Hello and welcome to the journey of Mani. Walk with me as we learn how she came across many things which brought back childhood dreams from over 20 years ago and how they begin to come to life one day at a time.
Mani is just another normal woman trying to survive in the world. She works as a long haul driver spending many hours, days and weeks away from her family and most of all...from her mini. Weather, traffic, and shop time all make up her days.
It all began when she came across how to become an author back in October of 2023. A childhood dream of hers came swinging back through social media while she worked her shift. When she was a little girl, she absolutely dreamed of becoming an author, only never knowing what she would write about and how she would go about it. October of '23 changed it all. She learned how she could hire a ghostwriter and they would help her write a book from an outline provided.
After talking to her S.O. they took on the challenge. With the love, support and patience of her S.O. her dream finally became a reality. By the New Years Eve she set to work writing this book. While balancing her demanding career with writing a little bit each weekend, the book slowly came together.
Although a delay occurred due to her full time career as well as some significant wins for her which prevented her from making more progress on this book from March through the end of July.
Mani also chose to put this book on hold and begin another book first; one that would open so much up for an entire line of books written by her. A topic she's absolutely passionate about. Spirituality and Magick. Armed with this dream, she decided to see just how far she can scale it all.
From book number one already published on Amazon and also linked in her store, (Spirituality and Its Different Aspects) followed by number two nearing completion, to opening a Shopify store and working with POD (print on demand) to help her fulfil orders, she has ignited within herself the dream to not only become an author, but to build an empire.
Why has Mani decided to use POD to help her fulfill orders? Because her full time career as a long haul driver makes it difficult to near impossible for her to fulfill orders due to not being home. So when she discovered POD, she chose to go that route. Perhaps it will be in the cards one day for her to move away from Print on Demand and move to fulfilling orders herself from home.
Not only does Mani have her books and her Shopify store, she also has a Stan Store which will be selling digital products which are designed to help others in her position (tight budget with a huge dream) lift off the ground and become successful.
Won't you join Mani in her dream, follow her on all the named platforms she provides and watch her as she grows. Join her as she aims to teach you what she has learned. Reach out and teach her something too! She's always open to ideas and willing to learn something new that will help her scale even higher!
Welcome to Mani's journey.
Published 8/27/24
Let's dive deeper into Mani's journey.
What made her decide to build an empire? How did she get where she is today? What are the key factors which led her here?
Let's go back 13 years to mid-2011 when Mani was a brand new single mother working three jobs just to pay a few bills and put gas in her car to go to these jobs. She was driving a 1995 Ciera Cutlass Oldsmobile, gifted to her by her father.
One day in spring of 2012 she was offered a job in trucking. Looking for a way out of her small town which felt like there was no growth for her, she took the offer. While she was only 20 years old at the time, she agreed to be a passenger for the next 13 months as she learned from the passenger seat how to drive the truck and what the big roads looked like. From day driving to night driving and learning how the truck drivers clocks worked, she absorbed all the information she possibly could. She became a sponge for information.
When the day came for her to start class for the next 4 weeks beginning on June 24th, 2013, she made sure she nailed every bit of what she was taught. She did so good on her final test (before she would go out on her trainers truck) the instructor actually marked her down. How did she know she was deliberately marked down? The instructor claimed she had double downshifted coming off a ramp. She was brand new to the driver's seat of a semi operating a manual transmission. She didn't even know how to double downshift, let alone, she didn't even know that was a thing until he said something.
With pride in herself, she looked forward to the promise of trucking being able to not only pay the bills much better, but give her little one the life she deserved. She wanted to put money aside for a home and start a bank account for her little one which she promised herself she could contribute to each week at a certain amount without fail. With this as her driving force, Mani made sure to do her job in such a way that no one knew how new she was to that seat other than her age and the requirements of the law at the time for one to obtain their CDL-A.
Over the next 5 years of her career, those promises that began in 2012 were not upheld. These promises were made by the one who offered her the job in trucking. He turned from being proud of her to constantly degrading her in so many different ways. After almost 7 years, she began looking for a way out. Not out of trucking, away from the monster he'd become.
