How I Earned $49,749.46 in February as a Marketing Coach
Transparently and annoyingly, we have two Stripe accounts (long story) and then also have PayPal. So the income above reflects the three different processors.
February was my lowest month in nearly a year. I’m not used to seeing that total going under $50k in cash each month. But that’s okay. I opened up about the reality of sharing my income publicly here and low months are part of that.
February Highlights
A few winters ago, in my yearly years of having kids in NYC, I was hit hard with a case of the winter blues. When you have littles that nap in the afternoon, and then awake when it’s nearly already dark, it can be harrowing.
I swore I’d get out of New York City with my kids every winter on. We spent 9 days in Orlando over January. This February, my husband and I got away to Vegas just us two- a special treat. Then I took my boys on a mommy-and-me winter retreat in Upstate New York, which was an absolute dream.
Truthfully, even with traveling for about half the month, I couldn’t escape the winter blues. I don’t think I realized how cloudy my mind was until we had a few nice days in March and nearly every problem I seemed to have had dissolved. Looking forward to the spring days ahead.
Los Angeles + Vegas
My husband had a work conference in Vegas. I decided to tag along months ago. Vegas is a polarizing place but we love it. It was our very first trip together 11 (!!) years ago, and there’s something about it that makes us feel 22 again. BUT… for no more than 48 hours at a time.
With Vegas being a cross-country flight, I decided to tack on a client lunch to the trip, in Santa Monica! I knew the first day of the Vegas trip my husband would work all day anyway. So I ended up taking a different flight to LAX, taking a car to Santa Monica, enjoying a sunny, delicious lunch with a close client and friend, and then going back to LAX for a flight to Vegas just a few hours later.
True peace for moms is taking a business-class flight alone. No one can contact you, the work is focused and deep, the comfort movies on… it filled up my cup.
Mommy + Me Retreat
After Vegas, my boys and I were treated to an incredible retreat in the woods.
Originally, I signed up for this retreat for just my older son and me. We wanted to have some dedicated us time after he became an older brother. But as the retreat got closer, I couldn’t part with my younger son and decided to bring them both. It was the best. The three of us packed up our rental car and drove out of Manhattan, up to the snowy woods in Upstate New York.
For four days, we had no service. My inbox was paused, not a social media app in sight. We played in the snow, hiked with goats, made s’mores, had kid-friendly yoga, family sound baths, and played by live fires. There was a few hours of childcare every day where us moms got in some pilates and a heart-opening cacao circle. It was an AMAZING experience with Wanderwild Family Retreats that I’m so grateful we attended. It really reminded me of my core values within motherhood and was a beautiful, centering experience for us all.
I was one of two moms (out of 12) that brought more than one kid. Because of this, and how young my kids were, I will admit that the retreat wasn’t exactly relaxing for me. It was grounding, high-quality time with my boys, spending our days outside and exactly how I like. But if you consider doing this and truly want to relax, consider bringing only one kid.
Weaning
After nearly 18 precious months together, my youngest son and I ended our nursing journey. My body felt ready but my heart did not.
Because we were only nursing 1-2x per day, I thought weaning would be pretty seamless. Truthfully, I experience a week of nearly debilitating intrusive thoughts after we weaned. Every night, I was bombarded with claustrophobic, vivid images of whatever plan we had the next day going disturbingly wrong. Taking my kids on adventures throughout NYC is one of my biggest joys as a mother and gives me a lot of confidence. So suddenly having these surges of extreme sureness that one of my sons was going to end up lost on a train without me, or be in danger on a bridge, was downright horrifying.
In the bigger picture, I will probably not even remember this week. It’s such a blip in the overall reality of motherhood. But I want to name it in case it helps any other mom who is in the thick of her mental health journey and can feel so alone. Mercifully, for me this did pass naturally with time.
New product launch
Introducing… my Mastermind Launch Assets! After a $218k Mastermind launch last year filled nearly entirely on emails alone, I decided to pull every single email I sent during the launch, and all else we did to fill that launch, and sell it.
I never would’ve thought to sell my launch assets on my own. It was actually because I posted this reel and saw how much interest the topic got, that I decided to make a whole product on it. It’s a great reminder to TEST different messaging angles because you never know which one will pop.
Income Breakdown
In most of my income reports, I’ve broken down the exact amount of each category.
But, annoyingly, we have so many different payment options in ThriveCart that I’d have to manually go through and add this. And that just doesn’t make sense right now. So I’m just going to share the different categories and am always open to questions (email me at leah@leahgervais.com).
BUT I also want to share percentages and insights into my expenses since I think that’s helpful too.
Thanks for tuning into the updates!
Coaching + Consulting
This comes from my Mastermind. I also kept three spots for private coaching open this year from longtime clients.
Passive Digital Products
These come from the low-ticket digital products we run ads to. Here are our main ones:
- My Ebook, Million-Dollar Marketing
- Our holiday bundle (which has since been retired but was a big hit)!
- NEW: My Mastermind Launch Assets
VIP Days/ Retreats
You heard it here first: I am hosting my first ever group retreat in (drum roll)… Italy!
I’ve hosted VIP Days in Italy.
I’ve hosted group retreats all over the US.
Last year, I hosted my first international retreat in Paris. (An utter dream- check it out here.)
So this year, I’m going for it… a RETREAT in ITALY. And I’m obsessed. So this income stream came from initial payments toward this.
Expenses
I’m going to just brain dump this, so don’t mind lack of organization!
My business credit card bill was $30,480.53 for this month. That includes:
- Meta ads (definitely my biggest credit card expense)
- Contractor payments (second biggest payment)
- Tech stack like LeadPages, ActiveCampaign, Hyros, social media subscriptions, etc.
- One-off lump sump payments (like Peerspace for a reels shoot, flowers for a client going through a hard time, client meeting in Los Angeles, etc.)
Beyond my credit card, I pay myself a fixed salary and am a W2 employee in my own business. I also pay some of my contractors directly from my bank account.
The rest is profit! Which goes into savings, taxes, investing, my HSA plan, and of course, some spending! 🙂
February takeaways
February taught me that even travel can’t escape the winter blues. Even with two trips and a short month, I still felt down much to my dismay. With sicknesses, darkness, cold weather and snow days canceling school, I am thrilled spring is around the corner.
AND… I still have so much fondness and gratitude for the beautiful winter month it was.
The snow days, the wintery retreat, the cozy nights with my kids, their eyes seeing the blizzard… it was all magic all the same.
