The Educated Emotion

Register for Classes Happy Monday! After being swept away with my new bundle this year, I am stirring up a little bit of action. I hope to have a full set of offerings this coming Spring. In the meantime, I have some classes and activities that might be of interest. Note: All times provided are EST. Nov. 1 - Tru Story Blog Reloaded With renewed focus and content, I am finally ready to relaunch the Tru Story Blog. Expect honest conversation about success, failure, entrepreneurship, social justice, community and more.  Location: WORLDWIDE at   www.trustorysuccess.com Nov. 1 - #NaNoWriMo2016  National Novel Writing Month and the Writer's Digest PAD (Poem a Day) Challenge Location: United States at www.nanowrimo.org or http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/2016-november-pad-chapbook-challenge-day-1 When: Nov. 1 -Nov. 30 Nov. 5 - Remembrance Project Author and Producer, H. Buchanan, will launch The Remembrance Project Location: Carr Center, 311 E. G

Last week, I had professional photos taken. This was after several situations came up in the past few months where I was asked to provide a professional, high resolution photo of myself to go with my bio. I found that I had plenty of selfies, goofy, and off guard pictures, but none that represented me professionally. After reaching out to my young, retired photographer friend and writing buddy I had a photo shoot. It was much less painful than expected and she sent me sixteen decent photos among three backgrounds to choose from. I narrowed the poses down to the top six choices from myself and family, but still wasn't sure which picture would encapsulate my personality and professionalism at the same time. So, I took my photos to Facebook to poll friends, family, and followers. Top four photos chosen in Facebook poll. Photography Credit: Bethany Neal. I labeled each of the six poses A through F and asked people to choose one of the options. What happened next was completely u

Please note: Comments can be made directly underneath each blog post. Any Comments made previously, via Google +, will no longer show up under blog posts.'' If you have a pulse, at some point you have done something on impulse. Recently, tennis player Svetlana Kuznetsova cut her hair during a match before returning and winning the match. I don't know the details surrounding the emergency haircut, but definitely looked like an impulsive decision at its finest. Tennis player cuts her hair in the middle of match ✂️🎾 In art and sports, spontaneity and split-second decison-making are often encouraged. In the business world, not so much. If you are starting a business, own a business, or even work in a business --you probably have plenty of cautionary tales of impulsive decisions gone wrong. The six-figure-earning account executive who got into a fist fight with a co-worker, the business owner who built an expense around money not yet earned, the employee who leaves a p

Please note: Comments can be made directly underneath each blog post. Any Comments made previously, via Google +, will no longer show up under blog posts. An Ode to the Monday Morning Soloist She pulls into the parking lot of the library, away from familial responsibility, where she plans to get things sorted out for the week ahead. Mind and body are tired, yet she still is ready to push ahead. She calls a fellow solopreneur to wish her a great week and shares a virtual laugh and fist bump. When she walks in the building, she passes tables of kids and parents with tidy spheres of chaos contained in the front section and retirees and tutors trying to establish routine with their open schedule in the back.  She quietly sits in the farthest seat near the back window overlooking the man-made marsh rendered beautiful by the gorgeous sun. She exhales before opening her computer and viewing all the things she was not able to attend to over the weekend. "Some guys have all

A social breakup is when social media followers decide, for whatever reason, they are tired of following you or your brand. Top reasons for social breakups include too much length of time between posts, hyper posting (posting too many times for the social media tool you are using), inconsistency, too much selling, or sometimes the honeymoon period (giveaways, initial excitement, or novelty) is just over. Do All Blogs Go to Heaven? A couple years ago I started to see a decline in my blog reader engagement .  Unlike the 95% of bloggers who give up on their blogs, I knew what to do.  After all, I have been blogging for almost 15 years.  I simply wasn't doing it. I was spreading myself too thin, disorganized, and to be honest...a bit bored/burnt out. Here we are two years later. With the new addition to the family (shown below), I have less time than ever. So, why in the heck would I decide to rebirth a blog? Good question. There is a lot of research on the increase in