It’s Monday again and I am back from Los Angeles where I attended a blogging conference. As you all well know, I’ve been writing this blog since 1999 although since it started out as a weekly email, I did not know it was a blog. In 2007 I decided to create a web presence for this little weekly journal and was able to collect 60 of the original emails between 2002-2006, while writing an opening post explaining how this all started backdated to 1999. Who would have thought that I should have archived those emails? How could I have known I would (mostly) stay on top of a weekly writing? Oh well, it is what it is and for the most part, Mason’s whole life is documented week by week - that’s cool!
So the conference was really interesting and I absolutely took a lot away in terms of how bloggers actually make a living writing about everything under the sun. Yes, I met bloggers who write about lifestyle, food, fashion, Disney, and even a Dominatrix! Yep, she blogs about sex and the uh, interesting things people ask her to do to them for money. Writing about sex, and not just love making, her challenges have been even more than most. Can you imagine what kind of images she wants to post, or put on her marketing material? She’s even had servers shut her site down for explicit material, but what? Aren’t there porn sites all over the internet? I digress, the point is, there are many ways to monetize a blog or website, it’s just a matter of building a following and knowing what it is you are really trying to do. The next step is knowing the avenues for revenue, who are they, how do you implement them onto your site, and finally, start waking up to some newfound money in your accounts. Seriously people, it really does happen! Now all I need is an extra 3-4 hours in my already busy days to put these practices into action. Well, not for the Monday Motivator, I’ve concluded that this blog is okay just going to those of you I know and maybe a few people here or there who find it. It’s awfully personal and since it has so much of Mason’s life in it, I don’t think it’s a good thing to advertise, especially if he continues his life to be more in the public eye. People can be really mean and there is so much in this blog that could be misconstrued and taken out of context to hurt him. At some point, it may become completely private which won’t affect you, you get it via email anyway.
In other news, this week we are celebrating Mason’s one year anniversary of winning Chopped Junior. I have been sorting through my notes and photos of all the behind the scenes stuff and posting this week on Facebook. I have the whole post in it’s entirety on Mason’s website that will be live later this week, hopefully on the 11th, the actual one year anniversary. If you don’t subscribe to his website, pop over and follow, we don’t post there a lot, but it’s good stuff when we do. Of course, Facebook is the place to be, along with Mason Partak on Instagram and @MasonPartak on twitter. From the blogging conference, I learned a ton of stuff to pass on to Mason, if he played his social media cards right, he could make a boatload of money just blogging and being a social media superstar! Let’s see if he can listen to me long enough (after all, I am his mom!) to get how simple it really is.
I’m off to a full week, Mason is back to school on Wednesday (7th grade), and I have a new listing coming on the market by the end of the week. This is in addition to the two escrows I’m working through right now, one is sailing along famously, while the other seems to have glitch after glitch. Real estate is a fickle business, the commissions appear big, but keep in mind, these are gross paychecks that require we pay taxes on them (which means, save some of that cash Kathy!), and it’s been almost five months since my last paycheck. You all know what that means, it means I have credit cards to pay off. What many of you do not know, in December/January, I was working on a listing/purchase for clients I had been working with all last year. Just when they decided at Thanksgiving to take the house off the market and try again in the spring, they got an offer. We hustled and found them a house (lots of qualifying criteria to make this happen) and while I was nearing past the middle of the escrows, their house did not appraise and the buyers walked. Well, this meant we had to cancel their purchase and that meant in one day I said good bye to two really substantial paychecks - WHILE I STILL DID OVER 12 MONTHS WORTH OF WORK. Oh, was I shouting? Yeah, still a little bit of a sore spot, but people don't understand that when it's good, it's good, but it can be bad sometimes, too. Those paychecks were planned to pay for our move, buy our new washer, dryer and kitchen appliances, and other things you need when you get a new house. Suffice it to say, all of those expenses went on credit cards so all the big bucks I may have coming in the 4th quarter will pay those bills, get me new tires on my 4Runner and I’m hoping to have some money to pay my taxes next year. Yep, I’m broke again, but it’s all good, the business is getting stronger and I will get to the point that I have a cushion and do not need to rely on the credit lines. Oh, and I can blog, too! Laughing! Happy Monday, thank you for being in my life and listening to my weekly rambling. I wish we had more time to spend together in real life, but I will take what I can get - replies to my Monday Motivator!
Let me leave you with this from Mason’s journey to win Chopped Junior:
It was about this time one year ago that Mason, Janie, Hannah, and Dylan were having breakfast and then on their way to the Food Network studio to compete on Chopped Junior. I think my most favorite memory from this whole experience was earlier in the morning while Mason and I were getting ready to walk out the door to go down to breakfast, I said to him, "So really listen to me. I'm so proud of you, and I know you have the skills to win this competition. With that said, I want you to know you have already won by just being here and more than anything, I want you to have fun today. Take it all in and enjoy the journey. No matter what happens, set your intention to have fun." Mason replied, "Winning is fun.”
We went down to breakfast and we were all sitting at a long table and at the end was a smaller table just for two pushed up against the longer one. Mason was sitting there with Hannah's mom across from him. The kids were all nervous and really not eating or talking much when Mason piped up with, "Do you all realize that the next Chopped Junior champion is sitting at this table?" They all chimed in, "Yeah!" and Mason said, "No, THIS (as he placed both of his hands on the smaller table edges only he was sitting at) table." The room had an odd quiet for just a second and I got chills as I realized, he just really set his intention, like really SET HIS INTENTION.
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