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I might have wrote about this before regarding another person or event, but it bears saying again. Why do they do it? For so long, I’ve heard people in business say they have always been approached by others telling them they could never make any success with their business plan. I’ve heard people with business ideas that I didn’t think would work, but I would never have the gall to actually tell them. I consider that rude. If someone is doing something that I don’t envision myself doing, I just tell them that it isn’t for me and I wish them well. To think that someone that would actually tell another person that their ‘dream’ of owning a business will never work seems ludicrous to me.
When it comes to me, guess what I’ve heard and experience from others. We’ll start talking about that next time, Constant Reader.
I would definitely suggest to anyone that is planning on starting a website and this is something you haven’t done before is to find a mentor. When I speak of a mentor, I’m not just speaking of someone that you can speak with face to face. I’m also talking about a mentor, a person who is doing something that you desire to do and is coming from the same place as you. This is what worked for me. Finding a few sites that showed me the raw basics and then I could add more of my own style on top of that. This isn’t copying for the sake of copying. I call it emulation.
For the most part, most of us aren’t re-inventing the wheel. We are doing something that someone else has already done and putting our flavor to it. Putting our love, passion and energy into it. I’m not doing something new but something that has already been done. I’m adding Jeffrey Washington spin on it. Jeffrey Washington’s flavor to it.
The last bit of advice I’ll offer to anyone reading these words and thinking about taking the plunge. DO IT!!! Take the chance, a calculated chance, and do it. As long as you can try on your business for size and stay relatively out of debt, what do you have to lose. I’ve often asked myself, would I have regretted it if I didn’t “push send” on this endeavor.
MOST DEFINITELY.
Until next time, Constant Reader
When I went to Bravenet.com. I typed in a name that came to me one morning: Paracordsandmore.com. What do you know it was available, so I signed up for it for two years. Not really expensive in my opinion, around $8.95 per year if my memory serves me correctly. Once I had the Domain name it was time to get my website hosting. As I’ve said previously I selected Hostgator.com. I went with their Baby Croc package. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles but it has enough for my needs. I can add an unlimited number of domains to this site and currently I have three (3) on here. Once I did this it is necessary to point my domain names to my host server so that they can link up and be used, in my case with hostgator.com.
I had to do some digging to figure out how to do this. Eventually I found it is necessary to find the nameservers attached to my Hostgator.com server and type in that code, whatever it was, over at Bravenet.com. Once I did this I had to wait 24-48 hrs, then, wait for it, voila. It worked. I found whenever I wasn’t sure what to do, if I would Google the question, just as I wanted to know it, I would indefinitely find someone that had the same question and figured it out. This saved me so much time. I’ve always liked to learn from other people’s efforts and this was no exception.
We’ll pick up again next time, Constant Reader. See you then.
I’ve always enjoyed writing and personally feel I have a little talent in it. It comes fairly easy for me, but I did yearn for something that was more tangible and hands on. I don’t like feeling so attached to a journal or the computer that I can’t get out and live life. To see the outdoors and experience a beautiful day and the company of some good people from time to time.
My very first site was a blogger.com site. I liked it but once I found that the company could pull the plug on all the work that I had written and that it wasn’t good to do an e-commerce site on it I began looking for another alternative. I’ve read in many places, and I have to agree, if you are putting together a site and are planning to make a good go of it, it is imperative to do a couple things. Buy your own domain name and purchase some hosting. Neither is relatively expensive, nor are they cost prohibitive. I went through Bravenet.com to get my domain(s). My wife suggested them and I find their prices to be very competitive. I got hosting through Hostgator.com. I’ve used them for a couple years now and find their product and service to work just fine for me. NOTE: In the spirit of full disclosure, I do have an affiliate account with Hostgator. If you click on the link below and ultimately purchase their product, I will get a commission.
This will take you right to hostgator for domains and hosting packages.
We’ll continue with the next step, next time; Constant Reader.
What steps you ask? Like how I did the site. A guy with only the smallest morsel of html or coding experience. I probably should explain that.
Over the past few years I had heard of the Word Press blogging platform and its ease of use for people like me; the non-egghead types. I found a site that had a step by step tutorial of how to setup an e-commerce site: click here for the tutorial. It’s in two parts and it helped me to come from nothing to what you see when you come to this site now. There were a few things I didn’t like and I changed them and their still remains a few changes that will occur but this was how it started.
