My Website's Back Up Again

Everything's back up again on the website. About a month from now there will be an intentional interruption to my website--about one or two days--when I re-upload everything to a different account using the same webhost. I'm not looking forward to that, since there's quite a lot to link and upload, but it has to be done. At least I can relax for now.

My Website Temporarily Down

Due to a mix-up with my webhost, my website will be down for a day or two. Grrr. I'm in the process of switching accounts with them, but it wasn't supposed to happen for another month, when I have to close the old account and re-upload everything to the new one. Ah, well. Sorry for the inconvience!

About the Hidden Lands Update

If you're coming here from my website to read about the Hidden Lands update, you have to scroll down the page a little bit.

My Article at SelfGrowth.com: Paper Sculpture Vending Machines

Here's an article I just submitted to SelfGrowth.com, where I have two other self-help articles. This one hasn't been published yet:

A lot of people are looking for ways to make extra cash during these tough economic times, and most of them have considered going the usual routes, including borrowing money, working a second or part-time job, selling household items on eBay or through Craigslist, and so on. A few years ago a friend of mine and I discussed investing in vending machines and setting them up around town, but a little research brought that quickly to a halt. The investments were huge, and the competition in our town was fierce. We laid the idea to rest, but for some reason it still nagged at me. There was something to it that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, something that spoke to me--but what was it?

Then, as now, I was building paper castle marble cascades and other paper sculptures. I was doing it mostly as a hobby and giving the castles away as gifts, but people kept telling me I should turn it into a business. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to do that, because the castles took time to build, and it wouldn’t really be cost-effective to sell them. I took Robert Kiyosaki’s advice to heart: “Do it once.” In other words, build a kind of “money making machine” product that you only create once, and which automatically generates cash. That’s the principle behind stores, movies, books, etc., as opposed to hand-made items that you sell at arts and crafts stores. I tried to think of a way to turn my castles into “money making machines,” but for years the ideas escaped me.

One day it came to me. A week before, I had finished building a giant five-castle Rube Goldberg chain reaction marble cascade that I showed on YouTube. (A medieval crafting company called StormTheCastle asked if they could embed one of my castle videos on their site.) The chain reaction ends with a little door opening to reveal a trinket or piece of candy inside a box. While sitting on a chair next to this display, I suddenly saw what I’d been missing all along: I could create a compact version of this giant chain reaction machine, complete with marble cascades triggering other marble cascades, and I could add a coin slot, with coin ramps starting off the whole chain reaction. In other words, I could create a vending machine for less than twenty dollars and use it as a cash-genereating sales booth display, for flea markets, yard sales, carnivals, bake sales, lemonade stands, kiosks--any kind of sales venue. It, in and of itself, wouldn't make me rich by any means, but it would definitely bring in extra cash.

The vision didn’t end there. I realized that this was something anyone could do, using their own creative stamp. They wouldn’t have to create castles, but any shape they wanted. All it really takes is paper, recycled materials like cereal boxes and cardboard paper towel tubes, glue and household tools (a polyurethane finish is optional). A cereal box works well as a coin box at the center of the display, and it can also act as part of the candy dispenser. Excited, I went ahead and created two vending machines, and even combined them as a single machine, which I also demonstrated on YouTube. I took one of them to a friend’s business, and was surprised by the attention it received from employees and customers, all of whom came up to me to ask me what it was and how it worked. To my amazement, I made four dollars in quarters in half an hour, which wasn’t even my intention at the time. The castle wasn’t even finished yet.

Because the vending machines are beautiful and unusual, they automatically attract people to your vending booth or table. And because they’re manual (don’t require electricity), you can use the trigger setup time to chat with the customers, who will undoubtedly ask questions about how you built them. That’s the perfect time for getting to know your customers and to up-sell other items that you may have on display. In other words, the vending machines act as both a marketing device and a “money making machine.”

The Paper Castle Vending Machine Tutorial

Just a brief mention that my Paper Castle Vending Machine Tutorial Pack has just been released, and can be found on my website, www.TheEnchantedKiosk.com. See the link above.

