Touching Your Heart

You block your dream when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith.   

 ~Mary Manin Morrissey 

  Dreams, fear and faith….boy, I couldn’t have found a better quote to sum up what I have been thinking, feeling and living the last month or so.  As you all know, I took a huge leap of faith and have started following my dreams by starting my own virtual assistant business.  GULP!  (yep, still using that word A LOT!)  It has definitely been quite the roller coaster ride and I don’t forsee that changing any time soon.  Just seems to be the way of this business…either a very busy week, or nothing at all lined up.  There does not seem to be a happy medium.  And that my friends, definitely takes some getting used to.  

 Trying to find a routine in a very nonroutine working world is not possible! LOL  And…the no-guarantee paycheck is still freaking me out.  Yep, I am still worried about how to pay the bills when the time comes and I am still scared and wondering, “What the heck am I doing?”  I have been praying LOTS and finding it hard at times to put it all in God’s hands.  I know that is what we are supposed to do, but we all know it’s not that easy.  We are human after all!  I find myself doubting that I am doing the right thing and starting to wonder if maybe it’s time to throw in the towel before I get too far down financially and then find myself doubting my abilities, my confidence, etc.  BUT….each and every time I have gotten down and have been about ready to give up….opportunities start knocking and coming through.  I kid you not.  They maybe aren’t helping me out today, at this minute, or with this bill, but there are opportunities coming…I just need to be patient and have faith that they will work out.  (I hear ya, God!~Thank you!) 

Now, did you notice I didn’t say I have started to doubt God and His plan for me?  That’s because I haven’t…I honestly haven’t.  I keep praying for Him to guide me and I keep trying to give it all to him…the worry, the fear, the finances….the path…and the time it is going to take to get there.  It is myself I am doubting, not Him.  It is the ability to pay the bills RIGHT NOW, that I am doubting.  I know my path that He has planned for me and I can see that clearly…for the future….it is the NOW that is holding me back and I can’t get past.  It is giving up the control of the NOW that I can’t give over to Him.  Why is it so hard for us to give up that control?  Why do we fight it?  Maybe it’s the thought of  being vulnerable, or…maybe it’s admitting that some things we just simply can’t do on our own…and to be honest…maybe it’s the simple fact that putting ourselves out there, moving out of our comfort zone and learning to trust Him with our dreams, fears and faith is truly scary…simply scary!  And…maybe we need to learn to trust in ourselves!  (Again, I hear ya, God!~Thank you!) 

Whatever the reasons may be…I am choosing to continue to follow my dreams, the path that I know is out there for me and I am choosing to continue to trust Him with my dreams, fears and faith.   Why?  Because  although I have my doubts and fears at moments….there have been so many more blessings and positive things happening in my life.  I was blessed to work at Eat’s N Treats with Joyce and Nicole for a little extra cash and in turn they needed the help and it was great getting back out in the public after working from home for 10 plus years.  I am going out of my comfort zone and pushing my own boundaries and putting myself out there in so many different ways.   I am taking control of my wants, needs and desires…to a point of course…and learning that I can’t control all aspects of my life.  (Again, I hear ya, God!~Thank you!)  

And most importantly, I still have no regrets for quitting my full-time guaranteed paycheck job. I was miserable…crabby, sad, bored, hopeless…not challenged.  That isn’t the life I wanted to be living.  There are so many different things coming my way that I never imagined I would be interested in, or would have thought of to try.  I am so much happier and so much more easy going despite the down times.   Though the money may not be there RIGHT NOW, I know it will be…I just need to keep following my dream and not let fear get in the way, but instead let the fear help me to continue trying to give the NOW over to God. And how am I going to do this?  By continuing to Have Faith and by Believing…believing when it’s beyond reason to believe.  (quote taken from a very special gift from one of our GAAWs when I took my leap!)   

May God bless you all on your leaps….don’t give up on your dreams, continue to have faith in yourself…and do NOT let fear get in your way! 

~with all my love~jodi 

GULP! (That is my new saying!!)  Yep, it’s official!!!  Thanks to an amazingly talented online business manager and web designer, Corina Wentzel, my Transcribing and Virtual Assistant business is ready to go!! You can check it out at www.JodiTivey.com!

Wow, I am still a little in shock that I have actually followed through with this whole business thing…it feels like a dream and yes, I have very sweaty palms and a lump in my throat..but I know it is the right move.  Now don’t worry, this small town girl is not kidding herself…I know it is going to take time to get this business up and going, but I do believe with a lot of hard work it will be successful.  I just have one of those gut feelings and I know this is the path for me…very much less traveled for me and our local area, but it is my path nonetheless.  I just need to HAVE FAITH and lots and lots of PATIENCE!

