If you’re in the midst of working towards a long-term financial you’ll probably relate to the following podcast episode. Recently, I realized how hard things were last year. And, I realized how hard they were when reflecting on how easy things had gotten this year.
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Listen to the Show
Show Notes (ish)
Because this episode is reflective in nature, the show notes will be a bit different. I wanted to talk about how the journey towards your end result will have its ups and downs but it will eventually get easier.
But…
You can’t quit.
Changing a lifetime of habits is one of hardest things that you could possibly attempt. Late last fall I was laying in my bed having a hard time breathing, laughing, or moving around. I wanted to pick up side-hustles, sell my course, work on my blog, and sell my books…but, I just couldn’t.
The Universe had other ideas, it was time for me to rest-even if I didn’t want to.
It was so frustrating knowing how close I was to being done with owing unsecured debt. In my entire adult life I’ve always had debt and specifically credit card debt. A perfect storm of bad financial habits, a lack of financial knowledge, and an inability to manage my wants and needs landed me and a mess.
Then, my mom lost her job and I was supporting us working part-time at Starbucks and student loan money. And, even though that happened YEARS ago, I’m still managing the fall out.
- The money
- My mindset
- My lack of belief that I deserved a better
But, I kept trying. And, failing. And trying, then failing. And, I began to notice that the amount of time between what I felt was failure and what I considered success became bigger. When I failed, I was able to rebound and keep things moving.
Previously, when I would become paralyzed by a setback for extended amounts of time and not recognize what was happening, now I was able to recognize those moments and manage my self-care better.
In fact, last year I was hit with depression twice-once during the summer and once at the end of the year. Recognizing what was going on and why helped me address the underlying issues so that I could move forward instead of being stuck in an endless loop of questioning my decisions and choices.
Eventually Things Get Easier
Here are the things that I’ve noticed are easier compared to when I began this journey.
- Making and attracting more money-I remember how hard this used to feel when I first started side-hustling and trying to grow my income. I just couldn’t figure out where and how to find new clients. And, it felt like everything was so complicated. It wasn’t, but I my knowledge about the process of pitching, being confident about my skills, and asking for what I wanted-hadn’t been developed yet.
- Paying down debt-Slow and steady wins the race. This has been such a painful experience that I can’t imagine EVER finding myself back in debt due to my own habits.
- Credit cards-not a fan of them (for me)
- Making more money a HUGE fan of earning more…even though weirdly enough I had to learn how to believe that I deserved to earn more.
- Creating products that I love and that other people would actually buy. I have an aggressive goal for my Make Money with Ebooks course this year and having students go through the course and experience success has been amazing.
- Blogging/Podcasting/SEO-And even hot to email my list. All of the things that were so scary, just aren’t any more.
Now it’s time to push myself harder. The feeling of ease is also a moment of choice. Ease off the brakes and accept where you’re at. Or, you can chose to go big.
This is my year to go big.
Thinking About Starting a Blog?
I love blogging! It has been an incredible experience, transformed my life, and connected me with a ton of amazing people. Blogging is a pretty cheap activity and I recommend hosting your blog with Siteground. Many bloggers have begun leaving HostGator and BlueHost and moving to Siteground. Myself included! Read why I’m leaving HostGator and BlueHost (I have 2 blogs one on each hosting platform) and moving to Siteground. If you’re a new blogger Sitegroundwill cost around $3.95 a month (depending on the size of your audience). They have great customer service and tutorials on how to host your new WordPress blog on Siteground. Check out the following guide by Elite Blog Academy on how to set up your blog.
Online Business Resources
If you’re thinking about starting an online business, the resources below are a great way to get started.
- The Ultimate List of FinCon Community Products
- Courses
- Books
- Swag
- Make Money with Ebooks–There is more than one way to make money with your writing skills. I’ve created this course to help inspire, educate, and support writers who are sitting on a book idea…and are afraid to write it. This is YOUR year.Make Money with Ebooks is offered at three different tiers to meet different student needs.
- Self-Study
- Group Program-Includes access to the closed Facebook Group and twice a month live office hours.
- VIP Program-Includes access to the closed Facebook Group, twice a month live office hours, and 2 meetings with Michelle to work on book related strategies, goals, etc.
- $10KVA–Are you curious about becoming a Virtual Assistant as a side-hustle or a potential full-time gig? My friend Kayla Sloan is killing it as a Virtual Assistant and schooling other entrepreneurs in how to become a VA that earns on average $10KVA. This course is what I recommend as the first part of creating a virtual assistant business.
- Making Sense of Affiliate Income-If you’re looking to make affiliate income with your blog, Michelle Schroeder-Gardner’s course is the course that I recommend. She makes well over a $1 Million a year blogging and the biggest chunk of her income comes from affiliate marketing.
- IMark Interactive–Grayson Bell helps me with all of my website related tech issues and he is THE go to guy for WordPress related tech in the several different blogging niches (all the Personal Finance peeps work with him).
- Elite Blog Academy-Many bloggers have gone through this course and I consider this course the “Granddaddy” of all blogging courses. It’s not cheap, but in additional to getting all of the resources that are key to building an incredible blog, you’re also become a part of an insanely supportive (and huge) community of bloggers. Many of whom are making crazy money.
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really interesting thanks for sharing!!!
Thanks Giulia!