The Last $200

 So just to set the scene for you guys, I got started in August of 2019. Now I originally learned about the online space. Like probably I want to say like summer of 2016, I had a friend who was a digital nomad and because they were a digital nomad, they were doing the online thing before me and I had played with the idea, you know, I graduated from college in spring of 2017 and I was doing, you know, the interviews and the pantsuit and waiting for everything. And for me, it just like, wasn’t panning out and because I wasn’t panning out, I was like, maybe I want to, you know, try to work for myself or do something like that. And so I took the standard route of like, upwork and trying to do upwork and absolutely hated it. So I put it on the back burner for a little over a year, maybe a year and a half until November of 2018. So in November of 2018, I was actually fired from my job. And the interesting part about all that is that I was going in to put my notice in and they turned around and fired me and in the moment I was like, this sucks. I’m a failure. I was like crying in the parking lot while it’s snowing because it was November in Colorado and looking back now, I wouldn’t have left. So in December of 2018, I was sitting in my hairstylist chair getting my hair done and she was like, I need a virtual assistant and I was like, ok, I can do this, I can be a virtual assistant. I can do all of the things. And with her, like, I really didn’t have the skills that I needed. I had this like business degree that in all honesty was a little outdated when it came down to that. And so because it was a little outdated, I was like, I’m just gonna figure it out. I’m gonna do what everybody else does and learn. And so I really just took to learning as a service pro and spent the next 67, next eight months. So it was eight months just learning and growing and trying to send clients and growing businesses and doing that. And for me, it got to August of 2019 and I just was like, I don’t want to be a service provider anymore. Um I really applaud all of you service providers out there. You service pros are the backbones of businesses. But for me personally, a service providing was not, it was not my forte and to be fully transparent, my business is August of 2019 was not glamorous. I had this routine every night that I would look at my bank account and count how many days I had because I had a truck payment. I had bills to pay and wonder if I’m gonna be able to pay. And for me, I was like slowly shifting out of being a service pro and getting introduced into the online space after being in like a group with a coach for a while. But for so long, I told myself I was like, I couldn’t be a coach, you know, I just don’t have the skills or the accreditation or like, why are people even gonna listen to me? I mean, I was only like 23 24 at the time and I was like, it’s just not gonna pan out for me and I was looking at this program over and over and I was watching at lunch and I was like telling myself like next round, I’m gonna do next round, you know, I, I’m gonna get my stuff together, I’m gonna do next round and after talking to her three times um for you guys who don’t know this was Madison Tinder after giving her every excuse in the book, I was just laying in bed one night and I was like, I can’t do this anymore. I just remember like I lay on the left side of my bed. So for everybody who doesn’t know I sleep on the left side of my bed and I was doing my routine and I went back to like anxiously scrolling Instagram and I was like, I had $200 in my bank account and there is way more month than there is money. And I like had tried to get a job and it didn’t pan out and I’m just sitting here and I’m like, I can keep doing what I’m doing or I can try something new. And so I remember I like go to Instagram and I pull up my message with Madison and I literally just, I like, I got 200 bucks, dude. I don’t even think I said, dude, but I was like, I have $200. I know this is a $3000 investment and I might have to default on this contract. But I need to do this for me. I need to win in this season when I was so used to not winning because like, my business wasn’t growing. I was in grad school and I had no clue what I was doing. My grandfather had just died six months prior and I just was like, in this season of it’s just like nothing made sense and everything I tried wasn’t working out. And in that moment, I was like, making a bet that I didn’t know if I could fill. But it really came from like choosing yourself. I mean, that was probably the first like personal shift for me is that instead of picking other people or instead of just continuing to stick with like, what the status quo is? You go to college, you get a safe job, you work until you’re 65 and then you retire. I was like, I have to do this for me. And so I put down, I like, got on a call with her the next day I put down my $200 and I didn’t tell a single soul, not a single soul because I was like, if I fail, I don’t want to publicly fail, I don’t wanna like have to tell my parents that, like, I invested in this program with money. I didn’t have, even though I’ve already gone to college and college was supposed to be the safe option and it just was a spiral. And so I, like, took a deep breath and I was just like, I’m gonna figure this out.

