What will happen to your business when you die?

October 30, 2011 by JD · 1 Comment
Filed under: Business, Dilbeck Marketing, Musings

Do you have an exit plan for your business? Are you working to build equity or profit?

I’ve been thinking about these issues and wonder about how others see it.

This morning, I was reading some of the recent posts on Seth Godin’s blog. I’ve been busy with planning and studying and I have not been reading it every day, as I usually do. Recently, he wrote Questions for a new entrepreneur and it fit in with what I was already thinking about, and that sparked the idea to write my own post and ask a question of you.

For myself, I’m building a business doing something I believe in — promoting top quality businesses and the people who own them, and encouraging people to support their local economies — and I think I’ll work on this the rest of my life.

Yet, if someone offered to buy it (once I get it all set up), I would decline. It’s not for sale.

So, what happens when I die? Does the business die, too? Or, do I find someone who can continue on with it? That’s a lot more difficult question for a business that deals with intangibles than it is for a brick and mortar retail business, for example.

Do I incorporate the business so that I can separate ownership and management? Could that provide for both profits to the owners and a reasonable succession plan for keeping the business going after I’m gone?

Who can I find who shares the same passions and would be willing to learn how to run the business and manage it?

I came close to dying last year. I feel like I’m living on borrowed time and I have been given a second opportunity to do what I feel is important.

I’m feeling better, today, than I have in years, and that makes this a great time to consider this issue. Death is close enough to be an advisor, but distant enough not to be a threat.

If I had died last year, the answer was simple: cancel the accounts and let the business die with me.

But, I feel like my new direction is more important, so it doesn’t feel like letting it die with me is the best answer — assuming I can build what I see in my imagination.

I don’t have any answers, but I continue to ask the question: What will happen to the business I am building when I reach a point where I can no longer do the work?

In my case, I’m looking more for a succession plan than an exit plan.

What will happen with your business when you reach the same point? Do you have a plan? Does anyone else know what that plan is and how to carry it out?

Tags: Business, equity, exit plan, profit, succession

I am living my dream!

September 28, 2011 by JD · Comments Off
Filed under: A Year From Now, Act On Your Dream, Dilbeck Marketing, Health, Murphy NC 28906, Musings, Site Build It

Good morning, Earthlings (and visitors to this quaint little planet)! It’s another gorgeous day in my little slice of paradise. This is why I moved to Murphy. It’s beautiful here.

Happy WoooooHooooo Wednesday! It’s just about an hour until you’re over the hump for the work week.

Lots to do today. To-do lists waiting to be decimated! Websites begging me to write new pages! And some people have the temerity to call this work!

If I were wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice, I would still do what I plan to do today. That’s how I know it’s the right thing for me.

Those of you who know me, know I’m not rich — in finances — but I’m wealthy beyond my dreams in terms of freedom, doing what I love, living where I love, having lots of great friends all around the world, and being part of a loving family.

After staring Death in the face just over a year ago, I have a new appreciation for life and living and enjoying the adventure — including the uncertainty, the high points, the low points, and the unexpected joys over the next hill and around the next curve in my path. I will never — ever — take another day for granted and just go through the motions.

I am grateful beyond my ability to express it that I am steadily recovering, that the neuropathy is fading in my fingers and I can once again type rapidly and accurately, that my thinking is getting clearer and faster, that my memory is working better, and that I have new plans I’m working to rebuild my business, earn my own way, and get off of disability. A year from now, if not sooner, I’ll be standing on my own two feet and making my own way in this beautiful world, once again.

And, when it happens and I’m earning a good living, again, I will never again gripe about writing the check to pay my taxes. (I will fuss and fume about the difficulty of filling out all those dang forms, but I won’t gripe about paying my fair share.)

Without Medicaid, I would be dead now. I’d love to earn enough to be able to pay back to the government all that I received in medical care, medicine, and food stamps. I’m not sure, but it’s about a half-million dollars. Paying that back is one of my top goals. I intend to do all I can to make it happen.

Make no mistake about it. Cancer and chemotherapy are difficult to endure, but it was worth everything I went through to make it out the other side and enjoy watching the sun rise through the trees on a morning like this. The ordeal was made much easier by the support and love I received from so many people.

If you’re going through a difficult time, hang in there. Don’t give up. Life is worth the struggle. Smile through the pain and laugh for the sheer joy of being alive. Fight with everything you can to overcome.

And, knowing that all of us eventually lose to the Grim Reaper, make your last day memorable by looking him right in the eye socket and laughing so loud that it’ll push the hood right off his skull as he drags you away from us!

In a couple of minutes, I’m going to get another cup of coffee and go to work. I can’t pay that money back if I don’t work to earn it, first.

I have a marketing business to rebuild and expand. There is so much to do and I intend to enjoy every single step of the process. This is going to be a fantabulous journey.

I am very happy that I ran across Dr. Ken Evoy back at the end of the 20th Century and learned how to build websites that sell. It changed my life — for the better. And not just mine, thousands of us are happy we found him. You can see that nearly 40,000 of us like Sitesell’s Facebook page, and I’ll be spending the rest of the day using the tools in SBI to work on my online marketing business.