The Hidden Lands Updated

For the past few days I've been working out bugs and providing a "cheat sheet" for The Hidden Lands, the free interactive multi-media treasure hunt game on my website. I'm still making changes even now, but they're mostly aesthetic (modeling and texturing), so the game is fully playable at this time. I added the cheat sheet to the PDF Treasure Guide--or I should say "answer sheet"--because I realized the puzzles-within-puzzles concept of the game is pretty complex. I played the game myself after months of having it on my website, and it was as if I were a newcomer to it. I'd forgotten the Puzzle Words, the Key Word, the Steps of the Secret Treasure Path, what some of the cues meant, etc., and I had to figure them out by playing the game in order to create the answer sheet. It's only then that I realized that an answer sheet really was necessary.

There were also a few bugs related to choices taking the player to new web pages. I had some links leading to nowhere (now fixed), and I discovered that some browsers on some computers didn't always make the link connection to new web pages, even though the correct URL would show up in the URL box. Weird. It seems the only solution to that is to have the player click in the URL box and press Return to reload the page. (I saw this problem occurring only on someone's old PC laptop.) Anyway, I've fixed all of the other problems that have been brought to my attention. And if anyone is stumped by a puzzle, a cue, a seeming dead end, they can use the answer sheet in the Treasure Guide to get out of it.

I'm going to add another feature to The Hidden Lands, and I'm still working out the details of it: Throughout the game there are going to be other hidden "secret treasure paths" that can only be revealed by making a small payment in my online store. (The rest of the game will still be free to access and play.) I haven't worked out what these hidden secret treasure paths lead to, but I should come up with something soon. Thanks for reading, have a great day, and have fun playing the game!

Here's where the game starts. Just click the link/image at the bottom of this page:

http://www.theenchantedkiosk.com/Pages/TheEnchantedKiosk/images/Welcome.html

A Paper Castle Vending Machine Tutorial

It's been a while since I've written, mostly because I've had too many pokers in too many fires, so to speak.  My latest project has been the development of a do-it-yourself vending machine made out of paper, one that can be used at a vending table or booth in any kind of sales venue.  I've also been writing, illustrating and videotaping a tutorial for people to create their own vending machines, and I just finished it today.  In fact, I'm in the process of uploading 24 tutorial videos to YouTube ("private" for now, until I get them fully annotated).  For public viewing I've uploaded an example of a finished paper castle vending machine, at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_aNh_gnAj0.

I'm excited about this new venture, but also nervous, mostly because it's new.  A few weeks ago I brought one of the vending machine castles to a friend's business to show them what I was working on.  It wasn't even close to being finished, but all of the employees and customers there crowded around me, asking me what it was and how it worked.  I was surprised how fascinated they were.  For about half an hour I demonstrated the vending machine repeatedly and realized that if I'd had candy to dispense from it, I could have made a tidy bit of cash.  The experience galvanized me into finishing my work on the machine as well as the tutorial, which I'll be releasing very soon, maybe in a day or two.

I remember reading and hearing several times that one of the keys to building wealth is to help others make money.  I wasn't quite sure how I could ever do that--until I came up with this vending machine tutorial idea.  As soon as the tutorial is ready for sale, I'll post it here.

"The Hidden Lands" Free Treasure Hunt Game

This will be a short post, because I've got a lot on my plate today:  I just finished creating and uploading "The Hidden Lands," a free interactive and multi-media treasure hunt game.  I started it about two weeks ago and lost a lot of sleep getting it done.  To use it, you'll need the Unity web player (easy to download), a printer and Quicktime.  I'm excited about it, but I'm also dead tired and ready to pass out.  If you decide to play it, have fun!

The Doorway Technique for Problem Solving and Stress Reduction

I just submitted the following article to SelfGrowth.com, one of the oldest and most comprehensive sites dedicated to self-improvement. Two weeks ago they published my blog post, "Treasure Is Everywhere." The Doorway Technique is a problem solving and stress reduction method I developed four or five years ago. At first I thought I'd sell it as an eBook, but then decided to share it for free. It works well as a complement to my Magic Number Technique. Anyway, here's the article. I hope you enjoy it:

"The Doorway Technique, based on the idea that obstacles can be seen as doorways if viewed in the right way, is a simple and powerful stress-reduction, emotional-release and problem-solving tool. After a particularly stressful day at work a few years ago, I sat on my bed and did cathartic writing to release some pent up emotions. I can’t remember what problem I was trying to overcome, but I know that I wasn’t satisfied with the “catharsis.” I felt that I had only taken the process so far; the unresolved predicament would still be there tomorrow, and I would have to face the stress all over again. Within a few minutes, I developed a more comprehensive process, cobbled together from various self-help techniques I had experimented with and read about over the years.  

