The Proposal Live On Stage!

Last month, I’ve risen from the ashes.

You see, in the past year, I’ve been through highs and lows. I’ve dealt with the best copy I’ve ever writ­ten — while deal­ing with (and fir­ing) a whole bunch of vam­pire clients. I’ve quit solic­it­ing for copy­writ­ing work and seen a remark­able improve­ment in my health and well-​​being — while deal­ing with my sister’s wors­en­ing health caused by liver can­cer, dia­betes and lupus.

And the coup de grace:

I’ve gone through a bit­ter sep­a­ra­tion and a painful divorce (which is still under­way) — while start­ing to date the most won­der­ful woman in the world. She is unques­tion­ably, undoubt­edly, indu­bitably, irrefutably my Soul Mate. My best friend. My pil­lar. My Angel sent from above. My One and Only.

And last month, I made it offi­cial “live” on stage.

And got it on video…

Now some of you may be scratch­ing your heads. I under­stand. So let me backup a lit­tle, since most of you may be won­der­ing what’s going on.

Last spring, I’ve made a very impor­tant deci­sion. My ex-​​wife and I sep­a­rated. I kept that pri­vate at the time and for a while, because it was a very hard time for me. I’m going through a divorce right now. And in Canada, divorces are not as quick like in some coun­tries or states. They require a full year to process.

As for the rea­son for the divorce, it’s a long story.

But the short of it is, my ex-​​wife and I were sim­ply not get­ting along. We haven’t for over five years, now. (And I would also say through­out the bulk of our mariage, too.) Sure, we had our good times. But the bad times over­shad­owed the good for the most part. And this was one of many sep­a­ra­tions. I promised myself it would be the last. Espe­cially for her sake as well as mine.

While we are smiles and “happy” in pub­lic, at home it was rocky — and things became worse and worse, par­tic­u­larly in the last year. I was mis­er­able. We both were. We were tremen­dously unhappy together. We were nasty to each other, spite­ful towards one and other, and con­stantly hurt­ing each other.

Per­son­ally, I just wanted to be happy. And I worked hard at it. Very hard. In fact, it was the hard­est thing I’ve ever done in my life. But it was a con­stant, nev­erend­ing strug­gle. And my health, my peace of mind and espe­cially my busi­ness all suf­fered as a result.

The bot­tom line is, if I wanted to be happy, things had to change. Rad­i­cally. Sac­ri­fice after sac­ri­fice, things didn’t get any bet­ter. They got worse. You see, I did try as hard as I could to change things. But I did it the wrong way. I tried to change myself — and to change her. Obvi­ously, to no avail.

She prefers a cer­tain lifestyle I didn’t like or agree with. But aside from that, she also has cer­tain char­ac­ter and per­son­al­ity traits that were dia­met­ri­cally — and some­times vehe­mently — opposed to mine. I’m not say­ing what she did was good or bad, or the fact that she was good or bad. We were just, plain and sim­ply, different.

I hold no ani­mos­ity towards my ex-​​wife. I wish her the very best. I think she’s a spe­cial per­son, some­one who needs love, car­ing and com­pan­ion­ship just like I do. But from a bet­ter per­son than me. She deserves bet­ter, as I do. Some­one who is more com­pat­i­ble with her. And above all, some­one who won’t try to change her — as I have, and as she had tried with me. Many times.

(I think it’s unwise and utterly futile to try to change some­one. That was a harsh les­son for me to learn. I paid dearly for that lesson.)

By being incom­pat­i­ble sim­ply made things incred­i­bly mis­er­able, intol­er­a­ble and extremely chal­leng­ing for both of us. It’s like try­ing to drive a car and point­ing it in one direc­tion, when the wheels are crooked and point your car in another direc­tion. Sure, you might be able to drive straight from time to time. But your hands will be clutch­ing that steer­ing wheel with immense force to keep it from swerv­ing in another direction.

When the car is bro­ken beyond repair, you either go any­where fast, or end up going some­where you don’t want to go in the first place. And that’s what my for­mer mariage was.

Now, the good news…

Shortly after I left, I started dat­ing Sylvie Char­rier. Sylvie is an Inter­net mar­keter, a damn-​​fine writer her­self, and owns Worka​holic​s4hire​.com, which is the mar­ket­ing, project man­age­ment and admin sup­port com­pany behind many top mar­keters. From ghost­writ­ing ebooks and deal­ing with cus­tomer sup­port, to set­ting up and man­ag­ing Google AdWords campaigns.

At first, it was work related. But things started to bloom very quickly. Very quickly. Quicker than I ever expected. And over the last few months, we dis­cov­ered how immensely sim­i­lar, com­ple­men­tary and com­pat­i­ble we are with one and other. In fact, we are not just compatible…

We are Soul Mates.

And in three months, we’ve grown with the same level of under­stand­ing, com­pas­sion and love a cou­ple would nor­mally reach within three years. It’s almost sur­real, to tell you the truth. But it hap­pened. And I’ve never been hap­pier. We are hap­pier for hav­ing found each other.

And at the risk of sound­ing fool­ishly opti­mistic (or hope­lessly roman­tic), we are unques­tion­ably meant for each other. I truly believe that. And every day seems to con­firm that more and more. And to prove it, I made the “leap.” Right there on stage in Phoenix.

I pro­posed.

For those of you who were in Phoenix at the Inter­net Mar­ket­ing Main Event, we want to thank you for shar­ing that very spe­cial moment with us. From the bot­tom of our hearts. Click here to watch that awe­some moment on video. (As well as beau­ti­ful pic­tures of my Soul Mate and me.)

What you may not know is that when Sylvie and I speak together on stage, we’re incred­i­ble. We’re a team. We’re both on fire. And it shows. There’s a spark when we speak together — and every­body sees that. (Heck, I kid you not when I tell you that peo­ple were lit­er­ally throw­ing their credit cards on stage, even before we pre­sented the offer!)

Let me give you some proof. I invite you to come see Sylvie and I speak in Los Ange­les at the Big Sem­i­nar in Novem­ber. (We’ll be speak­ing together on stage once again, and share with you a pow­er­ful new way to mon­e­tize “dead” or low-​​selling con­tent using a unique soft­ware… And a unique twist! We appro­pri­ately call it “The Phoenix.” Hint? Think of AdSense on steroids!)

Check out the The Big Sem­i­nar for more. (By the way, tomor­row is the last day to take advan­tage of Armand’s 2-​​payment plan. When you’re there, you’ll see how mag­i­cal we are when we’re both on stage. (And if you’ve never seen two peo­ple speak­ing at the same time on stage, this is your chance!)

On another note, I’m also prepar­ing to speak in Den­ver next month at a Copy­writ­ers Sem­i­nar with copy­writer and Inter­net mar­keter Ken Cal­houn. For more details, visit Copy​writ​erSem​i​nar​.com. (It’s also my birth­day bash, so come cel­e­brate with us! Plus, I man­aged to con­vince Ken to slash the price of the sem­i­nar in half… Just under $500… For a lim­ited time.)

Ulti­mately, I truly believe that the Uni­verse teaches us lessons in its own way. Whether they’re good or bad, look­ing at events and peo­ple in your life as lessons, and reap­ing from the wis­dom they teach, is what makes all of us grow. Life may throw curve­balls at you from time to time. The meek and fool­ish will whine, sulk and com­plain. But the strong and wise will learn, grow and bet­ter them­selves from it.

I know I have. And I’m grate­ful for the bless­ings I was bestowed.

I’ll see you in Los Ange­les… Or Den­ver… Or both!

About the Author

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