It’s been too long since an interview, and the lovely and talented Pamela Slim has graciously given us some time during her book tour for Escape from Cubicle Nation.  If you don’t know her yet, now’s your chance, and if you do know her, give a shout out in the comments! – Dave

Dave: Pam, I want to thank you for taking the time to give us an interview here. I wanted to get some time with you because I’m impressed with your willingness to take chances and push hard to design the life you want. Can you give my readers a quick bit about who you are and what you do?

Pamela: I am a business coach and writer who helps corporate employees leave their jobs and start a new business. I am also the author of Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur. When not coaching, blogging or messing around on Twitter, I am chasing after my two toddlers Josh and Angela with my husband Darryl.

Dave: Why do you do what you do? What makes you passionate about your calling?

Pamela: I have always been fascinated by transformation and liberation. In college, I was an international service and development major, and did internships in Mexico and Colombia. I loved watching people use education as a tool to get out of poverty and improve their lives.

I then taught martial arts for years, and watched people overcome fears and transform their bodies. In my current work, nothing gets me more motivated then seeing someone realize that they have the capacity to free themselves from oppressive work situations and actually lead their life.

I have a core belief that we can overcome many deep-seated oppressive situations just by changing our thinking and taking action based on new beliefs. The power unleashed on the world by free-thinking people will improve everything.

Dave: How do you stay motivated to take risks, push your personal boundaries, and demand the best from yourself?

Pamela: I love what I do and feel a natural motivation to keep growing and learning. The more I learn about my field of expertise, the more I realize I don’t know. Finding out new ways to support my clients, blog and book readers challenges me to expand my thinking. And I like to test drive my own advice, to make sure that I am not just spouting off a bunch of crap, but rather sharing useful advice that will inspire people to action. I love to be surrounded by people who are at the top of their game, and they inspire me to be better myself.

Dave: At some point in life, we usually get a revelation that whacks us over the head and changes our course (for the better). What was one of the “A-ha!” moments that changed your life?

Pamela: When my son Josh was about two months old, I was holding him before starting a conference call for one of my big corporate clients. While I loved most of my consulting career, toward the end, I was tiring of the huge, complex projects. As I prepared to get on the phone, my body tensed up. All of a sudden, Josh’s body tensed up too, and I realized that he would completely mirror the energy I felt about my work.

It was a “lightening bolt to the forehead” moment, and at that instant I decided to jump into my new coaching direction full-time, which became Escape from Cubicle Nation. I thank him every day for giving me the courage to follow my true calling.

Dave: Keeping a balanced life is always a challenge. What do you do to help keep things sane?

Pamela: My life is very full, and I like it that way. I love to be doing work I enjoy, and try to focus only on the activities that both give me the most pleasure to do, and bring in the best income. My kids are my “out-of-whack-o-meters,” since they let me know very clearly if I am working too much.

I got a sobering wake-up call a few weeks after my book launched (which led to crazy hours due to radio promotions and extra writing) when my four-year old son Josh pointed a water gun at me and said “Mom – if you don’t stop working, I will shoot you.”

That stopped me in my tracks and made me stop constantly checking email and Twitter when my kids were around. I don’t have the expectation that I will be rested at all times, since sometimes there is just a lot to do — but because I love what I do, I feel peaceful most days.

Dave: If you could send a message to yourself 10 years ago, what advice would you give?

Pamela: You already have the capacity to follow your big dreams. You don’t need to spend any time on work you are not 100% passionate about.

Dave: What blog posts are you most proud of?

Pamela: One of my favorite posts, that also garnered a lot of attention in the blogosphere is An Open Letter to CXO’s Across the Corporate World. It opened a floodgate of new blog readers, and was the inspiration behind my book. It was very cathartic to write!

I also like Perfectionists are Losers and Are you acting like a celebrity sheep with your marketing plans? One that has been handy for my clients and blog readers is Overwhelmed with possibilities when plotting your career?

Dave: What bloggers inspire you to “play a bigger game” in life?

Pamela: I am inspired by Seth Godin, Havi Brooks, Kathy Sierra and Naomi Dunford. I love their humor, insight, authenticity and intelligence.

Dave: Thanks for taking the time for this interview, Pam, and I’ll be watching the rise of Escape from Cubicle Nation!

Lodewijk van den Broek is one smooth fella

Dave: Hey Lode, how about an introduction first?

Lode: Yeah, you can call me Lode, since my full name (Lodewijk van den Broek) usually is way too complicated to pronounce for non-Dutchies. So now you know where I come from too.

I’m a thirty-something guy, happily married and a proud dad of a little boy. Furthermore my sign is Aries, my Chinese sign is Dragon (so now you can figure out my real age…), my type is INFP and my enneatype is a seven. That should be a good start to get an idea on who I am.

