In Jodie's Brain

I did not write this: we used this with wonderful success a few months ago, went looking for it again and couldn’t find it easily. In the event it never does come back online, I’d like to mirror it here for future reference. When the time comes for me to try it again, I will go through it and update if necessary. As it stands, I cannot vouch for its efficacy, only that it really did work wonderfully when we did it a while ago.

March 4th, 2007 by Cormac Moylan

Dave Taylor is one of those all-around great guys – he knows his stuff! In fact, he even has the website Ask Dave Taylor.

A couple of days ago, Dave put up an interview he did of me:

Why would you want to go In Jodie’s Brain?

Thanks Dave!

Got this question because she would like to keep things a bit hidden until the reveal is ready ;)

Completely hiding a site takes a bit extra geekiness, so we’re going to do the next best thing; set things to “Draft.”

First, to the right of a page or a post, there is the “Publish” box:

Click on Edit. Then you will see this:

1) Click on the drop-down menu and choose “Draft”

2) Click “OK”

3) Click on “Update Page” (on a Post, it will say Update Post)

This will take them off the public site, yet you can still see them and work with them  within your WordPress back-end.

If you’d like to take it a step further, go back into your General Settings and delete the site’s title and tag line for now, and re-enter them just before you launch. Another thing you may want to do is NOT activate the theme you have chosen – stay with the default until just before. Activate the theme every how and then to see how things will look, but go back to the original.

YOU can still view the pages as if they were published, by clicking on the “Preview” button:

To easily see which pages are in Draft mode, click the Pages button on the left of the Dashboard, and you’ll see “Draft” by the ones that are, well… in Draft ;)

To make them visible again, just go back to the Publish box and click on the “Publish” button. Let me know if there is more ;)

Just got this email from Brenda who has the book and has finally had the time to sit down and start reading:

“Just checking out your book and it looks awesome!  It is so easy to use.  I just read through the domain name section and will go on to the hosting section tomorrow. Wow, just awesome.”
Thanks Brenda!

Just got this from a customer:

“I AM ON PAGE 43, What an easy book to read Jodie!!! I had my domains, but needed the hosting….. AND NOW I HAVE IT!

Can’t wait to do more work tomorrow – you are SIMPLY amazing!” ~ Tina Nevin-Bedard

I’m still blushing :D

Down at the bottom of Seesmic, you’ll see the little Search button:

Then you can type the person’s Twitter name into the text box – #1, then hit the search button – #2 and if you want to follow them, click the + sign – #3

Some questions…

How many people now have a “bucket list”? (Referencing the 2007 Movie: Bucket List)
How many things are on yours?
How many of them have you accomplished or actually have a solid plan to accomplish?

If you don’t have a plan in place – why not? Does that mean they are not important to you? Maybe… We humans like to get stuck in ExcuseLand. All of the usual suspects;

“But what if…”
“Someday I will…”
“If I lose… then”
“When this happens I’ll…”
“I can’t until…”
“If I get… then…”

Why do we do that? Laziness? Complacency? Fear?

For me…er… the girl in the story… it was Fear.

Almost two years ago, our heroine’s boyfriend (who is a very open and forward-thinking kind of guy – I mean, he’d *have* to be to contend with her, now, wouldn’t he?) during a wacky, off-the-wall conversation asked “Would you ever shave your head?” (and yes, I know that some of you have heard this tale before – bear with me…). “Absolutely not! But if I ever got cancer, I would so give myself a mohawk – it would all fall out anyway, so it wouldn’t matter.” He asked: “Why would you wait for such a traumatic event?”

Now, from what you know and understand of her up to now, that doesn’t really seem to be that far-fetched of an idea, does it? Believe me, it was. It was one thing to take theatre or to don a hardhat to drive a Bobcat; those were all experiences to add, things that would bolster her identity. No… her hair was integrated into her very being including the daily hour-and-a-half-long ritual to raise that crowning glory to the stature of Mane. It was integral in her way of communicating; a flip here, a twirl there – shyly pushed behind an ear, or wildly dyed. It was long hair; it was part of her “woman-ness”. If there wasn’t any hair to flip and twirl – how on earth could she be, well, her?

The fateful day came. One-week post-surgery, bandage still in place… the waiting room at the doctor’s office earned its name. Her name was called; only a few other times in her life has the sound of her own name been that adrenalin-inducing. The walk down the hall might as well have been up the down escalator. On a boat. In a storm. Thankfully, the boyfriend was there to hold her steady, despite his own fears.

