Niall Doherty's Blog, page 70
April 15, 2024
SEO Community Side Gig = $891,000 Per Year
Matthew Howells-BarbyCo-founder or Traffic Think Tank $891,000 approximate annual revenue Published April 15, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty Check out Traffic Think Tank, an online membership community for SEOs.
The membership is $99/month and per a recent profile the business was sold for $1.8 million last year 
There were 750 paying members at the time of sale.
750 x $99 x 12 = $891,000 per year 
Confirmed via the profile…
it was bringing in about $1 million in ARR (annual recurring revenue), according to one founder’s LinkedIn profile.
Matthew Howells-Barby, Ian Howells and Nick Eubanks are the founders of TTT…
The crazy thing is, this was always a side gig for the three founders. For six years, they were juggling it alongside their full-time jobs.
Why sell at all? “We didn’t have the time required to take it to the next level,” Howells-Barby told They Got Acquired.
Origin story…
Back in 2014, Howells-Barby got invited into a small, private Facebook group where top SEO experts shared strategies that had worked for them. The cardinal rule: Nothing was to be leaked outside the group.
Then…
In 2017, he and his two co-founders – who were all members of the Facebook group – launched Traffic Think Tank. They organized it like this:
– Charge a $99-per-month subscription for access to a private Slack community.
– Publish a new piece of educational content every week.
– Allow members to ask them questions directly.
– Host a monthly live Q&A on Zoom.
They weren’t sure it would work, but it did…
They limited their community to 100 members at first, and they quickly maxed that out. While they focused on educational content, it became apparent that Traffic Think Tank was really in the business of personal connections.
The more connections it facilitated, the more valuable it became.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any mention of how they got those first 100 members paying $99/month.
I assume all 3 founders had a bit of an audience already and leveraged that 
Matthew’s insight for anyone building a community…
Your customers are also the product. The less satisfied those customers are, the less valuable the community is as a whole.
At $99/month, TTT is also a nice contrast to the $9/month membership business we featured recently.
Both did well, so clearly this model can work at higher and lower price points 
Also, I like how Matthew came up with the idea after spending time in another community on the same topic.
Are you part of any communities that you find lacking?
Could you start your own (better) version and charge for it? 
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April 11, 2024
Website That Teaches You How To Sing = $10,000/Month
Sergey KyuneFounder of Singing Carrots $10,000 monthly revenue Published April 11, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty 
Singing Carrots is an app to help you practice singing…
Singing Training for people who trust Science, Data, and Numbers. Pitch, vocal range, and rhythm improvement exercises packed into an interactive game.
Founder Sergey Kyune is based in Portugal 
and revealed in a recent interview…
Three years later, I’m at the point where it feeds my family. My MRR is €7,300, but my one-time sales and ad revenue bring it to about €10k/mo ($10.7K/month)
I’m guessing the ads are mainly shown to free users.
How Sergey found his first customers
I tried to post links to my product in every corner of the internet that mentioned the word “singing.” The first users came from Reddit and Quora.
Reaching out directly to music blog owners, teachers with websites, and relevant Facebook group admins brought some users too.
But it sounds like the business really took off after he started his YouTube channel…
I decided that my strategy would be to teach theory for free and sell tools that assist with practice.
So, I started by recording video lessons, vocal exercises, and warmups, and publishing them on YouTube.
His very simple first video from June 2020 
…
Then, I added some articles to our blog.
Over time, as the size of our educational library grew, I converted it into a free course for beginners. That has been a huge driver of growth.
Love that, repurposing some of his existing content into a free course / lead magnet = working smarter, not harder.
Additionally, I created simplified versions of the tools we sell and made them available for free on the website. Like this simple pitch monitor.
Free tools like that often go a long way to building backlinks and thereby increasing search engine rankings 
(We’re trying to do similar on eBiz Facts, starting with Video Vigilante)
Sergey says he doubled down on his app after…
I slipped into burnout, this project was the only thing that still held my interest. So I decided to quit [my job] and educate myself on how to turn it into something that could feed me.
Apparently Sergey built the first version of Singing Carrots to help improve his own singing 
Is there a skill you’re trying to learn?
Maybe you’ve found the existing tools or tutorials lacking.
