Quiltingboard Forums - Live Your Passion! by rkmquilts.com

4/11/11

"Never underestimate the power of passion."

-Eve Sawyer

This segment has been a long time coming, I know. To tell you the truth, I have been trying to "walk the talk". I have been out there "living my passion" to the fullest extent these last couple of weeks!

To begin with, I attended a weekend quilting retreat and was given time to introduce myself and share my information about my Roseville retreat-the one I drove through rain and storms to set-up a few weeks earlier.

Believe this or not, I learned that there were a few in the audience who have been reading my novels on line! I can't tell you what kind of a "thrill" that was for me! Just imagine, standing in front of a bunch of people you've never met and suddenly realize they have been reading what you are writing!

I started the day concerned that I still needed to fill some slots for my retreat, and the next thing I knew I "only" had three slots available a few hours later!

Usually, I am a person who waits for "a sign of confirmation" from God. If, for example I go into a job interview and have a good feeling when I leave I am ok about accepting it. If, like in my former position I have an "unusual" feeling in my stomach about something, I try to walk away. (Of course, many times I have carried on only to find out I should have listened to my "gut" feeling to begin with...)

So, by lunch of the first day of the retreat, I had filled half of the slots I needed. By Sunday, a few more had signed up to come. Then, a truly remarkable thing happened. A few of the ladies asked me about developing a club- like the Red Hats-who would get together in the Indy area on a regular basis-and call themselves-The Roseville Quilters Club.

I went home and prayed about it, and thought of how it could work. A couple of days later, I put it out on my site. I opened 20 charter memberships to start. I sold 14 overnight.

Then, realizing I couldn't do this whole business alone, my sister agreed to act as my marketing director and my son Mark became my social media director. Suddenly, I was on Twitter and I had nothing but fan mail and emails to answer all last week!

In addition, I am receiving speaking invitations and program invites. I have developed a two hour workshop called-what else? "Live Your Passion!".

So, those of you out there who have started your journey-keep at it. That's really my best advice. "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." as Nemo's friend told him in the Disney movie "Nemo".

One of these days, when you least expect it-someone will say " I just love your work!" and you will know it has all been worth it.

Until next time, LIVE YOUR PASSION!

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