More about Martin Lindsey

I met Martin Lindsey while I was surfing MyBlogLog looking for interesting blogs to read. His smiling face drew me in, and his meaningful posts are what kept me coming back to read more.

Martin is a sweet guy, and has some of the same goals and dreams that I do. He wants to help people in all areas: spiritually, emotionally and financially. I interviewed him a week or so ago to learn more about the man who hosts the growing MartyBLOGs website. Check him out after you read the interview:

What are your ultimate goals in life?
My ultimate goals in life always include having a successful marriage and raising outstanding children. In purely personal terms I'd like to become an internationally known blogger and public speaker (a combination of motivational and humorous). I'm going to be the National Champion of Public Speaking in 2008. I'm learning the process and stages I have to go through in Toastmasters in order to reach that objective.

How will your blog help you accomplish these goals?
Blogging won't help with being a good husband and father but it will address part two of my first answer. Writing a quality blog and making a "bloggy reputation" for myself will help the ultimate career goals. I hope that includes opportunities like this to generate publicity for myself and my blog. I believe in reciprocity and virtual interviews and blog backlinks provide the opportunity for bloggers to support each other's causes. That community feeling is one of the reasons I like to do it.

What do you do for fun? Hobbies? What do you enjoy?
I like to read, write and speak. That's why I like to blog. It's a natural offshoot for me and now I have an audience to share with! I love the great outdoors. Haven't had enough time for fishing or hiking since the kids came but now that I'm the Cub Master that's all about to change. Haven't had time for a garden in five years but now that the kids are older I'm going to try and find some time where we can can go out in the back yard, dig up a patch and play in the dirt together.

Who or what has been the biggest inspiration in your life?
I'd have to say my mother by far. I have more respect for her every day. She and my father divorced when I was younger than either of my children. The way she managed to successfully raise my older brother and sister and me by herself after that is plain heroic. I never thought so when I was a child or a young adult but I do now. Only as a married man with just two kids have I been able to appreciate what she did with me and my sibs.

What do you see for yourself five years from now?
The next five years I'm honing on extreme expertise in my passions. I'll reference some famous people to give you a better feel for where I'm going with it. I see myself as a John Maxwell, Les Brown, James Dobson amalgamation when it comes to the things I believe in and want others to be better in.

What have you realized about life that you wish everyone else knew?
Have a positive silver lining attitude and stop being uptight about what other people aren't doing right morally or socially. Address a situation if you're able to but don't lose any sleep over it because, in the end, your life example is better proof of how things should be than a lecture. Thus, my personal tagline, "be an actionist."

Name some people you want to meet? (Famous or not)
I'll do famous and I'll tell you why I'd like to meet them and, for that matter, interview them. Oprah Winfrey (our modern day Carnegie), Bill Gates (our other modern day Carnegie), Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar and Fred Price (all prominent, positive, encouraging Christian leaders who live the Word in their actions and ministries), Richard Branson (entrepreneur with no mental boundaries on life's possibilities), Bob Ballard (I'd like to go on one of his deep sea exploration adventures), Dr. Ben Carson (his story sounds similar to mine..'nough said), General Collin Powell (the classic warrior and a man of principle...nothing but respect for the man).

What are your favorite blogs to read?
I'll go with the blogger's names. Tara Pringle of course. I like to see young people like you doing positive things. It's encouraging and uplifting for me. Paula Mooney, blogger mentor extraordinaire. Glad to be a coat-tail-hanger-on in her world. Bonnie Calhoun, professional writer and great blogger who freely shares helpful hints with us blog rookies. Darren Rouse because he's the first blogger I read and who inspired me to get started. The writer of Single Mom and Money Blog - haven't picked up on her name yet - because she writes practical financial advice from her life perspective and that's what I do with mine as well.

Name one thing about you that would surprise people you just met.
If I could gather the funds - huuummm, online fundraising campaign - for a reservation I would buy the first ticket on Richard Branson's civilian space craft. The last time I checked, Virgin Galactic was still in the design phase of their version of a reusable shuttle type ship. They were also getting all the other ducks in a row business wise.
So that's my story. Hope it's worthy of your expectations!

