Month: August 2021

You Are Important Just As You Are

jcladyluv

Every now and then I start to think about what I need to change in order to get things to move in the right direction. I see someone else doing things in an extraordinary way and it seems to work so well for them and I wonder should I be doing what they’re doing and would it work for me. But doing something that isn’t me and that doesn’t even fit my brand or who I am as a person is not really the message I want to put out there.

I have gotten to a place in my life where I have finally become okay with not fitting into someone else’s mold of who they think I should be or what they think I should do. When I assess whether I should try something that someone else is doing, I try to think is it authentic to who I am. Obviously there are lessons in the actions of others who have already gotten to where you are trying to go. I think sometimes it is okay to emulate the methods of successful people because clearly we learn by watching others as they go through their trial and error. However, you have to know when you are just trying to gain knowledge and when you are trying to be someone other than yourself.

I spent my twenties (mostly anyway) trying to fit everyone else’s idea of me and what they thought I should do and in my thirties I finally got it. It took me so long to understand and stop trying to fit in where I don’t think I ever belonged, and trying to be anyone other than who I really was, because I didn’t get that I was important just as I am.

There’s a quote by Michelle Obama that I want to leave you with that reads “You don’t have to be somebody different to be important. You’re important in your own right.” Know that whatever you do on your journey in life it’s okay to soak up the information and put others methods into practice that will help improve you and your life. Don’t try to fit into someone else’s mold, and remember that you are enough all on your own.

Until next time… #BeAuthentic #BeMindful #BeBold

Jimmetta Carpenter 

Writer/Editor 

https://write-2-be.com/

http://write2bemagazine.com/

https://www.amazon.com/author/jccarpenter

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJCCarpenter

https://www.write2bematters.com

https://twitter.com/jcladyluv 

https://twitter.com/write2bemag 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPU35EkFSbuxgekCp4LfI5g

Side note:  I have a new Author Newsletter that I would love it if you signed up for http://www.tinyletter.com/Author_JCCarpenter

Another Side Note: If any of you would like to buy me a coffee and donate to my creative endeavors then please feel free to https://ko-fi.com/authorjccarpenter

It’s Just a Bend in the Road

jcladyluv

Being an entrepreneur has its ups and downs and in the beginning it tends to come with a lot more downs than ups. Unless you are extremely lucky or just know all of the right people, you will more than likely be working at trying to get your name out there and get to that place of true financial comfort in your entrepreneurial status for quite some time. 

I think when I decided that I wanted to own my own business and pursue creative entrepreneurship I was naïve in thinking that just a year or two would be the magic number. The truth is, there is no magic number. I mean I’ve been at this for more years than I care to admit and honestly I’m still not there yet. I will say that I’ve come a very long way and in the past year and a half I’ve come even further than I imagined and that was because I did something that wasn’t comfortable for me.

I started a YouTube channel (link is below) and when I did I had no idea just how much it would change things, and I don’t really mean in terms of money (because I’m not yet making anything with that channel- yet), but in terms of pushing me past my comfort zone. It’s enabling me to reach people I might not ordinarily be able to reach, gaining a writing support system that I didn’t realize I needed, and making me more comfortable speaking on camera which will go far for certain future endeavors I have planned down the road. The lessons I have learned and the community that I have gained in having this channel is priceless.

Striking out on your own is hard. It’s oftentimes a thankless effort to have a creative business because quite frankly, a lot of people don’t treat creative businesses the same as they do other non creative businesses. You will have days where your hope starts to fade and your resolve to hang in there weakens. You’re wondering what it’s all for if it hasn’t happened yet. Don’t give up.

Your journey will not be obstacle free and this is definitely not for the faint of heart. Keep in mind that the road to your destination is full of curves and if you’re feeling stuck right now it’s not because it’s over, but rather you’ve hit a bend in the road. You can’t see to the other side right now but I promise you, if you keep going beautiful things are coming just around the bend.

