Monday, September 17, 2018

I Don't Believe in Luck





Dear Readers:

Today, I wanted to write a post today about luck.

First, I don't believe in it. I know there are events that "just happen" but most of those events can be traced back to something we did or influenced. I'm not saying that there are no accidents (though Einstein did say this once). Some of these so-called "accidents" are good. Others are not so good. But believing in luck implies that "the gods" somehow either like us or have it in for us. I don't believe in either of these ideas. The former attempts to create the idea of "victim mentality" where everything is against us no matter what we do. The latter creates the impression that God plays favorites and that only the few he chose for success will find happiness. Both of these ideas are wrong.

God is impartial, but the Bible does give some credibility to the idea that he looks after his own (faithful Christians) to a higher degree than people in the world. Still, "it rains on the just and the unjust" which would imply that, instead of luck, it's just 'life' and what happens in an imperfect world with people who don't always make the right decisions, including us.

That being said, when it comes to entrepreneurship, I think luck is what happens when we apply our talents and abilities to a great opportunity. Whenever I prospect a new client, I think of it as a card game. I picture myself with my hand of cards in front of me and ask myself, "Which card should I play with this client?"


If it is a magazine publisher for an education magazine, I will play the "teacher card," (the fact that I taught in a public school system for over 15 years). If it is for a technology blog, I will play the card that I own my own technology and digital media company.

Whatever your abilities, experience, or education, think of these are the cards you play to get the jobs or clients you want to obtain or to reach the goals you have set for yourself.

So, when an opportunity comes along, it's not luck if you have done your job in prospecting clients, the opportunities (good luck) will present itself. People sometimes tell me I must be "lucky" because I am making a full-time income writing at home. But I tell them that there was never an opportunity that just landed in my lap. I scoured the web, searched writing sites, and browsed hundreds of opportunities on writing forums to find excellent opportunities. Is that luck? No. It's hard work.

A Story About My Youth

When my sister and I were in our teenage years, we got obsessed with finding four-leaf clovers. I don't know if we just got bored growing up in a small town or what, but we decided to see how often we could find a four-leaf clover. At first, we only found three-leaf clovers. Then, with some time and applied effort, we did find one four-leaf clover. We were so excited and said, "I guess this is our lucky day!" Then, we continued looking in the same clover patch and, amazingly we found another and another and another! There were about 5 or 6 four-leaf clovers in that same patch.

We decided to make it our new hobby. We would go up and down our street looking in patches of clovers just to collect more four-leafers to add to our collection. Our grandparents owned a farm, and they had a large yard so we would carry our obsession of finding four-leaf clovers over to their house, as well. It was indeed an obsession.

To sum up, by the end of the summer, guess how many four-leaf clovers we found?

56!

That's right. With some applied effort, we were able to locate almost 60 of the evasive clovers that most people are unable to find even one of.

Conclusion: Luck is what happens when you apply your skills, your determination, and your energy on a task and never let up until you reach your goals! One side note: it's too bad that there isn't such a thing as just plain good luck. If there was we would have hit the gold mine finding 56 good luck charms!

I thought you'd enjoy this story. I'll be talking about this on my internet radio station in this week's podcast. Be sure to tune in at: http://player.live365.com/a32814?l

I still don't believe in luck, and now you know why. It's not what happens that makes the difference.
It's what we do with the opportunities that matter the most.



Saturday, April 21, 2018

Guest Speaking: A Great Way to Market Your Business

Hello friends,

I was recently asked to speak to a group of students at a local school here in my home state about careers in writing. As some of you know, I am a former teacher, but I keep my teaching certificate up because it adds credibility to my education-related projects. I also still love instruction and it will always be a part of what I do as an entrepreneur and writer.

The kids were a group of 4th through 6th-graders who were highly receptive to what I had to say about writing careers. I talked to them about how they should dare to think for themselves about what they want to do, develop their skills early in life, and consider everything they learn in school an opportunity to share new ideas with the world.

While there, I talked about technology, too. I own a technology and digital media company as most of you know. So talking about technology comes naturally and I knew that many of the kids I spoke to are interested in technology as a career, as well.

