Podcast appearances and mentions of courtney westlake

featuring Courtney Westlake. Courtney gives a peek into the life of her family coping with the diagnosis of Harlequin Ichthyosis and discovering God's beautiful design within the trials. She offers pointers on teaching children to respect and appreciate physical differences. Courtney's blog Living a Different Beautiful & book A Different Beautiful

featuring Courtney Westlake. Courtney gives a peek into the life of her family coping with the diagnosis of Harlequin Ichthyosis and discovering God’s beautiful design within the trials. She offers pointers on teaching children to respect and appreciate physical differences. Courtney’s blog Living a Different Beautiful & book A Different Beautiful

Is there a better way to nurture empathy and compassion than through books? That's the question we address in this episode with special guest, Courtney Westlake. Courtney's daughter, Brenna, was born with a skin condition that makes her appear "different" to many people. On today's show, Courtney shares not just her family's experience, but also how we can teach our kids kindness and understanding when it comes to differences. In this episode, you'll hear: how to help kids grow in empathyhow books help us walk in another person's shoesour favorite books for teaching about differences and disabilities We've got a list of RAR-recommended books that feature differently-abled characters below, and you can also find Courtney's excellent book recommendations in her guide, Celebrating Our Stories. More free resources & booklists Get the best episodes and reources from the Read-Aloud Revival Keep an eye on your inbox! We'll keep you posted whenever we have a new podcast episode or a great free booklist or resource for you. There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again. Email Address I'd like to receive the free email course. Yes! Powered by ConvertKit /* Layout */ .ck_form.ck_minimal { /* divider image */ background: #f9f9f9; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; overflow: hidden; color: #666; font-size: 16px; border: solid 1px #d1d1d1; -webkit-box-shadow: none; -moz-box-shadow: none; box-shadow: none; clear: both; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: center; } .ck_form.ck_minimal h3.ck_form_title { text-align: center; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 28px; } .ck_form.ck_minimal h4 { text-align: center; font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; text-transform: uppercase; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 0px; margin-top: 0px; } .ck_form.ck_minimal p { padding: 0px; } .ck_form, .ck_form * { -webkit-box-sizing: border-box; -moz-box-sizing: border-box; box-sizing: border-box; } .ck_form.ck_minimal .ck_form_fields { width: 100%; float: left; padding: 5%; } /* Form fields */ .ck_errorArea { display: none; /* temporary */ } #ck_success_msg { padding: 10px 10px 0px; border: solid 1px #ddd; background: #eee; } .ck_form.ck_minimal input[type="text"], .ck_form.ck_minimal input[type="email"] { font-size: 18px; padding: 10px 8px; width: 68%; border: 1px solid #d6d6d6; /* stroke */ -moz-border-radius: 3px; -webkit-border-radius: 3px; border-radius: 3px; /* border radius */ background-color: #fff; /* layer fill content */ margin-bottom: 5px; height: auto; float: left; margin: 0px; margin-right: 2%; height: 42px; } .ck_form input[type="text"]:focus, .ck_form input[type="email"]:focus { outline: none; border-color: #aaa; } .ck_form.ck_minimal .ck_subscribe_button { width: 100%; color: #fff; margin: 0px; padding: 11px 0px; font-size: 18px; background: #6fc171; -moz-border-radius: 3px; -webkit-border-radius: 3px; border-radius: 3px; /* border radius */ cursor: pointer; border: none; text-shadow: none; width: 30%; float: left; height: 42px; } .ck_form.ck_minimal .ck_guarantee { color: #626262; font-size: 12px; text-align: center; padding: 15px 0px 0px; display: block; clear: both; } .ck_form .ck_powered_by { display: block; color: #aaa; font-size: 12px; } .ck_form .ck_powered_by:hover { display: block; color: #444; } .ck_converted_content { display: none; padding: 5%; background: #fff; } .ck_form.ck_minimal.width400 .ck_subscribe_button, .ck_form.ck_minimal.

For full show notes head over to www.momsofheart.com/005In this episode, Robyn Rosenberger, the brains and heart behind the Tiny Superheroes project, shares her story of how she accidentally created this business that is creating a huge impact in the special needs community and then how that community rallied around her when she had a special needs child of her own. To nominate your child for a cape go here.She talks about Blessed by Brenna who was her inspiration for things and you can find Courtney Westlake's book here.Ready to jump in on the missions? If you have a cape, check your email you probably got an invitation but just in case you can't find the link, click here!Wanna know more about the art contest and how you can enter your child's artwork? Find out more here.Find Tiny Superheroes on Instagram and Facebook.Find me on Instagram and Facebook.Support the show (http://Paypal.me/momsofheart)

