Catalina Correspondents (Journey #6)

Promoting Catalina Island was the primary goal for me. Catalina is a day trip, weekends max. Many Californians had forgotten about this island 26 miles off the coast of Los Angeles. They had been traveling to more exotic places, Hawaii, the Caribbean, Capri, etc. But now expensive travel was out of the question for most people.

How do I begin? I was told the only way to get my message across now-a-days was through the world wide web. That meant creating a website. No one I knew had created their own website but I was the proud owner of a Macbook Pro. It had a program called “iweb.” How hard could it be?

Now that I had discovered my new passion, building websites, I spent all my spare time at the Apple Store learning my new trade.

~ a person who is not living their passion will only become exhausted by their workload~SanDanYi

I didn't know any programming terminology, let alone what I was doing. The trainers at the Apple Store were more than willing to help an old lady try to do what of course, only the young could. They thought it was cute that I was trying to build a website on my own. Whenever I updated the site in order to admire my new creation, I got an "error" message which of course I didn't understand, thus sending me back to my new "happy place,"the Apple Store.

The specialists were beginning to know me by name and could identify my URL ("website address" for those who don't know the correct terminology) simply by looking at my face.

Meanwhile back at retirement central, Mary spent most of her time working on Efusjon as she was sure that is was the way to get rich. We both had our three and things were going along well.

Mary read everything on the subject of "how to create a home-based business" and was very impressed with the accomplishments of Derek Broes. She believed that he had the talent to bring Efusjon to the top of the MLM's and she became his loyal follower.

Both ventures were taking far longer than either us expected. Mary did research and wrote articles for our travel site. I tackled the web issues. We thought three months was enough time to be on the road to financial independence. But, Efusjon's highly anticipated launch on Facebook came and went without much notice and catalinacorrespondents.com is still under construction.

Enter: SanDanYi, a stranger from a distant planet!

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THE FULLER BRUSH MAN (Journey #5)

I hadn't told my husband about my new business venture, as he tends to be a bit negative about this sort of thing. There was no need to let him in on my brilliant plan, at least not yet. I had enrolled 3 before the big launch in July. I was now entitled to receive money and would automatically be part of the new Facebook promotional game that assured automatic something or other…

My first order arrived. My family and friends enjoyed Efusjon Raw giving it rave reviews. It was a healthy alternative to the typical soft drinks, lower in calories, carbs, sodium, and sugar. Edge was to appeal to the red bull drinkers, touting it's nutrient benefits. But, amazingly, none of my family or friends drank these products and did not see the opportunity Mary and I had.

At work, I promoted the product by replacing coke with Efusjon in Pranzo's lunch orders. My strategy was to get everyone hooked on the drink. You know “the first one is free” concept. That did work! Clients were requesting the drink and within two months my investment was covered.

Now to work on the young and innocent. I knew they drank red bull and soft drinks. They needed additional income. The product would be delivered right to their doors. Also, it could be used as a marketing tool, much like the Fuller Brush Man and the Avon Lady. Once I explained who those people were, well I think you catch my drift.

I told you I was going to be popular!

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MEET MY GIRLS (JOURNEY #4)

I started Pranzo, a lunch catering business 12 years ago. Starting a business gave me something to do while my youngest child, Blaine was at school. I can do lunch! My father had a lunch business that we all worked in. I love lunch, no weekend, nights, or holidays, & some extra income for all those singing lessons.

Heidi my eldest daughter, wanted to try her hand at marketing. OK, let's see what she could do. Before I knew it, I had a commercial kitchen preparing and delivering 300 lunches a week. Everyone Heidi met became a client. They were either in the post production or pharmaceutical industries. Before I knew it, we had to turn down business. She even managed to get her brother, Tony a job with a post production company. How perfect was that, he was a graphic designer!

Heidi was taking over the business and I prepared menus and did the billing. I developed some computer skills, worked from home, continued with my school and church charities, played some tennis, lunched with the ladies, etc.