Many of them approached me afterward and stated that they did not know you could create your own computer and they expressed a genuine interest in the Raspberry Pi computer that I created a few years ago. They also wanted to know more about how they might look into creating their own computers at home.




This kind of love for learning, exploration, and innovation is the reason I loved teaching during the 15 years I did this and it was a real treat to return in a different role, to inspire kids to think big in a system that no longer allowed me to do so.

It was a lot of fun and I appreciate the warm welcome I received from the staff, teachers, and kids. I plan to go back next year and speak to more schools about careers in technology and writing or other "work-at-home" jobs and careers.

In a changing world where people can literally create an empire from their home office chair, there are many opportunities for young people that do not even have a "four-year liberal arts college" as a requirement.

After my appearance at the school, it also got me thinking about how I might help my readers to boost their eCommerce business, as well. So I encourage any of you with speaking ability that you can share with an audience to do so LIVE as well as online! For those of us who constantly work online, it's easy to forget that there is a real world out there but do get out and do this when you can. The sunshine was great, too! I had almost forgotten what it felt like! ha

Another thing that came to mind is that you can go to more speaking events if you have a full-time marketing team working for you 24/7. Then you can create a passive income for yourself that will continue to make you money even when you are not there.

GetResponse is a perfect solution for this. Not only do they offer 24/7 marketing automation to all of your channels, but they also provide email marketing automation, webinar setup, 24/7 tech support, and a fully comprehensive marketing plan. Check it out and see if it will help.

Then you won't worry when you're away and you can attend more guest speaking events, which will boost your revenue, also!

I wish you all success with your online business as always and thank you for the many sales I've seen recently for my new books!

Keep sailing, Captains!

-Deborah L. Killion
Writer/Entrepreneur










"An entrepreneur is a captain of his own ship who must weather the storms, the rocks, and icebergs until he sees the harbor. Never give up. It is the ones who stay their course who reach the shoreline." -DLK

Thursday, April 19, 2018

NEW BOOK PUBLISHED!


The audio version of my latest book, "The Future of Education," will be ready for purchase soon. The paperback and Kindle versions are already available on Amazon Kindle and multiple other vendors including Barnes & Noble and many other bookstores across the country. My narrator for the audiobook is David Satterlee, a professional actor and voice narrator. The audiobook will be available on audible.com in a few days.

Additionally, my previous book, The Magic of Pi, a technical manual regarding the use of Raspberry Pi technologies, has already been released on Amazon Kindle and Audible. 


I will host a radio show on BlogTalk radio and my own internet radio station soon announcing the release of both books. 

If you are an author or a business owner like me, you know the importance of creating hype for your books and projects. I love GetResponse to create a totally automated marketing plan for my books and eCommerce websites. It lets you create your own automated marketing plan that turns your business or book sales into a passive income.

You can check it out here. I promise you'll like it!



-Deborah L. Killion, Author and business owner

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Get Response: One-Stop Marketing Solution for Busy Entrepreneurs


Hi, everyone!
Attention fellow business owners:

Deb here again talking about the importance of finding a marketing solution that includes email marketing and internet marketing. I'm sure you know how important it is to promote your website, blog, and other digital assets. But many business owners just don't seem to be able to create the hype they need to make the conversions they need to be successful.

What you really need is to create digital assets that will allow you to increase your conversions. To do this, you need to improve your marketing strategy to get more traffic. But not just any traffic. You need TARGETED TRAFFIC. 

This involves some processes that you need to learn and learn well. But who has the time, right? I'm a professional blogger, as you know and also a technology business owner. So you know that I understand how hard it is to find the time to do everything.

In fact, recently, I wrote an article that talked about how you need to choose time or money when it comes to what you are willing to let go of to get the results you need.

Long story short, you either need to spend the time, or you need to spend some money to pay someone else to promote your site, products, or services.

Another problem with some automated marketing solutions is that they tend to take too much control of your website or digital assets. But there is one that has it right. It understands that you need things to happen automatically while also respecting how you want it to work!

