You might remember, last year Meta hired me to make Instagram Reels. I had to make 5 Reels each day and I threw myself into it. After all, I was already doing social media so I might as well get paid fr it, right? Well, that turned out to be a bust. I did make money and that was great, and sometimes I still get payouts for content from Meta, but it really hurt my engagement. Like, it PLUMMETED to a tenth of what it had been. Why did this happen? I have no idea. At the time I wondered if Meta was hiding my Reels so they wouldn't have to pay me since the payment was based on the amount of views and engagement. Just before Christmas last year they announced they were ending the program, so I think it must not have been working for them either. Then they rolled out their verification program, which you have to pay for just like Twitter's. I am refusing to pay for it because it's a terrible way to authenticate accounts, which was proven when someone made a fake Elon Musk account and paid to get it verified and started trolling him constantly. (But don't think I feel sorry for him; I think he got exactly what he deserved. I can't stand that guy). So then I thought maybe they are restricting traffic to unpaid accounts. If you've been in business for a long time you can remember a time before social media, when you just ran your business. I have mixed feelings about it; on the one hand, social media is incredibly valuable. I can still remember when I started writing my blog and then posted about it to Pinterest, how my business just blew up. That was all free, just sweat equity, and it's still more effective than any paid advertising I've ever tried. On the other hand, the amount of time you have to spend seems ever-expanding. When there was only blogging and Pinterest it was no big deal, but now there's blogging and podcasting and YouTube and TikTok and Tumblr and Instagram and Facebook (both groups and pages). My various coaches advise 3-5 Instagram Stories per day, at least one Live (typically filmed on Facebook and shared to Instagram and YouTube), at least one Reel or Short, and Instagram Carousel posts too. Then there are the platform requests. Right now Instagram is asking creators to make at least one Story per day. TikTok and YouTube have both contacted me asking for more long-format videos (why I don't know, since mine get virtually zero views). TikTok is really pushing creators to sell things in their "TikTok Shop"... it's just endless. So I was really happy to discover Eric Thayne during the One Funnel Away Challenge. Eric has one framework he uses to create one post each day, which he then shares to three platforms. It's SO much easier and his clients are getting great results. His free Year of Content class is happening right now. If you missed the first couple days it's okay; he sends out replays. Just hit the button for his Instagram profile; the class registration is his link in bio. This is NOT a paid post; I just wanted to share a class that's helping me feel free of the onerous requirements I've been laboring under. And if you're wondering about One Funnel Away, I can't recommend it enough! Besides 30 days of class walking you through building a funnel (with LIVE training!) you also get several free software accounts to help you with everything from video editing to copywriting and business training. Then you get bonus days with more training on ad creation, social media content creation, and using influencer marketing. The course is only $100, just an amazing value, and you get lifetime access to it as long as you're a ClickFunnels member. I AM a ClickFunnels affiliate, which means if you sign up for ClickFunnels with my link I may get a payment. There's no cost to you!
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Do you want to feel happier in 2024? Me too, so I'm doing a thing. Every day I'm just coming up with as many positive things in any situation.
2023 knocked us down, big time. We decide to remodel our kitchen after saving up for 10 years. Literally a few days after we ordered the materials and new countertops... our son broke both wrists, our water heater died, our furnace died, our air conditioner died, and then our daughter's first tuition payment was due. Then for a finale, my mother got a possible cancer diagnosis and our cat got a heart disease diagnosis for which there's really no treatment. We needed a way to pick ourselves back up. Do you want to join me in this project? Should I make it into a challenge? Every day, please tag me with your "happy" list. After I made the video above I thought of a few more things to be happy about: I got my social media done in the down time and my son told me all kinds of things about his life during the commute, so it's an opportunity for us to be closer. Also, if you want to learn to monetize your talents and work for yourself like I did, get my ebook for free, by clicking the button below: Each New Year's Day we eat our lucky foods to make sure we have luck in the new year. Our foods are traditional for luck in the Midwest (sauerkraut ), South (black eyed peas) and China (noodles and oranges) to represent all our family roots. Sauerkraut is for cash money and black eyed peas are for coins. Noodles are for a long life and oranges are for a sweet life. This year we made the sauerkraut into a sausage Alfredo casserole and every year we make "Carolina Caviar" with the black eyed peas. We had noodles and rice in a cream of chicken sauce. Just in case you want to try your luck with the Carolina Caviar, I'm sharing my recipe, a family favorite for many years! Carolina Caviar
1 can black eyed peas, drained 1 can corn, drained 1 small jar (about 1/3 cup) diced pimentos, drained 1 TBSP minced garlic 1 small sweet onion, chopped 1 TBSP Italian seasoning 3/4 C olive oil 1/4 C white wine vinegar 1 tsp lemon juice 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp black pepper 1 tsp red pepper flakes 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp onion powder Mix all ingredients and chill in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before serving. Serves 8-10 Just a couple more days to save! My eBay & Etsy shops are on sale with the deepest discounts of the year. Link from the Home page to all my shops. I will resume shipping orders on January 2nd. Happy New Year!
