Sources of Insight is Three Years Old

“Time flies when you’re having fun.”

Sources of Insight is three years old as of Sep 1st, 2011.  A year ago, I posted that Sources of Insight is Two Years Old.

Slow and steady wins the race?  We’ll see.  Sources of Insight is less of a race, and more of an exploration in making the most of what you’ve got.  It’s all about personal empowerment and putting the world’s best insight and action at your finger tips, drawing from books, people, and quotes.  I’ve revamped the About page to reflect the focus with more clarity.

Interestingly, I think my book, Getting Results the Agile Way, overshadowed Sources of Insight this past year.  A lot of readers throughout the year sent me email about how they’ve used Getting Results to make big changes in their life.   From teachers, to artists, to restaurant owners, it’s been helping people ignite their life, and find their way forward.  I’m a fan of helping people flourish, so it’s great to see.

Stats at a Glance
In the last year, I added more than a 1000, subscribers (I’m now in the 3,800 range), but I’ve doubled monthly visitors.  Last year I was at 30,000 a month, and I’m now at 60,000+ a month, and I can pretty much count on ~2,000 visitors a day.

While I’ve had solid growth, I have yet to do the things I know that create exponential growth.  That’s for this year.
Three Things Going Well

1. 101 Lists.  My 101 Lists have turned out to be more popular than I expected.  My 101 Questions that Empower You went viral.  One of the most powerful and touching responses, was this post on The Way Forward, by Katherine, where she wrote “… the questions it provides will hopefully come in handy to look within my soul and discover what I need. I plan to answer one with each post and allow them to take me where they may.”
2. Great Books, Great People, Great Quotes.  I continued to invest here, and my collections are growing.  Great Books is a collection of hand-picked books that help you get results for various topics.  Great People is a collection of lessons learned from insightful people.  If you haven’t seen these, you might take a look at Lessons Learned from Steve Jobs.  Great Quotes is a collection of insightful, actionable, and meaningful quotes for different topics.  My quotes collections put the wisdom from Aristotle, Buddha, Covey, Lao-Tzu, Mark Twain, and more, right at your finger tips.
3. The People.  It’s been a great year for meeting and connecting with new people from all walks of life.  I’ve met a bunch more best-selling authors, and insightful people.  One of the more interesting projects is helping a former billionaire birth his book.  I’ve learned a lot in the process, and I’m actually helping a few people bring their books to life.  I should write some posts to help more people write their books.

Three Things to Improve

1. Growth.  If I want to scale my impact, I have to focus on growth.  To do this, it means I need to focus on guest posting.   There are other ways too, but if I want to streamline it, that will be the most effective.
2. Mailing List.  If I want to really grow and expand Sources of Insight, I should create and grow a mailing list.  This will not only give me a more direct connection with readers, but will also help me think in terms of “the business of Sources of Insight.”  Aside from that, I like email for really sharing more insight in a conversational, newsletter sort of way.
3. 30 Day Boot Camps.  I need to do more of these.  My 30 Days of Getting Results was probably one of the most impactful things I’ve done on Sources of Insight.  30 Day Boot Camps are really powerful for making amazing changes, and I based them on the idea of Monthly Improvement Sprints in Getting Results the Agile Way.

What’s Next?
I’m going to continue investing in building collections of great books, great people, and great quotes.  I think it’s one of the best ways to empower you.  I’ll also be adding articles to my new Articles directory.  I will probably do some more free eBooks, and start on some new books, as well.   And, I’ll continue to bring you some interesting guest posters.  I don’t want to spill the beans just yet, but I do have some very interesting guest posts coming in the very near future.

I’m also going to do some spin off projects on some key areas of focus.  One of the problems that deeply troubles me is helping people make a living in today’s changing world.  I see way too many people losing the jobs they knew, the life they knew, and having trouble meeting their basic needs, including shelter and healthcare.   One of the best pieces of advice I got from somebody is “hate the problem, love the customer, ship stuff.”  Well, I hate the problem and I’m going to do something about it, and it will be along the lines of personal empowerment.

Call to Action
A lot of the growth of Sources of Insight is because of you.  You’ve shared Sources of Insight with a friend, and they’ve shared it with friends.  I thank you for that, and I hope Sources of Insight continues to be a source of insight, inspiration, and action to help more people lead a better life.

I have two asks:

1. Share Sources of Insight with ten more friends.  Share it with people with a passion for more from life.  That’s important.  I want Sources of Insight to be an arena for people that really want more from life.  Good energy is contagious and I want the garden to bloom.
2. Share your feedback with me.   While I am on a mission, I am always looking for feedback to help shape the way forward for Sources of Insight.   Whether you want to share with me your hopes, your dreams, your passions, or your big hairy challenges, or just things you’d like to see more of on Sources of Insight, send them my way.  The true power of Sources of Insight is keeping it real, while also taking a balcony view … onward and upward.

Photo by Wonderlane.