Now let’s backup a bit. WordPress. Every time I think of the name it makes me think of the old Word Perfect program from waaaaay back in the day. For all you computer geeks, this is probably dating me, just like if I said I liked Prodigy.
As I said earlier I’d heard of WordPress, but had little experience with it until I did my second blog at: Neverquitever.com. I developed that site with Artisteer and used the Word Press platform. I found it very intuitive and easy to use. I still have that domain and website but after posting on it for a few months I felt like I was missing something; some direction. I stopped writing on it and did a few months of soul searching on what was it that I truly enjoy doing.
More on the steps, when we reconvene, Constant Reader
I’m actually a fan of all types of music. R&B, Motown, heavy metal, rock, country, jazz, ambient, as you can see all types. It’s difficult for me to write or type and listen to spoken words so I don’t listen to audio books or something like that. I find that ambient and jazz are my favorites but recently a different favorite genre has come into the mix: dubstep. Yeah I know. How can a 45 year old black fella, be a big dubstep fan. Heck if I know, I just do. My first official experience with dubstep without even knowing it what it was s the Go Pro Video with the guy kayaking down the rapids. The soundtrack in the background is the song Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites by Skrillex.
I think this video came out during the 2011 or 2012 Superbowl and I liked it the first time I heard it. I looked up who the song was by and found the above name and artist. I thought this was rave music at first. Shows you just how little I knew. I’ve since learned it is DubStep and their is this entire culture attached to the genre. Now I don’t think I will become a dubstep dance artist or be seen walking around pop locking and moving like a robot. I just find the music interesting.
When I was doing the Brooksie way Half marathon a few weeks ago, a group of youngsters were playing some Skrillex at their water stand at mile 12. I was bopping to the beat, but I bet they would have been shocked if they knew, I knew, who they were listening to. It surprises me, I’m certain it would surprise them as well. Just goes to show me that I’m not done learning and experiencing different things.
I guess that is enough of that constant reader. I’ll be doing a little robot…exit stage left. Until next time.
My wife, Amy, I heard her telling a few people a week or so ago that when I started doing the paracord bracelets, she thought it was just going to be a hobby. She said she thought it was a hobby until, she could see it becoming a business. That pleased me to hear her say that. Now on to the title of this post.
My wife, who has had many business aspirations but was pretty hands off on this deal for some time. I had shown my children, how to tie the basic stitch for a bracelet, but she didn’t learn until about two weeks ago. And boy did she learn. Once she learned that one, she wanted to know alllllll of them. I didn’t hold her back. Heck maybe she would be better at all the knots than me. Funny thing after she learned how to do all these knots, she had the same experience I did…confusion. Some of the knots are so similar although slightly different, it is easy to get them mixed up. That is why I primarily just worked on a couple of them at a time.
She has had some unique ideas of different paracord jewelry items that would be more geared towards women with a flair for the feminine. I welcome that especially since I probably wouldn’t go down that road anyway. She’s even kicked around the idea of putting something together here on paracordsandmore.com with these concepts in mind.
I welcome her input. She has always had a special place in her heart to serve women and girls and I think she’ll be well received with her designs. This might be an outlet that would work well for her in that regard. I’ll leave it to her to make any announcements. Maybe I can even get her to do a guest post here on TOTJ: Thoughts on the Journey.
I’ll leave it there, Constant Reader. Talk to you next time.
I read an excerpt from a book that I’ve been reading. The book is Ultra Marathon Man by Dean Karnazes. I love this book and have probably read it four or five times. It’s an easy read and the stories are quite engaging and compelling.
The excerpt is from the beginning of Chapter 17, Run for the Future. It goes like this:
Running has taught me that the pursuit of a passion matters more than the passion itself. Immerse yourself in something deeply and with heartfelt intensity–continually improve, never give up—this is fulfillment, this is success. He goes on further to say: Running into Santa Cruz, I was wholly fulfilled. Most people never get there. They’re afraid or unwilling to demand enough of themselves and take the easy road, the past of least resistance. But struggling and suffering, as I now saw it, were the essence of a life worth living. If you’re not constantly demanding more from yourself—expanding and learning as you go—you’re choosing a numb existence. You’re denying yourself an extraordinary trip.
