So…first new episode in 10 months.

Hi 😳

Seriously, WTF have I been doing that I haven’t managed to record a new podcast episode for TEN MONTHS?!

I explain my falling off the face of the earth right here 👇

And what I’m doing now I’ve got my time (and mojo) back.

Listen to the episode here

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https://youtu.be/TZf_02G5LE4

Resources mentioned

Look, I don’t talk about much here, except the very thoroughly tested and reviewed Online Business Foundations.

If you want to start an online business, check it out.

Also, listen to my beta testing episode if you want to know all the details about how I test my courses.

Transcript

Hey everyone, it’s Kelly here and finally I am back again.

So this is a where the hell have you been podcast because I haven’t posted an episode since January. It is now October. That is a very long time and that is because it has been an eventful year to say the least. And I’m not going to go into all the boring detail. This is just a quick overview and a getting back on track talking about what on earth I’ve been doing since I fell off the face of the earth all the way back in January.

And I hope that as you listen to this, you also feel a bit better about times you have fallen off the wagon. Because really, it’s unavoidable. If you have kids, if you have other family, health issues, all the above, the usual advice is to just fit your business in, keep pushing, make the time. And I have definitely found that all of those recommendations are bullshit because there have been plenty of times since I started doing this online business stuff in 2015 when I have just needed to ignore it all because I’ve had no time, no capacity, and no energy to be anywhere near capable of being creative or productive.

So, first up this year, I did a small launch of Online Business Foundations. If you’re a regular listener, you’ll know that I beta tested this course and kind of co-created it with an awesome group of testers in late 2024, but it was not ready to sell by the time I finished that. It needed a lot of polish, some reorganization. I had to fill in some gaps and it was a lot of hours of work and I need accountability to do that. I really need externally imposed deadlines and people waiting on me to put the fear into me and make me pull my finger out and just do it already.

So, I did a really small half-arsed launch to a small segment of my list. I think it was 81 people who had expressed interest and I got eight who were happy to pay $300 knowing that they would get the first two modules straight away and the rest as I completed them, but they would get at least one per week. But at the time I did that, I was solely focused on that. I only had the time to complete the course and deliver what I’d promised.

So, I didn’t maintain the podcast or anything like that. And that was a conscious decision on my behalf to put aside all those other tasks and just solely focus on creating a really great course in the timeline that I’d given myself. And that’s because it’s a priority. It’s a sellable product. It’s the foundation of a decent income and the return on that time should be really good. So I wanted to prioritize it and make sure that I finished it and also make sure that I made the course as good as it can be.

And I feel like I achieved that. It is so much better than it was at the end of testing. I have gotten some really great feedback and people who have done it have had great results already. So, I’m really pleased with that.

And at about the point when I’d nearly finished doing that, I enrolled in a graduate certificate of diabetes education, which is something that I have always wanted to do. So, I’ve had a special interest in diabetes since I was probably about six. I remember reading Babysitters Club books and I was so curious about Stacy and this diabetes thing she had and that Claudia kept healthy snacks for her because she couldn’t eat the candy and she had to have injections. And that kind of followed me into nursing.

And so earlier this year I thought, okay, I’ll finally do this. I will become a diabetes educator. So I enrolled and I started studying. And it has been challenging, but it’s also been really interesting and enjoyable. So I will finish that in December. And if you know me, you’ve probably already guessed that I definitely have lots and lots of online ideas for that as well. I actually already own a diabetes related domain name. Do not ask me how many domains I currently own because I’ve had a bit of a binge this year and I don’t want to talk about it.

So, I was ticking along comfortably. I’d just finished testing the course and started looking at actually launching it properly and having it up for sale and actually making some significant money from this business finally. So, of course, we had a family thing happen and it was nothing especially traumatic, but it did mean we took an interstate trip for a week just to check out how things were going. And after that, we decided to move to Melbourne to help out with the family thing and to move in with a family member.

And so, we did that. We sold everything. We packed up and we moved within about 2 weeks. We had to renovate the house pretty significantly when we got there, which took about a month of intense effort. And of course, we also had to settle in and try to set up our lives again in a new place. And so I did nothing for my business in that time. So that was 5 months. I took my nursing job with me. I worked remotely 3 days a week. And I managed to keep studying. But that was it.

There was no business apart from completing a few business idea reviews that people had bought with the online business foundations course. Oh, and actually, I think I sent one email. It it might have even been two emails to my list in that time, but that’s it really. I just completely dropped it. I was in a bit of survival mode. I was just doing the essentials and getting through each day.

