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In This Episode
A bit late is better than never. This is the July 2018 monthly report.
Links
- Austin Podcasters
- Cashflow Diaries
- Microcosm Publishing
- Smart Passive Income
- Toggle Time Tracker
- Trello
- Google Keep
Show Credits
Hosted, produced, mixed, edited & music by Mark.
Blog
Why Publish A Business Report?
Publishing my business report allows me to reflect back on the month to see what I did or didn’t do so well. Lastly, I have read blog income reports such as SmartPassiveIncome and I like to see what they have tried. It is a form of motivation for me and I hope that this can be one for someone else. Be sure to check out CashFlowDiaries for bloggers that share their blog income reports. Or one that I’ve recently found from publisher Microcosm Publishing.
July 2018 Business Report
Disclaimer: Any income reported will only be reported as “cash” in hand. If it did not deposit into my account, or if I didn’t cash a check, then it does not count as income. Additionally, income will only be reported for ApexThis business and not for personal income. I may discuss side hustles for additional side income, but only income in which I represent ApexThis will be counted.
Income/Investment Report
Investment – $0.00
Expense Report
RawVoice (Blubrry) – ($12)
Blubrry is a service I used to host the podcasts for Admins of Atlassian and ApexThis. It has built-in integration with WordPress making it vastly easier to upload and maintain the podcasts.
Google Apps – ($10)
I use Google Apps for email primary, docs and drive. It’s also great to use my Google account as authentication to other services and apps.
Adobe Suite – ($54)
Zero – ($9)
Overall
- Total Income/Investments – $0
- Total Expense – ($85)
- Total Net – ($85)
Hours Worked
Time Logged – 21hrs
What Happened?
Business
Administrative – 2hrs 45m
What is administrative? Oh you know, budgets, planning, and all the other non-fun stuff. I’ve been cleaning up a lot of mini-projects to get them out the door as well as reorganizing, planning, and idea dumping. This also includes research and work getting a sales permit. Which leads to the next thing…the store.
Podcast – 5hrs 27m
This is time for the June monthly update. For this time, I included this entire blog write up, recording and editing. I think the write-up should be separate since it aligns more with business functions as I am reviewing some goals (listed and unlisted) as well as other things. Going forward, I will track the compilation and reflection of data separately from the actual recording.
Store – 3hrs 30m
Last month I stated that I was creating a store, primarily to help support the Austin Podcasters community by selling awesome t-shirts. I will also be slipping into other basic t-shirt designs and hopefully in the future, other fun experimental projects. Though, I must say that this isn’t a big launch effort and isn’t really my main focus, therefore, don’t expect me to launch an Ugmonk or Johnny’s Cupcakes t-shirt shop.
Project Dollar – 1hr 40m
Rough draft? Done. I’ve printed half of the episodes to start my review and edit. There has been some time away from my writing to develop new eyes. The plan is that once I get the edit done, I’ll make those changes, and perform another review. I then plan to possibly work with an editor to ensure everything is good. Once done, the pre-production phase will be complete and I can then start production.
Podcast Movement – Time Off
In July, I took a week off to attend the podcast movement, and I had such a great time. Unlike last year, I am not making any dedicated podcast episodes for my experience but I do have a write-up! Why? This is a topic at the upcoming Austin Podcasters Meetup and I figured it would be good to write down my key takeaways.
Turning Down Opportunities
I was offering an opportunity recently and it was something that I was excited about. After taking some time to explore the opportunity, taking notes, crunching numbers, I found that I was saying yes to one more thing. After delaying work on Project Dollar for six months, I wondered how this opportunity would get me to where I want to be during its estimated 4-month project time? Unfortunately, I would not move one step forward for ApexThis but it would be quick money for sure.
Not every opportunity is right for you at the time, and this one was not right for me, at the time! Saying no felt like the right decision, and I’m happy that I did. Hopefully, I can explore it again in the future since its already on my roadmap.
What’s Next?
Iterate
For quite some time I’ve been obsessed with trying to make things perfect and in doing so those things never progress. I got caught up in trying to make sure something was absolutely perfect before I could move on to the next thing, but I would always inevitably find something else to fix and the cycle would continue.
It took a while to notice this but when I did, I gave myself a big ol’ facepalm. What was I doing? I knew better than that! Somewhere along the way, I’d wandered off my path but I’ve found it through iteration.
Lettering by Mark Askew
Instead of focusing on making it perfect, I make it the best I can and release. I then look back on what I could have done better and what I did well and apply that on the next project. I think this is also where many people get stuck in starting their podcast. They believe that it needs to be perfect at launch not realizing that they will get better with each release they make. With each iteration.
In short, iterate! Improve with each writing, each recording, and each project. Don’t get stuck trying to make something perfect. Perfect doesn’t exist.
Speak
I’ve given a few talks this year ranging from podcasting to system administration and I have another one coming up in September. The best part about giving a talk is interacting with folks after. I’ve been very lucky to have been asked and I hope to be able to do more in the future.
Write
Last month I stated that I would be finishing up some articles and getting back to Project Dollar. I’m happy to say that I’ve been getting those out the door! These articles had a mix of being cathartic for me since they allowed me to reflect, they’ve also allowed me to build keynote presentations based off previous and or upcoming talks, and they’ve given me the delight of marking something done. This next month I plan to:
- Publish an article on using Trello with your podcast,
- Publish an article on my attempt to build branding with the Austin Podcasters Conference
- Publish an article on Podcast Movement 2018 Recap
- Complete first edit/development edit of the first 4 chapters of Project Dollar
Learn
More and more I find myself saying to “be a student of everything” and I am finding more and more that it is true. I continue to seek out sources of information from other industries and professionals to see how they’ve done–and are doing–things. I’ve even reached out to entrepreneurs who I admire from a distance to seek their advice. Besides this, my pieces of learning have been from books. Last month I finished The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier and Published. by Chandler Bolt – I received at Podcast Movement.
For this month, I am looking to complete reading of Out on the Wire by Jessica Abel. It’s been a good read and I think it is about time I finished it.
Out on the Wire by Jessica Abel
Podcast
I’ve been thinking, what else can I do with this podcast? The first season of getting started has been in the books, and I’ve been thoroughly focused, or unfocused one could argue, with getting other things going. Though, I like doing the monthly podcast with behind-the-scenes updates. To be honest, I do have a list of ideas for a proper season 2, but the time it takes to write and produce those along with Project Dollar will not be possible.
Therefore, I ask you…what do you want to see or hear about in these monthly updates? Email me at [contact] \@\ [apexthis] or tweet me at apexthis. I’d really like to hear your thoughts.
Until next time
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