I also know that the virtual assistant business is new to our smaller towns and local area and that the majority of my business will come via the internet.  BUT, I also know our communities are full of small business owners who are feeling very overwhelmed with the small day to day tasks of running a business and that many of them find themselves working late into the evenings, weekends and/or find themselves still missing out on family/friend events because they have those tasks to finish.  And, I also know many of them cannot justify hiring a part-time or full-time employee to do those tasks for them, but yet their current employees already have enough on their plate. 

That’s where I come in.  Think of me as a “temp-type service.”  I can help these small business owners out with those tasks.  Most tasks can be handled via email/internet and by using Microsoft Word and other software programs, and for those tasks that can’t be handled that way, I can run down and pick up whatever task it might be, bring it home with me, finish it up for them and then deliver it back to them!  Whether it is a one time task/project or a recurring one, I can help!  Can you tell how excited I am? 

Please feel free to share my page, www.JodiTivey.com with all of your friends and family and anyone you think might benefit from my services…or from Corina’s for that matter.  She is super easy to work with and amazing at her job.  Check her out at www.corinawentzel.com!

So, in the meantime, it’s back to the tasks at hand…working my part-time Solamar Marketing Agency (www.Solamarmarketing.com) job that I love, helping out this month at Eat’s N Treats (thanks Joyce and Nicole for helping me out too with a little extra cash to fill in the gaps!) and now…promoting my business and doing the best I can.  And, if it doesn’t end up being successful…then what?  Then this small town girl will regroup, search my soul and pray a little harder and move on knowing that at least I was willing to take that leap of faith and put it into action, and not just dream about it!! 

Thanks to all of you, my dear GAAW’s and other followers we now have, for encouraging me through all of this and thanks to my dear wonderful family and friends.  I love you all…thanks for believing in me.  And to my dear Chelsea Perkins Moser and the entire Solamar Marketing Agency team…thank you for giving this small town girl the confidence to move into the virtual world and for helping me take the leap!

~with all my love…jodi

“Taking the path less traveled.”

What does this mean to you?  The path less traveled… Take a few minutes to think twice about this and then see how you can apply it to your life in different ways.  Does taking the path less traveled feel uncomfortable to you or scare you?  It sure as heck does me, but guess what…I am doing it!

Yep, this small town girl has definitely been taking the path less traveled the last few months since making the decision to quit her full time job and take a gigantic leap of faith to follow her heart and move on into the big, vast, scary virtual assistance world!! Definitely not a path I saw myself going down at the beginning of this year, and yes, I am still scared to death BUT, I have no regrets! I am learning so much –thanks to my dear Chelsea Perkins Moser and all of my amazing coworkers at Solamar Marketing Agency.  There is no way to thank them enough for putting up with this ole Ma in their world, but without them, I would have never taken the steps I am taking to venture out in this path less traveled… FOR ME.  I truly believe God has chosen a path for me, and I am honestly starting to see it…I really am…and I am truly excited.  I just need to learn patience…and for those of you who know me well know that my patience really stinks!! Chelsea is bringing me in as many hours as possible and has given my name out to a few clients, and another amazing coworker is also sending work my way and helping me come up with ways to learn the ropes and promote myself! I am truly blessed. 

However, as often happens with that path less traveled, there are no guarantees and I have left behind the luxury (ha) of a full time paycheck and am taking a chance that I can promote myself enough in this world and in my small town (I hope!!) that I will soon have tons of work and hours pouring in.  And I have left behind the stress and anxiety of my old job…and am starting to find ME again!  In the meantime, yep…still scared, still unsure, still not a 40 hour week…actually less than half of that…but once again, no regrets! 

Why am I telling you this?  And why do I encourage you to take the path less traveled?  Because it is an amazing feeling to truly do something you WANT to do and not just think about it… even though it scares the crap out of you, makes you feel uncomfortable and yes, even though there are no guarantees.  Even though I can’t control the work or hours coming my way at this point and I am starting to freak out about how I am going to pay the bills, I am learning to go outside my comfort zone and learn new things, try new things, explore things I never thought I would….and in return I am learning a whole new side to myself, a new level of confidence (thanks Chelsea!), and I am once again excited about something!  (And seriously, what’s the worst that can happen?  It doesn’t work and I can’t make it and I go broke, lol?  Oh well, I then put my big girl pants on knowing I gave it my best and find another job.  I have no doubt my small town that I truly love would provide me a job somewhere, or even some hours here and there to fill in the gaps for a while.  To me, that is not failing.)  And….the main reason I am telling you all of this….is that if this small town girl can take a huge leap of faith in the virtual assistance world at the ripe ole age of 40 and work with all of these youngens….then YOU can do the same…YOU can take that path less traveled you have been thinking about.  Okay, so maybe your path less traveled isn’t quite as such a huge leap as mine, but….doesn’t the thought of taking the steps down your path excite you just a little bit??

