My $20,000 per Month Problem

[00:01] situation to where if I'm not live, I'm dead. I was making good money, but I was trading my future and the overall ownership of my brand for the immediate pay. And to be honest, it was all in a place that I just don't really trust.

[00:37] just finished quarter one of the year. It was a massive move for me for anybody that's new here or hasn't caught up with the building in public series trying to transition into creating a real creative business moving forward. Something that

[00:52] can last for years to come. Something that provides sustainability for what I do. So today, I want to talk about my experiences in quarter one of the year, the good, the bad, the ugly. And I want to bring you guys in some of my

[01:06] expectations for quarter two. Like real goals from for quarter two. Like real goals from both a contact creator perspective, like what I actually want to shoot for this quarter, and also the business side. But

[01:19] before talking about all that, it's good to remind everybody the problem that I documenting this and bringing you guys behind the scenes is because this is what a lot of content creators and streamers do. They get themselves into

[01:33] situations like I was in. Mid-last year, I put myself back into a situation to where if I'm not live, I'm dead. I was making good money, but I was trading my future and the overall ownership of my brand for the immediate pay. And to be

[01:48] honest, it was all in a place that I just don't really trust. So the goal overall, which was risky, was to stream less, which will obviously make me less less, which will obviously make me less money, but put me into a position to be

[02:02] more active on the other stuff, get myself back out there, and essentially own my brand across the board. Get the other platforms monetizing more, get back in the habit of brand deals, and also other ways to monetize myself, for

[02:16] been launching on my website. That was actually a huge goal of mine coming into the first quarter of the year was getting my website up and running again. Cuz I've had it for the last few years, but I haven't taken it serious at all.

[02:30] The traffic, the monetization, the updates, it was so behind. I would say, honestly, in in quarter one, that's probably one of my biggest one, that's probably one of my biggest victories is I took that website from

[02:44] not having any traffic, not generating any sales, and in Q1, we passed $10,000 in sales. So, one of my good experiences over the first quarter of the year was exceeding the expectations as a result for taking my website more

[03:00] serious and and trying to build and funnel more people through that. But, that still creates some unease because you don't know for sure if people are going to come to your website and purchase something or hire

[03:13] you for consulting. So, in Q1, I joined along with my own creator blueprint, systems and habits that actually help you build a foundation to being a full-time content creator, to building a content creator business. And through

[03:27] that process, it forces you not only to actively upload, but to also reach out to brands and check your analytics and keep up-to-date with stuff, and create a keep up-to-date with stuff, and create a monthly form of revenue. So, alongside

[03:40] me actually participating in that, I got my Instagram, my TikTok, my Facebook all that quarter, and we've already started that quarter, and we've already started producing brand deals as a result for me

[03:54] So, that's one thing I try to do to balance out the idea of trying to drive more revenue to the website because I didn't want to just take what I was making in streaming on Kick and just say, "Okay, let me just move it

[04:08] website." because again, you don't necessarily know if it's going to make sales, especially with digital products. Once one person buys the thing, they don't need to buy it again. There's no restock of

[04:23] especially for something like the blueprints, because that's something that over time I have to update. If there is a period of time where the meta completely shifts and platforms don't want you uploading every single day and

[04:38] they punish you for that, I have to update the blueprint as a result of that, so that way I'm not giving people bad advice. So, I didn't want to run into the problem of of just only relying on the website and just putting a big

[04:52] gamble into the potential of that. I wanted to set myself up to where it's like, "Okay, website's doing good. YouTube's back up and running now. I'm monetized on TikTok again. I'm making money now on Facebook because I'm

[05:07] monetized over there." Therefore, taking stress stress off of me as a creator and focusing on a whole bunch of small wins across the board and not putting so much weight in

[05:20] one area, which was the problem in the first place. The biggest issue was I was essentially trading a large amount of money for my time without the structure or reassurance that I owned my brand. That's a huge [ __ ] problem. Okay,

[05:35] time to get a little bit more active. By the way, speaking of active, AI is so insane. I sat down with Claude to get together a meal plan moving forward and That's another thing I want to take serious in Q2 is now that I don't have

[05:51] to spend so much time being live, it's actually kind of a mindfuck, by the way. Like, there's parts of my day where I'm like, I feel like I should be physically doing something because over the last 3 years, I've just built this unhealthy

[06:05] habit again that if I'm not live doing something, I'm not making money. Which is one of the dopest things about being a content creator. It's this idea that like right now, my videos could be making ads or somebody could be clicking

[06:20] my website and buying a blueprint or buying merch or booking me for buying merch or booking me for consulting. I left my job in 2015 to have the freedom to monetize and control the hours of my life and here I

