#i was gonna say it was the first big zag period but that came on the second tour date

[stabbingandorbeingstabbed]

wait what do u mean it's been 2 years since we got a blurry glimpse of metaman and then immediate radio silence for like hours can anyone hear me. the first big wardrobe zag of tour

[kinfriday]

Wandering Hops: Epicenters and Fears

Fear makes things bigger in your mind than they are. This is especially true in my case taking that I have an anxiety condition. 

For me, there is very little chill, and every issue, even a perceived issue can become a massive crisis in my head in an instant.  This is one of the reasons I hike. Conquering miles and rough terrain, helps turn down the volume on all the static surging around and empowers me in my day to day. 

At least, that’s how it normally goes… 

Loowit Falls, at first, absolutely terrified me.  As said in previous blogs, research is the key to a good hike. Before I set out on a trail, I check reports, check what the forest service (State or National depending) has to say. I read reviews on All Trails… and consult guidebooks if I have them. 

Knowledge can make the difference between a great hike, and an utter disaster, so it helps to do your homework beforehand. 

Cliches seem to be multiplying today, so let’s move on, shall we? 

Selecting this hike, I knew it to be a challenge. It’s rated as hard, clocks in at a whopping 14 miles, and is a there-and-back-again hike. Any time spent going downhill in the beginning, means uphill at the end, and vice versa. As you can see from the altitude graph, this was going to make the end especially tough, but as I was reading, it wasn’t the physical challenge stressing me out, but the trail reports warning me of ledges with severe drops, gravelly sandy trails, and grueling up-hills that did. 

Still, I’d been feeling strong the last month, making miles, and conquering hikes. Long hikes are my thing (more to come on  that later) so a 14 miler seemed a logical next step.  

With my chest tingling with excitement and a touch of fear, I told my team… “I’m gonna do it.” Or as Maya would say… YEET. 

So now it was time for the research to really begin. I began looking at the topo maps, and followed the trail on google earth. I made my plans, talked to my husband, and began to get the logistics worked out.  

Saturday, 0430, I was up and getting ready for my biggest hike to date, and all the while I was doing final gear checks, looking at maps, all that fun stuff, my nervousness beginning to build.  

Then the husband woke up, around 630 as he often does before a hike, just to spend some time with me and said, in fearful tones.  

“Bun, I’m worried about this one.” 

I just smiled and said. “Me too, but I have fallbacks in place, and if it’s something I don’t think I can do, I’ll turn around and reassess.” 

Then, he rose, hugged me, and began pricing life insurance policies.

I shit you not… this happened. I’m about to leave on a massive, monster hike, INreach SOS beacon charged, maps printed out, checklist double checked, and I’m looking forward to a nice encouraging talk with my husband, and he leaves to check on life insurance policies. 

It’s moments like this that keep a marriage together, I tell you. 

Full of confidence, I set out on highway 504 towards Mt. St Helens, the Spirit Lake Highway, only to run into a very unusual type of traffic in Toutle Washington. 

Come to find out, there was a bike rally scheduled for the day of my hike, and there were hundreds of them on the side of the road, making their way to Johnston Ridge, the very same place I was going.

Now, I can almost hear you reading this, and shrugging, no big deal right? Well for most people that would be true, but for me, well… driving is something that makes me feel anxious, my mind likes to mess with me, and so for many years I didn’t. It’s only been recently after a lot of work and dedication that I’ve felt safe getting back behind the wheel again and now I had to deal with bikers everywhere, some of whom were so bold as to occupy the car lane, and refuse to yield. 

On top of this, the weather turned foggy as I entered what is colloquially known as Big Foot Country, so as the long and windy road took me towards the parking lot, I was feeling more, and more stressed. 

The day was beginning to feel cursed, my confidence was getting shakier by the moment, and I hadn’t even set out upon the trail yet.   

Finally arriving at Johnston Ridge, the trail head, almost 4000 feet in elevation, the fog was even thicker. I couldn’t see more than 10 feet in front of me at any given time. Still, that was enough to sight the trail, and there were others there, getting ready for their own adventures. It was a motley mix of hikers, tourists and those waiting for the bikers to arrive as they picked their way up the road, but hey, at least there were porta-potties.  

 After taking a few centering breaths, and strapping on my gear,  I set off, hiking towards Boundary Trail, which would eventually take me to Loowit Falls. 

This entire section of Mt. St Helens is filled with history, making this trail an even bigger draw for me than others. Boundary Trail #1, was founded way back in the first decade of the US Forest Service. In 1911, Park Rangers rode horses from ridge to ridge, patrolling what was then the border of two national parks, Ranier and Columbia. 

Loowit Falls on the other hand, is of the newer type of history. After months of erupting back in 1980, one morning a 5.1 earthquake struck the already battered region, and an entire wall of Mt. St. Helen’s crater collapsed, and turned into a hellacious landslide, ultimately opping a peak before crashing into the valley below, inundating Spirit Lake.

Loowit Falls was one of the many new features that arose out of the cataclysm shaping the region, up on the mountain itself, directly in the path of the former landslide.  

First though, I had to get there, and the hike starts off easily enough. There’s an observation loop that lets out to the Boundary Trail, that’s made more for tourists than hikers, so the first little bit is paved. Soon though, it gives way to gravelly dirt before angling down zig zagging and switchbacking, but I’ve seen all that before. Been there done that.  

 And there’s another cliche… 

After about a mile and a half in, still wondering if I should really attempt to go for the falls, socked in by fog I came across a sign showing the trails in the area along with this picture… 

Nervously, I set out from there, heading towards my decision point. I could have gone left, or right. Left had an easier hike, that went up to a peak, ending at around 10 miles covered, with less elevation gain, but to my right, shrouded in fog and mystery, was the hike I came to conquer. 

This was the real moment of truth. All I had was my research that said it could be challenging. Some reported the height could be intimidating, others said it was merely tough. 

What should I do?

Taking a (figurative) leap of faith, I decided to for it, comforting myself with the idea that it was ok to turn back if things got to intense, and began to descend down the trail, and the mountain, making decent time. The pillowy shroud of fog continued to lay across the trail granting me no wider vista than 5 or 10 feet, but the path was wide, and  while I did get closer to edges I still had plenty of room.

Eventually things leveled out and I could tell I was in a valley as the fog slowly began to lift, and I’m thinking is that it? Really? 

From my perspective there had been nothing to be truly afraid of. The descent wasn’t especially challenging and I had felt safe the entire time.  Unlike the husband searching for life insurance, this buoyed my confidence, even though I had eleven miles still to go. With a bounce (hop?) in my step I set out, the fog continuing to lift, revealing more of the stark landscape around me. Black and red lava rocks dotted landscapes that were in some places sandy, other places akin to moonscape, sparkling with volcanic glass and in others, covered with thick shrub like trees, or coated in wildflowers of amazing colors. Chipmunks ran to and fro, eating flowers and wondering if I was going to feed them, while birds flew overhead. 

Then it happened. Suddenly the clouds broke and there was a literal mountain in front of me, emerging out of the fog like some giant from the dusty tomes of mythologies. Mt. St. Helens lay before me in all its majestic glory, and off in the distance, a light glinted off a fast moving waterfall surrounded by volcanic sand. 

That was my half way point, where I would turn around and come back, Loowit Falls. 

I stood there for a moment and took it all in. The vista before me left me awestruck by the power of nature. Then, taking a deep breath, I dug in my trekking poles and began to hike.

And hike…. 

Then hike some more… 

As I went traffic fell away to a few familiar faces, I’d pass them, then they’d pass me as we took alternating breaks, until finally around 2pm, I rounded a switchback, and heard for the first time the roar of a waterfall. 

There it was, right in front of me, the moment I had been waiting for. Loowit Falls, in all its splendor, flowed relentless down the mountain as the wind howled off the glaciers above, chilling the air to what felt like the mid to upper 40’s. 

Buttoning down my outer layer, I made my way to a flat spot, laid my pack out and had lunch, reveling in my victory only for my open pack to flop over and spill out on the ground, voiding its contents. I went from resting to scrambling as I dove for my glasses and meds, hoping they wouldn’t fall off the edge.

In some ways, it reminded me of the day so far, there was a sensation of “emotional breathing” to the experience, stress followed by periods of ease, akin to the contraction and relaxation of breathing. Up and down, in and out, oh shit to okay…

And this was the halfway point, soon I’d have to go back the way I came, picking my way back up the mountain I had descended to get back to the trailhead. The only difference being, was that now I knew the trail, I knew what to expect, so I hoisted my pack, tightened down my straps, took some water, and got back on the trail. 

My speed increased, as the air warmed and I left the slopes of St. Helens, making good time across the dramatically stark volcanic plains. Gradually, I began to feel  more accomplished than I had in a while and, by the time I had hit ten miles I was riding high. With four miles left to go I charged forward, eager for the challenge. 

Then I started to climb. All of the descent from the morning, had to be repeated, this time going up. This is where it got grueling, as if the trail was attempting to punish me for every step I made down upon it just a few hours before, but there was nothing else to do but push through it, keep pace, and enjoy the view as I ascended, granting me new perspective now that the fog was gone. 

There were places where it was quite steep, and the drops quite far, the morning’s fog had hid all that from me, but there was room, there was space, it was something to respect, but it wasn’t anything to fear.  

 All of that worry, all of that concern, and if I had let it stop me, I wouldn’t have been there. 

Humbled by that revelation, sore from the elevation I was having to make, and humbled by a day full of experiences, I pushed myself up the trail. Soon there was the last arcing climb, until I set my feet on the pavement of the observation trail yet again, and just beyond was the parking lot. 

Setting my gear in the well of the passenger seat, I popped an electrolyte tab into my water and watched it fizz as I nibbled a Clif bar, feeling like the master of my own little universe, resting from the exertion of the day. Once I had some time to recharge, I put the key in the ignition, put the car into drive, and had a major anxiety attack.  

The problem with anxiety attacks it that you know, rationally, everything is fine. The problem is your brain isn’t listening to reason. I worked through my coping skills, and tried to get myself centered, but nothing was working. I was exhausted from the hike, and the worries of the day, and it was all crashing in on me at once, amassing as a parade of my biggest fears, and inner demons within my mind. 

I made it about three miles before I had to pull over. I stopped in at  the Coldwater boat dock, the location of last week's hike, and took a few more deep breaths, walked around the car, and tried to get my  mind right. Finally I messaged my husband letting him know what was going on. 

Messages travel slower by satellite than text, and so I had some time to sit. I looked out on the parking lot, at the strange bathrooms that looked like forgotten temples, and it reminded me that I had hiked twelve miles last week, and today, I had hiked fourteen…  

That caused my brain to stop and pause for a moment, like rays of sunshine penetrating the gloom.

I had excelled through challenges, walked along ridges, and managed my water.  I was capable, I was competent, and I was ok.

In the face of this revelation, the anxiety began to let go, and a lightbulb went off in my head. I had a weapon now against it, a reminder, that I was stronger than I thought, and as the messages came back from my husband and other supportive folks, the anxiety withered away.

In spite of all of the difficulties of the day, I had made it, and now, all I had to do was drive home. Turning the car back on, and setting into drive, I carefully made my way out of the parking lot, already thinking of next week's adventure.

[lpdwillwrite4coffee]

BLOODY SUNRISE CHAPTER TEN

“C’mon now,” Booker laughed, holding his hands up. “Put your weight into it.”

Caitlin balled up her fists, keeping them at her chin like he taught her.

Booker tapped the center of his left palm. “Right there. C’mon, like ya mean it.”

She jabbed, knuckles making contact with his hand. It barely stung and he didn’t even flinch.

“Really, Meadows?”

She sighed and dropped her arms. “I’m trying.”

“No you’re not, you’re pussyfootin’,” he said, lowering his hands. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of hurtin’ me.”

She bit the tip of her tongue to keep quiet.

Every day for at least an hour Booker had been teaching her self-defense. He started with blocking and how to disarm someone, and then moved on to more offensive tactics—proper punching form, sparring, and how to escape certain holds.

She was getting better, but her punch needed some work.

“Maybe I’m just not annoyed with you enough,” she said, smirking and lifting an eyebrow.

“If our fight this mornin’ about the last of the peanut butter wasn’t enough to piss you off for a day, I dunno what is.”

She scowled at him. “I told you not to bring it up again.”

Booker grinned and held his hands up. “That’s it. G’head, throw that punch out.”

She jabbed and skin to skin snapped like a rubber band.

“There ya go, that’s it,” he said, voice low.

The deep rumble of words sent goosebumps up her arms, completely out of place in the Mississippi summer heat.

