I am very excited to announce that I am under Entrepreneurial Coach, Carey Conley from Infin8Nation from Top 6 Club! I know this journey with Carey is going to be tough, it’s going to stretch me to some limits, and it will grow my business to new heights that I never thought I could reach! 

Today I want to share with you several reasons why I chose to have a coach by my side during my first year as being an entrepreneur. I believe this will help convince you that you might want to invest into a coach as well as you start your own business.

A Coach can help you overcome or avoid bumps. When I met Carey, which was back in March, I felt like I could accomplish anything and everything with her. I felt like I could actually make my dream come true in a year or less. One of the reasons why I wanted to be under Carey was because she explained it to me like this: Everyone needs a coach in their life to get them through obstacles or challenges in their lives - much like a mentor. I need a coach in my life to help me avoid bumps that could hold me back from my potential. She, as a coach, could help me avoid these plagues that entrepreneurs face and without a coach, get held back in. 

A Coach will help define my business. As you have seen, I have been offering every service underneath the sun to try to get clients. It’s only after meeting Carey that I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I needed to direct my focus and find my niche. Yes, I hate that word too, but after Carey explained it, I believe that’s the only way I can succeed. After I joined her Top 6 class (which was late March), I was able to listen to an audio that helped me define my niche and who my clients are. I definitely believe that Carey can help me define my business with a sharper focus than I ever could.

A Coach will be there to encourage you and lift you up. I know that as I start my journey with Carey, I am giving her the permission to keep me accountable and to challenge me. But she’s there to help my business grow, that’s her passion. I also know she’s going to encourage me when I’m facing some battles and hard choices. She will be there to back me up and support me. Also, I have people just like me that will encourage me during my time with Carey. There’s a support team waiting for me! How exciting is that!

Do you have a support team backing you up? Do you keep asking yourself questions with no answers in sight? Then you need a coach! I know what you’re thinking: I don’t have the money. I know. I’m there with you. But, I told my husband that I fully believe that Carey will help take me to a better place than where I am now quicker than I ever could. If you want to be making money with your passion, I think a Coach is the way to go. They are there to help you get through those times and to watch you succeed in your career! Look up Carey Conley and see if she can serve you as well! 

I am very excited about this and I will try my best to keep you updated on my progress and how you too can achieve excellence quickly with sharper focus.

It’s tax season, the most dreaded season in the entire year. If you’re new to working from home, you might have a lot of questions concerning your taxes and where to begin. Here are some simple steps to work on organizing your taxes for this year and the years to come.

Step 1: Know what is tax deductible.

First and foremost, you will need to know what can be tax deducted. Pretty much everything around you can be tax-deducted. Did you know you can tax deduct your water, sewage, electricity, internet, and gas bills?! Save those receipts and keep them in a folder. At the end of the year, you will need to know the square footage of your office space, the percentage of usage from your internet (even phone if you use it for your job), and your house size to determine how much money you get to deduct from your taxes. 

If you spend money on your job, like buying paper clips, using a stapler, or buying postage can all be tax deducted! Save those receipts and keep them. However, receipts can fade and a good idea is to scan them and then attach the receipt to the scan copy with your tax deductible stapler.

Mileage can be deducted as well if you travel for your job. Download or buy a mileage tracker to keep track of your mileage because gas isn’t free and it can add up quickly.

Step 2: Start Organizing.

Start organizing your tax deductible items into topic related folders. In the Writer’s Market 2014 book, there’s a great article that discusses how to organize your work so you can quickly and easily add it to your taxes in Section C. Here are some categories that you will need to sort by topic:

Contracts (if applicable) 

Depreciation (computers, printers, desk; anything that will last for over a year)

Income

Other (postage, photo copying, books, subscriptions, membership fees, etc.)

Supplies (paper clips, printing cartridges, paper, file folders, etc)

Travel (Travels, meals (if eating out on the job or meeting with a client and buying a coffee, etc), and entertainment for researching for a client or company)

Utilities (light, gas, heat, electricity, internet bills, phone bills, etc)

Step 3: Keep Track of your expenses.

This has to be the most dreadful part of all, but you will need to start keeping a detail record of what you spend and how much you make from your bank account. Print off your business expenses and income every month. This will be easier if you set up another bank account for your business alone. Take the extra measures to be on the safe side and keep track of your expenses in an Excel sheet. This will be your life saver if the government decides to audit you one year.

