Sunday night I did an interview with Beverly Mahone of BAM Enterprises, whom I did a short interview with back in January. The interview can be found online here, but if you'd rather you can download the interview here; this is a large file, so it may take awhile if you don't have high speed internet.

The topic was Reinventing Yourself Thru Your Passion (I'm spelling it that way because she spelled it that way; y'all know I know how to spell), and it was a stimulating conversation for about an hour that we had, and it was really enjoyable. I get to talk often about the technical sides of all my businesses, and last night I did talk a little bit about my ebook Using Your Website As A Marketing Tool. But most of this interview was on a more motivational topic, that being the art of reinventing oneself in both your personal and professional lives.

Let's face this fact; the economy is in a downturn and many people are losing their jobs. A great number of these jobs are unskilled positions, blue collar jobs that are important, and in many instances nicely paying jobs. The problem is that, if one loses a job like that, often they haven't really learned any true skills that helps them find new work, or even to start another career based on what they used to do.

I've often thought that was intentional, either by the companies or the unions that are supposed to protect workers; I'm not really sure. In this case it doesn't matter. What happens is that people lose their jobs, work on dealing with the trauma of that job loss, and eventually will find that they just might have to take a job that pays way lower than what they were used to before, and they feel like life as they knew it is over.

None of us is immune to having a bad day, or a series of bad days. I've always believed that people should be allowed to take some time to get their minds straight when something bad happens to them. We all respond in different degrees to certain stimulus; some people will cry for days over the passing of a pet, whereas someone else might see that as just how life works and be fine in an hour. So, none of us responds the same way to anything, and therefore how we deal with these things will differ.

After that, though, it's time to get back to work, or play, or life. I've never thought of myself as a "quote monster", but I've always had two sayings. One, which I say Nike kind of stole from me, is "just do something". The other one is "every day is another chance to start again". I really do believe that every morning when I awaken that I have another chance to do something great, another day to make a new friend, another day to make more money,... whatever it is, I have another chance for good things to come into my life. And not just me, but everyone has the same opportunities.

Today I met a friend of mine for lunch; he's a life coach. Our waitress was very friendly and open, and I always like to have a good time with waitresses who are friendly. At one point I said to her that I was expecting her to go home tonight and tell her family about this crazy, fun guy who made her laugh. She said that indeed she was going to do that, and how much she appreciated it because that morning she'd had to go to a funeral, and she had been in a down mood ever since, but since she started talking to me she was feeling much better about the day, and thanked me for it. That reminded me of another quote I heard once, which was "you never know when you'll have the opportunity to make a positive impact on someone's life."

Anyway, back to this topic of reinvention. So many people never figure out what they can do to help themselves progress when things aren't going their way. Trust me, I've been there. If you listen to the interview you'll hear my own tale of woe, then growth. All you have to do is begin the process of introspection, the internal process of discovery, and figure out what you're good at, what people will pay you for, and go from there. The biggest part of it all is what will make you happy; don't we all deserve to be happy?

So, take your shot, go out there and reinvent yourself. And, if you need help, give me a call, and we'll talk.