My First $10K Month
Entrepreneur Diaries
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July 2024 was my first $10K+ profit month.
It’s a moment. It’s that goal number you hear about so much in the online coachisphere.
And, to be real, I don’t feel how I thought I would when I hit it.
I’m gonna publicly take inventory.
A) To help it sink in for myself that: dang, I did that.
B) To light the path for those coming after.
C) To help you steer clear of some of the obstacles that I smacked right into.
What’s Rad
Those car repairs I’d been saving up for, putting vet bills on debit rather than credit, a very cute wardrobe update, whale-watching tickets, upgrading to Ipsy’s Boxy Charm like the bougie bitch I (now) am, paying down debt, getting to hire an assistant, buying all my favorite groceries, nice perfume, feeling validated, emerging from survival-mode, and regularly telling myself: “whatever you want, princess 😘.”
What Isn’t
I’m so fucking tired. My business coach yelling at me that I needed an assistant like yesterday (and being right 🙄), getting sick followed by a week of intermittent migraine, being super late on a client project, hiding from my inbox because good gawd, what do all these strangers want from me, how tax do?, realizing I hadn’t voluntarily taken a full day off, guilt-free in months, having 0 capacity for a social life (my apologies to all the Hinge cuties I’m really bad at messaging back in a timely fashion).
What’s Surprising
No instant identity change. I’m still regularly having to remind my nervous system that I’m safe, I’m good, it’s OK.
My mindset still needs work. “This is your new normal” my business coach keeps repeating to me. I repeat it back, ready for it to feel true.
I didn’t have to grow my audience to make a lot of money. Most of the moola came from repeat clients and referrals. On all my channels, my following remains modest.
I barely marketed at all this month. (I made maybe 2 posts? I’ve been slammed, OK 😅?!) But I’m living in the results of all the marketing I’ve already done these last few months. The time-lapse is real!
My capacity has been extremely stretched to welcome what I’ve been calling in for the last 3 years. I’m finally getting what I wanted! What I worked so hard for! What many entrepreneurs I look up to have referred to as their “I made it! I have a real business!” moment. I’m surprised to find that getting what you want often requires so much growth on your part.
Here’s what I’m currently being stretched to be able to hold:
Many people wanting my attention all at once and not being able to immediately accommodate everyone.
Being responsible for the emotional safety of large groups.
While also realizing I’m not responsible for managing other people’s discomfort for them.
Proactively addressing conflict, miscommunication, and confusion.
Needing and accepting help.
Allowing people to experience the consequences of their actions and accepting that this is often how people need to learn.
I’m freaking lucky to have the opportunity to be stretched in this way. I’m excited to be who I’m becoming.
How I Got Here
Overall, I’ve done really good work for clients and the word got out eventually.
But I’ve also made a lot of “mistakes” and I’ve learned to accept that it’s not failure, it’s an essential part of the process for me. It’s literally how I learn best.
My brand voice & identity got a lot stronger and more out there. Honestly, it took quite a while to shed my corporate-speak, robotic professionalism, and ensuing bitterness. It took werk to figure out what I actually wanted out of business and how I actually wanted to express myself, and who I was OK with pissing off in order to be the me-iest me possible. I shed shame in public, in my marketing, for years. Many interpreted this as permission to shed their shame too. (Not that they need my- or anyone’s- permission to release shame.) I became steadily, more flamboyantly fabulous from my fake nails to my lewks to my scandalous skate moves. I did it all loudly. Daring disapproval. (Which I got.) Inviting anyone who felt called to join my rebel movement.
It worked.
I’m who you go to for marketing help for the never-been-done-before, the brazenly bold, the subversive, the change-the-things-you-can’t-accept business ideas.
If your business dream is the equivalent of shooting the moon, no prob. That’s my specialty.
What I Wanna Do More Of
I fall more in love with my Squad 🎉every time we meet or interact.
Little did I know when I first started to refer to myself as The Marketing Confidence Cheerleader with my made-up combo of consulting, mindset work, & emotional fluffing that it would soon become my bestseller.
The Squad 🎉 has taken on a life of it’s own, and I’ve been longing to devote my focus to growing it with aligned members for months now… But haven’t had the bandwidth due to all the done-for-you projects I sold.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love lovingly crafting messaging frameworks and marketing plans and building marketing teams from scratch, but I need to make some changes to avoid repeating the current burnout quagmire I find myself trying to wriggle out of.
Those changes are:
Only taking one of each on a month.
Starting a waitlist. You pay to hold your spot.
Give myself twice as long as I think I need when setting timelines. (Remember “can do” is not the same as “want to” and you don’t do your best work when you’re killing yourself for a deadline and not sleeping.)
Block off some vacation time. ASAP.
Only market The Squad and Marketing Confidence Cheerleading.
Factor in a long-term Virtual Assistant into my monthly business budget.
Take weekly time to check in on my Big Picture for my business and focus my actions accordingly.
What I Wanna Do Less Of
Done-for-you work. This has been my energy killer. I made the mistake of thinking that just because messaging, content, and strategy are easy for me that having a lot of this type of work wouldn’t burn me out. Spoiler alert: it did.
I’m taking social media management fully off the table for now and I’m not marketing my copywriting at all- and I significantly raised the price on it.
I also need to be a better CEO… of myself. Here’s what I gotta do less of:
Getting a second less than 8 hours of sleep a night.
Going weeks without a day off. I don’t care how much you love your work. This isn’t sustainable.
Fighting against my natural creative cycles. So what if I do my best work after 9 pm?
Not eating protein… Girl, no.
Pushing my body past her limits. There is no virtue in that.
Forgetting to bring my water bottle on trail rides through the SoCal deserts in fucking August.
Alright, that’s the snapshot of what it feels like to make your first $10K+ month from your own personal brand. Can you relate? Did anything surprise or inspire you? I’d love to hear your takeaways. Tag me on social media: @marketingconfidencecheerleader on Instagram and @confidencecheerleader on TikTok