Could you create something better?
Or perhaps partner with an expert to build something?
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Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.
With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.
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Is this kind of business right for you?Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.
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“Very Simple Tool” Has Earned 10K Since September
Jun Peng WeiCreator of NiceShots $1400 estimated revenue Published April 11, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty Recent post from Jun Peng Wei (@wow_things) on Reddit…
A simple tool I created to help myself ended up earning me my first extra 10,000.
He writes…
Initially, I wasn’t a professional programmer, but since I started coding, I’ve been fascinated by the charm of creating something with my own hands.
Like many developers, I wanted to make my own “great product” like YouTube or Instagram.
I took many courses, read some books, and participated in a few startups. But a few years ago, I gave up on that idea.
The only quote I remembered from all the quotes was “Create something that helps others, starting with helping yourself.”
So he did…
My friends and I often changed wallpapers, but it took a lot of time to find a suitable one. So I created an app that updates wallpapers daily: TuKa Wallpaper
But it’s not the protagonist today because its impact wasn’t significant after release; I only made one language version.
The real protagonist was the idea that emerged while making TuKa Wallpaper.
I often needed to create beautiful mockups, hoping to make my app into a beautiful image to share on social media for marketing…
So, to make image editing easier, I developed a very simple tool…
That’s NiceShots.
Looks like he released that app last September
Then, to Jun Peng’s surprise…
In the first few days after its release, with very little promotion, many people started using it, with the highest rank on the App Store reaching fifth place. It was even recommended by Apple a few times…
NiceShots has been downloaded over 30,000 times, and together with my first app, TuKa Wallpaper, it has generated over 10,000 in revenue for me.
He doesn’t say if that’s 10K USD or some other currency.
Best I can tell, Jun Peng is from China 
and 10K Chinese Yuan works out to about $1,400 USD.
The premium versions of his apps sell for $1-5 a pop.
If the average sale is only $2, he’d need 700 of those 30,000 free users to go premium to earn $1400
Which is probably a realistic conversion rate (2.33%) for apps like that.
So this isn’t a huge success story for Jun Peng yet, but he’s well on his way
And it’s another great example of how taking action leads to good things, even if the initial thing you take action on doesn’t work out.
Tuka Wallpaper was a bit of a flop for Jun Peng, but it gave him the idea for NiceShots, which will likely earn passive income for a long time to come
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Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.
With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.
Here’s how:
We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.
Is this kind of business right for you?Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.
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$144,000 in 12 Months Selling Templates
PascioNotion Expert $144,000 revenue in 12 months Published April 11, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty 
Pascio tweeted last August…
I made $144,000 the last 12 months.
The product I’m selling is Notion templates.
See all his templates for sale here 
He says…
15 months ago [May 2022] I built my very first template.
It was a health tracking system that I needed for myself.
It helped me keep track of my workouts, nutrition and self development.
I ended up sharing this template on Reddit.
After posting to the Notion subreddit, everyone started asking for the template…
I recognized that there was demand for these templates.
I decided to try and charge money for it.
Pascio now has an audience of 104K followers on X, and it looks like that’s one of the main ways he markets his templates
However, he only had 1000 followers 2 years ago, and has built a strong following as the one of the go-to Notion guys.
Check here for his top tweets from 2022, some ideas there you could steal to build your own audience 
Back to the initial template Pascio created: he slapped a $15 price tag on it and launched on Product Hunt…
On the first day I made $100. The next day $200.
After a week, I had made $500.
That’s when he thought…
If I can make $500 off one product
How much can I make if I have 20 products?
So I started building new products,
Products that solved problems for others.
These are digital products (templates), so the profit margin is likely 90% or better
Pascio went on to create all types of templates…
The more products I had, the more upsells and bundles I could make.
If a customer came to spend $10, they usually left spending $50.
Why? Because I had so many products to pick from.
I crafted great offers, bundles and upsells for them.
Which eventually allowed him to quit his job after 6 months 
His formula…
1. Build a product that solves a problem
2. Put product for sale on Gumroad
3. Launch product on Producthunt
4. Do upsells, bundles and emails
5. Get paid on autopilot
Also interesting to see that Pascio recently launched a paid community: Notion Creator Mastery
He’s already got 166 members in there, though many probably got in free when he first announced it.