(I still can’t believe that Sitesell provides all the tools I need and all the training and support to help me build my online business for only $30 a month, or just $300 per year. I spend more than that on coffee. And you know that $30? It’s not an expense, it’s an investment. I earn a profit every month, and now that I’m recovering from the last two years, I intend to earn a much larger profit from my work. Some days I have to pinch myself to believe I’m not dreaming. I’m acting on my dream — I’m living my dream.)

(But, don’t mind me. I’m just a geezer working at home and being grateful for my good fortune. After the last couple of years, I take time to think about all the people and things for which I’m grateful — every single morning and evening. Today, it just spilled out from my mind, through my fingers, and onto this page.)

All my friends who use SBI to build their online businesses know what I’m talking about. Don’t you? I’m grateful that Ken believes in helping as many people as he can and that he works so hard leading the team that continues to add new tools we can use to improve the quality of our businesses — without raising the price. Some days, I really do feel like I’m dreaming. It’s a wonderful thing to know you’re awake, loving life, and acting on your dream — all at the same time!

Here’s a link to Sitesell’s Facebook page so you can see for yourself, if you’re interested.

Thanks, Ken!

Now let’s go play Build My Business.

I love my life. I sure hope that you love yours!

It’s a wonderful day — Let’s go enjoy it!

Act on your dream!

Tags: Business, gratitude, health, joy of living, Ken Evoy, life, SBI

At Sitesell, all employees tweet to the corporate Twitter account

August 18, 2010 by JD · 4 Comments
Filed under: Dilbeck Marketing, Musings, Site Build It, Twitter

If you’ve read anything I’ve written over the last decade or so, you’ll most likely already know that I’m a huge fan of Ken Evoy, Sitesell, and their products and services — especially Site Build It.

By learning from, and following, the advice Ken wrote in his Make Your Site Sell! ebook, I was able to build an affiliate marketing business and earn 100% of my income working in the comfort of my home in the mountains of western North Carolina. I love living here. I love setting my own schedule. This is my dream job.

Apparently, being a Sitesell employee is also a dream job. There are about 300 of them and they’re located all around the world. The great majority work from home and have no daily commute to work, other than getting a refreshing beverage and turning on their computers.

This year, Sitesell became the first corporation to empower all their employees to tweet to the corporate Twitter account: Sitesell on Twitter.

They tweet about both business and personal topics. Each employee is identified with a hashtag that includes their name and department in which they work.

Ken Evoy is #KenFounder, and other employees work in departments such as Education, Training, Support, Mgmt, Content, Mod (forum moderator), QA, Mktg, Coach, Tech, AffMgr, and others.

Before they started tweeting regularly to this Twitter account, I knew only a handful of them by name and had rare contact with them, and I’ve been a happy customer for over 10 years and have bought quite a few products from them.

(I’ve also been a very happy affiliate for the company over the years. It has been a profitable relationship for me. I’ve earned commissions when people buy Sitesell’s products through my links, I’ve found quality businesses to associate with and earned commissions from them, and I’ve enjoyed all the tools that SBI offers to build my own sites — and there’s more to come in the future.)

Still, with all my experience as a customer and affiliate, I only knew a handful of Sitesell employees by name.

Now, I’m getting to know them better.

During the last year while I’m working mainly to get through this health crisis, I haven’t been doing much with Twitter, and I used to spend an hour or more per day there. There are a handful of Twitter accounts I read on a regular basis and Sitesell’s is one of them.

I think it’s a really cool deal that one of my favorite companies was the first to enable all their employees to tweet (or not to tweet) to the corporate account. Just one more example of all the innovation we’ve come to expect from them and their flagship product, Site Build It.

See their latest Twitter tweets. Click the image below.

If you’re looking for some good, free advice that can help you with building and promoting your business online, I’d like to recommend Sitesell’s Blog to you. I’ve always found the advice to be helpful, free of hype, and based on real experience.

Act on your dream!

Tags: dream job, Ken Evoy, Site Build It, Sitesell, tweet, Twitter

I am happy to report that I’m feeling better!

August 3, 2010 by JD · 11 Comments
Filed under: Dilbeck Marketing, Family, Friends, Personal

(This is a long post, written following the end of surgeries related to treating my cancer and just now starting chemotherapy. Unless you really know me and are obsessively curious (or just have a lot of free time on your hands), you may not want to read all of this.)

As some of you already know, I have been feeling bad for two or three years and it all came to a head in March, 2010 when I came close to dying. Very Close!

In fact, if I hadn’t been living with my daughter and her family, I don’t think I would be here to write this post this morning. When I couldn’t get out of bed they insisted that I go to the emergency room, and hospitals and I just have not had a good history. Why? Because I’ve been disgustingly healthy for my whole life until a couple of years ago.

To make this long story short, I was diagnosed with severe anemia and got 7 units of blood. By the time I got out of the hospital a few days later, my head was starting to clear and I began to realize that I was in a serious situation and just had not been able to think clearly enough to recognize it and tell that it was remarkably worse than just feeling bad for a few days. Looking back on it, I’m surprised that I could not tell how badly I was doing.

