Newsletters and I go way, waaaay back. From creating client newsletters to publishing my own, I’ve been involved with newsletters for nearly three decades, and I’m pleased to share with you the powerful lessons I learned along the way.

It all started in 1985, when I moved in the dead of winter from a very frigid Missouri to a balmy San Diego to pursue a journalism career at the San Diego Tribune. My first newsletter—letting friends, family and colleagues know that I’d moved and what I was up to—was literally a cut-and-paste job, as in cutting the headline out of one piece of paper and pasting it onto the master that I later photocopied!

Key newsletter lesson learned: Newsletters are a powerful way to reach many with one effort.

Working as a news reporter was great fun, as was freelancing for newspapers and magazines around the country (such as the Los Angeles Times and Columbia Journalism Review). I even won some writing and investigative reporting awards.

But it wasn’t really where my heart was. Neither was cleaning houses, editing school district workbooks, ringing up groceries at a local health food store, creating decorative pressed-flower picture frames or catering for adults with special dietary needs. Yes, I did all of those!

When my son was 2, I opened up an editorial services firm, so that I could work from home. Among other client work, I created newsletters for a variety of small businesses: a women’s surf shop, a prosthetics company, a liberal arts college, a psychotherapy association.

Key newsletter lesson learned: Powerful newsletters tell stories that help people engage in your business.

Then in 1999, my son and I moved to Northern California, and I took over editing, producing and distributing his school’s weekly newsletter for the next three years.

Key newsletter lesson learned: Powerful newsletters build strong communities—and audiences.

A most amazing and synchronistic event in 2002 led me to the seed of my current business: providing Ready2Go (done-for-you) newsletters and articles for “change agents” (those who work with clients in areas of personal and professional transformation).

Finally, I felt I was where I belonged: the perfect marriage of my skills and passions, and a ripple effect of positive transformative energy around the world that still awes me today.

But here’s where things got a little rocky…

I started my own newsletter.

I felt so uncomfortable promoting myself, so overwhelmed by the constant deadlines, so challenged by the technology and so vulnerable being “seen” and sharing myself with what seemed like an invisible audience.

I made every mistake in the book, and felt every terror and concern that I now coach my students and clients through. But I persevered, and at some point, I committed. That was the magic. When I committed to using newsletters in the ways I knew they worked, my business finally took off, more than tripling in just a few years.

Key newsletter lessons learned: 1) Frequency and consistency matter. 2) Sharing yourself with your audience helps them trust you. 3) Newsletters are a valuable extension of your services. 4) Newsletters are real opportunity magnets. and 5) Newsletters make money.

In fact, my newsletter created the opportunity for me to recently spend nearly half a year in Italy, a longtime dream of mine.

Now I’m on a mission to help entrepreneurs “fall in love” with this astonishing marketing tool.

If you want to create your own newsletters, I give you all the secrets I discovered the long and hard way in my 6-Figure Newsletter Secrets program, which I run several times a year.

And if you find yourself running short of time to write articles, or if you want to outsource your newsletter altogether, I’m pleased to be a source of ease and relief for you through my Ready2Go Articles, Ready2Go Ezines and Ready2Go Brochures. These customizable content services provide you with high-quality, professionally written articles, ezines and brochures that you can use as your own, taking the load off your shoulders and making it easier to grow your business.

That’s what I so love about my business: When I help you get yourself out there, you create a successful business that helps more people and supports your own dreams. Your life transforms, your clients’ lives transform, and that ripples out to families, communities and the world.

Thank you for allowing me to give my gifts in support of yours.

Key newsletter lesson learned: We all have different strengths…and we need each other.