The Optimist

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Episode 2

 

 

 

But How? 

I am in high school right now so I am trying to understand how money works. It has not been easy trying to understand bank terms or bills like taxes. I have been trying to make money so I finance myself through college. Learning all these new things is challenging and can be very confusing at times. Through my search, I have found moneys ways to source income. Before I tell you about those income sources, I want to give you some more information about myself. I know absolutely nothing about the internet. I have never had Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, or Pinterest, and I haven’t had YouTube on my phone for years. My cousin along time ago once tried to put on this new app called Musical.ly, but right after she downloaded it to my phone, I deleted it. I have gotten many compliments from adults and weird looks from kids my age and younger. Now I have always loved that I was totally detached from social media heck I didn’t even know what popular songs came out from 2020 all the way to 2024. I am proud of myself for having that amount of restraint, but now that I am older and want to start a business, I have no clue how anything works on the internet. Even my mom knows more slang than I do. So dropshipping and making money online, period is so confusing sometimes I just want to throw my laptop to the wall. Since I have never really been on these social media sites, I have no idea how they work or operate. So I go on to handy dandy YouTube. Now I have used YouTube many times before even though it hasn’t been downloaded on my phone in years. So I have some idea how it works. Through hours of watching videos, I have learned what affiliate marketing is. I have never known what that was I just knew that people put a bunch of ads on their videos. After I finally realized what an affiliate was I had to understand how do you become an affiliate. I was very skeptical at first because how could I recommend other companies when I hadn’t even shopped on Amazon before? So I went to work, got out of my comfort zone, and started going on the world WEB. I have learned about dropshiping and government contracts and learned other skills I need to help my business. As you may know, I am very passionate about writing in all forms except for sonnets they make my brain hurt with their complexity. I started learning about other ways to make income, like dropshipping and things that are similar to that, so I can start really working on my passion. I stopped and started again and again, asking myself the same question, BUT HOW? Until I started asking myself BUT WHAT IF? What if I take this step, and the lord carries me through? Maybe we should ask ourselves, What if other than but how? That is my challenge slash question to you beautiful people.

Business 

Recently I started my business called Yellow Lilacs. I sell all my poetry and other books there. I have had to learn a lot of new things to become a business owner. I learned that you need to make business cards and have certain goals you meet every day. I learned in order to have a more successful business nowadays you need to know about the internet and various apps. I am still starting my business. Some will say I do too much but that is just how I roll. I know in my heart that God has these businesses in his hands and so I rely on him right now through all the challenges. All I need to do is put the work in and he will do the rest. Though it has been difficult, I have a new appreciation for everyone in the world. The other day I went to the bank with my mom where I got a student account which you can get at 14 and older. On this account, you don’t have to pay a monthly service charge for six years. This was offered by the bank PNC. Since I am 15 years my mm thought it would be a great time to teach me about how banks and taxes operate. I thank her for doing that because I would have been even more lost than I already am. Now I have an account so I can start pursuing all my business adventures. So this takes me to the next step of my businesses which was researching things dealing with self-publishing, dropshiping, and Government contracting. I first started off my research with what were the best publishing sites and came across a YouTuber named Dale Roberts. He talked about all things dealing with self-publishing. He broke down what each self-publishing site had to offer and what they still lacked. I am currently still working on the illustrations of my books. I reached out to some artists on Fiverr but they were so expensive. So I am still negotiating on my illustrations. Even though I am still working on my illustrations, I am still excited about my project and I just found this new website named Reedsy which I think I can find an illustrator there if Fiverr doesn’t work out. Then I was on to the next thing, which for me was Government Contracts, where I wrote down some of the contracts me and my mom could get started on. I thought sam.gov was really confusing until I found this YouTuber named Kizzy Parks who simplified that website for me. Then I saw this other YouTuber named Sheenturpreneur who encouraged her audience to start with state or local contracting. I found both of these girls to be helpful on my Government Contracting journey. Then it was on to the next which always seems to be the case for me. I was now looking into drop shipping. When I first heard of drop shipping, I thought it was a scheme, and in other cases, it might be. You just have to be careful where you spend your money. As for ads, don’t use older social media sites like Facebook to present all your ads. You should diversify and not spend too much money. You also have to get a reliable distributor who gives your clients good quality objects whether that be clothes or building tools. While I was researching how to start drop-shipping, I looked at Santrel Media, where he broke down how you set up your drop-shipping website and run your ads. While I watched this other YouTuber, Sebastian Ghiorghiu, I saw his process of how he used to do drop shipping. I also think Jordan Welch helped me a lot with his dropshipping videos. Overall I found myself too excited because if they could do it I can do it also. That is why I started this blog to show my process and to document the different stages I am encountering on this journey.

Verse Of The Day 

Proverb 3: 5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.