Introvert/Recluse Finds Success With WA!

Last Update: May 30, 2012
After almost a year and a few months with WA, I shamelessly have to say this is my first blog post! So many times, I find myself being described as an introvert/recluse, but truthfully I'm just so into all the things I do and love doing that I forget that there are people around that might benefit or find a nugget of inspiration in my words. I have to admit that I do visit WA just about everyday and love reading all your blogs and training, so I am around but mostly incognito.

To put it simply, I'm not used to sharing my life or my thoughts so openly. So for all those who are following me in this WA community, I apologize for my lack of interaction. This first blog is my attempt at turning over a new leaf and becoming a little more pro active.

I can't make any promises as to how often I'll write on this blog, because coming out of one's comfort zone isn't that easy, but if I can help feel free to pm me any time.

For all the Newbies on WA



First of all, if you have any doubts about joining WA, erase away that negativity. I was like most of you the first month or two, doubting the legitimacy of it all. I have to say that, after a year of belonging to this community, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I made the right decision.

I went from knowing completely zip about anything to do with online business or marketing, to now doing SEO work and building websites for companies, both locally and internationally. Did I know what I was doing the first SEO job I got? Are you kidding, after I accepted the job, I thought to myself, What were you thinking?

You see this first job of building a website happened only 4 months after I joined WA. This website was for an International Company, and their future business was depending on this website I was about to build. Did I know what I was doing? hmmmm, Not at all and as a matter of fact, I didn't even know what SEO was, YET.

Did It All Work Out?



Yes, it worked out better than I could have ever dreamed. Did I make MISTAKES? I made loads of them, but I didn't give up. I would screw up royally and then it would take me days to figure out what I did wrong. I still look after their website, plus they want another one built at the end of this year, and I have gained a few more jobs from that one website, alone. Mind you this all happened in the first year of joining WA.

One of the lessons I learned from doing that one site was having to force myself to step out of my comfort zone. Since that one particular job was international and based out of Asia, all of our communication was done through teleconferencing - and in my case, this happened to be Skype. Yea, another piece of technology I had to learn.

Benefits and Cons



Working from home does have it's Benefits, and it's Cons. I just love the fact that you don't have to get really dressed up to work from your home office. One thing that didn't occur to me when scheduling my International Skype call to discuss the website development, was that they might want to video conference.

Yea, you got it, my first website job, and out of the blue they make a last minute, knee-jerk decision, that they would like to video conference. So, here I am in my jammies, in front of the CEO of this International Company, along with his Board of Directors (who happened to be all dressed up in suits, sitting around their highly polished conference table) and here I was discussing a topic I know little to nothing about. First BIG Mistake. :-) Talk about wanting to regress back into my hermit cave.

For all those who are wondering why I was in my jammies, Shanghai business hours happen to be my nighttime. Who would have thought, that skype could be viewed on an 80 inch monitor? :-)

Wake Up!



So, for anyone who still reading this blog post, the moral of my little story is to make as many Mistakes as you have to and be proud of them. Chauk it all up as a learning experience. Realize that it is only through our Mistakes that we really learn.

And as so many have said before me...
  • Take ACTION!
  • Fake It Until You Make It!
  • Never Give Up!
  • Stay Positive!
  • Do Something Everyday Towards Your Goal
  • Take the Word FAIL out of your Vocabulary


What Direction Will You Go In?



It's funny how your life can take a complete different direction then originally planned. I started out looking for some sort of direction to help me build a website to promote my books as I could not afford to pay someone to do it for me.

I have to smile, because "is that website built"? The answer to that is "Not Yet". It's on the near future TO DO list. That's not saying I haven't built any sites for myself, as I have 5 of my own websites up at the moment all at different stages, promoting products or information and all making a little money.

As for my books, I'm just putting the finishing touches on the 3rd book of a 12 book children's story book series. Which I'm going to self-publish on Amazon, in Kindle format and Print. So there you go another new learning experience. Don't you just Love Life!

As some of you might already know, I'm an artist both traditional and graphic and I'm not all that technically savvy. So what I'm trying to say, is if I can pull this off with all the help and everything I've learned from WA, then anyone can do it.

So between my clients sites and my own dabbling with affiliate sites, and my process of learning - making mistakes - and learning more, I'm kept pretty busy. There are so many different ways to make money online, and the synergy of this whole WA community with its New Open Education makes for an unsurpassed learning opportunity.

