Real Talks with Rosemary Anthony of Brazen Living

Are you feeling bored in your day to day life?

Ready to make a serious change, but not sure how to start?

It’s a story you’ve heard before. How so many of us are just stuck in our day to day lives. Day in day out, doing the same thing and not getting anywhere fast. 

You’ve surely also heard the tales of people who’ve had enough. People who stop making excuses for their own unhappiness and change the narrative of their lives. They’re a bit like unicorns aren’t they?

If you’re ready to finally do it, to wake up and start living your life to the fullest, this is the interview for you. Especially, if you’re curious about what it takes to quit your job and follow your passions for a career. Rosemary Anthony did just that, she’s traveled the world, started a blog and so much more.  This is her story. It’s an inspiring one. 

Plus, Rosemary also shares her best lessons, what truly living, tasking risks, and pushing herself outside of her comfort zone has taught her. And how she’s helping others embrace real life, beyond social networks. She’s all about helping you connect with others and have real experiences. 

Let’s get started. 

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#1. Who are you and what’s your story?

Hi, my name is Rosemary Anthony and I help people step out of their comfort zones through better daily routines and improved social skills via my blog, Brazen Living. I always tell people that I’ve lived two lives; the first one, dull and boring and the second one more daring and exciting.

At the ripe old age of 33, I finally decided that I’ve had enough of the old life, so I made some drastic changes to my mindset and lifestyle. It wasn’t easy, especially the part that’s connected to my social life. But I am here today, to attest to the fact that every little step you take outside your comfort zone will help get you closer to what you’re truly capable of.

I have since traveled solo in 4 continents, self-published 2 books, started a blog, been interviewed in several media, learned how to make chocolates, and met the love of my life, among other things.

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#2. What’s your average day like?

My daily routine just got a whole lotta hectic because of several new must-achieve-goals that I have now. I usually wake up around 7 am and as soon as I wake up, I take care of promoting my blog. I respond to e-mails and look for some opportunities to collaborate if any.

I work full time for a small company now, so that’s from 10 am to about 8 pm. By the time I get home, it’s usually around 9 pm. I take a shower, have a glass of milk and work on my blog to research new posts and come up with graphics. That’s usually until 12 or 12.30 midnight. I also do some light reading during this time to stay up to date with the marketing landscape.

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#3. How do you stay motivated? What or who inspires you?

Well, I am lucky to be able to do what I love for a living and that is writing. And I love challenging myself, trying new things and stepping out of my comfort zone. Every new barrier I cross, every new challenge I overcome, inspires me to do more.

Plus, my blog and my readers are so, so important to me. They keep me motivated and give me a sense of balance in life. I think single mothers around the world inspire me a great deal. I mean, I’m not married and I don’t have any children. But I know so many single mothers (and fathers) who work so hard juggling a full-time job, a side business, family, kids, cleaning, cooking… I mean, I honestly don’t know how they do it all, but if they can do it, I think I really have no excuse.

👉🏽 RELATED POST: How to Get Motivated

 

#4. Let’s talk about goals. How do you slay yours?

Yay! I love goals. I’m a planner by nature so everything I want to achieve or get done, I plan them in advance. My #1 tip for achieving your goals is to plan. Write it down somewhere and then work on it a bit every single day. Don’t lose your momentum.

I think at any given point in time, I have at least 2 short to mid-term goals to keep me excited and working hard. To be honest, I don’t have many long-term goals. I used to have them when I lived my first life (refer to question #1) but I didn’t achieve a lot of them.

Too many things can happen within a span of 1 week, let alone 5 or 10 years. Deaths, layoffs, change in interest… So now, I just focus on short term and mid-term goals. It suits my new lifestyle where I try things and change course along the way. I want flexibility in my life.

 

 

 

I accept a lot more opportunities these days and I can’t really tell when a new door will open. So, it’s hard for me to imagine where I’ll be in 5 years. For now, my next 2 years are set. I think. 😊

 

#5. What’s one app or tool that you can’t do without?

This might sound so old fashioned but I have a notebook with me at all times to capture ideas, write down my plans and list down the things I need to do. Sometimes, ideas hit me randomly. When this happens, I write down my ideas in the Notes app on my phone. I have so many notes on my phone, I feel like it’s such a practical and amazing tool.

 

#6. What’s your favorite and least favorite part of being an entrepreneur?

My favorite part is having the freedom to try the things that I want to try without having to draw out a proposal and wait for a reply from the Management. My blog is basically my side business. But I’ve also worked (and continue to work) for companies where I manage their blogs or social media among other things.

Sometimes, when there is a new idea, technology or marketing software I want to try, I have to jump through hoops to get it approved. I love to learn and try new things as you know. But the learning process can be extremely slow in a corporate environment. Sometimes, non-existent when projects are not approved. I dare say that I learned so much more in the 2 years that I worked for myself than I ever did working for another company.

 

Yes, some of the ideas I tried did not work out but all of them added to my knowledge. None of them damaged my business or my reputation. Failure is not something that I see as bad. 

And strangely enough, I’ve even been interviewed for my failures. Read about that here: Meet The M’sian Author Who Hit #1 On Amazon Charts—But Spent All Her Savings To Do It.

It’s Okay to Fail

Failures are not something I’m ashamed of. I mean, I don’t aim to fail, I aim to learn. And if that learning has to occur through failures, then so be it. The ironic thing is that everything that I have experimented, tried, failed and learned on my own, are the very things that seem to interest employers. I witnessed this when I attended a few job interviews recently. They were interested in my past experience, of course, but more so of the things that I boldly tried and failed when working for myself.

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My least favorite part about being an entrepreneur is not knowing how much I’ll earn each month for sure. I have to work very hard to get things established and still, only see very little money trickling in. And it’s so unpredictable, how much you’ll earn from one month to the other.

