My first Colorado Rockies baseball game in September 2011
I forget the exact date I moved to Denver in 2011, but I’m celebrating my four years here in Denver this whole week.
Yay! Four years of Denver for me!
I feel like my life so far has gone through 4-year cycles: yes, I went through four years of high school and four years of college. But then I spent *nearly* four years in San Francisco: I moved to San Francisco on June 15, 2007, and almost made it to my fourth anniversary in San Francisco, if it hadn’t been for my meltdown in late January of 2011, which caused for me to move out of San Francisco on January 30th, 2011.
And now, four years in Denver.
Four years in Denver has made me quite quirky!
What next?
Well, I don’t currently plan on leaving Denver anytime soon. There was a brief period of time where I fancied moving to New York City, but that feeling has subsided (well, at least for now).
The past four years in Denver have certainly been an adventure, and I believe the next four years will be even more adventurous.
Just a brief summary of what all has happened to me in Denver since 2011:
Started and stopped my MBA studies
Started three companies: closed down two and going strong with the third one!
I’ve been doing some video as well…stay tuned for more updates.
Well, just like that, July is at its end. When I wrote my previous post, I did not quite fathom how busy I would become this month…and also how much change was going to occur.
In short, this is all that has happened in July:
I gave two big presentations: one at Leads Group 7 and one at SheSays Denver. Both went REALLY well.
I changed my business name & am working on rebranding and a new website (more on that soon!)
I am also changing my service offerings rather drastically (and more on that as well…)
I know, I know, it’s not far to just post a summary of what’s happened, but there are some things I still need to work on before the official launch of the new business.
Speaking at Ignite Denver 20 on June 11, 2015. Thanks to @b_wleung for the photo!
Last month, I spent a lot of time reflecting on my business, Hashtag Hustler, and what direction I want to take it. I also spent some time thinking about what exactly I want out of my life–do I want to go back and work for someone else? Do I want to actually succeed as an entrepreneur?
The first half of June, I spent running around getting stuff done for a couple organizations I’m a part of here in Denver: I gave my third Ignite Denver talk on June 11, talking about the lessons I learned from working at a hot dog stand in San Francisco. Hopefully the video will be up shortly so I can share it with you all!
Ryan and I in Times Square after watching Les Miserables on Broadway.
After that, though, I spent the rest of the month with my love, Ryan, and went to New York City for vacation. It was Ryan’s first time to visit the Big Apple, so we visited many tourist attractions, such as the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Chinatown, and so forth. We went to see Les Miserables on Broadway and walked the Brooklyn Bridge as well. All in all, it was a great respite from life in Denver, and gave me space to really think about what I want out of my career and business.
Unfortunately, after we got back from New York City, I got sick with a terrible stomach virus. I’m feeling better now, but that sickness forced me to take off several more days and think about what direction I want the rest of the year to go in. On Monday, I received a rejection letter from a job I really wanted, and that was when I knew I had my answer: it’s time to go full-force with Hashtag Hustler.
It’s not that I haven’t been going at it with Hashtag Hustler since the official launch at the start of the year: it’s that I have been getting rejections from prospects the past several months, and I want to fix that. So I’ve hired a business coach to work with me over these next six months to revitalize the business.
Since the beginning of June, I’ve been hearing others talk about how we as professionals need to seek out other professionals to help us in our careers and lives. Why would a real estate agent act as his or her own expert in financial management if he or she doesn’t even have the background in that field? Why do so many businesses insist on doing their own marketing when that is NOT their speciality?
If you don’t invest in your own career or your life, you will receive that energy back from your clients or your friends. I realized this when I kept receiving rejection after rejection: I haven’t invested in my own business since my first business! Why would others want to hire me as their social media coach/manager if I don’t myself seek out a coach for my business?
So, onward I go. I have high hopes for this new adventure.
Speaking of adventures…
If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you may know that I spoke at the inaugural Denver Startup Week in 2012. I would love to speak at this year’s Denver Startup Week about social media, but I need your help: please click on over to vote for my two sessions before Friday, July 10th. Much appreciated!
The last photo from 2011 when I was visiting family in Montana.
I just made the unfortunate discovery that I now have absolutely no photos from August to December of 2011, which were my first months here in Denver. I am feeling shocked, saddened, angry….whatever other feeling one would have upon this discovery.
This is how this happened: I got a brand new laptop at the start of the year as a gift, and I told my sister Lisa that I would give her my own laptop. So I proceeded to transfer supposedly all my photos, music, and other files from my old computer onto my new computer and my cloud storage. Then, thinking I had transferred absolutely EVERYTHING over to the new computer, I deleted all my personal files on the old computer so there’d be space for my sister to save her files.
Somehow during the transferring process I overlooked the fact that I somehow didn’t get any photos from August to December 2011 transferred over…hence my discovery of this situation today. I was for photos from that time period since it is National Siblings Day and thought of one photo I had taken with a couple of my siblings that Christmas. Well, that photo is no more unless my brother Adam has it.
This whole situation reminds me of how ten years ago, I lost all photos I had taken from January to June 2005 because my computer had crashed that June, wiping all of the memory off of the computer. I hadn’t had a chance to make prints from any photos from that semester in school, so those photos are forever gone as well. I remember I cried so hard when I realized what had happened–none of those memories will ever be seen again!
Just goes to show that sometimes technology isn’t the greatest thing in the world: with a simple little mistake like what I had done, all those precious photos are gone for good. All that’s left is whatever memories I may have from those periods of time, and over time, those memories fade in my mind.
Maybe I should think about getting all my digital photos printed again. I used to do this last decade when it was still “cool” to make physical prints of digital photos.
I read an article recently talking about the comparison syndrome and how it’s become more prevalent as technology evolves. We all look at our friends’ photos and status updates on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, et. al., and we always see happy, smiling faces. In turn, it makes us jealous or sad when we see how ‘perfect’ everybody else’s lives are.
But really, we don’t see the whole picture: everybody always shows a happy face because, well, who wants to post about sad moments? In the end, we just need to remind ourselves that we need to take care of #1 (ourselves) first; don’t worry about what everybody else is doing!
I know I constantly have to remind myself about this, because I do feel that bit of jealousy and envy when I see how awesome all my friends are doing. I’m happy for them, of course! But I also have to remind myself: I too have a happy yet imperfect life. I appreciate my life as it is and wouldn’t trade it for anybody else’s.
