If you caught the last episode of the Michelle is Money Podcast for the 2019 season, I said that the year landed solidly in the middle. It wasn’t a great year, it wasn’t awful. It was just a solid, ok year that landed somewhere in the middle of my expectations. When I think of a breakthrough year, it’s the year when all of the action that you’ve been taking comes together and matches the results that you’re working towards. Those results could be tons of publicity, earning more money, t.v. gigs, and the list goes on. Only YOU knows what would constitute what your breakthrough your looks like. This episode will share some 2019 breakthrough years that I’d like to point out, what you can do to attract your breakthrough year, and the actions that I’m taking to hopefully have my own breakthrough year too.
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Show Notes
- Like most people, there are times when I wonder “Is this year going to be THE year?” The year when my income matches my aspirations and when my personal life resembles the one that I dream of and where my physical health is where it needs to be. Yep, that’s a lot.
- Here’s the thing, I understand everything we’re working towards is part of a process.
- Example #1-Lil Nas X had an incredible year. And, if I hear Old Town Road I might go insane. But, I’m not hating. I’m not hating that he made 72 remakes of the song. Or, was singing it everywhere. I shared in his joy! Here’s the thing:
- Lil Nas X was working on his influence long before the song came around. He didn’t come out of nowhere.
- He only spent $32 on the audio part of his song. DO IT UGLY!
- He kept hustling and collaborated with others in order to get the song out there.
- Many article point out that Tik Tok and controversy pushed the song over the top.
- Example #2 Missy Elliot GOT HER FREAK ON in 2019…after a 14 year hiatus. Fourteen freaking years. And then, she released Iconology and schooled us.
- She leveraged the knowledge she’d accumulated from her previous music releases. That knowledge was the foundation for what she did now.
- Missy Elliot stayed true to her listening avatar while attracting new listeners. And, she stayed true to her style.
- Example #3 Greta Thornberg-Now, I almost didn’t add her on this list because I don’t want her peak at 16 years old. But, I 100% that she is unusual and will continue focusing on her mission. The biggest takeaway that I get from her is the following:
- Be true to your beliefs even when you’re sitting there alone. Other people are watching.
- What about people that are little more “real to you?” If you’re in the personal finance space then the person who comes to mind is: Sandy Smith! She killed it in 2019. And, I needed to share how freaking hard she has been working FOR YEARS. If you’re not familiar with Sandy Smith, let me share her with you. She is the founder of The Hustle Crew, an online community with over 14,000 members focused on earning more money through side-hustles. She also founded the Elevate Conference for influencers of color in the personal finance space. And, finally, she won 3 Plutus Awards at FinCon acknowledging all of her hard work empowering communities of color financially. Lessons learned from Sandy’s journey:
- Lesson #1-Eventually, people will notice your hard work
- But, most people have NO IDEA how much hard work is done BEFORE other people notice.
- Sandy regularly works on The Hustle Crew and Elevate until 1:00 am her time. How do I know? Because it’s 11:00 pm my time and we will chit chat via Facebook almost daily about our projects.
- Lesson #2-Her primary focus ultimately is serving and connecting others authentically.
- Lesson #3-Whatever you’re working towards is hard work.
Related Show:
Here are 8 Tips to Having a Breakthrough Year
Now that I’ve shared some real life examples of people who had a breakthrough year, what can you do to create your breakthrough year?
- Tip #1-That breakthrough year you’re working towards might not be this year. This is a painful reality. But, the work that you do may be the foundation for your upcoming breakthrough year.
- Tip #2-Stop Calling it Failure when things don’t work out the way that you wanted them to.
- You’re in a constant state of a/b testing your ideas
- Your actions
- And the processes that you’re using to attract the results that you’re working towards. Sometimes your process just needs to be tweaked.
- Tip #3 Let Go of What Doesn’t Work for You
- Just because something works for other people, doesn’t mean that it’s a good fit for you.
- Tip #4 Declare your intentions LOUDLY
- I’ve mentioned that I wanted to have a $250,000 earnings year. I did not meet that goal. Not even close. I’m ok with that. Similar to wanting to be in the Miami Vice reboot, and going out on a date with Lenny Kravitz, how can I make these things happen if no one knows what I want?
- The more you declare your intentions, the more you’re able to help the universe line things up for you. Yes, this is woo-woo
- Tip #5-Market Your Butt Off! It’s hard to have a breakthrough year if no one knows who you are. How do you do this?
- Show up at local events
- Attend Conferences (local and out of state)
- Run your own podcast/vlog/or blog (or, all three)
- SHOW UP Everyday and have a plan for the days when you don’t feel like showing up. That looks prescheduling content.
- Tip #6-Double-down on what worked-Take time to look back at what did work for you in the previous year.
- Ask yourself why it worked. Look at what worked from EVERY angle.
- Then figure out how you replicate those results.
- What would you do differently to get the same results with a lot less work.
- Tip #7-Set Your Goals and then Push FOR MORE!
- I set very aggressive goals for a couple of reasons.
- I am almost always happy if I land in the middle of the results I’m working towards.
- The easier the goal, the more likely I will slack off
- The challenge is where growth happens.
