Work At What You Love Workshop Updates
Special Add-On Workshop:
Turn Your Everyday Snap Shots into Cash
I have some breaking news about this August’s Work
at What You Love workshop. At the eleventh hour, I was able to arrange
for Lori Appling, director of the American Writers and Artists
Institute’s Travel Writers Program and professional photographer and
digital photography instructor Rich Wagner, (Rich will also be on the
Friday night panel) to run a special add-on fast-track version of their
popular The Ultimate Travel Photographer’s Workshop.
The optional add-on workshop is an abbreviated
version of what is normally a 3+ day program. Their sell-out program in
Paris in May cost $1397. But you can attend this 1+ day session for only
$149 – and receive the first installment of the self-study course,
Turn Your
Pictures into Cash: A Comprehensive Course in Taking and Selling Amazing
Photographs (a $79 value).
To learn more about the photography course scroll
down to the Upcoming Workshops & Teleclasses section of the newsletter
or visit
ChangingCourse.com/courses.htm
Learn From People Who Have Done It
Ask any of our past workshop participants, and
they’ll tell you that one of the most inspiring and informative
segments of the program is the panel of local entrepreneurs. In this
week’s Work at What You Love Update, I’d like to introduce you to three
more inspiring entrepreneurs who will be on hand to share how they
changed course. (If you missed the business owner profiled in the last
update go to the newsletter archives at
ChangingCourse.com/archives/issue119.html)
Retirement Community Developers Nancy and Heather Whitley
Every one has a dream. For some, its being a writer
or a jewelry maker or a fitness trainer or running a doggie day care
center. Then there are people who have what I call a “Big Dream.” Two
women with a Big Dream are Nancy and Heather Whitley of Northampton,
Massachusetts.
This enterprising couple is well on
their way to establishing a retirement community both in Massachusetts
and in Costa Rica. Nothing new about a retirement community, right? But
what Nancy and Heather did was take an established business and niche
market it to a specific demographic group. (You’ll learn more about the
power of niche marketing at the workshop). The niche Nancy and Heather
are going after is the growing population of gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender baby boomers who are thinking ahead to retirement. They
haven’t yet launched their formal website but you can take a look at
their one pager at
ParadiseCityVillage.com
Self-employment is
nothing new to Nancy and Heather. For the last seven years, Nancy has
owned her own home health care service and Heather took what she learned
in her various corporate jobs to establish herself as a small business
consultant. What I find remarkable about is Nancy and Heather is that
they aren’t rich. And yet these average income women are totally
undaunted at the prospect of putting together a projected $23 million
dollars to fund the project. While the project is still in the
pre-construction phase, their revenue goals are solidly on track.
If you have a Big Dream
but can’t imagine thinking on this kind of grand scale, be prepared to
take good notes because Nancy and Heather are going to share exactly how
they got other people to invest in their dreams… and how you can too!
Karen Orfitelli,
Children’s Book Writing Instructor
You never know when
the decision to finally change course will hit. The seeds of Karen
Orfitelli’s writing life started as an unspoken aspiration after she
graduated from college. But, like many would-be writers, life was filled
with rearing children, teaching, and graduate school. The dream of
becoming a writer seemed like a dim and distant memory.
Then, one blistering
hot August day in 1991, everything changed. Karen had just returned
from Cape Cod and, as she was standing in the laundry room knee deep in
sand-covered towels, she had an urgent sense that it was time to act on
her dream of becoming a writer. Moments later, she stepped out of the
laundry room back into a life-changed person.
Karen made good on her decision. She went on to
have more than 300 articles published and is a former editor for
McGraw-Hill Publishers. Karen never lost her love of children, a love
she satisfies in two ways. In addition to reviving her earlier career
as an English teacher, Karen is also a senior instructor for the
Institute of Children’s Literature based in West Redding, Connecticut.
From her home on Cape Cod, Karen provides one-to-one editorial feedback
and guidance to adult students enrolled in the Institute’s Writing for
Children and Teenagers course (visit
ChangingCourse.com/children.htm to read my full review of this course).
Karen will talk about
both how she launched her own successful freelance writing career as
well as the opportunities that exist for article and book writers in the
children and teen market and what it takes to succeed in this growing
field.