Still, with a $97-297/month price point, that could end up generating a lot more revenue for Pascio down the line
First time seeing our Online Money Maker profiles? Click here for a quick intro.
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Learn more about income claims and estimates on this website
Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.
With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.
Here’s how:
We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.
Is this kind of business right for you?Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.
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April 8, 2024
His User-Friendly Wrapper Made $8000 in 3 Months
Hieu DinhCreator of CompressX $8000 revenue in 3 months Published April 8, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty (This one’s a bit technical but has a non-techy takeaway.)
Hieu Dinh how he built CompressX, a macOS app that helps you compress images and videos locally on your machine 
He explains…
FFmpeg is a powerful tool for converting, streaming, and recording audio and video content. I created a user-friendly wrapper for macOS that simplifies the process and adds some extra features for users.
FFmpeg is a command line tool which does not have an graphical user interface and can only be used via Terminal (the coding black box you see in movies).
Hieu basically put the whole code thing behind a nice app that anyone can use 
He adds…
I started CompressX as a weekend project to serve my 9-5 jobs, primarily to compress demo videos for uploading to GitLab or sending to my colleagues. It took me 2 weeks to make the first working version. I shared the demo on Twitter and the reaction was extraordinary…
Three months later, I hit the $8,000 mark in revenue. I never expected to make a dime from this project, let alone eight thousand dollars. It’s been a surreal experience, but it’s also been incredibly rewarding.
Not an uncommon approach: building a software business on top of other software.
For example, Jasper.ai got to a $1.5B valuation and all they really did in the beginning was help people get better results from openAI and other AI models 
Another approach here is to find some complex software that lots of people use, become a certified expert, then start a consulting business.
Two examples of that 
First time seeing our Online Money Maker profiles? Click here for a quick intro.
The goal of our Online Money Maker profiles is to show you all the different ways people make money online. We strive to ensure that each profile is realistic – no hype, no scams – so you can see what it really takes to build each type of business.
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See our latest profiles of Online Money Makers
Learn more about income claims and estimates on this website
Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.
With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.
Here’s how:
We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.
Is this kind of business right for you?Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.
Other ways to make money onlineThere are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.
Full list of ways to make money onlineMore profiles of online money makers Subscribe to eBiz Insider Every Tuesday and Friday we email 22,107 people like you with top tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. No hype, no scams, no fake gurus. Sign up below to get the next one.
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AI Made a Theme Song For This Newsletter in 20 Seconds
The latest AI tool that’s blowing everyone’s mind: Suno AI 
You basically give it a text prompt and it will create a song for you.
I fed it this prompt…
An upbeat song about my twice weekly newsletter, e-Biz Insider, all about online business ideas, insights and opportunities. Great for aspiring online entrepreneurs. In the style of modern hip hop.
It came back in ~20 seconds with this.
Really impressive, though the lyrics are pretty cringe 
I refined the prompt and tried again…
Upbeat song about my 2x weekly newsletter, e-Biz Insider, all about online business ideas, insights & opportunities. Great for aspiring online entrepreneurs. Modern hip hop style. Tone down the hype.
Give it a try yourself.
A free account lets you generate 5 songs per day
Listen to lots more examples here.
Incredible stuff.
My buddy Thomas Sorheim wrote about it
AI is pretty much killing Google. Now Spotify is up…
Imagine what Suno and Sora will do for music and video. Stock images, stock video, stock songs, etc.
Crazy stuff!
Where will this all be in 2-3 years???
So much disruption coming!
(Sora is the AI video generator we featured a few weeks ago.)
This also got me thinking about another feature from the archive…
$7000/Month Rapping On FiverrThat guy was writing and selling custom rap songs on Fiverr, and making a good living doing it 
I guess those days are quickly coming to an end.
Tips To Avoid Busywork & Shiny Object Syndrome
Despite being an entrepreneur in full control of his schedule, Jakob Greenfeld writes that he was working “normal hours” from about 8am to 6pm each day…
It’s what everyone else does, so I just did it too.
Now I realize that this approach is far from optimal.
What was always happening is that I would work on things that didn’t really matter just to fill the time.
I rationalized this by thinking that every single little thing I can do helps.
