Epiphany – a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.
I am exhausted. I only got about 4 hours sleep last night. The problem with having a potentially life-changing epiphany is that it tends to set your mind racing.
This article will be published at 5pm (GMT) on Wednesday 5th October 2011. As I am writing this, the time is 2pm of the same day. I was actually writing this article yesterday (Tuesday). But it was completely different.
Confused? Understandably so. Let me explain.
Analytics…That’ll Help You…
Yesterday I thought it was about time that I published an ‘Analytics’ article – a breakdown of how my site is performing in terms of visitors, bounce rate, average views, and so on. Why would this be of use to you, my loyal and appreciated reader? Oh I don’t know…perhaps I could boast about my low bounce rate and tell you what I was going to do to increase my traffic statistics from here on in. That would help you achieve your goals – right?
I was a good half hour into writing the article before some kind of server side database corruption destroyed my work. Naturally, I was rather irritated. I decided to blow off the post until today, as I wasn’t prepared to spend another half hour at that time just to get back to where I had been.
Penelope Delivers The Proverbial Right Hook
Now let me take you back to Monday (3rd October) – you’re still with me, right? After having the MP3 sit on my desktop for a week, I finally took the time to listen to a podcast produced by my new friend Steve Roy from Ending The Grind.
What an eye opener. For those of you who haven’t listened to the podcast, what is initially a pretty standard interview quickly descends into a very direct and personal critique of Steve’s goals by Penelope Trunk. Having listened to it, the prevailing thought in my head was, “Man, I’m glad I’m not stumbling forward aimlessly like Steve is.”
Really Tom? Really?
Passive Panda Follows Up With A Jab
Fast forward to yesterday evening – after the aforementioned loss of my draft article. I took 30 minutes out to watch an interview with James Clear (from the awesome Passive Panda) by Corbett Barr (from the equally awesome Think Traffic).
This guy blew my mind. He is just 9 months into his internet marketing career, and is already producing a full time income. Here I am, four months in, without two internet marketing pennies to rub together. I don’t say that to feel sorry for myself – I say it to ram home the message that I am not doing enough.
The most poignant feeling I took from the interview was that I saw a lot of myself in James. A lot of myself, plus an extra layer of initiative and hustle that I have not been tapping into. The guy is clearly intelligent and has chops, but above all else, he has clearly taken action on a consistent basis, and for a prolonged period of time.
Where Does This Leave Me?
What have I been doing? I have been working incredibly hard – on this blog, on niche sites, and on learning in general. But now I feel like I have been viewing the whole endeavour from the wrong perspective.
Generally speaking, my attitude towards life is “if that guy can do it, so can I”. Well, “that guy” is doing it, and I am not. So I need to grab hold of “it” with both hands.
I have got 101 ideas rushing through my mind and am still trying to get my head straight, so I’m not ready to reveal how I plan to proceed yet. But one thing is for sure – you will be seeing big changes around here. I need Leaving Work Behind to live up to its name. And no, I’m not talking about literally leaving work behind. This blog is (and always has been) intended to be a beacon for those who wish to be self-employed and work on their own terms. That core message will never change, but the value I offer you certainly will.
An Obituary
This article marks the death of my self-serving attitude.
I am making a public commitment to give you what you want. If at any point I am not giving you what you want, give me a kick up the arse.
I genuinely want to get to know every single one of you, and I look forward to speaking to and helping as many of you as I possibly can.
Stay tuned.
Photo courtesy of T. W. Collins
Tom,
Sometimes it takes a huge slap in the face to wake the fuck up! It happened to me in my interview with Penelope and it sounds like it happened to you! Good for you.
I also listened to the interview with James Clear and although he is killing it, he is not a blogger. He is a pure internet marketer. I think there is a big difference. Everything he does is geared towards making money online.
Everything I have done for the last 11 months was to build a readership, not create an income. Also, don’t beat yourself up about not being or doing more. James is has a lot of experience in this area and didn’t just start from scratch like most of us.
Thanks for the compliments, Tom!
I’m glad you enjoyed the interview and I was happy to connect over email.
…
Steve,
I hope things are going well over on Ending The Grind.
I’m not big on names or titles, but I don’t think I can lay claim to being a “pure internet marketer” … that probably gives me more credit than I deserve on the business end. Perhaps I gave out the wrong vibe in the interview.
