Jacinta’s Blog

Yes I know I am slack!!!!

But truth be told I have actually been working heavily on developing my other blogs, studying. moving house and being a mummy!!

When we were given notice to move at the beginning of the year I knew it was going to take me a good six months to get back on track, and I was right!!! The sad part about moving is I lost my veggie garden, however the gain on moving is I now have an office!!!

So I just thought I would do a quick update.

1. I have redeveloped my business blog www.creatingmybusinessonline.com. I have added in graphics and it looks fantastic. Go check it out.

2. I have launched a new ebook website www.jadsbookshop.com

3. I have launched my first niche product site www.spraytanningsuccess.com

4. I have re set up my ebay id and shop details to start selling from. www.jadsdeals.com

4. Have continued studying with John Thornhill’s Internet Marketing Masterclass program

So now you know why I haven’t written any posts lately.

Must away as I need to get some more work done before my little one awakes.

Until Next Time……..

“Be Good To You & Believe In Your Dreams”

Jacinta

Hello There,

The year is flying by and I feel like I am running to catch up with it!! OK so where do I begin. Well the silly season has now been and gone Yippy!!!! I do love Christmas time but I also get very frazzled at trying to go to all the events and dragging around a 2 year old that hates traveling in cars was not very fun!!

My Vegetable Garden is booming, however I now have to transplant the poor plants to pots as we have to move house!! I am not a happy camper in this department as our lovely landlord has decided to move back in to the house!!! I will not go on about this as I don’t have anything nice to say about him but what I will say is I do not like people that lie!!

So now we have to find a new place to live and begin a new adventure plus I am still trying to learn all about creating products and Internet marketing. This year is already shaping up to be a big one. I have just finished posting on my business blog www.creatingmybusinessonline.com about some new coaching training I am doing. So if you want to follow along as I learn be sure to read the posts there as well.

This blog I am using as my personal spring board on everything else so I will be talking about everything and anything instead of just focusing on learning about the Internet. The one thing I will say is that since learning and writing my manuals I sure can type fast now! Another thing I will say is that it is hard to do all this around raising a 2 year old, trying to work, keeping house and family time. I am certainly learning how to manage my time effectively.

I now understand how the mums are often the rocks around their families. I often forget I need to take me time and end up worrying about everyone else and then wonder why I end up on the coach run down and sick. With hubby, animals, child and work there are so many hours in the day and as much as I would love to study and learn the whole time I can’t. My hubby needs his time just like my child needs her time and believe it or not my boy feline wants his cuddles as well!! Sometimes I feel like I would love a clone of me! I am sure there are many people that could relate to that comment!!

So I think the key to this is planning, routine and time management!!! I have noticed now that my little one has gone back to her occasional care 2 mornings a week I have more time to focus. It is amazing how much more you can get done in 2 hours when you don’t have a little one hugging your leg!! Mind you I do love it when she hugs my leg! But the whole purpose of me trying to learn about business on the Internet is so that I can create an income around my family and be able to be there for them when they need me and still be able to financially provide.

OK so speaking of which it is now time for me to get back to my studies while my little one is sleeping.

So until next time….

Be Good To You & Believe in Your Dreams!

Jacinta

Hello there!

Yes it has been awhile since my last post. Time has just ran away from me. I have busy raising my little one going for her yearly check ups at the hospital over the last month. I will write more about my little ones condition another time as there is too much to talk about. Cut a long story short, we have had good results and do not have to go back to the surgeons for another 12 months. Yippy!!!!!

The last 2 months I have actually been spending time writing and editing my training manuals that I am about to release and setting up my business blog www.creatingmybusinessonline.com. This blog is coming along nicely and is describing what I am doing online. OK now I am getting side tracked. I am really excited at the moment as I have decided to plant a vegetable garden and I have no idea what I am doing!!!

The house we moved into 12 months ago has a large area that was obviously a vegetable garden for the previous owners, well for the last 12 months this piece of land has been a pile of dirt and weeds. Finally two weeks ago I bought some seedlings to motivate myself to weed the garden and plant the plants. Well so far I have learnt one lesson. The plants won’t survive in their seedling pots for very long, they outgrow them very quickly. I think I have already killed the pumpkins.

Being a complete newbie to veggie gardens I have no idea what I am doing so decided to go to the local “Bunnings Store” and ask a few questions, 1 hour later I was walking out with cow manure, compost, mulch, wetting agent and more. I thought growing veggies is meant to save you money!! 2 days ago I finally prepared the soil by digging it up, layering the blend of compost and cow manure on top about 10cm according to the instructions on the packet and re dug the soil back in. Boy did my back hurt for hours, and I got a blister!!!!!!

