Let me tell you a bit more about myself and my plans for the IM Geek Girl blog.

My name is Lisa Hartwell and I have worked most of my adult life as a Professional Mouth! My family and friends will tell you it’s a job I was destined to do!

I went off to university planning to be an actress/singer. My ideas quickly changed and I left university thinking that TV and/or radio were more up my alley. Radio came first and after a year of working as a volunteer and then swing presenter (i.e. stand-in presenter…not what you were thinking), I was offered my first full-time gig at a radio station in Plymouth. Apart from 9 months spent travelling around Australia I have been here ever since, working for 10 years on various shows at both Plymouth Sound and South Hams Radio and making the transition in late 1999 to part-time then full-time voiceover.

My interest in Internet Marketing began back in 2004/5. I can’t remember which came first, but I found some of Yanik Silver’s and Jim Edward’s stuff online and I was also learning general marketing through Dan Kennedy’s books and training. At the time I had big plans to launch an information product for voiceovers in the UK. Thankfully, I learned very quickly to do my research before anything else and realised the UK voiceover market was too small to be profitable in that area.

The love of Internet Marketing took off from there. There are so many possibilities on the Internet that have still not been fully explored, utilised or even imagined. That’s what makes it so exciting. Of course, Internet Marketing should be about business building, so I take action as much as possible – I am a great believer in lifelong learning but there’s no point learning if you don’t do anything with it.

Originally, I pursued Internet Marketing as another string to my bow. Having worked as a freelancer in radio and then as a self-employed voiceover, I was aware of how important it is to diversify and have several strings of income. I also had long term plans to eventually work fully online so I could pursue one of my biggest passions in life – travelling. I love to travel both within the UK to visit family, friends and new places, and around the world and I want to have the opportunity to do it more and more often.

After I discovered the original Thirty Day Challenge material in late 2005 I became a huge fan of Ed Dale and Frank Kern and have taken part in all subsequent TDCs as well as being a member of their Ultra Underachievers membership site. When that ended I watched with interest as another Ultra Underachiever, Dan Raine, set his own challenge to make $15k in a month and only just missed out on managing it. He went on to create the Immediate Edge, which I have been a very happy member of ever since. The Edge is now a joint project with Ed Dale that utilises the skills of their lab and various teams/interns, and Ed and Dan have also joined forces on the Thirty Day Challenge (2007 and 2008).

Things went a bit awry for me this year (2008) which I will explain more about in the next post, where I’ll also give you more info on my plans for the IM Geek Girl blog.

Lisa

Related Internet Marketing posts:

1. IM Geek Girl is Go!
2. Life Unravelled a Little for this IM Geek Girl
3. Should You Only Write What You Know?