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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}[ Jackie ] So I am Jackie Jones. I am owner of Shade Publishing
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}which started about three years ago. It is a publishing
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}house in essesnce. I do everything minus printing in-house.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}And it started because I wrote all genres. So I found out
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}that after writing a teenage romanace novel, and some erotica, and some process manuals,
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}that I needed a different house for each of those things, and going, 'that's crazy.' 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}And at the time, I had just met with a lady who owned another book company
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}here and was asking her, 'how hard was that to start?'
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}I mean it wasn't much harder than starting my HR company, which I started back in
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}'07. So I'm like, I can do it. And then, I started doing it
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}in 2010 and found that it took more of my passion and I enjoyed it more than
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}human resource stuff that I was doing under HR Mechanic.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}I stopped so much looking for new client under my HR company
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}where Iw as consulting and doing resume writing, and process writing, technical writing,
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}and traingin and started breathing more air into Shade Publishing.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}And three years later, I've got four authors, six titles, and still going strong.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}[ interviewer ] very nice. so how
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}did you, other than just did you ask that one person and then just jump into it or
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}did you do more reserach or?
 [ jackie ] no, I pretty much just jumped into it.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}I'm pretty much that kind of person. You know I see the whole thing and bite it off versus
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}seeing who else is in the business doing it. I did some reserach, of course, coming up with name
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}comapny name, and then what difference was it to run a company that inventory,
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}versus a consulting company where there were no employees, no inventory and that type of thing.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}But I pretty much juts jumped in head first. 
 [ interviewer ] okay,
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}um and so you said you do everything but the actual printing.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}Right? so could you maybe talk about what 'everything' includes?
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}[ Jackie ] So um if there's a person out there with a manuscript, and they send me the manuscript
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}I have a group of readers that will read through it, because it might be a book of poems
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}and I might not like it, but somebody else would. So it's more like a focus group type
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}thing and they read through through and say, 'yes, this is marketable,' or 'I would buy this type of book'
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}and then from that I do like a contract with the person to say we're gonna print
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}X-amount of copies, it's going to look like this, and come up with what their vision for the
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}and then we go to the editing stage where they look over the file and get it for continuity and that type of thing
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}and then we work with a graphic designer for the cover and the packaging,if it's going to be audio
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}all of our titles are always ebooked because that's just where we're going right now. And then we work on that file
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}at the same time. So we're making it an ebook the same we're getting the print thing done, and then
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}we set-up one book signing a month. Because we're not so much into the agent-side 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}of it or getting it promoted, but just marketing it. So we set-up that one book signing
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}a month, typically it's every author in-house, if it's children's book, if it's an adult book
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}they kinda have their own little market or whatever it's written for, and then we do
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}it all. We get it packaged, we send the file over typeset it to the printer, and they send us back paper books.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}[  interviewer  ] very exciting! 
[ jackie ] it takes about maybe, maybe 3 months to 6 months depending
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}on how aggressive the author is, how fast they want to see it. 
[ ibterviewer ] ok, and
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}um then how do you distribute the books? 
 [ jackie ] um , that's what we're currently 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}not so much struggling with or trying to open more avenues with currently, it's all the local bookstores here
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}that will accept us. In fact I have a meeting coming up soon with the Book Loft {interviewer: nice} which is in German Village
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}one of the largest independent in the midwest, actually, so it would be nice to get in there
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}but like the Book Suite on Long, um smaller bookstores, Ujamma on Livingston Ave.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}We just basically apporach them with out catalog of titles and would you be interested in carrying them, and if they say yes, then
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}...there are other distribution channels, that to get into a Barnes and Noble's you have to pay into
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}and so that's what we're working on now. Trying to find out what it take it get into like a book masters that has the permissions
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}to sell through those larger chains. 
 [  interviewer  ] so what about the ebooks? 
[ Jackie} um the ebooks are all on Amazon
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}and typically, Amazon has an awesome package right now where if you give them exclusive rights you get more money
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}which means more money for the author. A big thing with me that I probably should mention with Shade is that I do things slightly different.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}A big reason I didn't get published although I've been writing since--I wrote my first book on the back of my 8th grade homework, I remember
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}but I didn't get published until now as an adult because every house wanted me to have
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}a certain amount of dollars--two thousand dollars, twenty thousand dollars, and of course at 17, I'm not doing that.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}So um for me, I don't do advancements for any authors who bring me their work, but I help them get
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}the book out and get it into product. So they can take it after--'cause the copyright stays in their name--to any other publishing
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}house and do whatever they wanna do it after about a year under my umbrella. So that kind of helps me
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}getting money up-front for the company and it helps the author get that, that promotion that they need to get their book out
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}there, but when it comes to ebooking, you have to have exclusive rights, or if you do it, then you're making less
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}money off ebooking and most of them are $1.99 already so it kinda like pennies to the dollar if 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}you did the ebook and, or I mean, Nook and Kindle, or those other ereaders, so I
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}sign primarily with Amazon. And they have exclusive rights for the first 180 days of all of our titles
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}on the ebooking. 