Until next time… #BePatient #BeHopeful #BePersistent 

Jimmetta Carpenter 

Writer/Editor 

https://write-2-be.com/

http://write2bemagazine.com/

https://www.amazon.com/author/jccarpenter

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJCCarpenter

https://www.write2bematters.com

https://twitter.com/jcladyluv 

https://twitter.com/write2bemag 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPU35EkFSbuxgekCp4LfI5g

Side note:  I have a new Author Newsletter that I would love it if you signed up for http://www.tinyletter.com/Author_JCCarpenter

Another Side Note: If any of you would like to buy me a coffee and donate to my creative endeavors then please feel free to https://ko-fi.com/authorjccarpenter

The Numbers Don’t Always Tell the Full Story

jcladyluv

They say that numbers don’t lie and I think to a degree that is certainly true but I don’t believe you get the full picture of anything when you are solely looking at the numbers. I released my novel out into the world last Friday (https://www.amazon.com/author/jccarpenter) (yes on the 13th, I know) and I was asked by a couple of different people if I had checked out the numbers yet to see how many people purchased my book on the first weekend of its release. I simply said ‘no, it’s not the most important thing so I’ll look at it later.’

Now I don’t mean that to suggest that I don’t care whether or not people buy my book because I absolutely want people to not only buy the book, but to like or even love the book. When I say that it’s not important I mostly meant that I had to manage my expectations and to do so I had to see the bigger picture of what mattered.  What mattered the most to me was getting it out there, for starting to ball rolling on what I intend to be a very lengthy publishing career where I roll out at least two books a year if not more.

What matters is that I can say that I am a published author and people can go and look at what I produced and what I am very proud of. What matters, maybe more than even those things, is the people who may have been afraid to put their work out there, who actually read my blogs or watch my YouTube channel and see that I’ve done it and feel motivated and inspired to do the same. If I can be a light on someone else’ dark journey, that to me matters more than just about anything. There is so much that I want to do with my writing career but above anything else is to be an inspiration to others.

I am not going to lie and say that I don’t want to sell a ton of books and have people love them as much as or even more than I do but my purpose is always to affect someone else’ life in some way, even if it’s just in a tiny, miniscule way. Don’t we all just want to make a difference? Isn’t that what we are all walking this earth for, to make an impact on other people’s lives?  Just in releasing my book I have been sent messages on Twitter, through email, and Facebook about how inspired people were that I just didn’t give up, or how proud they were of me. That means more than any analytics report.

In this life we can’t always rely on the numbers to convey the impact we have on one another. The numbers don’t calculate the fire you may light under someone else simply because you didn’t give up on your dreams. The numbers don’t take into consideration that person who reads something you wrote and came acroos just the right words that they needed to get the help they’ve been too proud to ask for. The numbers are just that, numbers. They don’t determine the heart of a person or the impact one leaves behind on another.  So don’t focus so much on the numbers that you forget about the purpose of why you’re doing everything that you’re doing in the first place.

Until next time… #BeBold #BeMindful #BeMotivated

Jimmetta Carpenter 

Writer/Editor 

https://write-2-be.com/

http://write2bemagazine.com/

https://www.amazon.com/author/jccarpenter

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJCCarpenter

https://www.write2bematters.com

https://twitter.com/jcladyluv 

https://twitter.com/write2bemag 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPU35EkFSbuxgekCp4LfI5g

Side note:  I have a new Author Newsletter that I would love it if you signed up for http://www.tinyletter.com/Author_JCCarpenter

Another Side Note: If any of you would like to buy me a coffee and donate to my creative endeavors then please feel free to https://ko-fi.com/authorjccarpenter

Be Proud Of You Even If No One Else Is

jcladyluv

It’s always both nerve wracking and exciting when you do something big or just something that you’ve been waiting for. I felt that way when I launched my online store (www.write2bematters.com) because I had been working on that idea, which started out just being in my brain formulating, for nearly two years and I was nervous about whether anyone would even like it.  This week, however, I am re-releasing my novel, The Diary: Succession of Lies, and I’m extremely anxious because while I wear many hats and have many creative endeavors that I want to explore, writing has been my number one passion since I was six years old.

It was already not done right the first time it was published because frankly the small publisher didn’t do nearly all of what I thought they would do and I knew next to nothing about marketing or publicity and at the time social media was still new and I didn’t really want any parts of it. Needless to say it wasn’t shopped well and I didn’t know how to shop it to the point that it needed to be. Honestly I had no business signing that contract and I wasn’t strong enough then to even feel comfortable enough to voice what I expected and what I wanted and felt I wasn’t getting.