Oh…and I work too. I have a parttime day-job as an IT project manager, I blog (currently only on How to be an Original, but I’m launching WordpressDIY soon), I’m a DIY guy, and a soon-to-be entrepreneur (in my heart I already am).

I also have a wealth of other interests, often more than I can find the time for. I would love to do more photography, start playing the piano again, start training martial arts again, ride my motorcycle again.

Why do you love what you do?

Because what I love to do is aligned with who I am and what I want. I think that discovering who you are and what you truly want is essential in getting a fulfilling and enjoyable life. It doesn’t finish there of course, because you still have to work hard and give your best to get what you want. This is the central theme of my blog by the way.

It doesn’t mean that I love everything I currently do. I’m working on aligning my activities with my values and mission, but it’s not an easy process and it requires quite a lot of attention and energy. But the return on that investment is great, in terms of fulfillment and energy that is.

What is one of the major turning points that brought you biggest successes?

Well that depends on what you define as success I guess. Major turning points in my life have been moments of profound insight, that made me see things in an entirely different perspective.

One of those moments was just before I graduated from university, and decided to apply for a job as a management trainee at a company that would turn me inside out, four times over in two years. I knew it beforehand, and I had doubts whether I was going to like it but I felt I needed it. Turned out I indeed needed it, but that I also found out that personal development is something I can get very passionate about.

Another turning point was a 3.5 day (non-stop) course I did on Stephen Covey’s 7 habits. The guy who does this course makes you experience the habits, one by one, discovering them for yourself. One of the moments that made a great impression was during habit 2 ‘Begin with the end in mind‘. To experience this Covey suggest you write your own eulogy. But this guy let us do a guided meditation, where we (unknowingly at first) were visiting our own funeral… and listen to the speeches of the people there. What do they say, what do you want them to say? The lessons of that experience are something I feel to this day.

What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started out?

That starting is the most important thing to do. If you want to do something, decide to do it and take the first step now. By simply starting you enroll yourself in the best school: Reality.

I’ve been thinking about starting for myself for a long time, but didn’t take any step towards getting it realized. Until one day (my birthday one year ago) I simply decided to start my blog and use that as a basis to grow my ventures from. I’m hardly as successful as I like to be, but at least I’m already a lot closer to my goals than I was a year ago. There are many more lessons to learn and challenges to take on.

What are some ways you help keep a work-life balance?

Ouch, this is one I’m struggling with a lot. The balance tips in favor of work that’s for sure. Apart from my day job and my blog(s), I have a big renovation project on my hands.

I have always had a tendency to take on one or two projects too many. But I’ve always been able to handle this pretty well, until we became a family. The dynamics of our life changed entirely, to an extent I couldn’t have imagined beforehand. Having one or two projects too many becomes a problem then, so now I’m actively working on reducing the projects on hand by finishing them and not starting new ones (well no major ones anyway).

I also have one day a week, on which I work from home for my day job. I have freedom to schedule my time that day, so I get to spend quite some quality time with my son. And recently my wife and I set the first steps to get back into a social rhythm as partners as well. Going out and enjoying ourselves, deliberately taking time as a couple.

I love being a dad, but the impact was far greater than I expected. I was warned, but I guess some things are only learned by experience.

What leverage do you plan to use to grow your business over the coming year?

To grow my non-existent business to an existing one you mean? Well, on two things: Network and Value.

For launching new ventures, like a blog or a business, a network is essential in my opinion. A year of blogging has given me a nice network of likeminded people, and I also have an offline network of people willing to help me launch an offline business. After the launch, delivering value is the only way to convince people to do (or continue to do) business with you.

I do have to make choices about what I’m going to do as a business. I have quite some ideas, and need to make decisions.

What blog posts are you most proud of?

It’s not so much blog posts I’m proud of, but the habits I have changed and adopted the past year. I’m proud of adopting the habit of having a weekly review cycle. I’m proud of my Early Bird challenge, in which I changed my sleeping rhythm to match it better to the rhythm of my family. And I’m proud of the mistakes I made (and associated lessons learned) when applying the goal setting techniques.

What blogs do you read to get the edge in your business?

My reading habits are a bit variable I guess. Some weeks I hardly read a thing, other weeks I focus on the blogging blogs (Problogger, DoshDosh, Daily Blog Tips), then I dive into entrepreneurial and freelancing blogs (Self Made Chick, Freelance Folder, Shane & Peter, Men with Pens), I head over to productivity and personal development blogs (Zen Habits, Steve Pavlina and many others), and back down to earth diving into blogs about WordPress (like Lorelle’s).

