inspirational

Overcoming a broken microwave to enjoy my week alone

by

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.

Read more

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

by

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.

Read more

Why I sing and how I can help you free the song in your own heart

by

Hello again; I just recorded another video for my podcast about the amusement industry and the equipment my clients have for sale. Its called Calliope Corner, and you can find my videos on youtube.

For those of you who haven’t seen any of them I should tell you that I start off each one with me singing and then I introduce the show, mention the website and contact information; then go into whatever ride, game, inflatable, etc I’m talking about.

Its been a while since I recorded one of these videos. I was launching the new site and dealing with some minor health issues. But I had forgotten how much I enjoy recording the videos. More importantly I forgot how good I feel when my friends write to say how nice my voice is and how good I sound. One friend even suggested that my singing could make me famous.

I am happy with my singing, but it wasn’t always that way. A very short time ago I wouldn’t have had the confidence to sing in public much less on youtube where millions of people could see and hear me.

Some history

You see, on my dad’s side of the family most everyone can sing or play a musical instrument or both. My grandfather J. V. Ivey was a great finger picker guitar player. He also sang mostly country and had a radio show in their home town of Union, South Carolina.

My dad Maxwell Ivey Sr. played the guitar and sang too. He was more of a strummer. Him and his brothers and friends had at least one band when he was a teenager.

Being a daddy’s son I wanted to do what he did. When me and my brother Michael were young he bought us both starter guitars. He put different colored finger polish on the frets of mine to help me make the chords. i could make the sounds but couldn’t make music.

I could sing or at least my mom and dad never complained. Me and my dad would sing along to radio, 8 tracks, and later cassettes while driving to and from events, family outings, scout meetings etc. We liked the same music and sang together.

Read more

My first ebook Leading You Out of the Darkness Into the Light is finally published

by

Hello again; Well, I finally did it. The ebook Leading You Out of the Darkness Into the Light Is now available for sale! I am excited and relieved and more than a little scared. So, in this post I will explain the decisions I made and why as well as what comes next.

 

 

Where it is for sale

I know that for me completing the ebook and getting it published is an accomplishment in itself. I’m proud of the hard work I did, and I believe the book can and will help a lot of people. But I would be lying if I said that I didn’t care if it sells or not. I do want it to sell well. I also want it to be well received. So, I thought I should start by telling people where they can buy it and why.

For now the book is available through Selz.com, which allows for anyone to sell both physical and information products online. They take a smaller percentage of sales than Amazon and the submission process is so much simpler. All I had to do is upload the image and the pdf version of the ebook and people can purchase it with pay pal or a credit card and download it immediately.

Leading You Out of the Darkness Into the Light is also available from Amazon.

If you want a print copy, you can order one from CreateSpace.

Read more

honored with guest post successfully migrated to word press and won OBSS contest 3rd prize

by

Hello again; This week, I decided to share several pieces of good news for me and the website. In the last two weeks I had a guest post published on Harleena Singh’s site Aha Now I successfully transferred my site from blogger to word press, and I won third prize in the Online Business Superhero Summit Contest.

The contest

Its no secret that I love Adrienne Smith. She has taught me a lot about blogging especially the power of blog commenting and the value of building relationships. So when she has a new post I follow her suggestions. Back on July 10th she shared a post called How To Learn From A Superhero She explained that it was a two week long series of presentations from superheroes of the online marketing world. She included a link that would take us to their site and give us access to the line up of speakers, a way to watch previous broadcasts, and where to enter a contest to win some cool products or an opportunity to learn from one of the superheroes.

Why I entered

Well, upon visiting the link, I found out that you had to enter the contest in order to gain access to the webinars. So, I entered the contest not thinking anything about winning. I knew that some of my friends might also enjoy watching these broadcasts, so I shared the link on my social media networks. After that i went to listen to some of the replay shows and didn’t think any more about it. I did have some trouble getting started watching the replays, but Adrienne sent me a direct link to them, and I was off and running listening to these giants of the online marketing field. I had a full weekend where I learned some new concepts and began thinking in some new ways concerning how I market myself and my website.

surprising progress

Read more