Flash Guy attends Utah Valley Leads Connection

I wore my Flash shirt to the Utah Valley Leads Connection meeting. It was nice to be greeted at the door by Carolyn and Chris. It made me feel glad  I came. Chris was handed out the October edition of his newspaper ServeDaily. I was happy to see the article I wrote about South County Lanes, a bowling alley in Payson.

When I walked into the room, Jaden called me out with, "hey! it's your birthday!". I appreciate the friendliness of the people in this group. I sat down next to Carolyn Lewis and Elizabeth Ross. Carolyn asked me why I come to these meetings. I am a Technical Writer who has been unemployed for an extended time and I need help to build a business. I'm struggling to set up a business. I've always had a role where someone gave me marching orders and I worked within those parameters to set up a project plan, build relationships of trust with engineers, product managers and project managers.

I have been working on my 30 second commercial. I struggle to define a behavior, or what someone says that would need the services of a free lance writer. I have attended Scott Moran's workshop twice and he has helped me to define what services I offer; free lance writing but I'm still not sure how to tell someone that a good lead for me is someone you know that something documented.

At the end of the meeting, everyone sang happy birthday to me. I thought it was funny when they sang "Flash guy" instead of my name. There were a lot of people attending for the first time. I won the door prize, a $25 dollar gift certificate from Smart Media and Print. I contacted Adrian Escalante for an appointment, I'm excited to create some new business cards.

Serve Daily with Chris

Chris and I were chatting before a Utah Valley Leads Connections meeting at Key Bank a few weeks ago.We talked about the publication he founded, Serve Daily. The publication is a monthly newspaper that features stories from South Utah County, e.g. Springville, Mapleton, Spanish Fork, Salem, Elk Ridge, Woodland Hills, Payson, Genola and Santaquin Utah.

We went to Sizzler for lunch for a one-on-one discussion. Chris shared that he is learning to swim. I recommend to him Kai Zen Swimming. It helped me to calm myself in the water especially during the swim portion of a Triathlon. I asked him why he founded a newspaper and he shared his story. It was from a desire to serve his community. He started out with a small brochure promoting awareness of the Constitution of the United States of America and the importance of serving others. His brochure became the middle section of another publication called Tidbits of Utah County. On June 2012, he published his first paper and has continued publishing once a month since then. He has made preparations to expand his publication to a weekly offering. I asked if there was anything I could write for him. He smiled and said he wanted to feature a bowling alley in Payson, South County Lanes on his upcoming October issue. He gave me some contact information and I followed up and wrote a 500+ word article. He also gave me a lead to contact Wendy from The Crossroads Journal.

I really enjoyed writing the article. I visited South County Lanes, talked to Bud Marrott and listening to his story. He has built a nice bowling alley, expanded his offerings to include laser tag and other activities for families. It made feel good to be able to help spread the word about his business.