Ralph Zuranski: Hi, this is Ralph Zuranski. I’m on the phone with Paul Colligan, he’s the Affiliate Guy, the CEO of Colligan.Com, Inc., and you can find him at http://www.colligan.com.
Ralph Zuranski: He’s an online provider of consulting technologies and web properties for Internet marketing. He is also one of the pioneers in podcasting. He has a pod casting site called http://www.premiumpodcasting.com where he’s working with new technologies to actually send information to people’s iPods directly over the internet through their computers, all automatically.
Ralph Zuranski: Paul is also a Webmaster and has a number of Internet marketing sites that include Front Page World, Affiliate Marketing World, and You Can Sell Online. Paul recently launched AutomateSales.com and FrontPageCart.com to help businesses get their e-commerce programs up and running quickly.
Ralph Zuranski: Paul Colligan played a key role in the launch of dozens of financially successful websites and Internet marketing strategies that have seen millions of visitors and millions of dollars in revenue. He is a FrontPage genius.
Ralph Zuranski: Previous clients have included Internet MCI, The Oregon Multimedia Alliance, Rubicon International, Microsoft, of course, Electronic Boutique and Pearson Education. He’s also a popular presenter on Internet technology topics and frequently speaks online, on the air and before audiences about his passion. I met Paul at two of the Big Seminars. He is a speaker at numerous events around the world.
Ralph Zuranski: Paul writes regularly for a number of popular self-published email newsletters with more than 60,000 subscribers. He’s also co-authored and been technical editor for seven books about Microsoft’s Front Page. His most recent book is Special Edition Using Microsoft Front Page 2003. I’ve checked that one out and it’s really great.
Ralph Zuranski: Paul was awarded the Most Valuable Player status in 2002 for his efforts with Microsoft.
Ralph Zuranski: He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and daughters, and enjoys hiking, theater, music, fine dining and travel. Paul also makes periodic updates on a blog that is found at http://colligan.blogspot.com.
Ralph Zuranski: Wow! That’s a lot of things that you do Paul, how are you doing today?
Paul Colligan: I’m doing OK; I’m a little exhausted after that list!
Ralph Zuranski: Yes, well I guess so! It’s amazing, all the stuff that you do. I’m excited about your launching into podcasting and getting involved in premium podcasting. I know that is an integral part of what we want to teach the kids how to do. Maybe, before we get started with your Heroes questions, you could tell us a little bit about it.
Paul Colligan: Well you know, pod casting to me is probably, no, it just is, the most exciting implementation of Internet technology I’ve ever seen. It goes ahead of e-commerce. I think it goes beyond web design. I think it goes beyond anything because it’s an amazing, enabling technology. You know, right now we think of all the stuff in terms of time spent in front of our computer.
Paul Colligan: You know this morning, I had to go visit a friend of mine. I had breakfast with him. I spent twenty minutes in the car, each way. The average person spends that time listening to shock jocks, or drive-time radio or something like that. I had a couple of podcasts in there. I was bettering myself on that ride.
Paul Colligan: Everybody thinks of the Internet in terms of what they do on their computer. They download music and listen to it in front of their computer. And they do stuff in front of their computer.
Paul Colligan: But with pod casting, you take it with you. You go for a walk, a hike and you take it with you. I’m actually driving the whole family down on Thursday to go visit my parents. My wife and I are probably going to be listening to Podcasts on the entire way down, just catching up on things.
Paul Colligan: And, it’s just amazingly empowering! The guy I had breakfast with this morning wants to utilize it with what he’s doing in his efforts. As I was walking him through it, his eyes were just exploding with just the potential for what this thing means. I’m just absolutely thrilled about it.
Ralph Zuranski: Would you mind telling us what it is. I’m sure most people are in the dark just like I am.
Paul Colligan: Well, the great thing is, first of all podcasting is nothing new. There’s absolutely nothing new in the world of podcasting. That’s very important for most people to realize.
Paul Colligan: What it is, we took four or five pieces of technology and when I say we, somebody else did it. I’m just thrilled about it. They took four or five pieces of technology and just combined them all together and made them a lot more powerful. The first technology is Mp3 audio. You know, people have been doing Mp3 audio for ages. Right now, this interview is probably going to be an Mp3, right?
Paul Colligan: Right, yes.
Paul Colligan: This interview is going to be an Mp3 but the typical paradigm, the typical approach people take, would be take this file, download it and sit in front of their computer and listen to the audio.
