Celebrating 5 Years of Friday Morning Emails
I’m doing a little bit of celebrating this morning—with cake and everything. Because today marks five years since I said yes to that little spark of a dream inside and started my little writing and consulting business, the first order of which was to invite friends and family to join my email group and send my first Friday morning email. So today, I’m celebrating five years of Friday morning emails.
It feels good.
It feels like a milestone.
I’ll never forget the day I sent my first Friday morning email to a handful of subscribers. I was so nervous. I kept second-guessing every word. It took hours to get the words out, several more hours to edit them and recheck for errors again and again, and another hour or so to figure out how to get the email service to connect with my new website and actually send the email. I was writing solely about family togetherness back then and had kicked off my website, then under the name Togetherness Redefined, with these five articles ~
➳ 11 Ways to Happily Hit the Trail with Your Family For the First Time
➳ The Time Toni Morrison Changed My Life
➳ The Power of Read-Alouds and Bedtime Stories at Any Age
➳ Why You Should Gather Your Kids Around a Campfire — a lot
➳ The Magic of Long, Luxurious Breakfasts Any Day of the Week
It blows my mind how much has changed since then. How much I’ve learned. How many good things have come into my life as a result of saying yes and shakily starting. With you, dear reader. Because you’ve been here. Because you’re here right now reading these words, writing back to me when something captures your heart. Because I know you’re there working toward your own big dreams. I couldn’t have done any of this without you. Thank you.
Reflecting on this milestone has brought up more than a few lessons learned, including a few things I wish I had known when I started — a few things you might want to know in case you’re thinking of saying yes to your own little spark of a dream right now ~
➳ It takes time — more time than you think.
➳ It’s worth it, so very worth it.
➳ You’ll meet some of your best friends along the way.
➳ You’ll be so, so glad you said yes.
➳ You’ll need to pivot — more than you ever have before.
To say it’s been a long and winding road is an understatement. I started this business because I had wanted to write and publish a book in honor of my mom who always asked me, “When are you writing that book?” And just one year after starting, I published that book. Then I wrote and published another book. And I felt myself immediately trying to go after the next and the next and the next, suddenly staring over what felt like the edge of a cliff into the great big world of publishing and professional book-writing, hesitating just long enough to take a step back and ask myself some hard questions about what I really want in life, what level of privacy I’m willing to give up to get it (or not), and how what I really want and need to say compares to what I’m being influenced to say and do with my life from people I don’t even know, who don’t know me. I’m still asking those questions. Still writing and living and loving while I constantly feel my world shifting beneath my feet.
I had wanted to be my own boss, to run my own consulting business and set my own work schedule with time freedom and an unlimited number of flex hours, vacation days, and pay raises. And I did that. It was shaky going at first (especially since I left my salary job to run this business full-time just weeks before the first days of the COVID pandemic in March of 2020). But even though I had to pivot more than a few times along the way and reimagine every single one of my original plans (and I’m still pivoting and reimagining things daily), I’ve been successful beyond my wildest dreams. Working in the philanthropy space with people who continue to inspire me. Learning and growing in ways I never dreamed possible. Doing more and earning exponentially more than I ever have before. With opportunities to empower women across the globe in ways I never even dreamed could happen for me. And I’m so, so grateful.
Reflecting has also led me to ask myself a few soul questions, too ~
➳ Why do I keep doing the things I do?
➳ Am I investing my time, money, and talent in ways I still feel good about?
➳ Are there other things I want to do with my life that won’t be possible until I stop doing some of the things I’m spending my time on right now?
I’m right in the messy middle of figuring those things out. And while I keep working on it, I hope at least one of those questions resonates with you, too. Because if I’ve learned anything from these five years of Friday morning emails that I want to share with the precious soul that is you this morning, it’s this —
➳ Life rarely turns out to be what we think it will be.
➳ Everything worth your time takes time — more time than you think.
➳ Your dreams are worth the work it takes to realize them, so very worth it.
➳ You’ll meet some of your best friends along the way.
➳ You’ll be so, so glad you said yes.
➳ You’ll need to pivot — more than you ever have before.
➳ There will be new things you’ll want to do with your life that won’t be possible until you stop doing some of the things you’re spending time on right now.
➳ You’ve got what it takes to keep going.
So thank you for being here this morning, dear reader. Thank you for celebrating this five-year milestone with me. I see every open, every click, every single response. And every single one matters to me. More than you might ever know. Thank you.
It’s an honor to share my writing with you.
See you right back here in the email group next Friday?
I sure hope so.