I hit my 10-year anniversary in business recently, which has given me the opportunity to do a lot of reflecting on the unique journey I’ve had to get here. I was happy to join Shane Sams on The Shane Sams show to provide background on how my business came to be (and a whole lot more).
You can listen to the full episode below. Go here to subscribe to The Shane Sams Show on Apple Podcasts.
Shane is an awesome interviewer, and he did a great job pulling out all of the little highlights that led me to where I am today. When I say we talked about everything, I’m not joking. Here are a few of the things we covered:
- My love of baseball, coaching baseball, and the 1982 Brewers (and the ridiculous @TweetsFrom1982 feed)
- Getting prepared for everything and nothing with a Philosophy degree
- The value of doing jobs you hate (telemarketing and insurance)
- How I ended up working for the NBA, overseeing Fantasy Games
- Working in the non-profit world and getting laid off twice
- The pivotal experiences that shaped me
- Lifechanging experience of childhood cancer in our family
- Why I never would have started a business without the desperation of a layoff
- Making it by without a product for the first year
- Finding a niche where people will pay for my knowledge
- Launching your first product
- CREATE, CREATE, CREATE
- The importance of free time
- The balance between free time and feeling needed and productive
- The power of delegation and building a team
It’s a lot! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did telling it.
The Pubcast
If you missed it, I’ve been reflecting on my first 10 years on The Pubcast (my podcast!) lately, too. You can listen to that series of episodes below.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE PUBCAST ON ITUNES HERE
THE FIRST 10 DAYS
I had been laid off for the second time in 2 1/2 years. I didn’t know I wanted to start a business. The only thing I knew to do was buy a domain.
THE FIRST MONTH
I was looking for a job. I was writing. I didn’t know what I was going to do with this website, but I knew that I needed to find income quickly.
MONTHS 2-7
I write and write and write. I make some mistakes. I start generating a ton of traffic, and I find a few ways to monetize that traffic.
MONTHS 8-12
I finally started seeing consistent traffic (I published 134 posts during that stretch). While I had yet to create a product, I explore my early learnings from starting a podcast and initial methods of driving revenue.
YEAR 2
It was a pivotal and active year in every respect. I wrote 277 blog posts this year, finding a niche in advanced Facebook marketing and advertising. I started interviewing industry experts, hosting a podcast, and launching products.
YEAR 3
Traffic exploded. I found monthly recurring revenue and I tackled my fear of public speaking.
MY STRUGGLES
There are unique challenges I was not prepared for, and many of the struggles I faced were self-inflicted if not partly by design.
