Invitation and My Story – An Open Letter to Diane Hochman

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Dear Diane,

For too long perhaps, you and I have toed around each other, respectful at a distance, but so caught up in changing the lives of others that we have not had an opportunity to really connect.

You’re one strong, strategic, calculated woman and I love it to no end.  The fact that you have not lost your heart in a cold business world speaks volumes about you.

You’ve also as passionate as I am (possibly more) in beating the hounds off of the new guys that are taking such a assault from people who should know better.

That is a rare and wonderful passion that we both share. I willingly defend my community with teeth when necessary.

The readers here mean more to me than they may ever know.

I’ve been watching you for quite some time, mostly vicariously, as you are one of the few who garnered some of my attention and respect. Jacqui has not understood though why I have been slow to further an engagement with you, as she trusts you explicitly.

Me on the other hand – I know what power does to people and I smell power on you. I’ve given you the respect and caution that warranted but I’m fairly certain we’re on the same page. I’m not sure we share the same methodology but that’s not an issue when hearts are after a common goal.

Too many people out here are getting lost in a near blood-lust and building businesses off the back of new guys that no one is protecting. Many of these are MY new guys – and YOUR new guys – and we both harbor a internal rage against that assault on our community.

You have been here longer – know the strategies better – me I’m still learning my way and walking heart-forward and letting the people I piss off answer to themselves.

I’ve grown a large correctly structured self-supporting team before but not in a place it could be monetized. Finding a book that told me how I did it, that it was not just a fluke, what the key elements are that I have came on organically were, let me know I could build again. Then I set out to find the game – find the game we can all play to win – find the game that the newbies and the vets can play together without cannibalizing each other. I’m slowly coming to see the game, and the lights of my passion are coming on as I spy a game that can be played to win while helping others.

I am going through a huge personal transformational period and some of my moves out here don’t make “good business sense” but they are a product of that. I took a life that had grown hugely non-congruent and basically righted the ship in the last few months. Huge turmoil and chaos of course ensues when you do that. I am in the middle of an early stage (friendly) divorce, another relationship as well, loss of a family support network, loss of my original team network, having only the prior community I built to fall back on as I have worked non-stop to replicate the community here. Fortunately it has worked brilliantly and I have met some incredible people that have quickly become near to my heart and help me nearly daily me avoid drowning in the emotional tides of what I am doing.

Oh I am finding my wings again, and they may yet be wet, but they feel so damn good!

Business wise I’m growing slower than I could be, perhaps should be, but the me that is me as a person has to have time to come through this development as well. I can not let the business yet get ahead of my internal work or I wont have the strength to shoulder what is to come yet. In this way, I have given myself some personal patience and room to grow at the moment. Still moving forward, never stopping for more than a quick breather, but being more gentle with myself than I might otherwise be for I know that strengthening these wings takes a little time and that it is all coming together… quite rapidly in fact.

Background wise I have a background in small businesses, coming from a family of entrepreneurs, growing up in a mom and pop business and having others over the years myself. I also have a background in IT having grown up with my hands in them… and in holistics, energetics and medical research, having focused my BS in college on reproductive physiology/oncology with a emphasis on soy research (ick) while doing a pre-veterinary specialization through the college of ag. Oh yeah, I’m a farm girl too

I’ve rarely been without some sort of business in my name for very long because I lack the mindset of a “good employee” (gag!) Also, I have some semi-serious health concerns that make my regular attendance to a job difficult and have resulted in me being fired enough that I’ve grown more than a little distaste for the experience.

I joined Orrin Woodward’s Team MonaVie about a year and a half (going on two years) ago through a friend – and rapidly learned a ton of stuff about network marketing. Threw myself into their training program and did one of the things I do best – absorb information. Their system helped me start to pull my head around from the incongruence in my life – but also due to the strong political and religious tones in their system (Orrin’s, not Mona Vies) I was out of congruence there as well. I left them non-officially about last August….

…and last November stumbled into a social media, tribe syndication training course with Kary Rogney et al.

I enjoyed playing with the social media toys and unlike almost everyone in there had no business to build. I quickly became integral in the community though helping others get wordpress and such set up and positioned. I put my blog up in December casually and launched it in January still with no plan, goal, destination or business.

Everything you see has happened 100% organically, by the seat of my pants, running with my gut instinct and trying to keep up with how well its working.

I got all but kicked out of Kary’s club – they couldnt officially kick me, I would have rifted his community at the time they understood – but my views and theirs were coming into conflict too often and I did not believe what was being spoken always aligned with what was being done. They didn’t believe my negative attitude was good for the community.

I rebelled against it for a while, having had been hurt by the behaviors, and hurt by seeing others affected, and hurt by not being allowed to fully sound off to what had happened and be HEARD.

Fortunately I think they’ve grown from that little adventure and learned to connect deeper with their own community. Those guys touched a lot of lives and I commend them for that.

However I eventually picked up another course with Jodie Thompson, that turned out to be under my technical skillset (though not my marketing set), and found myself joining her Q&A calls and handling most of the technical Q&A and having a blast.

I did a free Facebook webinar about April or so that was very off the cuff and had great turnout and felt my heart start to light up. Oh I do so love teaching, particularly in open Q&A format.

I was later asked to join Jodie, teaching the foundation blogging section of her PBY (Profit Being You) course, where I am now a full joint partner and have worked to build on the small community there. I’m in the process of setting up a full tiered-membership/ sales/ drip-feed/forum/etc community for PBY since we left ning recently and that has quite a bit of work yet to go on it but the community is a gem, and patient. I teach wordpress, social media, basic marketing concepts etc – and then Jodie teaches the positioning, branding and anything thats new in the industry that week. Except for the 2 weeks every 8 weeks we take a break, our students get two calls a week, with mine usually being either recorded or pre-recorded depending on what I’m doing that week. Love love love teaching that course! I have some of the best students ever!

That is my small but primary income stream at the moment – small because my head has been away from it trying to emotionally navigate this separation. Getting my head back together, which needed some road time to THINK, was most of why I took the roadtrip. I’m still kinda reeling from it but I’m feeling better every day and starting to get back in the saddle with the new found increased independence that a separation brings.

I have a lot of work to do to get my marketing further together and get more properly set up to help more people. That is my goal.

I don’t really care about teaching people to make millions – I’m more interested in seeing a lot of people make their first real money out here. Seeing them earn the first few hundred extra dollars a month that can be life changing.

Anyone can sell them a how-to-make-millions product that they never make a dime from. I want to show them how to make their dimes back!

The work doesn’t scare me although what I wouldn’t give for some 72hr days I tell ya!

As I’ve come to further understand what I am doing out here, what I CAN be doing out here, and what others are doing sometimes erroneously out here, I’m just getting more and more lit up… and its becoming more and more “home” and “mine” and “my people”… and when momma bear is engaged… I pity the fools that fucks with my community… You know what I’m saying in a sense, for I see it in your eyes.

You’re going to make this happen. I’m going to make this happen. You are further along than I am but we share a common passion. And a common enemy.

You have heart, strength, skills and guts and balls.

I would welcome a friend, a partner, and a kindred spirit in this.

Lets help some people!

With love,
Kimberly

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