Episode 16 – Hot Queer Summer Recap

I share my digital nomad experience this summer in DC. I share how much money I saved and made by dog sitting in DC, why I decided to stay here longer than a month like I’d planned, how I translated my biz lessons from money coaching to my dog sitting side hustle, and how I’m realizing my priority for having financial freedom is to have creative freedom. Next up, Palm Springs for my 4th Dinah Shore Queer festival in southern California! Thank you for following along on my journey. The hot queer year is still going!!

🦄 Ready to embody your millionaire self? Book a call to learn more about 1:1 money coaching: calendly.com/travelercharly/clarity

Episode 16 – Hot Queer Summer Recap

Podcast Transcript Below

Hello everybody. Welcome to the Unicorn Millionaire Podcast. I’m your host, Charly Stoever. I’m a non-binary Latinx money coach, helping my first gen clients become millionaires. I’m a formerly undocumented Mexican American and currently digital nomad traveling all over the worlds. Super excited to have you here along with me on my journey.

I talk about personal finance, money, mindset, twerking, unicorns, rainbows, you name it. We’re here, we’re queer, and we are going to build wealth for ourselves and our communities.

Hey y’all. How’s it going? I’m Traveler Charly. I’m non-binary Latinx money coach, helping my first gen clients become millionaires, and I’m a little stuffy because the allergies have hit hard. I’ve gone a few days without my allergy pills, and that’s no bueno as a pet sitter, but we’re all good. I’m really excited to share with you my hot queer summer recap.

I can’t believe it’s almost the end of the best season ever, which is Virgo season. Summer’s basically over, and I wanted to talk about my summer and the lessons that I’ve learned that I’m still contemplating and learning about. So I’m a digital nomad, which means that I go wherever the fuck I wanna go, when I wanna go.

I’m financially independent. I rely on the income for my business and my stock and my dog sitting side hustle. So before I talk about that, I wanna talk about celebrations. Whenever I start. My client calls now, because my amazing writing coach does this as well. Before our coaching calls, we start off with celebrations.

What do y’all have to celebrate? It’s taking you a while to think about it. No worries. Because we’re just not used to celebrating enough. But I love this ritual because we are doing so many amazing things. We are doing the most. We’re the first to do the most, whether it’s to be the first, to make the most money in our jobs, to travel this much for leisure.

To go to therapy to break ancestral cycles while still really grateful for our ancestral strengths. So I wanted to celebrate making my first hundred thousand dollars since starting my business two years ago. And I just started my business as a side hustle while getting my master’s degree, which, I initially got because I was not making enough money at the nine to five.

And so based off society standards, I was like, well, I’m not making enough. I guess I need to go to grad school and get an MBA so that I can make more money. And it’s so ironic that I’ve made more money working for myself than I’ve ever made working for somebody. But it’s taken a lot of work to get to this point.

So that’s something that I wanted to celebrate and name and talk about because it’s so easy for us to just discredit our accomplishments and not really take the time for them to simmer and sink in. And reward ourselves and just be kinder to ourselves. Because as a Virgo, I’m hella perfectionist, overachiever.

I expect a lot of myself and of others, but it’s just good to take a step back and think, damn, I’m doing a lot of amazing things no matter what life throws at us. So that’s something that’s super exciting for me to share. My first a hundred k after two years in. And this is just the start, and I wanted to shout out to some of my clients.

Some of my clients have had some amazing wins. I wanna shout out to my client, Nora, who is paying off her credit card like a boss, and she sent me a screenshot of her credit score jumping. I did not know this, but apparently your credit score can jump by 92 points in a week. Nora sent me the screenshot and I was like, am I reading this correctly?

I have my glasses on. It’s not blurry. Yeah. Her credit score jumped by 92. Because she’s paying off her credit card. Um, and then we can use that higher credit score to apply for better credit cards that give better cash back, like the Amex Blue cash card, which gives 6% cash back off groceries, which is an absolute no brainer card, and I think everybody should get that card.

