Recently, I was tagged by both Ben Settle (on Facebook) and Michel Fortin to participate in the “25 Random Things about Me” meme.
Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 5 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you (so they know you responded). If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.
I switched these up a little bit in case you already read my Facebook response.
1. My dad was in the Air Force when I was born, and later got a job with Boeing, so I moved around a lot. I attended 7 different elementary schools — 10 schools total by the time I graduated from high school.
2. I enjoy an unusual mix of sports: snowboarding, skateboarding, motorcycling, road cycling, racquetball, and hiking. Which means I’m just as comfortable in spandex as I am in snowboarding gear.
3. Basically, I’m an adrenaline junkie, although I’ve toned it down since getting married and having kids. I still like to engage in parkour at playgrounds. (I try to do it while the other parents aren’t watching!)
4. I met my wife at a barbecue, even though we worked next door to each other. She worked at a paint/craft store, and I worked at a snowboard shop.
5. I got married when I was 20 years old.
6. My wedding day was on 9/11/99 — two years before 9/11 happened.
7. I had my first child (a daughter) when I was 23. I now have three kids: one girl, two boys.
8. I knew in the 8th grade I would become a writer. And here I am.
9. Before becoming a freelance copywriter in 2005, I wrote newspaper articles in high school and college — and had my poetry published by St. Olaf College two years in a row.
10. I now make a living from my writing. I love it.
11. I’ve logged every book I’ve ever read since the 8th grade. Every year, I print out my log, hole punch it, and put it in a binder.
12. Back in 1998, I made $10 an hour installing wire closet shelving in new homes. I can’t tell you how many times people joked about me “coming out of the closet.” Unpleasant side effect of working in real, literal closets 10 hours a day.
13. I am more contrarian than most folks. I don’t fit in well with any political groups or religious denominations. I prefer to question everything rather than accept things at face value.
14. I believe in God’s unconditional love and that God will save all people through Jesus so that God may be “all in all” (1 Cor 15). For more information, see here and here.
15. I was pigeon-toed as a boy. I had to put custom plastic foot inserts into my shoes to help turn my feet out. Every time my feet grew, I had to go get a new custom set of inserts made.
16. I love to study history.
17. I love to sing in the car — and I don’t give a hoot if people are watching. This is one reason I prefer male artists to female artists: it’s easier for me to sing along when a guy is singing.
18. I gave up playing the saxophone to learn to speak German. I spoke it fluently by the end of high school, and even won the German student of the year award. Unfortunately, I never went to Germany and have lost a lot of what I learned.
19. I love to learn for the sake of learning.
20. I love to laugh — and I like odd comedies like Napolean Dynamite, Flight of the Conchords, and (more recently) The Office.
21. If I could get my wife on board, I’d probably pack it up and move the family to Ireland for a year, just for the sheer adventure of it.
22. I’m a risk taker.
23. I have made some really stupid decisions. Like spending $30,000 on vending machines. This ranks as my worst financial decision ever. If I had known that Antares, the name of the company selling the machines, means “the wounding” or “tearing” in ancient Arabic, I probably wouldn’t have gone through with it.
24. My wife is amazing, and has been a significant factor in my business success.
25. I am genuinely interested in people. (So tell me about yourself!)
If you’d like to participate, simply write up your own list, publish it on your blog, and link back to this post. I’ll reciprocate by adding a link to yours.
-Ryan M. Healy
P.S. If you’re interested, you can read Ben’s list here and Michel’s list here.
P.P.S. Scott Birkhead has written his own list of 25 random things here.
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“I am more contrarian than most folks. I don’t fit in well with any political groups or religious denominations. I prefer to question everything rather than accept things at face value.”
That’s what makes it fun to rub shoulders with you in Cyberspace.
“I gave up playing the saxophone to learn to speak German. I spoke it fluently by the end of high school, and even won the German student of the year award. Unfortunately, I never went to Germany and have lost a lot of what I learned.”
If you go to a German-speaking country, stay at least a week, and do as much talking with ordinary people as possible, it’ll probably come back. Better yet, spend two weeks, and do the first one at a language school. I took 3 years of high school Spanish and dind’t use it until we went to Mexico for 3 weeks, 12 yers later. For the first week, I told my wife what people were saying and then she answered them. After a week, we could both hold up both ends of the conversation, and since then have visited several Spanish-speaking countries, doing language school twice for a week each time–and whether or not we did a school, spending time with people and even staying in their houses.