“C’mon, Cae,” he urged.

It was too similar to her dream.

The first time in over a month she didn’t have a nightmare or empty void of unconsciousness and it turned into… that.

“Hey, where’d ya go?” He asked, brow furrowing.

“Huh?”

“Disappearin’ in your head again.”

She blinked. “Sorry.”

Readjusting her stance, she gave a couple fierce punches, and tried to ignore the tiny thrill skipping through her as Booker grunted.

He was going to figure it out. He read her too well, always telling her she thought too loud.

Not that he was the Sphinx riddle to her either.

She knew. She saw the hints of pink high on his cheekbones and the tips of his ears when she moaned into a good stretch. How he’d practically snap his neck to avoid watching her clean off in a creek or pond. He’d give in eventually, and she knew the moment exactly—Her pulse would always quicken, and the hair would raise at the back of her neck. Like being watched by a wolf in the forest.

Not that she’d mind being devoured.

“What?”

Booker’s voice brought her back to the present so fast she could’ve gotten whiplash.

“Lost steam, Meadows,” he commented. “You need a break?”

She bit the inside of her lip.

She needed something else entirely.

“Yeah, sure.” Dropping her fists, she wandered over to the Jeep and sat on the bumper.

Sweat dripped down her neck from her hairline, and she wiped at it. She was perpetually damp from the heat and humidity, never able to fully cool off.

Glancing up, she caught Booker staring at where her hand was against her collarbone. Quickly he ducked and turned away, suddenly very interested in the tree they’d parked under.

Oh yeah, he was an open book.

Standing, she opened up the back and took a small amount of toilet paper off the roll they had at the ready.

“I’m gonna…” She trailed off, flashing the Charmin.

“Stay close,” he said, and she rolled her eyes.

Over protective, as always.

She’d just finished and was about to yank her underwear back up when she noticed.

“Shit.” It was louder than intended.

“Y’alright?”

“Uh… yeah.”

Boots crunched closer. “Meadows?”

She sighed and glared up at the branches over her head. “Can you toss me my pack?”

“Y’get bit by somethin’ or—”

“No, Booker, geez,” she snapped. “Just throw me my bag, please?”

He muttered something incomprehensible and strode away. The Jeep door opened and shut and then he was returning.

“Where you at?”

“No, don’t come over,” she called. “Just toss it…” She held her hand up so he knew where to aim.

Her pack landed a foot away and she snatched it up.

Booker was leaning against the Jeep when she returned, sipping on a water bottle.

“Somethin’ wrong?”

Shoving her pack behind the passenger seat, she shook her head. “Nope. You ready to head out?”

He looked like he was trying too hard not to grin. “Sure.”

They were on the road less than two minutes before he was cocking his head at her.

“Got your period, huh?”

Caitlin nearly choked on her Gatorade.

Booker laughed at her reaction, shifting his hold on the wheel—back to that alpha male wrist driving she hated so goddamn much.

“The fuck, Booker.”

“It’s not like you were subtle.”

“It’s none of your business.”

“Sure it is.”

“Excuse me?”

He laughed again. “I mean, in terms of a supply run. We gotta make sure you have what y’need.”

“I’m good. I have plenty.”

“Besides, I ain’t a caveman,” he said, eyeing her like he was waiting for her to counter that statement. “I understand biology.”

“Bully for you, you’re a 21st century man.” She pointedly stared out the window, wind tangling her hair.

There was a beat before he said, “Why’d you think ya had hide it?”

“I wasn’t—”

“You were.”

She sighed. “I don’t know, Booker, maybe I’m just not used to living with a man.”

He nodded, making an affirmative noise at the back of this throat. “Makes sense.” He glanced over at her, adding, “Y’mean, uh… Nathaniel ain’t the Tampax run in the middle of the night, kinda guy?”

Caitlin’s eyes widened. She hadn’t thought of Nathaniel in days.

“We never lived together.” She stared at Booker’s profile. “I’m sure he would’ve if I’d asked.”

“Usin’ past tense,” Booker commented. “That mean you think he’s gone?”

She considered it a moment. “It means… I don’t know where we stand if I do find him again.”

Everything in her screamed at the vulnerability of her statement. She’d left herself wide open for a barrage of questions that would all lead to the same conclusion.

Her feelings had shifted.

It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out the rest.

By the grace of a god she didn’t believe in, Booker only hummed and nodded in understanding.

                                                               ***

Since acquiring the Jeep, their routine had changed significantly. Off roading wasn’t much of an issue as long as the trees weren’t too thick. They made infinitely better time and now that they were further from Atlanta, odds of running across military goon squads were slim. Highways were still packed with abandoned cars, but Caitlin enjoyed the scavenging. It was something she was good at, and she had an eye for people’s patterns and habits, which meant she could always tell who had the better stuff.

She’d taken to collecting CDs along with essentials. It kept her sane, gathering such small tokens of optimism. Not to mention it was helpful in drowning out Booker’s bickering from time to time.

After several days of zig-zagging across Alabama and into Mississippi, they decided to make camp near a freshwater pond to rest and clean up.

Booker kept watch, just like always, as she rinsed off.

Like a wolf in the woods…

Glancing over her shoulder, she spotted him crouched on the grassy hill, rifle in hand. He was staring off into the distance, but she knew he was only focused on her.

Knew it as well as her own heartbeat.

Viscerally interdependent.

Innocent and primitive.

We run together.

That night they slept with the canvas off the Jeep, desperate for even the faintest breeze.

“Booker, why don’t you let me take first watch?” She offered.

He hid it well, but his exhaustion was starting to show beneath his eyes. She knew Booker didn’t sleep much—never had, since the day they met—but he was still human. And she was steadier with a weapon, had better instincts when night came now than she did.

“I’m alright, songbird,” he told her as he settled back against the door. “You sleep.”

Songbird. He’d never called her that before.

She wanted to tease him about it, but something desperate and hungry inside her was afraid he’d never say it again if she did.

She loved the pet name too much to lose it.

Her dream that night was of a house in the country. A buttercup yellow kitchen. Coffee brewing, the scent filling the whole room. A ring on her left finger, a big smile just for her, and kisses that didn’t end.

It was still dark when she stirred awake.

“Dreamin’?”

She stretched and looked up at him. “Mhm-hm.”

“Good one?”

Caitlin stilled. “Yeah. Yeah it was.”

“’Bout time,” Booker murmured.

She knew what he wasn’t saying.

Breaks my heart when you wake up frightened.

I hate that I can’t protect you from it.

Sleep still fogged her thoughts, made her loopy like she’d taken cold meds.

At least that was what she told herself, how she excused what she did next.

Pushing up onto her right hand, Caitlin reached for him. It was tentative, a graze of her fingers over his chest, up to the side of his neck.

Booker froze like a startled animal.

A wolf caught off guard.

He stared down at her, eyes locked on her in the dark. Sitting up as best as she could, Caitlin leaned close, nose brushing over his cheek before tilting up and pressing her lips to his.

Time became elastic, stretching in infinite directions.

Fixed in place, neither of them eased into the kiss for what felt like eternity. Both too shocked, too overwhelmed, too scared of it all being an elaborate hallucination.

And then his lips moved against hers gently, and time snapped back.

Caitlin lunged forward, clutching his face in her hands. She was starved, frantic… A wolf in her own right.

Booker wrapped his arm around her waist, dragging her closer. Blindly, he discarded his rifle to the side a safe distance away, right as she crawled into his lap. Knees on either side of his thighs, she kissed him like she was dying.

Maybe she had been. Maybe they both were.

Snaking his hands under the hem of her shirt, he lit sparks all over her skin. Her hips, her back, her ribs—everywhere he touched came alive.

Meanwhile she couldn’t get enough of his mouth.

That smart mouth that had pushed her to the edge so many times, driven her crazy, bickered with her for hours… Now she wanted nothing else but to taste every inch, to memorize each curve, to lose herself when his teeth sunk into her bottom lip.

A moan escaped her, and Booker’s grip tightened on her hips. She answered by grinding down against the growing bulge in his jeans and his breath stuttered.

Ducking down, she dragged her teeth over the tendon in his neck, and the full body shudder he had made her giddy.

His left hand came up under her chin, forcing her mouth back to his. This time he kissed her like he was branding her, and she turned to liquid beneath his touch.

They fumbled with each other’s shirts, yanking at fabric with little finesse. As soon as Booker cupped her breasts over the cotton of her bra, she arched forward like she’d been shocked.

Everything. She wanted everything, all at once.

She didn’t wait for him to attempt to unhook her—she reached back and undid her bra, sliding it off her arms and tossing it somewhere in the Jeep.

“How’s a man supposed to go slow when y’do somethin’ like that, huh?” He mumbled against the corner of her mouth.

Caitlin grinned and brought his hands up to her breasts again. Calloused palms were deliciously rough against sensitive flesh, skilled fingers pinching and tugging. Then his lips were gone from hers, only to find a new home latched on her left nipple, and she gasped sharply.

“Fuck,” she breathed, clutching the back of his head. He groaned against her, making her shiver, and she pulled his hair. He seemed to enjoy that if his tongue was any indicator.

Booker switched sides, making her head swim with how perfect it all was. He knew her, inside and out, could feel her signals even before she did.

Viscerally interconnected.

Without letting her go, Booker started undoing the fly of her jeans, popping the button one handed and tugging the zipper.

His fingers had just brushed the skin below her navel when a spike of something worrisome shot through her. She recoiled slightly, and he stopped everything.

“Too much?” He looked up at her. “We can stop, if—”

“No, no.” She clutched his hand. “I just… The last time I did this was before…”

Before the world ended.

“When I had a shower of my own, access to a razor…” She laughed softly.

Booker’s hand tangled in her hair as he dragged his nose between her breasts, over her collarbone, and up her neck.

“Smell like heaven to me,” he murmured, kissing her pulse point. “As for the razor…” His knuckles skimmed over her lower abdomen, stopping at the elastic of her underwear. “Never did care much for the shaved look.”

He nipped at her ear and she jerked, moaning quietly.

That settled it then.

In a flurry, she slid off him to yank her jeans down her thighs. Booker helped, chuckling at her enthusiasm. When they were off and tossed away, he bent down to kiss up her leg, from knee to hip, licking and teasing her as he went.

He moved along the length of her body, peppering her with kisses and kitten licks, driving her mad with lust.

Pushing at his thick shoulders, she forced him up, much to his confusion until he caught her meaning.

On your back.

He did so without hesitation, hauling her with him as he shifted.

She straddled him with fierce determination, planting her hands on his chest and leaning down to kiss him until he was groaning into her mouth.

Caitlin rocked her hips, egging him on with sweet torture. Booker’s fingertips dug into the meat of her ass and she whimpered as pleasure rolled through her.

“Cae…” His voice was gravel. “C’mere.”

She frowned, unsure of how much closer she could get. And then it clicked.

“Are you… I mean…”

Booker tugged at her hips, guiding her. “God, yes.”

It took a little maneuvering, careful not to knee him in the face, but then he was holding her still with those broad hands on either side of her hip bones.

He nuzzled the inside of her thighs, alternating between kissing and biting until she was choking on each gasp and moan. Sliding his thumb under the elastic, he yanked the center fabric to the side and—

“Oh, fuck,” she cried out, covering her mouth.

He slid his tongue between her folds, tasting thoroughly and groaning against her.

“Jack… Jack,” she panted, scrambling for purchase on the interior of the Jeep.

His moans were almost as desperate as hers. Sucking her clit between his lips, he hummed, and Caitlin saw stars.

“Jack!” She grabbed his hair, fingers twisting, and he nodded against her.

Do what you want.

Take what you need.

Fuck me.

Thrusting her hips, she worked against his tongue, finding a rhythm that left her almost breathless.

Barreling towards climax, she knew she couldn’t be quiet, knew she’d scream like a demon if given half the chance.

Grabbing his wrist, she yanked his hand to her mouth, taking his first three fingers down to the knuckle. Booker groaned, hips twitching involuntarily.

The first wave hit, and Caitlin arched back, cries muffled by his hand.

Her orgasm crashed over her, unrelenting. Booker took delight in eating her through it, burying his face between her thighs.

Releasing his fingers from between her lips, she gasped and tried to pull back.

“Booker, ah, oh God,” she moaned. “I… Can’t…”

Except he was still circling her clit with the tip of his tongue, and before she could try to climb down, she was shattering apart again.

“Jesus Christ, Jack,” she panted, pitching forward.

By the way he wasn’t slowing, he was gunning to give her a third, and she wasn’t sure if her body was aching from need or overstimulation.

