Just One Thing

Sometimes it just takes on person, just one thing to be a catalyst for change.

Three years ago I got my first ever sponsored post. It was through social spark (now izea) and for a whopping $30. It’s a simple thing, but it truly change my life.   (this post has referral links)

A simple 30 bucks showed me that I could do this. That my crazy dreams of making a living blogging, might not be all that crazy after all. It showed me I could achieve these dreams…and keep dreaming. From that $30 all those years ago I’ve gone on to making more than a full time income from my blog, a good percentage of which still comes from Izea.

This weekend I got to hear some of the story of Izea, social spark and pay per post. It wasn’t exactly an easy beginning for the company and there were a lot of naysayers. I really loved this story. Hearing how the CEO Ted Murphey fought against a lot of people telling him he was doing it wrong until he created the system that works so brilliantly today. His story inspired me and also made me so thankful that he stuck it out for all those years, because his dream became a catalyst for me seeing my dreams become reality too.

During those hard days when you’re wondering if you’ll ever make it to your goals, seeing other people who have achieved dreams and just keep dreaming can make all the difference. Sometimes $30 because of some one else’s dream, can mean the difference between keeping on going or stopping and giving up.

Meeting Ted this weekend was a surreal experience for me. Knowing that all his hard work culminated into my first $30 post. The first tangible time I got paid for writing content on my blog and the beginning of my career blogging. It’s crazy to me. Crazy that our dreams collided, even though we didn’t know each other existed until this weekend, and very likely won’t ever meet again (except, maybe at next year’s izeafest!).

This got me thinking though. Sometimes it just takes one person. One incident. One small thing to turn a crazy dream into a doable dream.

Becky and I built this site to be a place to help you launch your dreams as well. Be it starting a blog, writing a book, supporting charities or creating a full time income, we want to be that catalyst that gets you going. To give you that “I can do this moment” the same way we’ve each received ours in different ways and at different times.

We want to see your lives changed and your dreams reached, and we know that sometimes all it takes is a push in the right direction and some one believing in you enough to tell you, “you can do it”, show you how or give you your very first job.

Sometimes some one else’s dream helps you reach yours, like Ted’s dream did for me. The beautiful thing is, one day your dreams achieved will be the catalyst to help some one else reach theirs. It’s an amazing circle. You might never know all of the people that you inspire and all of the dreams you help bring to fruition just because you are chasing yours. Just because you keep going every time you fail until you succeed.

Don’t be scared of your dreams. Get out there and make them happen. Get out there and fail. Fail epically and then get back up and try again until you make those dreams your everyday life and start chasing new ones.

As Dr Seuss would say

“Your Mountain is waiting…so get on your way.”

PS – Ted if you read this, thank you for all of your epic failures. Thank you for continuing to dream up Izea when every one was telling you to stop. Thanks for making my dreams become reality by unknowingly launching me into a career I am obsessed with. And also for being a pretty cool dude.