I joined AdlandPro WAY back in 2004. I had one little product I was trying to bring to market, and I wanted to plop little classified ads all over the Internet. After all, this was the big magic marketplace in the sky, and everyone who read my ad was going to just open their wallets and BUY from me, right? Little did I realize the hard work that lay ahead.

Even less apparent to me and completely ignored was this Community side of AdlandPro. Community? Heck, it was all I could do to keep up on surfing the exchanges and keeping my house clean after eight to eleven hours at my day job. Add to that the fact that I'm basically a VERY shy person--communing with strangers was just not my thing.

Then one day this Spring (2005), I decided to visit this Community thing and find out what it is. I was surprised to find the people in here actively enjoy talking to each other. It sounds like some have even built true online friendships here. The warmth of the AdlandPro community membership has truly amazed me.

I hail from Columbus, Ohio, USA. I have three wonderful daughters, two of which are in grad school right now--geology and nuclear engineering (the latter assures me its for medical research and not for blowing up countries). All three are smart, strong, articulate young ladies who've made me feel I accomplished something in this life. My middle daughter is a cancer survivor and truly a people person.  She hopes to become and interior designer, and I have the joy of sharing my life with her every day while the other two are off in their academic worlds.  My husband is a cancer survivor as well.  While we will part ways legally soon, he is still dear to me as a person; and I wish him continued contentment with his life.

I am a published poet and associate editor at a well-known literary small press and a performance poet very active in the arts community in Central Ohio (another reason I didn't "have time to spend chatting online"). Poetry and its ability to touch people's lives bring me great joy.  It is also joy to hear words work in new, fresh ways, in combinations never encountered before to give life to a truth one would otherwise take for granted.  I do not write Hallmark style verse.  My work touches real lives and real situations without stylizing them.  It is honest and approachable, and is warmly accepted by audiences and readers alike.  If you're interested, you can meet poet me at http://conversant2.blogspot.com.  I've tried to keep poet me separate from entrepreneur me online, but I've learned to trust the AdlandPro community enough to let you see me for who I am.

Aside from a dream of someday completely replacing my day job earnings with an income that lets me work from anywhere, I dream of having residual resources to help people. I've been known to give away the shirt off my back as well as my last five bucks. I guess I'm just made that way. While "the gift of giving" is not expressly mentioned in the Bible, I believe that motivational gift given by God is at the heart of my relationships.  I have lived my life giving to others--myself, my time, my resources, my assistance.  I am in a season now of giving back to myself through this endeavor and the sense of accomplishment that I've come to know through sharing the poet self with others.  I have been a member of Columbus, Ohio's National Poetry Slam team three times.  We placed 11th in the nation as a team in 2004.  I placed thirteenth in the nation among individually performing poets at National Poetry Slam 2005, and I will remember this time in my life forever.

My business philosophies are rooted in practicality.  I will not sell something I can't believe in.  If the product does not have specific, essential benefits to the user, I won't touch it.  Frivolous expenditure is not a habit I would want to force upon others, even if it means I will make less money out here.  Any product, especially any intangible such as online services, must support the primary business.  I don't jump into something because it screams easy money anymore.  We have all worked too hard for the little we own to be coerced to throw it away.  Every product I place on my web site is there because it has proven benefit.  If I ever go sideways of that, I hope someone will slap me back into reality.  If I start chasing dollars out here just for the sake of dollars, I would do it at the expense of my integrity and isn't our integrity all that we have in the end?

Be blessed.