High Converting Copy Secrets Revealed: Create Irresistible Copy

http://ping.fm/xhv6E

How To Attract Customers Through Their Inbox

Through your email magazine/newsletter . . .
That's How!!
http://ping.fm/JJXTQ

Top 10 Reasons to Have an Ezine

Top 10 Reasons to Have an Ezine and Establish yourself as a trusted expert. 

People search online for information and will look to you, as a subject matter expert, to provide it to them. Every week (or whatever schedule works) provides an opportunity to build on this, while reinforcing your brand.


1.  Build a relationship with the people on your list. 


It's common knowledge that people like to buy from people they like. By using ezines to connect with readers in their homes, you can develop a relationship of familiarity and trust. Be sure to share a little about yourself or your company in every issue, whether it is an anecdote, event, or employee spotlight. 


2. Keep in touch with prospects and clients. 


Consideration should be given to eventually developing two ezines: one for prospects and one for clients, as each require different information. This is a great way to notify your readers of weekly specials or upcoming product launches, offer new articles or customer stories, and provide links (or urls) to updated FAQs, blogs and splash pages. 


3. Drive traffic to your website or blog.


As noted in #3, remember to call attention to new blog posts or other changes to your website with links directly to those pages. Remind readers of your online newsletter archives. Promote special sales (maybe with discount coupon codes only for subscribers) with a link to the sales page. Use links to turn your ezines and newsletters into 'silent salespersons'– driving traffic to your website and building your lists around the clock. 


4. Build content on your website. 


Make a habit to adding your ezines and newsletters to your website in an archive area. This serves a several important purposes: 

•  Visitors can read an issue or two to determine if your ezine will be of interest to them, which could help to increase sign-ups and potential sales. 
•  If you optimize your article placements, you will not only make your website 'meatier', but you'll also bring new traffic from the search engines. 

5.  Get feedback from your readers. 


Make it easy for you to stay in touch with prospects and customers and vice versa. Ask them to take action and comment on your articles and offers. Conduct polls and surveys. Start a 'Letters to the Editor' column in your ezine. Feedback allows you to fine tune your messages, target your marketing, and expand your product line. It's also great for relationship building! 


6.  Develop an information product.


If you deliver your newsletter once a week and include two articles, at the end of a year you'll have 104 well-researched articles in your portfolio! Pick the best-of-the-best and turn them into a bonus ebook for opting-in to your list, submit to download sites to build your list, or sell in PDF-format! 


7.  Grow your mailing list. 


Let your ezine subscribers work for you. Be sure to remind your readers that it's okay to forward your newsletter to anyone they'd like. In addition, it's important to include sign-up instructions for those who received your ezine from viral marketing methods. A simple line titled, 'Get Your Own Copy of XXXXXX', with a link to your squeeze or opt-in page is all it takes!


8.  Gather demographic data. 


By offering surveys, feedback forms, and niche reports, you'll be able to get valuable information about your prospects and customers. Learn what makes your readers tick, how to better serve them, and how to give them what they want. Make sure they become repeat customers! 


9.  Save money! 


All of the above benefits of publishing an ezine are free or almost free. The small cost of a top-rated ezine publishing system is nothing compared to the cost of brochures, business cards, advertising, direct mail, pay-per-click or other means of promotion. 


Not only that, but someone has to manage that production! 


Because your newsletter is delivered online, you can grow your list to be as large as you want without worrying about the expense. 


Bottom line − it's proven that email marketing is the most cost-effective marketing solution for companies just like yours!

Yours in Marketing for Success

Randine

Watch this article marketing webinar then get out there!

Introversion is at the Heart of Creative and Innovative Thought

At the Heart of Truly Creative and Innovative Thought is Introversion. 


 I recently watched Susan Cain on Ted Talks speak on The Power Of Introversion.

http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts.html

This topic caught my eye immediately because I am an introvert. 


I am able to put myself out there and am a teacher but not one who enjoys being the center of attention. 


I plan my lessons and the units of learning in ways that demand more student exploration and sharing with their peers what they are learning and how they are applying that knowledge. I guess in a way I am allowing for both introversion and extroversion to flourish in my classroom. 


 The push in school is for collaborative learning and exploration and individual evaluation. 


However, I always allow for and welcome individual to work on their own if that is what they are most comfortable with because my number one mission is to make everyone feel valuable and accepted for who they are. If true learning which includes challenging prejudices and questioning can occur, there needs to be a safe environment created. 


