“Sometimes we can only find our true direction when we let the wind of change carry us.” -Mimi Novic

January 1, 2020 marked the beginning of new decade filled with optimism. But as we are now half way through the year, many of us are wondering if this year is by far the worst in our lifetime. Wildfires, the death of a basketball legend, airplane crashes and of course the COVID-19 pandemic. Nobody was prepared for this pandemic, including me.

I was quite happy where I stand as an educator and a homeschooler. I was doing products for my store, whenever I have time. I was already contented with how I was able to somehow increase my sales. I did not exert extra effort to build my online business to the next level until…the pandemic hit.

Sometime last October I was able to open my Pinterest again after several months of social media hiatus. I noticed there was a message for me, which I didn’t know you could send messages in Pinterest! So I read it and lo and behold, it was an invitation from Amped Up Learning to open a new online store in the US. This was an opportunity I couldn’t miss so I said yes, but it took several months before it materialized. This was an indication for me that hey I may have left a mark in social media or search engines that they were able to find me.

Fast forward a few months, the news of the pandemic broke. I felt uneasy as we have a mortgage and car payment. We had a string of financial problems and this was not what I wished for this year. In my mind, I had to do something and move fast. I read articles, looked at ideas from teachers all over the world in my Facebook groups and found out about Boom Learning. I didn’t realize that I actually signed up to be a member two years ago and only found out when I was about to register using my email.

So I had to spend hours looking at YouTube tutorials on how to make a product for this site. I was too scared to put one as there were a ton of specific things to put on a product. After a few weeks, I was able to put my first product and had a sale a the day after.

The changes that happened to the world brought out the beast in me (not a typo error there) By beast I mean a fighter, a strong woman who will survive the toughest roads of life.

So how am I today? Still in the process of learning more to build better products and strategically market them. I was able to buy my first .com, earned two digital badges from the top edtech tools, Seesaw and Screencastify, attended (and still attending) virtual conferences in the US.

These times are tough. I pray and hope that the changes around us will take me, well all of us to better places.