It takes a Community to Rebrand

August 19, 2019 By Deanna Leave a Comment

In my announcement about my rebrand, I shared how the name and tagline were formed. In this article, I will share the other details that are involved in a rebrand. Moreover, I delve into how/why it takes a community to undergo such a transformation. Women in recovery are no strangers to leaning on a village. Let’s face it, no one transforms alone and better yet, why would you? It’s so much more fun together.

If anyone has a brand and now realizes it’s time to change it, hopefully, these tips will help you.

Ms. Fiology has Re-branded to Recovering Women Wealth!!

August 12, 2019 By Deanna 7 Comments

It’s with much excitement that I announce the re-brand of Ms. Fiology! It’s been a wild ride already but it’s time to evolve.

As many of you know, Ms. Fiology is all about transformation and the blog is no exception to that. So without further ado, let me introduce my new blog…

Just a Little Update…

May 9, 2019 By Deanna Leave a Comment

Hello! I know I’ve paused Thursdays posts; however, I’ve been able to do a couple of guest posts recently so I’d thought I’d share them with you…

Guest Posts

Tim from Life for the Better reached out to me about swapping interviews for each other’s sites. His interview went live last week on my site. If you haven’t read his interview yet, I highly recommend it. Tim & his wife are killing it financially and you get to see a picture of their tiny home!

Additionally, I participated in an interview for his site which went live on April 25th…

Living a Better Life Interview

My name is Deanna and I’m a 46-year-old single female on the path towards financial independence. Even as I write those words, I’m in awe that this is even possible. My life has been a wild ride thus far. At the end of 2017, I finished digging my way out of debt. All in all, I paid off $46,763 in about 3 & 1/2 years.

However, the more miraculous part of my story is that I was able to get sober in late 2009/early 2010 from drug addiction/alcoholism. I came from a good Christian home but I grew up with a lot of insecurities and was always looking for my worth in things outside of myself.

Unfortunately, I found a false solace in drugging and drinking. I was a high functioning addict/alcoholic for many years which I think is the worse kind because we can go under the radar for too long.

The fact that I’m even on this redemptive path towards financial independence overwhelms me with gratitude every day.

How are you living a better life than you were last year? 5 years ago? 10?

Oh my on this question! I’m sure by my answers, you’ll see the polar extremes of Deanna. Five years ago, I was just starting to work on my financial life. At that point, I had been sober 4 years and had really worked deep on the roots of all of my issues.

I had found peace and reconciled with my past.

Although, I was craving financial peace so I put out the call for help. Many people steered me towards Dave Ramsey and a woman from my church met with me and helped me get on a budget. That really was the first key to gaining control of my financial life.

Ten years ago, was another story. At that time, I had long since walked away from a promising teaching career and gave into a life of addiction. I had also accepted to be in a destructive relationship where I was beaten down by words.

I was at the lowest of lows in my life.

In August of 2009, I had a vision and prayed/asked for help for the first time in years. Furthermore, I got out of the destructive relationship and quit drugs. On February 1, 2010, I committed to full sobriety and quit drinking.

By the grace of God, I haven’t found it necessary to take a mood or mind-altering substance since.

A Tale of Preparedness or a Lack Thereof – Lessons from 1 Year of Blogging

April 18, 2019 By Deanna 25 Comments

Ms. Fiology was born one year ago at CampFI Mid-Atlantic 2018 on the weekend of April 13th – April 16th. I owe a big thanks to Jonathan for introducing me to Kevin Clack and to Kevin Clack for pushing my blog past the goal line.

#Grateful Photo by Courtney Hedger on Unsplash

Happy 1-Year Boggerversary to me!

My first post went live on April 19th, 2018. Okay, okay so I’m releasing this post one day early so technically you can wish me a happy 364 days of blogging. 😉

However, I did start blogging for ChooseFI in January of 2018 so if we want to get technical I’m at a year plus.

Lessons Learned From 1 Year of Blogging

I think the first thing I’ve learned is that this is work. For me, it’s enjoyable work but none-the-less it’s work.

Treat it Like a Job Unless it’s a Hobby

Here at Ms. Fiology, I am my own boss! Oh dang, that means I’m in charge. Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

From day one, I’ve decided that I wanted to treat this as a job. This has helped me with my goal setting and being disciplined. Initially, I committed to posting every Monday.

Once I was comfortable writing posts once a week, I upped it to twice a week. Now I post on Mondays and Thursdays.

I’ve heard over and over from veteran bloggers that if you want to grow your readership, consistency is key. This way your readers know what to expect from you.

Preparedness

Some lessons we learn early in life and they can carry us far. I feel like most people should have learned the value of being prepared by high school. Not this gal!! I was too busy partying and having fun so unfortunately, my studies often were on the back burner.

Actually, I did prepare for one set of classes. And those were in mathematics because I enjoyed doing math problems. Obviously, I recognized that if I did my homework, I did well in class. I saw the correlation but I just wasn’t motivated to study for the other subjects.

