Can you believe we’re halfway through the year already!? I feel like it’s gone super quick but I also feel like I’ve achieved a bucket load. To recap on some of the achievements to date:
- I created a digital product with recurring revenue
- I’ve doubled my Instagram followers, facebook followers and email list.
- I am now making a profit!*
It’s amazing to see the growth, and I really do feel that the energy flows where the focus is!
*technically it’s not profit as I am not paying myself yet.
So let’s dig in to what happened this month.
Content Creation
I’ve finally got a strategy around this, I’ve decided that half a day a week I am going to churn out as much content as possible. Instead of relying on naps (and because my children don’t sleep so I collapse in a heap at the end of the day) I’ve negotiated hubby to take the kids for a morning each weekend. It’s more like hours 2, 3 if I am lucky but hey I’ll take it.
As a minimum I need to punch out 8 emails, 1 video, 3 pieces of content for the membership, 4 podcasts, 24 social media posts and 4 blog posts each month. I am thinking of transitioning into crafting more in-depth blogs but doing it once a month instead. I’ll be able to repurpose a lot of the content from the podcast for the blog so I’ll run with that for now until I have more time to spend.
Each week I’ll look at batching tasks so I can focus on one specific activity. Focusing on one thing has helped me be more efficient and I actually feel like I am gaining a little more momentum. I am still not as far ahead as I would like but I am getting there.
I would absolutely love to just lock myself in a room for a week and get completely ahead with everything but that isn’t going to happen right now.
I am hoping after the next launch my revenue will cover 1 day of daycare a week so these days don’t need to eat into family time as I know that isn’t sustainable (or fair for my family). I think both kids will really benefit from some outside socialisation right now, I am just still a little gun shy on the gastro front. I will need at least 7 new members for that to happen (and no losses between now and then)..
Going Live
I’ve been doing regular lives in the group which has been great for upping the engagement. I am hoping it’s letting people get to know me a bit better and get comfortable with sharing their journey.
Going live was so scary for me but I feel like this bandaid has finally been ripped off and I am confident moving forward.
I launched my podcast
I feel like launching my podcast is a huge weight off my shoulders, I’ve finally done it. I recorded 8 episodes a couple of months ago and they were just been sitting there waiting for me to edit and figure out how to turn them into a podcast.
Editing was a total pain, I never realised how many ‘ums’ and ‘sos’ I actually said until I listened back to my recordings. The first episode took 2 hours to edit! I used garage band to edit the podcasts and it has been a long time since I’ve used it so that was also probably also why it took so long.
Once edited I had to chuck it into iTunes to give it some meta data, exported it out and then I used a podcast hosting platform called Buzzsprout. This handled all the stuff with Spotify and iTunes for me, free for the first 90 days but will then be $12usd a month for what I need. I could probably figure out how to do this myself, after all it’s just an RSS feed but I love the simplicity of Buzzsprout.
I loaded in the 8 episodes initially, 3 all at once and the other 5 were scheduled to be published weekly. I am trying to always be a month ahead with these.
Getting into iTunes wasn’t instant, I loaded it all hoping I could announce it to my list right away but I had to wait 3 days. Which isn’t too bad in the scheme of things, but if I had or known I could have started the process earlier.
I eventually got in the swing of setting up a podcast, and have got the process down to 45 minutes to record, edit and publish each episode. They are all short episodes (under 10 minutes). This of course does not include writing the base script for them which does take a bit longer but I have been basing a lot of my episodes off blog posts. For the new episodes that don’t have blogs already I will need to create associated blog posts or show notes to go with them.
I am hoping to get some podcast specific lead magnets in place over the next month.
Have I seen direct benefit from launching a podcast? Nope, I haven’t even looked at stats for this yet (or figured out how to). But I actually enjoy the process so I’ll keep going for now. I feel like the podcast will be a marathon rather than a sprint.
I am now an influencer
My hubby bought me a whiz bang gift for my birthday that I shared on Instagram and tagged the company. They got in contact with me and asked if I’d like to collaborate. I got to pick $200 worth of stuff in return for 3 Instagram posts, and 2 stories in my highlights.