It’s best to always consult with an Accountant to know how to best prepare for tax season, especially if you’re new to working from home. These steps are to help get you started and grounded for this time of year so you can get back to what you love doing.

Photo taken by wedding photographer, Haley Sheffield

This month Nathan and I are celebrating four years of marriage and I decided to blog about our unique love story. I am walking down memory lane and wanted you to join me. We are celebrating and I would like for you to celebrate with us!

In my last blog, I left you with 10 Friendship Moments between my husband and I while we were friends. I went over some special moments I hold dear to my heart while we were in our just friends phase. In memory #10, I wrote about the last time I saw Nathan before he went on his year tour in South Korea. We went out to eat and talked afterwards; we made each other promise to invite one another to our weddings. I also had given him a letter telling him how much I had enjoyed our friendship and didn't want to let that go. I gave him my address and phone number in case he ever wanted to call or write me.

That was May 2008. In August 2008, I started a new quarter in college, haven't heard a peep out of Nathan, and actually hadn't given him much of a thought. Until...

I was driving down the road to my first day of class of the quarter, when all of the sudden, a thought occurred to me: I missed Nathan. I hadn't thought much about him, until that moment. I started to think about him and what he has been up to. 

I came home that day to find a letter from Nathan waiting for me. That started a new phase of life for us.  We wrote one another once a month from then on, and the reason why it was once a month, is that my letter would take 5 days to get to him, but Nathan's letters took two weeks to get to me. Silly USAF mail. 

During the months of August - December 2008, I met this guy name Adam. We got along, flirted a lot, and he was really cute. The only thing I didn't like was that he was not a Christian. And throughout the entire time of our friendship - if you can call it that - I always thought, "What about Nathan? Who would he marry?" Always. I would try to tell myself, "He'll find someone. Why am I so worried about it?" 

In December 2008, I had a falling out with some friends of mine and I remember telling God, "All I want in a spouse is commitment and loyalty to me!" Because of what happened, it made me realize that I valued true friendship loyalty and commitment. And I remember God asking me, "What about Nathan? He has always been loyal. He writes you letters. What guy writes letters?"

That's when I started to connect the dots and realize that maybe Nathan had a crush on me during our entire friendship and it went right over my head. I started to seriously crush on him.

Finally I got up the guts to ask Nathan in one of our letters. On March 19, 2009, I asked him to pray about a possible relationship between us two. I remember Nathan mailing me back, confessing his doubts of it working. Not only had he  been in several long distance relationships before, with all of them ending badly, but had some character doubts that worried him about us making a good fit. But I was very bold and told him that no matter what, I would always accept him for who he was. 

I think another thing that held him back was the fact that he was going to Germany after his tour in South Korea and that was suppose to be a three year tour. So we both knew we wouldn't be seeing a lot of one another. But that didn't stop me.

He called me around end of March, first of April and we started to have phone conversations as well as write our monthly letters. I remember Nathan telling me once that he could see himself growing old with me. (HOW INCREDIBLY SWEET!)

During these phone conversations, we started to fall head over heels with one another. We experienced some really sweet moments as we talked about our days, where we see each other going, and how we couldn't wait to see one another!

He wanted to become official on Facebook as well as status. But I told him no because he was coming back to Georgia in July and I wanted him to wait then. So he put "It's complicated" instead. I thought it was cute and followed suit.

July finally came! I went up to Atlanta and picked him up from the airport! I was so excited to see him! I had arranged for him to stay at a friend's cabin while he stayed in Georgia. I had to work at my summer day camp job during the day, so we hung out in the evening. Then he came to the camp one day and I just so happened to have 11-12 year old girls. They torture that man to death with sayings like, "You'll go down the slide if you love her!"  Oh boy. Another camp counselor told me he was hot and I told her to stay away from him. (I believe she knew I was joking/serious) Brings back such fond memories!

He asked me out on July 12, 2009.He asked me out on July 12, 2009.Nathan asked me out on July 12, 2009. We had our first kiss during this trip, our first make out session, and first trip with one another as an official couple.