Why is this such a key factor in where Mani is today and where her dreams lie? Well, to put it simply, this man was her employer. How did that work? He was an owner operator and she drove for him; which made it his responsibility to pay her. Something he never did. He actually spent all the money the truck made on things he desired. Then made her feel guilty for buying even a small stuffed animal for herself, but he never said anything about food.
This is key because his claim of income for himself either wasn't true, was only on a team income or was before expenses. The simple fact that he never paid her or showed her as being paid, made it so she was still fighting to keep her own bills paid and had no money to send to her parents for her little one. This was devastating. Not only devastating, but infuriating.
Fast forward to mid-September of 2018, the last fight they ever had...the day she left with no plan and nowhere to go. After a call to the local police department which resulted in not one but two officers arriving to keep the peace, she was able to get some of her of her things packed so she could leave. While this was going on, she'd sent a message to three people knowing one of them would be able to help. A few hours later after a short phone call, one of them did come through. Her best friend who'd gotten out of long haul the year before. He called her to say "You're coming by me."
These pieces of her story may not seem crucial to her journey, but they are. What makes them so crucial? Well, the man that got her into trucking left her with over $56,000 worth of debt. How can one provide a life for their child when they're throwing over $2,000 each month at two governments so she can give her little one more? She chose to throw as much money as she could at both of these governments to make them go away so she would be less stressed.
Mani is proud to say that in October of 2023, she was free of both!
More to come soon
Updated 9/2/24
Now that she had her major debts paid, it was time to turn her focus to finally getting her very own place. However, while she was focusing really hard on getting those two governments paid? She neglected her credit cards by only paying the minimum each month. With each one being near maxed out, the interest each month was slaying her and she was ignoring it at some point, but also forgetting of it which brought her to her knees before spring.
Why did this bring her to her knees? It's time to get her own place. On maxed out credit cards. A credit score that was less than desirable. While fighting to keep the bills paid. One factor she never saw coming was a change at her employer which proved over time to hit her check harder than she ever imagined. From 2020 when she returned to over the road to the first 2 weeks of 2024, Mani's truck could do 75 mph. Come the second week of January in 2024? All trucks in the fleet were remotely slowed down to 68 mph on the cruise and 72 mph on the pedal.
She decided to put up with it because the company and the fleet she pulled for as a whole took care of her and came through for her with home time and discrepancies in her pay. They never denied any regular maintenance to her truck or needed repairs. Why leave over a speed drop? A few months later, she realized this speed drop was impacting her pay significantly. This was irritating because she'd used her resources and knowledge and landed getting approved for her new house loan! Even with her credit and cards sitting as they were. (this was one of her wins which delayed the publishing of her first book)
One thing that really hit her hard was going over her pay for the summer and comparing it to her S.O. who works locally to find that her S.O. was exceeding her net pay. She's working 60-70 hours a week 6-7 days a week to bring in less than her S.O. is who works 5 days a week at 40-50 hours a week. "Babe, this makes me wanna go local."
Unfortunately, it isn't an option with just getting the approval for the home and trying to get everything settled so they can get the home placed in the mobile home park. Changing jobs at such a time is simply not a great idea. With all the factors considered, she used every bit of her down time to finish her first book and submit it to Amazon for review to get published. Within 2 weeks, it was finished, submitted and available for anyone to purchase.
Soon after, she went down the rabbit hole of online income. She began learning so, so much about the digital world and how lucrative it is. She thought to herself, "I can really do anything. This could get me off the road and be home to enjoy my home. This could really help the bills and help us build the funds for our homestead. Not only that, while helping people to learn and providing them something they need and want to see." She dove right into even more learning on how to launch this business online and make it thrive.
She promises to be fully transparent with each of you and how she reached each step of this insane journey.
Here's the kicker to trucking and the online world with her...she never thought she would find herself behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler, but here she is 11 years later doing damn good at it.
She never thought she would be in the online world making money while doing something she loves: teaching others and learning from them. But here she is showing up not just for herself, but for her family.
This is Mani's change in direction with life. She realizes her creativity can brighten the days of others and she can thrive.
Thank you for your support.
Updated 9/6/24