Below is background information of what lead me to reach out today for Emergency Social Assistance (Welfare)
THE FOLLOWING STORY BELOW
WAS PUT TOGETHER WITH THE HELP
FROM MY FRIEND AND COPY WRITER, JOHN NEWLAND
WAS PUT TOGETHER WITH THE HELP
FROM MY FRIEND AND COPY WRITER, JOHN NEWLAND
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS
MARCH 2020 - OCTOBER 2021
MARCH 2020 - OCTOBER 2021
INTRODUCTION
My name is John Newland. I have been Scott Gallagher's writer for about 11 years now. He introduced me to Sameena during Covid and asked me to help when her business came crumbling down on her. I have been with her the whole journey doing various writing projects to try to help Sameena, some were paid and some were pro-bono. The point is, I’ve been working with her for 18 months, and I’ve seen how everything happened.
The work I did to help her with her landlord, I did for free. Scott gave me clear direction on how to proceed with various writing communications to her landlord regarding the harassment Sameena was tormented with constantly by her landlord all through COVID.
Background
- 2016-2020 - Scott had created a number of platforms for Sameena which gave her visibility and attention on her self and helped other people (through her various platforms) get attention and visibility on themselves and on their passions, and some of her platforms had people talk about what they did for a living or what they wanted to do for a living which helped them get reasonable amount of attention on themselves where otherwise they would have to spend a lot of money for on advertising elsewhere.
- Her studio was an outgrowth of the popular Facebook Streaming show she created with her mentor Scott Gallagher.
- People would come into her studio, Sameena would act as the host, and interview the person to bring out their best side, and their true self which is what had them look attractive into the audience they most wanted to reach out to all in front of multiple video cameras.
- This would be broadcast as a Facebook Live on the person’s Facebook Timeline. This was done as a free service, which raised the interviewees profile on social media, as well as get them free attention and marketing leverage without having to invest in Facebook ads.
- Some of these people ended up becoming high ticket clients and ended up hiring Sameena (with Scott's guidance and support in the background for her other higher end services that were also offered through the studio and required in person meetings.
- And Sameena packaged Scott in all her higher end services increasing the perceived value and it had people who became her paid clients pay her more money all because Scott was part of her offer(s).
- Whether it was his consultation services, intervention, being part of his 12-Week signature program called Integrity Choices, which Scott created for Sameena and which she has lead to over a dozen of her own clients (with Scott's support and guidance in the background).
- And all of these services were provided in person.
The Significance Of The Studio:
STUDIO SHUT DOWN
March 2020
Making The Transition
May 5th, 2020
Around June 2020
Scott advised Sameena to '...get back to what you enjoy best, building and nurturing relationships organically' .... Where it may take time, but this is what you love to do ie connecting with people, focusing on building real relationships with people.
April 4th, 2021
- Scott created this business model for Sameena as a pathway for her to be self-sustainable after she suddenly lost her job and her career in 2016-2017 (a whole other story).
- Sameena's business model that Scott created for her was dependent on being able to have people into her residential home like studio and of course this business model did not take into account the possibility a pandemic would be coming that would make guests entering out studio impossible.
- The in-person studio was the most valuable marketing asset that Sameena had to attract customers because is not a trailed sales person nor does she want to be.
STUDIO SHUT DOWN
March 2020
- When social distancing laws came into effect during the first lockdown, face to face meetings in the studio were no longer possible, and her entire studio was dismantled eventually during the first lock down period.
- Sameena lost her highest-paying client, because the contract was to deliver services in person (with Scott) which she could no longer fulfill because of social distancing laws, and the client tried zoom but it was not the same experience she had paid for.
- The pandemic destroyed Sameena's only avenue to generate paying clients, which in some form or another came from the studio.
Making The Transition
- Sameena with Scott’s help tried to readjust by moving the studio online (doing broadcasts over zoom), but that did not produce the equivalent value for her prospects. Zero customers came out of it, so she had to quickly scrap that idea.
- No face-to-face meetings meant no customers. No customers meant no income.
