I had the privilege to talk blogging, business and proactive living with Jun Loayza the other day on his blog Viralogy.com.  Enjoy!

By the way, I’ve found Viralogy to be one of the best blogs for young entrepreneurs to learn from those who have ‘been there – done that’.  If you haven’t checked it out yet I would highly recommend it!

Eric

The last few weeks have been a little less than insane as I’ve been bombarded with all kinds of different life experiences and seeming to only have 23 hours a day to do it all.  I’ve enjoyed the steady flow of traffic from zenhabits as I’ve been promoting my different online ventures with Leo’s awesome blog.  I’ve been trying to maintain a level of quality with my blog posts that has kept me from just taking a quick break and tapping out an average message.  This has kept my post count quite low, but I think it’s worth it to keep my homepage packed with, as Leo calls them, ‘High Impact Posts’.  And finally, Liz birthed us a little baby boy on Tuesday, the 19th of this month.  That event shook things up well beyond normal and just past insane!

First, Let’s Talk Baby

OK, so the baby stuff is what most of you want to hear about, or maybe I’m just most eager to share, but either way, he’s finally here and I’m finally a member of club dad.

At 5lb 15oz’s little Tyson really lived up to his LT name.  He’s actually 20 inches long so he’s no shrimp, but he’s got my thin bone structure that makes people wrap their hands around your skinny wrists and say, “DUDE, I could like wrap my fingers around like three of your wrists!”  (Once they realize I don’t have three wrists, I’m already gone…but enough about. me )

Labor was quite intense to say the least.  Liz started having contractions at about 10:30pm Monday night, but they weren’t past the, “Wow, I think I just had a contraction?” stage until about 1 or 2 am.  By 3:30am she was starting to panic a bit, saying she wasn’t sure about the fact that we were still at home.  By 3:45am we were waiting for the Dr. to call back and running around the house in a controlled panic (if there is such a thing).

We arrived at the hospital by 4:30am and Liz had the wonderful pleasure of screaming all the way up the elevator.  OK, so she held it in pretty well, but the poor thing was hollering on the inside, I could tell.  By the time we got to our room, she was in the bathroom hollering on the outside.

The Dr. came in to check on her and could tell by the noise that she was definitely in full labor.  So we spent the next few hours laboring in different places, from the tub, to the oddly shaped bed to the birthing ball.  Refusing the epidural, Liz was left with a few shots of Fentanyl to take the edge off.  This got her through a bit more of the birthing pains, but by 6am she was pretty spent.

She laid in her bed while the Dr. came into tell her, “Your 6 centimeters.  If you plan on having and epidural, now is the cutoff time.”  Liz, being beaten down by the intense contractions, started to question her resolve.  She wasn’t sure if she could take much more of the pain without some kind of relief, but because we had spent a lot of time over the past month talking about the subject, I encouraged her to stick it out (women reading this, please don’t punch me through your computer screen.  I promise she was glad I did. )

I knew it was her spirit that was most badly beaten so I got her to stand up and do the slow dance I like to call ‘the 8 centimeter Waltz’.  For the next 2 hours we rocked back and forth, her head on my shoulder, working through each contraction.  Our focus was to forget the past, relax in the present and not worry about the future.  Without this, she would be in constant stress over everything that had happened, was happening and was about to happen (kind of like life, you know).

By 8am Liz told the nurse that she felt like the baby was much further down, as if he might drop out.  So she checked her and sure enough she was 10 centimeters and ready to push.

Liz later said that the pushing was an amazingly empowering process.  That it was the part of the labor where she had some form of control.  Finally she was able to do something with the contractions, not just bare them.

The time between the first push and Tyson’s first little cry was only about 45 minutes.  Being right there to see the whole thing (heck, I held her left leg for each push), I was blown away at the amazing process that takes place to bring a baby into the world.  And when he found his way onto Liz’s chest for the first time, we looked at each other with an amazement and joy that seemed to erase the past 10 hours of pain and uncertainty.

We had a son, he had a full head of dark brown hair and…we had a son!

