We’re looking for true personal stories for upcoming blog posts and books—and yours could be one of them!

Fresh Start Success stories tell about a successful professional and personal reinvention. Did you train for a career path and work in one field, only to make a mid-career switch and find success doing something completely different? We want to know how you did it! The best Fresh Start Success stories are motivated by personal growth and fulfillment, as well as being financially successful.

Think you’ve got a tale to tell? Here’s what we want to know in a Fresh Start Success story:

• What did you train to do? What career path did you originally take?
• What was satisfying? What made you crazy? What was the last straw?
• How did you prepare for your Fresh Start Success? How did you choose your career jump?
• What went well? What setbacks did you overcome? How did you deal with naysayers?
• How long did it take to become profitable? Did you replace/surpass previous income?
• What did you learn the hard way? How are you a different person now?
• What attributes enabled your success? How did marketing/branding play a role?

Roar Back stories are about turning a business failure into success. Did you hit a brick wall, go down a dead end, see your dreams go up in smoke—and go on to something much better? Were you sure all your plans and goals were never going to happen—and then found a new way to make them reality? Were you ready to give up, walk away, and throw in the towel—and one more push made all the difference? We want to know!

Roar Back stories should answer these questions:

• How were things supposed to go? What was riding on things going right?
• What went wrong? What were you afraid would happen? How bad did it get?
• What made you ready to give up? What stopped you from giving up?
• How did you ‘Roar Back’ with a Plan B? What was different this time?
• What did your success look like? How good was it? How did life change?
• What did you learn from your experience and how are you a different person?

IMPORTANT! Guidelines for both Fresh Start Success and Roar Back stories!

• Your story must be written in the first person and have a beginning, middle and end.
• The story must be true, and it must be written about yourself. You will receive the by-line for your story if we publish it.
• While financial success is important, it should not be the only outcome. We’re interested in career shifts and bounce-backs that also resulted in a happier, healthier, more fulfilled you.
• We reserve the right to change names of people and companies mentioned in anything you send us to preserve privacy and for legal protection.
• Make us feel the tension and emotion you felt. How bad was it before you changed careers or found a way to bounce back from failure? What was at stake? What did you stand to lose? How afraid were you of the consequences of not making a change?
• Make us feel what the career shift or bounce-back means to you now. How is life better? How are you happier and healthier? What changed in your life along with your career or the failure you put right? What unexpected benefits came from your experience? How are you different now?
• Speak from the heart. Share your voice with us. Make us laugh, cry or bite our nails over the suspense. Tell us a story, don’t write an essay.
• Your story should be 1200 words or less. Be concise, use proper grammar, and avoid spelling mistakes.
• We are not accepting essays, eulogies, sermons, letters, term papers, biographies, testimonials, newspaper articles or subjects that are political or controversial. We are not looking for personal religious conversion stories.
• If your story has been published elsewhere (on a blog, in a newspaper article or book, etc.) please tell us where or when. The version you send us must be a fresh re-write that is not identical to any version previously published. Include extra details, outcomes or perspective, but make it different.
• We reserve the right to edit for grammar and clarity.
• By submitting your story, you are giving us the right to use it in any format (book, website, blog, social media, etc.) worldwide without an expiration date.
• You may certainly re-tell your story elsewhere, but we ask that you re-write it for other uses and not use the identical version provided to us.
• Providing your story authorizes us to add you to our free monthly Possibilities! Newsletter. (You may unsubscribe at any time.)

If we use your story in any form, in any format, we will notify you and pay you $10. If your story is used in an upcoming book, you will receive a free ebook version of that book. If you do not hear from us, we have not chosen to use your story at this time. We do not send rejection letters. Please be patient.

“By submitting this story, I swear that it is true, that it is about me, and that I have the right to share this version as written above. I give DreamSpinner Communications the right to publish the story with attribution and to add me to the Possibilities! Newsletter.”