Coming Up to The Last Day Of October (and Countdown to 'Black Friday' if you're in business or a bargain hunter!)

I usually don't talk business especially with Halloween in the air! But here's a quick commercial about a program I was excited to take but felt I had to back out of...and learned a lot in the process. Here's a letter I sent to the company I was eager to work with about their new way to help people launch or upgrade their business with better copy that moves people through a process to learn and buy their product or services.

(That' sounds pretty businessy doesn't it? Almost like a pro or someone whose been watching Dozens of How To-Everything for a few years, about 5 on and off even through the pandemic to learn about Quizzing People to Engage their Interest with Easy Questions and then something a bit more juicy to lead them to a place to get info...and get their contact info to build an email list and learn more, stay engaged and Develop A Relationahip with people around the main service and others one may Pivot to or Network with Others about (as affiliates etc.)

Okay so now you have a sense of what my ol' noggin's been processing when I am not doing direct care or staying with someone who Super Needs  Help or will need to go to a nursing home for some basic care that they should manage to get at home with a team effort in their community! Maybe you could do an informal survey in your community (and sure we could hatch one out here soon so stay tuned) about Who Might Need What In Your Area (and that could be street, building town, school, church or wider area such as corner or 'tic tac toe' box of your state meaning top, middle or lower area and left or west, central, or right or east side  so one of Nine Regions in any ol' state (and those in turn could be divided into another 'catchment area' or region.)

Doesn't that help you feel more in touch with your own support systems and neighbors to think of the collective in that way? I learned that from working with NAMI which is National Alliance on Mental Illness...and in CT there are 5 Catchment Areas called CACs, rhymes with quacks but that's just a coin-cidence.

Now back to the idea of following through with trying to take a weekend class (that runs 2500 but came with great bonuses and replays of the working weekend...) Eager Beaver as I was, I had some stuff come up so needed to cancel my intake discovery call to see if we'd be a good fit since the bootcamp was by application. Someone in my circles had a UTI come up but we didn't know if it was more serious (and those can land you in the hospital..and yes, that is a Urinary Tract Infection...which may be caused by lack of hydration or too much sugar, or 'other reason', maybe stress and lack of sleep etc.

That can cause a bit of bleeding from the bladder and it's nothing to dismiss with symptoms of minimal urination, pressure to go and frequent need to pee. All not fun to have or know someone else is experiencing but is not sure what to do. So calling a friend, a doctor or an ER to check is reasonable.If special antibiotics are prescribed, the pharmacy may not have them on hand. So one may need to call around and find another place in state that would take their insurance (if it's LIA, Low Income Adult or Medicaid which does not tranfer to another state easily..) One may choose to pay out of pocket for the medicine and should look to see if there is any Discount Savings card one can add to one's account to get a real price break. That can be done in advance! Always call to see if one's med is really ready too if juggling work or other errands.

Some say take cranberry (pure not a juice with sugar) or vitamin to maintain healthy urinary flow. But a UTI may do best with antibiotics from the doc. So google for more info but be aware elderly or others who may not feel well may forget to drink enough and may run into that problem and can have symptoms of confusion too. So because of that kind of problem in my circles, and not knowing if it were something more serious with kidneys and such, I decided to cancel the intake call, which could have been rescheduled.

But the concern of another health issue or not finding coverage for work I'm generally needed to do made me realize "this is not the time to do this awesome extra thing..." And I had to admit I've racked up a lot of programs I haven't looked at closely and also have items I need to 'cash in' in terms of things from Pre Covid that I don't want to forget about such as a two week campership at the Berkshire Waldorf School in Great Barrington MA which I hope they will make good on. I spent 350 for one week and was going to have the other for free. I meant to find someone to buy the second week which would have made the first one free that I could help someone have  or maybe sell both weeks and keep the profit.

But neither happened since the whole camp program was cancelled. And even the next year it was very limited so it's time to plan again for next summer...so hope to workt that out. I also spent $400 on getting to use Mettabee Farm in Hillsdale for an event. I thought up great ways to have the 50 people attend pay to share their business and have a conference about 'death and dying with support and in a positive light...' I planned to have ten main organizers bring four others on so kind of an invite only event...and Each of the ten could pay me 100 dollars then have the four others pay them $25-50 to attend the four hour event (or was it six...)

Those were creative ideas that could still hatch out. I was going to have a Facebook group for the organizers and ways for them to present online for a month before and after the event so we'd be growing up a meaningful community around that theme. Now that is a serious theme and maybe I'd back it up to something more 'user friendly' like medical and alternative healing and support over the life span.

That's a model that could be used for any interest and community to network. I shared the idea with folks in a women's group I am part of mainly online but who are in my local area. That's something that more may be open to promoting...so look up Walk Our Talk of the Berkshires of MA.

There are some groups meeting online such as the Southern Berkshire Toastmasters which is aiming to gain 20 members for their 25th Anniversary so that feels like a lot of bells and whistles! Let's go for 25 New Members and some from farther afield but definitely folks in the Berkshire area and Northwest CT area and nearby NY since some meetings are held in person and people can attend any meeting they find online or in person if its not a corporate club.

Okay so where were we Before Halloween fun and games or more serious reflection about this time of year such as the online Saturday Night Alive events which are archived and ongoing (tonight with Dannion Brinkley and Marc Anthony both of whom I've men and hope to see online live tonight.) Here's the note I sent the company bowing out and guess what, a snaffew maybe with the payment so I offer them a tip to say who the payment is billed to especially if in a company far away from the main place of business.