Follow Your Passion And The Money Will Follow – Podcast Episode 425
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Pursuing A Balanced Life
Follow Your Passion And The Money Will Follow
In this episode I share my thoughts on the phrase, “Follow your passion and the money will follow.” This is exactly what I did just almost two years ago and I’ve certainly found the statement to be true.
I share some of the amazing things that have happened as a result of focusing on my core talents and abilities.
I also share that I don’t think going off and starting your own business is for everyone. Though, I do believe it would be a great fit for more people than actually realize it. On my journey, I’ve learned some things that I think are critical to consider when thinking about leaping out there on your own.
* Surround Yourself With Positive People
* Must have the support of your spouse
* Passion is required
* Some natural talent must exist as a foundation
* Determination – No escape clause.
* Self Discipline – Can be learned through accountability
* Faith
After you get a chance to listen, feel free to leave a comment here on the blog! Or you can call in your feedback on our Voice Mail Feedback Line at 859-795-4067 or toll-free at 800-757-1158. Also, don’t forget to add #PABL to all your tweets related to pursuing a more balanced life.
Note: This is a premium Plus Member Only episode of Pursuing A Balanced Life. If you would like learn how you can get every episode of this podcast as well as all the other podcasts that I produce, please visit http://gspn.tv/plus.
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Following My Passion Has Changed My Life!
I have to admit to you that there were times when I worried if leaving my career in insurance was a responsible decision for me and my family. I mean I had absolutely no idea how I was going to earn a living at the time (Sept – Dec 2007).
I simply knew that podcasting came along, over the course of a few months, any passion I had for my career as an insurance agent had dissipated. Dreams of podcasting full-time as a career became seeds that eventually took root and refused to stop growing in my heart.
I remember reading books that said things like “Pursue your passion and the money will follow.” I heard other folks talk about things like “meaningful work.” I remember just how hard it was to get over the idea that you had to “hate what your doing” for it to be considered “work.”
The truth was that spending 40 to 60 hours of my life, each week, devoted to nothing more than bringing home a paycheck was making me miserable. Listeners from the gspn.tv community had been urging me with thoughts that I could find some way of doing podcasting as a career, but honestly I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that. However, one day, my wife actually came to me and said, “You need to quit your job and do podcasting full-time.” This was the day my life changed forever!
There was little doubt that podcasting as a career would allow me to focus on my core talents and abilities. Not to mention fulfilling what I had come to understand as my core purposes in life.
I’ve learned that if I passionately believe in something, I can probably sell it to just about anyone. There’s no doubt that I have the heart of a teacher. I love to find creative ways to teach things that most people believe they’ll never be able to learn. In fact, my original major in college was going to lead me down the path as a teacher. In June of 1996, I felt a serious call to Christian ministry. Never a full-time pastor type of position, but instead, a life long ministry of encouraging and inspiring others. And then there’s the technology thing. I’ve always had this weird ability to do just about anything I’ve wanted to do with technology without the need to read a book, a help file, etc.
I want to share a little something with you. Yesterday, I had a consulting call that has been like so many other consulting calls.
It typically goes like this.
The client has either found me through a Google Search or they were referred to me by someone they know.
Usually the client has been desperately attempting to start a podcast for anywhere from a few weeks to as much as a few years with no luck in actually getting it off the ground.
They’ve usually already purchased AT LEAST ONE BOOK about how to podcast and have read countless numbers of online articles trying to explain concepts like RSS feeds, media file enclosures, audio mixers, mix-minus setups, audio editing software, bit rates, etc, etc, etc.
The outcome is usually the same… “Paralysis By Analysis” or “Information Overload.”
More confused after their research than before they started, they desperate seek someone who can help them finally get things off the ground as a last ditch effort to make it happen.
When they find me, I spend some time talking with them, learning a little about them, what it is that they want to accomplish, and finding out where the journey has taken them so far.
I then talk to them about designing a strategy for getting their podcast from concept to reality. When I share with them that they could be releasing their first podcast episode(s) within the next four to five days (sometimes the same day) they are often shocked and need to overcome a bit of unbelief.
I, of course, encourage them, letting them know that I have confidence that I can train them how to podcast and do it in a reasonably short amount of time. At times, I’ve said, if I can’t do it in “X” Number of hours, I’ll not charge you at all for the time spent.
It’s so rewarding when I am able to help them make the impossible, possible. To actually see them grasp the concepts that they thought would be impossible to grasp. There’s a great deal of accomplishment that I feel when I work with each client I deal with.
I honestly feel that most of my consulting calls become little confirmations, from God, about making the right decision to pursue my passion. A passion I undoubtedly believe today that was put but in me by Him.
