Welcome to my June Income Report! 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!
If you want to build a website and learn how to make money online, check out this blog post on how to get started!
View all of my income reports here!
Important things that happened in June
- I took a break from listening to online marketing podcasts.
- I started to focus on my health and fitness.
- I wrote March and April Income reports.
- I launched the new 5 Day Website Challenge with a new model – free for 30 Days, $29 to upgrade to lifetime access.
- I gave Serious Side Hustlers a facelift to match the 5 Day Website Challenge.
- I tested out running Facebook Ads to the 5 Day Website Challenge.
- I booked one new Done For You client in June.
- I brought on a project manager for that one Done For You Project.
- I cancelled my monthly Pinterest contract.
- I cancelled a monthly contract with a person that helped me do Done For You Projects.
- I held webinars promoting Serious Side Hustlers, Websites That Make Money, and the Web Designer Academy resulting in no new sales.
- I began to interview guests on my podcast.
- I went to my 20 year high school reunion.
- I paid my quarterly income taxes.
- My husband and I close on 4 acres of land where we will ultimately build our dream house.
- I batch-created content so that I could take a week of vacation in July without a gap.
- I decided to start offering monthly live workshops & Q&A calls for members of Serious Side Hustlers (or that non-members can also pay to attend).
Notes I found to myself in my planner:
- “How Can I?”
- “*CONSISTENT EFFORT*”
- “‘Let me think about that and get back to you.’ ALWAYS”
- “Do fewer things better.”
- “If you ever want to come back to that conversation, I’m here for you.”
- “Automate”
Review of my goals
Again, 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 June
In June, I gave my brain a breather from consuming large amounts of information about online marketing tactics and started listening to podcasts and books related to the keto diet and intermittent fasting. I also re-started Chalene Johnson’s 131 Diet, which makes me feel great!
My mind really needed that space away from business podcasts because I have a tendency to implement new ideas as soon as I hear them, and it takes away my focus!
I put a lot of time into content creation to prepare for vacation, learning Pinterest and creating the perfect pin design in June.
That being said, here’s how much money I made in June 2018:
Total Income: $8076.12
- Passive Income Total: $4435.12
- Time for Money Total: $3461
Total Expenses: $2515.71
Net Profit: $5656.04
Get the full breakdown of income, expenses and net profit month by month here.
Biggest Lessons Learned
June started out tough, then I had a turning point mid-month and it ultimately ended on an amazing note.
It was tough because I had to come to terms emotionally with having to cancel a couple of large contracts. Even though they were monthly, cancel at any time contracts, I just felt like I was letting those people down and not meeting my obligation to them.
But once I cancelled them, I felt such a sense of relief knowing that I’m doing what’s right for me and my business so that I can grow and I can actually help others achieve their goals.
That sense of relief helped me come out of a fog of fear that had settled over me since I first left my day job in January.
I hadn’t realized how negative my mindset had gotten because I was constantly worrying about whether I’d be able to pay myself on the 1st and the 15th of the month.
And because I was in a constant state of worry, I was consuming as much information about business as I could, hoping that magic answer that would just make it all come easily would be out there.
I was also gaining weight from the stress, which to me was crazy because the main reason I started my business was so that I could be in control of my time so that I would have time to eat healthy and work out.
I had removed every single roadblock to losing weight, and yet, I still wasn’t doing what I know I needed to do to make it happen.
I was still making excuses.
So one morning while we were camping, I opened up a Google Doc and I just started typing out every single reason why I couldn’t lose weight. I mean, I just let everything out on the page. Every single excuse that had piled up over the years, I just listed them out, one by one.
And after I ran out of excuses, I went back to the top of the list, and starting with excuse number one, I wrote down all the reasons why that excuse wasn’t true.
It was as if I wasn’t talking to myself, it was like I was talking to my best friend who I knew was struggling and really needed someone to give it to her straight in a really caring, compassionate way.
And for the next week, every morning before I started work for the day, I pulled out that list and read it. It was a long one too.
And before I knew it, those excuses began to sound ridiculous. And the truth I wrote below the excuses started to become my new story. And oddly enough, my actions began to follow. All the things that were hard before just weren’t hard. I just did them. And that continues still today.
My new business story
Seeing how much mental relief and traction I got from busting all my weight loss excuses, I decided to write down all the things I believed were making it really hard for me to reach my income goals each month.
All my stories. All of my excuses.
And then, like a kind friend, I told myself all of the reasons why those things weren’t true or they really didn’t matter.
And I wrote my new story. I read it a few times a week in the morning to remind myself of what’s true, to keep me from slipping back into the fear.
Chasing relief
After writing my new business story and ditching all those fearful excuses and beliefs, I felt even more relieved.
I didn’t have too many projects vying for my attention in June. It felt like things slowed down a bit. More relief.
Who is putting all of this pressure on me, anyway? Hmm… That’s a question I’ll have to explore another time 🙂
In June, I came to the realization I’m in a unique position in my business in that anything I do in my business to grow it is something I can teach to my community, so it’s very important to me to understand the strategy and tactics before handing them off to someone else.
I don’t plan to stake my flag as a Pinterest expert, however, if I can figure out how to effectively use it to drive traffic to my site, with the help of a few experts, then I can better help my customers and clients.
If I simply outsource the work to someone else without understanding what I’m outsourcing, (which I really couldn't afford to do anyway), then I’m not learning anything that can bring me an even greater return on my investment.
I feel the same way about websites. They are so, so powerful that I think almost everyone should understand the platform and its capabilities even if they plan to have someone else manage it!
Finally, I mentioned in my list of things that happened in June that I went to my 20 year high school reunion!
I almost skipped it, but once my best friend decided to also come into town for it, I couldn’t say no.
And I’m so glad I went! Not only did I get to see a very close friend whom I hadn’t seen since my wedding several years ago, while I was standing at the bar waiting on my drink, a girl I didn’t recognize came up to me and said “I read your blog!”
And I was like, totally dumbfounded. I was like, “What, are you serious?”
And she said yep, she told me that she had been interested in starting a blog, she had found the 5 Day Website Challenge and had been a reader for a while, and as she was standing off to the side while the class picture was being taken and she saw me and thought no, is that Shannon Mattern? So she pulled up my website, showed it to her husband and he said yep!
And she said she was totally nervous to meet me!! Which was totally mindblowing to me because I’m just like, ME!!! A normal girl from small-town Ohio!
But the best part about it?
Well, there were two best parts about it:
One, my husband was standing right there, and after she left I turned around and looked at him, totally beaming, and I said, “OH MY GOD THAT WAS SO COOL!!!”
And he just looked dumbfounded also. Because he kinda gets what I do, but he doesn’t really get the impact of what I do. And he was so proud of me, and that made me really happy.
And the other best part is that I’m accomplishing what I’ve set out to accomplish, which is to just have an impact on people. To get them to believe that they can do something they’re passionate about and to help them get there.
So Jen, if you’re reading this, THANK YOU for coming over to say hi to me and let me know how my blog has impacted you, that meant more to me than I can even explain!