One thing led to another and a series of ultrasounds and CT scans showed a huge tumor in my abdomen. My friend and very skilled surgeon, Dr. Henry Meinecke at Murphy Medical Center, insisted on a colonoscopy, so we went ahead and did it. Yep. It was colon cancer and was pretty advanced, either Stage 3 or Stage 4 depending upon which doctor you talk to. Either way, it came close to being terminal cancer, and I’m not totally out of the woods yet.

On April 1st, (yep, April Fools Day), Dr. Meinecke ripped my guts out.

April Fools!

(Sorry, just couldn’t help it.)

Well, he really did, in a manner of speaking. He tells me to quit saying he ripped my guts out, because he used skillful and very precise surgical techniques to save my sorry life! That he did. He removed about half of my large intestine and part of my small intestine and reconnected them. While he was inside my abdomen, he removed the tumor and my gall bladder which had a large gall boulder in it.

Interestingly enough, I hadn’t been having any pain. Over the years, I’d go through a week or so of pretty intense discomfort, but not pain. I knew something was wrong, but I don’t have insurance and medical treatment is very expensive, so I did what I could to get well. It worked in most cases, but this cancer that decided to attack me and invade my space didn’t play by the rules and launched a sneak attack that was almost successful.

A few days before my intestinal surgery, however, things changed radically. I went from no pain, or mild discomfort, to having intense pains in my abdomen, especially when I was riding in a car and hit a bump. This was pretty severe. I’d rate it about an 8 on my pain scale.

The ultrasounds and CT scans showed that the tumor was large and advanced, and someone said it was about the size of a newborn baby, so I named it Charlie. Why? Because it’s a lot easier to say “Charlie” than it is to say “that big tumor in my guts that is hurting like a son of a bitch!” I’m a lazy guy and my daughter and her family don’t like to hear me curse, so I said Charlie.

After the surgery, we learned that the tumor was a bit over 8 lbs. Fortunately, it was contained in a big lump and had not spread all over my abdomen. Dr. Meinecke was sure that he’d managed to remove all of it, about two dozen lymph nodes, my gall bladder, and my bad habits.

(April Fools, again. Everyone who knows me will tell you that I don’t have any bad habits. blush.)

In a few days, I was feeling quite a bit better. I had remarkably little pain following the surgery and came home a week later when I stopped being nauseous and could eat again. I wasn’t able to do much for the whole month of April but rest and recuperate.

In May, I moved into Castle Dragon and I plan to live here for the rest of my life. I like living alone and caring for myself, but I also love living right next door to Dena, Stacey, Dakota, and Katie. I also get to see Courtnie more than I used to. It’s great having family close by and we see each other every day and still stay out from under each others’ feet. I’m loving it here.

The last few months have been busy with more CT scans, a PET scan (hated it), ultrasounds, and biopsies of my thyroid glands and liver.

I had three large lumps in my thyroid glands and they were biopsied. Fortunately, the diagnosis was benign and I was told that it was nothing to worry about, but they should be watched in the future, just in case that changes. So, I didn’t have to have one surgery I expected. Yippee!

Then we had to start dealing with the tumor they detected in my liver. It was located in the right lobe of my liver and that’s the lobe that is much more difficult to operate on. My potential surgeon, Dr. Moffat, in Asheville, was telling me that this would be major surgery, about like open heart surgery, and that I could expect to stay in the hospital a week or longer and take quite a while to fully recover.

However, since it was in the right lobe, he wanted to present my case to a team of surgeons, radiologists, oncologists, technicians, and others, before doing any surgery. He also wanted a needle biopsy to confirm that it was cancer before doing anything.

After the conference with the team, he said that I looked like a good candidate for radio frequency ablation (RFA).

Instead of opening me up, cutting out part of my liver, and sewing everything back up, the RFA would be done by inserting needles that were connected to a radio frequency generator. With the size of my tumor, if it was cancerous, it would require three needles to be used at the same time to effectively treat the whole area. But, first, let’s get a biopsy and make sure of what we’re dealing with.

I went to Mission Hospital for the biopsy and was not looking forward to it.

I more or less knew what to expect after having the needle biopsies on both thyroid glands. It was uncomfortable, but not really painful. I expected the liver biopsy to be about the same.

At one time, probably in 10th grade biology, I knew where a liver was located, but then I forgot all about it. The only thing I’ve thought about is that liver tastes awful and I won’t eat it. I’m an adult and you can’t make me eat it. ‘Nuff said.

I know you may like liver. Most of the people in my family do. Y’all can fight over my share. I don’t want it. Now, before you go ewwwwwww!!!, I’m not talking about my liver, silly. I mean chicken, beef, and other critter livers. I’m keeping my liver all to myself for as long as I can. So there!

So, they did the biopsy using a CT scanner to make sure the needles were placed properly in the tumor. I waited a couple of days and was very happy to hear that it came back as benign. Surgery and/or RFA would not be necessary.

I did a little happy dance and so did my friends and family.

But, on the same morning I wrote about it on Facebook and we were all celebrating, Dr. David Moore called from his vacation at the beach and said the results were wrong. He’d seen the scans and how it had grown and he was positive it was cancer. He said he would insist on another biopsy if I had been his father and strongly, very strongly recommended that I have the biopsy redone. He said he would arrange to do it himself, even though he was going on night shift at the hospital for a few weeks.