He knew though. Knew she could take it, could have it, knew he’d die to feel her come on his tongue again.

Her palm smacked the driver’s seat headrest as she held on for dear life.

Wolf devouring wolf.

Consumed and made whole, all at once.

Caitlin’s voice cracked in half when she came again, nails gouging the upholstery.

Finally, Booker eased back, groaning like he’d been given a straight shot of dopamine.

He held her safely as she moved off him, catching her breath.

“Fuck me.”

Booker chuckled, running his fingers up his chin, collecting what was left dripping down him.

“No, Jack,” she said, waiting for him to look at her. “Fuck me.”

He stared, wide eyed for a split second, before he was rolling on top of her.

Caitlin clutched his face, kissing him deeply. He tasted like her, and it sent a thrill coursing through her.

Booker manhandled her onto her back, gripping her thighs as he slid her where he needed. Hitching her leg around his waist, he ground against her sensitive core, making her moan into his shoulder.

“I’ll try t’go easy,” he murmured into her neck.

She didn’t want easy. Didn’t want gentle.

She wanted to feel brutally alive with him inside her.

And she let him know just as much by digging her nails into his muscled back, scratching hard enough to leave welts.

“Ah, Cae,” he hissed, dropping his head to her sternum.

Placing a kiss there, he sat back just far enough to undo his belt and fly. The second he freed himself, Caitlin’s mouth watered.

Booker groaned, and she glanced up.

“Can’t look at me like that,” he said. “Killin’ me, darlin’.”

She grinned and trailed her hand over the ridgelines of his stomach to the course line of hair leading down from his navel.

“Have to show you what this mouth can do another time,” she said, fingers circling his length. He twitched in her hand and she bloomed with pride.

Leaning forward, Booker kissed her fiercely and grabbed her hips. In an instant he stripped her panties off, tossing them towards the front. Forcing her ass off the Jeep floor, he pulled her closer until she was resting on his thighs, legs spread wide around him.

She was already flushed and shaking with anticipation, and then he nudged at her entrance and she arched her back like a bow.

He took his time opening her up, sliding in inch by inch. When he bottomed out, she gasped and clutched his forearm, nails leaving red crescents deep in his skin.

“Yes, God yes,” she breathed, nodding.

Through half-shut eyes she watched him withdraw only to slam back inside her. His left hand kept her hips where he wanted, while his right reached up, squeezing her breast with just enough pressure to make her moan.

“Cae… Shit,” he grunted as he thrust.

He shook from all his restraint, but she needed more. Dragging her nails over his chest, she silently begged for him to let go.

He obliged.

Hips snapping forward, he picked up the pace until the Jeep was rocking from the force of it.

Alive. They were alive. With all the messy, complicated parts that entailed… They still had air in their lungs, still had heartbeats.

Still had each other.

Caitlin’s walls fluttered, clenching around him as she came with a broken cry.

Booker gripped her thighs hard enough to leave small bruises, and she wanted them all. He fucked her harder, growling as his climax hit, tipping him forward.

Gulping for air, face buried in her hair, Booker slowly came back to himself.

He kissed the hinge of her jaw, nosing her ear and cheek until she giggled.

“Well that’s the best car sex I’ve ever had,” she said, stroking his back.

Booker chuckled, sucking a mark into her neck. “Foldin’ seats are a miracle.”

She laughed again, and he groaned, feeling it from where he was still inside her. After a moment, he withdrew and haphazardly tucked himself back into his jeans, before laying down next to her.

Caitlin rolled to face him, and he offered himself as a pillow.

“Y’cold?” He asked, threading his fingers through her hair.

“You’re kidding right?” She kissed his chest. “Summer in Mississippi. I’ll never be cold again.”

He chuckled again, and she felt the reverberation in her own ribcage.

They laid in silence, listening to the crickets and each other’s breathing.

“Jack…”

He pressed his lips to the top of her head.

“Yeah.”

This meant something.

This really meant something.

Holding him tight, Caitlin drifted off to sleep with Booker’s heartbeat in her ear.

                                                               ***

She thought it was a dream. A vivid, intense dream concocted from the potent mix of loneliness, survival, and hormones.

And then she opened her eyes.

She was covered by one of Booker’s plaid shirts, naked underneath, and aching in every way that would indicate she had in fact fucked him in the back of the Jeep.

Booker wasn’t with her though.

Early morning light stung her sensitive eyes as she looked around. She spotted her jeans, shirt; her bra had landed on the dashboard.

Sitting up, she held the shirt to her chest and finger combed her hair. It was the first morning she’d ever woken up without Booker at her side, and it left her with a shaky feeling in her stomach.

“Jack?”

Nothing.

Caitlin pulled the shirt on, buttoning it, and slid out of the Jeep.

His rifle was gone, but everything else was where it should be. Even the few clothes they’d rinsed and left to dry on tree branches were there.

Taking stock of her surroundings, she made a list of things Booker would do, places he’d go, without waking her to tell her he was leaving.

It was a short list.

If he’d been relieving himself in the bushes, he’d have heard her and responded. So that left the pond.

Through the trees and over the slope of grassy hillside, she spotted the water glittering in the sun. The splashes gave him away.

Ducking beneath the surface, he popped back up, flinging his wet hair and scrubbing his face. He was waist deep, and from what she could tell, totally nude.

Being barefoot gave her a silent advantage, and she used it, sneaking closer to the bank and sitting down next to his clothes and rifle.

She didn’t get many opportunities to see him just… be. Not planning their route, watching for roaming Geeks, scavenging for supplies. Just being.

It felt vulnerable to her in a way she’d long thought couldn’t exist in a broken world.

She’d never been happier to be wrong.

Hugging her knees to her chest, she smiled as she waited for him to notice her.

She knew the second he did—Hand stilling as he washed his arm, head tilting just enough to spot her on the grass.

“You peepin’ on me now?” He asked, grinning.

“Maybe a little.”

Turning slowly in the water, his gaze raked over her bare legs. “How ‘bout you get in here and join me?”

“Somebody’s gotta keep watch.”

He always looked after her. Always put her safety ahead of his own. She would have done anything to return that favor, if only for a morning.

“Sayin’ I can’t multitask?”

She rolled her eyes, smile still playing at her lips. “We both know you struggle with that one.”

Wading over, his stare was predatory, but she’d never felt safer.

Gently grabbing her ankles, he pulled until her legs stretched out. She was considerably fairer skinned than he was, especially since her legs hadn’t seen daylight in two months. Wet fingers trailed over her, playing a subtle game of connect the dots with her freckles and the love bites and stubble burn he’d left on the inside of her thighs.

Rubbing his thumb over the darkest of the bruises, he glanced up at her face.

“Y’alright?”

Does it hurt?

Do you regret it?

Are we…

She cupped his jaw, brushing the corner of his mouth with her thumb, and smiled.

“Yeah.” In the sun she could see the red lines her nails had left on his shoulders and over his left pectoral. They’d marked each other.

She locked eyes with him. “You weren’t in the Jeep when I woke up.”

“You were out like a light,” he said, arching into her touch. “Didn’t have the heart to wake you.”

“You should’ve.” Her fingers toyed with the wet hair by his ear. “I was worried.”

His calloused palm skimmed up her thigh, disappearing beneath the hem of her borrowed shirt.

“’M sorry, songbird,” he murmured, kissing her wrist. “Y’gonna let me make it up to ya?”

She grinned and started undoing the few buttons she’d fastened.

Gripping her calves, he tugged her closer until her feet were in the water. “Knew it.”

“Knew what?”

“My shirt looks damn fine on you, darlin’.”

Her giggle was muffled by him leaning up to kiss her.

They had to go slow, as she was still sore, but she didn’t care. Especially when Booker was finally in her, drawing in and out languidly, making her moan each time he hit that perfect spot.

And then he pulled her leg up over his shoulder, and she was choking on a gasp.

“Beautiful, Cae,” he murmured, pressing his lips to the inside of her knee. “So beautiful.”

“Jack…” She clawed at the grass, at his bicep, desperate to hold onto something. “I’m…”

“That’s it.”

“Oh God.” She came with blinding intensity, arching her back and tossing her head against the bank of the pond.

He followed moments later, groaning her name.

Those few seconds of stillness were the closest to peace either of them had felt in months.

Dwelling in satisfaction, Caitlin stretched her legs, letting her feet submerge in the cool water. Letting her eyes close, she sighed, only to get yanked even closer to the edge of the pond by a grinning Booker. He caught her before she slid in the mud, hoisting her up and gently settling her into the water waist-deep.

Booker helped her get cleaned up, washing her hair for her and trailing kisses over the back of her neck. When he cupped her breast as she rinsed, she playfully splashed water in his face, making him laugh. They chased each other around the pond like it was their own Eden.

They’d already begun to feel like the only people on earth.

When they dried off and started back towards the Jeep, Booker handed her his plaid shirt back.

“Looks better on you,” he said, kissing her.

She waited until he wasn’t looking to bring it to her nose, breathing in his scent.

They planned as they ate.

Head to one of the highways they’d seen packed with abandoned cars, siphon as much gas as they could, scavenge food, clothes, and supplies, and start north. They’d mapped out several alternate routes in their days after leaving Alabama. If one was blocked, they had other ways to get around.

If they stuck to a strict schedule, rationed their food, and were able to find fuel along the way, they could be in New York by the end of the week.

Caitlin started to tremble. Hope… They had hope.

She might see her friends again.

[laurendcameron]

How to Get Unstuck and Build Your Online Business – Jason van Orden

Episode: 305 Who: Jason van Orden Website/Blog: JasonVanOrden.com

Do you ever feel stuck or dissatisfied with your business?

Are you feeling like you need a change, but you’re not sure where to start?

Today, I’m talking to Jason van Orden, who has worked with more than 6,000 students and clients over the past twelve years, teaching them about how to monetize their unique brilliance with content marketing, scalable courses, and automated sales systems. In September 2005, Jason co-founded the first ever podcast about internet business and online marketing, which quickly became one of the top business podcasts in the world and one of the most profitable on iTunes.

Listen to This Episode

He’s also the author of the bestselling book Promoting Your Podcast, and his work has been used to teach marketing at the university level. In case that’s not enough for you, he has also been featured on Forbes.com and Entrepreneur.com.

I brought Jason on today because he and I have been chatting lately about a topic that’s near and dear to my heart. We’re gonna talk about changes that are happening and need to happen in the industry.

Jason’s Story

Jason actually has a double degree in Jazz Guitar and computer engineering. He kind of fell into business and podcasting. He says that he didn’t know he wanted to be an entrepreneur.

Jason Van Orden

Jason enjoys programming (he has done it since age 5), but he really did not enjoy working in a corporate atmosphere. Like a lot of us, he was tired of the “Sunday night dread” and hitting the snooze button a million times.

It was long, zig-zagging journey to find his niche. He was opened up to real estate investment through reading books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, for example. It was a step by step process. Once Jason realized he was good at real estate marketing, he started teaching people what was then called “information marketing.” This was around 2004,  pre-social media and pre-online video, and he was looking for more ways to market his seminars.

So when podcasting showed up in 2005, it was intriguing to Jason for a number of reasons. He very quickly set the goal of becoming “the business podcasting guy.”

His podcast, Internet Business Mastery, very unexpectedly turned into a six-figure business and beyond. It quickly became a primary focus for Jason and continued to be the backbone of his business until he moved into consulting 2 years ago.

Internet Business Mastery Website

Jason calls his journey a “zig-zaggy, circuitious path.” I think will resonate with a lot of us: you go in a direction, and you don’t know where it will take you. You think the outcome will be one thing, but you find out that’s not where you needed to go. So you are constantly changing the plan and reinventing yourself.

Taking Your Own Path

Jason very quickly set the goal of becoming “the business podcasting guy.”

Nowadays, it sounds totally reasonable to start a podcast to help your business. But back in 2005, no one was doing it like that! So I want to know what made Jason go in that direction when no one else was doing it that way. It’s intriguing to me because there wouldn’t have been a mentor to lead him toward business podcasting at the time.

Jason says that he had no reason to think podcasting was going to take off the way it did, except that he had a gut feeling about it. So he followed his gut. And of course, there was a little bit of luck involved. But when I ask him why he went that way, Jason answers,  “I almost didn’t, honestly!”

Thankfully, his wife really encouraged him to go for it. She had helped him to process the fear of quitting his engineering job back in 2003, and now she was helping him face the fear of going into podcasting. As Jason emphasizes, it is hugely important to have those advocates in your life, whether it’s your spouse, your mentor, or your Mastermind group.