The doctor seemed to be speaking in reverse, after having inhaled Sulphur Hexafluoride.

Then, finally… “You don’t have cancer.”

Breathe.

Don’t. Have. Cancer.

Breathe.

“But…?”

Breathe.

“But… what about my mohawk???”

OK, she didn’t actually say that out loud in the office, but it was in her head. All of a sudden her permission was taken away… and she didn’t even realize she was waiting for “permission.” This disturbed her greatly… For three days she struggled with the conflicting feelings of going for it, and being scared that she’d no longer be pretty, no longer have that “edge.” What if people didn’t take her seriously anymore? What if people became scared of her? What if… What if… What if… What if… ittotallylooksstupidandIregretitandpeoplelaughatme
andmendon’tlookanymoreandandandandand…

ENOUGH!

You just got a new lease on life, woman! Shut up and live already! On your deathbed, do you really want to have a bunch of “Oh, you know what I really should have done…” moments?? NO! Slide in sideways, dammit!

Remember your mantra: DO.

She took off to the mall… looked directly into the eyes of the first available hairdresser and said: “I sincerely hope that I am the craziest person you get to see today.”

–

Why have I told you this story? Because I hope that as you go about your daily routines you’ll ask yourself “What’s stopping me?” I hope that you’ll ask those around you “What’s stopping you?” Act *before* an event such as facing your own mortality; start that business. Turn down a different street. Try something new off the menu. Check things off your bucket list. Wear a different colour. Create your own mantra. Build a school in Africa… doesn’t matter.

Live.

And our heroine? I have a new mantra now:

Instigate.

Let me know when you’d like to come out and play ;)

Life for our heroine started to get into “that” routine.

There didn’t seem to be any point to university, so she went to vocational school to get an Executive Secretarial Diploma (graduated with Honours and was class Valedictorian, thankyouverymuch) because while she knew the university route wasn’t for her right now – neither was working as a waitress while she “found herself.”

She got a job at a very nice office starting off as the receptionist and worked her way up to Manager of the Business Information Centre. She was now married and looking to start a family. Routines started – worked  Monday to Friday, organizing everyone. Life at home had pretty much become a Meatloaf Wednesday existence.

Fast forward a couple of years – she had a wonderful young son, several successful internet-based businesses under her belt, but something just wasn’t right.

Then poof…

She was a (self-appointed) single mom in a new apartment, no furniture and $500 in her pocket.

No matter – you do what you need to in these situations; you suck it up, put your nose to the grindstone and get one of those… job… things. For a job, it was actually really, really good; satisfying, even. There was hope every day she’d get to drive the Bobcat (yes, our gal took a complete 180-degree turn; do you really think, from what you know of her by now, that she’d do something “normal”?) or demolish something. However, she went and opened her big mouth and showed her intelligence. Now she was doing paperwork again… being pushed into office work. Again.

In a way, it was a blessing when the project finished: she was done, through and needed a break and…

…doctors said: “We think you might have cancer.”

Have you ever had one of those moments in your life when you think “Oh, crap… why have I not lived more up to now? How could I have just let all this time I have been given just… slip away???”

That moment was hers.

For two months between tests and surgery, there were a lot of “Why??” questions. Not so much “Why me?” but more like “Why haven’t I been more active in…?” or “Why haven’t I tried more things?”

She made up her mind to do something wild and crazy for herself if the diagnosis came back positive…

So what are you supposed to do after high school? Why, go to university of course!

Thing is – why on earth was she there?

The first year she took all the usual suspects: Anthropology. Astronomy. Calculus. English. French. Sociology. What for? She had no idea. Don’t get me wrong, school wasn’t a chore and she actually loved her Calculus class.

But it just wasn’t her… she couldn’t see herself in any of those professions. What to do? The year was over, she was expected to go back…

Hey… why not take something she’s interested in? Something where you HAD to be creative and a little crazy sometimes? Immediately, she signed up for an interview to be accepted into the faculty of Fine Arts. She’d fit in! She’d get to be creative! She’d…

…fall in love.

All of a sudden her thoughts of a wild career, spotlights, premiers and hobnobbing were replaced with images of white dresses, picket fences and baking.

Oh dear – was she turning into… one of *them*? Was she losing the essence of herself?

Turns out she did, for a while…