Welcome to My World: A New Website AND a Book Cover!

We open this blog post with a brief word of prayer. Thank you, Jesus, for Bethany. Amen!

One of the many benefits of my experience as part of Jen Hatmaker’s For the Love Launch Team is a giant sisterhood of writing compadres who teach me everything I need to know about the writing life. One of the lovely ladies I met through my FTL sisters is Bethany Beams who calls herself a Blog Fairy and Wordpress Therapist. Those titles alone would be enough to win my heart forever, but Bethany also has an incredibly precocious son Eli who is the primary reason I maintain my Facebook account. Eli stories are my favorite! Long story short, in the interest of acting like a grown up professional person, I had the good sense to hire the brilliant and lovely Bethany to create a new website for me and here we are!! Isn’t it beautiful?!? She is indeed the good fairy and you should all hire her if you need website advice or help.

So here we are indeed!! Welcome to kellyiveyjohnson.com!

Here is your first assignment: pretty please with sugar on top, fill out the email form on the home page and be my email buddy. I know, I know, email lists are a pain, but I promise you will only get emails when I post something new on the blog, schedule another retreat or when I release a whole book. YES, a real live book! In signing a publishing contract, I agreed to help market this book and that apparently includes having an email list. Part of the fun of birthing a book is spreading the word (#BeingBrave40Days is going to be our hashtag) and I’m counting on you, faithful reader, to help me launch it with style. The email form is also right here on this page to the right under my giant, very professional head shot. Go ahead, fill it out now….I’ll wait.

Good work! I am forever grateful!

Second, please explore all the buttons on the top of the page! In addition to this section of the site which includes over 400 posts from almost 12 years of blogging (only my mother has read them all,) my website now includes additional pages with information about speaking and coaching. And, of course, we added a separate page ALL about the book, where you can see the beautiful cover the folks at Abingdon Press created AND (drumroll please!) a couple of the places where you can actually pre-order the book! I just completed the manuscript this week and I can’t wait for you to take the Being Brave 40 day journey with me. Please pray with me that God would use this book for His Kingdom and to draw people closer to His heart.

BONUS: If you decide to go ahead and order the book now, 10 months in advance, and you are over 40ish years old, you will get a Christmas surprise because I guarantee you will have forgotten you ordered it by then. So really, how can you resist? 🙂

So please, PLAY! Look around and click on all the buttons. Take a peek at the book cover on the book page, find out about the coaching business I am SO excited to be launching and check out my speaker page to see if I might be a good match for your upcoming event. I would love your feedback, insights and suggestions about the website, particularly if you think I am missing something. This is a work in progress and I am thrilled to share it with you.

Third, we have a date for the next local Being Brave retreat! On May 20th, we will once again gather at Caol Ait Retreat Center in Clifton for a day of learning, conversation, inspiration and encouragement. Stay tuned for registration information, but let me know if you would like to join us! Many people have asked when the next retreat will be held, so the spots will go quickly once we open registration.

Finally, thank you for stopping by, for reading my words, signing up for my email list, sharing my stuff on Facebook, telling me I should write a book someday, coming to the retreats, and all the other ways we walk this brave journey together. This community inspires me every day and I’m so, so grateful.