Ich farsteyha nua ein bission Deutch. But I like the language a lot.
” I love to learn for the sake of learning.”
Me too. I always say I became a writer because I’m inrtersted in everything. A bit of a stretch–there are half a dozen subjects I’ve been completely unable to get interested in–but thousands that do, at least a little.
BTW, If you’d review it, I’d be delighted to send you a gratis copy of my award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First. Think you’d dig it.
Forgot to mention: I got tagged on the 16 version of the random things. If you’re on Facebook, it’s at http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=47208886242&ref=mf
The fun of getting to know folks is that we each have our own odditities that make us who we are. And often have more in common than we knew.
Thanks for sharing Ryan.
John
The beauty of connecting is illustrated by the sharing of 25 things.
I found the exercise therapeutic, but it’s also interesting to reflect on why we like to share, learn and connect more deeply with others in our world.
Thanks for sharing!
I am not sure how to tag you so CONSIDER YOURSELF TAGGED BACK!
1. I only arrive on time to job interviews and meals.
2. I LOVE love
3. I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up because I have already decided I DON’T WANNA GROW UP! NOT ME!
4. I prefer my fresh picked corn on the cob RAW.
5. I don’t like computers at all but I love the internet.
6. I love to write. I would rather write soup can labels than not to write at all.
7. I prefer to co-create fabulous, creative business opportunities for OTHERS to run rather than running the business myself.
8. I am a one woman think tank.
9. I love horses, dogs, cats, and children, equally.
10. Actually, everything I love I love equally. I cannot decide my way out of a paper bag!
11. Chocolate chunk cookies are WAAAY better when made with unsweetened Belgian baking chocolate. Really, they are!
12. Sometimes I feel so greatful to G-d I cry. Actually, much more than sometimes.
13. I used to be rigid but life has pumelled me into a softened version of my old self. Thank you G-d. Truly, I once was tempted to serve MYSELF with divorce papers!
14. One of my favorite desserts is Ciao Bella Blackberry Cabernet Sorbetto. Did I mention I am never late for a meal?
15. I love to laugh.
16. I am a black sheep, a misfit, and I usually don’t see eye-to-eye with anyone (not even with myself).
17. My values tend to fluctuate because I see most situations as conditional. It really all depends…don’t you think?
18. I become impatient with intelligent people who do not use common sense. For me it is like hearing a nonsequiter.
19. I am not religious but I am spiritual. I have been a “seeker” for 35 years.
20. I own more books than anyone has a right to. I own books I have not even had time to read! I guess you could call me a compulsive book collector. One time I had to evacuate my home because of an impending flood; I grabbed my toothbrush, a change of clothes, and MY BOOKS.
21. I am too sensitive and am uncomfortable with the possibility of being rejected. So too often I say, “yes” as a kneejerk reaction.
19. I am excellent at many things and I have demonstrated genius in more than one area of my life.
20. I have become decent at accepting many blessings into my life. However, I have not yet got the hang of accepting and allowing money. I AM working on it, though.
21. Math and P.E. are the only two subjects I never excelled in!
22. I love to take road trips with my husband.
23. I think Trader Joe’s Tartar Sauce is a food group!
24. I see EVERYTHING as a water color painting including dividing an ojects’s composition intoplanes. .
25. If I had it to do over again, I would become a veterinarian.
OOPS! I also suck at following rules:
O.K. My 5 tags (not including you):
Ryan Healy (rhealy@gmail.com)
Rob Toth (robtoth@27am.com)
Judith&Jim (judithandjim@judithandjim.com)
Bob the Teacher (bob@bobtheteacher.com)
Bob Bly (rwbly@bly.com)
Tim Berger (cashbooklet@gmail.com)
Hey Ryan,
I can’t tell how awesome this “25 random things about me” idea is. It’s a way to get inside access to a person’s world.
You’ve revealed an amazing indicator to me as to why you’ve succeeded to the level you have. I’ll tell you about this in a sec.
Tony Robbins is one of the people I admire most on the planet. I’ve been going through his “Creating Change that Lasts” program he built for therapists and anyone else working to help people transform their life for the better.
