After that job wound down, I was recruited by my local school district to return to teaching. They were anxious to fill a position working with SLD (severely learning disabled) students, and being a single mom, I wanted benefits and more security. I assumed once I settled into the teaching position, I could write at night.

Shortly after the school year began, I found out why the district had to recruit someone for that position–it was the most stressful job I’d ever had. The school administration was totally disorganized, the staff was not helpful and a couple were downright nasty (Due to a support staff member’s rudeness, one mom refused to let that person work with her daughter),I had a lawyer mom who had an ongoing lawsuit with the district and I had to push for months to get textbooks for my kids (The former teacher routinely plugged them into computers.) The upside was, I lost 12 pounds due to stress, and I learned that creativity and caring are no longer valued in special education, only constant testing is what counts.

Don’t mean to sound negative, but it was a heck of a year! Now I’m on my own and lovin’ it.

Very great points on sharing updates that actually give value to the reader. Perhaps it’s something I should focus on, but for my type of business, I just want to be myself. I’m not adding thousands of people to my Twitter list for marketing. That’s something I’d do towards a niche market. In fact, I’d just automate the entire process. I’m focusing on quality rather than quantity.

With my “quality” folks, I’ll simply talk about what I want to talk about. They know what I’m all about (search engine optimization and marketing) so they don’t need to hear from me babbling about my business. Although, from time to time, I do mention things that I talk about in my blog or forum. They’re related to SEO/SEM, but not entirely always about me. Just sometimes .

I still need to make that shift! The thing is its hard to make a shift like that unless you are forced too (layoff, firing) or have to (spouse moving). I know I like working for myself but man do you have to watch the pennies and I don’t feel like I generate anywhere near that ramen noodle level of business to be able to think of quiting my full time job (and i love my full time job). I have definitly set myself a goal of moving to that in the next few years.

However, when I’m not working for Doug Sewell I’m church & mission planting (primarily in Uptown & Downtown Dallas). Planting a ministry is very similar to starting a business – a vision must be cast, a mission must be established, people must be enlisted and equipped, taxes must be paid (ugh), and, like most start-ups, money is usually tight.

I remember restarting a campus ministry three years ago that was grossly underfunded. What we did have was passionate people who would do what it took to see all elements succeed. One of my favorite memories is trying to host an event that ran multiple videos but not being able to access the multimedia station to show the video. We ended up transferring it to an IPOD and recruiting somebody to stand on a table with their arm outstretched to the ceiling-mounted projector, and hotwiring the ipod directly into the projector. Now THAT’S dedication!

You can launch a ministry for a handful of reasons. Some church planters are like disgruntled starbucks employees quitting to open their own coffee shop. I like to think I plant churches and ministries because I observe needs that cannot be met by a large religious institution, and require a smaller and more organic unit of people to do so.