Waking Up from the Dream | My Late February Newsletter

What if the world you were living in... was a dream?

I love the movie Inception.

It has a gripping storyline and is visually one of my favorite films - the cinematography (and music for that matter) are phenomenal. But at its core, the movie is about dreams within dreams. And, for some... their dreams eventually become their reality.

Why do I bring this up?

A few months ago, I started to wake up: I'd been living in a dream for years.

But... what do you do when you wake up from a dream?

You start to pray... take inventory of what's around you and take baby steps. At least, that's what I've been trying to do.

So, without further ado... welcome to the first ever...

The plan is for this to eventually be a monthly newsletter that will give you an overview of all the progress made surrounding WW Studios! I'll TRY to keep them short and to the point and throw in some fun behind-the-scenes photos. You can sign up here to get it directly in your inbox:)

February 2025 Highlights:

February (and January for that matter) have been crazy months for me, and not for the reasons I expected. Here are some bullet points on what went down + a few highlights.

• Freelance Gigs: I got a handful of freelance gigs and delivered the final product on almost all of them! (Huge praise report there! I'm so thankful for all the opportunities to work and actually get paid. LOL.)
  And while I'm at it are you looking for a video editor with a creative eye? ⇾ reach out!!
• 40-Days of Preparation: February 9th, I completed my self-imposed '40 days of no social media + rethinking my life.' More on that later.
• What is WW Studios? Thankfully, progress was made on my journey searching for clarity in what my vision for WW Studios could one day be and also a bit on how that could be made possible. Lots of ideas floating around, and it's an understatement to say that I'm very excited about the future!
• Web Development: In an unexpected turn of events I learned about hosting websites on a virtual private server. I did everything from installing Coolify, Ghost, and WordPress on said VPS, and realized later that the rubber truly hits the road when you begin to wireframe your website. It's an excellent exercise to flush out what you want to say to the world. 10/10 - would recommend it to anyone who has some confusion as to what they want to offer the world.
• White Paper: I tried (and failed) to write a white paper called 'The WW Studios Vision' which was an attempt to articulate in detailed written form my mission, vision, and dream. Why do I say I failed?? That is its own story...
• Business Cards: Lastly, I designed my very first business cards.

Freelance Gigs

It's such a good feeling to write a list of things that you completed over the past month and come out surprised with how much you were able to get done! Frankly, I should do it more often. More times than I'd like to admit, progress seems to come in drips and drops instead of overflowing buckets and basins. (Terrible analogy, sorry.) But don't let those drips fool you. A steady drip-drop can do wonders. It might just take time. Which aptly reminds me of my money-making journey.

Being consistent and faithful in the small things is important. Maybe you aren't making a ton but a little is better than none. The truth of the matter is – the Lord WILL provide. In ways that I'm not going to share for a handful of reasons God has provided for my every need and for that, I will never stop being thankful. Whether it was a donation, a kind comment from a stranger who started binge-watching my videos on YouTube, or a job opportunity opening up that I never saw coming right went I needed it. He is always faithful.

So far, my money-making journey has been a series of "when it rains, it rains" and, "when it's dry, it's dry."

For many, that would be greatly off-putting, but the more I look at it, the more I see God's hand at work in every aspect of my life. I'm thankful beyond words for that gift. Let me tell you - having a few weeks where I was suddenly unable to touch any personal projects because of how busy I was has helped me value my time differently. Suddenly, when all the client projects are done, I'm hit with a wave of freedom and excitement to get back to work that I've honestly not felt in years.

The 40-Days of Preparation

Never did I ever expect to not start 2025 with a bang. It's always been a source of yearly excitement for me to come up with big plans for the new year and execute them (or die trying.) But, when the clock rolled around to midnight, I felt broken. It wasn't in me anymore. I wrote a whole blog post on it called New Year, New You?

So, instead of stressing, I stopped. I knew I had a handful of problems to work through and, if I can remember correctly, I happened to flip to the Bible passage in Luke where Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, and fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.

As I thought about it, 40 days and 40 nights sure did come up a lot in the Bible. What if I took 40 days to set aside time to pause and pray about where God wanted me to go? So, that's exactly what I tried to do. On a dime, in desperation for change, I committed to a handful of things which included no social media. (Spoiler, I'm still seeing the massive benefits of that after it's over!)

For some reason, about halfway through the challenge, I sort of expected there to be an earthquake, lightning bolt, or even a mix of the two that would suddenly create a stone tablet with the exact instructions that I'd use to live out the rest of my life. But God often speaks with a still, small voice. Now, from experience, I can say that it's important to remember that.

Not to be cynical, but the older I get, the more I realize how a professional is nothing more than a phony who added a few extra letters to their name. I'm that guy who, like Emmet from the Lego movie, loves the instruction book. GIMME THAT MANUAL, DAD!

• It (should) tell you exactly what to do.
• Nothing (should) go wrong.
• Everything will be awesome... Just follow the instructions!

And then it doesn't end up awesome.

What do you do then? Well, that's where the fun begins! You get to go off-script and create, test, experiment... and fail.

Fail? Yes, fail. You heard that right.

I know, instruction book Joshua hates that.

Yet, as I grow older and gain experience, watching how the world works around me, I am often made aware of the clear high-water-marks of the incompetency of mankind. There was a time when that scared me, disappointed me, and even made me look down on my fellow brethren. But now I see, in hindsight, it should do none of that. It should push both me and you to start writing our own manuals. Be the change when you see a better way. Create something new.

What am I getting at?