[ interviewer ] So you can talk a little bit more about your life as a
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}writer? Because you said, your first novel on the back of 8th grade homework, so can you talk about
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}like when did you start identifying as a writer, when did you start writing, how did you get into, to all that?
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}[ Jackie ] I don't know. Think I haven't even started calling myself a writer until maybe, maybe two or three years ago
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}like even when I was writing, I didn't consider myself a journalist or an author or anything like that.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}I knew that I was writing a story. And my very first book at the time was called "The Girl Who Tried"
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}and it was about a girl who got in a car accident with her mom and lost the use of ther legs.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}And she had to go to rehab and learn how to reuse them again. And she met a guy who was in the rehab
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}learning to resue his legs. And they kinda helped each other. And unbeknownst to the school they had learned
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}to resue their legs, and shock the school at prom by standing up and dancing from their wheelchairs, so it was
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}kinda like cool, but then when I approach houses with it and they were talking major dollars to get it
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}produced, I kinda sat on it for quite some time. Maybe until about 2010, actually.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}And so when I decided to say, now what am I going to do? I had started to write erotica. 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}Which was fun. And I do that under my pen name because I do, I don't, you know
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}I just don't want to hurt other people's sales because I know that, that people's impressions of what
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}literary is, and what they think is good writing versus bad writing, so I do
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}all of my erotica under the pen name Deborah Shade, and I said, if I sell this, 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}because to me "sex sells" then I can use those funds to produce these other books.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}Well, that didn't quite happen that way, because nobody wants to admit that they read sex, but
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}so that book is moving a lot of slower than I thought it would. So because of that I'm going let me get this other
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}title out. So I relooked at "The Girl Who Tried" and I renamed it "In Rehab" and I 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}brought it up to date. Like I wrote it in 89-90, where there was pizza parlors, and not like a 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}Pizza Hut and that kind of thing. So once I like gave it a facelift and starting selling that
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}and doing it on the ebook, the sales really picked up, and it gave me the funding that I needed to get all the
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}other titles I've got now. So it's been fun. 
[ interviewer ] so when you were younger did you
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}write a lot? [ Jackie ] I did. I did. I grew up on a tobacco farm, one of nine.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}And so when you weren't working, you were quite bored. You know, I mean we had TV and that kind of thing but we didn't have
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}running water or anything like in the house, so there wasn't a lot to be occupied with. So you kinda
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}entertained yourself. And I did a lot of writing, I did a lot of writing. We didn't have a computer, so 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}I remember getting a typewriter from a neighbor that didn't have a N key. And when I started to re-type
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}over again, there was no N key on it. So for every every "n" there was like a little 'x' so when I did the facelift of the book 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}I thought that was kind of funny to be able to reminisce on that. But. Then I also do process writing. I have a teenage 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}romance novel called "Get Money: A Teenager's Guide to Entrepreneurship." And it was created because I do a lot of
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}financial advocacy work with Columbus Public School, um and I sit on the board of Columbus
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}Youth Expressions. And we go into middle schools--we adopt schools--and we go and we teach 6 weeks of financial literacy.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}And um, one of the co-board members and I created this program called "Managing Me," and it's bascially
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}teaching them how to balance their checks, you know, the importance of--if you gotta like have a camping trip,
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}how do you decide what's important for you to buy and take for your family and what you don't need. The difference between needs and wants.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}And because of that coursework that we had created for program I created the book, the entrepreneurship
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}guide book. So I kinda have a little bit of everything going on that I write on, so. 
 [ interviewer ] okay
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}um, so why Columbus? You're originally from Columbus
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}not too many tobacco farms around here, right? So you're not originally from Columbus, how did you end up in Columbus
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}and why did you decide here is the place to start a publishing company? 
