Six years ago, if you had told me I’d be running my own editing service and publishing company, I would have laughed and said you’re out of your mind. In 2012, when my first novel came out, I had no idea what Facebook was, I’d never read a blog, and social media was a term I couldn’t begin to define. But my publisher told me it was a must for today’s authors. So, I dove in.
I learned how to “build my platform” one step at a time. From there, I learned how to format digital and print books and then ventured into self-publishing. I learned how to promote my books and how to expand my business to include other authors as well.
Along the way, I hit many road blocks. There were times when I thought, “I’ll never figure this out.” But I never gave up, and eventually I did figure it all out.
What’s been my biggest motivation?
My mom.
Mom, who turns 71 this week, is an amazing woman. Married at nineteen with three kids by the age of twenty-four, Mom has spent her entire life hurdling obstacles. She was diagnosed as a Type I diabetic when I was seven. When I was eight, she carried my youngest brother to full term only to lose him during delivery—complications of diabetes. She has battled endless health issues, financial setbacks, and disappointments. But I’ve never known anyone more optimistic about life than she is.
Mom is an adventurer at heart. In 1977, the year after my brother died, Mom and Dad moved us out of the city to a rural mountain community where they built a two-story log home with their own hands.
Mom never went to college, but she has a slew of certifications and has accumulated enough life experience to most college graduates to shame. She’s owned several businesses, has managed multiple medical offices, and spent many years volunteering in her community.
In addition, Mom can build, repair, and design anything. She spent twenty years as a professional seamstress, taught herself how to reupholster furniture, rewired lighting fixtures, and built a cement block wall and a 25ft. aviary.
During the past decade of her life, she has faced constant pain and illness and countless hospital visits. But she always has a smile on her face and a compliment for whoever happens to be in her presence. More than once, we thought we would lose her, but she just kept on going, her spirit too strong to give up.
My Mom is my greatest inspiration. As I was growing up watching her battle illness and tackle projects that seemed beyond her capability, she would always tell me, “If someone else has done it, I can learn to do it too.”
That was her motto. She could, quite literally, do anything.
I’ve tried to follow Mom’s example. I’m not much for building aviaries or sewing dresses, but I apply her stick-to-it attitude to what I love best: writing and publishing.
At the moment, I’m trying to learn how to market my books via Click Funnels. Thanks to Ken Dunn’s beta class on the subject, I’ve learned a lot. But this is perhaps the most challenging thing I’ve ever tried to learn. I am at a brick wall. There have been times, even today, that I’ve turned off my computer and threw my hands up in frustration. “I just can’t do this!” I want to shout.
But then I think of Mom’s words: “If someone else has done it, I can’t learn to do it to.”
So, I turn my computer back on, take a deep breath, and then say to myself, “I’ve got this.”
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