 I work very hard to encourage everyone to share their own ideas in whatever way they are comfortable because some of the most brilliant work I have seen came from students who spent most of their time in their own heads. People in the 21st Century spend way too much time plugged in. 


As a teacher, I want to encourage and model the power of plugging into our own imaginations and sharing our ideas because every great innovation came from what was perceived as a wild and crazy idea at the start. Through brainstorming and experimentation, those zany ideas have revolutionized our world time and time again. 


Collaborative learning is most productive after students have had time to work with the new idea or concept for a while on their own. Our brains have a process they need to go through when new information is introduced that cannot be followed if there is too much outside stimulation. 


 My greatest fear with the extreme focus on collaboration in schools and the workplace is that those quietly brilliant ideas that the greatest thinkers of human history had put forth will not longer be heard because the noise from the extroverts will silence or merely overpower them. 


I shudder to think of what our world would be like if Socrates, Plato, Galileo, Einstein, Buddha, Edison, Bell, Zuckerberg, Gandhi, Picasso, Van Gogh, and so many others would have been forced to collaborate and were never allowed to be inside their own heads. 

Had introversion been as shunned as it is at present, 

I likely would not be writing on this blog 

because a solitary activity like this would not be acceptable

and likely would not be invented. 

So in defense of introverts everywhere, myself included . . .


I ask everyone to listen to Susan Cain, 
hear what she is saying, 
and implement her calls to action for a positive change to our world. 


If we don't and introverted tendencies continue to be seen as deviant, we will no longer be able to approach the problems our world faces and will face in years to come with the creativity they demand.


http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts.html


Randine

What Do You Do When Your 26 Weeks of EI Are Up?

The great land of Canada has Employment Insurance to help you along but what happens when it runs out?




Over the weekend, I was logging on to the Service Canada site to report my earnings for EI and I got a message saying they did not have a record on an active claim for me.  


 What? I do not have a claim?


  I called them today because yesterday was a holiday and learned that my 26 weeks which I was eligible for ended on January 28th so I received my last payment last Tuesday.  

  I am in a scary situation folks and I have to do something fast. 


  My day job is a teacher but, with declining enrolment and teachers hanging on to their jobs longer, I am struggling by working supply (substitute teaching).  

  The number of days I get to teach vary widely from week to week and I never know what is ahead.  

For example, last week I worked 2. 47 days and this week I don't have a single day pre-booked. I may get calls the morning of or I may not.  


Without EI topping me up to $800 every two weeks, my financial sitatuation is terrifying.  I have three children, rent, food, etc and need to make x amount each month. With EI, I have just been scraping by  . . . so without . . . stress. 


In order to survive, I need to supply teach at least 3 days a week and I have only worked that many times a week a few times this school year.  




What am I going to do? 

I am going to market like mad, that's what!!

 I am going to work my ass of writing so I can get killer content out there. 


I am going to write those books so I can generate an income from them.  




I could get another job but I would have to work a hell of a lot more to make what I do in just 2 days of teaching a week and then would end up having to say no to work which would mean I would not get a long term gig or a permanent position in a field I enjoy and actually pays me to get inspiration for my writing. 




So I turn to this wonderful Empower Network blog and spill my guts out on this page. 




I have been living in poverty my entire life. 




I realized over that last few years that fact. 




I also realized that I have allowed myself to live in poverty because I didn't believe I deserved better.  




 I was holding myself back from reaching my full potential and attaining the life that I so want to have. 






My personal vision of myself and my future has always been simple  . . . 




but I never really stopped to ask why I thought my life would always be a struggle; 




why I didn't see myself financially free; 




why I lived in a one room cabin when I saw myself old.  




I have been doing a lot of soul searching lately and listening to the great entrepreneurs talk about how they got where they are.  And every success story I hear about and read about began with belief: believing that they deserved to have financial freedom . . . that success in business was not code for ruthless and greedy. I have come to realize my own prejudices were holding me back. My belief that being financially free and comfortable could only be attained if you were selfish and greedy. 

Boy was I wrong!

See for yourself . . . How to Build YOUR Personal Brand . . . 

As I follow my path to my own success I surround myself with other like minded successful people, even great people.

 These "gurus" and leaders in their fields are just regular human beings who love, face challenges, and work hard. 

Through my involvement in the Empower Network and network marketing I have been exposed to some wonderful, warm, hilarious, and caring people. 

