Happy two-year birthday to my very first ebook!

Two years ago today, I published my very first ebook on the Amazon Kindle: 99 Ways To Have A Memorable Wedding On A Shoestring Budget.

I published it as an experiment: could I do it?

That's all. It wasn't an earth-shattering manifesto nor was it intended to be.

I had a few people laugh and ask me why I could write such a book if I never planned a wedding. My answer is that this book isn't a wedding planning book. It shows 99 ways to cut costs on your wedding. Now, it only has one review--a two-star, also--which is disappointing because I've had a number of people e-mail me to thank me and to say how some of the ideas really did cut costs, for they were things they never thought of.

So, happy two-year birthday to 99 Ways To Have A Memorable Wedding On A Shoestring Budget.

Also, I have decided to expand my publishing platform to both Smashwords and Kobo Books.  Links are as follows:

99 Ways on Smashwords

99 Ways on Kobo Books

Where will you be 20 years from now?

Twenty years.  Two freaking decades.  Seems like a long time, doesn't it?

Where were you 20 years ago?  I was in college, Bemidji State University, and was probably at work on my very first novel--a deer hunting horror story that was a pure homage to Stephen King.

How about you?

Over the past week or so, I've been listening to podcasts where people are marking 20 years (or more) for something.  Dave Ramsey has been on the radio, teaching financial independence and debt freedom for a little over two decades.  Andy Andrews recently published a book he started as an audio book 20 years ago.

Then it got me thinking: what have I done in the past 20 years?  I met my wife, got married, raised a family, and have battled both type 1 diabetes (in two of our three children) and leukemia (my wife).  Now I look at what the next 20 will bring.

Are you planning for your next 20 years?

What will you accomplish?  Don't wait to start.  Do it now.  The world needs you.

What I Listen To - Dave Ramsey

The very first podcast I've ever listened to, and still listen to regularly today, is Dave Ramsey.

Dave Ramsey is a radio and TV talk-show host out of Nashville, and he teaches everything about life and money.  He teaches others how to manage money, living on a budget, in a straight-forward and practical manner.  He does this through his book The Total Money Makeover, where he teaches the Baby Steps:

1) Save $1,000 for a starter emergency fund.

2) List all of your debts, smallest to largest, and paying minimum payments on all except the smallest one.  Once that one is done, use those same payments and tackle the next one in line.  And so on.  He calls this the Debt Snowball.

3) Save for a fully-funded emergency fund.

4) Save 15% for retirement.

5) Save for your children's college.

6) Pay off the mortage.

7) Build wealth and give a bunch of it away.

Dave also teaches these principles in a 9-week course (it was 13 weeks when I went through it but he has recently revamped it) called Financial Peace University.  I highly recommend it.  Not only does he have classes going all across the country, he also has study-at-home DVD courses too.

What I download each day is his one-hour free podcast.  Here is a link to it here.  As it is virtually commercial-free (there is a one-minute advertisement around the 10-minute mark) but the rest of it is his show, which ends up being around 40 minutes--the perfect length for me.

What's interesting is that I've gotten a lot of my other podcast suggestions through listening to Dave.  Please include Dave in your RSS feed like I do, and you can enjoy this podcast Monday through Friday, each and every week.

How do you handle problems?

I'll be the first to admit that there are times I don't handle problems very well.  I may fly-off-the-handle and cuss, but then there are times when I remain calm.

I'm working on increasing the times I'm the latter vs. the former.

Last year was a testament to how I was able to handle problems.  It all started in January with our catastrophic financial events.  We worked through them but not without a lot of blood, sweat, and tears--we worked our butts off!  Then, in April, when my wife was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and spent the bulk of the remaining year in Rochester, MN, at the Mayo Clinic, I have to admit: being a single father (temporarily) really stunk.  2012 so far is turning out to be on the right track, but it still has it's valleys between the hills.  We still have financial problems (debt, in other words) but have a plan to eliminate them for good.  It's still a long road, and are sure some of the mega-banks are going to try mess with it, but with the tools my wife and I have learned through Dave Ramsey we're going to survive.

Then, when my laptop took a dump last week, I came close to flying off the handle again . . . but remained calm and came up with a plan to alleviate the problem, even temporarily.  And what really stunk is that I have an ebook coming out (for details, go to my Mr. Shoestring blog and click on the "ebook" tab) very, very soon and I'm hoping this doesn't delay it.

How do you handle problems?

Dream Team

In Napoleon Hill's classic book Think And Grow Rich one of his chapters is devoted to what is called the Mastermind Group.

A Mastermind Group is synonymous with a Dream Team.

These are a group of people, that although they may individually exhibit great talent, together they can form an unstoppable force.  Napoleon Hill said to create, in your own mind, a Mastermind Group and use that group when making decisions.  For example, one of his members was Abraham Lincoln.  Pretty hard for him to attend in person, since he's been dead a little while (even in Napoleon Hill's time), but if you've read enough about a person, it's almost like channeling their creativity or talent.