You never know what task is the butterfly wing flap causing a hurricane.
Also tiny efforts compound, right?
But he eventually realized…
When you’re working so many hours and work on dozens of tiny tasks, you lose clarity of thought and quickly stop seeing the forest for the trees.
So you enter this spiral where you work on fewer and fewer tasks with truly big leverage.
More busywork starts to creep in.
And you start to feel like you’re not making progress.
So he switched to a new “productivity protocol”…
I keep a big Master List of tasks I could be working on.
Every morning I pick a maximum of three key tasks from the list.
When I get these tasks done I consider the day a success in terms of work. I can stop working without feeling guilty…
But here’s the key.
I’m not allowed to add any new tasks to my daily todo list during the day.
All new tasks go on the Master List first.
This stops him getting bogged down in busywork 
Also, to combat shiny object syndrome…
There’s always a 24 hour waiting period before I can start working on a new task.
Quite often it turns out the task no longer needs to be done or seems important/urgent enough to be worth my time.
Some nice ideas there you might want to test out for yourself.
$3000/Month Website About a Popular TV Show
Shark Tank RecapWebsite $3000 estimated monthly revenue Published April 8, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty Check out Shark Tank Recap, a site about the companies and products featured on the popular TV show Shark Tank 
They have info on all the startups featured on the show. Eg. which shark funded them, latest updates, and an Amazon affiliate link to the product if available.
However, display ads are likely the main way the site makes money 
SimilarWeb estimates the site gets about 400k visits per month, though organic (search engine) traffic is estimated to be only around 50k/month according to tools like SE Ranking and Keysearch.
A recent profile stated that Shark Tank Recap is pulling in $7K/month.
That number probably comes via the Google AdSense Calculator, where 400k monthly visits in North America under the Business & Industrial category works out to about $88,000 a year
Let’s be conservative though and say the site is earning more like $3000/month total from display ads plus affiliates.
That’s still pretty good
And it got me wondering if sites like this could exist for other popular TV shows.
It would probably work best for shows where there’s some kind of product tie-in so you can be an affiliate.
I asked ChatGPT for some suggestions and it came back with
Dragon’s Den
A recap site for the UK version of Shark Tank, following entrepreneurs and their pitches. Affiliate opportunities would be similar to those for Shark Tank Recap.
Hell’s Kitchen
A site summarizing the chefs, challenges, and signature dishes from Gordon Ramsay’s intense cooking competition show. Affiliate links could include kitchen equipment, cookbooks, or even restaurant reservations.
Blown Away
A site summarizing the glassblowing challenges, artists, and creations from this Canadian competition show. Affiliate marketing could focus on glassblowing tools, classes, or even finished glass art pieces.
Next step if you want to go further: do some proper keyword research to see if many people are searching for info on those shows 
If that looks good and you decide to build the site, you could use AI tools like Video Mood or Video to Blog AI to help you summarize or write blog posts from a given video.
Or use this free method to do it with ChatGPT
First time seeing our Online Money Maker profiles? Click here for a quick intro.
The goal of our Online Money Maker profiles is to show you all the different ways people make money online. We strive to ensure that each profile is realistic – no hype, no scams – so you can see what it really takes to build each type of business.
If you'd like to hear when we publish new profiles, subscribe to our free newsletter below. Each edition is packed with tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. We send it out every Tuesday and Friday to 22,107 legendary subscribers.
Sign up to get the next edition of eBiz Insider delivered to your inboxHPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
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See our latest profiles of Online Money Makers
Learn more about income claims and estimates on this website
Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.
With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.
Here’s how:
We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.
Is this kind of business right for you?Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.
Other ways to make money onlineThere are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.
Full list of ways to make money onlineMore profiles of online money makers Subscribe to eBiz Insider Every Tuesday and Friday we email 22,107 people like you with top tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. No hype, no scams, no fake gurus. Sign up below to get the next one.
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April 4, 2024
His AI Language Learning App: $9K/Month in 16 Months
Fabien SnauwaertFounder of Gliglish €8000 monthly revenue Published April 5, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty Fabien Snauwaert is the founder of Gliglish, which he describes as…
a new way to learn languages by speaking with AI.
