How to Turn Passion into Success: Confessions of an Accidental Blogger

Photo: Elpeth Collier

Barrie Davenport of  Live Bold and Bloom in conversation with Mary Jaksch

In this interview, Barrie gets Mary to reveal the secret of why she turned into a blogger, and how blogging has changed her life.

Barrie: What were your originals goals and intentions when you created this blog?

Mary: When I first started out, I knew nothing about blogs. So I was guileless and goal-less. However, when I started researching other bloggers and their blogs, I got very excited, because I could see what a powerful medium blogging is. It struck me that I could reach a hell of a lot of people world-wide.

Barrie: Reach people in what way — what did you want to communicate?

Mary: I wanted to communicate that being on a spiritual path is about zestful living. It’s about savoring each moment – and leaving nothing over. There is a haiku by Zen poet Basho which expresses my aspiration in life:

Shell of a cicada
- it sang itself away completely
(Basho)

That’s what I’m doing with my life: to sing myself away completely. I want to be insanely useful and to give myself away in each moment. That’s full-tilt living.

Barrie: Specifically, how are you giving yourself away, and where do you feel the most useful?

Mary: I am passionate about teaching. I still remember the moment when that realization hit me. Here is what happened:

Between school and university, I did a stint as an instructor at an Outward Bound School in the German Alps. I was asked me to work as a ski instructor and the Director offered me two different groups to work with. I could either choose the A group (that was the group of experienced skiers), or the D group. These were girls who had never skied before, and were no-hopers. She asked me to work with each of these groups before making a decision. First I took the A group down the slopes. We zipped along and it was fun!

Then I went over to the D group. I saw immediately that these girls had already given up, even before starting. They had been told that the D group hadn’t ever been able to go on  the 3-day ski tour – which was the highlight of the four-week course.

I stood in front of the sad little group. Then something within me snapped: “You all know that the D group can’t take part in the ski tour because they can’t learn to ski well enough, right?” They nodded glumly.

“Well, you can either believe that and give up. Or – we can prove them wrong! If you work hard and do exactly what I say, I’ll promise you that I’ll take EVERY SINGLE BLOODY ONE OF YOU on the ski tour!”

Their jaws dropped.

The girls in my group were overweight, ungainly,  and lacked confidence. For three weeks I worked then hard for four hours each day. I made the groan and cry – and I also made them laugh. But I wouldn’t let up. Finally, the skitour came around. Yes, every single one of these girls took part. It made me cry to see them achieve what seemed impossible…

Ever since then I love bringing out the hidden potential in people. It stirs me; it touches my heart; it warms my soul. It’s my passion.

So often people think of spirituality as life with a simper. No! Get real; get down and dirty and really live this fantastic adventure called life!

Barrie: So, how do you get real and down and dirty?

Mary: I laugh a lot. I cry a little. I try to live each day as if it were my last. Really, it’s nothing special.

Barrie: You have done so many unique and interesting things in your life, including starting a blog and creating a successful business from it. Were you born with a sense of adventure and fearlessness or did you acquire it over time? What advice would you give to the ungainly and unconfident who don’t have the benefit of your daily support.

Mary: My father was adventurous and he definitely passed that on to us. He tied us onto ropes and took his family up some high mountains in the European Alps.

As to what I suggest for those who lack confidence and are ‘ungainly’. Well, everyone is ungainly in one way or another. For most of my life I thought I was a technical imbecile. Until a friend of mine pointed out to me how often I say that. I then changed that particular inner message to “I’m quite good at learning about technical stuff”. Since then, I’ve been able to learn to figure out new software really fast. So, my suggestion is to change what you tell yourself about your abilities. .

Barrie: It is amazing how changing our inner messages can truly turn our lives around. When you made the choice to see yourself as having technical ability, how has that impacted your blogging career?

Mary: It made the steep learning curve much easier. I was able to learn how to run complex software, such s professional editing software for videos, or screen capture software and so on. Suddenly I had a lot of knowledge under my belt that I could teach fellow bloggers.