Everything is going great and we’re loving every minute of it!  OK, so there have been a few hiccups here and there and we’re not quite enjoying the sleep routine that we once had (though it’s Liz that is baring the brunt of that burden…I can’t work if I can’t keep my eyes open…once again ladies, please don’t hurt me…)  Seriously, Liz is loving every minute of motherhood.  And speaking of mothers, hers has been in town for the last week helping us with everything from meals to shopping to feeding to just giving her motherly moral support.  Mother-In-Laws get a bad wrap, but mine is nothing short of amazing!

OK, Now Let’s Get Down To Business

I just wanted to update you on my latest biz banter, if you don’t mind.

I’ve had the wonderful privilege of renting a bit of prime advertising real estate on zenhabits for the last month and will be able to utilize it through the month of June as well.  Let me first say that I know few banner spots better on the Internet for reaching a rich audience of loyal blog followers.  Leo’s readers are some of the nicest, most valuable web surfers to grace the digits of my Google Analytics.  I’m not a sales pitch kind of guy and they’re not interested being pitched a sale.  I just get to share my products and services to a much larger audience and it’s been a real blessing to say the least.

Turning a product into a service and a service into a product.

My two online businesses, frugal Theme Dot Com and frugal Site Design, are a perfect match of product and service.  I’ve created a product, the frugal WordPress Theme and I use that particular theme to serve those who need a custom website.

I’ve been giving the frugal Theme away for free for the past few months now, but have recently created a Premium version that I sell, along with single and multi-use licences.  There’s still a free one available, but both the free and Premium versions have been updated with cleaner code and many enhancements.  And for those who just want it all done for them or who need a professionally customized version, they contact me over at frugal Site Design and hire me for the job.

By the way, for anyone interested, there’s a 40% payout for affiliates on all frugal products!  (I just had to throw that in. )

It’s been a great fit for me and seems to have been a good one for my clients as well.  So I couldn’t be happier about the venture and hope to take what I’ve learned and am continuing to learn about the unique challenges of online business and share them with my wonderful Motivate Thyself readers.

Finally, About Blogging

I know this isn’t a blog about blogging, but I figured I could sneak this in here and hope no one really notices.

I’ve really changed my blogging/writing style over the last 4 months or so as I’ve had less time and less desire to create ‘pretty good’ content.  I’ve dropped my 4 to 5 posts a week schedule and picked up a more ‘post when you’ve really got something worth sharing (and the time to effectively share it)’ kind of mindset.  I couldn’t get out of my head the idea that as a blogger who wants to regularly WOW his readers, I can’t afford to let my home page fill with mediocrity.  That words should not tap into the confines of my frugal Theme framework without first passing the test of personal passion for the piece in mind.

One of my fears when I first considered this shift was that I would lose a lot of my regular traffic.  I was afraid that my readers might come to think I had closed shop.  Yet I was pleasantly surprised to instead find a much greater influx of both regular readers and now and again traffic.  More of my content was being shared with the rest of the blogging community and I found a greater respect for the voice I was sharing.

This is not to say that every blog is meant for heavy hitting posts a few times a month.  Certainly the world of blogging would get quite boring if every place we landed tried to feed us a few thousand words in a sitting.  This is what I love about blogging and Internet content in general.  We can go from one place that gave us an inspiring snippet of encouragement, to another that teaches us an important new skill and then to yet another that makes us lol so hard that we can’t help but tweet about it.  It’s all essential stuff and all apart of a wonderfully complete blogging experience.

Final Thoughts

I guess what I’m finding as I’m typing these words, is that my time is limiting, but my experience is richening.  I’m working harder than ever, but on projects that matter to me and with new family members that constantly make me smile.

The Internet has been good to me.  It has allowed me to work at home and watch every minute of my sons first moments while assisting my wonderful wife as she cares for him.  It has brought the world to my fingertips and me to the world.  It has introduced me to an amazing community and allowed me to gain new friends and enjoy their loving support.

Thanks for taking these moments to catch up on my latest life experiences and I hope you maybe even took away a tip or two.  Either way, I just wanted to thank all who have been so supportive over these stressful and tiring weeks and just let you know that I won’t forget it.

