My sales have dropped. And not many people are talking about it – but it is happening across the board. Digital sales, product sales, social media and everything has dropped!

And for ages, I felt like poo. I mean, I must be a big ol’ failure, right?

But at the same time that is rubbish. But it didn’t stop me feeling like rubbish for a while (hello, I’m publishing this 2 weeks late!) Because I had to work through it, process it and try to figure out what to do… whether I do something different. Or do it the same?

Here is what I have realised:

1. We are healthy and happy.
2. While we are in a highly stressful custody situation, number 1 is still true and correct.
3. My business still pays both our wages + business expenses. And number 1 is still true and correct.
4. We have savings and don’t live paycheck to paycheck. And number 1 is still true and correct.
5. Even with sales dropping, all the above are true and correct.

When my mission (priority, dream) in life is to be healthy and happy. Life is a bit sure to do anything else to the detriment of number 1 – that we are healthy and happy.

I remember back to the beginning of each business I’ve owned (cake, franchise, day care, house cleaning). I was willing to do anything. There was nothing I wasn’t willing to do.

And I realise that lately that I have gotten into the mindset of stuff I ”don’t want to do.” But there is always stuff we prefer not to do (change diapers or vacuum). But in my preference of what I ‘want’ it has taken so much off the table. I have gotten too picky.

I am not willing to do the harder work and don’t want to do what I want to do.

Last month I spoke about how I have been ‘flinging’ shit at a wall for money and I stopped doing it. And with talk about going ‘back to work’ – I wonder how that is any different to flinging ideas at a wall?

WHY DO I SHARE MY INCOME REPORTS?

I follow several income reports like Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income, Rose Atwater from Rose Bakes, Pinch of Yum, House of Brazen and Making Sense of Cents and there is something about numbers that is sexy, motivational, inspiring and lets me dream bigger. Is it just me?

I read Rose Bakes 2015 income report where she made nearly $37,000 USD for the year from blogging. Well, that knocked my socks off. I showed my boyfriend and talked about it and read and researched. I was hugely inspired.

Later I even had a business mentoring session with Rose and now, a year later, I am so incredibly lucky to call Rose a friend and mentor.

But that feeling of inspiration, motivation and that it is soooo hugely possible this business dream …. Well, I want to share that with others.

BLOGGING IS NOT THE WAY TO FAST MONEY.

At all. We all hear about the $100k launch and whatever else, but I gotta wonder is that real? And how much of that was spent on Facebook advertising?

For me, I’m not going to talk about those pie-high-in-the-sky numbers. Because launches make me want to vomit in my mouth a little bit. And I don’t do webinars. I’m going to talk about the hard work and real numbers that made it possible for me to quit my full-time job.

Because, yes, I worked full time while building up this blog and business.

• August 2014 – $191
• December 2014 – $415
• July 2015 – $732
• November 2015 – $1404
• February 2016 – $1593

It has been hard work. But if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

And it wasn’t a smooth uphill slope. Some months I made $0 minus expenses. A couple of months I made up to $2000-$6000, but those were few and far between.

Gee, if I knew way back then what I now know!

And now? Now I have quit my full-time job. Now I work less than 30 hours per week. Now I have replaced my full-time income and in April 2017 I retired my boyfriend! Because that is my dream and big WHY. And you are going to need to hold on for dear life while on this ride.

Imagine a rocket ship or roller coaster. Which do you think the journey or blogging is going to be? A rocket ship that is a skyrocketing success story with little to no work. Like winning the lottery.

Or a roller coaster, like everything else you have experienced in life? (Hint: it is a roller coaster of a ride because it is life.)

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JULY 2017 TRAFFIC REPORT

Note – over 98% of my income comes from www.angelfoods.net which is shown above. Below is this blog traffic.

Last month I pulled back the reins on everything, with the idea or concept of ”less is more”. While it was more LIFE it didn’t equal more money 😛

Not that money is everything, but I was concentrating on other ‘big’ and behind-the scenes projects.

• The Cake Business School membership site – I created a new ‘onboarding’ process, with a quick video to receive a quick win. Then created a new ‘flow’ or ‘path’ through the content (there was a lot of it!) so that it was more of a ‘choose your own adventure’ which is customisable to any stage of business. The idea is to improve the retention rate and churn rate and has people using the training (rather than get overwhelmed) get results in their business and stay enrolled in the program. It will take months to gauge the results.
• 1:1 – I kept going back and forwards on this one. My mastermind group challenged me to create a VIP package as a cash injection into my business. I had some money blocks come up, like ‘people don’t have money’ and ‘they won’t pay me that much.’ I decided to push through them and surveyed customers. But every single step I hated. It feels like chains on me. Like torture. I hate the process and expectations. I am not a coach, nor do I wish to be. Right now, I’m swinging on the ‘hell no, I’ll do it my way’. I’ll let you know how that goes 😛
• Courses – I was creating 2 courses simultaneously (overlapping), which is fine. One is now complete and I’m exceptionally proud of. The other I’m half way through. I realised how much I enjoy creating on the fly and live.
• Co-creating – I’m looking at co-teaching 2 courses, in the near future. One with a good friend who has a successful cake business (for cake decorators, obviously) and the other with a mastermind buddy and blogger (for bloggers). Together we bring together a unique skills set of superpowers in one place, and where I lack in information or experience or know-how the other person is awesome at it. I’ll let you know how it goes!