I Took the Leap ~ 2024-08-23

June First is now my full-time job.

It is scary taking the plunge into the unknown. For 4 years, I’ve had a great job that was with good people and offered interesting engineering work. I’m blessed to have had that opportunity, but I knew early on it wasn’t where I was meant to be. I spent my free time working on evolving June First, getting better with each video upload or engineering project, and my day job allowed me to live comfortably. But over the past several months, I had grown increasingly frustrated with working in a corporate setting. June First was growing and requiring more commitment. With having to work 9-10 hour days at a place where my heart wasn’t fully at when the thing I’ve built from scratch was requiring more time and giving me more fulfillment, it got to a point where my job was holding back the potential of June First AND myself. The office, filled with fluorescent light and neutral uninspiring colors, was turning more and more into a metaphorical prison. It was burning me out from what I loved doing, making me irritable, and almost making me depressed (I don’t think I was suffering from true depression, but I believe it would have progressed to that point if nothing changed).

I loved the people I worked with and the design work was cool, but the construct of corporate America was ultimately stifling me. So ultimately I came to a crossroads, and as hard as it was to leave the comfort of security, I could no longer deny what was best for me. I took the leap.

I turned 25 this week, which has been wild to think about. My birthday had always kind of been a transitional point in my life as it always signaled the start of school and the first tastes of fall. It's a time of year where I get really nostalgic and very reflective. The past few years, that hasn’t really happened, since I’d fallen into the routine of working my day job, and the start of a new school year thing was no longer a part of my life. 25 is commonly referred to the “quarter life crisis” birthday, as you are now closer to 30 than your teens. Slowly, friends I grew up with or went to college with are becoming engaged, buying their first home, or even having their first kid. While I have been in a long term relationship for years, we both are on the same page that we want to focus on our careers first. Therefore, I think my own quarter life crisis was needing to take that next step of pursuing my passion and purpose. My love for weather has been the most consistent aspect of my life and I cannot deny that I need it to be the focus of my career.

There is no question that this is a huge risk I’m taking, and frankly, I think that it’s a benefit. I have enough of a safety net to cover my expenses for several months assuming no money is coming in. The good news is that June First has covered its expenses and then some for some time, but hasn’t reached a point yet where it covers my personal expenses. That’s to be expected though as it has only been a part-time endever up until now. But now that I’ll be working it full-time (and then some), in those months I believe I’ll be able to meet my previous income. I have no desire to be rich, I just want to be able to do what I love and make a comfortable living off of it.

So what will change with June First now that there is more focus towards it? Firstly (and obviously), there will be an increase in video content. With so many ideas backlogged, I can finally give some events the proper attention they deserve. Not only that, but the content itself will be more polished than ever as my energy will no longer be zapped by my day job. I’ve had the consistent issue of my peak efficiency hours going towards my day job, and having to rely on the passion to push through the fatigue in order to make progress on projects. But now, I use those morning hours where my mind is most active to produce the best projects possible.

Additionally, Damage Analysis Livestreams will be making a comeback, by popular demand. More bonus content pieces for patrons on Patreon. New merch will be added continuously in the store. The June First Podcast will make a return with bi-weekly episodes and finally more short-form content pieces derived from old videos to distribute on other social platforms for diversification. Opportunities of collaboration will also increase, and I’m excited to do some projects with other talented folks in the weather creation space. There will also be some sponsored videos. I know many don’t enjoy seeing more advertising, but they allow for this increase of content to be possible. 

I’m extremely excited for this new chapter. It’s been a long time coming and I look forward to seeing how this journey evolves. If you’re looking to further support June First in any fashion, please consider checking out the merch store here on the website or pop over to our Patreon page where bonus content will be posted.

Cheers,

Ethan