(Reading time: 8 – 12 minutes)

Do you always look up to the professional bloggers? If so, you might want to pause for a moment and look around. See who’s coming up in the world. I keep an eye on the Big Boys and Girls, but I’m also on the lookout for folks in what I call my “cohort.”

One of the folks is Carlos Velez.

Carlos is relatively new, having been writing for just a few months. He takes his mission seriously, but not too seriously, and works hard. He’s persistent. Unremitting. And brings a certain fire to the table.

In February 2010 Carlos published a pair of articles on “pre-writing” blog posts here, which were very well received. So well received, that he created the “Pre-writing Challenge” to implement the principles in his articles for a small group of us. The Pre-writing Challenge ran through mid-March. It was by all accounts a success.

So, pre-writing. How did it go? Pretty well overall for me. We were supposed to write two weeks of articles ahead of our normal schedules, but that turned out to be a little too difficult for me, as I post at least daily. So I did it a little differently.

Here’s part of that difference.

As it turns out, I was finally able to mesmerize a couple of bloggers acquire informal syndication for some classic articles written by a couple of very low profile professional bloggers. You may or may not know these folks, but they both run a stable of income producing websites. It turns out that preparing these articles was a bit more work than I thought.

But, at this point, I’ve got articles pending out to December… along with daily articles planned up to about April 12, 2010.

One thing I found out for sure: I spend way too much time in the WP Editing interface. Which is a story for another day.

Here’s what’s cool about Carlos: he’s going to have more pre-writing challenges, and they’re going to continue to improve. I don’t know if he’s going to formalize the method into a course or seminar and charge money (he should), but you should consider signing on to the next asap. You won’t regret it. Even if you don’t make your goal, you will write a lot and learn a lot.

Here’s a short email interview with Carlos.

Interview with Carlos Velez

Q: You burst onto the “scene” relatively recently, with a lot of energy. Where did you find inspiration, what drove you to this?

A: I found getting put on final notice at my job really inspiring. I was a department manager and after years of ignoring the call to start my own business my performance was declining. I felt trapped at that job for 3 years because I was scared to give up the pay I was making (how would we survive?) and I had no clue where to start in building a business.

Things came to a breaking point and I knew I just couldn’t work another day in that situation. I declined my manager’s offer of assistance and stepped down. My pay was cut by a third, and my stress was cut by far more than that.

With my mind cleared I started to learn a lot about myself and the big one is that I’m capable of far more than I’ve ever done, or felt like I could do. Since then, I have been taking on challenge after challenge to see what I’m made of. In enough cases to keep me moving forward I have “exceeded expectations.”

And that is very energizing.

Q: Is there any overlap with your day job? Have you learned lessons from your writing – or from leading the pre-writing challenge – that apply in your day job?

A: The Pre-Writing Challenge taught me a very valuable lesson about planning and organization. Plotting out my post ideas for weeks in advance has drastically changed my approach to writing for my blog. It’s become a lot simpler and more enjoyable to sit down and focus in on writing a piece. I also learned the value in not multitasking, instead, focusing on one priority task from start to finish. I can cut through a to-do list much faster that way.

This has started to creep its way into my day job where I am engaging in several different customer relationships a day, and the variety of tasks that accompany each one. I am building a workflow and an organization system to help focus my work into a linear sequence of tasks and events, allowing me to focus in on the important task of the moment.

Q: What difference are you expecting to make in the world? Locally? Globally?

A: I’ve always been into self-help, or what the cool kids are calling Personal Development these days. The thing that’s tough about reading these books is that the person giving this sage advice is already successful, and they seem to be way better me, so how could I hope to do the same? Telling their stories of the rise to success is inspiring, but because they’re already there, it’s easier to let there be a disconnect between “them” and “me.” They’re special. I’m not.

I decided, back in September, when I stepped down from my job, that I am capable of enormous success and happiness. My wife and I don’t have to struggle through depressions, illnesses, debt, and mediocrity. I didn’t have any real reason to believe that, no evidence to speak of. I just decided it was true and took off in that pursuit.

My intention is to show every step along the way in detail (even the ones that make me look like a shmuck), in hopes it will connect with people who have struggled, like I have, to see how they fit in among the best-selling success stories. The people who struggle to see how they could possibly fulfill their potential.

It’s a very hands on, practical approach to Personal Development. I hope it will inspire specific people, starting with my incredible wife, to believe in themselves and do amazing things. I also hope to be so successful with it, that it becomes the normal method of marketing self-help, inspiring people all over the world. A snowball effect of massive proportions.

Q: Do your friends, family and neighbors privy to your blogging, if so what is their reaction? If not, why not?

A: Everyone knows of my blog, but it’s a bit of a split on their reactions. A common one is “How are you going to make money with that?” Another is the “glazed-eye response” whenever I start talking about it because they just don’t get it.

However, I have gotten some amazing support from my sister and from some close friends who really believe in what I’m doing. I was also pleasantly surprised to learn from two different friends, recently, that they are regular readers and have been really inspired by the content of my blog. They don’t comment or tweet, but they’re there, lurking. It’s been a pleasure to discuss the blog with them while hanging out at a bar or around a fire-pit in their back yard.

Q: What does your wife think about all this?

A: My wife is amazing. Julie has supported me from the start. On October 4th, our anniversary, I had the thought to start a blog and mentioned it in passing.

“I think, maybe, I should start a blog.”
“I think you’d be great at it,” she said.

And that was the extent of the conversation. I told her later on, that if she had reacted with any kind of skepticism or negativity, it probably would have crushed my idea. It was a vulnerable moment, and she handled it beautifully.

She proofreads my content and gives me feedback whenever I have pre-written a post early enough. She did her best not to freak out when we were seriously struggling with our finances due to stepping down from management.

Also, in many ways Julie is my target audience. She has enormous talent and creativity, but has struggled through a lot of problems, including illness, over the years that have kept her from fulfilling that potential. Doctors told her she couldn’t do more, but she has never accepted that. Julie is on a journey alongside me to shatter every reason why she can’t have wild success and needs a lot of practical help and motivation. She is my gauge. If I’m not helping her, then I’m not doing what I need to with my blog either. She keeps me honest.

Q: What did I miss?

A: How about my future plans? I am putting together an e-book, a guidebook really, for the Pre-Writing Challenge. I intend to release it in May, the first method of monetizing my online work.

Over the summer I am going to write a book on the Law of Attraction, intended to give people real, practical examples of how I’ve engaged with it and how it has affected my life. It will be the working man’s book on the Law of Attraction, cutting through the fluff and getting into the grit.

I also have some plans for the fall that I’m not ready to discuss but will likely be the biggest source of online income for me this year. I will just hint that all of you will know about it if you stay updated on my future plans for the Pre-Writing Challenge and Doolin’s upcoming Blog Maintenance Challenge. There’s more to come after these two events.

I am committing to generating a full time income from my online projects before the end of the year. I will be able to live entirely off of it, and keep a part time position at my day job for the incredible benefits and helpful discount. I also commit to being very open about my progress, success, and failures along the way on Conscious Me.

Thanks for interviewing me about all this. The questions were awesome (I struggled to keep my answers this short) and working with you is a real pleasure.

Look for more Carlos, more pre-writing, and more surprises from this corner of the interwebs in the near future.

And feel free to ask Carlos a question or several. He’s very engaging, and will be happy to answer.

Also, if you’re on fire, and want to bring that fire to our little inferno, by all means, step right up and introduce yourself. Tell us what you have in mind, why it’s important to you, what you propose to do about it, and how we might be able to help you succeed.