’till my next post (or a little shoulder tap on Twitter )…

Eric

P.S. You’re always welcome to follow me on Twitter, but if you’re interested keeping up with Liz and her exciting new adventure, be sure to give her a follow as well.

Cost: $49 (Comes with full email support from both Sean and I)

Enjoy!

The Blueprint also has a 40% affiliate payout if your interested in signing as an affiliate.

Be sure to pop over to The Blueprint and I’ll see you over there as well as tomorrow, here at “Motivate Thyself”.

Until then…

But instead of continuing this conversation over here, please click over to our BRAND NEW BLOG, subscribe if you’d like and give is a warm, ‘Hello’.  We’d love to see you in our new ‘office’ and hope to be a strong part of your blogging growth.  I’ll see you at the Blueprint!

P.S.  Nothing has changed at “Motivate Thyself”.  I’m still fully devoted to the growth of this blog, it’s content and the wonderful community.  The Blueprint is just an addition to the family.

So I decided this weekend to bite the bullet and make the move to my Virtual Dedicated Server that I’ve been using for a different blogging project.  I must say that it was a sometimes nail biting experience (at one point, typing motivatethyself.com in a browser brought up one of those delightful, “Sorry buddy, there’s nothing there.” kind of pages.)  But I quickly resolved any of the glitches and got it all working smoothly.

Now at first, I was happy with the boost the new server gave me, but it wasn’t HUGE like I expected.  So I then went through my LONG list of active plugins and found about 8 that I wasn’t using at all.  Once I deactivated those, THEN the speed kicked in.  AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!  It was like I had just crested the peak of a great ascent and was now coasting down the other side, the cool breeze on my face and the sound of song birds in the distance.  OK, maybe not EXACTLY like that, but it was FREAKING SWEET to finally have my blog zip right along!

Some POSSIBLY useful information.

First, let’s look at the server change.  I had been using a common ‘shared server’ which is what 95% of bloggers use.  They cost about $6/month and do the job pretty well.  Also, most of the setup is automated and easy enough for the non-geeks out there.  What I moved to was a Virtual Dedicated Server which usually cost between $30-$50/month and require a significant amount more know how to setup.  But the HUGE upside is that you gain a bunch of speed, more security, more control and the ability to handle HEAVY traffic.  Even if you don’t get ‘server crashing’ traffic flow on a regular basis, one Digg front page and ‘SEE-YA LATER!’.  I’m not trying to say that most of these bloggers really NEED more than a ‘shared server’ can offer, just that these are the advantages if you ever think about taking the plunge.

Like I said, I already had this server setup for another project, so it wasn’t something I did JUST for “Motivate Thyself”.  But MAN am I glad I did it!  If you go to some of the higher traffic blogs like zenhabits or Think Simple Now, you’ll notice faster than average load times.  You get that ‘pop!’ to the next page.  These blogs are running off of these ‘higher end’ servers so they can handle the larger ‘bursts’, but they also benefit from the speed boost which doesn’t hurt.

Other factors to consider.

As I mentioned, it wasn’t JUST the server move that made the difference.  I apparently had a few too many plugins that were bogging my blog down.  Sometimes it can even be one particular plugin that can create huge speed issues.  So one thing you can do to seek greater speeds is to reduce your active plugins and weed out any troublemakers.

Also, too many high resolution images can certainly increase load times.  And this goes for the theme design as well.  Some themes,  Thesis for example, are squeaky clean and generally make for a fast’ish blogging experience.  While others may be super flashy, but also super slow when you’re surfing their pages.

A few other minor changes.

I went ahead and used this move as a chance to make a few changes here and there.  I changed my subscribe icons, for example.  Just some minor adjustments to ‘change it up’ a bit.

So I hope you’re “Motivate Thyself” surfing experience is now a bit more pleasant and efficient.  Let me know what you think or if you’re just thinking, “Dude, I don’t notice any difference.  What the heck are you talking about?!”  If that’s the case, then I’ll just shut up now.

Eric: Let’s start by taking a step back and look at the man behind the blogs and books. Leo, what does your wife think of all your online adventures and is she at all impressed with your great success?!

