Just like that...

Leave me 5 minutes with somebody and I will have them set up and all ready to get into blogging!  You can ask Paul about that.

Up to end of August / beginning September (must be because Paul's first blog entry was the 9th of September 2011) Paul's life was pretty straight-forward.  He was a teacher by day who went out running after school, then home where he'd have a quiet evening reading his paper or perhaps watching something on TV - well I don't actually know if that was really how it was at the time.  I'm only guessing.

And then I came along with my magic words "Have you ever thought of starting a blog?" and I remember Paul showing a bit of an interest asking what it was about and I then went on to say "Oh it's great, it is quick and easy to set up, I can show you how" and within an hour I had Paul all set up with his blog and he did his very first entry.  No time to even catch his breath.  And that was the end of his quiet, straight forward days... And even if Paul at the time probably swore at me late in the evenings as he was being swept up in this world of blogging that took up all his time, I'm glad he started blogging because he has some great stories that he shares and I enjoy the runs he takes us on (click here).  I especially enjoyed the last run because it was so scenic and I surprised myself because I wasn't even out of breath...

So recently I told you how I found my Dale Carnegie instructor, George again (click here).  We've been emailing each other a bit and chatting on Skype (well not voice / video chatting because my laptop doesn't allow for that) (I think Skype chatting is great because it is so much more instant than email). I feel proud that after 11 years George still feels the book I made way back then with feedback, quotes and messages from everybody in our class is still one of his prized possessions and he's been showing it to others.  I made it at the time to say thank you to George because he was such an amazing trainer who changed our lives for the better.

Now I want to share a snippet of our Skype conversation this morning (Sorry Paul, you came up in the conversation as well).

We started off asking how the weekend was going and talking about our kids (his kids are young adults now) and then this:

[9:47:46 AM NZDT] Lea: Did I ever share with you the latest YouTube video link I made?
[9:47:55 AM NZDT] George: no
[9:47:55 AM NZDT] Lea: I wrote the words for the song and Bianca's teacher did the music.
[9:48:05 AM NZDT] George: send me the link please
[9:48:27 AM NZDT] Lea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TWWoUDhdt4
[9:48:43 AM NZDT] Lea: Paul has written nearly 300 songs to date.
[9:48:49 AM NZDT] Lea: I just recently put it all in a book for him.
[9:52:28 AM NZDT] George: this is a stunning video Lea - I love it
[9:52:38 AM NZDT] Lea: Thanks George :-)
[9:52:57 AM NZDT] Lea: Paul surprised me at our Funrazor event with the song.
[9:53:06 AM NZDT] Lea: I had written the poem on my blog and he turned it into a song.
[9:53:10 AM NZDT] Lea: Was a nice surprise.
[9:53:49 AM NZDT] George: yes indeed - what a fabulous gift!
[9:55:47 AM NZDT] George: who is paul?
[9:57:04 AM NZDT] Lea: Paul Forster was Bianca's teacher from last year.  An amazing teacher - one of the best.  Since then we've become really good friends. His passions include running, cycling (he is an amazing athlete), singing and songwriting and has also written and published a children's picture book.
[9:57:31 AM NZDT] Lea: http://glossaryking.blogspot.com/
[9:59:02 AM NZDT] George: thanks Lea
[9:59:46 AM NZDT] Lea: He wasn't into blogging, but last year I introduced him to it and helped him set up.  It was initially going to be a place for him to mostly talk about his book and his music, but since then his blog has changed quite a bit.

And then I asked my magic question...



[9:59:57 AM NZDT] Lea: Have you ever thought of blogging?
[10:00:27 AM NZDT] George: funny you should ask that - because I want to get into it this year
[10:01:01 AM NZDT] Lea: Blogging is great.
[10:01:09 AM NZDT] Lea: And very addictive I have to warn you though :-)
[10:01:17 AM NZDT] George: i have no idea how to go about it at the moment
[10:01:23 AM NZDT] Lea: I can help you get it set up.
[10:01:29 AM NZDT] Lea: It is easy and very quick.

And just like that within an hour I had George all set up with his very own blog.  At the moment George has asked that I remain a contributor on his blog which is why you'll see my name there.  And I started George off with his first blog entry.  George's blog is going to be amazing.  And what he will be writing about will be inspiring and life changing.  I'm very excited about this because I have spent time with George before and know that you too will be able to get lots of benefit from the blog entries George will be writing.

Please can you visit George's blog.  Leave him a comment to say hi and follow him - I promise you won't be disappointed when he starts writing his blog entries!

You can visit George here (click here).