Category Archives: Business

Day 3301 – Don’t Negate The Small Shifts In Your Life

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As Bret and I are gearing up for what will be one of the busier seasons of our life, we are thinking about ways to trim things in our days and maximize the things that will have the biggest impacts. It reminds me of this book (which is an affiliate link, see my disclosures page for more info on what that means):

Dream Big, Think Small: Living an Extraordinary Life One Day at a Time by Jeff Manion. One of the biggest lessons in the book is that small steps each day really add up. It was and is a good reminder that even the tiniest of shifts or changes can impact your whole life.

A big example in recent memory is how Bret changed a question he asked of me. It used to be “are you working like your worth XXXX (very small amount of income) or XXXX (a reasonable amount of income)?” I would always respond that I was working like I made more. A few months ago, he shifted the question to “Do you feel like your worth a reasonable amount of income?” It was in that moment that I realized, no, I don’t. For a myriad of reasons, I haven’t felt worth in myself. After realizing this, I’ve been putting in the work to feel worthy to make more, to charge more, to do more. Just that tiny shift has changed my life. In doing the work to see my worthiness in my work, I took a leap and started a new business which included making a large investment in training (which you can read more about here), and changing a few things in my life.

Another big example in my life is in my running practice. For years, I struggled with running. I know that I love to run. I know that I can run. But every training program I did fell apart. I realized that it was because each plan was just too fast for me. I’m a major overachiever and when Bret suggested starting very small, like, running around the block, I thought it was just too small. But after a few more “this plan doesn’t work for me” I decided to finally try. My goal has been to run three times a week. I started in October/November at .25 miles. So so so hard for this lady to do so little. But I did it, and while I fell out of the practice until about April, I’ve been better in the months since. I increase my distance by 10% after about 4-5 runs. It has been so helpful in building up my endurance and muscles. I’m happy to say yesterday, I ran my fastest speed…ever. At least since I’ve tracked on my running app. I ran in the rain, splashed in puddles, and ran fast. While I’m “only” up to .37 miles, I’m running regularly and increasing my distance.

Never negate the small shifts in your life.

For a real life example, check out this photo. Just by shifting a few degrees, a better picture was achieved.

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Join our Facebook group, Planning an Epic Road Trip on Any Budget
Join the Journey With The G’s email list (bonus – you get my Epic Road Trip Budget spreadsheet)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget.
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
Shop on Amazon (no additional cost to you, this gives us a percentage of what you order).
Check out our resources page.
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Day 3300 – What’s In My “Currently Reading” Pile Right Now?

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I still have a goal of reading 300 books this year. I’ve only read 101, but I still think that I can do it. Ha ha, I’ve done the math and it’s possible. Part of how I’m working to achieve this currently is by tracking how much I’m reading throughout the day. I’ve found I read more than I think I do. Audiobooks while driving, doing the dishes or wash helps a lot too. Part of my morning routine is to read out of a few books, right now, that’s the first three on the top row. The fourth book is one I’ve been going through for the last week or so. I’m thinking it will be one that I recommend. It’s a great snapshot of different types of meditation and I’ve seen improvement just in the few times I’ve practiced.

I’ve noticed that I read much more when I’m reading fun books, especially page-turning reads. It’s been a while since I’ve had one of those, but holy smokes, I’m tearing through Into The Water. A Unicorn in a World of Donkeys has also been a fantastic read so far and I’m sure I’ll be highly recommending it to other Unicorns in my life.

What are you reading right now? How many books do you read at a time?

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Join our Facebook group, Planning an Epic Road Trip on Any Budget
Join the Journey With The G’s email list (bonus – you get my Epic Road Trip Budget spreadsheet)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget.
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
Shop on Amazon (no additional cost to you, this gives us a percentage of what you order).
Check out our resources page.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel

Day 3290 – 2500 Days As A Freelancer!!

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I am so thankful that to be a freelancer and I will work my butt off the rest of my life to NOT work a 9-5 job again. It hasn’t been an easy road, for sure. There have been many tears. Many days I want to throw in the towel. But the rewards so far outweigh the struggles.

If you have a dream, I urge you to chase it.

Here is what my days mostly look like. 😀 (well, minus editing photos)

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Join our Facebook group, Planning an Epic Road Trip on Any Budget
Join the Journey With The G’s email list (bonus – you get my Epic Road Trip Budget spreadsheet)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget.
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
Shop on Amazon (no additional cost to you, this gives us a percentage of what you order).
Check out our resources page.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel

Day 3287 – Nine Trips Around The Sun, 3287 Days, Nine Years As A Wife

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Nine years ago today, I entered into the most serious commitment of my life.

I didn’t realize what I would be gaining by saying I do and cleaving to my new husband.

I gained the very best friend I have ever known. Someone who has accepted me as I am, through my struggle with alcoholism.

I gained a business partner, not once, but twice. I did not see either of those coming!

I gained someone who would push me to be the best version of myself. While it’s awesome to say someone accepts you as you are, it’s even better to have someone who sees what you could be and encourages you to become that.

I gained the best travel buddy I could ask for.

I gained a mosh pit buddy.

To celebrate, we’re taking a short road trip to Long Island to see our favorite band, Thrice. I love that we’re doing all the things that I love about us on this trip.

Happy anniversary B/Husband Pants/Huz/Dar dar/Bret, you are one of the best things that has happened to me, and I’m so glad I get to walk this crazy life with you by my side.

