When there’s yin, there’s yang. When there’s black, there’s white. When there’s low Clubhouse numbers, there’s…a book deal!

Back in the fall, Jessica Swift was approached by Tonia, an Acquisitions Manager at North Light Craft Books (they published Kelly Rae Roberts!), asking if she’d be interested in writing a book for them. She responded, “Why yes, yes I would. Also, I have already kinda wrote one with my friend Michelle. Here it is, in case it interests you.” (Ain’t she sweet?!)

To back it up, a few months prior, we got an email sent to us straight from our Contact page, asking if we’d wanna make The Declaration of You into “a book-book”. After a round of “Duh please!”, that publisher (different from this one) pitched us to her boss. We’re not sure exactly what he said, but it prompted her to give us this feedback:

“My publisher felt you might want to consider approaching young adult houses. I’m not sure if that fits with your goals, but for what it’s worth, that’s an idea.” Read the rest of this entry »

Ever Tried Ever Failed Print by limeyts

If you watched my I Quit My Day Job: 22 Month Update on Monday, then you know I wasn’t my usual chipper self. I know, I know, it’s hard to believe – but above and beyond the boob cancer, I was disappointed in the recent launch of my Clubhouse. It was something I was working on in the back on my brain for months, and real actively for 8-ish weeks. Everyone I told about it reacted super favorably, and would offer tons of encouragement and kudos. I told my Mom and my husband, “I think I’m going to make a lot of money this month – my Clubhouse is opening up and I think the members will be pouring in!” I even asked my Virtual Wizard if she’d want more hours, as I’d love to hire her more often since I’m gonna get a nice foundation with The Clubhouse Money. Let’s say I was Law of Attraction-ing it up, but in a I-really-believed-it way. I was sure. I was confident. I was On To Something.

I wanted to launch it on my birthday, but that fell on a Saturday and I thought I “shouldn’t” do it then. I thought of opening the clubhouse doors the day before, but Friday was the “wrong” day, too. And Monday was a national holiday, so nobody would be paying attention then…(right?) So Tuesday the 17th it would be! I wrote the newsletter and scheduled it for 7a Eastern that day, and scheduled the blog post to go up a few hours prior. I let in The Sneak Peek People the week before, using them to make sure the welcoming process was smooth (which I could not have come close to doing without the help of my Virtual Wizard, Arwyn!), to see if anything was broken and/or confusing, and to give some life to the private Facebook group before the first “official” person came in on Tuesday at 7:01a Eastern (I presumed). 18 people were already there, and I felt confident that at least another 20 would join them that day.

The first “official” Clubhouse member came in at 1:16p Eastern. I told myself, “Everyone had a busy morning back at work…the sign-ups will be pouring in now!” Read the rest of this entry »

You Proved Us All Wrong – Congratulations Card from Colette Paperie

At the Golden Globes, Jean Dujardin (did you see him in The Artist? You must, you must!) said that when he was first starting out, an agent told him he’d never work in movies because his face was too expressive. When he accepted his award, he said, “Thank you for giving me the chance to prove him wrong.”

Who will you prove wrong?

————- Read the rest of this entry »

It’s about that time…I’m just 2 months shy from my 2 year entrepreneuriversary, and I’m not in a great mood about it. Here’s why I’m feeling like I have a bad case of the poopy pants (hint: it begins with an “l” and ends with an “-aunch”).

———–

Geez Louise Louise, I can’t believe I waited ’til the very last day to tell you guys about the new round of How to Build a Blog You Truly Love, a butt-and-blog-kicking e-course headed by the amazeballs Liv Lane. In 6 weeks, you’ll get advice/wisdom/tidbits from 20 contributors like SARK, Christine Kane, Jess Swift, Kelly Rae Roberts, Amanda Oaks, Aimee Dolich, Alexandra Franzen and lil’ ole me.

Cutting to the chase: 6 weeks. A 300 page PDF of the class content. A personalized blogging blueprint. Your blog’s purpose. A community of other creative (wannabe) bloggers. Audio. Video. Exercises. Essentially: crazy-good stuff.

So if you have a lil’ baby blogging seed in the back of your mind that you’ve been scared to act on, or if you have a living-breathing blog that’s collecting some interweb dust, or if you wanna take your active blog and give it a shot in wherever your computer’s arm is….then click here to check out How to Build a Blog You Truly Love.

(Links here are affiliate links, but seriously, have you known me to partake in something or hooplah something up just to have it be a big stinkball? No. No, you haven’t. I promise all sorts of goodness here and with everything else I give my time/effort/attention to. Pinky swear promise. That’s the serious kind.) Read the rest of this entry »

Mr. Chicken Gets a Day Job (15A) by Mr. Chicken

Yup. I’m scared to write this post. Not because I don’t believe in what I’m saying, but because I know that the recession is real and has affected millions across the country and around the world. This post, and the series that will follow, are not in any way, shape, or form meant to negate that. Hell, a family member of mine recently saw his company go from one that employed over a hundred to one of twelve once a corporate acquisition took place. I know the struggles, the challenges, the stress, and the trauma that comes with losing your job or not being able to find one for weeks/months/years at a time. I have absolute empathy for those that can no longer take care of their family, or need government assistance, or lose their homes. I’m not ignoring the sobering statistic that more than 13 million (!!!) people are still unemployed and more than half of them have been out of work for more than six months. I absolutely, positively do not mean to make light of that. That’s not why I’m here, putting this controversial title out into the world and waiting for possible tomatoes to be thrown at my blog for the first time in the 3 years I’ve been blogging.