I thought about it for a couple of hours, talked it over with Dena, and decided to redo the biopsy. I didn’t tell anyone else, because I didn’t want to “harsh their mellow.” So I started writing about my top secret dangerous mission that I couldn’t write about. I gave some clues, but I don’t think anyone deduced that I was getting the liver biopsy redone. I had some fun letting my imagination run wild and tried to write about it as if it were a spy story. My name is D, J D.

So, Dena drove me back to Asheville and Dr. Moore performed the biopsy himself, this time using ultrasound to guide the placement of the needles. He said this tumor was a bit clearer on ultrasound than on CT scan. This time it went even easier.

He told me that he was sorry to bring me down and that I should not get my hopes up that this result would come back benign. He was positive it was cancer and he wanted to treat it before it got worse. All of my doctors were cautiously agreeing that we could win this war and cure this cancer attack.

I waited a couple of days and got the news. It was cancer. So, we scheduled the RFA a couple of weeks ago. We went back to Mission Hospital in Asheville, NC and Dr. Moore came in and did it himself, even though he was working night shift the day before and after. I appreciate him giving up his sleep to care for me. Not everyone would do that.

The RFA went better than I expected. I was told that some patients have severe pain for a week or more following the treatment. I had practically none. Yes, it was sore, and if I roll over on my right side just right, it’s still a bit tender, but not bad at all.

I was talking and joking with the doctor, nurses, and technicians until they started giving me the happy juice through my port. First I felt very relaxed, and then he ordered Versed and something else and it was lights out for me for the next 30 or 40 minutes. I was starting to come out of it just as he was finishing and started to remove the needles. He said I would feel a bit of pain, and if it hurt too much to say so and he would give me more drugs before ending the procedure.

I’m not totally sure that I know how RFA works, but my understanding is that the needles are used to conduct radio waves that heat and destroy the surrounding tissue. By using three needles at the same time, the effective radius of treatment would overlap to kill the entire tumor and a bit of surrounding tissue to make sure the cancer was annihilated!

Think of it as microwaving liver until it is burned. What’s for dinner tonight? Liver? Fava beans? Chianti? (grin) (cringe) (elaborate shudder)

It did hurt a bit, but not much, so he finished it up, told me it went well, and I was off to spend the night in St. Joe’s Hospital across the street from Mission. I had a 10th floor room and video recorded a view out the windows. I edited it yesterday while I was getting my first chemotherapy treatment, and here it is…

View from 10th floor at St. Joe’s Hospital in Asheville, NC

That evening, I was starting to feel some pain and told the nurse. She asked if I wanted pain meds. I asked what was ordered. I think the choices were delaudid, percocet, or morphine.

I was hurting, but not enough for percocet or morphine, so she gave me a couple of delaudids and I had an easy night and woke up feeling pretty good the next morning.

When I got home later that day, I had to take one oxycodone tablet, but that is the last pain meds I had to take. Through all of these surgical procedures, I have been fortunate to be remarkably pain free and I appreciate that.

So, two weeks ago, the RFA ended the surgical strikes and now we’re moving on to the chemical warfare campaign in this war on cancer. This body is pretty big, but it’s not big enough for both me and cancer, and I intend to take it back for my own selfish use.

I was talking to Dr. Meinecke a few days ago and he said everything about my case has been unusual. The big tumor was contained instead of growing throughout my abdomen. It had spread to only 7 lymph nodes. It had not spread to my thyroid as suggested by the scans. I had healed rapidly and had experienced remarkably little pain. And, most importantly (to me at least), I was the first and only patient who asked, following a colonoscopy, if he’d found any cave trolls hiding in there.

He told me that when he first realized how big the tumor was and that it had grown out into my abdomen and was eating through the muscles, that he didn’t expect me to live much longer.

That was never my plan, however. From the first moment it was diagnosed as colon cancer, I have been using visualization techniques, self-hypnosis, and other things I’ve used over the years to control the pain in my knees and lower back. I fully intended to kick this cancer’s butt to the curb and we’re making it happen.

There is only one acceptable outcome in this war. We will kill this cancer and I will be a cancer conqueror (not just a survivor) in five years.

As my brother said, we have to beat this cancer so I can die of a massive heart attack in my 70s during July or August, like all the Dilbeck men do in our branch of the family. I value family traditions and I don’t want to set off on a different path.

We found out that the cancer in my liver was colon cancer that had metastasized there. The scans show no evidence of any other places it has tried to find a home.

So, we leave the surgical strikes behind us and move into the chemical warfare campaign.

I started chemotherapy yesterday at my oncologist’s office in Blairsville, GA. That sounds like it’s a long ways from home, but I live near the state line and his office is, too, so it’s only about a half-hour drive when I’m driving (and a bit less when Dena’s driving).

Forty years ago, I could have made it in 15 minutes, but I’m not that crazy these days. It’s one of the reasons I’ve survived as long as I have.