So yeah, we lasted there 5 months. It was meant to be permanent, but unfortunately the living together situation just didn’t really work. So we packed up again and we moved to the other side of the country to North Queensland where two of our daughters live. And this way we have six of the seven of our immediate family right here.

The big bonus is that my daughter had a house, but she was off doing army training. So we didn’t have to try to find a rental straight away or do anything like that because I did not have the capacity to go house hunting and do the rental applications and all of that awful stuff in a housing crisis. We were very burnt out and exhausted and just did not want to do it. It was all too hard.

So having an empty house we could just move straight into without any effort. you know, apart from the effort of driving for 3,000 odd kilometers sounded pretty amazing. So, when we arrived, I pretty much just crashed and I spent a bit of time recovering with lots of sleep and reading and running and going to the gym and also just being so happy to be back with plenty of sunshine and decent bloody weather for a change.

Like, I grew up in Melbourne, but there is a reason that I moved away when I was 19. It’s pretty bloody miserable down there. And Queensland is amazing. And while I was doing that, I was still working part-time and studying. And after a bit of time like that, I’m finally starting to get a bit of business mojo back again. I’m just starting to look at it all and feel a bit of a spark again to think about what I could do, you know, to start feeling excited rather than overwhelmed about what needs to be done.

And I’ve started doing some planning and having some ideas. And I actually have some time now, which feels like such an amazing luxury. As anyone with a large family or who homeschools would know, once you get some time back, it’s like, wow, this feels like a total luxury. It feels just so fancy just to have spare time, empty time when no one needs anything from me. And even an empty house. Sometimes I have an empty house now and I kind of switch between rattling around feeling a bit lost but also just absolutely loving the peace and quiet. It’s pretty great.

I’ve also negotiated my work hours down. So instead of three whole days, I’m only doing around 12 to 15 hours a week at the moment. My husband keeps telling me to quit and just focus on the magical internet money because he’s always been a huge fan of that. But I do actually like the work I’m doing in disability nursing and so I want to keep up my involvement there.

So, apart from that, time-wise, my youngest is 16. He’s nearly 17. He’s got a job and sports and other stuff, so he’s fairly independent and out of the house a lot. My other son is 19. He has a pretty full schedule now with his day program and his work readiness program and his miniature train group. So, you know those trains that go on mini tracks and you can sit on them and drive them around. He is so into them and it’s really fun to see.

And so after decades of homeschooling, I’m pretty much done. And I have a bit of time now, which is weird and also fantastic because I would also really, really like to get the magical internet money set up again. So, it has been 2 years now since I sold my last business, and I would really like to have it all going again.

At the moment, I get bits and pieces from this and from my tie-dye site, but it’s small change in comparison to what I used to earn online. And I have to admit that having a job for a while has really reminded me of why I love having my own business online. I mean, I have a great job and the guaranteed wage is nice and I have a lot of flexibility overall. I have a lot of say over the work I do and when I do it, but it’s still got a fairly low income ceiling and I’m still working for a company and need to do the things they want me to do and need to do them the way they want me to do them.

And I’m really beginning to miss just doing my own thing and having that independence and freedom. So, like I was saying, I can justify it because it’s necessary experience in terms of nursing and becoming a diabetes educator and maybe one day turning that into some sort of online income as well, you know. But our goal for when the kids have fully grown up is having a camper van in Europe and being in the mountains and trail running and hiking every day for months on end while we eat all the cheese and pastries and gelato we can cram into our faces.

And a job is just not compatible with that sort of lifestyle. So, it’s feeling more important to me now that I get back into the online side of things and make that work again.

So, that’s my update. My year has kind of sucked in a lot of ways so far, but it feels like we’ve turned it around and it’s improved a huge amount lately. And so, I just wanted to say, hey, I’m still here. I disappeared, but I am definitely getting back into it now.

And I have a completed course that was ready to launch in April. And it’s really annoying me that it’s not out there. So, I think that the next thing you’re going to hear about from me will be about that. And it feels like this podcast episode is the gateway to me launching my brain right back into my business. It feels so good to have that mojo back.

So, as always, thanks for listening. Thanks for hanging around all of this time, even when I went awall. And hopefully, touchwood, fingers crossed, the rest of my year will be much less exciting than the middle part was, and I can get back into this properly because I’ve really missed it.

So stay tuned. As always, I will let you know exactly what I end up doing.

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