This holiday season, don’t forget to have some empathy and kindness for yourself.

On Sunday, October 4th, 2020, I was the keynote speaker at the online College Planning Untangled conference.

Below is a small segment of that keynote.

(If you’ve followed me for a while—can you guess what key principle I was speaking about here?)

I said:

“Here’s our third goal for tonight. Toward the end of our time together in this hour, I’m going to teach you one key principle that no one else you know is talking about.

One key principle that can untangle all the college confusion—and send your kid shooting like an arrow straight to a bullseye—without stress, pressure, or anxiety of any kind.

I’m going to give you a phrase to write down. Write this down now so you’ll be sure to catch it when I talk about it tonight:

You know you need some good solid direction to jumpstart the college planning process for your family—but guidance counselors are hard to reach, and most in-person college prep conferences have been cancelled.

Time to register for a college planning conference that’s all online.

No need to buy a plane ticket or book a hotel room.

All the inspiring info is packed into just two hours—each evening—for a week.

Can’t make one or more sessions?

Hear me giving the keynote presentation at this conference.

Get a sample of my speaking—along with reviews from parents and students—at JeannieBurlowski.com/SPEAKING.

Space is limited. See the schedule and register now at: CollegePlanningUntangled.com

You’d love to see the kids you love get through college debt-free. It’s easier than you think—especially if you can start early.

Register instantly below—for free, courtesy of Thrivent Financial.

FREE, ONLINE EVENT:

How Grandparents Are Lighting the Way to Debt-Free College For the Kids They Love (1 hour)

Thursday, September 17th, 2020 7:00 pm CDT | 5:00 pm PDT | 8:00 pm EDT

FREE Register here. (Note: your link to get into the webinar will come to you from Thrivent Financial. Check all your email folders for “Thrivent.”)

Learn an innovative way for grandparents to build ongoing, loving connection with their grandchildren, leave a legacy that will last, and increase the probability that the grandkids will graduate college debt-free—all without spending one penny more than they are right now.

For parents and grandparents of students ages 12–26, and the professionals who serve them.

* This webinar is brought to the community at no charge, thanks to the generosity of Thrivent Financial. Nothing is sold in this webinar. This webinar is available at these times only and will not be replayed. Connect with a caring Thrivent professional at Thrivent.com.

Today I’m sharing a bit about my own author journey—in hopes of saving you years of wasted effort.

What I didn’t know about writing a book could fill a book.

The process of writing and publishing a book has so many moving pieces, so much unfamiliar vocabulary, and so many complex, interdependent steps.

I felt lost. I wondered, “How can I produce a creative, brilliant, and helpful book—when 75% of the book writing and publishing process is foreign to me?”

At first I thought that surely, a publishing contract would be the answer.

I thought that if I landed a publishing contract, that would be the easy route to getting my raw manuscript to finished product—and my book into readers’ hands. Let others do the work!

But after landing a publishing contract and realizing how little money I’d make from it and how at-risk I’d be for losing my rights to my work if my book went out of print—I turned that publishing contract down and decided I’d be my own publisher.

I used CreateSpace on Amazon (now called Kindle Direct Publishing) for my printing, and got professional help navigating all the other steps of the book publishing process.

I do really love Kindle Direct Publishing, and I’d do that again in a minute. But the most important, most life-changing help I got was from Stacy Ennis.

The moment I decided to be my own publisher, I was immediately on my way.

No more waiting around to be noticed. No more spending years traveling to writers’ conferences to try to get literary agents and acquisitions editors interested in me.

Being my own publisher rocketed me to my end goal of holding my own published book in my hands, of keeping all the profit from it, and of rapidly growing my business by leveraging off of an author credential.

Caution. If you’re going to write a book, you don’t want it to be a bad book.

If you slap together a poorly organized, poorly designed, amateurish, sub-par book and quickly put it up on Amazon so you can say that you’re an author, that’s going to backfire on you.

If your book doesn’t get reviews, or if the bulk of your reviews are negative, that will hurt your name, your brand, and your business.

I saved myself from this by getting help from Stacy Ennis.