Read this . . . The power of community

The leaders in this industry that I have rallied around are there because they helped others and worked as a team so that everyone succeeded with them.  


I had always looked at sales and marketing as a solitary venture that was cut throat competitive because of what I learned from my mother's experiences in retail sales and real estate. 

I recoiled at the thought of sales and marketing jobs 

 . . . because I am not a selfish cut throat, aggressive person so I didn't think I was going to be good at it.  I have come to learn, thanks to the wonderful community here at the Empower Network, that no one succeeds alone.  

The most successful in any industry got there by working with other like minded and driven people who supported each other, picked them up when they were down, and celebrated each success along the way. 

Is is an honour and a privilege to be part of such an amazing community of positive, caring, powerful people here at the Empower Network. 




Each person here at the EN is changing the world of business and revolutionizing how marketing and business leadership is viewed.  




I am proof that the Empower Network is powerful.  




I now see that I have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur with badass marketing skills because I have the compassion, drive, and positive energy required to be just like those leaders I so admire.  


 
                   





You can get in on this revolution too!! 

Take a look at this and let's DO THIS :)

Yours in marketing for success

Randine

To read more of my stuff click here.

Randine's Empower Network Blog

http://ping.fm/HoAPg

learn what viral sustainability is and how to create it in network marketing,

What is Viral Sustainability In Marketing?

To learn  what viral sustainability is and how to create it in network marketing,
Check this video out:
How to Create Viral Sustainability So You Can Work Less and Make More

In a nutshell, viral sustainability is what happens when you write content or create a video and then share it with as many people in as many places as possible.

This video shows you some of the many ways how you can do this.

Some of the up and coming greats are squidoo and pinterest. So get on them and make them part of your link building regimen.

Changes in Language Lead to Big Changes in Behaviour

Success in a Home Business Demands A Perspective Shift That Places Emphasis on the Business Not the Home

   Andrew Cass said it best at last year's No Excuses Summit, when he said   

"Changes in language lead to big changes in behaviour."

Andrew Cass is a well-respected and seasoned Network and Internet marketer who has made 7-figures several times over. He is definitely worth listening to and not just heard. 

click image to watch. We all know there is a difference between hearing and listening, right? Listening requires all our faculties and demands that we internalize, synthesize and apply what we are hearing.    I want you to really listen to what Andrew has to say in the presentation above.   Andrew asked that we alter our language by first turning everything we say we will or want to do into active I statements. Rather than saying it would be nice if . . . or one day I want . . . , we need to be saying "I will . . . " "I will  . . ." statements are powerful and demand action and commitment that other statements just do not. The most powerful understanding that I will take away from this experience is an understanding that most of us who decide to start a business from home fail to realize.  

More than we are now our own boss, we are our own employee.

Working from home has some great advantages. We can go to work in our pjs, skip the shower, make up and personal grooming, and choose our own hours. We can snack and take breaks when the mood strikes and have the freedom to work around our responsibilities in the home. But we need to remember that we are still operating a business and we need to hold ourselves accountable for our productivity just as we were held accountable out in the physical world of work.    We should actually hold ourselves more accountable because as home business owners and operators . . .  

we are our only source of revenue producing activities. 

  Thinking of myself as my employee who needs to be accountable was the single most revolutionary perspective shift I have had to wrap my head around since I made the decision to work for myself.    Here are the Creeds that I internalized - and I hope you will to - during and after listening to him speak at last year's No Excuses Summit:   

I will . . .

work within my "Productivity Strength Zones."

  Andrew introduced me to the phrase "productivity strength zones" but I already knew that he was referring to the importance, in terms of revenue producing and success, of doing what you enjoy and are good at.   

If you are great at direct sales either in person or on the telephone, focus your efforts on those revenue producing activities. 

  If you are someone who has a talent and skill with the written word, focus your revenue producing activities on blogging, copy writing, email writing and sending, info content writing, and so on. 

 In order to maximize your revenue production, you must focus your time and energy on using your natural strengths. 

I Will . . .

break from the time management myth.

 

We all have the same number of hours in the day. We cannot manage time we can only manage ourselves in time.

The difference between me and the most successful out there is how we use the time we have. 

Andrew broke down the hours we have in a week and demonstrated how

just focusing 2 extra hours a day on our highest revenue producing activities (those that will make us the most money) can elevate our productivity level to superior. 

 

And we still have 5 extra hours for free time or personal activities and 8 hours of sleep!

 

I will . . .

devote 2 hours to my highest revenue producing activities each day to go from average to superior. 