I tested it right away and not only felt relief from the worry; I also came up with a list of actions to resolve the problem and performed them the next day. Like a reframing process, I viewed the problem from a different angle that shifted it to a series of benefits or opportunities, thus sapping it of its negative power and allowing me to see clearly some of the solutions. I was also compelled to take action immediately to resolve it. I was amazed, but also a little skeptical about the effectiveness of the technique, thinking that maybe this particular problem had been small and easy to resolve all along (forgetting just how insurmountable it had seemed earlier that day). For the next two months or so, I continued using the technique and continued having good results, to the point where I realized that I was no longer waking up dreading each day.  

Unfortunately, as I’ve done with other successful techniques throughout my life, I was distracted by the hecticness of my life into forgetting to use the technique regularly. And then I forgot about it altogether--until a financial problem years later brought it back to my attention. I’d been learning about the Law of Attraction and The Secret, and had read a lot of criticism about how they didn’t seem to work for some people. Supporters of the LoA suggested that erroneous subconscious beliefs were the problem. The beliefs needed to be changed or cleared away by emotional release methods like EFT. That got me thinking about cathartic writing, and then I remembered my then-unnamed Doorway Technique. I decided to use it on my financial problem.  

The process took about an hour and a half, and in that time I went from being stuck, anxious and fatalistic to being motivated, active and optimistic. I even had revelations about a “poverty consciousness” that had been holding me back all my life, with its spiderweb of emotions, beliefs and behaviors permeating just about everything I did. The emotional release steps were especially revealing. I had no idea how much anger about my “poverty” had been walled up inside me, until it poured out of me in a deluge.  

In a nutshell, this is how the Technique works: You write about the problem in several ways. First you describe the problem in clear, truthful, objective terms (that is, without being emotional about it). This is followed by an emotional, subjective response to the problem, writing all that you feel about the problem and the people involved, including yourself. Here you hold nothing back. Once you feel that you have released everything and don’t need to unload anymore (you feel calm instead of upset), you symbolically purge both the problem and your emotional “rantings” by tearing the pages to shreds and throwing them in the trash. That’s often where cathartic writing ends, but this technique goes on to transform the problem into a source of treasure and wisdom leading ultimately to resolution. The final steps take the process full circle and resolve or diminish the problem through action.  

Here are the seven steps:  

1. Objectively and unemotionally describe the problem.  

2. Write down your emotional response to the problem, releasing your anger, fear, grief, sadness, guilt, etc., until you feel that you have unloaded everything.  

3. Symbolically “release” the problem and your emotions regarding it by tearing up the pages and throwing them away.  

4. Look at the problem as a source of treasure and wisdom, and list all of the good aspects of the problem.  

5. Describe subjectively and objectively, in the present tense, what your situation is like with the problem fully resolved.  

6. List all of the actions you can think of that can help resolve or ease the problem. 7. Circle the actions you can take right away (or at least the next day), and then go ahead and take those actions.  

As you can see, understanding and reframing the problem, releasing pent up emotions, and overcoming stuckness are all written into the Technique.  

Now I will expand on each step a little bit: In step one, it’s important that you describe the problem as factually as possible, as if you’re an unbiased witness to someone else having the problem. This can help you see who or what was responsible for it as well as understand its full scope and nature. From this vantage point, you may see that the problem isn’t really a problem at all, but a challenge or a temporary setback. Or else you might discover that the problem is a symptom of a deeper problem. This goes a long way toward helping you discover its solution.  

The only thing I need to mention about step two is that you don’t censor what comes out of you onto the paper. You’re going to destroy the paper anyway, so swear, despair, weep and rant to your heart’s content. The more you write, the closer you get to your true emotions. The closer you get to your true emotions, the more will come up.  

For step three, it’s good to tear the pages into tiny pieces so that no one else can read or glean what you’ve written. I also recommend that you tear up the page with your step one writings as well, because you’re symbolically getting rid of the problem. Your aren’t ignoring it, because the next four steps are all about transforming the problem into something positive.  

