How to Get Educated about Internet Fraud?

Going back one year of my life and it feels like a lot has changed. My book Love on the Line. How to Recover from Romance Scams Gracefully and without Victimisation was just published and here we stood, my friends Chris, Fiona and I posing with the new printed information. It was the definite start to my education on romance fraud, scamming and people who have been affected by this ever increasing global crime scene.

I definitely loved the colour of my book, pink. Little did I know that one year from the publication of my book, fusain pink would be a new colour of the women activism of the world. Cheers for that! I am just about to knit my own hat. I feel this year I need one to upgrade my efforts to educate people about internet fraud and activism. For me, last year on the road, talking at 20 events, mostly libraries was an eye opener. And I started writing my second book as well. It will be about empowerment after surviving fraud.

For me, it is important to continue the recovery from the traumatic experience and why? Because, it will never go away! It will always be there as an experience, nagging me to awareness. In one year, I have gone through such a learning curve that I never thought possible. I have totally re-evaluated my whole life from start to finish, from birth to this present moment in time, in relation to my experience as a survivor of Internet fraud.

It has made me stronger. It has given me a new purpose. It has reconnected me with my own sources of strength. This years theme for the Women's Day #BeBoldForChange truly applies to me. This year I have elevated from humbly starting to call myself an author, to Author, Speaker and Professional Anti-Scamming Activist. How great is that! You can see the upgrade on my Website. I feel so proud. I am proud of myself, proud of all the people, friends, family and supporting networks that have contributed to my change. It has been profound.

Yesterday, I was excited about my new ventures. Soon I will be going to Europe: Finland, Sweden and the UK. I cannot wait to talk about my book, and how to avoid Internet fraud and start the process of recovery and continue with the process of empowerment from thereafter.

Here is a cheer to my new challenges, to my new adventures. I will report back. For now I am just so grateful. I recommend: get on with the program and get educated, buy a copy of my book, for example, Read it to start with your own journey to recovery and further to empowerment and to a great life that is void of fraud, Become observant and aware of the hazards of the modern digital world. Be safe. Be an activist. Have a life.

Embarrassing or Empowering: Choice is Yours to Speak Out and Recover

Lately, I have been talking to a lot to people about my book Love on the Line, How to Recover from Romance Scams Gracefully and without Victimisation, It has been a huge learning curve for me about how to best advocate to my audience the importance of recovery as a surviving method from romance scams. My method has been writing through healing narrative. I have been surprised to find how hard the recovery really is because so many people feel embarrassed by their own experience. 

There are many reasons for embarrassment from loosing money to not really believing that such a thing could happen to me. Sometimes it is hard to face yourself and admit to the vulnerability that is within everyone of us. Sometimes it is hard to be confident to know that it was never your fault, even though the victims are often blamed for the crime, What is certain is that anyone can become a target of a scammer. Dr Cassandra Cross from the Queensland University of Technology, while talking at my book launch in January 2016, put it as it is:

   "The reality is that anyone could become a victim of scammers. We all have vulnerability. We have to respect that the offenders know exactly how to find that vulnerability and weakness. That is their profession."

She also said that people like me who come forward and speak out are rare. I was not really aware how rare, before I started to really engage with my readers and interested audience. I also found that many websites or groups that take on the issue of scamming have to work in secrecy or very privately to keep their members protected from treats. It was a schock to understand how many people are affected by scamming.

Wouldn't it be the ideal that our world would support the victims of scams. Instead, many feel isolated and afraid. Many feel devastated and disillusioned with the world. Luckily, there is hope, healing and recovery to consider. There are those who have spoken out about it, like Sharron Armstrong with her #standup2scams community. There are people like John with his Website and Facebook group who want to help. There are bloggers like Jas who write about inequality and how to engage yourself in making the world a better place, Last, but not least, there e people like Chris and Glenda who have made it their primary purpose to help others, in business and in person to get over it and act on it. I feel it my duty to spread the word of hope and positivity through writing.

So, join me in empowering yourself by using hashtags like #stanup2scams and my new one #speakoutandheal in your social media postings. Also tags like #empowerment #endviolence #positiveaction and #recoveryispossible would be good. And you can make up your own as you go. Blogging is also an effective and easy way to get your meaning accross to a wider audience. Sometimes, there might not be a huge readership, at first but we are working towards a long time result so every little action is a welcome addition to the movement. And if you have some good ones, please feel free to comment and and suggest down below, 

I am currently developing writing workshops and also a newsletter. My new Website for Love on the Line Book is alive and there is a blog that is all about those important question that has come fort during my book signing and event tours. Feel free to get involved. My main Website should get you everywhere. The book can be bought through Xlibris or any other main distributor like Amazon. Ah, and do like my Facebook Author page, too.

I wish you all a great Holiday Break from Australia.

How to Become an Author for an English-Speaking Audience from a Non-English Speaking Background

I have always wanted to write. It is in my blood just like teaching.