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Join our Facebook group, Planning an Epic Road Trip on Any Budget
Join the Journey With The G’s email list (bonus – you get my Epic Road Trip Budget spreadsheet)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget.
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
Shop on Amazon (no additional cost to you, this gives us a percentage of what you order).
Check out our resources page.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel

Day 3286 – Honest Review Of Build and Launch Your Blog From Create & Go – or – Why Did A 7 Year Blogger Buy This?

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I have been blogging daily for over seven years. I have experience working in WordPress, both on the WP hosted side and on the self-hosted side. In a lot of respects, I thought I knew how to build a blog. But taking this course showed me how much I didn’t know.

I want to give a big, fat disclaimer here – if you decided to purchase the course and use my link, I will receive a commission fee, and you won’t pay any more for the course. If you’ve followed my blog for any amount of time, you know I’m very strict about the things I share affiliate links to. This is no different. Even as I was writing this, I thought about doing affiliate links to the other courses or the bundle, but I have not completed the other courses yet, so I won’t share those links. Though if you want to do what I did and purchase the bundle, and want to use my affiliate link, let me know and I’ll send it to you directly. You can email me at jen@travelingjenfindingzen.com and I’ll send it to you.

When I decided to build my new blog, I knew I wanted to do it the right way. Even though I’ve been blogging for a long time, there is a lot I don’t know. I’ve followed Create & Go since I saw a few videos Lauren made about Pinterest. For years, I’ve heard that Pinterest is the best way to get traffic to your blog, and while I’ve been working on getting this site ready for that, I haven’t made much headway.

One thing I’ve learned from years educating myself about business is that investing in a course, or mentor, or some form of education from someone who has walked the road you want to walk, and get the success they have achieved, is worth the price.

Since I’ve been growing in seeing my worth in myself, I knew I needed to make an investment in my new dream (encouraging folks that road trip travel is much more accessible than they think). I knew that I wanted to invest in some courses to get myself started on the right foot.

Create & Go offers four courses:
Build And Launch Your Blog
Make Money Blogging For Beginners
Pinterest Traffic Avalanche
Six-Figure Blogger

I knew I wanted their Six-Figure Blogger course as well as the Pinterest Traffic Avalanche course, and then I thought, well, the Make Money Blogging For Beginners makes sense too. At that point I looked at the different bundle options and realized it made sense to purchase the whole bundle of courses. I thought, well, I’ll just go through in the order they suggest (as listed above) and then my new blog will have a solid foundation.

Oh friends, I feel like it has made all the difference. I am SO proud of my new site!

What I loved about the course
– They had a checklist to print off to track your progress. You know I LOVE a good checklist!

– Each lesson is bite sized and easy to follow.

– They are very active in keeping the course up to date. During the last two months, there have been at least three updates.

– The community group is fantastic and I’ve gotten great feedback so far. I’ve even found some new blogs to follow that I never would have otherwise.

– Lauren and Alex are SO real. In a crazy online world of “do this and you’ll make a ton of money only working a few hours a week” they are a breath of fresh air. I’m all about being real and honest about things. (While I think it is possible to get to that point, MAYBE, you have to put in thousands of hours of work to get to that point.)

– They tell you what to worry about and what to not spend a lot of time on.

– They give SO much information.

– I loved that you got bonus content from each of their other courses.

What I didn’t love/what I would do differently
– This might be just a “how Jen works” kind of thing, but I wish I had given myself a posting schedule much earlier than when I did. Once I set that up, I felt like I had a big shift in how I worked on the blog. So know yourself, if you need a schedule early on, figure it out.

– I wish I had done the different tasks as I watched the videos. I ended up creating a long list of things to do as I watched and then I felt like I had a ton to do before I felt comfortable launching.

– Honestly – that’s it. If you asked me this about a month ago, I would have said more information on one piece, but wouldn’t you know, they added that because they saw the question come up a few times in the community group.

Why should you buy this course, even if you already have a blog
As you know, I’ve had a blog for a long, long time, but I learned so much in this course. The benefit of buying a course is that it will save you SO much time researching things yourself. You don’t know what you don’t know when starting a blog. The benefit of the course is that it’s someone who has gone before you, made the mistakes, and walks you through what to do, and what not to do. Alex and Lauren have had amazing success in their blogs. What I really like about them is that they are still running the first blog that brought them success. They aren’t like some of the educators out there that try something and then teach others, but their income then comes from the teaching and not doing the the thing they’re teaching. This was a big factor to me in buying their courses. I can honestly say I have ZERO buyer’s remorse (well, except maybe that I paid full price just a week or so after a sale) from the purchase. I have no problem telling you how much, I mean, it is listed on their site and I told you I bought it. The investment I made for the bundle was $647. I was happy to pay it. I have already made income through an affiliate sale to a someone interested in starting a blog.

So if you’re a new blogger or a long-time blogger who wasn’t set up right like me, Build and Launch Your Blog is worth every penny of the $97 cost.

Again, every link to the course is an affiliate link and I will receive a percentage of the sale. You won’t pay any more and it’s a way for you to say thank you to me for sharing my experiences.

If you take the course, I’d love to know how it goes!

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Join our Facebook group, Planning an Epic Road Trip on Any Budget
Join the Journey With The G’s email list (bonus – you get my Epic Road Trip Budget spreadsheet)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget.
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
Shop on Amazon (no additional cost to you, this gives us a percentage of what you order).
Check out our resources page.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel