We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marilyn Parker. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marilyn below.
Hi Marilyn, thanks for joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
How did you learn to do what you do?
Uh . . . trial and error for the most part. But we had stories to tell that we believed would help women, so we decided we had to have a platform (just like the soap boxes of old) that would make us visible to the people who could benefit from our experiences. That’s why we started our blog Persevering Women: Living Above the Circumstances www.perseveringwomen.com. We shared our own rawness and pain and persevering and victory. We didn’t try to whitewash anything. And amazingly women (and men) responded to our honesty.
Knowing what you know now, what would you have done to speed up the process?
I’ll answer this one from the standpoint of writing books, and I believe this applies to whatever business venture you may pursue. LEARN THE CRAFT. Don’t just wing it and hope everything works out. I spent 15 years writing my biblical fiction novel The Struggle for Love: The Story of Leah. No, the book is not 3000 pages long. I just didn’t take time to study the craft of writing. I had talent. I had a great story to tell. But I didn’t know anything about plot structure or character development. Let alone marketing. Doing your homework before you start will give you a much better chance of success.
What skills do you think were most essential?
I think Rebecca agrees that the most essential skill in writing a blog or writing a book or anything else in life is knowing that “done” is better than perfect. We are both perfectionists. Which is why it took us eight months to build our own website. Yes, learn the craft. Yes, attempt to produce a quality product. Yes, do work you can be proud of, but at some point you just have to say, “It’s good enough,” and get it out there.
What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
The greatest obstacle we’ve encountered to learning more is TIME. There just isn’t enough of it to go around. We have lots of projects floating around in our befuddled brains waiting patiently for us to do the necessary research to get them off the ground, but we just can’t get to them all so we have to look at the time we have and decide how to best use it before it gets away.
People that really know how our brains work agree that multi-tasking is a myth. We really can’t concentrate on more than one thing at a time. We’re just fooling ourselves.
Another thing, we want to do everything ourselves because we think we can do it better. And if we’re honest, we just want to be in control.
I’m getting ready to create an audio book of my novel. I wanted to do the narration myself. I know the story. I know how it’s supposed to be interpreted. I bought a fancy mic (which is in a drawer at this moment, gathering dust) and talked to someone I know who has the equipment to edit and produce it. But I just don’t have the time to record and re-record and probably re-re-record a 325 page book. So now I’m starting the process of hiring a narrator and a production company and saving my time for the things that I have a reasonable expectation of being able to complete. It’s important to keep learning new skills so we can become better at what we do, but learning that we can’t do it all is a good lesson too.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I’m Marilyn, the older, more wrinkled half of a mother/daughter blogging duo, and author of a best-selling non-fiction book about biblical hospitality and a historical fiction novel which, at this writing, is sitting at # 4 in its category. The other half of the duo is my beautiful daughter, Rebecca who is an accomplished communicator and has a terrific eye for proof reading. She saves her mother from lots of embarrassing mistakes! And in her spare time (ha-ha) she’s a registered lactation nurse who helps mommies and babies get off to a healthy start.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of blogging and writing books is when people contact us and tell us how our words have moved them. The other day I was talking to a woman I met recently. She read my Biblical fiction book The Struggle for Love: The Story of Leah. She asked if we could sit down and talk about it. We did, She began to cry. She was so moved by the story and the character’s struggle, and she was able to relate to it on a personal level.
Many women respond to us about our blog articles. We try to write about things that are pretty much universal. Almost every woman knows how it feels to long for love and acceptance. To feel like you’re failing as a parent. Many tell us that our words give them hope and encouragement. What more can a writer ask for?
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
Absolutely! I met my cofounder and business partner when they brought her to me in the hospital all wrapped in a little pink blanket. Rebecca has been such a joy to my heart as a daughter, a friend, and yes, as a business partner. She’s such a joy to be around. I wonder sometimes how I got so blessed to have a daughter like her. And another wonderful daughter and two wonderful sons. I’m a blessed woman.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.perseveringwomen.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/perseveringwomen/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/perseveringwomen
- Other: Amazon link for The Struggle for Love: The Story of Leah https://www.amazon.com/Struggle-Love-Story-Leah-ebook/dp/B09JQZJ5W2/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=biblical+fiction&qid=1663711414&sr=8-5