Testimonials
How the author from Arkansas met a Nashville singer-songwriter. Listen to these two discuss how they met and the creation of the theme song for Tin Can Moments. You may watch and listen to the full theme song with lyrics at the bottom of this testimonial page. The lyrics are powerful!
Hi! My name is Donna Taylor and I own Bella Dia Salon and Day Spa. I just wanted to leave this message because Sonya has come into my life and has been an amazing Coach to me. She has helped me so much to just professionally, and emotionally, and personally to get on task and to kind of get my thoughts together and to get organized and to be more productive and just help me step out of my box and to just really think about things in life that maybe I did know but she just really brought them out on me and I’ve just been very, very pleased and happy. I’m so honored and blessed that she has come in my life and has really helped me like I said grow professionally and personally and I just feel a lot more pulled together and I look forward to a lot more. Thank you Sonya.
Donna Taylor, Owner of Bella Dia, (Cabot, Arkansas)
Eric G. Reid, Founder at Success Life U. and Co-founder at Skinny Brown Dog Media in Atlanta, George, shares the impact on his family by using the Tin Can Moments Christmas Can. This is just one example of how the Christmas Can process can change a family.
Diane Dick is the Founder and Owner of Legacy Training and Development in Dow, Illinois. In this video, Diane shares her experience working with the Founder of Etch Your Life LLC, Sonya Etchemendy.
Sonya, thanks a million for your time and sharing your knowledge with me about the JMT Leadership Game. I look forward to meeting you.
Collaboration with Susan Stephanie Shaw from Gulfport, Mississippi, and coaching on Leadership Game techniques
I don’t know if anyone has ever told you how great a difference you make in the world around you!!!! You are a world-changer, a person who helps others to enjoy life more and to learn how to be a light to the world, just as you are! Don’t ever stop. God Bless You!
Participant in Leadership Game, John Maxwell International Maxwell Certification (IMC) (Orlando, Florida)
Sonya was so influential in my success. Her managerial skills and sheer support and ability to speak on behalf of her staff was the key to the upward mobility of many mid-level staff. I for one am forever grateful for her ability to make me breathe for 10 seconds before I spoke. I revert to that on many occasions. Thanks, Sonya. Love you forever, my boss, my mentor. She is without a doubt a fighter for those she represents.
Christine Lombard, EPA (Boston, Massachusetts)
Sonya is a talented motivational speaker. The John Maxwell programs are nothing but positive.
Gary Ricketts, Retired Military (Aiken, South Carolina)
We all need more positive energy in our lives. Whether we need a boost ourselves or to prop up others, it is simply a beautiful and easy thing to do. Yet so often so many do not do it. “Tin Can Moments” is a well-written primer on why and how to offer those lifts. The giver is likely to benefit as much as the recipient. I highly recommend this book.
Peter Stoddard (Cumming, Georgia)
After participating with Sonya in John Maxwell’s ‘15 Invaluable Laws of Growth’, I can share that these are great Laws to live by! Very inspiring.
Dena Graham Wray, Plexus Worldwide (Beebe, Arkansas)
So thankful I have Sonya for business advice!!!!
Kristie Woodbury, KD’s Cleaners (Benton, Arkansas)
Throughout my career as Secretary of Admin, Assistant and Office Manager, I attended numerous motivational seminars. After attending the “Speaking for Influence and Impact” Keynote Speech given by Sonya Etchemendy, I would place her in the top ranks of speakers. She is a great speaker and completely at ease on stage. She was well prepared with information she presented. The interactive exercises Sonya lead us through were educational and fun! Just look at my signature I wrote using my “non-dominant” hand. So informative! I look forward to attend future presentations lead by Sonya.
Jean Wood, Retired (Jacksonville, Arkansas)
I just finished reading the chapter on Pet People…how brilliant you both are to have hearts large enough to hold 4 dogs! It was cheerful read except of course for the sad bits. While I feel sad that my little Ginger has gone, I am glad we did not have to put her down…I don’t think my heart would have held up to it. She was so much a unique should with an identity and dignity of her own. Reading your chapter has inspired me to write again…probably about the specialness of Ginger to begin…maybe that will help to un-burden my heart which is feeling so heavy, I have to fall to my knees to cry and pray every so often.
