[00:00:00] adriane_2_01-19-2025_102053: Well, hello, welcome, welcome back. Welcome in. Oh man, where have I been? Where after it's been a year, it's been almost, I think the last podcast episode that I released was in February, 2024 and it is now January, 2025. Where, what, what happened? Where have I been? What's been going on? Well, first of all, welcome to the visionary files because the name of the podcast is changing, has changed.

[00:00:43] Again. for the 17th time, uh, which is fun. I wanted it to let my, my brand is now called visionaries. We're going to get into all of this of why the name changed all the things, because fun fact, I didn't have a choice. I had to [00:01:00] change my business name, but I actually like it the best now. So I think it, you know, it all happened for a reason, but.

[00:01:09] Yeah, the podcast name changed again. The podcast cover art is changing. So many, so many things are different. So if you're like, I don't know why this podcast episode popped up. I don't know who you are. Maybe just think back to a different time, maybe a year or so ago, and you were listening to The Scaling Lounge.

[00:01:28] Or prior to that sustainable scaling, like this has, this has had a few different names, which is a whole different conversation for a different day that the name of your podcast is actually very important. All that to say I'm back. I'm really, this has been like a long time coming. I've been saying it's coming back.

[00:01:47] It's going to come back in August. No, it's going to come back in October. No, it's going to come back. And it's just been, it's been a ride. So I just want to catch up on. What has been going on, why I stepped [00:02:00] away for so long, all the things because the story I feel like is almost a little bit of a comedy of errors.

[00:02:07] So the podcast is officially coming back. This coming week. I'm like, what am I? I'm recording this. What day is it? When is this actually coming back? When this airs, the podcast will be back, I think in two days, one day or two days. It's very soon, very soon. It's coming back. So it's coming back in a case study format.

[00:02:28] Although the first guest episode to release is not in case study format. It's just like a conversation. Like it always has been because fun fact, it was recorded almost a year ago to have been released. When all, when all the other episodes were released and, you know, it just didn't happen, but I wanted to air it because it's a good episode.

[00:02:49] So that's not really case study format, but then from there, all the episodes are going to be case study format. including my own solo episodes, even though there aren't going to be very many of [00:03:00] those, but when we first released, there are, there are going to be a few, I feel like I'm just rambling. I want to get to what I'm actually here to talk about.

[00:03:06] So what exactly happened? I've got like a whole list of notes here, stuff to talk about. So the end of 2023, I decided to sunset my agency and most of what I was doing with coaching for a couple of different reasons. Um, I, number one, I become very disenchanted with the coaching industry, which is not a new thing.

[00:03:30] It wasn't like I had just become disenchanted with the coaching industry at the end of 2023. I had been in that place for several years, but I really reached sort of my boiling point on wanting to sell coaching. It just, it felt. It just didn't feel good. And. Yeah, I just didn't want to do it anymore.

[00:03:52] That's really what it came down to. I just didn't want to do it. And for so many reasons that I'm not going to like, that's a whole separate, separate thing. It wasn't that I [00:04:00] wasn't doing it. I was doing just fine. Um, in fact, when I, when I pressed pause on my business in 2023, it was doing very well. It was doing extremely well.

[00:04:10] Like I had, I had, what anyone would argue was a very successful business and I chose to pause it anyway. I really did not want to do done for you work anymore. I, it had been a long time since I had done done for you work because so I've, I talk, Pretty consistently about like I started my first two businesses when I was 12 years old, which is true part of that.

[00:04:33] So my, one of the businesses I started when I was 12 was my performing arts studio or like the very earliest iteration of that, where I was just teaching piano. The other was I was doing graphic and web design. So I, I bring that up to say, I am not unfamiliar with what it feels like to do done for you work, because I had literally been doing done for you work since I was 12 years old and continue doing it until.

[00:04:58] My late twenties. [00:05:00] So like arguably almost two decades of doing done for you work. So it wasn't like I didn't understand what that was. And even after that, I still did, like I did photography for a while, for a long while, which is done for you work. Um, but even that, like here and there, even though I didn't technically have my graphic and web design.

[00:05:21] Business anymore. I still would on occasion help people with, with stuff. So it was like, I knew what it was, but once I had that as a primary function of my business and it was doing well and it was, I really got to a point where I had to make a decision around how I was growing my team, the way in which I wanted to actually get bigger.

[00:05:49] And it was, it just came to a point where it was like, I, I reached, I reached the boiling point and I had to make a decision on what I wanted to do [00:06:00] because an agency, I would argue an agency is the easiest thing to grow, but at the same time, it's the hardest internally to grow because it requires a lot of management.

