You’re viral man. I watch your videos and then find myself getting into it and wanting to be like you LOL.

Too bad I’m so white I could be considered neon white!!! My theme song is Weird Al’s “White ‘n’ Nerdy” HAHAHA

But if someone asks what I’ve been up to, I’ll tell them. Mostly it’s when people find me on myspace or something.

Normal Joe´s last blog post..Some Blogs Showing Love To IMwithJoe.com

I found myself going back and re-reading this post and most of the comments. I’m not sure why I’ve ended up back in touch with all those people from high school, but somehow I did. It just happened. I love what Anna said about keeping it “amongst us strangers” who exist only in pixels and being able to log off and step out of the Matrix. On the flip-side of that coin, I love the concept of having it all out there and just having IM Dustin as another part of who I am as a whole that I share with everyone. What’s REALLY funny is how I find myself wanting to share what I’m doing with all the people I work with! Why does THAT seem ok in my head, but the people who I am actually REALLY still friends with from high school bothers me?

Who knows for sure…but I guess I still have time to decide all that. For now, I just gotta learn, grow, and become successful!

I do however, understand not wanting everyone to know…it’s human nature. It’s like we don’t want to share that next big thing that may be happening to us, because, we don’t want it to NOT happen!

You’ll be fine, with the folks you’ve got around you Holly, Anna, and Davin! You have no choice but to succeed. When we meet up, I got a sammich for ya.

Normal Joe´s last blog post..Some Blogs Showing Love To IMwithJoe.com

You know, the greatest comfort that I’ve found so far in IM is the fact that, unlike the other sales jobs I’ve held, I don’t have to confront anybody and try to push them past that last “no” to get to a “yes”. I’m mostly a non-confrontational person and don’t like having to try to sell somebody something that they don’t need or don’t want. The great thing about Internet Marketing is you can do it aggressively, yet passively at the same time (at least from my “green” perspective). In other words, you can kinda put your stuff out there and see who wants it! I guess in really simple terms, it’s marketing, not sales.

I have pulled up your site and intend to read through your posts as well. It’ll be interesting to see what common threads exist between our two blogs and see how we both progress! Just by quickly scanning the titles of your posts, I can already tell I’m gonna be interested in reading every one of them!

I’m not sure I can handle both an “Annie” and an “Anna” commenting on my blog tho…so one of you is gonna have to keep silent! I am SO kidding. Don’t keep silent. MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD! (Or your type read). Whatever I mean…Keep it coming!

Great blog…good content and I like the fresh clean look to your page design. I’ve read over all your posts and the comments shared and saw an interesting “common thread”…between those who had sold Kirby vacuums and didn’t like it, to your mention of almost joining Quixtar (which I did, and didn’t like it), but yet we have all found a great comfort level in IM (Oh, and you are not alone…in my blog title and post/review, I shared that I thougt IM ONLY meant Instant Messaging! ) It’s interesting seeing the “commonalities” (is that a word???) that bring people from all around the globe, to a common point….and the great thing is we have Holly to thank for it! So…Thank you Holly!

I could also relate to your post, here, about offline/online, keeping the two seperate. At the moment I have not told anyone IRL, except for my husband, about my buildiing an IM business. Too often, I find, if I am not in the position to show results and speak clearly about what I am doing, then I come off less professional than I eventually end up. We only have one chance to make a first impression, and I don’t want to waste it! Actually, knowing that eventually I do want my family and friends to see my hard work, I am using that to help keep me from straying to the “impulse” type decisions, that usually cause regret!

Great site and I look forward to watching your progress!

Until next time…
Annie T. Baxter

Annie T. Baxter´s last blog post..What About Dropshipping?

People, meet Crystal. She is one of my “real life” friends that does know what I’m doing here because, well, she’s my wife!

Now maybe the whole “when we have children” thing sounds less awkward…LOL

The only thing that bothers me about the connection is when we have children, will I feel comfortable mentioning their names and posting their pictures on my blog, knowing how connected that is to my business? I haven’t quite figured that one out yet. I know my blog readers will be pretty ticked if they don’t get to see our baby though.

Crystal´s last blog post..What’s in a name?

@Crystal – That’s very true with your business. And the fact is that your real life and your business co-mingled very early on in your blog. Do you think if you had to do it over again, you’d keep it the same? With your particular product, some of your friends and family are often your customers when they find out what you’re doing. I guess it all depends on what your selling, too. I have to keep in mind that I haven’t decided that yet for myself, so it’s kinda too early on to say I wouldn’t want my friends to know what I’m doing!

On one hand, I guess there are always risks associated with it, but on the other hand, being alive has risks. You have to weigh them and decide what’s best for you and yours. Quite frankly, I much prefer to read from people who have successfully merged the two, because I like to know people on a deeper level than just what they’re selling. That seems to work for me as well, but I’m also careful to not get TOO personal sometimes with some topics. I have a pretty big online presence between my blog, site, and the various forums I post in daily, so it’s something I have to watch constantly… but it’s also been a huge benefit to growing my business.

As for friends/family caring about your business, I’ve found that most people just don’t give a crap. As stated before, they’re wrapped up in their own lives and don’t take the five minutes to see what you’re up to. Then when they DO finally look, they’re shocked at what they see. “Oooh, wow, you do THAT?! I had no clue!”

People are strange.

Crystal´s last blog post..Operation: Randomness