Paul Colligan: Well, most people don’t do that. Most people don’t listen to audio in front of their computer. That’s where they do their email. That’s where they do their web. And there’s sort of a disconnect.
Paul Colligan: You know people could certainly take that Mp3 audio and put it on any Mp3 player. They want to and a lot of people do, but that takes a lot of steps. It takes a bit of a geeky approach.
Paul Colligan: And the fact of the matter is, they still have to go to your website. They still have to find the page. They still have to download the file. They still have to transfer the file from the computer to their Mp3 player. That is eight or nine steps that you have to perform flawlessly.
Paul Colligan: Podcasting is different from the old way, which is basically pull. You have to go to your website and you have to pull down information.
Paul Colligan: Podcasting is push. Once somebody subscribes to a Podcast, once somebody says, “Hey, I want to get this,” for lack of a better term, they call them shows.
Paul Colligan: You tell a Podcast client that every night your computer goes out and looks to see if there’s anything new. If there is, your computer downloads it onto your computer automatically. It puts it on the Mp3 player.
Paul Colligan: So this morning when I got up to go visit my friend, the computer was on but I didn’t have to click anything, I just unplugged my Mp3 player and took it with me. I checked what was new and played it.
Paul Colligan: The best analogy is kind of like a TiVo that is getting pretty popular these days. That’s the hard drive in a video recorder.
Paul Colligan: People always ask me, “What’s the difference between TiVo and just taping a show?”
Paul Colligan: Well, when you TiVo something, one of my favorite shows right now is 24. I just absolutely love that show. I told TiVo once, “Tape me this season.” That’s all I ever did.
Paul Colligan: Every Tuesday morning, “24” is there. If I work a little late Monday night and I miss the first 30 minutes, I don’t have to rush upstairs and click a button or do anything.
Paul Colligan: When I’m gone for the weekend, like when I went to the Big Seminar, I got actually snowed out and had to spend an extra day in Atlanta. If I was a VCR guy and had to rush home, I would have missed 24. But it’s just sitting there waiting for me when I get home.
Paul Colligan: That’s the real power of this. Some people are arrogant enough to think that once a week somebody is going to find your website and download your file and then sink it with their MP3 player. These are people think much too highly of themselves.
Paul Colligan: You know, when you use the technology of podcasting and let it come automatically, that’s where it starts to get interesting. That’s where it starts to get exciting.
Ralph Zuranski: People want to do podcasting. What are the steps that they have to take. Do they need special software?
Paul Colligan: There’s a website that I’ve put up called “PodcastTools.com” and there are a lot of videos there that actually walk you through the process. It’s really not that complicated. We have actually got videos that show you how to do a completely 100% free Podcast.
Ralph Zuranski: Really? That’s great…
Paul Colligan: Yes. What we’re doing with premium Podcast is we’re leveraging that same technology and we’re just enabling the same people to actually charge for their Podcast, using the imagery of television.
Paul Colligan: For a long time it was just what we got over the air. It was what we got over antennas and at some point somebody said, “Dang, I’ll pay a few bucks to get something better” and HBO was born.
Paul Colligan: HBO claims to be in 1/4th of all American homes, I don’t know if that number is true or not, personally, but people are willing to pay for content. I mean, the Big Seminar, you brought that up. You know, that was hundreds and hundreds of people willing to pay good money for good content. And so premium podcasting is just a way to leverage this really exciting technology through a paid paradigm.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, that really is exciting, if you think it’s that important. You’ve been in computers and software for a long time writing the Front Page manuals and I know that if it’s happening, then you know about it.
Paul Colligan: Thanks.
Ralph Zuranski: Let me ask you a couple of questions about the In Search of Heroes program.
Paul Colligan: Sure!
Ralph Zuranski: What principles are you willing to sacrifice your life for?
Paul Colligan: You know, I grew up in West Germany, which for some people, they don’t know what that means any more. But, my folks were in the U.S. Military during the 1980’s. For a while Eastern Europe was chopped up. It was one half freedom and one half communism. I grew up there on a U.S. military base.
Paul Colligan: I went to Berlin. Berlin was a really interesting city because the city was one half freedom and one half communist. You could actually take a bus. You could take a double-decker bus to a little city on the outskirts of Berlin. You could peek over this famous wall that separated these two areas. It was just amazing that here I was 100% free and somebody else on the other side of the wall was 100% not free.
Ralph Zuranski: Wow.
Paul Colligan: That always freaked me out. And what was really interesting was about four years ago when I still had a day job; I worked in a consulting agency with an international focus. The gal I shared the office with grew up in East Germany. She was my age at the same time I grew up in West Germany. We were both programmed and taught about how the other one hated us.