In college, I started to appreciate all that the world had to offer in terms of education. I found a love for reading and additionally doing more math problems.

Furthermore, I found the value in taking the time to be prepared but occasionally we need to be reminded of the basics…

A Lesson in Preparedness and a Lack Thereof

Scene 1

Imagine this, it’s 9:00 PM on a Sunday night and I’ve committed to releasing a post every Monday. Furthermore, my email service is scheduled to send out my newest post by 7:00 AM so it needs to be live on the blog by 6:59 AM in order to be emailed.

I’ve gained a little following so I don’t want to let anyone down. Additionally, I like to produce quality content, so I don’t want to disappoint.

Formulating my thoughts into a cohesive article with clear takeaways takes time. Let’s get to writing.

Okay, I think I have something good going.

Oh, crap now it’s midnight and it’s still not done. Maybe if I go to sleep now, I can get up at 4:00 AM and put on the finishing touches.

That would be me throwing my alarm clock because it’s going off after 4 short hours of sweet sleep. Photo by Malvestida Magazine on Unsplash

The time of Reckoning

What the heck?? How am I supposed to operate on 4 hours of sleep?? Snooze for another 20 minutes. Rise. Make coffee. Sit down & drink it. Oh crap, now it’s 5:00 AM and I only have two hours to finish and edit my post before I must get ready for work.

Write. Re-write. Edit. Oh shoot, I have to add images because everyone likes a picture, right? Right. Find some pics.

Add words to the photos on Canva. Who said I have to add words to my photos anyway?? Oh yeah, if I’m going to promote on Instagram I need a square photo…with words. And if I’m going to pin it on Pinterest, I need verticle photo….with words. Stupid words! Who invented words anyway??

And my theme on my blog looks best with a banner style photo.

Okay, screw it I’m not putting words on my theme photo. They’ll see the title.

Oh no, it’s 6:45!! Okay, hurry up and edit the piece, dang it. Now check all the links. Good, good everything looks kosher.

Okay, okay, I”m ready to hit publish.

Seriously, I’m gonna do it but one more glance. Oh crap, it’s 6:58, I cannot glance over it again.

Okay, I’ll hit publish and then I’ll review it again, I can always edit it after it goes live. Right? Right.

Alright, it’s live!

Dang it, I spelled “affect” wrong – effect is the noun and affect is the verb, girl, don’t forget it!! Okay, edit, publish again.

The Socials

Now before I get ready for work, let me tweet it out. Okay, done. Awe but some of my friends are making funny tweets. I gotta comment on a few…20 minutes later.

Now let me get this thing up on insta. Okay, what cool hashtags can I insert?? How about – #FinancialIndependence #DoHardThings #Sober and #MsFiology? Perfect!

Okay, now let me pin it to Pinterest and write a little blurb. Good, good only one more platform to go…Facebook. Ugh, if I go on FB, I’m going to see notifications and get distracted. Stay focused, girl, stay focused, you got less than 30 minutes to shower and get ready for work.

Arrive at work exasperated.

Good times. Photo by Abbie Bernet on Unsplash

Scene 2

Okay, let’s try this again…

Serenity now. Photo by Harli Marten on Unsplash

I walk into my apartment on Sunday around 9 PM after a lovely dinner with the family. I turn on my laptop and review my articles for the week one more time.

Perhaps I make a few edits. I check to ensure all of the links work. Yep, great.

I crawl into bed with my book. After reading a chapter or two, I give in to sleep for a glorious 7-8 hours.

This time when my alarm goes off, I don’t want to throw it.

I get up and turn the hot water on so I can make my french press coffee. Next, I curl up on my favorite couch with my favorite electric blanket and read my bible. I pray.

The coffee is delicious and I have extra time so I read another chapter in my book.

Now, I promote my freshly published article on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. I say hi to a few friends virtually, make some comments on posts. I even read a personal finance article or two that catch my fancy. Additionally, I promote those on twitter.

I hop in the shower, get myself ready, and I’m out the door to walk to work a little bit early. Life is good.

Closing Thoughts

Which would you choose? Yeah, me too. I’ll take the latter one every time, but know that it does come at a cost. The cost is to take the time to prepare, block off time, sacrifice, and be disciplined.

Truth be told, I’ve experienced it both ways and my strong dislike for scene 1 is what inspires me to remain disciplined and re-create scene 2 over and over. Sometimes, it means I have to say no to social functions so I can achieve my goals.

However, it’s also about balance as you can see my Sunday night was spent having a leisure dinner with my loved ones.

Okay, are you ready to give it a try? It doesn’t have to be starting a blog, but what is the next thing you’re dreaming of doing? Are you ready to take the leap? Whatever it is, may you remember this tale of preparedness or a lack thereof and chose to prepare wisely…