The trip ended with Nathan boarding a Greyhound to go home to Indiana for three weeks before boarding a plane to Germany. Yes, that was the most difficult thing ever to do: watch your new boyfriend leave on a Greyhound (do not ask why he would not fly!) and not knowing the next time you'll see him.

We talked on the phone because he reactivated his old one for the next few weeks. Then he boarded a plane to Germany where we started to Skype with one another on a weekly basis. Next time I will talk more about our dating phase, so come back to hear more!

That is how my love story with my Nathan began. How did your love story begin?     

 

I was scrolling through Facebook one day when I saw a friend of mine had posted this picture. I thought it was ironic that she had posted this because this was the same thing I had been learning. And I thought I would expand on this a little bit on my blog just in case some of you are struggling with this issue as well.

First off, it's VERY hard not to take something personally when someone is aiming their ammunition straight at you full blast. It's hard to not feel responsible when a person is acting nasty towards you; this could look like someone blaming you for their unhappiness, trying to make sure you feel what they are feeling.

But like this quote says, it says nothing about you. You are not in control of their happiness, no one is except them. This can be especially hard when a spouse attacks you with accusations of why you're not making him/her happy. It's tough to stand there and take his/her accusations of discontentment and not take it personally. 

But are you in control of your spouse's happiness? No. You are not responsible for his/her happiness. True joy only comes from the heavenly Father and that can only happen if one is open to receiving that joy and peace that comes when dissatisfaction sets in. If your spouse is not open to receiving God's peace and joy for his/her life, then that's not on you.  I am telling you that you are allowed to not feel bad when they are accusing you of how unhappy he/she is.

The last part of the quote says, "It says nothing about you, but a lot about them." How true is that! When a spouse comes attacking, full force with verbal ammunition at why he or she is not happy, or what you have or haven't done, or trying to keep score, then it shows what's going on inside of his/her heart. It shows that your spouse is in the midst of a spiritual battle and instead of owning up to the root cause of his/her problem, he/she takes out on you.

Now, what can you do when this is happening? Don't even take it personally first off. Realize who is at work here, look beyond your spouses words and see the true enemy. That enemy is Satan and he is working full force.

Instead, don't own what is going on inside of their heart. However, if your spouse says something and God convicts you that what he/she said is valid, then you do need to own up to that and say that you're sorry. Lead by example.

Then pray for your spouse. Maybe not with them because your spouse may not be at a place in their walk with God to stop what they are doing to pray. Remember that blog I wrote a while back about being like the Irish Queen who prayed for her husband to make the right choice and asked God to bless him? That's what you need to be doing for your spouse. Be your spouse's prayer warrior! If you're not praying for him, there may not be anyone else doing it.

I am learning this and you can learn with me as well: Pray while in conversation with your spouse. Pray that God will show you what to say to him/her during this spiritual warfare on his/her heart. Pray that you will not sin or be disrespectful, but be loving and honest. There's no real answer here because every situation is different; however, God knows and He will give you what you should say.

And never forget to look past your spouse's words and actions to see the real need. Look at them with Christ's eyes and you'll probably see a hurting soul. Remember, hurting people hurt people. If your spouse is hurting, then you need to have compassion on him/her. Display what Christ has done for you onto your spouse (because we all hurt others when we are hurting). 

I'm not saying to allow your spouse to run all over you with his/her words, I fully believe God will not allow it either, but every situation and marriage is different and that is why I'm learning it's so important to pray to God during that moment to ask for words of wisdom, peace, and love. It's hard as HECK to do! Trust me! But your goal is not to own or take personally whatever is going on inside of someone else, but instead love them through it.

This means not fixing your spouse, telling them what they need/ought to be doing, or controlling them. Let God fix them because you cannot. It's out of your control and ability. You are only responsible for YOUR actions and YOUR words. Be blameless before God and your spouse.

Learning this has taken me a few years to get to and I'm not all the way there. I am learning, growing, and discovering things about myself in the way I communicate, receive, and respond back. I also know the struggle of owning to things I have no responsibility owning up to. I wanted to share with you what I thought it meant and encourage you to view your spouse in a different and positive light.

What ways are you learning when it comes to forgiving your spouse or not taking something personally? I would love to hear your wisdom as well!

**Please note I'm not talking about physical abuse. If you're being physically abused, you need to get help and get out quickly!**