My oncologist is Dr. Manfredi and he works for Georgia Cancer Specialists. They have a whole team of nurses and technicians and can do chemo and (I think) radiation treatments on the premises. They are located right next to the hospital in Blairsville in the building with the big clock on a tower.

Have I mentioned that Dr. Manfredi is a very important member of Team Dilbeck? (And, so are YOU!) He and his whole team specialize in killing cancer and saving patients.

My oncologist kicks cancer’s butt with one hand tied behind his back — and wins!

Have I said recently that I appreciate everyone on Team Dilbeck? Well, I do. You’re playing a very important part in winning this war!

Who’s on Team Dilbeck? All my family, friends, and acquaintances who have given support, wishes, and prayers for my recovery. People who have lent an ear when I felt like talking and left me alone when I didn’t. People who encourage me every day and make me feel better and stronger in this fight. I love you guys and appreciate you.

In addition to family and friends, Team Dilbeck also includes the doctors, nurses, technicians, and all the other people in the health system who have cared for me in several doctors offices and hospitals over the last half-year. I have met a remarkable group of caring, friendly, and skillful people who are experts in killing cancer. They are my hired guns in this war. They may smile and joke with me, but they are soldiers of fortune in waging war against this terrible disease that affects so many of our friends and neighbors through their lifetimes.

Fortunately, these hired guns are getting better and better at what they do, and more and more of us are conquering the cancers that attack us.

Of all the people in the medical system who have helped care for me, I met exactly one sourpuss. All the rest have been helpful, caring, funny, skilled, experienced, and knowledgeable. That’s why I don’t have to research all of this for myself.

So far, the funniest thing that happened was when a couple of EMTs were transporting me in an ambulance from Mission Hospital across the road to St. Joe’s. We were taking the elevator to the 10th floor when suddenly we heard a loud sound, the elevator jerked, and fell a few feet. We were stuck at the 5th floor. They both gasped in surprise, but I didn’t. I was still jacked up on the Versed, pain meds, and sedatives. I just took it in stride and watched them resolve the issue. They contacted maintenance and a few minutes later a man showed up and opened the doors. We were stopped about a foot or so above the 5th floor, so they got all of us off that elevator and closed it for service. The other elevator we took to the 10th floor was no fun at all and took us there with no incident. That’s what I like. Elevators should be efficient, not exciting.

So, now, that maintenance man is on Team Dilbeck even though I never thought of asking his name or telling him. So are the ambulance guys.

So are you, if you want to be.

What do you have to do to join Team Dilbeck?

It’s simple. Just close your eyes and imagine me being 100% cured of this cancer and back to my often friendly, sometimes irascible, and always flirty and irreverent self. You are helping me get a second chance at living and I don’t take that lightly, at all. I am not going to waste any of the years in my future that Team Dilbeck have given me.

So, close your eyes, imagine me as healthy and strong, tap your heals together three times, and repeat, “There’s nobody like JD…”

(Ruby slippers and saying it out loud are completely optional, but may be a mite more effective if you can. It’s entirely up to you. Grin.)

Team Dilbeck Rocks!

I want to thank Chanel Hilliard for coming up with the name and Deborah Bryan for helping me with the artwork that I’ll be uploading to CafePress and Zazzle as soon as I’m feeling up to it. I’m stronger every day, but my brain isn’t clear and I find it hard to do simple business-oriented tasks. I can write on a blog or post to Facebook without much effort, but I don’t really know how well, or poorly, I’m doing. When I try to do something more serious, I’m fighting through a fog that surrounds my big old brain and makes my eyes glaze over as I’m trying to think it through.

So, even for simple things and tasks, I’m keeping lots of lists and step-by-step instructions for what I have to do. I never used to take any pills, but now I could open my own mini-pharmacy, if it were legal. I finally got my system together and have everything organized for when I have to take everything.

Sunday was the first time I was able to do something relatively simple related to building and maintaining websites, and I worked for several hours finding more information and updating my lens about Dolly Parton on Squidoo. I still want to do more with it, and will, as well as my other 60 or so lenses there and all my websites that I didn’t close last year and this year.

Other things just are not getting done until I’m doing better. I am getting better, and they will get done, but it may be awhile.

You know, fighting cancer is not cheap. One of the pills I’m taking for two days following chemotherapy treatments costs $750 each. Wow!

A pill that expensive should make me stand two inches taller, clear up my skin, change my gray hair back to dark brown, make my feet smell better, and give me the manhood and virility of a porn star. But, all that aside, if it keeps me from being nauseous following the treatment, that will do for now.

So, who’s paying for all of this? That’s a very good question.

I haven’t been able to work and support myself for about a year, although I struggled through the motions until March, when it became impossible to do much of anything.

I’m still earning a bit from residuals and all the websites I built over the last few years, so it’s keeping things running until I can get back in action and resume my marketing business, but I don’t know how long that will be.

In the meantime, I swallowed my pride and applied for disability, medicaid, and food stamps.

I’ve always had a lot of pride that I could take care of myself and those who depended on me. I reached a point where I couldn’t do any of that.

Fortunately, Dena insisted that I apply for any help I could get. So I did, grudgingly.

When you see medical bills in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and not being able to work to put food on the table, it gives you a different perspective on life and people who need help.

