The Four Month Hiatus

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to The Canopy, the view from above where we talk about generative engine optimization, small business, and what's changing in the world of AI search. I'm Jen Shannon, your host and founder of Clemelopy. And if you're listening, it's been a minute. I've been quiet for about four months. No new episodes. No big updates.

And if you've been wondering where I went or what happened to Clemelopy, this episode is for you. I'm going to be open with you today — not polished founder open, but actually ugly truth open. Because I think there's something important in what I've been going through that might help you if you're building something too. So let's talk about the hiatus, why I took it, what I did instead, and what comes next.

Here's the thing you should know, and people will tell you, but often you hope isn't the case, about being a solo founder. Sometimes the thing you're building isn't the thing that pays your bills. At least not yet.

When I launched Clemelopy, I had come off a layoff on Halloween twenty twenty five and had thrown myself into building this platform because I believed in it. I still believe in it. GEO is real. The shift to AI search has happened, and small businesses need help navigating it. But belief doesn't pay the van payment.

By spring of this past year, twenty twenty six, I had to have a real conversation with myself. Clemelopy was in beta. I had case studies in progress. I had a podcast series mapped out. I had momentum. But I also had a bank account that needed attention, and summer was coming up, and my kids were gonna be home.

Now before I dive into more of that — my husband and I did have our six months of expenses saved up. I was also substitute teaching to help offset not having to spend that six months of extra expenses. But those things do dwindle over time. And substitute teaching, I really, really hated. I was good at it, but I really hated it. It paid about a hundred dollars a day after taxes. And with summer coming, that was going to be going away.

So I made a choice. I hit pause on the gas pedal and focused on cash flow. And I wanna be clear about something. This wasn't a failure. This was a strategic pivot. A pause. Sometimes the most strategic thing you can do for your long game is make sure you can stay in the game.

I've been a small business owner since two thousand eight. I know what it looks like when someone runs out of runway before their vision actually takes off. I didn't want to be that person or that business owner, so I pivoted my energy temporarily to things that could generate income now while Clemelopy kept simmering on the burner.

The good news was that everything was built. Everything was steady. So when it was time to come back, I could pick up knowing that nothing was broken and nothing was sloppy. That also meant I hadn't gained any actual clients outside of my case studies. But in retrospect, that was actually a good thing, because that meant there were no service interruptions for those people.

So what did four months of quote unquote hiatus actually look like? Well, I had been applying for jobs since I got laid off. The job market was awful. I hear it's still awful. I wasn't getting any bites on any resumes or applications. And a friend told me about the Amazon Influencer program, and we had talked about it at length. Being someone who doesn't put all of my eggs in one basket, it seemed like something I could do.

So I set out to do it, and that started by needing a social media presence that would allow me to be approved for the program. Different social media accounts have different requirements with Amazon in order to be approved, but I decided to turn to TikTok because I had my art business there.

Some of you know that I have an art business called Jen Shannon Creative Atelier, where I hand make objects and paintings — from lathe turned wood and resin pieces to fine art paintings, mixed media, pastels, and things of that nature. It's a completely different world from generative engine optimization and SaaS companies, but it's mine, and I love it.

The spring and summer, I just decided to lean into TikTok live every single day. I didn't want something to manage, to edit, to have to promote. So lives seemed to be the one and done solution I was looking for. I just wanted something that would get my numbers to a point where I could get into the Amazon Influencer program.

At first, I went live twice a day, then three times a day, then back down to twice a day, and then found my people in my once a day morning sessions. Every day, I would go live and create — usually a painting or a mixed media piece. And then something clicked. People showed up. They asked questions. They sent what they call gifts on TikTok, which for me would really only account for a few cents per live, but that wasn't nothing.

There's something beautiful about being paid to do the thing you'd be doing anyway. But if you've listened to this podcast for long, you'll know that in times past when I've done art markets — when you actually make the thing you love to do your job, you can get burned out from it really quickly and then not enjoy it anymore. But if you're already going to be doing something anyway, then it's kinda like, okay, it's not that big of a deal.

The break from screens and strategy was actually really good for my brain, and getting back into doing something with my hands was really good. It allowed me to not only create with my hands, but to chat with people live and create a different kind of energy than building software. I also met some really wonderful people, one of which has become a real life friend that I met up with a couple of weeks ago in person.

