Whoa! September 2009, what a month!

Wow! What a month this has been and contiues to be! There is a reason for this, the planets are all astir and Mercury is in retrograde again! Mercury, the "red planet" and planet of high emotions (think mercurial, which means that a person has rapid changes in mood), is again wreaking havoc in every single sign of the zodiac, though some more than others (Virgo, Pisces, Gemini, and Sagitaruis will be most affected by a retrograde Mercury, these are known as the "mutable signs"). For all signs, this is a month to watch and wait, not embark on new ventures or initiate new projects or ideas. Mid-month, all the planets are arguing with one another, it's a giant bickering fest! This does pass as the month ends and October transitions into a more peaceful month.

Hang on for just a few more days, the clouds are parting and the sun is returning!


** "Mercury in retrograde" refers to Mercury appearing to be spinning in a backward direction in the night sky. The planet Mercury rules communications, contracts, and travel. It is best to finish up all projects involving the afore mentioned before a retrograde in Mercury begins.

Simple Truths

• Don't blame others for your messes, it will only hinder your forward progress.
• The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.
• We teach people how to treat us.
• We forge our own "destiny" and with rare exception, others cannot be blamed or credited for our failures and successes.
• A "negative energy" can only affect you so much as you allow it to.
• You have power over your life, do not will it away by attributing what happens to you to "fate", "evil/negative energies" or other individuals. Be honest with yourself and take critical evaluations of how you got to where you are at and then make a detailed plan of action on how to change the circumstances and parts of your life you are unhappy with.
• Love and accept yourself if you expect others to.
• Work hard but do not work for an endeavor that is futile.
• Seek joy over happiness. Happiness is a fleeting emotion but joy comes from within and can see you through the most difficult of circumstances.
• Realize that no one and no object has the power to complete your life or bring joy. Joy comes from within and can persist through the darkest of circumstances.
• No situation is completely hopeless.
• "Luck" really is not luck but 99.9% of the time a result of effort, hard work, and time.
• Learn patience, it will serve all areas of your life well.
• We live in an on-demand, fast food world but often things take time.  Learn a bit of patience.
• Temper patience with reality.
• Do not wait for jobs or people to come to you. No person or higher power will send FedEx to your doorstep to hand deliver things you have not worked for and sought out.
• Balance kindness with self-respect and standing up for yourself. Do not allow yourself to become a doormat, remember, we teach people how to treat us.

Working for LivePerson

Clients are often perplexed about the experts who work for LivePerson, where they work from, if they're employees, potential income in a job like this, and many other questions. I thought I'd take some time to address the most common questions and perhaps shed some light on what it's like to work for this wonderful company.

LivePerson has many different categories of experts ranging from professional doctors, lawyers, counselors, and accountants to people that give spiritual/psychic advice like myself, life coaching advice, to those who give pet and home advice. Some categories, such as those for medical, legal, financial, and counseling advice, must prove their certified statuses in the particular area they wish to sign up for. Those who offer pet advice, home advice, and spiritual/psychic advice do not need to provide any verifications to work on LivePerson.

The experts on the site are independent contractors and often work from home or a home office but there is no official building where the live advice experts mentioned above go to work. The experts work from a location of their choosing. Whatever your particular expert is charging, they receive only a portion of total session fees. Different categories pay varying fees. Spirituality/psychic experts pay 45% and other categories pay 37% of earnings. Additionally, all experts are charged a .17 per minute connection charge for sessions conducted via live chat. There are no extra fees on top of the percentage for e-mail sessions. To break this down, if an expert in my category of spirituality/psychic advice where to charge $1.00 per minute for live chat, they would be paid .46 per minute after fees are paid to the site. Since LivePerson experts are independent contractors, taxes are not already taken out. For United States residents, experts pay a flat 15.3% rate of total earnings for social security and Medicare, plus additional federal taxes based on total annual earnings. Then, depending on what state U.S. experts live in, they pay state taxes on their earnings. What an expert earns can vary and is hard to gauge but in my case, I pay out a minimum of 31.3% in total taxes, state and federal.

LivePerson is a great company to work for and I would recommend the platform for anyone seeking to branch out on their own and have the freedom of working from home. You can go to the site homepage and see if they are accepting experts in the field of your choosing.