So if, you are a Newbie and you're still reading, then know that you are in the right place at the right time for Success.

I hope I didn't put everyone to sleep. But one of my goals this year was to open up a little more.

So, can I cross that one off the list? :-)

Judith
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Sielke Premium
Judith, its great to hear about your successes. It seems that you're dabbling in all sorts of things which is great. That's the great thing about online opportunities, there's a lot of them and you just have to find what works for you.
tagwan Premium
Hi Sielke

Yes, I do dabble in quite a few different areas, but I've learned from experience never put all your eggs in one basket.....you have to spread them out but not too, thinly.

Do more then one thing, which keeps life interesting, and prevents boredom. It's not as much winning the end prize it's the journey you take and enjoying the process along the way. That way whatever I do never ever feels like work.
veronica.l Premium
Thanks for sharing this with with us Judith. This is so true you do not have to have everything figured out when you start, all the ducks does not have to be in a row :). But start taking action, problems and questions comes up and you solve them a long the way, that is how we learn and grow.

Did you get the PJ job? :)

Great success to you! Oh, one more thing, I have just started some local marketing chats, would be great to have you at the next one if you would like to join us.
tagwan Premium
Thanks for reading my blog. :-) I've always been self employed and only your own business, you have to take chances all the time, learn while you work or else someone else will take your place.

As for the PJ job yes I go it and I built the site and still do the SEO for it and that job lead to doing a job for an International hospital in the same city and a few others. So it was all turn out Good... but the only thing I changed is I bought pretty PJ's for those occasions. LOL

I loved to hang out in the local marketing chats.. just need to know when and where
Labman_1 Premium
Local Chat is at 4:00 Eastern in the main chat. Thursday.
veronica.l Premium
Awesome you got the PJ job :)
Will let you know when we have the next local marketing chat.
buddyboy Premium
Hi Judith, fantastic first post. And congrats on your success so far.
I waited more than 2 years to create my first post and it was just a simple post wishing my fellow Canadians a happy Victoria Day long weekend. And I wasn't even sure I wanted to do that.
It's very hard to come out of our comfort zones and I've recently realized that not doing so much earlier has only delayed my progress.
I was one of these guys that knew that even though I could simply post a question and get an answer pretty quick, I felt I might be percieved as somewhat of a fool so I proceeded to try and figure things out on my own, which only ended up costing me a lot of time. And I made plenty of mistakes along the way and still do, but I also learned a lot from those mistakes.
I to have had some minor success with my efforts but I could have achieved it much quicker just by getting involved more.
Thanks so much for the great read as well as some renewed inspiration to do some more posting and helping out others.
tagwan Premium
Hi buddyboy,

Not sure what happened to my reply to you. I did reply but it just showed up as null. Anyways, here's the shortened version. Nice to connect with another fellow Canadian. Where abouts are you from?

I'm looking forward to reading your next post. :-)

Thanks for commenting, it's really appreciated.
buddyboy Premium
Hey Judith. No worries. lol. I live in Toronto and it's nice connecting with you to. Hoping to start posting some more soon. Thanks for the reply.
Deezdz Premium
Hi there Judith,

My definition of an introvert/recluse would not include a newbie who takes on building a website for an international company and corresponds via video conference with the CEO her jammies!!...lol That's amazing!

Very inspirational post which I'm sure will resonate with many as it has with me.
thanks ~dee
kyle Premium
Excellent post Judith and it is so wonderful about your successes. Your story is similar to mine and to every other person that has achieved the ultimate dream of being able to work for themselves and to do so on their own terms from the location in which they like (home in both of our cases).

Anyone can accomplish this level of success, however you need to prepare yourself for failure which will happen. With failure also comes success and the two likely come at the same time or very close. Once you learn how to fail and what not to do, success is the only alternative!

Hope to see more of your wonderful posts like this in the future, you have a lot of insight to offer others here! :)
tagwan Premium
Thanks Kyle, I totally agree with you success is at the fingertips of everyone. As for failure I've had my fair share. But the nice thing is that I know that if you hit bottom the only way left to go is UP.
kyle Premium
Couldn't agree more...it can be reassuring sometimes to understand what doesn't work and it is the purest learning experience.
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