I built my entire business thanks to this post.

Here’s the entire timeline, including the ups and downs.

P.S. premium subscribers, I have 2 Notion templates for you below on creating content to attract your ideal audience. I made it because I went viral on TikTok last week but it didn’t lead to conversions (profile <> audience mismatch) but when I went viral on IG last December, I got 40k+ followers from 1 post.

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How it started: Dec 2023

I went viral on IG, got thousands of newsletter subs overnight.

So glad I put my newsletter as "coming soon" in my link in bio…otherwise that traffic would’ve led to no conversions and no money.

Throughout Dec, multiple videos went viral. I got like 10k followers overnight 🤯

Q1 2024

Jan

Rang in new year with a bunch of sponsor payments, I was so shocked (didn't know you could make this type of money online).

I charged for a meeting to see if anyone would pay. Someone paid $100 for 1 hour of my time and I was sooo shocked.

Feb

In Feb I made over $1k+ in Notion template sales because I ran a birthday month deal.

Was traveling and dislocated my kneecap but still made sponsor vids (with the dislocated kneecap in the video lol) 😂

Mar

Closed some more IG sponsor deals.

Realized the money is in B2B so wanted to focus on that + coaching more (high ticket) - you can actually see this mindset reflected in some of my old newsletter posts.

Q2 2024

Apr

Someone actually pays me $1k for coaching. I have major imposter syndrome, but try my best and they leave every weekly call feeling inspired.

At this point my newsletter growth is slowing since I'm mainly doing sponsor videos for Instagram.

I end up landing a lot of sponsors in summer - thousands of dollars.

May

My fiscal year ended so I had to deal with a lot of bookkeeping/finance stress because I had no clue how to do it.

Also had to get a new accountant for this reason lol 💀 it was a mess.

Jun

Landed a few more sponsors, but felt bad if the post didn’t perform. Had to reframe my thinking around long-term collaborations because that’s more effective than 1 video post.

This ends up helping me turn a $1,000 failed sponsor post into an additional $2,000 (they wanted to work with me again).

Someone from Twitter paid me $100 to send a text message. I remember how earlier in the year I traded $100 for 1 hour of my time.

That’s when I realized I needed to change my mindset about money and business.

It's halfway through the year and I still haven't made $20k/mo. I start getting demotivated but emails and comments from supporters keep me going.

Q3 2024

Jul

The company I worked remotely for had a big layoff…

I had to make my own business work for real now.

I started doing what I liked and copy pasted skills I learned from my ex-job to my own brand.

I created a course while traveling - the best one that meets my high standards for learning design.

Aug

I was traveling Australia at this point.

Spending a few hours a day on the course (creation and launch).

August was when I launched. Got $14k sales right before enrollment deadline closed!! This was $20k CAD helping me hit my goal.

Sep

I'm in Asia at this point. I launch another cohort of my course while scrambling to make edits to improve the course itself.

I'm also filming YouTube videos in hotel rooms with my $20 mic and iPhone camera 😂 

Those ended up being some of my most popular videos.

Hired a YouTube editor to help out (edited course videos too).

Took more time off to travel Asia, but still pushed out videos every week (minus 1 week in Nov when it was too hard).

Q4 2024

Oct

I get sponsored by a travel company while I was traveling. They pay for some of my travel expenses and for me to make 2 videos about my experiences.

Nov

I get notice of lots of tax/business admin work. It was STRESSFUL. I thought I was in trouble with the government (late fees) but I was overseas traveling.

I was in a cheap Love Hotel in Japan sobbing in bed thinking I should just get a regular job that would help with my retirement planning.

Thankfully my bookkeeper/accountant is amazing and patiently answered all my questions 🫶

I get home in Nov with clear next steps to sort things out.

Dec

Strategizing for 2025 and the last cohort of my course for the year. Going to do a complete revamp.

2025 goal is 1 million ARR. Let’s see if I can do it.

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