May 5th, 2020
- Sameena’s landlord refused to accept her rent cheque. This resulted in over 12 months of dealing with her landlord’s harassment and abuse, pretending to lose the cheque and lying about returning it. This resulted in Sameena (of no fault of her own) being technically late with her rent.
- Despite Sameena’s landlord knowing about her medically diagnosed anxiety condition, they continued to harass her and further trigger her anxiety condition.
- This made it impossible for her to focus on getting her revenue stream back on track. As she shared these moments with me, I could see her diagnosed condition becoming paranoia as she tried to deal with the harassment and frequent interruptions by her landlord scaring her and threatening her security.
- A couple months passed and her landlord did not account for the lost rent cheque, and when asked to return the rent cheque that they refused to accept before giving them a replacement cheque, they ignored Sameena and pretended that they had already returned it when they did not.
- In the mean time, Sameena's debt with her rent arrears grew up to the point where she could no longer afford to pay her rent for 11 months as her debt was just that big, also given that there was no extra income coming in from her business, and she was (with Scott's help) was starting from scratch after her studio business decimated.
- In November 2020, after going back and forth with her landlord, they served Sameena with an N4 with an intention to evict her.
Around June 2020
- Scott took it upon himself to study this whole new world of Facebook Ads. This was new territory to (Sameena) because they never had to do this before thanks to the Studio. Now, they had to learn how to sell, create and put out their offers online.
- And just when they were getting ready to finally put out their offer after months of investing in Facebook Ads, building a whole new audience (online), trial and error, testing audiences ....
- Just before Christmas 2020, in December, Scott's facebook Ads account unexpectedly got shut down, and all the work put in with creating audiences, etc, it was all gone!
- They both had to start all over again. And three months later, March 2021, Facebook suddenly shut down the Ads account again.
- At this point, Scott advised Sameena to NOT have a business that is dependent upon only platform to generate leads. It wasn't responsible anymore to keep on investing in Facebook Ads, and she did not want to take a chance on getting shut down by Facebook for the third time.
- She invested some time learning about Youtube Ads.
- Again this was completely new territory for both Scott and Sameena never having to learn about Youtube Ads which was even more complicated than Facebook Ads.
Scott advised Sameena to '...get back to what you enjoy best, building and nurturing relationships organically' .... Where it may take time, but this is what you love to do ie connecting with people, focusing on building real relationships with people.
- As we all went into the new year of 2021, Sameena went into a very dark and familiar place ie her anxiety, depression and paranoia symptoms kicked in again
- Sameena was losing her clients and human connection in general because of the pandemic. She started to become doubtful if she will ever be able to generate new clients again as it has just been so long since a new paid client came in.
- Sameena's fear and anxiety around money escalated, and she was faced with a real threat of eviction if she could not pay her rent arrears before the first scheduled hearing.
- Sameena was already in so deep, that Scott knew there is no other way out of her obsessive worry and anxiety other than embracing 'booking', it was the only solution for her to get out of her head faster and experience human connection with a different person every day through the process of booking.
- Scott would have these heart-to-heart conversations with Sameena understanding what it is like to be stuck in your head and not seeing a way out. he would say to her, it may not make any sense, but the only way to get out of her fears around money is to not focus on the money at all.
- In the summer of 2020, Sameena finally started to embrace booking.
- With the emotional state Sameena was in and given her isolation, she needed a person to book or be booked by everyday - The intention was her to get daily human connection as much as possible.
- But there was not a person for Sameena to have a booking session with everyday, so Scott would have regular booking sessions with her just so Sameena can get that booking experience.
- And I was the first member to join Sameena and Scott in this booking process.
- There were times I would have morning booking sessions with Scott.
- And when this whole concept of 'booking' was new to me and Sameena, there was no tribe yet, it was just us.
- Sameena and I would be have weekly booking sessions together every Friday morning. Most of the time, it would be her booking me (passing on what she was booked in) in Ask And It is Given, which was the very first book from the collection that Scott chose for Sameena to be booked in or book in. He felt it was the perfect book for Sameena to start with based on where she was at.
