108. The Art of Simplified Success: Scaling to Nearly $3M with Less Hustle and More Flow

In this deeply personal and behind-the-scenes episode of Plenty, Kate shares the journey of how her company scaled to just shy of $3 million in revenue—not by doing more, but by doing less. Recorded live at Relaxed Money Live, Kate walks us through the exact steps she and her team took to transition from hustle and complexity to clarity and flow.

From living out of a Prius and launching a $97 course that changed everything, to recovering from business debt and letting go of multiple revenue streams, Kate unpacks the surprising truth: simplicity is the most powerful growth strategy. She reveals how one offer, one problem, one customer, and one sales system helped her not only grow her income but significantly increase her profitability—the part that actually changes your life.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, overcommitted, or like you’re reinventing the wheel in your work, this episode is a breath of fresh air. You’ll hear real numbers, real lessons, and a clear invitation to shift from overdoing to potent, focused action.

You’ll learn:

• Why 78% of Kate’s revenue came from people who had been on her list for less than 6 months
• How simplicity created more revenue and more peace
• The somatic and emotional work Kate did to feel safe holding more success
• The liberating power of building a business that truly feels as good as it looks

This is more than a story about money—it’s a lesson in alignment, sustainability, and leading with integrity in the age of overflow.

“We’re taught that more equals better. But in my experience, less—when it’s aligned—is the secret to sustainable success.” – Kate Northrup

🎤 Let’s Dive into the Good Stuff on Plenty 🎤

(00:33) Journey of Starting an Online Business
(01:07) Growth and Profit Margins
(02:24) Understanding Revenue Sources
(06:44) Challenges of Overcomplication
(07:36) Simplicity as a Growth Strategy
(10:01) Lessons from Past Mistakes
(11:05) Personal Growth and Business Evolution
(12:31) Creating and Selling Courses
(21:08) Crisis and Recovery in Business
(26:31) Financial Restructuring and Profitability
(29:30) Healing Relationships with Money
(38:50) Successful Launch of Relaxed Money
(43:44) Focus on Profitability Over Revenue
(49:11) The Future of Business Simplification

Episode Transcript

Kate Northrup (00:00):
Hello. Today's episode of Plenty is a little
sneak peek behind the scenes ofour Relaxed Money Live event.
This is a talk I gave at RelaxedMoney Live this past February,
and I wanted to share it withour Plenty audience because it
takes you on a journey with methrough how we started our

(00:24):
online business, what exactsteps we took, why we took them,
and how it all worked out upuntil now. So I got started in
02/2010. I'm like geriatric indigital marketer years and I
started with a blog.
And I had didn't even know atthat time that you could make

(00:46):
money online. I had no idea. Istarted the whole thing by
accident. And then I startedmaking money and I was like,
wait, hold up. This isincredible.
So in today's episode, I'mgiving you the good, the bad,
the ugly, a lot of the mistakeswe've made along the way, what
worked, what didn't work, andwhy our business has grown

(01:08):
dramatically in recent years,including increasing our profit
margins, which is the mostimportant part in my opinion,
because you can make money allday long, but if your expenses
are higher than your revenue, itwon't make any difference in
your life. So today's episode isabout simplifying to amplify and

(01:31):
how we built up until last yearto nearly 3,000,000 in revenue,
and what we're doing doing nowis taking that even to the next
step. So you're gonna get thefull scoop in this episode. And
if you are starting an onlinebusiness, if you're wanting to
start one, if you already haveone and you're wanting to grow,

(01:53):
scale, simplify, make thingseasier, you're gonna love this
episode. It is quite detailed.
It is far more detailed than Iever get about our business, so
enjoy the behind the scenes.Welcome to Plenty. I'm your host
Kate Northrup and together weare going on a journey to help
you have an incrediblerelationship with money, time,

(02:17):
and energy. And to haveabundance on every possible
level. Every week, we're gonnadive in with experts and
insights to help you unlock alife of hunting.
Let's go fill our cups. So it'sstory time. I realized for

(02:39):
years, I thought and this isfunny. I thought or I think it's
funny. I thought that thesuccess in our business was
because I'd been at it for solong.
And that's nice and something tofall back upon, but when I
actually looked at the numbers,because the numbers always tell
a story, and if we're notlooking at the numbers we miss

(03:00):
the story. And when I looked atthe numbers, what I realized is
that right now, relaxed moneyaccounts for 80% of our
company's revenue, which isgreat. Yeah. So awesome. And I'm
going to tell you the story ofthat because we only started
doing this at the very end oftwenty twenty two.

(03:22):
And we basically replaced all ofour revenue with one offer.
Okay. The simplicity is divine.So I thought, oh, the reason
stuff works when we promote itnot everything, by the way, we
have plenty of flops. But thereason some things work is that,

(03:42):
you know, I've been at this fora long time, right?
I launched my blog in04/20/2030. April '20 '10. I am
geriatric in online years,Right? Yeah. Who?
Who? Anybody? Has anybody beenhanging out since 2010? Okay. So
like a couple of people.