I’ve come a long way since then and because it was a well received novel to those that it did reach, and because I have learned a lot (not as much as I could but way more than I knew before) about putting myself out there and navigating some manner of marketing I decided that it deserved a real shot. I wanted this book to be a part of my catalog of work to come and I wanted it to be my first novel for a lot of reasons that I won’t get into at the moment. 

I am praying this book does everything I want it to do but even if it doesn’t I believe I’m more proud of this round of publishing it because I feel so sure and confident about my readiness to do it. It doesn’t make me any less anxious though lol. So Friday my book baby will be out in the world, and I hope that people love it and that they will support me but even if they don’t, I’m proud of myself. As creative individuals remember that you always have to make sure that you are proud of what you do, even if no one else is.

Until next time… #BeConfident #BeEmpowered #BeProud

Jimmetta Carpenter 

Writer/Editor 

https://write-2-be.com/

http://write2bemagazine.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJCCarpenter

https://twitter.com/jcladyluv 

https://twitter.com/write2bemag 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPU35EkFSbuxgekCp4LfI5g

Side note:  I have a new Author Newsletter that I would love it if you signed up for http://www.tinyletter.com/Author_JCCarpenter

Another Side Note: If any of you would like to buy me a coffee and donate to my creative endeavors then please feel free to https://ko-fi.com/authorjccarpenter

I’ll Clap For You While I’m Waiting

jcladyluv

I saw a post by one of my friends on Facebook the other day and it just had such a great message and in that message there’s a bit of a lesson. It read “Until it is my turn I will keep clapping for others.” It goes in line with the theory that we should be lifting people up and not waiting for them to fall.  I truly believe that if you can’t learn to celebrate the wins of others than you will never truly win when it comes to your endeavors.

I don’t mean that you will never get a victory of some sort in your life but just question to yourself, how can we expect good to come to us in our lives if we are secretly hoping and wishing that other people fail so that we can take their place. And whether you know it or not, there are people sitting in the corner just waiting for you to fail. Those would also be the same people, at least I have found, that are also constantly wondering why nothing good ever happens to them.

I’m not going to sit here and pretend that when I was younger, in my late teens, maybe early twenties, that I didn’t get slightly jealous of other writers who I may have thought were not quite as talented as me who were getting major book deals and opportunities that I thought I would have been getting at that age. However, looking back now, those same people who got those early wins are also people who I have never seen a second book from and who are now trying to ‘find themselves’ because they didn’t know what to do with the success they had that early on. I think I would’ve been one of those people. I think that I would have not known what to do with success at that point in my life and that it was in my best interest that I had to work a little (okay a lot) harder to get any kind of acknowledgement. 

I stopped being jealous of other people’s wins somewhere in my mid to late twenties because I realize that there is enough room for all of us to win. There doesn’t have to be just one winner or one successful person. I don’t have to be jealous because someone is getting a win at the right time for them because I know that my turn will eventually come, when it’s time for it to come. I celebrate the wins of everyone because whether they know it or not they are lighting the path for me to come behind them and when it is my turn I hope I light the way for someone else. 

I really think that we have to learn to cheer on those on the journey alongside us because in a sense when they win so do you. You learn something from their win, you gain wisdom from their win, and you are motivated to push harder by their win and that in itself is the prize.  Clap for your brothers and sisters racing this race called life beside you because there is room for us all to cross that finish line.

Until next time… #BePositive #BePersistent #BeMotivated 

Jimmetta Carpenter 

Writer/Editor 

https://write-2-be.com/

http://write2bemagazine.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJCCarpenter

https://twitter.com/jcladyluv 

https://twitter.com/write2bemag 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPU35EkFSbuxgekCp4LfI5g

Side note:  I have a new Author Newsletter that I would love it if you signed up for http://www.tinyletter.com/Author_JCCarpenter

Another Side Note: If any of you would like to buy me a coffee and donate to my creative endeavors then please feel free to https://ko-fi.com/authorjccarpenter