I recently found this great tool called GetResponse. This is more than an email marketing tool. It is a complete marketing solution that you can use to increase your sales and revenue. Some of my favorite features of this program are listed below:

-Email marketing
-Top of the line statistics and metrics to track progress
-Landing pages
-Marketing automation
-Webinar setup
-Autoresponders
-Cart Abandonment Solutions
-Complete 24/7 sales automation
-24/7 Support

There are many other features you'll like so check it out now and see what you think. I love this program and have written about it many times on my blogs and other materials. It literally takes your entire marketing program and does it for you.
Easy to setup but you maintain control. That's the best part.
It's "smart AI" who knows you're the boss!
Here's the link again. I think you'll like what it will do for your business and your promotions.

Go to GetResponse now.


-Deb



Friday, March 2, 2018

NEW PRODUCTS IN WEBSTORE NOW!

Hi, everyone!
I just wanted to stop off and let you know that we are adding physical products to our website now! Most of you know that we are in the tech industry. But what you may NOT know is that we are also in the education space, as well. I'm a former educator who decided to become a full-time writer and entrepreneur back in 2014 after serving as a school counselor for a small charter school.


I don't regret my decision, but I do miss working with students and helping them to set goals for their future and watching them improve and create. So I'm including much of what I learned all those years as an educator in the public school systems to share this information with teachers and others in education.


I hope that some of my books, audiobooks, podcasts, videos, and other digital materials will help someone out there to fine-tune their repertoire of skills so that they can help kids reach their goals for the future. I'm working on a new one now, "The Future of Education" that I hope to have completed by late March.


I'll be featuring some radio broadcasts in the future that will help kids and teachers, as well as parents to help kids find their voice and expand their creativity and thinking. I believe this is what students need today to break out of the culture of socialism and calculated "brainwashing," that has been happening within some of our public schools.


The trend during the Trump administration and beyond will be to help kids create their own futures, not to depend on the help of the government, parents, or anyone else in the future. We need to empower the minds of young people in new ways that involve (as Steve Jobs often said), "shaping and molding our own lives," not just "living in life." We need to reverse the brainwashing of the previous President who once said, "If you built a business, you didn't really do that." Shame on him!


Innovation is the key.


Let's work together to stretch the minds of young people who depend on us for guidance while helping them understand that they are strong and they can make it and truly reach their life goals!


Visit my main site here to learn more about what we do. I am a full-time writer so I have just now begun to have more time to work on the online store and the many creative projects we have in mind.
But stay tuned!
We are about to grow by leaps and bounds.


-Deborah L. Killion, Writer/Tech Business Owner

Friday, January 5, 2018

Happy New Year 2018!

Happy New Year, everyone!

We have a lot to be thankful for and a lot to look forward to. President Trump has created the best sweeping tax plan that America ever had to put more of your money in your pocket. Don't believe the lies told by the Left. This tax plan WILL HELP ALL OF US. I'm a small business owner as well as an individual taxpayer and a self-employed entrepreneur. I know that many of you out there who read my blog and listen to my podcasts and radio station are, also.

So believe me, you'll see more money in your pocket this year and for as long as we keep control in the Congress.

I know more than I'll tell on this blog but suffice it to say that I've been researching and following the information behind the scenes since before the election and the good side IS winning! And the Russians had nothing to do with it!

It's been a tough battle because the evil forces that want to take the country down won't go down easy. But we are winning. Follow "Q's" posts to learn more about what is happening and know that it's in good hands.

Entrepreneurs are not the only ones who will benefit by what Trump is doing. America will be a safer, better economic environment for people to start and grow small businesses, as well. We are excited about these changes and America is back!

That being said, what are your goals for the new year? I plan to work on expanding Small Town Global and I have now incorporated my business to create more products and opportunities in the coming years. Stay on course and remember you are the captain of your own ship.

Look for more digital media products for schools and businesses coming from Small Town Global in the coming months and remember to keep on keeping on!
Here's something I'll share with you to help your New Year be even brighter.
It's an online stock portfolio that takes all of the guesswork out of making your money make you big profits over time. And, since Trump is improving the economy and the stock market is higher than ever, it is a great way to ensure your future!
Acorns Online Investments
Happy New Year!
-Deborah L. Killion, Writer &Entrepreneur