I eventually started posting those replays to both my website and YouTube, while also creating some user generated content — UGC — that was absolutely hysterical that people loved to watch. And I became known as Florida Jen, this sort of trashy, minty lemonade loving, pajama wearing, unemployed, middle aged freeloader that just stopped caring. And truly, it's me day in and day out. Silly, prefers to be braless, prefers to laugh and help people laugh. Really, it's just authentically me.

After two weeks of consistently showing up on TikTok, I got approved for the Amazon Influencer program, and that was around April first. The second step was to get approved for creating videos that would then be shown on-site, which are called on-site videos.

If you're not familiar with the Amazon Influencer program, it's a program where you create short videos going over products, and then you upload those to your Amazon storefront, and you earn commissions when people buy through your recommendations. It's not glamorous work by any means — you're filming yourself talking about things like phone chargers and kitchen gadgets — but the commissions certainly do add up.

I ended up taking a course on it at the recommendation of my friend, and the person teaching the course is someone named Data Coach Claire. The course itself was called Build Past 1K. By then, I had already learned the system, uploaded over a hundred videos, and had made some small commissions. My goal was to build it to a point that my earnings over the summer would be substantial enough to cover the van payment, and I knew that would take time to build.

So I started the course June eighth, and this was after I had already started posting on-site videos. I wanna say it was around April seventh when I was approved for on-site. The first month, I made like nineteen dollars, and the second month, I made like forty four dollars. And so I started this course June eighth and closed out June with a significant amount of income. I was seeing real money come in. Not quit your job money, but real consistent income that took the pressure off.

And then July happened, and I more than doubled well into four digit income than what I did in June. And so here I am sitting here in August, on track to do even more than what I did in July. I wouldn't say quite double, but pretty close to it — which is what puts me where I want to be comfortably in order to have the extras and pay off debt and save for our future. Anything extra is going to be going towards paying off debts like student loans and the van payment and the mortgage. So it's not something that you're limited to. You can truly make substantial income with this program.

Another part of this narrative that doesn't fit neatly into a business narrative, but matters anyway, is that it was summer. My four kids were home, and I wanted to actually be present for them. And again, it's not like I was having any bites on the job front. So even if I wanted to work a full time job I could go to every day, that wasn't happening.

So the Amazon Influencer work and the TikTok lives were flexible. I could batch record videos and do my product research while they were sleeping, and usually while they were out with friends. And I went live usually later in the mornings than I would while they were in school, but when the kids were still sleeping. So it ended up working out really well. It wasn't always graceful, but it worked. And I got to have the summer with my family while still building income, and that's not nothing.

That's actually kind of the whole point of building your own thing — you get to be the person in charge of how flexible you can be, and you get to be present for your life while you work.

The hardest part was really hitting pause on Clemelopy's case studies. I had Dana, Jill, Suzie, and Clemelopy itself — all real businesses with real people who trusted me to help them with GEO. And to tell them that we were slowing down was hard.

Yes, there were some caveats there too, because for example, Dana and I are still working together on her new site. And while she's been super busy, she's still putting together her portfolio. So my movement on building her website is kind of at a standstill until she's able to finish that. Jill's site is also still in the process of being developed.

So even though those things have some bearing on how much we can do with the case studies, it's still difficult to basically tell someone, hey, I can't work on this for a little while because I don't have the time to dedicate to it because I need to actually earn income. And they're small business owners too, and they get it, which is great. But it also makes me feel like somewhat of a failure. And I don't like failure. But sometimes you have to prioritize what keeps the bills paid.

And we didn't end anything. We just paused, and I'm grateful for their patience. This is why having case studies with people I truly care about and business owners I love is of utmost importance to me — because they know that I understand what it takes to run a business. And in return, they also understand that for me.

Now I wanna talk a little bit about what I've learned in these last four months.

The first one is that multiple income streams aren't a backup plan. They are the plan. I used to think of my art business and these other projects as side things or distractions from the real work of building Clemelopy, but that's actually backwards. Having multiple ways money can come in is what allows me to take risks on bigger things. It's not either or. It's both and.

Not only did I hone my craft in art, but I sold quite a bit as well, which significantly helped us while I was building my Amazon Influencer income. Also, at any time, Amazon could make changes or eliminate the program altogether, and that could get rid of all of that income. So being able to take advantage of it now while building eggs in other baskets is wise.

The second thing is that slower is sustainable. When I first launched Clemelopy, I was going hard. Recording podcasts, building tools, running case studies, creating content. It was exciting, but so exhausting. From the time I got laid off to the time I launched, I was working sixteen plus hour days. I was constantly at my computer. My family was frustrated with my lack of participation in everything, and when I did participate, I wasn't mentally present.

