New beloved tshirt from Snag Tights
Possums!
Yay! Welcome back to my monthly tradition where I review my life & business & share behind-the-scenes numbers as well.
This one is late due to a cacophony of WTAF, which I’ll share more about below.
I’ll cover:
- life blessings & challenges
- what I’ve created in my business
- how much revenue generated
- my goals for next month.
You can read previous monthly reviews here:
2021
2022
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How I went with my goals for the month
Life:
- New house renovation – DONE. I am so so so so so so glad we did it!
- Move in – DONE. What a dream come true!
- Prep new house for sale – DONE. It was a mammoth effort, but we’re just about to list!
- Stay sane – DONE. Thanks to my bestie, my husband & my therapist. Team work makes the dream work!
- Also, don’t fuck up my back – DONE. Thanks to the help of my osteopath & pilates instructor.
- Or my nervous system – DONE. Thanks medically prescribed CBD oil! (more about that soon)
Business:
- Work with my Incubator coaching clients – DONE!
- Get Organised completed, launched & put to bed – DONE!
- Weekly newsletters. – Mostly done!
What I got up to in life!
Gosh, where do I start. May was an intense and transformative month for us.
- We packed up our acreage home (I made the mistake of packing everything myself like a straight up eeeedjit!)
- We got flooded in AGAIN. The bridge near our acreage house went under, so we went on a rescue mission to get the kids from school. I’m thrilled to be living in a place that doesn’t get flooded in. There’s been times when our school run is 4+ hours a day because we’ve had to take flooding detours. We started feeling a bit nutty.
- We settled on our new home near the beach, and had renovations done (new wood hybrid flooring & wallpaper removed).
- We moved into our new home. There’s still a lot of boxes to unpack still, but overall we’re fucking delighted!
- We started prepping the acreage for sale (gardeners, painters, cleaners, stylist etc).
- We moved my in-laws into our investment property so we could spend more time together & look after them better. (Our new home is only 4 minutes from their new home now! Instead of 2 hours!)
- On top of all this… while I was sitting on the front lawn of our new house waiting for the removalists truck, I got The Phonecall. You know the one. The one that makes your heart drop and world begin to spin. One of my closest family members has been diagnosed with cancer. It’s not me or my husband or kids – I’d be catatonic if this was the case. It’s still bloody heart-wrenching though. I don’t really wish to share details, as it’s not my story to tell. I just feel like I’m wandering around with an enormous, invisible load.
- All up, it’s a case of life being brutiful, as Glennon Doyle would say. One part brutal, the other part beautiful.
New house
I just want to add here – I fucking LOVE our new house. I haven’t been in love with a house since we lived in Kuranda. I’m just thrilled to bits. We’ve only moved 30 minutes south of where we were, so we haven’t had to change schools, doctors, post boxes or anything like that. We just get to be closer to things!
And even though we moved from an acreage back into suburbia, our kids are outside playing more than ever. We live on a cul-de-sac and it’s like we’ve been transported back in time to the 1970s. There’s lots of kids on our street, and they play out there constantly! My kids have already made friends with the other kids, and they are often out there playing hopscotch or handball or riding scooters or drawing with chalk until I call them in for teatime. We’ve also met almost all our neighbours now, and they are super friendly and lovely. This street even has its own Christmas party each year! Ha! We’ve never experienced such a communal street before! WOT IN THE RETRO FUCK IS THIS! It’s such a gorgeous and unexpected blessing.
Before we left the acreage, we talked about what we’d miss the most. My husband said he would miss the birds in the backyard, and that he hoped a butcher bird that we called “Mr Clippy” would come find us. The first weekend we were here, we sat on the verandah with his parents, and a butcher bird came and sat on his mum’s chair next to her! We were all cooing “MR CLIPPY! YOU FOUND US!”
It’s such a blessing to be near the beach again, closer to friends and much less travel distance to everything!
My experiments with CBD oil
So, I wanted to share a bit more intensively about my experiment with CBD oil.
I’ve been testing medically prescribed CBD oil for few months now to treat my anxiety levels and pain from hypermobility.