My first client 

And so for the first two weeks of the program didn’t show up to a call. I had a contract job that I was working, but it was like very casual and it took summers off. So I was starting to ease back into that. And I was like, really heavily relying on that specifically of like easing back into it. And then I was like, I’m paying for this program, I need to get on these calls. And so I remember feeling terrified getting on this first call with these girls. I don’t know, I used to like, I just never had friends that were girls and I was like, I am going to learn. And so in that moment, we crafted this four week program that was really just gonna start the basics of business. Like really utilize the information that I had literally learned two weeks earlier and I was going to sign a client that was like, my mindset shifted from like, I don’t know if I can do this to like, I at least am gonna try to make enough money to fulfill this contract. And so I set off onto Instagram stories to sell this program, even though I had never sold a program before, even though I had tried to launch a program and it didn’t work out even all these things against me. And I showed up and I talked about it and then I talked about it and then I talked about it more. And after that 1st $200 investment, it took me six weeks to sign my first client. Shout out to you, Lexi, you will probably listen to this. You are the best first client I ever had. I was pitching people. I had my application, I was showing up, I was doing mini trainings. I was doing all the things and it just, I just had to keep going. I just had to keep talking about it. And I would tell myself every single day, I mean, I was showing up Monday through Friday and taking my weekends off and I was like, there has got to be one person out there who wants to buy. There has to be somebody who wants to work with me. There has to be somebody who can see the value that I’m offering. Like this has to work out and it did, I signed my first client after she told me no, I remember getting on the call and I was standing in my kitchen and like my phone’s on speaker and I’m just like freaking out and she gets on the call super nice, super sweet. And I just remember her telling me I have to think about it. And in that moment, I was like, I’m not gonna sign this client, I’m not gonna sign this client. I don’t know how I’m going to do it. And then she messages me 45 minutes later after she drives home and she’s like, OK, I want to do this. I need to do this. I have to do this and I cannot tell you what a sigh of relief that I breathed after six weeks of promoting, after spending all this time doing it because there’s so much building that you do in your business, there’s so much starting and building and growing and it’s just in that first season of building, you know, you’re not just building a business, you’re building this idea like you got your back because I struggled with self trust. Before I started a business, I struggled with self doubt like everybody else. I mean, I struggled with a lot of things like coming into that season of business. I wasn’t set up to win. But if you just keep going, it makes it so much easier. And by just continuing, just keep showing up like, yeah, maybe you show up and then nobody talks to you for six weeks or you’re pitching everybody and nobody’s working out. It’s just that continued motion. So sign my first client, really freaking excited, really excited and then the momentum keeps building. I signed my second client. I signed my third client. I signed my fourth client and then I filled all my spots after promoting, after promoting for so long, I filled all my spots and I was sitting there one day doing the math and I had had my 1st $10,000 launch 90 days out of the gate. I was doing the dang thing. And for me, that was really exciting. It was really exciting. I mean, I was like $10,000. Let’s go. We’re building this business, like so many cool things happening. But there’s like the seed of like doubt that is continuing to grow there is this like seed of like, can you actually do it? Is it actually gonna happen? So we continue into it. And I mean, with the perfect timing of everything, I literally started in August, September, October,

My first Black Friday 

we move into Black Friday. And for me, I was like, I don’t participate in Black Friday. I don’t know what’s going on with Black Friday, like, not a fan. And so literally two weeks out from Black Friday, I’m like, I’m gonna launch something and this is back when guides were still really big. Like, this was in 2019. This was, I mean, I’m recording this in July of 2021. So this is like two, like two years in the making and I like, released this guide and I like, sell some of them and I’m just like y’all, I’m like, rolling big, I’m like, I hit my for $7000 month. Like, things are going big. I have an email list of like, 10 people. Like, it’s crazy. And so we roll into December and December is a good month. And then in January, you know, I’m building, building, building really, you know, 10-K months were still as popular as they are now. Like the 10-K month was like, you’re crossing the finish line and like, you have hit a 10-K month. And so I’m like, January 1st 10-K month, like I got this 2020 is gonna be my year and then I don’t resign a couple of times. And I’m like, OK, and then I’m just like, I don’t know what I’m doing. I think I know what I’m doing, but I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. And so I dropped down on my first five K month and I was somebody who was promoting this is where scale to five K was born. I was born