[00:06:15] And. I just, I just was not, I just wasn't into it. Like it's a, it's a very, I think it's a very energy consuming model and it's, it's, it just, I, it was not for me. Like, that's just really what it comes down to. It was not for me. I don't know any other way of saying it. And so Like I know that I could have done it.

[00:06:37] I probably could have taken just the agency portion of my business. If had I not closed it down, I would not be shocked if I had grown just the agency portion of my business to a million dollars a year at this point. Like now being a year, a little over a year later, like a year and a couple months later, probably would be to the point of just that part of my business doing 70, 80, [00:07:00] 90, a hundred thousand dollars a month would be my guess.

[00:07:03] But I would have had to have grown my team in such a way that like, I was like, do I really want to do this? I, I actually like managing a team. I don't mind doing it, but I don't like managing. I've, I've been there done this. Like I have managed. Every, not every version of a team I did when I worked for Chili's, I had a very large team that I was like administratively over where I had, because for Chili, my, my little bit of corporate experience that I have, I was managing every single, I was managing the training for every single corporate Chili's in the state of Michigan, which believe it or not, was just like a part time thing.

[00:07:42] It was, I was doing it while I was growing my music studio. And so I had, 17 or 18 restaurants that I was overseeing training and development for and then just directly through the training teams at each of those restaurants. There were like, at least 10 people on each training team in each of [00:08:00] those 17 or 18 restaurants.

[00:08:01] So I would put it around the 200 person mark that I was training for. Overseeing the development for ask me how it was not a full time job. Anyhow, it's like, I understand the management of a lot, a lot, a lot of people develop mentally and that I could handle again. If that's what I was doing, like overseeing on sort of a part time basis, seeing the overseeing development plans and sort of, Advising on like how to put people in the right places, but not being their direct manager.

[00:08:29] I would do that again all day, every day. Like even to that volume, if I had 200 people not in corporate, I would never do it in corporate again. I will never have a boss ever again, but I could, I could do that again. I enjoyed it. I would argue that I enjoyed that the most, but I've also been the direct supervisor for five people, 10 people, 20 people in my performing arts studio.

[00:08:52] I was the direct manager for every person and we had multiple locations, hundreds of students. And so I had [00:09:00] about 10, Teachers that were like year round, not so much in the summer because business way dropped off in the summer and like theater artists who were temporary, who would just come in like one show at a time, dozens.

[00:09:18] So, And that I wasn't like responsible for their direct oversight because they just came in and performed a play. Anyhow, I'm getting too granular on this. All that to say, like, I understand what it is to manage a team in all different capacities.

[00:09:35] And to grow an agency, you have to be able to manage a team until you get to the point of being able to bring on Someone else to manage the team. Now, if I were already at a million dollars per year, just an agency work, I would definitely be able to afford having that person. I would also be able to afford having a fraction.

[00:09:54] I would probably not be able to afford having an in house COO, but like a fractional [00:10:00] COO. Yes. I would be able to afford that at that point. And that would have eliminated a lot of the work that I didn't want to have to do. But. Getting from where I was to that point, there's a lot of stuff in between that I realized I have to make a decision on if I want to do this or not to get to that point.

[00:10:19] And my answer was a very clear no. So for context, I think the agency was bringing in, you know, I was not planning on talking about this, so I don't, I don't fully remember. I think the agency was doing third about 30, 000 a month, pretty consistently. Which is like, it sounds like a lot of money, but for agency work, it was so blessed much of my time because I was doing so much of it myself.

[00:10:49] And then overseeing, it was just, it was a lot of work. It was a lot of work and it was. All go, like I wasn't keeping hardly any of it because it's just a, it's a tricky [00:11:00] place to be now. If I were hearing this, I could be like, yeah, you could totally do that though in a different way. And you could make that work.

[00:11:07] Like I know how to get, I, I would know how to get somebody out of that situation. So it would feel easier for them, but it became wildly obvious to me that I didn't want to, I just didn't want to do it. So. That was the answer. I didn't want to do it. And so I had to sunset that part of the business at the same time.

[00:11:26] Simultaneously. I had my largest retainer client as to pause who was doing both, both ages. She had both an agency contract and a consulting contract because I was also doing consulting work and that was my largest retainer. That was five figures per month. So, and the reason that this person asked to pause was valid.

[00:11:47] It was not. So I, I have pause a pause clause written into my, into my contracts where there are like absolute reasons where no problem. There's no problem to pause. The reason that this person was asking to pause was [00:12:00] not one of the direct reasons. It was not a maternity leave or paternity leave. Um, it was not for reasons of like taking a mental health sabbatical.

[00:12:08] It was not where like the business itself was also going to pause along with it because you know, providing respite care for a loved one or like basically all the reasons in my contract. are under the assumption that the business is also going to essentially go offline other than maybe some general maintenance for clients or whatever.