Ralph Zuranski: Really?
Paul Colligan: And about how the other one had different programming. In the fourth grade, she trained in a distorted paradigm. I just wouldn’t believe her. In the fourth grade, she was learning male “chauvinist pig” in her English vocabulary.
Paul Colligan: Freedom is incredibly valuable. I would sacrifice my life for freedom.
Paul Colligan: It’s very important, because if you don’t have freedom, you can’t do anything else. You can’t act. You can’t pursue commerce the way you want to. You can’t create. You can’t worship. You can’t do the things that are just vital to the human existence.
Paul Colligan: And that has to come first. A lot of people have died for freedom in the past. But it’s always been good. People are dying for freedom right now.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s true. Do you have a dream or a vision that sets the course of your life?
Paul Colligan: Absolutely. You’ve got to! You have to have a purpose. My dream is really a simple one. It’s a wonderful family culture. I want a family that just reflects God’s gifts and impact on our lives. I want a family that people look at and go, “Wow, look at that.”
Paul Colligan: And that comes from a family culture that comes from the combo of me my wife, my kids, and that’s what I do. Everything I do is really based on that. People sometimes say, “You’re trying to take over the world and what not.”
Paul Colligan: No, I want a wonderful family culture. Working at home allows me to do that a lot better than working a day job.
Ralph Zuranski: Yes, I can believe that.
Paul Colligan: For all this is I just want to create revenue from creating value. A lot of people, they try to create revenue by fooling people, by taking from people. I try to create revenue by creating value for people.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s really important. Well, I know you’ve had a few setbacks, misfortunes and made some big mistakes in your life. Is it important to take a positive view of those setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes?
Paul Colligan: Well, absolutely. If you don’t, you’re just going to end up curled up in a ball, kind of whimpering and whining to yourself how bad things went. And if a setback takes you down, then it won. If you learn something from the setback, you’re far better off for it.
Paul Colligan: And it’s almost like I don’t want them to win. So as a result, you’ve got to pull what you get out of them. You’ve got to pull what was there to teach you. And I tell you, I’ve learned more from my setbacks then I have from the good stuff because, the good stuff is easy. The setbacks are the hard ones. Those are the ones that make you think.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s true. A lot of people have said that. How important is it to be an optimist? I know there are so many people around us that are negative and just try to destroy our dreams. How important is it to be an optimist?
Paul Colligan: It’s the only option because, like you said, a lot of people are out there are trying to destroy your dream. A lot of people are trying to take away freedom. A lot of people are trying to stop you.
Paul Colligan: And if you are an optimist, you are not going to let that happen. And it’s got to come through the heart of what you are. It’s got to come from you.
Paul Colligan: I wake up every day happy. It’s got to come from a reason to wake up every day happy. You’ve got to be an optimist. It’s really the only option.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, I know that you are always anxious to pursue more new ideas. Does it take a lot of courage to do that?
Paul Colligan: Sure. But that’s the fun part. I think, there are so many people who are just stuck doing somebody else’s stuff, completing somebody else’s vision, fulfilling somebody else’s dream. And that’s needed. I don’t want to disqualify anybody whose doing that, you know. And sometimes there’s a time in your life…
Paul Colligan: When I worked for that consulting agency, it certainly wasn’t my dream. That agency was a time for me to learn. It was a time for me to grow…a time for me to understand bigger business and how to work with people.
Paul Colligan: It was great stuff for me, but in the back was always, “I’m going to take this and make this my own.”
Paul Colligan: Everybody’s got to do that. That’s the fun part. Why go someplace else when you can explore something new? It would be like opening up the refrigerator, every day, having the same TV dinner in there. You’ve got options! Why not take them?
Ralph Zuranski: That’s true. How important is it to believe that your dreams will eventually become reality? I know that is one of the hardest things to do. And in daily life, there are always the doubts and the fears. Sometimes it’s hard to believe in your dreams. How important is it to believe?
Paul Colligan: Well first of all, if you don’t believe in your dream, you don’t have really anything. I mean, a dream by its very definition is something you believe in. If it’s not that, then it’s just a nice idea. It’s not a question of believing in your dream. It’s more like an understanding of what dreams really are.
Paul Colligan: And, I had great influences in my life, I’m sure we’ll talk about that later. But, I realize that was a gift and I know that I want to act on that. There’s got to be a reason to wake up, a reason to pursue, and a reason to do the next step. That’s because the dreams and the plans and the goals are going to become something some day.
