What's Your Excuse for Not Moving Forward

Maxwell Ivey Jr. most recent book.

WHAT’S YOUR EXCUSE FOR NOT MOVING FORWARD?

Writing a post about New Year’s resolutions and people changing their lives in January is difficult for me. I usually don’t wait for tomorrow, next week, next month, or that mythical time known as someday. I start working on something now, so I have something to celebrate when the ball drops. And that’s exactly what I did; with help of course.

In September 2018 I met Denise Thompson through the Success Engineers Facebook group hosted by Robert Garcia. She invited me to write an article for the first issue of Global Voice Magazine. During the process of discussing what I would write, we also discussed my business and where I wanted to go; she offered to provide support as my coach and I said yes.

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show host so they can gain exposure by sharing their stories on the air. I explained how over six years I had gone from booking myself on podcasts and radio shows to helping friends for free to taking on three beta clients to finally offering a paid service with several clients signing up! Her response was Max if you are good at this, and people want to hire you for it; then perhaps this is where you can put your attention and effort, create a business out of what you are already doing.

I finally had a qualified coach to help me turn my passions into a business. Someone to help me see the value I was offering and help me avoid the pitfalls that were costing me money and holding me back. The first conversation we had was about my being a “coach”. I thought she would ask about my target audience was, my offers and how many clients I had.

Instead her first question was why are you a coach? She followed up by asking do you have a real passion for coaching? My response was no, coaching is something I thought was a natural progression of being an inspiration to people online. It was something others thought I would be good at. Her response was if you have no real passion, then why keep doing it? I’m surprised she had to work through this with me. Because it fits in with what I wrote in my first book Leading You Out of the Darkness Into the Light. I said to be successful you need to make sure your dream is really yours and not that of your friends, family members, or people you have seen online. But often we need to learn the important lessons more than once.

She asked me what I was passionate about? I started with a general answer. I talked about how happy I am when I connect a friend or client with a podcast or radio

I’m sharing this because we all have areas of our personal or professional life where we could use some help. It’s not a sign of weakness to hire someone who is an expert in areas that you struggle with. I found most of the very successful people had the good sense to hire a coach, therapist, psychologist, consultant, etc. very early on. And while you don’t have to pay a fortune to get a quality coach, you do have to decide to invest in your future. As a top real estate coach once told me, if you want help from successful people expect to spend money or work your ass off.

The next thing I had to learn has to do with my fearless approach to travel. In the past few years I had gone off on several trips across the country. Never did I have more than $500 on me when I left home. I was a real believer in the law of attraction sometimes to my detriment. Luckily, I was usually able to stay in friends’ homes, visit family members, or bring in additional income when needed. But last September my luck, as they say, ran out. I was stuck in New York City broke, sick as a dog, and without a place to stay. I had been reaching out to lots of friends via email and social media.

At the last minute two online friends came through for me. One purchased a motel room for me for a night. The other bought my Amtrak ticket back home to Houston. I don’t remember the train trip back at all. In fact, the next month was a bit of a blur to me. I found out later that I even created a web page for my site that I didn’t remember building. For a while I was disappointed if not depressed by my failure. But eventually I worked through this too.

I realized that I can’t keep taking such risks. I told myself that for the next year I would only take speaking events from organizations that were near me or would provide a speaker’s fee, travel expenses, or both. Funny thing is once I made this decision, I started finding opportunities locally. I will have spoken for the Visually Impaired People of Southeast Texas by the time this is published. I’m also negotiating a talk for the Houston chapter of the American Council of the Blind.

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“IF YOU DON’T ASK,THEY CAN’T SAY YES”

MAXWELL IVEY JR.

Now I am creating my new 90 and 180-day-package which includes online media connections and I am adding the option for people to market their podcasts, radio shows, or businesses on my website and podcast. I also have two pieces of merchandise for sale to go along with my books and courses. They are shirts. One says “If you don’t ask they can’t say yes”. The other says simply “What’s your excuse?” Because people say if Max (the blind blogger) can do it, then what’s your excuse? In the future I’m planning on marketing them by having each of my podcast guests wear and promote them online.

Another change I made was adding my podcast the What’s Your Excuse? Show to the Global Voice Network. Now, joining any of the online radio networks involves paying to play. You exchange money for the opportunity to reach larger audiences. I had unsuccessfully competed for a free spot on another radio network. We are actively planning a re-launch of my show. We have recorded a get to know “Max, The Blind Blogger” interview for the network, and we are working on a new logo for the show and its Facebook group. The best part about this decision is that it means I will no longer have to do the hard work of submitting my show audios to

a podcasting platform for submission to the various syndication sites. Trust me this is a big deal because it is not easy to perform this action using a computer with a screen reader. As a result, I’m certain that my show will reach more people going forward. This will allow my guests to inspire even more listeners, and it will give me the opportunity to attract sponsors.

I am excited to share the progress I have made over the last six months and the reasons behind the changes. I want people to understand I can make changes because I constantly re-evaluate myself, I ask for help from qualified talented experts, and I’m always moving forward.

Even when bad things happen, I use them as a source of inspiration, education, and growth. I find out what I did or was doing wrong and look for ways to improve or correct it. I hope you will feel the freedom to accept your own short comings or bad decisions. I also hope you will decide to learn from them and make real changes one small step at a time.

After all, if Max (the blind blogger) can do it then “What’s your excuse? Thanks for reading, Max.

Maxwell Ivey Jr.

Maxwell Ivey, Jr. is an author, blogger, entertainer, podcast host, speaker and media connector. One of Maxwell’s main goals is to share the story of his personal growth and transformation, hoping it will motivate and inspire anyone who hears it.

Maxwell lost his sight at age 12 and this has not stopped him from creating a business, traveling throughout the US and building his business!!

Listen to his podcast, “What’s Your Excuse” on Global Voice Radio beginning in Feb. 2019. www.facebook. com/groups/globalvoiceradio

Connect with Maxwell Ivey at www.theblindblogger. net. Buy Max’s other books on Amazon click here

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