I’m going where I haven’t gone before. To step into new experiences in spite of them being intimidating, yet full of promise, is how I’m going into the new year. 2025 will be a year of big changes and new problems, but also many blessings.
As I reflect on the past three years that I’ve spent in Florida, I realize more has been happening than it would seem at first glance. On the surface, I was stuck, back to living with my parents after having my own household for years. I was now in a shared space with no privacy and an economy that pressed me even further into what felt like a stagnant corner, unable to get out.
But on an emotional and spiritual level, seismic shifts were happening. I healed from a traumatic separation after 16 years of a committed relationship with the father of my child. I took stock of where I was in life now that I am middle aged, and saw I was no where near where I wanted to be. Being out of the workforce for 18 years, I realized I needed to level up my skills. After a lot of research and thought, I decided to start a business.
While that business never took off, I learned so much about products, sales, marketing, advertising, lead generation, LTV, profit margins, graphic design, e-commerce, publishing, and social media. Let’s not forget the 14 new apps I also had to learn to use to launch the first few products. I may have been stuck in a physical sense, but I was learning an enormous amount about business in today’s world, something I completely ignored in the past during my trad wife days.
Last year in the fall, in a fit of pure frustration that things were not moving as fast as I wanted them to, I made some decisions. I would rent out an Air BnB for a couple of months to focus on reviving my YouTube channel and I would write a long form book. The rental was an important part of the equation to make videos because I needed space and privacy to feel comfortable enough to speak in front of the camera. I didn’t need any opinions from the peanut gallery weighing in on whatever I was talking about.
The high cost of renting out a two month stay was an added incentive to make the absolute most of that time. I committed to filming one to two videos per day. I figured I could spend the next few months editing and posting them. If I dared to lag in my filming schedule, I had only to think of how darn expensive this move was, and I was back in the game.
When I wasn’t working on videos, I would work on my book. I had already started my self publishing journey with low content books, but I wanted to try a high content non-fiction book to see what that would be like to make. I feel like books were something I could do for years, even into my old age and they would be a good source of income over time. I was definitely playing the long game with my goals.
Now, here I am in that rental, working as hard as I can to make something happen so that I can move out of my parents house and into my own apartment, even in the face of inflation, rising rent prices, and the seemingly impossible income requirements needed to even qualify for a lease. I am determined to create an outcome that is different from the past three years. At least now, I have the hope of getting out of this situation, whereas before I couldn’t see any path forward that looked good to me.
The act of filming videos turned out to be way more emotionally and mentally taxing than I thought it was going to be. In the past when I made a video, it was fun and I made one video per month with no expectations of anything coming from it. Now I feel pressured to turn them out as fast as possible and I’m getting hung up on the right lighting, and angles and other details that, let’s be real, will probably get easier as I keep practicing over time.
As far as working on my book, I realized, I could only do one thing at time. I may have been too ambitious thinking I could do both. I had to choose one to fully focus on and I chose making videos. The book is still a goal for this year and the year had just begun. I can still make it happen after I get into a groove with churning out videos on a schedule.
So here’s to 2025, a new year and a new chance to apply all that I’ve learned before this. May all those lessons finally bear fruit and take me to whole other level in life. Cheers.
* Videos will be coming soon. Hopefully by the end of February!