Step four is probably the hardest, because we’ve been trained to see problems as “failures” or “disasters” instead of opportunities for growth. One of the first things I write down about a problem is that it forced me to realize that something was wrong, like an alarm bell. An alarm may be loud, scary and annoying, but it can save your life. I’m often surprised by the nuggets of treasure that arise from my problems. I’ll use my aforementioned “poverty consciousness” as an example. All in all, I came up with a list of twenty-one positive aspects to the problem (many more than I expected), but I’ll only mention five of them here:  

1. Being poor forced me to be resourceful and creative  

2. It helped me cut back on unhealthy luxuries, like drinking pop and eating desserts 3. It forced me to face my fears and my inner demons  

4. It made me appreciative of even the smallest things  

5. It coaxed me into reviving the Doorway Technique  

You can see how such a list of gifts can deflate both the problem and your stress.  Reduce your stress, and it’s easier for you to come up with solutions and take action.  

In step five I mentioned both subjective and objective description of your situation without the problem, because positive emotion can reinforce the reprogramming of your subconscious mind, and objective description makes it more real in your imagination.  

Step six is pretty self-explanatory. In my example, I wrote down both tough and easy actions, about fourteen of them. At the time I’d been putting off doing my taxes (a tough action), even though I had a possible refund coming. So I wrote that down. I also listed, “Give money to charity” (an easy action), realizing that wealth isn’t about hoarding money, but about receiving and giving it with a sense of the natural flow of abundance.  

In the final step, circle all of the actions that you can take right away, including both easy and tough ones. If the tough ones are too tough, it’s good to at least start small to get you moving in a positive direction. Once you’re moving, it’s easier to tackle the harder tasks. In my case, I found it suddenly easy to make a few phone calls to banks and an insurance company that I’d been putting off, and also to do my taxes.  

If you decide to try out the Doorway Technique, I hope you have great success with it. Of course, I hope you have great success regardless of whether or not you use the technique!"

A Major Overhaul

Screenshot from "The Valentine Room" eCard

In line with my "Treasure Is Everywhere" post below is what's been happening with me the last few days.  About two weeks ago I made some major decisions about my business and finally made the business and my products public for the first time.  As I mentioned before, that was one of the hardest things I ever did in my life, a journey that I sabotaged repeatedly.  As I got closer to the day of my "grand opening," I got more and more nervous, until a little "voice" in my head told me that by opening my business, I would get my next set of instructions and ideas about what to do next.  At the time I was drawing a blank about my next steps.  Even though I had stretched myself very thin financially to get to this point (I quit my job over a year ago to dedicate myself to the development of my business), I knew that I had to go ahead with this.  So I did.

I waited a few days for the "promised" ideas and resources to flow to me, but I was too busy tweaking my Website, interactives, marketing, etc..  I was too busy to even celebrate this milestone in my life.  Then about three days ago,  a series of little ideas came to me that yesterday congealed into one big idea, and it involved doing a major overhaul on my Website.  Until then I was somewhat vague about the theme for the Website and my business in general, mostly because I have so many interests, and the products I have so far (self-help materials and an interactive game) don't seem related to each other. It turned out that my "Treasure Is Everywhere" post had been telegraphing the theme to me all the while.  I knocked myself in the forehead and said, "Duh!"  Well, I did that in my imagination, anyway.

I'm going to be candid about my business mistakes here, and open up about my new business direction.  It seems to me that most people would hold these cards close to their chest, for fear of giving away "trade secrets," or whatever they might be:

The theme I decided upon is finding treasure, hunting for treasure, in puzzles and games, in ourselves, in others, in life, in the real world.  When that came to me, I also saw the Website itself turning into a kind of treasure-hunting online "amusement park."  As it now sits in cyberspace, the seemingly themeless Website greets people with my products on the first page.  Having been a salesperson and director in an art gallery for nine years, I recognized that as being similar to walking into a store and having a salesperson jump out at you and say, "Here!  Buy this thing!"  My reaction and the reaction of most people would be to turn around and walk out.