For the most part, I just try things out, do the best I can, and see what works.
I would actually say I’ve done a much better job of building a community than I have of building a business so far. For example, I do my best to respond quickly to any email I get … and that has very little to do with making money.
That said, if I were to slap a label on what I do, it would be entrepreneurship. My goal when I started was to build a business that could fund me going to medical school … and that’s what I try to do each day.
The community, the marketing, the sales — it’s all part of the process. And I’m still learning, that’s for sure.
Good Luck with things on your end! 🙂
Steve/James,
Thanks for dropping in and leaving your comments.
I have to say James, I do agree with you with regards to your community – you’ve done great to attract so many followers and you go to great lengths to interact with your visitors on your blog.
Cheers guys,
Tom
Tom,
This is a certainly great article to read. I liked the approach of self-questioning and criticising yourself. These added some sort of feeling to the article and I think that if you want to get even better, you should definitely develop such a writing further. 🙂
Hey Maxim,
I’m glad you liked it – I think we could all do well to constantly question ourselves.
I’ve been checking out your site and checked out your parkour clips on YouTube – pretty awesome stuff! Keep it up!
Tom
Thank you! Hopefully, I’m passing psychometry test next week and back to parkour again. 🙂
Good post. That light-bulb moment is essential I think. Now comes the hard bit… actually acting on it and making something happen!
I think I came across Steve Roys interview with Penelope Trunk through your twitter feed. When I listened to it, my first thought was ‘woah, what a cow’ but then, after reading a bit more about her, I realised… that’s what she is about, so it enables you to think about it in a whole different way. That episode just may end up being one of those ‘must listen’ episodes for anyone wanting to get into this business!
I’ll be sure to check out the Corbett Barr & James Clear interview later.
I look forward to reading more about your journey on this here blog!
Hey Will,
I’ve had several light bulb moments – many of them have been be false dawns. The key is to not get downhearted when a light bulb moment isn’t everything you thought it would be.
Having said that, I do think this one is the real deal!
Cheers,
Tom
Wowser man. Epiphanies are awesome, Tom. Yours might be one out of frustration, but it’s worth a damn lot, cause it’s inspiring you and kicking you in the ass. I’m excited to see where it takes you
I totally believe in you man..
I saw the Corbett / James interview as well, and yeah, I felt like he’s got online business ADHD or something (in a good way i mean), like he works and thinks on 200 mph 24/7. It’s bloody impressive and lots to learn from. But he’s also doing it full-time and hence can afford to put all his energies into his project..
Gonna check out the Penelope podcast now..
And to cheer you up: http://puttylike.com/failure-celebration-week/
Thanks Conni 🙂 It’s great to know that you’re rooting for me!
I always look at failures as something to learn from (I wrote an article to that effect recently), and that post you linked to reinforces my attitude.
Thanks for your support! 🙂
Hey Tom, Loved this post man! I also read Steve’s stuff lately and caught the first half of Corbett’s interview with James. I’ve been having a lot of the same thoughts lately too.
When I look at someone like James’s rapid success it’s easy for me to get discouraged. I launched my blog in June, why can’t I even get consistent engagement with posts? It’s easy to feel like maybe I’m just not cut out for this.
But when I think more about it I know there’s so much more I could be doing, and it’s not hard to come up with new ideas (like you said). The challenge I have is focusing on one thing and relentlessly working on it until it’s complete.
Thanks for sharing Tom! Looking forward to some new things!
Hey Deacon!
Thanks for dropping by. I was really struck by you getting discouraged by comparing the performance of others against your own.
There are so many things at play that we might not be aware of. I believe James has been working on Passive Panda full time, for instance. Or hell, perhaps he is just better than us at what he is doing. It’s not actually important – there will always be people better and worse than you at any given thing – there will always be people at a different stage to you, or working under different circumstances.
The key is not to see their performance and be discouraged, but see it and be galvanized into getting to their level.
Thanks for your continued support Deacon!
Tom
this article makes me think you’re an Aussie. Are you?!
Not quite…just on the other side of the world! 😉 I’m English.
Love your blog by the way!
Thanks dude.
Ahh a dirty pom 🙂 i though either Aussie or British due to the way you spelt arse hehehe
– tork