DISCLAIMER

Now, I have a bit of a disclaimer, this may seem unnecessary, and it might be a bit boring, but I feel like I need to say it. The reason being is I understand there’s a lot of scepticism around income on the internet. And don’t worry, I get it. I get sceptical as well. Anyone can say anything, right? 

The reason why I have chosen the month of May, even though it’s July right now is not that May was a particularly high-income month. It’s actually because May is a representation of what the average is that I make in my business. 

So last year in my business, I made $600,000. Divide that by 12, and you’ve got $50,000. The reason why I’m not sharing with you June, which was the most recent month is because I was actually in a launch. So as you can see here in the last two weeks, I’ve made $60,000 that is above average because I was actually launching something. And unfortunately, this is what people do. They take their really high-income months. And then they use that to talk about their income. But I don’t want to give you the false representation that this is what I’m making all the time. 

What I made last year in my business was $600,000. And so if you divide that by 12, it was $50,000. And May was the closest most recent month to that I made $45,000 in May. And so that is why that is the month that we are going to be looking at. 

HOW DID I GET HERE

Now before I get into jumping into the exact details of what I did in May to make $50,000 I want to talk a little bit about how I’ve even gotten to this point because sometimes it’s also easy to watch a video like this and be like, Whoa, that person is like really successful, that must have happened really fast. I have been on the internet creating content for a long, long, long time. And I feel like that is the reason why I am where I am today with being able to make as much as I do with my online business. 

You know, and I believe in slow sustainable growth. You will not see me on the internet shoving sales down your throat like they’re going out of style. I really believe in the sustainability of building a brand. 

The way that I have personally scaled my business is through the accumulation or the duplication, I should say, of myself. And what I mean by that is there are hundreds if not 1000s of mini Erins all over the internet selling me and my business every single day. 

What do I mean by that? The content that I have created — every YouTube video, and every podcast — is out there for people to access. And that is ultimately a big part of my marketing strategy and why I’m able to make so many sales is because I have so many little versions of me out promoting myself on the internet. 

So I believe the longer that you do something, the more you will be able to make it without having to go into any really hectic sales strategies are advertising. I don’t use any advertising to get to this point. I don’t spend any money on ads or without having to have really complicated funnels. 

It does require a little bit of patience, but to me, this is more sustainable. Why? Because a lot of people who do make really high-income months in a lot of businesses similar to mine, if they stopped, the money stops, because a lot of their strategy is based around constantly selling things. I am able to take a month off if I want, and I would still be able to generate sales in my business because my YouTube channel is doing the work for me, and my podcast is doing the work for me. 

In May, I was actually travelling through Europe, maybe working like an hour a day. But I was still able to make $50,000 in my business because of the accumulation of everything that I’ve done slowly over time. 

I have a very simple business model. It is essentially building an audience and selling them products and services. So a lot of my marketing efforts are going towards building a community on both my YouTube channel and my podcasts, as well as then on Instagram. And then what I do is I develop products and services in quite a simple way. Essentially, I’m either just directly selling all my social media, so just mentioning it when I’m creating content, or every so often, as I previously mentioned, I will do a launch for something like my group coaching program, where over a period of let’s say, two to four weeks, I am more actively communicating about that one particular thing. 

STREAMS OF INCOME

Let’s talk about my streams of income. So I’m going to break down exactly how I made that money. 

1. The Membership: $2800

I have a membership that is targeted towards people in early stages of business, or anyone just wanting to sharpen their skills. It’s individual masterclasses that are released every single month, just teaching on the various areas of business. 

2. 1:1 Coaching: $16 338

So I did sign a few new clients in May. And then I had some previous payment plans from previous clients. So this is the total cash that was generated from both signing new clients and from previous clients. 

Now just to quickly explain the difference between cash and sales >> What I’m talking about here is money that has actually come into my bank. You know, even though a product may be priced at, let’s say $10,000, some people do opt to go on to a payment plan. So they aren’t actually giving you all of the cash up front but breaking it down rather in monthly instalments. So I may sell $30,000 worth of coaching packages but only receive $15,000 of that in one particular month for cash. 

3. Income From New Course Sales: $14 590

So the two products in particular that I’m speaking about is my course Influence vibes, which is all about building an audience and building a brand. And then I have my group coaching program Simply Business. This is new money, not money from previous students or previous payment plans.

4. Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR):  $11 183

This is money from previous launches or previous purchases. So all of the payments that are coming in from previous purchases. 

Now, there is a slight discrepancy between this total and the $45,000 that I made in May. And that is just from various things such as YouTube and other small payments that I received straight to my bank account that didn’t come through Stripe and PayPal. But that was the bulk of where my income came from. 

THE MARKETING

So then particularly looking at like the clients that I sold spaces to as well as the new course sales, what was the marketing that I did around that? 

Well again,
obviously I want to draw attention to the fact that I already have an audience, but even still having an audience is sometimes not enough. You do still need to sell to that audience. So in this month, I did three big things that bought in clients and customers. 

1. I did a live talking about my 1:1 coaching

2. Sent out an email talking about the same thing

3. Course Price Increase reminder at the beginning and a Live speaking about the course at the end of the month.

So it was just through a few different small sales efforts that I was able to make quite a few new sales this month in my business. And then obviously that MRR just comes from previous things that I’ve done.

EXPENSES:

Total Standard Expenses: $26,000/month

A big portion of that goes to my own personal wage. I pay myself $10,000 a month. So $10,000 of the $26,000 that I generally spend on a month-to-month basis is coming straight to me in my personal bank account. Now with that, I also have to pay personal tax as well as superannuation, which is a retirement fund here in Australia. 

I also do pay my rent for my house out of my business, and then a small amount of that is deducted for personal living. So my pay, my superannuation tax and my rent is coming out of that $26,000. 

The biggest business expense that I do have is business tax. So how much tax the business does have to pay, as well as freelancers. 

So I’ve got about four people working for me on a freelance basis. So freelancers are the biggest expense in my business. 

The other expenses are systems and software settings, such as teachable, ConvertKit member space, I use a bunch of different software in my business, as well as it may I didn’t make spend some money on education, or my own investments, I should say, you know, hiring coaches purchasing causes and stuff like that. 

I also do make donations every single month. So I’m donating money to a charity called OneGirl. So I send money to that. And then every so often, I will send it to particular causes that are happening in the world at that time. So those are the primary expenses in my business. 

That is my business in a nutshell. Now you can see what it looks like: how much I made last year, my general expenses, how much I pay myself, and exactly what it looks like. 

Remember, for me, it really is about the accumulation, the content creation and the sales strategies that I have. I have an audience here that is ultimately primed and ready to buy because of the brand that I have built. 

I don’t have any crazy sales strategies, or complicated marketing funnels, and not about hustling every single day and always having an offer to sell. Some days. I like to just chill out.