Gillian Perkins is the founder of Startup Society and the host of the Earn More, Work Less podcast. She also hosts a popular entrepreneurship-focused YouTube channel that has received over 20 million views to date.
Gillian teaches people how to start and build profitable online businesses that allow them to earn passive income and live a flexible lifestyle. She runs her company with a primarily remote team, enabling her to travel the world with her family and homeschool her four young children.
“Focus on the most important things that have the biggest impact.”
Gillian Perkins
Worst investment ever
Gillian’s worst investment happened a few years back when she started an online business. At the time, she was running a local business and wanted more flexibility and freedom. So she thought an online business was the way to go.
She started tinkering around, created a website for her business, and got heavy into that online marketing world.
Getting help from the gurus
In a bid to grow her online business, Gillian watched a webinar about growing an email list. The coach promised that by growing an email list, one would have a machine that can produce cash at any point in time. You can just tell your email list about whatever you’re selling, and they will buy it with no questions asked.
Gillian thought that this sounded pretty good and precisely because she already knew that she wanted to sell online courses. Gillian is a teacher at heart. So she felt this was a good fit for her and was pretty much sold on that idea.
The course cost $2,000, and at the time, Gillian was living paycheck to paycheck. But, she spent $2,000 that she didn’t have because this sounded like a good and helpful thing to have in her business.
Getting ahead of herself
Now the course wasn’t bad at all. In fact, in the grand scheme of things, it was a good course. The problem was simple; Gillian didn’t understand what she was buying. She did not know anything about building an online following or marketing her business, two things that were paramount for the course to work.
The course was mainly about optimizing her email list, yet she didn’t have an email list to begin with. She had bought a tool for her tool belt when she didn’t know how to build things yet. Needless to say, Gillian didn’t get much of a return on investment, and her $2,000 went down the drain.
Lessons learned
Don’t commit too fast
Try to fully understand what you are getting yourself into before you sign up or commit to anything. Don’t let the scarcity mindset make you think that you must have it right now. There is going to be another opportunity so take your time to think things through. So be patient, take it slow, take it easy, and keep doing some research.
Growing your business require you to take action
Moving forward and taking action is a crucial part of growing your business. You don’t have to have all your ducks in a row; just move forward.
Andrew’s takeaways
Listen with care
Be careful when listening to people’s advice. Before you act, step back, and don’t let your emotions go out of control. Evaluate everything before you allow people to influence your decision.
Look at the big picture
Any business is a series of processes, from marketing to sales to operations to finance. Sometimes we get excited about one part of that process and neglect the rest. When you decide to start an online business or any other business, you have to realize that you have to do all of those parts. It can’t just be one part of it.
Actionable advice
Be patient and do your research. Always know that there’s going to be another opportunity out there.
No. 1 goal for the next 12 months
Gillian’s number one goal is to grow her membership program, Startup Society, that teaches people how to start online businesses, to 1,000 members. She’s passionate about sharing this opportunity with as many people as possible.
Parting words
“Be patient; there’s going to be another opportunity.”
Gillian Perkins
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