What I learned from my new hat

I have a new hat to wear.  It’s actually the new title of published author.

I’m excited to announce my newly published journal, The Four Stages of Reinvention Journal, A Journal For the Journey on Amazon.  

Good thing I love hats, I have many.  My personal hats are of a wife, mother, daughter, sister, Fancy (aka grandma), niece and loyal friend.  Professionally I wear the hat of a certified life coach, but prefer to be called master of reinvention. My beloved guest house owner hat hardly feels like work.  Heck, you could say I have an abundant collection of hats!

My new hat accentuates my passion for helping women find their future, to believe their best years are ahead.  The Four Stages Of Reinvention walks you through the stages of resistance to resilience with journal practices to compliment each stage.  

Now that I’ve survived the process of publishing a journal on Amazon, I am ready to share what I’ve learned.

Get help from friends with amazing hats

Abundance is relational.  Thank God I’m abundantly blessed with people willing to help me.  The classic book Think And Grow Rich teaches the importance of building a network of support.

I could not have completed this project without my bestie, author Dawn Gardner.  First of all, she is the amazing photographer I used for many of the graphics.  As if that wasn’t valuable enough, she offered design suggestions, helped me format my pages for the journal and the cover, and was an invaluable beta reader.  

An awesome Master Mind leader and coach, Peg Wedig graciously offered editing suggestions, line by line and word by word to correct grammar and help fine tune my message.

I had several friends who read the journal before publishing, including a new friend Jillian McGill.  I’m honored to be included in her upcoming Empowered Woman’s Summit and love the review she offered!  

“Made me think quite a bit. For me, it seems that with a BIG life challenge I’m currently moving through, I dance between the four stages.  The inquiries and journal prompts are rich and robust. It’s beautifully put together.”

Wear an editor’s hat often

I will just admit it here.  I have poor grammar and spelling skills, which most likely frustrates my teacher and author friends.  The grammar police on social media has given me many citations over the years. 

In my haste to publish, I misspelled the word whether, the first word on the description page.  UUGH!  I discovered the misspelled word after I announced the journal on my personal Facebook page.  As a result, I learned how to properly correct copy on Amazon’s publishing, which took me several days.  Forgetting the first “h” in whether set me back about a week.  

Again, in my haste to share the journal, I sent out an email to 600 subscribers in the third person.  I had copied and pasted the the description page on Amazon.  It was too late to do anything about it.  I apologize for that one!  I was just too excited to edit my email properly.  

Live and learn!

Practice patience

Yeah, I don’t have much.  Can you relate?

I did practice patience in the creation stage of the journal, taking the time to recruit beta readers and painfully editing the journal.  Gratefully, my patience produced a beautiful journal.  

Publishing the journal tried my patience.  I love graphic design, but learning to format pages with bleed was frustrating.  {Thanks Dawn for getting me through that!}.  Waiting for the journal to go live was nerve-racking.  Waiting for a correction on the description page was gut-wrenching.  Finally, waiting for the first report on sales to post had me in knots. I’m hoping the journal will be well received, and to have a Sally Field moment, “You like me!  You really, really like me!”

Learning curve

I will continue to be a student of the publishing world, occasionally frustrating the grammar police on my blog and social media posts, and bugging my fiends for input on my grand ideas.  My work will gradually become polished as I learn from all the mistakes along the way.  

I am embracing the learning curve with humility and proving that age does not dictate what can be done or experienced. 

I share all of my imperfections in the hope of inspiring you to step out of your comfort zone.  

What are you waiting for?

Let me know how I can help!  

If you are resisting change in your life, let me encourage you. Once you’ve mastered the four stages or reinvention, you’ll never waste time fighting change again. 

You are capable of wearing multiple hats and learning to wear new ones.  

If you need help moving through a big life challenge, let’s connect.  I can help you dance through the stages of reinvention.  Check out my calendar for a free consultation!  

AND… check out my newly published journal on Amazon!  

Here’s to new hats!

~Tiffany

And the birds fluttered around her writing “YES” in the sky.