- And as some time went by, and Sameena really started enjoying booking and it was helping her just like how Scott said it would, they started to share it organically with their friends, and they ended up joining and have booking sessions.
April 4th, 2021
- Sameena had to file for bankruptcy to save herself from eviction and further reprisals from her landlord.
April 21st, 2021
May 28th, 2021
- Sameena receives another legal notice in the mail from the Landlord's legal firm, and this time, it is a notice for eviction for being persistently late with the rent. And this time, there was no 'Stay Of Proceedings' to protect Sameena from eviction.
The Landlord was taking her to court for the second time on a whole different matter - "persistently late with the rent".
- Sameena’s landlord took her to the Landlord and Tenant’s Board for a second time trying to get her evicted for being persistently late with the rent from May 2020 to April 2021, which ironically was caused by her multi billion dollar landlord, Quadreal. (refused to accept Sameena’s rent cheque in May 2020.)
- For months, the Landlord ignored Sameena's emails asking what happened to the rent cheque that they refused to accept, and if they can return it.
- And months later, after Sameena asked nine different times, 'what happened to the cheque' - One of the landlord's agents finally responded by saying that they returned the cheque, and it was wrapped in the envelope with the note saying that they will not accept the cheque because it was from a her business account, meanwhile, they accepted a cheque that came from the same account the previous month.
- The cheque was never returned to Sameena. She even had to take a Polygraph Test, which she did May 30th, 2021 to prove that she was telling the truth and it was her Landlord and their staff who were not being forthcoming with the information. She obviously passed the test.
May 28th, 2021
- Adding to the stress just before Sameena’s first eviction hearing, her grandmother very suddenly got ill on May 18th, 2021 and was in palliative care before she passed on May 28th, 2021.
- On May 28th, Sameena not only lost her grandmother, who she was extremely close to, but 6 hours after her grandmother died, Sameena's best girlfriend Sarah Clarke also very suddenly died on that exact same day as her grandmother.
- Sameena was not only dealing with grieving from two very significant losses, but she was also faced with the possibility of eviction.
- August 12, 2021, Scott represented Sameena at the second hearing and won the case for her preventing her from being evicted. But there is a one year conditional order against Sameena. If she is even one day late with paying her rent between September 2021 - September 2022, she (and Scott) are automatically evicted and they have no other place they can go.
- As of March 25th, 2022, Sameena is still waiting on a court date for her to be heard on all the harassment issues that occured all through covid until after Sameena won the first hearings against her landlord. (Scott represented her)
- Sameena has a court order (which does not end until after she pays her rent for September 2022 coming up) that states that...if she is even 1 day late in paying her rent, eviction is automatic, and there is no recourse.
- She can’t afford to lose the place because it is the only place where she can continue this work (with Scott).
And The Story Continues ...
Adopting the Booking Process: Moving towards the future with a new business model:
From March 2020, Sameena tried a number of things to revive her business but couldnt stay focused because of her anxiety and depression and despite 4 doctor appointments to get counselling referrals, no doctors would take her without a fee and Sameena did not have money to pay for the help she needed herself.
In June 2020, Scott introduced her to a process called “Booking”. It is a process where two people go through a section in the book together, marking the passages in the book with highlighters, where the colors correspond to the type of statement being made in the passage, bringing the book to life and into their life! It is not a book clup or studying a book together.
The whole spirit behind the 'booking' process and why it causes miraculous results, especially when a person is doing it everyday consistently at their most preferrable times, is because the idea is to come on the booking session with the INTENTION to make a difference for the other person through booking in the way we are taught to do it.
This process was traditionally practiced among people in 12 step programs as part of their Step 12 service. But it turned out to be a very helpful and most powerful and longest lasting meditation process using other books among non-addicts.
Booking served a dual purpose. In addition to an in-depth study of the books, it offers a unique form of human connection as this process is done over zoom instead of in person.
And as the booking process became even more proven to work and make a difference in people's lives one way or another, I am an example of one of them. Scott started adopting certain well known business books in the collection, and we started booking people in these business books when appropriate depending on where they are in their journey.