(04:04):
Anybody brand new to this room,like you've never done anything
I know we have two, never doneanything before? Yes, amazing.
Like, total brand newbies, like,I didn't really know who you
were, like, a month or two ago.Okay. Okay.
That's nobody. So that doesn'treally prove my point. But what
what the numbers showed me whenI looked is that in our most two

(04:26):
in our two recent launches, 78%of our sales for a product that
accounts for 80% of our revenue78% of our sales came from
people who had been on our emaillist for less than six months.
So I was like, this is reallycool because even though I've

(04:49):
been at this for a millionyears, the ROI, the return on
investment we get, has nothingto do with that. Like, anything
is possible right now.
And I share that with youbecause it set me free. Because
I was like, wait, if I want todo a ginormo launch in the

(05:10):
spring, I just can because thepeople who are going to be my
buyers may not even know who Iam in February when they're
going to check out April. And Idon't think that's true for just
me. So I want to share that witheveryone in the room as the

(05:32):
living example with data and piecharts, that anything is
possible at any time. Your pastdoes not at all equal your
future.
Isn't that cool? Yeah. Okay. So,I'm going to share the story of
how we got here today, some ofit, salient points. We just

(05:56):
crossed almost $3,000,000 year,which is the highest we've ever
done.
It was also our most profitableyear, and we also worked less.
Continues to be surprising, theless we do, the more we make.
Let's all say it. The less I do,the more I make. One more time.

(06:20):
The less I do, the more I make.Because it's not about
productivity, it's aboutpotency. Yeah. It's not about
productivity, it is aboutpotency. And the less mishegoss
there is, the more potent thetransmission becomes.

(06:43):
And I learned that, of course,the hard way. So, what happens
when your creative life forcedoes not have systems and
structures? A demonstration. So,we have these desires, we have

(07:19):
these creative impulses, theyare beautiful. And then so many
of us do the following with it.
We don't have a structure, wedon't have a system, we're
addicted to what's new, we'readdicted to what's now, we're
addicted to following thetrends, to the shiny object, to
following our inspiration allthe time, and it goes like this.

(07:43):
Has anybody ever felt that wayin their business? Yeah. Right?
Thank you, Tato, for bringing meballoons in my brand colors.
Okay. So, how many of you feellike you're juggling too much in
your business and life rightnow? Yeah. I've so been there. I

(08:03):
have so been there.
The thing is simplicity isactually the most powerful
growth strategy. Simplicity isactually the most powerful
growth strategy. Think about itlike a river. You got water, you
got river banks. The fewertributaries, the higher the

(08:29):
water pressure in the river.
The more flow, the lesschannels. Fewer channels, more
flow. And channels meaneverything. Ideas, projects,
output, offerings, differentkinds of people you serve,

(08:50):
different ways in which youserve them. And just show of
hands, who here actually doeshave a business?
Okay, great. If you don't, takethis and apply it to your
career, the way you run yourhousehold, the way you care for
your children, take it and applyit to anything. It doesn't
matter. We're all a business insome way. Do you have a

(09:15):
business?
Yes. The answer is yes. Okay,great. Helpful. That's not
exactly data, but like that washelpful.
Oh, by the way, this is totallyunrelated. We're going to be
sending out a survey. And I'masking you right now with my
mouth and my heart that when youanswer those, it means so much

(09:36):
to us, and I'll tell you why.Don't do it for me. Do it
because the data we receive isreally helpful for us to attract
exactly the next right people.
So it is your way of paying itforward. If you've received a
transmission, if you've receiveda transformation in this room or
in Relaxed Money, and youreceive a survey from us, please

(09:59):
fill it out. It'll be easy.It'll take two seconds and it is
a beautiful way for you to passthat gift along to the next
person. Thank you.
Okay. So success, turns out,does not necessarily equal
simplicity. So, I really madethe business harder than it
needed to be for years. Foryears. It was my way, I didn't

(10:21):
even know I was doing it, andwhat ended up happening is that
my unconscious created successthrough doing more, despite the
fact that I wrote a book calledDo Less, which is embarrassing.
And it just was what it was. Idid less and less, but it still
was more. And what it felt likeis I had created something that

(10:47):
sometimes I just wanted to getoff the ride. Anybody ever feel
that way? It's like, shit, Ihave to show up for this thing
and I have to keep showing upand I just off.
I just want off. We were runningmultiple offers, chasing trends,
constantly reinventing the wheeland, yeah. So, 2011 to 2016 was

(11:08):
my over complication era fauxshow. So 2011 so 2011 was a big
year. 2011 was the year I fellin love with Mike.
Twenty eleven, we spent in myToyota Prius driving around the
country. We did 42,000 miles. Wetraveled to 40 states, and we
lived out of the Prius for tenmonths. And we didn't ever sleep