Some of my friends will be pissed off by what I’m going to say next, and that’s okay, but I don’t want to lose you as a friend. I just want you to take a moment and rethink things.

I always thought it was each of our personal responsibility to take care of ourselves and our families. We should provide for our own health insurance and set aside money for a rainy day — or an extended health care crisis.

When Mom was diagnosed in 2001 with colon cancer, I closed my metalsmithing business and dedicated my full-time efforts to caring for her 24/7/365 for over seven years. My income dropped and I was able to make ends meet and make a little profit through affiliate marketing, but my main focus was on caring for Mom.

I worked in the next room so she could call me any time she needed something. I slept on the couch next to her so she could wake me easily if she needed anything. I didn’t sleep a full eight hours for over seven years. I was her sole, full-time caretaker and I don’t regret a single moment of it. I learned to take several short naps in the day and night and basically work 24/7 with short rest breaks when necessary.

I still hate that I could not provide the level of care she needed the last few months of her life, but I’m satisfied that I did the best I could.

Now, during my own health crisis, I am proud to say that my daughter Dena and her husband Stacey have done their best to care for me when I needed it and I appreciate all they do for me. Words are inadequate to express this appreciation so I’ll try to show it every time I can. Thanks, guys.

My grandkids, Courtnie, Dakota, and Katie have been big helps, too. Thank you!

So, I applied for help. Food stamps are keeping me alive. My disability was approved rapidly and I’m getting a small check from SSI while I’m unable to work. Medicaid was approved and it is paying for everything other than a few small co-pays when I see doctors or when I buy prescription drugs.

I’m looking forward to the day when I feel a lot better and I can go back to work and support myself. Until then, y’all are keeping me alive through paying your taxes. You may not like it, but I thank you anyway. I will never again gripe about paying taxes when I’m able to support myself. I’ll still try to do everything legally possible to reduce what I have to pay, but I’m not going to curse any more while I’m writing and signing the check.

So, when you rail against “Obamacare” and the worthless people who don’t pay for their own health insurance, don’t pay for their own food, don’t pay for their doctors appointments, and don’t pay for their own meds, now you’re talking about me and I really don’t appreciate it.

You’re free to have your own opinions and vote however you like. That’s the beauty of the USA. All I’m going to ask is that you be a bit more tolerant, and a bit more supportive of people who aren’t able to care for themselves.

I appreciate all your friendship and love you for all your support, but I feel sorry for you for some of your political views. ‘Nuff said. I try not to talk about politics, religion, and sex in public. I don’t always succeed, but I try.

I got a bit side tracked. Let’s talk about chemotherapy for a bit.

I didn’t know what to expect, and I was prepared for a bad experience, and may have some in the future.

John Dilbeck on his first day of chemotherapy

However, I’m happy to report that my first two days of chemo are going well. I’m tired, jittery, and don’t have much energy, but it’s not much worse than I was already feeling. There has been no nausea (yet, and hopefully there won’t be).

If you look closely at the picture, above, you’ll see the IV line going to the port on my upper chest. That’s a lot easier than having IVs put into my arms and hands, and they’ve been doing a lot of that the last few months.

It’s a bit of a hassle wearing this pump for a couple of days, but I’m getting the hang of it, and it is nothing compared to serving in the military and being sent to places like Iran and Afghanistan. Those are the people who are facing difficult situations, so I can’t compare my situation to their’s and I’m not going to complain about some minor annoyances.

Last week, I got to where I could walk without a cane inside the castle and on the porch, and I’ve been taking a few steps without leaning on it when walking on level ground in town or visiting my doctors. I’m getting better, more clear headed, stronger, and my balance is improving, too.

I already have one dance promised for Christmas, and I intend to dance a bit at my 40th year high school reunion in October. I may not be much of a dancer, and I’ve sat on the sidelines and watched others look silly instead of dancing myself. But, I have a different view of life now, and I’m not going to miss those opportunities as I am able.

I’m practicing every day with my guitar and my left hand is getting stronger. The songs are starting to become recognizable and fun, again, but F chords and barre chords are still a challenge. I’ll get there. I’m running scales every day and playing a few songs for fun.

I’m self taught on guitar, banjo, mandolin, and fiddle and I intend to relearn them and do it right this time. I’m studying music theory, piano (and need to buy a good keyboard when I can afford it), and I’m watching videos and reading books to help me learn the right way to play guitar, banjo, and fiddle. Thanks to David Brose’s help (he’s the Folklorist and a professional musician who works at John C. Campbell Folk School), I’m going to be able to purchase a decent Gold Tone banjo in a few months. It won’t be as good as the Gibson banjo I played for a long time, but it will be better than I’m able to play right now. Thanks, David!

Some people say you never get a second chance to do things right.

They’re wrong.

I have a second chance and a new lease on life. I’m going to do a lot of things right that I just took for granted for many years.

I laugh every day, smile a lot, say Thank You all the time (and mean it), and look forward to interacting with the people in my life. Even though I’m doing a lot of it via computer, it’s not the same at all as it was when I would immerse myself into a computer programming or writing project for months at a time and then stick my head up to see if we had a new president, if I was still married, or what month it was. Those days are gone forever.