I realized that what I really want is for people to feel at home in my Website, to relax there and have fun.  Then I can spring my products on them, ha ha!  (Because, of course, I have to eat.)  From the point of that realization on, I saw exactly where to take the Website.  How I'm going to do that is something I will keep secret, until my second Grand Opening, which I'll announce in this blog and elsewhere.  

In other words, there's going to be a front end and a back end to the store.  The front end is going to be a fun, interesting place to be, while the back end is where people can purchase more fun, interesting and informative things to take home with them.  When you go to the store now, you'll still see the old store.  I started the construction of the new store yesterday, and it should be up soon!

So anyway, it seems that once again my "Treasure Is Everywhere" slogan  and blog post are correct:  You really will find treasure anywhere, especially along the path of following your dreams.  You just have to go out (or go within) and look for it.  Of course, I don't know if what I've discovered about my business in the past few days really is treasure, but it sure feels like it for now.  I'll keep you posted on how it all turns out.  Until I post again, take care!

Ken Vandre

The Enchanted Kiosk

Treasure Is Everywhere

Ever since I was a kid, I've always been intrigued by the idea of hidden treasure.  I don't know if I was stranger than other kids (I suspect I was), but I used to daydream quite a bit about secret passageways in our house.  In my imagination I would discover (or even construct) the secret passageways and show them to other kids.  Hidden within our walls was a network of roller-coaster-like tracks, and I could ride around on them in a cart to any part of the house I chose.  In our basement was a secret door to an elevator that led down to a chamber housing my own personal flying saucer (because of course I was an alien disguised as a human).

I think this is the first time I revealed these daydreams to anyone.  As an adult, I looked back at them and saw something more there than just idle fantasy.  I have the feeling that I was really thinking about my own self, my own mind.  The house symbolized my psyche.  Most of my life I struggled to "make it," to fulfill my life's purpose, if only I could figure out what it was.  But I kept tripping over my own feet.  I kept comparing myself to others and falling short.  I was afraid to show people anything I created, for fear of being criticized or laughed at.  The daydreams were my own way of telling me that there was more to me than met the eye (more to me than even I was aware of).  There were "hidden passageways" in my own mind that I hadn't yet accessed.  In more recent years I had recurring dreams about UFO's and aliens gradually getting closer to me, and interpreted that to mean there were "alien" (untapped) parts of myself I was becoming familiar with for the first time.

My life experience has proved that to be true.  Starting a business, getting my products online, and writing a blog like this are completely alien to my past self, and it still feels strange to be doing it.  

I'm sure that this is true of almost everyone as we grow older.  We all start out fairly ignorant of our own capabilities, then are startled to discover who we really are.  The feeling of liberation is short-lived.  We soon find ourselves living on what feels like an alien planet, because in a sense we really have never been here before.  You could say we define where we live as a set of experiences.  If those experiences are familiar, we feel at home.  Add some new experiences to the mix, and it's not home anymore.

What does this all have to do with "Treasure is everywhere?"  Well, I have to digress a little bit before coming back to this question:  

I recently adopted "treasure is everywhere" as my business slogan, mostly because it just popped into my head, and I liked the sound of it.  But then I had to ask myself:  "Is it true?"  It's obvious that "treasure" can't really be found on a bloody battlefield, in the death of a child, in depression, in pollution, in disease.  But, I reminded myself, afterwards people get together to create charity, prevention, activist and crisis organizations;  they learn lessons that prevent recurrences of the bad event;  they teach others how to prevent it;  they invent new devices, new ways of doing things, because of the bad events.  If I looked at it that way, I could say that good can come out of bad things.  It just doesn't make the bad things good....

I also turned to my own life and saw some instances of bad-events-leading-to-good:  

When I went through my darkest times, mostly when I was a teenager and young adult, I sometimes felt like I was losing my mind.  I dropped out of college four times because of depression.  It could have derailed my life, since I was also partying quite a bit at the time, but instead it forced me to search for a positive way out.  That led me on a cross-country bike trip that had the effect of shaking me out of my self-destructive pattern, and I never fell back into a depression that deep ever again.  Because I was able to survive forty-five days riding a bicycle through mountains and desert, roughing it all the way, I was introduced to a resilient part of myself I had never seen before.  From that point on I was able to pull myself together enough to graduate from college.  The depression could have been my undoing, but instead I saw it as a warning alarm that told me to wake up to what I was doing wrong.  (I should mention that the depression I had was psychological, not physical or due to chemical imbalance.)

