This was the quarter that the reality of what I've been doing for the past year crashed headlong into reality. Until Q2 I've had money coming in to cover up the fact that Hapitalist hasn't been earning, but in this quarter that all changed.
It's not that there's no money coming in, but I am a human who likes to spend money, which means I need a lot of revenue to cover my bills. I'm the kind of person who will invest in conferences, masterminds, and new lines of business without looking too hard at my balance sheet, and my money has always kept pace with my ambitions.
Not this quarter, and while things it's looking good for the future, all of the revenue streams I've been relying on for the last decade have dried up. I have zero Kickstarters on the horizon, I've retired from doing shows, I don't own a conference, my courses aren't earning like they used to, and I left Substack.
Literally, it's like I'm starting from scratch with an email list, better connections, and a lot more knowhow than before, but my $30k membership isn't going to sustain my $20k/mo lifestyle.
Let’s get into it. Remember, paid members can see income reports dating back to 2018, with data from 2017, and it’s really one of the most underutilized parts of paid memberships. There are not many places you can see the evolution of a creative business, with commentary from the creator, in an unbroken chain for nearly a decade.
Consulting - 44.6%
Funny story...my consulting income went up considerably this quarter, and yet my contract expired at the end of June. So, I currently have zero anchor clients, which means this is going to approach zero very soon if I don't figure something out.
Luckily, I've been working on a new program to fill this gap that will hopefully become the new anchor for my business. That said, it hasn't launched yet, and I've never launched this kind of program successfully. So, we'll see how it goes, here. I might honestly be in even worse shape at the end of Q3 than I was in Q2.
Crowdfunding - 0%
While I ran my last campaign for the foreseeable future in June, it doesn't pay out until July. Additionally, the Sold to the Berserker campaign hasn't finished yet, so I haven't been paid out for that one either. Both of these would super help in Q3, and I'm kind of counting on them to keep this wobbly, rickety train going forward into Q4, when I will hopefully have a functioning business. I have spent the last year breaking my business down to find the profitable components, and Q3 is when I built back and fix all the stuff that's been eating away at me.
I didn't know how the tarot campaign would be received, but I am so excited for it. I've taken it to shows and done dozens of readings with it. People respond like nothing I've ever seen in my career. It's truly incredible.
Publishing - 55.4%
The reaction to my publishing stuff this quarter has been the best it's ever been, even if the money situation isn't where I want it to be yet. If I'm judging buyer intent, I think the people who are on board with where Hapitalist is going are getting more excited, and the people who checked out have fallen off the wagon.
My content has now caught up to my brand. For the past 6 months I was still serving Author Stack content as I burned through the rest of my inventory, but now I'm mainly going to be serving Hapitalist content.
I also built a new app called Joy Looper (joy.hapitalist.com) which is going to be my main focus going forward, and it aligns perfectly with the new direction.
I generally think the two main modalities that will survive in the coaching space going forward are apps and cohorts, along with books and memberships. So, I'm entering those two spaces this quarter and I'm very excited.
I also built a fiction app called Thread Weaver (thread.wannabepress.com) which houses all my fiction, and is going to be the one thing I talk about going forward when it comes to fiction.
I've basically created 2 super products, one for fiction and another for non-fiction, that will hopefully act as a moat for me to return to consistently in the future.
Thoughts
If you just take money out of the picture, this is the business I always wanted. I think finally for the first time in my life I have a complete mental model of the world, and how I can have an impact on it. I've always jumped around because no one thing has been the solution I've been after for people.
Even though the Easeful Joy Loop is complicated, it explains literally everything I've ever wanted to tell somebody about making a business. It's esoteric and a bit woo, but everything is grounded on decades of research both by myself and other people. I used to say things like "Kickstarter will save your career" and it did...in short order, but then the arbitrage went away and I found Substack, or some other thing. The way I built Hapitalist actually is the mental model I think any chaos-minded creative can use to build a sustainable business that works for them.
Now, I just have to get everyone else to believe it, too.