My Story

Okay, okay, that was dramatic. But hey, I have your attention, don’t I?

But it’s true. I want to help you learn what you need to take a chance on yourself and figure out how to make enough money to do what you enjoy. It doesn’t have to be your burning passion, I’ve never had one. It doesn’t have to solve world hunger, but major props if that’s your calling. It just has to be a curiosity. Where does your interest pull you? Are you talented at it? Could you be? Follow the breadcrumbs and keep digging.

It was 2017 and I landed my dream job. It was closer to my then-boyfriend, now husband, and it was a major step up in my career. I was going to be taking on a multi-million dollar long-range local policy project with a handful of consultants, creating a new department with all new staff, and launching a major public engagement campaign. And I did all that. For five years. It was amazing, and it took everything I had.

Fast forward to 2020. It was the height of the pandemic, and my dream job turned into an intensely stressful job with tons of contentious local politics, no staff (they got pulled into emergency pandemic work), while pregnant, and unfortunately with a toxic boss.

I was having anxiety attacks regularly, and still having to show up and be professional presenting regularly to the City Council at hearings that would go to 2-3 AM.

I would be up in my office doing pushups to try and stay awake, then have to speak about complex public policy analysis coherently in the wee hours.

With all that said, this was my dream job. It inspired me almost daily, I got to work with amazing people on cutting-edge policy work, in a really fun part of Los Angeles, California. I put everything that I had into it, which is why burnout happened.

Burnout was an understatement and I could not fathom having a baby to care for and manage my job.

If that wasn't enough, my husband, Henry, is a nurse practitioner in cardiothoracic surgery, so he works bonkers long hours too, sometimes he leaves at 6 AM for work and doesn't get home until 10 AM the next day.

Needless to say, I was desperate to build something for our family that could allow us to have more choice in how we supported ourselves so that we would have the capacity to give our future kids the best of ourselves.

Then the unthinkable happened.

My husband and I lost our baby Ember late in the second trimester in November 2020.

I was destroyed, and depressed, and didn't leave our apartment for months. During this time, I was off work and needed something to distract me as I healed.

It was then that I turned to try to make enough income by doing what I love to find peace. I fell down the rabbit hole into blogging, affiliate marketing, keyword research, SEO, niche analysis paralysis, etc. and the list goes on. It gave me something to focus on and slowly started to heal the pain.

I have always been jealous of people who have a real and focused passion because I've never had one.

This project has taught me so much about myself, given me the courage to write in public, encouraged me to connect with people online who have the same interests from all around the world, and it has rekindled my love affair with writing.