My first income Dip

. Um It was like, it wasn’t like this huge, monumental moment. I was just focusing on five K months because five K felt so tangible where 10-K felt so far away. And I was like, I, I don’t know, I don’t know. And I was still working my day job and I was trying really hard and the sad part was, is that in the background, these were all these huge wins. But I was, like, dating somebody who didn’t really appreciate me and it just wasn’t working. I mean, there’s no, like, huge segue into like what it is and what it isn’t, but it just wasn’t working. And so for me, I started getting a little depressed and I kind of started spending my weekends in bed and I wasn’t feeling good and I was really taking on this identity that I was failing.

My first $10k Month

And in reality, I’d only been in my business for like six months, like something so easy. And then in February, I was like, I’m gonna just hit the ground running and I’m just gonna like, do the dang thing. And so I just kept showing up and I kept showing up and I kept working hard and I started signing clients and things were growing and I hit my 1st 10 K month. I remember because I did the math and I laid in bed and I got on Instagram stories and I was like, today, I think it was like February or like 17th or something like that. Don’t quote me on it. I was like, I made $10,000 cash in my business. And that was just, you know, when you’re a business owner, you have really high points. So you have really high points and then you also have really low points and, you know, $10,000 lunch is a high, high point, but hitting a five K month when you’re teaching people how to make five K, which we’re talking $5000 is also kind of a low point. And so for me, February was very pivotal in the personal shifts because I started to lean into the season of getting support.

My First Busines Retreat

So at the end of February, I went to a mastermind retreat before everything got shut down. And I just got to be in person and to hug your coach in person is just such an experience like guys in-person stuff is so important and it’s so needed and just to be around. And for me, that was really just, you know, looking back now that was a season of like, I needed love and support and I truly allowed other people to. And then in March, really exciting in March, I flew to Vegas and I met the social bungalow and I got to stay with her and it was just this experience in itself.

The Global Pandemic

And so as my business is ramping up there is this undertone of like, we are going into a global pandemic. Like it’s, you know, it’s not just like, you know, we went from two week lockdown to worse. And so for me, I was like, I’m just gonna double down in business, like I’m gonna double down, I’m gonna, you know, really use these two weeks to grow my business and do these things. And so over the next couple of months, it just was this like ramp up. It was like getting on podcast interviews, taking every guest coaching opportunity that I have like doing all of these things. And I remember sitting down and writing my article for Voyage Denver, which will tag in the show notes below and just feeling like holy cow, this is actually coming. Now, what I didn’t realize is that they were going to basically publish it with everything going on, they were going to publish it sooner rather than later. So let’s set the stage again. It is April. It’s the end of April. It is, you know, Tuesday morning, I’m doing, you know, a workout on youtube because gyms were not open and I get this email that the article went live. I’m like, ok, cool. Like, you know, I’m gonna share it to my Facebook. Um So my family can see what’s going on, you know, really excited, really happy about it. It’s like opening Pandora’s box. It was like, I was on stage naked because now my family is like, oh, I didn’t realize your business was growing and we were talking like I had done $70,000 in sales and it was just growing and growing and growing and growing and it was overwhelming. It was like everything I’d been working for, you know, I had had lived in this world of, you know, Instagram, Megan versus real Megan. And there were some people who got to see both, but it’s like opening Pandora’s Box. And then a couple of days later I’m in the Starbucks driver ordering my Macha.

