Day 13 | August 7^th

By this point in the tour I knew exactly how rock stars feel when they are on the road.  You wake up and have to think for a moment about where you are, what day it is, and what’s on your agenda for the day.

The morning was a relaxed one as I spent the morning teaching Linda what she missed the night before at the workshop.  It was nice having a one-on-one as I could answer her questions directly and show her the solutions right on her computer.  I also had the opportunity to muck around with LastPass (RoboForm’s competitor).  As a password creator and keeper it is fine, but it doesn’t have some of the same features RoboForm does, so using it to organize and enter contests wasn’t as easy.  Linda and I had to come up with some workarounds for her.  It was a good mini-workshop as the teacher also learned something.  It confirmed for me that RoboForm is the best tool for organizing and entering sweepstakes.

At lunchtime I began the drive east towards West Palm Beach.  Florida is wider than one would think.  It took me until early evening to reach the opposite coast.

My host for the next two days was Todd Swartzfarb, owner of Sweepstakes Fanatics and Rocket Sweeps.  Unbeknownst to me Todd moved and when I arrived at the address I had, it was wrong.  Thankfully most communities in the area are gated and the guard helped me find my way.

Day 14 | August 8^th

Somehow I had miscalculated the number of days on the road vs pit stops I requested to do laundry at my hosts’.  I ran out of clean clothes.  I did the only thing I could do.  I went shopping!  Todd took me to the swankiest mall in Boca Raton, but not before making the required stop at Starbucks.

Before we went shopping, I noticed I wasn’t receiving emails on my phone.  Upon our return, I discovered it was because my website was hacked.  I spent the entire afternoon dealing with my web hosting company and webmaster to solve the problem, in between trying to get a wee bit of work done.

The workshop itself was held at a computer training company, PC Professor.  It was the best facility to teach at as I sat at the back of the room with my laptop hooked up to the big screen at the front of the room.  It allowed everyone to easily see every step of each segment, not unlike when I host a webinar and each student sees my screen on theirs.  If I do another tour, I think I will try to find similar facilities vs the coffee shops most were held in.

Now I would like to veer a bit off the tour and talk about something else I frequently teach about; the Law of Attraction (LOA).  I began teaching the LOA to contestors so they could attract prizes to themselves: focusing on entering what they want to win, creating a vision board, allowing and basically having fun with the LOA and the hobby in general.  However, the LOA goes much deeper than sweepstakes.

Due to changes in Todd’s schedule and my original plans, I found myself without a place to stay that night.  I didn’t have the funds to stay in a hotel and I didn’t relish the thought of sleeping in my car.  So I did the only thing I could do, pray.  Then I took action.  I text and emailed a few of the attendees in the afternoon to see if I could stay with them.  Again, it wasn’t going to work out.  However, upon arriving at the seminar, Dan said, “Sorry you couldn’t stay with me but I called Paula (turning to Paula introducing her) and you can stay with her tonight.”  My prayer had been answered.  After the workshop I went back to Todd’s, grabbed my luggage and headed up to Jupiter FL.

Day 15 | August 9^th

After breakfast with Paula, and a good chat with her husband, Steve, it was time to get back on the road for the shortest drive of the entire trip.

As I was heading up the coast I saw the signs for Cocoa Beach.  At a stop I looked at the paper map and decided I could make a quick side trip.  What looked like a 5–10 minute drive turned out to be a 30–45 minute drive.  By the time I determined I had made a mistake it was too late to turn back.  When I arrived I skipped the planned beach walk, did a quick tour of Ron Jon’s, bought a few souvenirs and got back on the road.  The silver lining was that the drive north was more picturesque.  The two best sites for me were: the cruise liner jetties and Cape Canaveral.

I arrived at Barb’s just in time for lunch.  Her sister Pat lives on the same street.  (Do you remember Pat and Barb from High Stakes Sweepers?)  As Longhorn’s was having a Facebook contest, that’s where we went for lunch.