But the neat thing about the Google or Schmoo is you can also Google. Which credit cards require which credit score too. So that’s something that Nora’s doing. She’s doing her research, she’s building her credit score and, and getting ready for the level up in terms of basically using credit card points to get paid more for spending money because capitalism, we’re gonna spend money to survive, so why not make more money back?

That’s a no brainer and I wanna shout out to my client Diane, who . I’m laughing because this is an unexpected win, kind of a side effect of working with Charly that apparently. Now I see as a side effect that Diane and I had a talk about how we both smoke weed. This is not alcoholics anonymous, but it’s really important to think about why you spend money on certain things.

And Diane was realizing that she was spending more money than she wanted to on weed. So she hasn’t been smoking as much weed. I have a vape pen and that thing has lasted me about three months. I don’t know, like I take a puff puff like two or three every day. A vape Pen. The cartridge was like 75 bucks and it’s lasted me a while.

Apparently Diane said that she could go through one of those in a week, and it’s like when we really ask ourselves why we spend money on what we do and then start thinking about our future selves and investing that money instead, then that’s a real game changer. So I’m proud of you, Diane, for shifting your mindset around that.

We’re not about stopping cold Turkey and depriving ourselves, but we are all about asking ourselves if this is an investment in our futures.

And I’m shifting how I think about wants versus needs, because those are subjective to everybody. And instead of saying, oh, before I, I pay or invest money in something, and so saying, is this a want or a need? I start to think of is this an investment that’s gonna pay off in the short slash long term or both?

Or is it gonna pay off financially and emotionally too? Investments aren’t all about the financial return, they’re also about the emotional return. For example, yesterday I spent $120 on a Thai massage, and I had that internal dialogue. Is this a good investment? Yes, it is because I appreciate my body.

I’m taking care of it. Without my body, I would not be able to run a business and do IG lives and do podcasts and twerk upside down, and brunch. So yes, that was a good investment.

Even though my money trauma was like $120, you can do so much more with that. You can invest that in the stock market. You can’t afford that.

Once we start dialoguing with our brain and really questioning, is that true? Is that true? The easier it gets. So shout out to my clients. Y’all should be like, first of all, I wanna thank me and yay for hitting my first a hundred thousand dollars in sales without any external venture capital funding.

Purely created this money from my thoughts in my community and investing tens of thousands of dollars in business coaching as well, which is important to know. Yes, I’ve made a ton of money, but I’ve also reinvested most of it back into business coaching this year. Um, business coaching. My writing coach, I’ve easily spent about 23, 24, 20 $5,000, but it counts as a tax write off.

It’s a business. So that investment is showing me that once I believe in myself and take investing in myself seriously, that’s when the money can really go grow. So my hot queer summer, I’m reframing this as my hot queer summer because I came to DC basically with the idea that I wasn’t going to pay for an Airbnb or pay for rent.

So expensive to live here. I lived here five years ago and the rent’s only going up with inflation, and I thought, well, let me just see if I can dog sit and house sit. Everybody’s having their hot girl summer, so I’ll just watch their dogs and I’m telling myself, oh, after they have their hot girl summer, then I can go have fun.

But in reality, I’ve had a hot queer summer. Yes, I’ve had new issues I haven’t been able to run anymore, which is something that was super important to me. But I’ve also. Done some, a lot of introspection. Uh, returned to doing my PT exercises for my knees, family constellations, taking glucosamine, doing a lot of things to try to heal myself emotionally rather than just through Western medicine.

And it’s been a lot of fun. I initially was just gonna come down to DC because my 10 year Wellesley college reunion in Boston was the first week in June and I just wrapped up a year and a half of living in Mexico in playa, and then I was in Mexico City and then I was like digital nomad, one way ticket life.

Bought a one way ticket from Mexico City to Boston with the idea that I’d come down to DC for like a month or so and then decide where to go next. So I was telling my friends, I’ll probably stay here for a month in DC because I don’t know how this whole like dog sitting thing is gonna work out, so we’ll play it by ear.

