Chapter 1: In 2023, I made about $80,000.
It breaks down like this:
5%: Medium Partner Program
15%: Medium Mastery Course
77%: LinkedIn Sprint Program
1%: Substack 😉
It was a crazy year. I made most of my money between January and May, and made a few mistakes along the way.
Here's a few business lessons I learned as an entrepreneur this year that are worth sharing.
1. Make Good Stuff And People Will Market It For You
I probably made about $20,000 this year from straight up referrals.
One person shared my program with her tight-knit group and I swear I had 20 people sign up from that mention alone.
My LinkedIn Sprint is INTENSE.
It's a 30-day posting program for LinkedIn.
It's very hands-on, and my goal is to make sure that every sprinter knows what they're doing wrong by the time we finish.
Because of that, people get what they paid for in spades.
Before 2023, I'd always rely on webinars and sales funnels and email lists to close sales. If I got 200–300 email subscribers in a month, I'd be able to make $5,000 easily.
Yet this year I was properly introduced to a whole new form of marketing…
Word of mouth.
Don't ever underestimate word of mouth. In some respects, it can be more powerful than a 10,000 person email list.
How do you cultivate word of mouth? Easy. Make shit people love. Go above and beyond. Deliver.
Whatever time you invest in making a great experience or product will surely pay off in word of mouth marketing (and more sales) down the road.
2. It Doesn't Pay To Be Honest — But Do It Anyway
This year Medium started biting the dust.
Things slowed way down for me in March to the point where I didn't see any meaningful future for writers wanting to make $100+ per month here.
So I cut way down on marketing my Medium Mastery course.
It didn't feel right to offer something that wouldn't follow through on its promise.
This caused quite the dip in my earnings if I'm being honest with you. I stopped writing on Medium, and stopped making course sales on a program that's been my cash cow since 2017.
I learned that being honest and having integrity doesn't always pay. Look, if it did, then the FTX fiasco would've never happened.
I wasn't expecting to make more money after this decision. I knew I was shooting my business in the foot, but it felt like the right thing to do and I will always look back on that decision with pride.
I kept my integrity.
And it all worked out! Now that Medium's showing more promise, I decided to open doors to the course once again.
3. A Lot Of Bad Things Happen In Business, But Sometimes Good Things Happen, Too
Recession. Competition. Change.
It seems like every "change" that happens in the macro-environment is one to fear when you're an entrepreneur.
But sometimes you catch a break.
Like I said — Medium's taken a nosedive the last few years and tons of well-respected writers and publications left the platform because of it.
But in July Medium's CEO Ev Williams stepped down and appointed Tony Stubblebine to take his place.
Since then, Tony's made a lot of great changes that have made Medium a great place to publish on again.
The lesson is this: Sometimes the dice just fall in your direction for a change. Sometimes you catch a freaking break.
Not all change is bad, and in my experience, every year there's at least one big bombshell development you never expected that leads to some seriously good juju.
So, in summary:
Make great stuff.
Keep your integrity.
Wait for some luck from the universe.
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