Joyce Dias (Toronto, Ontario)
A couple months ago I received a “Tin Can Moments” book and a Christmas Can. I have loved reading the book and getting to know Sonya Etchemendy, the author. If you have not gotten the book or the can, I encourage you to do so. My can itself sits on top of my microwave near the pass through to my living room and I noticed this morning that the package of napkins I purchased for a Christmas event (a left-over package) was propped up next to it. I have been using calendar pages to write my moments on …the one in front of the can was there waiting for me to write the next daily “Moment”. Love and joy filled my heart when I saw it. Thank you, Sonya, for creating this wonderful way for us to express our love daily.
Lynn Kelly Ekwurzel (Austin, Texas)
Wow! What a fantastic book of inspiration and life lessons. Sonya and her life’s journey so far, shared with her intention to create awareness of those “little things” that create beauty and purpose in our lives, help us to better understand the great importance we have to each other – and ourselves. There is just SO MUCH positive and emotional personal growth one derives from reading this book – and the only thing that will catapult further growth and understanding is following-through on creating your own Tin Can Moments!
Chuck Parker (Canada)
I normally do not read books of this nature and only bought it as she is a friend, but found once I started reading it, I wanted to read it all from front to back. I found myself laughing out loud when I started reading the story of Sonya and Jane, you see I have worked with them both and could image this. My favorite parts were her Grannie, Pets and School Time. The book is like talking with her as she is the most positive person I know. Where most books just talk about how to do things to make yourself be more positive on life, Sonya shares her life with you so you can see life isn’t always positive but you can make it into something that can be positive. The book is well written and well worth the price.
Betty Rosewaren (Benton, Arkansas)
I found “Living a Life of Tin Can Moments” to be uplifting and inspirational. I loved the stories shared of “real life” struggles and how a positive attitude and faith can help to overcome in those difficult times. I found the concept of focusing on one positive or “good” thought each day to be innovative in changing thought patterns. To me it reinforced my thought that faith and having a positive attitude really does help us to overcome and withstand the storms of life. I loved each and every story shared in the book. I would recommend this book as a must read.
Tina Edens (Cabot, Arkansas)
What a powerful read is Sonya Etchemendy’s book “Living a Life of Tin Can Moments”. I read with enthusiasm how ordinary Christian faith-based people who face and react to their Tin Can Moments, do so with courage and the same Christians may exhibit faith limitations as they wait on God’s intervention. During hard times we sometime forget just how powerful is the Living God we serve. Our God is the King of Kings, Creator of Heaven and Earth. As I read this powerful, healing book, I realized that most of us Christians’ will eventually remember, fall on our knees, and seek God’s Plan for our lives by praying, I get it Father, I finally get it, and place the matter at the foot of the Cross. Tin Can Moments is a healing book. God’s people tell their stories so that others might benefit. I’ve certainly had my share of Tin Can Moments, understand that life has a way of beating us into submission or we choose the alternative, victory. If you are dealing with one crisis or more, Tin Can Moments, is a Victory book. As I read the stories, I was inspired by Christians of all walk of life who seek God’s redemption, intervention and grace. Tin Can Moments is filled w/passionate caring people of substance sharing their faith based stories. This book will show you how faith in the Lord God will provide an avenue to rise above your circumstance(s). Page after page, Tin Can Moments offer you a roadmap of how to obtain a peaceful spirit manifested through our God, THE Nazarene, and the Holy Spirit.
Peggy W. Paulsen (Chicago, Illinois)
I just watched you on the Daniel Gomez Inspires podcast talking about Tin Can Moments. I enjoyed watching it and hearing the story of the birth of Tin Can Moments and getting to know you a little better. You are a beautiful human being and what you have created will make a positive difference in so many lives for years and years. I can hardly wait to receive mine. Thank you for being YOU and spreading light in this world.
Lesli Bernelis (Springdale, Arkansas)
I found Sonya’s book to be very refreshing. Tin Can Moments is a great concept to bring more positivity into our world/individual lives at a time of such negativity! It is heartfelt, very personal, and told in such a way that is very relatable and uplifting! This book really gives pause to what is so important in life and how much it makes a difference in daily lives/challenges when we look at things with a positive perspective! Very impressed with this book, especially with Sonya being a first-time author. Honored to know her and share this wonderful book!!