[00:12:27] But like in general, the day to day business functions of the business are going to take up, take a pause along with like doing the coaching work that we would be doing or the consulting work that we would be doing together. That was not the case in this particular instance. But when I looked at the situation, I was like, I should say yes to this.

[00:12:45] If I look back, What this came down to for me was, yes, I'm going to lose a considerable amount of revenue. But when I look back on this five years, 10 years, 20 years from now, do I want to say I upheld all of my boundaries? I was, [00:13:00] I was, I stick, I stuck to my, to my guns and I did something that probably put this person in a tricky position and like, That would have worked out for them or not.

[00:13:12] Maybe it would have been expansive for them to have had to feel into like, I got to figure this out. Maybe that would have been a tough love moment for them that would have been, would have worked out in the long run. I don't think so. I would rather look back on that and say, I, I maybe didn't uphold every boundary that I could have.

[00:13:34] I maybe didn't, and I, I'm a firm believer in boundaries. I'm a big fan of boundaries. But like I approached the situation with kindness and said, yeah, I still had like, no, we're not just willy nilly going to get rid of all this. I had stipulations. I said, I have a team that I'm responsible for paying and, and, and, and, and so there were things that had to.

[00:13:56] Be met. There was criteria that had to be met in order for that [00:14:00] to happen. But at the end of the day I said yes. So I started getting rid of all of my agency work. I was, I took a long pause on working with my largest retainer client and all the work was suddenly like I went on, it felt like overnight, it was not overnight.

[00:14:16] I felt like overnight I had no revenue anymore, which was really not the case. Um, and I was fine because I had a savings and well I was fine for like three months. Because I had a savings to account for it. And I was able to, I was like, three months is going to be fine. I'm going to be able to figure this out.

[00:14:31] But then my aunt passed away and I got very sick around the same time. I wound up taking a lot of time off and it was just like thing after thing after thing. And. It also felt in some way like divine timing because I was wanting to start working on biz and bubbly, which was a project that I had started in 2020 and had wanted to.

[00:14:53] It was like a media company. I wanted to start a media company and. Since 2020, I had been working [00:15:00] on Biz and Bubbly, like sort of on and off, where oh man, I just had a lot of plans for it. And I was like, this is divine timing where I've got a little bit of money in the bank. I can figure this out. I'm getting rid of a lot of the work that would have take, like, there was a reason that I couldn't work on Biz and Bubbly.

[00:15:15] And it's because I didn't have the time with all the agency work that I had to do and over the oversight of the agency work and, and, and, and, and. So this is all like, it's all working out. And it did not because it was to start a media company. I realized very quickly, it takes a lot of resources and you don't have a ton of financial resources coming in outside of like sponsorships.

[00:15:35] And was I getting sponsorships? Like there was just a lot that went into it that I was not prepared for. I was also planning on supplementing some of this through working with a partner on something that I had been working on Basically all of 2023 with this person that sort of disappeared overnight, also disappeared overnight.

[00:15:58] This is really a weird time. The beginning, when [00:16:00] I look, now that I'm talking about all this out loud, man, the beginning of 2024 was like a really weird time in life. It was, everything just crumbled. Everything went away. The, the person that I was looking at partnering with, like, just this, I mean, actually disappeared to the point that I sent this person a message.

[00:16:17] And I was like, are you like, are you alive? What happened to you? And they were, they were in fact alive. They were, they were fine. They just, just one day. Never talk to me again. And aside from the fact that it was, it didn't make any sense to me to this day. I'm like, I just can't think too hard on it because I'm never going to make sense of it.

[00:16:36] I don't know what happened and like, that's fine. Not everything in life you're meant to understand, I guess. But it was bizarre, like to spend so much time with someone and. I mean, I can say like this was someone that I definitely would consider also a friend, not just like a business acquaintance that was potentially becoming a business partnership.

[00:16:58] Like I consider this person a friend [00:17:00] and just got, it was bizarre. I don't know. The whole thing was so weird and it just was gone overnight. And I was like, well, that's not happening. Well, I'm not doing agency work anymore and I could start doing that. Like I could just. Flip the switch back and go back to doing it.

[00:17:12] But I don't want to like that. It was such a weight lifted to not be doing that work. And I was like, well, what am I doing? What am I doing? So I don't know, it was just a wild time. So come April when I was like, I've got to figure out what. What on earth I'm doing for money, what on earth I'm doing with my life, like what is going on?

[00:17:35] So I decided I really had to go all in on something, and I would argue in hindsight I went all in on the wrong thing. And that was going all in on a networking membership through Biz and Bubbly. So, it just wasn't, it was not the right timing. It was not the right product. I would argue like there was a lot of, I had a hard time [00:18:00] launching a networking membership when the network wasn't large enough to make substantive differences for people.

