Every blogger has this question; “how do I make money blogging?”  I wanted to know how people are growing there cash flows to business for blogs using easy to follow methods.  Lets be clear, its funning righting online, but bills must be paid. My hobby was art.  I loved doing things artistically, and so I started designing tile work with an artistic flair.  I love when a job I see in my mind turns into the vision I had for success. In the business of tile I can teach others.  In the business for blogs success, I am still learning. For now, I am a student of the process for blogs success.  I love what I do; but it has to pay the bills too.  So I appreciate the guest blog from Tiffany Gantt of ApronAddicts.com

I know many bloggers have the same questions.  Many people want to help but not all know how to direct that path. Tiffany give advice for blogs to do this the right way.   I’m thankful that this post is totally unique content for turning your hobby into a profitable home business. This post is for blogs whom want to grow their business with clear plan for home business success.

Take it away Tiffany! 

Thanks Tiffany…

Now, I’m not an affiliate for ApronAdditcts.com.  Tiffany has been a  kind enough to provide this to help the community.  I’m thankful for her  input. I  personally wanted the advice to simply answer the question I asked.  To find out more about how Tiffany helped a client get this success, please visit Tiffany at ApronAdditcs.com.

We appreciate your visit and look forward to you coming back to look at what we put out for blogs success.

God Bless!

Our Darkest Hour: The movie

“How can you be like that?”

“Like What?”

“Like ahh Delusional-ly Optimistic all the time”

“I’m just more use to screwing up than you are”

These are lines from a movie called “Our Darkest hour”. In it, the lead character and his friend are in Europe (Russia to be Exact).  The two friends are website developer whom have come across the world to present their idea to a group whom would make them overnight cash flows millionaires. The two had worked hard on their plan to get this cash.  The fact in one was the technology geek while the other was more of the smooth talking creative thinker.  They arrive at their meeting only to find out that their “partner” has stollen their idea.  This partner had stollen their cash flowing million dollar idea and is the middle of presenting it to the Russian company as his own idea.

To have an idea and or a client stolen is a challenging pill to swallow; I personal pain that I know.  Soon after watching that movie, I had the same thing happen to me in real life.  In my darkest hour I had what I considered to be a friend offer to help.  They instead backed out of helping me and helped themselves to my client at my cost.  In Our Darkest Hour the fiend stated “Next time, send a non disclosure agreement first”.   The then had the boys escorted out of the building.   The two young men lament their loss over drinks at a local Russian watering hole as they take in the international scene. In this moment they were in their darkest hour. What is presumed to be the alpha male in the scene “how can you be like that.”  In the darkest hour, the friend was chipper.  He was upbeat.  He was unconcerned about the loose of a potential $10,000,000 promised by this international partner.  In “Our Darkest Our” he just took one for the team and felt hey lets enjoy what we can and take care of it tomorrow.

Our Darkest Hour;  Junior Seau’s Death

Junior Seau was a 20 year NFL professional.  This man was an NFL draft pick with the look and confidence of a champion.  Junior  was a warrior of unparalleled tallent. Junior was a linebacker in the 90s. Juniors stats include:

•  12 time Pro-Bowl
• 10 time All-Pro
• 2 time AFC Champion
• UPI AFC Defensive Player of the Year (1992)
• NEA NFL Defensive Player of the Year (1992)
• AFC Player of the Year (1994)
• NFL Alumni Linebacker of the Year (2003)
• NFL 1990s All-Decade Team
• San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame
• San Diego Chargers 50th Anniversary Team

Ok, so for all his accoladed what is the one thing you see missing?  Better question, what is the first thing any person that is a novice about football will ask about any football player?  And the answer is: did he win a Super Bowl.  No, I do remember the game though.  It was New England in the perfect season.  They had the perfect season and the perfect player in Tom Brady, and the Perfect Captain in Junior Seau and the perfect opportunity to be an young upstart in the Manning lead New York Giants.