But having that emergency fund and money in my stocks and depending on my money coaching business and treating this dog sitting as a side hustle and not as like my only source of income, really gave me the freedom and the liberty to be able to stay and make that decision later, which I think is very ironic that I’m a digital nomad because I love structure, I love planning things.

The other day, I went to a space themed party that was planned by a Virgo. Shout out to Angie who planned it so well. Space decorations, space scene balloons. She had a magician come on through. And then we did space trivia, which she, I beat a lawyer who worked at NASA that, because I guessed the time.

The last question that we went head to head on was how long did Sputnik, uh, first satellite from Russia in 1957, how long did that take to orbit around. In minutes, and I’m a nerd, I go to the Air Space Museum. I love random facts and I guess under 21 minutes, and the NASA lawyer guest under 41, he was, he was taking longer than I did.

I was just like, boom hundred 21, let’s go with it. And he was doing mental math and calculations and equations and that’s like, uh, what you can you calculating over there? And then I ended up winning because the correct answer was 98 seconds. So, It was fun. I won a Pluto shirt, NASA tote, and uh, a book called My Remarkable Journey, which was the autobiography of Catherine Johnson, one of the first black mathematicians that worked at NASA all the way from the fifties until the eighties.

Whose character was in the movie with Janelle Monet and to Taraji P. Henson called Hidden Figures. So I just read that. Um, so yeah, it’s been a lot of fun. See, I’m going to space parties. Um, but yeah, I love structure, but at the same time, I also. I’m getting more and more comfortable in creating safety for myself in terms of being okay with not knowing where I’m going to sleep in two weeks because I don’t own property anywhere.

I don’t own a home. I’m choosing not to invest in one right now, and I say right now because as can change, our money goals are allowed to change. I am not feeling tied to a particular place. I’m single af. I don’t have a partner. I don’t have a pet. I don’t have anything tying me down anywhere. I’m not close to my biological family, so I’m really not tied down anywhere.

So for me, financially and at this point in my life doesn’t really make sense for me to own property. And when I was in living in Mexico, I was nice to have short term leases. You didn’t have to do a whole year lease. I did six month lease, and that was perfect for me to have a short term. So, yeah, I came to DC thinking, okay, I’ll figure out where to go.

I might go to LA cuz I like LA I was gonna think about, just heading on over there. The only thing I had planned, which I had planned every year, is the Dinah Shore queer festival. It’s the world’s biggest lesbian and non-binary people pool party that’s in Palm Springs every year and every year I go, except Covid.

This is gonna be my fourth one. I’m super excited. It’s just a lot of fun, but that isn’t until next week. Okay? So from June until September 20th, I just kept my options open, but still at the same time wanted to kind of have a plan, and that’s the mindset work as a digital nomad that I create have to create safety for myself.

This whole time in DC I came here and stayed with friends, and then I started applying what I was learning from my money coaching business to my dog sitting side hustle, which is on Rover. So what that means is that before when I was doing Rover, I was open to doing everything under the sun. I wasn’t charging as much as I do now, I was just willing to get whatever work there was. I was willing to dog sit and I couldn’t afford because I didn’t have a place to live, but I was willing to dog sit back in the day and, and house sit and do all the things. But now this summer I was like, I don’t wanna dog sit. I just want to house sit.

And not just to save money, but also companionship because I am single and I don’t want to feel like I have to meet a human or be with a human so that I’m not lonely. In my opinion, that’s not a good reason at all to be in a relationship with somebody. I appreciate my alone time, appreciate my freedom, but I also don’t like being completely alone all day, every day.

And so the house sitting has allowed me to seek out the company. It’s just nice to when you come home, there’s a dog wagging and happy to see you or to be able to cuddle with some kitties when I’m gratitude journaling in the morning or at night. So that was another big reason for me to, to dive deep into the dog sitting.

But what shifted for me that I translated from the money coaching is that I wasn’t, I turned off the like one-off sessions. Before, when I started money coaching, I used to just do one-off sessions. Anybody could book me on my calendar whenever, and I just used to charge like 30 to 80 to 150 bucks at a time.