Why The Recession is Bullhonkey, then? Honestly, I hear of someone leaving their job or getting a new one at least once a week, whether it’s my current/former clients, friends, family members, friends of family members, old co-workers – you name it, I’ve heard it. Often. I just had to bring that to light to negate this Great Big Excuse that you’re stuck where you’re at because “I’ll never get another job” or “I’d be crazy to give up a sure thing.”  Yes, you can (dare I say “will”?!) get another job. No, you wouldn’t be crazy to give up “a sure thing” (or is it?). It’s time to shed a light on people who are getting laid off – and find a new place to land within a few days/weeks. It’s time to spotlight the people who left their “sure thing” to start their own thing – and are making it work. It’s not only time to out them, but to hear their stories, learn how they did it, and get ideas/inspiration to do the same.

First, the facts, taken from this Today/MSNBC post from earlier this week: Read the rest of this entry »

It’s really, really odd to have boob cancer as your muse…but here’s another tune with Lucille and a very special guest – my husband, Luke! He’s a champ and a half times infinity:

Y’all have been so sweet with your continued good thoughts and juju and gifts and cards and donations and “how are ya?”s. As a quick update, I’m not sure yet exactly when my treatment will start, but it’ll definitely consist of 4 rounds of chemo (one every 3 weeks) and 6 weeks of radiation. Yes, it’s not gonna be fun, but it really is honestly The Best of the Worst, and I might even get to keep my hair! Promise to let ya know more as soon as my plan’s in place and I have a definitive timeline. ‘Til then, I’ll keep writin’ and strummin’!

—–

OK, OK, this is kind of a promotional-based question, but I can’t help it. My Clubhouse is open today and I couldn’t wait ’til tomorrow to give ya the goods!

I’ve been cooking up The Clubhouse for months, even when I didn’t know what it was. It’s The Answer to how I can give you personal attention and do my work as a coach (it is what I do best, after all) and be more hands-off (boob cancer treatment awaits!) and offer it all starting at $27 a month. Of course, I just had to write a song about it to tell ya more:

Read the rest of this entry »

Tomorrow is my 34th birthday. Presents! and a Party (or something that my man is planning just for me)! and a Kindle Fire (riiiiiiiiiight babe?!)! I love being The Birthday Princess, and I wanted to wave my wand and send you all some birthday love. I’ll be waving it tomorrow in the form of a discount code for one of my products – saving ya almost 50%! – but only if you’re on my newsletter list. It won’t be tweeted, or Facebooked, or blogged, or put on my website…the only way to get some love from The Birthday Princess is to be on the list and check your email at tomorrow morning after 10a Eastern. The birthday sale is only going on for 34 hours, because this wand is made of diamonds (obviously) and I get tired waving it around for that long.

Enjoy my birthday weekend, you guys!
——
Wanna gimme an amazeballs birthday present? Sponsor my Avon Walk – even $5 helps!

Last year, I gave you this. This year, I give you this:

I hesitated putting this out there (hence the January 12th post), but something pulled me towards it. There was so much of it that was eye-opening for me, and when something’s eye-opening for me, then I automatically think of you kids. While I was uncomfortable posting it with the numbers exposed, it feels good to have ‘em blurred but still show you (a) how my revenue streams play out and (b) how much of my money comes from personalized coaching! When I saw that about $10K of my entire “salary” was from non-coaching streams….I might’ve hyperventilated a bit. I already knew I was cutting my client sessions from a 30-40/mo to 10-ish a month (as it stands, I’ll be doing 10-20/mo ’til May at the earliest), and my brain started reeling. How can I cut my coaching by more than half and still meet my financial goals for 2012 (yes, I have a number in mind that’s about 35% higher than what I made in 2011)?! Thankfully, the newfound hippy-dippy in me starting breathing regularly again when I placed trust in raising my rates and prepping for my Clubhouse (opening on Tue the 17th!). I started thinking about the time I’d have to write – blog posts, workbooks, book proposals, books – and do virtual workshops and, well, anything I fancy with the extra “whitespace” I have by not coaching 30-ish hours a week. The opportunity I have to bump up the money I make from my “extras” (as I sometimes see ‘em) is pretty infinite, and I’m actually really excited to take on that challenge and see what happens (while still taking Care).

Last April I signed up for Freckle. Even though I don’t bill my clients hourly, I took them up on a free 30-day trial to see where my time was going. Of course, it totally hooked me, and I’ve been using Freckle incessantly ever since. When the end of the year hit, I ran a report for the entire year, around both my projects and my tags. As you can see, the projects (above) are broader (although I have ‘em by private client, I placed ‘em all together for these purposes) while the tags themselves are more specific. At least I can see that I’m spending more time consistently servicing my biggest moneymaker: my coaching clients! I spent about 611 hours on their work – the sessions themselves, set-up and follow-up – but then it was interesting to see that social media is my #2 time-taker. Blogging, tweeting, newslettering and Facebooking took 144-ish hours, and I get paid nada con nada for that! Yes, I know it’s where/how I find a lot of clients, but….it seems excessive/unsmart in some way. It’s something I don’t wanna ramp down this year, but something I wanna do smarter. Read the rest of this entry »