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“We don’t have enough room for you at the bar.”

Is what the waitress said, with some serious side-eye, to our party of 10 (4 moms + 6 kids) when we dipped into her restaurant in the middle of the Trick or Treat Street event on Saturday, asking if we could get 4 shots of tequila.

We start discussing the gloriously lax nature of having an open container when you live rural.

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I don’t know who was more annoyed by us – our kids or the waitress.

In our defense, the restaurant was completely empty + there was utter Halloween chaos happening right outside the door, where 1000’s of kids were trick or treating up + down the street.

What mom wouldn't want a little “fun fuel” to get them through that? It’s 6 blocks, shoulder-to-shoulder, with kids driving themselves into sugar-filled psychotic breaks along the way.

After a lot of awkward pauses + passive-aggressive questions, we were sat at a table and given our shots.

Just as we were shooting them, one of my friends spotted another group of our friends through the window.

I ran out to get them, still sucking on the lime.

You should have seen the waitress' face when our party went from 10 to 16 – utter, unbridled disgust.

We’re not monsters.

We’re just tired, overwhelmed moms who want to let loose on a rare Saturday night we get to spend together.

I wish she could have seen that.

I wonder if she saw that after she saw the $100 tip we left.

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I really won the lottery with my local group of friends. They accept me for me - all 50 vibrant shades.

But it took running out of a lot of restaurants with a lime in my mouth, figuratively speaking, to find them.

I had to drop a lot of what I call personality bombs so they could see the real me.

A lot of dropping fbombs…

A lot of asking if we should have cocktails…

A lot of admitting what a hot mess express I am…

A lot of breaking the rules…

A lot of dry humor…

A lot of ball busting…

A lot of weird voices…

A lot of weird faces…

A lot of weird stories…

A lot of anti-fitting-in clues about who I really am.
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Being yourSELF is the only way to find true kindred spirits – on + offline.

I KNOW when I talk to my kindreds like my nutty, true self, they hear passion, realness, and humor. (WIN!)

I KNOW when my energy vampires hear those exact same words delivered in the exact same exact way, they hear nails on the chalkboard. (WIN!)

My shameless vulnerability, sweary rants, inappropriate humor, and cracked-out nuttiness weed out the wrong people while winning over my kindreds.

Two birds, one stone, baby!

Every single personality bomb I drop gives me a chance to build common ground with my kindreds – forget about my energy vampires.

Me running through a restaurant with a lime hanging out of my mouth… or even telling the story about the time I did that… opens the door for you to remember that one time YOU [insert the priceless shenanigans had with your besties + buddies].

Now, we have something very relatable connecting us.

That’s how kindreds enter, and more importantly, how they multiply in our lives + businesses.

I’ll go to my grave preaching that there’s no better “tool” for building relationships with your readers than being yourSELF.

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Dropping “personality bombs” is a choice that I want to make easier for YOU!

I was able to create my first commissioned piece of writing since launching The Hot Dog Cart community over on Substack.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE...🥁🥁🥁

Newsletters With Personality Scavenger Hunt

By the time this scavenger hunt is over, you’re going to have 10 refreshingly real “personality bombs" you can regularly drop in your newsletter to make sure every single edition feels, sounds, and looks so YOU, we can get DNA off of it.

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This labor of love is what my 12 paid subscribers kindreds have already made possible in the 6-weeks since I rolled my cart-sized, newsletter-focused aspirations into this new era of life + business.

For the next two weeks, it’ll be available to every single lost soul out there who feels like they’re trapped in an internet version of themselves. After that, it’ll be ushered behind the velvet ropes of my paywall + reserved for the people who actually commissioned it.

MY PLEA TO YOU:

Please don’t download this scavenger hunt if all you’re going to do is hoard it on your hard drive. That would break my fucking heart.

Why get the manual if you don’t have the model, ya know?

If you have the time + energy to dive into a fun way of finding + being yourSELF, then DIVE IN… head first… and frolic in the most healing “hunt” you’ve ever been on.

If you don’t, let that be ok. Now is just not the right time. It’s ok to be in a place where you can’t bite off something so ooey-gooey like this. Downloading it would just give you another reason to get down on yourself.

Make the choice that’s right for YOU! 🫶

And P.S. that’s too important to wait for the P.S… if you have any “share” left in your tank this week, can you share the scavenger hunt with the kindreds, customers, and loved ones in your life? I’m not above groveling if that’s what you need. I want this thing creating ripples we can surf our unicorn floaties on.

Here's a link to download the Newsletters With Personality Scavenger Hunt, one more time.

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To turning your newsletter into your PERSONal playground,

Dre ‘Runs With Limes’ Beltrami

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