This break forced me to ask, what pace can I actually maintain for years? Because that's what building something really takes. It's years, not months. And if you can't maintain that pace over the course of years, then it's not sustainable — especially for people who recognize that we live in hustle culture, where everybody feels the need to just hustle constantly or else it's not gonna get done, or you're somehow lesser of a business owner if you're not constantly hustling. That's not sustainable. Because at some point, something's gonna give, and it should not be your family. It should not be you.

If you're able to take a step back and figure out what you can maintain, that is worth its weight in gold. The answer isn't pedal to the metal until you burn out. The answer is a steady pace you can sustain while also living your life.

The third thing is that the work you do when no one's watching still counts. I wasn't posting Clemelopy content these last few months, but I was still thinking about it. I was still noticing things in the AI search landscape. I was still having conversations with people about generative engine optimization. The seeds are still there. The ideas are still growing. Sometimes fields need to lie fallow for a season. And then when you come back to them, you can really start to see your plants grow.

The fourth thing is that it's okay to build in public, including the messy parts. I could have come back and pretended the hiatus didn't happen and just picked up where I left off. But for me, I highly value authenticity, and that felt highly inauthentic. I think the messy parts are where other founders learn the most.

So here I am telling you that I stepped back because I needed money. I needed to be able to earn enough money to make the van payment every month. And I needed time with my kids. And that's real. And that's the actual story of building something.

I would love to be able to tell you that Clemelopy is doing so well that I can afford to have an assistant or have employees and just take over the world. But at the end of the day, right now, I'm still just a one person show, and I still have responsibilities outside of Clemelopy that I need to make sure are taken care of. And if Clemelopy is not paying the bills and is not helping to get things together for us financially, then I have got to find another way to do that.

Do I eventually hope that someday I can maybe have a team of people that I can provide a full time salary for and benefits and all of that? Absolutely. I would love to do that. But we are not at that stage yet. Right now, it is just the very beginning, and this is the story of building something.

That leads me into something I did want to tell you that happened during these last four months. Clemelopy did get its trademark to come through during that time. So Clemelopy is officially a registered trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. We had waited for that for about seven months after I filed, and it came through. I was very, very excited about that.

So what comes next? That's a very loaded question. After feeling like I got my head on straight, finally, I'm taking some time to figure that out.

Along the lines of being a registered trademark, I'm going to work on filing the trademark for the Orchard Ecosystem Framework. I haven't had the three hundred and fifty dollars to file that. When I originally filed the trademark for Clemelopy, it was one or the other — either the Orchard Ecosystem Framework or Clemelopy itself, and I chose to file it for Clemelopy to protect Clemelopy as a whole. So the next step is going to be filing that for the Orchard Ecosystem Framework, and I would like to have that filed by the end of the year.

As for everything else, here's where we're headed. Clemelopy is not going anywhere. This break gave me more clarity about what I'm building and why it matters. This isn't some company built with me as the face to where everything depends on me being front and center. In my opinion, those are eventual sinking ships.

However, I am coming back with a different approach — slower, more sustainable, built around the reality of my life, not some fantasy of unlimited time, funds, and energy. The reality is I have a high schooler now in an art school, which requires a lot of extras for gallery openings, art shows, and more. We have a middle schooler at an art school in theater, which requires a lot of extras like auditions, rehearsals, and theater tech. We have a fifth grader in the National Elementary Honor Society who also plays softball three to four days a week. We also have a third grader who needs a lot of extra help academically and socially. We have a twenty year marriage that still takes priority. We have family and friends who are our tribe, and we refuse to move them to the back burner.

So while a perfectly polished corporation or superboss founder may have it all together — or at least appear that they have it all together — that's not what I'm going for. To me, it's not about making billions in revenue. It's about creating something that helps business owners that provides me income to take care of the people that I love most. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

So let's talk about some of the other things, like the podcast. The podcast is going to continue, but at a gentler pace. This means that I'll batch record episodes and schedule them. However, that may mean they come out once a week for a while, but then a month may go by without a new one. I'll do my best to stay on top of letting you know when that will happen. I'll record when I have something worth saying. Quality over quantity. If that's twice a month, great. If it's once a month, that's fine too.

Social media and newsletter. As one person, I cannot keep up with social media and newsletters. I've always hated having to keep up with social media and newsletters as a business owner regardless of what business I'm doing that for. It feels like an endless battle of posting things that people may or may not care about. So as I go into this next period of planning, I will be deciding what happens with those. My initial thoughts are to keep the conversations on LinkedIn and to have an opt in with a monthly newsletter versus a biweekly, but I haven't yet decided.