  Today on the show we have a very special business mom and friend, Courtney Westlake. We’ve actually gotten the chance to meet and hang out in person, which was super fun! I met her sweet family and she met Holden; we just had a great time together!   Courtney has been blogging since 2011 at CourtneyWestlake.com. She shares a lot about her story of being Mom to Brenna, who has a very rare skin condition and special need.   Courtney is a blogger, published author, and now a very successful freelancer. I know you’ll learn a lot from hearing her story!   1:15 - Courtney’s Unexpected Beginnings As a Blogger   The majority of people will know of Courtney via her blog, which she began to document her daughter Brenna’s birth and early days in late 2011. Her daughter was born with a rare skin condition and accompanying special needs. (You can watch Courtney’s family story here...major tissue warning!) She originally started her blog to update family and friends, but the circle of readers quickly grew. The more Courtney wrote, the more people read! Courtney had no end-goal in mind with her writing, she was just processing being a mom to a child with an unexpected diagnosis.   In 2014, Courtney got a chance to meet a literary agent and she signed with her. And in 2015 she signed a book deal! A Different Beautiful came out in 2016.   2:55 - What’s It Really Like Publishing a Book? I’ve had the pleasure of reading Courtney’s book and absolutely loved it. She is a very talented writer! I know many of you are thinking about monetizing your writing platform, and Courtney has some great book publishing insights.   Of course, there are a lot of ways you can go about book publishing. Courtney self-published a children’s book in 2014; her non-fiction book was traditionally published two years later.   She says the two experiences were so different! Courtney’s advice to help you choose your path? Think about your goal.   Courtney’s purpose in writing was to get her message out. Traditional publishing isn’t a super lucrative endeavor. She did receive an advance (an amount the publisher anticipates the author to sell in the first year) and once her book sold the amount of that advance, then she could start earning royalties. And to make sure there are no rose-colored glasses on, royalties are only about 15% of the sale of the book, not a lot!   It really is easy to look at big time authors on best seller lists and glamorize their success. But most first-time authors don’t earn very much money.   If you choose to self-publish with e-books or something like a print-on-demand service, Courtney says you can expect to make more of your own money, but your book may not get as far of a reach. For example, Courtney’s traditionally published book could be purchased at Barnes & Nobles in the US, Australia, and Canada. (Isn’t that so neat?!)   I can tell you from the outside-looking-in, Courtney’s book launch looked so cool! She has a sizeable following and has built great relationships with her readers. Courtney’s publisher was really happy with her launch, which of course made her proud!   There aren’t many ways to slice it: launching a product is a lot of work. And that’s just how launches go. During my most recent big launch, FB Brilliance, I really appreciated having my team to delegate to. And Courtney, also, had a launch team that did some of the work for her. Automating as many processes as possible is another great way to lighten the launch-time load.   7:05 - Transitioning from SAHM to Freelancer One reason I wanted to have Courtney on the podcast is because she recently told me that she’s been able to do about 15 hours of freelance work a week, and replace her full-time job income! HOLY COW! I had to know how that’s working!   Before having kids, Courtney worked in a Public Relations department at a local university. After her first child - a son who is now 8 - was born, she started staying home. (Isn’t that true of so many of us?) She freelanced here and there, trying to see what would stick, but the jobs didn’t pay much.   With the birth of Brenna, her daughter’s special need was very consuming for a long time.   Now that both Courtney’s children are school-aged, she’s got the chance to do pursue more formal work again. She started writing pieces for different publications, and then eventually scored some business clients.   Those corporate clients are what have potential for high income. Last January she decided to maximize the growth and really go for it! It’s been going really well. To date Courtney keeps four really great regular clients, and a few others who provide less regular work, but are clients she really wants to work with.   With her kids now in school she can take on more work, and the increase has been a total blessing to her family. She can use her creativity and passion to earn a decent income   9:25 - The Ins and Outs of Writing for Businesses What does it look like writing for a business? Content marketing is a buzzword these days, and the jist of it means is writing blogs, email newsletters, and website pages for any business.   For her clients, Courtney has provided the content - the written words - for entire websites before! She also has created sitemaps, going through the pages on their website they want revamped and so on.   For her regular clients, she almost acts as a marketing consultant in addition to providing the writing. Courtney’s clients can bounce ideas off her, and she loves learning what’s latest in marketing, writing, sales, and online media. It’s a win win!   10:33 - Kinds of Businesses Hire Freelance Writers? I love that Courtney does writing for a variety of businesses. Included in her portfolio is: a construction company, a mid-sized bank, a content marketing agency that specializes in education writing (working with schools through them), and a nonprofit.   11:15 - Getting That First Writing Gig Back in January, Courtney decided she would really go for the freelance work. She stared out by emailing different contacts locally, people she had worked with before or had some prior connection to. In those initial emails, she outlined why she thought the managers should hire her, ideas she had for their company, and so on. As cold outreach goes, she got back a lot of “Thanks, but no thanks” messages.   But - finally! - a yes came.   Her first big gig was a company wanting help with their website.   It snowballed from there. The last few months she’s tried to take the initiative and focus on people she really wants to work for.   12:12 - A Personal Touch Makes All the Difference Going the extra mile to make a personal connection in those initial outreaches makes a huge difference. The content marketing agency she’s currently working with Courtney found on a freelance forum. The agency posted their need to have a writer who could take occasional jobs. Most of the commenters on the thread wrote back with a generic reply we’ve all seen, “Send me a PM!”   But Courtney went a step further.   She went to the agency’s website and got to know the firm. She found a direct email address and wrote a kind message to the agency director. Courtney got back a message almost immediately. The agency was interested!   Courtney took the next step to go directly to the director via email, which made her stand out from all the other commenters!   (And trust me! As a business owner who gets unsolicited pitches all the time. I can tell right away who took time to be personal and who didn’t.)   13:50 - When Charging Your Worth Makes You Go ‘Eeep!’ It can feel so uncomfortable to share your rates! I totally struggle with this on the odd-occasion I accept a coaching call for a high rate. And Courtney has struggled with that same feeling, too. In fact, the morning of our interview she quoted a job and didn’t land it because of her price. But at the end of the day, as mamapreneurs we have to stick with our prices! We know what we’re worth, and we know our clients and customers will get what they pay for. One person may not see your value, but that doesn’t mean many others won’t see it.   Courtney agrees it’s much easier to be choosy with jobs when she has a fuller load and not that urgent NEED for income. It’s certainly more fun to pick jobs that you’ll enjoy and know will bring a good income!   She’s been able to reach this ability to choose who she wants to work for (and be confident in her rates) by slowly and steadily building clients and sticking to her rate. “It takes time,” she says, “But you’ll get where you want to be. You have to know what your work is worth.”   And let’s be honest, ladies! Taking time away from our family or errands we need to do isn’t easy. Our time is valuable.   16:55 - Raising Rates and Regular Clients Has Courtney raised her rates since building out her client portfolio? Her short answer is yes, but the change is hard to quantify since her writing projects are so varied. For some jobs she still gets paid hourly, though her hourly rate is high enough she’s happy with it.   Other jobs pay per project, and she certainly has raised the project rate the more jobs she’s gotten.   How does Courtney decide which jobs to take? She trusts her gut. When she meets a client and hears about their project, if her first thought is a ‘Heck Yes!’ she’ll go for it. And if not? She gives herself the freedom to pass.   18:18 - What Does A Writing Project Look Like? Primarily, Courtney writes for websites, both updating the content of entire sites and writing new blog posts.   When she’s crafting the content for an entire site, she’ll make a site map of the different pages and what content needs to be on those pages, and then she writes the content.   For blog post writing, sometimes clients give her an idea of what they want and let Courtney do most of the work and research. Some provide talking points and she will build a post from the client’s initial work.   All of Courtney’s writing is what’s called ghostwriting. That means she tries to adapt her voice to match the client’s to make it seem as if the client is actually the one who wrote the piece. That means Courtney doesn’t get credit for her work, but she’s okay with that! It’s like she gets to put on a different costume each day and pretend to be a different person!   One project Courtney is currently loving is a case study she’s putting together. She’s gotten to interviewing her client’s client and write about their experience for marketing purposes. It’s like a journalistic piece, super fun!   20:10 - Is Courtney Still Building Her Personal Blog Brand? With this new freelance schedule, is Courtney still blogging and building her personal brand? She admits did take a break from blogging over the summer, which allowed her to settle into the freelance schedule. Courtney has a new idea for an ebook, and wants to keep blogging to see where else it will take her.   At the same time, Courtney is confident that she’s finding her stride writing for others. She really likes the business to business model, rather than business to consumer.   22:22 - Do What You Enjoy It’s natural to look around at the leaders in your niche and want to copy their steps for success. In Courtney’s experience (and my own!) there really isn’t one, clear path. She knows what success looks like for herself, how she wants her days to run, and knew that freelance business writing is the way to make it happen.   25:30 - Scaling a Service-Based Business It is hard to scale a service-based business. You personally only have so many hours a day and finite resources to work with. Unless you hire additional people to provide your service, service-based businesses really can have some limits!   But Courtney has found that freelance copywriting works so well for her. The income she makes suits her goals. She doesn’t have to hustle all day long, she can just do her work on her schedule and bring in a decent income.   (The potential for a copywriter income is huge! Seriously. I’ve seen some charging $1,000 an hour! Copywriters Courtney knows are making $100,000 or more a year.)   26:50 - Taking Off The Rose Colored Glasses (Downsides to Freelancing) We’ve been really talking up how great the freelance life can be...buuut, what’s the downside? Has Courtney ever had a total client disaster!? What’s the tough part of being a freelancer? Years ago Courtney worked on a small project for a client referred to her by a friend. Courtney wrote a few press releases for this client and, as you do, billed for the work. And...crickets. Courtney send a few more messages, but never got a response. The client had gone totally off the radar, and Courtney didn’t get paid! Courtney says, “I felt really dumb to have not gotten some sort of deposit or something.”   Since then, Courtney has been extra careful with payment measures. And thankfully this lesson wasn’t learned on a huge project.   29:30 - Adorable Mom Moment Courtney’s son Connor talked so much about how he loved the tacos at school, so Courtney made burritos for her family. Of course, he hated Courtney’s burritos!   She asked him, “How are these different than the ones at school?”   “Well...the school’s are good,” He responded.   Oh my goodness!! We work so hard for these kids! And at the end of the day, they just want cafeteria food.   Stay in Touch With Courtney Blog: http://www.courtneywestlake.com/ Writing: http://www.westlakewrites.com/ Instagram: @cwestlake Facebook: Blessed by Brenna

