I’m powerless to ignore a tag from John Taylor, as it was in a private forum that I met and learned much of what I know now about internet marketing from him and the others who were there. While I’m not a meme junkie, I’ve enjoyed reading incarnations of the “25 Things About Me” post from others as well, like Jack Humphrey and Michel Fortin. So let’s get it on!
Twenty-five random things about me, Michelle MacPhearson:
1. Some jobs I’ve had: admin assistant, selling leads to car dealerships, selling cars to people online, marketing assistant at a brokerage-type firm, tutor for a Sylvan Learning Center kind of place, clerk at a pet store, clerk at The Limited. Job suck, although I did have fun working in the car sales business.
2. I broke my wrist when I was 6 but we didn’t realize it was broken for a few days. It started to heal and when we went to the doctor, they had to re-break it. To do this, they grabbed my wrist and snapped it. No drugs cuz I was little. It hurt.
3. We have a Red Bone Coon Hound and a Lhasa Apso. They’re a weird combo of dogs to have.
4. I bite my nails.
5. For a short time, I “rode” with some Hell’s Angels guys.
6. I’m a San Francisco Bay Area, California girl, through and through. We live up near Lake Tahoe now and I love it here too, but I think I’ll always call the Bay Area home.
7. I got into internet marketing from an SEO side of things and a lot of what I learned/did back then was blackhat stuff.
8. I want to learn how to fuse and blow glass.
9. We drive simple cars - not the “internet marketing lifestyle” kinda thing you see a lota guys bragging about. Two Ford trucks and a Scion. We got the Scion to be a bit kinder on the environment (better gas mileage) for day to day errands. I think I want a Land Rover one day, but am gonna wait for the kids to get a bit older and less destructive. I have no desire for a Porsche or Lambo or whatever (although my husband might disagree on that one…)
10. My first car was a 1965 Oldsmobile 442. I used to drag race it. I’ve also had a 1965 Comet Cyclone and a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda. Right now, our “classic car” stable consists of a 1972 Datsun 510, it’s sweet!
11. Some of my favorite movies: Blow, Casino, Grosse Pointe Blank, Almost Famous, Snatch, Legends of the Fall.
12. When we first moved here to the country (we have 5 acres) we got chickens and put them in the coop in our barn. They all died from some disease the previous owners’ chickens had. We’ve been afraid to get new chickens ever since.
13. One of our favorite places to go for a weekend trip is Mendocino, on the California coast. My husband used to live there, so he knows all the cool local, non-tourist-y beach spots and killer restaurants.
14. I was born and raised San Francisco Irish Catholic. My grandparents are from Ireland (Wexford and Nenagh), and the story of how they came here with nothing and built an incredible life & family, with my Grandpa now the current President of the Board of Directors of the Golden Gate Bridge inspires me so much. If I can do only half of what they’ve done with their lives, I will be content.
15. My husband is 3 years younger than me. Does that make me a cougar?
16. My second son, who’s now two, was a homebirth. That means he was born at home, no hospital, on purpose. We had a midwife. It was intense, but awesome.
17. Because we live out in the middle of nowhere, a lot of our friends come here for a little mini-vacation. This means we have houseguests A LOT. One person just left Friday after being here a week, we’ve got 2 coming next week and then a big party with probably 20 people in mid February. I love that everyone is comfortable enough to just come here and hang out, but I also like quiet downtime. So sometimes I hide in my office.
18. Some of my favorite authors: Hunter S. Thompson, John Steinbeck, Jack Kerouac. I’ve read everything those 3 have ever written.
19. While I’m not into fancy luxury cars, I do like collecting art. My husband is also an artist. One of my favorite galleries is Julie Baker Fine Art. We have several pieces from the artists she represents. I also have an awesome giant piece of a city skyline by Sabrina Ward Harrison. I’m into contemporary young artists.
20. I went to Ireland in the 90’s with San Francisco’s Mayor at the time, Frank Jordan. We were part of the San Francisco/Cork Sister City group. We spent time with the Mayor of Cork as well as the sitting President of Ireland, and Jean Kennedy Smith (John F. Kennedy’s sister), who was the US Ambassador to Ireland.
21. Pork chops are one of my most loved foods. I also like a nice tri-tip and can make a marinade that’ll cause a tiny explosion of happyness in your mouth with every bite.
22. We have two quads to ride around the property on - a big one and a kids one. I like dirtbikes too, but we don’t have any of those right now.
23. Guilty pleasures: I love watching crap reality TV. Biggest Loser, The Hills, Wife Swap, Top Chef and Real Housewives of Orange County are some of my favorites. I do enough thinking in real life, when I watch TV I want it to be mindless. Everything I watch is Tivo’d, I don’t channel surf.
24. I rarely drink caffeine, and when I do it makes me anxious and I regret it.
25. I rolled my truck exiting Highway 13 onto 24 East in Oakland a couple of years ago. Just lost the backend for no reason, was even driving under the speed limit. Scared the heck out of me, but I wasn’t seriously injured. I’ve been in 3 pretty ugly car accidents.
I’m tagging some of my favorite Twitter friends and/or Internet Marketing This Week co-hosts: Alejandro Reyes, Paul Colligan, Lynn Terry, Mari Smith and Brent Hodgson.
Here are the rules guys:
Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a post with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose five more people to be tagged. You also have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you. To do this, you simply link to their blogs so that they know you responded to their tag.
My note: it’s a good idea to Tweet or email folks when you’ve tagged them too, just to make sure they know. That’s how I knew John Taylor tagged me! Can’t wait to learn more about all of you!
