Locked Myself in an Airbnb and Wrote a Book!
So here’s the deal I’m writing a book I’m writing a book about the last 10 years of being a social media marketer! All the moments leading up to when I started my agency in 2010 to where we are now currently in the world and I was trying to figure out how to focus and get this done and make sure that my purpose is really clear throughout the whole process. So I decided to take you with me as I did a hardcore two day focus on writing this book. But first, coffee! First things first… coffee. So we’re in the middle of a pandemic and I needed a place that I could write this book so I rented an Airbnb. Let’s roll back the tape here, I’ve had this idea for this book since November, since Thanksgiving actually. I was talking with my husband about it while we were driving to do family Thanksgiving in Colorado and it just hit me, like, we gotta do this book. This book is the lessons that I have learned over the last 10 years of social media marketing and what you can learn from them. I wrote it with the mindset that anybody can take these lessons and apply them to their business right now and go on this journey with me while also learning about what you can do along the way. Home. Cleaning and focusing Since we’re in a pandemic everything’s getting sprayed down and wiped off. The reason I had to go to the Airbnb versus working at home is because there are five other people living in my house; my husband, my two kids, and my two in-laws who we brought in to stay with us through this pandemic just because of all the craziness. They’re older and that’s what you do, you take care of your family, but they’re just a lot and it’s a small house because it’s our house that we’re using to transition into our forever home. It’s noisy and it’s hard and my kids have 100% reached their limit on all of this because they’re sick of being inside. They hate that they can’t go see friends or do anything or go to school, there’s so much anxiety; there’s just so much struggle and frustration. I had put my payment in to my editor and my deposit, he’s like okay I need you to get me as many of your pages by May 4th well this whole series of events happened on April 29th and it literally occurred to me over the weekend that I don’t have enough pages! I have maybe like 40% done, maybe. I had been writing it slowly over the past couple months and I was NOT far enough along. I needed to focus so I reached out to my client and friend Brookes and I was like “hey, I know you have your bnb’s in Phoenix any of them empty so that I can step in and do this?” He’s said absolutely go use this place, total savior! But I knew I needed extra motivation, the novelty of getting to be out of my house and away from the noise and the kids was going to wear off real quick and I had get motivated. So I asked friends of mine to write me letters and I had them send them to my husband. I told my husband print them and put them in envelopes and label when I can open them. I’m so thankful to have the friends and support that I do. It’s one thing to have your ride or die friends, everyone needs them, and it’s even better when your ride or die’s can also be people who you can work with, like entrepreneur ride or die friends. So many of my friends that are awesome and wonderful don’t understand my world because they’re not in it. They are mothers, one of my best friends was a banker turned mom, one of my other friends she was a social worker turned mom and they get it, they understand the work but they’re not in this entrepreneur, own your own business life, while also being a mom and being a wife and dealing with all things that go there. so I was really excited to read these and let them pump me up and guide me through this crazy book journey I went on over 24 or 36 hours. Working through the memories Part of my story, like I said this is a memoir of what’s been going on in my life through this journey and I had to write out the story of giving birth to my second child, my daughter. Literally, every time I tell this story it makes me cry because there’s just so many things that go with it. I almost lost her and I can’t tell this story again, I can’t cry through it again but, it’s just so crazy reliving my life through this book. My hope is that these stories are as moving and helpful but, man, reliving it is intense. So I read letter number two and it says “Writing a book should be a piece of cake for me and by the way did I bring some cake? If not I need to order some asap.” So I responded by ordering Chipotle for lunch but now I need to order cake ’cause my letter told me to. I really wanted to stop writing for a bit, give myself a mental break. I went to Starbucks got myself a ridiculously large tea, got caught up in conversation and then put my kids to bed over video chat and it was just like ugh. I think my husband knew that I would feel the way I did because he’s my husband was the one in charge of doing all of the labeling of letters and when I was suppose to open things. He read all the