Of course I check in at Liz Strauss’ place, Brian’s place, Guy Kawasaki’s blog. I’m leaving some out. Oh and I like Presentation Zen too, but you need time to visit that one. Great lessons on presentations and speeches, with a lot of videos that go with it.

Give A Shout Out To Lode For Giving Us His Time

Leave a comment below to let Lode know what you thought of this interview and the articles he shared with us. Then don’t forget to subscribe to his feed to keep the good stuff coming.

Michael Martine is a leading blog consultant and coach who offers his services and blogs about business blogging over at Remarkablogger.com. He has been involved in web design since the mid 90s and blogging since 2000.

Dave: Michael, why do you love what you do?

Michael: The web is the most personally empowering and sweeping change we’ve ever seen in our lives. I am thrilled by it and passionate about it. In the face of all criticism to the contrary, it has brought us closer together and expanded our opportunities to earn a good living or do amazing things that have a real impact on the world. To earn a living by helping others make this happen for themselves is nothing short of life-changing for me. I love being a part of it and helping others enable and empower themselves through the web.

Dave: What is one of the major turning points / “A-ha moments” that paved the way towards greater success for you?

Michael: When I made the switch from being a typical problogger to blog consulting and coaching. People struggle to make chump change with programs like AdSense and the like. At one point I was earning between $200 and $475 a month on AdSense earnings, which wasn’t terrible, but neither was it all that great. Since I have a full-time job as a computer training instructor, I didn’t have the time to pour into dealing with multiple sites and all the work required for what is jokingly called “passive” income. Selling professional services at a premium seemed like a much better route to improved finances. Almost immediately after I became a blog consultant, I have been receiving steady work.

Dave: What are some ways you help keep a work-life balance?

Michael: Right now, I don’t. It’s pretty much mostly work. Good thing I enjoy it! I try to spend time with my family when I can, but all in all I probably work at least 60 hours a week between my full-time job and freelance blog consulting. There will be a time in the future when (according to my master plan) I will let go of the day job. That will free up huge amounts of time to have a little breathing room and spend more time with my family.

Dave: What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started out?

Michael: That sticking with something for the long haul and planning for the long haul are vital for success. I don’t kick myself over it, but that’s a big shift in perspective from a few years ago. Also, I now know the power of giving to others and networking.

Dave: What leverage do you plan to use to grow your business over the coming year?

Michael: I’m busy enough! My business needs to continue, but until I free up more time, the only think I could do now to grow my revenues is raise my prices. And I don’t really want to do that right now. I think my pricing is fair and I’d like to keep it that way.

However, I have added a new service for WordPress blog and plugin upgrading and maintainence and visitor reporting. I’m considering creating some new packages that combine my services with the services of others, such as professional copywriters, designers, and search/social media professionals.

Dave: What blog posts are you most proud of?

Michael: I’m most proud of the ones where I’m uncovering something obvious about blogging that others haven’t really touched on. That, and the “Overheard in the Blogosphere” posts, which are quotes from posts from blogs taken out of context and linked to from the name of the person quoted.

• What You Can Learn about Blogging from Britney Spears
• I Have Big, Hot, Burning Desires
• The Secret to a Successful Business Blog: Sell without Selling

Dave: What blogs do you read to get the edge in your business?

• Self Made Chick – Christine O’Kelly’s blog has been extremely helpful to me in determining my services and running my business (plus, she’s a friend).
• Web Pro News -Rapid-fire headlines at the edge of what’s happening. This site isn’t as well-known as some of the bigger names, like Techcrunch, so they’re like a secret weapon.
• Mashable -Straight up tons of resources to tools and services.

Dave: How do you stand out from others in your field?

Michael: By having a system based on bundled service packages and by being responsive. My process is well-defined and we just go through the steps I can’t tell you how many times people have written back to me saying things like “Wow, thanks for getting back to me so fast!” (so much for “batching” your email!).

Give A Shout Out To Michael For Giving Us His Time
Leave a comment below to let Michael know what you thought of this interview and the articles he shared with us. Then don’t forget to subscribe to his feed to keep the good stuff coming.

A few weeks ago I put in interview requests with James Chartrand and Harry McLeod of Web Content Writer Tips and they were kind enough to clue me in to some of their advice for business success. I had tons of energy when I posted James’ interview, so it looked spiffy, but right now it’s almost midnight, I’ve got bronchitis (and no meds), and I’m in D.C. on a weeklong business trip that leaves me missin’ the hell out of my wife and kids so I’m slamming this one out but I’ll make it up to ya, Harry. (There, Naomi, you’re not the only one spilling your guts on your blog!). But enough about me. It’s all about Harry now.

