What I’ve Learned During Five Years of Lifestyle Entrepreneurship

If I could have foreseen where this journey would take me, I wouldn’t have believed it. I was a bread delivery guy from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 2011, I discovered Pat Flynn’s podcast and my mind was blown. This idea of “passive income” just seemed too good to be true. I ignored what was screaming in my head for months before the voices finally became too loud.

I self-published a book that would break my heart–it sold five copies in six months. I spent the rest of 2011 figuring out how to sell books and build an audience. During that time, I would spend over $5,000 on courses, coaches, and digital information products that made big promises but only delivered hype. I was frustrated and quit this journey more than a few times.

2012 was my year to understand what works and what doesn’t in the lifestyle business space. That year, my focus was simple: build website traffic. I guest posted on 60 blogs and was a guest on 80 podcasts. I brought 500,000 visitors to my website (my old one that the hackers took down) that year. By the end of 2012, I had a lifestyle business that was generating $5,000 a month consistently. I had gotten an opportunity to do some paid speaking, I signed a major book contract with a publisher and I was able to quit my bread business.

Lessons You Can Use

Today, life is good. I travel to about ten countries a year to speak at conferences and consult at companies. My books sell thousands of copies each year, I work with the most amazing coaching clients, I write for the largest websites in the world (paid and free), and I live a life of true freedom. I spend my time on the things that are important to me.

I always like to give you the practical with the inspirational, so here are a few things I’ve learned over these last five years.

• Your dreams are possible. We live in a time with incredible access through the Internet. Our tools and technology today smash gatekeepers and make our dreams attainable–especially online. What were dreams can now be possible with research, a solid plan, some money, and consistent action.
• Self-limiting beliefs and negative people can be ignored. There will be people who tell you what you’re trying to do is too hard. There will be doubts, fears, and thoughts that try to convince you to quit. It’s hard, but when your WHY (the reason for this dream) is strong enough, you can ignore everything else.
• Building an audience is the key online. You can have the most beautiful website in the world. You can have all the widgets and fancy plugins you want. You can do everything the Internet marketers tell you to do. If you have no audience, NONE of it will help you build or make money. Social media is not an audience, an email list is because that is yours. Build website traffic and an email list. When you have an audience, you can figure out all the other stuff.
• Know your worth. This is a lesson that I still struggle with. I have been afraid to raise my prices for years. I was worried it would chase people away. The reality is that I am very confident in the value I provide. I know my content helps people. I knew that my prices should be higher but I let self-limiting beliefs keep me from where my prices should be. Don’t make the same mistake. If you provide good value, charge a fair market price for that value.

We live in an incredible time. There are so many doors open to us online and even using online principles offline. There is a whole wide world of opportunity in the mainstream space. The online-Internet marketing space is super crowded. Take what you learn here and pitch old fashion, regular businesses. There’s a lot more money and far less competition.

Whatever your dream is–don’t give up. Chase the dream, ignore the doubt, laugh at the haters, and keep pushing towards your goal. Build your audience and create a few ways to make money. Make consistent income and scale.

What is your dreams Let’s meet in the comments 🙂