Get Personal With Me! Life Update + Mid-Year Check In

This month’s content is going to be a little different. I’m going to share about myself outside of being a travel blogger. I think it’s important for you to know who I am if I’m going to be sharing guides & tips with you.

So this week’s video is going to be a life update and a mid-year check in. And it’s a video that I want to do every half year. And I’ll share about what’s going on in my life, as a traveler, a blogger, a business owner. And share it in a way where it can helpful for you.

I think it’s a fun way for us to grow together and feel like we’re chatting over drinks. I want it to feel like we’re friends and you get to have a peek into my life, my thought process and learn something for yourself. And I don’t want our relationship to be a one-way conversation where it’s the viewer watching the guru. Not saying that I am one.

I want my relationship with you guys to be a 2-way conversation. And you get to comment in my videos or emails knowing I’ll reply back to you, so it becomes a 2-way conversation. So grab a cup of coffee, or a glass of wine or a cup of milk tea, whatever your drink of choice is and get comfy with me.

My drink of choice right now is tea.

So let’s get started.

inAuthentic Blog Growing & making it authentic

Since this is my first life update episode, I thought I’d do a update of where my blog was when I started and where it is now. So started my blog in September 2016 and it’s April 2019 today so my blog is about 2 years and 8 months old. When I started, my goal was to post once a week. So if I stayed true to that, I would have 119 posts on my blog today. I have 47.

And the reason for that was because of a few things:

I got caught up in the rat race of Instagram and spent at least 5 hours a day creating content specifically for Instagram, engaging on Instagram pods, Telegram groups, WhatsApp groups and paying for follow/unfollow services. With the goal of increasing my following, and bringing traffic to my blog.

Yes my following and engagement increased. But was it authentic? No.

And did it bring traffic to my blog? Very, very little.

And here’s why it didn’t work:

1. Spending 5+ hours on Instagram everyday wasn’t healthy
2. It was not efficient way to work if I wanted to make money from my blog.
3. It didn’t give my account a true standing of my following. I didn’t know if my posts were connecting with my true followers because most of my comments were either from influencers in engagement groups I was in or generic comments from bot followers. AND the likes of my posts were inflated from Telegram like groups. So I never got a true standing of my following and if they liked my content or not.

So it became exhausting for me to post. I’d be lazy and post just pretty pictures with half-assed captions. And because of that I felt like I was turning into the very people I didn’t like on Instagram. That and spending 5+ unhealthy hours a day also left me with less time to create content for my actual blog.

It’s true you don’t need a huge social following to have a successful blog. And I learned that the hard way. So to remedy that, I took a 2-month social media detox to clear my head and come back to myself. Then, I unfollowed all the accounts that made me doubt myself as a blogger and/or were sharing only surface-level content. Then, I left all the Instagram pods, WhatsApp groups and Telegram groups. And cleared out all the ghost and bot followers. I ended up losing about 2700 followers. And now I only post 1-2x a week.  Not necessarily focusing on how pretty my pictures are but more on sharing vulnerable stories with valuable lessons I’ve learned. Something that people could relate to without giving them FOMO.

And it’s interesting that by doing that, my audience was back to being authentic and my posts were connecting with them much more. So my goal with Instagram now is to share behind the scenes of my blog and my life and to connect with readers and viewers of my content because most of them like to connect with me on Instagram.

So if Instagram wasn’t bringing me traffic, what was?

It was Pinterest. I only spent a few hours on it per month but it was the reason why at least 90% of traffic was visiting my blog. Instagram was a measly 14% with at least 5 hours a day of work.

So I focused on Pinterest. Pinning 20-30 pins a day. And in 2 months, I was able to grow my following by 1000 to 1200 followers. My monthly pin viewers from 55k to 330k. And my blog traffic from 3700 to 5700 unique visitors per month. So I’m really happy that not only is it growing at a steady rate but it’s also growing authentically.

TPG Show

The next update I want to share is really exciting and I can’t wait for it to premiere.

I haven’t really talked much about it before but I teamed up with a Filipino TV network in Guam to create a travel show for Pinoys in Guam and it’s called “Traveling Petite Girl” with yours truly as your host.

I haven’t really shared much because it’s under wraps but so far, we have filmed 3 episodes and 1 live show. Each episode features a specific province to bring more balikbayans to Philippines and inspire them where to go and what to do there. So far, we filmed in Pampanga, Iloilo, a Star Cruise ship, and broadcasted the Dinagyang Festival live from Iloilo.

There’s still a lot of preparation going on so we haven’t premiered yet. And though our focus is to air on TV to Filipinos on Guam, we will also be posting the videos on YouTube for all other balikbayans to watch too.

And I’ll update you guys on when that is once we have a date.

