Friends & Family,

I’m very pleased to be writing you this Christmas Update. As I type, I’m in Hurricane Utah with my family, a great place to be around Christmas time.  It’s been good to be with them. We’ve been playing Rock Band. My sister Mindy received it with some other gifts for attending the Ellen Show during her 12 Days of Giveaways. I’ve also enjoyed spending some time playing with my nephew and niece, my sister Melissa’s kids. I’m not used to being around kids all day, so it’s a bit of an adjustment and I’ve realized that I have some feelings to work through, but I’ve been grateful to realize it. After a long day with them I turned on the TV to a talk by Gerald Lund about parenting…go figure, Heavenly Father’s watchin’ out for me and knows what I need.

As far as how things are going with me, here’s the skinny…

Capitalistic Creature

Last year in mid December I was let go from my job at 10x Marketing/Innuity with most of my coworkers (over 20 of us total), one even returned from vacation in Hawaii to no job. Though we all had reason to fester bitterness I am grateful to say that we all landed on our feet and for most of us, in better situations. I had been talking with several friends about starting our own internet marketing company and the layoff gave me the perfect window to jump in with both feet. So, with an old friend Boyd I started working to form a new company. I had actually hired him at 10x a while back, he had left after a month to pursue internet coaching job and we hadn’t talked for some time.

In February we got our first client, brought on Seth, Boyd’s brother who graduated from the U with an MBA, we chose a name with some of your help and officially incorporated as ioVentures, Inc. We’ve had a great ride for our first year, by  year’s end we will have bought on 5 other “Moonwalkers” & “Mission Directors” to help with our growing biz. Our position titles have a space mission theme since “io” is a moon of Jupiter. We had up to 8 clients at one time. We dropped 2 because they weren’t profitable, one bailed due to cashflow issues and something else happened, drawing a blank, but now we have 4 plus two internal projects that we’re working on that have great potential to sustain us if we were to loose all of our clients.

People ask me a lot what I do and most don’t understand what internet marketing is, so here’s what we do: We get links to our clients sites, change up a few things on their sites and by thus doing we get them ranked well in the search engines, this brings them more visitors and ultimately more buyers. We’re good at what we do and we charge keenly for it. To see some of our results visit our seo case studies page.

We wrapped up our first year in business with a trip to Disneyland for all full time employees. It was a great trip. I took my sister Mindy as my date and the others took their wives. All I have to say is, BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!!!

My Education

Aside from working in a field that I love, I attempted to go back to school. I loved my classes and felt a very strong passion to learn. I still have a subconscious avoidance going on with homework though. Class time, attention to the meaning of the subject and tests would do me well…or so I thought, until I took Chemistry 1210. This was the first Chem class I’ve taken since I had a great drooling high school teacher that impersonated dead Elvis and blew up the lab several years before I had him. Classes were good, but I crashed and burned this semester. It’s time to do a little reconnaissance mission to pick up my downed confidence and try again.

I love school so much, I love to learn and hear how the world works and to consider new ideas…there’s just something with Ryan and things that I’m told to do….if I choose it on my own I typically go far, when I feel nagged, shoved or forced to do something…it may never be completed. Something I’m working on.

I plan to chill out for a while, establish some good patterns of staying focused and on task and then give school another shot in the near future. Also, knowing me and how I like to think so deeply about things and present quality work, I will not be so ambitious or impatient to take a full load, but rather take it slowly so I can give full attention to the classes that I do take. I am hereby declaring that I refuse to buy into the mentality of “just getting it done.” If I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it right. I’m not afraid of taking it slow. My pace needn’t mimic what others have done or even expect of me.

The Social  Scene

I spent this year single and pondering the meaning of life ;o). Briefly, I’ll tell you that Emily, the girl that I dated for 8 months, and I broke up in mid March of this year. It was a beautiful relationship that benefited me beyond belief! We still talk and I even took a little trip to visit her in Wisconsin. As usual, those who wish to know about the love life can email for details, cuz I consider that pretty personal and private stuff.

About that same time that we broke up I realized how much of a social animal I am and again got involved in my ward’s social activities. You may have seen the latest masterpiece that came from those social interactions. If not, jump on over to YouTube to see me woo the lovely Ashlee with a heart warming rendition of When You Say Nothing At All .

Though I’m not looking to get married via an online dating service, I HAVE found much fun in joining facebook , an online social networking site and in starting a couple groups. One group stems from a recent desire of wanting to read all the conference talks in between sessions of LDS General Conference, the group is called Walk the Talk . The other group comes from a calling in my ward. I’m helping with our stake’s effort to make sure that we all have Clean Hands to go to the temple.

I’ve ended this year finally engaging in some service which has helped me look outside of myself to the needs that others have. I look forward to continuing doing service in some form or another throughout the next year.

Muscle & Mind

I’ve started to play racketball each week with some kids in my ward and also have been rock climbing with some other friends a couple times, love both activities! I started to train for another marathon with my roommate, but have gotten out of the habit, plan on staring it up again.

As many of you know I’ll be turning 30 this year for the first time in my life and for all interested, I’m planning on jumping from a plane on or near that day to celebrate the coolness of life :o). I’m excited and look forward to jumping with other crazy friends.

Speaking of crazy, I was “diagnosed” this year with A.D.D. and I’ve tossed and turned on what it means to me. I’ve felt the relief of being understood. I’ve felt the limiting power of beliefs. I’ve researched my situation and feel at this time that although I was given a prescription I will use behavioral methods to keep me focused now that I know a little better what I’m working with. I’ve been to counseling for much of this year for this and several other matters and feel that I’m growing and understanding myself better all the time. Daily structure is something that I really need and has been very helpful for me to keep focused on my goals.

My Testimony

I’ve felt so empty handed this year and have spent no time shopping for presents. I have however taken much time to think about what Christmas means to me. Christmas time is a time for me to see the Love of God. It’s in that love that I see who I am. I am not Ryan that dropped out of school, or ADD Ryan. I’m not any label the world or even that I would put on myself. I am the divine being that the Son of God came to Earth to save from his own worst self. I am light and I am truth and because of THE Light and THE Truth I am able to shine brighter and live up to all that I’m meant to be. The exciting thing to me is that we’re all divine and though we often feed ourselves loads of negative self talk I know that we’re worthy of love…no matter WHAT we’ve done. I know that we all have a Father in Heaven that cares for us and wants us to live each day with a smile because he’s given us his Son so we can live again with our families after death. He’s given his Son so that we can live happily WHILE on Earth.

I love my family and it is my testimony that a prophet like Moses lives today and reveals God’s loving will to me so that I can live with peace in my heart towards them and all men. I love my Savior and know that he leads to Church to which I belong, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I am honored and indeed humbled by the great trust that I’ve received at the hands of men with authority, even the trust of God’s mighty priesthood. On my own I fall short, but in Christ I stand tall.

I am thankful for repentance that isn’t something to dread, but rather like dropping a backpack full of dead weight. I am grateful for the Book of Mormon. It saved my life and brought me to love my family before my mission and is again saving me from the natural man, or rather from anger, hatred, depravity and baseness. I love the calm I feel from studying its teachings.

I am grateful for my life and I want each of you to know that you’ve been a blessing to me and in my journey in this life. Thank you all for your kindnesses, for your examples, for your encouagements, and for the opportunities that I’ve had to serve and know each of you!!

I love you and pray for you all the best Christmas that you’ve ever had!

Sincerely,

Ryan Mendenhall