- I set very aggressive goals for a couple of reasons.
- Tip #8-Do the work
- Most people talk a lot, but they just don’t do the work. And, we get tired of listening to you when you’re clearly not doing the work. Here’s where people get stuck:
- Focusing on perfection
- Trying to avoid difficulties that may occur as a result of working towards their goals
- To worried about the discomfort related to working on the goal. Get over it.
- Most people talk a lot, but they just don’t do the work. And, we get tired of listening to you when you’re clearly not doing the work. Here’s where people get stuck:
Will 2020 Be Michelle’s Breakthrough Year?
Now that I’ve got you set up for a breakthrough year, I thought it would fun for you to see what I’m working on for 2020.
What Didn’t Work
- My workflow drove me freaking crazy. It was a complete disaster especially towards the end of the year.
- Feeling like my course was constantly on sale. Part of that was the holiday season, but I hadn’t figured out a way to get my “Make Money with Ebooks” course in front of people as consistently as I think I needed to in order to make consistent sales.
- Hosting Money on the Mountain in October. I will never host an event in October again! The next two dates are as far away from October as possible. Basically, that’s the time of year when I’m just tired from pushing so hard from January through the end of October. I crashed HARD this year. Every time I felt like I was rested, I would crash again.
- Pretending that I’m able to work from home. I’m not. And, not knowing where I’m working the next day.
- Side-Hustles…let’s be clear, I’ve had some kick a@@ side-hustles. But, I’ve begun to resent the time that they take away from my overall business. This is a hard thing for me to do, because like most personal finance people side-hustles are bae.
- Having my course office hours during the weekend. I hated it.
- Having webinars over the weekend. Hated it.
- Social Media-it’s so damn distracting. And, I can tell how much time I save when I’m off of social media. It’s so distracting.
- Decision Fatigue-I was making a lot of decisions during the week that I could have avoided. Such as:
- What to eat
- Where to work
- What to wear
What Worked!
- Focusing on Consistency-The hardest thing that I worked on after Money on the Mountain was creating consistency in my content creation. In particular, podcast content.
- Podcasting-Downloads are growing nicely and I continue to love podcasting.
- Diversifying my revenue-This was so hard to do, but I realized that I’m the type of person who enjoys working on different projects. So, I had to define what those projects would be, and if I could make money with them, so that I could build them into my business.
- SEO-I’m really good at SEO and organic search is the #1 way I am getting traffic to my website.
- Holding onto Square State…and waiting to work on it when I had a clearer idea of what the overall goal was for the site.
- Alternating events that I’m attending-I’m one person and I only have so much capacity. I’ve begun alternating the years that I attend out-of-state events. I won’t be attending Podcast Movement in 2020 because I attended in 2019. But, I will be attending FinCon 2020 because I’ve missed it the past two years. CAN’T WAIT.
- Limiting the number of events that I attend-Six seems to be the magic number for me. These are both in-state and out of state events. Short-term travel for conferences is HUGELY distracting for me. It kills my productivity. What I’m attending in 2020
- CampFi-Rocky Mountain Region-I’m also a speaker
- Elevate Conference-Washington D.C.
- Afros and Audios-New York City
- FinCon-Long Beach
- Denver Start Up Week
- Fuel Your Influence Blogging Conference Denver, Colorado (one day)
- Outdoor Media Summit-Estes Park, Colorado
Changes and Areas of Focus for Me in 2020
- 100 podcast interview challenge-My goal is to be a guest on 100 podcasts. If you think I would be a good fit, email me at: michelleismoneyhungry@gmail.com or private message me on Instagram @ michelleismoneyhungry
- 365 Days of Instagram Challenge-No, I won’t be livestreaming daily. But, I plan on adding content to Instagram daily.
- Workflow-Monday through Thursday front load my work week. Basically, work really long work days on those days.
- Webinars/Meetings/Office hours will occur Monday-Thursday
- I plan on running course launches for “Make Money with Ebooks” I think that doing this will make it easier for me to sell the course AND to onboard new students.
- Podcast editing will happen Friday-Saturday
- Scheduling out where I’m working on Sundays so that I don’t have figure it out on the day of. I’ve figured out my January schedule and will tweak it on Sundays based on the weather or unexpected changes that pop up.
- Batching my work! If Michelle Schroeder-Gardner can batch her work from an RV and a boat in the Dry Tortugas (thaata I didn’t realize was a real place. I thought it was just a place made up for Pirates of the Caribbean, then I can batch my freaking work. I spent most of the month of December working on batching my content for January/February. No more scrambling.
- Running Money on the Mountain in 2021-I learned a couple of lessons from hosting my event in 2019 and I plan on addressing what I considered “issues” with the event during 2020. I currently plan on hosting two events and I’m super excited!
- Growing my Michelle is Money Hungry Email List
- Creating a systems guide so that I don’t waste brain energy on stuff.
We shall see how things go, but I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what will help me be successful during the New Year.
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I am an obsessive foodie, but not self-righteous with it, love travel, meeting new people, helping you look good, and am freaked out by people who don't enjoying reading...something! Grab a Perrier, read my blog, feel free to drop me a line! Hope to hear from you soon.
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