Courtney Westlake joins me for Episode 93. Courtney lives in Illinois with her husband, Evan, and their two children, Connor and Brenna. She is a writer and photographer with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a passion for storytelling. Her storytelling took on a new life when she began blogging in 2011 after Brenna was born with a rare and severe skin disorder. I asked her to join me on the show to talk about life with Brenna and her book, A Different Beautiful. We talk about how God prepared her for the role of mother to Brenna, how the definition of beauty has changed for her and how she’s learned to see people for who they really are.  Takeaways From Our Conversation: I loved her advice on what to do when you see someone who looks different than you. She said to “choose connection over curiosity.” Connect with them the same way you would connect with anyone. Start with hello. And remember that they are made in the image of God—just like you. We have to retrain our minds to learn to see people for who they really are. We can see people’s heart rather than comparing what we look like to what someone else looks like. We can be more focused more on people’s stories. "My differences are God's art." There's no such thing as normal. Our frame of reference is our tiny world. Show your kids different cultures and races and sizes and abilities. Everywhere there is different. Everywhere there is uniqueness. And that should be celebrated.  What did you enjoy about this episode? What was your takeaway. Let's continue the conversation  on Instagram or Twitter or you can send me an email here.  Thank you for following along life with me. I love being apart of your day. And as always, I hope this show helps you survive a little easier.

