It’s been an interesting two weeks here at the Cottage. Not an easy two weeks either. Starting a business is hard. I know that everyone is now sitting there saying, “Well, duh.”, but no, it’s really hard. Not sleeping, not eating, dreaming about marketing levels of hard. And I love it. Some really good things have happened in two weeks. I’ve had some fabulous clients, who I love dearly. I’ve met some equally wonderful people who I would like to add to their ranks soon. I’ve had one consulting call with a small business coach that changed my whole outlook on things. But today, the craziest, and best thing yet happened.

In the spirit of honesty, I had a pretty terrible day today. I have the flu, and I feel like all of my body fluids are trapped in my head. I realized my whole business model is wrong and I should probably change it (don’t you love those realizations?), and I somewhat grumpily sat down with some pens and a giant art sketchbook to draw out a new model. And then, the coolest thing happened. My blackberry chirped, and there was an email in my box from someone who said that my blog post the other day had inspired her to write one of her own. My own thoughts had helped give her the words she wanted to say. I was floored. I printed out the email and stuck it to the wall, along with my new business plan and model. This is what I’m trying to do. I am a writer, but what I really want is to help people find their words. Ideally, a copywriter finds the words for you, but they should still be the words that come from your heart.

I read Laura’s blog tonight. Laura talks about the fears that writers have in a great way: We think “What’s in front of me is a life of failure and poverty. I will end up living in a mildewed, roach-infested, one-room apartment over someone’s garage, eating tuna from a can on Christmas, like Fonzie did that one time. That’s what I start to think.” This has been me all day.  Until the email, until people signed up for my giveaway (How stupid would I look if no one signed up, right?)  The moral of the story is that starting a business is hard, tiring, and until you get settled, not very monetarily rewarding.  And it’s still totally worth it to me at the end of the day, because of the people who read and comment here and want me to work with them on cool projects.  So thank you to everyone who signed up for the giveaway, commented, has sent me encouraging emails over the past week.  It sounds silly, but I love and value you all so much, and you’re keeping me going through this very scary time.  Thank you, again.  I can’t say it enough.

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