Head on over to MartyBLOGs to read more!

Sweet Gyrl - helping "gyrls" live their dreams since 2005

I had the pleasure of interviewing Ms. Kimberly, founder of SweetGyrl, Inc. I found her on MyBlogLog and was intrigued by the organization she had on her site, so I asked if she would mind if I put her interview on my site. Fast forward two weeks and here it is! Read on to find out more about SweetGyrl and how you can help!

What exactly is SweetGyrl?
SweetGyrl Inc, is an organization that promotes health lifestyle and living for young women. It's a venue that really gets them steered away from the grown up stuff that so many of our young women get caught up in.

For example, often times gyrls have hidden gifts like playing the flute, singing, gymnastics, acting. They have dreams, however they may live in an enviroment or go to a school enviroment that does not support that. Your friends are all having sex, your friends are all in juvenile detention, your freinds are all haters and fight another group of girls, your mom was a teenage mom and is now living a life of struggle.

That becomes your reality, that becomes your way of living and being. Your best friend just brought home a new baby and she is beefing with the baby's father cause he is messing with another girl and she wants to fight her. All of this happening at 16!! Whew, how can you even begin to really dream or want more out of life. What you see is who you become - it's unfortunate but it's true. It happened to me, it's my story. SweetGyrl is my story to simply put. Having worked as a Psychotherapist and in the school setting, I see it over and over and over again. It breaks my heart it really does. SweetGyrl is about dreams, helping gyrls live their dreams, keeping their dreams alive. So therefore, I created SweetGyrl Inc.

Is it mainly online?
SweetGyrl is all over the US online, its a forum for gyrls to have healthy chats and read about the struggles of other young women and be able to ask "Wow, I am going through that, how do you cope with that?" We are also working to make SweetGyrl more like an after school program or to go even further more like an affordable Sylvan Learning Center but for gyrls, that is our long term vision.

So basically someone could buy the SweetGyrl product, logo, curriculum, etc, and set up shop and service youth in their community. All of this is in the works now, I have been looking to reach out to celebrities that believe in the idea for support, endorsement, and possibly sponsoring gyrls for the program. It's huge and I love it, it takes time thought, but I really have vision for this program.

When was it founded?
SweetGyr was founded by me in 2005 at home in Maryland.

Did you come up with the idea by yourself?
Yes I did, I woke up one morning really early and it was put on my heart to create SweetGyrl, I wanted something that was really gyrlie and really fun, something I could dive into, something that felt soft and giggly and sweet. So I used the name SweetGyrl. I was working as a Psychotherapist for a wrap around company (social services) keeps youth in the home by giving them home services.
I woke up and said I want to create a training company that caters to gyrls only right now. So I hired an assitant and I told her what I wanted and we got to writing and thus SweetGyrl was born. Please check out www.sweetgyrlnetwork.blogspot.com for updates, I am also writing a book called "The Truth behind SweetGyrl" and also the website, www.sweetgyrl.org.

What type of promotion are you doing to spread the word?
Well since its only me, I have been doing blogging, and joining online forums. I also contacted Eva Longoria's publicist Liza Anderson, and we tried to get Eva, but her schedule did not permit. So now we are basicially trying to revamp and restructure our marketing approach.

What do you hope to accomplish with this?
I am hoping that young women will see this program as their way of saying, "Yes, I can still live my dreams!" We offer assessments that help gyrls get to the core of what they really want and dream big dreams. We help them set up goals that bring the dream alive! We help them stay focused, no matter what it is they want, and we point out to them that what they see right now does not negate their future at all. I want gyrls to dream and enjoy this time with themselves! They only get to be gyrls once, enjoy it RIGHT NOW! See www.sweetgyrlnetwork.blogspot.com for updates and ongoing information on the meat and potatoes of how SweetGyrl came about and what's happening.

Go to www.sweetgyrl.com for more information!