The Catholic and the Car Salesman:
Hi Everyone! My name is Debbie Landry and I was raised by a Catholic and a car salesman! If you think that left me, how shall I say – in a state of mental chaos? You would be correct!
Lord have mercy, please give me a drink! (haha!) If you ever wondered what this combination of parents might produce, here is your chance to find out.
I am a Christian but I also have an interest in the mind and some scientific topics, especially the scientific study of Epigenetics & Intelligent Design. It has been angrily brought to my attention that these are controversial topics in the world of science (and psychology and religion.)
Sigh. My intention was not ever to upset the apple cart! Although that appears to be an unfortunate side effect sometimes. In my mind, I’m just a curious person who is interested in the mysteries and miracles of the universe, which I find to be magnificent “discoveries” worthy of respect.
I also have a degree in Psychology. More about that later.
I believe that faith and humor are healthy strategies in this world.
I am also a licensed realtor with an outstanding real estate company on the coast. Perhaps I will build them sales funnels one day because they are wonderful people! I also spent 35 years working at my dad’s car dealership, which was a whirlwind of bizarre, enlightening and interesting experiences that fill up my youth.
I am not opposed to relaxing with my friends and having a couple of drinks once in a while, but it is not a daily habit or anything like that! That part comes from the car salesman. That’s what my mother would say. But thankfully, she is the reason I keep all of my friends in line. (Ha!) Somebody’s gotta do it.
Has all of this left me confused? Well, that would be putting it mildly.
So let’s think about this for a minute. How could this have led me here? Well, it is kind of a long and winding story, I suppose. Or let’s put it another way, it is full of many different interesting stories, acted out by many colorful characters throughout my life. I could write about that forever. But I need to do it quickly because my memory is not what it used to be.
Right now, I am in my 50’s (approaching the middle end) and have a son, a daughter-in-law and three beautiful granddaughters, who are the love of my life! I have been married (admittedly, more than once) and a couple (?) of ex-boyfriends.
Hey, I’m not proud of it but it is what it is. It is all a blur to me now. Age has some benefits. I will just refer to them as “one of my exes.” That should confuse some people! It is fun to keep people wondering.
Sales & Psychology Experience:
I spent twenty-six years (no, I am not exaggerating), getting a degree in Psychology. The reason it took me twenty-six years is that I went part-time, while another 35 years (which coincided and collided) were spent working at the car dealership. And another almost seven years (and still counting) as a realtor.
And the rest of the time gathering extensive information from the School of Hard Knocks. This is where my dad 
got his degree.
So, when I am not here, I am out running around taking people on tours of other people’s houses. At least I haven’t gotten shot, bitten by dogs or found any dead bodies like some of my friends. Not yet, anyway. If this article jinxes me, I’m not gonna be happy about it.
Also, during those years of raising kids, going to school and working full time, I studied internet marketing and personal growth as my – (hobby?) I prefer to think of it as my retirement fund. I am obsessed with the study of a positive mindset, creating internet projects, and learning how to sell them online. And I love, love, LOVE inspirational people & ideas!
I also think of my additional internet marketing and personal growth studies as a really effective coping method. However, you want to look at it is fine. Or, a possible escape route from all of the crazy customers and clients throughout the years. And bosses. And exes (of course!) Anyway, I dared to dream of success (which in my mind, meant peace) and financial freedom a lot.
When Sales Drives You To Drink:
I have been fortunate enough to have been surrounded by some of the best salespeople you could ever want to meet. Some (but definitely not all) of them have been full-blown alcoholics and instigators of other extra-curricular activities. Yet, they were some of the most talented, good-hearted people I know.
This led me to write a paper about them in a psychology class called, “Alcoholics: The Exceptional People,” where I described the exceptionally good and bad behavioral traits of alcoholics. My teacher wrote back and told me there was no evidence to support all of the positive things I had to say about them, and he suggested that I remove those sections and then go get some books (counseling?) about codependency.
