The One Man Business
Somehow, we are already approaching December. Every year I swear I say it was the fastest year yet, and I find myself saying it again. This year was such a damn blur in every possible way. I’ve pushed myself and tested my knowledge and skills more than I ever have before. Every year, I think about what I want to achieve and most years I manage to cross a lot of things off my list but still have a few things left that I didn’t manage to do, but this year, I exceeded my expectations.
This year was huge, and it’s not even over just yet. In one year, I managed to establish my dessert mix line, start selling desserts to the public, get on national TV, the local news, publish a book, appear in a few online articles, perfect my craft with recipe videos, and leave my job to do all of this full time. That’s a lot of huge stuff for one year. Having all that under my belt adds a lot of pressure for next year, because obviously I want to keep that momentum going, and now that I have a reputation, I’m finally able to keep that ball rolling and really show what I have to offer, because at this point, there is proof that I not only know what I’m doing, but I’m serious about it. I’ve wanted so badly to make an impression and name for myself for what I love, and it’s finally happening.
Out of the hundreds of lessons I learned this year, a lot of them taught me that not every day is great. There are days when people stop at nothing to try and bring you down. There are days when people leave nasty comments on something you put so much time and effort into. There are days where motivation is lacking, where you have no idea what to do, where you draw blanks on how to reach the next step. There will always be those days. There will always be negative people who have nothing better to do than to try and ruin someone else’s day to fill their empty lives. It’s harsh, but it’s true and we all know it.
On the very best days when there’s not a thing you would change, it’s important to remember those bad days, and be proud that you got through them. The bad days aren’t supposed to stop you, they’re supposed to test you. When you’re trying to achieve such big things in life like I am, it’s near impossible to avoid bad days. In fact, there are too many bad days to count, and it’s not because you’re doing things wrong, it’s because life, people, and the world are too unpredictable to guarantee perfection, especially on a daily basis. It’s ok to feel depleted sometimes. It’s ok to have slow days, or days where you’re low on motivation.
I work so hard that it only makes sense that I have days where I think I need to do nothing, because doing more would make me physically and mentally sick. I am still a one-man team that writes recipes, films, and edits them for all social media platforms, bakes and sells desserts, produces, sells, and ships dessert mixes across the country, has pop up tables on weekends, and searches almost daily for even more opportunities. That’s a lot, especially for one person. Do you think I am able to keep that up indefinitely? Absolutely not. I have days where I allow myself to do nothing, because I can only manage to keep it going if I give myself a break, which I will admit is very hard to do.
I’ve gotten in such a habit of being busy because that’s how I make a living. Next year I really have to play my cards right and keep all of this going so I can manage to hire help, because now that all of my efforts are paying off and my content, dessert, and mixes are more established with customers and followers backing them up, building a small team to really push it all will only make it better. I can’t do this alone forever, and that’s a tough pill to swallow. This whole business of Bake it with AJ has become so much more than I imagined. It was just a fun idea at first, but I did literally everything possible the last couple years to make this business my life, and it worked. I proved to myself that if I work super hard and just keep going, it will pay off. After that, you reach a point where you’ve achieved everything you wanted, and start planning the next, bigger goals, and those goals require even more time and effort. After all I’ve done, there’s no doubt in my mind. But for now, it’s time to enjoy the holidays and help others do the same.
