It is the standard definition of success when you set out goals to accomplish – and turn around to do just the same. For Blogworld 2010, I more than achieved all my goals, so fortunate was I to meet the perfect people who pushed me in the directions I meant to go before leaving the conference. Funny enough, a sense of Personal Success was shoved aside – it even became slightly irrelevant – when true winners showed up and in one quick minute, stole the spotlight and all my attention along with them. These winners were Inspiration, Community, and Knowledge. Inspiration from listening to the fantastic speakers, Community from being in the company of amazing bloggers and friends, and Knowledge from the educational sessions.
The next 3 posts are dedicated to all of you who made my first Blogworld so incredibly memorable and special, those of you who could not make it and were sorely missed, and to the rest of my beloved readers who – while having no interest in blogging – read Prolific Living for inspiration and tips to apply to their own lives.
You are reading Part 1: The Inspiration of a 3-Part Blogworld 2010 series.
Good speakers captivate your attention for the length of their session but great speakers captivate your heart forever. It is the quotes from them I share here below. As I write and read these quotes, the voice of the speaker and their exact delivery flash before me. These were sublime moments during Blogworld where all complexities and challenges stepped aside and made room for hope, inspiration, and possibilities. But how could I capture for you the amazing story telling abilities of Darren Rowse, the the incredible insight and brilliance of Brian Clark, the sincerity and utter candor of Sonia Simone, the true simplicity and common sense of Leo Babauta, the hilarious and powerful deliveries of Scott Stratten, the uncommon success and genius of Scott Ginsberg and the unforgettable Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller).
Delivery or not, their content was real, practical, useful, simple – so simple! – and very smart. Here they are, may you be moved at least once and inspired to action many times from reading the best 76 quotes from my experience. (Anything in gray italics text inside parenthesis is my editorial comment!)
All photography and editing by Prolific Living – with regrets that I did not have my camera for Scott Stratten’s keynote.
The Best Quotes: Scott Stratten
1. “Stand up for what you believe. Stand out when you do it. Stand together when you build relationships.”
2. “People spread awesome.” (as in, awesome content.)
3. “If your market is People, if your niche is Human Beings, then you need to be on social media.”
4. “Three dots at the end of a Tweet means ‘we are not done yet!'”
5. “Marketing is not a task.”
6. “Make it so people want to get your content opened and consumed NOW. When they read you, they STOP what they are doing. I would stop the car and pull over.” (Made me momentarily wonder if he really does read and drive, but who cares, genius comment.)
7. “Blog with passion. Passion spreads.”
8. “For your content to get outside your circle of relationships, it must stand on its own.”
9. ” ‘Meh’ doesn’t cut it! When you don’t blog awesome, you hurt your blog!”
10. “Social bookmarking STILL works.”
11. “It is not my job to tell people HOW to consume the blog. It is my job to make sure they consume it.”
12. “Whatever we don’t use, we don’t think works. Wrong!” (Last two in response to people’s archaic or modern ways of consuming data.)”
13. “Kill your pop-ups!”
14. “If your product sucks, social media will make it suck harder!”
15. “People do business with people they know, like and trust. I did not make that up.”
16. “80% of the world are morons. No, not you.”
17. “There are 14 trillion videos on YouTube. Most of them are about cats.”
18. “You can’t shortcut relationships.”
19. “Let them hate you as long as they fear.” (Actually, this was a quote on his T-shirt, especially ordered for Blogworld, but which he also read aloud!)
20. “The trolls hate – it is easier to hate you (for your success) than to do something with their own pathetic lives.”
21. “You don’t have to justify yourself to anyone!”
The Best Quotes: Darren Rowse
22. “Love your readers to death!”
23. “Thank you for your anger but you can keep it!”
24. “People are fascinated with what other people are doing in the niche.”
25. “I sat there for the next 3 hours and watched the sales coming in. A bizarre surreal experience of $150,000 in sales in a week. But for 2 1/2 years, I was building and designing the site and doing press releases at 3am and working 12 hours a day… I remembered that success wasn’t an overnight thing.” (On the eve of his first product launch.)
26. “The Internet makes money for you when you build something that is real and when it matters to people!”
27. “The day that my wife told me (or that we decided) was the day I was petrified and motivated….that was the day I began to read about my readers and what they wanted, that was the day I stopped dreaming about my blog as a business and started treating it as a business!”
28. “I encourage you to treat your blog as a business now!”
29. “An opportunity to make the world a better place. Take action on these glimmers of potential!”
30. “My son said to me: “Daddy, Be sure to say something important to the world.””(Story of his 4-year old son interrupting him one day and later, his observation.)
