Okay, so what do I say about MythoSpheres Development? Or about myself?

The verbose version follows, but if you prefer the shorter, more business-like version (in bold orange), simply skip to the bottom of this page by clicking here.

Okay, first item, my first name is Richard and my last name is Farley, and I am in the habit of referring to myself as 'Richard D. Farley' (my middle name is David), but I don't do it to sound formal. I just started it back when I was a kid.

This is an old picture of me. I will try to update this with something more recent… uh, sometime.

Although my emphasis here on this site will be on internet marketing, I am certainly not an internet marketing guru. I have had some modest success at it from time to time.

So you may be wondering why do I call my company MythoSpheres Development? (If not, feel free to skip this part.)

I've had an almost life-long interest in writing, or more specifically, storytelling, and over the years that interest has led to a growing fascination with the concepts of story and mythology in general.

In recent years I've gradually come to realize that everyone is a story teller, in one sense or another. This is true even of the writers and scribes of many of the world's religious traditions. They made ample use of the telling of stories.

And I gradually added to that realization an understanding that the quality of my life, or really, the quality of all our lives I think, has very much to do with the stories and mythologies we weave around ourselves and those we care about.

I am gradually coming to believe, collectively and individually, it is who we imagine we are and are becoming, and what we imagine we are capable of, that ultimately determine our destinies. (Not entirely, of course, but perhaps to a greater degree than many of us generally acknowledge.)

Add to all this an opportunity several years ago to write for a software company about, of all things, mythology, and, well, you see where this is going, don't you?

Although I never finished that series of articles due to that company selling out to another owner, I had nevertheless come up with a title for the series of articles, "Music of the MythoSpheres."

This was, of course, a play on the Pythagorean concept of the music of the spheres. So when I felt that I needed a new name for my old company, the name MythoSpheres Development seemed appropriate.

So there you have it, MythoSpheres Development.

And the 'Development' part means story development, software development, website development, business development, and personal development, all of which I am involved in to one extent or another.

Okay, at some point in a write up like this, I'm supposed to tell you why you should do business with me. So let's start with this: you may have noticed a lot of internet marketers have a little bit of a reputation. They'll try to sell you just about anything to get your money.

Now making lots of money is fine. I'm all for it, but I'm a creative sort. I'm a thinker, writer, graphic artist and sometime coder at heart. I'd probably be doing that exclusive of marketing except that I prefer to intuit and invest my energies in my own projects (as opposed to the more usual route of just being a hired hand). When you have your own products and services to sell, you simply have to do the marketing too. And you have to get good at it.

So to sum up, I'll no doubt try to sell you on this or that tool, training or strategy if you stick around very long, but I have a whole lot less incentive to lie to you or spin everything the way a lot of other marketers do.

I'm just not like that. I'm a pretty honest guy, sometimes to my detriment, but that's just how it is. And no, I don't necessarily expect you to just take my word for it. If you sign up to my list, you'll see how I operate and you can decide for yourself.

So that's a reason why you might want to consider doing business with me.

So sign up now and don't worry. I hate spam, and I won't spam you.

As a matter of fact, you may not hear from me all that often. As of now my policy is to contact you only when I feel I have something truly compelling to tell you about, which certainly isn't daily, often not weekly and sometimes not even monthly.

In other words, while I can't speak for other marketers, you certainly won't get inundated with daily promotions from me, and if that policy changes, I'll give you fair warning.

Another reason you should consider doing business with me is that most of my success with internet marketing has come less as a result of hard selling than, in a sense, practically predicting a lot of what has come to pass in the last 10 years or so.

It would seem I was one of the few who saw it coming before many others did.

Back around 1998, for example, before social media became all the rage, while doing some computer tutoring and consulting, I started (though have never finished) developing what was intended to be a social media application (primarily for writers and researchers).

Unfortunately, some health and personal problems got in the way. The project never really got off the ground. Some version of that application may be released someday, though the original intent, i.e., the social media aspect of it, is admittedly pointless now.

Another example — back in 1996, I published an article on my website that, if you read it — although it will depend somewhat on how familiar you are with the concept of affiliate marketing — you will see predicted a whole lot of what has transpired since.

I'm tempted to apologize for taking so many words back then to say what might sound like a lot of hyperbole, but if you like, you can read it here just as it was originally published (mistakes, bad formatting and all) back in 1996:

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Did you read it? Wow. And this, too? Wow. You're quite the reader, aren't you? And I really overdid it with all that hype, didn't I?