(11:33):
in it, just to be clear. Butthat way, it was our vehicle.
And that year, through thecurriculum that I created for
myself that became Money a LoveStory, I went from making
$34,000 a year the previous yearto making 125 ks. And it is
yeah, it was a big jump. It wasnot because, as we discussed, it

(11:55):
was not because I suddenlymarried a rich man. It was not
because I got a fancy job. Therewas no inheritance and no one
swooped in and saved me.
It was because I changed myinsides. And, that was powerful.
I got the book deal for Money, ALove Story, these shoes are the
shoes I bought for that booklaunch party. These are the

(12:17):
little shoes that could. Theyhave ridden me through my career
for many big events, and so Ibrought them out for this.
And we launched the Money Lovecourse, that was thanks to Mike
because this is just hot tip.First of all, surround yourself
with people who are smarter thanyou. That's number one. And then
number two, listen to yourcustomers. So in 2012, Mike and

(12:38):
I were living in my girlfriend'ssummer house on the East End Of
Long Island.
We were just two kids trying tofigure shit out. And I had this
book deal for Money, A LoveStory, and I was only selling
other people's products at thetime. I had never sold anything
that I had made myself. We wereaffiliate marketers. But I had

(13:00):
this book deal, and and I wasblogging.
And I had grown a list. I hadgrown this following and they
were emailing being like, hey,like, maybe you could sell
something of your ownessentially. Like, I signed up
to learn from you, not all theseother people. And I was like,
well, you just have to waituntil Money, a Love Story comes
out. It'll be September 2013, sojust hang tight.

(13:20):
And Mike said, we could actuallymake a course based on the book.
I was like, oh, cool. Let's dothat. So one weekend, because we
had no kids, he like set me upwith a microphone in front of
the fireplace and we recordedthe thing and did the thing. We
sold it, before it had beencreated, hot tip, sell it before

(13:43):
you make it so that you haveproof of concept.
Okay? Nothing existed. But Imade the sales video, I wrote
the emails, we made $20 in oneweek selling a $97 product. And
I was like, oh my God, theinternet is like an ATM. And

(14:05):
that was a really big moment.
And we sold that course formany, many years. We went on to
sell over a million dollars ofit, serve over 5,000 students.
Anyone here take the Money Lovecourse? Okay, a couple of
people. But see, continuedproof.
You can reinvent any time.Doesn't matter. Okay, great. So
the thing is, when that bookcame out, I got to go on the

(14:25):
Today Show, I got to do verycool media and speaking gigs,
And then I shrunk from successbecause I did not have the
somatic capacity to hold it. Andmy imprinting was a mother who
the day she was on Oprah thefirst time, basically our dad
left.
And so, the imprinting ofbigness being associated with

(14:49):
loss was really deep. So, Icould never have articulated
this, but I was so scared. I wasso scared. And so, what did I
do? I completely abandoned themoney topic and was like, let me
get out my balloon and have itgo.

(15:14):
And I did that for, you know,really until 2016. Luckily, you
know, we got married in themeantime. We had two beautiful
children, like zero regrets, butmy creative energy was all over
the place. We launched thisthing, we launched that thing,
there was this strategy, brandnew webinar over here, oh, let's
do a five day challenge. Maybe aFacebook group, blah blah blah

(15:34):
blah blah blah blah blah blahblah all freaking over the
place.
Our revenue did continue to goup, but there was no system. It
wasn't like, here's how we dothis and then we repeat it.
Every year was basically fromscratch. And that was addictive.

(15:55):
It felt so good.
What's gonna happen? If I pullout the rug from us over and
over and over again, can I makeit happen again? Yes, I can.
Yeah. Cool.
Exhausting. Okay. Every time Isucceeded, every time we
succeeded, I added more. Moreoffers, more launches, more

(16:17):
different business models, salesmethods, and instead of feeling
like I had made it, I just feltconfused about who I was and,
like, maybe I should just quitall the time. I never it it took
a really long time, literally, Ifeel like until this year, to
finally be like, oh, yeah.