Making a Change

About three years ago, Jason needed to make some changes. The industry was really starting to wear on him.

Jason needed to make some changes. The industry was really starting to wear on him.

He was living in Paris at the time with his wife and daughter. This was the pinnacle of his lifestyle dreams: he had always wanted to live in Paris, even before he went to college. And he says that he was “loving it.”

But there was a big “but”. All of a sudden, the business he had built wasn’t fulfilling him the way it used to. Keep in mind that his job was advising people to choose their niche carefully because it needs to fulfill you and can’t just be a money maker. But suddenly, he felt like he was not being fed by his work. He wasn’t enjoying it.

Jason says he felt like a fraud: what would his students and customers think if they knew that he didn’t actually enjoy the work himself?

This led to a prolonged period of soul-searching. Jason kept asking, “Why do I feel this way? What’s out of alignment?” He needed to discover what it was that had to change.

His wife stepped in again and recommended taking a retreat. He says that she recognized some of the stuff she had seen over a decade before when Jason wasn’t satisfied in his job as an engineer, and she knew he was avoiding really digging into “the meat of the matter.”

Would Jason say he was depressed at that time? Yes: he says that it “absolutely was the beginning of depression”.  He uses the analogy of a frog sitting in boiling water: the feelings of dissatisfaction were slowly eroding “all the things that I depended on as an information-based business owner.” He had to stop ignoring it and putting it off in order to recognize depression.

Give yourself space to get out of your usual element, and to give yourself time.

Now, when you’re a podcaster, you have to show up and perform on a weekly basis. When I turn on my microphone, I know that I have a mission to complete. But when you’re feeling a lack of fulfillment, it must be difficult to show up.

Jason agrees that it took a lot more energy to podcast when he was feeling depressed. He hasn’t gone back to listen, but he’s sure people noticed that the tone of the show was changing. He was mustering energy rather than being excited to share new things.

Jason now realizes that his momentum had ceased. He had been doing the same thing for ten years and had gotten complacent. He uses the image of a shark to explain what he means: sharks need to move through water in order to get oxygen through their gills. They’ll suffocate if they don’t move because the water isn’t bringing them that oxygen. That’s how Jason was feeling: stuck and suffocated.

He figured out that he needed to give himself space. When we find ourselves stuck, it can be easy to isolate ourselves. We might be feeling guilty, or shameful and, according to Jason, we ”isolate ourselves from the very input that we need.” Talking to others helps you get “unstuck.” If you’re feeling suffocated, Jason recommends giving yourself space to get out of your usual element, and to give yourself time.

So after he took the retreat his wife recommended, Jason realized he needed more time and took a sabbatical. This allowed him to learn that his drive was gone because he wasn’t being challenged, wasn’t pushing self to master new things. It was time to change some things up, and he had gone too long without listening to those needs.

Getting Unstuck

When he came back to New York City in 2015 to speak to his business partner, Jason was worried. How is the business supposed to survive if they don’t show up and create the content?

Luckily, his partner was feeling kinda the same way. He was very supportive and suggested that they come up with a creative solution to give themselves some time to rejuvenate the business.  

In the end, they found a way to just show up to do the podcast and hire someone else to do the rest. This started as a 3-month break, but it became 18 months. Jason continued to make the same money as before, but he only had to work about 4 hours a month. This wasn’t sustainable long term, but it gave him the room to figure out next steps and reinvent the business.

His advice when you’re feeling depressed, dissatisfied, or stuck?

1. Don’t isolate yourself.

Sharing how hard things have been or how down you’re feeling will help you to unlock and process this stuff.

2. Get out there and have conversations with people.

This should be people you trust as well as new people. You never know who will spark an idea.

3. You're not the only one.

Remember that you’re not the only one that goes through these things (even though it feels like that in the moment). Every entrepreneur has these struggles from time to time.

4. Don’t neglect your mental health.

Our minds are a part of our products, and if your mental health is suffering, so is the value that you create. You’ve got to take care of yourself, too!

Jason also recommends asking yourself questions like these:

What would be fun to try right now?

What fascinates me?

Where do I find my curiosity pulled?

The answers can be hard to find when the market seems to pull you in a particular direction, or when “everyone” is doing the same things. For Jason, moving into one-on-one work was a total change of direction, but it was exactly what he needed to do. He enjoyed it so much that he still does it.

Jason says that if you pay attention to where you get energy and ask yourself what you enjoy, you’ll find what feeds you as a content creator.

It’s easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing. But just because everyone else is doing it, that doesn’t mean you have to do it, too. It goes back to Jason’s start in podcasting: he started because it was interesting to him, not because it was what everyone else was doing.

Changing the Industry

So I want to know: where does Jason see things that need to change? Or things that derail us and distract us from what’s really important?

He’s got a few ideas! These apply to the  industry as a whole, but Jason says they apply to individuals, too:

“The noise floor has just gone up and up and up as more people have come online” trying to sell or establish a brand.” – Jason Van Orden

First of all, we need to realize that marketing is always going to depend on these very sexy stories about the one thing that makes a difference or the story that seems like the overnight success. According to Jason, “the noise floor has just gone up and up and up as more people have come online” trying to sell or establish a brand.

Because of that rhetoric, it’s easy to get caught up in the feeling of “OMG I gotta go and do that. I can’t miss out! #FOMO!” Jason finds this really aggravating. Everyone feels like there’s only one or maybe two ways to do it “the right way.”  

That’s just not true, Jason says. Things have become more homogenized online, but there are so many ways to share your voice, show up online, and share your products. We need more innovation in how we create and deliver value.

This isn’t just helping us feel more fulfilled, by the way. The audiences that we’re trying to reach are shifting, too. They are looking for a fresh voice and getting fed up with what’s been done for the last 5 years.

So how do you break the cycle? Here are Jason’s suggestions:

1. STOP Comparing yourself to others.

If that means unsubscribing, do it. Go on a social media fast if you need to, or at least unsubscribe from anyone on Instagram who triggers feelings of anxiety. You do not need to follow everyone in order to “do it right.” Filter out the stuff that doesn’t feed your creativity. 

2. Go back to fascination, curiosity, and fun.

Give yourself the space to hear your own approach. If there are hundreds of ways to get where you want to go, you might as well choose the journey that excites you, rather than going with what someone else says because they want you to buy their program. The bar has to be raised because the noise level keeps going up. You can chart your own course.

3. Don’t buy the hype.

We don’t do a good job as human beings to looking back and seeing all the variables that affected us on our journeys. So be wary of anyone saying “this ONE THING made all the difference!” That might be their impression, but it’s probably not true.  

I’ve gotta interject for a minute here: this is all crazy talk! I mean, I agree with all of it, but it goes against everything we’re taught when it comes to online marketing.

I believe in everything Jason is saying, but I also have an online course and a membership site, and an ebook. I teach people to blog in a particular way. How do you balance that kind of structure with the knowledge that everyone who goes through a program is a unique individual?

Find a thought leader that you resonate with, that you share values with, that you enjoy listening to, who also has authority, expertise, and experience.

Jason says that he continues to look for answers to this question. We all understand the appeal of a blanket digital course, but evergreen passive income doesn’t really exist. Yes, you want a scalable business and a successful business, but only if it empowers you more and more to pursue your “why”.

Digital courses by nature, end up being created for the “common denominator”: what is the methodology that will work best for most people? Jason has gravitated toward one-on-one work for this exact reason: it allows for more nuance in teaching.

What does this mean for you as a consumer? Find a thought leader that you resonate with, that you share values with, that you enjoy listening to, who also has authority, expertise, and experience. And then understand that there may also be part of what they teach that isn’t wrong, but doesn’t resonate with you or isn’t right for you.

Jason says that he used to be very prescriptive with courses because he wanted people to have the greatest chance of succeeding. Now, he realizes that you also need to make space for people to experiment and make it their own, otherwise they won’t be as successful and fulfilled as they could be. And we need to make clear, as teachers, that that is part of the process.

Frameworks vs Formulas

Keep a healthy balance between teaching a system and making room for individuality.

Jason has a great model (which he borrowed from a friend) for keeping a healthy balance between teaching a system and making room for individuality.

Think about the difference between frameworks and formulas.

A formula says, “just do it the way I did it, and you’ll be fine.” It doesn’t allow for creativity or change.

But a framework is something that can be applied to a number of scenarios that still has room for leeway and nuance. It accounts for a wider range of learners and needs.

So take a look at your content: are you offering formulas or frameworks?

And look at who you’re learning from: are you getting prescriptions (formulas) or flexibility (frameworks)?

Building a Business Model

Jason has some final tips for anyone looking to adjust their business model to help shake things up.

1. Think about positioning.

Find your voice and figure out your ethics. When you read or listen to something online, think about how you would’ve said something similar.

2. Find the best channels to communicate that positioning.

The audience for this podcast is mostly interested in blogging, but challenge yourself to branch out, too.

3. Look at packaging: how do you want to present your knowledge and perspective?

There are alternatives to the digital course model. Everyone right now is talking about funnels and being scalable, but that’s all about creating a customer journey.

Those aren’t the only paths. Think about maximizing the value to and value from each student or customer at every point on their journey. Just as there are lots of different customers, there are lots of ways to set up a customer journey that delivers maximum value to them, and therefore maximum income to you.

Remember: there are lots of ways to snap all these pieces together. Jason says that if you’re feeling uncomfortable making a change, remember that it’s not square peg/round hole situation because there are infinite shapes that your business can take. You might have a dodecahedron-shaped business, and that’s great!

Want to know more?

The best places to find Jason are at www. jasonvanorden.com or the Jason Van Orden page on Facebook.

Resources Mentioned

Jason Van Orden website

Jason Van Orden Facebook page

Internet Business Mastery

Books:

Promoting Your Podcast– Jason's best-selling book

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Infographic

How to Get Unstuck and Rejuvenate Your Blogging Business

The post How to Get Unstuck and Build Your Online Business – Jason van Orden appeared first on Become A Blogger by Leslie Samuel.

from Lauren Cameron Updates http://www.becomeablogger.com/25355/jason-van-orden/

[cherylxsmith]

How to Get Unstuck and Build Your Online Business – Jason van Orden

Episode: 305 Who: Jason van Orden Website/Blog: JasonVanOrden.com

Do you ever feel stuck or dissatisfied with your business?

Are you feeling like you need a change, but you’re not sure where to start?

Today, I’m talking to Jason van Orden, who has worked with more than 6,000 students and clients over the past twelve years, teaching them about how to monetize their unique brilliance with content marketing, scalable courses, and automated sales systems. In September 2005, Jason co-founded the first ever podcast about internet business and online marketing, which quickly became one of the top business podcasts in the world and one of the most profitable on iTunes.

Listen to This Episode

He’s also the author of the bestselling book Promoting Your Podcast, and his work has been used to teach marketing at the university level. In case that’s not enough for you, he has also been featured on Forbes.com and Entrepreneur.com.

I brought Jason on today because he and I have been chatting lately about a topic that’s near and dear to my heart. We’re gonna talk about changes that are happening and need to happen in the industry.

Jason’s Story

Jason actually has a double degree in Jazz Guitar and computer engineering. He kind of fell into business and podcasting. He says that he didn’t know he wanted to be an entrepreneur.

Jason Van Orden

Jason enjoys programming (he has done it since age 5), but he really did not enjoy working in a corporate atmosphere. Like a lot of us, he was tired of the “Sunday night dread” and hitting the snooze button a million times.

It was long, zig-zagging journey to find his niche. He was opened up to real estate investment through reading books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, for example. It was a step by step process. Once Jason realized he was good at real estate marketing, he started teaching people what was then called “information marketing.” This was around 2004,  pre-social media and pre-online video, and he was looking for more ways to market his seminars.

So when podcasting showed up in 2005, it was intriguing to Jason for a number of reasons. He very quickly set the goal of becoming “the business podcasting guy.”

His podcast, Internet Business Mastery, very unexpectedly turned into a six-figure business and beyond. It quickly became a primary focus for Jason and continued to be the backbone of his business until he moved into consulting 2 years ago.

Internet Business Mastery Website

Jason calls his journey a “zig-zaggy, circuitious path.” I think will resonate with a lot of us: you go in a direction, and you don’t know where it will take you. You think the outcome will be one thing, but you find out that’s not where you needed to go. So you are constantly changing the plan and reinventing yourself.

Taking Your Own Path

Jason very quickly set the goal of becoming “the business podcasting guy.”

Nowadays, it sounds totally reasonable to start a podcast to help your business. But back in 2005, no one was doing it like that! So I want to know what made Jason go in that direction when no one else was doing it that way. It’s intriguing to me because there wouldn’t have been a mentor to lead him toward business podcasting at the time.

