Ask Ash: βWe Want to Go Abroad for a Year, and Need Advice on How to Sustain Ourselves Financially.'
2/01/2024
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hi, i'm ash!
Creator of the New Travel & Design Series, 'OTHER PEOPLE'S HOUSES.'
Travel writer & host, cultural explorer, and architecture & interiors freak.
Meet ash >
The Newsletter
Every week, we're exploring global culture through the lens of the home. From floorplans to fixtures, we examine how houses are built, designed, and decorated around the world (with a side of sass, of course!)
The Podcast
The only podcast where we pass on the pyramids and poke around in the plumbing. Iβm Ash, and I'm, exploring the strange, smart, and wonderful ways houses are built, designed, and decorated around the world.
The Books
A new series of OTHER PEOPLE'S HOUSES books designed to help you try on a new life in different places around the worldβby getting to "go behind closed doors" inside local homes to discover what it's really like to live there.
I always love how you break everything down so easily and Iβm all βduh! That seems so obvious!β
This was brilliant!!! And applicable to ALMOST ANYTHING!!!
Lately I’ve been wondering if the universe is trying to tell me something… I’ve been in a dip in my business for a few months now (which I’ve shared before in this group) and yesterday someone said these words to me (talking about their own business)… “I hit a dip and it allowed me to realize that what I was creating was not what I really wanted.”
And I wonder – did I build a business that I don’t want?
Back to the universe – lately every referral I get is to build websites, websites that are focused on using a strong brand voice, are creative, but also reduce / remove friction from the process (educating, entertaining, buying… whatever)…
There is nobody better at finding and removing friction in a business. But for some reason I have a fck hard time communicating / selling.. it’s like my ability to remove friction is filled with… FRICTION. ARGH!
But the universe keeps sending me referrals for people who want websites… and while I think I’m average at best at building sites (and I don’t advertise that I build them on my own website or in any of my content)… it’s all I’m selling lately.
I’m thinking about taking the options you listed here and seeing how I can apply it to what I do… I’m just feeling so fried right now…
xo
Thanks Jeff! I appreciate your comments…
This is interesting. I hadn’t two questions, I’d you’ll humour me π
1. What do you really want to do?
If you’re friends dating that made you question your business, what would you do if money and practicality were no issue?
Does it relate at all to your current field/ industry?
2. What if you taught the rest of us how to a) identify friction points and b) remove said friction points?
That would be a course you could scale! It’s not relent on your time that way.
Just my first thoughts when I read your comment. I hope your don’t mind me popping in with my two cents. I’m definitely no Ash, but thought it might help start your thinking off.
Good luck π
I am incredibly sorry for the auto correct mistakes. It’s 04.05 in Australia and I haven’t slept yet because I decided to reorganise furniture instead π consequently they typos are showing up in droves, sorry!!!
hahahaha…. I’m fluent in typos…
I love identifying Friction and helping my clients to develop a tactical plan to remove it.. it’s one of my favorite things to do… and I’m also incredibly good at it.
I also love building websites (and like you Ash, I LOVE LOVE LOVE SquareSpace)… because it’s creative, I can problem solve, I can design with NO FRICTION in mind, and I get to learn new things all the time (coding…for example, which I didn’t think I’d enjoy – but it’s challenging AF for me – so I actually love the act of learning how to do something)… I just don’t think I’m that great at it. My clients tell me otherwise (and no – this isn’t a crazy plot to get people to say I’m good… lol).. I just almost feel like a total fckin’ fraud charging someone for a website in SquareSpace because it’s so easy even a 5 year old could figure it out….
But… one of the reasons I really built my skills in SqSp was so that clients could manage it on their own once it’s built. There is NOTHING worse than being a SBO and being dependent on someone else to do small things for you… so part of my service is build the website of their dreams, build it without introducing friction, and teach them how to maintain it so they don’t need anyone after that…
And I give them 60 days of support post go live.
I could absolutely create a course on friction… I just need to read Ash’s post ONE MORE TIME and really find the right (scalable, freedom building) option.
Thanks so much for your comment… I 100% always appreciate anyone who gives their thoughts / inputs and asks the hard questions. It’s part of why I love this community to much.
xo
Try having your grandma build a site on Squarespace and all the sudden you will SO appreciate all of the skills you have that you aren’t even giving yourself credit for. β€οΈ It’s so hard when you have the curse of knowledgeβand a lifetime of being online. Honestly, it might be fun to cater to a low-tech market for a while (older generations, even construction industry, etc.) so you can really feel good about what you are doing, and build your confidence on the way!
Thanks Ash! This feels like a great place to start. Since I wrote this comment I’ve literally had 3 more people ask me to build them a website… it’s so crazy to me. But at this point I’m going with it.
Side note not related to anything.. I’m reading your book for the 3rd time. Every time I read it I’m reminded of why I love you so much, and I find so many new nuggets and gems.
You remind me with each email that it’s my responsibility to take up fucking space… and I love you so much for that.
xo
π Now I feel responsible for how you think all Italians want to be living in France π€£ and it’s probably just the ones who are already living in France who do π anyway, I really need to write a comprehensive explanation around why as an Italian I want to live abroad! π Yours, Italian correspondent in France
Ps also love how you make it all sound so obvious and doable, I often go back to your courses whenever I need this inspiration πͺ
Beautiful!
I’m a solopreneur with an art degree. There wasn’t one crumble of marketing or sales anywhere in my degree courses, nor did anyone mention the importance of this. We all blindly thought we’d be ‘discovered’ at some point and just be rich, fabulous artists.
I do sales, had I known I’d need to do sales, I wouldn’t have gone for the art degree! I do it ok right now but I literally used to feel so nervous that I thought I was going to forget how to speak, pass out, and have a seizure. Never happened but I did get dizzy once. I would sign up for sales consulting!! Absolutely!
Also, I moved to CA in 2012 and I did nothing but stagnate (and make one additional human baby). I moved the F out of there in 2017. I totally gave it a chance and it wasn’t my jam. Even though I though I’d make a good California girl. Not so!
Just catching up with these post. Wowzzzza. This is gold…pure gold. Thanks Ash. Recently I have really found my niche. Small business owners that have an email list that is a hot mess. It’s my jam. I love to get in there and find all the secret opportunities and where they are leaving money on the table. It’s rewarding as hell when they call me a genius. Which we all know is a crock of shit. The difference between me and my clients is I have knowledge that don’t have or they don’t have a desire to learn. Business is really just solving a problem some wants solved. I’m gonna bookmark this puppy for sure. You really are a genius!