If I Had to Start Over, Here's the Plan (499)

If I lost everything – the audience, the money, the reputation – and had to start over, here’s what I’d do.

Step 0: Take Inventory

What do I still have? My skills. My story. My scars. Just because the list is gone doesn’t mean the asset is. This helps frame that even starting from “nothing” isn’t truly nothing.

Step 1: Cry

I’d spend at least a week screaming into the void. “Why me Oh Lord, why me?” Then I would get down to business. I’d remind myself:

“There’s never been a better time to start over. The tools are free. The gatekeepers are gone. The only thing missing is your plan.”

Step 2: Pick a weirdly specific niche

I’d need to spend time to really find my purpose…my Tilt.

As Warren Buffett and Simon Sinek discuss, every successful person is really good at one thing. What am I really good at or know something about to truly differentiate?

And it’s not about being louder or flashier. It’s about being more specific, more real, and more essential to a group of people who need exactly what I have.

I’d need to work on it, but things like:

·         Helping laid-off corporate marketers build a business around one weekly email.

·         Guiding former agency owners to repurpose their network into a publishing-driven business.

·         Helping Midwest Gen Xers who want to escape the job ladder and own something by 50.

·         Coaching marketers over 40 to build businesses that don’t require social media.

·         Teaching people with 1,000 email subscribers how to make a full-time income.

·         Helping podcast hosts averaging over 10,000 downloads per month turn their show into a live event, a book, and a revenue flywheel.

I’d obsess over a tiny group of people with a burning problem.

I’d need to remind myself that you can’t be too niche. The more specific the better. I’m already thinking that a number of the ones I listed are not specific enough.

Step 3: Define Success

What will success look like? I’d spend some time visualizing what that could be. Family life? Money needs? Living situation? Career goals?

Basically, what do I really want here? What’s the dream?

Then, I would write that statement down in my journal and review it every day. Something like:

We are the leading event education resource for podcast hosts and sell the company for two million dollars in 2028.

Something like that.