Holmes Lake Apartments

So I'm working on starting a piano and voice studio out of our house in Lincoln.  The Lord gave us a wonderful rental house in a nice neighborhood near lots of families.  I've been advertising in lots of ways...

* signs up on busy streets
* tear-off fliers in coffee shops, restaurants, bookstores, etc...
* contacted school music teachers
* churches

After a week or so of staying home and doing.. idk.. stuff... i realized I couldn't sit around for too much longer.  So I decided to go "cold calling."  aka: door-to-door.  ahhh!!! 

[mini side story - my dad is in sales.  he and his reps go cold calling all the time. he's a pro.  my brother ran a college painting franchise one summer and i cold called for him... for about 3 weeks.  frankly, i didn't care whether or not they got their houses painted.  sales wasn't for me.]

but this time, i did care whether or not they took lessons from me. :)

i drove to a random neighborhood ("random" meaning carefully selected b/c it's close by me, with big houses, & young families).  as I passed this Holmes Lake Apartment complex, it occurred to me to turn down that street.  But then I thought nahhh... there's no houses.  so i kept driving to said random neighborhood and parked my car.  started going door to door.  Most people were very friendly.  My first real success -  a lady with 4 littles, the oldest of whom is 7.  she said they were just talking about starting piano lessons.  we chit-chatted.  she said she'd call & gave tips about where to go to find more young families.

i left that neighborhood and headed back home for a hot date ;) I passed the Holmes Lake apartment complex again, thinking I should turn.  I could only see apartments but I figured, what the heck.  So I followed the road back into a neighborhood with houses.  I parked my car and started to walk towards a house kitty corner from where I parked.  It didn't make sense to go to that house first b/c it was the furthest compared to the other houses nearby.  But I started walking anyway.  Lo and behold, out comes a lady carrying a baby.  I thought that infant is too young, but maybe she has others...?  I introduced myself and explained I was opening a home studio.  She said, "We were just starting to look for piano teachers.  I want to sign my 5 and 7 year olds up to start in a couple months. we're just waiting on my mom's piano."  We chit chatted a little more and she too gave me some tips about where to find more families.  And then I drove away.

as I headed back home for real, The Lord said, see I told you to go down that street.  When I'm paying attention, He's always leading.  And when I'm ignoring His voice because something doesn't seem to make sense to me, I'm thankful He's full of grace and willing to try again... gotta get past my fuzzy, confused receiver :)

Has He been leading you?  If not... check your receiver.  Are you listening?