(16:39):
I know what I'm doing. Which iskind of a gift, but anyway,
right, both ends. So how many ofyou feel like you're doing too
much right now, not justworkload wise, but trying to
make too many things work atonce? Maybe, a little bit? Too
many irons in the fire?
Yeah. So, in 2016, '20 '17, Ifinally heeded the call. After

(17:05):
Lil Penelope was born, my periodcame back, that's actually the
month my period came back, Ifound that photo last night and
I was like, jackpot. And I wassuddenly fascinated. I was
suddenly fascinated by cycles.
And I thought to myself, how isit possible that my entire adult
life I've had this incrediblecyclical wisdom that I have

(17:29):
never been paying attention to,never organised my time around?
And if this energy, if thispulse of life is responsible for
all of human life on planetEarth, certainly it would be a
good energy time managementsystem for my business. So,
that's where do less came from.That's where there's a cycle for
everything came from. That'swhere the next body of work came

(17:52):
from.
And I started a journalingpractice which was every day I
would write down what day of mycycle I was on, what phase of
the cycle I was in, what thelunar phase was doing, and how I
felt. That was it. It was verysimple. And within a month, I no
longer felt anxious. And I hadsuffered with severe postpartum

(18:13):
anxiety.
And it was a miracle because forthe first time, I had something
I could depend on every singlemonth that I knew was coming,
and it was me. It was sobeautiful. Was like a life raft.
And in 2017, the first year weimplemented a new way of doing

(18:36):
things, this more feminineapproach, this more cyclical
approach, it was our first sevenfigure year. And that was a goal
that we had been chasing for along time.
So, at the end of that year, wehad made 1,080,000.00 I don't
know how to say that. I don'tknow how to say the big numbers.

(18:58):
But, it was our first do lessmake more year. And what was
amazing is we bought a spechouse that summer, that May,
May, June. And a year prior, wehad submitted for a mortgage and
we were not approved.
We had been we submitted for amortgage for a $500,000 house or

(19:19):
$4.50 or something like that andwe were denied. And, that was
with an $800,000 a yearbusiness. And, I felt like we
felt I won't speak for you,Mike, but I felt like such a
fuck up. I was like, how is itthat I have an Ivy League
education, I have this big of abusiness, and nobody will trust
me to buy a house? We had ababy, we were living in a

(19:39):
rental, which there's nothingwrong with that, we live in a
rental now.
But I just was like, ah. Andthen a year later, we were
buying a house, picking out thefixtures, doing the whole thing
in a neighbourhood where ourneighbors were cardiothoracic
surgeons, lawyers, dentists. AndI remember Sarah Tacey said, she

(20:01):
remembered that I had shared aquote from Danielle LaPorte,
which was, live in a house Ibought with my dreams with
ideas. I actually bought with mydreams. But I live in a house I
bought with my ideas, and Sarahwas driving away one day and she
was like, I just stood therelooking at who your neighbors
were and looked at, like, youfreaking built that house with

(20:24):
your ideas.
So a year later, we were buyinga house that was significantly
more expensive than the one wecouldn't get approved for the
year before. Again, shit canhappen fast. Who you were is not
who you will be. So, I mean,it's not like then it was

(20:46):
sunshine and rainbows. So thenwhat happened was, in 2018,
April, I pushed out thisbeautiful baby girl who's crying
in this picture, but with herone hundredth percentile head
size.
It was a real reclamationbecause she was a VBAC after the
first birth was an unplanned Csection that was very traumatic.

(21:07):
And the minute I pushed her out,Mike broke into a full body rash
that was this severe illness.And many of you know this story,
so I won't go into depth aboutit. But it was fucking rough
year. And in the fall of twentyeighteen, we had a failed launch
where we thought we were goingto sell over 100 spots and we

(21:29):
sold three.
Overnight, our open rates hadgone down to 9% over the summer,
but because we didn't have theright systems and structures and
KPIs in place, no one told usand I wasn't looking. So,
essentially, we are an emailmarketing company, essentially.
And if nobody's opening youremails, your business is going

(21:51):
to tank. But we were so tired,sick, all the things, we didn't
see it coming, so down the pikethings kind of fell apart. We
had a live event called what wasit called, Origin Live?
Who was at Origin Live? Yes,yes, yes, yes. Okay, we have a

(22:13):
few in the room. I was hangingon by a thread. We had flown in
a production company.
We had people flying in all theway from South Africa, all over
the world. Mike had lost 40pounds in one month. He could
barely stand. He looked likethis. He was wearing his coat
inside at all times.

(22:35):
And for those of you who livewith guy guys, they're
constantly fighting with you toturn down the thermostat. So
that was a sign that things werereally bad, that he was wearing
a winter parka inside at alltimes. He was constantly cold.
And I remember breaking down inmy car. I called my mom.
It was brutal, I just was like,it's all too much, I can't,

(22:57):
like, it's I told her all thethings that were going on, and
God bless her, we've had aconversation about this after.
She goes, well, sounds likeyou've got it all together over
there. Got off the phone and Iwas like, okay. And I said,

(23:18):
know. You were living in NewYork.
Sorry. So here's the point ofthe story. Know, because
family's in the room. They'relike, what the At Thanksgiving
that year, we had Thanksgivingwith both of our parents, which
was, I think, unprecedented,highly unusual. And I will never
forget, because during thistime, I didn't actually know how

(23:41):
bad it was, as evidenced by thefact that there are two
incredible women here in theroom who I didn't call.
And I'll never forget standingin our kitchen on Thanksgiving,
and my dad walked in and he sawwhat Mike looked like, which you
can see here in this photo. Thisis not good. This is a very sick

(24:04):
man. And my dad walked in forwhatever reason, we hadn't seen
him in like a month and a half,you know, travel, whatever, and
he put his hands on Mike'sshoulder and he said, Don't ever
let it get this bad and not callus again. Because my dad lived
twenty minutes away.