 [ Jackie ] Do you know I have been most
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}successful here, and I have lived in um, I've been in Pittsburgh, I've lived--I gre up in Maryland, that's where the tobacco 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}farm was, and I went to DC when I--the day I graduated. That night my friend's car was already packed with 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}my stuff. So I was in DC forever, it felt like. Um at least 'til my 20s, and then I went off to
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}school the first time. That didn't work. So then I came back home to DC for a while and then I moved to Pittsburgh, and then I moved back to DC
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}and I was there until 9/11 and the sniper. And at the time I had 2 kids, they were 6
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}and 8 and everything in the school was shut down. You couldn't pump gas, you couldn't walk down the street. It was a very scary time. 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}And I had friends here, and I would come to Columbus and visit. And I was looking for a house and could not find anything
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}under $100,000 that was worthy of living in, that wasn't in a bad neighborhood, that wasn't infested with roaches,
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}and then coming here and seeing 4 bedroom homes on half acres for like $50,000,
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}$75,000, so I'm like I could live here. And my friend was like, 'oh no, Columbus is slow, you don't wanna live here,'
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}and I'm like I could really live here. And I did. So we came here in '03, and the kids and I and we went um
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}I did research on the schools that they would go to, and ended up living in Olentangy Commons when I first came, which was kinda
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}to me, cheap. Because I was paying $1600 for a 3 bedroom in DC, and to pay $800 for 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}what you guys call a duplex, that's a house to us in DC, so I thought I was doing pretty well for myself
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}and so I decided then I needed to get a degree that showed people that I knew what 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}I knew in my profession, which was at that time Human Resources, and all of my education has been in Human Resources
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}And all of my jobs were luckily one after the other, but not by choice. Like I had no idea that my career
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}field would be Human Resources. And so, I um came here and I had already had so many
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}HR jobs that thatwas the field that I intitially first started to--and then I found that the pay here 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}is quite different, and it's based on your education, which is not--in DC, the pay is based on your skill-set.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}You could have a high school diploma but be a HR manager. Which was quite different, I mean, you know of course they would prefer that
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}you had a degree, but it wasn't a necessity versus here it's a necessity. So I said well I guess better get the piece of paper that says I know what
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}I know, so in '04, I started my um my undergrad. And I took 6 classes at a time,
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}I worked at London Correctional doing labor relations, and was pushing my two kids through school for
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}um, two years, 'cause I was trying to aggressively do it. And then when I graduated, I'm like I really want to get my Master's
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}but I don't want to be in school with my son. Like I didn't want--my son was about to graduate, I didn't want us both to be in college. And so
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}so I rushed through that as well, and so I got my Master's and I'm thinking, this is, this would've never happened in DC
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}I mean, one the cost of living makes it so that you can either you know work or go to school or go to school or you just couldn't do it
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}all. So I found that I was being more successful here. And then in '07 I decided to 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}start my own HR consulting company, um, because of the way that government jobs are hand-picked and 
[00:12:02.24]
{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}hand-selected and being, um, I guess I should have said this in the very beginning, being an out lesbian,
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}um in everything that I do, there are some biases in that hiring process that I unfortunately face
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}that led me to wanna start my own thing and do for myself. So in '07 I started my HR company called HR
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}Mechanic, and I primarily did training for smal businesses on any topic and I did resume 
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}writing, and it was right at the cusp of thr recession where folks were losing their jobs, people who
[00:12:32.37]
{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}had had the same job for 30 or 40 years was trying to figure out how to enter the workforce, so it was awesome in the beginning
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}for me as a small business, and being able to help people who couldn't afford larger headhunters and that kind of thing.
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}And so, I said, I'm doing great, I'm gonna stay here. 'Cause I had the option
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}to go back home a couple of times, and I'm thinking, no the kids are doing wonderful. Like back home I wouldn't let them go outside and play,
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}they didn't even know who the neighbors' names were, and here I was, they were having overnight stays and play dates and stuff, so it just
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}was a better place to raise them, and it ended up being a better place for me. And so, now my daughter
[00:13:08.53]
{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}just graduated this June and it was on the table again to go back home, and I've decided that I'm gonna stay, 'cause it's just
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}a better place to be. To not only raise a family, but to have gotten the education that I've gotten, to be working
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{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}on my doctorate right now, and to have started two businesses that are--I mean, HR Mechanic although 
[00:13:26.58]
{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}I've stopped looking for new clients, it's still an awesome business. And to have Shade Publishing at this stage is that it's at
[00:13:32.59]
{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}right now, I don't think I would've been able to do that in DC, or in Pittsburgh for that matter, so 
[00:13:37.62]
{font:Arial}{size:14}{Plain}{textColor:65535, 65535, 65535}I think it's because it's better opportunity here, really.
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