And that took a lot more work and I made less money with that and I felt like I was more available. But this time I translated that. Now I only do six months of coaching, which I charge high four figures for because I’m helping people invest their leftover money once they fill up their emergency fund.

I help them invest thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in the stock market so that they can become millionaires. I don’t wanna say quickly, but they can become millionaires a lot faster than they think if they just get started investing asap. So with the dog sitting, I decided I’m not gonna do dog walks anymore.

I’m not gonna be available to just like hop across town and spend money on an Uber or bike across town to walk a dog. I’m gonna shut that down and only do the house sitting. And I also would say no to the very short term dog sitting requests. I have done like a few one to two to three day gigs here and there, but I was more intentional about saying no to the short term gigs because I could make so much more money

It was also less of a pain to pack up all my things and move across town when I was, dog sitting for somebody who needed me to watch their pet for 10 days. So that happened twice. I had two 10 day clients and I had other clients that booked me for week or more, and I definitely made more money and it was just more simple and less stressful.

And it’s just interesting how this side hustle has become the side hustle to my money coaching business that I created and all about having different passive and active income sources. But I feel like a lot of these lessons that I’m telling you about how you can translate what you learn from one business to the other can help you.

My client, Nora, has also started dog sitting as well to make extra. Because we’re all about that here. Another thing I did differently this year, the shift was that I was a lot more open about who I was in my Rover profile. There’s like a tagline on Rover that people can see next to your photo that basically summarizes who you are in a few sentences.

I remember mine that I had before was very vague. It just said active, responsive pet sitter. And I was like, after doing my money coaching business, I was like, no, no, no. I needed to tell people exactly what I’m about and who I am so that I can gravitate my ideal clients toward me. So I changed that and turned it into, uh, I think it was, it was something like queer, Latinx, pet Lover, something like that, to show people that I am queer, I am LGBTQ.

And then with that, I definitely got a spike int clients. Some people might think it wouldn’t matter, but it does. Like you don’t wanna have to explain yourself or, or think about, oh, is my identity okay with you when you’re watching somebody’s pet? But as we’ve seen people make being gay or queer or trans, a much bigger deal than it should be even in our year in 2022.

So those were all the little shifts and big shifts that I made to be more intentional about making more money with my dog, sitting side hustle. After just being here for about three months, instead of paying like up to $2,000 in rent a month in DC for a studio, I ended up making a little over $3,000.

With Rover? Yes. Okay. They take a 20% commission. So this is after that commission that they take out, which I don’t mind. And I also definitely raised my price when I got here, I was charging like 50 bucks for house sitting, but with inflation and with my quality of care and how responsive I am, and with, on my awesome reviews that I’ve racked up on my page, I bumped that up to $75 a night.

And I was nervous that that would deter people, but it didn’t really at all. All of those things have helped me make more money and make me feel like I could stay in DC. But it was also nice to know that I could stay with friends in between the dog sitting gigs. And I definitely had enough money to book a nice hotel room if I wanted to in between stays, which I thought about doing.

When I looked at hotel prices in DC it was like for a bougie Hotel, three or 400 a night. And I was like, that would last me in Latin America or in Southeast Asia. So it’s fine and I’m not really a hotel type of person anyway, just didn’t seem like a smart investment, so I decided not to make that investment at the time.

But again, all of these things can change. Who knows, I might be all about the bougie fucking Ritz Carlton Hilton Life later. You never know. But at for this point in. That’s, that’s not what I’m all about. So that’s pretty much how I stayed in DC literally did not pay for rent. I mostly dog sat and instead of paying to live here, I was paid to live here.

And it just reminded me that we can make money where we go as long as we have our emergency fund and other income sources so that we don’t get bogged down in that scarcity mindset and are open and, and are real with others about who we are because that abundance and openness will attract money tenfold.

