You Don’t Want a Job: Why Self-Employment Reduces Your Risks & Increases Your Rewards

You Don't Want a JobThat’s the full title of my 10th book, being released this Friday, July 27th, and one of the many reasons I’ve been absent from this blog so long.

I hope you’ll join me on a little virtual book tour throughout the month of August. You’ll meet lots of interesting people and just might learn a thing or two along the way.

You can read about the book and even preorder a copy over at my personal website.

Open Mic Night at Jersey Java & Tea

When our friend Dorothy found out where we were staying in New Jersey, she told us to look up her friend Mary of Jersey Java & Tea. We did and met Mary in person a couple of weeks ago. Jersey Java & Tea hold open mic nights the first and third Fridays of every month. They also book musicians to play sets. Mary booked Joel to play a two-hour set on December 3, 2011 from 7 – 9 pm. So come on down if you’re in the area. The address is 140 North Haddon Ave, Haddonfield, NJ.

Last night Joel attended the open mic and played three of his songs: The Hillside, It’s Cold Out There and Like the Sea. He plans to play their next open mic as well on December 2 at 7 pm. We hope you can join us!

Celebrating with Co-Authors Shanna Mann (Why We Lead) and Rick Wilson (Hits or Niches)

Months of working frantically to write six books simulataneously with two different co-authors culminated in celebration on 11/11/11.

Rick Wilson and his wife and younger daughter, Shanna Mann and her friends (including Debs from New York), and our family gathered at London Grill in Philadelphia to celebrate getting six books published in six months. Rick and Joel co-authored Hits or Niches: Why Marketing is Boring, Obnoxious & Annoying, & What You Can Do About It. Shanna and Joel co-authored Why We Lead: Conversations on the Scarcity of Confidence and the Nature of Leadership. Joel’s other four books just released are:

Through the Fog – An Irish Mystery Novel (fiction)
Permission Granted: Create Something Remarkable. Start Now.
The Time is Now 11:59 – Heretical Thinking for Tomorrow’s Business
Getting Your Book Out of the Someday Box – Because You Know You Want to Write a Book

Joining us were fans from the area and New York. Thank you to all who joined us in celebration, including:

  • Joel and Cheryl
  • Craig and Katherine
  • Rosemary
  • Ashley
  • Debs
  • Chris
  • Connie Herman
  • Jodi Kaplan (fellow Triiibes member)
  • and all the rest!

Thank you to Ryan and the crew at London Grill for your great service and hospitality! We enjoyed a nice dinner, fun drinks and interesting desserts.

For all you bacon lovers, Joel enjoyed the Candied Bacon Ice Cream on your behalf!

Books were autographed for anyone in attendance and those who pre-ordered. We’ll be shipping books out to those who couldn’t make it in person.

On display as well were copies of client’s books that Someday Box had a hand in helping finish. Fred’s Abduction by author Pegleg Terry is a favorite of Fiona’s.

To all of you who wanted to come and just couldn’t make it, we missed you! If you’d still like to get an autographed copy of one or all of the books, send us an email using our contact form and we’ll see what we can arrange.

A Virtual Success!

Last August we held an event for virtual assistants in Vancouver British Columbia while house sitting in the area.

Kathy had found our event online and registered. We’ve kept in touch over the past year by email and calls. Today we received this email from Kathy:

Hi Sue & Joel,

Just wanted to let you know how appreciative I am for the encouragement you gave me last year when you were in Vancouver and the few months after when I was so unsure.

I have just landed my first “big” contract.  It is for a business coaching firm in San Jose.  We got together because of a LinkedIn VA discussion.  They were asking if it was possible for their meetings to be transcribed live.  All of the VAs that answered said, no, you had to record it first.  They said their meetings could not be recorded.  Then I came on and said it could be transcribed live.  I did a test run for them to show how it could work and we are now working together several times a week.

I never would have had the courage to go to these forums let alone say I could do it if it was not for the encouragement you had given to me.

Again, thanks, and enjoy your nomad life.

Kathy Andrews

Kathy told us the company was looking for 80% accuracy and she got 90% so they were very impressed! And as Joel told her, “Real-time transcription has to be nearly unique. In cases where there’s a need, you probably have NO competition!”

We’re glad to have been a part of helping Kathy succeed as a transcriptionist. Visit Kathy’s website at http://andrewsvirtualtranscripts.com/

 

An Irish Mystery Novel Party

Joel is an author. He writes business books, songs and now his first fiction book – an Irish mystery. It’s called Through the Fog and is about an amnesiac who ends up in Ireland. You can read an excerpt from it at Joel’s website.

Joel playing his tin whistle in Ireland
Joel playing his tin whistle in Ireland

To celebrate the release of the book this month, and the release of another business book called The Time is Now 11:59 – Heretical Thoughts for Tomorrow’s Business, I’m hosting a virtual party this weekend, Friday through Sunday, on Facebook. Stop by and leave a comment for Joel.

I want this to be fun. Friday we’re going to do a Mexican theme – put on your sombreros and eat chips and salsa. Saturday will be our Irish day – open up the Guinness and have some fish and chips. Sunday – let’s do a BBQ!

 

 

 

Big Book Launch (And We Helped!)

Last night our friend Kari Hagensmith had a book release party for her first book, The Girlfriend Will . . . which we helped create. Our Someday Box service helps people get their book out of the ‘someday’ box and into their hands.

You can read all about it at the Someday Box website.

Famous Traveling Musician to Perform in Canada

Oh, alright; it’s just me.

But Monday night I’ll be performing in Queen’s Park here in New Westminster. Up there on a stage, in the bandshell, with seats out there for folks to sit in and the whole shootin’ match.

I take the stage at 7:00 pm and will play for about an hour. It’s still light here until nearly 9:00 so it’ll be broad daylight for my whole show.

If you’re within driving distance, c’mon down! Tell all your friends so y’all can come down and make me look famous.

If you’re not in the area, I’ll be shooting video of the whole thing. It will look much like all the other music videos I’ve done, except it’ll be in Canadian, eh?

Meet the Nomad Canfields at Waves Coffee Shops in British Columbia

While we’re here in BC we plan to visit, if possible, all the Waves Coffee Shops in BC.  Here’s your chance to meet the Nomad Canfield Family in person! Today, August 5th, we’ll be at the Waves on Columbia in New Westminster from 11:30 am to 12:30. On Monday, August 9th,  you can find us at the Waves in Burnaby at Kingsway & Edmonds from 12:30 to 1:30 pm. We hope you can stop by and chat for a while. We love to meet new people!

Virtual Assistants in Vancouver Receive Training at Virtual Offices

Yes, we’re moving ahead with the Vancouver Virtual Assistant Workshop on August 6, 2010. Thanks to Renee Shupe, The Redhead VA, and Minna Van of The Network Hub, we have a great location and lots of great information to present. You can read the Press Release posted at PRLog.

The workshop will be very interactive and include exercises to help virtual assistants:

  • Clearly define their ideal client
  • Create marketing strategies to reach ideal clients
  • Learn how to convert prospects to ideal clients
  • Network in person in such a way as to create word of mouth referrals
  • Create a newsletter to engage with prospects and client

All attendees at the Vancouver workshop will also receive a copy of Building Blocks: Succeed as a Chief Virtual Officer. There will also be a drawing for 5 copies of the ebook on CD, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – A Quick-Start Guide for Virtual Assistants by Christine Giri of Time Tamer Consulting.

Details and registration can be found at Event Brite.