Hiring Stacy was one of the best business investments I’ve ever made. She worked with me to engineer the structure of my book, to shape and polish it, and to navigate all the moving pieces I had to master to have an outstanding, well-reviewed result.

At this point parents are reading my book, libraries are stocking it, schools are putting it at their front desks for parents to read, and financial advisors are buying copies in bulk for handing out to clients.

I could have never achieved this without Stacy.

Until now, only a few lucky authors have been able to get Stacy’s help.

Stacy’s in such high demand that she’s able to accept only 1% of the projects offered to her. The wait to get on her client list can be months and even years long.

Now, you can get Stacy’s best help for a fraction of her regular price.

Join Stacy’s live, in-person book coaching program Nonfiction Book School by August 5th, 2020, and you’ll get top-notch, expert guidance that walks you through each step of writing your book, from initial idea to finished manuscript.

If you’re reading this on or before August 5th, 2020, join Stacy for a free webinar on how to increase your influence by writing a book. Register here.

Listen to my live interview with Stacy Ennis. It’s fun and fast-paced.

If you’re parenting a kid ages 12-18 and you’d like to hear what I, personally do for free to help parents get kids through college debt-free, zoom straight to minute 26:38.

When my book got rave reviews on Amazon, that was a game-changer for me.

As for me—I’d love to live a virtuous life. A rich life.

I got great help from this diagram—in just about 30 seconds!

I love it.

A virtuous life is one of balance between deficiency and excess.

Interesting.

This is thought-provoking—and worthy of putting up on the bulletin board, I think!

Parents, if you can—try not to embarrass your kids.

But if you just can’t help yourself—go ahead and do it up big!

Because nobody knows and loves your kids like you do.

I’m Jeannie Burlowski, and I’m the author of this book:

It’s a reference book, so nobody reads the whole thing all at once—but even if you did, it would only take you 7 hours.

Pick out what you need to read in it using the fast-paced, 10-minute video instructions here.

Many of us have been repenting, in tears, of our own lack of action—lack of paying attention—when it comes to racial injustice. Now we wonder, “What can I do?”

One thing is—remain engaged. Not grow weary in well-doing.

We can’t let our fiery conviction that change MUST HAPPEN dissipate with the next news cycle because we’re getting tired.

Friends, I’m heartbroken over what is happening in Minneapolis and around the United States.

I’ve been fighting against income and education inequality as hard as I can for 10 years. Thank you to all who have helped me. I am redoubling my efforts—if I can just see past the tears in my eyes. I am wrecked.

I am also looking for hope—and I saw some today.

In Minnesota—a lot of us are Scandinavians who don’t know what to say when someone we care deeply about is overcome by grief and heartbreak.

And so what we do is, we bring food. That is happening today all over Minneapolis.

Hopes for healing and love and 5 loaves and 2 fishes in a sea of brown paper bags—after Minneapolis’ Sanford Middle School asked for 85 bags of groceries to feed students.

There are at least several thousand bags here! And traffic stacked in every direction, for blocks. (The extra will go to food shelves.) One man said he waited in line for over an hour to donate $500 worth of food and groceries.

Jeannie is a full-time academic strategist, podcast host, and sought-after speaker for students ages 12–26 and their parents and grandparents, and she is the author of the book LAUNCH: How to Get Your Kids Though College Debt-Free and Into Jobs They Love Afterward. Her writing, speaking, and podcasting help parents set their kids up to graduate college debt-free and move directly into careers they excel at and love. Her work has been featured in publications such as The Huffington Post, USA Today, NerdWallet, and US News and World Report, and on CBS News.

Jeannie also helps students apply to law, medical, business, and grad school at her website GetIntoMedSchool.com. You can follow her on Twitter @JBurlowski.

On Memorial Day, 2020, we remember those who have risked their lives, and given their lives for us.

And we as adults pledge to make a difference.

We pledge to help build courage and character into the teens and 20-somethings we care about—so much so that they’re able to help bring about a more peaceful, more caring world.

If we’re able to do this, we can make every future day a Memorial Day.