June 2021 Review

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June 2021 Review

Blossoms,

Last month I did a monthly review. I fucking loved writing it – and you seemed to love it. So it’s officially becoming a tradition!

I’ll cover:

life blessings & challengeswhat I’ve createdphilanthropy thoughtswhat worked in my businesswhat didn’t workhow much my business earnedWant to listen to this as a podcast episode?

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Now… Let’s start with personal stuff… because that’s what really matters!

Sick Kidliwink

I felt like I was in a different world for much of June. The world of parenting a sick kid. It wasn’t the usual run-of-the-mill cold either… my eldest kid was really unwell. She was hospitalised overnight with suspected appendicitis, had a bunch of tests, x-rays and scans and ended up with a combination of diagnoses including mesenteric adenitis (enlarged lymph nodes in her stomach).

The poor love was so unwell with pain and nausea. It’s been hard to see my kid feeling so unwell, and it was hard enduring the uncertainty of not knowing what it was. It’s now been over 5 weeks since it began, and she’s really only returned to full wellness in the last week or so. It’s such a huge relief.

Portrait of me by my big kid. It’s just so hilarious & brilliant & accurate!

Broken Toe + Volunteering = NOPE

Just as my kid got sick, I managed to stub my small toe so significantly it fractured. I remember when it happened: the noise of bones snapping was SO loud. I knew immediately it couldn’t be good. My foot swelled and turned black and blue.

And then, because I am a straight up overenthusiastic EEDJIT, I volunteered to supervise a class of 5-8 year olds on a class trip… which meant spending hours racing around a museum, hobbling on one side with a newly fractured toe… which of course then put my back and hips out of place. Could I walk the next day? No. Could I walk the day after? Also no. Thank goodness for my osteopath. They are essential for people with hypermobility conditions.

Anyways, I’m still glad I volunteered on that trip. I got to see my cute kid and all her adorable friends marvelling over exhibits. I got a dose of the city in me. Which reminds me: I wrote something GREAT on that trip. I’ll need to edit & share with you.

DIY + Creative ProjectsI fucking NAILED cooking, including making some spelt cinnamon & berry scrolls. Remember 9 years ago when I made a joke ebook called “How To Be A Domestic Goddess“? And it was a joke because it was mostly empty, which summed up my domestic knowledge at that point. And now I actually COOK and BAKE and shit! Fuck me, I’m the complete package! HA!I also got obsessed with interior design I wallpapered a half wall & got a new art cupboard!Made a drop zone for school bags Did a reno of my eldest kid’s desk & made a desk hutch for it as well!Restained my office door Drew covers of books I’ve read

Other Lovely PartsI’m always happy whenever I get to see my kids with horses.I started a new 21 day challenge – a reading intensive with my kids.Fulfilled my lifetime dream of working in a bookstoreHad lunch at the Imperial Hotel in Eumundi – it was deeelicious. I love that kooky place!My littlest kid was in an end-of-term play and dance recitalGot recognised while eating crumbs from my crutch… #onbrandRetired my old journal & started a new one

Work

I did two major promotional activities in June… usually I don’t do more than one every 2 months or so, but I wanted to test out doing two smaller launches.

Bundle Contributor

I did a bundle sale through a bundle company for the first time. It was interesting to see behind the scenes in being a contributor. We earned over $2,000 in affiliate fees for it, but didn’t go super hard with promoting. If I’d promoted harder, it probably would have made at least $10,000.

Ultimately, I decided it probably wasn’t useful for me as a revenue creator for me. I think launches need to be worth about $100k to be worthwhile for me. That’s what I usually generate from my own launches, so there’s an opportunity cost if I’m not going to earn that.

It might be useful however as a marketing endeavour however – just to bring new people into my audience. I’m totally an acquired taste though – my exuberance/swearing/lefty politics. So we’ll see if we score any long term readers/students out of it.

It’s all a fun experiment!

Marketing Without Social Media Launch

In June I also did a 2 week launch for my new program Marketing Without Social Media.

It ended up being one of the biggest sellers out of all my course launches.

I sold 1126 enrolments – about 60% were at the early bird price of US$79, and the rest at US$99. All up, it netted about $125,000 in sales which is awesome!

Other Business Income

In June we also brought in another $25,000 from other courses, affiliate commissions (from when I’ve promoted software programs) and other income streams.

So that’s about $150,000 in a month! Hooray!

We haven’t finalised accounting figures yet – I suspect it will be even more.

How I Marketed

Where the sales come from:

the vast majority were, as always, people on my mailing list. It’s why I’ve ALWAYS taught to focus on building a mailing list over social media – you will earn SO much more money from them! Plus you OWN your access to them! If you need to learn how to write emails that sell $$$$, this course of mine is for you.about $30,000 of sales came from my affiliate program which pays you 50% for every enrolment you refer. I love sending this money out… it’s giving money to people who love my work & share about it with others. I’d much rather pay them than Facebook ads! Fuck that nonsense!used TrustPulse popup to provide social proof of other purchasesused OptinMonster to create countdowns & popups on my website

Where the sales did NOT come from:

social media (because I don’t do it anymore). If you want to learn how to market without social media, this other course of mine will be hugely helpful!paid ads on Facebook, Instagram etc (I’ve previously spent a lot of money on them, and I just don’t love them. I much prefer organic traffic, building a mailing list and having word of mouth referrals.)Blog posts I createdBiz Success: How To Work Out Your Ideal Client Biz Success: How To Online Network & Mastermind A Scrapbook of InspirationI also recorded a bunch of podcast episodes(plus a crap tonne more blog posts I’ve already linked above!)InterviewsRooted Reinvention podcast A Summit On Limiting Beliefs Art Medicine Voyage

Philanthropy

Last month I talked about trying to decide on my philanthropy approach this year. How last year I donated $25,000 to one charity which is a direct action approach to the climate crisis by buying & managing land for wildlife. And how this year I felt like I needed to change that approach to include climate crisis advocacy work as well.

I finally came up with an approach that felt good to me – to donate $10,000 to direct action climate crisis agencies (likely Australian Wildlife Conservancy and Bush Heritage Australia), another $10,000 to climate crisis advocacy (Friends of the Earth and Australian Conservation Foundation), and then have another pool of $5,000-$10,000 to be able to grant to a variety of charities.

With that decided, I made $13,000 in donations in June:

$5,000 to Friends of the Earth$5,000 to Australian Conservation Foundation$1,000 to Minus18.org.au$1,000 to OzHarvest – that will provide 4,000 meals to families in Australia struggling with food instability.$1,000 to Doctors Without Borders.

I’m glad I’ve got a framework for it for future donating!

What I Watched & Read:

My favourites in June were:

Hannah Gadsby’s DouglasBo Burnham’s Inside Susan Branch‘s 3 memoirsManabeshima Island Japan: an illustrated travelogueInspired You: Breathing New Life Into Your Heart & Home by Marian Parsons (it’s pretty Christian-targeted, but otherwise a good read on interior decorating)Goals for July?

This month’s focus is:

getting kids settled back into school & their 3 x new extra-curricularscontinuing our reading intensivefinish reading Famous Five novel to kidson the work front… it’s more about circling back around after another big launch, catching up on daily blogging & seeing what wants to be created next!

Big love,