Well the Giant won, and Junior never did get that ring. I rooted for the Giant even though I was then and am now a Junior Seau fan.  I’m not a fanatic; I couldn’t tell you his number as a Charger or Dolphin.  I was a Junior Seau fan in that he seemed like a nice guy.  I never heard anything truly negative about Junior Seau in all 20 years as a professional.  That is just it he was a constant professional that had an exceptional public image.

Our Darkest Hour;  Junior Seau’s Death Reported

Washington Post’s Cindy Brown wrote

“Seau, who retired in 2009 after a 20-year career, would be the second former NFL player to commit suicide in the past two weeks. Ray Easterling, a safety for the Atlanta Falcons in the 1970s and lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the NFL over concussion-related injuries, died April 19 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson shot himself in the chest in 2011, leaving a note in which he said he wanted his brain to be donated for study. It was determined that Duerson had degenerative damage because of repeated trauma over his career.”

In the middle of drowning my sorrows in thoughts, I thought about the movie “Our Darkest Hour”.  I felt angry, enraged, and betrayed by the likes of someone I helped in a time of need.  In turn they did me wrong in my darkest hour.  But at that moment, I thought of the adaptable friend.  The it will all work out attitude is usually me.  In fact, more often than not that is me.  It is my view on the world.

Proverbs 23:7 “For as he athinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.”

My take is that if dwell too much in the negative you are giving an energy to it.  Its a downward cycle.  I was  a jumper in high school and college.  I would often jump up high but then tuck my head in my chest to brace myself for the fall.  My coach would say “Keep your head up”.  People say that all the time now.  But the thought at the time was, if you keep your head up while jumping you will keep your body up in the air that much longer.  It will be the difference between jumping 19 feet or 23 feet.  Keeping your head up is the difference between coming in 1st place or not placing at all.

Matthew 18:18 ”I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

My take on this is that if you are holding a grudge, that grudge will be held against you.   I’ve often heard “Live by the sword, you will die by the sword”.  The fact is harboring anger hostility or resentment leads to more anger hostility or resentment.  But holding steadfast to peace and joy, leads to more peace and joy.  My take is optimism with a smidgen of reality least to amazing things with a smidgen of “How do you do that”.

Junior Seau did some amazing things in his career.  Many will say he had too many concussions.  Some will say whatever they want to work it to their advantage.  I will simply say, I’m sad to see Junior Seau go.  I will also say, it taught me to focus on the positive in spite of how challenging things become.

On this trip I happened to run into young man whom had a big dream.  He didn’t want to be just and entrepreneur, he wanted to be a venture capitalist.  In terms of concept and values, most kids were focused on Ipod music, the latest Ipad game idea or just having fun. This young man wanted to be a venture capitalist which again 95% of his friends couldn’t even define.  My initial, thought was “he has no idea what he is talking about.” Then a scripture dawned on me.

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee: but his heart is not with thee.”

Proverbs 23:7

I realized that this young man thought about this in he heart.  While his friends wanted food and fun, his heart was in business. Every campus we went to, the other kids looked at the students, the campus, fraternities or the food.  This young man called his dad former busines partner to see how they could do a colaboration to get business from the university because clearly they had a need he could help meet.  This young man discussed how his company dad’s company partnered with bigger organizations to get strengthened representation at the table when they negotiated with larger firms or government entities.  This young man spoke of patent law and how many patents his dad company had and would continue to have giving them an edge again competition.  They young man had so many legs up on the other in terms of starting a business.  But the business this young man wanted to start was to be a venture capitalist.  Mitt Romney and Bain Capital have made venture capital popular this year. But I hold it true, to do it well you should know someone that has done in some what what you want to do.  I asked if this young man knew any venture capitalist, to which he replied “No”.  That led me to see how I could help.  My challenge is, I don’t know any venture capitalist either.

Crowdfunding: How “The JOBS Act” Works For Blogs Success…  What is it?

The irony is, I’ve been looking for venture capitalist.  I have been looking in a way different from the original concept of venture capital.  For blogs, venture capital is a unique idea .  Most venture capital seeks a level of control that most people are not willing to give up in business.