Dan Miller and Dave Ramsey have been part of group of thirteen men they call the Eagles Club, which is the same concept of the Mastermind Group with other members of the business community that they trust and are great friends with.  You can have more than one Mastermind Group--possibly one in person and the other in your mind.  One could be your writers' group and the other be a group of famous authors you wish to "channel."

Who would be on your own dream team?  Mine would possibly be:

Stephen King

George Lucas

Steven Spielberg

J. R. R. Tolkien

J. K. Rowling

John Grisham

Brandon Sanderson

J. D. Salinger

John Gardner



Am I dreaming?  Yeah, I probably am.

What were you, born in a barn?

I've been thinking long and hard about what I was going to write for Christmas Day--yes, I'm calling it Christmas.  If you have a problem with that, get over it.  And, I know, I don't usually post any blogs on the weekends, but today is a special occasion.

Several points came to mind, although all seemed to be a retelling of my Thanksgiving blog.

Two years ago, I witnessed a single act of generosity that almost brought me to tears--okay, it did, I'll just admit it.  I'm man enough to admit that I cried.  And in front of my kids too.  In fact, now that I think about it, this act of generosity had a profound effect on my kids.

Let's just say on that day we were broke.  I mean down-on-our-luck broke and it was a few weeks before Christmas.  This was a very low point in our life--funny how our lives have been like a roller coaster ride, with much of it riding along the bottom--where I would dread each day as I checked the balance in our checking account, fearful to hear the word "overdrawn".  I believe in those days we probably had more days in the negative than we did in the positive.

Being broke had nothing to do with the economy nor my lack of employment.  I had two jobs--the same two I have now--with one being a full time job as a sales rep for an electronics distributor (per company policy, I cannot disclose their name) and the part time job as a law enforcement officer.  Our money problems stemmed from our lack of budgeting--something we gladly learned because of a financial guru Dave Ramsey (for those who haven't taken his Financial Peace University I highly suggest clicking on the link and finding a class near you) and our own hard work.

On this day, it was a Saturday evening and I was in Grand Forks, ND, at a SuperOne grocery store.  I had my list of things to get (and, boy, I just got those very items and nothing more--hell, we couldn't afford it anyway).  Some things were items such as toilet paper, which there was no sale on but I could find at a bargain.  Other things were on sale.  I remember standing in the aisles, stretching the dollars as much as I could.  To say I was stressed is an understatement.  We had bounced so many damn checks in those days and even a few came back NSF--and sent on to whatever checking collection company they used to handle these.  Weird thing of it is, those checking collection companies were some of the nicest people to talk to, and understood our plight and worked with us.  Collection companies used by all of the major credit card companies like Discover, Chase, Capital One, and Citibank are not so nice--yes, I've gotten myself wrapped in their clutches too.

The grocery bill only came to a little over thirty dollars--not bad for a man and his wife's list.  For some reason, I remember the lady who was being checked out in front of me.  I'm not sure why.  It's not like she was a supermodel or a movie star or anything.  She was just a lady, probably the same age as my mother.  Probably the reason I remember her even prior to checking out is because I was running through my mind what I thought the grocery bill would come to and guessing what I had in our checking account.  The lady also, if I recall, had these canvas bags to put her groceries in, so she didn't have to use any of the store's plastic bags.  I thought this was a good idea, but when you can barely afford TP, canvas bags don't fit in the budget.

After I checked out, and thanking God for the check clearing, I gathered up my kids and started walking to the car.  That's when she stopped me.  That same lady--who I'm sure of it probably saw me in the grocery store as I contemplated which package of toilet paper was the best buy or not--was standing by the front door.

"Excuse me," she said to me, as I neared her, "but I don't see any Salvation Army kettles and I'd like to give this to you."

In her hand was $40 cash.

"Thank you," I said, the whole world seeming to close in around me.  I couldn't believe a complete stranger would just hand me money.  Some would say I probably looked pathetic enough--bargaining for toilet paper will have that affect on people--but I think it was nothing short of miraculous.

"Merry Christmas," she said, and walked out to her car.

"Merry Christmas."

My kids were speechless for several minutes as I mentally picked myself off the floor and collected myself.  I barely remember walking out to my car.  I called my wife (on a cheap Nokia cell phone nonetheless; no iPhone or SmartPhone for us) and said to her, "Do you believe in miracles?"

I told her what happened.

We both cried.

To this day, when I talk about being generous to others, my kids will ask me, "Like what that lady did to us?"

Yes, that's exactly what I mean.

Okay, $40 doesn't seem like much, but when you have nothing--and these were days when I'd go to the bank to take out $20 right after I just got paid from my two jobs and discovered my paycheck barely covered what we were overdrawn on--anything will help.

So this Christmas season, remember those who don't have much and are working their tails off just to make ends meet.  And especially remember the origin of this holiday . . . the one born in a barn.