Karen Rhodes, Interactive Story Teller and Franchiser
Karen is getting to be a regular at these
workshops. I first met Karen at the Making Dreams Happen workshop
Barbara Sher, Barbara Winter and I did in Boulder, Colorado two summers
ago. Last May, she once again made it to the Dreams Can’t Wait seminar up
in Kennebunkport, Maine. Karen will be at this summer’s event as well,
but there’s one important difference. This year Karen is coming as a
success story!
During one of our Idea Parties in Boulder (you’ll
get to experience an Idea Party at the workshop this summer) Karen asked
the group for help on a specific idea. She’d been running a highly
successful business for some years. Now she wished she could find a way
to franchise it but didn’t know where to begin. The group barraged Karen
with ideas. Now, a mere two years later, she’s putting the finishing
touches on her “business in a box.” But I’m getting ahead of myself.
This mother of four and home schooler’s unique
foray into entrepreneurship began when she decided she wanted to somehow
turn her love of history and acting into a money-making venture. Equally
high on Karen’s list of priorities was to come up with a business where
she could also bring her children. But what?
Inspiration often comes from the simplest things. Karen liked to read
true life stories to her children about people she admired and wanted
them to emulate. She found herself thinking, “More people should know
these stories.” Then one day she took the kids to see the fictionalized
movie version Anastasia. The historically inaccuracy
of the film spurred her to design a program she called, “The True Story
of Anastasia.”
Karen began by putting the story in terms simple
enough for a six-year-old to understand. Then, knowing many mothers
didn’t know the real story either, she decided to include them in the
program too. But that wasn’t the only reason. Karen wisely understood
that if the mothers were involved with their children, she could do more
interesting and complicated things… like adding crafts, food, and even a
lesson in waltzing where mothers and daughters dress up for a miniature
“royal ball.”
In keeping with her original goal to somehow
involve her own children, she enlisted her three daughters
to work beside her in what would become
a fun and financially rewarding weekend and summer business. The
program was so successful that Karen designed more programs, including
one inspired by the movie Mulan and another based on the book Little
House on the Prairie.
All of which brings us back two years to that Idea Party in Boulder.
Between the validation, the inspiration, and the information she
received at the workshop, the on-going support of her Barbara Sher style Success Team (as an attendee you’ll also get the
benefit of being part of your own Success Team), and her own hard work
and determination, Karen’s Idea Party wish is now a reality.
Creating a turn-key business allows her to help
other women who share her passion for history or who have an undeveloped
theatrical side. Plus her particular “business in a box” provides a
great solution for other mothers who want to earn money but don’t want
to have to leave their kids with a babysitter to do it.
In addition to being a panelist, Karen will be
joining us for the entire workshop… so you’ll have plenty of time to
pick her brain. You don’t have to be a parent to benefit from hearing
about how Karen successfully developed and marketed her creative
business idea and the steps she took to create a franchise. Like all
successful ventures, Karen’s began with an inspired idea… and so will
yours.
Travel Updates
Accommodations
We
recently negotiated another special conference price at the Clarion
Hotel. This full service hotel is very close to the Best Western and
just a little over a mile from the conference site. Weekday rate is $89,
weekend rate is $135. For reservations call the Clarion at
(800) 582-2929 and ask for the Changing Course rate.
Renting a Car from the Amtrak Station
Outside of the airports, a lot of local car rental
companies have limited weekend hours which of course makes it difficult
to return your car after the seminar. I did some digging and found a
company called In & Out Car Rental (less than 2 miles from Amtrak)
that’s open Weekdays 6:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m. and weekends from 7:00 a.m. to
7:00 p.m. They also said they should be able to pick you up at the
train station. Rentals run from $29.95-$34.95 and the first 100 miles
are free which is good unless you plan to do extra site seeing while in
the area (Northampton is about 21 miles from their location). If you do
take a cab there, they’re just over the bridge at 143 Park Ave, West
Springfield on the corner of Union Street at a Shell station. Call
(413) 737-8250 for reservations.
Private Forum Set Up for Workshop Participant to Connect
Lisa has set up a forum on the new Changing Course
Bulletin Board where workshop attendees can meet before the workshop to
introduce themselves and share hopes and dreams for the workshop.
There’s also a special section to connect around
travel arrangements. For example, if you’re arriving at the
Hartford-Springfield airport or the Amtrak station in Springfield around
the same time as others, you can save money by making a group
reservation for the Valley Transporter Shuttle. Staying at one of the
area hotels? Connect with others to car pool to the Hotel Northampton.
Visit it at
ChangingCourse.com/forum