[06:33] was putting myself back in a position in streaming had to be there. Now, I could control the hours, but when you have a family, you only have small windows where that logically makes sense to do that. Now

[06:47] wrapped up in streaming and I just stream a few hours a week, I've so much freedom and so much time back on my plate to do things and I'm I'm trying really hard this quarter to replace a lot of those stream hours with health

[07:02] and fitness again. Last year, a group of friends and I locked in on our fitness year. I want to try to have some bigger goals and just create more long-term goals and just create more long-term habits to avoid not being consistent

[07:16] the overall theme this year in general, especially coming this year in general, especially coming into Q2, is continuing the habit of building systems, structures, daily routines that help keep me honest and

[07:30] focused and successful across the board. So, that way nothing has to slack experience for me. I would take like the fitness side serious, but I would overcomplicate and overdo it to the

[07:43] point where business would pull or content creation would pull. And then creation started to do really well and I would justify the idea of eating like [ __ ] and not working out consistently because I didn't create those daily

[07:56] habits to make them obtainable and easy and I would stop doing them. So my Twitch would do well or my Kick did well, then I gained a whole bunch of [ __ ] weight back cuz I wasn't working out consistently and I was

[08:08] eating takeout and and shitty food all the time. So having the ability to sit down with Claude and put together an entire game plan, like you just hired a fitness coach, absolutely [ __ ] insane.

[08:27] the [ __ ] is this 50° [ __ ] What is this? Where did this cold front come from this week? I had like two mornings this week where it was like 60° when I went for a walk at like 6:30.

[08:42] Yeah, but now it's [ __ ] cold again. Just make up your mind. You're pulling some real Midwest Ohio vibes. The recent fluctuation between hot and cold, hot and cold, snip snap, snip snap. Okay, so my overall objective

[08:56] moving forward is I want to start off every day on a 5-minute the morning, 5-minute run. Outside of that I want to do 10,000 steps. I want to follow eating as well, like my eating goal. Just whole food, no processed

[09:10] [ __ ] And and lift as well. Doesn't need to be much. I just like if I just get an arm workout today, I get an arm workout. If whatever it is. I don't want to overcomplicate it. That's my goal moving

[09:23] forward for the next 90 days or for Q2 in terms of health. I think just that 5-minute run right when I wake up. I'm trying to get better at running. I got into it a little bit more last year and

[09:36] you know, knocking off like running a mile unbroken and going for those obstacles. It was super helpful in staying consistent in the weight loss. I was telling the boys the other day, I just want to gamify everything more. So,

[09:50] having the quarter two objectives, something to shoot for daily to where thing. Now it's time for the next thing. Now I better get the 10,000 steps in. Now I better get that lift in. I can get that checked off. And then I better eat

[10:05] trying, man. I'm trying to build the systems and habits to keep everything afloat. All right, so I'm out walking on the trail. And what I'm listening to, I just heard the quote, "I don't fear success. I fear being successful at

[10:20] something that doesn't matter." Yeah, that is Yeah, that is to a T my entire pivot, my transition over this last year. There were days where I was having insane streams. But,

[10:33] the way that I was doing it, the way I was becoming successful at those things, it didn't matter. It didn't provide not only any value to me outside of monetary gain, but any value to the world. That's actually one huge thing that I noticed

[10:48] is after I would be ending these streams on Kick talking about drama and stupid environment for people to argue. After it was done, I noticed that I wasn't building any real relationships up with my community. I wasn't ending the stream

[11:02] and people were commenting or noting like, "Wow, this was this was valuable." environment. And honestly, there's nothing wrong with path and that's the content you want to provide to the world and the discussions

[11:16] that's great. But for me, that [ __ ] doesn't matter. Fast forward at the end of quarter one of the year, I just did a stream yesterday and all I could think many people were grateful. So many people found value. They're like, "Man,

[11:29] I'm glad I tuned in today." It's success that actually matters to me. I've also been trying to do is get out and about more. Like I got this nice

[11:41] laptop, this new MacBook, that does all this crazy [ __ ] on the go, and then I just work on it at the [ __ ] house all the time, and I don't have to. Like I mentioned with not streaming so much, I had the freedom and

[11:55] luxury. Like that's what I work hard for, to just go and work in a coffee shop for 2 hours at the start of my day and get old T-Rex out and about. So, we today was actually the first day that I went and did that. Got a whole bunch of

[12:10] files organized, which kind of matches the theme of some of my goals for Q2. about a lot of the potential deals going down this quarter, which again, it just lines more with the general goals and output that I

[12:26] want to do this year. Okay, so let's talk quarter two, shall we? So, talk quarter two, shall we? So, if I was to summarize quarter one, it if I was to summarize quarter one, it would be chaotic success. While I built

[12:39] systems and and really hunkered down into a daily routine and found my vibe, it was still messy. It was honestly a risk. It was a gamble. And what I would like to accomplish in quarter two is solidifying things, cleaning stuff up.

