Lynne's Blog

Hello, again!

1/25/2023

It's been almost five years since I last wrote a blog post for this site. During that time, the world has become a completely different place, and many of us have become completely different people. We've experienced a major shifts, met knew people and experienced new things - not the least of which being the pandemic.

My absence from this site, is not indicative of my absence from the Internet. In fact, most of my focus these past few years have been on my companies, SilverBox Institute and ThreeSocks Media. But those of you who are playing at home, I am beginning a podcast and I now have a Patreon account. I'll tell you more about those later. For now, let me update you on where I've been these past few years:

Around the time that I wrote my last blog post here, I met an old friend. We embarked on several projects, and I learned an immense amount about business. (One specific lesson: Get everything in writing, and trust NO ONE. Now, I'm just talking about in business, but I left my complete trust blind me to the intentions of this friend and his father. They bullied me, used me, and gaslighted me as they drained my finances.
I got COVID, twice! The first time was the worst. I was sick and in bed with a high fever for almost two weeks, and then it took me another two weeks to fully recover. The second time, I was tired, but still able to function. My sympathies to those of you who were hit far worse and to those of you who lost loved ones. I lost two colleagues.
My father passed away. He died in early 2020 at the age of 94. I miss him every single day.
I've been hired to create more audio books and done a few more voice over jobs. Thank you to all of the wonderful people who worked with me on those projects!
I made many new business relationships that continue to thrive..
Most recently (Sept. 2022), I spoke at the annual conference of the National Association of Women in Communications. It was a wonderful experience, and if you are unfamiliar with AWC, please do look them up. They are a fabulous group.

That is just a brief recap, but I promise more to come!! Also, please do join me on my other platforms. I'll share more here regarding that in coming days.

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An Adventure in Art

8/23/2018

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When I attended college, I plowed into it without giving a thought to the massive debts that I undertook since my parents could not afford to pay. Yes, I did earn scholarships, but they fell a bit short especially after freshman year. I'm not complaining, mind you, I am grateful. I got loans and then worked to pay off those loans. However, now I am questioning this approach. Should young adults be given this huge burden? Should promising young professionals find themselves buried in debt before the age of 25?

My answer is NO. Now, I imagine the next thing you expect me to say is that college should be free. But that's not my line of thinking. Research shows that students tend to have less commitment when attending trials of free college; also, I'm not sure economically that it is feasible. (However, prove me wrong on either count and I'm happy to be on board.) So, what am I saying? Well, perhaps more of a team effort? Could professionals who are successful take steps that would actually not have a major impact on them, but would make a world of difference for a college student?

To that end, I have made a commitment to sharing a percentage of the profits from my artwork to help college students in need. (Go to the Art tab at the top of this website) I feel this is a worthy cause and a chance to test out my theory. The more this succeeds, the more I plan to reach out to other professionals to do the same.

So, what do you say? Are you game? Click here to see my effort. Also, a HUGE THANK YOU goes out right now to those of you who responded and began making purchases. Whether you are decorating your home, your office, or a whole building, I can help you and by doing so we're both helping college students.

Do you have a college student in need? I'm working on two specific young ladies right now, but once they are set, I will gladly accept new students to help, so come back and check on the progress.

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A strange encounter

4/3/2018

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This past week I ran into a woman who had been my supervisor many years ago before I went out onto my own. She hired and trained me at the company. After working with her for almost three years, I heard she had been fired as a part of a "mass blood-letting" by the company. I want to be extremely respectful to her here, so I'm going to be a bit vague and I'm going to use a fake name, but there is a very important lesson to be found in my recent encounter with her and it's been on my mind all week, which is why I am sharing this.

She was let go, and I was promoted. I was not a part of the decision making process, so I never knew very much, but a few days after she was fired I ran into her. To say she was angry would an understatement. She tried to be kind to me, but I also got a sense that her anger rain over onto me. That was fine, though, because I could easily see where she'd be upset. We chatted that day and I shared my dream of going out onto my own and offered to share the resources I was gathering for my big move. She declined. We parted ways.

I hadn't given her much thought until this recent encounter. There was still a tinge of anger obvious in her, and her life had not progressed significantly from where she was when we last spoke. Hearing this sent a chill down my spine. I remember hearing a quote a long time ago that said something to the effect of having problems means you're human, but having the same problems year after year means you've got a full-blown crisis. I'm not saying it as eloquently as the original quote, but the point is the same. (Hey, if you know this quote, please contact me!)

Hearing the tinge of anger and seeing that she hadn't progressed seemed heart breaking to me, but I understand. I've been there. Perhaps the best thing I've ever done

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My Story

3/16/2018

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Recently a friend told me that to be a great storyteller I needed to know MY story first. Is that true? I'm not sure, but I do know that I decided it was time to gain some clarity on my story and so I'm going to share it with you.

I was born a story teller....oh, and the youngest of seven children. (It was a crazy zoo, but as the youngest I eventually got my own bedroom and in time was able to be an only child in the house...at least for a few years.) Early in my life I gained a fan club at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. I was kind of a big deal there because at 18 months old I stopped breathing and was apparently "technically" dead for a little while. I was originally told 6 minutes, but over the years I heard figures that ranged from 2 minutes to 45. I seem to recall actually hearing a doctor say 6 minutes after he looked at my chart, so that's the number I stick with in my version.

