For Women of a Certain Age – Sweet Freedom Living

I’m often asked how I came up with the name, Sweet Freedom Living, for my blog.  The short answer is I wanted a name to reflect the feeling I hope all women of a certain age will feel as they transition into their various stages and ages. One day I was talking with a girlfriend about her son who had passed his driver license exam and they were looking for a car for him.  I responded, “Sweet freedom!”  And immediately wrote that down.  I just knew it was the perfect concept for the brainchild that was taking shape.  Thinking the blog needed to reflect a lifestyle, not just an event, Sweet Freedom Living was born. 

My next life following retirement from my “day job”.  My tagline, Making Your Next Life Your Best Life, is about the various transitions we all make. When talking with friends about events of the past, I might say, “But that was another lifetime ago.”, or “That was in another life.”  I’m not referring to past-life regression.  It’s a casual way of saying I was a different person back then. 

Who is That Girl?

Have you ever felt that way?  I will look at photographs of myself from my teens, twenties, and thirties and I almost don’t recognize that girl.  It’s a weird feeling.  Of course, I remember the events and even some of the conversations that happened around the pictures.  But the years have taught me so much that it’s hard to remember what it felt like to be so sure of everything, and to not know anything at all.  At least today, I know that I don’t know what I don’t know, and that keeps me more open to possibility.

The idea to start my own business came decades ago. We’re talking in the 90’s.  My quartet was singing in a men’s barbershop show, and I had been asked to play the lead female in a melodrama script.  We all had a great time with the rehearsals and the show.  My friend, the show producer, was incredibly complementary about my performance.  He wanted to connect me with some theater friends of his so that I could ditch my job and do something more creative.  He said, “I cringe when I think of what you do for a living.” 

My Catalystic Friend

The truth is, I really liked my job.  I had a lot of responsibility and made a lot of money.  But some days the hours were a real grind.  If I had to work, that job was a good job to have.  Still, I often dreamed of calling my own shots and building my own business.  I didn’t want to be an actor, even though I love acting, singing, and dancing.  I prefer keeping those in the hobby lane of my talents.  But I did take to heart what my friend said and started really thinking about what I might like to do that allowed me to be creative.  Each time “Creative Jonni” bumped heads with “Boss-Lady Jonni”, my friend’s words echoed in my ears.

When I was in high school, I swore I would write a hit tragic comedy about my life.  Who knows, maybe I still will.  But that writing bug never left.  I’ve written here and there as a creative outlet throughout my life.  I even took journalism classes in college.  But truly, I’m not a great student.  I do well, but I struggle with following someone else’s arbitrary timeline and syllabus. I prefer independent study.  For most of my adult years you couldn’t be a legitimate writer without that corresponding degree, at least that’s what I thought.  Then I met a pair of travel writers.

Maybe Travel Journalism

They both had different non-writing careers throughout their lives, and then retired and started travelling and writing.  Before long, they were receiving invitations to top resorts around the world, and all they had to do was write about their experiences in various travel magazines.  They didn’t make a ton, but they made enough to supplement their retirement income, and they got to travel for free and stay at some amazing places.  My big idea to write started forming.  I knew just what I wanted to do in my retirement years.

Fast forward another decade, or so, and magazines were becoming less popular, but digital magazines were becoming the thing.  It was 2008 when I decided that I was going to start an online travel magazine in my retirement years.  My husband and I often talked about writing it together.  It’s possible we’ll still do a series of articles, as a variation of this on SFL.  But not for now.

