The Rumor Mill

The VERY thing that stays on peoples’ lips for the sole purpose of Assassinating your Character, Is the SAME rumor that GOD is going to Use to Exalt you!! “ALL things work together for good to them that Love God, to them who are CALLED According to His Purpose.” Romans 8:28. This morning, I ready this on Facebook.com/Star Rose Hammond. It strengthened my spirit!

If you are an entrepreneur or a person with a heart, you will understand this post. I never take lightly a customer complaint about anything, including not receiving an order or a late shipment. Many of you know my young business has endured BITTER setbacks. Instead of giving up, I chose to stick with the bitter and ugly rafter being shut down from a financial nightmare shortly after I started. I admit some orders were caught up in a lengthy delay; it was painful; but I’m committed to getting it right. Cornbread Millionaire is NOT A SCAM and I AM NOT A SCAM. I know people get upset and post ugly things. That’s okay because I still refuse to quit. I’m sticking with it until ever ugly wrinkle is ironed out. I’m grateful to everyone who has supported and encouraged me. I’m grateful for the complaints because they’re helping me improve QUICKLY! CornbreadMillionaire.com is still offline TEMPORARILY. The marketing site, http://www.SaveBev.com, is online NOW and this marketing site for my new eBook. Today, it’s a tough day for me as I work through a series of TOUGH problems. My integrity is on the line and I’m determined to get it right. Comments and suggestions are welcomed.

The Triumphant Rise of Cornbread Millionaire

Greetings! It’s been way too long since my last post. I’m striving to update daily as I do on Facebook.com/BevsCornbread & Facebook.com/CornbreadMillionaire. As a part of my very creative fundraising effort, I’ve launched a campaign to sell 40,000 PDF copies (pages won’t expire) of my new eBook The Triumphant Rise of Cornbread Millionaire: My Story of Overcoming Unemployment, Foreclosure and Homelessness with Grandma’s Secret Cornbread Recipe (104 pages). It features 20+ new recipes, several with plain cornmeal and all-purpose flour as a base for homemade flavor, 40+ pictures, tips on obtaining free publicity, how to launch your business on a shoestring budget and more. I share the exciting scoop on my innovative new program to help the unemployed/homeless start a business. You will be amazed! For this campaign, I created http://www.SaveBev.com. I estimate in 30 days, the business will be stable and this entrepreneur will blast forward. It’s been a rough journey (without proper funding), but sticking with it has been the key to establishing a stable, focused business. It pays to never, ever give up!

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,300 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 55 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Faith moved mountain…

Cornbread Journal

As a result of my story airing worldwide on CNN Primetime Weekend with Don Lemon, I was blessed with eBook purchases, product orders and donations. All of which helped me to resolve two serious issues hindering my cornbread business. Faith moved the mountain! By December 30, I will be packing and shipping orders! A wonderful Christmas present and a great way to start the New Year! It pays to never, ever give up. Creativity truly solves problems.

Thanks CNN Primetime!

Segment aired last night worldwide with breaking news of Iraqi troops returning home. Thanks everyone at CNN! Response has been wonderful! Here’s a link: http://newsroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/18/follow-up-on-foreclosed-homeowner-the-cornbread-millionaire/

How to fix crumbling cornbread?

UPDATED Dec. 27, 2011

CORNBREAD SCHOOL
Here’s a question from a friend on Facebook.com/BevsCornbread:

QUESTION: I cook cast-iron skillet cornbread, why does it fall apart?

Make sure the batter has at least TWO large eggs and is pourable before adding to preheated baking dish. If the batter is too thick, add tablespoons of buttermilk until it’s pourable. Also, make sure the oven is preheated to 425 degrees. Then, add two tablespoons of shortening (or vegetable oil) to the skillet or baking dish. Place in oven and preheat until sizzling hot. Remove from oven, pour in batter and bake 20 to 25 minutes until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Cornbread recovers foreclosed home!

This prophetic picture, celebrating my comeback, was taken by a friend in August 2010. It was five months after the foreclosure and was used in a news story for ABCNews.com. My neighbors looked at me like I was crazy. NOT!

I regularly visualize recovering my home and the current occupants moving out and into a new home elsewhere. After reading Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams by Lucia Caachione, I was super inspired to create a vision board with pictures and words prophesying recovery of my foreclosed home, buying another house and running a thriving business. Here’s an empowering excerpt from her book: “Yours is not to declare how, but to declare what. When you look at the world with the eyes of your heart, opportunities you would have missed before will loom up in you like neon lights and you won’t be able to miss them. Hunches you used to shrug off as silly or irrational will speak to you now with an urgency you cannot ignore.”

Last year, when I did not recover my foreclosed home at the auction (the contract went to another bidder), I received several calls and emails proclaiming I wouldn’t get it and to focus on buying another house. At first I was agitated by the naysayers. I got over it quickly because I remembered that some answers to prayers take a while. It’s really about timing, about being in the right season. During this time, we have to hold tight to our faith and believe God no matter what it looks like or how long it takes! I call it pit bull faith.