That's only one example out of many.  I realized that there were quite a few "bad" experiences in my life that yielded positive nuggets of learning experience or led to revelations, new resources, better pathways.

I'm also finding the "treasure is everywhere" statement to be true in regard to developing my business.  The fact is that I have no idea if what I'm doing is right, no idea if I'm headed in the right direction with my products.  My business plans usually don't turn out the way I want them to.  I've run into many obstacles and problems that stopped me in my tracks, like accidentally trashing some cache files that gutted one of my online interactive projects and then compounding the disaster by backing up the gutted files without realizing anything was wrong.  In each case I was forced to use the "seat of my pants" approach to get beyond the obstacle.  That's where ideas would "intuitively" pop into my head, and I would follow them as "trail markers" leading to other useful ideas.  Before I knew it, that became my approach for developing the whole business.  I would pretty much feel my way along, often having no idea where I was headed until I got there.  It's a lot like The Secret Treasure Path, the puzzle game on my Website, where you reach the treasure by uncovering Puzzle Words and following cues and clues as they are revealed to you.  In fact, that's how both the game and The Magic Number Technique (my self-help eBook) were born--by following intuitive leads.  It's a scary, "alien" way to go, especially after living a life of safe familiarity.  But somehow it seems to be working.

A good example of this "intuitive," treasure-finding way of doing things occurred a year ago, when I was creating an interactive online greeting card similar to an eCard.  I'd already worked on it for four months and felt that I was getting nowhere with it.  I was having trouble keeping myself in front of the computer for longer than an hour.  As soon as I'd delve into the greeting card, I'd get very tired and bored.  My mind would wander.  I'd start watching YouTube videos and visiting forums.  The old self-sabotage demon was raising its ugly head, and I was at a loss what to do about it.  Then a simple thought came unbidden into my brain:  I was stuck, because I didn't believe the business was real.  I didn't have my business license and tax ID number yet, much less my products fully developed.  If I went out tomorrow and took the scary steps of getting my license, even before I had the products ready, I would somehow find myself getting unstuck.  I knew that to be true, but I didn't know how I knew it.  I had to take it on faith.  The more I thought about it, the more excited I got.

The next day I did some quick online research about where to go and what steps to take.  I also made a few phone calls, surprised to discover that there wasn't much to the process.  In fact, I got the whole thing done in about three hours.  I came home with my business license and tax ID in hand, not quite believing I'd done it.  For some reason I'd always thought that'd be the hardest step, but it was incredibly easy.  That night I had dinner with friends to celebrate.  The next day, I woke up and immediately brainstormed about the product I was working on.  It was clear to me that I had taken it in the wrong direction, which explained some of my inertia.  

About an hour into the brainstorming process, I came up with the idea that changed everything:  I could place a "hidden treasure path" inside the greeting card leading to a treasure.  The greeting card would be free to send and access, but you'd have to pay to convert the greeting card into a treasure hunt game.  The idea excited me so much that I jumped up and practically ran to my computer.  I was no longer stuck, and haven't been stuck since, even though I scrapped the greeting card idea, only because there were already too many flaws in it before I started applying the "hidden treasure path" makeover.  

There seems to be a "metaphysical" aspect to this story that still has me raising my eyebrows, and it has to do with a Panda Express fortune cookie.  (In fact, this is one of several "metaphysical" events in the past year that tie in with Panda Express fortune cookies, and I mention one of them in my eBook.)  The day after having this brainstorm, I went to Panda Express to have lunch.  I opened my fortune cookie and gasped, attracting the attention of some diners around me.  The fortune read, "Hidden treasures are found where you least expect them."  I keep it next to my computer to this day, along with several others that say things like, "You are an adventurer on the highway of life," "Life isn't a struggle;  it's a wiggle," and "Your current plans are going to succeed."

This example is only one of many hidden treasure discoveries I've experienced recently.  Since then, I've changed the "hidden treasure path" to the "Secret Treasure Path."  There's a small one in my eBook, The Magic Number Technique, leading to the password for the interactive Web Player Book version, and there's another one hidden in the Web Player Book that leads to the password for the game.  It's not quite the same as the idea I had for the greeting card, but it was definitely inspired by it.

