Hi everyone. My name is Samantha Palermo AKA Jae Jones, as I am a newly self-published children’s book author on Amazon. I want to thank Sophie and her team for creating this competition because it’s once again validating how she is so supportive of her students in creating a successful start to their business. So thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I am a mom of three boys. I live in New Jersey with my husband in a cabin in the woods-type feel, which has been wonderful for our family. I used to be a teacher, I taught fifth grade for five years and resigned after I had my first son, to which I became an online teacher for about a year. And then I had my other two boys. Since then, I have always been very driven in the sense of trying to be a 100% mom and 100% worker in some way. That is just who I am. I enjoy working. I also enjoy being a mom, and I want to be both, but I want to be 100% present with my family, and that is the biggest priority in my life.
So with the way the world is now, I know there are so many opportunities for that, but I also do know that in order to be successful, you must be passionate about what it is that you like or you want to do. So that is when I came across Sophie’s Instagram ad about KPI. And I said, “What is KPI?” And as I was watching, she said, “If you want to learn more, please join my free webinar.” And without hesitation, I joined. And I was watching it as I was walking around my house and listening and was completely drawn in to this business because I love to read and I love to write, and what more perfect opportunity was this?
And I was like, “Yes, I found something.” And her program, I needed a program to help me because I wouldn’t have known what to do. I didn’t even know there was KDP, I had no idea. So her program was affordable. It’s chock full of incentives and different ways that you can be successful and different roots and so much support in the program. It feels like a big giant family, to be honest. So without hesitation, I joined because she pitched it in such a way and she said, “What do you have to lose?” And in my mind, I said, nothing. And she said, “Why not take a risk?” And in my mind I said, I want to because I want that success for my family, and at the same time want to be fulfilled in my own passion. And I said, Yes. And that took off from there.
I was watching and learning and came across the part of the module where she started to discuss children’s books. And while it’s not a common way to start publishing on KDP, it is a way you can if you do it right. And so I said, “Children’s books? I didn’t even know I can write a children’s book. I’m not an author.” But you don’t have to be. I just followed the program and the sense of research and keyword analysis and book descriptions and learned the importance of that, which I would’ve never known had it not been for her program. And it just snowballed from there. And I thought of a situation in which was a great challenge as a mom, which was when my child sleep progressed for an entire year as a toddler, which was really challenging and debilitating to my mental state. So much so that every day was miserable for me. So I said, “Let me turn that into something positive. Let me help others if I can.” Because something I did worked and I want to share it with other people.
So I came up with a title called, “Oh, Jamey Just Sleep.” And it is Promoting healthy sleep habits in children and toddlers. I followed everything Sophie said, took her advice on hiring freelancers through Fiverr and have a fully, it was like 18 or 20 page book that’s fully illustrated with beautiful illustrations in high quality pages, which I also learned how to manufacture and out popped my first published book. I’m actually holding in my hands, it’s still exciting, can’t get over it. The response from my community has been so supportive and so amazing. So many moms are messaging me with their stories about how their toddlers sleep progress, and how this book is just amazing because you wrote about it and they’re sharing it with their friends. I’m promoting it. I actually got a couple moms that are going to be promoting it on their Instagrams as well, that are influencers, which is huge. All thanks to KPI.
I cannot thank this program enough for completely changing my life. As a mom, some days were really hard and I know that I can turn my challenges into something beautiful and I’m helping others, which is what I need as well. So thank you for that. And if you are hesitant about starting this program, you shouldn’t because you have so much knowledge and so much support behind you that even if you need to go back to the drawing board for a minute, I needed to re-watch a couple modules and then I was like, “Okay, I’m good.” And I learned so much just from publishing this book that I have four more written and I’m at a standstill right now because I’m working diligently to create a fund for it, for publishing and illustrating and editing, as you know, it costs money to start.
So just from the bottom of my heart, want to thank Sophie and her team for putting this out there for people like me. If you are passionate and you are driven, this is the program for you. Thank you so much. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and great success to all. My book is on Amazon as an eBook and a paper book back. Thank you.