I know of nothing better than spending good quality time with family and friends, and I’m hoping to do more of that with YOU as we’re able.

Thank you for all your support and for putting up with me over the years. You’ll never know how deeply I appreciate it, but I’m going to try to show it every chance I get.

Last night, I was very tired but so jittery that I could not sleep. I felt as skittish as a long-tailed cat in a room full of grannies in rocking chairs at a knitting party. I finally managed to go to sleep around 4 and slept well until after 8. I’m not as jittery now, and other than continuing to be tired and weak, I’m doing great.

I’m feeling better!

This is what I look like as I’m writing this post…

Wearing chemo pump and drinking coffee at home

I intend to feel a lot better, and your good wishes, prayers, funny jokes and stories, and other things we’ve shared mostly on Facebook have been part of my healing process. I surround myself with good people, humor, great music, good movies, and more good people. I intend to be strong and healthy by my birthday next July and there’s going to be a cookout, jam session, and sing a long. You’re invited.

Team Dilbeck Rocks!

Tags: cancer, health, treatment, war

I will be posting to this blog infrequently for awhile

May 14, 2010 by JD · Comments Off
Filed under: Dilbeck Marketing

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted here, but this blog is not dead — and neither am I.

For the last two months, I’ve had serious health issues and I’ve been concentrating on getting back on my feet. I’m better in some ways and worse in others. I’m in the process of fighting several cancers and I fully intend to kick their butts and get healthier, no matter what some doctors may tell me. We’ll see who’s right, over time.

When I feel up to it, I’m going to continue answering the questions from Think and Grow Rich and I’ll be posting other things to this blog.

However, since I’m not strong enough to continue running my marketing business, I’ll focus more on personal thoughts and issues rather than business. If that’s not what you want to read, now would be a good time to unsubscribe.

I’m going to cancel my Aweber.com account, and if that is how you’ve subscribed to this blog, you may want to use a feedreader, instead.

For the foreseeable future, I’m going to concentrate on kicking these cancers’ butts and spending more quality time with friends and family in the real world.

I still want to share time with my online friends, but I’ll probably be doing most of that on my facebook account at facebook.com/johndilbeck.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

You’ll see most of my websites, blogs, and fora disappearing off the Internet over the next few weeks, as I have the energy to delete them.

Online marketing has been a wild ride, but now it’s time for something else. I don’t know exactly what, but there’s always something.

All the best,

Tags:

Working like crazy behind the scenes

July 13, 2009 by JD · 8 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Dilbeck Marketing, Internet Marketing, Murphy NC 28906, Murphy North Carolina, Products at Amazon, Site Build It

If you look at the home page of this blog or read the RSS feed, it looks like I’ve been a lazy boy for the last month or so.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

I’ve been working behind the scenes to fix a major problem, update a large site, and bring a new site online.

My goal of bringing the new site online by July 1 was delayed about a week, but I’m making progress with it, again.

Dumped by Amazon

In the last week of June 2009, I received a notice from Amazon.com that they were terminating my affiliation with their associates program.

To say that I was surprised would be a huge understatement.

To top it off, it had nothing to do with me. I was dumped because I live in North Carolina and Amazon.com dumped all their associates in the entire state in one fell swoop.

This was done in anticipation of changes in the NC tax laws that had not been passed nor gone into effect!

I’ve been a proud associate of Amazon.com for about 13 years, but, after this, I’ll never recommend them to anyone and I won’t buy from them. I’m done with Amazon.com.

Rebuilding a large site

As a result of being dumped by Amazon.com, I have started to remove all links to their site. This is going to take me months to accomplish. I have links to their products on just about every page of most of my sites, and some of them have over 1,000 pages.

It’s a second-level priority, right behind building a new site, because I don’t want to send them any customers with no possibility of receiving a commission for my work.

I’ve removed links from most of my blogs, but modifying my static sites will take much longer.

Over the last couple of weeks, I completely rebuilt JohnDilbeck.com. This is one of my oldest and largest sites. In the process, I deleted several hundred pages that were out of date or no longer relevant.

Rebuilding the site was something that I’ve planned to do for a while, but being dumped by Amazon.com was the catalyst that motivated me to take action as quickly as I could.

My affiliate marketing business has taken a hit

After the world economic downturn last September, my marketing business has been hit hard by a big reduction in income.

This was not entirely unexpected, but the suddenness came as a surprise.

Since December, I’ve been making new plans to shift a part of my marketing efforts from affiliate marketing to helping locally-owned small businesses in Murphy, NC attract new customers and enticing existing customers to come back, again.

Murphy Gold is live

To do this, I worked for six months to plan how to accomplish these goals and started planning a new site.

Although there is still construction debris all around and parts of it still need a fresh coat of paint, Murphy Gold is now live.

I still have a lot to do on that site, but I’ve been working at it diligently. I’ve researched over 2,000 keyword phrase combinations and have been doing the initial traffic building work.

I’m not ready for a grand opening announcement, but I’m hoping that one will be forthcoming in a couple of weeks.

Back to my cave…

In the meantime, I’m going back to my cave in the mountains of western North Carolina and I’ll be working all hours of the day and night to get everything on my to-do list done as soon as possible.