Leo: My wife is the most supportive woman in the world — I couldn’t have done any of this without her. Seriously, she doesn’t get enough credit for the encouragement she gives me, the time she allows me to spend doing all of this, and the patience she has for me. I love her for it.

She is even more excited than I am about every success, including the launch of this book. She’s my No. 1 fan, along with my mom.

Eric: What about your children. Do they understand your place in Blogopolis? And do they have any aspirations to join this wonderful world of posts and comments?

Leo: I think most of my kids don’t really understand what it is I do. I have suggested that they start blogs of their own, and I think they will sometime soon, but right now they don’t really get the concept. Except my oldest daughter, who is 15 and is a MySpacer. But she just rolls her eyes when I tell her about my success and tells me to stop bragging. It helps keep me grounded.

Eric: Now, as far as blogging is concerned, I have a two part question:

• As specifically as you possibly can be, what do you attribute your unusually quick rise to the tens of thousands of subscribers you have on zenhabits today?

Leo: Honestly, I feel like I’m just lucky. There are so many excellent bloggers out there that it’s hard to believe I rose so high so rapidly. But what I’ve tried to do that I think has worked is: 1) experiment with my life and share what I’ve learned, along with the failures; 2) be as genuine and sincere as I can; 3) provide as much useful information as I can; 4) present it in a concise and easy-to-read format; and 5) keep the reader’s interest first at all times.

But beyond that, I think the message of simplicity that I often talk about on my blog — whether that’s about simple productivity, living in the moment, living a simple and uncluttered life, or trying to get away from the overwhelming amount of information coming at us — I think this message has tapped into something in a lot of people that I didn’t realize was there. I thought I was alone in my desire for a simpler life and simpler way of doing things, but apparently there are lots of people out there wanting the same thing.

• And where do you see both zenhabits and blogging in general 5 years from now? Is this ‘bubble’ going to pop or is this blogging thing just getting started?

Leo: I generally try to stay away from speculating about the future. I am grateful to be doing what I’m doing now, and I’m just trying to enjoy the journey. I take things as they come and don’t plan too far in advance.

That said, I really feel like there are huge amounts of people out there, in my experience, who are using the Internet on a regular basis but who don’t know much about blogs. It’s really a huge group, and I think as they learn more about blogs we’ll all get more readers. We’ll see, though — if it doesn’t work out, I’m sure I’ll find something else exciting to do!

Eric: I’m really excited about your new book coming out, The Power of Less. On your accompanying site, thepowerofless.com, you use the tag line, “Do Less. Get More Done.” I love this because I think it packs the power of your books concept in a nice, neat little package. But what I would like to know is, how does THIS book on simplicity differ from the many that pack the shelves in the ‘Self Help’ sections of our local book stores? If I’m a reader pondering the purchase this book, what should I expect to receive that I can’t get anywhere else?

Leo: I think there are a lot of valuable books on simplicity out there — I get inspiration from them myself. What I try to offer in The Power of Less is what I’ve tried that has worked for me — these are tested concepts, not just ideals, and they have transformed my life and allowed me to achieve so much more than I ever thought possible, from quitting smoking to running three marathons to eliminating my debt and tripling my income to quitting my day job and starting two successful blogs.

And I’ve done all this while working fewer hours, making more time for what I love doing, and enjoying life more. It works, and that’s what I present — very practical principles and tactics that you can use right away, in your life, today. And if you do, I can guarantee that you’ll work in a more effective manner, have more time for what you love, and achieve more.

Eric: Finally, we’d all like to know, what’s next on your list of projects? Can you give us any hints into the next ‘stage’ in your online journey?

Leo: I like to work on one thing at a time, so this book has been my focus lately. But there are two projects I’d like to work on next — one after the other, of course. Both have to do with teaching people things I’ve learned: one is an online blogging course called “A-list Blogging Bootcamp” and the other is a teleseminar designed to help people take the principles in The Power of Less and put them into action, with my hands-on help. I just hope to continue to help people in whatever I do.

I just want to thank Leo for taking the time to share some of his life and insight with us and would encourage you guys to feel free and ask any questions as well as check out his excellent new site and book!

