A lot of people were asking about where I had been for the last few months. I stopped posting videos. I stopped attending functions. There was even a rumor I decided to become a hobo and ride the rails. I decided to do a quick write up of where I’ve been and talk about a new idea I have going forward that I’d love for you to help me out with. Enjoy!
100 Days Of Business
By Chris Comerford
The Decision
At the end of 2018 I quit my job. No more paycheck. No more stability. No more comfort. Instead, I wanted to start 2019 by escaping the norm and search for “more”, whatever that means.
No, I didn’t just walk into the boss’ office and quit. I stayed on for a month to make sure the transition to my replacement went smoothly, and to close out as many projects as I could. No fun stories to tell the grandchildren.
When the last day finally came and went, it was weird. All of a sudden, there was nothing. Actually, there was something. More stress.
One might think that without the stresses of work a person would feel like a weight had been lifted off their shoulders. Instead, with the realization that there would be no guaranteed money each month, the weight grew 3x as heavy.
The idea to quit was not just a random “sick of working” situation to create a Summer of George. On the contrary, it was an opportunity for me to expand my knowledge and work even more. Subconsciously, it may have been a ploy to light a fire beneath me; to really build the pressure so I could step up and excel.
At the start of the year, I had five major goals, the first 2 more specific than the others:
Start my own business.
Become a high school marketing teacher.
Travel places.
Meet new people.
Learn new things.
Through those goals I wanted to expand my knowledge and skills. I wanted to grow.
Paid To Play
Remember back a few paragraphs when I talked about the pressure of not having an income. Well, it hit me pretty hard at first. So when I realized that I could actually start pulling in some money, I shifted from the big plans and the open pathways to a focused effort on achieving income. And instead of spreading my time out between ideas and ventures, I went all in…to an obsessive level.
I guess at this point, you are wondering what great marketing job I picked up, or what business consulting firm hired me to lead their social media team. Was I re-branding a company for the future or was I advising a small business on how to grow their sales through marketing?
Neither…I was playing video games for money…
Explaining exactly how this works, or how I got the same paycheck from YouTube as I did being the marketing director of a real estate company is a whole other story. I know what you are thinking! But you have to realize that while it sounds like fun and games, it was a real business.
Networking with game developers; Running social media marketing campaigns; Spending 10 hours a day writing, filming, producing, directing and editing videos; Creating advertisements and graphics; Researching the video game and YouTube markets; And the worst…search engine optimization!
None of that last paragraph was a complaint (well maybe the SEO part). It was the REASON I did it for 2 straight months. Working hard on something and seeing results is the most rewarding and motivating part of running a business. I watched as my subscriber count blasted past 40,000, my view count past 10 million and my lifetime revenue past $10,000.
It is a little complicated to explain, but the subject of my channel is not seasonal, it is event based. And an “event” only comes along every 3 years and lasts only a few months. In other words, as March approached, the dream was over, and the focus had to be regained.
The Goal Train
One of the most important things I’ve learned in business through learning and experience is that if you do some work today, you probably won’t see the benefits of that work for a few months. With that in mind, I really had no time to lose. So I took the 5 goals I mentioned in the beginning of this article, and got started, on all of them.
The first thing I did was I booked a train ticket. That sounds like an odd first step, but I had a grand idea. I was going to take a train across the country from Washington, D.C. to California, something that has been on my bucket list forever.
It was also a great way in which I could travel and see new places while at the same time learning new things, meeting new people, studying for my teaching exams and planning my new business; the Goal Train, hosted by Chris Cornelius.
I don’t have time to explain it all here, it would take an entire book (or a series of videos coming to my Facebook page soon), but the train ride was majestic, the new places I explored were fascinating, and the experiences I had will never be forgotten. While I accomplished a lot on the trip, when I got home I faced a brand new problem.
The Blank Calendar
To understand how the 100 Days of Business started, you have to look at my Google calendar. After my trip I opened it up and noticed something that, despite all facts and circumstances, still surprised me. There was literally nothing on it. That can’t be good for business.
To remedy the vast emptiness of white space, I went to my check list of things I needed to do to start my business and saw: Obtain A Home Occupation Permit. After a quick check online, I knew what I had to do and where I had to go to accomplish this task, so I added it to the calendar.
Next, I remembered that on my trip a possible client reached out to discuss a possible video creation opportunity. I scheduled a meeting, and added it to the calendar. I even changed the color to green to make it look pretty. The boring computer calendar was turning into a figurative work of art.
The calendar became a puzzle, and the pieces were all of the tasks I needed to accomplish. The calendar started to have some girth!
At this point you may be saying to yourself, “this is just called using a calendar you idiot!”, and you are correct. Everything I was adding was something that was a requirement needed to accomplish my objective goals. “Take your marketing skills test” “Duh!”
Eventually I ran out of these checklist-style action items, and while April was looking colorful and full, every other month was just blank squares rolling forward to the end of time…empty…quiet…dead…
The 100 Days Of Business
To bring my calendar back to life, over the next 100 days I'm going to fill in every single blank on my business calendar with an activity that will impact my business or my business self.
A lot of it is going to have to do with networking and connecting in person with other business owners and inspirational people. A lot of it is going to have to do with education and training to learn new concepts that I can apply to business. A lot of it is going to have to do with creating videos and honing my marketing skills. No matter what kind of activity it is, it needs to have an answer to one of these questions: "How is this going to impact my business" or "How can I implement this in my business".
I call this proposed idea the "100 Days of Business" because, let's be honest, I'm in marketing and everything needs a catchy name. The name is not important. In the end, it is a way for me to ensure that I am taking advantage of this “free time” when I’m not locked into a job, and use it to improve my self.
For each item I will share with you what I learned via blog, and explain how I will use the information or experience going forward. And hopefully by the end, I’ll have a smooth running business and be well on my way to becoming a full time teacher AND full time business owner.
Come to think about it, the whole time I've explained it as a "concept", but it is actually more of an "experiment". I don't know what is going to happen. My hypothesis: "It can't hurt." I hope you can follow along! Leave a comment with any of your own ideas!