When I was born, everyone we knew said that I was born to teach, just like everybody else in my family. I came to resist the idea with all my sinew and soul. I thought that teaching would be boring or restricting. To me who lived where my parents worked, it was one, two, three, one, two, three and then you are sixty and retire. It did not help because basically teaching is in my blood and whatever I do becomes an advisory position.

Though, now, I am almost sixty and still I have not really written that book I always wanted to write in English. Yes, I am published in several languages, Finnish, Swedish and English. At least one of my early articles published in 1984 on the Women's Movement in Finland has been translated to many more languages, but a non-fiction book from start to finish has been just too much. Until now!

As a non-English speaking background person, even with well over forty years of language skills, university studies and work experience writing a book that would be read by everyone in the world (those who speak English) is a daunting task. The big question is how to sound like a native speaker to the wide audience? The other question is how to overcome my uncertainty with my own language skills?

I have a lingering dyslexia that very much shows in my written language, even in Finnish, which is a phonetically laid out, strait forward language. Then there is the fact that I speak three languages and depending on what language I wake up each morning determines my English comprehension or grammar for that particular day. It is hard to change but with the brain plasticity now a norm belief system, it can be done, right.

Also, often when I think about an expression or a particular word I need, I come up with the right one either in Finnish or Swedish but translating that directly to English will become difficult, sometimes even impossible as the meaning of it will not come right to my mind.

Then I suddenly have a gap in my words, even simple ones while writing or speaking and then I have to come up with a roundabout way of expressing myself. The difficulties never cease. I am also used to people correcting my English language.

I am that Finnish person who puts the prepositions wrong every time, who cannot distinguish between S:s and C:s or K:s and G:s, who everyone asks to repeat their sentences or words to determine what they really are. I am the person who uses Latin words to compensate the English and who pronounces the historical places with their original names thus confusing the native English speakers. There is so much to compensate that one simply cannot express that in words. How would I be able to write a book in English?

I wrote an article about Helena Blavatsy to the Theosophist a few years back. It was published in 2008. It took two years to write. Of course it was an academic article where all the facts have to match with their sources and all the arguments have to be logical providing a conscientious and well thought argumentation. I painstakingly researched, wrote and re-wrote. It was a challenge that Joy Mills, one of the theosophical thought leaders in the world urged me to accomplish. It was her support and belief in that I could do it that got me through it. A good friend who then took it upon herself to edit my language helped me to finish it. And I was able to take the article to India, Chennai and Adyar and deliver it to the editor myself. It took a few years before it was published but finally the journal arrived by post and there it was. What an accomplishment I thought, then. Seeing that article in print was such a joy to me. But writing a whole book from start to finish, all those doubting chapters, how could I accomplish that? It did start with a plan after the idea struck me.

I had great need to get my message across to an audience that can be helped with my book. I set on researching what to do. I found a good article about writing a book proposition in a week and again, painstakingly followed it through, with setting my own plan. Then I attended some webinars, seminars and a day conference on how to become a 'person of influence'. There it struck me that I had come to a decision to commit to writing my book.

Weaving out useful advice from the information overflow of everything connected to writing is a huge task, but in the end I decided to boost my confidence by signing a self publishing contract with Xlibris, an international leader of indie writing. Doing that has paid off due to the support I have gotten from the repeated calls from the publishing consultant and other people involved. A membership in Authors Learning Centre has helped. My curiosity has been constantly fed with new ideas. But it would not have been possible without other support. It seems that there has to be a 'muse' to really inspire me to keep going. My 'muse' has been the 'Howling at the Moon' women's community for Unstoppable women run by a great friend and a success catalyst herself.

It is important to a person who is writing in a second language to have a strong support group to encourage daily action. Otherwise, whatever money is paid as incentive goes to waste as the spark dies with all the struggle with words and expressions that just do not come out right. It is not that I did not know what I wanted to say. It is about how to make it flow and how to get the right message out in flowing English. It is not that I would not have attempted it before, even trying my hand in fiction. The task has proved futile before. So what is it that made it work this time? I find two reasons for it.

Firstly, I feel that I am out of time as an emerging writer. If you are going to write a book, the time is now! This is a great decision to make. All become quite easy after one commits. There is not better time than now. All the daunting tasks can be tackled one at the time with a good plan and daily action.

Equally, in the second place is the real practical support with help with the language expression. A good personal editor who can interpret you and your meaning into a flow, so that the result will sound to you as it was meant to be, with all those right articles, prepositions and leading words that were lost in translation in the depths of your own brain. So, what are my lessons from getting my manuscript out there to the publisher in timely manner?

Number one is to have an exceptional support group and number two is to only have a selective hearing about who and what to listen to from all the negatively discouraging 'cacomania' out there. Only let the positive waves affect you and your actions. Some risk taking also needs to come to play.

Choose an encouraging publishing stream and drive to make your own experience as enjoyable as possible with positive thinking and taking action towards your goal. Intervals are a good thing. Let the manuscript mature.

