What I Explored This Month - February 2025: Personal and business updates, 2025 goals, civilization, and more books
Originally published on Substack
Once a month, I share my future works in progress by sharing what I’m learning, exploring, and currently curious about.
WHAT I CREATED
MY PODCAST
Did you know I had a podcast? Well, it’s gone through a lot of changes. I started it because, well, just because I wanted to. But then felt like I needed a more concrete reason so I copied what I saw other people do: I made it a podcast to share business and life lessons. For now, my bookkeeping business Yellow Sky Business Services (another change, more later) sponsors the podcast and I mention my bookkeeping services at the end of each episode.
But the name What I Tried, What I Learned didn’t feel right anymore. Not everything I want to share is a tidy lesson, sometimes it’s an observation. So I changed the name to Invitation to Wonder. Then changed it to Patterns in Progress, the current name.
The latest podcast episode explores the business idea sparked by car trouble: What if I could create a bookkeeping review that's as clear and straightforward as a car repair report?
MY BLOG
More changes - I changed this blog’s name from Aneisha’s Substack to What I Noticed on the Way. The change was mostly because I wanted a more descriptive name for new readers to know what to expect.
My latest blog post: Tell Me Your Story and I’ll Find the Lesson: Why advice is better in a story
Due to productive procrastination, I also started a new blog under my Substack profile called The Stories We Find where I’m posting old essays and stories I wrote. I started trying to write the book idea that’s in me but got stuck, so this is my “sideways” method to keep writing and get unstuck. And it worked; I realized I was trying to write something too serious. If you know my writing voice, it’s not totally serious. We like our satire.
MY BUSINESS
The last change: I updated my business name with a DBA from Yellow Sky Bookkeeping to Yellow Sky Business Services, because I want to do more than bookkeeping.
NEW GOAL - MEET 50 NEW PEOPLE IN 2025
I have a new goal, partially inspired by Kate from Bookkeeping Side Hustle - I want to connect/coffee chat one-to-one in person or virtually with 50 new people in 2025.
This might sound strange if you know me as a quiet person, but I’m good at meeting new people. Why? I think it’s because I’m comfortable with awkwardness and I’ve been the new person so many times that I was forced to learn how to meet new people. Plus, I’ve always enjoyed getting to know new people and their background. And I’ve already chatted with 12 people so far! 38 more people to go.
DREAM GOAL - GUEST ON MORE PODCASTS
I was a guest on 3 podcasts in 2024 (link to playlist of those podcast appearances). I loved being a guest and this year, I’d love to be a guest on more.
But I don’t know what my talking points are.
Like I know I can talk about bookkeeping, but I feel like I haven’t discovered how me, Aneisha, talks about bookkeeping. And I can talk about neurodiversity but again, how do I, Aneisha talk about it, like what’s my perspective? Not sure. I know that’s important and would love to discover my talking points this year.
WHAT I WATCHED
Career Coach Mandy Just start your creative business already! the 7 (no-BS) stages of entrepreneurial growth
I found Career Coach Mandy’s channel in 2024. I love her take on the 7 levels of business. I’m on level 3 and I’ve never done level 0. (Fun fact: this channel and Goobie and Doobie’s channel inspired me to finally start my podcast.)
WHAT I LEARNED
Revolution Now! with Peter Joseph Ep 54
This is a heavy video, a systems-based look at the effect of climate change and social problems on society. It’s also a discussion about the negative effects of competition on productivity and development. This matches my own research about the harmful effect of grades on student performance in school.
Acorn Land Labs Preparing for the End of Growth
Another heavy topic, but a good summary of what I’m currently learning about the limits to the growth of civilization.
WHAT I READ
NONFICTION
The Talent Code - Loved this book and learned so much about how to nurture talent.
A quote I saved: “When you're practicing deeply, the world's usual rules are suspended. You use time more efficiently. Your small efforts produce big, lasting results. You have positioned yourself at a place of leverage where you can capture failure and turn it into skill. The trick is to choose a goal just beyond your present abilities; to target the struggle. Thrashing blindly doesn't help. Reaching does.”
This quote inspired me to use ChatGPT to give me stories in Japanese and Spanish, stories just hard enough that I struggled and learned faster than just using Duolingo for practice.
The Culture Code - (Yes, same author as the book above. I like his style!) Loved LOVED this book even more and learned what makes a group great. Saved so many quotes, but I’ll share just 2:
“The funny thing is, when I visited leaders of successful creative cultures, I didn’t meet many artists. Instead, I met a different type, a type who spoke quietly and tended to spend a lot of time observing, who had an introverted vibe and liked to talk about systems. I started to think of this type of person as a Creative Engineer.”
For anyone who hates Sandwich feedback like I do - “Avoid Giving Sandwich Feedback: In many organizations, leaders tend to deliver feedback using the traditional sandwich method: You talk about a positive, then address an area that needs improvement, then finish with a positive. This makes sense in theory, but in practice it often leads to confusion, as people tend to focus either entirely on the positive or entirely on the negative.”
Women in White Coats - Interesting (and often angry-making) history about the first 3 women doctors.
FICTION
Some Like it Cold - A small-town romance featuring an autistic main character written by an autistic author → the MC is the only reason I read this since I’m not a romance book kind of person. Also I love this author’s books. (I also loved Cassandra in Reverse, another adult book with an autistic main character, written by another autistic author)
Thanks for reading about my learning explorations for the month. Take care!