The case studies will pick back up. I'll be reconnecting with Dana, Jill, and Suzie. I shouldn't say reconnecting, because I am still in touch with them — but I will be reconnecting with their case studies, I should say, to get those going again. We'll continue the work that we started, but at a pace that works for everyone.

Next, the Clemelopy platform itself is going to be continuing development. The tools are still there. The framework is still solid. I'll keep building and improving as GEO continues to shift and change, but I'm treating it as a long game, not a sprint to some imaginary finish line. Everything is still top notch. It still works as it should, and I'm so excited to watch as this continues to develop and become something that business owners use.

And I'll also keep other income streams going. Amazon Influencer, as of now, isn't going away. The TikTok lives aren't going away for the foreseeable future. These aren't distractions from Clemelopy. They're just part of what makes Clemelopy possible. They buy me the time and the financial breathing room to build something that matters.

Here's what I want you to take away from this, especially if you're building something yourself. It's okay to adjust. It's okay to slow down. It's okay to have made commitments to do things only to realize they were not sustainable and then adjust accordingly. It's okay to prioritize cash flow when you need to. None of that means you failed. It means you're being smart about staying in the game long enough for your vision to work.

The founders who make it aren't always the ones who go the fastest. They're the ones who keep going, period. It's the ones who don't run out of runway before they take flight.

So that's where I've been. That's why I was quiet, and that's what's coming next. If you stuck around during the silence, thank you, genuinely. It means a lot to know there are people out there who care about this work. If you're new here and this is your first episode, welcome. Weird time to join, but I'm so glad that you're here.

Next, I'll be picking back up with the Orchard Ecosystem Framework series where you will get the full picture of what Clemelopy teaches about generative engine optimization. Honestly, the straw that broke the camel's back that brought the hiatus to fruition came because creating the worksheets for those, coupled with the opt in for download, were just such a huge undertaking. But I'm back, I'm refreshed, and I'm ready to get this going again.

If you're building something yourself and you're in one of those seasons where you have to focus on survival before you can focus on vision, I see you. You're not behind. You're not failing. You're doing what it takes.

I mentioned earlier that I took a course on the Amazon Influencer program. It's called Build Past 1K by Data Coach Claire. It's an intermediate course for people who are already in the program but want to scale their earnings past a thousand dollars. Claire's approach is data driven, and she teaches product research, how to improve your workflow so you're putting out more videos with less effort, and how to actually understand your analytics so you can make smarter decisions. It's what took me from spinning my wheels to seeing real consistent growth and income.

If you're already approved and earning but feel stuck under that one thousand dollar mark, this is the course for you. I'm gonna drop my affiliate link in the show notes. Of course, I do earn a small percentage if you purchase or decide to go through this course through my link. Again, it's at no extra cost to you.

But what I do wanna say is that the general consensus — and this has been true for my friend as well as myself — is that this course pays for itself in the first month alone of the earnings that people are seeing by putting forth what they learn in this course. It is a cohort, so at least for me when I took it, it was six weeks long. Every day, you get a new lesson emailed to you, but it's up to you to then go and put into place and practice what you've learned.

And for the sake of being transparent — the first month that I did Amazon Influencer, I earned nineteen dollars. The second month, I earned forty four dollars. The third month was June, and I wasn't earning very much. I started the June cohort on June eighth, and you can literally see on my income graph how within a few days after I started that course and started implementing her methods, my income went up, and I finished out June with four hundred and eighty dollars. So think forty four dollars to four hundred and eighty dollars. That is so significant. And like I said, July was even more than that — almost triple that.

So this course more than paid for itself in that first month, and I am just so thrilled to actually be in a place now where I am earning consistently high income, at least for now. And I don't feel that pressure I was feeling four months ago of having to come up with six hundred dollars a month for our van payment to not feel like we were starting to drown because I had lost my job.

So all of that being said, I hope that this information is helpful for you. And if you are interested in taking this course, by all means, check it out. Again, it is my affiliate link, so I do earn a small commission if you choose to take this course through my link, but it is at no extra cost to you.

Lastly, this episode is brought to you by Clemelopy itself. If you wanna start optimizing your website for AI search, download the 2026 GEO Playbook free at clemelopy.com/playbook.

Thanks so much for spending this time with me and listening to my long hiatus. And until next time, keep growing forward.