by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground Magazine

Have you ever been told that you can’t do something? Have you ever been told that you aren’t successful enough? Have you ever been told that you won’t succeed?

How do you respond? Do you respond with defeat? Do you believe them? Do you get angry? Do you strike back?

The world is full of naysayers and negativists, just looking to bring others down. Not because what they say has any merit – but because those people feel that they will somehow lift themselves up by the act of tearing another down.

What’s even more interesting is that those naysayers are the first to come knocking when they smell success. If – in spite of their predictions – you become a rip roaring success, they are the first to try and get a piece of the action. People can be priceless that way.

It is only when we refuse to listen to those people and when we stop worrying about approval from others that we can forge our own path of success in this lifetime.

Take our wonderful magazine – Paranormal Underground. We’ve had people tell us that we would never be able to accomplish what we have accomplished thus far. We’ve had people tell us that we shouldn’t expect growth, nor should we try to grow. Just today, we had someone who originally came to us and asked to be a part of what we did tell us that we weren’t “big” enough for him – but that as soon as we were “big” enough – he’d be back around. I’m guessing that ship has sailed, but I suppose that a boy can dream.

Fortunately, Cheryl, Chad and I have never really listened to what people tell us we can and can’t do. It’s a darn good thing, because if we had, we wouldn’t be pursuing our purpose and passion in life. Paranormal Underground is that passion and purpose. And we’re mighty proud of it. Here’s what we’ve accomplished with virtually no money – only through purpose, passion and creativity.

Our membership database has grown since we launched the new site in April of 2009. At that time, we had about 450 members. Now only six months later, we have almost 1100 members. That’s over 100% growth in six months. Our monthly magazine is now available in print. We have more than 3600 readers for each issue of our magazine in just 16 months. We started podcasting in February. Since then, we have more than 3200 subscribers to our podcast on iTunes, plus an additional 400 listens per podcast, which means that in eight months, we’ve added 3600 individual listens to each podcast. Our daily blog gets a couple hundred hits each day. I’d say we’re growing just fine, and we will continue to grow. It’s a good thing we haven’t listened to the naysayers.

This is not just our accomplishment. The three of us would not have been able to do it without each and every person who has participated in Paranormal Underground in some way. From our forum members to our monthly readers and listeners, to our amazing writers, to the wonderful experts, paracelebs and investigators who have participated in our passion, we have been exceptionally blessed. Each and every one of you has contributed to our growth and success – and will continue to contribute as we grow and expand.

Cheryl and I were just discussing this. A year ago, we certainly didn’t know we’d be here. A year from now – who knows where we’ll be? But as long as we remain focused on our passion, as long as we don’t worry about the critics, and as long as we have such a tremendous base of readers, listeners and participants, there is no limit to where we can go and what we can accomplish.