The Best Quotes: Brian Clark
31. “The paradox is the more info you give away, the more people will buy what you have to give…”
32. “People think since info is free, no one will pay for it. Not true! Trends suggest otherwise.”
33. “The bikini concept: You can show just about everything but people will pay to see the rest!”
34. “Don’t be the real you! Be the best possible you!”
35. “People hate to be sold but they love to buy so let people buy!!
36. “People will tell you exactly what they want. In comments, links, social media landscape in general. Listen. Extrapolate. Do something with that information!”
37. “I don’t have a rags to riches story, just have the guts to do what I want and to really enjoy it.”
38. “If you really want to do this, then just do it and if you don’t have a fallback plan, then just make this (the blogging thing) work!”
The Best Quotes: Sonia Simone
39. “That beginning stage where you can make a connection with your readers is fleeting… Enjoy it.”
40. “Get real about how many real new connections you can make a day”
41. “No one actually wants that much authenticity!” (On how much to share with your readers.)
42. “Social media hates selling and yet you have to sell!”
43. “You have to get people to build you up. You do it with your content! Great content will eventually sell itself.”
44. “Don’t think of pitching. Think of offering… The offer is better than a pitch.”
45. “If you don’t have anything yet to sell, it’s ok. You just need to know there is an audience that is attracted to what you say.”
46. “Know where you want to go but you don’t have to know how to get there!”
47. “You have to write about something you care about and do it in a way that people (your people) care about. Be entertaining and useful or just really damn useful!”
The Best Quotes: Leo Babauta
48. “A guest post is the best kind of advertising you can have!”
49. “Selling your own products is much better than selling someone else’s products because you can completely stand behind yours!”
50. “Readers don’t care about you; they care about them until you show that you care about them!”
51. “The lesson isn’t that you should be the next Zen Habits; the lesson is that you start something from nothing.”
52. “Each of us has some kind of powerful story. Tell it.”
53. “If you have nothing else to share, nothing to say, then go out and do something amazing first.”
54. “The good stuff tends to rise to the top.”
55. “I struck a chord with people. The chord I struck is to simplify – and with the world as chaotic as it is, people were looking for it!”
56. “My measure of success is that I am helping people.”
57. “What does your reader want? They want good content, inspiration, a laugh. They are not there to see the ads or the widgets. They tolerate those for the content.”
58. “One day, I asked myself what does checking stats do for me except that it gets me excited if up and depressed if down? It only changes your emotional state but it does nothing for your blog!”
59. “You only get lucky if you are good!”
The Best Quotes: Scott Ginsberg
60. “Doing business without marketing is like existing in the dark. (as in, no one knows about you)”
61. “I have never been so simultaneously pissed off and excited at the same time. My email shut down!” (the reactions to his book success)
62. “I have already given value to you so why not ask of you to buy something…..Ask for the sale!”
63. “Social media is a listening platform for why people buy!”
64. “I don’t have a website! I have a destination!”
65. “(My goal is to) Disturb you enough so you do something that really matters!”
66. “Whenever someone challenges your aim, you have a choice!” (on not responding to trolls)
67. “What could I do at this moment that would be the exact opposite of everyone else?”
68. “Wearing a name tag isn’t an accomplishment but what is an accomplishment is making a 6-figure enterprise from it”
69. “Don’t be stopped by not knowing – “how” is overrated but know “why”!” (on pursuing your dreams)
70. “I don’t write books I write modules! (Think of your blog or your book as) You are contributing to an on going body of work!
71. “You can’t think of anything to blog about? Are you kidding? Do you have brain damage? Writer’s block doesn’t exist!!”
72. “Inspiration is for amateurs… If you don’t write it down, it didn’t happen!”
73. “Make a name for yourself. What’s your name tag?”
The Best Quotes: Penn Jillette
74. “You see an incredible increase in intimacy between people in Twitter”
75. “All I do on Twitter is try to write something that is in my heart. No magic. No secret. That’s all.”
76. “Tell the truth. Don’t manipulate.”
Two days later, I am still reeling from the excitement, the enthusiasm, the motivation and the happiness. My experience is only tinged with an ounce of regret from those of you who could not be there with us at Blogworld. You were sorely missed particularly when I was reminded yet again of the power behind a tangible human connection
Share your thoughts
Tell us what is (are) your favorite quote(s) and why? These quotes can apply to blogging, speaking and writing as much as they can to any lifestyle. I hope that you are moved to do something incredible with your life from reading these as I was from hearing them. Share your thoughts in the comments (and do tell me if I left out even more wonderful quotes from Blogworld 2010!). Thank you!
This post was featured in The @problogger Tech Daily, thanks Darren & team!
I am Farnoosh, the founder of Prolific Living. So glad you are here. My mission is to empower you to unblock your creative genius to live your dream life.