From the Bottom

The past few years of my professional life have been extremely underwhelming.

I’ve spent the past few years building skills and struggling to find full-time work.

And as I reflect on how much my life has been the absolute opposite of what I’ve wanted it to be, I realize there is a single problem: I refused to take the driver’s seat in my career.

I refuse to let that be the case any longer. Starting today, I get my ideas, things I build, things I believe in, and perspective out on the internet in a more intentional way.

The internet is free and the only person standing between me and everything I want in my life is me.

It’s angering that it took me this long to see things as clearly as I do now. I’m sure at some point, someone very close to me will actually find their way here and think, “Yeah, that took you way longer than it should.” The great news is that none of that is any of my business.

My only business is to build myself in to the best I can be, as quickly, as excitingly as I can because it’s what I deserve and it’s what my family deserves.

When things aren’t working out for you, it’s easy to get very quiet. It’s easy to feel like what you need to do is fade into the shadows. You’ll think you need to punish yourself, because how could you not see this coming? You’ll find your self-esteem at all time lows. And you will shrink yourself because when you’re met with many “no”s (and even more absolute silence), you’ll think your skills, mentality, personality… your entire being is the reason you find yourself in a shit situation.

This is where things can take you. So I’m writing this to share my story and how I’m building back from scratch so that you don’t make the mistakes I did. This is the worst time to shrink yourself, just keep your head down, and get quiet.

Because when you’ve not done anything exceptional, you’re essentially nobody. Obviously, you’re somebody because everybody is somebody. But to really shoot your shot, you need to be loud and proud. And that doesn’t mean you just make irrelevant noise. The point is to acknowledge that people can’t take a chance on you if they don’t know who you are. And the longer you stay silent, the deeper the question of whether you do.

Movement is life. If you want to keep things alive, you need momentum. Never stop. Don’t be frantic. But never stop.

Here’s how I’m planning to take back control:

• Posting every day on social. That means recording audio, recording video (choosing my own format for this that feels right), and sharing things I’m thinking, learning, building, etc. daily

• Focusing on building connections in a new city. You can be magical online, but nothing triggers quite like meeting great people face-to-face, shaking hands, and sharing a laugh. More on how I plan to do that will come soon.

• Connecting with local businesses to drive value where I think I can have the greatest impact for them. I’ll be experimenting with guest-experience-focused content for some of the best/dopest restaurants (maybe hotels/resorts, too) I can find to have some fun and make their social media accounts pop.

That’s it. Get out of the house. Find people who need a thing. Build success. Share it.

This is the first post.

See you again soon.