Creating The New Business Model
"I John Newland, am the “poster child” for what this book-ing program can do.
As I started really embracing the booking process, playing a more active role in booking other members a little more consistently, I noticed my self-confidence starting to come back, my self-hatred issues started to disappear, I was feeling more alive and happier, and I started to believe in myself again.
I have achieved great results in my life, and I know these results have to do with feeling worthy and useful again. During COVID, if I was lucky, I would get like one client per month and many times, no clients. It felt like my Fiverr business was dead and my passion was gone. I felt like a disappointment to my family, and I was letting everyone around me down. I felt nothing I did no matter how hard I tried was good enough, so I became even more depressed.
And now, my earnings from my own side business increased 10x from $150/month to $1,500/month, which is a huge leap for me. For this reason, just seeing the difference that Get Booked to Book Others has had in my life, and I also love to be a contribution wherever and whenever I can, I remain a part of this beautiful tribe over a year later.
And when I have the opportunity to book someone, I just love it, it makes me feel useful.
In November 2021, Scott found a creative way to turn this into a business model with the intention that it would turn into a recurring revenue stream for Sameena, making her finally self-sufficient.
It’s important to note though that Scott doesn’t get a cut from these recurring revenues that will come out of the membership monthly fees, which is a small portion of the profit because Scott initially created this model for Sameena to help be self-sustainable.
SUPPORTING GET BOOKED TO BOOK OTHERS
In order to support the growing number of people booking, a great deal of scheduling and recording infrastructure is required.
THE problem is that Sameena has run out of her savings.
Over the last 18 months, it has been a constant struggle for Sameena. If it wasn’t landlord triggering and scaring her, it would be one family crisis after another. So Sameena really did not have a chance to get in a positive and consistent momentum in her business to achieve consistent success and sustainability.
Regardless of everything Sameena was going through, Scott continued to support her and work with her at her pace, based on everything she was dealing with.
Right after Sameena claimed bankruptcy April 4th, 2021, from May 2021 until November 2021 Scott hired Sameena paying her $1000/month for essential administrative services to keep the work of Get Booked To Book Others alive.
And he also wanted to give her some kind of footing just to get her feet back on the ground since she loved the work so much, supporting the community.
Scott funded the work of get booked to book others himself by paying Sameena $1000/month for 6 months and Sameena has continued to sponsor the work herself with minimal donations.
Scott put his own business focus on hold to Support Sameena's wellbeing, which is all part of him honoring his word (a whole other story and agreement between Scott and Sameena).
From March 2020, Sameena tried a number of things to revive her business but couldnt stay focused because of her anxiety and depression and despite 4 doctor appointments to get counselling referrals, no doctors would take her without a fee and Sameena did not have money to pay for the help she needed herself.
In June 2020, Scott introduced her to a process called “Booking”. It is a process where two people go through a section in the book together, marking the passages in the book with highlighters, where the colors correspond to the type of statement being made in the passage, bringing the book to life and into their life! It is not a book clup or studying a book together.
The whole spirit behind the 'booking' process and why it causes miraculous results, especially when a person is doing it everyday consistently at their most preferrable times, is because the idea is to come on the booking session with the INTENTION to make a difference for the other person through booking in the way we are taught to do it.
This process was traditionally practiced among people in 12 step programs as part of their Step 12 service. But it turned out to be a very helpful and most powerful and longest lasting meditation process using other books among non-addicts.
Booking served a dual purpose. In addition to an in-depth study of the books, it offers a unique form of human connection as this process is done over zoom instead of in person.
And as the booking process became even more proven to work and make a difference in people's lives one way or another, I am an example of one of them. Scott started adopting certain well known business books in the collection, and we started booking people in these business books when appropriate depending on where they are in their journey.
Creating The New Business Model
"I John Newland, am the “poster child” for what this book-ing program can do.
As I started really embracing the booking process, playing a more active role in booking other members a little more consistently, I noticed my self-confidence starting to come back, my self-hatred issues started to disappear, I was feeling more alive and happier, and I started to believe in myself again.
