On the 8th of August, I got up at 7 am and drove to Barnes and Noble to get a copy of the much anticipated "Breaking Dawn" Vampire book by Stephenie Meyer. I had been following the book since last summer when my sister, Becca, finally talked me into reading the series. She had been following Stephenie since before her major popularity with the book "Twilight". I went home and sat on my couch from 8 in the morning until about 4 pm (which my husband was not too fond of, he doesn't understand the relationship I have with books when I am reading). The book was very long, but I think amazing, mainly because of the background of the author and her ability to keep my attention for an 8 hour span. Now I have read the reviews of the last book in the series and have some serious issues and opinions about what took place in this last book, both good and bad. I have the right mind to write them all down at this very second, but then thought, it has all been said before. Every single person has their opinion, positive and negative, and that is what makes the book a keeper. What I am most interested is about this author. I have done a ton of research on this woman and she is a complete unknown, stay at home mom, who had a dream, an idea and took it to the next level. Her idea was that that had been done before, a vampire book. When my sister had begged me to read this book, I was not going to do it. I was a "Buffy" and "Angel" fan (very embarrassed to admit) but another book about vampires, come on! But this book had something that marketing entrepreneurs need to capitalize on, something Kim Power Stilson calls, "The Grapevine". This book had stay power because every single person you talked to said, "YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK". Hello, this is the sure power of tell all communication and recommendation. I think that any business can take from what Stephenie Meyer had to offer and see that the real power of advertising isn't through complicated and expensive giant billboards and commercial advertising, but producing something that people talk about. Talk is cheap. And on the side note, don't forget to listen to me live every Friday at 1 EST on "The Debbie Cluff Show", we can talk about breaking dawn, we always do.

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On the 8th of August, I got up at 7 am and drove to Barnes and Noble to get a copy of the much anticipated "Breaking Dawn" Vampire book by Stephenie Meyer. I had been following the book since last summer when my sister, Becca, finally talked me into reading the series. She had been following Stephenie since before her major popularity with the book "Twilight". I went home and sat on my couch from 8 in the morning until about 4 pm (which my husband was not too fond of, he doesn't understand the relationship I have with books when I am reading). The book was very long, but I think amazing, mainly because of the background of the author and her ability to keep my attention for an 8 hour span. Now I have read the reviews of the last book in the series and have some serious issues and opinions about what took place in this last book, both good and bad. I have the right mind to write them all down at this very second, but then thought, it has all been said before. Every single person has their opinion, positive and negative, and that is what makes the book a keeper. What I am most interested is about this author. I have done a ton of research on this woman and she is a complete unknown, stay at home mom, who had a dream, an idea and took it to the next level. Her idea was that that had been done before, a vampire book. When my sister had begged me to read this book, I was not going to do it. I was a "Buffy" and "Angel" fan (very embarrassed to admit) but another book about vampires, come on! But this book had something that marketing entrepreneurs need to capitalize on, something Kim Power Stilson calls, "The Grapevine". This book had stay power because every single person you talked to said, "YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK". Hello, this is the sure power of tell all communication and recommendation. I think that any business can take from what Stephenie Meyer had to offer and see that the real power of advertising isn't through complicated and expensive giant billboards and commercial advertising, but producing something that people talk about. Talk is cheap. And on the side note, don't forget to listen to me live every Friday at 1 EST on "The Debbie Cluff Show", we can talk about breaking dawn, we always do.

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I was out to lunch with a dear friend a couple of days ago and she asked me what my plans were for the future, career wise. It as an interesting question that I didn't have an immediate answer to so I simple said, "At this time I am not sure as I am trying to figure out what I want to do". Growing up, my father had never really settled on one job, so it seemed like a silly question to ask. I had always followed in his entrepreneur steps and always sensed that opportunity would knock. Was I wrong? or just naive in my thinking? I pondered on that question for a couple of days and now think I have a solid answer to "what my future holds". I began my career choice as many young teenagers do, the decision was made by my parents. My mom had 10 kids and I liked kids so teaching felt like the right career path. She had gone to school to be a teacher, so that is what I was mostly pushed into doing. My mom had always said it was a good choice for moms to be teachers, so I went that route, seemed like a work from home job, in some sense as teachers were always working from home. I taught for two years and decided I hated teaching, too much politics and social networking (in the non-online form). So I had to adapt to my surroundings and, as my mother would say, "See a need, fill it". I decided to do the next best thing to teaching, online tutoring and instant homework help. This was a definite "work from home" field with an "online marketing business" twist. I spent hours on end (remember the quote from Abe Lincoln, "if I had 6 hours to chop down a tree, I would spend the next 4 hours sharpening my ax") learning about the internet. I learned how to social network, how to start my own small business, all about the SEO (Search Engine Optimization)and WWW (World Wide Web). I became a "preferred" writer on sites such as ezineonline.com and article city (they even sent me a mug at the end of the year for all my writing contributions). I found amazing business consulting sites (such as powerstrategies.tv and planetarystreams.com) that enabled me to bring my business to a successful money making company. I am at a new stage in my life, but a lot of what my future holds depends on what I steps I decide to take in my life and how I strategically place my next pieces. I don't think I was wrong or naive in not knowing that answer to what my future holds mainly because I am know I am able to do something with what I am giving. To quote the amazing President Abe Lincoln again, "During the Civil War the generals told the President that they had caught 6 cows and wanted to know what to do with them. He replied, "Milk Them". So to the World Wide Web and those spending hours on Google trying to find the answer to what their future holds, just remember to take what you are given and find the easiest solution.

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I had one last piece, an orange number eight, and it was my turn to place. I looked at my husband who gently nodded to my train of dominoes and I then knew that I could place my last piece. There it was, a double orange eight, at the top of the train… a place I had forgotten about and the spot I could lay down my last domino. I cheered, it was Laurie’s turn, and with that squeal the group had known they lost, I put my piece down and WON! I was proud, my friends cheered and my husband laughed as this was our 9th time playing, and I had finally won my first round of Mexican Train. We played a few more rounds after my first victory, but as the title states, “I won A game of Mexican Train” (I did joke with my girlfriends that I would be Blogging about this the next day and here I am). I joked with those around me, that I am not a winner of games. I actually, pretty much, loose every game I play (accept this one time last week, I totally killed everyone in Bowling on the Wii, who knew). I am a super good sport about it because even it I try to engulf my competitive side, I still loose, and then I am grumpy. Yet, as I basked in the glory of my won win, I thought about the quote, “I try to make all my failures seem like small triumphs”. I was researching different keywords on Google, for my company, and found that the words “online marketing, moms, work from home, home based business, small business” were very popular terms (with a million plus hits a day) and seemed to represent what our society is trying to achieve. Everyone wants to be that ONE company who WINS their turn on the World Wide Web by having their keywords placed #1 on the Google or any Search Engine (or SEO as those geeks like to call it). We still have to remember that maybe just having one of our keywords placed is just as great as having all of them. So play the game of SEO, but remember that your time will come when you are #1 in the Search Engines (and it might not last ).

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