Quick note: Today I’m pleased to share with you an interview with Henri Junttila of Wake Up Cloud
Chances are if you’re into personal development you’ve seen him around a lot lately. His relatively quick success and passion for self improvement has been of great inspiration to not only myself but hundreds of others as well.
Henri has been kind enough to answer a few questions that I know you will find valuable in your own personal development and internet marketing journey. He has also recently released a personal development e-book that I can genuinely recommend (not an affiliate link) Enjoy.
Henri, you’ve blasted into the personal development scene within the past few months, what are some of the steps you’ve taken to make this a reality?
In short: I learned from a successful blogger and took massive action.
I’m a big believer in modeling, which is about finding someone who is doing what you want to do, then either joining their course, which I did, or better yet, getting them to mentor you for free.
I played poker for almost five years, and it was during my poker years that I discovered the power of having someone watch over my shoulder and point out what mistakes I was making and how I could improve.
When I started, I had no idea what I was doing. I only knew I wanted to start blogging, provide a service and my own products down the road.
My learning curve was dramatically reduced when I joined Chris Garrett’s Authority Blogger course. I went through the course and whenever I ran into a problem, I e-mailed Chris and got some feedback.
In essence, I eliminate the confusion and doubt that comes with doing something new by getting a mentor who’s already successful. This way all I had to do was focus on execution.
If we look at more details, I started off commenting on other blogs in the first few weeks. I did this, a lot. After that I mustered up the courage to guest post. Once I got my first post approved on a big blog (Write to Done), I realized that I had nothing to fear.
That’s when I started focusing a large percentage of my time on writing guest posts, and it helped me reach 1,012 subscribers in 101 days.
There are a lot of other strategies I used, but if I had to choose one strategy, it would be guest posting.
Here at PluginID we help people plugin to their identity, this often means taking a hard look at our own personal beliefs. How have your own personal beliefs affected the person you are today? What belief has helped you most in your own personal growth?
The belief that has helped me the most is my willingness to believe in myself.
When I started making a living playing poker around 2004-2005, the confidence I had in myself was record low. I had not yet proven to myself that I could do anything out of the ordinary.
But I was willing to try. I was motivated by not working for someone else, because we all know what working 9-to-5 can do to your soul.
Eventually I started making a living, which allowed me to score points in the confidence category. As time went on, my confidence grew to outright arrogance at times.
It has served me well, because instead of thinking about excuses, I go “If he can do it, I can do it†and I start thinking of how.
I by no means think I am smarter than anyone else. I am just more willing to sacrifice my whole life to whatever I do.
I could never do this if I didn’t do something I loved. In the beginning, I loved poker, but when I got sick of it, I started building websites and finally started my blog, which I wouldn’t give up for anything. Well, almost anything, negotiation is always possible 
.
Getting to the place I am today is simple, but not always easy. You have to be willing to take action, fail and keep going until you succeed. As you get more victories under your belt, your confidence will grow.
In your blog, the Wake Up Cloud, you often talk about overcoming fears. Can you share a few ways in which you do so?
One of the best ways to overcome fear for me is to make my goal so important that the current fear I have becomes insignificant.
The downside is that it only works when I am really passionate about where I am heading. For example, I’m horrible at public speaking and would probably suck at it in the beginning, but if the time comes, I am willing to get up there, because I know it’s necessary in taking my game to the next level.
I’m not saying it’s going to happen anytime soon, but I think you see where I am going with this. I really do not care about most fears if they aren’t getting in the way.
A perfect example in blogging is the audio or video interview. I’ve heard many self-help bloggers turn them down, because they think their accent is incomprehensible.
When I was first contacted for an interview, I was afraid and unsure, but I knew it was just another step on my path to success. It got in my way and I knew I had to do it.
There was no reason for me to stall. It was better to take action, and move forward.
Seeing how successful you’ve been in such a short amount of time, where do you think you’ll be in one year?
In one year? I do not have any grand plans, but I do have some goals. I want to make a full time income doing what I love, which really isn’t that big of a deal, since I live a pretty minimalistic lifestyle.
How that will happen I am not sure about, but I do have a few ideas. I’ve noticed that the more willing you are to take action, the more help you’ll get from people, because they see that you’ll be successful whether they help or not.
What I have found helpful is focusing on what I love doing right now, and having larger flexible goals of where I am going. If you have rigid, step-by-step goals that you follow to a fault, you’re probably not going to be as successful as someone who is open-minded and flexible.
I say this because it is impossible to predict the future. You just never know what might come your way. You may have to change everything and do a complete turn-around. Life is funny that way.
What advice can you give to those who are struggling to find passion in their life?
I see so many people struggling with finding their passion, and I think one of the biggest blocks is that they take it too seriously.
It doesn’t have to be the be all, end all kind of thing. It is not a decision that defines you for the rest of your life. For example, my first website was about poker. It failed horribly, and I discovered that it wasn’t something I wanted to do.
It took me about two years to figure out that I liked another niche. Then after 6 months I realized that I really loved helping people improve their lives.
It’s an evolution. If there’s anything I want to say, it is this: have fun with it, and most of all, start taking action and seeing what works. Learning what doesn’t work can be just as valuable as learning what does.