I have achieved great results in my life, and I know these results have to do with feeling worthy and useful again. During COVID, if I was lucky, I would get like one client per month and many times, no clients. It felt like my Fiverr business was dead and my passion was gone. I felt like a disappointment to my family, and I was letting everyone around me down. I felt nothing I did no matter how hard I tried was good enough, so I became even more depressed.
And now, my earnings from my own side business increased 10x from $150/month to $1,500/month, which is a huge leap for me. For this reason, just seeing the difference that Get Booked to Book Others has had in my life, and I also love to be a contribution wherever and whenever I can, I remain a part of this beautiful tribe over a year later.
And when I have the opportunity to book someone, I just love it, it makes me feel useful.
In November 2021, Scott found a creative way to turn this into a business model with the intention that it would turn into a recurring revenue stream for Sameena, making her finally self-sufficient.
It’s important to note though that Scott doesn’t get a cut from these recurring revenues that will come out of the membership monthly fees, which is a small portion of the profit because Scott initially created this model for Sameena to help be self-sustainable.
SUPPORTING GET BOOKED TO BOOK OTHERS
In order to support the growing number of people booking, a great deal of scheduling and recording infrastructure is required.
THE problem is that Sameena has run out of her savings.
Over the last 18 months, it has been a constant struggle for Sameena. If it wasn’t landlord triggering and scaring her, it would be one family crisis after another. So Sameena really did not have a chance to get in a positive and consistent momentum in her business to achieve consistent success and sustainability.
Regardless of everything Sameena was going through, Scott continued to support her and work with her at her pace, based on everything she was dealing with.
Right after Sameena claimed bankruptcy April 4th, 2021, from May 2021 until November 2021 Scott hired Sameena paying her $1000/month for essential administrative services to keep the work of Get Booked To Book Others alive.
And he also wanted to give her some kind of footing just to get her feet back on the ground since she loved the work so much, supporting the community.
Scott funded the work of get booked to book others himself by paying Sameena $1000/month for 6 months and Sameena has continued to sponsor the work herself with minimal donations.
Scott put his own business focus on hold to Support Sameena's wellbeing, which is all part of him honoring his word (a whole other story and agreement between Scott and Sameena).
October 9th, 2021
Sameena is faced with one more hurdle ...
- Just when Sameena had got her focus back, and she was finally able to get back into a positive groove and momentum in continuing to rebuild her her business (with Scott), including getting back on track with connecting with people, nurturing her relationships, things are looking positive and promising again .....
ANOTHER CRISIS HITS
- October 9th, Sameena talks to her mother over the phone, and her mum gives her the most unsettling news further triggering Sameena's anxiety condition and worry, which completely killed her momentum and took her of course.
- This last crisis with her family, caused Sameena to go into a deep debilitating depression coupled with anxiety and suicidal ideations.
- Thanks to booking and making the difficult decision to disconnect from talking to her parents, Sameena was able to gradually regain her focus and come out of her depression.
- The constant family interruptions and distractions kept triggering her anxiety.
SHE GOT COVID AND WAS FORCED TO CREATE A GOFUNDME CAMPAIGN DURING CHRISTMAS TO PAY HER RENT
December 2021:
- I helped Sameena put together an emergency GOFUND ME to make her January rent, so she does not get automatically evicted.
- And with guidance and support from Scott and me, I (John) helped her out out with the writing for her GOFUND ME story, it turned out that she caused herself to bring in just short of 3000 in about 7 days from this GOFUND ME campaign alone sending the request out to about less than 20 people.
- NONE of the donations that came in for Sameena's Gofundme came from a single family member.
THIS IS THE GOFUNDME VIDEO OF SAMEENA SPEAKING TO ALL OF HER FAMILY - LOCAL AND ABROAD - OF WHICH NO ONE DONATED
I have an order against me that if I am even one day late with the rent between October 2021 and September 2022, I will be automatically evicted without a hearing. Below is a copy of the actual order by the LTB.
Below is a letter from my doctor confirming my Medically Diagnosed Anxiety Disorder