Larry Lewis - My Blog

This article is for the blog hop ‘Blogging and Friends’ the brain child of wonderful bloggers Mary of Living with Food Allergies and Celiac Disease and Bonnie of Bongo Is Me. They entered my life at the Facebook Blogging Group Blogplicity …. The one group I would claim was my birthplace as a blogger. A group without which I would have not achieved much of what I have as a blogger and lifestyle entrepreneur.

When you enter the blogosphere you expect to make many new online friends but you don’t expect to meet someone that will become the key to moving your life forward. This blog hop gives me a brilliant opportunity to talk about somebody that tries to shy away from the limelight. My business partner Neil. While I am happy to be in the spotlight, he is far more comfortable in the background, literally tucked away in the word press files working with coding and all those technical things that are his skills, talents and passions.

From time to time, it’s a good idea to look closely at the way we treat our partner and make sure that our actions accurately convey our true feelings. While I’m always very happy to talk about myself, and yes I admit I take every opportunity to do so, I very rarely get the chance to talk about Neil. Well today I’m going to put that right.

We all know there are certain things we should never overlook in any important relationship.

• Regularly express how you need and value this person. (I wouldn’t accomplish half of what I do without him. Hope you’re reading this Neil)

• Compliment them for their special qualities. (Neil you are a WordPress genius … my hero Geek!)

• Be enthusiastic over things that excite them. (Oh wow, how amazing that new bit of code you just wrote is … oh boy, you sure need to get a life. But you have me as a partner, so how much better could things be I suppose)

• Allow them to teach you things without being defensive (I promise I’ll do better with key wording my blog posts, I double promise to put the same words in 50 times per article so my readers fall asleep but Google send us love)

• Defend them to others – he may not say a lot, but what he does say is just so dam intelligent. You wouldn’t want anyone else looking after the backend of your blog, and you sure don’t want him at the front.

I started my blog to write about my passion for personal development and healthy lifestyle living. Being a new blogger is a daunting challenge. You start from scratch, with no experience, fumbling around trying to fathom out how it all works.

During my early days I made some great blogging friends who provided me with some of their talents, expertise, and wisdom to help me out. I have no doubts without them I wouldn’t have got as far as I now have in the Blogging World. These people collected together in the Facebook Group over at Blogplicity. If you are a blogger, a genuine one, and interacting with kind, loving, caring bloggers is something you want to do, joining blogplicity would be the best thing you could do.

I count it a blessing every time I get the opportunity to talk to unique people, and get to know them for who they really are, and who they are becoming. I formed some wonderful genuine and beneficial relationships on the internet. The incredible people I have met are some of the the finest people I have ever known.

But there is one person who has completely changed my life. Yes, a chap that I frequently will take the mickey out of, well its so easy I can’t resist. But he is also the best business partner I could ever dream about having. (this must be a nightmare I’m being nice about him publicly)

I started blogging with the strong intention of sharing my thoughts and views with people who strive to make changes, particularly in the field of healthy lifestyles and personal development. It was Neil that has enabled me to get my message out there to the much bigger audience than I could ever have done on my own, and it was him that has helped me build a wonderful site far better than anything I could myself.

Since Neil and I came together, we’ve had one vision: to build a site to make the difference. We’ve done everything in our power to make our vision reality. As soon as we started working together, we realized that although we were two completely different people, in every way imaginable, together we just clicked.

I owe so much to Neil for being an amazing partner. We have very complimentary skill sets and see the world through a different lens, but at the end of the day we share the most important things in common. His relentless optimism and ability to take a step back from situations and analyise them have taught me so much. While my personal development, and motivational moments, I know have shifted his mindset and beliefs to what’s possible.

His a true friend. I don’t think there’s anything he wouldn’t do for me. His generous, supportive and will put himself out to help at all times.

We bounce ideas of each other amazingly. When we have brainstorming sessions we both can’t believe what we come out with. It just seems there is a connection between us that really does bring out the best in each other. Yet when people see us together you could not imagine two more opposing type people. Where he is a little shy and retiring, I’m a little too loud and confident. I’m tall, dark and handsome, while Neils, well just Neil. We also both believe that you have to enjoy your work, so we have a lot of fun all the time.

I still remember the day we first met. I think I talked for about 30 minutes, he grunted a few times, nodded a couple, then concluded “let me do some research, and I’ll get back to you in a few days”. If you know Neil, a few days, is in normal time, about 7 days. But he decided to jump in and we’ve spent the last 18 months becoming amazing friends. I really couldn’t ask for anything more in a cofounder, I’ll remember our times outside of the office even more than inside. What an incredible 18 months. And I will beat his score on Temple Run. In fact I already have.

First blogging, and then meeting Neil changed my life. We both believe in doing what you love and what makes you happy, just as long as you can pay your bills.

We can’t forget though our friends who have put up with my poor sense of humour, and constant barrage of motivational talk for the past two years who we’ve met through our blogging adventure.

Blogging has indeed been a brilliant journey, it has helped me build a wonderful business, allowing me to do what I love every day, and with all of the friends it has brought me, I know my life will remain empowered and blogging will be what I do for ever more. So Neils going to have to put up with me a lot longer.

In fact as you are reading this you may get the impression that we are more than business partners. Now, I can worsen that by telling you that we both found out very early on that we shared a goal. And that is we both want to live on the Island of Majorca. Now maybe you can see us walking hand in hand along the beach. I’m way to visual to carry this train of thought any further. We will both be living in Majorca soon, but with our female partners. So there you go Neil I’ve quashed those rumours that I started.

I’m finishing this article at about 1am, and I can see on Skype Neils online too. We both love our work so much time does sometimes just pass us by. We are both so excited by what we are doing, what we are building, and what it will achieve. Maybe from my writing today you can see we both have a sense of humour too. It keeps you sane when you work as hard as we both do.

And maybe that’s one of our biggest assets. With me the writer, the coach, the networker, and him the WordPress and SEO techie, we are always there for each other. To me that is probably one of the biggest reasons for our success. To build a blog and an internet business alone is hard, when you do it as a team it is so much easier.

Anyway, I’ve been way to complimentary about him, so I think that’s enough of that. Just remember, not only is blogging a wonderful platform for expressing yourself, and sharing your thoughts, but it also gives you entry into the brilliant blogosphere where you will get the chance to meet many other fantastic people. Blogging and friends truly do go hand in hand, mind you please Neil, promise you wont try and hold mine.

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