Ok, I Admit I Love Technology

I’ve always been an early adaptor to technology.  I had a home computer long before we had one on a cart to be checked out by the hour at work.  I already knew how to use all of the software by the time I had  one on my desk.  Paper planners were my life blood until that first Casio was introduced.  I eagerly transferred the contents of my planner to my Cassiopeia in the early 1990’s.  When the Palm Pilot came along, I became an ardent fan and stayed with Palm until they were bought out by HP and dissolved.  It broke my heart when they went away.  Their technology was state of the art

When it was time to buy myself a computer, I decided on a laptop so that I could take it with me when I traveled.  I chose something small and light, and that little Toshiba lasted almost 10 years.  It was a really hearty machine.  Unfortunately, the replacement I bought wasn’t as good. Now I have a Surface Pro (in case you wondered).  I didn’t mean to take you down an off-topic rabbit hole, LOL!  I was just illustrating my commitment to portable technology.

The Lure of Remote Living

A remote job became my obsession.  I wanted to work whenever, and wherever I wanted.  I’m a night owl, and I’m regularly up until 2 a.m..  A flexible schedule, doing work I’m passionate about, providing resources for like-minded people became an obsession.  Pinterest launched around 2010, and I started pinning along with the rest of the creative people.  It wasn’t long into my pinning journey when I ran across a pin that said something like, “How I Travel the World and get Paid.”  This linked to a blog, which piqued my interest.  I had friends who were bloggers, but they were more the “dear diary” journal type of blogs.  But this one was a “serious” blog with interesting content and useful information.

Shortly after, I ran into the blog that changed my entire perspective on bloggers.  Michelle Schroeder-Gardner of MakingSenseofcents.com was posting her monthly P&L statements from her blog.  She became the first blogger I ever followed.  She was totally my inspiration, and I signed up for her website to get her “How to Start a Blog” pdf, which I saved for future use. I eagerly followed her monthly reports, watched her grow, and I dreamed of a life like the one she created for herself in her 20’s.

EBA

A few years later, she introduced me to Ruth Soukup and the Elite Blog Academy, which changed my life.  I started telling my closest friends about my plan to develop a blog and to leave my job.  In early 2019, I finally jumped in with both feet and registered for the EBA course of study and started putting my exit strategy in place. 

My plan had been to start the academy and get the blog up and running while I was working, but changes at work and at home didn’t allow me the time or creative brain power to start anything new. So on to Plan B! Instead, we decided to retire and move, and then I would start this project.  You can read a little bit about that journey in this article, Five Steps to Retiring Now.  This was my first ever blog post, written in April of this year.  I officially launched this blog on 5/1/2020, and I love it!

My Hubby the Back-End Guru

I’m learning so much about this whole new world.  I’m also quite blessed to have a husband who is gifted in computer stuff.  So, I outsource my technical frustrations to him. I do all of the visual and the writing, and I leave the customization coding to him.  He really enjoys doing it. It takes me forever to figure it out, but I do most of what I can until my eyes glaze over.  So, the best use of my time is to let him do what he enjoys and spend my time on what I enjoy. We’re both really proud of what we’ve developed.  It’s a beautiful space where women of a certain age can come and spend some time getting ideas, or simply a pep-talk. There are so few places we can read articles that are written for us!

Mind, Body, and Spirit

Sweet Freedom Living grew significantly in the first six months, and our message is more clearly defined in niche and content.  I initially intended to write about home decorating, food, travel, and life.  But as we go along, things are starting to evolve into something a little more “mindset” and a little less “décor”. I became interested in writing for an under-served, sometimes marginalized market…women of a certain age. Travel won’t ever be the primary focus, but travel articles will become more prominent as we are able to start travelling again.  I can’t wait! But in the meantime, you can look here first for support and encouragement for your mind, body, and spirit.

Where Do We Go From Here?

That’s how things go, right? Plans sometimes just fall into place and seem like an overnight decision when in reality, you’ve been building the foundation all along. Can you relate? What are you struggling to figure out as you plan your next chapter?  I’d love to hear your thoughts, wishes, and fears as we venture into this next phase of life together. If you could use some help figuring out your next steps, consider grabbing my Vision Guide for Mind, Body, and Spirit. It’ll guide you through some exercises designed to identify “what’s next”. You can get it right here.

Let’s make our next life, our best life!