(24:25):
There was so much help. Therewere so many other options. But,
my identity was passed down fromEdna Northrop, my grandmother,
whose life motto was, don't askfor a lighter pack, ask for a
stronger back. Yeah. So theobvious choice was to cancel the

(24:53):
event, let our team go, andfocus on my babies and my
husband.
But what I did was send myhusband to my mother's house
because it was so painful tolook at him so sick, and I
couldn't help him, and I justwas like, I have to focus on the

(25:15):
business. We totally could havejust stopped, but it didn't
occur to me as an option. Theremay be somebody in this room
right now who's in the middle ofsomething where you are so
identified with being the strongone that it is not even

(25:37):
occurring to you that you couldjust get off the ride, or call
your amazing mother-in-law, oryour sister. Like, people will
come help you, but you have tolet them know. Anyway, long
story short, Mike got better.
And, yay. But we were left witha bit of a financial quagmire.

(26:05):
And we went into 125 ks ofbusiness debt. And in 2019, we
got sober about that, and we cutour business expenses by $25,000
a month overnight. While I wason the road launching Do Less,

(26:26):
Mike was letting everyone go,except for Takesha.
She's always the one who stays,or cutting their time in half.
And, that year, we four x ed ourprofit and only increased our
income by 20% I mean 10%. Howcool is that? We 4x'd how much

(26:51):
we kept, while only increasingthe top line revenue by 10%.
That's what's possible when youget fucking serious about your
numbers.
There's so much more availableto you. I think the point of
this talk is there's so muchmore available, and it's right

(27:11):
here. It's right here. Help,money, all of it. So, we
launched our first high ticketoffer that year, which was
really exciting, and that yearalso I was sitting at Sarah
Jenks' mother's house with usand Eliza, and Eliza said to me
I'll never forget it, because atthat time, there were years in

(27:32):
here where affiliate revenue wasstill 50% of our revenue.
Meaning, selling other people'sstuff continued to be a huge
line item for us. And I thoughtthat was great, because it was
so easy to talk about otherpeople. But Eliza said to me,
you know, if any of you knowher, her name is Eliza Allaway,

(27:55):
she's amazing. She does workwith teen girls. She said, you
know Kate, I just need to giveyou this feedback.
It's really confusing to be onyour email list and know that
you're really brilliant atteaching business, but you talk
about all these other people whoteach business in a way that

(28:16):
makes it sound like you're moreenthusiastic about what they're
doing than what you're doing.And I was like, shit. I had no
idea. And I realized I wasreally outsourcing my power. I
was really good at bringingpeople in and then sending them
out like a hot potato, similarto my personality with money.

(28:42):
Not being able to hold thesomatic capacity for that many
beautiful humans, for that muchmoney in the bank, for that much
It's working for that level ofsteadiness. So, all these ways

(29:02):
of unconsciously. So, we didknow I made a commitment after
that gathering, and that is thepower of masterminds and
mentorship. Right? People willhold your toes and reflect back
to you what you cannot see inyourself.
So I said, no more big affiliatelaunches just for this year. I
like to do small experiments, sojust for this year. But it

(29:25):
accounted for, the year before,400 k of revenue. So letting go
of that, I didn't know how itwas going get replaced. That was
scary.
But the cool thing is, when youmake these leaps, and when you
ask God, and you turn it over,it was more than replaced. And
so twenty twenty one twentytwenty one, I will just say, we

(29:51):
did fine. Okay? So I'll get tothe numbers. It all worked out
just fine.
The revenue was replaced. But Irealized just because I had
simplified, so just because wehad cut down expenses, just
because we had done some of thephysical things with the money,
I had not fully healed myrelationship with money and

(30:11):
security. And Mike got sickagain in January 2021. And it
showed me where I was stillgripping. The thing is, the
bigger we grow, the more safetywe need to be able to hold it.
This is never a one and done.We're never just done with our

(30:32):
expansion. And I really had torewire myself to stop making
things harder than they neededto be. Briefly, I think many of
you have heard this story, butfor those in the room who are
new, 2021, we moved to Miami,somewhat under duress. Mike had
gotten extremely ill again verysuddenly.