Dave: How do I do justice introducing the co-author of the “Men With Pens” blog without doing a double take? Introduce yourself.

Harry: Dave, I’ve been staring at your questions for an hour thinking of how to answer them. I’ve been debating whether I should grab something containing alcohol from the ‘fridge. Of course, I’ve warned James many times not to drink and write, so I couldn’t do the same in good conscience. Here goes.

Hi, I’m Harrison McLeod, the other half of JCM Enterprises. I’m a writer and a graphic designer. I’m single, 42 and a Sagittarian. I have no kids, and I live in Las Vegas with two cats and a roommate. I’m also most likely the only guy you’ll ever meet who has a motorcycle parked in his office. Seriously.

Dave: Why do you love what you do?

I don’t think there is a “why” to my doing this. I do what I do because it works for me. I enjoy the variety and the process of creation involved with each project, whether it’s a writing assignment or a graphic design project.

I love the sense of accomplishment and being able to point and say, “I did that!” I guess I’m taking my 15 minutes of fame any way I can – and hoping no one notices when I try to steal a few extra minutes.

We should thank all Gen-Xers for giving us the drive to break out of the cubicle and start doing what we love. How many of us grew up watching our parents working the daily grind? Back then, your job was a life sentence until retirement. You’d get your party and your watch, and you could look forward to a pension.

These days, there is no such thing as job security. People know this. I know this.

I love that I can freelance and have my own business. Having a business partner like James makes it even better. Anyone can start a business if the person is willing to do the work involved. It doesn’t happen by itself, folks.

Dave: What is one of the major turning points / “A-ha moments” that brought you one of your biggest successes?

Harry: My biggest a-ha moment happened recently. I attended the Las Vegas Blog Expo back in November. Something in my head clicked when I mingled with other bloggers.

The names I’d seen on posts I read now had faces. These were real people just like me, plain and simple. They weren’t doing anything special, and they weren’t revealing any great blogosphere secrets that James and I didn’t know already.

Hell, I’m sure there are people reading this now thinking I’m some kind of celebrity. I’m not.

Once I realized these superstar bloggers were real people, there was no reason why I couldn’t do the same thing they were doing – only my goal is to do it better, take it a step further, and to do what no one else is doing.

I came back to the keyboard with a vengeance. I think I even scared James with my newfound enthusiasm.

Dave: What are some ways you help keep a work-life balance?

Harry: There’s really not much to balance. I don’t have any kids, just a couple of cats that are pretty self-sufficient. Even if I live in Las Vegas, I’m not out hitting the casinos or whooping it up in the clubs. That’s not me.

When I need balance after a rough week, I fire up the motorcycle (a Honda VTX1800 RS) and head out into the desert on the longest stretch of road I can find. Riding with no distractions for a couple of hundred miles or so is a great way to get your thoughts back in order and recharge your batteries.

It’s easy to lose track of the days or how much you’re working when you work from home. I had to adjust to resisting the temptation to work around the clock. I had gotten to a point where I was in a bad cycle of staying up all night to work and get ahead. Then I’d be too tired to get up early the next day, and I’d fall behind. It was very counter-productive, to say the least.

James pointed out that my work habits were crap. I decided to take control. One of the best things any new freelancer can do is to set up a schedule and stick to it.

I plan out my tomorrows the night before, jotting down tasks I’d like to start or finish on a schedule. If a task isn’t finished, it goes to the top of the list. Every task gets one hour of time. When the day comes, I know what I’m doing, how long to spend on it, and my day flows.

I often finish the task or the project ahead of schedule. I’m getting more done in a day, and I end up with more time on my hands rather than less.

Dave: What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started out?

Harry: I think I’m going to have that alcohol now. Man, what don’t I know now that I wish I had known?

I wish I could go back in time and tell myself, “Harry, don’t worry so much. It’ll work out just fine. Don’t worry about the money, don’t worry about the bills, don’t worry that there won’t be enough work, and most of all, don’t worry about failing.”

That’s the thing. So many people are worried and afraid to start, so they never get started. They stay in their crappy jobs with a false sense of security.

The reality is that working for yourself is much more secure than working for someone else. When I was in the corporate world, there were always talks of layoffs and cut-backs. You’d work like a dog for a lousy $0.25 raise each year. The work, the hours, and the responsibilities increased while your paycheck stayed the same.

I knew there had to be something better. I’m lucky I found the courage to go after it.

Dave: What leverage do you plan to use to grow your business over the coming year?

Harry: Work smarter, not harder. For the past two years, James and I have busted our asses to build our reputation and credibility. Now we’re at a point where we can relax just a little. Over the next year, we’d like to continue growing our business and push it further.

With a well-built business comes freedom so that James and I can enjoy some of the better aspects of our business – blogging, for one.

