Identity Crisis

I’ve never liked the look of my site. It seems like there are lots of Tumblr themes to chose from, and I could certainly pick on and modify it to meet my needs, but for whatever reason I can’t seem to get something that screams ‘me’.

Tonight alone I’ve tried 5 different themes and variations and didn’t like any. It’s getting late to I’m going to stick with this current one. Maybe it will grow on me by the time I wake up. 

Tonight I bought the domain manvsflab.com.  Yes, it is a flagrant take-off of one of my favorite TV shows, Man vs Wild on Discovery. That show gets me so fired up that I want to run into the woods and get lost just to see if I can find my way out. I’ve really enjoyed 1minutewingman.com and I’m looking for something to work on that’s a little more focused. Being overweight seems to be an epidemic in the US, so I figured I’d go for it. I love the name – I was shocked it was available. I’ve been looking for hosting and themes. 

My current plan for manvsflab.com is to focus on motivation and simple steps. I don’t want to get into nutrition or exercise advice because there are simply too many sites out there for that. I’m hoping to make the site the place where people begin their journey of 1000 miles. I’ve always thought that getting started is one huge hurtle for people to overcome. It’s a great challenge to see if I can do something to help overcome that. Additionally, I plan to offer ongoing support and encouragement because I think the second biggest problem for people is to keep going without falling back into old habits. Should be interesting. 

Lurker No More

Gary Vaynerchuk calls folks who consume internet content but don’t leave comments or engage in the conversation ‘lurkers’.  Pretty good word for it – I’m embarrassed to say I’ve been a lurker for too long. That ended tonight.

I’ve left a few comments on websites before, but never tried to engage anyone on Facebook or Twitter. Tonight I made the commitment to engage someone. I was looking around Twitter and came across an interesting tweet. I followed the link to this person’s site (a Tumblr blog) where she had a few interesting posts, all of which asked for responses. When I tried to leave a comment, I couldn’t. There was no way to leave a comment – at least no way I could find. I’m a fairly educated internet user, so even if I missed it, she shouldn’t have it be so hard to figure out. 

So I sent her a tweet. I simply said I thought she had good content and I’d like to leave a comment, but couldn’t figure out how.  I haven’t had a response yet. Hopefully she won’t be offended. 

I know it’s only 1 tweet for me, but I’m very pumped up about it. The move from lurker to community member is exciting and scary, but I’m ready to get off the sidelines and into the game!

Hustling

Going deep into another late night trying to make something happen!  I’m currently searching for WordPress themes or Tumblr themes that I can use for on a website for a great aspiring film-maker I met last spring. I’m hoping to find something pre-made (or close to it) so we can focus more on the ‘social’ aspects of his brand, rather than the technical chores of building a website. It’s truly amazing how many choices are out there and what an incredible advantage it can give people who want to focus on things other than the tech end of social media. 

I’m just taking a break to blog and to let my mind wander off a little before I jump back into it. I wonder if someway I’ll look back at these times and laugh at how many nights I’ve sat at this table pecking away at the keyboard wondering if it will every pay off. 

I’m really excited to be working with this guy – he’s got a lot of passion and talent for making things happen on video.  I hope I can play some small part in helping him realize the success he is dreaming about. It’s crazy to think about the opportunities we have today with the internet and technology that people 1 generation before us could never have imagined. What a great time to be alive.