After lunch I spent the afternoon doing laundry and dealing with the website as I was continuing to be at the receiving end of a Denial of Service attack.

Dinner was a make-it-yourself taco family dinner at Barb’s with both families in attendance.  It was great meeting both families and getting to know them.

I spent the balance of the evening with Barb in the living room, both of us on our laptops.  I was catching up on work as I had my email back and she was sweeping.

Day 16 | August 10^th

I awoke early as I now had the longest leg of the tour, Melbourne FL to Lake Stanley NC.  Thankfully the drive was uneventful.

NOTE: When I filling the gas tank before leaving Melbourne FL, the sign on the business next door confirmed you can find contests anywhere and every business can benefit from hosting a giveaway.

FOR MORE PICTURES SEE THE #CQTOUR PHOTO ALBUM ON FACEBOOK

GOOD LUCK!
Carolyn Wilman (aka @ContestQueen) is the author of You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter. She teaches others how to find, organize, enter and win contests, sweepstakes and giveaways. To-date others have won over $1,000,000 using her Online Contesting System. With over twenty years experience as a Sweepstakes Management Consultant, Carolyn also helps companies create, and viral market, winning promotions maximizing ROI and loyal customers.

We now return to last summer’s adventure …

Day 11 | August 5^th

I awoke early as I had to be in Tampa for 3pm for a TV interview.  Jake Peterson from The List met me at the Central Perks Cafe where my workshop was being held the next day.

While chatting with the store owners, Robin and Mel, I had the pleasure of meeting their landlord, Mel Freeman, who also hails from the Toronto area.  Such a small world.

As my original host for the evening was over 90 minutes away, Robin and Mel insisted on putting me up for the night.  As I now had the evening free of driving I was able to run errands and catch-up on emails.  If I weren’t so tired I would have had a sunset stroll on the beach.

Day 12 | August 6^th

I awoke early enough to head over to Treasure Island.  There is nothing like walking in sand first thing in the morning.

I even had a chance to buy a few souvenirs for my daughter and mail out a few postcards before getting to the cafe for 10:00am as Fox13 Tampa (with reporter Stef DiPietrantonio) was doing all day remote from the cafe.  It was fun doing cutaways every hour promoting the workshop that night.

As the cafe was small, I didn’t want to bring in any more than I had to from the car.  It turns out that decision was a mistake because by late afternoon I discovered the plug-in cooler drained my battery.  Well that problem would have to be dealt with later as I had a workshop to run.

As it was one of my busiest workshops with 24 attendees learning how to win, Robin, Mel and I had to rearrange the cafe seating to accommodate the attendees.  Even the ice cream cooler went out into the building lobby.

It was a lot of fun having a full house with heaps of great energy, questions and prizes in the cafe that night.

Once the workshop was over I had to deal with my dead car.  Thankfully I was smart enough to get a CAA membership before I left on the tour so after about an hour’s wait my car had been boosted and I was on my way.  However I was down to a quarter of a tank of gas.  I was afraid to fill up until I was sure the battery was fully charged.  I drove until I was on fumes before I stopped at a gas station.

Thankfully my hosts, Linda and Al, were very generous.  I felt like a bedraggled cat arriving so late, tired and hungry.  We sat around and chatted while I had an overdue cuppa tea before we all turned in.

FOR MORE PICTURES SEE THE #CQTOUR PHOTO ALBUM ON FACEBOOK

GOOD LUCK!
Carolyn Wilman (aka @ContestQueen) is the author of You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter. She teaches others how to find, organize, enter and win contests, sweepstakes and giveaways. To-date others have won over $1,000,000 using her Online Contesting System. With over twenty years experience as a Sweepstakes Management Consultant, Carolyn also helps companies create, and viral market, winning promotions maximizing ROI and loyal customers.

Day 9 | August 3^rd

When we last left our heroine … she had arrived very early at the FOX 5 Atlanta television studios. (more…)