(30:55):
It was awful. I had a lot oftrauma coming up about it. It
was awful for him as well,obviously, in very different
ways. And we I had this loop,and the loop was, if Mike could
just get healthy and make abunch of money, everything would
be perfect. So, basically, I amresenting him and I will not

(31:20):
give myself permission.
I don't get to exhale until thisother thing happens. And our
therapist, David, who hasalready been discussed, David
Goats, we love you, he had meclose my eyes and he said, okay
Kate, now imagine that Mike justwalks in the door and he says,
babe, I've just made $10,000,000so how do you feel inside? What

(31:42):
is your response? And, ofcourse, I expected that I would
feel elated, relieved, all sortsof different positive things.
But what I felt inside wasflatlined.
I felt dead inside. Notdissimilar to what Sarah Tacey

(32:03):
was sharing about those fewmoments when she those couple of
moments when she had resourcedherself beyond belief, and she
felt kind of dried up, and like,what's the point? And so, what
that told me was I was addictedto stress and pressure. And when
I imagined not having it, I feltdead. Can anyone relate to that?

(32:29):
Yeah. It's very sneaky. It isvery sneaky the way we pull the
rug out from ourselves to feelalive. So, the discomfort that I
had with stability had beenkeeping me addicted to
reinvention. And our businessstayed right around the

(32:53):
1,200,000.0 mark, from 2018 to2021.
I did a 90 day experiment. Andthat ninety day experiment was,
Okay, I'm just going to deliveron the promises we've already
given to our customers. I'mgoing to there was an amount

(33:14):
that I knew we could go into thehole and be fine. It was 125 ks
because two years before we hadpaid that off, no problem. So, I
was like, Okay, dollars 125 ks Ican overspend, be fine, and then
or ninety days.
And during that time, every timeI begin to create something from

(33:36):
the place of pressure, stress,and addiction, Actually, my role
was anytime I begin to createsomething, full stop. Like, I
had to get off the crack. So, itwas no creating anything, no new
campaigns, no new marketingideas, no new offerings, nada,

(33:58):
nada, for ninety days. And everytime I could feel that ramp up
energy of blowing into theballoon, I just came down here
to Biscayne Bay. We lived about15 blocks up.
I came down here to the bay, Isat on the concrete wall, and I

(34:19):
just asked the ocean what shewould have me know. And, I felt
the sun on my face and Iscreamed into pillows in the
closet and I sat in the dark andI cried, sometimes on FaceTime
with my friends, and I watcheddaytime television. That was my
healing plan. And I'll tell youwhat, it felt like shit. It was

(34:43):
not it was not fun, it didn'tfeel good at all, it felt like
dying.
Because there was a part of methat was dying, there was an old
way dying. But repeat practiseover ninety days was very
effective. And at the end ofthat ninety days, we had hit all
our business goals, we had notgone into the hole at all. And,

(35:08):
I will say, though, I just wantto be fully transparent, that
year, we made less money thanthe year before. Our email list
shrunk, and so did our socialmedia, and we were fine.
So, really want to normalize.You don't have to grow every
year, at least, visibly. Yeah.Yeah. Right?

(35:36):
So when I finally, finallystopped over complicating and
listen, this is going to be likean addictive pattern my whole
life I'm aware of, but wow, thegrowth is tremendous. So 2022,
summer of 'twenty '2, we had ascenario inside our company
where many of the team wereeither let go or left. Takesha

(35:59):
stayed. And we really were doingsome reorganizing. And I had
done enough work on myself bythat time, and I called Mike in
during a money meeting, and Isaid, Babe because at this
point, Mike was doing his ownconsulting work and had started

(36:21):
a different podcast and wasdoing some other work that was
doing really well.
But, I called him in and I said,I need you back. I need you to
come back. I need you to helpme. I need you to save me. Like,
I have just lit a fire insidethe company, and I really need
help fixing it.
I cannot hold this alone. And hewas like, great. I'm back for a

(36:44):
year, all in. And that was twoand a half years ago. So we'll
see what happens.
But, shortly after that, we wereabout to launch a money program,
and I was really excited aboutit. And then Mike got hit by a
car. October 25, on the day ofthe eclipse twenty twenty one

(37:05):
twenty twenty two, he got hit bya car. Luckily, his head and
spine were fine, but it hit thesame knee he had broken eighteen
months earlier, which was partof the previous story, I didn't
even mention that part. And sowe so I brag, I celebrate, any
of Mama Geno's people, I brag, Icelebrate that we paused the

(37:26):
launch like a healthy human.
And Mike had two surgeries, wetended to him in the hospital,
his mom came, spent Thanksgivingwith him while I took the girls
up to Maine. We did nurturing.We actually paid attention to

(37:47):
the most important thing. And Ijust was like, the money will
work itself out. I had finallylearned how to relax inside even
when all the externalcircumstances were such that it
seemed like it was not a goodtime to relax.
But I just was like, what ifthis wasn't the reason we don't

(38:11):
get to live our lives the way wewant to? What if this is the
reason we do? Like, what if wejust live joyfully with Mike on
crutches? What if we justincorporate this? And I can't
say I nailed that every singleday, but it was awesome, like
the shift.
And so, finally, he was wellenough, things were stable