I worked for a company that was standard venture capital funded.  The venture capital business was given shares of the company and a controlling interest in the start-up b

usiness.  The venture capital business had rounds of funding based upon consistent continued performance measures outlined by the board.  Upon the performance improvement of the company or growth, we sawmore capital from the venture capital business.  In this case, the venture capital funded the business in trenches which eventually gave it a controlling interest in the eventually public company.  At the start up business eventually was taken over by the venture capital business.  The CEO and founder was kicked out and the Venture capital company placed a temporary CEO in place to manage the company assets as it liquidated the company like a chop shop does a car for parts.  I am not saying that is how all VC companies do.  But I am saying the company did operate that way with this particular start up business.

The new crowdfunding version of venture capital, is set up where the individual start up business has a bit more control.  Here are quick details on 4 of the top crowd funding sources:

• Kickstarter: A haven for emerging artists, kickstarter is fast becoming a platform for entrepreneurs to finance innovative new products.  It is an all of nothing funding platform where if you do not reach your funding goal, you do not get any of the funding.  The site has seen more than 13,000 successful campaigns since its launch in 2009
• Indiegogo: This is a free spirited free thinking concept with few limitations.  This platform allows you to get funding even if you do not reach your goals.  The fee is 4% if you reach your goal but 9% if you do not reach your goal.
• Microventures: The only site of the more popular crowd funding platforms that have more that focuses on bringing larger angel investors to the table to smaller ideas.  This crowdfunding platform is more investment bank oriented than the other  creative version.  However, they have on average funded $150,000 in comparison to some other other crowdfunding platforms which fund an average of $5,000.
• Profounder: This is pretty straight forward idea with a clear approach to crowdfunding.  This project focuses on federal regulation and the approach to offering investment options to those whom you have a current relationship with before making the offer.  This is very simple process to put together for those whom have a desire to keep funding concise.

Crowdfunding: How “The JOBS Act” Works For Blogs Success… How Can I do it?

Now, I’m aware of Kickstarter, IndiGogo, Microventures, and Profunder but by no means is this an asserted or implied a partnership, sponsorship or endorsement with any crowd funding company.  I personally love the idea, but I have not worked with any of these companies.  I do however see that each has a set of requirements specific to them that makes their crowd funding work best for their unique market.

What has changed recently is the bill signed by President Obama that is focus on helping promote jobs in America.  The new legislation has brought from small niche crowdfunding conversation into main stream topics for blogs . In recent times, blogs had considered crowd funding only in cases of:

1. artist looking to raise capital for creative projects;
2. people looking to raise capital for emergencies;
3. groups or individuals raising capital to fight life threatening injuries of illnesses

The bill’s “crowdfunding” provision is getting the most attention. The Jobs Act allows entrepreneurs to raise small amounts of capital from large pools of individual investors beyond the original crowdfunding scope. The Internet provides a tool for private citizens to form new marketplaces as social networks evolve to become more than just networks of friends, likes or followers. Web-based platforms such as Kickstarter and profounder allow entrepreneurs to raise up to $1 million annually, as sanctioned by the new legislation.

Crowdfunding: How “The JOBS Act” Works For Blogs Success… Does it really work?

Does this crowdfunding really work?  I don’t know yet personally.  I went to Johns Hopkins with a good friend.  I met people whom paid their hospital bill through crowd funding.  In fact, they were not able to get insurance until Obamacare. This crowd funding platform allowed them to pay for the cost of insurance and a hotel to stay near the facility for daily treatment.  They raised in 90 day over $10,000 for there challenges.  In spite of the hardship, I was blessed to learn of their success in the process.

So my take on crowdfunding is, you must carefully weigh your option before moving forward.  Yet, at this point crowd funding is worth at least the effort to your project off the ground.

I had a question.  I wanted to know “how social media has helped business grow?”  I wanted to know how people are growing there cash flows to business for blogs using easy to follow methods.  I’ll have a picture of it soon.  Once I have a better picture, I will put out a comprehensive approach.  For now, I am a student of the process for blogs success.  I enjoy what I do.  What I also love is this guest blog from Kim DeFranco of BizBrag, Inc. 