Melanie and Courtney Westlake talk about traveling with kids, her experience with Whole 30, and summer reading. They also do a “hellish" round of Somebody Posted This on Facebook.

Melanie talks with Courtney Westlake, author of A Different Beautiful, about her daughter, Brenna, who was born with harlequin ichthyosis. Courtney shares what God has taught her through Brenna and finding beauty in the unexpected.

How do you respond when someone looks different? Can you see the beauty in situations even when they are challenging? Today I talk with author, Courtney Westlake, about her journey with her daughter who was born with Harlequin Ichthyosisa a severe, life-threatening skin disorder which make her look very different from others. Listen as we talk about the beauty Courtney has found in life by being Brenna's mom and what it has taught her about true beauty. We have two copies of Courtney's Book A Different Beautiful to give away. Listen to the episode and share with whom you would share the book and we will give you two copies: one for you and one to share as a gift.

Courtney Westlake shares the unexpected adversity of her daughter's diagnosis of harlequin ichthyosis, insights into grieving "normal", how suffering drives us to God, and how we can learn to see beauty in our differences, allowing our faith to grow through hard circumstances. Courtney shares advice and encouragement for us and our kids when we encounter people who are different, and helps us see how there is beauty even in our differences. Courtney's Blog: Blessed by Brenna   Subscribe or Leave a Rating or Review HERE

Episode #12 Courtney is the mom to Connor and Brenna. Brenna has a rare skin disorder called Harlequin Ichthyosis. Courtney shares her story of Brenna's birth, diagnosis, and the ins and outs of Brenna's condition. We chat about balancing special needs with regular needs, celebrating beauty and how to respectfully approach a stranger who is different. Because of Brenna's condition her skin appears red and dry - kind of like she has a really bad sunburn. She has to stay lathered in Aquaphor to keep her skin moist. Brenna's different appearance attracts a lot of attention. After nearly four years of being Brenna's mom, Courtney has learned some valuable lessons about how to best approach those with differences. If you've ever wondered what to do when your young child loudly comments on someone who is different, this episode is for you! Learn more about Harlequin Ichthyosis Follow Courtney's blog, Blessed By Brenna Follow Courtney on facebook or instagram Music for today’s episode from Bensound | Kevin MacLeod