Dave: What blog posts are you most proud of?

Harry: The posts I’m most proud are those in my “The 7 Deadly Fears of Writing” series. The inspiration came from Jurgen Wolff’s Your Writing Coach.

After I wrote a post, James suggested I make a series. At first, I said, “Crap. A series?” Then I had to laugh at myself. What was I afraid of?

I explored each of those seven fears and it turned out to be a great experience and an excellent series.

See, that’s the thing about writing. You learn more about the world around you, and you learn more about yourself with every word you write. By the end of the series, I had pinpointed each of my personal writing fears, stared them down, and wrote them off for good.

Dave: What blogs do you read to get the edge in your business?

Harry: Dave Navarro’s Million Dollar Leverage, of course! (How’s that for sucking up?)

Seriously, your blog is one of the handfuls of blogs I read on a regular basis, along with Naomi Dunford’s IttyBiz, and Jurgen Wolff’s Time to Write.

These days, though, I find myself not reading blogs as often as I used to. Call it an experiment. I felt that everyone wrote about the same topics. The blogs that really stood out were ones where the writers posted on ideas no one else had thought of.

While I still read, I don’t read as much. I don’t want to be influenced by other people’s posts. It forces me to think, and I mean, really think. It’s a personal challenge to see if I can produce the one topic everyone talks about – and blogs about.

Well, folks, looks like that cider’s kicking in nicely now and I’ve run out of questions to answer. Thanks for the opportunity, Dave!

Dave: I owe you one, Harry. I’ll touch base soon.

Check out Harry’s latest musings at Men With Pens: Shooting From The Hip. And yes, it is a blog about writing. Writing, people.

Because as Sean Connery will tell you, “The Pen Is Mightier, Trebek!”

Dave: James, introduce yourself. (Isn’t that always the first question?)

James: Let’s see… an introduction, eh? Well, I’m a thirty-something single Dad of two girls and I’m a Cancer. I live in the backwoods of Quebec in Canada, where life is snow for about 8 months of the year. As for hobbies (can’t forget those), I enjoy equestrian sports (in the saddle, not on the soil), playing acoustic guitar, skating laps at the local rink, and reading (fantasy/sci-fi). Just a regular guy, I guess.

I’ve been an online entrepreneur for about two years now, but I’ve been writing since I can remember. (I think that’s the standard writer’s reply, isn’t it?)

Now, if you and I went out schmoozing at a party together, and you were introducing me, the perfect introduction would be, “This is James Chartrand from Quebec. Have you met him yet? You should. He’s a great online entrepreneur with a web content writing business. Crack writer. Hadn’t you mentioned you needed someone to help you with some writing you need done?”

Dave: Why do you do what you do?

James: If there is one thing in all the world I can’t resist, it’s a challenge. I love learning and figuring things out. Online business lets me get right down into the most challenging career I’ve ever had. The writing comes easy; building the business is the real fun stuff. I also get a huge kick out of negotiating contracts and landing the gigs. It’s fulfilling to know that I can use everything in me – skills, talent, social communication – and not only earn a living but help others earn a living, too.

Oh, yeah, I get to be a little bit famous. That’s cool, too.

Dave: Tell me about one of the “A-ha!” moments that led to solid success for you.

James: The “a-ha” moment … Wow, I’ve had a few of those. But the most important one was this:

I was reorganized out of a corporate job and decided to get out of the office and choose a job that I loved, not one that just made me a hot-shot. So, I shoveled horse manure for five years (how’s that for humbling?).

Seriously, though, I worked at a couple of stables for five or six years, moving between groom, manager, coach, trainer, camp instructor and trail guide. That was the best. Teaching people who were scared shitless to ride an unpredictable 1,500 pound horse in an hour was one of the coolest jobs I ever had. They trusted me to bring them back home safe and sound, and I got smiles from them every time.

Teaching other people to ride was awesome, too. I loved it. But when the stable started putting little kids on dangerous, unpredictable horses, I decided that I’d rather walk away before seeing someone leave in an ambulance.

I faced a long, hard, Canadian winter with no income, no hope of a job in a low-economy rural area, and an empty bank account. I had two kids to feed, rent to pay, and I stared a long time at the welfare application I’d just filled out, wondering how I’d make it.

Then Harry [the other half of JCM Enterprises] said, “I wonder if there are writing jobs on the Internet you could apply for. You’re a good writer.”

A-ha.

That’s all it took – a shift in perspective that I didn’t have to work for someone else. I had plenty of experience, skills, talent and the drive to try something new. I had no fear, because the worst that could happen was that I’d apply for welfare.

