Tyler Hall Life
Hi!
Last week was intense. We had a culmination of a few events we’d been anticipating for months, plus three birthdays, including my brother's 40th birthday bash, all within a week! He went all out and hired a band and everything…it was a lot of fun.
But it got me thinking. Why am I starting this now? Building a newsletter and a business is hard and takes time. Is now the right time? And more importantly, why am I doing it at all? With all the things I could spend my time and energy on, is this worth it?
My partner's mom and family live in the UK. Her mom was visiting us when my son was born and when we dropped her off at the airport, the emotion hit and tears were running. It hit me like I’d run into quicksand and it wouldn’t let me out. I felt helpless. He has a whole family in the UK. We want him to be close with them, like he will be with my family. Flights and trips overseas are expensive. How would we do it?
Then came the strike. I’m part of a union and we went on strike a few months ago. My partner is in the same union. This means, had I not already been on parental leave and planned for low income, our combined income would not have covered our costs. We both enjoy our jobs and work for a great place. However, we quickly realized having both our incomes coming solely from one employer is incredibly risky.
So is it worth it?
Yes. This is how we get the peace of mind that we can provide what matters.
As for, is now the right time?
There are a lot of places I could spend my time and energy, as every parent knows. For me, spending quality time with my son and my partner is my priority. And at the same time, if we want the peace of mind that our income won’t simply disappear and to visit the UK more often, now is the only time to start. I’ve learned life will always be busy. There will never be a “perfect” time. This means that time is now.
I believe I can build something valuable around living a full life where I’m there for my family and do so without burning out. It may take a little longer and that’s OK!
What is your why? If you’re building something or thinking of it, what is your reason for doing so? What will keep you going when it gets hard?
If you can’t answer that, I encourage you to take a few minutes sometime over the next couple days to think about it. Sit with it. Get clear on your why.
You know what mine is. I’d love to hear what it is for you!
And as promised, I want to tell you some real numbers too.
I’ve dabbled a bit over the last year, trying a few things and learned some valuable lessons which I’ll talk about in an upcoming issue. For right now though, I’m going to break the numbers into two categories, before TylerHallLife.com (basically the past year of trying a few things) and post starting this newsletter (this business now, TylerHallLife.com).
Expenses:
- Various web domains: -$45
- Agentic Coding: -$200
- Platform as a Service: -$60
- Equipment for YouTube: -$75
Income: $0
Total: -$305
Expenses:
- Domain: -$15
- Claude Code: -$40
Income: $0
Total: -$55
Time spent this week: 4.5 hours
Time spent last week: 5 hours
Tyler
PS…If you know of someone who may relate, share this with them! 🙂