 

I will . . .

not check or respond to email, text or phone messages until my revenue producing activities are completed first.

    Seems like a no brainer, I realize, but think about it and answer honestly:  when you start your day, do you focus on your revenue producing activities first?   

I know that I start out with great intentions and then get sidetracked with searches, or go into email to get a link and end up spending an hour checking messages. 

 

It is tempting to do all of that social media surfing before and during your revenue producing activities when you are at home and no one is watching. You forget that you are accountable to your self and any one else who depends on your success. 

  This creed forces us to remember that we are our employee and must focus on business before pleasure . . . even when we are the only one looking.   

I will . . . 

track or record my revenue producing activities in a journal.

 

This too speaks to the fact that we are employees of our own business and need to behave as such. 

Get a day planner from the dollar store or wherever or make one on your computer outlook or on your phone. Whatever method you prefer but just make sure it is a method that you will use daily. Treat it like punching a time clock or recording your hours for a client. This is how you will be able to keep track of what revenue producing activities you utilized, evaluate them, and assess your value as an employee of your company.   

If at the end of the week, you would fire yourself, you need reevaluate and make adjustment to how you use your time. 

To best monitor your use of time in order to see where you can make adjustments, record every activity you engage in during your day and how long they took. Record this daily and at the end of each week, you can assess your value as an employee.        This leads me to my next creed. If I have managed my time well and did my revenue producing activities first each day . . .  

I will . . .

reward myself for hitting my benchmarks for the week. 

 

Rewarding yourself for a job well done at the end of each successful week will not only increase your productivity but make you happier and healthier. 

I will . . .

 have a regular fitness regimen. 

  It is easy as an individual running a business from home to fall into the sloth trap. We don't have to look presentable to the public and we are often sitting for hours on end alone staring at a computer screen.   

 

We are not managing our time well enough to schedule in exercise so we let it slide because we tell ourselves that we are focusing on the revenue producing activities. And there just isn't time. 

 

But Andrew showed us that we can increase our revenue producing activities by 2 hours each day and still have 5 hours to spare. So we have time we just don't make time. 

As the sole owner and employee of our business, we need to stay healthy and strong. Our survival depends upon it.

  Even just 30 minutes a day or two or three times a week will do wonders. For some fantastic High Intensity Interval Training that requires nothing more than your own body weight and dumbells, check this out.   

To watch a short video on HIIT, click link or image above.  

 

The best source for workouts that I have found is 

IntervalTraining.net

You will find mp3s that are designed to fit the interval workouts so you don't have to keep track of time.  There are many different workouts so you will never  get bored.   

HIIT is the best form of exercise because you will never plateau, your body is always being pushed to its maximum and you will continue to benefit from the metabolism boosting and muscle strengthening for up to 72 hours after!!

  I found this after hours of searching for something that fit my lifestyle and lack of budget. I wanted something that would force me to work to my max, not take hours to get the results, be challenging yet simple to execute, and not require a ton of space or equipment. This type of training can be adapted to whatever you already enjoy doing as you saw from the YouTube video.  Give it a shot. You won't be disappointed. I honestly felt my muscles twitching and working for 24 hours :)

I will . . .

have a clutter-free environment.

  I think that is self-explanatory. A cluttered space is a cluttered mind. 

I will . . .

batch my personal activities. 

  This goes back to managing your us of time. Schedule your personal errands and activities so that they happen in a dedicated time slot. If they break up your day they will make it hard to stay focused on your revenue producing activities. 

If you are like me, you need time to get into the right mindset and groove before you can actually engage in those productivity strengths that produce revenue for you and your business.

If you have personal errands like picking up the kids, doing landry, cooking meals, cleaning, housework, car care, hair cuts, and appointments scattered throughout your work day and work week, you will not be able to stay focused on those vital revenue producing activities. 

  Do as many of those personal activities as possible at the same time so that they eat up a couple hours and you are able to plan mentally and physically for them and your time back building your business.       Along with this . . .  

I will . . . 

schedule distractions.

 

I will . . .

create self-imposed deadlines.

  You are your employee so treat yourself like one. Giving yourself deadlines allows you to reward yourself for a job well done and gives you goals to focus on that will help motivate you.  

I will . . . 

 associate with winners.

 

 In order to be a winner you need to surround yourself with winners.

