Bittersweet. That’s how our year has been, JJ. (But to you, it’s mostly just sweet.)

This year, mommy and daddy triumphed. And we got to live in the Mustard House, a dream that has been molded when you came along.

We kinda thought we’re going to be nomads and don’t need a nest.

This year, mommy’s and daddy’s careers flourished. We’re both leaders of our respective teams. Mommy’s growing a build of writers that serve global SaaS clients. Daddy’s guiding a young team of engineers who work on important ICs in healthcare devices. He’s kinda tougher than mommy as a leader though.

This year, we’re also well off. We didn’t have to worry about finances. But we had a LOT of other things to worry about…

We got Covid.

You did. Yes, you got the virus, but you survived, my tough one. Daddy’s didn’t get it. Mommy did. It was super terrifying for mommy, I had the worst panic attack of my life and it’s only your dad who can calm me down. I hated myself for being super needy during those effing 3 hours. I had the most symptoms, but Nanila got it bad. Her oxygen’s dropping below 90, but she survived. I’m proud of her. She didn’t had anxiety attacks like me.

But, we lost our dear Nanala. That’s all I want to say because it still hurts when I go back to that moment and it happens quite a lot. 🙁

But, I don’t want to make you cry (but I do hope you remember your Nanala) so let’s get to the good part.

As I type this away from Daddy’s home, which you traded for our Mustard House for now, know these lessons by heart and live a good life.

1. God will always make a way to make us come back to HIM. For the longest time, I’ve avoided life groups because the first time I joined one, your DaddyLolo died days after. Now, when I joined the Life Group, NanaLa died days after.

I bet He’s only making His presence known so I don’t break down that much. So maybe this time, I can get His message and stay in HIS presence like He always wanted me to.

2. You can have freedom and flow while living a successful life, but you need a 3rd F, focus.
3. Build a life where you get to be YOU. It’s hard to figure out. Took me over 30 years, but that’s my oath to you. I’ll help you figure it out and build it.
4. When you don’t get to be YOU, that’s where you get stressed out by even the tiniest things that shouldn’t have mattered that much in the first place.
5. When you get to be YOU, abundance radiates. You feel good all the time so you want to do all the good things. That’s why helping you figure out your best life will be my forever oath to you. It’s how I know you’ll leave this earth better.
6. Strategy over strength.
7. All the ugly things that happened to you happened because it’s preparing you to be the next-level YOU. Sounds woo-woo but I needed to:

• Suck at my biggest project (releasing the new 30-page website)
• Got fired as a Marketing Manager
• Get anxiety, tough love, and toxic meetings from managing the team (bec I didn’t have clues on how to do it)

So that I can:

• Build CaaSocio successfully
• Manage a team of writers (hardest thing to do as a creative/writer)
• Become the Marketing Manager of not just 1 team, but of multiple teams (clients and own biz) 🙂

8. It pays to know yourself. Always do stuff out of curiosity as long as you know you’ll come out of it alive (your dad and I never do rollercoasters though).
9. Knowing that I’m a Strategic, Maximizer with Extreme Focus gave me the confidence of leading teams and getting a Fractional CMO role of a growing SaaS.
10. Knowing that I’m a Manifestor and that I don’t need permission to do things made me launch CaaSocio’s Bootcamp and my own courses.
11. Sometimes, you’re wrong about yourself. All the time, I thought I don’t know how to lead a team (I got fired remember?). But turns out I was just learning that time.
12. If you want change, change your identity. (Like how you channel your inner Spiderman and change your voice and actions everytime you change persona. I think you know this all too well.)
13. Rationing your energy is smarter than rationing your time. That’s why I pick who I get to work with closely. So my energy is spent wisely on work, but the one thign I can’t still quite figure out is how I can manage my energy raising you. lol. You’re one tough one to raise. That’s how I know you’re gonna be successful one day.
14. You won’t always have to win. You will lose clients. You’ll have bad seasons with your partners. You’ll always need to do the work. Just need how to get over them.
15. Know how to create WINNING REPORTS. It will get you noticed, book you 1-year contracts (or get you faster promotions), and most importantly, it will get you OFF meetings. haha.
16. Want to influence people around you? Tell stories about their struggles, their dreams, and their innermost desires, their beliefs and doubts. Again, learn copywriting babe.
17. Books and courses can only do so much. Get one key idea and practice it. You don’t have to finish an entire book to start changing your life.
18. Follow only 1 mentor in 1 space. As for me, it’s Dave Gerhardt for B2B SaaS Marketing. Joanna Wiebe for copywriting. John Bonini for content marketing. John P. for starting a premium freelance business. Coach Marc for scaling my business.
19. You’ll eventually outgrow mentors. So find the next one who’s 5, 10 years ahead of where you are right now to keep moving forward.
20. Hiring families and friends can work. My cousins are amazing and I’m happy they get to be part of building our empire. (Your titas and titos).
21. If you’re starting to build your own team someday, it’s important to build relationships with each of them first before hiring them. You should be picky with core team members. Think of how they recruit–ugh, this is controversial but this is the golden idea i’ve gotten from movies… Okay, think of how they formed the Money Heist Gang. Or The Fast and The Furious Fam. And the Suicide Squad. Each one is good at a different thing and they just don’t let somebody in.

Here’s a bonus: When you decide to stop playing small, your biggest breakthroughs will come.

I have more pa, baby JJ, but I’ll reserve those on our future date nights! 🙂 Loveeee ya.