The first step he sees as most important when we wish to influence someone is to understand their model of the world. In his words “You can only influence someone when you know what already influences them.”
These 25 random questions let me into your world and for that, I am grateful.
I’ve written below, 21 questions (some two parters) Tony lists in his manual for therapists to get to know what influences their clients.
I just used this with a friend I haven’t spoken to for years and this zoomed me across a gap as wide as the Grand Canyon in our relationship right into some of their core beliefs that drive their behavior.
Here they are…
1. Life is about… Life isn’t about…
2. Life is always… Life is never…
3. The purpose of life is…
4. Death is about…Death isn’t about…
5. Is life random or is there destiny?
6. Relationships are… Relationships are not…
7. The purpose of a relationship is…
8. How do you get love? How do you get a relationship?
9. Your most important relationships are…
10. The greatest source of love in your life is…
11. The greatest love in your life in the past has been…
12. True or false: Love has been withheld significantly in your life…
13. If true, by whom? How did it affect you?
14. You kill a relationship when… You grow a relationship by…
15. The challenge of a relationship is…The gift of a relationship is…
16. How much is a long time? What’s a short time?
17. What’s acceptable? What’s unacceptable?
18. The past is…
19. The present is…
20. The future is…
21. The best times of your life are found in…
There are even more of these questions and I’ll make them available on my blog soon but I’ve found answering these for myself was extremely therapeutic.
And the process of revealing these beliefs to my friend was incredible. She sent her answers right back to me.
Thank you Ryan for sharing some of yourself here.
Talk to you again soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
P.S. Forgot to tell you one of the secrets to your success you revealed above that Gene Landrum, author of “Profiles of Power and Success: Fourteen Geniuses Who Broke The Rules”, found in common between people who were the greatest in the areas of the arts, business, entertainment, humanities, politics, and science.
Being a history buff and a contrarian you need to get this book if you don’t have it already. It’s absolutely fantastic.
He looked for commonalities at first of over 100 candidates from the past 300 years of history and boiled the list down to 14.
The fourteen were Napolean Bonaparte, Walt Disney, Isadora Duncan, Amelia Earhart, Adolf Hitler, Howard Hughes, Maria Montessori, Rupert Murdoch, Edith Piaf, Pablo Picasso, Helena Rubinstein, Marquis de Sade, Nikola Tesla and Frank Lloyd Wright.
I have to admit, I didn’t know diddly about some of these people and Gene shined a spotlight on their stories and enlightened me with their stories.
One of the keys to the success of these people who changed the world was what Gene calls Transiency.
He says “Frequent moves at a young age are a positive experience for young children in becoming great creative or entrepreneurial geniuses. This is contrary to the opinion of most mothers who are convinced that the instability wrought by continual re-locations is a detrimental experience for their young children. The truth is that it is more of a problem for the adults than the children who benefit by the new cultures, friends, and environment. Frequent transiency instills the ability to cope with an unknown environment at a very early age. When children are moved from state to state, forced to meet new friends, enroll in new schools and cope with new teachers and adapt to strange cultures, they are imprinted with self-sufficiency, independence, perseverance and temerity.”
Dan Kennedy turned me onto this author and I am forever in his debt for this.
Check him out Ryan, you’ll love him.
My blogpost –
Today I was tagged by Ryan Healy, who was tagged by Ben Settle, to participate in “25 Random Things About Me.”
The basic rules – once you’re tagged, write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, goals (etc.) and then choose 5 people to be tagged.
So here are 25 random things about me…if you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged.
1. I was born in Memphis, TN at a hospital they ‘imploded’ last year to make room for a new one.
2. I had my wedding reception in a restaurant in San Pedro, CA that no longer physically exists either (starting to sense a theme here…)
3. My dad was a wanna-be entreprenuer who never really got it, so I avoided it like the plague for years.
4. As a kid I lived in 14 different homes in Albuquerque, NM in a 12 year timespan…moving is like 2nd nature to me.
5. In 10 years in the Air Force I spent seven in one school or another.
6. I studied International Affairs at the US Air Force Academy…NATO and Alliance politics before the wall came down…talk about an outdated degree.
7. I had a manager once call me “obtuse” and I disagreed with her even though I didn’t know what it meant.
8. Last month I was shoveling snow in my driveway and thought, “This is harder than last year because my daughter’s car is in the way…” and then I thought, “My daughter’s car…” and it was really the first time I thought about my kids getting ready to move on in life!
