What The Heck Am I Up To In 2024?

A vague title but detailed post....

Ok, it’s time to fess up.

But first, to give you an idea of how busy I’ve been, that first sentence has been sitting here in a draft for the last 13 days. That is no joke.

And no, it’s not because I’ve been avoiding admitting that I couldn’t have fallen further from my “write every day” idea I once had when I first started this Substack.

Nor is it because it’s just plain embarrassing to look at my own Substack and see my last post was in March of 2023.

But wait, that wasn’t actually an original post, it was just me sharing a great piece from my friend Pete Quinones.

And it’s certainly not because, ultimately, I have to look back and accept the fact that I didn’t write a single darn thing in 2023.

And yet, somehow, not only do you all stick around, many of you are new and some of you even pay me money.

************************************************************************************************************

Everything above this line was written days ago, before I got pulled away yet again with something else. Needless to say, I have a few things going on, quite frankly probably more than I can reasonably juggle longterm, but the next year should help me sort out where to focus my concentration.

When I first moved my family to Florida - after a 9 month stint in Mexico awaiting U.S. immigration paperwork - I had just left Lions of Liberty, had fully severed ties with my former employer, and outside of a little bit of freelance work consulting for a few podcast clients, I essentially had no regular income.

You’ve heard of DINKS (Dual Income No Kids)? Well, I was a ZIWAK (Zero Income Wife And Kid).

It has now been eighteen months since becoming a Florida Man, and the vast majority of that eighteen months have been spent working my tail off to put my family in a better position for what’s to come. After “the events of 2020-2022”, I was determined not to be put myself in the position of relying on any one source of income going forward, so I got to work on my own income diversification program.

As things stand here in January of 2024, my lineup of revenue streams now includes:

• Chief Content Officer for ExpatMoney, the expat consulting firm founded by my good friend Mikkel Thorup. I first met Mikkel when he was a guest on Lions of Liberty over five years ago, and we hit it off immediately. Since then, he first brought me on to help consult him to grow his podcast, The Expat Money Show. Last year, he brought me on full-time to oversee all his blog, podcast and video content. It’s a pleasure to help freedom-minded individuals protect themselves from what’s to come via offshore solutions like second citizenships and residencies, offshore investments, and more.
  

• Live Television Editor (Freelance). This is my “real” career as they might say, but luckily it’s one I both enjoy and have been able to keep my hand in both locally here in Florida as well as traveling for various events.
  

• Podcast Marketing and Production Consultant. Due to sheer lack of time I have hardly put much effort into expanding this end of my work, but I do have several regular podcast clients I’ve held onto and occasionally take consulting calls to help others in launching, growing and monetizing their own podcasts.
  

• Contributor for Bounding Into Comics. After spending several years commenting on comic books and pop culture along with my friend Remso Martinez on the Second Print Comics Podcast (more on that next), I’m thrilled that I’ve been able to transition that experience into providing both written and video content for the Bounding Into Comics. Those who have followed me since the Lions of Liberty days may take interest in my review of Alphacore #1, the latest from Eric July’s Rippaverse.
  
  And here’s a sample of one of my latest videos for Bounding.

• The Second Print Comics Club. What was once the Second Print Comics Podcast has now undergone a transition of sorts into the Second Print Comics Club, an exclusive community on Patreon. With all of our other obligations, Remso and I could simply no longer keep the regular weekly podcast going, but since we had developed such a great community of supporters, we decided to shift our efforts towards more bonus content and giveaways - free comics, hardcovers, even membership cards! I encourage you to check it out - for a measly $5/month you actually get MORE paywall content than when we had the public podcast. And you can also subscribe to our Substack for free to stay up to date on our public-facing content both for SPC and Bounding.
  

• Last but not least….my baby, The Marc Clair Show. I just had a great couple of livestreams on the ever-growing MCS YouTube and you can find The Marc Clair Show on any darn podcast app you can download every single Monday. 2024 is going to be a wild year of revelation, and you can be certain I’ll be there commenting with my array of expert guests every single week. Support the show on Patreon or Subscribestar, or become a member on YouTube. Find all the links at MarcClair.com!
  

I didn’t take the time to write all this down just to brag or even just to beg forgiveness for failing to show up here so often. Rather, I hope to inspire people a bit to expand their own ideas of what they can accomplish, whether it’s expanding income streams or something else.

There have been times in the few years where I felt like I simply could not make things work, and everything was working against me. I am now over two years removed from refusing to bend the knee to a corporate mandate that cost me a cushy job that, by all standard measures, would have made the last couple of years of life “easier” in the superficial sense.

But I wouldn’t change a thing, and if anyone reading this has found themselves on a similar path, I encourage you to keep plugging away at everything you love. Spend enough time on a passion and you become an expert - and people pay for experts. I may be busy, but I love everything I do, and I have enough diversity in my income that I am very well protected against a repeat of what happened two years ago.

That said, I DO “plan” to return here more regularly, once I get a little more time between income streams and spending time with my family, the motivation for every single activity I listed above.