When you think about the time that goes into these posts the return isn’t that great but i am hoping I can use the products to generate Content for the membership so it’s kind of two birds with one stone.
I won’t lie, doing these posts felt a bit icky at first. It was so tricky trying to word it without feeling like it was a direct pitch, and I am not sure I actually succeeded. I didn’t get as much engagement as I normally would have.
Having said that I would love to get more of these deals. Especially if it’s going to work hand in hand with my content creation.
A viral post
I posted a time lapse video on Instagram and it went nuts. Last check in we’ve had a reach of over 60k and I’ve gained 380 new followers from the one post. It wasn’t expected or planned but it was nice all the same. It’s still getting daily likes even though it’s a couple of weeks old.
This probably isn’t really classed as viral but I’ve not seen that much traffic on any of my posts before so I am taking it as a win. Whether I see much in the way of benefit is debatable too.
I was also asked to submit a story to a popular profiling website for my niche which was nice. This got loads of new followers too, however their quality is pretty low (as in not my target audience) and I keep getting requests from people wanting me to give them jobs.
To create something new, or not
I’ve been toying with the idea of creating a one off digital product eg an ecourse. The thinking is that it could also serve as a funnel into my membership. I would price this quite low (under $50).
There are a few things holding me back here. Firstly, I don’t know if I have time to facilitate this and also support my members.
Secondly is the timing. My gut feel is that spring is going to be pretty decent with getting numbers so I need to really make sure my energy is directed to the right thing.
Do I just launch the new thing first then only target those who have done the mini course into the membership Or do I attempt to do two launches at once or one after the other? Being fully aware how stressful and consuming launches can be.
I love the recurring model and feel like this is where my energy should be, but I also feel like it’s a harder sell sometimes and would like to automate that process so I can focus on serving my members and a bit of extra pocket money wouldn’t go astray.
I am veering towards launching the membership in August as planned and then in September doing the mini course, which off the back of it will funnel into the membership as a ‘soft launch’ in summer. I’ll sit with this and let it marinate for the month to see how I feel.
Getting help
I already feel like I am getting a bit weighed down with some tasks that could easily be outsourced (they just aren’t getting done or are last minute). Things like writing show notes for the podcast, creating Pinterest graphics, even scheduling stuff on Facebook. I am already creating systems so offloading some of these tasks will be relatively painless. Obviously I need to be earning more for this to happen but it is totally a case of chicken and the egg and perhaps my time is better spent doing things that is going to make money.
Daycare first, then extra admin support.
No longer in the red!!
This month was the first month that I am no longer making a loss! From this point I’ll be actually starting to pay myself, and I am so excited about this.
I will be following the profit first formula loosely to figure out how much. My expenses will be a little bit higher to begin with but I am hoping after the next launch I can get this down to at least 20%.
Here’s the breakdown of what I’ll do:
Profit 5%
This will initially go into buying things that I need like new tripod or a new computer which I desperately need. Eventually this will be dividends that I pay myself every quarter.
Tax 15%
Always put away money for tax. As my income increases this amount will also need to increase but I do find 15% usually covers things.
Expenses 30%
I want to get my expenses down to 20% but this is the reality of the expenses at the moment relative to the income coming in.
Wage 40%
It may be less than $100 but at least it’s something! I’ll also be taking super out of this as it’s a good habit to get into.
JUNE STATS
Members – 17
MARKETING
Email subscribers – 465 (+9)
Instagram followers – 7003 ( +1030)
Facebook followers – 701 (+55)
Average Monthly website hits – 1800 (-9.19%)
DOLLARS
Money earned – $189
Money spent:
Hosting $22.50
Payment Fees $8.73
Vimeo (video storage) $13.20
Jetpack (spam/backup/security) $12.72
Total profit this month: $131.85
Total carried forward: profit of $20.62
TIME
Hours spent on the project : Approx 8
MY COMMITMENT FOR JULY
- Create a new lead magnet
- Plan the August launch
- Decide on whether or not to create something new
August SNAPSHOT
Launch again!
Until next month, if you’re not on the list to get my regular updates on this project and are wanting to follow along you can sign up here.