Next I planted my seedlings. I am trying to grow everything we eat. Well that is the plan anyway. I have planted corn, pumpkins, strawberries, capsicums & zucchinis. Next I am planting peas, beans, carrots & onions. At the moment the plants look like they are in shock, not to mention a puppy likes to trample on them!!! I think we need to build a fence!

The garden is in its early stages and I have no idea what I am doing so I thought I would share my newbie planting experience. Speaking of which I had better get back to planting as we are expecting rain over the next few days.

Had better go so until next time…..

Be Good To You

Jacinta

Hello All,

I feel like I am in a time warp! I recently went to my 20 year high school reunion and was looking around wondering where the last 20 years went!! It was amazing to see the people that were there, who had changed who hadn’t, but the best thing about it was that everyone was there to have a good time and catch up.

The days after the reunion I started to think about my life and what I had achieved and what I hadn’t and where I am today! It is interesting to put the last 20 years in perspective like that! I realised that despite my failures I had also had some amazing success, maybe not in the way I had envisaged back then but in a different way. I wouldn’t be the person I am today if it wasn’t for the life experiences I have had both good and bad.

The way I view my life right now is a new beginning, a new chapter and here’s to the next 20 years and so much more to achieve. I just thought I would share until next time….

Be Good To You & Believe In Your Dreams

Jacinta

It is the first week of October!!! I am catching up slowly. I am not too sure where to begin with this post because once again I have fallen a little behind myself. One step forward, five steps backwards. I am sure most people can relate!!!!!

On the website development side of things I am excited. I have finally set up my other blogs ready for development. www.spraytanningtips.com. This blog is dedicated to everything in the sunless tanning industry and is related to my e-book that I am completing. I hope to talk about everything spray tanning, giving tips, advice, education & training, product and equipment knowledge and everything to do with the world of spray on tan. The other blog I have started is www.creatingmybusinessonline.com. This blog will be dedicated to everything I am doing and learning about creating a business online. I will talk about my research on products, books I read, techniques I learn and everything I do regarding actually setting up my business from scratch. I am looking forward to working on the new blogs as well as keeping this one going from a personal and life point of view.

Now regarding the life point of view. It seems to me that every time I turn the T.V on nowadays it is all doom and gloom. Lately it is the world economy. I don’t know about you but at the moment I don’t want to get caught up in the hype of it all. I may be naive but I would like to remain positive that we can still create and operate businesses even with the economy the way it is. I think the most important thing with this time is that we remain focused on what our exact needs are and to live within those means. No more spending unnecessarily. I think the thing now is everytime you go to spend your money on items other than the necessities is to ask the question “Do I really need this item?” & if you answer yes then “Why do you need this item?” I know these questions may sound simple to you but they have been the questions I have lived by for the last 7 years.

7 years ago I was over $70,000 in bad silly debt from spending unnecessarily & very bad business choices and I had nothing to show for it! I could have gone bankrupt and maybe in hindsight I should have, however I didn’t and in the last 7 years I have managed to claw my way back and have cleared those debts from living well and truly below my means and asking myself the above questions every time I went to spend money. For those that know me personally they know I have still made some silly choices with my money however having gone through the experiences I have I know that I am prepared for the economic times ahead.

I am actually look forward to watching this time in the world, watching how businesses and people react and what occurs. I think it will definitely be a time of financial learning and speeking of business and learning I had better get back to my studies so until next time……

Be Good To You & Believe in Your Dreams!

Jacinta

Oh my gosh it is the second week of September and I am no further ahead in my online business development than when I last posted. The last month has just flown past and like most people I have been caught up with the journey of day to day life.

My little one has started a playgroup and loves every minute of it and I am loving watching her grow. She is a little gem with oodles of personality with her own little language that I have no idea what she is saying! She has been the high light for the last month.

I don’t know about you but I really find the winter weather really hard. I think I have had the flu twice in the last month and just when I was getting better little one came down with it and then Hubbie got sick also. Its funny how once one is sick you all go down together. The hard part is then getting everyone better when the last thing any of us want to do is get out of bed! I always find the winters here hard! I swear I am a summer baby and if I could live in the warm weather all year round I would.

Speaking of warm weather, spring is starting and we are finally shaking this dreaded cold we have had for the last 6 weeks., hence my ability to do a little posting. I am so far behind with my studies. The Thirty Day Challenge has been and gone and I think I missed the lot, however I have downloaded all the info so I can continue with my online studies at my own pace. The other thing I am so behind on is the John Thornhill Coaching Program. This week I was sent week 10 and I haven’t even finished week 3. I have missed so much and have so much to catch up on. I guess the advantage is that I have been able to download the information so I can refer back to it all.

