Something Is Happening Over Here

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It started with my mom.

She’s 85. Sharp as a tack in the ways that matter, and maybe a little fuzzy on the some details, but really not much gets by mom.

A few months ago she mentioned a name. Lori Ballen. She’d watched one of her YouTube videos, wasn’t entirely sure what Lori was talking about, but something about it stuck. She thought there was “something there” and that it might be something I’d be interested in.

My mom watches YouTube at 85. Let that land for a second.

She didn’t know exactly what she was handing me. But she was right, the way she often is.

I looked up Lori Ballen. And then I kept reading. And then I watched a video. And then I watched another one. And somewhere in the middle of that rabbit hole I looked up and realized I was taking notes like I had an exam on Monday.

That was the beginning of this.

What I’m building now — the website, the Pinterest strategy, the affiliate business with my actual name on it — started with an 85-year-old woman watching YouTube and trusting her gut that her daughter needed to see this.

And here’s what nobody warned me about: it feels like opening a business.

Not pretend-business. Not hobby-business. Real business energy — the kind where you’re learning something new every week, some days you want to throw the laptop into the pool, but most days you wake up genuinely excited about what you’re going to figure out next.

Pinterest has become this whole world I didn’t know existed. Analytics. Impressions. Outbound clicks. I have opinions about pin descriptions now. Honestly, who is this woman?

The website is coming together and every time a new piece clicks into place I feel something I haven’t felt in a long time — that specific thrill of watching something you built actually work.

Nobody handed this to me. My mom handed me a name she wasn’t even sure about, and I did the rest.

I’m learning it. Building it. Figuring it out one slightly chaotic day at a time.

And honestly? That might be the most alive I’ve felt in years.