Welcome to episode 203, my November 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 November
- I interviewed two million-dollar business owners on Pep Talks for Side Hustlers – Episodes 195 & 196 with Kelly Roach and 198 & 199 with Bernadette Doyle.
- Bernadette Doyle challenged me to start tracking my time and start working 25 hours a week NOW.
- I ran a final promotion for my membership program, Serious Side Hustlers.
- I closed my membership program, Serious Side Hustlers.
- I turned 39, and my husband turned 40.
- I joined Brooke Castillo’s Self Coaching Scholars.
- I decided to move to 1 episode of Pep Talks for Side Hustlers per week.
- I completed the second month of my Web Designer Academy.
- I made an executive decision to not schedule anything in the evenings.
Notes I found to myself in my planner:
- None
Review of my Goals
When in quit my day job in January of 2018, I set a goal to generate $10,000 in revenue so that I could pay myself $5,000 a month and set aside the other $5000 for taxes and expenses:
- $5000 – Income to cover my old paycheck.
- $2500 – Expenses
- $2500 – Taxes
What I Focused on in November
November is typically just one big celebration in my life. We have tons of friends and family with November birthdays (including me and my husband), and of course Thanksgiving is in November, which is my favorite holiday.
Probably because every so often my birthday falls on Thanksgiving which makes it extra special.
It starts getting cold here in Ohio in November – which I absolutely love.
Just ask my good friend Tyler – he’ll tell you that outerwear is my favorite type of clothing. Give me all the sweaters and jackets and gloves and hats and scarves – and I’m a happy girl!
And of course right after Thanksgiving it’s time to decorate for Christmas and start getting into the holiday spirit.
So when I was planning out my 2018 around this time last year, I blocked off the week of Thanksgiving for vacation, and the following Thursday – Monday to take a trip to celebrate my husband’s 40th birthday, which has become a tradition with our group of friends that we all take a trip together for our 40th.
That’s going to be me in 2019, so if you have any ideas of where I should go in mid-November, head on over to shannonmattern.com/203 and leave an idea for me in the comments!
So if you listened to my October income report back in episode 201, you’ll recall that my main focus in October was to SLOW DOWN so that I could start taking time out for myself.
I started taking a yoga class, I delegated more to my VA and intern and moved from 7 podcasts a week down to three and went from working about 60 hours a week down to 40.
Entering November, I started to feel like I was finally, FINALLY creating the freedom that I had so desperately craved when I put this whole crazy plan in motion to start a side hustle and grow it to the point where it could sustain itself and replace my day job income.
And then I had a couple of conversations that were transformational.
I had the pleasure of talking to two entrepreneurs who have both reached the million dollar mark in their business – Kelly Roach and Bernadette Doyle.
And I don’t think it is any coincidence at all that both of them shared the same piece of advice for making more money in your business – which is:
- Get really clear on what is income-producing in your business and what isn’t.
- Spend the majority of your work time on income-producing activities.
- Make sure your team is spending the majority of their time on income-producing activities so that they are generating more revenue for the business than what you’re paying them.
- Stop doing the things that don’t produce income, especially those things Bernadette called “creative avoidance” like working on your website instead of pitching clients.
So I set up the time-tracking app called Toggl that Bernadette recommended, and started tracking all of my time in November.
Two more really exciting things that I did in November:
One, I enrolled in Brooke Castillo’s Self-Coaching Scholars membership program.
I did it on my birthday as a gift to myself – for a few reasons:
- I’ve been listening to her podcast for the past several weeks and it’s totally helped me change how I think and stop buffering with overeating, overworking and overdrinking.
- Amy Porterfield recently credited Brooke for the mindset shift she needed to lose 58lbs, and if Amy Porterfield says something’s good, well, you know it’s good.
- I really, really wanted access to her Stop Overeating masterclass which is a part of the program.
- There’s an Entrepreneur track in there, which I also really wanted access to.
I also applied for and was accepted to Bryan Harris’s Partnership Accelerator beta test group, which is a mentorship to teach you how to land partnerships, podcast spots and guest posts. It starts in January and it supports my goal to explode my email list in 2019.
And I added another yoga class to my schedule. This yoga class is at 9am! Like, every day I’m driving there I’m like, I can’t believe I just get to take a yoga class at 9am instead of sitting in rush hour traffic.
So that’s what I really focused on in November. Slowing down. Gratitude. And really paying attention to what I’m learning about what it takes to get to the next level.
Total Revenue: $9690.52
- Affiliate Income: $2040.80
- Courses: $3267.72
- Done For You & Consulting: $4382.00
Total Expenses: $3399.70
Net Profit: $6290.82
Get the full breakdown of income, expenses and net profit month by month here.
Biggest Lessons Learned
So here’s the thing – I’ve had a really hard time all year keeping my expenses down to $2500 a month like I planned.
I’m going to make even more adjustments in December for 2019, but when I create my budget I’m just going to be more realistic about my expense budget.
I want to get a cushion of at least five grand in the bank, because right now my business is pretty much paycheck to paycheck, like, I’m cleaning out my business bank account every month when it’s time to pay myself, pay off my credit card for last month’s expenses and put money aside for taxes..