Jason says that he had no reason to think podcasting was going to take off the way it did, except that he had a gut feeling about it. So he followed his gut. And of course, there was a little bit of luck involved. But when I ask him why he went that way, Jason answers,  “I almost didn’t, honestly!”

Thankfully, his wife really encouraged him to go for it. She had helped him to process the fear of quitting his engineering job back in 2003, and now she was helping him face the fear of going into podcasting. As Jason emphasizes, it is hugely important to have those advocates in your life, whether it’s your spouse, your mentor, or your Mastermind group.

Making a Change

About three years ago, Jason needed to make some changes. The industry was really starting to wear on him.

Jason needed to make some changes. The industry was really starting to wear on him.

He was living in Paris at the time with his wife and daughter. This was the pinnacle of his lifestyle dreams: he had always wanted to live in Paris, even before he went to college. And he says that he was “loving it.”

But there was a big “but”. All of a sudden, the business he had built wasn’t fulfilling him the way it used to. Keep in mind that his job was advising people to choose their niche carefully because it needs to fulfill you and can’t just be a money maker. But suddenly, he felt like he was not being fed by his work. He wasn’t enjoying it.

Jason says he felt like a fraud: what would his students and customers think if they knew that he didn’t actually enjoy the work himself?

This led to a prolonged period of soul-searching. Jason kept asking, “Why do I feel this way? What’s out of alignment?” He needed to discover what it was that had to change.

His wife stepped in again and recommended taking a retreat. He says that she recognized some of the stuff she had seen over a decade before when Jason wasn’t satisfied in his job as an engineer, and she knew he was avoiding really digging into “the meat of the matter.”

Would Jason say he was depressed at that time? Yes: he says that it “absolutely was the beginning of depression”.  He uses the analogy of a frog sitting in boiling water: the feelings of dissatisfaction were slowly eroding “all the things that I depended on as an information-based business owner.” He had to stop ignoring it and putting it off in order to recognize depression.

Give yourself space to get out of your usual element, and to give yourself time.

Now, when you’re a podcaster, you have to show up and perform on a weekly basis. When I turn on my microphone, I know that I have a mission to complete. But when you’re feeling a lack of fulfillment, it must be difficult to show up.

Jason agrees that it took a lot more energy to podcast when he was feeling depressed. He hasn’t gone back to listen, but he’s sure people noticed that the tone of the show was changing. He was mustering energy rather than being excited to share new things.

Jason now realizes that his momentum had ceased. He had been doing the same thing for ten years and had gotten complacent. He uses the image of a shark to explain what he means: sharks need to move through water in order to get oxygen through their gills. They’ll suffocate if they don’t move because the water isn’t bringing them that oxygen. That’s how Jason was feeling: stuck and suffocated.

He figured out that he needed to give himself space. When we find ourselves stuck, it can be easy to isolate ourselves. We might be feeling guilty, or shameful and, according to Jason, we ”isolate ourselves from the very input that we need.” Talking to others helps you get “unstuck.” If you’re feeling suffocated, Jason recommends giving yourself space to get out of your usual element, and to give yourself time.

So after he took the retreat his wife recommended, Jason realized he needed more time and took a sabbatical. This allowed him to learn that his drive was gone because he wasn’t being challenged, wasn’t pushing self to master new things. It was time to change some things up, and he had gone too long without listening to those needs.

Getting Unstuck

When he came back to New York City in 2015 to speak to his business partner, Jason was worried. How is the business supposed to survive if they don’t show up and create the content?

Luckily, his partner was feeling kinda the same way. He was very supportive and suggested that they come up with a creative solution to give themselves some time to rejuvenate the business.  

In the end, they found a way to just show up to do the podcast and hire someone else to do the rest. This started as a 3-month break, but it became 18 months. Jason continued to make the same money as before, but he only had to work about 4 hours a month. This wasn’t sustainable long term, but it gave him the room to figure out next steps and reinvent the business.

His advice when you’re feeling depressed, dissatisfied, or stuck?

1. Don’t isolate yourself.

Sharing how hard things have been or how down you’re feeling will help you to unlock and process this stuff.

2. Get out there and have conversations with people.

This should be people you trust as well as new people. You never know who will spark an idea.

3. You're not the only one.

Remember that you’re not the only one that goes through these things (even though it feels like that in the moment). Every entrepreneur has these struggles from time to time.

4. Don’t neglect your mental health.

Our minds are a part of our products, and if your mental health is suffering, so is the value that you create. You’ve got to take care of yourself, too!

Jason also recommends asking yourself questions like these:

What would be fun to try right now?

What fascinates me?

Where do I find my curiosity pulled?

The answers can be hard to find when the market seems to pull you in a particular direction, or when “everyone” is doing the same things. For Jason, moving into one-on-one work was a total change of direction, but it was exactly what he needed to do. He enjoyed it so much that he still does it.

Jason says that if you pay attention to where you get energy and ask yourself what you enjoy, you’ll find what feeds you as a content creator.

It’s easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing. But just because everyone else is doing it, that doesn’t mean you have to do it, too. It goes back to Jason’s start in podcasting: he started because it was interesting to him, not because it was what everyone else was doing.

Changing the Industry

So I want to know: where does Jason see things that need to change? Or things that derail us and distract us from what’s really important?

He’s got a few ideas! These apply to the  industry as a whole, but Jason says they apply to individuals, too:

“The noise floor has just gone up and up and up as more people have come online” trying to sell or establish a brand.” – Jason Van Orden

First of all, we need to realize that marketing is always going to depend on these very sexy stories about the one thing that makes a difference or the story that seems like the overnight success. According to Jason, “the noise floor has just gone up and up and up as more people have come online” trying to sell or establish a brand.

Because of that rhetoric, it’s easy to get caught up in the feeling of “OMG I gotta go and do that. I can’t miss out! #FOMO!” Jason finds this really aggravating. Everyone feels like there’s only one or maybe two ways to do it “the right way.”  

That’s just not true, Jason says. Things have become more homogenized online, but there are so many ways to share your voice, show up online, and share your products. We need more innovation in how we create and deliver value.

This isn’t just helping us feel more fulfilled, by the way. The audiences that we’re trying to reach are shifting, too. They are looking for a fresh voice and getting fed up with what’s been done for the last 5 years.

So how do you break the cycle? Here are Jason’s suggestions:

1. STOP Comparing yourself to others.

If that means unsubscribing, do it. Go on a social media fast if you need to, or at least unsubscribe from anyone on Instagram who triggers feelings of anxiety. You do not need to follow everyone in order to “do it right.” Filter out the stuff that doesn’t feed your creativity. 

2. Go back to fascination, curiosity, and fun.

Give yourself the space to hear your own approach. If there are hundreds of ways to get where you want to go, you might as well choose the journey that excites you, rather than going with what someone else says because they want you to buy their program. The bar has to be raised because the noise level keeps going up. You can chart your own course.

3. Don’t buy the hype.

We don’t do a good job as human beings to looking back and seeing all the variables that affected us on our journeys. So be wary of anyone saying “this ONE THING made all the difference!” That might be their impression, but it’s probably not true.  

I’ve gotta interject for a minute here: this is all crazy talk! I mean, I agree with all of it, but it goes against everything we’re taught when it comes to online marketing.

I believe in everything Jason is saying, but I also have an online course and a membership site, and an ebook. I teach people to blog in a particular way. How do you balance that kind of structure with the knowledge that everyone who goes through a program is a unique individual?

Find a thought leader that you resonate with, that you share values with, that you enjoy listening to, who also has authority, expertise, and experience.

Jason says that he continues to look for answers to this question. We all understand the appeal of a blanket digital course, but evergreen passive income doesn’t really exist. Yes, you want a scalable business and a successful business, but only if it empowers you more and more to pursue your “why”.

Digital courses by nature, end up being created for the “common denominator”: what is the methodology that will work best for most people? Jason has gravitated toward one-on-one work for this exact reason: it allows for more nuance in teaching.

What does this mean for you as a consumer? Find a thought leader that you resonate with, that you share values with, that you enjoy listening to, who also has authority, expertise, and experience. And then understand that there may also be part of what they teach that isn’t wrong, but doesn’t resonate with you or isn’t right for you.

Jason says that he used to be very prescriptive with courses because he wanted people to have the greatest chance of succeeding. Now, he realizes that you also need to make space for people to experiment and make it their own, otherwise they won’t be as successful and fulfilled as they could be. And we need to make clear, as teachers, that that is part of the process.

Frameworks vs Formulas

Keep a healthy balance between teaching a system and making room for individuality.

Jason has a great model (which he borrowed from a friend) for keeping a healthy balance between teaching a system and making room for individuality.

Think about the difference between frameworks and formulas.

A formula says, “just do it the way I did it, and you’ll be fine.” It doesn’t allow for creativity or change.

But a framework is something that can be applied to a number of scenarios that still has room for leeway and nuance. It accounts for a wider range of learners and needs.

So take a look at your content: are you offering formulas or frameworks?

And look at who you’re learning from: are you getting prescriptions (formulas) or flexibility (frameworks)?

Building a Business Model

Jason has some final tips for anyone looking to adjust their business model to help shake things up.

1. Think about positioning.

Find your voice and figure out your ethics. When you read or listen to something online, think about how you would’ve said something similar.

2. Find the best channels to communicate that positioning.

The audience for this podcast is mostly interested in blogging, but challenge yourself to branch out, too.

3. Look at packaging: how do you want to present your knowledge and perspective?

There are alternatives to the digital course model. Everyone right now is talking about funnels and being scalable, but that’s all about creating a customer journey.

Those aren’t the only paths. Think about maximizing the value to and value from each student or customer at every point on their journey. Just as there are lots of different customers, there are lots of ways to set up a customer journey that delivers maximum value to them, and therefore maximum income to you.

Remember: there are lots of ways to snap all these pieces together. Jason says that if you’re feeling uncomfortable making a change, remember that it’s not square peg/round hole situation because there are infinite shapes that your business can take. You might have a dodecahedron-shaped business, and that’s great!

Want to know more?

The best places to find Jason are at www. jasonvanorden.com or the Jason Van Orden page on Facebook.

Resources Mentioned

Jason Van Orden website

Jason Van Orden Facebook page

Internet Business Mastery

Books:

Promoting Your Podcast– Jason's best-selling book

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Infographic

How to Get Unstuck and Rejuvenate Your Blogging Business

The post How to Get Unstuck and Build Your Online Business – Jason van Orden appeared first on Become A Blogger by Leslie Samuel.

from SEO and SM Tips http://www.becomeablogger.com/25355/jason-van-orden/

[stevenshartus]

How to Get Unstuck and Build Your Online Business – Jason van Orden

Episode: 305 Who: Jason van Orden Website/Blog: JasonVanOrden.com

Do you ever feel stuck or dissatisfied with your business?

Are you feeling like you need a change, but you’re not sure where to start?

Today, I’m talking to Jason van Orden, who has worked with more than 6,000 students and clients over the past twelve years, teaching them about how to monetize their unique brilliance with content marketing, scalable courses, and automated sales systems. In September 2005, Jason co-founded the first ever podcast about internet business and online marketing, which quickly became one of the top business podcasts in the world and one of the most profitable on iTunes.

Listen to This Episode

He’s also the author of the bestselling book Promoting Your Podcast, and his work has been used to teach marketing at the university level. In case that’s not enough for you, he has also been featured on Forbes.com and Entrepreneur.com.

I brought Jason on today because he and I have been chatting lately about a topic that’s near and dear to my heart. We’re gonna talk about changes that are happening and need to happen in the industry.

Jason’s Story

Jason actually has a double degree in Jazz Guitar and computer engineering. He kind of fell into business and podcastings. He says that he didn’t know he wanted to be an entrepreneur.

Jason Van Orden

Jason enjoys programming (he has done it since age 5), but he really did not enjoy working in a corporate atmosphere. Like a lot of us, he was tired of the “Sunday night dread” and hitting the snooze button a million times.

It was long, zig-zagging journey to find his niche. He was opened up to real estate investment through reading books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, for example. It was a step by step process. Once Jason realized he was good at real estate marketing, he started teaching people what was then called “information marketing.” This was around 2004,  pre-social media and pre-online video, and he was looking for more ways to market his seminars.

So when podcasting showed up in 2005, it was intriguing to Jason for a number of reasons. He very quickly set the goal of becoming “the business podcasting guy.”

His podcast, Internet Business Mastery, very unexpectedly turned into a six-figure business and beyond. It quickly became a primary focus for Jason, and continued to be the backbone of his business until he moved into consulting 2 years ago.

