Building an online business that enables the lifestyle you want, sustains you and your family while creating things you are proud of is something I have been striving for and I FINALLY feel like I can share something really helpful with you.
I am grateful to say, I have come reasonably close in the past to my ideal lifestyle and business but the last few years have given me the opportunity to start from scratch. In other words, things went pear shaped there for a while – very pear shaped.
In the same way many people lose their job, I lost my business.
Basically it went from $40k/mo in 2008 to $4k/mo at the start of this year.
Yep – basically I was starting again and I am stoked to say just in the last few months I have dramatically turned things around and I have crushed the monthly financial goal I set for myself at the start of the year.
But that is not the cool part.
This time I have been laying the foundation to do things that are wildly successful, lots of fun and provide me with a lifestyle that rocks.
And you can do it too if you follow the advice below! (Whatever your “it” is)
But, first a little explanation why I disappeared from blogging and podcasting because I think it will help explain what works.
I initially started blogging and the podcast as a way to sincerely help others.
Nobel pursuit I believe. As it turns out not sustainable if your income is going in the toilet and you are trying to help others to grow theirs – at least not for me.
So in all honestly it all started to seem like hard work and I was losing confidence that I could actually do it myself.
Meanwhile my bank balance was showing serious signs of fatigue. Something had to change and fast.
At the same time necessity meant that other things I was doing became more exciting.
What Worked
The idea is really understand your strengths then nurture the heck out of them at the exclusion of all else.
First a Little Reality
Success Factors
1) Focus on taking responsibility for the value you add to the world.
(and just as importantly take responsibility for shit that does not add value to the world)
A big part of the turn around for me was accepting that I was 100% responsible for my income being $4k/mo – that was a reflection of the value I was adding to the world.
This concept was never explained more clearly to me then when my friend and former coach Jamie Tardy interviewed Larry Winget.
Here is the low down:
If you earn minimum wage thats because that is a reflection value you add to the world regardless of what you think you are adding to the world.
If you are a plumber you earn more than minimum wage because it is a fact that when your plumbing is blocked with god knows what – the value of someone to take care of that problem is higher than minimum wage. Much higher.
Similarly a brain surgeon who removes tumours gets paid more then a plumber.
Once I created goals for each area of my business and then focused on the value I needed to create great things started happening.
For example, in the last two months I sold an extra $2000/mo – for one year to five clients. That is $24k of advertising with a few phone calls and some emails. Advertising I had previously struggled to close was now getting sold all because during one of my sales calls I asked my clients what they wanted and then just gave it to them.
2) The Practice
James Altucher puts it best and then I just developed my own routine that worked for me. In my opinion everyone who does this for themselves will be much more likely to thrive.
Here is what I do:
- Lots of sleep and naps every day
- Affirmations in the morning while reinforcing the feelings of success that my future holds
- Exercise often while doing affirmations and allowing ideas and thought to flow into my head while I am feeling positive and optimistic.
- Focus on a todo list that is derived from my “weekly goals” and momentum generated the previous day
- Writing down my wins and challenges at the end of each day
- Strict diet of podcasts, blog posts and social media – and I mean strict. For me this meant none for months at a time. All of it was a distraction from what I needed to be doing. I had learned enough – it was time to do.
3) Understanding Yourself
There are two books that took me out of the rut and into the light.
- Strengths finder 2.0 – best $10 I spent (Just do the Top 5)
- Choose Yourself
The later is $1 on Amazon. I got Strengths Finder 2.0 from the library then paid for the $10 assessment so no excuses!
These resources enabled me to understand what I wanted to create and in some ways how to do it. After pulling various parts from each resource I was able to take every aspect of my business to the next level.
4) Outsource
I am not great at a lot of things but I know this. I also having a willingness to build a team around me that can help.
Fortunately anyone can do this and I am committed to building a team of people to help me do pretty much everything except the things I am awesome at.
If you know that building a team of rockstars around your would probably help you – I encourage you to work out first what you should be outsourcing. Start by using the PDF I created to work out the stuff you should NOT be doing in 5 simple steps.
5) Try Lots and Fail with a Smile
This should come as great news to many people. You can get a lot of things wrong but that does not matter if you get the occasional thing right.
In the last year:
- I built an Amazon site that never earned a cent
- Had a blog and podcast that does little for anyone – yet
- Built a site that started making over $500/month on the way to several thousand and now earns $0/mo because my affiliate went AWOL
- Spent thousands on training and personal development
I could go on and on. Truth is I spent most my time and energy on shit that has yet to earn a cent and maybe never will.
Yep, most things did not work, but the things that did took me far and fast.
I just started to understand the world is stacked FOR you. This is the only way I can explain how you can spend 90% of you time being useless and then experience great things when you get it right for the other 10% of the time right.
Going forward I intend to expand on my wins further and I don’t mind if I have more failures.
Failures are good if you learn from them and keep positive and on track.
And you can keep positive and on track if you follow the advice above.
Heres to your 2015!
Thank you so much for reading.
Xavier says
my last facebook read of the year. Great post and a wonderful and positive outlook for 2015! Thanks for the insight and sharing so openly.
cubiclefree says
Hey Xavier! Happy New Year and Thank You.
Financial Samurai says
Welcome back! Sounds like things are going well for you again. It seems Jon H is doing pretty good too.
FS finished a record year, and I’m just wondering when things will start declining. I’m gonna enjoy it for as long as possible.
What was the main reason why you went from $40K to $4K again?
Sam
cubiclefree says
Hi Sam!
Great to hear from you old friend.
I could say, “things started declining when the economy…” and that would be partly true, but those are external influences.
Truth is I was slow to realize that I was operating in a market where there was no value to add.
I turned things around when I started taking responsibility for the value I added to the world and started focusing on where I could.
The cool thing about staying focused on the value you add is you never have to worry about declines because you never look back.
Kent Chow says
Quinn, great to learn about your stories in 2014. A lot of great accomplishments and love your lessons learned.
Yes, I spent Thousands on Training and Tools. Nice meeting you on NSP. Let’s catch up some other time.
cubiclefree says
Thanks Kent!
Nothing wrong with spending money on training if you learn from it. 🙂
You are on the right path from what I can tell – well done!
Let me know if I can help more.
Quinton Hamp says
Ok. this is a powerful post.
So sorry to hear of the change in fortune… and I worry about that constantly for myself.
And I love listening to the fire and focus that exudes on the climb up.
As we near the end of 2015, I can’t wait to hear how this year went for you. .
cubiclefree says
Hey Quinton – Thanks man – The fire and focus has paid off my friend. The really amazing part is that I feel like I am just getting started again. Whats working for me? Well it looks like I am WAY overdue doing another post – I might even do one this year… Great to see you going from strength to strength as well.