Start a to-NOT-do list

Of all the concepts laid out by Jim Collins and his book Good to Great this one had the most profound affect on me.

Practically every business/success book or course out there prescribes the notion of having a to-do list.  This is typically at the heart of every time management book.  There's nothing wrong with this, because it lays out what needs to be done.  I use a to-do list all the time.

What Jim Collins prescribed was a "stop doing" list or a to-NOT-do list.

On one's to-NOT-do list may be as follows:

I will NOT watch 8 hours of mind-numbing television a day (or 2 or 4 or whatever your number of hours may be).

I will NOT oversleep and not write for the 1 or 2 hours I had planned in the morning.

I will NOT not write something every single day.

I will NOT drive to work listening to the latest political blow-hards on the radio or my favorite 80's rock tunes I've listened to and WILL listen to something inspiring (for me it's either a podcast by Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller, Earl Nightingale, or Writing Excuses).

I will NOT spend my breaks and lunches at work checking my Facebook status and not working on my book.

I will NOT waste my time on mind-numbing tasks on the Internet when I planned on writing or working on my blog.

I will NOT plan one weekday where I don't have at least one blog posting.

I will NOT watch the news every single day.  A 30-minute local news broadcast is fine, but not the hours and hours that Fox News/CNN/MSNBC/Etc. bring to us in their 24/7 news cycle.  Bad news is everywhere.  I don't need to fill my mind with it.

I will NOT not take a break every once and a while, simply because it gives my body and mind time to rest.

I will NOT physically devestate my body or medically devestate my mind through poor nutrition, lack of exercise, and negative attitudes.

I will NOT start my day wishing it was a different day (Monday is just a day of the week, not something to be dreaded, so get over it.).

What's on your to-NOT-do list?

What I'm thankful for . . .

This may sound like some amatuer term paper one would write in high school, to write about how I spent my summer, but with today being Thanksgiving, I thought I'd share a bit about what the last 11 months looked like and how I am truly thankful.

Right off the bat, 2011 has been one trial after another for our family.

January and February (and the early part of March) were not the best for us, financially-speaking.  Aside from filing for bankruptcy, which we didn't do, imagine two of the worst possible financial disasters one could face.  Okay, I imagine the IRS coming after us would be bad and that didn't happen, but anyway these two financial disasters were not very pleasant to work through . . . but we did it.  It took a lot of hard work, budgeting, and guidance from close family members and a financial guru named Dave Ramsey, and we did it.  We emerged stronger than ever.

Then in April, my wife was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).  Even with it being Thanksgiving and over seven months later, we're still not out of the water, but we're still working on it and my wife is healing more and more each day.  The doctor said she may not be completely healed for up to five years.

It's easy for one to look at all this and assume we would be just pissed at the world.  We're not.  We're thankful we went through the financial hell in January and February (yes, believe it or not, we're thankful) because when our other world fell apart, there would be no way we could've survived unless our financial house was in order.

I am thankful for family (most of them, and that's all I'm going to say about that so don't tempt me to elaborate - they'll come around, I'm very forgiving that way), friends, and even the community we live in.  We're also thankful for the medical staff at Altru Hospital in Grand Forks, ND and at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. We're also thankful for the generosity of so many individual people who have stepped up to help.

We're also thankful for God.  Because without His love, none of this would be possible.

You'll see me more often

When I look back at the dismal, sporadic array of postings on this blog, I'm both amazed at what I've written yet disappointed in how little there is at this point.

Well, that is about to change.

While my wife is still undergoing extensive treatments for her acute myeloid leukemia (AML), I am at home, working and taking care of our three children.  My writing time is usually devoted to an hour or so in the morning, about the same amount at night (depending on when they've retired for bed), and during breaks at my full-time job.  My purpose for this blog was to expound on my knowledge of the business of writing as well as helping others achieve their goals, even if it doesn't involve writing.  Up at this point, I've been living in the stone age.  Okay, not the real stone age, but the stone age as far as technology is concerned.  In fact, specifically, as far as my access of the Internet.  Prior to this morning, I had . . . drum roll please . . . dial-up.

Oh, God!  THE HORROR!

Yes, my friends, I had dial-up for many, many years.  Well, as of this morning, I bit the bullet and got hooked up to high-speed Internet, which will allow me to go onto my blog and post more often.

Before I leave this evening, I have to tell you about an inspirational speaker I've discovered.  His name is Simon Sinek.  I heard him mentioned on podcasts I've downloaded from Dave Ramsey as well as the TEDtalks website.  He is absolutely incredible.  So much so that I've renamed the introduction of my blog, to include the "why" of why I write.  I'm sure as I go along, I'll tweak this and hone it down like a sharp knife.  Anyway, Simon wrote a book called "Start with Why".  I haven't read his book but I plan on getting it very soon.  He explains why one is doing what they're doing, why certain leaders are remembered while others aren't.  Please check him out . . . and discover your why.