54: When Life Derails Your Momentum: How I Rebuilt After Losing Two Months

You. We're kicking off a brand new chapter of the podcast with a special 21 day series called From Purpose to Impact. I'm celebrating by giving back to listeners who are ready to take the next step. If you've been feeling stuck, overwhelmed or unsure of how to move forward in your online business, I want to hear from you. Simply go to youronlinebusinessmentor.com and tell me what's been holding you back or ask a question you'd love for me to answer on the show and you'll be entered in a special listener giveaway for access to programs designed to support you in your journey. I can't wait to help you get unstuck and moving forward. Welcome to day seven of our 21 day series from purpose to Impact. In the last episode, I shared what actually worked after my first launch. Those relaunches, the workshops, coaching revenue and profit margins. And today I want to share what happened when all of that momentum came to a halt. Because this is the part most people don't talk about. At the end of 2020, after three successful launches, doing a paid workshop, having coaching clients, and building momentum, I got Covid. And I didn't just get mildly sick. I was in bed for two months, unable to work, create, or even think clearly. And I remember laying there in January of 2021 after two months thinking, I totally get why people quit. I had worked so hard, I had built something I was so proud of, and I had momentum. And suddenly it felt like it was gone. It felt like I was starting over. Now, this doesn't have to be a health issue. This might happen to you because of a family emergency, a financial situation, burnout, grief. There are just seasons in life that demand your attention. And sometimes you don't choose the pause. It just happens. And during that season, I could not worry about my business. Definitely not in the way I wanted to. But in the back of my mind, I was stressed because my business was not a hobby for me. I had left my corporate job the previous March and I needed this business to eventually replace that salary. I needed it to work. And I I remember asking myself, do I have what it takes to start again? Do I have the energy? The resilience? What if it doesn't work this time? What if it was just random that I had success the first year? I truly felt like I was starting over and it made me so depressed. But here's what I eventually realized. I was not starting over. I was starting wiser because I had already walked the path once I had learned I had launched three times. I definitely wasn't at square one. I was at basecamp. Now, if you haven't listened to episode eight of my podcast when it was called Launch Perspective, I share a story there about how this concept of Basecamp completely changed how I think about seasons in my life in business. And if you listen to that episode, you'll learn that you're not ever starting from scratch. You are simply restarting with experience and gaining the skills you need to take the next climb. So don't miss it. Be sure to listen to episode eight so when 2021 began, I remember thinking, I have to do this again. My last launch was in the previous October, So I decided March 2021 was going to be the fourth launch of my program, the Digital Clutter Cure. But this time I decided to try something new. Instead of doing my usual five day challenge, I tested a webinar style launch that I had learned from Amy Porterfield, Inside Digital Course Academy. I completed her program that fall and thought, let me give this a fair shot. I had always preferred challenges because I love connecting with people over five days without the pressure of having to connect with a cold audience and convert them to a paid offer in 60 to 90 minutes. But I wanted to see how a webinar style launch would perform. So In March of 2021 I raised the price of my program again. It went from 297 to 4 97. I hosted two webinars that I called Masterclasses and that launch ended up generating just over $18,000, my highest launch yet. I welcomed 35 students, and in that launch I did do a bigger test on paid ads. I spent around $4,600 on ads, so the profit was around 13,700. It was still strong, it was still progress. And the most important thing, it got me back on the horse. So what I learned from that webinar launch was powerful. I learned that a different type of launch could work, that I could create a little bit less content by doing two webinars versus a five day challenge. There was less daily engagement to keep up with and definitely fewer emails. But the most valuable lesson wasn't about the full format. It was in the way I was inviting people to join my program. Through Amy's program, I learned how to confidently invite people into my offer. At the end of that webinar and in future launches, I applied that same skill to my challenges. And that refinement made a massive difference. Because in June of that same year, I had a $37,000 launch and in September, I had a $38,000 launch. Both times spend down $2,500 in ads. So the difference wasn't a brand new offer. I wasn't starting over. I was refining, I was improving how I communicated the value of my program. Obviously I was gaining confidence since it was now my fourth, fifth, sixth launch. But continue to launch the same program again and again created that momentum. And it was compounding because I was staying consistent. By the end of 2021, my second full year in business, I hit revenue of $200,000. My profit margin was 63%. And I remember thinking, wow, when I first started, my main big goal was to earn six figures in a year. But in my second full year I had doubled that. So I was definitely pinching myself. And I just remember being so grateful that consistency and that resilience had paid off. So here was the breakdown of the revenue. 75% came from my digital course launches and workshops, 14% from one on one coaching, 1% from some low ticket products that I had created that year, and 10% from affiliate marketing, which we'll talk about in a future episode. So I was not starting over. I was not starting from scratch. I was continuing from the momentum I had built my first year. So here's what I want you to take away from this episode. Life is going to interrupt your momentum at some point. It just will. The question is not whether it will happen. The question is whether you will assume you're back at zero or recognize you're simply at base camp gaining strength for the next part of your climb. You're not the same person you were when you started. You have data, you have experience, you have clarity that only comes from action. And when you relaunch again, you're relaunching wiser. That's how purpose turns into impact.