Life's answers are rarely handed to us on golden platters. Remember, God often speaks with a still, small voice. Taking 40 days to consider my options, pray for guidance, and ask for wisdom helped me realize that. A friend of mine said something very interesting to me when I told him I just wanted to do what was right. "Sometimes you just need to pick a path and just take steps of faith." That might not be exactly what he said... but it's in the same line of thought.

I'm an all-or-nothing sorta guy. It's hard for me to intentionally take baby steps. Yet, just because it's not easy, doesn't mean I have an excuse to stay where I am. I have work to do... on myself.

Another discovery I've made is that I need to grow in my trust. It's funny to say that. I've made my fair share of 'trust issues' jokes but I need to do a better job at trusting God. So here is my 2025 mini-mantra on what I need to work on: I need to learn how to take baby steps and grow in my trust.

At the end of the day, none of us knows what we are doing, and in an ironic, juxtapositional way, that's the most beautiful thing in the world. The stakes aren't as high as I might have imagined. All of us, whether we realize it or not, are blind men looking for a physician to heal our failing sight.

God's got this.

So, what was my big takeaway?

Good question... but hard to answer. Frankly, there wasn't a big takeaway. No golden platter this time. No manual found. But what I have found is an unmatched peace. An almost inaudible, still small voice. At the end of the day, I know three things are true:

1. I've been given a gift.
2. God always has a plan, even when I don't.
3. And, I can rest in that and take one step of faith at a time.

So, what if the answer to, "What is my calling in life?" was as simple as asking myself daily, "God, how can I bring you glory this day?" and walking with that in faith?

In a way that is hard to put into words, I have come full circle.

90 days ago, in the last vlog I posted, my dream had died.

My hope was weaned off of 'making it' on YouTube and replaced with a deeper trust in God. That was my last video. Did I want to come back someday? Sure, of course. But for the first time in years, I was finally at peace with the idea of failing. I was okay with never finishing my feature film Betty Fleetfoot. A surrender had taken place that I desperately needed.

Was it pleasant?

No. It was like watching an only child die a slow, miserable death. Very unpleasant. But I serve the Jesus who raised the dead, so there was nothing to fear.

And, as wild as it sounds, something different started to happen. Out of the ashes of my burned dreams arose something new. A bigger vision.

What is WW Studios?

That question has haunted me.

Is it just a YouTube channel? It's hardly a business. At least, not in terms of creating revenue. Is it a non-profit studio then?

What am I doing with my life!?

I had a lot of questions floating around come late January that I had suppressed out of sheer lack of mental bandwidth. While head-over-heels in managing a YouTube channel being kept alive by the fumes of a year-old video series and trying to rewrite my feature film without fully admitting to myself that I was going back to square one, I was too busy to think about the big picture.

That's when February rolled around the corner.

January had been filled with reading business books like, "How To Grow Your Small Business" and "Building a StoryBrand." This was a wave of fresh air for me, but with every wave, there is a current and I got swept away in the undercurrent of following formulas for a bit. That's a story for another day. Nonetheless, these books helped me start thinking. Donald Miller, author of the two previously mentioned books, had one line that he liked to repeat non-stop. Clarify your message.

That was a game-changer for me.

That mantra helped inspire me to embark on a still-developing journey of answering those hard questions that matter. Honestly, how could I expect someone to support my mission or studio if I didn't even know why I was doing any of it in the first place?

For the first time, I asked myself the question I had been too afraid to ask beforehand: What is WW Studios?

Thus, over January, and now February, I've worked a lot on clarifying my vision. And let me tell you, it's been an incredible journey. I'm hesitant to call it a dream because I want to keep things in check with reality this time. But call it what you like, I'm excited which is a good thing. I just need to keep things in baby steps, right?

From now on, I'm doing my best to take intentional small baby steps with WW Studios, which is how I ended up spending a week (or more) digging up my long-lost web dev skills. Turns out unmanaged baby steps can take you to strange places...

Web Development

If you are surprised by me doing website stuff, so am I. Though I have created a handful of websites for friends and small businesses I know I've yet to tackle something as complex as my own website.

Mainly because I overcomplicated it by 100X.

This is a topic for a whole video one day but I've made the executive decision to part ways with my current website builder/membership platform Fourthwall. They were great but for my vision, I wanted to take baby steps and see what it would hypothetically cost to do it all on my own. That way I'm not relying on a third party to handle the lifeblood of my business.

I won't get into the details but I'm working with them to migrate my content over as I write...

What does the new setup look like?

I bought a 2-year VPS plan that lets me host whatever I want. Yay! Total control over my domain(s) and no dumb restrictions!

I'm no coder but I do run Ubuntu on my PC so working on the terminal wasn't a new thing... but it was still scary. The VPS is completely controlled by my keyboard... and if I mess it up... I'm kind of cooked.

Which happened when I deleted the home directory HAHA.

Easy fix - just rest the server! Finally, after a few days of pretending like I had the slightest clue as to what I was doing trying to install Ghost on the server, I learned about Coolify. I don't know how to describe it because this is not my area of expertise but it let me run multiple programs on the server graphically. Yay! No more terminal.

After that, things were mostly smooth sailing. Just a lot of experimenting with themes, fonts, and layouts.

• The plan is for wwstudios.org to be the site for WW Studios.
• My old domain's content is being migrated from wwstudioswastaken.com to the Elite Member site members.wwstudios.org.
• wwstudioswastaken.com will become my personal site (something I am oddly excited about HAHA)

I hope that wasn't too confusing.

I've discovered that when I put my mind to it, I can write a lot of words. (I'm so sorry, this post was not supposed to be nearly 3000 words long!!) NEXT TIME, I intend to make this way shorter. Hopefully HAHA.

Till next time...

-- Joshua Whitney