So I ended up staying in DC I’m still here and I’m leaving tomorrow, but other shifts that I wanted to talk about. That I allowed myself to be more creative this summer in Mexico, I started crafting more because I finished my MBA and had a lot more spare time. So I remember collaging and having friends over for crafts nights.

But then this summer, I think a big shift was hiring a writing coach because I’ve never hired somebody to help with a creative endeavor, which is how I’m seeing writing a book. I’m seeing it as a way for me to show myself that I’m worth investing in, in terms of writing a book and being creative instead of saying, oh, I’m gonna write a book and make money.

That’s not the goal. And in my opinion, it’s a lot harder to be creative when you have that pressure around money. I don’t work well under pressure and I’m certainly not creative under pressure. Hell to the no. But I have been talking with my writing coach for about a month, and initially I thought I was just gonna write a book, but then working with her, I’ve realized that since I love to create art and draw, why don’t I do a graphic novel.

She’s been great because she’s helped me, uh, look at other books. And before this, I, the graphic novels I’d read were Percep and that’s it. But then I started going to the library and reading books like Fun Home and Dancing at 10, and seeing other versions of graphic novels. And seeing a lot of queer representation, which I’ve never seen in graphic novels as well, because there was definitely this section where there I saw way too many like penises in like, I don’t know what it was, but the one section of the graphic novels at the library saw many naked men, a lot of violent graphic novels, and I was like, yeah, this is why I’ve never been in this section.

But then there was the other section that talked about people overcoming challenges in LGBT history and books like Persepolis, which I’ll read over and over. And I love that movie, which talks about, uh, an Iranian woman growing up during the Iranian revolution in having to leave. And I relate a lot to that displacement and not feeling like you’re from here nor there, which is how I feel.

A Mexican born American and Mexican citizen who was formerly undocumented, so, I definitely read a lot more books because in Mexico there’s not a lot of books in English and I speak Spanish and I can read Spanish, but it just exhausts my brain so much more. I feel a lot sleepier when I read in Spanish, and being back here made me realize that I do love reading.

It’s something that was very important to me. So I paid 20 bucks for a DC library membership since I don’t have a DC ID and I bought a Kindle Paper White so that I can use the Libby app. Uh, anywhere I go so I can get books for free and read them and not say, oh, I can’t read. I’m, I’m living outside of the states.

It’s an excuse not to read because that’s helping me get inspired to write a book and create. So I’ve been drawing a lot more creating with my markers, collaging, and it’s just shown me that financial freedom to me is creative freedom. And I’ve also realized that subconsciously I didn’t prioritize my creativity even though I’m writing a freaking graphic novel.

Subconsciously, I would put, I would delay the creative process for in the afternoon once I had all my other important things done, like checking my emails and scheduling things, and the boring, important stuff. Basically what I thought, what I assumed were the money generating activity. But I realize I’m a morning person.

I wake up naturally 6:37 AM I’m in the zone. I, yes, I gratitude journal, but I can also create in the morning. So that’s something that I’m being more intentional of is drawing and creating in the morning when I’m the most alive and awake and my subconscious is the most available for possibilities.

Cause then after around one, 2:00 PM that part of me starts shutting down and it just didn’t make sense for me to start creating when the creative part of me is shutting down at all. So that was another shift that financial freedom has helped me realize. Financial freedom to me meant traveling, but it also meant creative freedom and getting to say, actually, I don’t want to wait until 2, 3, 5, 6, 7:00 PM to draw and collage and create.

How about we pop that bitch over to the eight or 9:00 AM slot because as an entrepreneur I can call the shots. In terms of my schedule, I only do client calls in the morning. I’ve had a client who’s a dear friend who lived in Australia and with a huge time zone difference. We didn’t have morning calls because it didn’t work out for her, but as an entrepreneur who is financially independent, you have more ability to literally say, this is what your schedule is.

But that can also like hurt you because I realize in two years I’ve made a hundred thousand dollars in sales, but I haven’t taken an official day, a week or month off in my business too, because that nine to five worker part of me was like, well, you have to ask for time off and wait for it, and. And I also feel like I haven’t taken an official time off because I feel like I already have so much time freedom that I create for myself anyway.