One of my biggest questions for blogs has always been how to get more traffic to my site. Social media is a key avenue for the small blogs to compete against the big business. Outside of having a million dollar budget, for blogs to uniquely attracts visitors, the fact is gimmicks don’t always seem to work. But the question continues to remain; “How do you help others with a passion for blogs success through social media?”

I know many bloggers have the same questions.  Many people want to help but not all know how to direct that path. Kim give clear steps to get this done for blogs.  I’m thankful that this post is totally unique content for blogs to success in social book marking.  Kim DeFranco loves to read & write about internet marketing, social methodology.  This post is for blogs whom want to grow their business with clear plan for success.

Take it away Kim! 

Thanks Kim…

Now, I’m not an affiliate for bizbrag.com.  Kim has been a keen person to simply answer the question I asked.  The fact remains there is more than one solution for blogs success.  Kim and bizbrag.com have offered a solution.  Going from 200 connection to 17,000 in 6 months is truly great success.  To find out more about how Kim helped a client get this success, please visit Kim at bizbrag.com.

We appreciate your visit and look forward to you coming back to look at what we put out for blogs success.

God Bless!

Back in my original online day, we would have entire main frames with the source safe system that would allow us to know how something looking in a production environment before it went to production.  In testing with the production environment, we never needed to take the live system down to test.  When the test worked well, we would roll the testing straight out to production.  When the testing didn’t work well we went back to the drawing board to see what worked and what didn’t.  We would test and see how everything worked.  We would test for content and in every way make certain that all i’s were dotted and t’s were crossed. It was a utopian world where we loved what we did and did it a way we love.

Years later I’ve learned that not everyone test the same way.  Not every puts into play the idea that a test environment works.  More over, “I don’t have time to test” is usually the mantra of most small business.  Most small blogs start out with just throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks.  Life most at the speed of light and if you can’t keep pace you will fall behind.

Verizon has the commercial with the little girl selling lemonade.  She goes from a meeting with a staffer whom wears pink in the morning, to the afternoon where half of her business is now selling pink lemonade.  The idea was that the small business with the best technology wins.  What was left out is, if we all have the same technology, then it is the business that nimbly implements it the fastest wins.

For blogs, if you cover the story first it will help with your hit rate.  But just as important as how many impression or hits a blog gets is the bounce rate.  For blogs, your bounce rate speaks to the engagement you have with visitors.  If someone new comes to your page then only goes to the one page and leaves, you have a 100% bounce rate.  You want to have a site engaging enough to draw visitors attention to more than just the latest topic.  Your need to get more traction on your blog is a true need for blogs testing.

I know content is king, and getting the information out there as much as possible is crucial.  But the idea is your must test to ensure your blog or site or business is performing as it should.  Peter Drucker said it best”What gets measured gets managed.”   Testing is my form of following that management objective.  To me testing, allows me to see how and where to improve my blog and my business.  The fact that any idea can become a business is truly a blessing.  The reality that any ideal is one that can be achieved if you practically and pragmatically approach it with a plan.  Dreams are real if you focus on attempting to achieve  achieving them.

I read an article by Sebastian Marshall titled “What Gets Measured Gets Managed.”  In the article for blogs, Sebastian lays out a plan to achieving goals.  On his blog, Sebastian also bring in the concept of keeping yourself accountable to a higher standard.  Keeping a level of accountability privately is easy.  When you publicly state your goals and letting the world see you and understand you, it is a blog of a different nature.  In this kind of blog your focusing more on helping others in the self reflection.  You are focused on growing both in spirit and in truth.

“And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.”

(Philippians 1:9-11 KJV)   

For me I’m seeking to submit more to the understanding of what helps me to grow in a way never before with this blog.  It is less about simply blogging as it is about seeking further knowledge incessantly.   And what I learn through this blog through testing, I will share with others.  This test for blogs testing, initially was a mistake I thought about taking away.  I just could easily drop the test and delete the page.  But, I’m now seeking to make even the tests excellent.  The test which will God willing bring forth a fruit that can help more than just me.  I’m thankful for the testing and in Faith I look forward to the fruits of success.

Stand Your Ground

It almost a month later. The death of Trayvon was no accident. The police knew about it, and yet there has been no arrest.  I hadn’t touched on the issue because it was a state matter to me.

