If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that San Francisco is my favorite city in the US.

I’ve never really felt at “home” anywhere, having moved from city to city all my life. But San Francisco is the place that came closest to it.

From the uniquely cool summers, Karl the fog, and its charming Victorian-style homes…

San Francisco has a special place in my heart.

It’s why getting to introduce Louie to the city this past weekend got me a little emotional.

As we strolled down familiar streets, reminiscing about the days where my husband and I were living paycheck to paycheck, figuring out how to plant roots in a brand new city where we didn’t know a single soul…

I’m reminded of a risky (some might say, dumb) decision I made that changed the trajectory of our lives forever. 🫣

Our original plan wasn’t to move to San Francisco, but to Redwood City, which was a suburb about 30 minutes away.

Because my husband was traveling so much for work, I would take an Uber to the city almost every day in search of community.

That was when I had a crazy idea.

Despite already putting in our deposit for an apartment in Redwood City, I scheduled an apartment viewing in the heart of San Francisco while my husband was away on a work trip.

Right on Market and 6th street.

The apartment was a shoebox. It was expensive and not in the best location in the city. 

Still, I felt in my gut that it was the right move, even though all logical signs pointed to “no.”

So my husband and I forfeited our security deposit on the Redwood City apartment.

That’s $3200 we really needed.

It was uncomfortable and worrying. But I knew that being in the city was a must for me if I wanted to find community and set up roots.

And you know what? It ended up becoming one of the best decisions we ever made.

Because despite squeezing into tight corners, putting up with street noise in a not-so-good part of town, and congested foot traffic…

This little shoebox of an apartment (that we definitely paid WAY too much for) ended up becoming the place where I decided to go all-in on my creator career.

Maybe things could still work out had I not made this move.

But I would never know. Because these were the dominos that fell in place that led me where I am today.

I’m telling you this today because hindsight is 20/20.

Sometimes, the big scary leap is exactly the one you need to take in order to get where you want to go. Maybe it’ll take you there, maybe it won’t.

But if you hold yourself back, you’ll spend the rest of your life wondering “what if I went for it?”

These are the thoughts that run through my head as I savor another soup dumpling at one of my favorite local restaurants (Dumpling Time). The things I took for granted then are now precious. Including the excitement and nerves of taking that big scary leap.

I promise…Whatever is scaring you today will one day be a memory you look back fondly on.

Especially when your wildest dreams lie on the other side of that fear.

Sending love from San Francisco,

Catarina

P.S. If your big scary leap happens to be investing in The Influencer Mastercourse, allow me to bridge that gap with an invitation to The Creator Launchpad Crash Course. It’s a significantly lower investment of $29, but it’ll give you the foundations you need to start your creator career off on the right foot!