[00:18:08] Like had it been hyper specific, maybe it would have been different. But like it just, to me it didn't feel right selling the, even though the cost was not very much, it just didn't feel right. Feel right selling for almost any cost. Like maybe had I put it at like seven bucks a month, I don't know. But even then, like it just didn't feel right to me.

[00:18:29] Now I would need to insert here that again, I feel very jaded about the coaching industry, or I felt at that time, like at this, I think I've worked through a lot of that and like realize that it's not my responsibility to have all these feelings about the entire industry as a whole. And it's not my responsibility to.

[00:18:47] To carry the weight of all the bad decisions of what I would argue are bad decisions of bad marketing decisions of other coaches who have done things that I don't necessarily think that they thought were unethical or that they thought were manipulative or what, like, I don't [00:19:00] think they were intentionally doing things that were manipulative or unethical or like whatever.

[00:19:04] But also in my perception, a lot of it is manipulative and it is unethical and like, it's not my responsibility to carry the weight of that. On my back, I can do what I'm doing and stay in integrity for what that means for me and, like, release the rest of it. But I think that there is also a large part of me that still recognizes that I was very jaded around that.

[00:19:28] That stuff. And if you've been around for a while, like I, I don't, I don't know that an explanation is needed. I've talked a lot about this on, I just think there's a lot of shady stuff that happens in the coaching industry. And I'm going to record another episode that talks about, um, something that happened with me with Stripe at the very end of the year.

[00:19:48] And it speaks directly to all of the manipulative unethical stuff that happens in the coaching industry. It's directly correlated. So stay tuned for that one. But anyhow. I also [00:20:00] became very jaded around the concept of passive revenue and using the term passive revenue or passive income when in reality that's what like a lot of what I was doing through the agency was providing that type of revenue for people are providing pathways for that type of revenue for people where I was building like million dollar funnels.

[00:20:20] Million dollar ad campaigns like it was generating a lot of revenue for people and it was cozy for me to do that. It felt fine for me to do that because they were people who had large businesses and it wasn't like, it wasn't me. It wasn't my name attached to it. It wasn't me. Even though I was saying like the last episode of this podcast was like the truth behind like what people are not telling you about passive revenue.

[00:20:43] And I still feel 100% The exact same way, maybe with minor exceptions around, like, I can recognize that some of that was my own personal bias toward not wanting to feel like I was misleading someone, like I was just guiding someone down the [00:21:00] path of least resistance. And then they were going to one day realize like, this actually takes a lot of work.

[00:21:06] And so I was hyper aware of that, that I did not want to, what my biggest What I would argue my most monetizable skills are as someone who can teach someone else a skill within the business industry. I mean, I would argue that my largest monetizable skill would be my ability to understand Operational expansion, but like that is so unattractive sounding very unattractive sounding and I think I was also jaded around that where I was like, I have so much to offer people, but because of the way that I'm talking about it, even when I like, I spent a lot of money in 2022 and 2023 on.

[00:21:43] Um, how to message that with someone that I don't think it was their fault. Like they're very, very, very good at messaging. And even I was like, there still people do not want this. And I spent 15 grand, I think it was about 50, 15, 000 on that. On [00:22:00] that like mastermind coaching style experience, to have this person continue to like message it, message it, message it, message it.

[00:22:07] And then I went on one call with someone who I explained what was going on and she was like, no one's ever gonna buy that. Like literally, who would ever want to buy that? And this was someone that has a very, very large business that I don't like. I don't really have feelings one way or another about who they're as a human, but like as a business owner, they've accomplished a lot that I have a lot of respect for, and.

[00:22:29] They were so, this person was so flat out with me of like, no one wants that. And when I was like, yeah, but like the brick and mortar side of things, they, they would want it. And she was like, I do completely agree with that. Like on a brick and mortar side, that's a totally different story, but they're never going to pay your prices.

[00:22:49] And I was like, you are the most correct. why did that person I was working with for a long time and paid a lot of money to just say like, you can message your way out of this. [00:23:00] When I was fundamentally looking at an offer that was not really sellable. And I was like, that's, that's something. And this was, if you're familiar with like sustainable growth, I was just, it was sustainable growth lab was very, very, very tricky to sell because the price point at which I was trying to sit, like I needed to way reduce the price to get the people.

[00:23:20] For whom it would have been attractive to, to actually say, yes, I want this, but the person I really wanted to attract and the price point that I knew that it was worth, which was in the, in the five figures, like it was a 10 grand, it was a 10, 000 program and was worth every penny of it. But the people who really needed it, like it was just tricky.