[12:52] For example, today when I was at the coffee shop, I went through and I started organizing my Google Drive, my files and whatnot, and I want to start making a better habit of doing that once a week. It's like the little things.

[13:04] It's the systematically getting ahead on taxes for the year by creating habits now. It's the including health into part of my routine as well, because as I figuring out the website and learning more of what I need to do this last

[13:20] quarter, just trying to figure [ __ ] out, the health stuff slacked. So, it's as for goals, one of my more unrealistic goals, not that it's unrealistic, but like I can't control it exactly. Like, it's not just a physical response. Like,

[13:35] I can make a goal of uploading 100 videos, and I can physically do that. But, my one goal that I want to chase is I would like to double the profit that I got in quarter one on the website in quarter two. I'd like to make twice as

[13:49] much. Not even for the monetary gain, but in the aspect of I'm progressively doing better, I'm gaining more sales, and I'm learning what I can create to be helpful to other people. But, as far as actual goals that I can just do, like

[14:03] YouTube channel this quarter. I want to bring you guys behind the scenes and document more. The reason being is I want to force myself to do more this quarter. I want to have a physical drop

[14:18] you guys behind the scenes and actually show you putting together a product, and eventually putting it up my site to sell to you guys sometime in the next few months. Alongside that, I want to do a better job in this portion of the year

[14:33] better job in this portion of the year of owning my content more, creating more of owning my content more, creating more of this typical standard that you'd see with stuff. So, that way I get people more comfortable into who I am as a

[14:46] before that people say that I I seem to be in a flow state. I want to do a better job at that. I want to make sure that on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, the live streams on X, people understand what they're following or subscribing

[15:02] for, what they're supporting. One thing that I did wrong, and I think my biggest especially with the transition of Kick, is I lost a lot of that trust in the viewership. Not in terms of like trust of people liking me or respecting me,

[15:16] but in terms of trust of knowing they're showing up for the thing. A lot of and this is something that I really had to acknowledge over the the last year or so. It's like, viewers are giving me their time. Like, you guys have your own

[15:31] problems, you have your own bills, you have your own struggles in life that you're dealing with, and it should be my job to entertain you guys, to show up encourage you to go after things, but also to like be able to [ __ ]

[15:45] disconnect from reality a little bit, and I want to continuously set the trend over this next few months to do that. I want to match that tone. I want to give that energy. I want people to know, okay, I get it. This is what he does.

[15:58] identity crisis, like, I need a I need stronger relationship with that. So, essentially, quarter one was like, [ __ ] it, let's do it. Let's Let's figure this [ __ ] out. Quarter two, it needs to be

[16:13] actually working. I'm excited. Let's celebrate a little bit, but also, let's not lose sight on why things are working, what is working, and what to repeat what is working, so that way I can continue to hopefully entertain and

[16:29] [ __ ] And like I said before, at the end of the day, that is the ultimate goal on this idea that I'm trying to be a better person. I want to document these to change their lives a little bit and go after things that they want to. [ __ ]

[16:43] over the last few years, it's you get one life, it goes so quick. I was just talking to Megan today on our anniversary about how this year I am twice the age now of graduating high school, meaning all those years of going

[16:58] school, be like, oh my god, this this this timeline of my life has gone by so slow. I've lived that over again. 18 years has doubled for me. It goes by like that, dude, and it sucks when you get in these windows where you know

[17:14] you're not being the best version of yourself. Thing that's why I was truly unhappy over these last few years. I was making a lot of money. I was able just like a part of me that was missing. And I really believe it was a part of me

[17:28] that knows that I could be doing better, that I can be doing more, that I can be providing more back to the world and and other people. My objective from these videos is to to encourage you guys to do the same. The the photographers watching

[17:41] you inspire others, the small business owners, the moms and dads, the workshop enthusiasts, you guys have no idea how just putting yourself out there and you

[17:53] sharing your journey and going after your [ __ ] you can help push other people around you or people that you don't even know to do that for themselves. How stupid of me would it be to preach that and expect that of other

[18:05] people and not actually demonstrate that. All right, I got to get going. We going to kill me if I take any longer. That's all I got for you guys today. I'm That's all I got for you guys today. I'm out. Peace. Deuces.