But the fact is, I learned more on Facebook.  Everyone started to do their pictures with  hoodies. At first I didn’t understand it.  I saw a lot of women in hoodies and I wasn’t getting the picture.  Then I saw a good friend in a hoodie, and then another.  Before long I saw at least 500 people taking a picture in a hoodie and I got it.

Trayvon but for the grace of God could have been me.  Trayvon didn’t have a gun.  He had skittles and an Arizona Ice Tea.  Heck, I love Arizona Ice Tea.  I get an Arizona just about every other weekend.  Primarily I buy it because its 99 cents.  You can’t beat that price.  That said, I alway wear a hoodie.  I have worn a hoodie more in recent years than any time in my lifetime.  I’ve been in areas in that hoodie that were not my home neighborhood.  In that time, I ran into police in my

hoodie without a thought of an issue.  The fact of the matter is, if a police officer approaches you, you treat it differently.

However if someone just started asking me a question and didn’t identify themselves as police, then we are going to have a problem.  Fact is, I could have been Trayvon.  I have two sons and either one of them could have been Trayvon.  At the end of the day, any of my good friends could have been Trayvon.

My closest friend past and his mother had to deal with that death.  It was a pain I couldn’t imagine her having to address.  Trayvon’s mom is dealing with a death that was neither expected nor justified.  To loose a son to illness, tragic.  To loose a son to foolishness, is preventable.

President Barack Obama stated, that “If I had a Son He’d Look Like Trayvon.” He did this in a press conference dedicated to introducing the new head of the World Bank.  Yet across the twitterverse and every place else “If I had a Son He’d Look Like Trayvon” became a theme.

Geraldo Rivera on the other hand; a Fox News fair and balanced commentator, blamed the hoodie.  In Rivera’s opinion, the hoodie is as much to blame as Zimmerman.  The through of Rivera about the hoodie sickens me but also shows a level of insensitivity to a matter that is profoundly larger than clothing.  It is like saying to a rape victim “you shouldn’t have worn that outfit as you walked down the street. You knew what men would do when they saw it.’

The insensitivity of Fox and the sensitivity of everyone that truly feels “If I had a Son He’d Look Like Trayvon”  is like the vast difference between the rich and the poor.  We are obligated to focus on raising our children to the best of our ability.  We are not obligated to subject our children to unwarranted violence and disrespect.

I pray for the mother of Trayvon.  I believe Trayvon’s Father will be ok.  But Trayvon’s mom lost her little boy.  And Trayvon’s mom’s heart is hardened.  She said that on the Rev. Al Sharpton show and it was repeated on other show’s including the Rachel Maddow show.

Three times in the book of Hebrews, we are told, “harden not your heart” (Heb. 3:8; 3:15 and 4:7).   It was the first thing I heard in my mind when I heard Trayvon’s mom speak.  What is it exactly to harden your heart? In this case, Trayvon’s mom wants justice.  She wants her son’s known killer to be placed in custody.  The challenge is, that still will not bring

back Trayvon.

“For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways”

Psalms 95:7-10

Personally I can not imagine what Trayvon’s mom is going through.  No words will provide solace or comfort.  What I do know is we must be vigilant to protect our children.  And we must appreciate every moment we have with them.  For tomorrow is not promised and yesterday is gone.  Our best hope is to embrace this very moment and hold it near and dear to us as we do our children.  But for the grace of God, any of our sons could have been Trayvon

This past weekend we discussed some of the lessons she learned from a Guru. This Guru is one that had a website with a focus of making money online for blogs.  I appreciate that concept and am growing in making money online for blogs industry.  My passion is to help people.  I love being of service.  So in meeting my friend, I found out much about how she could help me. One way she mentioned to me was being listed in online directories.  SoMuch.com is the first directory that came up in our discussion.

Our blog covers opportunities to make, find or create CashFlowsTo your business online. We also cover politics and current events that are impacting the community and impact cash flows for blogs through:

http://CashFlowsTo.com/

We have been blessed to walk into our passion, power and purpose to help others. http://CashFlowsTo.com is the easiest way for bloggers to discover, share and engage with content focused on growing your blog with a focus on faith.  That is our purpose and clear intention.