Or did I?

Given that at the time affiliate marketing was next to nothing, and today it is a multi-billion dollar industry, I guess not so much. It is in fact arguable that much of what I said then is even more true today.

I didn't bring any of this up to brag by the way. So once upon a time I had a little vision. Big deal. If anything, it's a little humiliating.

Although I saw it coming, I didn't do nearly enough about it. (But that's a whole 'nuther story, involving some unpleasantness that I won't get into right now.)

No, I bring it up because it says something else about me that you might want to think about when you are evaluating whether or not you might want to seriously consider my advice, or whether or not there might be any advantage in doing business with me.

But that's not the end of the story. I was actually a bit of a visionary even before this. (Okay, I'm a little uncomfortable with the word 'visionary' — but I don't know what else to call it; ever notice how hard it is to talk about your strengths or talents without sounding thoroughly full of yourself? Anyway…) I was an advocate for hypertext, knowledge-based expert systems back in the 1980's, before the world wide web took the world by storm.

Frank, do you remember?

And way back in 1979, I bought my first personal computer (at Radio Shack) and told a very skeptical friend of mine at the time that within 10 years nearly everyone would be using them, at work, at home, whatever.

You should have heard it. I look back now and realize I said it with such enthused conviction I must've sounded like a nut.

And back around 1976 or so, when I was about 18 years old, I told my father he should invest in a brand new company called Genentech, a company that had just developed, through genetic engineering, a microbe for manufacturing human insulin.

I'd read about it in Science News magazine and just had the feeling it was going to be big. (You might not know this, but a $5,000 investment in Genentech back around 1977 would be worth many millions of dollars today.)

Unfortunately, my father did not invest, and I wasn't a stock market whiz kid.

Ah well, I'm no doubt a far better person than I ever would've been if that kind of wealth had come so easily.

So, back on topic: I guess lots of folks around have similar stories, and have had similar insights, and — well, I guess most of them are very rich today.

Wait. Really?

Well, it's certainly the case of Bill Gates, and some others, but the point is, I've always taken in a lot of information and have creative and critical thoughts about that information sometimes.

If any of this sounds like I'm blowing my own horn, hey, cut me some slack and let me ponder about what might've been if I'd understood what to do about those insights back then.

It's not like I'm coming across as arrogant about it, is it?

I hope not.

Anyway, none of the above constitutes a resume or curriculum vitae or biography. None of it clues you in as to all my various jobs, challenges, triumphs and tragedies. Maybe I'll get around to posting something about this or that success or failure at some point, if and when that seems necessary or appropriate.

The point is I have a bit of a track record of occasionally seeing things that are coming a little before a lot of others do (sometimes even when I don't realize that's what I'm doing). Sometimes that can be profitable.

Of course all of the above is yesteryear. Today is what is most important. And tomorrow. Everything else is just prologue. There's no guarantee I'll ever have "the vision thing" again, but maybe I will, and maybe, just maybe, while I'm helping myself, I'll be able to help you too.

If you're on my list.

You see, that's kinda my mission statement. Okay, not exactly. I haven't worked that all out yet. But it's something to do with helping others grow even as I grow, and helping others maximize their potentials even as I strive to maximize my own.

It has to do with publishing, and software development, and website development, and personal development, and marketing, and educating and entertaining and inspiring. In short, being as helpful to people as I know how to be.

So… if any of that sounds like something you think you might want to be a part of, sign up now and secure your place in it.

Okay. That's about it. Oh, except for a few last words that, perhaps, sound ever so slightly more business-like:

MythoSpheres Development (formally known as, IdeaTech Creative Technologies) has been on the "net" for more than 25 years.* The enterprise administers, programs and publishes information, content, and design for various web sites with an emphasis on education, entertainment, health, and personal and business development.

While, by choice, it has often been a one- (or a very few)-person operation, there have been friends and associates along the way, a few of whom can still be called upon for assistance for special projects or when deadlines get tight. MythoSpheres Development, in a former incarnation, has published entertainment and software products in the past, and its principals hope to bring more products to market in the future. Though as of October 2009, this particular site represents a new side of the business and the content is only beginning, we hope you enjoy your stay! Our ultimate mission is to help you grow with us and maximize your personal and business potential in every way imaginable.

* Technically, the online experience began with the old locally owned bulletin board systems (BBS), and the commercial experience, before the world wide web came into existence, selling and distributing AutoCAD shareware software utilities through CompuServe.