(For a few inspiring articles concerning the path less traveled, please go sign up for Solamar’s newest ezine to come out on Wednesday, Sept 1 by following the link  http://tinyurl.com/25nxegm.  It is one of my favorites..and again..you won’t regret it! If you can’t access the link, just send me an email to jt@solamarmarketing.com with your full name and email address you would like to have it sent to and I will get it added for you.)

Jodi turned the big 4-0 yesterday!  Many changes are coming her way and she is taking huge leaps of faith.  She has been super busy with many things and I am going to do my best to step it up and help her out more with the blog/website.
Post a little comment for Miss Jodi Ann and let her know you were thinking of her yesterday and if you just found out that it was her birthday, then say Happy Birthday to make her birthday week last longer.

Hi everyone! My goodness it has been a while since I have reported on small town girl versus the virtual world! I even had to read back through the old posts to see where I left off!

Since my last update, I did my first transcription for a client outside of Solamar Marketing Agency ( http://solamarmarketing.com ) whom Chelsea was gracious enough to send my way, so I am hoping that that leads to more work my way eventually but I do have to say that I can already tell that I want to  reserve most of my time for Solamar work. It is amazing and so much fun. As I keep saying over and over (sorry!), I just never know what Chelsea and Jess might send my way to my inbox!! It can be anything from a quick appointment to make in the calendar for Chelsea, to what should be a quick call to schedule an appointment of some sort that ends up taking multiple attempts due to our dear Chelsea’s CRAZY schedule, or a need to change a ’hypothetically speaking’ incorrect time zone entry in the calendar by a certain small town girl who shall remain anonymous! LOL. (And by the way, I have to say I have thee most forgiving and patient boss!) And then there are the emails with the audio for the monthly calls I get to transcribe that can lead to up to 8 hours of work! This week Chelsea has sent a few new things my way and I am so excited! Jess has been working on creating an Ezine for Solamar, which is an online newsletter that you receive via email, and I get to team up with Jess and work with her on that! Win-win for me..something new AND I get to work on something else with Jess! I also get to work with Jess on a project for HelpChelseaGive.org.

One thing that I am still trying to learn, is to stop rambling and babbling so much in Solamar emails! Big surprise, huh? It works fine for the blog and emails to my family and friends, but I am learning that in the virtual world it is much easier and less time consuming for all concerned to keep emails short and to the point! Not an easy task for this rambling and babbling small town girl! Seriously, can you imagine being in the virtual world and being so used to working at  a fast pace, receiving lots of emails, sending lots of emails and needing and wanting only necessary information and then all of a sudden getting these small town girl version emails?

Hypothetical example:

Virtual World Email:

Would you please combine all of those testimonials into one Word document?

Virtual World Reply would have been:

Yes.

Small Town Girl Reply would have been:

I would love too. When do you need it by? I will work on it tonight and send it to you tomorrow. Please let me know if you need it sooner. Hope you are having a great day! Yadda, yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah.

Get my drift? LOL

And speaking of the small town girl rambling and babbling, that brings me to the www.touchingyourheart.net blog.   If you haven’t registered yet for automatic email updates, please do so. You can select which parts of the blog you prefer to receive updates on and which ones you would rather not. Trust us, it doesn’t hurt our feelings at all. We don’t believe in cluttering up your inbox with stuff you don’t want. We prefer to inspire you and bring a smile to your face with the stuff you enjoy the most! Just browse through this blog or click on the following link for instructions…there is a short simple version and a more in depth version. Pick which one works best for you! Register, Login, Subscribe… If you need help doing this, please email me at mjativey@ndsupernet.com and either Robin or I will set it up for you!

Wishing you all a great week! Keep your eyes open to your email…you just never know when this rambling babbling small town girl and her amazing neighbor-family-friend might be sending something your way!

What time zone do I work in? Praying Chelsea is where she is supposed to be.

Hi again everyone!! It has been another week full of learning new things in the virtual world! This small town brain of mine is about to burst!! (Ha-not quite but getting close!)

