I lived in Venezuela for about 29 years. After graduating from law school in Colombia, I moved there and married a successful insurance broker whose company was 5th in the country.
We had a wonderful life during which I was a princess who did what she wanted—no restrictions.
I wrote for business magazines about politics and the economy, became an artist and photographer, organized events, and managed my husband’s PR.
We traveled twice or thrice yearly and lived in a beautiful apartment overlooking Caracas’ Avila mountain.
I am very grateful for having had that.
In 1998, Hugo Chavez became president, and after his death, the country died with him. Christian’s business started to wilt. All his clients were downsizing and it was not a good business anymore. I saw it was upon me to change things—Christian was already in his late 60s.
I was born in Colombia, which was doing better than Venezuela. We had built a house there in 2012, thinking it could be a semi-retirement option—the plan was to live six months in Caracas and six months in Colombia. Then Bernie Madoff happened, and our portfolio…
So we rented out the house and forgot about retiring. But in my mind, I kept thinking we needed to leave.
In 2015, while waiting in line to buy meat, I realized I couldn’t pay because the price had increased in the 45 minutes I had been waiting.
I split the purchase with the person behind me.
That was it.
I had always cooked for business dinners and loved entertaining, so I thought I could set up a pop-up restaurant in our house in Colombia, catering to a few guests every week.
I attended culinary school for more than a year and, after graduation, left the country. Christian stayed behind while he sorted out what to do with whatever was left of his business. It was 2017.
He arrived two years later with a surprise. He had a job, which, for a while, made things easier for us while I looked to reinvent my restaurant because it wasn’t the belle of the town I had envisioned.
The thing was that even though I had family and good friends, we were both foreigners, and his position was in lead generation. The job ended some months later.
As for me, I had misread the market, didn’t have time to develop a social media strategy, cooked and hosted a dinner once a month—if lucky— learned, cried, and missed everything I had left behind.
To make matters worse, I had already started a hustle on the side: Debt acquisition.
Then COVID-19 appeared. Funny enough, I got some recognition for baking quiches and bread, so I sold quite well while in lockdown.
But not well enough, so in 2022, I had to fold.
Feeling like a failure and not knowing how to move forward, I returned to writing.
I plunged into digital marketing and brushed up my old copywriting skills, happy that selling nowadays is gentler and requires empathy.
Two months after launching my website, through a job board, I landed one client, and then Christian, who got into writing with me, landed another.
And then, nothing.
I’ve tried getting employed, but the process ends when they see me on camera. I’m a little too vintage :)
I keep applying, nonetheless.
In the meantime, here I am, with the goal of monetizing my content writing skills to help others like me reinvent themselves with a digital business.
I have yet to land my first client.
Our debts have crawled upon us like a vine, overtaking everything. More than half of what we bring in from our savings is used to pay installments. Our savings are getting thinner and thinner, and soon, we won’t have any.
For two years, we’ve tried selling our house. But, as luck has it, we now have another leftist government trying to impose the Chavista revolution. Nobody wants to invest in the country, and even selling our car has had no success.
We need to get rid of our debts so we can at least breathe a little until my business finally takes off. We are $32,000 into deep water.
It’s so frustrating to live under similar circumstances as nine years ago. I sometimes doubt if we should have moved from Venezuela, but that train left ages ago.
This is not what I expected to experience at this stage of my life. I would have still worked, but the pressure of creating an income is killing our marriage and our peace of mind.
So, any help will be appreciated. I can offer to write content in exchange if that seems like something you might want to explore.
My paypal link is the following:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/florcruzcastillo
God bless you,