Studying and setting up a business around family is a hard task to do, I do admire anyone that can do it successfully with out falling into a heap of stress. Rather than beat myself up on being so behind in the coaching programs I have realised that I have to do this at my own pace and at my own comprehension around my family. I have been getting stressed out the last couple of weeks and it has reminded me of when I was in high school and had assignments due in and all i wanted to do is bury my head in the sand! The more stressed out and overwhelmed I was becoming the more sick and rundown I was getting, I was no good to anyone.

Cut a long story short, I have decided to revamp everything and start again. I will be starting 2 new blogs shortly. One dedicated to spray tanning & one dedicated to creating my business online. I have decided to keep this blog as a more personal one about life and its journey..

Well must away as little one needs her dinner…..

Until next time.

Be Good To You & Believe In Your Dreams!

Jacinta

Continuing on with my online journey…….. 

In my last post I talked about how I got started on eBay. I just thought I would clarify this a little more. Getting started on eBay wasn’t exactly that easy for me to begin with, because at the time I was still trying to work out how to use the computer properly, surf the net or send emails with attachments!!! 

How did I start on eBay? Truthfully I read “EBay for Dummies” and “Starting an EBay Business for Dummies.” Both of these books are written by Marsha Collier. I studied those books like I was at school! What I loved about those books was that they were easy to understand and were really basic in there step by step guides so when I was confused I was able to refer back to them. When I told my friends at the time that were a little more computer savvy than me that I was reading the dummies books, they laughed! However if you want to start selling on eBay and you don’t know where to start these books were a great beginning for me.  I am sure you would be able to find copies of these books from Amazon or Marsha Collier has a website at www.coolebaytools.com. I bought my books from my local bookshop.

It wasn’t until I went to a 2 hour seminar promoting Adam Giesling (I think I have spelt his surname correct, if not I will come back and correct it later) that I realised the potential of eBay. Adam was a fascinating speaker and really spoke about the business of eBay and reaching a world wide market, he was enthusiastic, energetic and very informative. He was here in Australia promoting one of his coaching programs at the time. I didn’t have the money to do the coaching program but the information I learnt in the 2 hour promotional seminar was enough to kick my butt and get me started with the help of the dummies books. The seminar was in August 2005 and that was when I began my online journey with eBay.  I read the books and started slowly step by step. 

My next ’Aha’ moment that continued my online journey was reading a book called the “One Minute Millionaire” by Mark Victor Hansen & Robert G. Allen. I love reading and have read many books over the years. I actually took 6 months off work at the end of 2003 to read books that would change my life for the better, I read heaps and studied them like I had assignments to hand in! I am getting side tracked I will write about that time in another post in the future.

Getting back to the ‘One Minute Millionaire’, I read that book over the Christmas of 2006 to 2007. At the time I was 6 months pregnant and preparing for the birth of my child. My father had told me to read the book years before hand but it had actually stayed on my book shelf for 2 years before I picked it up to read it!

This book changed my perspective on everything!!!! The story touched my core and I knew I could relate to it, not that I had ever been in the position of having a child taken away from me but I think it was the fact that I was pregnant at the time and suddenly knew that I had a small child about to be born that was going to be totally dependant on me and I had to provide for her future!!! 

Speaking of child she is awake from her sleep, so until next time when I tell you more of my online journey………………. 

Be Good To You & Believe In Your Dreams! 

Jacinta

In this entry I thought I would write about how I got started on the Internet. I have been online for the last 10 years basically using it as a communication tool for emails and surfing. It wasn’t until halfway through 2005 when I had an ‘Aha’ moment and saw eBay! At the time I was teaching at a city Beauty Training College and training Beauty Salons how to spray tan.  

I was looking for something new to do and I knew that in the future I wanted to create a business from home but didn’t quite know what. I loved teaching the girls at the college, and being out on the road with the salons but I knew I didn’t want to do it forever so I thought I would give eBay a go on the side. I started out like most people, just selling my unwanted stuff. I loved the whole experience of what I was doing. I was addicted. My biggest giggle was selling a set of egg cups for $30 that cost me $5 many years earlier. I couldn’t quite work that one out! I learnt people will buy unusual things. 

I think eBay is amazing and should definitely be a spring board for a newbie on the Internet to get their feet wet. Over the last few years I have encouraged friends & family to sell their stuff on eBay as well, it is amazing what you can find lying around the home that you don’t want anymore. There is that old saying “Someone’s trash is someone’s treasure!” and when it comes to eBay that is so true! 

Well over the last 3 years my little eBay business expanded and I started selling spray tanning systems & spray tanning solution. This little venture was a great teaching curve for doing business over the Internet. Doing business online is not that different to doing business offline. It is all about the customer service. During the first 2 years I enjoyed the selling, however everything changed between 2006 & 2007. A lot of other people came online to sell spray tanning systems and I found that typical of any competitive industry everyone was undercutting everyone and it got to a point that I was selling everything at cost price and it really wasn’t worth my time.   