Internet Business Mastery Website

Jason calls his journey a “zig-zaggy, circuitious path.” I think will resonate with a lot of us: you go in a direction, and you don’t know where it will take you. You think outcome will be one thing, but you find out that’s not where you needed to go. So you are constantly changing the plan and reinventing yourself.

Taking Your Own Path

Jason very quickly set the goal of becoming “the business podcasting guy.”

Nowadays, it sounds totally reasonable to start a podcast to help your business. But back in 2005, no one was doing it like that! So I want to know what made Jason go in that direction when no one else was doing it that way. It’s intriguing to me because there wouldn’t have been a mentor to lead him toward business podcasting at the time.

Jason says that he had no reason to think podcasting was going to take off the way it did, except that he had a gut feeling about it. So he followed his gut. And of course, there was a little bit of luck involved. But when I ask him why he went that way, Jason answers,  “I almost didn’t, honestly!”

Thankfully, his wife really encouraged him to go for it. She had helped him to process the fear of quitting his engineering job back in 2003, and now she was helping him face the fear of going into podcasting. As Jason emphasizes, it is hugely important to have those advocates in your life, whether it’s your spouse, your mentor, or your Mastermind group.

Making a Change

About three years ago, Jason needed to make some changes. The industry was really starting to  wear on him.

Jason needed to make some changes. The industry was really starting to wear on him.

He was living in Paris at the time with his wife and daughter. This was the pinnacle of his lifestyle dreams: he had always wanted to live in Paris, even before he went to college. And he says that he was “loving it.”

But there was a big “but”. All of a sudden, the business he had built wasn’t fulfilling him the way it used to. Keep in mind that his job was advising people to choose their niche carefully because it needs to fulfill you and can’t just be a money maker. But suddenly, he felt like he was not being fed by his work. He wasn’t enjoying it.

Jason says he felt like a fraud: what would his students and customers think if they knew that he didn’t actually enjoy the work himself?

This led to a prolonged period of soul-searching. Jason kept asking, “Why do I feel this way? What’s out of alignment?” He needed to discover what it was that had to change.

His wife stepped in again and recommended taking a retreat. He says that she recognized some of the stuff she had seen over a decade before when Jason wasn’t satisfied in his job as an engineer, and she knew he was avoiding really digging into “the meat of the matter.”

Would Jason say he was depressed at that time? Yes: he says that it “absolutely was the beginning of depression”.  He uses the analogy of a frog sitting in boiling water: the feelings of dissatisfaction were slowly eroding “all the things that I depended on as an information-based business owner.” He had to stop ignoring it and putting it off in order to recognize depression.

Give yourself space to get out of your usual element, and to give yourself time.

Now, when you’re a podcaster, you have to show up and perform on a weekly basis. When I turn on my microphone, I know that I have a mission to complete. But when you’re feeling a lack of fulfillment, it must be difficult to show up.

Jason agrees that it took a lot more energy to podcast when he was feeling depressed. He hasn’t gone back to listen, but he’s sure people noticed that the tone of the show was changing. He was mustering energy rather than being excited to share new things.

Jason now realizes that his momentum had ceased. He had been doing same thing for ten years and had gotten complacent. He uses the image of a shark to explain what he means: sharks need to move through water in order to get oxygen through their gills. They’ll suffocate if they don’t move because the water isn’t bringing them that oxygen. That’s how Jason was feeling: stuck and suffocated.

He figured out that he needed to give himself space. When we find ourselves stuck, it can be easy to isolate ourselves. We might be feeling guilty, or shameful and, according to Jason, we ”isolate ourselves from the very input that we need.” Talking to others helps you get “unstuck.” If you’re feeling suffocated, Jason recommends giving yourself space to get out of your usual element, and to give yourself time.

So after he took the retreat his wife recommended, Jason realized he needed more time and took a sabbatical. This allowed him to learn that his drive was gone because he wasn’t being challenged, wasn’t pushing self to master new things. It was time to change some things up, and he had gone too long without listening to those needs.

Getting Unstuck

When he came back to New York City in 2015 to speak to his business partner, Jason was worried. How is the business supposed to survive if they don’t show up and create the content?

Luckily, his partner was feeling kinda the same way. He was very supportive and suggested that they come up with a creative solution to give themselves some time to rejuvenate the business.  

In the end, they found a way to just show up to do the podcast and hire someone else to do the rest. This started as a 3-month break, but it became 18 months. Jason continued to make the same money as before, but he only had to work about 4 hours a month. This wasn’t sustainable longer term, but it gave him the room to figure out next steps and reinvent the business.

His advice when you’re feeling depressed, dissatisfied, or stuck?

1. Don’t isolate yourself.

Sharing how hard things have been or how down you’re feeling will help you to unlock and process this stuff.

2. Get out there and have conversations with people.

This should be people you trust as well as new people. You never know who will spark an idea.

3. You're not the only one.

Remember that you’re not the only one that goes through these things (even though it feels like that in the moment). Every entrepreneur has these struggles from time to time.

4. Don’t neglect your mental health.

Our minds are a part of our products, and if your mental health is suffering, so is the value that you create. You’ve got to take care of yourself, too!

Jason also recommends asking yourself questions like these:

What would be fun to try right now?

What fascinates me?

Where do I find my curiosity pulled?

The answers can be hard to find when the market seems to pull you in a particular direction, or when “everyone” is doing the same things. For Jason, moving into one-on-one work was a total change of direction, but it was exactly what he needed to do. He enjoyed it so much that he still does it.

Jason says that if you pay attention to where you get energy and ask yourself what you enjoy, you’ll find what feeds you as a content creator.

It’s easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing. But just because everyone else is doing it, that doesn’t mean you have to do it, too. It goes back to Jason’s start in podcasting: he started because it was interesting to him, not because it was what everyone else was doing.

Changing the Industry

So I want to know: where does Jason see things that need to change? Or things that derail us and distract us from what’s really important?

He’s got a few ideas! These apply to the  industry as a whole, but Jason says they apply to individuals, too:

“The noise floor has just gone up and up and up as more people have come online” trying to sell or establish a brand.” – Jason Van Orden

First of all, we need to realize that marketing is always going to depend on these very sexy stories about the one thing that makes a difference or the story that seems like the overnight success. According to Jason, “the noise floor has just gone up and up and up as more people have come online” trying to sell or establish a brand.

Because of that rhetoric, it’s easy to get caught up in the feeling of “OMG I gotta go and do that. I can’t miss out! #FOMO!” Jason finds this really aggravating. Everyone feels like there’s only one or maybe two ways to do it “the right way.”  

That’s just not true, Jason says. Things have become more homogenized online, but there are so many ways to share your voice, show up online, and share your products. We need more innovation in how we create and deliver value.

This isn’t just helping us feel more fulfilled, by the way. The audiences that we’re trying to reach are shifting, too. They are looking for a fresh voice and getting fed up with what’s been done for the last 5 years.

So how do you break the cycle? Here are Jason’s suggestions:

1. STOP Comparing yourself to others.

If that means unsubscribing, do it. Go on a social media fast if you need to, or at least unsubscribe from anyone on Instagram who triggers feelings of anxiety. You do not need to follow everyone in order to “do it right.” Filter out the stuff that doesn’t feed your creativity. 

2. Go back to fascination, curiosity, and fun.

Give yourself the space to hear your own approach. If there are hundreds of ways to get where you want to go, you might as well choose the journey that excites you, rather than going with what someone else says because they want you to buy their program. The bar has to be raised because the noise level keeps going up. You can chart your own course.

3. Don’t buy the hype.

We don’t do a good job as human beings to looking back and seeing all the variables that affected us on our journeys. So be wary of anyone saying “this ONE THING made all the difference!” That might be their impression, but it’s probably not true.  

I’ve gotta interject for a minute here: this is all crazy talk! I mean, I agree with all of it, but it goes against everything we’re taught when it comes to online marketing.

I believe in everything Jason is saying, but I also have an online course and a membership site, and an ebook. I teach people to blog in a particular way. How do you balance that kind of structure with the knowledge that everyone who goes through a program is a unique individual?

Find a thought leader that you resonate with, that you share values with, that you enjoy listening to, who also has authority, expertise, and experience.

Jason says that he continues to look for answers to this question. We all understand the appeal of a blanket digital course, but evergreen passive income doesn’t really exist. Yes, you want a scalable business and a successful business, but only if it empowers you more and more to pursue your “why”.

Digital courses by nature, end up being created for the “common denominator”: what is the methodology that will work best for most people? Jason has gravitated toward one-on-one work for this exact reason: it allows for more nuance in teaching.

What does this mean for you as a consumer? Find a thought leader that you resonate with, that you share values with, that you enjoy listening to, who also has authority, expertise, and experience. And then understand that there may also be part of what they teach that isn’t wrong, but doesn’t resonate with you or isn’t right for you.

Jason says that he used to be very prescriptive with courses because he wanted people to have the greatest chance of succeeding. Now, he realizes that you also need to make space for people to experiment and make it their own, otherwise they won’t be as successful and fulfilled as they could be. And we need to make clear, as teachers, that that is part of the process.

Frameworks vs Formulas

Keep a healthy balance between teaching a system and making room for individuality.

Jason has a great model (which he borrowed from a friend) for keeping a healthy balance between teaching a system and making room for individuality.

Think about the difference between frameworks and formulas.

A formula says, “just do it the way I did it, and you’ll be fine.” It doesn’t allow for creativity or change.

But a framework is something that can be applied to a number of scenarios that still has room for leeway and nuance. It accounts for a wider range of learners and needs.

So take a look at your content: are you offering formulas or frameworks?

And look at who you’re learning from: are you getting prescriptions (formulas) or flexibility (frameworks)?

Building a Business Model

Jason has some final tips for anyone looking to adjust their business model to help shake things up.

1. Think about positioning.

Find your voice and figure out your ethics. When you read or listen to something online, think about how you would’ve said something similar.

2. Find the best channels to communicate that positioning.

The audience for this podcast is mostly interested in blogging, but challenge yourself to branch out, too.

3. Look at packaging: how do you want to present your knowledge and perspective?

There are alternatives to the digital course model. Everyone right now is talking about funnels and scalables, but that’s all about creating a customer journey.

Those aren’t the only paths. Think about maximizing the value to and value from each student or customer at every point on their journey. Just as there are lots of different customers, there are lots of ways to set up a customer journey that delivers maximum value to them, and therefore maximum income to you.

Remember: there are lots of ways to snap all these pieces together. Jason says that if you’re feeling uncomfortable making a change, remember that  it’s not square peg/round hole situation because there are infinite shapes that your business can take. You might have a dodecahedron-shaped business, and that’s great!

Want to know more?

The best places to find Jason are at www. jasonvanorden.com or the Jason Van Orden page on Facebook.

Resources Mentioned

Jason Van Orden website

Jason Van Orden Facebook page

Internet Business Mastery

Books:

Promoting Your Podcast– Jason's best-selling book

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Infographic

How to Get Unstuck and Rejuvenate Your Blogging Business

The post How to Get Unstuck and Build Your Online Business – Jason van Orden appeared first on Become A Blogger by Leslie Samuel.

from SEO and SM Tips http://www.becomeablogger.com/25355/jason-van-orden/

[sandranelsonuk]

How to Get Unstuck and Build Your Online Business – Jason van Orden

Episode: 305 Who: Jason van Orden Website/Blog: JasonVanOrden.com

Do you ever feel stuck or dissatisfied with your business?

Are you feeling like you need a change, but you’re not sure where to start?

Today, I’m talking to Jason van Orden, who has worked with more than 6,000 students and clients over the past twelve years, teaching them about how to monetize their unique brilliance with content marketing, scalable courses, and automated sales systems. In September 2005, Jason co-founded the first ever podcast about internet business and online marketing, which quickly became one of the top business podcasts in the world and one of the most profitable on iTunes.

Listen to This Episode

He’s also the author of the bestselling book Promoting Your Podcast, and his work has been used to teach marketing at the university level. In case that’s not enough for you, he has also been featured on Forbes.com and Entrepreneur.com.

I brought Jason on today because he and I have been chatting lately about a topic that’s near and dear to my heart. We’re gonna talk about changes that are happening and need to happen in the industry.

Jason’s Story

Jason actually has a double degree in Jazz Guitar and computer engineering. He kind of fell into business and podcastings. He says that he didn’t know he wanted to be an entrepreneur.

Jason Van Orden

Jason enjoys programming (he has done it since age 5), but he really did not enjoy working in a corporate atmosphere. Like a lot of us, he was tired of the “Sunday night dread” and hitting the snooze button a million times.