[00:23:38] So anyhow, I had a lot of like, I had a lot of stuff that was happening all at the same time on what was I doing and how did I want to do it. I feel like this is getting long and rambly. All of that to say, it came to a head in the summer because in June I received a cease and desist. Forbids and bubbly that I was no longer allowed to use the name [00:24:00] because someone else had trademarked it.

[00:24:01] Now, what I should have done is trademarked it back in 2020 when I came up with the name and started using it. Do you want to know how I can say I know that I should have done it? Because I advise every single person that I work with to trademark their business assets before. And I've trademarked other stuff.

[00:24:17] It wasn't for lack of trademarking. I just did not trademark this thing because I was just not all in on it. It wasn't making money on its own, and, and, and, and, and, and. So anyhow, I didn't trademark it in the process. Someone else trademarked it similar, not the same. I'm not going to get too far into this, but it was similar to what I was doing, but not the exact same name, but close enough that I could see why this person would say it would, it could cause confusion.

[00:24:42] Now, when I looked into it, This person did not start their business until after I did. So in the United States, let me, let me preface, I'm not an attorney. This is not legal advice. You should seek out an attorney for your own, for any, any questions that you have on this for your own information, for your [00:25:00] own business, for your own business assets, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:25:02] Like please go find a trademark attorney. I personally recommend Joey Vitale from Indie Law. I N D I E. Um, if you're in the United States, Look Joey up. He's fantastic. He's been on this podcast. He was one of the first podcast episodes, one of the first guests on this podcast a long, long time ago. So, um, Joey's great.

[00:25:20] And I've used Joey's services in the past and have nothing but good things to say about him. That to say, what I do understand about trademarking, and I think that I'm saying this, I'm comfortable enough saying this because I'm pretty certain I'm saying it the correct way. In that, in the United States, we are unique in that we are one of the few countries in the world that look at trademarks as not first to file, but rather first to use.

[00:25:44] To use. So because I was using biz and bubbly first, I had a claim and an attorney backed, backed me up on this and said, yes, you have a claim that we could go fight it in court that you, you should [00:26:00] be allowed to use this. You should be allowed to have the trademark. Um, because I was using it first. I had some trademark rights to it, but this person had already completely gone through the trademarking process to the point that it was a registered trademark.

[00:26:13] It was not in, it takes a long time for an application for trademark to be reviewed. I can say that from personal experience, it took, um, more than a year, probably took a year and a half in my experience, about on average a year and a half to get a trademark reviewed. And so anyhow, Takes a long time. This person was out of that process.

[00:26:35] And so the trademark had been registered. And at that point it changes the process to go about like, well, I think the trademark actually should belong to me and prove that. And what I got from my attorney was that it would take tens of thousands of dollars to fight it. And a lot like years and years in a court process.

[00:26:54] And in this instance, I saw very clearly that there was going to be a winner and a loser. Like there's no way [00:27:00] that there could be anything like there's a clear winner and a clear loser. So because of this, I took a little while to, to think through it and decided it was not worth holding onto. So I switched from biz and bubbly.

[00:27:15] So I lost my entire brand. The entire brand. Now this person also said in this, I was like, you can take a hike on this also said that they were going to come after me for monetary. Um, like they were going to come after me for the money that I had made through business bubbly. And I was like, well, that's like nothing.

[00:27:31] So that's fine. Um, but also like one in my entire email list. And, and I was like, yeah, take a hike. That's not happening. Also. I think that violate pretty sure that violates privacy laws. Like you can't, I can't just, they did not opt into your email list. So no, I'm not giving you my email list. Like girl, bye on that.

[00:27:51] But I basically lost my brand overnight. And had to rebrand it, which was fine. And that's where visionaries came from. And [00:28:00] that is where. The Visionary Files came from, came out of this entire process. So Cease and Desist, lost my brand, woof Big Oof. Changed the name to Visionaries. Decided I was gonna rebrand the podcast under the name of the Visionary Files.

[00:28:15] Um, and ultimately now I'm like, that's so great. I actually love this name. I actually like, it's just, it's better all the way around. I love BIS and Bubbly. It was such a cute name. Um, and when I told my best friend, when I. Told her the name. I was like, oh, I'm, I started a company called Biz and Bubbly. This was forever ago.

[00:28:29] She was like, that is so you, like, that's so perfect for you. And I think I was holding onto that. That was like, Jesse told me that that's a perfect name for me anyhow. And I was like, and that, and it's true, but like Jesse thought so. So obviously it is and I was, I think that's why I had the hardest time letting it go.

[00:28:48] Because the person who's like been my best friend since I was five was like, it's so perfect. Which is a goofy reason to hang on to something, but also not. Anyhow, but visionaries is like, I don't know. It's just, I really [00:29:00] love it. And I think that it happened for a reason. All of that to say. I rebranded to visionaries.

