Hey Reader
I think most business owners, coaches & creators shoot themselves in the foot.
How often do you read the story of:
"I built this business but then found myself hating it. I had a massive team, no profit margins, and felt trapped"
What's crazy to me is that I've never felt that way at all.
Now, sure, I often have to do things I don't really want to.
I find myself exhausted and in need of a recharge every 6-8 weeks.
But I've never felt trapped by my business.
It's fucking great.
It makes over a million per year.
I have a team of two: an editor and a customer success manager.
We do everything organic, so don't have to worry about ad spend.
I don't work too much.
I have time to train 12-14 hours per week and race Ironman races a couple of times each year.
And Mekealy and I usually finish each night watching Netflix in front of the TV.
But I also don't feel like I relate to the way most coaches, creators and online entrepreneurs structure their businesses.
I often find myself watching YouTube videos from online entrepreneurs, thinking to myself:
"Wow, that sounds fucking horrible."
And I think this is where most people go wrong.
They watch what everyone else is doing, then without even thinking about it, dive headfirst into that business.
An excellent example of this is sales calls.
Everyone thinks they need to do sales calls.
And if they don't do sales calls, they think the alternative is selling in the DMs.
I think both of these options sound horrible.
I probably get between 10 and 20 cold DMs and emails daily from people asking to work for me as a setter or a closer.
And I find great joy in messaging as many of them as I can with the response:
"I don't do sales calls, never have, never will."
And without fail, they're always shocked.
Like I'd said something horrendous.
They can't believe a world where I don't have a massive sales team eating away at my profit.
But the reason I don't do them?
It's not because I'm a primadonna and don't feel like it.
It's because filling my calendar with sales calls or spending all day chasing up leads in my DMs would destroy my business.
I have ADHD.
Technically, ADD.
It went undiagnosed through childhood because I wasn't hyperactive.
So rather than being disruptive in class, I just sat quietly, not knowing what the fuck was going on 99% of the time.
And as anyone else who has ADD will know, I need space in my calendar, otherwise my day is fucked.
A 1 pm trip to my barber has the potential to derail my entire day.
I'll get nothing done between 7 am and that 1 pm appointment because I'll hyper-fixate on being ready for that appointment.
Now imagine that I filled my days sporadically with 3 - 5 sales calls...
A 10 am, then a 2 pm, then a 3:30.
I'd never get anything done, except for the calls.
And so, I made the decision that no matter how much more money I could potentially make by doing sales calls, it is not worth it for me.
I made a decision that negatively affected my top-line revenue in the short term.
But that works with my strengths and weaknesses as a business owner.
And in turn, allows me to play the game better, for longer.
Most online business owners, coaches & creators aren't willing to do that.
See, if you want to build a successful business, one of the only things that can possibly guarantee your success is:
Does your business work with the life you want to live?
Because when you build a business that does work with your life, your strengths AND your weaknesses.
Well then there is nothing stopping you from working for ten years, 20 years, hell 30 fucking years on that business.
And there is nothing that someone can achieve over twelve months that you can't categorically obliterate over 12 years.
Most creators, coaches, and business owners are so burnt out that they can barely see themselves making it past 2026, let alone 2046.
Build a business that works with you, not against you.
And over a long enough timespan, you will win.
I hope this helps.
Tom "sustainability focused" Noske
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P.S. If you want to build your business the sustainable way, that allows you to categorically obliterate the competition over the next 5-10 years, consider joining the waitlist for Time to Build.