Online course

And another new project I’m working on for you guys is creating and selling my first product, an online course. I’m actually taking an online course right now to learn how to create an online course.

So I’m not exactly clear on what my course will be about, and I’ll ask you guys when the time comes, but it might be about how to start a profitable blog or youtube channel within a certain timeline. Because I’ve been blogging for almost a few years and I’ve made so many mistakes.

I wish I had all the info I needed when I started so I want to help others who want to blog, get their foundations covered as soon as they start. And get straight to making money so that they can create the lifestyles they want. I’m still in the topic exploration phase so I’ll let you know what it ends up being. I know a lot of you guys want to blog and vlog too.

MY LOVE LIFE AFTER ABUSE

Okay so last topic is my about love life. Last week I shared about my traumatic dating history that involved abuse.

And I want to share about where I am with that today, how my dating life is like currently and if it still get affected. And this is for my viewers who are in the same boat as me. Especially since abuse is not a conversation so openly talked about, I thought I would share my experience to open up more opportunities for conversation and awareness.

So if you watched my previous video, I talked about how much I hated men, never felt safe around them and had to date them in order to not be angry at them. Well, after ending a 2 year relationship with the guy I mentioned in the video, I found myself dating again. And this time, I ended up appreciating men and felt really safe around them. They treated me so well. They took me out, listened to me, made sure I was safe once I got home. And I think this is largely because of how I hold myself up today AND my strict process of choosing who to date. I’m much more confident now, I walk taller, I speak much louder and clearer, and have a better head on my shoulders. And I knew if things didn’t work out in my dating life, well that was okay because everything else in my life was going great and I didn’t feel the need to be in a relationship. I just wanted to get reacquainted with dating since I felt rusty.

So right now, I’m in a healthy relationship with an amazing guy who lives in Okinawa. And after a year and a half of getting to know each other long distance, we decided the next step was to live together. So because I work remotely and he doesn’t, I moved in with him from Guam and this is our place in Okinawa.

HOW WE MET

How we met was during the last hours of his work trip in Guam and we stayed connected. We had our first date in Thailand which was a really intense 10 days but we really got to know each other.  Then we started dating long distance and I didn’t see him until 5 months later.

To be honest, when I met him, I was attracted to him but also not. I thought he was just a guy trying to get into my pants. And because I was wary and wanted to be safe, I never gave him my real name or number.  But he tried hard to look for me on social media and eventually found me. And then a month later, we met in Thailand.

But before that, I took the time to get to know everything I could about him. Asking him all sorts of questions, observing how he talked, how he answered and even looking through his old photos on Facebook to find any red flags. All I found were his emo pics when he was a teenager.

Aftereffects of abuse 5 years post-trauma

As for the aftereffects of abuse, I don’t really get triggered as much as before and I definitely don’t get triggered as bad as before. Like having panic attacks and such. The thing with the aftereffects or PTSD is you don’t really know what will trigger you until you get triggered. And it doesn’t matter how many years down the line it was from your trauma, you can still get triggered. So when that happens, you might think you’ve never recovered or maybe you took a step back in your recovery. But the truth is when you’re recovering from trauma, triggers will still happen, it will just happen less overtime. And it’s about striving for progress in your recovery, not for perfection. And that’s the funny thing will mental health recovery, you think you’re getting worse, but really you’re getting better. And it’s really hard to put that into perspective when you’re in the middle of it. So the best thing to do is to be generous with yourself and trust in the process of you moving forward.

So my abuse happened to me 5 years ago and just last week, my boyfriend made light-hearted jokes that ended up triggering me. I didn’t know those jokes were triggers. So I reacted. Then I apologized. He apologized. And we agreed that instead of being quiet, I would communicate much more openly when I get triggered and he would make sure not to cross those boundaries of whatever those triggers were. Open communication is now the new normal and because of what happened to me, I’m not used to it. But it’s a learning process.

Conclusion

So those are the bigger things happening in my life. What’s happening with yours? Let me know in the comments.

So as a check-in, I invite you to take a moment and check in where you’re at with your life right now.

Are you sticking with the resolutions you made last New Years?

Have you taken action on projects like you said you would?

Is there fear holding you back from what you want to do?

If not, how can you work through that?

Take some time to think about it.

Do you have the support system to set yourself up to do what you’re supposed to do?

Do you feel like “Yeah I’m in a good place right now” or “Oh crap, I’m way behind and I have a lot of catching up to do.”

So let me know in the comments where you’re at. This is a 2-way conversation. I want to get to know you. What you’re up to and what your dreams are.

Thank you for listening to my life update. And please like my video and subscribe to me channel excited for future life updates and check ins like this. This is the next video I have for you next week. I love you guys, don’t be a stranger, travel safe, and talk to you next week ?

Bye!