[00:29:07] I ran a summit in July that are arguably tanked. It did not go well. I would say did not go well at all. And, um, just became a catalyst for me realizing how I was not taking myself seriously, how I was not. How I was not willing to look at my own potential for what I was doing. It was, I don't know, it was just a weird place.

[00:29:35] It was a, it was a weird place to be in. And yeah, the summit went terribly awry. Like no one promoted it. Hardly anyone promoted it. People like reshared stuff that I was sharing, but no one promoted it. There was, you know, like with almost any summit that you run, there was like a stipulation that said, you know, to participate in the summit, like you're, you agree to promote it to your email list, like at least once or whatever.

[00:29:57] Almost no one did that. Basically, no one did [00:30:00] that. And it was really small and like, there was just a lot of stuff that happened and which was fine. Um, it was also around the same time where I was like, I got rid of most of my email list because of because of because of because of things. And so my email list got chopped by like 90 percent and which was my own thing.

[00:30:17] Like I did that for a reason, which is a different topic for a different day. And it just, it really highlighted the My need to get serious on what I was doing and to seriously take a look at what I wanted to offer to people and what I was putting out into the world. So the lot, the thing that I was like, I went all in on what around the networking.

[00:30:45] Membership. This is when I realized like this is not the right thing. It felt wrong. Um, I don't want to monetize this and I course corrected in a way that was like not it. I took a course correction that was clearly not the [00:31:00] move where I was like, I'll just start a whole second business then and do this whole other thing.

[00:31:03] And like, so cute. Let me summarize all this because I feel like I'm jumping all over the place and it's not clear because it's so much time to cover. Q1 was my like, Well, everything just went from like being very, very, very stable and feeling like I had my life together and having very good revenue coming in and being able to do all the things.

[00:31:25] Q1 was like, whoop, shake it all up. Let's disrupt it. Q2 was like, I need to figure out what I'm doing next because the money has started to run out and I need to figure out what the next step is. Q3 was my realization that everything that I was thinking about doing next was not the right move, that I was just keeping myself in cycles of, Feeling that like jadedness around the coaching industry and not wanting to have anything to do with passive revenue and passive income and owning a lot of the stuff that I had [00:32:00] done for agency clients is like something that's highly, highly, highly valuable to a lot of people beyond just the way that I was offering it in the agency.

[00:32:10] And. That I had some stuff to look at like energetically around what I was doing and all the things and at the same time, I was realizing that I had a big aha moment that I was afraid that if I made money doing a lot of the stuff that I was doing that I would no longer be an artist, which is. Like I've had a performing arts studio since I was 12 years old or like the earliest iteration of it and I'm a theater artist.

[00:32:37] I had a professional theater company and I direct theater professionally and I work like when I turn the TV on any given day of the week, like I recognize people on TV and because I've worked with them and I know that like I could open my phone and text them and be like, Hey, watch me on TV right now.

[00:32:54] Like, I'm an artist through and through and I realized that a lot of my [00:33:00] clash came down to I'm very, very, very, very strategic. And I grew a huge business and in the performing arts in an industry that very few people ever figure out how to do, but I am also fundamentally a creative person and the two things like I just could not get them on the same page of how to get them to get along and how to, it was, I feel like 2020 to really rewind.

[00:33:24] 2020 was my year of the identity crisis. I've talked about, if you go back to the first episode in this podcast ever, that was I talk about 2020 was my year of the identity crisis because I walked away from my performing art studio and moved into online business. And I was lost for a long time. And I feel like 2024 was the crux of that was like, I moved through it.

[00:33:45] I moved through it. I thought I was over it in 2024 showed me all of the places where I had to get serious on realizing like what, what I wanted to do to realize who I was as a human. It was like, I would argue [00:34:00] business is the largest self development journey that anyone could ever possibly go on, maybe outside of becoming a parent, which I cannot speak to because I'm not a parent other than like, I would say that I'm not gonna, um, I'm not going to argue with someone if they're like, no, that's a bigger self development journey.

[00:34:14] I would, I could see how that's true. But like running a business is a massive self development journey when you are someone who sort of understands your own energy and has some radar for like energetic alignment and things like that. And I do, I'm very much that type of person. And so it was just sort of get real with yourself.

[00:34:37] And I feel like I had to go through what I went through to, like, let everything go and not like, I feel like I never really burnt anything down because it was just sort of an evolution. It was pivot after pivot after pivot after pivot rather than like, I'm going to burn it all down. But I feel like I had to do that to get to where I am right now, where Q4 became, it was [00:35:00] like, the only way that I know how to describe it was like the phoenix rising from the ashes.

[00:35:05] That's what Q4 felt like for me. So if you're not in a place in the world where you use the same quarters as the United States does, when I say Q4, I mean, October through December of 2024. So I realized I was doing way too much. I realized I needed to get clear on like, what is, what is this? And. I feel like we're always shown what we need when we need it.