 

#7. What advice would you give to someone just starting out?

After blogging actively for the past 1 year, I can say with a degree of certainty that burnout is a real thing. I’m also active on a few blogger forums so I also hear many other bloggers say the same thing. Burnout.

Especially new bloggers who decide to give it their all right from the start, hoping they’ll get their reward on month #6 or month #12. And when what they expect doesn’t happen, they get disappointed. Months of exhaustion begin to weigh them down.

Question marks start appearing. After all that effort for months… The truth is, the blogging trajectory is different for every blogger. Some make a full-time income in the third month but this is very, very rare. My advice is, whatever you do, whether it’s to replace your full-time job or to have a side income or whatever, first and foremost, make sure you love what you’ve chosen to do.

👉🏽 RELATED POST: Can I afford to quit my job?

If it’s blogging, make sure you love to write and make sure you love your niche. Otherwise, it’s easy to ask the question what’s the point when you don’t see result in the time you want to see it. I honestly still blog despite having a well-paying, full-time job because I love my niche.

And I love the idea of helping others break out of their comfort zones. You may have heard it many times before, but seriously, don’t do it for the money. It’s rarely a good motivator, especially when you’re not making any.

 

#8. What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received?

Keep going when everyone else is quitting. That was at about the 6th month of blogging for me. I wasn’t seeing the result I wanted, so quitting blogging seemed like the sensible thing to do. For most bloggers, it’s the 3-month mark. I can’t quite remember who said it, but I took it to heart and kept blogging anyway. Finally, at the 12-month mark, I saw the numbers go up to a level that I could be proud of. And it’s still climbing today. So I’m glad I took that advice.

👉🏽 RELATED POST: Should I follow my dreams or be realisitc?

 

#9. What books do you think every entrepreneur should read?

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie. A classic but still relevant today. I also research and read online about a lot of topics. Sometimes about WWII, sometimes about spontaneous human combustion… anything that piques my interest gets my attention.

You’ll be surprised how much random topics can come to your aid in completely unexpected ways to solve a problem. So, I keep an open mind about every topic that I come across.

And lastly, my biggest recommendation for everyone around the globe, rich or poor, smart or otherwise, is to watch TED Talks. Each talk is short at about 20 minutes, sometimes less, but valuable. And best of all, it’s free. If you don’t have Internet access, go watch a couple of episodes at the public library as frequently as you can.

 

#10. Do you have a favorite quote or saying?

“It doesn’t matter where you are, you are nowhere compared to where you can go” – Bob Proctor. Now, I don’t know where I can go but I’d like to believe that everything I’m doing now is leading me to that place.

 

#11. Can we talk about money?

Brazen Living is earning me some money, yes. And I do a bit of freelancing on the side. But in the beginning, when I quit my job (for the second time) to blog full-time, I saved enough to last a year. Now I’m back to working full-time, my job is my main income. I hope my blog and freelance writing will soon be able to replace that.

 

#12. What’s your strategy for finding clients or readers?

I mainly rely on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for traffic to my blog which includes Google and Pinterest. So, keyword research is important and so is optimizing a post and the images it contains. It’s time-consuming but it works. But sometimes I also ditch all of that just to write for the sake of writing and connecting with my readers. I have loyal readers because of this somewhat of a mixed approach. As for clients, most of them contact me after reading my blog or LinkedIn profile.

 

#13. What role does social media play for you?

At Brazen Living, I try very hard to wean people off of social media, Netflix and video game addiction. I mean, it’s the principle behind my whole blog, simply because I see how these three media continue to rob families of quality time and connection. They are addictive and the developers have designed (and continue to make) them to be increasingly addictive.

👉🏽 RELATED POST: How to Put Yourself Out There in Life

It’s the complete opposite of stepping out of your comfort zone. No, I advocate people establishing healthy routines and trying new things to keep life exciting and social. As someone wise once said, social media despite its name, is actually not very social. Especially when it’s the only thing we turn to for leisure.

So, personally, social media doesn’t have a big role in my life or business. I do have an obligatory account on Facebook and Twitter, but that’s it. I’m not active on them and I don’t go out of my way to grow my follower base on those platforms.

 

#14. Do you have a special offer you’d like us to know about?

I have 2 courses that I offer to those who struggle with their social skills. One is free: Make People Like You Instantly Course and the other one is a premium course: Power Up Social Skills Using Psychological Principles Course. The free course runs over a period of 5 days and that alone contains a ton of value if you are shy or want to make a killer first impression.

The second one is a 10-week course that goes even deeper with psychological research findings and proven exercises to improve your social skills. A lot of the things I talk about in my courses are what I did myself to widen my social circle and break free from a boring existence. Today, I’ve found a loving life partner thanks to some of the principles discussed in my courses.

I also recently started an interview series in my blog which I’ll be launching in March 2020. The idea is to interview people who have successfully replaced the infamous Netflix-Facebook-video games repertoire with other unique hobbies. I have already interviewed a few people but if you believe you have a unique hobby or an unusual daily routine, please reach out to me at rosemary@brazenliving.com. I’d love to interview you and feature you in my blog.

 

Bonus Questions! 

Quickly tell us about yourself and what you’re currently:

• Reading? Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson
• Watching? I hardly watch anything other than TED Talks and the occasional movie these days.
• Listening to? Hidden Brain podcast by NPR
• Eating?  Low carb meals
• Obsessed with? For now, it’s cryptocurrency

Bored with your life? Ready to explore and try new things? Meet Rosemary Anthony of Brazen Living, she's made a life outside her comfort zone. @BrazenLiving #Interview #BossBabe #FollowYourDreams Click to Tweet

 

Last Updated on July 24, 2024