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Earn Money. Don’t Make It.

How changing one word can change your business

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Words matter. How we use words matters. Replacing a single word in a sentence, or a thought, can result in an entirely different ending point. Today we’ll focus on what I think is the most important word in business, and how replacing it with another will change your entire outlook.

When we use the phrase “I made money”, we are lying. Unless you own a printing press specifically for creating money, use a special blend of top secret woven paper and fabric, use special inks and dyes, etc, and you literally create money, you didn’t make anything. Using this phrase can lead to subconscious shifts in how we not only conduct ourselves in our business environment, but every other area of life as well. It might seem trivial, but words matter more than we know.

When we say “I made”, we are taking full credit for a creation. Over time this can, and often does, lead to hyper inflation of the ego. The power of creation is something to covet. Desiring to create, or make, isn’t bad in itself. After all, we are here to honor God by creating. It’s what we direct that desire towards which can lead us down very bad paths. When we “make” money, we subconsciously train ourselves to believe we have the power to create wealth. We don’t. And once that pattern of thinking takes hold of you, it will expand out to the point of losing touch with nature, truth, logos, and reality itself.

The way to avoid this crucial misstep is to rephrase it, and instead say “I earned money”. Changing “made” to “earned” removes the idea that you created the money. That is important. Saying you earned money is not a lie. If you provided a service or sold a product, you did in fact earn that money. “Made” comes with the connotation that you are so powerful that you create from nothing. Only God can do that. “Earned” comes with the connotation that you worked hard to acquire, which is exactly what you did.

When we enter a job working for someone else, we don’t make our paychecks. We earn them. We enter into a contract with an employer. The employer agrees to give you an amount of money for either a job, or per hour that you work. You willingly choose to accept these terms, knowing that in order to obtain that paycheck at the end of the week you will need to work hard to earn it. Nowhere in there did you make money. This doesn’t magically change as soon as we create our own business. I don’t make money selling wood products. I earn money by making wood products. There’s a very big difference between those two, and the latter will keep you humble and focused on whatever it is you do.

A good exercise to see how important words are is to swap the words “made” and “earned” in everyday phrases, and see how ridiculous they sound. For instance, when I go into the shop, I make a cutting board. I don’t earn a cutting board. When you graduate college, you earned your degree. You didn’t make a degree. Your kids run up to you, paper in hand, exclaiming that they made you a picture. They don’t yell “DADDY I EARNED THIS FOR YOU!”.

Save the word “made” for when you’re actually creating something. Use the word “earn” when you’re working for an end goal. In business, this end goal is ultimately money. I work hard every day to earn money to feed my family and keep a roof over their heads. I do so by making things and then selling them. And at the end of the day, I have no false sense of superiority, no inflated ego, and I haven’t convinced myself that I’m King Midas. I am tired, I am sore, and I feel grateful knowing that God allowed me another day of hard work so I could earn the money which I used to put food on the table. This also keeps my creativity focused solely on my craft, rather than on the acquisition of money. Instead of thinking about how I will acquire money, I think of what product I can create with wood that people will not only like, but will serve a purpose. I focus entirely on putting my energy into creating the product itself, so that when I hear the chime of a sale notification I know that my hard work paid off. I earned that sale.

Until next time Bears! Onward!

-Woodshop Bear

FB: Little Bear Woodshop
IG: @littlebearwoodshop

www.littlebearwoodshop.com

Business

Classical Learner Launches New Homeschools Connected Portal

We are pleased to report that Classical Learner has launched a new Homeschools Connected members portal.

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Homeschool consultant and author Brett Pike started the company Classical Learner. Brett started this path to top-tier Homeschool services by offering consultation to homeschool parents to help sculpt and nurture Homeschool programs for families just starting their journey.

He began to post videos online that went viral, talking about the issues with the public school system as well as various subjects and methods for implementing a Homeschool education.

Brett’s philosophy focuses on critical thinking over memorization, stacking skills, and getting Children Entrepreneurial experience in the real world.

He attests to utilizing a child’s passion for stacking skills leading to entrepreneurship.

For example, at the most recent Beartaria Times festival, he talked about a child passionate about photography. Parents can nurture that skill into the experience needed to start a business and then stack additional skills such as marketing, web design, graphic design, sales, and more.

His online presence is multiplying with his unique ability to design lesson plans that bring education into the real world.

Instead of just learning math, he encourages reinforcing that math with living practice.

Want to know the area of a rectangle?
Make a garden box and reinforce those math skills, along with carpentry!

His methodology and philosophy are highly sought after as the go-to Homeschool program for parents wanting to nurture their children’s education with real-world skills and entrepreneurship.

Classical Learner launched Homeschools Connected in 2021. He brought together Homeschool families across the U.S. into a private discord where they could connect with other local families and access his courses and daily lesson plans.

His company’s growth brought strategic reinvestment in the areas his members hoped for improvement.