As a running buddy once said to me: Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: “WOW!! What a ride!”
Dean was writing this passage as he was reliving his very first 199 mile relay race where he ran the entire event in 46 hours. An astounding accomplishment. I love this passage. Obviously, I’ve read it before but as I read it this time, it had a more profound meaning. I share this sentiment when I’ve done the various half marathons over the years including the most recent Brooksie Way on September 30th of this year. Reading this now meant a lot in the realm of business for me. It reminded me that nothing worthwhile comes by charting oneself down the easy path. Business is difficult and takes vision, imagination and an internal grit that can be difficult to muster at times. It is so important to be reminded that the journey is not just a path to a destination. Most of the enjoyment of any worthwhile endeavor is in the journey itself.
The quote I’ll leave you on this Constant Reader, is from my wife, Amy. “Trust the Process, and enjoy it!” Six words that have such meaning. I have them framed on my wall. I encourage you to borrow them and enjoy the process and journey as well.
As stated previously, when we pulled up and started unloading, we began getting a few strange looks from the vendor right next to us. We couldn’t see exactly what they were selling yet and I bet they were wondering, as I was, if we were going to be selling the same things at all. Eventually we both get our stalls set up and it’s obvious that their isn’t any conflict of us selling similar items.
I decided to go take a look at their items, since several of them looked interesting. I barely got to the second table and the guy starts talking to me. Well actually his 8 year old daughter does most of the talking. She was vibrant, animated and apparently a good salesperson according to her mom and dad. She even had a leather bikers vest, that she made sure to tell us about the details about. Her dad was also very open and interesting.
In time, my wife started talking to the lady (neighbor), his wife. My wife, Amy, is excellent at this and I often take pointers from her. She is so good at getting people to relax and enjoy her company that it amazes me at times. Before you know it we are talking with both of them, like we have been friends for a long time. We exchange stories about bits and pieces of our lives and they give all sorts of great tips on having a vendor type of business. I was taking it all in and writing down a few notes as well. We even gave them a tip or two of things they didn’t know about.
The event turned out to be pretty small. Apparently a few groups that committed to coming bowed out at the last minute. However it happened, we had a good time. It was really nice talking to our vending neighbors and we exchanged business cards and hopefully we’ll keep in touch with each other in the future. The members of the Victory Biker Church were so generous and gracious. We will definitely consider coming back next year if it will work for both sides. They truly really embraced my family and made us feel comfortable. Even if we didn’t own any leather biker vests. 😉
Talk with you soon, Constant Reader.
This was a quote by my daughter, Alyssia when we arrived at our second event, the Breast Cancer Awareness Ride at the Victory Biker Church in Lennon, MI. We pulled in the lot and there were a few biker types, guiding people where to park. We pulled up and spoke with one of the guys that was volunteering. I told him that I was a vendor and wanted to know where to park. He showed me where and we pulled in. For the briefest moment, I felt like we were “cupcakes”, but I forged ahead and walked right into the church and just acted as if I belong.
As I figured I caught the attention of a couple people. Why not? At the moment, I’m the only black fellow in the whole building and I don’t in any way look like a biker. That doesn’t really bother me. In my job as a police officer, I’m quite accustomed to going into places where I stand out and am stared at.
It doesn’t take long to be directed to the Pastor of the church, who we met at the Bikes on the Bricks event. I ask him about where we should setup. He directs me to a spot outside next to another vendor who is setting up as well.
We take our place and it’s freezing. Temperature in the low 50’s and a brisk 17-22 mph wind. What are you gonna do, right. Well we hunker down and make the best of it. While we were setting up; a guy comes up and asks if we made any bracelets in the orange and black Harley Davidson color motif. He must have been one of the people that suggested it to me while we were at the Bikes on the Bricks event. I told him that I did make a few of them and he promises to come back and purchase one. Before he left he helps us set up our canopy which I thought was incredibly generous.
When we pulled up we were parked directly next to a man and woman setting up their stand. They had a much bigger setup than we. They had 5 or 6 tables. Oooooh boy. I’m starting to feel that twinge of inadequate. I tell myself to ignore that and keep moving on with our plan.
Next time Constant Reader, find out just what happened with the neighbors.
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