So I felt like, oh, I don’t really deserve time off because shit’s popping. I already can go to the museum or the zoo on a Wednesday morning and see the pandas, but it’s not true because even when you’re, yeah, when you’re an entrepreneur, you’re always thinking about your business, not because of the money, hopefully, but because you love your job that you’ve created for yourself so much, and you’re thinking about your clients and how you can show up for your community so much.

But it does take up mental and emotional labor, so that’s something that I’m gonna start that I have been starting talking to clients about. Like, Hey, I’ve taken, uh, time off since I started my biz two months ago. My clients are awesome. They’re like, yes, that sounds like a great idea, but I wanted to share that in case you’re an entrepreneur thinking about, um, entrepreneurship that you call the shots in terms of creating your schedule, but you also call the shots in terms of giving yourself time off.

And if you hear barking dogs, it’s Honeybee. That’s my final DC doggy that I’m watching, and he’s always checking out the door for the Amazon deliveries. So yeah, financial freedom I’m discovering is also creative freedom. It’s not just the ability for me to say, fuck you to an employer, nine to five and leave a toxic workplace or toxic partner.

To me it is also creative freedom because when I’m creating, when I’m drawing, even if it’s cooking, that kind of creation, I’m in the zone and that’s when I feel very alive. Other times I feel alive is when I’m shaking my ass, uh, Bad Bunny concert or bachata brunch and it’s twerking upside down, making people laugh,

A lot of creative juices have finally started flowing, but I’ve had to be a lot more intentional than I thought I would have to be because being financially independent allows you to compress time, and it gives you access to things a lot more quickly. Then you’d think you’d get, like, I, I still work for myself, but I still feel like I’m semi-retired and I’m getting to talk about these things and talk about prioritizing my creativity, which is something that I honestly didn’t think I’d be able to do until I was in my forties, fifties, sixties, and this is what my writing coach told me.

She said, the fact that you’re realizing that you can and probably should prioritize your creativity for earlier in the day. According to your circadian rhythm and your biological clock is something that people who I work with who are in their forties, fifties, sixties, are barely realizing about themselves now.

I thought I was late to the game, but apparently I’m just on time because we’re all running on divine time. So yeah, I’ve had so much fun this summer. I realized it was important for me to stay put for a few months, even though I was in Mexico for a week and a half. I thought that that was gonna be my forever place living in Playa del Carmen, and it was what I needed at the time.

I first moved there to just get away from the US and get my masters and start my business, but I realized that it wasn’t as intellectually stimulating as I’d hoped. And living five minutes from the beach still didn’t solve my shit. I still had to go to therapy and do a lot of the inner work that a lot of people avoid doing their entire lives.

That because it’s hard because something my therapist told me when I realized that being living by the beach still isn’t gonna make me super happy. She was like, yeah, paradise isn’t a place, it’s a state of being. It’s within you. So I still say how strange that I don’t feel like moving back to the beach, but I appreciate living in Paradise, but it still wasn’t what I need in this present moment.

It was a very transient community too, of people like myself, digital nomads, who wanted to escape wherever Canada, the US, Europe for a change. But it was hard building community. And I’m introverted, but I’m also extroverted and I don’t like being home all day long. And I also didn’t like meeting friends and having to introduce myself to people because a week or two later they’d be gone.

And that was hard for me to deal with. I love my community online that I have, um, it’s Latinx Heritage Month. Big deal. It feels like that every day to me, cuz my community is the shit, but that in person community is also important for me. I found that being in DC it was just nice to see the same people over and over for three months and that consistency and going to bachata brunch and going to branches and just being able to text people and meet up with them.

That is something that I’m, I value a lot more and I could definitely see myself coming back to the US in the summer, but I’m not a winter person. I don’t do snow. Anything colder than 65 degrees is a no for me. And there’s also the world is huge. So what’s next for me is that tomorrow I’m gonna fly to Dallas to hang out with my friend, Honey.

