Making it Work (Somehow)

I’m new to all of this. Just a mom trying to build something sustainable for her family—something that allows me to provide without sacrificing the time I get to spend with the people who matter most. We’ve all joked about the “get rich quick” options: OnlyFans, Snapchat+, FootFinder (my personal favorite to laugh at), marrying an old millionaire and inheriting it all, or stumbling across a duffle bag full of unmarked cash. The list is endless. There are so many ridiculous, imaginative ways to fantasize about making it big. But truthfully? I just want to make my kids proud.

I know I’ve made my parents proud—though, to be fair, I might’ve set the bar a bit low growing up. So any steps forward in adulthood seem pretty impressive in comparison. 😂

I look around and see creators who seem to have found a way to make it look so easy—almost too easy. Personal content, digital products, affiliate links... people are out here monetizing their existence. I’ve joked for years that someday I’ll make money just for being me. And while I’ve never shied away from a hard day's work, I’ve realized I’ve spent a lot more time grinding than I have enjoying the life I’m working so hard to create.

About a year ago, I decided to figure out how people are actually doing it. I watched YouTube videos until the algorithm didn’t know what to do with me, followed a ton of creators on TikTok and Facebook, and even started a few pages of my own to test the waters. I’ve got a travel planning page called Explore With Me, a health and wellness page under Central Illinois Vitality Group, and a consulting and training hub called DNB Consults.

I’ve also been an admin in a Facebook mom group called Milk It for over a decade—now part-owner, actually. The original team has long since moved on (or lost access to their old accounts), but I’ve had the same Facebook account since 2008. And wow, how the internet has changed in that time!

For a little perspective—I’m old enough to remember MySpace, I pre-date Google, and I once thought Musical.ly was just a kid's app... until I found myself doom-scrolling TikTok years later. Gotta love irony. Some of you might even remember WebTV, that quirky little system in the late '90s and early 2000s that turned your living room TV into a gateway to the internet. It replaced bulky towers and monitors with a remote and a keyboard. For a while, our giant tube TVs doubled as computer screens. Wild, right?

My journey with the internet has been long and winding, but nothing groundbreaking—just a mix of curiosity, trial and error, and a desire to create something meaningful. We’ll see where it goes.