Obviously, I had to change the title to, “Those no-good SOB’s.” Just kidding. I did have to change it, but not to that. Because that would never fly. Otherwise, I would have.
You know what they say about psychology majors. They go to school to fix themselves. And all that time, I thought it was an anxiety problem. At least he didn’t diagnose me as an alcoholic.
All About Mississippi:
What can I say? I was raised in Mississippi where the unspoken rule is that only residents can talk bad about Mississippi. Everyone else will “get their ass kicked.” This is gun country, you know.
Anyway, Mississippians will be quick to point out to you that people in Mississippi are (in fact) quite literate. Just ask John Grisham, Oprah, Elvis, Morgan Freeman, Brett Favre or the Muppet Guy.
I don’t think Michael Douglas is from here, but maybe I missed something. I was just looking for a picture of Oprah and Morgan Freeman and there he was, so I said, “What the hell.” Apparently, he likes Mississippi people. (Who doesn’t?)
One time, I went to lunch with Brett Favre, my brother, and my son. Lots of people lined up for autographs and photos and my son and I got ours too. (Thus far, I have not yet had lunch with Oprah or Morgan Freeman. Or Michael Douglas, for that matter.) I did go to Morgan Freeman’s bar one time, though.
Whenever customers would ask me about my family, I would pull my photo of myself, my son and Brett Favre and I would show it to people, and they would laugh and laugh. Then they would sign the dotted line. Next thing they knew, they bought a new Cadillac. (A trick I learned from my dad.)
Once (you may have heard), all of us Mississippians got completely wiped out by a not-so-nice “lady” named Katrina. That whole experience caused several more drinking stories for another day. I’m not going to tell you what the locals call Katrina, but it is definitely not “lady.”
I called the whole experience “52 Pickup” because everybody came back in a different place. Kind of like a stack of cards that got shuffled and thrown up in the air and landed in heaps all over the place. I dreamed about debris trucks for months. Yes, I did.
So, what do I think about Mississippi? I think it is one of the most awesome places on earth with some of the strongest and colorful people I know. Never mind the fact that this is where most of the people live that I know. (I don’t get out much.) But that’s okay because I love my home. Trust me, the picture above does not do Mississippi justice. We were most likely having a bad day. We’ve had a few.
I once spilled a glass of wine on my laptop and lost weeks of internet (digital) video products that I had created because of what is now known as “the great wine spill.” (Not to be confused with the great oil spill.)
The videos were spiritual in nature, so I found that whole episode to be a rather odd and strange coincidence. My intentions were good. But I learned a long time ago that there were many mysterious things in life that I would never understand. (Although, I am suspicious of the neo-Darwinians.) Kidding again. (?)
How I Was Always Misunderstood:
I almost got arrested once for taking nature photos that I used in the spiritual videos. You know, the ones that I lost. It all happened because I drove through the middle of a drug bust. The police officer wanted to know why I was taking pictures. Who knew that drug labs were surrounded by beautiful trees, ponds, and horses?
My sister thought that was the funniest thing she ever heard in her life. Yeah, sure. It’s always funny until it happens to you.
One of my car salesman friends once accused me of “getting myself into so much trouble, and doing it so innocently and accidentally.” Coincidentally, he was also the preacher who married me in my most recent wedding. The preacher and I enjoyed deep debates about spiritual topics on the slow days. But, I won’t go there right now.
So anyway, most recently, I had this epiphany. After changing internet marketing projects probably hundreds of times throughout the years, it finally dawned on me to create this business, which ties all of the confusion together quite nicely.
Because it finally occurred to me that everything that I was interested in had to do with the mind, healing, personal growth, and development. But also, optimistic, positive and inspirational people!! Hopefully, I won’t get wiped out again. Because that would really suck.
Rule Number One of Internet Marketing is to narrow down and choose a niche (topic) to focus on. As you can imagine, I had trouble with that, seeing how my interests are so, how shall I say? All over the place.
