Overcoming a broken microwave to enjoy my week alone

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Hello again;

Some of you know that me and my family used to own a carnival. While we don’t have any rides any more, we do still have contracts. Basically my dad built the kind of reputation that makes people want to continue using us. We still have a few festival and fair contracts that we fulfill by subcontracting with friends and family who are still in the business.

Two weeks ago was one of those weeks. My mom Patsy, brother Patrick, and Nephew Seth took off to manage the carnival area at the Newton County Fair in Newton Texas. This left me and Miss Penny here by ourselves.

Since I started working to help people sell amusement equipment, I prefer not to go with them to events like this. The truth is I never enjoyed watching other people make money. And it would mean a week in a cramped motel room with terrible wifi and my poor doggie penny in a kennel.

And with the news stories about this new mysterious respiratory disease called KIRD I was not thrilled with the idea of putting my buddy penny in with a bunch of strange dogs. I know at that time the illness was concentrated in Illinois and Indiana; but there had already been one case in Georgia. And most of us don’t take chances with our kids or pets. So we prepared for the week.

They did all the usual things washing clothes, packing their sales booth, buying me groceries. They loaded up the truck and took off on Tuesday Morning of that week. They left and like a good boy I locked the door and turned the dead bolt as they left the driveway.

So, I was looking forward to a week of peace and quiet. I was planning to get a lot of work done. Yes, we all tell ourselves that when we have time with no distractions or responsibilities. And things started off well.

The trouble started

The trouble started and the challenge began on Wednesday.

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a weekend in San Antonio a baby step towards more travel

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Hello again;

Back in November I was invited to attend the Texas State Convention or Conference for the National Federation of the Blind in San Antonio. They were considering me as a mentor for visually impaired people wanting to be entrepreneurs but who don’t want to go into food service. They offered to arrange my transportation and cover my expenses, so I said yes.

I am not usually the spontaneous type, but I saw the opportunity and decided to go after it. I packed my good clothes into the only suit case I own. My good clothes consist of two shirts given to me by the people at Robert Graham Designs and a couple pair of casual slacks. I realized that I didn’t own any dress shoes but decided that at a meeting of blind and visually impaired people most wouldn’t notice. 🙂

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My guest Debra Morgan shares her emotional and inspirational story for the first time

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Hello again;

As many of you know I believe in keeping myself open to life’s opportunities. I had planned to have my intro video updated and posted by now, but I was fortunate enough to be able to give myself a new iphone as an early birthday present. 🙂

It does have speech built in for blind users like me, but there is still a pretty steep learning curve.

Since I am behind schedule on my own work, I was thrilled when Deb approached me with a request to share her story.

Debra morgan

Debra is a subscriber to my weekly emails, and we have gotten to know each other a little bit. She doesn’t have a website or a blog yet, but that is yet another reason I want to encourage her. She is at that early stage where it is all new, confusing, and sometimes terrifying.

But once you read her story or the part of it she is sharing with us, you will know that this is one tough lady who can handle all the challenges of being a successful author. I also admire the fact that she is taking the steps she can as she can. So, grab your kleenex and prepare to be inspired.

Every child comes into this world with a clean slate, no wrong done to them , and none they have committed. As we age pain follows, and pain comes from what is put on that clean white canvas. Good is put there too, but mine was more like abstract art from a bad starving artist.

So pain is for looking back at and the future well, for me that was a very gray area. I didn’t expect to live long enough to worry about it. It didn’t start or end overnight and suffice it to say that from day one I was going to have a lot on my canvas.

There would come a time many years later when I would be able to look forward. But for now I would begin to slowly destroy everything in my way. So life continued in this circle of damage, thinking I was hurting everyone but myself , what lies we can tell ourselves. What’s worse we believe them.

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Taking my own advice and asking for help with my intro video

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Hello again; I hope you are well. Today, instead of sharing wisdom, I’m here to ask for your opinions and suggestions.

While I know it takes time to establish a new business, and it has only been about eight months since I started offering coaching services; I still wonder if there is anything I could be doing to help bring myself to the attention of people needing my services. I want your help with my website.

Just like with my primary business site the midway marketplace I am always seeking ways to make my sites more appealing and engaging. I figure you can always find ways to improve. When I asked people what they thought of my new site, most said it wasn’t clear enough what my site was about.

The blind blogger homepage

Making my site’s message clearer

So, I went into the home page and added some text. I mentioned some of my accomplishments and told people that I believe that I can help them accomplish similar goals and dreams. I advised that life should be a thrill ride and suggested that it was time they bought a ticket.

Next, I recorded a video introducing myself. It starts with me singing the river by garth brooks. It is a very uplifting song in my mind, and it is becoming my unofficial theme song. Again I mentioned past successes and told people that I felt I was the ideal coach to help them walk their own path.

Then I shared all of this online. I was especially interested in getting feedback from people in groups focused on coaching and or marketing. And I got a lot of great responses. There were two suggestions I heard the most. One, break the video into three parts and have people click through from one to the next. And two, whatever I decided don’t take out the singing.

type of help needed

And that brings me to where you can help. I was encouraged to write out a script or at least a general outline of what would be in each of the three videos. I worked up some ideas and again asked for opinions. I got some great suggestions and have refined them even more. Now, I have three blocks of text I want you to review for me. I want help making them more powerful, persuasive, attention grabbing, whatever you call it. I want to make a better case for people hiring me to assist them on their journey.

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2 Contests and 2 Chances to Win A Signed Copy of My Book Plus 1 Hour of Coaching

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Leading you out of the Darkness Book Cover

Guess what? I have three wonderful suprises for you today!

  1. To begin with, I’m running my very first contest!
  2. Secondly, I wrote a special guest post for Lorraine Reguly from Wording Well.
  3. The third surprise is that, together with Lorraine, we are running another contest on her blog.

Each contest will have different rules, too, so you can enter one or the other — or both, if you really want to increase your odds of winning!

What You Will Win

On The Blind Blogger, I’m offering a signed copy of my book, Leading You Out of the Darkness Into the Light PLUS one hour of free coaching to the winner to one lucky person.

On Wording Well, I’m offering the exact same two things.

I’ll tell you more about these contests in a moment, and what you have to do in order to enter each one.

First, I want to tell you how and why these contests came about, and say a few other things.

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