  Surrounding yourself with people who are successful does so many things for you.  First and foremost, it will inspire you and they will teach you things about what it takes to get to the top that you would never learn on your own.  Second, positive energy creates positive energy. In order to do positive things with your life and move in a positive direction you need to be positive and surround yourself with others who are positive and moving in a positive direction.  Being around positive people will help your business and help you personally grow into the successful person you know you can be.  

I will . . .

associate with winners.

  This last creed compliments the one before it.

If you want to be a winner you have to hang with the winners. Learn who they are, what they are doing and how they are doing it. 

Listen to Andrew Cass and other successful entrepreneurs, read their stories, find them online, this will improve your business exponentially because you will learn how to be like them personally and professionally just by being present. 

    In turn, others will come to associate you with the winners and your value will increase as a result. 

 

So I encourage. . .

 no . .  admonish. . .  you to watch Andrew Cass

speak at the No Excuses Summit,

do what he asks,

and apply it to your life and business. 

What have you got to lose?  

Those bad habits?

Sounds like a win win to me. 

To your success and mine, 

Randine. 

To learn how to make 100% commission click here. 

 

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No More Excuses

No More Excuses

As I stand at the sink washing what seems like my millionth soiled glass . . .

I hear myself urging my daughter to follow her dreams and not to let anything or anyone tell her she can't, and it feels hollow somehow.

I fade into myself and all the dreams I have had in my life that were put on a shelf because I listened to someone's discouragements. I recall my dream of singing for a living and my need to express my deepest emotions through song. What stopped me?

The answer comes to me (as it did back then) as I recall the night I sat in my car in the parking lot, staring at the door to the studio I was to audition to sing lead for an established local band. Fear of failing, I started the ignition an drove slowly away. The knowledge that I would be standing naked, defenceless and raw before a band of strangers who could totally reject me was too much to bare.

At the time,

I felt that allowing myself to be that vulnerable was worse than living with the knowledge that I gave up before I began. I never fully returned to that dream. My heart just wasn't in it enough to do all the hard work it would take to get where I want.

My thoughts fast forward twelve years.

     My marriage is falling apart because I can't deal with the pain, loneliness, and unhealthiness of my environment. I see several advertisements for auditions for modelling and acting agencies.

The first cattle call is held at The Docks in Toronto and I quickly discover  that it is actually a feeder audition - a front - for pornographic film productions. The call me and ask if I would be interested in doing films which will make me $1500 a piece. I decline the offer, regardless of how lucrative and in-obtrusive they made it seem. It is just something I am not interested in doing so I cross that off the list.

The next was for a management agency for film and commercials. The agency was IN Group. They seem somewhat legit so I pay for head shots and  get the full make up and photo shoot experience. My heart wasn't really in this either so I didn't wow them. My gut kept telling me this was not all that it seemed. After the shoot was complete and I met with them to pick up my head shots, I learned that there were more fees and then they would take a commission on top. They were an agency who makes their real income from their clients who pay hundreds of dollars to have them represent them and not in the film or advertisements.

So I go home and cross another hopeful off the list.

The next was a modelling agency.


As I sit in the lobby reading their propaganda and listening to the other hopefuls speak with the "agents" (I use that term loosely), I quickly realize that this was just a fly-by-night scam agency.

They were just there to make money from the dreams of many.

They told a little girl (and her mother) that she had potential but needed modelling training which would cost thousands of dollars and a portfolio which would cost hundreds of dollars . . . and then there was the agency fees and on and on but always with the promise of stardom.

Reeling from the dollar signs, I left that place.

I later learned from someone in the film industry that the real agencies don't charge you to get involved but will take a commission (referral fee) when you work. They make their money keeping you busy.

I was informed of a local agency who just asked for a headshot, short bio including height, weight, hair color, eye color and birth date and an enclosed self-addressed stamped envelope for them to send your info back to you if will not represent you.

I sent in my info and received it back in a few weeks. I was impressed by their integrity and professionalism but not surprise in the least. I expected as much because modelling and acting were really not dreams of mine.

It was not the path for me.

I was still avoiding my real dream. . . the one I have had since I was young. . .

My thoughts drift to another dream . . .


. . . a more true to me kind of dream. The dream of being a published writer. I have been writing stories and poems from the time I learned the magical power of taking a writing implement and forming letters and words on a page.

Writing with a pen and paper is meta-cognitive. The words and story flow from my subconsciousness through my arm to my hand and onto the page in a mystical and almost spiritual way. Like my reader, I don't know the story until it takes shape on the page, much of the time.

