Holidays have been weird in the Johansson household over the last few years…

Not in a bad way, it’s just different and it’s taken some adjustment.

When my wife and I first moved in together, it was just us and her two cats so we’d do something together in the morning then visit family for the rest of the day.

During the extended ‘global shutdown era’ of New England, we ended up moving into her parent’s house to save up to get our own home, so holidays were pretty straightforward… the commute was a set of stairs lol

Then in 2023, we realized just how ‘priced out’ we were, and the only reasonable way to get our own place again was to move far away (even rent went up about $600 per month due to every place trying to become “luxury” by simply replacing carpet with vinyl plank flooring).

So in March of that year, that’s exactly what we did and went from New England to the Midwest.

The day to day here has been simple enough, calm, and everyone has been super welcoming whether it’s the classic case of Midwest people-pleasing or not.

But holidays of all sorts are still just different…

Ain’t no way we’re driving 1,000+ miles to visit family, simply due to logistics.

Because over the last 6 years, my wife and I have been building our own crew:

• In 2020 we got our first dog
• In 2021 we had our first daughter
• In 2023, we had our second daughter
• In 2024, we got our third cat
• In 2025, we got our second dog, and had our son

They say you overestimate what you can do in one year and underestimate what you can do in 10, and I’m inclined to agree…

If you’re wondering why I’m sharing all of this, it’s for 2 reasons:

Every so often I share personal stories because in a world full of AI content, automations, and ghostwriters, I’m one of the few still writing all of my own stuff.

This entire experience parallels starting a digital product business so well, and I’ll explain…

When you first get started with a digital product biz, it’s just you.

No email list, no customers, no market positioning, and no one to talk about this stuff with.

Your friends and family don’t understand it.

Maybe you have a few friends and followers on social media, but 99% of the time they’re not your ideal customer so you’re essentially building a following from scratch anyway.

But over time, you keep showing up.

Keep growing a following.

Keep running ads.

Keep networking.

Keep building your skills.

Keep building your email list.

Keep building your customer list.

And eventually, you start building your own crew.

It becomes more fun and feels less like work.

Part of my goal with doing what I do…

…is to aggressively speed up the time it takes to achieve this.

I help you get launched.

I help you build skills.

I help you position yourself to make sales.

And I help you build your own crew around the topic you’re most interested in.

If you want someone in your corner as you grow, then consider grabbing my 3 Step Launch Plan and daily emails here:

https://gabejohansson.com/launch-plan/

Any questions? Let me know.

Talk soon,
-Gabe