When people ask me about the power of Twitter, I often tell a story how Gary Vaynerchuck saved my life on Twitter.

Funniest thing is that I have told it to so many people that now I sometimes get the “I have heard it from someone else, but didn’t know it was about you”.

Gary didn’t know it when it happened, nor I have never really had guts to tell him that how his tweet “saved my life”.
But Gary – let this be a Happy New Year to you and my public thanks to you, and my support to everything that you do. You are changing and saving lives man!

In June 2008 I got very sick, I got pulmonary embolism, I had 13 blood clots, and was hospitalized.

I wrote a few updates from the hospital bed, but I had a 48 hour period of time that I (nor the doctors) were sure that I was going to make it. I was not able to talk much, not walk, not even eat myself, and I needed help breathing.

I was told that the sooner I can breathe on my own and be without the oxygen mask, the better changes of surviving I had.
The sooner I was able to walk again, the better changes of surviving I had.

I reached out to Twitter for friends and support.

One of the Tweets I read from my hospital bed was from @Garyvee and went something like this “These two songs get me really pumped right now: American Boy by Estelle and Let’s Ride by The Game”.

“Heck, if they get Gary all pumped up, maybe they will get me all pumped up too” I thought and I downloaded both of them.

And I took away the oxygen mask and stood up and jammed on the music.

Well, sort of, I was able to stand like a half of a song at the time, but I just took a break, caught up with my breathing, and stood up and tried jamming on the music again, and again, and again.
And again.

No, I wasn’t really able to dance, nor it was an instant miracle, but the day after I was able to talk more, and even walk a little bit.
A few days later I was able to go home.

Did the jamming and music save my life, or Twitter, or Gary..? I don’t know.

But what I know is that I got support not just from my family, but from my community on Twitter and that support got me going. These two songs became my theme songs for getting “pumped up” and for getting better. They are still in my iPhone, and I still listen to them.

I would never be here where I am today without being inspired by amazing success stories like Gary’s, nor without my online community and friends and their support. Or without the power of Twitter. I truly believe that even if they together didn’t save my life, they changed it forever.

Thank you.

I am so excited about the Diane Birch’s CD launch this week!

More about Diane and her new CD later, now I just wanted to quicly post and invite you to Tuesday’s Twitter Girls Nite Out, #GNO party. You will get a chance to chat with Diane Birch and Steve Greenberg (founder and CEO of S-Curve Records and former president of Columbia Records). RSVP and make sure to follow everyone else coming to the party at Mom It Forward.

Are you in New York and want to learn more about blogging and how to leverage Twitter?

Blogging and being on Twitter has changed my life, and I will be sharing many insider tricks and info and would love you to come!
I am teaching two classes together with Katie Hellmuth of Collective-E and FashionMista.

How to Kick Start Your Blog on 03/03/2009 at 6:30pm

Topics covered:
- Free tools you can start using right now to make sharing information easier.
- Why building quality relationships with other bloggers is so important.
- How to host a Giveaway to generate reader participation, from finding the right product to promoting it.
- Attracting quality links to your blog to help its SEO.
- An overview of SEO (search engine optimization) to make sure you fill the hot spots in your blog posts with juicy keyword phrases for Google.
- Spotlight on your blog (or future blog) for a 5 minute strategy session.

Tweetworking: Networking on Twitter on 03/24/2009 at 6:30pm

Topics Covered:
- Dos and Don’ts of Twitter.
- How to find and connect with more people who want to help you.
- Why honesty matters in Twitter.
- If you don’t “get it”, we’ll get you there.
- What really is social media? We’ll discuss how social media is not about advertising, but about connecting and building relationships with people.
- Case studies of what worked and didn’t work on Twitter.
- Goal and strategy developing among the class participants.

Learn more about all Collective-E classes and sign up at Collective-E.

On the first day of Tweetmas, my followers gave to me…
a DM and a retweet.

…

And it just gets better and better.. Get the whole song at The Problem is Men, thanks for making my day Charles, this is awesome!!

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