That’s all that holds many people back – fear. All it takes is a glimmer of confidence to say, “Yeah, I can do this. I’m going to give it a shot.”

Dave: How do you manage a work-life balance?

James: Work-life balance is one of my biggest challenges. People have a hard time understanding that a home office does not mean “drop in any time or call unexpectedly whenever you want; I’m always available to entertain you.” Interruptions like that wreck a day’s schedule faster than a derailing train and have me burning the candle at both ends.

I retrained myself to break the night owl habit. You’d be amazed at how much more productive people are in the morning. I learned to use a schedule this year, and that really helps me get more out of my day. I try to remember that this is a job like any other, and that the office closes around 5pm.

Here, I’m grateful to have Harry to remind me that I don’t have to get it all done in a day. He helps keep me balanced and lets me know when I’m just burning rubber instead of getting my work done. Then I stop and take a break.

Harry and I declare screw-off days, too. We just say, “F**k it,” and announce a spontaneous holiday. It helps to recharge the batteries and stay sane.

But I’ve learned one thing: If there is no work-life balance, you can’t be happy. Something has to give. Too much of one is just as bad as too much of the other. I’ve quit my job about three times this year alone. (Alright, I didn’t quit, but there are times when I sure would’ve liked to.) When you get to a point that you say to yourself, “I didn’t sign up for this,” then you know it’s time to work on getting that balance back.

Dave: What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started out?

James: Wow, that’s a tough one. No, wait, it’s not. I wish I’d known how hard it would be to get other people to understand a virtual world job. Working online is still relatively new, and most people can’t grasp the concept of a virtual-world business. I wish I’d known that, because I would’ve taken more time to explain to others about my business, and how it’s a job like any other, with regular hours. Drawing that life/work boundary from the start would’ve helped immensely.So do it. Set regular hours. Put your office in a room with a door. Treat your business like a business. Don’t run around in pajamas. Make sure people understand that you don’t go drop in at their construction site or their office building, so they really should respect your work zone, too. Most of all, make sure that everyone – and you most of all – understand that freelancing doesn’t mean free of responsibilities.

Dave: What leverage do you plan to use to grow your business over the coming year?

James: Leverage plan. Hmm … Big words, Dave. In November, we started plotting out where we’re going in 2008. The whole business and blog had taken on a life of its own – we never expected to be where we are now. We sat down and talked about what we wanted (and what we didn’t) and how to achieve those goals.

But we want to do it slowly. We started out casting our net wide and getting back all sorts of fish. That was great, but we spread out too thin and lost our focus, just rolling with the flow and often scrambling to keep up. Now it’s time to work on developing our methods and business to achieve the harvest we want.

Since then, we’ve been carefully taking things one step at a time. Every move we make is thought over, tossed around, and debated. If we’re going to invest, it’s going to be in an action that has a clear ROI – or at least a low calculated risk. We’re spending our energy into building our reputation stronger and seeing just how far we can take this business.

But we’re making sure we’re building well, on a strong, solid foundation, and we’re making sure we’re building our business to last.

Dave: What blog posts are you most proud of?

James: I have three posts I’m pretty proud of.

One was 11 Tips Brian Gardner can Teach you to Attract New Clients, because I found it well written and very solid advice. It also did well in the blogosphere. Another I liked was Teens that Can’t Type, because it ends on a little bit of a wistful tone and gives a bit of insight into my life. It’s a personal favorite.

My biggest moment of pride, though, was having my guest post, One Simple Way to Generate More Comments For Your Blog, featured on Brian Clark’s Copyblogger. It was a true honor. I think I’m supposed to be humble about the situation or pretend it was nothing, really. The truth is that the moment was a big deal for me and a personal reward for all my hard work.

I think that makes my next personal goal achieving the point of having Brian guest post for my blog!

Dave: What blogs do you read to get the edge in your business?

James: IttyBiz, because I need my daily Itty fix. After that comes Copyblogger, Dosh Dosh, Freelance Switch, Skelliwag, Chris Garrett’s New Media and Freelance Writing Gigs. Those are my current big favorites that provide me with the most value and who are where I want my blog to be. Freelance Folder’s a good one, too, and Remarkablogger caught my attention recently.But I read a lot more blogs than that. If it has “freelance” or “blog” or “write” in the title, I probably read it. They don’t give me an edge, but they do help me keep an eye on the competition, the little guys that are up and coming, and other bloggers in the same niche as our own blog.

I think getting an edge doesn’t mean modeling ourselves on what the A-listers do. I think getting an edge means finding what works, and then making it work for you in a unique way. Subscribe to our feed and keep tabs on how we’re doing!

