Winter had come in Colorado and their car had just broken down again. AGAIN.
I’d been Silas’ roommate just a year or two ago but had moved back to England. Luckily, however, we’d kept in touch. But it pained me hearing they were going through a hard time.
Silas and Grace had met 2 years ago while I had been living with Silas while attending Bible college.
I’d gone back home to England for the summer but the bank of Mum and Dad had enabled me to pay my rent over the summer meaning Silas didn’t have to pay it all by himself.
I came back in September to find Grace and Silas inseparable. They’d met at a gathering of mutual friends and had really warmed to each other. They were perfect for each other.
This was my 2nd year of Bible college, but Silas, on the other hand, had only ever intended to attend the one year and so, for him, this year was a year to grind and work soul-sucking jobs to try and save money to marry Grace.
I’d sometimes wake up in the morning ready to go to Bible college just to hear Silas walking in the front door after working literally all night. He was working so hard for her.
So 2 years on, after I’d moved back home to England and 1 year after their marriage, it was sad to see this struggle was continuing. Whoever said life after marriage was a Disney movie?
But that was before their business came along…Let me tell you the story.
Silas, as I mentioned, would work long hours, but—after they’d gotten just enough money to get married—what was Grace to do? it was a good question.
She didn’t have a college degree and the easiest thing in the world would be for her to start working at a Dollar Store or at Trader Joe’s.
But Silas, being the creative I’d always remembered him being, was convinced there was a smarter way.
He’d been reading all kinds of work-from-home articles online and he’d stumbled upon an idea that hit him like ton of bricks.
“This will actually work, Grace!” he told her, begging for her trust.
I’m not sure how Grace felt at the time, but she dutifully trusted him and stayed at home working on this exciting new idea Silas had discovered.
This idea, lo and behold, would turn out to be Chasing Foxes.
They’d discovered that they could use Pinterest to generate vast amounts of traffic to a website.
So what was Grace doing exactly while Silas was out working corporate jobs?
She was sending out emails to group board owners on Pinterest asking if she could join their group board. Why?
Because every time she was accepted to a new group board that Pinterester’s audience became accessible to her. Which meant every pin she published had the potential of being seen by this entire audience.
She started writing blog posts for her new website, making pins, and joining more and more Pinterest group boards. By the time their blog had been live for 3 months, they’d already made $3,000. And they made $19,000 in just one month by month 8.
Suddenly that broken down car didn’t seem too much of an issue anymore.
But this nearly never happened. And this is the moral of this story.
A few months before launch, Grace was begging Silas to let her get a job at Trader Joe’s. It was safer, easier…and just more conventional. People GOT IT. But people didn’t get blogging.
“Get a real job!” is a phrase so many newbie bloggers hear.
“But Grace, where do you want to be one year from now?” Silas said kindly back to her, “Start now and don’t give up, because in one year you’ll wish you’d started now and not given up”.
So that’s what she did. And how did it change their life?
Well, Silas quit that corporate job, they left the USA and became traveling digital nomads. So far they’ve traveled to France, Japan, Thailand, Mexico, Colombia, England, Norway, and it’s not slowing down!
They’re doing this—of course—while consistently earning around $10,000 per month. Not bad work for some folk, eh?
So where do I come into this story?
Well, they hired me.
I’d been working on my own project, Catholica. So I guess they must have seen some talent. But more importantly, they trusted me.
In short, their bravery to not settle with the norm and to try something different benefitted me too.
So now I work for some of my closest friends. And yes, even after all these years—even as I work from England and they work from all over the world—this friendship we’d formed in California is still blossoming and growing.
I love my friends/bosses. I loved their creativity and bravery.
So, how can I encourage you today?
I’ll simply leave you with Silas’ words to Grace those years ago: “Start now and don’t give up, because in one year you’ll wish you’d started now and not given up”.
God bless, and thank you for reading!