Kathy B., (Derry, NH)
Thank you Sonya. I have to tell you how Tin Can Moments is working in our house. Something AMAZING is happening. Thank you for TCM. Honestly it is so, so, so cool how something so simple has so many layers of impact. Thank you for creating Tin Can Moments.
Eric G. Reid (Atlanta, Georgia)
I just read your book. Thank you for writing it. It has given me something to reflect upon. Your messages about living a life of legacy and reflecting on the past moments. I write as I am feeling distraught. My husband passed away 3 weeks ago. I have kept going like a warrior but I feel like a cookie that is crumbling from within. But I’m trying to live in gratitude. Thank you for your book.
Munira Zahabi (Chicago, Illinois)
LOVE MY (Christmas) TIN CAN! Since receiving it earlier in the year, it has been the perfect resource to help me stay in a place of gratitude through such a crazy year! It has helped me be more mindful of the good in my life and in the world. Our mentor John Maxwell says, “Where your focus goes, your energy flows.” As I reflect on the blessings in my life, I avoid allowing negativity into my thoughts. This process of gratitude has been instrumental in my peace and happiness even when the world around me is out of control. Thank you Sonya for writing this book and creating this amazing TIN CAN!
Diane Dick (Dow, Illinois)
As a family we are chomping at the bit with excitement and anticipation of opening our Tin Can Moments on New Years Eve! This year has been a crazy year to say the least and we have been so grateful to have this can as the center of our family dinner times. It has made us intentionally focus on the positive things we do have, the people in our lives and the circumstances in which we live. My daughter is a first grader and she has had many transitions from at home learning, back to in person, then a teacher change, and now back home! I believe having the Tin Can Moments can has helped her to focus on the good in all of that change when she could have easily focused on the negative. I see them making comments even throughout the day, when they are finding tin can moments, even in difficult circumstances and I am so proud of them! My kids, my husband and I truly have an attitude of gratitude in one of the most difficult times we have faced and we are so grateful for these Tin Can Moments!!
Melanie Fusilier (Flower Mound, Texas)
I got my (Christmas) tin can .. yesterday ..THANK YOU Getting the final product in my hand was so surreal. I am sure you had many of the same feelings. That was a golden TCM for me. Thinking back to that moment when together we heard “live a life of tin can moments” then seeing it in print in the booklet (in the correct font style 🙂 froze me and should me just how real “ideas to reality” are. You, Sonya took something from an online conversation into reality. You Sonya said this can be a real thing – and did not let how stop you. You Sonya said I have to ignore the setback and focus on the vision. You lived out every teaching in “Think and Grow Rich” at such a perfectly high level just froze me in that realization. Seeing you Live out you dream of a Tin Can Moments and watching the impact you are having with school kids and others fills me with so much deep joy. I often think of how someone for the first time might get to understand that life does hold tin can moments for each and every one of us, we only need to look for them. Know you are also teaching others how we can create a tin can moment in someone’s life makes my heart leap. When I talk about knowing your worthiness.. it is just what you created.. knowing you are worthy of a life of tin can moments. Sonya I am so very proud of you and how in spite of all the setbacks you made it happen. Thank you for inspiring and lighting the world with our awesomeness.
Eric G. Reid (Atlanta, Georgia)
I LOVE my Mother’s Day Tin Can Moments filled with notes that are handwritten from all my children, their spouse, and my 6 Grand Angels! What a awesome and special treat. The idea is so creative as I now have a place to keep “all the notes I get going forward.” I am very sentimental and “save my cards and notes” so this truly is the PERFECT gift for me. Thank you Melanie for knowing me so well.
Teri Fusilier (North Richland, Texas)
Thanks! Sonya Etchemendy don’t forget, Hold me accountable this Friday! You were an amazing facilitator for The Leadership Game!
Rick De La Fuente, International Maxwell Conference
Performed and written by Nashville country singer/songwriter Heath Rhodes https://heathrhodesmusic.com in collaboration with Sonya Etchemendy, author, “Living a Life of Tin Can Moments.” Produced by Britt Edwards Media http://www.brittedwardsmedia.com