And most of all, enjoy the journey into a published author in the English speaking world where everyone is able to pick your book either in hard cover, soft cover or download it as an eBook.

My recommendations:
- a good book proposition
- a great women's support group
- a personal coach to help with the plan
- a personal interpreting editor
- lots of positive thinking
- genuine action to the plan

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About Becoming a 'Key Person Of Influence' (KPI): A review of the seminar held in Brisbane, Australia, on the 5th of September, 2014

Have you ever wondered how to quickstart your new entrepreneurial venture? Is it sometimes hard to try to structure your thoughts and get a clear picture of something you know so well, but just cannot quite get right? Well no worries, join in the KPI phenomenon.

It is extraordinary what happens to you when you are inspired. It is a great feeling to experience how the synchronicity starts forming itself and how your thoughts change, new ideas just keep popping up and the momentum starts building for your projects, your company or whatever you are focused on. On Friday the 5th of September, I truly felt like being in the right place at the right time is a key to experience something great.

Namely, I was privileged to attend the Key Person of Influence seminar at the Brisbane Convention Centre, hosted by Glen Karlson and featuring partners like Matthew Michaelewicz, Andrew Griffiths and Valerie Khoo, all bestselling authors and creators of lucrative business models, in software, marketing and writing.


A seminar really can help you to take that one step you need to push yourself from indecisive and shy attempts of forming a plan to a clear focus on what you need to do in order to reach your goals. The KPI event did just that.

It was all about delivering value to the audience who was hanging on every world. My brain was really feeling like busting it barriers. I literally felt it expanding. Who knew that it could do that.

Honestly, I was prepared to encounter someone who would really easily and clearly explain to me what was going on in the world right now and how I could navigate the pitfalls of the new technology and skyper age without blowing my brain up with the effort to do so.

Turns out the answer is in structuring your thought patterns, creating a functional model around your ideas and focusing on the micro-niche of your own passion. WoW! I was really with the like minded people in that seminar. What could I do with this new realization?

Well, according to Daniel Priestley's book Become a Key Person of Influence (which I immediately read afterwards) it is to use your vitality to enhance your changes of getting things done. It is a well thought 'five-step sequence', including the perfect pitch, publishing a book, creating a product, profiling yourself and finding those great partners to enhance your power.

A great, great seminar. And it is not the end as I keep getting emails with more information, more videos, more suggestions and what is even more; I am joining the next step in their 'Discovery Sessions' to explore my hidden possibilities to participate in this new way of looking into the world we live in right now. So, stay tuned. There is more .....

Go to http://keypersonofinfluence.com.au to find out more or buy tickets to their future events around the world.

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Contemplation on New Years Resolutions for 2013

So, it is the New Year and time for new resolutions. Usually, according to statistics from the Australian TV program The Project (01/01/13) by the end of the first month of the year 25% of the promises we have made to ourselves have been broken and during the second month the non-action escalates to 46% of resolutions not being attended to. What kind of conclusion should we draw from that?

The Project concluded tongue in cheek that the resolutions were made by people who were mostly dunk and who cares for the promises made while being affected by alcohol anyway! I feel though that the data shows the volatility of people in general. Our promises are often made while 'crossing the fingers' behind our backs. New Year's Resolutions are often made just because it is part of the celebration tradition and not because people seriously think of commitment. Inspiring? Not in the least.

However, this year I was inspired by finding my hidden practical abilities instead of making promises I wouldn't keep. I am figuring that by appreciating what I find I didn't know or remember I can do, I could commit my abilities to refocusing in committing to my already so many times thought over and voiced New Years Resolutions. No need to make so many new ones. I already had made them ten times before so they must be good and important.


I found that I can for example read 'complicated' IKEA furniture assembly instructions and by following the steps, I can put together any number of pieces of furniture, like sofas, TV stands and most importantly bed frames all on my own. Surely some sweat and some mishaps have gone into the project but mostly the results have given me a huge boost of confidence in myself and my abilities to do whatever I want to accomplish.
Taking the cue from what I have now learned about me, I find myself more confident in writing down my annual list of what I want for the new year.



Here is an example of how to do an action plan for 2013 New Years Resolution list:

First evaluate the last year's resolutions. Hopefully they were written down for evidence based data collection.
I prefer to have them under four categories: Emotional, Mental, Financial and Physical.
It is surprising how many items can be ticked off from the list.

Secondly, think how you really want your life to be a year from now. Even write a letter for yourself dated on the next New Year of the gone year. Then break the resolutions to smaller actionable bits.

Thirdly, make a monthly/weekly action plan depending on the suitability of the resolution. Some resolutions are statements of intentions on where you want your life path to lead.

Fourthly, and most importantly believe in your own ability to commit to the plan. It only takes four weeks to develop it into a habit.

Have a great New Year and enjoy your new found happiness in yourself.

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