Something you might not know about me, unless you’ve been reading my blog for many years ~ I’m a California girl, originally. I was born in Northern CA. My dad was an optometrist by trade but a scuba diver at heart. He closed his office every Thursday at noon and we would head for the beach where he spent each weekend diving for abalone. I didn’t find out until adulthood abalone is an expensive delicacy; we ate it like hamburger! My mom would say, “I don’t know what to have for supper tonight; I guess we’ll have abalone.” It was a beautiful life. But when I was three my dad died in a freak pool party accident (only in California, right?) and we moved to my grandparents’ house in Ohio. I stayed really close to my grandparents for the rest of their lives and after we moved to North Carolina we always traveled back “home” for Christmas. The road to Ohio took us through misty Appalachian hollows and huge cities, through flat plains and rolling hills. Everywhere, though, were Christmas decorations. Lit-up crosses high on mountain peaks. City boulevards festooned with lighted garlands. Lone blue stars shining from the tops of grain silos.
It always struck me, the sense of community. Everywhere, in every way, people bringing light to the darkness. No matter whether you celebrate Christmas or not, it’s no coincidence every winter religious holiday from Hanukkah to Diwali honors illumination. The days are dark and short, the nights long and even darker. After my grandparents died my husband and I agreed to stay home for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, giving our children the chance I rarely had, to hang their stockings on their own mantle and open their presents under their tree they helped decorate. We travel to see their grandparents and cousins after breakfast and presents on Christmas Day. Still, each Christmas Eve, that old sense of adventure steals over me. That feeling of journeying through the darkness, peeking into others’ celebrations, enjoying their decorations, wondering about their everyday lives when the sun is bright and the baubles packed away. That feeling of solidarity with strangers. This Christmas Eve, no matter what holiday you celebrate, I wish for you to feel that solidarity, that togetherness. We will light our candles and eat our rØmmegrot (“cream porridge” my Norwegian-American grandparents’ traditional Christmas Eve supper) and I hope you feel the warmth of my regard in your heart. It’s a magical night, when anything might be around the corner. What will you find in your stocking? What might you see on your travels? Who might you meet? Please know I am thinking of you and wishing you that sense of anticipation as well as all the joy of the season. Merry Christmas! You still have time to get one of the coolest bundle of author tools I have ever seen! https://authorsuperbundle.com/?orid=460625 Even if you're not yet an author, you could be! Have you always dreamed of a career as a writer? This is your chance! I realized my dream and not only published three books but started my own boutique publishing company, Mandaline Press, using these tools. Imagine where you could be one year from now, a published writer in 2024. Know any aspiring writers? Give them the gift of their dream career this holiday! With lifetime access to this special bundle, you'll get everything you need to write, publish, market, and promote your book. You'll get tools that do the work of character creation, design, marketing, and so much more - in mere minutes. Take a second to visit the website so you can get a good understanding of what all is included (plus it has pictures 🙂). *This post is sponsored by Author Super Bundle Here’s a brief rundown of some of the things inside:
Lifetime Access Software: AuthorKeywords.com Book Promotion with The ReaderBliss Author Network ProCast Tools TestimonialGraphics.com CharacterCreator (Character descriptions and images instantly generated powered by AI) Courses Self-Publishing Business Toolkit The 4 Foundational Pillars of Novel Structure Author Blogging Masterclass Create and Sell a Profitable Online Product How to Write a Short Book Fast Easier Book Marketing Book Launches Simplified Bestselling Blurbs Sizzling Headlines 60 days to Writing a Commercially Successful Novel Services Coaching Brainstorming Calls Coaching Call with USA Today Bestselling Romance Author Donna Barker Book Marketing Brainstorming Session with Susan Friedman Circulate your book ad on the Readerbliss.com network of AuthorBlogs Templates 5 Media-kit Templates Video Trailer templates 200+ PSD Book Cover Templates 1000 Author Social Media Graphics Guides & eBooks Writer's Process & the Writer's Process Workbook Build Book Buzz with Book Reviews Pre-Order Bonuses that Actually Convert The Definitive Author’s Toolkit There’s a video at the top of the page that gives an overview of some of the amazing products and offers. Hope you are able to take advantage of this great offer! Oh and use SUPERDISCOUNT at checkout to save more on the total price! Here's my Christmas Doll Challenge result: this Gambina cheerleader doll was a gift from my grandmother around 1985 when I became a cheerleader. It was displayed in my room for years and then I passed it on to my daughter, who displayed it in her room. Over time the vinyl face faded. My daughter and I decided it's time to pass the doll on to another special girl. See how to re-blush faded vinyl dolls and make other repairs in The Christmas Doll Challenge group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1479326626218612 Christmas is just one week away but that means you still have plenty of time to complete the Christmas Doll Challenge or the Christmas Cash Challenge or both!