[00:35:26] And I was shown someone that has the, I mean, I would argue the exact same skill set that I do. I was shown several of these people that have skill sets as someone who understands building sales systems with, with really solid messaging behind it. And that is what I'm so good at. Now I understand that.

[00:35:48] Like, I think what I'm the best at in terms of, My ability to market myself is just getting in front of people and speaking. And I course corrected in a way where I was like, I'm going to show other [00:36:00] people how to do that too. I want to help other people get up in front of others and speak. And I was like, no, I don't, I don't want to do that because I don't want to teach people how to get comfortable with the fear of public speaking.

[00:36:08] And that's a large part of that I think. And I could have figured out a way to do it, but I was like, I'm really avoiding the facts that I'm good at messaging and funnels. And I started to get shown people who are doing like, Eight figures a year doing exactly what I was hesitating doing. And I was like, okay, this is called the frequency illusion.

[00:36:28] I think I'm 99 percent sure this is called the frequency illusion where you, where you're like, Oh, I think I'm, I think I'm interested in buying like a red Jeep, but I never see them anywhere. But like a red Jeep sounds nice. Then all of a sudden you start seeing them everywhere on the road. It's that I'm pretty sure it's called the frequency illusion.

[00:36:43] I started seeing people everywhere who were like, I'm making like tens of millions of dollars or millions of millions of dollars. Doing exactly what I know how to do. And I was like,

[00:36:57] Sick of myself and I went all [00:37:00] in on starting to test what I know how to do best what I was doing for agency clients. And in November alone I did 55, 000 in cash doing almost all load. And that was all actually I did more than 55, 000 in cash cause that was only processed through, um, thrive cart through process, through thrive cart and stripe.

[00:37:21] And I was like, I know how to do this. I know exactly what this looks like. I know how to teach people how to do it. I understand the assignment. Like I know what I'm doing. And that sort of leads me to where I am and of what is the direction I, what am I, what am I doing? How am I helping people? What, how can I be of service?

[00:37:37] And what I really realized is I want to build a business that has that side of things that has a more, I hesitate to even use the word passive, but has the more passive side of things so that I can start focusing more on art and creativity. And Not necessarily having an arts business again. Like I think at some point I would love to do that again when I have literally millions of dollars to [00:38:00] fund it.

[00:38:00] Um, because I've done the bootstrapped arts business and I know how I would want it done. And like, I know at this point that I would want a very, very large budget to be able to do it. So like, I think at some point I do want to do that again, but I want to be able to travel a lot. I want to be able to do.

[00:38:16] theater projects in a different way. I want to be able to teach in a different way. I would actually like for my personal brand to be known, not just for business, but also to be known for the arts and like, also have part of my online presence be about teaching other people how to use their voice. Like there's just a lot that goes into this.

[00:38:33] And I think we all, We all as humans are multi passionate, but I would argue that like a lot of what I, what I do and what I am is just the definition of that in spades. And I want to be known for all of it. And I think that this is the path, like that's the path through which [00:39:00] all of this happens. So that's, that's my year.

[00:39:05] That's where I, that's how I got to where that's, that's, that's what's happened in the last year. And I feel like to have had the podcast and go through this, like step by step by step in a way, it's so much more impactful to be able to speak it out loud in this way. And to articulate the journey in this way, because it's, I can speak it through.

[00:39:27] Um, there's a saying that I really love that's share from the, share from the scar, not the wound. I think I would have been sharing a lot from the wound all along the way because there was a lot of that that came up throughout the year. And now in hindsight, I can say like, this is, this is what it taught me.

[00:39:42] And so I think it's a more impactful conversation to have now to look at the whole thing as a whole anyhow. So, all that to say, 2025 is here. 2025 I've officially declared I'm entering my daily sales era. That's, that's where we're at. I hope to help other people enter that same thing. And I'm going to [00:40:00] figure out how to navigate all the messaging around that to not be like, Hey, let me help you make passive revenue.

[00:40:04] And I have so much ability to help people with business. Like doesn't matter what industry that you're in. If you're a coach, if you're a service writer, if you want to sell digital products, if you want to be more of a hands off lifestyle business, if you want to be more of a hands off passive. Quote, unquote passive, just putting an asterisk there that pastor passive does not necessarily mean passive.

[00:40:24] It takes a lot of work to actually build that in all the things. If you want to, if you want to build an agency, if you want to build a service based business, if you want to be really hands on with clients, like I have the ability to help anyone with any of it, I have almost 30 years of business knowledge behind me in all different Models in all different industries.