As an act of my faith, I visualize the victory, meditate on Scriptures and always speak positive words. I KNOW I WILL recover the house. I’m not concerned about the details or when. The Lord will guide me and show me what to do to raise the funds. I believe it! My responsibility is to trust God. Yes, by faith, I see myself standing in the driveway; I see the balloons lining the fence celebrating my triumphant return. I can hear the renovation work going on inside by the designers from The Nate Berkus Show (they don’t know this yet). In my mind, I see the beautiful new interior design, new furniture, appliances, carpet, drapers, electronics – everything paid for!

When I regain ownership, I plan to rent the house to a family member in need of permanent housing. The relative will only have to pay utilities and a small monthly amount for rent to cover taxes and insurance. I can see myself living in a new, debt-free home elsewhere.

I’ve had previous success with visualizing goals. When I first got the idea to create a cornbread career, I visualized successful media coverage on all the major networks, on blogs and in newspapers – before it ever happened. I would picture the CNN news truck pulling up in the driveway of my house (waiting on that one).

Since launching CornbreadMillionaire.com, it has been featured on FOX National News, WSB-TV with Clark Howard, 11Alive News, ABCNews.com, MSNBC Real Estate and feature articles in The Athens-Banner Herald, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, two radio shows and numerous blogs. On December 17, 2011, a segment aired on CNN Primetime Weekend with Don Lemon. I’ll soon present cornbread cooking lessons on three morning talk shows!

I successfully sold microwave, buttered popcorn to generate income when my income dwindled during the setback. I would walk the streets and ask people to donate because I was raising money for my own business. The responses were thrilling: My favorites: “Go for it! I love to help people who are trying to help themselves. I’ll donate just because I like popcorn” Many chuckled. Some said they were inspired to launch their own popcorn fundraiser. Love it! It strengthened my faith and self-confidence.

This blog entry serves as my prophetic reference. When I recover the property, I’ll post an update on this page. Oh yeah, when my eBook Homegirl’s Cornbread Sandwiches: Tasty Recipes & Wise Life Lessons is a bestseller (prophetic declaration), I’ll post an update.

And the Lord answered me, and said, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”

Cornbread not cooked thoroughly?

If the cornbread is not cooking thoroughly it’s a sure sign the batter isn’t cooking long enough. If the bottom is thick, greasy and soggy it’s because the baking dish WAS NOT preheated before adding the batter. The next time you bake cornbread, try the following:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease baking dish (or skillet). Preheat until the oil is sizzling hot. With an oven mitt, carefully remove baking dish from oven. Pour in batter. Bake about 20 to 25 minutes until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. This means it’s throughly cooked. Kindly let me know if this helps.

House update

I’m often asked did I recover my foreclosed home at the auction. Here’s my official answer. The foreclosure was in March 2010, I moved out of the house into a homeless shelter in June 2010. In July 2010, when I launched my cornbread career with just $10 while temporarily residing in a homeless shelter, my main goal was to raise enough money to buy back my home (pictured) at the August 2010 auction. The budding business was generating great sales, but not fast enough to meet the auction’s deadline. It was a disguised blessing for which I’m very grateful.

The real estate agent told me the $73,000 bid went to another buyer. A new family currently lives in the house. In October 2010, just three months after successfully launching CornbreadMillionaire.com, I was hit with a setback that temporarily shut down both me and the business! Once again, I stared UGLY defeat in the face. Thankfully, I’m recovering. One day, I believe I’ll buy back the house in Fairburn, Georgia from the current owners and use it as rental property. Dreams come true. In the meantime, I’m focused on stabilizing my business and resolving all issues from the setback. A winner never quits. After that, I have plans to purchase a new house by my 50th birthday, April 23, 2012. I have a detailed, creative strategy to raise funds by selling the upgraded eBook, securing strategic partners and by selling advertisements on both the website and this blog.

The other question I’m often asked is why didn’t I move in with friends or relatives. For me, that was NOT an option. When I first purchased my house, many “arrogantly assumed” I would lose it. Their negative words were “curses” that also returned to curse them. They could no longer hide their jealousy. I distanced myself from the haters. Know what I mean? Adversity always reveals who’s with you and who’s pretending. Unemployment, foreclosure and homelessness are now my steppingstones to success. I’ll never again trust another employer as my sole income source. I’ll never again ignore negative words spoken against me – even condescending jokes. I got a spiritual revelation. Plan to preach a sermon on it one day! Through daily prayers, I destroy word curses and they’re effects in the Name of Jesus! My firey experiences taught me some valuable lessons. I’m MUCH stronger and MUCH wiser. I’m writing a “bestselling book”(prophetically speaking) about bouncing back from foreclosure and homelessness with a creative idea. Also, I added a a new chapter titled The Rise of Cornbread to my first eBook Homegirl’s Cornbread Sandwiches: Tasty Recipes and Wise Life Lessons. It has the detailed scoop of my struggle and how I survived. You’ll read about the really nasty, sneaky, mean-spirited things people did when they saw my struggle – and how I handled it. Success is so LOUD that it silences your haters. The eBook is available on CornbreadMillionaire.com. When one door shuts, another opens.