It was long, zig-zagging journey to find his niche. He was opened up to real estate investment through reading books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, for example. It was a step by step process. Once Jason realized he was good at real estate marketing, he started teaching people what was then called “information marketing.” This was around 2004,  pre-social media and pre-online video, and he was looking for more ways to market his seminars.

So when podcasting showed up in 2005, it was intriguing to Jason for a number of reasons. He very quickly set the goal of becoming “the business podcasting guy.”

His podcast, Internet Business Mastery, very unexpectedly turned into a six-figure business and beyond. It quickly became a primary focus for Jason, and continued to be the backbone of his business until he moved into consulting 2 years ago.

Internet Business Mastery Website

Jason calls his journey a “zig-zaggy, circuitious path.” I think will resonate with a lot of us: you go in a direction, and you don’t know where it will take you. You think outcome will be one thing, but you find out that’s not where you needed to go. So you are constantly changing the plan and reinventing yourself.

Taking Your Own Path

Jason very quickly set the goal of becoming “the business podcasting guy.”

Nowadays, it sounds totally reasonable to start a podcast to help your business. But back in 2005, no one was doing it like that! So I want to know what made Jason go in that direction when no one else was doing it that way. It’s intriguing to me because there wouldn’t have been a mentor to lead him toward business podcasting at the time.

Jason says that he had no reason to think podcasting was going to take off the way it did, except that he had a gut feeling about it. So he followed his gut. And of course, there was a little bit of luck involved. But when I ask him why he went that way, Jason answers,  “I almost didn’t, honestly!”

Thankfully, his wife really encouraged him to go for it. She had helped him to process the fear of quitting his engineering job back in 2003, and now she was helping him face the fear of going into podcasting. As Jason emphasizes, it is hugely important to have those advocates in your life, whether it’s your spouse, your mentor, or your Mastermind group.

Making a Change

About three years ago, Jason needed to make some changes. The industry was really starting to  wear on him.

Jason needed to make some changes. The industry was really starting to wear on him.

He was living in Paris at the time with his wife and daughter. This was the pinnacle of his lifestyle dreams: he had always wanted to live in Paris, even before he went to college. And he says that he was “loving it.”

But there was a big “but”. All of a sudden, the business he had built wasn’t fulfilling him the way it used to. Keep in mind that his job was advising people to choose their niche carefully because it needs to fulfill you and can’t just be a money maker. But suddenly, he felt like he was not being fed by his work. He wasn’t enjoying it.

Jason says he felt like a fraud: what would his students and customers think if they knew that he didn’t actually enjoy the work himself?

This led to a prolonged period of soul-searching. Jason kept asking, “Why do I feel this way? What’s out of alignment?” He needed to discover what it was that had to change.

His wife stepped in again and recommended taking a retreat. He says that she recognized some of the stuff she had seen over a decade before when Jason wasn’t satisfied in his job as an engineer, and she knew he was avoiding really digging into “the meat of the matter.”

Would Jason say he was depressed at that time? Yes: he says that it “absolutely was the beginning of depression”.  He uses the analogy of a frog sitting in boiling water: the feelings of dissatisfaction were slowly eroding “all the things that I depended on as an information-based business owner.” He had to stop ignoring it and putting it off in order to recognize depression.

Give yourself space to get out of your usual element, and to give yourself time.

Now, when you’re a podcaster, you have to show up and perform on a weekly basis. When I turn on my microphone, I know that I have a mission to complete. But when you’re feeling a lack of fulfillment, it must be difficult to show up.

Jason agrees that it took a lot more energy to podcast when he was feeling depressed. He hasn’t gone back to listen, but he’s sure people noticed that the tone of the show was changing. He was mustering energy rather than being excited to share new things.

Jason now realizes that his momentum had ceased. He had been doing same thing for ten years and had gotten complacent. He uses the image of a shark to explain what he means: sharks need to move through water in order to get oxygen through their gills. They’ll suffocate if they don’t move because the water isn’t bringing them that oxygen. That’s how Jason was feeling: stuck and suffocated.

He figured out that he needed to give himself space. When we find ourselves stuck, it can be easy to isolate ourselves. We might be feeling guilty, or shameful and, according to Jason, we ”isolate ourselves from the very input that we need.” Talking to others helps you get “unstuck.” If you’re feeling suffocated, Jason recommends giving yourself space to get out of your usual element, and to give yourself time.

So after he took the retreat his wife recommended, Jason realized he needed more time and took a sabbatical. This allowed him to learn that his drive was gone because he wasn’t being challenged, wasn’t pushing self to master new things. It was time to change some things up, and he had gone too long without listening to those needs.

Getting Unstuck

When he came back to New York City in 2015 to speak to his business partner, Jason was worried. How is the business supposed to survive if they don’t show up and create the content?

Luckily, his partner was feeling kinda the same way. He was very supportive and suggested that they come up with a creative solution to give themselves some time to rejuvenate the business.  

In the end, they found a way to just show up to do the podcast and hire someone else to do the rest. This started as a 3-month break, but it became 18 months. Jason continued to make the same money as before, but he only had to work about 4 hours a month. This wasn’t sustainable longer term, but it gave him the room to figure out next steps and reinvent the business.

His advice when you’re feeling depressed, dissatisfied, or stuck?

1. Don’t isolate yourself.

Sharing how hard things have been or how down you’re feeling will help you to unlock and process this stuff.

2. Get out there and have conversations with people.

This should be people you trust as well as new people. You never know who will spark an idea.

3. You're not the only one.

Remember that you’re not the only one that goes through these things (even though it feels like that in the moment). Every entrepreneur has these struggles from time to time.

4. Don’t neglect your mental health.

Our minds are a part of our products, and if your mental health is suffering, so is the value that you create. You’ve got to take care of yourself, too!

Jason also recommends asking yourself questions like these:

What would be fun to try right now?

What fascinates me?

Where do I find my curiosity pulled?

The answers can be hard to find when the market seems to pull you in a particular direction, or when “everyone” is doing the same things. For Jason, moving into one-on-one work was a total change of direction, but it was exactly what he needed to do. He enjoyed it so much that he still does it.

Jason says that if you pay attention to where you get energy and ask yourself what you enjoy, you’ll find what feeds you as a content creator.

It’s easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing. But just because everyone else is doing it, that doesn’t mean you have to do it, too. It goes back to Jason’s start in podcasting: he started because it was interesting to him, not because it was what everyone else was doing.

Changing the Industry

So I want to know: where does Jason see things that need to change? Or things that derail us and distract us from what’s really important?

He’s got a few ideas! These apply to the  industry as a whole, but Jason says they apply to individuals, too:

“The noise floor has just gone up and up and up as more people have come online” trying to sell or establish a brand.” – Jason Van Orden

First of all, we need to realize that marketing is always going to depend on these very sexy stories about the one thing that makes a difference or the story that seems like the overnight success. According to Jason, “the noise floor has just gone up and up and up as more people have come online” trying to sell or establish a brand.

Because of that rhetoric, it’s easy to get caught up in the feeling of “OMG I gotta go and do that. I can’t miss out! #FOMO!” Jason finds this really aggravating. Everyone feels like there’s only one or maybe two ways to do it “the right way.”  

That’s just not true, Jason says. Things have become more homogenized online, but there are so many ways to share your voice, show up online, and share your products. We need more innovation in how we create and deliver value.

This isn’t just helping us feel more fulfilled, by the way. The audiences that we’re trying to reach are shifting, too. They are looking for a fresh voice and getting fed up with what’s been done for the last 5 years.

So how do you break the cycle? Here are Jason’s suggestions:

1. STOP Comparing yourself to others.

If that means unsubscribing, do it. Go on a social media fast if you need to, or at least unsubscribe from anyone on Instagram who triggers feelings of anxiety. You do not need to follow everyone in order to “do it right.” Filter out the stuff that doesn’t feed your creativity. 

2. Go back to fascination, curiosity, and fun.

Give yourself the space to hear your own approach. If there are hundreds of ways to get where you want to go, you might as well choose the journey that excites you, rather than going with what someone else says because they want you to buy their program. The bar has to be raised because the noise level keeps going up. You can chart your own course.

3. Don’t buy the hype.

We don’t do a good job as human beings to looking back and seeing all the variables that affected us on our journeys. So be wary of anyone saying “this ONE THING made all the difference!” That might be their impression, but it’s probably not true.  

I’ve gotta interject for a minute here: this is all crazy talk! I mean, I agree with all of it, but it goes against everything we’re taught when it comes to online marketing.

I believe in everything Jason is saying, but I also have an online course and a membership site, and an ebook. I teach people to blog in a particular way. How do you balance that kind of structure with the knowledge that everyone who goes through a program is a unique individual?

Find a thought leader that you resonate with, that you share values with, that you enjoy listening to, who also has authority, expertise, and experience.

Jason says that he continues to look for answers to this question. We all understand the appeal of a blanket digital course, but evergreen passive income doesn’t really exist. Yes, you want a scalable business and a successful business, but only if it empowers you more and more to pursue your “why”.

Digital courses by nature, end up being created for the “common denominator”: what is the methodology that will work best for most people? Jason has gravitated toward one-on-one work for this exact reason: it allows for more nuance in teaching.

What does this mean for you as a consumer? Find a thought leader that you resonate with, that you share values with, that you enjoy listening to, who also has authority, expertise, and experience. And then understand that there may also be part of what they teach that isn’t wrong, but doesn’t resonate with you or isn’t right for you.

Jason says that he used to be very prescriptive with courses because he wanted people to have the greatest chance of succeeding. Now, he realizes that you also need to make space for people to experiment and make it their own, otherwise they won’t be as successful and fulfilled as they could be. And we need to make clear, as teachers, that that is part of the process.

Frameworks vs Formulas

Keep a healthy balance between teaching a system and making room for individuality.

Jason has a great model (which he borrowed from a friend) for keeping a healthy balance between teaching a system and making room for individuality.

Think about the difference between frameworks and formulas.

A formula says, “just do it the way I did it, and you’ll be fine.” It doesn’t allow for creativity or change.

But a framework is something that can be applied to a number of scenarios that still has room for leeway and nuance. It accounts for a wider range of learners and needs.

So take a look at your content: are you offering formulas or frameworks?

And look at who you’re learning from: are you getting prescriptions (formulas) or flexibility (frameworks)?

Building a Business Model

Jason has some final tips for anyone looking to adjust their business model to help shake things up.

1. Think about positioning.

Find your voice and figure out your ethics. When you read or listen to something online, think about how you would’ve said something similar.

2. Find the best channels to communicate that positioning.

The audience for this podcast is mostly interested in blogging, but challenge yourself to branch out, too.

3. Look at packaging: how do you want to present your knowledge and perspective?

There are alternatives to the digital course model. Everyone right now is talking about funnels and scalables, but that’s all about creating a customer journey.

Those aren’t the only paths. Think about maximizing the value to and value from each student or customer at every point on their journey. Just as there are lots of different customers, there are lots of ways to set up a customer journey that delivers maximum value to them, and therefore maximum income to you.

Remember: there are lots of ways to snap all these pieces together. Jason says that if you’re feeling uncomfortable making a change, remember that  it’s not square peg/round hole situation because there are infinite shapes that your business can take. You might have a dodecahedron-shaped business, and that’s great!

Want to know more?

The best places to find Jason are at www. jasonvanorden.com or the Jason Van Orden page on Facebook.

Resources Mentioned

Jason Van Orden website

Jason Van Orden Facebook page

Internet Business Mastery

Books:

Promoting Your Podcast– Jason's best-selling book

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Infographic

How to Get Unstuck and Rejuvenate Your Blogging Business

The post How to Get Unstuck and Build Your Online Business – Jason van Orden appeared first on Become A Blogger by Leslie Samuel.

from Julia Garza Social Media Tips http://www.becomeablogger.com/25355/jason-van-orden/

[felixdgreen]

How to Get Unstuck and Build Your Online Business – Jason van Orden

Episode: 305 Who: Jason van Orden Website/Blog: JasonVanOrden.com

Do you ever feel stuck or dissatisfied with your business?

Are you feeling like you need a change, but you’re not sure where to start?

Today, I’m talking to Jason van Orden, who has worked with more than 6,000 students and clients over the past twelve years, teaching them about how to monetize their unique brilliance with content marketing, scalable courses, and automated sales systems. In September 2005, Jason co-founded the first ever podcast about internet business and online marketing, which quickly became one of the top business podcasts in the world and one of the most profitable on iTunes.