(38:34):
enough, we decided to launchRelaxed Money. And I had
previously, to his accident,done this super fun photo shoot
called Money Love the Revival,and I brought in Chicago Fosse
vibes and did a whole character.It was really fun. And with no
ads, and maybe one affiliate, webrought in over 14,000 sign ups

(38:58):
for our free event, and it wasbananas. It was bananagrams.
Nothing had been this easy in adecade. It was crazy. I was
like, Wow, I guess we're on theright track. It just felt so
easy. And then we made $7.50 ksin sales that first launch of

(39:22):
Relaxed Money.
Anybody here from the firstclass of Relaxed Money? Yes.
Amazing. Relaxed Money one pointzero. And I taught it live and
it was great.
And then we are now about to gointo Relax Money five point o.
So it'll be our fifth cohort,enrolling at the April. And what

(39:43):
was so cool is at the beginningof twenty twenty three, so Mike
is still on crutches, we go to,our annual planning retreat,
which we always do betweenChristmas and New Year's. We're
laying out the map of the year,and I was trying to fit in my
mastermind retreats in thecalendar, And it just felt hard
with the scheduling Tetris. AndI said, you know, hon, if we

(40:08):
didn't need the money for theMastermind, I wouldn't do it
this year.
And Mike said, We never need themoney enough for you to do
something you don't want to do.And so, we had a few people
enrolled, I refunded them, andwe also decided to close down
the Origin membership, which hadbeen going since spring of

(40:28):
twenty seventeen. Together,those two revenues equaled a
million dollars that we werepulling. However, I had the
sobriety to have a plan, And theplan was, this Relax Money thing
seems like it's working. And wedid a really strategic pivot
where the people who were in theOrigin membership, we invited

(40:51):
them into Relax Money, there wasa smooth runway.
Anyone take that runway? Anyonejump on that particular slip and
slide? Beautiful. And wetransferred them. It was a
lateral transfer with lots ofholding.
We didn't do it perfectly, but Ithink we did Okay. And so we
shut down those revenue streamsin 2023 was the year we pulled

(41:13):
them both. And that year, we hit2,200,000 We crossed the
$2,000,000 mark for the firsttime, having said goodbye to
half of our revenue at thebeginning of the year. Again,
your past does not dictate yourfuture. And the Relaxed Money
launch went really well.
I launched it twice in 2022,twice in 2023, and then 2024 we

(41:39):
were like, I wonder what wouldhappen if we took all the energy
of two promotions and put theminto one. And that was a risk
because we said during thelaunch when we didn't know what
the final numbers were going tobe, we told everyone, this is

(42:00):
the only time we're doing thisthis year. And I'm not the kind
of person who will then turnaround and come up with a
bullshit story as to why wewould do it again later when we
had already said we weren't. SoI was like, Okay, God. Let's
see.
But what was really amazing isthat because I knew, inside

(42:25):
myself, we were only doing itone time, I gave it everything I
had. The team gave it everythingwe had. We left it all on the
dance floor this past spring,and we booked booked or banked
booked 1,900,000.0 with onelaunch, when previously we had

(42:47):
done 1.1 with two launches overthe year. Which the Relax Money
launch, I don't know how itlooks in front of the scenes or
behind the scenes or whatever.We're doing a lot of things.
It is not do less. It is very domore, and it is a total freaking
delight. But we do a liveworkshop. There, we have over a

(43:08):
hundred affiliates. There'swe're running ads.
We have a social media campaign.There's a lot of freaking
emails. There's segments.There's bonuses. Like, it's a
whole thing.
So doing that only once andmaking nearly as much as we did
before doing it twice was such afreaking miracle. But it's not a

(43:28):
miracle because that's a law ofthe universe. When you channel
your energy into fewer channels,fewer channels, more powerful
potency. Fewer channels, higherpotency. And then the thing I
was really proud of was not therevenue increase because this

(43:51):
year we came in just shy of3,000,000, it was the
profitability increase becauserevenue doesn't mean shit.
Revenue doesn't mean shit. Andlisten, I actually don't mind
the like, I just had my milliondollar year, I just had my
hoodie whata whata. I don't do atonne of that on social. I
appreciate how magnetic it is,and I too lean in and I'm like,

(44:14):
what are you doing over there?But I think, like, let's
normalize sharing ourprofitability percentages.
Right? Because it matters somuch more. It matters so much
more. I don't care how much youmade. How much did you keep?
Because what you keep is yourlife. What you keep is your
life, and then what you keep,you get to grow. Right? Okay.

