As I bid farewell to another incredible year, I invite you to join me in reflecting on the milestones, challenges, and triumphs that have shaped my journey this year. I am living my dream! I have always wanted to write about the things I love, and I am just getting started. My first year as a See Beyond Magazine author is coming to a close, and I have enjoyed every minute of it.
My first article was about our mini farm with chickens. We have since lost those older hens. They went home to chicken paradise. Now, we have new additions to our flock. I bought fertilized eggs from a local breeder. We allowed one of our hens, Ethel, to lay on the eggs when she was broody. Out of four eggs, we gained two hens. Ethel took her job very seriously and protected them even from us, never allowing us to get close. It was quite an experience.
About three weeks after the baby chicks hatched, I was told that an ordinance changed and we were now allowed to have a rooster. I didn’t hesitate. We named him Cayente. He is two weeks older than our babies.
We had heard nightmare stories about owning a rooster. YouTube and Instagram videos show many people making their roosters inside pets, for early bonding. I thought that was worth a try. I use leftover child-sized covid face masks to diaper Cayente when he is in the house. It’s quite comical. But we really had nothing to worry about. Cayente is not at all a macho rooster. He’s very tame, like his daddy. In fact, when a hawk flew onto our property, trembling Cayente hid behind Pepper, Ethel and Taffy, three brave hens that formed a wall of defense against the foe. Of course, I ran out right away when I heard the frantic, ear-piercing clucking. Luckily, no one got hurt.
Every morning, I get up hours before Cayente.
My family and neighbors think that’s hilarious. But just because he likes to sleep in doesn’t mean he’s not a busy little guy. Just a couple of weeks ago, my son saw two new baby chicks running around with Lucy. Cayente can’t deny those are his.
Lucy is a social mommy. She lets me hangout with her chicks. I can pet them and pick them up. We see tremendous flock growth in our future.
As the year went by, I continued working with new and returning business owners as a publicist. When you hire a publicist, you pay for their expertise, and they utilize the relationships they have built over the years to help you take your business to the next level. Becoming a publicist was not part of my plan. A past guest on my radio show asked me to promote his boardgame company. This was new and different. But just because you’ve never done something doesn’t mean you can’t.
This would be a great collaboration as I am a board game geek and knew the top Youtube Influencers that would be ideal for promoting my client’s games. I also knew that this would be of interest to former Saturday Night Live alumni, Joe Piscopo. So I secured media placements and a radio interview on Piscopo’s show. His testimonial is on my site. As a publicist, I have built long-lasting relationships in this industry. It turned out to be a great fit for me and my client. A new career was born.
Despite enjoying work as a publicist, I still wasn’t done. We are meant to find our purpose, live it, and inspire others. You see, it’s in my DNA to help others. Feeling the need to do more began when business owners would tell me about their needs, mostly to get noticed locally and on a larger scale. I offered my services but many didn’t even have a budget for publicity. Small business is still recovering from covid. The ones that are open are very lucky.
Small business people are amazing. They work hard at their craft or service. But many don’t know how to get known, seen, and frequented. Of course not. That’s the job of a publicist. When they don’t have the money for this service, growth can be very slow. Word-of-mouth alone is not enough. So I decided to write a mini book of media tips to help small business owners get started on their own.
At this time, the manuscript for the first book of my Can We Connect?! series was finished. Next year, after the last few publishing steps, Can We Connect?!: The Ultimate Guide to Being an Effective Connector will be released. When I was inspired to write the mini book of media tips, the sense of urgency rushed me to publish early, before the original “first” book. Afterwards, a few people mentioned that every book in a series should start with the same title. I hadn’t done that. I didn’t even think of this. I’m a publicist, not a publisher. I re-published my mini media tips book, now the first of the series, under this title: Can We Connect?!: Unlocking the Power of Media Relationships and Visibility for Your Business, available on Elevated Connections Agency website and soon via Amazon, in paperback and eBook. This has been a learning curve. I have come to understand the need to run ideas by people with different areas of expertise and not to fear taking a step back. Sometimes a do-over is the right thing to do.
It’s also important to keep your eyes open to opportunities no matter how set you think you are. Social media was a big part of my success in radio. [More in next year’s book!] And it continues to play a part in my current career. Two of my See Beyond Magazine articles have been about entrepreneurs I met on social media. Next year, I will write about Ron Crosthwaite, who found me in a Facebook group that focuses on the first families of California. He literally tracked me down to get my phone number.
As we talked, I realized that we were related. Ron is Randy Osuna’s brother. I met Randy about a year ago when he popped up as a DNA match for me on Ancestry. The brothers and I are second cousins once removed. It can be confusing. California’s first families are all intertwined through marriage and by blood. Someday, I need to write an article about my family.
Ron’s recently released historical fiction The Undone is based on real people and events covering the dramatic history and lore of early California from the mid-1700’s until statehood in 1850. These stories represent seven generations of the author’s family history. His book was hard to put down! It has lots of information on where things happened in California and what led them to create Los Angeles. He also included the tragic story of a beautiful Spanish señorita and her Russian lover, adding to the iconic stories of romance in the days of the Spanish Dons. I highly recommend this book.
Here’s another something new that’s kind of a throwback: I started up my show again. Over the years, business owners have been telling me that they miss my radio show. But this time, I’ll be on YouTube and other platforms instead. Plus, it will be a different format, a reality show mixed with a television talk show structure. I am excited to return to what I love: interviewing entrepreneurs and spotlighting their business.
In my career, I have amassed over 16K archived shows and interviewed over 8K business owners across the nation and around the world. I took my past show on the road and was contracted and hired to cover events as media. [More in next year’s book!] Check out my Elevated Connections Agency LLC channel on Youtube. For more about me, go to Elevated Connections Agency website.
The beginning of a new year is a great time to take stock and reconsider goals. Keep an open mind. Afterall, I am tickled to be doing two things I never thought I could juggle: writing for a magazine and hosting a show. We should never box ourselves in. Always keep learning. And if I can help, let me know.