Ralph Zuranski: Who helped give you the willpower to change things in your life for the better?
Paul Colligan: My parents, without a doubt. It was never questioned what I couldn’t do. It was a question of how do we do what it is we’re trying to do.
Paul Colligan: They are absolutely amazing. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t realize more, especially now that I’ve got girls of my own, that I realize what an important role that my parents played.
Paul Colligan: My faith is very, very important. I believe in a God who cares for me, wants the best for me, and if that’s true, which I believe it is, well then I look out for it. If I don’t believe that, then I am kind of on my own.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s true, I believe the same way.
Paul Colligan: The last part is just friends. We all have the opportunity for friends who bring us down. Those people at the end of the day are such a drag!
Paul Colligan: So I’ve always had friends who pick me up and bring me up. They are not all Internet entrepreneurs. I have some of the most un-geeky, un-entrepreneurial friends on the planet, but they don’t bring me down. They lift me up, and it’s that combo that does it.
Ralph Zuranski: There are a lot of people that may be having a bad day or whatever, and they have a tendency to upset others, to offend and oppose them. What do you do when people do that to you. Do you totally forgive those who upset, offend and oppose you?
Paul Colligan: Yes, it’s not as hard for me. Sometimes I wonder if it’s arrogance more than it is anything else. Everybody is entitled to his or her opinion. That’s part of the freedom thing I talked about. If two of us disagree on something, that’s absolutely great. That’s what makes the world go around.
Paul Colligan: Planet “Paul” would be just so painstakingly boring.
Paul Colligan: And so if somebody upsets me, well, what is it that upsets me about what it is they are doing? If the upset nature is just my reaction to what they’ve done, great, I could change the reaction and they didn’t win.
Paul Colligan: And it’s the same thing with offending and the same thing even with opposing. You know, basically if its something I can control, I do. If it’s not something I can control, I really try to let it slide off the back, because it’s the only option. I could spend all day dealing with, “Oh man, this person really bothered me or I could just deal with it.”
Ralph Zuranski: Well you know a lot of people experience great joy in serving others. Do you find service to others as a source of joy?
Paul Colligan: Yes, because it’s a chance to say thanks. I’ve been given so much, been served so much, been handed so much. I realize I worked my butt off. But, I’ve been blessed in a lot of ways. And a lot of these people you can’t say thanks to directly, so serving others is a way to say thank you…almost back down the line.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, what power does prayer have in your life?
Paul Colligan: Well again, it goes back to the perception of who God is. And if God is who I believe He is, and what I certainly hope He is, then it’s got to be a part of my every day life and it is.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you maintain a sense of humor in the face of serious problems?
Paul Colligan: You’ve got to! That one’s easy. A sense of humor is one of the most precious gifts out there. You know its funny. I remember satire and humor is a great way. If you are involved in something, you know it could be full of humor.
Paul Colligan: If you are stuck in the middle of something lame and boring, which we often are, even in my job, humor helps break the cycle. The paperwork I have to do, once a month is bookkeeping day. There is nothing I hate worse than bookkeeping, but if you keep a sense of humor through it, it absolutely gets you through it. And you’ve got to go that way.
Ralph Zuranski: Other than your parents, who are the heroes in your life?
Paul Colligan: Well, historically, I think the biblical character of the apostle Paul is an amazing one, because this guy did what he thought he was supposed to be doing 110%.
Paul Colligan: And then, he had a change in his life and he believed he completely saw the error of his ways. He completely turned around and did 110% change. But always with fervor, always with excitement, always with complete dedication and I really appreciate that.
Paul Colligan: I like to think that if this all goes to pot one day, that that part of me won’t change. And historically that’s one that I look to. Everybody loves to talk about what he did after the fact.
Paul Colligan: I think he made a decision on the right side of things, but the fact of the matter was it is part of who he was from the very beginning…to really pursue what he believed in.
Paul Colligan: And I think that’s important.
Paul Colligan: It’s a reminder for me too that if something changes radically, one of the big things I try to do with my business, if you look at Colligan.com, we’ve have a mission statement. One of the big things there is, I want to be willing to change everything if the technology dictates it.
Paul Colligan: Right now you talked at the beginning about my e-commerce sites that I partner with. I truly believe that those are the best e-commerce options on the planet. I truly believe that.
Paul Colligan: Is it possible that one day a better e-commerce solution could pop up? Yes. Could I, will I lose money if a better e-commerce engine pops up? Yes.