You just speak into your mic and enjoy a conversation with a language teacher. Or you can roleplay a real-life situation, like buying a croissant at the bakery.
In a recent interview, Fabien revealed…
It’s been exactly 16 months and revenue is now at €8K [almost $9K per month].
But this isn’t his first rodeo…
I dropped out of college to play video games. Then I got a low-paying IT job and started working on an ebook on the side. Revenue was then between 30 and 500 bucks per month, for about 5 years.
(I’m guessing this is that ebook, found via.)
After that…
I created a few books and courses and was able to go full time. But things got really interesting once I created a webapp for people to learn English. It made over €560K in total revenue… but that’s over the course of 9 years.
€560K over 9 years = €62K / $68K per year
Here’s that app: Click & Speak
Fabien’s description of it (source)…
Learn the top 5,000 words in American English, with the correct pronunciation and grammar, through meaningful sentences you will remember.
(I wonder if you could build the same app but for another language? )
Fabien has taught himself to code along the way…
I was making HTML pages when I was 16, with a bit of vanilla JavaScript. And then I just learned everything on the go. Got a question? Google it. Or now ChatGPT/Cursor it.
How he built Gliglish…
Took me two days to get a basic prototype. It didn’t really work but was enough to get a sense that it could. Then it took me 37 days to make it work…
I launched like an idiot 2 days before Christmas, because I was broke af.
I have a newsletter for French people learning English. I always use it to launch products. It’s my financial safety net.
Looks like this is his newsletter, with 49k subscribers.
Fabien has obviously been building up that audience for years and it’s like a secret weapon for him now when releasing a new product 
However, when he launched Gliglish…
People were enthusiastic about it, but the product didn’t work so well just yet. I was clear I was still working on it though. It made only €615 in the first 30 days, so not exactly a homerun.
He kept trying…
Got zero sale when I launched on Product Hunt. I’d been agonizing the launch, and all this effort and worry was for nothing.
We’ve featured lots of stories in this newsletter where Product Hunt worked a treat. Which goes to show that you never know what will work. You have to keep trying different things until something hits 
And that’s what Fabien did…
People started talking about Gliglish once I posted on HackerNews. I was #2 on the site for a split second.
Then I started getting traffic from AI directories and people into AI on TikTok & Instagram and that’s when things started going viral.
Which has led him to $9K in monthly revenue, with plenty of room to grow 
Fabien’s advice for others…
Iterate more… It took me 17 years to ship 9 products, it’s a mistake. If I’d iterated faster (instead of dragging too long on/between projects) I’d have gotten to the nice results faster.
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With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.
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3 Beliefs That Hold You Back From Business Success
A recent video by Chris Do about limiting beliefs and how to overcome them…
Chris shares 3 common limiting beliefs that can hold you back from building a successful business
He says in the video…
the biggest fundamental change that you’re going to have in your life isn’t necessarily to change what you’re going to say or do.
Instead, it’s changing…
… what you believe to be true and what you believe you’re capable of doing.
But it’s not like ALL you need to do is believe in yourself…
I’m not here to sell you shortcuts.
I’m not here to tell you about life hacks about how you don’t have to have any skill.
You have to have skill.
You have to put in your 10,000 hours of deliberate, intentional practice at working on your craft.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll find out that doing another 10,000 hours of practicing your craft will only create incremental improvements in your financial well-being.
He continues…
If you’ve decided enough is enough, and you don’t want this thing that you keep getting, then the first step is to say, “Okay, I’ve tried it my way for months, years, or decades. It’s not working for me. I want to try something else.”
You have to be open to this thing, and the thing that you’re going to hear is going to challenge your core fundamental beliefs. It has to; otherwise, it’s not worth pursuing.
It has to be such a radical idea that it feels like a slap in the face, and it’s something that challenges your perception of reality and the rules of life.
This is why so few people are able to make the kind of progress that they need to make in their life to improve their standing because they hear an idea that’s foreign, that challenges their belief systems, and they systematically just reject and push it away.
Have you come across an idea like that recently?
An idea that you instinctively dismiss for some reason?
Might be worth revisiting and exploring more deeply
Could be that the idea itself is a good one, but pursuing it would push you out of your comfort zone, and so you’d rather avoid it.
But beyond your comfort zone is where all the growth happens