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A little bit about Christine: My name is Christine OKelly. I’m a mom, an internet entrepreneur, run a successful SEO copywriting firm and several other businesses. Just over 2 years ago I was an operations manager for an internet start up company working 12 hour days, addicted to my Blackberry, ignoring my family, and becoming a shell of a person. Today, I support my family while working around the things that are important to me. I walk my kids to and from school every day – they think I’m a stay at home mom. But it’s quite the opposite. I work when my energy is at it’s peak instead of sitting behind a desk just to fill a chair all day. I take breaks when I’m not into it. I love “working” because its a challenge and a form of creative expression.

Dave: What are some of the major turning points / “A-ha moments” that created your biggest successes?

Christine: One of the biggest realizations I had was that it takes the same effort to sell to one contact with a large end-user client base as it does to sell to one end-user contact! With this type of thinking, you can grow your business exponentially with very few resources.

Dave: What are some ways you help keep a work-life balance?

Christine: Before I worked for myself, I had a horrible work life balance. For a few years when the kids were little, my husband and I would work opposite shifts so that we didn’t have to put them in daycare – that really took a toll on our relationship. Then when they were a bit older, I started working for a very demanding internet startup company and would easily be away from home for 10-14 hours a day. When I was home, I was emailing non-stop on my Crackberry. When I wasn’t doing that, I really had no idea what to do at home because my whole life had become about work. It was pretty lame.

I am not yet where I want to be with the whole work/life balance thing. I have a self-imposed demanding schedule – but I can fit work around my life rather than fitting my life around work. I usually get up at around 4:00 to crank out as much as I can when the kids are still sleeping.

My kids are 6 and 7 and they fight with each other constantly. Half the time I’m stopping in the middle of a sentence to break up a fight about who is going to be what color in a game or who hit who first with a Nerf bullet. But still, that is not nearly as annoying as some of the coworkers I used to have to deal with.

Dave: What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started out?

Christine: There is no substitute for taking action. When I was a moonlighting entrepreneur I wasted hours and hours of my life planning businesses on paper that never materialized. Really, I was just scared of actually doing anything and planning was how I made myself feel like I was actually pursuing my dreams. I thought everything had to be “perfect” before taking real action. When I was forced to take action – things worked out – even though everything wasn’t perfect.

Dave: What leverage do you plan to use to grow your business over the coming year?

Christine: My blog has definitely been a huge resource for brining in new business so I intend to continue to build that for sure! I’m a true believer that relationship marketing is the most effective way for a small business to market. So another thing that I’m doing for some of my other businesses is to identify a handful of prospects and putting my marketing dollars and energy into building those relationships as opposed to spending those same resources trying to target every possible potential customer through mass marketing.

Dave: What blog posts are you most proud of?

Christine: One post that brought in over 10,000 hits was “One Word that Can Change Your Reality” – I was really happy about that because the realization I talk about in this post completely changed my life.

Another one of the most popular posts is “How I made $100,000 by spending 25 minutes and $0 on Marketing” This post explains in detail my ah-ha moment. What really made my day was when someone wrote to me and told me that he tried this and ended up landing his biggest client. Wow.

A recent post that has become quite popular is “The One Word That Helped My Blog Grow To 800+ Subscribers in 17 Weeks.” This one was quite rewarding to me because many people wrote and said that it changed their approach their blogging.

When I started this blog, I thought that I would probably just end up writing for myself. It’s incredible to learn that people are trying these strategies and seeing results in their business.

Dave: What blogs do you read to get the edge in your business?

Christine: There are so many great blogs – and I know I’m going to leaving some out… but some of my faves are:

• Freelance Folder
• Remarkablogger
• IttyBiz
• Shane and Peter
• Jarkko Laine
• Skelliewag

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Dave: Naomi, why did you decide to start a marketing business?

Naomi: The reason I went into this particular business is that it is the perfect combination of what I know and what I love. I know marketing – it’s just inherent. I’ve always gotten off on why people buy what they buy, even as a little kid. And I love itty bitty businesses. I think everybody should be at home in their pajamas with Regis and Kelly on in the background and their kids fighting over the Fruit Loops. I give out more free advice than I do paid advice — I seriously love it that much. People talk about giving back, about charity. Well, I give back by offering what I know to people who don’t know it and then their business can succeed. (No, I don’t use this as an excuse to avoid giving to charity.) At the end of the day, you can have the best f*cking website in the world – the best product, the best customer service, the best price – but if people don’t know about it, your business fails. The end. You lose. The way you get people to know about you is marketing.

Dave: How do you create really, really good marketing?

Naomi: If we want to talk about actual marketing advice, the thing that people need to know is that at its heart, marketing is only the study and knowledge of people’s brains. If you think like your customers — really, really think like them — you’ll have a pretty hard time failing. Oh, and don’t second guess yourself. No effective decisions — especially not marketing decisions — were ever made by committee, even if the committee consists only of the two warring sides of your own brain.