If you haven’t listened to the ayahuasca episode with Honey Bruja on my podcast, listen to that cuz that’s one of my favorite episodes where Honey is a good friend that I met in Playa. She’s basically my spiritual mom. We’re both Virgos and she talks about her experience with that plant medicine, which I haven’t done.

I’ve only done magic mushrooms. But based off her experience, I definitely wanna try out Ayahuasca Mama aya. So I’m gonna hang out with her for a few days and then I’m gonna fly out to Palm Springs, California for the Dinah Shore Queer Festival. I remember going for the first time in 2018. Before that, I was living in DC and I was starting my tour guiding job based in California.

One way ticket life flew from DC to Palm Springs right after getting my top surgery, and I remember being very nervous because I, at the time they just called it a lesbian women’s festival. And as somebody who was coming, stepping more into my non-binary identity, I was nervous that I wouldn’t be welcomed. Uh, when I went, it was the first time it was able to walk around shirtless and feel safe, and it started conversations when I first went in 2018.

There were a lot less trans folks, non-binary folks, or women identified people who decided to get top surgery. But now the more and more I go to these LGBT festivals, the more trans folks I see, and they’ve changed the title to the world’s biggest lesbian and non-binary festival to just make it more welcoming.

Several trans people who go as well. So it’s not just cisgender lesbian pool party. It just feels like a fun Coachella with way less creepy cis dude. Hitting on us and we don’t have to worry about that stuff. Um, but yeah, it’s like a four day pool party and every night there’s dancing. So I definitely have to rally for that.

But I remember going last year, at the last minute after an intense breakup that, um, happened when I was seeing my ex, who’s Peruvian, we did long distance and I went to Peru and stayed with her for three months and I ended that relationship and it was very hard on. I still think about her and I miss her, but it just was not meant to be.

I was really depressed when I came back to Mexico and I decided to just go to Dinah Shore, and that was a really great investment decision that I made to buy a last minute ticket. Tickets were, were up. And it’s not a cheap festival because it takes a lot of work to plan a festival like this every year, and the tickets are a couple hundred.

And I didn’t get the early bird discount, but I still thank God that I decided to go. Um, cuz I think after ending that relationship, I felt really bad and I didn’t feel like I valued myself enough. And I felt like I was the bad person, ending the relationship. And I had a lot of thoughts of not deserving things anymore at the time.

And I thank that past self. For doing the hard things and for going through what they went through. But now I’m just excited to go because it’s a lot of fun and I get to see friends that I don’t see at other times during the year. And I love Southern California. I love California. I love the gender neutral bathrooms.

They don’t really have that much in DC It’s just nice to know and not be, and feel like the only non-binary person in the room. Cause I still get, uh, stared at or looks whenever I use the women’s bathroom here. Cause I still feel safe using that than the men’s bathroom. As a sexual assault survivor, I still rather use women’s bathrooms, but it’s still awkward AF for me.

Even when I had Chachi, I remember going to women’s bathrooms and like sticking my chest out so I could show women that I’m not a dude . So I don’t have that anymore. Literally will cough and just say hi so that people can hear my voice and realize that I’m not a dude , but in California I don’t feel like I have to worry about that as much.

It’s just a very open place. And I might be dog sitting as well in LA for a week or so. I love West Hollywood. I went for the very first time in my life last year and it was so fun. It just felt like, oh, this is West Hollywood. This is where the gays are. This feels like pride year round. I’m down with this.

So we’ll see. I try dog sitting in that area. And then I’m going to another coach’s retreat with Kyla Matsu. Sorry, uh, in Palm Spring seventh through the ninth, and I think that there’s still spots left for that coach’s retreat, which is gonna be super fun. So y’all can come if y’all are interested in joining for that.

That’s where entrepreneurs or people who are, are wanting to bring their souls into their businesses and I’m just excited to meet coaches in person. I love in person events where I can just meet really cool people. Because it just hits different than meeting people online and getting to meet my online friends in person is the shit.