Paul Colligan: But, am I going to hold on to my system and not let anyone know about this new system because I want to keep the revenues? I hope I’m not going to do that.
Paul Colligan: So that’s one hero.
Paul Colligan: There is a flip side of it.
Paul Colligan: I just think of what is happening overseas, the soldiers over there, what they are going through and what they’re doing. A lot of them don’t necessarily, 100% believe in what’s going on. But they believe in the higher call and I just applaud that. I just cannot comprehend the courage that goes on over there.
Paul Colligan: You know, we were in Germany and my dad actually was a teacher for the dependent kids. He was in the military before I was born. We had it easy. There was good beer, good sausage and friendly people.
Paul Colligan: These people are in the desert and people want to kill them. It’s a whole different world. So the soldiers right now, I just cannot think enough of them in every way.
Paul Colligan: And then my family…my daughters are so gorgeous because they have no sense of the inability to do anything. Now, they’re five and two, so they haven’t gone bitter on me.
Paul Colligan: You know, my daughter will look at me and say, “I’ve got a plan, I need two boxes, some wire and some paint” and I just want to pursue that to the fullest. For her 4th birthday, she told me one day, she said, “I want to do a lemonade stand”. I said “Why?” and she said, “To make money like you do!” It was awesome.
Ralph Zuranski: That is amazing. It’s important to recognize the heroes in our personal life and this society at the same time. Do you think there are any heroes that aren’t getting the recognition they deserve?
Paul Colligan: Absolutely. I think the soldiers overseas aren’t getting the recognition they deserve. I had a really interesting experience. I don’t talk about this a lot because I don’t want it to get in the way of things.
Paul Colligan: Actually the day I launched my store online was 9/11. And, I got up early in the morning. The store had been completed. Everything had been completed, but I didn’t want to do the release until that day.
Paul Colligan: I woke up in the morning and I did a mailing to 25,000 about the store and then I switched over to “My Yahoo!” to find out what was happening in the news. And it just devastated me.
Paul Colligan: I felt terrible about doing it. Obviously nobody knew what was going on. I watched in horror as it all happened. I just…the firefighters who went in and the police and the average people, the people who brought water and food and all that kind of stuff.
Paul Colligan: That was a sad, sad tragic day. But, man, we got to see real heroes that day in a way that we needed. I don’t think we needed the towers to go down, but it was good for us.
Paul Colligan: Anybody, anybody who accomplishes what they aren’t supposed to accomplish, anybody who doesn’t recognize the limits, they’re heroes.
Paul Colligan: There is not an American alive who wouldn’t have understood a guy who freaked out at that moment and couldn’t handle it, but these guys didn’t. And, that just blows my mind.
Paul Colligan: And I think about all the stuff that happened behind the scenes the same day I launched my store…the attacks, and the people dealing with the attacks. All these things happened in the background.
Paul Colligan: These guys went into the World Trade Center for a very specific reason. It wasn’t two tall buildings. The terrorists went after…commerce the day I went after commerce. And they tried to destroy it, and they couldn’t.
Paul Colligan: And man, that’s awesome. I get everybody involved there. Anybody who just does what they aren’t supposed to do and doesn’t recognize the limits does great things. Those are the heroes of the day.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s so true. Why are heroes so important in the lives of young people?
Paul Colligan: Well, if all young people do is aim to be like their friends, then they’re all kind of standing in a circle and pointing at each other. I remember what it was like and we all do.
Paul Colligan: There’s a time you want to be with your friends and you want to be like your friends, but it just stops there.
Paul Colligan: You’ve got to have a hero, because you’ve got to have people to aim for…something bigger than them. You’ve got to aim for something outside of the box. So you have got to have that or else you’ve got nowhere to go.
Paul Colligan: I’ve been reading some stats lately; just the amount of time that young people spend with adults is becoming less and less and less. Sadly schools having 35 students in the classroom, even with the best teachers, the laws of physics are going to prevent them from interacting with kids.
Paul Colligan: So you’ve got to have a hero, it’s just a way to look up. It’s very, very important.
Ralph Zuranski: How do people really become heroes? I know you talked about people that achieved beyond the limitations other people put on them; and people that just stepped up to the plate and helped wherever they could without getting any recognition. Are there any other ways that people can become heroes?
Paul Colligan: Well, you know, you can go to Toys “R” Us today and you can buy the Great American Hero action figure type things, and they are great, but there a lot of heroes out there doing a lot of things that aren’t necessarily getting the press.