9. I recently moved ‘corporate headquarters’ into a new room in the basement and have nothing on the walls – it’s like a fresh start :)
10. My last client who “graduated” is working for a company in California that makes alternative fuels out of the wood from pine trees that were destroyed by beetle bark pined. They soak it in fuel oil and sell it to power companies to burn instead of coal.
11. I love golf and fishing, and still get Bass Master magazine even though bass fishing isn’t the big draw in Colorado.
12. I won the Paul T. Cullen award for creative writing at USAFA in college for a story called, “Sow Anger, Reap Blood.” It’s the only award I ever won for writing.
13. Like Ryan Healy, I sing in the car. Classic Rock most of the time; I also play air guitar and drums…keyboards on really good riffs
14. I spoke to a class of job seekers yesterday, and 13 of 17 admitted to getting fired at least once in their career.
15. My favorite movies are either war movies or comedies…on a recent Vail getaway, my family watched “Dumb and Dumber,” “Black Sheep” and “Tommy Boy” back-to-back-to-back.
16. I sang in the Cadet Chorale at USAFA and once took a tour of the Kohler Toilet Factory while on a singing trip to Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
17. I just bought my first pair of ‘old man jeans’ with stretchy elastic bands in the waist and I don’t care…they’re the most comfortable jeans I’ve ever owned.
18. My favorite fiction writer these days is Lee Childs, who writes a series of books about “Jack Reacher.” They’re like action movies on paper – completely absorbing, fast-moving, and very guy oriented.
19 My daughters got hold of our Blockbuster password, so 98% of the movies that show up at my house are chick flicks.
20. Coming up with 25 things to write about yourself is harder than I thought it would be.
21. I’m learning that marketing is NOT about ideas and colors and brands – it’s purely about knowing what people want and testing until you get the message right.
22. I LOVE helping people learn things – Bible, job hunting, sales, recruiting…watching people ‘get it’ is one of life’s pure, unadulterated gifts.
23. I am working on several video posts that I’m really excited about…to go along with several free audios on my web site – learning the technology and hearing people’s reactions is a HOOT!
24. My wife really, honestly expects that I’ll cook dinner every night since I’m working from home now (advice about whether or not I should is appreciated)
25. I’m mechanically declined (as opposed to inclined) – I shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near electrical, pumbing or roofing related home repairs.
That’s it – you can see Ryan Healy and Ben Settle’s blogs here (a must have if you’re a copywriter for fun or profit):
http://www.ryanhealy.com/25-random-things-about-me/
http://www.bensettle.com
@Shel – Thanks for the positive feedback! I think David Ogilvy mentions in his book that most good copywriters are interested in just about everything — and love to learn. Re: Your book. Sure, I’d enjoy reviewing it; although with current workload, would probably have to wait until late March.
@John – It is amazing how much we can have in common without even knowing it.
@Tony – Absolutely. I found it to be therapeutic too.
@Arieljoy – Thanks for participating! (Although I don’t think the people you tagged will know they’ve been tagged unless you email them directly.)
@Note Taking Nerd – Excellent comment! Thanks for the book suggestion. Sounds REALLY interesting.
@Scott – Thanks for participating! You’ll see I’ve added your link to the post above. :-)
parkour? damn, ryan, you’ve been holding back on us – post some video!
@Mark – I’m glad to hear you say that. I’ve actually considered taking some video and posting it. I’ll see if I can get some video soon. :-)
Keith – Great list, man. I love the first one. That cracks me up.
I also like #15. And I completely agree with #18. I find I’m sometimes the only guy laughing at myself.
This comment was originally posted on http://www.keithgoodrum.com/)“>Keith Goodrum
Thanks Ryan,
Yeah, I was shocked to see Clint Eastwood sitting there… Really was at a loss for words.
As far as #18 goes – I definitely have a lot of entertainment in my life.
This comment was originally posted on http://www.keithgoodrum.com/)“>Keith Goodrum
You’ve been selected as having one of the Best Random Things on the Web on your list. No kidding.
Come to BestRandomThings.com to see your Thing and many others.
Thingmeister Jeffrey
This comment was originally posted on http://www.keithgoodrum.com/)“>Keith Goodrum
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