Welcome to Part 2 of June Income Report where I'll tell you exactly how much money I spend and what I spent it on, plus lessons learned along the way! Check out Part 1 of the June Income Report where I break down my income and how I earned it in Episode 115.
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!
EXPENSES BREAKDOWN
TOOLS
- AccessAlly (Membership plugin for all of my courses) – $79.00
- Acuity Scheduling (Done For You Consultations) – $10.00
- Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, etc.) $54.73
- Auphonic (audio optimization for podcast) – $11.00
- Bluehost – $0
- Dropbox (File Storage) – $19.99
- FreeConferenceCall.com (Coaching & Client Calls) – $3.00
- Cookiebot (GDPR Compliance) – $24
- GSuite (wp-bff.com Email) – $10.76
- Infusionsoft (email marketing, automation, e-commerce & customer management) – $330.66
- LibSyn (Podcast Hosting) – $16.83
- ManageWP (WordPress Site Management for Clients & WordPress Protection Package) – $101.61
- Smart Podcast Player – $6
- Soundup (Alexa Flash Briefing Hosting) – $9.99
- Zapier – $15.00
- Client Plugin Renewals – $30.00
TOTAL: $1108.09
MARKETING:
- Bonjoro (Video Welcome Service) – $25.00
- CoSchedule (Social Media Scheduling) – $59.00
- LinkTree Pro (Instagram Profile Links) $6.00
- Tailwind (Pinterest) $8.61
- Facebook Ads – 241.89
- Creative Market Templates, etc. – $108.59
TOTAL: $449.50
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES:
Bench Accounting – $135.00
TOTAL: $135.00
HELP:
Subcontractors (VA Team, Graphic Designer, Web Developers)
TOTAL: $940.55
LEARNING/MENTORSHIP
Brock Johnson Hashtags – $27.00
TOTAL: $27
TRAVEL
None
FEES
Credit Card Processing Fees: ~ $200
OFFICE SUPPLIES
Toner, 2019 Planner and replacement Command key for my laptop: $196.54
TOTAL EXPENSES: $2515.71
NET PROFIT: $5656.04
BIGGEST LESSONS LEARNED
June started out tough, then I had a turning point mid-month and it ultimately ended on an amazing note.
AN EMOTIONALLY TOUGH MONTH
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.
BUSTING MY 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 ????
LEARNING BEFORE OUTSOURCING
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!
AN UNEXPECTED MEETING
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!
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!
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