Paul Colligan: Any time someone does something bigger than they are, any time someone does something not expected of them, that’s heroic. And I think anybody can look for a place to be a hero and be one.
Paul Colligan: They don’t have to join the Fire Department or join the military or something like that, and you can look for the option. And if you look for it, you’ll find it. There are so many options out there, today.
Ralph Zuranski: You know, a lot of people say there are no heroes in our society. Where are the heroes located?
Paul Colligan: Everywhere! Some of them are loud. Some of them are quiet, but they are everywhere.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, how does it feel to be recognized as an Internet Hero? I know you are out there pioneering on the Internet. I listened to you at a couple of the conferences and liked what you had to say and your personal integrity. How does it feel to be finally recognized for what you do?
Paul Colligan: Well, I am thrilled and humbled, but at the same time I’ve got to think of Woody Allen. Woody Allen said, “Never join a club that would let you in as a member.”
Ralph Zuranski: That’s true.
Paul Colligan: I like to do what I’m doing, but man, there’s some heroes well before me, much more worthy.
Ralph Zuranski: How are you making the world a better place?
Paul Colligan: I’m trying. The first of all is the legacy of my family. It starts there. And that’s the number one for me. And the second thing, as I alluded to this earlier, just build a business around tools and services that enable people to do great things.
Paul Colligan: I had an absolute thrill. I was at a movie website about a month ago. It’s a pretty popular movie website. He is kind of an Internet character out there.
Paul Colligan: The reason I visited the website is that he had just turned on a thing where you could buy ads directly at his website as opposed to going to an ad agency.
Paul Colligan: I wanted to see how that worked, and I was looking at the different ads and there was somebody selling a “How to Salsa” DVD which is something I just can’t think of further away from me, than learning how to salsa.
Paul Colligan: But I looked, you know, I’m a geek, I always peek under the covers and this person who was selling the salsa DVDs was using my Front Page cart service.
Paul Colligan: I didn’t know the person, knew nothing about the person, didn’t know about the website, didn’t know about the tool, and didn’t know about the product. But Front Page Cart was enabling (for some reason, I envisioned her as a gal, I hope it is) this gal produced a “How to Salsa DVD” and sold it on the “Ain’t It Cool” website.”
Paul Colligan: And that just gave me such a thrill…such a tickle because my work enabled other people to do great things and see their dreams. That was one of the most exciting moments I’ve had in quite some time, just on my own work because that’s what I try to do, tools and services that enable people to do great things.
Ralph Zuranski: Well do you have any good solutions to the problems facing society? I know some of the tough ones are racism, child and spousal abuse and violence among young people.
Paul Colligan: That’s an easy one. I played in politics for a little while and it’s for some people…not for me. I played in different community service elements and realized that’s for some people and not for me.
Paul Colligan: I think we all have our paths we’re supposed to take in these areas. But, the simple fact of the matter is you mentioned racism, abuse and violence. If we’re all created in the image of God, like I believe we are, we all have value.
Ralph Zuranski: Yes, I believe that also.
Paul Colligan: Then racism, abuse, violence, it’s abhorrent. You’re beating on God. You’re abusing God. And, if that’s the case, then I think an answer is to get people believing that we are created in the image of God.
Paul Colligan: I think if you believe that deep down, it’s going to change the way you act. It’s going to change the things you do.
Paul Colligan: That’s going to do more than a politician who makes some law or opens up some center or who accomplishes something. There’s a need for that, and a place for that. I’m not trying to disqualify that in any way. But, if the person is pondering this action, they go wait a minute, this is bigger than me. They stop because of that. That’s what’s going to happen.
Ralph Zuranski: I agree. If you had three wishes for your life in the world that would come true instantly, what would they be?
Paul Colligan: Oh gosh, another easy one! I would love to see true freedom for everyone, the freedom to make a decision, the freedom to act if they want to.
Paul Colligan: Yes, the Wall fell and communism fell. A good chunk of it is gone but true freedom isn’t there yet. I’d love to see true freedom for everyone, because once that happens, and then we’ve got the ability to make the decisions, pull ourselves up and do great things.
Paul Colligan: You’ve seen some footage of Afghanistan, allowing women to attend school. That’s going to do more for society than any aid package we could possibly send, because they are going to be educated, to do things for themselves. They are starting to get it. Are they at true freedom yet? No. But they are better than they were a couple of years ago.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s true!
Paul Colligan: So I believe in true freedom for everyone. The next thing I would like to see is just that the liars step down. This is the liars in politics, the liars in business, and the liars in religion. There are a lot of them in all areas. They should just step down.
