Yesterday was EPIC.
To understand why, I need to start with a different story. Shocker, since I’m an author, right?
Seventeen years ago, I worked at a megachurch in Nashville, TN. After a stint in rehab (you can read about that craziness in my bio), the church gave me a job as part-time receptionist. That morphed into a part-time admin position in accounting during the technology boom of the early 2000s.
The church bought a database system to track all its membership info, and within that program was the ability to send HTML email newsletters. Because this was baby technology at the time (something that still blows my kids’ minds), these “newsletters” had to be hand coded in a text editor. I taught myself.
That newsletter went out to 10,000ish members each week. One day, a couple in the church named Bill and Stacy Spencer called our administrator and asked, “Who’s doing the church newsletter?”
On the front end, those newsletters looked beautiful (at least on most browsers, ha!) but on the back end…y’all, that code was a mess. 
At the time, Bill and Stacy owned a tech company. Because they were pros, they looked beyond the glossy exterior and saw lots of room for improvement. (There are some serious life metaphors in that sentence, but I don’t dare go down that thought bunny trail today.)
Instead of offering to sweep in and save the reputation of the church’s online presence, Bill and Stacy wanted to meet me.
And something magical happened.
They offered to teach me.
For two years, I worked in their office one day a week and soaked up every bit of knowledge I could. They also paid me (a generosity I haven’t forgotten to this day). Once I got a handle on the HTML thing, they started giving me some of their website clients—projects that included one of the biggest publishers in the world.
Talk about foreshadowing! (SIDE NOTE: You never know what you might be doing today that is preparing you for something greater tomorrow.)
Another client of mine was one of Nashville’s biggest photographers, Russ Harrington. These days, Russ is one of the biggest photographers in the world. Seriously, Google him or visit his website. He’s done about a bazillion album and magazine covers, images that you would probably recognize. His photos have been all over print, TV, the web, and even Times Square!
One of my favorite stories from working together was an email he sent with the subject line “TOP SECRET.” He knew I was a huge Led Zeppelin fan. Inside the message? Pictures from his shoot that day with Robert Plant.
I mean… 
When I started this author thing five, almost six, years ago, I had an author-bucket list. One item on it was “Be a for-real-enough author to have Russ Harrington do your headshots.” Defining what that really meant was tough, but I settled on “When you sell a million books, then you’ll ask.”
This year, I’ll hit the million mark.
And I lost 35 pounds over 2020, so I figured this was the best time to shoot my shot.
Let me preface this next bit with a disclaimer for the other authors out there reading this: YOU DO NOT NEED EXPENSIVE HEADSHOTS in this business. Please do not go out and hire a Russ Harrington if you’re just getting started. It isn’t necessary. This was MY bucket list item. Write your book; that’s all that matters!
A month ago, I held my breath and hit send on email to Russ. Now, he is one of the most gracious humans I’ve ever met, but you know me; my anxiety and imposter syndrome have to jump on board for every ride. This was no different.
“He’s going to laugh at you,” I told myself. “You are not a big enough, good enough, best-selling enough author to even bother him.”
But I hit send anyway.
His response? I guess that’s obvious. He squeezed me in around Trisha (Yearwood) and probably Jesus.
And I feel like a dang ROCK STAR.
Hair and makeup were done—quite obviously, not by me—by my amazing friend Tricia. A real-life rock star.
There are other images sprinkled around the website. I hope you’ll find them all! You might even find a picture of yourself!
Also, Bill and Stacy Spencer have gone on to live a new dream. One where they’ve taken helping others and changing lives for the better to a whole new level. Check out Narrow Gate Foundation to learn more.
