This was a special month for me. Not only is the start of a New Year very exciting, but I also celebrated my 20th birthday.
I’m no longer a teen entrepreneur, and that doesn’t bother me. In fact, I’m more excited than ever about my potential.
I established a few new key habits in my life and optimized what already worked.
My New Book Reading Habits
Yes, I forgot to track the books I read again. However, to make up for it, I will track them in the future and leave you with some new reading habits.
The first reading habit I developed is to read 5-10 books when I wake up. These 5-10 books are all the same books that I’ve already read. I’ll read 5-10 pages of each of these books and only read the parts that I underlined.
I choose high impact books that are easy for me to read at the start of the day. For example, The Compound Effect is one of these books, but I couldn’t stick with a social media based book because my mind isn’t ready for that at 4 am.
I’ve considered reading 5-10 different books to conclude my day which would be a guaranteed 10-20 books every month.
But how do I then read new books each month? As I originally did, I find time in my day to make it happen. However, I’m incorporating audiobooks into more parts of my life. I finally decided to listen to audiobooks during commutes. That’s had a big effect on my learning.
40 minutes each day. At the 1.5 speed rate, that’s an hour of audiobook content every day. With 30 hours of new audiobook content every month, I can get through 5-10 audiobooks each month depending on the average length of the audiobooks.
My Favorite Way To Learn
Knowledge acquisition is one of my top priorities. I know that if I expand my knowledge, I expand my potential.
Of all of the ways to learn, my favorite way to learn is by interviewing people on the Breakthrough Success Podcast. I interview at least five people each week. Since each interview is 30-45 minutes long (lately closer to the 45 minute side), I learn anywhere from 2.5 hours to 3 hours and 45 minutes every week.
From a content production standpoint, I have no need to boost this number right now. I have interviews done at least two months in advance. However, I want to continue learning new things and eventually turn Breakthrough Success into a daily podcast.
Also from that content production standpoint, I’d choose not to conduct any interviews during a two week vacation.
Podcasting is the best way to create a new piece of content. I can go on and on about podcasting, but I choose to stop here for now.
SkillShare Courses
Lately I’ve been creating more courses on SkillShare. This was inspired by one of my Thinking Sessions where I determined that I could easily generate more revenue by creating courses on SkillShare.
For me, this was an underutilized opportunity that didn’t take much time. My SkillShare courses are very short (10-30 minutes) which makes it possible for me to complete multiple courses in some days.
I’m in the process of choosing 2-3 days where I complete at least seven training courses. The goal is to eventually launch one new SkillShare course every day.
I’m focusing more of my time on SkillShare for a few reasons:
The Content Marketing Plaza has been fully buffed. I don’t need to add another update until a few weeks out.
SkillShare is the Netflix of learning. For $9.99/mo, you get unlimited access to the courses SkillShare provides. This makes binge learning possible. If you want to get your first two months free of charge, join SkillShare with this link.
The payment structure is a per minute basis. This payment structure gives me a greater incentive to create courses. The more minutes watched, the more money I make. SkillShare’s binge learning set-up also makes it beneficial to create more courses as one student may decide to watch all of your courses.
These aren’t as long as the Udemy courses I create. Right now, my plan for incorporating these courses into Udemy is to create a few themed mini courses on SkillShare and group them into one big Udemy course. However, this is yet to happen.
By the way, since I aim to eventually publish one new SkillShare course every day, what do you want to see? Please share in the comments after you read this month’s Performance Report.
I Will Be On More Podcasts In 2018
I can’t count the number of reasons why I enjoy interviewing people. At the same time, I couldn’t the number of reasons why I enjoy getting interviewed on other people’s shows. The big ones for me are the added exposure, reconnecting with myself, and reminding myself of my knowledge.
The first one is obvious so I won’t talk about that one. That’s why I’ll skip to the other two.
When I get interviewed, I almost always have to talk about my story. Sometimes we forget where we began, but getting interviewed reminds me of my roots. As we get deeper into the interview, I have to fully display my knowledge.
