💌 What’s happening this week:

• July gross vs. net revenue 

• Journaling prompt: Are you actually afraid of success?

• Habits draining your energy

• 7 self-care habits that brought me joy

The reality is that this is NOT my soft life era 😫

I talked about this with my parents while I was home visiting, and if you know anything about Asian immigrant parents…

Let’s just say this conversation definitely gave me a kick in the butt LOL

I’ll paraphrase for you, but the conversation kinda went something like this:

👩🏻 (me): Parents, if you had to describe me in 3 adjectives, what would they be?

👫 (Mom & Dad): We would say you’re smart and intelligent… but you don’t work very hard. We came to the USA as teenagers with nothing, none of our siblings had anything, and we were able to build this lifestyle and pay for your college. And we don’t see you working hard, you’re waiting for things to happen to you, and you don’t want to really go deep into things.

👩🏻 (me): Oh, I thought we were just going to share 3 adjectives about me…

👫 (Mom & Dad): ignores my comment We made it so easy for you in the USA, with no student loans and debt, taking you to different countries when you were young, and getting a good education… and we’re not sure if you’re taking advantage of it… 

👩🏻 (me): looks around because I have no backup from my sisters, I’m home with my parents by myself!! Oh… do you think it’s because I had more privilege and access to things growing up, that you didn’t have, and I just want things easily now?

👫 (Mom & Dad): Yes. You can do so much and know how to do so much, but we think you just have to work for it. It’s like you don’t want to sacrifice and suffer for long-term gain.

👩🏻 (me): me now running through ALL my therapy conversations about burn-out, trying to prove myself, seeking external validation, and the idea of surviving vs. thriving as a daughter of immigrant parents Oh… I do want a soft life, though!

👫 (Mom & Dad): We worked 30+ years to get to our soft life… You have only been in the workforce for 10 years. Make decisions and work now, so you can have a soft life. You still need to work for it!

👩🏻 (me): sigh…

Previously, a conversation like this would have triggered the f*ck out of me 😅 I would’ve cried, thought my parents weren’t proud of me, and probably would’ve let my mind run off with the idea that I was a failure of a daughter…

Thanks to lots of therapy conversations around this and understanding my parents more, as well as my parents' aging, and also learning to communicate with me in a better way, here’s what I got from this conversation:

• Unfortunately, this is NOT my soft life era. Not because I don’t deserve it or I need to “grind and hustle” hard… but because I am in a rebuilding my savings, trying to build equity, and want to be more intentional about my future era.

• My parents aren’t shaming me, they’re just worried about me. I think that was one of the first times I truly understood the nuance of what it’s like to be an immigrant parent, coming from zero and working so hard to give your kids everything, but then seeing how giving them everything has made them a little… entitled to an ‘easy life’.

• Life comes in seasons, and this is my ‘work hard’ season. After an accidental sabbatical, turned adult gap year filled with travel, creative hobbies, and lots of random side quests - this season of life is just requiring more work from me. Thanks to therapy, I now have guardrails to help with managing stress, noticing workaholic tendencies, and am (thankfully) not working from a space of trying to prove myself anymore.

Allz this to say, we did NOT hit my 4K€ revenue goal this month 😅

But I did realize that I gotta lock in and stay focused because my parents nicely called me out. I have been skirting by, doing the bare minimum, but I am not truly applying myself… 

Probably because I’m scared to burn out again - but that’ll be another topic for another newsletter!

Anyway, that was a long way to say that we’re back with another Money Diaries 💸 series to break down July’s gross and net revenue. You can read it all below, and if you missed June’s, you can read last month’s edition here. 

July’s Gross vs. Net Revenue

*Just a reminder that gross is before taxes and expenses, and net is what I get to keep!