I’ve only used cannabis once before (with THC), and it made me hyperactive and non-verbal. I’ve never used illegal substances outside of that, and didn’t have any desire to. I felt like my brain chemistry was wild and magical and sensitive enough without me fucking with it! Ha!
A hypermobile friend mentioned to me a year or so ago that they used CBD oil for pain levels. I sat with it for a long while, and decided I may as well try it. Because I’m very much a rule-follower, I wanted to get it medically prescribed. I did a telehealth appointment with a nurse and a GP through Montu.
I decided to start off by only trying CBD oil (without THC – the psychoactive component).
I’ll be honest – the first time I took it, I felt absolutely… N O T H I N G. I didn’t feel more relaxed, sleepy or any other mood change. I was so unimpressed I didn’t have any more for a couple of weeks when I decided since I’d paid for the bottles, I might try some consistent treatment to at least use up the bottles. And what I discovered was that with the consistent use, it had a cumulative effect which was subtle and yet life changing. Trying hard not to sound like a wanker here, so stay with me! Bahahaha!
Here’s how it makes a difference:
- Most significantly, it reduces the impact of my Autism. A big day out with a lot of stimulation would usually take me at least 3 days to recover from. My head pounds, my thoughts race, my anxiety accelerates, my skin feels like it’s on fire. Now if I get a decent sleep that night, I’m fine the next day. I still need to monitor how much I schedule into my calendar of course, but the Autistic shutdowns are far less severe. It feels like I have a cushioning in my life that I didn’t have before.
- After the month of intensity in May with moving and big life styff, I would fully expect to be Enormously Fucked Up both physically and mentally. I’m not though – I’m tired but not fucked. That’s enormous.
- Breakthrough anxiety occurs much less.
- I am doing less emotional eating.
I’m still using my anti-depressants. At some point I may be able to reduce my dosage because my anxiety is managed. Apparently a lot of CBD patients can eventually go off them completely. I’m reticent to go completely off them however because they also serve as a preventative buffer for depressive episodes for me. Depression is a significantly occurring mental health condition in my family so I know I’m genetically predisposed. The last two episodes I had (a few months ago & a few years ago) were difficult enough that I don’t want to go anywhere near one again.
Anyways, so I’m thrilled that I’ve tried out CBD oil. I genuinely can’t imagine having to go through life raw dogging it without CBD oil! Bahahahahaha!
Collage Portraits
In May I needed something to use as stress relief during our move… so I started making collage portraits of friends using my digital illustration setup.
I’m so in love with them!
My darling friend/adopted English niece Katie Draws
My darling mate Lena. We’ve been best mates since high school!
Bilvy, my handsome adopted nephew & talented comic artist!
AUNTY BETTY IS SO PROUD OF YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS DARLING TELL MARGARET I LOVE THEM TOO
My dynamo friend Tina Tower. Please note, I am incapable of calling her Tina. It MUST be Tina Tower in full! Bahahahah!
My mate Ariel Meadow Stallings. I’ve only been reading her blogs for oh… nearly two decades now?
The woman, the myth, the legend :: DDT! We’ve been mates for over a decade now!
Who is the president of the Lizzy Goddard fan club? THIS BISH IS!
The absolute darling Tash Corbin. I used to just crush on her online but now we are REAL LIFE FRIENDS who live near each other and go to dinner and talk shit in person and stuff!
Gosh I have hot and smart and talented friends. I’m a lucky lucky ducky!
Best Books
- The Life-Changing Magic of a Little Bit of Mess by Kerri Sackville
I love a good “fuck cleaning!” book. Bahahahahah! - Strap on a Pair: A Middle-Aged, Middle-Management, Middle-Class Moms Quest for Something More by Abby Lou Walker
Love this business memoir by my mate Abby from Vivian Lou. - Century Girl: 100 Years in the Life of Doris Eaton Travis, Last Living Star of the Ziegfeld Follies by Lauren Redniss
Scrumptious scrapbook style memoir. The visuals were divine! - They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
Graphic novel on George Takei’s childhood. I had no idea about that part in history where in the US, they arrested Japanese-American residents and put them in concentration camps for years!
Best TV
- Me & my love have been continuing to treat ourselves to daytime viewings of Dead Pixels. Hot damn it is fucking FUNNY.