Dave: You say “think like your customers.” For someone who’s unsure about how to do that, how would you tell them to get started?

Naomi: That’s a hard question. It’s partly one of those things that you either have or you don’t. I’ll give it a shot, though. First, you need to remove the plurality – turn the whole wide world of potential customers into one person. That person is your target demographic. Then pretend that person is the person you love most in the world. What would you want for them?

Let’s use you for an example, Dave. You and I haven’t talked about your demos, but here’s something off the top of my head. You sell time. People say time equals money, which may or may not be true. What is true is that time equals peace.

Somewhere out there, there is a man who is terrified he can’t keep up. He wants to be a good husband but he doesn’t really know what that is. His wife says she’ll leave him if he doesn’t start spending more time with the kids, and God knows, he wants to. But the whole of Western society is telling him he’s a failure if he doesn’t provide. Except he can’t provide because some young jackass with an MBA is about to take his job and he will be jobless and wifeless and homeless if he doesn’t get his shit together very soon.

He gets up in the middle of the night, telling his wife he’s going to answer some emails, but in reality, he’s weeping at the kitchen table, BlackBerry in one hand and scotch in the other. He wants his kids to be able to pick him out of a line-up, he wants his wife to actually want to have sex with him again, he wants his father to still be alive so he could get some advice and a hug.

That is a man who needs time and peace. If you find this man, you won’t need to sell a g*ddamn thing. His Visa will be on the table so fast you’ll both get whiplash.

Dave: I know that you run your business from home, and you have a young son, Jack. What’s that like?

Naomi: I read an article once that showed the pros of starting a business at a bunch of different stages of your child’s life, from birth to, I don’t know, five? Jack was maybe 10 months old at the time. I get to the end of their little list and think, “Hey. There was a mistake there. They went straight from 6-9 months to 18-24 months. Weird.” So I keep reading to the end of the article, and there’s a little star, beside which it says something like this: “You may think that we missed 9-18 months. We did not. There are no pros to starting a business in that stage of your child’s life. It is the worst possible time to start and run a business.”

Dave: So how are you now? Are you able to get a better work-life balance?

Naomi: Now, with a new business (we ditched the offline stuff) and a 16-month-old, I can say, um, yes. That’s true. The concept of work-life balance is a total f*cking joke right now. I went so long without shaving my legs, when I finally got around to it, I broke an electric razor. Not joking. I have four months of back issues of magazines I haven’t even opened. It’s only a phase, and it’s getting better every day, but I want people to stop beating themselves up over not achieving this mystical balance status. Not possible. Just do the best you can.

Dave: Your blog is getting a lot of attention these days. What blog posts are you most proud of?

Naomi: Well, everyone seems to like the one where I get my hand stuck in a box of wine. I like it because I got to say “When you are building your product, think about the stupidest person you’ve ever met. That person is your customer” and it was OK because I was referring to myself.

I like What To Do When You’re Scared Shitless because about 150 people emailed me to say they found it helpful. Obviously it meant something to them, which is why I’m going down this crazy road in the first place.

9 Steps To Rockstar Marketing is good because it’s reasonably succinct, which I’m usually not. It kind of makes me sound like a marketing professional. Rereading it, though, I still say “asshole” at the end. Maybe not so professional after all.

Dave: What advice would you give someone just getting ready to start their own small business?

Naomi: I think the main message I would want to get across is that running your own business just isn’t as hard or unattainable as people make it out to be. When my first husband and I split up, I was 20 and pregnant and in a shelter for homeless and abused women for six months. I started my business with no loan, no capital, and a boatload of student loan debt from a degree program I left after two months. I have zero training. Zero. Less than zero. My training is like my PageRank. Minus one. I just read everything I could get my hands on and realized that there was no way I was going to allow this to fail.

Dave: Any more advice on how to succeed at business?

Keep redefining success until it becomes something you can achieve without outside influence. Lots of people like to talk about goal setting, and that’s important. But it’s a tricky business, and it can become disheartening. The gurus of the world would have you think that if you just think or pray or work or network more, any goal can be achieved. That may be true, but it doesn’t take into consideration the casualties of that kind of an attitude. If you make success something less quantitative and more qualitative, you can’t fail. And if you know you can’t fail, you can be as confident as you want.

Concretely speaking, I wanted to hit 1000 subscribers by Christmas. I didn’t hit it. I did, however, get an astonishing number of people commenting, emailing, and sending gifts from thousands of miles away to my sick nephew. Total strangers, Dave. That is success. 1000 subscribers is nothing compared to that.

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