We simplify our message to salient point to help others. We are blessed to be a blessing and seek to sow seeds to help others impact and positively change the community.

 I’m thankful to SoMuch.com for being a directory for blogs success.  In learning about SoMuch.com I’ve discovered they will allow you so submit your  blog link for free. In addition you can have a reciprocal link to there site which then becomes a value to you as well.  I decided to ad a reciprocal link to SoMuch.com for my site.  Its a simple solution to helping my site and help others at the same time.

SoMuch.com is an SEO friendly free link directory where you can find the best human edited links sorted by topic and category. The SoMuch.com policy is to make it easy for you to find quality sites that aren’t just filled with google adsense advertisements. SoMuch.com tries to add web sites that ultimately have something to offer, and are constantly checking our links to meet that challenge.  I personally feel that in for blogs success, you should link to SoMuch.com. If you feel you meet our qualifications please add your web site.

I wish you the best.

God Bless.

In this time, I’m thankful to provide to the CashFlowsToo.com audience with content that is relevant and timeless.  Businesses have to focus on cash flows and taxes.  So I’m working with Katie to provide that detail.

 This post is for blogs whom want to grow their business with a passionate process toward cash flows and taxes with a hope for prosperity.  Without further delay; take it away Katei!

Cash Flows and Taxes

Now that we are creeping towards that omnipresent April 15th deadline (actually this year it is the 17th since the 15th is on a Sunday and Monday is a DC holiday), if you haven’t gotten started assembling what you need to file taxes, then get with it. This is the most important time of the year to manage your cash flow. Two major points come to mind concerning cash flow and taxes.

Everyone likes to get money back in a tax refund – but why? If you get a big refund, you have allowed the federal and/or state government to have a loan of money from you at 0% interest! Wouldn’t you like to get billions in a no interest loan for a year? The answer is your W-4 withholding form and equivalent state forms. The common misconception is that these forms are supposed to be filled with exactly what your tax/dependent situation is. That isn’t true – the only time these items are required to be accurate is when you file your taxes.

If you got a refund of more than a couple hundred dollars last year, you had too much taken out of your paycheck. Raise the number of withholding allowances by at least one so that you get to keep more of your hard earned money instead of the governmental agencies getting to use it for free for a year. If you had to pay last year when you filed, you didn’t have enough taken out of your check. Increase by at least one. There’s a commercial on TV showing people massive tax refunds. The lady who got over $8000 back could have added that to a 401K or even a savings account and ended up with considerably more money. This gives you choices – contribute that money to your 401K (or other employer based savings plan) or at the very least, having deposited in a savings account. That way you get to keep your money and earn interest on it.

The situation may arise where you get a taxable windfall – lottery winnings, an inheritance or something else. First make sure the proper tax is deducted from the windfall. Most things like inheritance or lottery winnings take care of this for you. But in the case where it isn’t make a basic calculation of your state and federal taxes on the amount and send in an estimated tax payment to the IRS and your state taxing agency.

This is the area that most people fail to consider when filing their taxes and in the ensuing prior year. There is time now to get this done, so go to and manage your own cash.

Thank you to Dwight and Katie. Dwight Mabe is a writer and reviewer for several different sites, many of which are music but he also enjoys the fiscal side of life as freelance finance journalist. Katie Cranford is a writer and reviewer for several sites with much of her content found on  katiechan.wordpress.com.  You can also reach out to Katie on linkedin @ linkedin.com/in/katiechan

Their Home  Owner Situation:

To be precise the home owner was in a precarious situation with there home.  There challenge  was not a new one, but its one that continues in the current economic cycle. Here are the quick details.

1. How owner was a married couple where both worked (wife had a steady income, husband a realtor)
2. Owned a nice sized house under water with a couple kids at home (value of home is less than the mortgage balance)
3. Mortgage company will not allow the home owners to refinance the house because the house appraised value is not high enough to make it worth while for the bank (to high loan to value even on an existing loan)

What H.O.P.E can do

“We have been working with our mortgage company for nearly a year, with hopes of being approved for a modification. When the modification was denied, we became very desperate and hired what we thought was a modification attorney. It turns out that she was actually a bankruptcy attorney advertising on the television, and in the penny saver newspaper. She mentioned that she specialized in loan modifications and that is was a fee of $4000.00 up front to start the process.

