[From Big Money Food: A 31-Day Devotional for Entrepreneurs, Side Hustlers, Dreamers & Their Money]
In case you’re nosy and wanna know about the money I lost $20k, here you go…
So, I raised $21k from my family to fund the Big Idea Food® strategy for 2021 and beyond. It was centered around getting my book to the 2 million people in the US who fit my target demographic and I was sooooo pumped about this strategy. I just KNEW I was about to make some major waves & was so proud of myself for outlining and asking God for what I wanted for the business (and actually receiving the money to pay for it!).
In the month(ish) that followed, I put the money where I said I’d put it but it was like God was changing the plans I had made in real time. So when I paid for “x”, it changed to “y” and that money was essentially wasted. Here’s some examples:
God was like you think you need these ppl and that’s where you’re in error.
I generally wasn’t feeling genuine about reaching out to these ppl and I realized I wanted to build genuine relationships and connections in ways that didn’t involve me asking them for something in return. It just was feeling icky in my spirit so I stopped
Invested in a team too soon. I had planned to create a podcast to provide a platform for these influencers to come speak on which would grow our reach to their audiences (helping the book get to my 2 million people). But when I changed routes with seeding them the book, that changed the need for the podcast (AFTER I had already signed a contract with a podcast manager) + also I started paying for it too soon, before I had an established stream of revenue to continue funding that effort.
Lost money with paid ads. I invested in paid Facebook ads, including hiring a team to handle it. Sold a lot of books and gained a LOT of learnings but ultimately lost money there due to general learning and testing which is to be expected. Simple fixes required but, again, more money lost.
My program wasn’t even ready to scale yet! It was still in its infancy and needed to be renovated first. This program was great but about 2-3 steps ahead of where I needed to be focused at the time.
I soon realized they were teaching me to build a coaching company which is NOT what I wanted in my heart of hearts (I ultimately wanted a community!). It was going to be a business I’d hate.
About a month into executing the strategy, it became clear to me that something was wrong. Nothing I had planned seemed to be panning out and it felt like I was burning through the investment money in the process.
I went to God about it and He was like yup, cuz you need to slow yo butt down.
And He was SO right. Alll the way down. I had built this entire strategy and, of course I had prayed during it’s creation and sought Him about it but, in reality, I wasn’t really giving Him time or space to truly respond to what I was planning. I was more or less talking to Him about what I had already decided to do. Oop!
That’s when He gave me the idea to wait 7 days before making decisions. And actually expect Him to respond to me with His feedback by the 7th day. When I tell you. Game changer. I’ve been keeping a record of all the ways doing this has helped me since then, money I’ve saved, bullets I’ve dodged, etc and I HIGHLY recommend it if you want your business to be in alignment with God’s will for you.
Even though I had to pay $21,000 to learn this lesson, it’s a lesson I believe was foundational to my continued success in building this business in partnership with God. Painful, but worth it!
And let me add that, a year after all this went down, my family member who invested the $20k contacted me to say that God had literally paid them back and that I no longer had to. What?! So it’s like God ultimately footed the bill of this lesson. He knew I’d need it for where He’s taking me and $21k is nothing to Him.
Whew! We serve a RICH God mmkay!!!?
Sidebar: Just in case you’re curious, I wanted to share that had I fully waited to talk to God before pulling the trigger on these investments, I believe I would have invested it in developing more BIF products. Our audio book, additional volumes, a journal, etc. That’s where I would’ve and believe I should’ve invested it. In products that can yield long term revenue, have been needing to be produced & are the most impactful type of offers I’d produced up to that point.