$18,448 in 6 Months: An Honest Business Update From the Road
The hardest part isn't starting, it's not quitting at mile 20.
Last 6 months;
$9700 - Income Stream 1
$3600 - Income Stream 2
$5100 - Income Stream 3
$48 - Income Stream 4
Years ago I had a conversation with Frank Kern that I always remember.
He said going from zero to a thousand is so much harder than going from a thousand to a million.
Don’t take the numbers literally. What he meant was that the initial push of starting a business is always the hardest part.
As yet you have no momentum, no social proof, no flywheel, and no real data telling you what’s working.
Just you, the work, and a quiet room.
And this is the part where most people quit.
Did you know most marathon runners quit at mile 20. The glycogen runs out, the energy is gone, & they hit a wall so close from breaking through to the end.
Online businesses work the same way.
The hardest stretch is when you’re past the initial novelty (yours and your audience’s), the early dopamine hits have worn off, the breakthrough seems an interminably long way away, and you start to lose steam.
But this is exactly the time that you need to start fuelling up. Putting more irons in the fire, and adding more energy sources to help you keep going.
I’m not super proud of my business numbers above. I’m used to much bigger numbers and much faster growth, but in my defence I’m pretty much starting all over again with my businesses this year after long periods of procrastination, indecision and a crisis of confidence.
I feel like a beginner all over again and rather than being embarrassed about that (which I have been), I’ve decided to use it as a strength.
Creators tend to share successes, the generous ones - the steps they took to succeed. Most rarely share the actual build in progress and when I think back on my online career, that’s exactly what I’ve done, every time.
When I was growing my Facebook business, my digital product business, how I was generating traffic, even when we started our Amazon business. I shared everything, warts and all.
In fact my good friend Caroline from Retire to Thailand (who may well be reading this) always said she learned just as much from what I got wrong as what I got right.
So here we are again. Instead of hiding behind my ‘experts’ persona - “I’ve built before, I launched multiple six figure course programs, I built and sold a 7 figure ecom business” - all of which is true, I’m hitting the trenches again.
It’s a different world. It’s much noisier, more competitive, more personality based, more educated (as in buyers are much more sophisticated now). And it’s definitely not as easy as it once was to break through.
I’m used to linear growth, now my stats are up and down like a yoyo. One minute I’m sure I’m growing, the next nothing happens for weeks, and sometimes it feels like I’m going backwards!
So I’m completely with you if you’re a bit fearful, questioning your choices, your niche, your talent, your messages, your products, your resonance, your energy levels, your confidence and even whether it’s worth it. (Spoiler: it is)
So, just as I’ve done countless times before in all my online business endeavours I’m going to walk you through my playbook as I play it.
The things that work, the stuff that doesn’t, what I get right, what I get wrong, and you can watch over my shoulder as we build together.
In my opinion, there’s no better way to build, than with a group of like minded people all chasing similar goals.
So here's the full breakdown of those numbers above, the businesses behind them, and the 90-day playbook I'm running over the next quarter to move them forward.
