This is a guest post from Barry at BookBlogBusiness.com

Remember the TV series Prison Break? You know, the one where Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows (possibly the coolest name ever) broke out of prison and inspired a nation of followers who sat in front of their TV’s rooting for convicted felons week after week? Remember how long the build-up was to the episode when they finally went over the wall?

I feel like I’m in that long build-up period. I know the day is coming when I’ll make it over the wall…again.

My First Prison Break

I’ve been many things in my life: a window washer, a janitor, a student, a doctor (yes, the medical kind), a college Dean and President, and a teacher…but the badge of the heart has always been inscribed with ‘Writer.’

I’ve never really wanted to do anything but write. But as we all know, writing is a tough way to make a decent living. At least it was until about 7 years ago when the Internet and blogging both opened up a world of potential for writers of all kinds.

After leaving private practice for a medical teaching position, life was good but my personal life was changing rapidly and in a space of about 6 months I became a single parent with full-custody of my then 7 year-old son.

I started blogging in my spare time and immediately recognized it as a way to write and make money.  So I launched a website and over a period of two years, built a list of subscribers that totaled around 500. This is before Twitter and Facebook, when Aweber and reader email were my only real marketing tools.

I wrote a book called Becoming Irresistible: How To Pack Your Copywriting Business With 5 New Clients Every Month. Packaged as a book, eBook in PDF, and a few audio files, it sold for $77 and $97 depending on the package.

I followed that with a copywriting course, The Irresistible Copywriting Course, and sold them both from a blog called (you guessed it) BecomingIrresistible.com (no longer active).

Everything was going pretty well. I had a forum, a membership site, and paying clients. I followed it up with a second eBook called Never Ask For Referrals…Ever!. It also sold well.

Then, for a variety of reasons, I lost my confidence. I gave up. I closed down the sites, moved to the beach in Rio Del Mar about 80 miles south of San Francisco and took an office job as a proposal manager. That was five years ago.

My Final Prison Break

office_prison_2

I now find myself planning my final break from the office prison I live in each day. I won’t go into the various reasons behind my decision to take a job, but suffice it to say that my youngest son had some health problems that needed attention and I needed good insurance plan. He’s healthy again, almost as tall as I am, and is becoming a very skilled guitarist.

So, how do I plan to escape over the wall? Luckily for me, I never stopped blogging or writing. My latest venture is BookBlogBusiness.com. It’s a site that caters to writers and authors who want to write full-time and get paid for doing it. It focuses on helping others in ‘prison’, break free and live their passion.

My revenue streams come from three main efforts:

  • Consulting: I trade my time for an hourly rate on occasion
  • Teaching: I teach eCourses to help others make their own prison break
  • Leverage: Offer both original and affiliate products.

I’ve also done my homework this time. Because I want this Prison Break to be my last, I decided to get the training and knowledge that would lay a foundation upon which I’d build.

So, I took Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind course, a 6-month blog training course. I also completed a year-long program in Internet Marketing from Psychotactics.com in 2008.

I know how to create original products, launch them successfully, but my greatest reward comes from helping others do the same thing. I really enjoy teaching as well as writing and I see video as being an integral component in my eCourses as they are released.

I can’t wait to get started full-time.

Setting My ‘Over the Wall’ Date

But I do have this thing about leaving my day job. It’s secure even if it doesn’t pay me much. So I’ve decided to act instead of plan forever and set what I’m calling my ‘Over the Wall’ date. I’m not looking to be back on the inside.

I want to break free and stay free.

I want to live with freedom as my highest value. I want my son to know that the bastardized version of The American Dream isn’t for everyone; that it’s OK -even essential- to set your sights on whatever wall is appropriate, set an ‘Over the Wall’ date, and then do nothing but prepare for that date by planning your escape and your life on the other side.

I wrote a post recently on B+B=B$$ called “How to Overcome Fear and Just Do It”. It poses the question, what would your life be like if you just went full-bore, balls to the wall forward with your plan to break free and live the life you imagine? (Kind of like Steve is doing here on ETG?)

I know what the answer is. It would be Freakin’ Phenomenal!

And so I’ve set my ‘Over the Wall’ date as June 30, 2011.

Who’s with me? 🙂

Barry W. Morris is an author and teacher and writes the blog Book+Blog=Business . He’s single-dad to the next Jimi Hendrix and Grand Dad to two of the cutest little girls on the planet.

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