The Best Advice I Ever Received

In the very early days, when Papa the Farmer had first left software to open our farm, I received a tiny piece of advice that would have a huge impact on almost everything I do.

It was a scary time in my life.  We had 3 very young children and I was secretly convinced that most farmers starve to death.  I wasn’t very confident in this “let’s-forgo-a-regular-paycheck-and-start-our-own-business” idea.  Not at all.

But it was happening.  Within a month Papa the Farmer was no longer going into the city to work and his work was now in our front yard!  I decided if I wanted to stay married and stay well-fed I’d better find a way to help make this crazy plan work.

So I started a blog.

Except I didn’t know the first thing about blogging.  My ONLY blogging skill was that I knew how to type. Nothing more.  My first blog was a very plain affair on a website that hosted free blog space for amateurs.  And I was very much an amateur.

That’s when a friend gave me this golden nugget of wisdom which was a huge encouragement:

She said:

Don't wait until you know more to get started. Just get going now. You can always tweak later.Click To Tweet

It’s true in blogging.

It’s true in business.

And incredibly enough, I’ve found it to be true in my personal life, too.

Why This is The Best Advice

My very first blog post was… not the best thing I’ve ever written.  (What an understatement!)  It was a rambling post about how a huge truck load of manure had been delivered to our yard and how I couldn’t believe this was now my life.  The pictures were lousy and the article itself probably wasn’t interesting to anyone besides me.  And future posts weren’t much better.  Several posts into my blogging adventure I actually wrote an entire post about how if you squish a certain kind of bug, it smells like bubblegum.  (Yes, I wasted a corner of cyberspace on that thought.)  But you know what?  If I hadn’t posted those first, not-so-great posts I would never have begun blogging!  I wrote about a pile of manure and yes, that whole first post stunk as badly as the manure, but it got me started.  It got me learning and improving until I reached the point that I was actually writing something that people wanted to read.

 

If You’re Thinking About Starting (Or Growing) A Business Or A Blog

I know that not all my readers are interested in starting an online business or a blog.  If you’re not, just ignore the rest of today’s post (and come back tomorrow for a really fun surprise!)  But many of you email me asking questions about how to start your own blog or how you can use the internet to grow another business.  The next few paragraphs are encouragement for those of you among us…

It takes a huge leap of faith to start a new business venture.  Your friends and family might think you’re crazy.  You might even wonder if you’ve lost your mind a little.  When we began farming and blogging our friends and family thought we had fallen off the deep end.  My brother in law’s comment was “A blogging farmer.  Well now I’ve heard of everything.”  This was back before blogging was very popular and everyone we knew thought it would be a passing fancy.  NOBODY thought this would be successful.   Lots of people thought we were dreaming and wasting our time.  Even I wondered what we had gotten ourselves into.

But do you know what happened?  We took babysteps.  We learned and grew and implemented one step at a time.  Another farm opened in our little town the same week we opened our doors. Within a year our blog had brought us 5 times the amount of customers that (blog-less) farm had.  Now, 7 years later, that farm is out of business and we are still here, doing what we do.

How did we do it?  We sure didn’t run to the bank and get a business loan. We started small… with what we had.  We stayed up late researching how to do all the things we didn’t know how to do.  We looked for free resources we could use to help us grow and improve.  We had very little money to invest in this farm/blog project so we simply did not invest money into our business until it was making money and supporting itself.

With two exceptions.  We purchased the manure that we needed to grow the garden.  And I purchased one or two blogging education courses that first year.  I knew I needed more knowledge to grow a successful blog.

Money was scarce and we had to be choosy about what we invested in, so we only invested in things that would help us grow.

If you are starting a blog or a business you should also invest in things that will help you grow.  And I have just the resource for you:

Why the Genius Blogger’s Toolkit is Such A Great Deal

My friends at Ultimate-Bundles.com have done it again!  This time they’ve put together their first ever digital bundle specifically for bloggers and online entrepreneurs.  Honestly, I’ve been blogging for so long that I thought I didn’t need this bundle. Even though there are 62 ebooks, ecourses & printables valued at: $3,665.40, I thought “I should just skip this bundle.  I already know what to do, I just need to do it.”  (And that comment is coming from a self-proclaimed course-junkie!)  But then I thought, “Well, I’ll just sneak a peek…” and now I’m buying the bundle for myself!  When Ultimate-Bundles claim to gather up the best of the best resources on the internet, they aren’t kidding!  I was so surprised to see some courses that I was already planning to purchase!

Here’s my personal Dream list of online courses that are included in the Genius Blogger’s Toolkit… courses that I was planning to take (and pay full price for!) even before this bundle was made available:

• Blogging Roadmap: The Simple Method for Creating A Profitable Blog by WellnessMama ($97.00)  (Because with my busy life, I need simple!)
• The Blogger’s Guide to Online Marketing by ProBlogger ($49.99) (ProBlogger’s resources are FABULOUS!)
• The Foundation Series by Kirsten Oliphant ($49.00) (I attended Kirsten’s Profitable Blogging Summit and learned a TON!  If her name is behind it, I know I’m going to learn a lot!)
• InstaValuable: Grow Your Instagram Basic Course by Myquillyn Smith ($97.00) (Because I have an Instagram account that I don’t know how to use!  I tell myself I will be a “real blogger” when I figure out Instagram!)
• Sticky Blogging SEO: Climb to the Top With This 21-Day Course by Kelly Holmes ($99.00) (I took another class by Kelly and it really challenged me to grow as a writer.  She really knows her stuff!)
• Content Cookbook by Prerna Malik ($199.00) (This book was recommended to me by a very successful business woman I know, but I couldn’t justify $199 for an ebook.  As part of the bundle, it’s very, very affordable!

As you can see, just to purchase the six courses that I am interested in, it would cost $590.99!  It’s an investment in my blog and I don’t mind spending money on continuing education… but right now I can have my six wish-list courses for a fraction of that price!  For me, even if I never open another file in the entire bundle (I will!)… even if I don’t take advantage of any of the free bonus offers (I will!)… investing in this bundle is definitely a “no-brainer!”

How about you? Do you need help getting a blog or business idea off the ground?  Or growing something you’ve already started?  (I know many of you do, because you email me about it!)  Click the button below to learn more!

Hurry!  Because this offer ends tonight at midnight!