Paul Colligan: Enough said there. And the last thing I’d love to see is just the most valuable commodity. I’d like there to be truth and wisdom. You know, if that’s what people look for, that’s what people look for, if that’s what people go for, it all begins to make sense.
Ralph Zuranski: Isn’t that the truth! Well, parents are incredible influences in kids’ lives. What are the things that parents can do that will help children realize they too can be heroes and make a positive impact on the lives of others?
Paul Colligan: Well, I learned from my parents it’s all about perspective. I remember once I read this article. It was like Ann Landers or Dear Abby or something like that, and it just changed my life.
Paul Colligan: It was a topic I knew nothing about. They were talking about adopted kids. And you know this woman wrote in and she said, “Hey, I’ve got an adopted child and I’ve got a natural child. How do I break the news that my child was adopted? How do I give her this bad news?”
Paul Colligan: And that was an interesting question, how do you do that and I kept reading and Ann Landers said no, or whoever it was, Ann or Abby, whoever.
Paul Colligan: They said no, that’s not what you do. You tell the adopted one that I chose you. You tell the adopted one that I went to the agency and looked at all these kids and picked you out.
Paul Colligan: You know, and I was like, “dang, that’s the difference, right there!” It’s not just two sides to every story…the other side of the coin type of thing. It’s just a true attitude towards life that you absolutely have to take.
Paul Colligan: One of the things that I’m trying to do with my girls, because my parents did it, was I don’t want to limit them. My five year old just had her birthday. She told me she wanted a pink iPod.
Paul Colligan: And part of me was like; no five year old needs an iPod. She doesn’t even know what an iPod does; she just thinks the pink one is cute. But if I tell her that, it’s “No, no, no.” So we’re sitting down, and trying to figure out how much a pink iPod costs.
Paul Colligan: Currently one of her favorite places to go in the world is the dollar store. So, the comparison there is 300 selections from the dollar store or a pink iPod. How much is $300? Well, let’s count out 300 pennies. And so part of what we need to do is, we don’t limit them.
Paul Colligan: There’s going to be times there’s stuff they shouldn’t do. There’s stuff they can’t do. There’s stuff you can’t afford to do, but just make it, how can they do this? How do we save? How do we make it happen?
Paul Colligan: And then the flip side of it is, at the same time you don’t push them. You know, my daughter wanted a pink iPod because she saw what fun we’re having with ours, and she made the decision herself.
Paul Colligan: And if you push people, they don’t make those decisions, and so I don’t think you push. I think you encourage. I think you enable. I think you don’t limit, but I don’t think you push because that’s how they’ll figure out who they are, what their part is, what their piece is.
Paul Colligan: And finally, and you hit into this earlier, society is going to pound them. When society pounds them, pick them up and that’s the big job.
Paul Colligan: It’s a facilitation role. In many ways it’s as strategic as the businesses I run.
Paul Colligan: Every day I get up, I look at the sales from last night. I look at trends. I look at things. Is there anything I need to deal with today to make this stuff bigger? I think in the same way it’s what you have to do with the kids.
Ralph Zuranski: I know a lot of people think that kids should be their best buddies, but others think that it’s important to help discipline kids and help guide them in the way that they should go.
Paul Colligan: The problem with the “buddy thing” is it’s good to have friends and it’s important to have friends, and I want to have friends. I want my kids to have friends, but again if we’re all friends, then nobody’s looking up.
Paul Colligan: And if somebody’s looking up, you know you can go hello, hello, and the kids will look up. And the kids who look up will go places.
Paul Colligan: You know, imagine society with no goals. I think a lot of parents do want to be their best friend and the heart to do that.
Paul Colligan: I truly understand the heart of that. I think kids are more and more alienated every day and sometimes, who knows, the parents might be the only ones.
Paul Colligan: But the real richness, the real joy of being a parent is being able to say, “Hey, look up here!” It gets better, there’s more and that’s kind of the goals.
Paul Colligan: So yes, I hear you and I think that does a lot of damage. I understand where it comes from but I think it does more damage than good.
Ralph Zuranski: Well Paul, I really appreciate your time and your wisdom. Is there any parting wisdom that you want to provide?
Paul Colligan: You know, I think this is a great program. I was peeking around the website. You’ve got to think bigger than yourself. It doesn’t matter where you are, and because you know, then you aim for something. If you are just aiming for what’s already there, there is no real reason to get up, no real reason to do much. And look for something bigger.
