I got COVID and it taught me some lessons..
PS: I'm FINE , but just sharing some of the lessons learned, what's new for 2021, and Tech, Money, Creative Hacks you should now before 2020 is up.
Hey You,
I’ve been the worst at being consistent here but life got put into perspective lately, November 11th COVID hit home, my dad and brother were positive and 3 days later turned out I had a false negative and I started feeling it.
Now almost 6 weeks later we’re all recovering ( and fine - fr) but it has put life in perspective, mostly to slow down, fix my life, but mostly to take care of myself and that I love. Luckily, the vaccine is here and life might go back to normal - but we all know this is a new “normal” and if we want to thrive we need to pause sometimes to reflect on what we want for ourselves.
So I said December I wasn’t going to take on any client work, just relax and recover because most of November I was out and looking at screens hurt too much but I realized that my business was doing fine with out spending so much on social media. Which made me realized, I hadn’t done what I did for my clients in a long time - measure my own ROI.
Seeing how much time / energy i was putting on social platforms like (cough instagram) vs other platforms like twitter where I was getting more hits to my blog, leads, clients, and sales from my digital products. And Instagram is stressing us all out let’s be real….
I was not doing what I preach - being offline for almost 3 weeks made me realized I was working harder not smarter and putting myself and my health last
So I need to work smarter at my strategy, my business, and my self every single day. Now 2020 has been a wild ride but it let me try out so many ways to interact with folks digitally, events, and collabs that have been really great for my business BUT I realize I’ve burned myself out and this is not the time to have health take over. So I’m cutting back (AGAIN), eating paches for every meal starting Thursday, and resuming in January. a reminder before the work stuff …
Soooo onto the TLDR of this newsletter:
SUMMARY:
I got COVID even though I’m deep in the wood even though I am the MOST anti social, I’m alive and fine, #wearamask and #stayhome #vaccinesaregood, re-evaluate your life, priorities, and be mindful of your time & energy.
UPCOMING NEWS:
WORKSHOP ALERT: January, I’m ramping up again and hosting an intensive workshop to GET IT DONE! This is a jam packed day for business owners, freelancers, and hustlers where you learn how to streamline your business and we will work hands together. There is only 5 people to a session so if you are interested in joining check out more info and reverse your spot below ASAP.
MEMBERSHIP : If you are LOVING what I’m doing and sharing need some extra support in your builder journey, each Thursday we will have live sessions with QA, Tutorials, Expert Panels and first dibs to all my content, resources, and events.
And now onto THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW this month :)
TECH:
<start rant >There is lots of news around Facebook and Google being a monopoly recently and as a former AdTech person feeling icky in the industry I am THRILLED, in case you aren’t aware TLDR your data gets packaged up and sold to the highest bidder (the technical how to do this was my life for 4 years) but the problem is there isn’t much regulation on privacy and hopefully a younger more tech savvy congress sees the threat and makes it happen. In the meantime - here are some apps I’ve curated that put privacy first and for real this IS WHY WE NEED DIVERSITY PEOPLE! </end rant >
MONEY:
And now time to get our MONEY in order! Cause $600 stimulus check is LOL, surprise no one is gonna save us! I am an advocate on building for ourselves and planning for the future which TBH if you grew up immigrant, first gen, brown, poor no one really taught you so I’ve learned most of it online & on podcasts TBH .
So if you wanna get your shiiit in check I highly recommend Wander Onward’s who introduced me to the zero based budgeting method - she is packing all her knowledge here and you can find her youtube video on budgeting here.
If you’re like but Joy, I don’t has a job or biz or coding skills and just need to make more $$$ in a new industry. Have you considered tech? Yes you read that right, here is your reminder that you don’t need to know how to program to work in tech. You can get a job in sales, operations, HR, and a bunch of other roles need- check out a short list I made for you here.
CREATE:
Lastly, yes Instagram annoys me BUT instead of thinking “what can I create for instagram so the algorithm likes me” think instead “how can I use Instagram to create and reach my ideal audience” *cough* even though they don’t distribute ad revenue to creators and should* cough* but that’s another post .
One way you can do this is through instagram live, you can create live to engage your audience then download and repurpose that content to share on other platforms, and social posts, BAM DONE! Here is how. *sings* work smarter not harder*.
And until the end of December if you are a creator you can opt to get any donations during your live Matched by IG (so milk it right?).
So that’s all for this month, feel free to email me back or tweet me your thoughts, ideas, questions and I hope you enjoy this week and keep building- and yes that means taking some time for yourself too!
Hasta next year,
Joy Valerie Carrera