Yes I know, this is the long weekend in Canada, Canada Day in fact, but a sole proprietors work is never done as they say. An excellent opportunity has come my way, an opportunity I must say I worked hard for and did not just arrive in my email as if by magic. As I am now recognized as an expert in some areas of Health & Wellness, Prevention, Early Detection, Awareness, to name a few areas, my clients look to me to offer keynotes and workshops in this area.
In the early days of building Motivational Steps I have no shame in admitting no one who really mattered in the business world knew who Linda Ockwell-Jenner was, let alone that I was the President of Motivational Steps. Networking in every aspect of the word has paid off for me, slow but sure, patience being a big part of this and now I am happy to say quite a lot of influential people are aware of me and my business.
Another really important piece of the foundation used to build my business was, or is, my partner in life and in business, my husband Dave Ockwell-Jenner. I do not use the term piece lightly, Dave has been and is still an integral part of the foundations and success of Motivational Steps in more ways than one. Dave is a very clever guy, he built his first computer when he was 5 and soon became aware he was gifted in the area of computers, web, IT in general and worked with his gift to get to where he is today. He did start young, I do admit, and he worked for Nortel Networks in the school holidays, and they soon recognised his talent and sponsored him through the University of Bath. He was safe in the knowledge he had a job to walk straight into at Nortel in Paignton, and he decided to take up the offer and enjoyed his time working with Nortel. He became a member of the World Wide Web and early on his interest was in security, but he put that on hold until he was ready to share his knowledge with the world.
Dave came to Canada to work for Nortel in Brampton and also to be with me, as his future wife. It was at this time I was counting the days to being cancer free for 3 years, but unfortunately, I was diagnosed with breast cancer in my other breast a couple of months after Dave arrived in Canada. This put a tremendous strain on every aspect of our life, Dave had just started his new job with Nortel, and we also had my 4 children to take care off. Because I had been through breast cancer in 1997 and came out the other end I knew that we would get through this, so did Dave and the children. A couple of months after having a double mastectomy I went back to school for 1 year, and within 2 weeks of being there I discovered my true vocation and that is when Motivational Steps was born!
I could not have built a website like Dave did for my business, it would have been an ok website if I had to do it but not a professiona looking one with all the flutes and whilstles as they say. Dave came up with the idea of of offering a monthly newsletter, which is called Stepping Stone and is celebrating its 5th year anniversary in August 2008. Dave also came home 3 years ago to inform me that the newest thing that would take off big time was Podcasting. I was one of the first professional speakers to offer a twice monthly Podcast and the subscribers keep growing daily. Just an idea that Dave and I work as a team, but without some of his expertise in the things I know very little about I would not have been able to grow my business in quite the same was as I have.
As with any business I have my quiet times and one of those times was when I had to rest for 6 weeks after a total hysterectomy. I was in a lot of pain and quite moody and mean at that time, I wonder how my family pup up with me. Dave suggested that I start work on that book I had always wanted to do and hey presto I became a published author 9 months later and hosted a successful book launch. My book, A Life Like Mine, is not into it's 2nd edition and I am very proud of this achievement and I am working on two more books.
I also entered the world of consulting and business and personal development, another area of my business that fits in with my expertise and I love to do. My clients recognize that I did not learn everything I know from a book and personal experiences and challenges I have encountered are part of what makes me excellent at what I do.
Then came the time when I experienced even more health challenges, had the all clear, but realised that it was time for reconstruction after 8 years of being breastless. It takes time, the process was started December 2007, and was only finished recently, May in fact. I knew I had to plan for this quiet time as I like to call the times when I am not doing what I am passionate about more than anything, offering keynotes, up there on the stage to hundreds of people, inspiring them! All the other aspects of my business, Stepping Stone, my newsletter, Motivational Moments, my podcast, my consulting, writing my books can be done anywhere, in bed, in my office on a train in fact.
I realised that I could offer my services as a speaker via web seminars along with a power point presentation. I would still be doing something I loved just not in front of an audience as such who were all in the same room as me. Again I had chosen to diversify and stay within my alloted skill set, and I was so excited at the prospect. At first I concentrated on Health & Wellness Web Seminars and these yielded the individual clients, and then I worked on Building Your Small Business Web Seminars, which again at first meant the individual clients. Once the referrals started gaining pace and Google picked up on my new offering smaller companies were hiring me to offer Web Seminars to groups of their employees.
Web Seminars are very cost effective as there are no travel expenses, they can be offered during any time of the day and evenings and even weekends. The organizations who hire me for their employees realise the benefits I offer and before long I realised I had another successful piece of my business in place.
September is almost upon us and that brings for me the chance to do what I love to do more than anything, stand up there on the stage and offer one of my keynotes. I am a people person and everyone knows that, my English accent is well liked and my honest and one on one interraction are all things my audience like about me. At the moment I am working on a new keynote that I am tailoring to fit my clients needs and excited that soon it will be finished and I can look forward to September even more knowing I am fully parepared for a busy Fall. October is always a very busy time for me, not just because it is breast cancer awareness month but also because that is when conferences are in full swing and employee appreciation events are also quite popular at this time of the year.
I am already thinking about new offerings for Motivational Steps, at the same time taking advantage off all the social networking opportunities out there where I can network and also raise more exposure for my business! Life is wonderful and it is a life I worked hard to create and I will continue to work hard and also take time to balance my life so that I do have time for my family and friends. Even though this long weekend is a busy weekend for me I will take time off the following weekend and spend some quality time with Dave as we celebrate our 4th Wedding Anniversary in a Hotel taking a much need break away from work.
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