Imagine yourself on Christmas morning, gifting your precious doll as a family heirloom or flush with cash to shop the big after-Christmas sales. It's possible, but time is running out! Most of you know I’m obsessed with Harry Potter ~ like if I ever win the lottery I might not tell anyone but you might notice the replica Hogwarts Castle I live in!
Well, I am equally a fan of the new Jumanji movies. It’s odd because I really didn’t like the first one all that much. I had the book and was excited when the movie came out but after watching it I was kind of “meh” about it. I haven’t actually watched since back then so maybe I should revisit it because I went into Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle thinking my kids would like it but I would be similarly unmoved. However, I LOVED it. It was transformational for me. I know that’s weird, but here’s the part that really struck me: Throughout the movie there’s an emphasis on chasing your “guy” or video game avatar. I don’t want to ruin the plot if you haven’t seen it (and if you haven’t you need to RUN and watch both the new ones right away!) but everyone chooses an avatar to play the video game. There are only so may, right, and they all have different strengths and weaknesses. Some avatars aren’t at all as expected and their people feel a lot of jealousy and resentment as they have to really work to appreciate their avatar’s (and their OWN) strengths and rely and trust their companions with complimentary skills. The message is, they all have a particular skillset that works only with the other characters’ skills. If they can’t find a way to work together and appreciate their own unique assets they will fail. Then at the end some of the people consider whether they can take their avatar back into the real world with them ~ can they “be like this” in their own lives? Coincidentally, over Thanksgiving we watched Jumanji at my parents’ house and then the other day I watched Regan Hillyer https://www.youtube.com/@ReganHillyerCoach give a talk. I am taking Regan’s course, The Art of Manifesting through Mindvalley right now but you can watch her on YouTube for free. Regan said just one thing that was so impactful for me: she came out on stage and she was walking all kind of bent over or cringing. She started to talk and she seemed really nervous and scared and hesitant. Then she stood up straight and she asked, “If I came out on stage like this would you listen to anything I had to say? Would you ever take my advice?” That hit me and I thought of course not! Regan’s point is the way we are showing up in life ~ the “guy” we’re inhabiting ~ has an enormous effect on the level of success we achieve. It made me ask myself, who am I showing up as? Can I “be like this” (my perfect self avatar) in everyday life? The other day I had to place a second printing order for my The Ultimate Zucchini Cookbook. I sell these as signed copies through my website and also unsigned from Amazon. I am sold out of my first printing of my signed author copies (yay! Thanks to everyone who ordered!). As I checked over my order before submitting it I saw my little author blurb on the back: “Amanda lives with her family in the Lake Norman and Blue Ridge areas of North Carolina.” I am a serious bibliophile. It’s a problem; we have floor to ceiling bookcases in several rooms and they’re all full, so we also have books stacked all over the place, like tables and even the floor. One of my big recent projects has been going through them and listing some for sale that I decided I could let go. I donated some to our neighborhood Little Free Library as well. That was hard for me! Do you have that problem? Anyway, ever since I was a little girl I have noticed how many authors’ blurbs on book jackets say things like, “So and So lives with her family in Paradise beach and Gorgeous Mountain” or “splits her time between Italy and Wales” and stuff like that. And I would always kind of roll my eyes and think, well wouldn’t THAT be nice? The thought of just being a writer, working from anywhere, having the freedom to travel, has always seemed like the ideal lifestyle to me. At that moment, reading my book blurb I was struck with the fact that I DID IT! I now have that life! I can’t split my time equally between our lake house and mountain cabin because my husband still has to work and our son is still in high school, but we go up to the cabin as often as possible. I work up there on my writing quite a bit because our wifi signal is very spotty so I can’t usually work online. It’s a great place to take my manuscripts for editing since it’s distraction-free. But my point is, I imagined this very lifestyle from when I was very young and I manifested it ~ ACCIDENTALLY! How much sooner could I have gotten there if I had been intentional? So my 2024 project is going to be creating my avatar. I am going to sit down and write out all my strengths and weaknesses, just like a video game. I am even going to draw a picture or make a photo collage of how my avatar will look. Then I am going to make a plan to mitigate my weaknesses and work with the strengths of the people around me. I am going to set a target ~ what will I do to “win” my year? And then I am going to intentionally set out to hit it just like I’m playing a video game! So, who’s with me? Who wants to play Mandaline Jumanji? Should I set up a private group for the participants? Let me know in the comment if you’re in! I would love for us all to share our avatars and I really want to see yours and hear about your 2024 target! Just as an aside, one of my favorite lines in the whole movie is when Nick Jonas asks, “Does phone mean something different in the future?” That cracks me up every time, thinking about how different phones are now than they were in my youth! Do you like the new Jumanji movies? Which is your favorite? And, just a reminder: any orders from my shops need to be placed before 9PM tonight to be shipped standard for Christmas delivery. After tomorrow, the 16th, orders shipped Priority Express must go out by 12/21 to arrive by Christmas. Do you ever feel like you're different than everyone around you? Do you follow your own path, to the consternation of certain relatives or friends? It's the time of year when you hear all about it, right? How are you coping? If I had walked into my high school career counselor's office and confidently declared that I dream of teaching people to mend their damaged dolls using easy-to-understand cheat sheet tutorials, an email course, and a book ~ she probably would have spit out her lukewarm cup of Joe in surprise. What an unconventional career aspiration, right? But here's the thing… it would have shocked me too! I was your typical Type A overachiever. I graduated 12th out of 400 people in my high school class. I had dreams of breaking the glass ceiling in publishing. But that was later, after I was conditioned to strive for career glory rather than follow my heart. When I was a little girl I remember people were always asking me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I would always say I wanted to be a mother. “You can't do that!” my grandmother told me, as did my mother (both stay-at-home mothers, but whatever, I guess). I just wanted to be an artist and a mom. When I was in middle school I had a vivid dream I still remember; I found myself on an island heaped with broken toys. All kinds of people were there, crying, wanting their toys fixed. I didn't see it at the time, but now I'm kind of amazed to find myself a doll doctor, fielding near-daily requests to restore people's doll and toys from all over the world! That dream was a premonition, although I didn't realize it. The internet led to the demise of the big publishing houses. Once I became a mother my desire to raise my own children rather than handing them off to day care fulfilled that crazy old dream. I still hear about it, though. We all have at least one person we can't ever please, right? Practically the first thing I heard at Thanksgiving was that “No one wants to buy what I'm selling”. Nevermind it's been my job for over 20 years! I take tremendous joy in receiving heartfelt thank-you messages for restoring those sentimental childhood dolls to their former glory so they can be passed down as cherished family heirlooms. My unique knack for fixing virtually anything isn't just a quirky trait, it's my secret weapon. And over the years I've found teaching others doll repair and entrepreneurship is my other passion. So guess what? I'm beyond grateful that I didn't let the skeptics deter me and chose to pave my own path, even if it's a road less travelled… So, how about YOU? What's your secret weapon? Are you living your passion or still searching for it? I want to know!
And if you haven't exactly lived up to your family's expectations or followed others' well-trodden path, I want to know how you're dealing with it, especially this time of year. It can be hard to go home when all you hear about are your perceived failures (even if you're most definitely NOT a failure). My husband and I own our own BEACH, for heaven's sake; it's not like we're destitute! I think when someone like you, someone really creative, brave, and passionate, rejects the “normal” societal expectations to follow their dreams, it's threatening for people who don't. I think a lot of people know, deep down, they could have done more in their life, but they let fear stop them. When they see you acting without fear they feel FOMO, they get jealous, or they actually feel scared because they're so brainwashed to follow the herd. Whether you’re lying in bed late at night accidentally dropping your phone on your face (sorry about that), stuck in an Uber in traffic (thoughts n’ prayers), bored in the bathroom (we all do it right?), I’m so glad to know you’re out there! You’re the best crew I could ask for and I can’t wait to hear from you! I'm so grateful you’re here on this crazy wild ride with me and I’m so excited to have a medium to share all the ups and downs, tips and tricks, sad times, good times, successes and failures. Hit the comments section and tell me all about how you're doing! |
AuthorMy name is Amanda, but my childhood nickname was "Mandaline". I am a mother of three turning my passion for creating into a full-time business. Archives
April 2024
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