Successful Blog

Jesse Petersen Loves #SOBCon

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Recently we caught up with Jesse Petersen, head honcho of Petersen Media Group, to ask him how his business has benefited from SOBCon. What follows are Jesse’s unedited words.

Thinking back on it, SOBCon was something that “just happened.” I had just started on the blogging scene back in 2006 when I came across a blog called Successful Online Blogging. I started reading about blogging both as a hobby and a source of income. Before I knew it, I had left some comments that got some replies from some of the regulars on the site. [Read more…]

Enough about Me . . .

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Please Go Look

Please look at this. It was in my Technorati links.

http://www.gitrsblog.us/?p=563

Jesse didn’t tell me he was going to do this. I’m not asking you to donate, but it would be cool if you pass the word.

Jesse is the guy with CF who wrote the post I Want to Make a Difference too.

That post got 43 comments.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Jesse Petersen Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

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Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Jesse there?

BAD Blogger Button

I found an email in my old Successful Blog account. It was from a young man named Jesse offering to do a guest post. I suggested to him that we have a B.A.D. Blogger call. That’s how we came to talk. Jesse Petersen is one interesting man to have a conversation with.

Jesse told me that he got married a few months ago. We talked about the first year of being married. We discussed the way the world changes how it looks at person the second that the wedding takes place. That it changes the way we look at ourselves, our jobs, and our lives and how everything fits our world view.

Jesse told me that he’s technical editor for flight simulators. I asked him what that meant. He said he translated and trued up the documentation. I laughed and said it must be a lot like the work that I used to do on educational textbooks. We found a lot of places where the two jobs were the same. Jesse said he had an affinity for formatting the documents. I told him that was also my favorite part. We talked about the difficulties in turning what engineers wrote into prose that regular people might read. I mentioned an engineering text I worked on last year that had engineering editors from four different countries. I think we moaned in a sort of harmony, understanding the unique misery.

Jesse and I discussed the post that he wanted to write for Successful Blog. He was looking for feedback and was ready to hear what people had to say. I told him if he would rewrite what he sent that I would edit it. He said he’d be happy to.

Jesse sent a sincere and honest post asking how he might make a difference. The post went up. The discussion was interactive and enlightening. Jesse listened to the answers he got, and the answers he got were the best in the blogosphere.

I think Jesse will find that difference.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

I like the interaction of hearing people respond and knowing what people think about what I think whatever that is. — Jesse Petersen

Stop by Jesse’s Blog, Gitr’s WoW Blog, and say hi!

Thanks, Jesse, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.

I Want to Make a Difference, Too

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How This Post Came To Be

A young man named Jesse asked to be a contributor, I read his post and I thought about it. It’s one young, newlywed blogger with cystic fibrosis talking about his life. The post he sent wasn’t the usual contributor post. It was more like a Sunday night Bloggy Question, except it wasn’t hypothetical.

We talked on the telephone about why he wrote it. Jesse said he hoped he might get feedback. He assured me that he was open to honest, even negative responses. He wants to know what people really think. I told him that he might not get any feedback at all. Jesse said he was ready for that too.

If he was brave enough to put himself forward like that, I am brave enough to support that. –Liz

I Want to Make a Difference, Too

Guest Writer: Jesse Petersen

I am at a point in my journey in life where things are finally settling down. Life is what the average American would call “good.” To me, though it is great. What is it that lead me to pen this article for this audience? It’s time to get to the meat and potatoes of my heart today:

I want to make a difference.

A major contributor to my state of mind is a general feeling of easy distraction/unhappiness. Mind you, I am a newlywed. I am VERY happy. Things have never, ever been this good. My health is increasing for the first time in my life, instead of the other way; I am secure; I have the support of my best friend when I come home every night; and things at work are going really good.

So why, the heck am I unhappy?! It is not even unhappiness. It is a distracted unfulfilled potential. I am not in the position I want because I have not jumped through the hoops yet. I don’t know, but my boss is trying to get me there.

I want to make a difference.

That sentence is a paragraph in and of itself, and deserving of a second appearance. It speaks volumes about a central yearning of the heart. Is it selfish to want to make a difference? I am not saying that I want to become rich, or famous, or busy. I am just a 28 year old guy with cystic fibrosis, a wife, a very nice apartment in a very nice development, with a wonderful family and a supportive chuch family who wants to make a difference.

Is it hopeless to think that I possess something that other people would want?

The world is full of success stories. Many of those stories belong to Liz’s readers, and I would venture a guess that quite a few people are reading this because they want to hear what successful people did to attain the status of “successful.”

What is my idea or what knowledge do I have or need to get in order to make a difference? Is there a roadmap to finding your influence, or does it smack you in the face one day? Is it just a Holy Grail, never to be found? When I find it, will it make a difference in me?

Jesse Petersen writes at Gitr’s WoW Blog

Thank you, Jesse, for saying that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss