Guest post with a Small Business Heavy-Hitter: Casey from The Wiegands

Okay, I'm freakishly excited.

HERE TODAY TO TALK TO US ABOUT HER AWESOMENESS IS THE LOVELY

{beautiful, talented, savvy, smart, fashionable, loving}

CASEY WIEGAND!

ohmygosh.ohmygosh.ohmygosh.

I know, I'm excited too.

Anyway, let's collect ourselves and get to hearin' what Casey has to say in support of 

SMALL BUSINESS MONTH

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My name is Casey Wiegand, I am a freelance artist, wife and mama. 

I love painting and sharing our life through my blog...where you can expect pieces of my perspective on life, faith, kids, marriage, with touches of art, creative inspiration, projects and things I love along the way. I have two little ones in the hopes of lots more and am married to the love of my life :).

 Im a sensitive soul, I am a people pleaser, I tend to be insecure at times.

I am trying to say "no more apologies"...

this is who I am.

I AM that mom that hates being away from her kids, even for an hour.

I am NOT that mom that cooks amazing meals, in fact my kiddos eat waffles and sandwiches a lot of evenings.

I AM that girl that gets hurt easily.

I am NOT that girl that balances her time wisely.

I AM that mom that advocates co.sleeping and NOT letting your babies cry it out.

I am NOT that mom that is crazy about schedules, about dropping pasies/bottles etc etc

I AM that wife that chooses her husband through it all.

I am NOT that wife that does everything right.

I was going through some messy stuff in December and I read this quote by Leslie

"If you haven't already gathered, or happen to be reading this blog for the first time in your life, I am a melancholy girl through and through. I find beauty in not only the beautiful things in life, but the bittersweet and sad as well. To me, there is something poignantly lovely about the human experience from its splendor to its grief. God created all our emotions, not just the happy ones, and for His good purposes. That's why a good cry can feel so good. And hitting our limits forces us to look outside ourselves for a Savior. It is in the plea, when we're at our end, that we can find that which is truly life-giving. Personally, my moments of deepest grief, deepest pain, have resulted in the most beautiful seasons in my heart. I've met God more intimately in those moments than in all the other pleasant ones combined. What isn't completely lovely about that?"

In a moment where I felt alone, I felt heartbroken, angry.....I read this and suddenly felt like someone out in the world possibly understood. In January of this year with 20 followers I started speaking out on my beliefs. I started talking about mama stuff, some heartache, money trouble, csection scars, NICUs, my miscarriage, almost killing my dog on accident....and that's not the half of it. I havent even gone down some of the REALLY tough roads of where I have been with you all yet.

I wanted (and still do) this to be a blog/a place of inspiration, uplift, joy...but also truth. Because life is hard. 

A lot of us have been through some seriously icky stuff. 

And so I wanted this also to be "real". 

It's easy to take beautiful family photos and pretend to have it all together-but  who does that help?

Then Rachel (who blogs here) said this...

"To be taken seriously, I must realize the seriousness of  blogging.

Not in a "I take myself very seriously" type of way at all. More in the way that you realize the importance of the words, the faith and the beliefs that you hold.

I have a responsibility and far reaching arms when I share my words and

so

do

you.

Use your blog, your words and your person to share the Lord (and your heart) with others.

They desperately need to hear your story as much as you need to hear theirs.

Be serious. Be passionate and Be you."

Use your voice. No apologies. 

We are all different and have been through different things, believe different things.... but whoever you are there is SOMEONE you can touch with your story.

Don't hold onto it.

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Is that a tear I see?

I know, ridiculous.

She just knows the right things to say, and when to say it.

Anyway, obviously I took a plethora of lessons from Casey's words of wisdom, but I think my favorite part is when she was talking about how

TAKING YOURSELF SERIOUSLY

is so important.

Coming across people who don't take themselves seriously was probably about 50% of the reason I wanted to do Small Business Month to begin with.

I kept reading blog after blog written by these mom's who were too nervous to say that they actually wanted to launch a business, so they were instead talking about how blessed they were that God had endowed them with a crafty heart {all of which is beyond legitimate}, but then they had this "to hell with the money/book-keeping aspect because that's not what's important in life," attitude.

{And guess what? I don't believe them. I think they want to succeed, they want to make some money, they want to become legitimate business owners like the women they read about everyday on their favorite blogs, but they just didn't want to come out and state it boldly.}

THAT SOUNDED PRETTY HEARTLESS OF ME, AND I DIDN'T MEAN IT THAT WAY,

but do you know what I mean?

Since God has endowed you with the skills to create, then why not do EVERYTHING YOU CAN POSSIBLY DO to get those creations out there in the world?

Didn't he bless you with those capabilities too?

SERIOUSLY.
{That's what I believe, anyway.}

I just summed up a HUMONGOUS reason why I love SBM so much.

Now I'm seeing those same women asking questions about how they can further their business.

It doesn't mean you're a bad mom if you want to go out there and sell YOUR creations to make MONEY for YOUR family.

Wouldn't that be a perfect world for you?

I think so.

Anyway, I'm glad Casey has shared her thoughts with us, because it gives us a chance to think about the emotional side of small business ownership which, let's face it, governs us a huge chunk of the time.

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Are you ready for LINK UP CHALLENGE #5 tomorrow?

I sure as heck am!

Here's our challenge:

write your goal{s} out like a Fortune 500 CEO would.

{Hey, hey! This goes along perfectly with taking yourself seriously!}

Here's how you write a legitimate, business based goal/objective:
{but remember, I'm no expert! This is what I was talking about when I mentioned actually using my college degree!}

MY BUSINESS will have made a profit of $500 by MARCH 1, 2012.

OR!

MY BUSINESS will have attended 15 CRAFT FAIRS by NOVEMBER 1, 2012.

Okay, those are just two examples of goals/objectives on a major list of several goals/objectives, but you get the idea.

{It's a measurable quantity - not necessarily monetary - with an end date to evaluate said quantity}

{Okay, you business majors, I know that you should also establish an "evaluation" date, but I think we can do without, unless you want to because you're amazing!}
{And I know this is sort of a scary one, sort of like the Diversifying Your Audience challenge, but hey! It's all about pushing yourself, right?!}

Grab a button!

<center><a href="http://threesforme.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i1103.photobucket.com/albums/g471/nicolecisneros1223/nicole22.png"/></a></center>See you tomorrow!