Blaine, my youngest was in high school. She made the desserts after school, in between singing lessons, and we had a wonderful family business.

Life was great!

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FACEBOOK (JOURNEY #3)

Facebook! What is it really? I was told it is a social networking community, where family, friends and people from many diverse background socially get together and share ideas, stories, and photos. Since I needed to get people to sign up on my MLM, this was the perfect place. Everyone is going to see this opportunity that I just discovered! A perfect start to retirement. and in addition I was going to be popular to boot!

Being on Facebook started me on a quest of finding family members in Italy and across the United States. Within 3 weeks I had connected with 20 Condellis who I never knew existed, many were from my grand father's hometown in Calabria.

Now to get more zealots! I needed 3, so like most good wives, I signed up my husband. (he knows that I know best). Then I signed up my chef. I got to pay for him too, no worries because " we can always" use it for the lunch catering business. So now after signing up a my 3 people, I am now in the hole for $501 per month. Thank God for sisters, mine paid for herself.

Still filled with enthusiasm!

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FIRST DAY OF THE JOURNEY (JOURNEY #2)

Mary and I decided to take the Marina del Rey flyer catalinaferries.com. It leaves from Fisherman's Village which is close to home and no freeway traffic to deal with!

Everything is wonderful.! Parking is a breeze! It's a beautiful day! The captain is a young and eager guy who only wants to tell us about all the improvements that have been made to the Flyer! We take a nice table so we can spread out with our computers and cameras to begin our adventure!

Leaving port, we spot the grey whale that took a rest spot for a couple weeks in the Marina. We have 2 hours to glide across the Pacific. That's lots of time to discuss how we can recreate interest in Catalina. This is good, lots can happen on this day trip to Avalon, whales, dolphins, flying fish?

I was not prepared for what happened next. Mary hits me with "I am so excited about a new business opportunity!" Oh no, how many times have I heard those words? I am struck with Mary, not just for the 2 hours ride but the entire day.
This was a cruel trick!

"It's not a pyramid," she said "it only looks like one, it's called a matrix." She continued, "Efusjon is different. It's the new energy drink made with the acai berry."

Well, like all good friends I succumbed! She wasn't going to stop otherwise. After all I could use the product for my lunch business. Many of my clients had requested a healthy alternative to Coke so, what the heck. I agreed to join knowing I had to order 48-8oz cans a month which cost $167/month, myefusjon.com/pranzo. Also, I had to get 3 others do the same thing. Oh and another thing, I had to sign-up on Facebook!

Easy Right?

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STARTING THE ADVENTURE JOURNEY #1)

Ciao tutti,

Let's just say this blog is a diary of two women and their journey toward retirement. After seeing the movie Julie & Julia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjvJHsJD8ic, I realized that I needed a way to keep focused, eye on the prize so to speak. Retirement age is coming up and I don't have a plan. I'm not a writer, in fact I've never had the desire to write. But now with facebook, twitter, & blogspot, I am always writing something. After all, when writing on these sites I get to talk about myself constantly.

I met Mary a couple of years ago at the Italian Cultural Institute. We were both attending Italian language & cooking classes. Mary is a travel specialist and goes to Italy 6-8 times a year to do research. Not a bad job if you can get it! Italy, food, travel. I, on the other hand am a caterer. My business caters lunches for pharmaceutical reps. Also not a bad job if you can get it! Food, no week-end, nights or holidays.

But with the economy as it is, people are not traveling abroad as often. The drug companies are under scrutiny so the lunch business isn't what it used to be. So we think it is time to merge our talents and develop a business that enables us to pay for our travel and food addictions.

We are both business women, concerned with the economy especially that of California, so why not promote tourism in California! What better place to start than historic Catalina! But first we had to do a little research! That's what we like to call anything that involves food and travel.

I have some knowledge of the island. I have travelled that 26 miles many times. My in-laws have lived there for 30 years, and my daughter-in-law to be, runs her family's hotel in Avalon, www.hotel-metropole.com/. Anything we don't know they can tell us or know someone who can.

Sounds good, right?