Listen to This Episode

He’s also the author of the bestselling book Promoting Your Podcast, and his work has been used to teach marketing at the university level. In case that’s not enough for you, he has also been featured on Forbes.com and Entrepreneur.com.

I brought Jason on today because he and I have been chatting lately about a topic that’s near and dear to my heart. We’re gonna talk about changes that are happening and need to happen in the industry.

Jason’s Story

Jason actually has a double degree in Jazz Guitar and computer engineering. He kind of fell into business and podcastings. He says that he didn’t know he wanted to be an entrepreneur.

Jason Van Orden

Jason enjoys programming (he has done it since age 5), but he really did not enjoy working in a corporate atmosphere. Like a lot of us, he was tired of the “Sunday night dread” and hitting the snooze button a million times.

It was long, zig-zagging journey to find his niche. He was opened up to real estate investment through reading books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, for example. It was a step by step process. Once Jason realized he was good at real estate marketing, he started teaching people what was then called “information marketing.” This was around 2004,  pre-social media and pre-online video, and he was looking for more ways to market his seminars.

So when podcasting showed up in 2005, it was intriguing to Jason for a number of reasons. He very quickly set the goal of becoming “the business podcasting guy.”

His podcast, Internet Business Mastery, very unexpectedly turned into a six-figure business and beyond. It quickly became a primary focus for Jason, and continued to be the backbone of his business until he moved into consulting 2 years ago.

Internet Business Mastery Website

Jason calls his journey a “zig-zaggy, circuitious path.” I think will resonate with a lot of us: you go in a direction, and you don’t know where it will take you. You think outcome will be one thing, but you find out that’s not where you needed to go. So you are constantly changing the plan and reinventing yourself.

Taking Your Own Path

Jason very quickly set the goal of becoming “the business podcasting guy.”

Nowadays, it sounds totally reasonable to start a podcast to help your business. But back in 2005, no one was doing it like that! So I want to know what made Jason go in that direction when no one else was doing it that way. It’s intriguing to me because there wouldn’t have been a mentor to lead him toward business podcasting at the time.

Jason says that he had no reason to think podcasting was going to take off the way it did, except that he had a gut feeling about it. So he followed his gut. And of course, there was a little bit of luck involved. But when I ask him why he went that way, Jason answers,  “I almost didn’t, honestly!”

Thankfully, his wife really encouraged him to go for it. She had helped him to process the fear of quitting his engineering job back in 2003, and now she was helping him face the fear of going into podcasting. As Jason emphasizes, it is hugely important to have those advocates in your life, whether it’s your spouse, your mentor, or your Mastermind group.

Making a Change

About three years ago, Jason needed to make some changes. The industry was really starting to  wear on him.

Jason needed to make some changes. The industry was really starting to wear on him.

He was living in Paris at the time with his wife and daughter. This was the pinnacle of his lifestyle dreams: he had always wanted to live in Paris, even before he went to college. And he says that he was “loving it.”

But there was a big “but”. All of a sudden, the business he had built wasn’t fulfilling him the way it used to. Keep in mind that his job was advising people to choose their niche carefully because it needs to fulfill you and can’t just be a money maker. But suddenly, he felt like he was not being fed by his work. He wasn’t enjoying it.

Jason says he felt like a fraud: what would his students and customers think if they knew that he didn’t actually enjoy the work himself?

This led to a prolonged period of soul-searching. Jason kept asking, “Why do I feel this way? What’s out of alignment?” He needed to discover what it was that had to change.

His wife stepped in again and recommended taking a retreat. He says that she recognized some of the stuff she had seen over a decade before when Jason wasn’t satisfied in his job as an engineer, and she knew he was avoiding really digging into “the meat of the matter.”

Would Jason say he was depressed at that time? Yes: he says that it “absolutely was the beginning of depression”.  He uses the analogy of a frog sitting in boiling water: the feelings of dissatisfaction were slowly eroding “all the things that I depended on as an information-based business owner.” He had to stop ignoring it and putting it off in order to recognize depression.

Give yourself space to get out of your usual element, and to give yourself time.

Now, when you’re a podcaster, you have to show up and perform on a weekly basis. When I turn on my microphone, I know that I have a mission to complete. But when you’re feeling a lack of fulfillment, it must be difficult to show up.

Jason agrees that it took a lot more energy to podcast when he was feeling depressed. He hasn’t gone back to listen, but he’s sure people noticed that the tone of the show was changing. He was mustering energy rather than being excited to share new things.

Jason now realizes that his momentum had ceased. He had been doing same thing for ten years and had gotten complacent. He uses the image of a shark to explain what he means: sharks need to move through water in order to get oxygen through their gills. They’ll suffocate if they don’t move because the water isn’t bringing them that oxygen. That’s how Jason was feeling: stuck and suffocated.

He figured out that he needed to give himself space. When we find ourselves stuck, it can be easy to isolate ourselves. We might be feeling guilty, or shameful and, according to Jason, we ”isolate ourselves from the very input that we need.” Talking to others helps you get “unstuck.” If you’re feeling suffocated, Jason recommends giving yourself space to get out of your usual element, and to give yourself time.

So after he took the retreat his wife recommended, Jason realized he needed more time and took a sabbatical. This allowed him to learn that his drive was gone because he wasn’t being challenged, wasn’t pushing self to master new things. It was time to change some things up, and he had gone too long without listening to those needs.

Getting Unstuck

When he came back to New York City in 2015 to speak to his business partner, Jason was worried. How is the business supposed to survive if they don’t show up and create the content?

Luckily, his partner was feeling kinda the same way. He was very supportive and suggested that they come up with a creative solution to give themselves some time to rejuvenate the business.  

In the end, they found a way to just show up to do the podcast and hire someone else to do the rest. This started as a 3-month break, but it became 18 months. Jason continued to make the same money as before, but he only had to work about 4 hours a month. This wasn’t sustainable longer term, but it gave him the room to figure out next steps and reinvent the business.

His advice when you’re feeling depressed, dissatisfied, or stuck?

1. Don’t isolate yourself.

Sharing how hard things have been or how down you’re feeling will help you to unlock and process this stuff.

2. Get out there and have conversations with people.

This should be people you trust as well as new people. You never know who will spark an idea.

3. You're not the only one.

Remember that you’re not the only one that goes through these things (even though it feels like that in the moment). Every entrepreneur has these struggles from time to time.

4. Don’t neglect your mental health.

Our minds are a part of our products, and if your mental health is suffering, so is the value that you create. You’ve got to take care of yourself, too!

Jason also recommends asking yourself questions like these:

What would be fun to try right now?

What fascinates me?

Where do I find my curiosity pulled?

The answers can be hard to find when the market seems to pull you in a particular direction, or when “everyone” is doing the same things. For Jason, moving into one-on-one work was a total change of direction, but it was exactly what he needed to do. He enjoyed it so much that he still does it.

Jason says that if you pay attention to where you get energy and ask yourself what you enjoy, you’ll find what feeds you as a content creator.

It’s easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing. But just because everyone else is doing it, that doesn’t mean you have to do it, too. It goes back to Jason’s start in podcasting: he started because it was interesting to him, not because it was what everyone else was doing.

Changing the Industry

So I want to know: where does Jason see things that need to change? Or things that derail us and distract us from what’s really important?

He’s got a few ideas! These apply to the  industry as a whole, but Jason says they apply to individuals, too:

“The noise floor has just gone up and up and up as more people have come online” trying to sell or establish a brand.” – Jason Van Orden

First of all, we need to realize that marketing is always going to depend on these very sexy stories about the one thing that makes a difference or the story that seems like the overnight success. According to Jason, “the noise floor has just gone up and up and up as more people have come online” trying to sell or establish a brand.

Because of that rhetoric, it’s easy to get caught up in the feeling of “OMG I gotta go and do that. I can’t miss out! #FOMO!” Jason finds this really aggravating. Everyone feels like there’s only one or maybe two ways to do it “the right way.”  

That’s just not true, Jason says. Things have become more homogenized online, but there are so many ways to share your voice, show up online, and share your products. We need more innovation in how we create and deliver value.

This isn’t just helping us feel more fulfilled, by the way. The audiences that we’re trying to reach are shifting, too. They are looking for a fresh voice and getting fed up with what’s been done for the last 5 years.

So how do you break the cycle? Here are Jason’s suggestions:

1. STOP Comparing yourself to others.

If that means unsubscribing, do it. Go on a social media fast if you need to, or at least unsubscribe from anyone on Instagram who triggers feelings of anxiety. You do not need to follow everyone in order to “do it right.” Filter out the stuff that doesn’t feed your creativity. 

2. Go back to fascination, curiosity, and fun.

Give yourself the space to hear your own approach. If there are hundreds of ways to get where you want to go, you might as well choose the journey that excites you, rather than going with what someone else says because they want you to buy their program. The bar has to be raised because the noise level keeps going up. You can chart your own course.

3. Don’t buy the hype.

We don’t do a good job as human beings to looking back and seeing all the variables that affected us on our journeys. So be wary of anyone saying “this ONE THING made all the difference!” That might be their impression, but it’s probably not true.  

I’ve gotta interject for a minute here: this is all crazy talk! I mean, I agree with all of it, but it goes against everything we’re taught when it comes to online marketing.

I believe in everything Jason is saying, but I also have an online course and a membership site, and an ebook. I teach people to blog in a particular way. How do you balance that kind of structure with the knowledge that everyone who goes through a program is a unique individual?

Find a thought leader that you resonate with, that you share values with, that you enjoy listening to, who also has authority, expertise, and experience.

Jason says that he continues to look for answers to this question. We all understand the appeal of a blanket digital course, but evergreen passive income doesn’t really exist. Yes, you want a scalable business and a successful business, but only if it empowers you more and more to pursue your “why”.

Digital courses by nature, end up being created for the “common denominator”: what is the methodology that will work best for most people? Jason has gravitated toward one-on-one work for this exact reason: it allows for more nuance in teaching.

What does this mean for you as a consumer? Find a thought leader that you resonate with, that you share values with, that you enjoy listening to, who also has authority, expertise, and experience. And then understand that there may also be part of what they teach that isn’t wrong, but doesn’t resonate with you or isn’t right for you.

Jason says that he used to be very prescriptive with courses because he wanted people to have the greatest chance of succeeding. Now, he realizes that you also need to make space for people to experiment and make it their own, otherwise they won’t be as successful and fulfilled as they could be. And we need to make clear, as teachers, that that is part of the process.

Frameworks vs Formulas

Keep a healthy balance between teaching a system and making room for individuality.

Jason has a great model (which he borrowed from a friend) for keeping a healthy balance between teaching a system and making room for individuality.

Think about the difference between frameworks and formulas.

A formula says, “just do it the way I did it, and you’ll be fine.” It doesn’t allow for creativity or change.

But a framework is something that can be applied to a number of scenarios that still has room for leeway and nuance. It accounts for a wider range of learners and needs.

So take a look at your content: are you offering formulas or frameworks?

And look at who you’re learning from: are you getting prescriptions (formulas) or flexibility (frameworks)?

Building a Business Model

Jason has some final tips for anyone looking to adjust their business model to help shake things up.

1. Think about positioning.

Find your voice and figure out your ethics. When you read or listen to something online, think about how you would’ve said something similar.

2. Find the best channels to communicate that positioning.

The audience for this podcast is mostly interested in blogging, but challenge yourself to branch out, too.

3. Look at packaging: how do you want to present your knowledge and perspective?

There are alternatives to the digital course model. Everyone right now is talking about funnels and scalables, but that’s all about creating a customer journey.

Those aren’t the only paths. Think about maximizing the value to and value from each student or customer at every point on their journey. Just as there are lots of different customers, there are lots of ways to set up a customer journey that delivers maximum value to them, and therefore maximum income to you.

Remember: there are lots of ways to snap all these pieces together. Jason says that if you’re feeling uncomfortable making a change, remember that  it’s not square peg/round hole situation because there are infinite shapes that your business can take. You might have a dodecahedron-shaped business, and that’s great!

Want to know more?

The best places to find Jason are at www. jasonvanorden.com or the Jason Van Orden page on Facebook.

Resources Mentioned

Jason Van Orden website

Jason Van Orden Facebook page

Internet Business Mastery

Books:

Promoting Your Podcast– Jason's best-selling book

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Infographic

How to Get Unstuck and Rejuvenate Your Blogging Business

The post How to Get Unstuck and Build Your Online Business – Jason van Orden appeared first on Become A Blogger by Leslie Samuel.

from IM News And Tips http://www.becomeablogger.com/25355/jason-van-orden/