Some of my best reviews here I copied from some of my other blogs because it took me FOREVER to write those things. I hope Google doesn’t slap the heck out of me for that.
Not sure if their web crawlers would pick up on the fact that I am (in fact) the original author. Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think stealing is stealing when you steal from yourself. We’ll see. Either way, the IRS would probably tax me on it if they got wind of it, based on some of my past experiences.
My varied interests and inability to make up my mind over the years has made GoDaddy quite happy and my pocketbook much slimmer. I have (often) bought $12 domains and then let them go, only to find them back on the market for $10,000.00 the next time I searched. Apparently, I have a knack for that. It is a talent that most people only dream of having.
So, this site is my best attempt to merge it all together and (hopefully) stop changing my mind so much. The fact that I finally found the best internet marketing education and software in the world helps to eliminate much of the great confusion. Getting on the right track helps a lot. Too bad it took so long.
And by the way, this blog really is about the mind, healing, inspirational people, personal growth and living out your purpose to your highest potential, not drinking.
I don’t know why that topic kept coming up. Oh yeah, this page is “About Me.” Maybe I should name it, “About Everyone Else.” I am mostly just the witness. I am!
I am just a Mardi Gras girl getting slammed in the head with a mess of beads. (That actually happened once.) And then, the lady who slammed me with beads later married one of my exes. Coincidence? I think not.
The truth is, I spend most of my time at home working on this business or selling real estate. I am just trying to explain my conditional, past programming in case it ever needs to make sense to you one day. If you stay with me here for any length of time, you are likely to have some occasional question marks in your head. So now you know. Questions breed more questions.
Speaking of everyone else, I think I told you that I have a son, daughter-in-law and three beautiful granddaughters. I call it being known as Gamma in “certain circles of love.” Thought I would throw in a family visual for you to see. After all, no “About Me” page would be complete without them, so I have to show them off. Of course!
When I am not working, this is where I really spend my time these days. Nowadays, I dance around the room singing, “Rain, Rain, Go Away.” I had no idea how much I needed that.
So here is (my pride and joy), Gamma and her girls:
Storytelling & Bestsellers:
I recently took this course online about the importance of sharing stories while marketing online. That is when it occurred to me that I have (at least) hundreds of crazy (but lovable) car salesmen stories. Some of them now looking down on me from one of the great parties they are throwing in heaven.
So, I am working on getting over my “private person” syndrome, also known as Social Anxiety. Hence, my interest in personal growth and improving self-esteem. As one of my car people told me years ago, “A hundred years from now, none of this will matter.” I will try to live by that here, so I won’t be so scared to talk about things.
Human nature appears to be much the same, whether offline or online. Except for the fact that many of the offline salespeople are not necessarily tech-savvy. Or at least, not back in my day. The good news is that there was a great need to make marketing online easier, and some exceptionally brilliant marketers have answered the call for this demand.
The Study of Mind & Internet Marketing
You may be wondering what internet marketing has to do with the study of mind and why I focus on it so much.
Okay, so here are some answers:
- This site focuses a LOT on getting your message out to people, finding your purpose and doing what you love to do. If you choose to become an expert and turn this into a business that you want to market online, then there you go. Voila. Here it is!
- The marketers I will introduce you to are incredibly inspirational, educational and entertaining and they most definitely INSPIRE me with a HEALTHY MINDSET. AND – make me laugh. A LOT! If you are into this sort of thing, then you will love it here!
- One of the best ways to improve mindset is to listen to the right people – the right MENTORS. And stop listening to the people who bring you down! This site is full of people who will lift you UP and not down!
- The brain can only focus or concentrate on one or two things at a time. What you focus on MATTERS! Who you listen to MATTERS! Here, you will be focusing on positive people and positive messages from all walks of life.
Pretty cool, huh?
So now, you should have enough information to decide if this site is for you. If you choose to stay, join our free Facebook Group!! Come on. It’s not like a marriage or anything crazy like that.
It’s just a free community!! 🙂