Barrie: What are you able to do now that you never would have believed you could do 3 years ago?

Mary: Three years ago I didn’t even know blogs existed. Now I know how to develop a blog and how to create an income from it.

Barrie: Do you think everyone can achieve what you have as a blogger?

Mary: Absolutely! I’m convinced that I can help anyone achieve success as a blogger, if they’re willing to learn and be patient

Barrie: Your accomplishments with blogging are really inspirational to those of us trying to navigate that learning curve. What advice would you give new bloggers about the timing of success and how to best focus their time during the first six months of starting a blog? How can new bloggers stay motivated when they don’t see immediate results?

Mary: It’s important to view the first year as a blogging apprenticeship. After the first 6 months I had 265 subscribers. At the time I thought that was a lot! I wouldn’t have wanted to grow any faster because I still had so much to learn about blogging.

As to staying motivated:  there are always ‘immediate results’ that you can focus on. Somebody new writes a comment, your subscriber count goes up a little, you check your stats and see that one of your posts has had a good response – that’s what you need to focus on. Frustration comes from adopting other peoples’ ideas of how your blog ‘should’ be doing, or from comparing your blog to others. I say: enjoy the ride! If you get the basics of your blog right, it will grow of its own accord and in its own time. Just keep on posting useful stuff.

Now it’s my turn to ask you a question, Barrie.

Mary: It’s lovely to have you in the A-List Blogger Club as one of our key members, Barrie. How has being a student in the Club Leo Babauta and I created made you grow and bloom?

Barrie: Enrolling in my first A-List Blogging Bootcamp and joining the A-List Blogger Club had an unintended outcome for me. Before the Bootcamp, I had recently changed careers, having been a PR professional for over 25 years. But I was really on a search for something that was more fulfilling and meaningful. I felt very passionless at that time.

When I discovered the coaching profession, it just felt right. I immediately started the certification program, graduated, and began building a practice. I wanted to create a blog to market the practice, but I knew nothing about blogging. When I stumbled on the A-List Blogging Bootcamp info, I intended to take the course and move on.

Little did I know that I would feel as much enthusiasm and connection with blogging as I did with coaching. My experience in the Bootcamp opened my eyes to an entirely new world of opportunities both for my coaching work and for me as a writer, creator, collaborator, and mentor. The past few years have been a real journey, culminating in the synergy of my passions for helping others, connecting with people, and being creative.

I wanted to share my experiences with my clients and my readers at my blog, Live Bold and Bloom. So I created a self-study course to help others find their way toward doing what they love and living joyfully. It’s called: Discover Your Passion: A Step-By-Step Course for Creating the Life of Your Dreams..

Mary: I’ve had a look at your program, and it looks wonderful! It’s great that you’re creating  a program to help people find and develop their passion. Can you please tell us more about it?

Barrie: It’s a 7 module self-study course that will lead you through a process of self-discovery and deeper awareness of who you are, what you want for your life, and what is holding you back. There are a variety of assessments, worksheets, and action steps to help you to see yourself clearly, and to motivate you to move forward toward a fulfilling life.

Many people don’t have the time or allow themselves the space to go on a self-discovery mission. This course provides a structured approach to help you peel back the layers, revealing more of yourself and the things you want from life.

Students can benefit from my discoveries and condense the search for their own passion with specific guidance and instructions, at their own pace from their home. It’s my hope that anyone taking this course will come away from it feeling that they are creating their life, not reacting to it.

Mary: It’s great to see how you’ve turned your passion has into success! Thanks for your stimulating questions and inspiring answers, Barrie.

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Barrie Davenport is a life and career coach and founder of Live Bold and Bloom, a blog about fearless living. She is also Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Brainstorm. Check out Barrie’s course: Discover Your Passion: A Step-By-Step Course for Creating the Life of Your Dreams. (Goodlife ZEN is an enthusiastic affiliate.)