The thing that became interesting was that while I was selling my spray tan systems I was also being asked regularly for my training manual as an individual item. At first I didn’t do this as my manual was only a guide for my particular system, however then I realised I could create a generic manual that trained the techniques based on most spray tan systems. My first individual training manual was launched late 2006 as a printed version and was quite successful. I was shocked at the time, but I was also flattered that people enjoyed my teachings and I was receiving thank you emails all the time. What I giggled about at the time was that I was technically an author! For years I had created training manuals for people within the industries I have worked in but never quite thought of myself as a writer, it wasn’t until I had sold a printed manual overseas that I realised what I was doing! Little did I know that this was just the beginning to lead me where I am today…….. 

So until next time when I tell you more of my online journey………………. 

Be Good To You & Believe In Your Dreams! 

Jacinta

Post number 3!!!!

Ok I will stop counting my posts soon but I am still excited about this whole blogging thing and this is post number 3!!!! 

I am so behind in my exercises at the moment I was just sent the videos to week five and I have only just completed week 2! It looks like I will have some late nights coming up to catch up. As mentioned in one of my earlier posts I have also joined up in the Thirty Day Challenge, well I am couple of weeks behind in that one too! I will talk about the Thirty Day Challenge in other posts at the moment I want to focus this one on John Thornhill’s Coaching. 

OK. So in summary to Week 1. I learnt how to register a domain name…’Jacinta’s Blog”. I kept it simple! I plan on using this blog as an all rounder about me and my life and what I am doing and learning so I thought Jacinta’s Blog summed it up nicely! The next thing I learnt was registering the hosting. Being a newbie to this whole thing I registered with the hosting company that John recommended D9hosting. I figure I can learn about other hosting companies down the track. I also kept it simple and registered my domain with them as well. What I liked about the whole registration process is that the forms were really easy to use and once again I took my time. I got a little confused setting up the email accounts, I had to re watch that video twice, however testing everything (our last task) was easy to do.   

So now I am at Week 2. In this weeks task we were taught how to initially set up our website ready to install the blogging platform. We were shown where to download a free to public FTP Client (File Transfer Protocol). File Zilla. I am learning so many of these technical terms now…2 months ago I had no idea what FTP meant! All I knew 2 months ago was how to check my emails and surf the net! Oh and Ebay too! Love ebay but that is another topic! Definitely need to find a dictionary dedicated to the internet wording! It is like another language! 

Getting back to week 2. The next thing we learnt was how to change the files on our website using File Zilla. I had to watch this video twice but got the hang of it eventually. Setting up the blog was not as complicated as I thought it was going to be. John showed us through our control panel step by step how to install a Wordpress blog. It was actually fairly easy to do. I can’t emphasise enough how I love the training videos. I love the fact that I can stop and start and do the actions at the same time. 

The next couple of tasks we had to do was setting up the blog platform learning how to create the categories, the links, how to edit the postings and finally how to post and hey presto here I am blogging!!!!!!

Now I need to watch and do week 3, so until then …….. 

Be Good To You & Believe In Your Dreams! 

Jacinta

Post number 2!!!!  

I am starting to get excited about this whole process. When my blog went live for the first time a couple of days ago I was so excited….I was giggling like a school girl nearly jumping off my chair. I am amazed at how I am able to do this. I know that for a lot of people out there this blogging thing and website development stuff is like second nature but to someone like me this is such a new thing and every time I am achieving something new with it I am celebrating the process. This is awesome!!! 

I have learnt so much over just the last couple of months, however if someone had told me a year ago that I would be doing what I am doing now I would not have believed them. It is amazing what a difference 12 months makes and a little determination! 

Now let’s begin on this whole journey of learning about developing a business on line……. 

I am going to talk about Week 1 of John Thornhill’s Coaching Program. Right on schedule the first week of July we were sent the first weeks ‘tasks to do’. There was a list of videos to watch and a checklist of instructions. Each video described each step of each task that we had to do. The videos were about how to register a domain name, how to register hosting, how to configure the settings, how to set up our email accounts and how to test everything. 

What I am enjoying about the program is that the videos are so easy to understand. John takes his time in each video and shows us exactly how to do each step as he does it. He does each task step by step and very clearly talks you through each step as he shows you on the video. I have been able to download everything and watch it stopping and starting and doing each exercise at the same time. The thing I have noticed is that if I take my time watching each exercise and then repeating the process that I am actually understanding it. I have been having so many ‘Aha’ moments already! 

Well as you can see I successfully completed week 1’s tasks as I am posting this online to you, however this blogging stuff is technically week 2 but I will talk about that in the next post…….so until then …….. 

Be Good To You & Believe In Your Dreams! 

Jacinta