The benefits of Journaling

I have been an author since 2016. I must admit, just being an author will not cut it.

After getting a writing coach in 2020, I realized thinking you can only make an income from just book sales could leave you homeless and hungry.

I have taken many steps to grow and found that it does not hurt to get a little help in raising your vibrations.

Having healthy conversations with those who give the same energy, and have gone the same direction you wish to travel is important.

Learning to not be upset with family members or spouses because they do not understand your direction is also important. In all honesty, until your ideals are making an impact it may be wise to show them when they are, simply because they will see it is something you are taking seriously and it is working for you.

With that said. I am consistently improving and proving my skills and while I would love to be the best-selling author on Amazon, being open and accepting money based on my skillset is essential.

So, if I am not making money selling books, how am I making money, you ask?

Some of it is just magic or divine favor!

When things are not going well for me and I feel like I am at my wit's end, I question who and what and why and how... and each time the U-N-I-Verse provides.

I am provided with a dream and because Google is nosey, the things I attract, attract themselves to me! And with gratitude, I am introduced to what I need to make money.

Example: Each year I invest in my writing business when I receive my tax return. In 2020, I spent $200 ordering copies of my book from Amazon, then I paid $35 for an ad on Facebook and from that, I had some return on sales but it was not nearly what I paid so I did not see a return on my investment as quickly as I would have liked to.

I was hurt and was questioning if I should pay for another ad on Facebook, but then I added someone who posted a really important question: Do You Have a Journal for your book?

I answered and it changed my life forever, you see, my very first book was created from journaling for months! Journaling was therapeutic, reduced stressful times, deepened self-discovery, and helped me to write out a negative situation to turn it into something positive that I could live with. And just like that, I turned it into a book because I know someone out there was dealing with the same issues I had been when it came to Minding Her Own Business.

I still had some funds left to invest in myself so I invested in a coach. Not just any coach, but a self-publishing coach! Although I already knew how to publish my own books on platforms, I did not know how to market my books and that is where my coach came in to help me improve the way I saw what else there could be in continuing to do what I loved which is creating material that others can use in their healing journey as I had done for myself. I learned to successfully create a journal to compliment my book and only made a few sales, but then the sales increased on my first book again! And I was able to sell them in bundles, at farmer's markets and local book stores around town.

While they both had served me well, I learned the correct way to market them but needed something that really helped me attract sales that did not seem sales-y. While I was thinking about it my husband was doing it! He decided to purchase a Cricut machine and began to sandblast glasses. And yet again, I was stuck in a bubble!

Time passed and I was making a minimal amount of book sales and he was knocking out those glasses. I still did not see how this would help me in my writing field as an author. And then it hit me that creating a low-content book means creating low-content products whether it is a journal or a cup!

All you have to do is be open to possibilities and those possibilities will turn into opportunities!

Below is a whole idea in a tote, if you will! This year I created another low-content book called: Keep Your Evil Off My Hustle! (Mug, tote, journal, and t-shirt)

The journal comes with prompts to assist the individual with an idea to write about. I found that when I wrote my first book, I journaled the entire thing first! While this was not the book that the Creator put on my heart to write I am gaining tools to assist me with it.

I created the tote, cup, and t-shirt to promote my business and decided to sell it as a bundle that individuals would purchase via https://payhip.com/AlluvialVirtualBookStore

I gained so much clarity and different streams of income creating these items for ladies just starting their own business or wanting to promote new products for their business. And this is how I have established income opportunities for myself.

Journaling began as a coping mechanism for living with fibromyalgia for me. While writing or crafting may not be how many choose to cope with it, choosing to live with it instead of it controlling your life was something I had to do.

I hope this helped someone today

Sending positive inner-G