Pep Talks for Side Hustlers: Ep. 203 - November Income Report (2025)

Dec 19, 2018

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Welcome to episode 203, my November 2018 Income Report! Ifyou’re new to the podcast, each month I publish an income report totake you behind the scenes of my online business and reveal exactlyhow much money I make, how much I spend and lessons learned alongthe way!

IMPORTANT THINGS THAT HAPPENED INNOVEMBER.

I interviewed two million-dollar business owners on Pep Talksfor Side Hustlers – Episodes 195 & 196 with Kelly Roach and 198 &199 with Bernadette Doyle.
Bernadette Doyle challenged me to start tracking my time andstart working 25 hours a week NOW.
I ran a final promotion for my membership program, Serious SideHustlers.
I closed my membership program, Serious Side Hustlers.
I turned 39, and my husband turned 40.
I joined Brooke Castillo’s Self Coaching Scholars.
I decided to move to 1 episode of Pep Talks for Side Hustlersper week.
I completed the second month of my Web Designer Academy.
I made an executive decision to not schedule anything in theevenings.

Notes I found to myself in my planner:

REVIEW OF MY GOALS

When in quit my day job in January of 2018, I set a goal togenerate $10,000 in revenue so that I could pay myself $5,000 amonth and set aside the other $5000 for taxes and expenses:

$5000 – Income to cover my old paycheck.
$2500 – Expenses
$2500 – Taxes

WHAT I FOCUSED ON IN NOVEMBER

November is typically just one big celebration in my life. Wehave tons of friends and family with November birthdays (includingme and my husband), and of course Thanksgiving is in November,which is my favorite holiday.

Probably because every so often my birthday falls onThanksgiving which makes it extra special.

It starts getting cold here in Ohio in November – which Iabsolutely love.

Just ask my good friend Tyler – he’ll tell you that outerwear ismy favorite type of clothing. Give me all the sweaters and jacketsand gloves and hats and scarves – and I’m a happy girl!

And of course right after Thanksgiving it’s time to decorate forChristmas and start getting into the holiday spirit.

So when I was planning out my 2018 around this time last year, Iblocked off the week of Thanksgiving for vacation, and thefollowing Thursday – Monday to take a trip to celebrate myhusband’s 40th birthday, which has become a tradition with ourgroup of friends that we all take a trip together for our 40th.

That’s going to be me in 2019, so if you have any ideas of whereI should go in mid-November, head on over topeptalksforsidehustlers.com/203 and leave an idea for me in thecomments!

So if you listened to my October income report back in episode201, you’ll recall that my main focus in October was to SLOW DOWNso that I could start taking time out for myself.

I started taking a yoga class, I delegated more to my VA andintern and moved from 7 podcasts a week down to three and went fromworking about 60 hours a week down to 40.

Entering November, I started to feel like I was finally, FINALLYcreating the freedom that I had so desperately craved when I putthis whole crazy plan in motion to start a side hustle and grow itto the point where it could sustain itself and replace my day jobincome.

And then I had a couple of conversations that weretransformational.

I had the pleasure of talking to two entrepreneurs who have bothreached the million dollar mark in their business – Kelly Roach andBernadette Doyle.

TOTAL REVENUE: $9690.52

AffiliateIncome:$2040.80

Courses:$3267.72

Done For You &Consulting:$4382.00

TOTAL EXPENSES: $3399.70

Get the full breakdown of income, expenses and net profitmonth by monthhere.

NET PROFIT: $6290.82

BIGGEST LESSONS LEARNED

So here’s the thing – I’ve had a really hard time all yearkeeping my expenses down to $2500 a month like I planned.

I’m going to make even more adjustments in December for 2019,but when I create my budget I’m just going to be more realisticabout my expense budget.

I want to get a cushion of at least five grand in the bank,because right now my business is pretty much paycheck to paycheck,like, I’m cleaning out my business bank account every month whenit’s time to pay myself, pay off my credit card for last month’sexpenses and put money aside for taxes..

I use the Profit First model from the book of the same name byMike Michalowicz, so I pay myself first. Then taxes. Then expenses.And I also don’t do debt. I put all of my business expenses on myChase Southwest Rewards credit card so I get all those airlinemiles, and then I pay it off on the last day off every month. I paymyself on the 15th and the 30th, and I move money to my tax accountto pay my quarterlies.

So there are about $500 in expenses I could cut every month but…It will require me to totally rebuilding my website and automationplatforms, which is a significant time investment for me.