In my youth, I called these sudden impulsive bursts that I have to write down - because they eat at me and take over all my thought processes until I do - brainwaves.

These brainwaves come to my attention as a phrase or even just an image accompanied by anxious energy. It is that sense of urgency that compels - no forces - me to write it down. I learned over the years, that if I fight the urge and do not put pen to paper while that feeling is strong, it will fade and eventually disappear along with the words. There is no writing that piece later. The thought is lost and so is the story.

     In my teen years and young adult life, I wrote prolifically. The brainwaves flow also during times of trouble. I even made a personal oath that when I began to write professionally I would use the first name my mother wanted for me as my pen name.

That's exactly what they were:  brainwaves. They still happen but for many years, I stopped putting a pen and pad by my bed and in easy reach . . .

I had stopped writing.

Much of the last thirteen years of my life have been filled with raising children, returning to school and struggling to make inroads into an incredibly stable career. A career that would, I thought, allow me the freedom to return to my writing.

At every decade year, my reflections remind me of this longing . . .

. . . longing to write something substantial and be able to say "I am a writer" when asked what I do and for it to be true and not just a hobby I do in my spare time.

Fast forward to the present.

I have been struggling to make it in the teaching profession


doing whatever I can to earn that coveted holy grail


called a permanent teaching position for four years now


and from what I know it could be five more years


before anything opens up.

In a deep funk and faced with disappointments, 

I began doing personal inventory . . . looking at my dreams and personal ambitions. 

I have done this so many times in my life but this time it was different. 

I was approaching it differently. 

I have cast this dream aside for too long. 

Every path I take in life brings me back to it . . . everything.

and my love of it. I decided to seriously pursuit writing and see where it will take me. 

Deciding that writing professionally was something I can do and will do turned on a switch 

inside me.  The ideas are flowing and I have set a goal to write at least one book and send it

 out to publishers by the years end. I have decided to stop doubting myself and follow my 

heart and trust that everything else will fall into place. 

Believing in my own success is hard for me.

Believing I deserve success and what that brings is even harder. 

I am my toughest critic and have expected so little of myself all my life. I realized that I have 

been punishing myself for never seeing anything through so heavily that it has prevented me 

from completing things and giving anything a real solid committed effort. It's that self-

fulfilling prophecy working against me instead of for me that I needed to change. 

I am making those mental changes and setting goals that are attainable but challenging 

enough to push me forward. 

I have the time to write and have nothing to lose.

I am at the lowest I want to be.

I am again feeling the desire to write and make it my life and career. . . 

 . . . only this time I have made the mental switch and changed this dream from a wish to a want . . .

I search the net for opportunities to give this writing professionally dream a fair and diligent 

shot. I know that the novel is at least a year away from completion. Hell! It hasn't even 

progressed beyond the research and incubation stage.


I have so many ideas.


Narrowing in and focusing on just one thing has never been a skill of mine.

I look at the life I have and what I am unable to provide for myself or my three children and know I have to make a change and fast.

I decide to work on my writing and see where it can take me.


I began blogging daily here in the Empower Network


(where I also am provided with a great venue to promote my own writing, learn about effective marketing, and earn 100% commission while I am at it . . . it's a Win Win)


and elsewhere because practice makes better.


I also created a website where I publish some of my writings and share in my journey to becoming a published writer.


I know that writing is what I need to do to feel complete and accomplished. Writing is what I was born to do. I love it and need to do it.


Writing is one dream that won't let me go.


It tugs at me and pulls me to opportunities that I have ignored so often. Well, not anymore.


I have nothing to lose because I am near bottom and refuse to go any lower. I have been at my bottom and will fight with everything in me to keep from going there again.


So now I have made the necessary mental shift: no more using my children, economic situation or pragmatism as excuses. I no longer fear failing because not doing is failure: 

failure to be true to myself; failure to show my children that they need to follow their dreams and stay true to themselves not matter what.

And so . . .


I begin my journey full of ideas and excitement. I can hardly wait to announce:

 

"I finished my writing first book."

Completing things has always been a challenge for me.

It took until my late 30s to finish my undergraduate degree and teaching certificate. The pride I felt when I received those pieces of paper telling me that I actually finished something I started was so exhilarating. I long to feel it again.


Stay tuned while I share my journey with you.


My children are my motivation and my inspiration. 

The deserve a better life and so do I. 

I want to teach them to never give up on their dreams. 

I had to learn it the hard way.


Randine