WAY TO LA

Sitting on the plane now with an hour to go before landing in Los Angeles. I’m flying out with my cousin Hannah to visit our cousin Josef. It’s our first trip together and it’s cool when you realize this is the freedom and best part of being an adult. 

We’ll be here for 4 days, 5 nights and I’m hoping the waves end up being pulled in by the perfect tide so Josef and I can get a session in!! The weather isn’t calling to be perfect, but for the first time in my life, I’m not really concerned about the weather for this trip. Before, when I used to travel, it seemed I would only go places where the weather had minimal chances of being cold and rainy. But now, since I’m going for the cultivation of the relationships in my life, I care less about the weather and more about spending time together. 

Naturally, I’m also very much looking forward to catching some great creative vibes in LA; it is the place where many creatives flock to after all. I’m hoping to get some great writing inspiration and maybe even get the chance to record a class while I’m out there. I’m also looking forward to finding a cool coffee shop to continue working on building my brand and YouTube channel (cool coffee shop found! - Awakening).

Where am I at with my online business?

For building this online business, I just reached out to one of my friends from high school that specializes in branding and graphic design - Travis Picquet. His creative work is always unique and impressive, I’m hoping he will be able to help with the logo for Midwestern Yogi and offer some useful work to unify my branding on the website - here’s his site if you need some work done or just want to check out some cool designs - Picquet Designs

Honestly, there’s a lot to focus on right now, what with the YouTube channel, newsletter and retreat in October, oh, and also my full-time Sales job. But thankfully, I’m starting to get the hang of creating YouTube videos. However, now that I understand where I stand with my technical skills, it’s time to focus more of my efforts of creating high value yoga content and also incorporating talking videos in order to up my video release from one post per week to two. Luckily, I’ve got video ideas on deck and believe I’ll get many more from my trip this weekend. 

For the newsletter, since I’m only focusing on one post per week and haven’t yet directed any traffic to my website, it’s pretty low-key. The focus is more so on consistently writing content than having to feel the pressure of writing content that is super resourceful and research-heavy at this stage in its life form.

The retreat is more of a side hustle on top of the side hustles… an extended challenge for sure, but is honestly bringing me so much energy and excitement again, especially because I’ve been saying I wanted to host one for years now (just like I said for the past 5 years how I wanted to start my own YouTube channel and since forever I said I wanted to be a writer). Luckily, we’re not planning to host the retreat till October, so I have some time to plan and get things together. But in order to make it happen, I’ll have to make the platform for signups available at least 3 months in advance, which means I should have all reservations tidied up by June to ensure people are aware of the experience and have ample time to plan for it. But for right now, I’m having a fun time in it’s early, beautiful phase of simply finding a nice location in Ohi that can accommodate movement and rest.

YOTUBE VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

• Billion Dollar Creator - suggested to me by my fav YouTuber, Ali Abdaal, who’s been a massive inspiration to me whilst starting my YouTube channel. This is a video he linked his audience to in his newsletter. It’s a bit over my head for applicable content right now at the early stage I’m in, but they talk about the benefit of building a team around your business to increase your success and lower your stress levels. They touch on how to keep your ego in check when building a multi-billion dollar company, the differences between being a solo-preneur and having a team, and how they’ve each individually found success.

  Side note: but something I’m struggling with right now as an early creator is not having many creatives to collaborate with. Right now, I’m a bit of a hermit as I figure out how to do a lot of this business and creative stuff on my own since I don’t have endless funds to pour into hiring other people. Maybe I just haven’t figured it out or maybe this is exactly where I need to be, but it does feel a bit lonely in the pursuit right now. Hopefully that’ll change by 2025.