If you enjoyed this interview and think others might also benefit from this Q and A, please don’t hesitate to share this post in any way you see fit.  A quick Digg would be greatly apprecited.

This is post number 102, by the way.  The 100 mark came and went and I didn’t even notice.  I guess it was my Thanksgiving post that made that mark.  So here I stand, coming up on the new year and soon to become a half year old blogger.  That may sound silly to mention for some, but if you are a blogger yourself, you can understand the significance of lasting more than a month.  Blogging is a marathon and few are prepared for the many grueling miles that are mixed in with those joyous spurts of energy.  So for all those who have made it this far, let’s make a toast.  TO ENDURANCE AND EXCELLENCE!!!  (Raises glass of grape juice…I think champagne tastes like dry chalk dust. )

This leads me to the OTHER purpose of this post; the future of “Motivate Thyself” and myself as a blogger.

If you haven’t already heard, Sean Platt of Writer Dad and I are cooking up something special for launch in January.  We’re super excited about it and can’t wait to unveil all of our hard work!  But in the mean time I am making one simple adjustment to “Motivate Thyself”.  I’ve been posting Monday through Friday for awhile now, but am going to cut it back to roughly 3 days a week.  Most likely you will see new content on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of every week.  If you’re a subscriber this won’t matter because you’ll get the content when it comes out and you can just pop over when you feel like joining in the conversation.  And IN NO WAY do I intend on putting less thought into my posts.  If anything, this will allow me to go a little deeper and really be proud to push publish every time!  But this will also allow the necessary energy to be poured into our other endeavors as well.  So I think it’s a Win-Win situation for everybody and I’m excited about the ‘things to come’!

This 4 months has been a long and winding road, and yet it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the future I see for “Motivate Thyself’.  No matter how many other Internet endeavors I pursue, this blog will always be my ‘online fingerprint’.  I hope to continue to make it a true reflection of my heart and mind and I look forward to seeing you, my readers and fellow bloggers/friends share in this great experience!  I look forward to seeing you around, not only in the basement of my blog, but also in the many wonderful fingerprints you are all presenting to the world!

‘

One of the things I love about blogging is the community.  There’s such an amazing bond that is shared between those who live their ‘other’ lives in Blogopolis.  When someone needs help, it is your fellow blogger who will be there with open arms.  We understand each other as we’re all on the same roller coaster ride.

This weeks ‘Community Insight’ post is going to be a forum for your best stories of blogging camaraderie.  I want you to think of a time when you shared that special moment of connection with another blogger that helped draw you ever closer to this great ‘communication community’.  Tell us one of your blogging experiences that will encourage us all to push forward in our online pursuits.

I’ll Start…

This past week, Sean Platt of Writer Dad and I got a chance to share a series of guest posts on ProBlogger about the hows and whys of finding a blogging buddy.  We shared some of the great reasons to connect with other bloggers and go deeper into the collective power of two voices.

These posts really got me thinking about how great it is to be a blogger because of the many wonderful people you get to meet.  Without that blogging badge you would never even make eye contact with many of those in our community, but with it we all carry this common bond of blogging experience.  And here is a great example:

The other day, as I was setting up a new server for a blogging project I am working on, I had to make a technical support call to GoDaddy (who happen to have some of THE BEST hosting support around!)  When I finally got connected to the technician I had a bunch of questions.  The guy was very friendly and extremely helpful.  The further along we got into our conversation the more complicated the questions became.  And yet he just kept answering away.  By the end of this great showing of sensational service, the GoDaddy technician mentioned one last thing.  He said that I shouldn’t normally expect this kind of in depth assistance.  Not that they don’t try to help, but that their policy is to stop at a certain point and refer the customer to some form of help documentation.  They do have an ‘extra service’ plan that would give me that hand holding service, but I paid for no such assistance.

It turns out that this guy was a fellow blogger who also uses WordPress and had recently gone through a similar situation with his own blog setup.  He said that once he heard I was a blogger, he wanted to make sure I got the service I needed to get my server setup and ready for WordPress.  Basically, he was a really nice guy who just wanted to go that extra mile for a fellow blogger.

The floor is yours…