Ralph Zuranski: The reason why I’m doing the interviews is it’s astounding; some of the wisdom that pops out of people’s heads when they are asked profound questions and to just listen to what some of these people have to say.
Ralph Zuranski: It’s encouraged and inspired me to say the least. It’s really good to get the wisdom of some of the people that are already successful, that have made a lot of mistakes, that know exactly how to be successful and help other people to be successful at the same time.
Ralph Zuranski: And I know you are one of those people so again, I just really appreciate you taking your valuable time to do this interview with us.
Paul Colligan: No problem, Ralph.
Ralph Zuranski: Thanks a lot, Paul!
Paul Colligan: Thank you!
Paul Colligan helps people leverage technology to improve themselves and broaden their audience for greater profit. He is Education Czar for Traffic Geyser Inc. and CEO of Colligan.com.
His work can be seen/heard/read in Web Shows that include eMarketingVids, books that include the #1 Bestseller “Cross Channel Social Media Marketing” and publications online and off as varied as the Huffington Post and The Net Effect. He is also a popular speaker on Internet technology topics and frequently speaks online, on the air, and before audiences about his passions. He has presented at events around the world that include BlogWorld and New Media Expo, The European Business Podcasting Summit, Google Tech Talks, Mac World, Social Media Success Summit, and Microsoft Tech-Ed.
Paul Colligan is the Affiliate Guy, the CEO of Colligan.Com, Inc., and you can find him at http://www.colligan.com.
He’s an online provider of consulting technologies and web properties for Internet marketing. He is also one of the pioneers in podcasting. He has a pod casting site called http://www.premiumpodcasting.com where he’s working with new technologies to actually send information to people’s iPods directly over the internet through their computers, all automatically.
Paul is also a Webmaster and has a number of Internet marketing sites that include Front Page World, Affiliate Marketing World, and You Can Sell Online. Paul recently launched AutomateSales.com and FrontPageCart.com to help businesses get their e-commerce programs up and running quickly.
Paul Colligan played a key role in the launch of dozens of financially successful websites and Internet marketing strategies that have seen millions of visitors and millions of dollars in revenue.
Previous clients have included Internet MCI, The Oregon Multimedia Alliance, Rubicon International, Microsoft, of course, Electronic Boutique and Pearson Education. He’s also a popular presenter on Internet technology topics and frequently speaks online, on the air and before audiences about his passion. I met Paul at two of the Big Seminars. He is a speaker at numerous events around the world.
Paul writes regularly for a number of popular self-published email newsletters with more than 60,000 subscribers. He’s also co-authored and been technical editor for seven books about Microsoft’s Front Page. His most recent book is Special Edition Using Microsoft Front Page 2003. I’ve checked that one out and it’s really great. Paul was awarded the Most Valuable Player status in 2002 for his efforts with Microsoft.
He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and daughters, and enjoys hiking, theater, music, fine dining and travel. Paul also makes periodic updates on a blog that is found at http://colligan.blogspot.com.
Ralph Zuranski: What principles are you willing to sacrifice your life for?
Paul Colligan: You know, I grew up in West Germany, which for some people, they don’t know what that means any more. But, my folks were in the U.S. Military during the 1980’s. For a while Eastern Europe was chopped up. It was one half freedom and one half communism. I grew up there on a U.S. military base.
Paul Colligan: I went to Berlin. Berlin was a really interesting city because the city was one half freedom and one half communist. You could actually take a bus. You could take a double-decker bus to a little city on the outskirts of Berlin. You could peek over this famous wall that separated these two areas. It was just amazing that here I was 100% free and somebody else on the other side of the wall was 100% not free.
Paul Colligan: That always freaked me out. And what was really interesting was about four years ago when I still had a day job; I worked in a consulting agency with an international focus. The gal I shared the office with grew up in East Germany. She was my age at the same time I grew up in West Germany. We were both programmed and taught about how the other one hated us.
Paul Colligan: And about how the other one had different programming. In the fourth grade, she trained in a distorted paradigm. I just wouldn’t believe her. In the fourth grade, she was learning male “chauvinist pig” in her English vocabulary.
Paul Colligan: Freedom is incredibly valuable. I would sacrifice my life for freedom. It’s very important, because if you don’t have freedom, you can’t do anything else. You can’t act. You can’t pursue commerce the way you want to. You can’t create. You can’t worship. You can’t do the things that are just vital to the human existence.
Paul Colligan: And that has to come first. A lot of people have died for freedom in the past. But it’s always been good. People are dying for freedom right now.