My Personal Journey Today

I have been trying to wrap my brain around being semi retired. It’s strange and weird as well as my personal journey today. I still work on a referral basis for brand and marketing and business development. I am turning a hobby of painting, over the past 30 years, into a real business. Yet I am still trying to understand the balance of working, not working and building a new business model for myself. I cannot NOT do nothing. Thus painting is my new normal.

Today, more than ever, I have a problem with offering my services for free. The reality is if you are young and starting out I think of ALL the people who gave me a hand up with providing advice that was given without an invoice. I want to help in the same manner. Meaning that todays’ consultants come with a price tag. I know this well. I have been a consultant. This has been my fee basis for over twenty years. I charge a minimum of eight hours. Even if you only use two of those eight hours you come away with valuable information. You will literally be heading out the door with a million dollars worth of help.

When I started my first business, which very few know about, my dad gave me some good advice. “Cuz Wer Girlz” named by my three year old who will soon be 32 years old, came up with this name. Making hairbows. Going door to door selling hairbows. Learning I could get my products wholesale and making a few thousand dollars a month, My dad offered a simple accounting idea. You know, a spread sheet on paper. (Think late 1980″s) Listing expenses, profits and getting a realistic understanding of cash flow. Free unsolicited advise. When I opened my first store I knew nothing about shipping and logistics. I knew of a company in Seattle. They were doing what I was doing. I called the owner of the company. She set up a phone meeting. We talked for two hours. She gave me all the information I needed to know in having my products shipped to me, how to add in cost of shipping and how to negotiate with shippers a wholesale shipping price. Free unsolicited advice. Today we put a price tag on any valuable information we may have. Fast forward almost 30 years and I think, “Wow, she, today, would charge a pretty penny for THAT kind of consulting.

I am here today to open new doors of opportunity. With my art, my paintings, with my brand and marketing & consulting. It’s a new season. “My Personal Journey, Today” looks very different today. I want to paint paintings that people want to display in their homes. in their offices, vacation homes and building. This is the most challenging job I have ever had. Why? I am treating myself like a consulting client. I am am worst client ever. I am more critical of myself than any client I have ever had. I am building a foundation with my art business to forecast out t 2-4 years. Just today I spent 5 hours studying and building another foundational which will be more clear later of this website.

I understand why there are HUGE fees for web development. I have spent an average of 5 hours day working to transition my once, brand and marketing website, to an art selling website. I have to keep doing something. In semi retirement I have learned what I love doing. Doing something. Looking at my internal bucket list of what I want to do after 55 I am doing exactly just that.

I wanted to paint. I wanted to paint without having to put it all away because my busy children would be emerging from naps, or school or life. Yet today. No one needs me. No one is calling me to pick them up from an event. No one needs food, now. No one is asking me a thousand questions about life. I understand the blessing and joy of each day to paint, to put colors to my life though painting. To put thoughts on paper, on canvas, on anything that holds paint.

After months of working, what seems to my hardest task, I have come to realize the joy & blessing it is to be painting my dreams and passions. This is in fact, “My Personal Journey Today.” Thank you for supporting me through your social media comments, and your purchases.