My First $100k

This was back when I was obsessed with Macha and I’m doing the numbers and I was at like, $75,000 at that point, which I’m like, oh, it’s $75,000. No, that’s a lot of money. That is a lot of money to go from having $200 to $75,000 in sales. And I had just done like a $24,000 day because I had like 1 to 1 coaching and they were resigning and I’m doing the numbers and I am three cars from ordering. And the Starbucks drive through when I realized I hit $100,000 in sales in eight months. And I’m like, holy guacamole. So what do I do? I drive straight to the liquor store and buy a bottle of champagne. Do I even drink champagne? No, no, I do not. I don’t even like champagne and I’m like, holy cow and I come barreling into my house because I live with my dad. And I’m like, I literally put a sticky note on this bottle of champagne. And it says dad, I made $100,000 in sales in eight months. In that moment is when I realized my business could grow, it was that opportunity. It felt like everything I had worked for had paid off. And that all the hours I spent working my ass off all the time I spent, you know, doing the dang thing, it had paid off because $100,000 in eight months, that is three times the amount I would have made in my corporate job. That is three times the amount that I filed for taxes in 2018. And it was like this moment of everything that I had worked so hard for, so hard for.

Making money and feeling alone

And then there was this like, stinge of like loneliness because in the biggest moment of my life, I also felt like I was 100% alone and it wasn’t because I like needed friends. I had friends, my friends were cheering for me and it wasn’t my family, my family, like they took it so well. I mean, they had made me like they had watched me work so much. They had made so many comments about like, is this gonna pan out? Like not from a place of doubt but just like general worry. And for me, I was like, the money is great. The money is amazing. Like it’s easy to stand on this side of things and be like money is great. But like I knew that there had to be more than just me working all the time. And like in that, that was probably my second biggest personal shift over the last two years is like identifying your worth outside of how hard you work. Like I have always been a workhorse. I’m like 80 hours a week, went to college, did all those things and I just realized that, like, you know, I still had so much inner work to do. I still had, you know, when people talk about a spiritual awakening or inner work, you’re like, hm, what inner work? Like, what do they need? And for me, I just needed it. And so in this season, like we’re going back to normal life, I start dating and what that looks like here in this town, let me just set. The stage is not fun. It was not fun and it just felt very turbulent and it was just happening in this. It was like this duality where I had a really successful business and my business was continuing to grow. You know, we’re doing 10-K months and we’re close like we’re getting close to 20 K months and those types of things. And then there was this duality of the inner work and the personal stuff and the boy problems and the more boy problems and the boy problems bleeding into work. And I mean, no shade to the boys if they ever listen to this, uh a little awkward but it was just the boy problems. And so this duality in business kept going because I felt like I was continuing to perform really well in business, but I couldn’t attach my words to it because it was like, I was just trying to find somebody, somebody who, like, I just wanted to be loved if we’re being honest, like I just wanted someone to love me. And so I’m like, sitting across the table from one of my really good

