It’s hard to get very far in business if people don’t believe what you’re saying.

And it’s hard to get people to pay attention or think you have anything useful to offer when you’re 20. Or have anything useful to offer. I’d hide my age for a long time. I’d pretend I was older or at least allow people to think I was.

In a way, I think that’s running away from something. I need money to live and I say that I need that authority people give my by thinking I’m older as necessary to get that money I need. But I’d like to try a new strategy that includes courage as a core value.

I’ve been in a lot of circles talking about core values for so many years now and I’m super grateful for that experience. One takeaway is that I need to form some of my own core values for myself and my business, but I’ve always struggled to identify some I could use for my own projects that felt legit to my core.

Courage is one that I like so much I know that can exist throughout my life and in my business.

So the courage to allow others to make assumptions about my experience based on my age. The courage for those assumptions to be correct. But also with that the ability to bring what I have to offer authentically to the table. Which might be, a new perspective, a new way of doing things, an open-mindedness, or a new standard of communicating and doing work.

I think the work I do adds a lot of value to those I work with and they do too. I’ve been able to build a business on it, and I want that to go further than where it is now. I want content production and client work to be more of my life in 2025. With that, I also want to include more of my personal interests and hobbies. To merge the passion I have for my life and those things into my work.

That’s a personal choice for me, but I find the value in what I create every day when I wake up. It’s a good night when I go to sleep thinking about WordPress and growing my business in lasting ways. Not only to support myself and my clients now, but also to support others in a broader way.