GROSS REVENUE = 2229.96€

• Marketing Consulting (3 contracts)

• Content Specialist role

• Passive income from a course

• Plans to Progress Lounge memberships

Where my clients came from:

• No new clients this month, just continuing to work with my current clients

CASH FLOW = 2229.96€

JULY EXPENSES = 775.05€

• Accounting fees + Yearly taxes

• Freelancer registration fees in Spain

• Cloud storage

• Internet & phone

• Canva

• A marketing membership

• A Creator membership

• This newsletter platform

• My membership platform

NET REVENUE (from cash flow) = 1454,91€

Moving into the rest of the year, I’m making some decisions to lower my expenses even more so I can save more, invest in other tools to help me reach my goals, and have actually come up with a totally different stackable income stream plan!!

I’ll be rolling all that out in the next few weeks as I build out the back-end 😈 Stay tuned!

✍️ THIS WEEK’S JOURNALING PROMPT

“What are you scared of will happen if you DO succeed?”

In the Plans to Progress Lounge, I recently hosted a Mindset & Confidence Workshop for the group, and surprisingly, the ‘fear of success’ was a common mindset and confidence block for most folks!

We got to chatting about what we’re afraid of WILL happen if we succeed, and how to reframe those thoughts into something that is more supportive. I found that most of the people I work with have equal parts fear of failure and fear of success… but more fear of success! 

💻 THINGS THAT STUCK OUT TO ME ON THE INTERNET

• VANESSA LAU & HER CAREER PIVOT: I’ve been following Vanessa Lau online for a long time now, and her most recent YouTube video totally resonated with me. It’s a long one (1.2hrs!!) where she shares her different business eras and how she felt during them. I saw a lot of similarities in how she felt and how I felt as I was in my adult gap year.

• HABITS DRAINING YOUR ENERGY: In this article on Real Simple, they share 6 everyday habits that might be draining your energy… and let me tell y’all… some of those habits caught me by surprise! I am definitely doing some of these. Are you?

• MY NEWEST BOOK PURCHASE: My cousins and I decided to start a ‘Cousin Book Club’ and “Beautiful Ugly” by Alice Feeney was our first choice! I’m excited to dive into the book and do an activity with my cousins that can help keep us connected now that some of them are heading off to their first year of college!

🗓 PREPARING FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

🌻 GOODIES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

7 Self-Care Habits That Made Me More Joyful & Feel Supported

Let’s talk about habits! Over the past years, I’ve been really focused on cultivating daily habits and weekly habits that bring more joy, time, and space to live more intentionally. For me, the small habits (although they might not be sexy) are what have truly helped me shift my lifestyle into one that I love - one that is full of self-care, joy, creativity, and space to play and pour into my relationships.

🤝 HOW TO WORK TOGETHER

Want to work together to create time and space for intentional connections? Here are a few ways to do that through marketing support, journaling, and education.

• 📓PLANS TO PROGRESS MEMBERSHIP: A quarterly membership for big dreamers to intentionally plan each month with the accountability to transform your ideas into actionable steps and projects. Join us inside the Lounge here!

• ⭐ SIGNATURE BRAND & WEBSITE DESIGN + COPYWRITING PACKAGE: Get 2 brand strategists on your team to elevate your brand visuals, website, and messaging. We have 2 spots to start this summer. Learn more and apply here.

• 🇪🇸 JOIN ME IN SPAIN!! IN-PERSON PLANNING RETREAT: September 2026. Granada, Spain. 6 days, 5 nights. 10 spots available. Join us for an intentional week of cultural immersion, good food, and intentional time for planning and sharing with a group of like-minded people. Learn more and reserve your spot here.

Now that I’m back in Spain, I always have a bittersweet thought about “What if I stayed in the USA or moved back?”

What would life look like for me?

I guess we’ll never really know, though, because I don’t plan on moving back, but I do grieve the possibility of the person I could’ve been if I had stayed and the life I could’ve lived. I guess that just comes with the territory of moving away/abroad from your friends and family.

Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful week and until the next one…

💖 #stayfierce,
Cassandra