Now I'll go back to the question about comparing "treasure is everywhere" with discovering "alien" parts of ourselves.  The simple answer is that the "alien" parts of ourselves are really the treasure that we're trying to discover.  It's a little like the quote from the New Testament about lighting a candle and not hiding it under a basket (bushel).  As we wander through life on our quest and run into obstacles and challenges, we need to learn new ways of breaking through, and that invariably means discovering new parts of ourselves and revealing them to the world, so to speak.  There might be a material treasure involved, but that can't be gained and fully realized without the treasure of insight into our true selves.

Thanks again for joining me as I spill my brains (that didn't sound very good;  I can't think of the right expression...).  I hope you enjoyed it.  Have a great day!

Ken Vandre

The Enchanted Kiosk

The Enchanted Kiosk Officially Launched

It's been a few long years since I first got The Enchanted Kiosk website online and let it just sit there in cyberspace so that I could experiment with it, with the intention of one day turning it into an interactive game (or interactive something) site.  Well, last week that day finally arrived.  I finished getting my online store in place, redesigning the Website, completing and putting my first products on the virtual shelves, and making my first two sales.  Everything, including the sales, went smoothly, too, after years of struggle to get to this point.  In the past I felt like I was the poster child (man) for self-saboteurs, but I proved to myself that I could overcome it, even if it took a long time.  We are, as they say, our own worst enemy, but we can also be our best friend.

My first product release is directly related to overcoming self-sabotage.  In fact, I used it during the last year to hurdle over the last fear-obstacles standing in my way, to get to the finish line of having my business up and running.  It's a three-products-in-one interactive called The Magic Number Technique. The first aspect is a downloadable eBook introducing a self-help method for improving productivity and overcoming procrastination that I developed fifteen years ago and then practically forgot about.  When I quit my job to focus on developing the business, I ran into my biggest obstacle:  me.  My focus was scattered;  my passion dissipated;  I procrastinated;  I got tired too easily.  After floundering like that for a while, I remembered the Magic Number Technique and decided to revive it, to see if it could jump-start me again.  I was very pleasantly surprised.  The improvements were immediate.  I overcame my inertia and became more productive than I could ever remember being before.  Not only did I get a lot more done than usual;  I actually finished my projects and got them to market.  Finishing worthwhile personal projects had usually been beyond me in the past.  The Website, the eBook, the interactive Web Player Book version of the eBook, The Secret Treasure Path puzzle/exploration game that's bundled with this product, and several intricate paper sculpture castles--all completed within the last few months--were the result of using the Technique.  (I should mention that I started using the Technique on an interactive game project before realizing that I could share the Technique with other people.  That's when I had the idea for the eBook and Web Player Book.  You could say that I used the Technique to write about and demonstrate the Technique.)

            Screenshot from "The Secret Treasure Path"

There's a very long story (twenty years long) behind The Enchanted Kiosk and the first products I put in its online store.  It's one that would be good for me tell--not because of my ego (though I don't deny I have one), but because it contains a few lessons about patience, persistence, facing fears, and following the path that each one of us is meant to take.  I came from a place of great fear and insecurity, self-sabotage and self-doubt, and made it through the rocky terrain of my life to this point without keeling over, though I came close a few times. 

I won't tell the story now, but as time goes on I'll reveal bits and pieces of it.  It's also an ongoing story, because I and my business are a work in progress.  I'm a little bit like my own experiment, and I'm curious and nervous about how it turns out.  Right now I'm testing the "follow your bliss" advice given to us by all self-help gurus.  Does it really pan out?  They say things like, "Do what you love, and the money will follow."  Recently I happened to see an Oprah show, where all of her guests were entrepreneurs who followed their dreams and became very successful and fulfilled.  At the end of the show, someone brought up the saying, "Do what you love, and the money will follow."  All of them, including Oprah, smiled, nodded in agreement, and said that was absolutely true.  Well, I guess I'm about to find out (gulp).

That's all for now.  I just ate a little while ago, and it's making me sleepy.  If you have a chance, please visit my Website.  Thank you for your time, and have a great day!

Ken Vandre