Who am I and what am I doing here?
My name is Ralph Marston and I live in Austin, Texas. For more than 27 years, I’ve written and published a brief positive message online every day called The Daily Motivator. It started just as something I wanted to do and not as a way to make money. But the response to it was so positive it eventually became a full-time career with a full-time income.
I first started writing the messages because I had an interest in and an appreciation for the power of personal development. I had personally benefitted from listening to tapes of motivational speakers such as Jim Rohn, Les Brown, Denis Waitley, and Tony Robbins, and I had a desire to share the positive energy they instilled in me. In the mid 1990s, before Google, before YouTube, way before FaceBook or Instagram, I realized that the web would be a good way to do that. So I just started writing.
At first I was somewhat removed from the writing. It was more of a conceptual exercise. But as I did it more and more, day after day, it began to embed itself in me. Without any express intention to do so, I started practicing what I was preaching. Over time, that took my experience of life to a whole new level. That, in turn, improved the quality and effectiveness of my writing and my ability to resonate with readers. Over and over, I would get almost exactly the same feedback from people: “Today you wrote exactly what I needed to hear about what’s going on in my life.”
Long before social media, even though I did almost no promotion, people began to find me online, almost exclusively through word of mouth. I eventually had thousands of paid subscribers, published numerous books, audio programs, and other products. My trajectory went full circle when the people who originally inspired me started contacting me. One day Les Brown reached out to me, and I ended up doing a good bit of work for him. A few years later I got a call from Tony Robbins, who flew me to Orlando to walk across burning coals. I also had the honor of meeting Jim Rohn and Denis Waitley and hearing them speak.
Through it all, I kept my focus on producing one helpful message each and every Monday through Saturday and making it available to the world online. Since July of 1996, I have not missed one single publication day. That’s more than 8,000 unique messages by this point.
Now, more than 27 years later, I am excited about the opportunity that Substack provides me. I will continue to write The Daily Motivator, with a new message published every Monday through Saturday. And I’m adding to that at least 2-3 longer articles each week, a good bit more autobiographical, probably a lot more philosophical and introspective. They will be broadly centered around the theme of living a good and meaningful life.
I mentioned that my writing has had a deep and positive impact on my own life. I’m profoundly thankful for the existence and experience that is my life, and have a desire to share the positive values that have made that possible. I have been a reader of various Substacks for a couple of years now, and I’ve come to appreciate the level of respect and support that Substack has for readers, for writers, for exceptional content, and for the connections that create vibrant communities. I feel it is the perfect environment for me to expand on the work I’ve been doing and to forge robust connections with those of you who value it.
The Daily Motivator messages will always be available on this Substack every Monday through Saturday at 7:00 am central time to paid and free subscribers alike. If you wish to support my work with a paid subscription, you’ll also get access to all the longer articles I post.
Thank you for your interest and support. I appreciate and look forward to your feedback.
Ralph Marston
Stay up-to-date
You won’t have to worry about missing anything. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox.
Join the crew
Be part of a community of people who share your interests.
To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
