Blogs

Dave Ramsey has been wildly successful building his business from a card table in his living room to the force it is today. It's obvious from the reach of his small business that he knows what he's doing and I'm grateful that he put pen to paper in EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches to outline what's made him so successful in his business. This is a book that you have to get.

Teaching financial principles of getting out of debt, saving, and giving has become a big business for him. He's published the original Financial Peace and the Total Money Makeover and his live events are wildly successful.

His newest book does not fail to impress as it invites the reader to peer behind the curtain to see the principles and practices that he's used to build his business and it's impressive.

It leaves you wondering why more businesses don't operate like this. In my experience a lot of companies talk about values, mission and goals, but rarely do they live up to it. Dave and his team have clearly built something awesome.    Read more »

So the drama continues with Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic. It's really sad because yet another "small market superstar" (see Lebron James) is on the verge of quitting on his team and his city in the pursuit of a championship.

Mike Bianchi absolutely nailed it in his recent article about Dwight Howard and how the press has handled him. If he really thinks it's going to be better for him somewhere else, he's mistaken in my opinion. He's got everything anyone could possibly want in Orlando - every endorsement, every opportunity, every perk he already has.

But he thinks getting out of Orlando is going to improve his chances for a championship? Quiting on your team is never a good thing. There aren't any good deals out there that the team wants, and so they're going to be forced in to a deal that isn't going to return the value that would be reasonable to expect.  So he will either get traded for a less than stellar deal, or he'll leave via free agency and the Magic are still screwed. But somehow, another team, another city will somehow give him what he wants. 

It's as if Orlando isn't good enough for him, even though the organization has fallen all over itself trying to surround him with winners.  The city of Orlando has done the same thing. "He" has an amazing new arena, and has everything he could possibly want in Orlando, but evidently the "small" Orlando market isn't good enough. But remember, he's already arguably the biggest star in the NBA - in Orlando.    Read more »

It's that time of year when people start thinking about getting in shape and exercising. I'm one of them too. If you're looking for a fun and cool way to do this, this just might be the answer you're looking for.

I came across someone the other day who had pinned their physical fitness goals to the physical fitness standards for the U.S. military. I can't remember who it was, or what their chosen career path was, but I though this was a brilliant idea. It gives you something to shoot for, it's attainable, and it's a really good standard for physical fitness.

It's generally accepted that our military are some of the most in-shape people in our country. No doubt they need to be due to the demands of their jobs. But, if you're like me, you may not have a physically demanding job, and we all need to be in good shape. I've got a family to take care of and I want to be able to be adventurous and keep up with my daughter.

I have to get up and get active. As a web designer I spend far too much time in front of my computer and I have to get in shape.    Read more »

How do you stay motivated when everything in you is telling you to quit? It's a real problem and I think most people have faced it at one time or another. If you don't have a really good reason for pushing yourself outside your comfort zone it's easy to quit.

This last year has been a very successful one as far as my business is concerned but it's not been without its trials. I've been doing a lot of things that were new to me and it has definitely been a time of getting outside my comfort zone.

But that's what a comfort zone is - it's comfortable. It's familiar and it's easy to stay there. If you want to break out of the box and do things that you've only dreamed about doing you've got to leave the comfort zone and make yourself go places that you, thus far, haven't been willing to go.

Sometimes the sense of adventure of doing new things will be enough to sustain you, but in my experience it's only temporary. Living up to the daily commitment that's required to reach new horizons is tough. Really tough. 

Staying motivated isn't easy when the work gets hard. You have to have good reasons for keeping on the same path toward your goal or else you will question why you're even doing it to begin with.

So where do those reasons come from? You've got to look outside yourself and remind yourself of what's most valuable and why you're doing the things you're doing.    Read more »

I've had a lot of conversations about search engine optimization recently. Opportunities abound for businesses, bloggers, e-commerce vendors, website owners among others to take advantage of a few basics when it comes to SEO. You have to start somewhere and in my experience there are basics that a lot of people miss that, when adhered to, can do a lot to help.

For those, like me, who take a keen interest in such things there's no shortage of information, best practices, and methods to learn about, know about and to try. However, for a lot of people that are in business on the web - bloggers, brick and mortars, etc. - it's hard to know where to start, what you need to know and even how much you can affect your search engine rankings.