I use the Profit First model from the book of the same name by Mike Michalowicz, so I pay myself first. Then taxes. Then expenses. And I also don’t do debt. I put all of my business expenses on my Chase Southwest Rewards credit card so I get all those airline miles, and then I pay it off on the last day off every month. I pay myself on the 15th and the 30th, and I move money to my tax account to pay my quarterlies.
So there are about $500 in expenses I could cut every month but… It will require me to totally rebuilding my website and automation platforms, which is a significant time investment for me.
I realize that I could save $6K a year by making the move – and there’s my cushion… But I also know that the work would take me at LEAST 4 solid weeks, and I think it would disrupt some of my funnels and result in a lot of customer service requests…
Or I could pay my team to do it for me and coach them through it, and create content and tutorials around the experience, and train them on handling those customer service requests.
Which would be what like, a real business owner/leader would do instead of doing it all herself…
So I’m still him-hawing around about whether or not to make those structural changes… and I know these are the mindset shifts I need to make to grow my revenue.
I learned a few really big lessons in November.
First, I noticed that it only took 11 months of being on my own for me to freaking chill out and start enjoying myself…
But seriously, what I’ve noticed is that it really does take awhile for my mind to get used to change.
I can make a decision, but then it takes some time for the action to follow the decision.
And then it takes some time to recognize the results and acknowledge them as a result of my action.
I know how to pay attention to my thoughts now, and I do think that the changes I want to create will happen faster than in the past.
And I’m spending much, much less time working. I’m down to about 25-30 hours. I’ll give you a breakdown on all of that in a future episode.
Second, I’m spending 95% of my time on non-income producing activities.
Which is why I shouldn’t be the one moving rebuilding my own platforms…
I spend a lot of time “working”.
And I suspect it’s just another way to avoid uncomfortable emotions, just like overeating and overdrinking.
Looking at how I’m spending my time, it’s mind-boggling to me how I’ve managed to produce nearly $10,000 a month in revenue consistently this year.
And it’s really exciting.
What would be possible for me if I even shifted it to 20%, or even 50%?
That’s my plan for 2019.
Finally, I learned the most important lesson, I think anyway, in November was while I was decorating my Christmas tree.
My husband had gotten our tree out of the basement and set it up in our loft, and we were all excited to listen to Christmas music and decorate it like we normally do together. It’s a prelit tree, and when we turned it on half the lights were burnt out.
This happened last year and I had found this tool, this gun thing, online that you can use to test the strands and then you do something to the one that’s burnt out that fixes it.
Clearly I have no idea how this thing works.
So Floyd was like, on a mission to fix this tree and he spent two evenings obsessed with finding the burnt bulbs before he just got frustrated and gave up.
So I’m like, I’m going to do something really nice for him and decorate the tree while he’s at work so he can come home and it’ll just be done, right?
So because I was by myself, I decided to start listening to all the Entrepreneur modules inside of Brooke Castillo’s Self-Coaching Scholars, and I’m super excited because like at the end of all of them there’s one called How to Make a Million Dollars – which is a future goal that I have for my business.
So as I’m listening, I’m hearing things like:
- Choose a niche.
- Give value ahead of time.
- Grow an email list.
- Make offers to it.
- If something doesn’t work the first time, try again.
And I thought to myself, wow, I could totally sit here and think, “Thanks for nothing Brooke, tell me something I don’t know. This course was a waste of my time and money.”
Which is honestly, is something I may have thought in the past.
But instead, I found myself feeling really excited, like “Wow, I have all of the pieces in place. I’m on the right track. I have everything I need. It’s as good as done.”
And in the million dollar module, she talked about how you just separate the math from the drama, list out all the reasons why it’s impossible and that becomes your to-do list to make it happen.
Which is totally exciting, because then I think things like, “I know there are so many web designers out there that just want to build websites for a living and DON’T want to be freelancers or run their own businesses – what if I could create an amazing company that would give them that opportunity? And I think of how much more I could contribute and how much more value I can give when I’m at a higher level.
Again, which brings me back to why I should not be moving my own platforms and why I should empower other people to do it and lead them through the process… Like, start practicing for that leadership role now…
So that really goes for you too whether you want to make $100 or a thousand dollars or a million dollars. It’s just math. All the reasons it feels impossible become your to-do list.
So I was super excited because not only did I realize that I have everything I need to get to the next level right in front of me, I also finished decorating that dang tree!!!
#multitasking
So if there’s anything I want you to take away from this episode, it’s this:
How are you spending your time?
How do you want to be spending your time?
And are you making as much money as you want to make?
And if not, separate the math from the drama, list out all the reasons why it’s impossible for you to make the money you want to make, and then get to work changing those things.
I know you can do it.
Thanks so much for listening, and I’ll see you next week! Love you Byeeeeeee!!!
Today’s pep talk is brought to you by Bluehost. Go to www.shannonmattern.com/bluehost and get 36 months of web hosting for just $2.95 a month. That’s less than one trip to Starbucks a month – and if you’re anything like me, you’re at Starbucks more than that! Then you can sign up for my Free 5 Day Website Challenge at www.shannonmattern.com/5day and I’ll show you step by step how to get started building your new website for your side hustle.
