April was a crazy travel month for me. I spent an overnight in 10 cities and passed through quite a few more on my journey. Logic would follow that April would be the worst month for me to be without money, right? Well, karma just knows how to get you sometimes. Curious? Let me fill you in.

My first day in Toronto, I got a phone call. I mean, I get a lot of phone calls, but this phone call I actually answered. It was my bank, calling to let me know that all my accounts were frozen and pending review because of some supposed shady dealings.

Let that sink in for a sec. This 23 year old nomad is apparently a money launderer or some kind of drug runner or something. I was also stranded in a foreign country with just $120 cash to my name until I made it back to the States. They were curious as to (a) why did I have so many trips booked to the middle east in the next year, (b) why was I in so many countries so near to terrorist attacks, and (c) why was I stopped at TSA so much lately. Not sure how my bank knew about all of that (or how that's relevant to my money), but I digress.

Not only that, but it was the beginning of the month. That meant that all the subscriptions I have - Zoom, ConvertKit, etc - went unpaid because my bank declined all those transactions due to the same supposed shady dealings. (Which is why you didn't get an email from me yesterday, like you were supposed to.)

WHOOPS.

You know me, there's always a lesson in the craziness. This month's lesson? It doesn't matter what you tell the world you are, the world will form it's own opinion. My bank account is formed under a legally-registered LLC's information. There's an EIN number attached. They have my personal details. If you google me (or my business), you'll find pages upon pages of articles, guest blogs I've done, podcast interviews, and even my own content. If my business is a front for money laundering, I've done a really good job at crafting that cover story.

MY CHALLENGE TO YOU:

Who does the world think you are? We all like to think that we control our own marketing images, but the truth is, the "picture they see" is somewhere a little left or right of the story that we tell. Do some research this week - ask past clients, ask customers, ask business associates. What is their impression of the story you're telling - is it wildly off from what you want them to think, or is it pretty close to the truth?