About Me

About Me pages are a funny thing. There’s one school of thought that says only write about all the successes you’ve had, puff yourself up good. People don’t want to hang around you unless they think you’re a success.

The other school of thought (and the one you’re going to get here) is to be totally open and honest. Yes, I’ve had successes, but I’ve had huge failures, too. There have been days when things couldn’t get any better and days that got so overwhelmingly bad, I just wanted to give up. But, I’m a mid-western girl from Ohio and my Dad didn’t raise a quitter. So, here I am today. Let me give you the “Reader”s Digest” version of “About Me”.

First the personal stuff…I’m a mom of four kids, two girls and two boys. The three oldest are grown, out on their own and married. My youngest is nine. Both my sons have had to deal with some pretty heavy duty medical stuff (Eran, my oldest was born with a condition called Phenylketonuria,or PKU.  My youngest, Emanuel has a circulation problem in one leg and has been diagnosed with learning disabilities). They’ve done an amazing job dealing with all the challenges they’ve faced. To me they’re heroes.

I’ve lived in Las Vegas since 1982, raised my kids here and had a very successful career selling new homes for some of the largest builders in town. Real estate was a career I thought I’d retire from, but the real estate crash put an end to that. In one 15 minute meeting in October of 2007, I went from a job making six figures a year to unemployment…OUCH! Big ouch.

Suddenly here I was, a single mom with a big mortgage (and a bunch of other debt. It’s the American way, right?) in an industry that was shrinking by the day. And, not to mention that the stress of all those years of being a Type A+++ personality gave me a pesky little condition known as Fibromyalgia. If you’re not familiar with it, imagine all the aches and pains of a bad case of flu, (you know the kind I’m talking about…the kind that makes you want to stay in bed and hibernate until it runs its course) and that flu doesn’t go away. Icky poo… Ok, back to the story…

No one was hiring. As a matter of fact, many new home builders closed up shop and left town altogether. It was a very scary time. I know what it’s like to feel the sheer panic of hearing the phone ring, knowing it was a creditor on the other end. I know the feeling of finding myself sitting straight up in bed at two in the morning crying my eyes out because I didn’t know how I was going to pay the mortgage. I also know the humiliation of having to file for bankruptcy to keep a roof over my son’s and my head.

Surely, I thought, I’ll find a job somewhere…not.

You’ve no doubt heard the phrase “If it’s to be, it’s up to me.” This time it really was. My old profession was gone and there were only low paying or commission-only jobs to be found for a girl like me with no college degree. On to the next chapter of my life…The Reinvention Specialist was born.

I knew if I was going to get out of the mess I was in, I’d have to create my own income; my own job. But, I didn’t want it to be just a job. It had to be something I truly enjoyed doing; something that really made a difference in not only mine and my family’s life, but in other people’s lives as well. (Making money at it would be a happy thing, too 🙂 )

I took a good, long look at not only the skills I’d acquired over the years, but also what I really loved to do. To my surprise, what I loved about new home sales and the knowledge I’d gained in my career translated very well into what I share with my clients now as a coach and marketer. The cool thing about reinventing yourself is that you’re not starting from scratch. You already have so many valuable skills and tons of knowledge that you probably take for granted.

Fortunately, I’d been looking into other businesses using internet marketing as a “side line” before the meltdown happened. I’d put up a website and had some success, but not enough to support me and my son. Because of that rather frustrating start as a work-from-home business owner, I began learning about marketing like a woman possessed (promise you, I’m not) and discovered what I really love to do is help people like me; people who’d been kicked in the tail by the economy. I show them how to use their talents, skills and passions to reinvent themselves and create either a business of their own or morph into a whole new career.

Before long, people started asking me to show them what I was doing and how I was doing it. It was from doing that, my signature program “The P.H.O.E.N.I.X. Blueprint” came into being. That program goes step-by-step through the work-from-home career reinvention process. I love helping people reinvent themselves and find their “inner entrepreneur” so they never have to worry about falling victim to their job being eliminated or a crazy economy.

The journey continues and there is finally a very bright light at the end of the tunnel. My hope is to help you reinvent yourself and find your light, too.