$100k in 90 Days was born

iends, Pia Curri Welco, y’all don’t know her. She will always be tagged in the show notes and I’m just like, Pia, I wanna do $100,000 in 90 days. Like I wanna do something incredible. It’s like that tiktok, I wanna do something big and I was like, I just wanna like, tone out all the noise and like just double down on something and she’s like, just do it. And I’m just like, ok, I’m gonna take something that I’ve worked for eight months and compact it down to 90 days and so on July 1st changed my phone screen to say 100 K 90 days and I hustled my little butt off with all of this going on. We had gone through program changeovers. So I originally had a program, didn’t really love it, launched it in the pandemic. And I mean, it was a successful launch. I just don’t talk about it because there wasn’t a lot of completion. We did about $27,000 like the week after everything shut down, which is very successful, you guys are gonna learn. Like I always say, like it’s very successful, but to me, the program never felt really aligned with who I was. And the people I wanted to serve. And in May, I had gone through a successful launch of scale to five K the course. And with that course specifically, it had really started opening the doors of, I really wanted to, you know, I had been talking about scale to five K, but I had really wanted to focus on that 0 to 5 K. And I was like, do I make it a course? Do I make it a group program? What do I do with it? And I was like, I want to expand it to have a course with a group program running alongside of it. Like I really want to double down and focus on that area. And so inside this 100 K in 90 days, we’re crafting content, we’re building it. There was one specific thing that marked every single day and it was the something is coming timer and every single day I would post it and people would go crazy about it. And for me, in these moments, like all of this attention was definitely feeding into my ego. It was definitely feeding into like growing in a way that I haven’t before. But it was kind of like, I was looking for validation from people when I needed it inside of myself. Like I was looking for this validation that like I can do it. But in the sense of like I can do this because I can. And so we’re like gearing up for the scale to five K launch. And that lunch, I will never forget it because it, it was one of the best launches I’ve ever gone through mentally. But like I realized that, like, I beat myself up and that there was part of me that I was always pushing myself to be further. And I just, you know, I’ve been chasing $100,000 launch for a while. Guys. Have I gotten it yet? No, I have not. Am I getting close? Yeah, but I wanted it to be my $100,000 launch. I wanted to come out and just like prove it. And so while this was like a good launch, like I was signing paid in full clients and I was doing all these things, there was just part of me that was like, you can do more, you can be more and just continuing to push myself. And that little voice was fueled by the 100 K 90 days. It was fueled by this idea. And I mean, like this was my version of like 75 hard, but like business wise. Well, it was wildly successful. It left me in a season of burn out. Like we did the scale of five K launch, then we did Mastermind launch. And by the time October 1st came, I was just burnt out, I was just burnt out. And so then it kind of led to a new season of business and really trying to figure out what I wanted and what I didn’t want. I mean, I took quarter four last year really easy because I had money coming in. I mean, I held a 10/10 K month for a while. But for me, it was just like, as I continued to grow, the external growth didn’t match the internal growth. And that’s where most of my struggle came from over the last, you know, I would say six months is that if you are growing externally, your internal world has to match it. And if your internal world doesn’t match, you will self sabotage, you will create every situation that you need to, to just prove that you’re right and that you’re not doing what you need to do and that there needs to be more. And so for me, like business strategy is only so much and for somebody who loves strategy, I love books and I love those types of things. It really comes down to like knowing what you want and moving in that direction and supporting yourself and validating yourself.

What you should Know about My Journey

Like for me, if there’s anything you can take away from what I’ve learned, it’s like one just start doing the dang thing, like just literally start the business, build the Instagram pitch, the person do it. And then the second thing is is understand that like you have to be in your corner at all times, your best support system is you. And so leaning into mindset, even when it’s uncomfortable learning how to fail. I mean, I had to learn how to fail in the yoga studio before I could publicly do it. And I mean, to be honest with you guys, this year has been like a year of like, you know, things have not panned out for me if we’re being fully honest, like, publicly, I didn’t talk about this openly but publicly failing is something that I’ve, you know, never enjoyed. And this year breaking off an engagement with the biggest public fail. But learning how to fail because failure isn’t, you know, it’s not the end. All be all. It’s not a terminal diagnosis that you failed. It’s just proof of what you want and what you didn’t want. And then that third piece is just, you know, you have to, I say have to very loosely. Um we never really say have to, but mindset is important. The mindset and energetic of business is important. And as a business owner, you are basically stripping down and standing on a stage and unveiling so many pieces of you like for me, like old childhood wounds and our work that needed to be done. Relationships that I had a hard time with, I mean, I went through life coaching and I, I still go to therapy once a week. And so really understanding that like this personal development process does pay off in the long run, but it’s the hard icky stuff that no one wants to do. And so if you’re somebody who you’re like, I just, you know, I get stuck in the, the mindset of it. Just sit down every single day. Ask yourself, what do you need to hear? How do you need to feel safe? Because most of business comes from knowing that you can do it and setting yourself up to win versus there’s no secret formule or, you know, like you’re not Plankton and this is not spongebob, you’re not looking for the secret recipe of Krabby Patty. You have it in you. It’s just sitting down doing the thing and just like believing that you can do it even when it’s crazy. I mean, the 100 k 90 days, everyone thought I was crazy.

Further Reading: Why your sales Process isn’t working, From stuck to Clarity, Making $5 sales day with a Small Audience, Creating a Product Suite that Scale