I realize that I could save $6K a year by making the move – andthere’s my cushion… But I also know that the work would take me atLEAST 4 solid weeks, and I think it would disrupt some of myfunnels and result in a lot of customer service requests…

Or I could pay my team to do it for me and coach them throughit, and create content and tutorials around the experience, andtrain them on handling those customer service requests.

Which would be what like, a real business owner/leader would doinstead of doing it all herself…

So I’m still him-hawing around about whether or not to makethose structural changes… and I know these are the mindset shifts Ineed to make to grow my revenue.

I learned a few really big lessons in November.

First, I noticed that it only took 11 months of being on my ownfor me to freaking chill out and start enjoying myself…

But seriously, what I’ve noticed is that it really does takeawhile for my mind to get used to change.

I can make a decision, but then it takes some time for theaction to follow the decision.

And then it takes some time to recognize the results andacknowledge them as a result of my action.

I know how to pay attention to my thoughts now, and I do thinkthat the changes I want to create will happen faster than in thepast.

And I’m spending much, much less time working. I’m down to about25-30 hours. I’ll give you a breakdown on all of that in a futureepisode.

Second, I’m spending 95% of my time on non-income producingactivities.

Which is why I shouldn’t be the one moving rebuilding my ownplatforms…

I spend a lot of time “working”.

And I suspect it’s just another way to avoid uncomfortableemotions, just like overeating and overdrinking.

Looking at how I’m spending my time, it’s mind-boggling to mehow I’ve managed to produce nearly $10,000 a month in revenueconsistently this year.

And it’s really exciting.

What would be possible for me if I even shifted it to 20%, oreven 50%?

That’s my plan for 2019.

Finally, I learned the most important lesson, I think anyway, inNovember was while I was decorating my Christmas tree.

My husband had gotten our tree out of the basement and set it upin our loft, and we were all excited to listen to Christmas musicand decorate it like we normally do together. It’s a prelit tree,and when we turned it on half the lights were burnt out.

This happened last year and I had found this tool, this gunthing, online that you can use to test the strands and then you dosomething to the one that’s burnt out that fixes it.

Clearly I have no idea how this thing works.

So Floyd was like, on a mission to fix this tree and he spenttwo evenings obsessed with finding the burnt bulbs before he justgot frustrated and gave up.

So I’m like, I’m going to do something really nice for him anddecorate the tree while he’s at work so he can come home and it’lljust be done, right?

So because I was by myself, I decided to start listening to allthe Entrepreneur modules inside of Brooke Castillo’s Self-CoachingScholars, and I’m super excited because like at the end of all ofthem there’s one called How to Make a Million Dollars – which is afuture goal that I have for my business.

So as I’m listening, I’m hearing things like:

Choose a niche.
Give value ahead of time.
Grow an email list.
Make offers to it.
If something doesn’t work the first time, try again.

And I thought to myself, wow, I could totally sit here andthink,“Thanks for nothing Brooke, tell me something Idon’t know. This course was a waste of my time andmoney.”

Which is honestly, is something I may have thought in thepast.

But instead, I found myself feeling really excited, like“Wow, I have all of the pieces in place. I’m on the righttrack. I have everything I need. It’s as good as done.”

And in the million dollar module, she talked about how you justseparate the math from the drama, list out all the reasons why it’simpossible and that becomes your to-do list to make it happen.

Which is totally exciting, because then I think things like, “Iknow there are so many web designers out there that just want tobuild websites for a living and DON’T want to be freelancers or runtheir own businesses – what if I could create an amazing companythat would give them that opportunity? And I think of how much moreI could contribute and how much more value I can give when I’m at ahigher level.

Again, which brings me back to why I should not be moving my ownplatforms and why I should empower other people to do it and leadthem through the process… Like, start practicing for thatleadership role now…

So that really goes for you too whether you want to make $100 ora thousand dollars or a million dollars. It’s just math. All thereasons it feels impossible become your to-do list.

So I was super excited because not only did I realize that Ihave everything I need to get to the next level right in front ofme, I also finished decorating that dang tree!!!

#multitasking

So if there’s anything I want you to take away from thisepisode, it’s this:

How are you spending your time?

How do you want to be spending your time?

And are you making as much money as you want to make?

And if not, separate the math from the drama, list out all thereasons why it’s impossible for you to make the money you want tomake, and then get to work changing those things.

I know you can do it.

Thanks so much for listening, and I’ll see you next week! Loveyou Byeeeeeee!!!