I don’t know if this post will come off as seeming self absorbed or not. But I just received this testimonial from a client that I worked with yesterday and it literally made my week!
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Now, my work as a podcaster goes way beyond simply audio equipment sales and podcast consulting. The work that I do leading the gspn.tv community and providing the content that we produce is a whole story of it’s own with rewards that far exceed anything I’ve mentioned here. I’ve written a little about this in the past and I’m sure I’ll write a lot more in the future.
I sincerely pray that more people would be able to find such rewarding work that people appreciate. Life is too short to do otherwise.
Amanda From Michigan Is Pursuing A Balanced Life
Today, our good friend Amanda From Michigan posted a blog entry about Balance. You can read her post by clicking here.
Amanda shared that she has paid off 80 percent of the balance of her credit cards. She also mentioned that she is now working out regularly and that she plans to get serious about cooking healthy foods.
In her post she wrote the following: “Anyway… balance is the key word. My wonderful friends that are part of the gspn.tv community are working on living a more balanced life. You can visit PursuingABalancedLife.com to find out who’s involved and read more about it. Thanks to Cliff’s leadership, we’ve started talking about our goals and making real changes in our lives.”
Amanda, thanks for sharing your pursuit with us!
Cliff
PABL Round Table Discussion – Podcast Episode 409
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I am very excited to release this episode of the Pursuing A Balanced Life podcast. This is the audio recording from last night’s PABL Round Table Discussion.
Those you will hear in this call are Edith Baker, Patti Bagadion, Amanda Black, Erik Fisher, Patrick Greer, Sharon M., Maggie Mack, Richard Marcotte, Cliff Ravenscraft, Stephanie Ravenscraft, Mark Tafoya, and Stephanie Weak.
The conversation was a great way to demonstrate that Pursuing A Balanced Life is a goal of people from many different walks of life. I think my favorite thing about last night’s conversation was that even though our community is made up of people who are all at different places in their life as it relates to the current balance of their lives, we are all on the same journey together. No matter where each of us are at, we can all encourage and inspire each other equally. We all add value to the conversation!
We will be doing another PABL Round Table Discussion Very Soon!
After you get a chance to listen, feel free to leave a comment on the blog! You can help motivate me and inspire others by providing your audio feedback for the podcast. Call the voice mail feedback line directly at 859-795-4067 or toll-free at 800-757-1158. You can also email an audio file to feedback@gspn.tv.
Don’t forget to tweet about your pursuit of a balanced life, joining us in the #PABL campaign.
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Feedback From Lee Andrew!
I can’t begin to tell you just how much I love to get emails like this. It really is why I love doing what I do for a living! Please take a minute to read this email that just came in from Lee Andrew, one of our newest gspn.tv Plus Members. I’m sharing it with his permission.
Hey Cliff,
I know I only just joined your podcast network, but your “Pursuing A Balanced Life” theme has rubbed off on me and I am now, together with my mum, pursuing a more balanced life too. We actually started walking today and did 6 KM in one hour. Not sure what that is in Miles, since I grew up with the metric system. (Note: 6 kilometers = 3.72822715 miles)
Anyway, it was fun and we will now do it every day, if the weather plays along of course. But listening to you walking up a hill or just breathing hard while talking, inspired me to finally get up my bum and start myself. My sisters are too lazy, but then only my mum and me are the ones overweight.
I would just like to say thank you for the podcast. I have to admit the first time I heard “My Crazy Life” (Note: Name of the podcast used to be My Crazy Life, but it was just rebranded as “Pursuing A Balanced Life.) just I thought I won’t be listening to this, after giving it a try, I still didn’t really think I was going to listen, until I heard you actually walk outside and doing the podcast while walking. I thought that was brilliant in its own way, and started listening to the old episodes.
I went back as far as 2 months and then listened all the way to the most current episode. Again, after listening to all of those, I started becoming more interested in your progress. However I slowly started thinking why don’t I just listen to you on my iPod Touch and start walking too. When I told my mum about it, she was happy I “suddenly” had the motivation to do so.
Now I have to tell you, I am 28 and don’t live at home, just in case your getting the wrong impression. I told my mum about you and your family, how I am inspired by what you do and your shows, and that this was the reason that got me wanting to walk myself.
Even though you don’t know me and maybe don’t even care, I just had the need to tell you. 
Kind regards,
-Lee
I’ve already conveyed this to Lee in response to his email. However, I just want to point out that I VERY MUCH DO CARE!!!!! And while I may not know Lee very much just yet, I hope to get to know him over time as he continues to interact in whatever way suits him best!
This email MADE MY DAY!!!!
If you have been motivated by the Pursuing A Balanced Life Podcast and you want to tell the world, Please send your feedback to feedback@gspn.tv.
