​Throw a rock into the water and watch the ripples flow outward, reaching the unknown, affecting all in its path.

In business, it's known as networking. A concept of promoting yourself and your work to friends, family, and perfect strangers. You tell one person. That person shares with two others, and so the spread of information starts. 
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Not an easy task for people who prefer (willingly) to do anything they can, for anyone else. Gladly doing so as long as there is no public recognition. Yet, often we find these so-called wallflowers, behind the scenes people are an amazing artist, musicians, writers, and entrepreneurs. You may hear them say things like, “No one is interested what I do.” 
Well, people, you need to change the way you think.  It’s not necessary to spend money to get product marketing off the ground. It will, however, take an investment of your time; and, in the beginning, more time than you think you have.

“How can I do this without spending my life’s savings?”

The answer is simple, an internet connection. With it, the world of social media is at your beck and call and each available avenue should be considered. 

There is no need to open an account for every social media platform you come across. Choose the one(s) beneficial to your promotional needs.  Start slow, pick one or two that meld together and ultimately showcase your business. Grow your online visibility and add to your harem of followers.

Two of the bonuses of social media marketing come from planning and execution. Posting to one platform will, in most cases, be capable of automatic entry on others. And, pre-scheduling posts to show up in the future. Both have great benefits to time management and social networking. 

In theory, pre-scheduling posts allow you to spend as much time as you want in the preparation. The result is having the information go live at your desired strategic time. 

An original post to one platform links to your other social media accounts. The data shows up at the same time in multiple places. The work is done once and has the possibility of being networked out to thousands. The ripple in the pond!​

This is not to say that all you need is social media networking to promote you, your product or your business. But think about it, it's only the beginning and if done consistently, it gives you the time to get out from in front of your computer and pursue other live networking opportunities.

Potters, Painters, Writers, Jewelry Makers all brought together to celebrate the arts and create the second Voice and Vision artisan anthology. 

At the beginning of the project, we are anonymously paired. The original artist's work is on display and it is the artists who are given the opportunity to choose a blank, sealed envelope with the writer's original written piece. Thus determining which writer will be partnered with which artist. 

In May of 2017, the wordsmiths and the visual artists met for the first time. There were fourteen pieces of art on display and fourteen sealed envelopes containing the writer's submissions. Provoke by the talented Alesha Brown had my attention from the onset of entering the room. Luck was definitely on my side when Alesha chose my envelope and I was ecstatic, to say the least! 

With only a few short months to complete the response pieces to each of our original submissions, it was time to get to work. 

The Voice and Vision 2017 project ended at the Airdrie Public Library with an evening of the artist's work on display and the writers reading their artist-inspired work. 

This is the second year for this project, and also the second year an artisan anthology has been published. The pages are filled with pictures of original art and writing inspired by these pieces. ​We have limited copies of the Voice and Vision artisan anthologies are available for sale. 

1666.66666666… Words to write every day. What??? Why would anyone choose such a silly number? Well, here’s the reason . . .

In the beginning, which would be several +/- years ago, I heard about this thing called NaNoWriMo. More alphabet soup for sure, and back then, I was too shy to ask what it was.  Fast forward, waaaay forward and National Novel Writing Month has become the much talked about month of November for writers around the globe.​

Over the past few years, I had always been in the middle of a project, just finishing one, and of course,  the ever-present I don’t have time to get into it always loomed out at me at the end of October when everyone else was priming themselves for NaNoWriMo.

Follow my progress on Facebook for weekly updates to see how I am doing.