(44:38):
Because that's how money works.
Yeah. That's how money works.Okay. What else? So body?
Body. Oh. I'm like, do we need abody break? Almost. Almost.
So we finally have landed.Finally. And listen, I've been

(45:00):
friends with Amy Porterfieldsince, like, the early aughts.
Marie and I, Marie Forleo and Imet in a yoga class in 02/2009.
I've watched these bitches takeoff with their one fucking
thing, and watch them and belike, that is so boring.
I would die if I launched thesame thing every year. Watch me

(45:23):
now. So, like, bow to the womenwho came before and who were
like, you know, you might wannajust do and I was like, no, I
can't. So it's fine. Like ourtimeline is our timeline.
It's all super beautiful. Iwouldn't trade anything. But I
got to tell you, one customer,one problem, one offer, one

(45:47):
freaking sales system. Rinse andrepeat, rinse and repeat. And
then, do you know what you cando with all that extra creative
life force?
You can learn to crochet, youcan have a garden, you can have
sex, you can make soup, you canread novels, you can have

(46:12):
overflow to serve your communityin new and interesting ways.
Anybody here watch Queer Eye?Okay, I love that show so much.
We just watched an episode whenwe got to the hotel, naturally,
and we There was a woman onthere who was so beautiful, She,
she crochets, she learned tocrochet as part of her healing
grief work after her divorce,and she crochets, plastic bags

(46:35):
into sleeping mats for unhousedpeople so that they can have a
softer sleep. Do you see?
I mean, that's little, but it'sbig, right? We can serve in such
beautiful ways when we stopbeing the farting balloon and
channel ourselves one customer,one problem, one offer, one

(47:00):
sales system. At least twofreaking start with. I'll never
forget. Anybody here used tolisten to Entrepreneur on Fire,
that podcast with John LeeDumas?
So, John Lee Dumas and I grew upforty five minutes from each
other, and I'll never forget, Iwas at a thing with him, and I
was asking him something abouthow do I decide what to work on,
and da da da da da And he waslike, he was like, focus. Follow

(47:27):
one course until success. And Iwas like, gross, not sexy. Turns
out he was right. And reallysimplifying your business model
or your life does not limit yourgrowth, it amplifies it.

(47:49):
Strong river banks, more flow.We don't want these soupy
riverbanks that are likecollapsing all the time, a
million tributaries, strongriverbanks, more flow. Really,
the future of business, Ibelieve, belongs to the
simplifiers with the advent ofAI, who's using AI in any way in

(48:12):
their career, yeah, or life,planning their vacations or
whatever. Some people arefreaked out, they're like, it's
going to replace humans. I'mlike, I don't think so.
What I think is that and myexperience with it is that it
has made me more human. It hasmade me stop wasting my energy

(48:34):
on the things that are not agood use of my time, like
analysing 15 transcripts for thethemes. Like that's not a good
use of my time. But you knowwhat is? Reading through the
results and then tapping into myheart and delivering something
based on the summary.
So it is calling us into deeperhumanity. It is calling us into

(48:55):
deeper connection with oneanother. And it is our
opportunity to stop gettingbogged down and dimming our
light and weakening our potencyby running around doing
35,000,000 different things.That's the difference between
the fine mist setting on yourhose and the power spray

(49:16):
setting. If you want to succeedand be a leader, be on the
leading edge in our next era inthis Pluto in Aquarius, right?
No, not Pluto in Aquarius, ageof Aquarius. Yeah, Pluto in
Aquarius. It is, yeah. In thisPluto in Aquarius era,

(49:36):
simplification so that we candeepen our connection, presence,
potency, and humanity. And whenwe simplify things, and when we
allow ourselves to build thesomatic capacity to stay with
stability, to get really wellacquainted with stability, and

(50:02):
sit with it, and actually learnto find bliss there, we can
expand in unbelievable ways.
And really, the people in thisroom are the people who are part
of that age because out of 2,000people who were invited to this
event, 108 came. 108 was ourfinal number. So you're special.

(50:26):
You are on the leading edge. Youare the ones who are part of
building this next stage inbusiness and beyond, the make
more, do less, potency h.
So I'm going to ask you, what ifyou could create a business,
insert life, career, that feelsas good as it looks. Okay. Now

(50:52):
that you have heard the fullbehind the scenes of our story
of building a digital productbusiness, you might be thinking,
I want to have a digitalproduct. Like, I wanna have
something that sells $24.07without me needing to trade
hours for dollars. Or maybe youalready do, but you're not

(51:14):
selling as much as you want.
So my friend, my dear friend,he's also been a mentor of mine,
James Wedmore, has done over90,000,000 in sales in online
digital products. And in fact,he built his business to
$2,000,000 a year selling $97courses. He is the master, and

(51:35):
he has a brand new trainingcalled your first digital
product, which is taking youfrom zero to sales. How to
create a digital product thatpeople will actually buy with
his strategies that have takenhim to over 90,000,000 in sales.
So all you need to do to getthis video series for free is go

(51:58):
to KateNorthrup.com/first.
Kate Northrup Com forward /first, and you'll get that your
first digital product trainingseries from James. Enjoy.