That makes me a miracle...that and the fact that my parents were in their 40's with very little privacy, quite frankly makes my conception and birth outright Ripley's Believe It or Not material. Then, as I said, I had some health problems and during an emergency room visit just outright stopped breathing. (I've had some "unique" experience throughout my life and a psychic once told me it was due to my death experience....I kid you not a woman came running up to me in a restaurant to tell me this news randomly. Somewhat scary since I hadn't even been talking to her when she felt moved to yell this out. Scared my lunch companion, but what the hell.)

I went on to totally amaze the doctors at Beaumont as I made a miraculous recovery years later, and then despite initial predictions that I wouldn't live to be an adult and I certainly would never have a "normal" life, I got a clean bill of health at age 14 and never looked back. Okay, I should probably add that I haven't had a "normal" life, but that's what miracles are all about and I'm fine with that. LOL! I have lived a healthy life and that's what really matters.

My story gets hazy for awhile, however, because though I started out my professional life strong and focused, doubt brought me to my knees and took me way off course. Though I love both of my parents, it took me many years to be able to say the following line: I am the daughter of a man with mental illness, a man who fought off paranoid delusions and his family all paid the price for them. My siblings paid a higher price than me, since I was the youngest and was able to be sheltered by them, but it ultimately drove a wedge between us all.

I'm not complaining. It made me who I am and I'm really proud of myself. However, I honestly cannot remember a time when I was a kid that a trip to the local Kmart wasn't a traumatic thing. You see, my father believed that someone from his early adulthood was after him and, in fact, Dad thought this guy had a poisonous spray that he used on our family. So, my father always made at least one of my brothers stand watch at the car and if while we were shopping, my father felt like he was being sprayed, we had to drop everything and run out to the car and leave. I remember once picking out a pink Easter dress that had to be dropped so we could run and when we returned it was nowhere to be seen.

But, nonetheless, I made it. My siblings made it as well. We all survived and went on to lead pretty good lives and all of us are fairly sane....knock on wood. LOL! But one profound effect it had on me was that I was very big into playing it safe and not drawing attention to myself. My career has had many stellar high points, but until recently, I was always fairly eager to get out of the spotlight and thus turn down a promotion, give someone else the chance to lead a project, etc. I worked as an English teacher much of my life all the while writing. A few years ago my daughters asked why I didn't do anything with my writing and initially I replied that it was due to not having Hollywood contacts. I said, "The deck is stacked against people like me." Then it hit me. That was my father's favorite line...it was his WHY when people suggested he get a better job so that he could support his family, it was his go-to for how he and my mom ended up in a bad neighborhood with little to show for it all.

So here's the thing: I have come to realize that the deck is stacked the way you stack it. Yes, there are some things out of our control, but we always have control over our mindset and how we approach the world. My father had an illness, which was out of his control, but the option to take meds or ignore them were his. So were other things like his decision not to allow other people to help our family.

I am a miracle. I survived my father. I survived a heart valve problem. The heart problem was supposedly a death sentence. Yet here I sit with a Ph.D., two children, and a very full career. I don't define myself by my early illness or my father anymore. Nor do I define myself by fears and the belief that things are stacked against me. The rough times only made me realize and appreciate the incredible nature of my life. I'm not saying I don't sometimes slip or struggle, but now when I do I see the light on the path ahead. I keep moving.

My current plan is to take my writing to a new level. New clients who are ready to go great places, new plans for my creative writing projects, and a new outlook. Rather than self-publish my second novel, I'm going to find a traditional publisher and get on the NY Times best seller's list Next, I have 13 children's books that I've read at the local schools for years, but never really did anything with and I'm getting them out there as well. And finally, I have multiple sitcom and movie scripts. It's time for them to see the light of day. (Want to be a part of the movie making process? www.threesocksmedia.com)

If you're reading this blog, it means you're a part of this whole process and I thank you. The deck is not stacked against us, but we do have an adventure ahead of us. Are you ready?

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Stuck in snow

2/9/2018

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Today I write to you from the middle of a snow storm. Fortunately, I have no where to go today and a pan of brownies waiting for me, so I'm good to go. It's beautiful outside and I'm enjoying just sitting and watching it snow. Amazing!

To be honest, this website was the vision of a wonderful marketing person who was helping me get my brand together. I haven't changed it much since those days and I've never really connected with this site until recently. I added my artwork on a page and I am in seventh heaven over it. Photograph is an incredible art form. Yes, I know that computers have made it all seem very unnatural, but my time spent with my Nikon walking around and looking at the world, is still my favorite thing to do.

Years ago I heard writer Wayne Dyer say that our goal should be to not die with our music in us. I came across that quote again a few days ago and this time it struck me in a way that it hadn't previously. You're probably thinking that creating a blog is my way of doing that, but it's not really. It's a tool. I want to explore my music and this is going to be my space for that.

I don't want this to be some pasty marketing website. I want it to be alive, so I'm going to use this space to figure out what that means. Also, for those of you who don't know me personally, I love a good mystery, so I'm also going to use this space to talk about things that intrigue me and I hope you'll join in along the way. However, even if no one ever reads this and I'm all alone, I still plan to keep writing.

Will you join me?

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Hello, again!

An Adventure in Art

A strange encounter

My Story

Stuck in snow

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