Elementary Lesson Plans ClassicalLearner.com

To better cater to a more productive user experience Classical Learner launched the Homeschools Connected portal that will allow members to navigate a clean, user-friendly design to better experience courses and well-organized lesson plans.

“The launching of the Homeschools Connected platform is a special achievement because its creation is the result of our initial members’ belief in me… and their support which made investing in the platform possible. Building Homeschools Connected on discord was a good start, but it wasn’t the right platform for the full curriculum we are building now. The new Homeschools Connected portal is organized, easy to navigate, and will allow us to expand in previously unimaginable ways. These achievements are what winning looks like; it’s about building parallel systems so that parents, children, and good people don’t have to rely on the beast system.”

Brett Pike

High School Lesson Plans ClassicalLearner.com

We are incredibly happy for Brett and Classical Learner!

Many of our members on The Beartaria Times App are also members of his program. We believe in his vision and love seeing his success.

We encourage all Homeschool parents to try it and join his Homeschools Connected Community. We can only see him grow and continue to offer highly valuable products and services in the future.

Sign Up Today.

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Business

New Product Announcement From Ferrell Custom Wood Designs

We have combined our passion for music with my Dad’s passion for woodworking to bring you our exciting new product, Wooden Cell Phone Amplifiers, that require no power!

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Hobbit Bear here from Ferrell Custom Wood Designs. We have combined our passion for music with my Dad’s passion for woodworking to bring you our exciting new product, Wooden Cell Phone Amplifiers, that require no power! They come in different selections of pine, cedar, and oak for various acoustic tone options. So you can amplify your favorite music or podcast, and custom fit any cell phone to boost your sound on the go, at family picnics, in your garden, or your work area. Just drop your cell phone in the holder, crank up the volume on your phone and enjoy your favorite music or podcast.

Please message me on The Beartaria Times App @Thehobbitbear to get yours today. It’s easy to ship and affordable at only $60, with shipping straight to the comfort of your home. Keep up with all my latest products and music on BTA page as well.

I want to thank you all for your support and, as always, onward to Beartaria!!!

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Arts and Crafts

Too Many Mittens

My mom has always loved seeing her children be creative, so she was thrilled when I showed interest in learning how to make mittens. So, in 2016, she taught me how to make wool sweater mittens.

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By: Charity (@trailerparkgirl on BTA)

My mom started making wool sweater mittens sometime around 2014. She got the idea from visiting a local Mennonite-owned store. She found patterns online and started out just making them for the family. We’re a family of ten, so there are plenty of us to make mittens for.

In 2015, at eighteen, I became her right-hand businesswoman and began photographing her mittens and selling them on Etsy. My younger sister, Madeline, drew the mitten in the shop logo.

My mom called her shop “Too Many Mittens.” She may or may not have gotten the idea for the name from the 1958 children’s book “Too Many Mittens.”

It’s one of a few books she remembers from her childhood. My mom grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and the story takes place in Michigan. 

My mom has always loved seeing her children be creative, so she was thrilled when I showed interest in learning how to make mittens. So, in 2016, she taught me how to make wool sweater mittens. I found them to be pretty simple to make. Very fun, too. I already had some experience with sewing, so it didn’t take long to get the hang of mitten-making. The excitement of pairing different wool sweater fabrics together and adding cool buttons to the cuffs was enough to get me hooked.

We make the mittens out of wool sweaters from thrift shops. And we line the mittens with fleece. My mom and I have had a blast sifting through thrift shop clothes racks in search of funky wool sweaters. We’ve gone through hundreds of wool sweaters in the past several years. Sometimes I see a sweater that I love so much that I’m tempted to keep it for myself to wear. But then I think, “Nah, that’ll make some really cool mittens.”

A few years ago, I invested in an embroidery sewing machine and lots of machine-embroidery thread. It’s been lots of fun to play around with different designs on mittens. They really give mittens extra character. The machine was definitely worth it. And it was fairly affordable. I use a Brother SE625. 

Now, in 2022, my mom is far too busy for making mittens. She’s focused on helping raise some of her grandchildren. So, my mom decided to let me take over Too Many Mittens. I’m planning on adding other handcrafted goods to our shop in the future, like cold-process soap. I’ve been playing around with soap-making since 2018. I’m currently working on perfecting recipes. My goal is to have soap available by Spring 2023. I’m even trying to get my younger sister to design the labels for the soap. After all, it is tradition. 

One day, I hope my mom will have some extra time on her hands so that she can get back into making mittens. She really enjoyed it, just like I do. Together, we have sold over 350 pairs of mittens. I’m grateful for the time we’ve been able to bond because of our mutual love of mitten-making. If I ever have a daughter of my own, I plan to teach her how to make wool sweater mittens and so many other wonderful things.

Visit my Etsy shop, Too Many Mittens, Here!

Bears get 15% off with the code: TRAILERPARKGIRL

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