Miss Mandie

Something extraordinary has occurred for me the past few days. I discovered “real” people on the internet.

I’m not talking about friends on facebook. Or the people blogging about their lives from their basements. Or the people you find on loved up chat rooms.

I’m talking about people who are making money from doing what they do best by being “real” about it. I mean, really, real. Like talking to you like you’re a human being real, rather than just a potential sale.

This snowball of discovery started with Naomi at IttyBiz.com. I found her when I was stumbling through the internet looking for information to help me with my marketing assignment.

First thing I noticed about Naomi is that she is honest.

Brutally honest. About marketing. Business. Her life.

She also uses the f* word in her blog.

This was the first time I had come across this phenomenon. Swearing. On a business blog. Who would have thought it possible? She also has 24,000 blog subscribers, so there seems to be a whole lot of others who care little about “appropriate” language.

It gave me hope that I wasn’t condemning myself to a straight jacket of conformity, just because I want to be in business myself.

Then I “met” Johnny B. Truant.

The first blog post of his I read resonated so much with me that I bought his e-course “Question the Rules”. I don’t have an income right now so the fact that some internet marketing guy managed to convince me in one blog post to spend 100 bucks is saying something. I am not easily persuaded.

Then the avalanche…Elizabeth Potts Weinstein…Alison Nazarian…Sarah Robinson…Chris Guillebeau. Entrepreneurs being honest and upfront and transparent. And being very popular in the process.

I feel like I’ve come home.

I have realised I don’t have to put myself into any sort of box in order to succeed at whatever business venture I decide to take on.

All I need to do is discover my own authentic voice and use it.

So folks, consider this the warning call around here. I am going to start practicing my authentic vocal chords.

You may wonder what might change. Especially if you’ve been following me from the beginning.

Well, for starters. I want to tell the whole story.

Not every story of my life. That would be boring/too much detail/narcissistic/unnecessary.

But I want to learn to be honest about how I really feel about things that matter to me. Or questions I have. Or things that perplex me. Or realisations I have.

And put it all into a post that reflect the words in my head, not the words I think you will accept from me.

I want to be really honest with myself.

Such as how I don’t feel I fit in as “Reiki Master” because I don’t sign off my emails “Love and Light, Mandie”.

I can do “love”, “lotsa love”, “big hugs”.

But “love and light”?

It’s just not me.

And over the past few days, I’ve realised that’s okay.

In fact, it’s more than okay. It’s absolutely fantastic I might have my own individual way of approaching the things I am interested in.

Because can you imagine how amazing the world would be if we all allowed ourselves to truly be ourselves?

If we didn’t apologise for not doing things how others do them. Or how others might expect.

And how peaceful it could be if we didn’t mind other people doing things the way they want to do them, rather than the way we expect them to?

It’s always been challenging to stereotype me. My behaviour is too erratic.

And my stumbling block in trying to work out how I could earn an income from my skills/passions/experience, was that none of the traditional “boxes” that were being presented to me seemed appealing.

“Reiki box” “Life Coach box” “Communications Person box” “Manager box” “Internet Marketer box”.

Ugh. I don’t want to be in any of them.

And you know what? I don’t have to. I’ve realised I can be me. I can be real.

Do you know how fucking liberating that feels!?!

Oh, and I have also realised in reading a ton other blogs, how much easier it is to read a post when the sentences are spaced out.

How by isolating a sentence in its very own line, it can have greater impact.

And don’t even get me started about how much more impact I can have when I bold words.

Nifty eh?

[Note to my mother – I promise to regulate my use of the f word. It was used primarily to enhance the dramatic impact of my point in this post. I love you. Your stereotypically challenged daughter, M x]