Dec 5, 2018
Build a website in just 5 days (even if you're not techie) at www.free5daywebsitechallenge.com
Already have a website?
Take the Free "Jumpstart Your Website Traffic" marketing mini-course at www.jumpstartyourwebsitetraffic.com
Welcome to episode 201, which is my October Income Report! If you’re new to the podcast, each month I publish an income report to take you behind the scenes of my online business and reveal exactly how much money I make, how much I spend and lessons learned along the way!
IMPORTANT THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN OCTOBER
- I started going to a yoga class twice a week.
- I onboarded an intern who’s working 15 hours a week with me through December.
- I brought on a VA for 15 hours a week (my previous support contract was for 16 hours a month).
- I booked one new Done For You client.
Notes I found to myself in my planner:
REVIEW OF MY GOALS
My goal each month has been to generate $10,000 in revenue because my rough breakdown to replace my old paycheck, cover business expenses and pay taxes is:
- $5000 – Income to cover my old paycheck.
- $2500 – Expenses
- $2500 – Taxes
WHAT I FOCUSED ON IN OCTOBER
In October, my main focus was to SLOW DOWN so that I could start taking time out for myself.
As I mentioned in my September income report, the pace and amount that I had been working became unsustainable.
I made a commitment to myself and my mastermind group that I would slow down.
That I’d start taking a yoga class.
That I’d get more help and start delegating more tasks to them instead of taking care of it myself because it’s faster (and I feel bad asking others to do things for me).
I started transitioning things to my VA, and got my intern started on her learning journey by subscribing to my email list as a brand new customer, reviewing all of my content and noting all the things that needed fixed or didn’t make sense.
I also started creating the new content for my Web Designer Academy that I had sold the prior month. I’ve done the course before, but I had so much more to add to it and change, that I decided to start from scratch. But instead of killing myself to get it all done at once, I’ve been recording and releasing one module a week.
And right from the start, I recorded my process for producing and publishing the module and handed it over to my team so that I only had to do the thing only I can do – create the content.
In October I also went from recording 7 podcast episodes down to 3 a week.
I also started baking in October, and perfected my process for making an amazingly crusty, beautiful sourdough bread.
I went from working about 60 hours a week down to about 40… which I realized I hadn’t actually done since before I started my side hustle back in late 2014…
TOTAL REVENUE: $10102.11
Affiliate Income: $1872.39
Courses: $3716
Done For You & Consulting: $4493.72
TOTAL EXPENSES: $3614.62
Get the full breakdown of income, expenses and net profit month by month here.
NET PROFIT: $6487.49
BIGGEST LESSONS LEARNED
The biggest lesson I learned is that I can work significantly less and still make the same amount of revenue and profit.
I also learned that I was covering up my fear with work by creating massive amounts of content and trying to do every single marketing tactic all at the same time instead of focusing on one thing at a time.
The results of the survey I told you about in last month’s income report showed that loud and clear. I heard things like “I can’t keep up with all the content you’re putting out.” and I’m confused by all the things you offer because it’s so many things and they are changing all the time” and “I’m behind on the podcast I can’t listen to an episode every single day.”
That was my fear. If I just keep producing, everything will be fine. Just keep producing. Keep answering every email. Say yes to everything.
The nonstop loop of “I have to do this, I gotta do that…” that leads to stress, poor sleep, overeating, overdrinking and burnout.
I found that mindset and pace to be unsustainable, and it took going to another city with 5 strangers and having them all challenge me to tell them how it was serving me for the fog of fear to clear and for me to be able to see what I was doing to myself and my brand.
I also had to push past my discomfort at leaning on other people for help, and prioritize delegation above anything else in my business.
The mistake I have made in the past with hiring has been bringing on people to do things that didn’t take anything off of my own plate.
I gave those people all the things that would never even make it on to my plate. Like, things I wanted to do, but was too busy to do.
So those tasks were getting done, but I wasn’t giving myself any relief.
And also I set things up so that I was the gatekeeper – if I didn’t delegate piece by piece, there wasn’t anything for them to do, but I got so behind that by the time the work needed to be done, there wasn’t enough time to delegate. I’m not the kind of person that says hey, do this and I need it done by the end of the day. No. I follow the golden rule – do unto others as you would have others do unto you, and if someone was dropped their crap on me at the last minute because they are disorganized, I would not be happy about that.
So now, I put delegation first. What process can I delegate? What can I teach and empower my team to do without me next? How can I benefit them.
And I gotta tell you – going to this hot yoga class has been a game changer.
I haven’t gone to a gym since I quit crossfit to start my business, and there’s nothing like having someone just lead you through a workout. No decisions to be made, no thinking, just show up and do it. And take two whole hours out of my day to drive there, take the class and drive home. And then work from the cute little coffee shop across the street for a couple hours before heading home.
I started my side hustle for freedom, flexibility and financial independence. I’ve had access to it this whole entire time, but I feel like I’ve really just started to realize it and take advantage of it truly for the first time in October.
I mean, I even started baking homemade bread this month. If you know me in real life, you’d be like what? You don’t bake, and you don’t eat bread. But I was compelled to try it, and I chose sourdough as my first foray into baking – which I find fascinating, because I picked the thing that takes the absolute longest to make.
Like, if you’re an instant gratification kind of person, baking bread probably isn’t for you, and baking sourdough bread certainly isn’t.
It’s like a 3 day process and you have to get the timing just right otherwise you’ll find yourself up in the middle of the night folding the fermenting dough…
One thing I’ve learned from writing these income reports and documenting my journey on the podcast is that when I have a mindset shift or form a new belief, it’s like deciding to bake a loaf of sourdough bread. I can make the decision in an instant, but it takes some time for everything to come together, for those new beliefs and mindset shifts to really start to appear in my life. And knowing that, recognizing that pattern, I can totally be patient and not put so much pressure on myself to have everything be the way I want it to be RIGHT NOW. I can trust that everything’s coming together the way that it should and in due time it will happen.
So I’d love to hear your thoughts and questions on my October income report – head on over to www.PepTalksforSideHustlers.com/201 and leave me a comment – and I’ll see you right here next week. Bye!!