I quit my day job a year ago today.
Today I'm sharing the the truth about what the first year on my own was really like.
If you're new here…long story short, after side hustling for three years, I had grown my business to the point where it could sustain itself and me.
I left the security of my corporate job to strike out on my own so that I could be in control of my time and my earning potential.
And today, is the one-year anniversary of me quitting my day job.
As I was preparing to write this post, I went back and reviewed the monthly income reports I’ve written throughout 2018.
I’m so glad I wrote those reports.
It’s easy for me to gloss over the details and just focus on the highlights…
I’m not going to go over each month in detail in this post but if you want to go back to January and follow the journey, you can read them all here.
2018 was an amazing year.
I earned over $100,000, didn’t go into debt and never missed paying myself a paycheck.
We’ll see if I paid enough in taxes though – you’ll have to wait for my April 2019 income report on that one… I do have money saved back just in case.
I launched my podcast, Pep Talks for Side Hustlers, which I didn’t know I’d fall in love with podcasting, but I totally have.
I re-launched the best version yet of my free 5 Day Website Challenge.
I spoke at a conference. I got to meet Amy Porterfield and thank her for inspiring me.
And I made some new biz besties who helped me change the trajectory of my business.
I also learned a lot of lessons in 2018:
Money should be spent to amplify something that’s already working, not to do things you don’t know how to do or don’t have time to do.
Figure it out, make sure it works, create a process and then delegate it. This goes for team members, bookkeeping, and for services like Pinterest and Facebook Ads. I wasted a lot of money paying people to do things I didn’t have time to do or didn’t know how to do, and those things didn’t even end up benefiting my business.
I learned that more isn’t better.
Being on every social media platform isn’t better. A daily podcast isn’t better. Launching 3 courses a month isn’t better. It’s exhausting.
I learned that when something isn’t working, the time to take action is right when you discover it’s not working.
Contemplate why it’s not working, and then make a decision on how to move forward. Waiting months because you’re afraid to address it doesn’t do anyone any good.
I learned that I can be easily lured by shiny objects that will sidetrack me and that I don’t think all the way through to the consequences of following those paths.
I know how easily I can be knocked off course, so I need to create some constraints for myself.
I learned that it really doesn’t matter how many people I have on my email list.
It matters how many people I add each month and how many that stay are actively engaged and paying attention. I have less people on my list now than in my first year and I’m making more money than ever before.
I learned that there’s no secret that I still need to discover when it comes to online business.
Solve a problem for a niche, give value before you ask for anything in return, build an email list of potential customers, make offers. It’s as simple as that. That formula will make you a hundred dollars, a hundred thousand dollars and a million dollars.
I learned that if I want my business to grow, I cannot continue trading my time for money.
I need to delegate web design work to other people, even if I CAN do it. And that’s a GOOD thing.
I learned that just because I want to change doesn’t mean I will.
Wanting to change and taking specific action to change are two totally different things. I learned how to want to change, and how to turn it into action.
And most importantly, I learned that I have to put my physical and mental health first, and not my ego first.
Because “putting clients first” and “being busy” is really putting my ego first, and keeping myself in a victim mentality where I get to act like everything is happening to me and I have no choice. I have all the power. I always have.
After reflecting on 2018, if I had to choose one word positive word to describe it, I’d choose TRANSFORMATION.
If I had to choose one negative word, FRANTIC is the word I’d use to describe it.
Because while it is absolutely amazing, and I’m really proud of myself for everything I accomplished, I did have some challenges.
You can read about them in those income reports.
Every single challenge I encountered can be traced back to one single source: my mindset.
That means every single problem I encountered has a solution that’s within my control: my mindset.
I paid attention to the challenges. I’m learning from the challenges.
That’s how transformation happens.
And as I sit here on December 31, 2018 writing this post, it almost seems like I’m reading about a different person as I read the first several income reports.
I can see that person was struggling. She was stressed out and scared and trying to pretend like she wasn’t.
What’s really interesting to me is that my first year as a full time entrepreneur with no day job for a safety net mirrors what my first year as a brand new side hustler was like.
Trying everything, seeing what works.
Launching with webinars. Launching evergreen. Facebook ads. Pinterest. Instagram. Livestreaming. A membership program. Alexa flash briefings. A podcast. Income reports. Affiliate promotions. YouTube videos.
But as a new side hustler, I wasn’t scared. I still had a paycheck coming in. There wasn’t so much at stake.
I created so much content in 2018 it makes my head spin.
And it made my audience’s head spin too.
Instead of inspiring and leading them, it confused and overwhelmed them.
I created content and marketed my programs at such a frantic pace to ignore the uneasiness of being solely responsible for creating my own income.
The transition from the employee mindset to the entrepreneur mindset was a challenge I hadn’t considered.
I never questioned my self-worth as an employee. I knew I showed up and did my best work every day… But when a launch didn’t go as planned in my business? All the feelings of not being good enough rushed to the surface.
And so what did I do to deal with those feelings? Overwork, overeat and overdrink of course!
I mean, what else do you do when you don’t want to feel terrible in the moment? Thankfully, now I know what to do besides overwork, overeat and overdrink, so that’s a major win.
My plan for 2019 is growth through constraint.
Do just a few things, and do them really well.
Build my audience through relationships.
Build a strong, empowered team that does just a few things and does them really well. Delegate to them.
Focus on my mental and physical health.
Stop overworking, overeating and overdrinking.
I’m confident I can do all of those things. I’m entering my fifth year of business, my second year of being on my own.
And if nothing else, I know 2019 will be transformational too!
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.
