Today we’d like to introduce you to Maricia DC Johns.
Maricia, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
It’s all about life — life in the here and now and what we make of it. As I have matured, I’ve discovered that I am not average in most cases. Then again, most women of a certain age are not average. We are all so different. We don’t fit a particular mold.
I noticed that my favorite publications no longer considered me to be valuable, they were going toward a different generation. They had relegated me to the comfortable shoes, pancake makeup and babysitting grandchildren.
Don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with any of the above, but it just got to me that this was the only way I was perceived to be. So, I decided that if I couldn’t read it from others, then I would write about it and hopefully, others would read it.
“thisisyourbestyear” has evolved into an everything (lifestyle) blog — an everything that women of a certain age want to discuss. It has been our goal to be fun at times by discussing things such as zip lining, hiking doing yoga in the square on Saturday morning. We’ve taken our readers to the department store to buy the correct bra for their body type, found comfortable high heels (yes, they exist), tried different types of beauty products and even discovered what to do with the ones that should have never been purchased.
Our readers have had the opportunity to read about and hopefully learn about their personal finances, dating, divorcing, marrying and so much more. We’ve tried to inform our readers about free health services, about scheduling their preventive exams and assist them in locating the assistance they need.
The journey with our families and friends is an ongoing journey that is never the same. We discuss volunteer opportunities, opportunities and events that are of little cost or free that can be found in our area but maybe in our reader’s areas also.
It is our goal to inform and encourage our readers. We want to let them know that “thisisyourbestyear”. You want to start a new business, retire, travel, take a class, color your hair, let the gray grow in your hair, take care of grandkids, retire — whatever you want to do, then do it. We want them to remember “thisisyourbestyear”.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
This journey has not been taken on the interstate highway, it was started off the beaten path, and is just now making it off the country dirt road. With each bump in the road or sharp curve, we’ve learned valuable lessons that have enhanced “thisisyourbestyear”.
The main struggle was just that first step. There will be doubters, and there still are after all of these years of publishing “thisisyourbestyear”, but there will be those that offer encouragement and assistance.
Learn to ask for assistance when needed — you really can’t do it all by yourself. Find your niche and your passion and go for it.
Find what works for you and your audience in terms of social media (2 or 3 will do). There’s a new one every day. Have fun because one day you might make it to the interstate highway. We’re still trying to get there, but if you never start…
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into thisisyourbestyear story. Tell us more about the business.
When we get comments from our readers about our content we are over the moon. They might not always agree with us, but we’ve started a conversation. We have now learned a different point of view. When our readers tell us that they have found a similar service in their area, we know that we are doing our job — keeping our readers informed.
We specialize in women of a certain age. You know that woman over 45 and beyond. It’s about “us”. “thisisyourbestyear” is for women of a certain age, those that know women of a certain age, and those that will one day be women of a certain age — everyone.
One thing that sets us apart from most blogs is that we do not take paid advertisements. We have a section where items that we like are featured. “thisisyourbestyear” has been sent products to sample, and we do write about them if we like them. If we don’t, then we don’t write about them.
What do you feel are the biggest barriers today to female leadership, in your industry or generally?
Age and lack of self-confidence is the biggest barrier for women bloggers of a certain age. Again, that is part of the reason we started writing “thisisyourbestyear”.
Somehow we feel we are too old to start something different, We don’t have the confidence to write about what we like. People told us that we should be a fashion blog or maybe a cosmetics blog. This was not our intent. We knew we wanted to cover it all — be a lifestyle blog. As women of a certain age, we tend to listen to doubters and get our feelings hurt when they don’t give encouragement.
Once we gather the confidence, we are on the road to making ourselves happy.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thisisyourbestyear.com
- Phone: 817-366-9440
- Email: thisisyourbestyear@gmail.com
- Instagram: thisisyourbestyear
- Facebook: thisisyourbestyear
- Twitter: thisisyourbestyear@mariciajohns
Image Credit:
Carol Cooper, Maricia D C Johns
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