     In the end we were out of $4000.00 with no records of correspondences between the attorney and our Mortgage Company. The mortgage company insists that they never received any documents from the attorney’s office insisting the only other avenue was to file bankruptcy, which we did the very next day in order to prevent the foreclosure! After careful consideration we realized we were taken for a ride!

     Again, still desperate to save our home, we chose not to continue with the bankruptcy. We understood that at this point the mortgage company could proceed with the foreclosure! However, we contacted H.O.P.E. and you all began to work on our behalf. After the initial intake we were contacted by Sakina who worked patiently with us through the process of gathering all of the necessary documents to provide to the mortgage company to start the process over again!!

    Sakina was very instrumental in what we consider to be a miracle!! “

To say the least. H.O.P.E. is a help to home owners cash flow and a blessing when they want to save their home.  I truly believe anyone that want to have hope, should reach out to H.O.P.E

Epic Posts for Blogs: Who I Be

When I was very young, I went to a spoken word event at the Bohemian Caverns in DC.  It was about the time of “Love Jones” the movie.  Perhaps it was a little before the movie when the time of being in the mystical setting of urban cool was pre-neo soul hip.  At this time there were many poets.  My brothers performed at the event which gave my family an opportunity and a reason to attend.  Many a poet performed.  20 years later one poet to this day I remember.

She spoke a poem that went something like the following.

“Who I Be?

I be strength;

I be courage;

I be..

…

I know Who I Be, who are you?”

Epic Posts for Blogs: Authenticity

For the life of me I can neither find the poem nor the woman that said the poem. So my above is a paraphrase of what she said.  If this were a movie, there would be a voice over and or a song played slowly with images or the audience listening to every word of the woman’s epic poem.  This woman would have captivated the audience so that it was silence as she spoke.  She wasn’t the most beautiful woman or the most hideous.  She was not the most slender or the most statuesque.  She had an african attire on and from what I recall there was a green theme from her dead dress to her wrap.  He word however were vibrant and fire branded as a flame is in the middle of a candle impacting with each flicker melting away the candle like souls of all whom listen.  In searches online, I continue to find poems in the vein and spirit, but not the authentic epic original.  Or at least the authentic epic original in my eyes.

20 years ago I heard the poem “Who I Be” by an artist whom at the time I disliked.  The thought the poem who I be was all but not limited to the following:

• Dumb;
• Moronic;
• Repetitive;
• Simple-minded;
• Grammatically-incorrect;
• Dimwitted;
• Mundane
• Pedestrian
• Sesquipedalian

At the time, my girl friend was an english major and poetry lover which made me a poets harshest critique.  My take is those who can do and those who can’t critique.  They critique in a way that would make you think if they had a chance to do it they would do it ten times better than the way it was done.  Every Monday morning quarterback after the game was lost on Sunday by the Pros know what its like to give there after the fact advice.

At the time, I thought so lowly are the artist that I even mocked her to the through hilarity and hijinks with my family.  Truly it was a wonderful time for me to just have fun. But the fact remains she was authentically who she claimed to be.  This was an epic  work of art done by an under acclaimed artist aimed at inspiring herself and others.  She exhibited pride in her heritage that didn’t disparage others.  She even accepted the broken dialect as a badge of courage and not a monicker of shame. She was a performer that exhibited all but not limited to the following characteristics:

• Creativity
• Passion
• Enthusiasm
• Strength
• Courage
• Faith
• Talent
• Uplift
• Extraordinary
• Vitality

Epic Posts for Blogs: Impact on Me

 Proverbs 23:7 states “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.”

At the time, my thoughts were small.  I wanted a wife a house a couple of kids and to be financially secure by 30.  I wanted to be active in a church home with a relationship with God that would allow me to help others.  My thoughts at that time shaped who I was then and who I became.