April fell into the category of busy yet boring.

Due to a local project I’m working on we needed to change our business structure and not both be directors of the same Ltd. Company so I was busy trying to find an accountant and then getting registered as self-employed, and then going to the bank to open the new business account – and closing all of the old stuff down.

In Albania frankly nothing official makes sense or works correctly first time, hence why I was surprised that (at least for me) the business registration went without drama this time round. However the bank as normal required multiple trips with ages of queuing, and of course nothing was finished by the time I was flying home, so I have a pile of unfinished bank stuff to sort when I get back.

But, whatever, that’s life in Albania to be honest, and nothing new to anyone that’s spent any time here.

Otherwise here is what’s been happening across my Deep Life Buckets in April 2024.

Craft

I’ve been working mostly on my usual projects. Overall it’s been operations-focused and I’ve spent a lot of time dealing with referral partners and setting up a better tracking for the commissions.

I’ve also set up some new webinars for clients and email automations via Kajabi/ConvertKit and added more opt-in forms in various places to increase the number of leads coming in.

I got to look through Digital Course Academy for a client to update some of his stuff with the latest “tips” and things he hasn’t felt comfortable implementing in the past. And I’m surprised that that program has basically not changed in the last 5 years, and just how BASIC it is. However, I also have met many people over the last few years (clients mostly) that bought THAT program and just did what was in it, and sent the emails as instructed, and have started selling their thing online quite successfully over time.

And that’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot. Sometimes when I pass on knowledge I WANT to pass on the nuances to people because there is a lot of info in the nuances, but most of the time what matters is to start with SOMETHING and you’ll probably end up figuring out the nuances on your own over time.

I think, the more you know, the harder it is to distill only the essential parts into your content or your offer, because of the breadth and depth you have.

Books I read in April

The Silent Patient – Alex Michaelides (Book Club)
The Unfair Advantage – Ash Ali, Hasan Kubba
Black Swan – Nassim Taleb (this one for some reason took me a long time to read)

I didn’t spend as much time reading in April as I’d have liked to. I actually spent a lot of time going out with people and also dealing with this banking nightmare and other errands, so I didn’t have much downtime with work needing a lot of attention – plus Black Swan required me re-reading almost every other page, and it was a bad idea to read that one on my phone. But I have to say taking notes on paper on my bib notes card instead of highlighting in kindle app was a better idea because I wrote down way less things.

Community

As part of my drive for more community I booked a trip home first and foremost. This was cost prohibitive for me for months due to some personal financial commitments I have been way overdelivering on. Now that that is in a reasonable and expected range for my income it has finally allowed me to sort some stuff out and going home was the first thing.

I also decided to start a book club, because I couldn’t really find an English-Speaking one in Tirana. I have never done that before, so it took me some time to figure out the setup, but I think I got it now, let’s see how quickly people will drop off… that’s always a problem down here, but the book (The Silent Patient) was amazing and I can’t wait for our discussion. It was literally NOT clear what was going on until the last chapter, and that’s rare for me. Somehow I often just KNOW what the plot twist is going to be.

I also helped my friend to organise a freelancer meetup in Tirana and sadly it ended up raining that night, which in Albania means that hardly anyone shows up. We were a small group at the end, and I ended up meeting Suela who works for one of my clients and we hadn’t met yet, so this was awesome.

Constitution

Constitution includes physical, mental and financial well-being and this is something I am not STRONG at. I tend to let others run my life and worry too much about things outside of my control and if I’m convenient enough for others. It’s a long-standing problem.

I decided this year to finally address my finances, because I realised I’m not really getting any younger after all and that if I don’t do something in the near future, old age is going to look bleak.

I lost my emergency fund last year after some personal changes and I have been way overcommitting myself to other people to the point of not being able to really live myself, and that had to end.

I am rebuilding my emergency fund, which is is different now that we have a different business structure, so I’m still trying to figure this all out. Plus I’m able to put a small portion into investments too – which is for me personally the first time ever in my adult life.

If you are permanently based in the same country (particularly a more developed one than this one) then you may have hope that your government is to some extent going to look after you, that you are going to get the pension you’ve paid into, you have health insurance in many countries and it’s good enough for you not to worry about it.

When you leave that traditional path behind, you also leave behind any and all access to those things. So I need to actively take steps to secure my health and my future better.

I had to re-calcuate all of my finances because I am no longer employed as a director with a salary and I pay a different percentage of tax now, so it’s all new territory for me.

Contemplation

Having spent time at home I have thought a lot about how and when I picked up a lot of my ways of dealing with things in life (or not dealing with them) and I can definitely see that as I’m getting older I am becoming more and more similar to my Mum.

I am also seeing a lot of behaviours that I have that I do not want to escalate, because it’s easy to alienate people. For example never asking for help, or never accepting help.

Friendship isn’t just about taking or just about giving – you sometimes also need to let other people give to you.

Another thing that’s been on my mind is the future here in Europe and how a potentially changing political situation could be affecting us and how to shield myself from that as much as possible. Be it physically or financially.

I finished reading Black Swan – and that especially made me think about these unpredictable events that really mess you up.

Looking into May

In May I’m still going to spend almost half of the month at home, so I’m looking forward to enjoying more of the quiet time. I’m also somehow starting to enjoy some of the German TV programms (is this a sign of getting old?!).

Then it’s time to get back to Tirana to see my people, finish all of the banking stuff so I might be able to actually access my money. And I will be coming back with a new mic and a tripod for my phone, so hopefully you’ll see some slightly better quality YouTube Videos. I recorded one on Digital Minimalism and I hated the quality so much I didn’t want to publish it :/ but that’ll change once I’ve figured out how to record off of my phone.