Launching Banjos Rule has been a blast

I‘ve been doing some reflecting and thinking over the last couple of weeks about the Banjo Paul Empire and just what it’s come to mean to me. 2009 was a pivotal year for me, which I think will lead to an even bigger 2010. Along the way, you have become a great big part of the fun and the success that I’ve experienced. I’d like to spend some time in the next two blog post sharing some random thoughts, ideas, and plans with you. Things having to do with the future…and the past.

Banjo picking has defined who I am

There are those that just read that title and immediately felt sorry for me, but no need. To this very day I thank my lucky stars that I got involved with the 5-string banjo as a teenager. I’ve been given some wonderful opportunities and have seen and done many fun things with my banjo.

2009 was quite a year for me in a few areas, including the banjo. I had a day job as a customer services/sales manager at a little "mom & pop" heating and cooling company, I was picking banjo in two bands, designing web sites on the side for customers, giving banjo lessons evenings and weekends…all in all pretty busy. Then came the shake-ups.

The first big change that occurred at the end of January 2009 was the loss of my day job. I was unceremoniously fired by a hot-headed boss with no people skills and an unprofessional attitude. It was a ridiculous scene that I won’t go into, but there were fireworks aplenty between him and I for about 20 minutes before he blew his top and told me to get out.

Click me! Click me!

This left me in quite a pickle, because as you may or may not know, Michigan ranks #50 out of all 50 states for having the worst economy in the country. We’re in our own mini recession. I have no real training in anything, no college degree, and no chance of doing any better than the thousands of other people beating the bushes looking for work. I could probably do the fast food routine or other entry level work, but that wasn’t going to cut it for a 42 year old man with obligations.

For about 3 or 4 years I had been harboring a secret dream of going into I.T. (internet technology) work, specifically building websites for people, but I wasn’t exactly ready in January of 2009. This led me to some soul searching. I was close to ready at that time, had several sites on the net and had self-taught myself the art of coding websites. It occurred to me that because I had a good foundation in place, and because I was going to be earning unemployment from the state for being fired unjustly, that this might be a good time to study and learn without having to worry about punching a clock for someone else. The end result might just be that I could become self-employed when all was said and done. So, I got out the books and began honing my coding and scripting skills. Around the end of February I came up with the idea to create a banjo centered site, and Banjos Rule! was born.

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s blogging I will go…

As I studied up and improved at coding websites, I realized that my banjo site could be a resource that people really enjoy and learn from. In my newly hatched plan to maybe become self-employed permanently, I realized that if I could make something that people enjoyed visiting, they would likely reward me monetarily by buying the various helpful resources available on my site. And that’s just what has happened. In looking around and studying this “web thing”, I came to realize that a great way of disseminating information and conversation to a growing fan base would be through a blog. I could blog about instructional items, crack jokes, have conversations, etc. etc., all centered around this wonderful world-wide banjo community. So long about July of 2009 I gave birth to this blog, called: My Banjo Life. (Luckily there were no stretch marks.) This very post you are reading is number 98 since I started blogging. I’m two away from the big goal of 100 articles!

You’ve become a good friend to me

I hear almost daily from people who read my blog and visit my main website www.banjosrule.com, and that’s a real blessing. I receive suggestions for blog posts and feedback on my articles and feedback on my instructional material, and technique questions, and on it goes. It is really very gratifying to be at the helm of this new endeavor and to to find out that people are responding to it positively.

Let’s continue this chat in the next blog post…

Deep down I’m a pretty humble guy, and I don’t think for a minute that what I have to say is so earth shattering that you’ll wade through 4 dozen paragraphs as I drone on and on. I enjoy getting to talk to you this way, and for those that have become loyal followers and fans, I thought they might enjoy reading a little introspection and conversation about where I’ve been and where I’m going. So many of you feel like personal friends that this is a bit therapeutic for me to “vent” in this way and just do a little personal blabbering. Stay tuned for the next blog post because I’ve got some frustrations and worries that I’d like to share with you, along with finishing my synopsis of 2009. I hope you’ll honor me by spending some time with me in these two blog posts, because I like chatting with you. You are my banjo family. More next time. Until then, as I always say: pick ‘em if ya got ‘em! Banjo Paul out.

Banjo Paul
“Wunse, I coodn’t even spel bango pikker…now I are one!”
www.banjosrule.com (main site)
www.mybanjolife.com (blog)
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