This post isn't going to be about PPC, adwords or anything like that. It's about the two sides to the SEO coin - on-page optimization, and off-page optimization. Get these concepts down and maximize your efforts there and you will see a definite increase in the quality of your traffic.    Read more »

What was your first encounter like with website hosting? If you're like me it was something that you knew you needed to get your website active, but not much more. I was completely ignorant - all I knew was that I wanted something cheap. I didn't know the differences between shared hosting or dedicated servers or the difference between Windows hosting and Linux.

Like many, I started off simple with a personal website (which was a much earlier version of this site) and I've tried several different kinds of hosting and hosting companies. There had been much trial and error for sure. Some web hosting firms were just plain bad others were good but I've been with my company now for a few years and I'm getting precisely what I need and want. I've had shared hosting, dedicated, VPS, and I'm currently using cloud hosting via the Rackspace Cloud at Orracle Hosting (my business) and I couldn't be happier.    Read more »

The cold weather has arrived in Tallahassee with a vengeance. Sure, it's not as cold as it is in Colorado where my friend Justin Lukasavige lives, but the 20s is cold enough for me. 

The new Orracle Media site will hopefully be done by the end of the year with a re-launched podcast from MyWebsiteWorkshop.com. There is actually a lot of house-cleaning and moving around with those two sites which will be ready soon!

This week saw the launch of Article Samurai, and seeing it quickly sell out, a great new manifesto from Chris Guillebeau, and an outstanding surprise for Michael Buble.    Read more »

It's that time of year again when we're all in high-gear trying to find creative gifts to give to friends and loved ones, and thoughtful gifts are always the best. From big, extravagant, outside-the-box gifts like a MacBook Pro, or a stand-up desk to smaller, practical (and incredibly useful) ones like a pound of really good coffee, or a Field Notes notebook, this list was compiled to give you all kinds of ideas. 

Some of the most memorable gifts I've received haven't been expensive at all. You don't have to spend a lot of money on gifts for them to be awesome. 

I've sorted the list in to a couple different categories to make it a little more readable. Here are 40 suggestions that should help you find something awesome.    Read more »

College football is over (at least for the 'Noles) and all that really remains at this point is bowl season which is really just a joke. I still don't know how FBS division football can be as huge as it is and there is still no playoff system. Well, I do know. It's called greed, but that's a subject for another post. FSU embarrassed the Gators in the swamp and that would normally make me very happy, but the fact that we were pretty ugly in that game takes SOME of the satisfaction out. Not all, but some. After all, we're 4-0 against our in-state rivals over the last two years and I can't complain about that.

I know it's hard to believe, but yes - there are only 22 shopping days left until Christmas. And less if you're buying online. One year, I promise, I'm going to be prepared in advance for Christmas. I promise!

This week has been a great week that has seen some really great posts. John Saddington is on fire right now with his personal branding series, Jeff Rose wrote a brilliant post on SmartPassiveIncome.com for Pat Flynn, and it looks like Facebook is snatching up Gowalla.

Don't forget about the Charity:Water campaign happening on DragonflyHQ.com!  When you buy a KEZA necklace 50% of the proceeds go directly to Charity:Water - so make sure you buy in time for Christmas!    Read more »

Deep theological and philosophical discussion in the marketplace of ideas seems to be undergoing a bit of a renaissance in recent years and I for one am grateful. We live in a world that is the product of constant secularization and growing ignorance of anything that would even resemble that which is divine. Popular religious critics like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins are sounding the clarion call that science is the answer and that religion is the bastion dolts, the simple-minded, superstitious and ignorant.

However, there are in the marketplace of ideas stalwart defenders of faith - men like William Lane Craig, JP Moreland, and Dallas Willard - who stand in opposition to these remarkably popular atheists. Among their number is Dinesh D'Souza who is a formidable proponent for Christianity in his own right. In 2009 he published Life After Death: The Evidence (my affiliate link) which I've just recently finished and I have to say that this was an absolutely outstanding book.

I picked it up by chance as our local Borders store was shutting its doors for good a few months back. It was one of a few books we bought that day - it was hard to pass up such great deals! But it was also the one that was the most engaging of all of them.    Read more »