It’s also reason why I like to travel. So yeah, hit me up if you’re in SoCal. And then after that it’ll be October 10th is still tbd, but I have been eyeballing tickets to Taipei, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, because I’ve never into Southeast Asia. In 2013, I went to Japan for the first time for two weeks, traveled there, and then in 2016, I believe, or 2017, I traveled to China for a week.

But I feel like I, the universe is calling me to go to Southeast Asia. That’s a part of the world. I’ve never been to that. I’ve always been curious. And I’m just ready to ball out again. Go to the night markets, eat all the affordable food. Cause in DC I haven’t deprived myself obviously, but it’s like a massage here costs 120 bucks.

In Mexico is getting weekly beach massages for 30 bucks. To put things into perspective, I definitely did not get them as often as I did in Mexico. If anything, I’ve only gotten them twice. But in Thailand, catch me every other day getting those type massages. Especially as a single person who is not antisocial.

I love physical contact and I feel like I can get that through the massages and they just feel good. Who in their right mind is ever like, oh yeah, a massage was a bad idea. I don’t trust people like that. Massages are always a good idea, um, which I definitely recommend. getting massage ASAP post breakup because after a breakup, your body is biologically wired for that physical contact.

So that’s something that is an extra priority after I’ve gone through breakups is just get that massage so that I can reconnect with my own body, but still feel like I’m loved because so much of that is just biological wiring and condition. Two, there’s just so many lessons from breakups to learn.

Um, so we will see. I’ll update you all as soon as I know, but this. Why I live the one way ticket life so that I don’t have to decide. So if I feel like going somewhere, I can do it and I can do the one way ticket thing, cuz I don’t have anything tying me down. I don’t have shit in storage. I just travel with my 65 liter backpack in a smaller backpack with my things.

And I pretty much only travel to warm countries. Which is also a lighter way to travel. I don’t have to worry about like thick coats or snow boots or pants. I own two pairs of pants and one pair of sweatpants. That’s it. So I pack pretty light. That’s, that’s the digital nomad side of me that I realize I don’t really talk about a lot,

But I think it is important to share that because once you’re living your own life, no matter how amazing or baller or different it is, you forget how unique it is, than when I tell people about what I do, they ask me a lot of questions and they wanna know more, and I’m like, oh, I guess, yeah, my life is pretty unique and baller.

Not everybody does what I do, but more and more people are interested in financial freedom. Retiring early, traveling more. And it’s a journey that I’m taking you along with me too. Like I’ve said, you can be good with your money, save it, invest it. And if you want help with that, definitely book a call to link in my bio to work with me cuz I do six month one on one coaching.

When I started my financial independence journey, I was never like, yeah, I wanna have more money in time so I can write a book and draw more and do a graphic novel. Like what? I literally just realized that I wanted to do this a month ago. I’m excited for you to realize once you start your financial independence journey, what your real priorities are that come out of the woodwork.

Is it really to buy a house and to just travel? Like what else is there for you in life? So, Yeah. I hope you enjoyed this episode. The summer flew by and I wanted to stop at this point in time to reflect on all the lessons that I’ve learned this summer, and hopefully you’ve learned something too.

From what I’ve learned since we’re all about sharing our experiences and learning from each other, the good and the bad, and the mistakes. So that’s what I’ve been up to. Yeah, a lot of amazing stuff. I’m really grateful for my friends, for myself for doing things and not being so perfectionist about it, and for trusting in myself and my intuition and the universe and for the healing that I’m doing every day, whether it’s telling myself, yes, you can create and draw before you get down to business and record a podcast and things like that.

So yeah, I’m excited. I’m, I’m grateful for what I’ve done so far this year, and I’m super excited to see what’s next. And I’ll, I’ll keep you sharing. I’ll, I’ll keep taking you along with me.

Don’t you worry. And again, if you want to work with me through one on one money coaching, book a call at the link in the show notes. And I can’t wait to meet you and talk about accessing your future at Milli and yourself cause that’s what we’re all about. All right, everybody, have a great day. Bye.