The main thing I have noticed this week is that I AM ADDICTED TO MY SOLAMAR EMAIL! Yep, I really am. (As if I haven’t been totally addicted to any kind of email anyway, right?) My part-time job revolves around my email. Simply put…if there is no email from Chelsea or Jessica (virtual world), then this small town girl has no work to do.  And obviously on the flip side of that, if there IS email, then I have work to do. Yippee for me! That is what is so exciting… the adventure, the never knowing what type of work might pop into that inbox or when…the thrill and excitement of getting to try new things, or the feeling of accomplishment if I did something right. (Yep, I do get a few things right now and then! HA)  And of course after the thrill and excitement of having something in my inbox…are  those long boring times of an empty inbox!  (But then that does mean more time to work on our blog, my house….and oh yea..my full-time job!)

Speaking of learning new things….I now know there is no such thing as just a simple calendar entry. Nope, not a chance. Let’s hypothetically say that you are entering in a trip/flight for someone. Do you realize how many steps there are to a one-way flight, let alone a round trip??? Good Lord! Not only is there the actual flight times to track and the details of that flight (flight number, times, etc), but you have to account for travel time to the airport and travel time to your destination (hotel/home) once your plane lands! Hello!!! And…mind you…..TIME ZONES!!! Hello, when you have a busy little traveler you are planning for, they travel MANY different time zones!! Trust me, I am hypothetically starting a time zone cheat sheet!! Lesson learned…nothing is as simple as it may seem!

As for the touchingyourheart.net blog…it’s kind of holding it’s own right now, but that is a good thing.  Robin and I haven’t had much time to get together and brainstorm or try anything new lately, but of course you will be the first to know when we do.  We just hope that our blog continues to inspire you and to put a smile on your face! If there is anything you would like to see on the blog, please leave a comment or drop us a line at mjativey@ndsupernet.com. Remember, this site is for YOU! (and okay, maybe just a teeny tiny bit for us too~ the comments make us feel really good and keep us inspired, so keep them coming!) We have had a few of you sign up on the blog for automatic email updates and are hoping more of you will do that. The instructions are still listed here on the blog under Register, Login, Subscribe… and unlike my calendar story above, this is actually a very SIMPLE process! It won’t take you long at all! I promise.

Well my friends, that’s all for now….I really feel the need to check my Solamar email….will there be work, or won’t there?….(hold on..checking for only the 30th time or so today….)  Darn..nothing! …Chelsea….Jessica..are you out there in cyberspace somewhere?? Or…maybe I better check the calendar…maybe I scheduled them in the wrong time zone and have them flying somewhere they shouldn’t be-besides cyberspace!  (I am in a completely different time zone than them, so an honest mistake could be made, right?) Can you say…..fired!! (just kidding!!)

“Upload Prayer….Download Peace.”

(quote taken from a notepad dear Robin gave me)

~A personal message from Jodi~

Virtual World: Ping Me

Small Town Girl: Um, what is Ping?

Virtual World: Oh, that’s the chat in the Google Email.

~~~~~

Small Town Girl:  How often should I check my email?

Virtual World: Do you have a Blackberry?

Small Town Girl: Nope, but my daughter does! But, I can text!!

~~~~~

Virtual World:  Do you Facebook and Twitter?

Small Town Girl: Oh, I definitely Facebook, but have never Twittered!

~~~~~

Ping, Blackberry…. MP3 files, email subscriber lists…..Ah….small town girl meets the virtual world!! Those are just a few of the phrases/words I have encountered over the past week in my debut into the virtual world with my new part-time job at Solamar Marketing Agency and with the touchingyourheart.net blog.  My head has been spinning with excitement of learning new things and yes at times I have had feelings of being overwhemed when I encouter something out of my comfort zone.  And, might I add, I am definitely feeling like the ole Ma out here in the virtual world, but I am blessed to have so many great youngens to work with! (And trust me, Ma is not a title I cringe at…it is a term of endearment to me as my hubby started calling me that years ago, and the name just stuck from there throughout couples volleyball, with our friends and family, etc…and Mike and I always referred to his mom as Ma when she was alive.) 

I am so blessed to have two amazing virtual world things going on in my life right now…Solamar Marketing AND touchingyourheart.net. Not too shabby for a small town girl, huh? Some exciting things have happened this last week.  I have been able to work on some transcription/research work for Solamar for a client whose website I follow and love! How neat is that!! Super cool! And, Robin and I figured out how to make automatic updates work for the touchingyourheart.net blog! We have been trying to figure that out for ages and we finally did it!! Babysteps…progress…what a great feeling.

I am truly blessed, in so many ways, and I do not take any of it for granted. I know WHO is helping guide me through these processes and when I start to feel overwhelmed, I take a deep breath…and just remember…upload prayers….download peace!  And that my friends, is something you can do no matter who you are, virtual world or small town girl!

~with all my love~jodi