Karen Anne Hope Andrews - Searching for a New Hope

ORIGIN

Mom of 2 beautiful children, wife of 21 years, happily married, happily professionally engaged in my dream career. Clinical Psychologist since 2009, 6 years in public health service in South Africa, working in private practice Dubai since 2014. I love what I do and I know that I'm good at it.

I have achieved all the goals I set in my 20's. I'm so grateful to be working in a fascinating, exciting, meaningful field of work that also allows me to be flexible - I work online, from home.

I am professionally and personally fulfilled, with a sense of purpose that is deeply meaningful.

The bottleneck is... there is nowhere to go. There are no promotions or natural career progression. I already study every year to keep my skills sharp and stay mentally engaged. I could do a PhD, but it wouldn’t increase my income. I could open a clinic, but the bureaucratic burden and responsibility of managing other psychologists in the UAE is unappealing and feels draining.

DESIRED FUTURE STATE

I’m looking for clarity about what comes next. I love the work I do and would happily continue if it allowed me to earn significantly more.

Right now, my vision is overly broad - to use my skills as a mature, experienced clinician in a way that has similar meaning, impact, and flexibility, but with much higher income. My ideal life would look the same, but with more freedom. I would travel more, surf more, spend more time with my husband and kids, socialise more, and cook occasionally instead of working every spare moment.

WHY

My husband is a teacher and not ambitious. We spent our early years together having incredible experiences and travelling. Now we have two children and no retirement plan or savings.

We live modestly. We’re proud to be debt-free and own a small apartment near the beach in Cape Town. Our children attend private school, which is important to us, but it adds pressure. We can’t afford to travel nearly as much as we’d like, and the idea of working indefinitely is not sustainable.

FEARS

What's blocking me from claiming my Next is not having any idea what it should look like.

I work consistently and with discipline, but without a specific direction. It feels like much of what I do may not be moving me forward in a meaningful way.

OTHER CONTEXT

I built my professional website in 2018 and invested a lot in branding. In 2021, I launched a blog with my sister. W published about 80 articles, but there’s been no traction. I started building a personal brand on Instagram in 2022, then a YouTube channel in 2023. I’ve published 179 videos and have 225 subscribers. I understand the lack of growth - I’m not niched and don’t have a clear target audience.

I have a free Skool community, but there’s no offer and no monetisation plan. I’ve spent countless hours on Skool, exploring and learning. Since December 2024, I’ve invested around $10,000 to $15,000 in coaching programs. It has been interesting, but I still don’t have clarity.

I spend probably way too much time on Skool. I've seen it as learning and searching, but having invested very many hours and significant money (for me), I'm very close to the point of giving up.

The irony is that I could achieve most of my desired future state from where I am. I could easily spend more time with my family and socialise with friends if I didn't spend so much time "working" and studying entrepreneurship.

If I accepted my current situation and the reality that as things stand, I'm never going to earn more than my current +-$10k a month, I could release myself from all this extra effort to enjoy all the many benefits of working flexi-time, online, from home, doing something that I actually love and am very proud of.

If I stopped pouring time into business building and entrepreneurship content, I would have more space for the people and activities that matter most. I would also have more energy.

We could likely cut costs and start saving properly for retirement. But since 2020, I’ve spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours trying to figure out my next move, with no return on investment so far.

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