Oh Hi! How are you?

Firstly, Happy New Year! Wow, I just started getting use to writing 2017 on things I sign and now it’s 2018. Whatever you’ve got planned for 2017 (argh? …. See I just did it) 2018, I wish you a prosperous year. And if you are more like me this time last year and didn’t really have clear plans for the year, don’t worry life has a way of surprising you with things you weren’t planning.

So that’s basically how I felt this time last year. I knew there was going to be a lot of changes for 2017 and it impacted me, and how I ran Follow Me Media. These things took up a lot of my time, which explains why I’ve been really quiet on my business’ social media platforms.

The main reason is I’ve moved states. Why? I’ll explain more later. The moving effort required so much work and I’m not going to lie … caused me a little stress. So I wasn’t going to put even more stress on myself by posting sub par content on my business socials for the sake of posting regularly.

We commenced building our home. Although I’ve owned homes before, I’ve never built a home from scratch. And I found myself heavily invested in such a big task. I never realised how difficult it can be to decide on the size, shape and location in a room of where to put a window, and such a decision would require much discussion and thought.

2017 also saw my eldest son starting school. Like any parent I wanted him to adjust mentally and emotionally, establish solid friendships, and have a positive experience to this new phase of his life. I was mindful of being available, supportive, encouraging and attentive to make sure of this. I work so hard on my business around the kids, and I’m not going to lie, there are days the electronic devices are doing all the nurturing. With every new phase, every parent feels it’s his or her opportunity to do better, so 2017 I wanted to parent better.

Also, School Mum life is next level. I thought I would have more time because my son was at school 5 days a week, but no one warned me how much less time you get to do things because you have to squeeze it all between the time you drop them to school at 8:50am and 2.50pm for school pick up.

I found my love for CrossFit again. I know it wasn’t intentional like I had plans to focus on my fitness. For me, health has always been a priority, and working out was part of my lifestyle. What I love about going to the gym to work out is, my mind just focuses on what I’m doing there. The kids aren’t disturbing me, my phone with all the notifications gets left in my gym bag, I focus on the workout and the movements I’m doing, and no matter how bad or good I went, I feel great afterwards.

That feeling was my refuge. So I found myself at the gym longer and more frequently in 2017. It was how I de stressed, what I did when I wanted a break, when I felt overwhelmed and wanted to feel some control. As a result of my frequent attendance was strength, some weight loss (maybe that was stress) and entering my first CrossFit team competition a few months ago. I put a lot of time and focus in my training leading up to the two-day competition.

All those life factors, in addition to managing clients, meant I couldn’t remain consistent on social media. I preferred it, because I’d rather post sparingly then pump out lots of content for the sake of being frequent.

The business offline time also allowed me to stop and take stock of my business. I reviewed my business to understand what I still love doing and what I don’t love so much. What components of my business I want to improve and what I need to outsource. I creeped on competitors, watched what they were doing and read up on my industry.

 

So to answer the question I usually get asked when I told people we were moving was, ‘why the move?’

Why not?

Firstly, anyone who has known me personally for a while knows I’ve been wanting to live elsewhere for a long time. This desire stems way back, before kids were even in the picture, but there was always a reason holding me back from doing it.

Well, no more.

Secondly, we also moved for a change in lifestyle. It’s funny how children change you, change your ideas, your goals and your definition of success or what happiness is. We believe our move supports what our answers are to those important life factors.

This move was also a long time coming. We’ve been planning this move for about 18 months. Everyone was very encouraging but also raised fears most people have about moving, like work and lack of a support network. I remind people historically humans have been moving for years. We’re just so comfortable where we are that we don’t see it happen very often anymore. My parents migrated to Australia from another country with no family support and spoke little English – they managed. We’ve just moved to another state.

As for work, well that’s the exciting part. The opportunities in a growing state versus an established city … it’s there if you’re willing to take the risk and work hard.

 

I think starting Follow Me Media was also a catalyst for the move. Taking a risk by starting my own business gave me the confidence to also make the move away from Sydney. I still fear the unknown, but quoting a popular quote, “everything you ever wanted is outside your comfort zone.” I had to stop being afraid of my fears and what could go wrong, and shifted the focus on how great the move could be.

I can now share that Follow Me Media is now based on the Gold Coast. Now that I’m here, I’m even more excited about the business. 2018 I got you!! I claim this year Follow Me Media is going to be bigger and better and grow in ways I didn’t even foresee. I’m excited for the opportunities and welcome the challenges.

 

I’ve been living in Gold Coast for about 2 weeks now. The other great thing about moving is the feeling of being a tourist because I don’t know where everything is yet. I don’t miss anything about Sydney yet, (except my family and close friends) but I would like to know establishments that do great ramen, and shanghai style dumplings. Know of any in and around the Gold Coast area? Let me know.