Day 4 | July 29th
Lane, Ron and Teresa’s son, was generous to give me his room. Upon waking, it was the first of many mornings I awoke not sure where I was or what day it was. After getting my bearings and a cuppa tea, Ron and I had a chance to talk. It was great chatting about our different TLC High Stakes Sweepers filming adventures along with all the behind the scenes drama that never made it into the show. (Let’s just say Ron has a few crazy neighbors!)
FOR MORE PICTURES SEE THE #CQTOUR PHOTO ALBUM ON FACEBOOK
At noon Ron and I were the first guests on Living Dayton: How To Win a Contest.
How did I not realize that my clear gel sandals would make me look barefoot on television?! That’s what I get for packing light and only bringing four pairs of shoes.
After the show we headed back to Ron’s for lunch. Then I spent part of the afternoon catching up on email, blogging with the balance spent getting ready for our workshop. I went to Staples to get more photocopies of the workshop handout. I began chatting with the gentleman next to me in line sending a fax. After he discovered what I was doing, he asked if I wanted another prize to give away. Well, as you know there is no such thing as too many prizes, so once done I headed to his shop to pick-up the t-shirt he donated.
What an amazing gentleman Christopher is. He started his entire business from a dream, not an inspiration, a literal night time dream. He is so positive and uplifitng. If you live in the Dayton area I highly recommend stopping by his store: Troy Luxor.
Since my car was chock-a-block with prizes we took my car to the Expressions Coffee House.
The owner Bill donated a beautiful, huge, coffee-filled gift basket as the grand prize for the evening. Most of the attendees from this workshop came after reading the article about Ron in the Dayton Daily News. Unfortunately, you can’t control what the media prints (or airs). They neglected to include the registration fee, so some people chose to leave rather than pay the $15. As I had so many prizes, everyone won something equaling or valued greater than the fee, not to mention the value of the knowledge I had to impart.
As there were so many in attendance and I couldn’t get my computer to sync with the large screen TV, I abandoned technology all together. I taught the entire workshop “old school”; verbally and using my portable flip chart. Offline teaching methods for an online winning hobby.
We got back to Ron’s late, stayed up talking a wee bit to wind down, then off to bed as I had a day of driving ahead.
Day 5 | July 30th
Having the opportunity to spend more time with Ron before I headed out was wonderful. Ron “the man himself” showed me firsthand how his Powersweepstaking system worked. As each aggregate is different it was fantastic to see what makes his system unique. You may have seen Ron entering sweepstakes for eight hours a day on High Stakes Sweepers. Yes, he does enter eight hours per day, but it’s how he adds the power to Powersweepstaking. As he enters his sweepstakes, he reads the rules, and adds the new giveaways into his system for the next day’s upload. This is the key to being organized for his subscribers, because he finds the sweeps and arranges them according to the rules making it quick and easy to enter.
As I had to get to Louisville, KY that day I reluctantly left Ron’s and got back on the road. It took me a couple of hours to get out of town as I stopped into Staple to pick-up the memory stick I forgot. I then popped back into Troy Luxor and gave Christopher a brief social media training session. The main thing we did was get his YouTube channel branded. By then it was time for lunch. Back to Chipotles for a hearty lunch.
Half way to Louisville I was so tired I pulled into a rest area, rolled down all my windows a crack and because the back seat was so full, I put my pillows on my laptop bag in the passenger seat, leaned over and took a much needed nap. I ended up resting a little longer than I originally intended which resulted in my arriving after dinner at Dana and Dan’s. Thankfully they kept a plate warm for me.
As it had been a long day on the road it was off to bed at a reasonable hour.
This is where I will throw-in a wee bit of #CQTour sponsor luv. AT&T gave me a HTC First phone to test on the road trip. At home I preloaded all my favourite apps, so before drifting off to sleep I watched an episode of Warehouse 13 on Netflix. Plug in a headset and the phone is perfect for bedtime viewing!
#CQTOUR GIVEAWAY BONANZA
Not to leave anyone out, I am also holding an online #CQTour Giveaway Bonanza with 26 prizes valued over $1200!
SHORT RULES: Open to residents of the United States. Ends at 11:59pm ET on August 31st 2013. Entries can only be made via the Rafflecopter widget on my Facebook Fan Page. FULL RULES are within the Rafflecopter widget Terms and Conditions.
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.
Great info – sounds like you met a lot of nice people and are having a great (but tiring) trip!