(Part 2) How I made $2M in a day

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OK, let's pick up the story from yesterday, Candidate.

I was telling you the story of my first big product launch.

I launched a $7.95 product on how to save more. It was called Scrooge Strategy. To get people excited, I wrote a "Save $1,000 in 30 Days" challenge with new tips every day.

And I was simultaneously thrilled that people were following along and terrified it was all going to explode any second.

Oh, you think this email is going to tell you how challenging it was, then fast forward to the happy ending?

LOL, I wish.

Unfortunately, there's no happy ending to this story. Scrooge Strategy fizzled. A few people bought, most people didn't. Of the people who bought, many canceled within a month or two.

Sorry, guys

I kept at it for a couple years, trying to split test the opt-in form (huge waste of time) and a bunch of other tweaks … all while I had to keep creating new content for the slowly diminishing list of customers.

Basically, I turned into an emo version of myself. Lots of Luther Vandross and Enigma/Sadeness while writing about ways to save money.

Really glad I'm not doing that anymore.

But I did learn that launches were HARD. Growing a business was HARD. And that there was no clear way to do it right. I was making it up as I went along.

For some business owners, that's where the story ends. They call it quits or just keep beating a dead horse … and spend the next 10 years doing that.

I'm glad I stuck with it. Let's skip ahead to 2014, when this happened:

Those are my daily sales for my first release of Zero to Launch (a course I offered about starting an online business). In six days, I made over $5 million. Here are the specifics:

I had already run several 7-figure launches before this one, but nothing prepared me for a breakthrough of this size.

A lot of people will tell you that when you have a massive success like this, the heavens open up and angels sing — like there's some big "aha" moment — but here's what my reaction was:

IT'S ABOUT TIME!

I'd been putting in the work.

I didn't take any shortcuts. I did everything you're supposed to.

And finally, I got the results.

I was happy about the decisions I'd made that got me here. And I started getting super excited about the opportunities I had going forward.

Did the money make a difference? Sure, but it wasn't like I went out and bought a new car the next day. But … I liked knowing I could. In cash.

I was playing on a bigger field where I could have a bigger impact. THAT felt the best of all.

I talk a lot about living a Rich Life. It's about more than money.

To me, a Rich Life means:

The freedom to splurge, guilt-free, on an appetizer, a nice pair of shoes, or a round of drinks for my friends
The flexibility to take a long, impromptu lunch with a friend
The ability to make a living — and an impact — doing what I love

One of the best ways to achieve a Rich Life is working for yourself.

That could be freelancing on the side, consulting or coaching full-time, or starting your own business.

Starting and growing my business is the reason I'm able to devote every Wednesday to reading…

Some of my favorite reads from the last few years.
Looking forward to more "reading Wednesdays"

...work out every day with a trainer...

One thing I've learned from working out: Success isn't about motivation,
which is fleeting. It's about finding reasons to continue and
putting systems in place to make success your default path

...and take a 6-week luxury honeymoon.

The luxury, the food, and the memories we
created on this trip … I will never forget it.

(BTW, while I was out for 6 weeks, my business kept running. Sales kept coming in.)

On this day, my business made $14,954 while my wife and I were on our honeymoon

The catch is this: working for yourself isn't an instant gold mine. Nor is it a steady, predictable growth.

It's a lot of hard work upfront, interspersed with jumps in revenue. Here, take a look at the incremental growth of IWT revenue over the past couple of years.

Look closely at two years of incremental revenue growth at IWT
and you find successful product launches

The slow, steady rise is the day-to-day business at work. Those periodic jumps are the big business breakthroughs that can completely change the game — and your life.

What are they? The vast majority of the time, they come from successful product launches.

Like the $5M launch of Zero to Launch I showed you earlier.

Best of all, when I figured out how to engineer these breakthrough launches, it meant I could run one — or as many as I wanted — as often as I wanted. (I'll show you what this looks like tomorrow.)

OK, now it's your turn: What would a "breakthrough" launch mean for you?

It doesn't have to be $5M. Everybody starts at the beginning. Maybe your breakthrough launch is $1,000. Or $10,000. The dollar figure isn't important.

What I want to know is what hitting that milestone will mean for you. Be specific.

Shoot me an email and let me know.