[00:40:42] Like, unless you want to build an e comm business. I don't, I don't know. I know a little bit about merchandise. Ironically, my largest client that I've ever worked with is an e comm, but like we've worked on operation stuff, not on like how to start an e comm business. Other than that, like, I know how to do it.

[00:40:57] I know how to help you monetize knowledge, whether [00:41:00] it's to do it with someone for someone or to help someone do it themselves. I understand it. And like, There's so much value in that. So anyhow, that's where I'm at. That's the direction visionary files podcast is coming back this week with more case study style episodes because visionaries, I do want it to be a media company the same way that I wanted that for biz and bubbly, but visionaries is going to be a media events.

[00:41:25] Um, and I'm going to be doing an education business for now for the foreseeable future, where we're going to focus on media through the podcast. I want to start a YouTube channel. Um, I want to start looking into more of what the media side of revenue looks like through affiliate, um, monetizing affiliate relationships through having a blog, like doing more of the media side of things.

[00:41:45] Anyhow, I know a lot of people are like, what does a media company mean? It's essentially where you're pretty like. Interestingly, I worked for a newspaper right out of high school for a couple of years and the way that I look at it is they called it in the Detroit News and Free Press, who I [00:42:00] worked for, they called it New Media at the time, which this would have, I graduated high school in 2003.

[00:42:05] So at that point, I worked at the News and Free Press from December 2003 until January 2006. And so like, About just a little over two years, even though it spanned, it looked like three years on paper. It was just a little over two years and they called it new media at the time. I'm thinking about new media.

[00:42:23] A media company was something like a newspaper or like a magazine or something like that. But if you look at, you know, CNN, Is a media company or CNN, I think is under Disney. Like Disney is, Disney is, um, a media company and that it owns like ABC. And I think CNN, it owns a lot of different stuff. Um, then it also produces, you know, as an entertainment company, it's a production company.

[00:42:49] I would actually let, now that I'm saying that out loud, I'm like, I would love to do that. I understand that side of things. Interestingly, also just fun facts. I, I got myself a masterclass subscription. [00:43:00] Over Christmas and listen to the first thing I listened to was, um, the Bob Iger, Iger, Iger, Iger masterclass, who is the CEO of Disney.

[00:43:09] And it was very interesting. It was interesting. This is just completely anecdotal that everything he said was like the most basic things about business that you could possibly ever hear that it was just like treat people well. Go into things with more transparency, be transparent with what you're doing, like, try to be a good human.

[00:43:28] Like, that's really what it came down to. It wasn't like, this is how you build a, like, a billion dollar corporation. Like, here are all the secrets. It was like, just be a good person. Anyhow. Anyhow, I really just went off the deep end of like, Oh, I'd like a production company too. That would be fun. I want to have a podcast network at some point.

[00:43:46] Anyhow, the media side of things, like I want to understand more of the monetization of media through sponsorships and affiliate revenue and all that types of type of stuff. But also I'm going to do what I know how to do and that is still education. So that is also a big part of it. I also want to have [00:44:00] community and events.

[00:44:00] I know how to produce events. We tell you, I know how to produce events. I produced a lot of theater in my life. I know how to produce events. I produced a lot of fundraisers because I ran a nonprofit. Like, I just know how to do a lot of this stuff. So that's where we're going. And I just need to figure out the path.

[00:44:16] I, well, I've figured a lot of it out. I have a lot of plans. So that's where we're at. I want to help you through this podcast, understand how other people are doing extraordinary things. And that is the theme of the podcast moving forward. Of if you have ever, Heard someone who's done something really epic, really cool.

[00:44:30] And you've gone, how on earth did they do that? That is what this podcast is going to be for moving forward. I am fired up if you can't hear it in my voice, I am fired up about it. I'm really excited to bring this back. I'm so excited to be sharing the space again with you. I would love to hear your thoughts if this resonated with you at all.

[00:44:46] If you have other questions, cause I feel like there were definitely parts that were not as articulate as I would have liked them, like them. What have liked them to have been because it would have just, we'd have been here all day. So if you have other questions, I'm really happy to answer them. Feel free [00:45:00] to reach out, ask me all the questions.

[00:45:02] Let me know your thoughts, any aha moments. And what I would wrap this up by saying is whatever you feel might be possible for you. In your business, it is like, if you understand what it is that you want, anything's possible. I'm not necessarily the person to help you figure out how to figure out what you want.

[00:45:24] But once you know what it is, anything is possible. No matter how big, how small, how, how extraordinary it might sound, because you don't have proof that it can exist for you. There's always a way to make it happen. And it might take you a little time, but just stick with it, take some space to process through it, and you can figure it out.

[00:45:44] So, I hope that landed for whoever needed to hear it. And, yeah, I'm really excited to come back and see you in the next episode of The Visionary Files. I will catch you in the next [00:46:00] one.