially number in the hundreds, thousands, or even millions.
Never before has it been so easy and inexpensive to get your product or service in front of prospective clients and customers. Never before has it been so easy to connect with people all over the world, and create new relationships. And it’s never been easier than right now for you build your personal brand, and make your mark on the world, even if in a relatively small way.
“We are going through a gold-rush of branding. In the old days to become a brand, you needed a lot of mainstream media attention. But now, if you get talked about enough in all the social webs; blogs, you can get there. You can build your brand; you company’s brand. But it all starts with that first moment when you look in the mirror … first moment. What do I want to do?” – Gary Vaynerchuk
I don’t know about you, but I spend a good 15 hours a day online. Most of it spent reading, writing, communicating and just generally doing business. And when you spend that much time online, it’s all too easy to take the Internet for granted.
Getting Ready for 2010: This is My Life
I rarely do the whole New Year’s resolution thing. I’m not quite sure why either. Maybe it just seems too cliche’, or perhaps I’m not really that much of a planner to begin with. In any case, as I look forward to 2010, I decided to give it a go. Sort of.
Instead of declaring specific resolutions like losing a few pounds or starting a new workout, I sat down and wrote out a “This is My Life” list. Oddly enough, this was not a difficult list to generate. It just sort of flowed out over the course of about 5 minutes, and I have to say, I’m pretty energized after having expressed it.
It’s a true work of art for me. I even printed it out and taped it to the wall above my computer monitor where it serves as a daily reminder of the type of life I want to live.
Embracing Possibility
This brief – but inspiring – article was written by my very good friend (and client), Ellen Schaeffer. Ellen is a spiritual teacher and operates One Yoga Center in Foster, RI.
Where do you see yourself in five years, one year, one week, or one day? This can be a difficult question to answer, but it is imperative that you hold vision for your life.
Without vision, your life shifts into idle.
When you have an idea or vision for what you want to manifest in your life, the wheels are set in motion. It is as if you’ve shifted out of “park” and into fast forward. All your thinking, creativity, active and passive energy begins to consciously and unconsciously direct itself toward that which you want to create.
It is really quite simple. Without a vision nothing happens. There is nowhere to direct your thoughts or energy. Without a vision, growth and movement comes to a halt.
With vision, life becomes a course of ongoing expansion, opening doors to infinite possibility.
This Video is Very Inspiring
Although I’m not completely sure why, I found this short video quite inspiring. I think it’s because the video is an entertaining example of global unity … people all over the world coming together for a common purpose. That sort of thing. Each time I watch it, my heart is lifted.
Hi there. I'm Michael Pollock. I inspire and teach creative entrepreneurs how to use the Web to make a difference in the world, make more money and live a bigger life ... 
