10 Things I Learned In My 
First Year Of Business

april 28, 2020

1. Practice Self-care

It’s strange but I have found, the better I treat my body and mind the more opportunities seem to flow to me. One of the greatest things about owning a business is that you can make your own schedule. Self-care is a staple in my daily planner. (Yes, I still use a daily planner!) At least 3x a week I work out at noon, right smack dab in the middle of my day!

As I started getting busier with new clients I often allowed myself to make excuses to skip this commitment but I noticed a strange correlation between taking care of myself and having opportunities show up at my door. It is so important to take care of your mind and body, when you do this consistently you’ll start creating better results for your clients and more opportunities will flow your way! If you don’t prioritize yourself, no one else will!

2. Start Before You Feel Ready

If we all waited until we felt ready to start nothing would ever get anything done. I cannot tell you how many years I wasted before starting my own agency. Let me take that back, I learned so much while working for other businesses so it was not a waste, but I wish I had started my agency sooner even just as a side hustle!

There is so much information on the web that you could literally spend years of your life preparing without ever feeling truly ready, plus, with digital marketing things are constantly evolving. After years of dreaming about starting my own agency, I finally decided I’d had enough and jumped in with both feet, and I am so happy I did.

Do I know everything there is to know about digital marketing? No.

Does anyone? No.

With my knowledge was able to create and scale a successful marketing business in my first year? Yes.

Was I able to achieve incredible results for my clients? Yes.

“Action is the most important key to any success.” Tony Robbins

“There is never a bad time to start a business – unless you want to start a mediocre one.” – Gary Vaynerchuk


3. Practice Living Outside Your Comfort Zone

Doing the uncomfortable will allow you to grow more than you ever dreamed of. There have been many times when I’ve turned down opportunities because I was scared. Let me tell you, I have a huge fear of public speaking, like knees shaking, voice quaking, life or death fear of public speaking. BUT in order to achieve my goals, in order to get to Forbes 30 under 30, I must overcome these fears, and the only way to overcome fears is through them.

4. Goal Setting Is Your Best Friend, Do it and Refer Back to it Often.

Being able to clearly define what you want will allow you to make the right decision more frequently. Like that new prospect who wants you to cut your rates in half and asks you to manage/train his employees… Is that aligned with my goals? No. So the answer is no! There are so many wrong turns I could have avoided if I was constantly reviewing my goals. I do goal setting yearly and monthly. It has been an extremely rewarding experience to look back at the end of the month and see how many items I can check off my list.

5. Learn Something New Every Day Every day

Every day is a new opportunity to improve yourself. It would take 10x the time for you to learn everything through your own personal experiences, reading is an incredible way to learn from others mistakes. There are sooooo many books out there today, podcasts, blogs that you can read or listen to on a daily basis to expand your knowledge! I love to listen to podcasts while driving or working!

6. Save for Rainy Days

It doesn’t matter whether you are a movie star or an Agency owner, with any business, there will be ups and downs. Life is a rollercoaster of highs and lows, this is unavoidable but if you can save while you are at your high, you will not stress so much at your low. Stop buying things to impress people you don’t care about and don’t worry about keeping up appearances on Instagram!

7. The Only Failure is When You Stop Trying

Have you heard the story of Abraham Lincoln’s rise to riches?

1816: His family was forced out of their home. He had to work to support them.

1818: His mother died.

1831: Failed in business.

1832: Ran for state legislature – lost.

1832: Also lost his job – wanted to go to law school but couldn’t get in.

1833: Borrowed some money from a friend to begin a business and by the end of the year he was bankrupt. He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off this debt.

1834: Ran for state legislature again – won.

1835: Was engaged to be married, sweetheart died and his heart was broken.

1836: Had a total nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months.

1838: Sought to become speaker of the state legislature – defeated.

1840: Sought to become elector – defeated. 1843:

Ran for Congress – lost.

1846: Ran for Congress again – this time he won – went to Washington and did a good job.

1848: Ran for re-election to Congress – lost.

1849 Sought the job of land officer in his home state – rejected.

1854: Ran for Senate of the United States – lost.

1856: Sought the Vice-Presidential nomination at his party’s national convention – got less than 100 votes.

1858: Ran for U.S. Senate again – again he lost.

1860: Elected president of the United States.

It is almost inevitable that you will not succeed at your first attempt, you will need to constantly fine-tune your pitch, your sales funnel, your website but do not let that get you down! Every person who has ever really achieved anything incredible first failed.

I hate that word, “fail.” In my opinion, if you can learn something from your setback it will never be considered a “failure.” Anytime things don’t go exactly the way I planned I take a step back, look at what went wrong, figure out what I need to learn from the situation and strategize how to achieve what I want. I believe “setbacks” are the universe’s way of seeing who is willing to work for what they want.

8. Your Life is up to You!

This may be an unpopular topic but where you are right now in your life, whether you are loving life, unhappy, or stressed is because of the choices you have made. Every day you have the choice to decide whether to be happy or pissed off. Don’t get me wrong, life can throw us some pretty unnerving curve balls BUT it is your decision whether to let those curve balls destroy your mood and your inner peace or if use those obstacles to push you forward. If you are sitting in a cubicle, hating your boss, dreading the alarm clock every morning and living your life waiting for Friday, Saturday and Sunday are you really fulfilling your true potential?

“You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.” Joyce Meyer

Don’t get me wrong! It is okay if you have woken up to find yourself in a dead end job that’s no longer fulfilling… but what are you going to do about it? It is up to you whether you want to stay there for 30 more years until you retire or go out and realize your dreams.

9. Be Patient

I am guilty of expecting results overnight and this, unfortunately, it just NOT the way things happen. Consistent hard work and dedication are crucial to realizing your dreams. Take small steps every day towards achieving your goals and have faith that the universe has your back!

10. Be Kind to Yourself

I am a huge believer in celebrating small victories! Make a list of all of the things you’ve accomplished in the last year, my guess is you are way further along than you even realize! It’s so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and not give yourself credit for all you’ve accomplished because you still want so much more out of life. Be kind to yourself, love yourself and opportunities will start flowing towards you! Set small goals, like working out or washing your face.

I hope these tips helped!

Which tip will you put into practice today?

Let me know in the comments below!