I know I also have to do this with every blog post I write, but interviews feel different. I get very specific questions and need to tailor my answer to the question and the host’s listeners.
I saw the impact of these interviews and my work in comments like these.
Each time I’m interviewed, I take it very seriously. I want to create that level of impact with every interview. Obviously, some interviews are better than others. The host and guest need to flow, and in this case, Caitlin and I were absolutely jamming.
But to create the impact, I need to get on more podcasts. I’ll have a goal for that in February which I’ll talk about very soon.
Review Of January 2018 Goals
Here are my thoughts and progress on the goals I set for this month.
#1: Get Consistent CMP Sales: I am working hard to optimize the sales page. I have temporary discounts in play and will add more videos to the sales page soon. I’m using Chandler Bolt’s SPS sales page as a guide.
#2: Plan A Meet-Up: I recently learned that I can simply contact some local libraries and get my book in there. I learned this from one of the guests I had on my show. Instead of planning a meet-up, I sent several pitches to places I could speak at over the summer. My fingers are crossed.
#3: Schedule All Content Past March: My blog posts are done past February and my podcast episodes are done past March. The only challenge is scheduling them, but I am working to delegate this task soon.
February 2018 Goals
Now that I’ve reviewed my goals for February, I’ll provide the list of goals I have for February 2018:
#1: Contact 50 Podcast Hosts
Instead of setting a goal for the number of interviews I get in February, I will set a goal for the number of podcast hosts I contact.
I know that as I land on more podcasts, I’ll get more requests to be on other people’s podcasts. The initial work I do will pay great dividends later on.
#2: Delegate Scheduling Content
I have no problem with creating content, but scheduling content has been the problem. I am actually close to delegating this part. I have a Google Doc in place with set instructions for my blog posts. All I need to do now is finalize it and create a Google Doc for my podcast episodes.
This will be the easiest task to delegate, but I’ll need to boost my revenue with the extra time.
#3: Publish At Least 20 SkillShare Courses
This is one of my strategies for boosting revenue based on what I previously discussed. I will give SkillShare a month to see if this is a revenue generating activity I should continue pursuing.
The eventual goal is to make thousands of dollars of passive income through SkillShare each month. Other creators have achieved this milestone and I believe I can get there as well.
Plus, I no longer find it difficult to start doing videos. It’s become much easier for me to create videos ever since I took SkillShare seriously again.
#4: Get At Least 10 Patrons
While I can’t say enough great things about being the host of the Breakthrough Success Podcast, it costs me over $1,000 each month to keep the show running and expenses continue to grow.
To provide you with a better experience, I don’t include any ads within my shows. The problem is that this requires me to sacrifice a lot of revenue. That’s why I’m asking you and the rest of my community for help.
I recently started a Patreon Page to ensure I can run the show and keep it ad free. If you want to help me reach my goal of 10 patrons for this month, please consider leaving a small contribution on my Patreon Page.
Even $1/mo makes a big difference, and if you’re one of the patrons before we reach $100/mo, I will audit your website and give you personal recommendations on how you can boost your traffic and conversions.
This is a goal that I can only achieve with your help. Please consider becoming a patron and asking others to help support the show.
#5: Hire A Coach
My research is done. I don’t have a list of five coaches or even a list of three coaches. I have a list with one coach and one coach only. This individual has coached several of the guests on my show and some of the top influencers in my niche.
I don’t want to say this individual’s name until I’ve officially hired him and we’re getting started, but I have one coach in mind.
The more successful I am with SkillShare and my other ventures, the earlier in the month I can hire him. This is something that I know needs to happen.
In Conclusion
I started off the year strong. I’ve acquired much knowledge, established some new habits, and am excited about what February brings. Hiring my coach will represent a big investment for my success, but I know it will be well worth it.
What were your thoughts on this month’s performance report? Do you have any questions for me? Sound off in the comments section below.
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