One of these days, I’ll be able to write on this blog more frequently than I’ve been doing over the last several months.

Act on your dream!

Tags: Murphy Gold

Post flyers to your Facebook profile from Vflyer

March 12, 2009 by JD · Comments Off
Filed under: Advertising, Dilbeck Marketing, Internet Marketing, Murphy NC 28906, Web Services

Do you know about Vflyer.com?

I’ve been watching this site as it has developed over the last couple of years and opened a free account in 2007, but never did much with it. I created a test flyer, but never published it.

I think Vflyer.com is ideally suited for people who sell products and who want to create flyers with text and photos using templates that are pretty well designed.

For example, if I were a real estate salesman or sold cars, I’d be using this service on a regular basis.

Since I sell services, I haven’t found it to be all that useful for me, but I keep in touch with what they’re doing so I can pass it along to my consulting clients.

Today, however, when I was catching up on reading the blogs to which I subscribe, I ran across a very interesting post on the Vflyer blog:

New Feature! Post Links to Your Flyers to Your Facebook Profile.

That caught my attention!

I’m always looking for ways to leverage my advertising on social networking sites.

Since I hadn’t visited my Vflyer site in awhile, I went there and saw how pathetic it really was. Now that I was aware of it, I couldn’t leave it like that, so I spent a half-hour or so updating the information and creating a new flyer for my local marketing consulting.

Just as their blog indicated, it was extremely easy to post a link to my new flyer on my Facebook profile.

Not only that, Vflyer automatically posted the flyer to my Google Base account and could have posted to other sites, but, since this was mainly for testing, I chose not to do that.

Another nice thing about Vflyer is that it is easy to create a PDF of your flyer that you can print, email, or otherwise distribute, even if you know practically nothing about PDFs.

There are a few things I don’t like about the flyer I created.

At the top of the flyer, where I’m describing my service, it does not put a blank line between paragraphs, or even indent new paragraphs, and I think that is just bad form.

Otherwise, I’m pretty happy with the layout and the ease of creation of the flyer.

I could have done it myself using Pages or a word processor, but it would have taken much longer and probably would not have looked as nice.

The other thing I am not happy with is the wording in the attributes section of the flyer. I know that it should talk to my clients and should not be about me, so there are some things I will be changing before I start distributing it seriously.

Still, it’s not bad for a free service and about a half-hour of work.

If you’re my friend on Facebook, you can see the link to the flyer.

I know I don’t use enough photos on my blogs and other publications, and this flyer is no different. If I had more talent in that area, I’m sure I could have found a good photo, but I didn’t.

However, if you’re renting property, selling homes, selling cars, or running a service business that is more appropriate for photos, Vflyer makes it easy to add them.

As a free user, you obviously don’t have all the features that paid members enjoy, but it still does a very good job. Paid accounts start at less than $15 per month and I believe their service would easily be worth that amount if I sold high-end products, especially if I lived in a larger town that had a local Craigslist or Kijiji site.

All in all, this was an unexpected, yet very interesting diversion from what I had planned for my morning.

I already know of a couple of clients I’ll be advising to start using the services provided by Vflyer.

What do you think?

Act on your dream!

Tags: Facebook, flyers, Vflyer

Hello world!

February 7, 2009 by JD · Comments Off
Filed under: Dilbeck Marketing

You may be looking for my older blog, previously called John Dilbeck and Friends: johndilbeck.editthispage.com

I am in the process of moving away from that blog and consolidating several other blogs that will be deleted when the move is made.

Please disregard the construction debris as these transitions are made. Everything should be working in a few days.

Act on your dream!

Tags:

In Memory of Mattie Lee Dilbeck

November 25, 2008 by JD · 1 Comment
Filed under: Dilbeck Marketing

Today, instead of talking about business or marketing, I’m going to tell you a brief story about a woman I admired a great deal, my Mom.

After fighting against a long illness, Mom died on Friday, November 21, 2008.

I wrote a little about her this morning: In Memory of Mattie Lee Dilbeck.

I’m going to miss her.

Tags:

Updated Site Build It! 5 Pillar Program lens on Squidoo

August 15, 2008 by JD · Comments Off
Filed under: Dilbeck Marketing

If you don’t already know it, I’m a huge fan of Site Build It!, Ken Evoy, and their 5 Pillar Affiliate Program.

I’ve joined and tested hundreds of affiliate programs, and the 5 Pillar Affiliate Program remains at the top of the list.

You can earn generous commissions from each sale, and recurring commissions from each annual renewal. This is true lifetime commissions, and the folks at SiteSell go out of their way to make sure you are credited for the sales you make.

It is a two-tier program, so you can earn residual commissions each time someone you refer to the affiliate program makes a sale.

SiteSell offers outstanding training, a regular newsletter for affiliates, great promotional tools, dedicated affiliate managers, and free members-only forums.

The 5 Pillar Program remains one of my highest paying and most reliable income streams.

Have you joined, yet?

It’s free, you know.

Come learn more about the Site Build It! 5 Pillar Affiliate Program.

If I were going to recommend only one affiliate program, this is it.

Act on your dream!

Tags: