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Halfway Through 2021 - Are You On Track??

Well... not quite halfway yet I suppose, but close enough to check-in:

I've been on a road trip — I drove to Colorado and have been working here and crashing with family for the last month. Next week, it's time to pack it up, swing south to catch some friends, drive 3,500 miles back to Pennsylvania, and really buckle down for the second half of the year.

Am I on track? I think so. I hope so. It's close enough for now.

I'm behind where I want to be financially but feel that I'm still steadily building momentum since I switched careers and started freelancing full-time last December. I'm learning, growing as a photographer, am enjoying this considerably more than my last few years of work, and have had full, remote flexibility to do some of the "life" things I've wanted to do (the biggest being the road trip).

To keep the dream alive and extend the runway, the second half of the year looks a lot like this:

  1. Continue growing my YouTube channel — it seems small, but I'm closing in on $500 in affiliate sales for the year so far, with only ~800 subscribers. It feels a lot like the "slow SaaS ramp of death" that I hear so much about, but it's extremely exciting to have some semi-consistent, semi-passive income. My original goal was 1000 subs for the year, now bumping that to 2000.

  2. Double revenue — I don't need this to happen overnight, but the runway is looking shorter and shorter. The good news is that I originally planned to not make it this far. So on one hand everything beyond now is gravy. Most of the work I'm doing is fun AND flexible, and I could still swing most of it on nights and weekends with a normal W2 job. If I can get to $4k/month, that's probably enough to live frugally and keep growing.

  3. Plan an "exit" — exit is the wrong word for fleeing your own sole-proprietorship that doesn't make enough money to sustain itself... but you get the idea 🤣 I think I'll need one more half-time+ gig or two smaller ones by the end of the year to keep rolling into 2022. Ideally, at this point, I'm only entertaining new gig opportunities that I could see myself working full time at. That way, if it comes to it, I have a chance to evaluate the role for plenty of time leading up to that decision.

Because mid-year coincides with the end of my trip, and finally some normal-looking life for the first time (post-vaccine), I'm feeling invigorated to attack the back half of the year recharged.

Anyone else have big goals for the second half??

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