- Me, he & ze kids have been studiously watching Ryan Trahan’s Youtube series each night about crossing the US on a penny. Ryan is 10/10 adorable.
What I did in my business!
May was filled with:
- Finishing Get Organised course
- Launching a live round of Sales Star
- Coaching my small group of mentorees on their business
- Created a free monthly business plan template
Blog posts I published
- 41 Magical & Inspiring Things I’ve Found On The Web Of Late!
- Your FREE Monthly Business Plan
- Ready to master your sales and make BIG bucks?
Interviews
- The Rach Active Podcast
- The Planner Craft Pro Summit
- Master of None with Cheryl Woodhouse
- Marketing Without Social Media with Viv Guy
Current list of software I use to run my business:
- Kajabi for most things in my business:
- selling through their shopping cart
- teaching my courses through their learning management system
- running my affiliate program
- ActiveCampaign to send all our marketing emails.
- Optin Monster to create all the pop-ups, reminder windows & lead magnet forms on my website.
- Calendly to screen interviewers and book in interviews.
- Xero is my accounting & financial management system.
- I host my WordPress websites on WPEngine.
More tools of the trade here if you find that kind of thing useful!
How much money I made
$91,044
Where that income came from:
- E-courses: $82,657
- Goal Getter planners (digital): $455
- Goal Getter planners (print royalties): $223
- Passive income business: $7,039
- Shares & Ethical Managed Funds: No increase.
- Investment property: Now converted to a family property for in-laws.
- Affiliate for Kajabi: $670
- Calm Christmas Planner on Etsy: $0
E-course income breakdown:
- Marketing Without Social Media: $3,833
- 40 Days To Create & Sell Your E-Course: $4,703
- Work Less, Earn More: $842
- Sales Star: $45,052
- Money, Manifesting & Multiple Streams of Income: $2,435
- 40 Days To A Finished Book: $357
- Mini workshop: Behind The Scenes of A Multi-Millionaire’s Finances: $123
- Get Organised!: $12,266
Expenses
Due to popular request, I’m going to include expenses for the business as well to give you an even more transparent look at profitability.
- Contractors: $5,759
This is for 1 part time Customer Service Virtual Assistant and 1 part time Online Business Manager. This is probably on the higher side for pricing, but I don’t mind paying more for people who I trust and have a long term working relationship with. I want them to feel appreciated, and I want them to be able to live good lives. - Donation: $7,500
Thrilled to share we were able to give $7,500 to local Indigenous organisation SevGen to help them establish their bush tucker orchard. That donation covers about 3-4 months of our usual giving. - Business tax paid: $31,830 (much larger yearly tax bill – not just our usual monthly tax)
- Affiliates: $7,200
- Paypal & account fees: $2,680
- Software subscriptions for everything we use to run our business online (see full list further below): $3832
- Website hosting: $98
- Courses & books (for me & my staff to learn from, we are continuously learning): $2932
- Minimum purchase order to qualify for my passive income business income: $150
Total expenses this month: $61,981.
Much higher than usual – half of it is to pay annual tax due. And of course the $7.5k donation, which we were stoked to do!
Profit levels!
Total profit: $59,993 (before tax)
$29,063 (after tax)
That’s approx 65% profit EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes) and 31% profit earnings after tax (EAT). Not as high as usual, but totes happy to pay taxes & donate so much!
From that profit, my husband and I take salaries (that we then pay personal tax on) and pay compulsory superannuation (contributions to retirement funds).
The rest of the profit stays in the holding company, and regularly gets invested in ethical managed funds. If you want more details on how we manage and grow our income streams, Money, Manifesting & Multiple Streams of Income is the course for you!
Goals for next month
Life:
- Stay sane hooray!
- Finish unpacking.
- Re-install good habits.
Business:
- Decide on what to do next!
- Get back on track with my usual business habits.
- Keep encouraging my incubator clients.
It’s a joy to be here!
Thank you for sharing this journey with me.
Love,
FREE GOODIES:
BOOKS:
- Goal Getter workbooks for 2022 & beyond!
- Calm Christmas Planner
- Salt: a hottttt romance novella (published under my pen name Lola Leigh)
COURSES: