One of the wonderful things about attending conferences like the MEGA Marketing Seminar I went to earlier this month in L.A. is the chance to connect on a personal level with people who are tops in fields that are drastically different from your own.
Stephanie was one of the people I connected with a few weeks ago. She's based in Indiana, near Indianapolis (and we had to go all the way to the West Coast to cross paths!). She's a corporate coach and, among other things, a certified life coach -- something I have no experience with whatsoever. I'm not even 100 percent what a CLC does.
Anyway, Stephanie has a manuscript that she's ready to publish, which is in need of a hard critique and final edit before it's set in stone. She asked for a quote for my services, which I provided, and she decided to hire me.
Since making money is not my only reason for living (and since I know I'm expensive), I suggested that I would be open to a mutual exchange of services, if she wanted to go that route. And that is how I now have several sessions of a CLC at my disposal to help me map out a strategy for reaching my goals for the year.
I'm not entirely sure what that will do for me, but I do know this -- coaching of any kind is not cheap. It's quite possible that I can really benefit from Stephanie's services. I'm also 100 percent certain that if it were not for bartering our areas of expertise, I would not be able to afford a coach of any kind. Certainly not one of Stephanie's caliber.
The moral of the story is: reciprocity. When you're open to sharing yourself, and willing to swap with what others have to offer, you can reap rewards that go far beyond a larger bank balance.
The Photo Book
One of the missing chapters is now written. The other will be done by the end of this week, if I have anything to say about it. Then comes the edit. My goal is to have that done by mid-April. Right now things are looking promising. We'll see how realistic that is.
