10 Month Update on my Spiritual Side Business

I have to get real with myself (and with you) -- it’s not really a business until it starts to make money. 

For now, it’s a hobby, and a potential business. 

A few months ago, I made an initial offer to my new (spiritual side project) audience: Would they be interested in hiring me as a spiritual counselor, even for just $35 an hour? This is far lower than my business coaching fees, but I wanted to experiment, knowing I can eventually raise it up to a rate that is sustainable. 

No one took me up on it. That was discouraging. The doubts are still with me today: Can I really make this work?

Upon reflection, I realize that I am not giving this side project the time it needs. 2 hours a week is just not enough time.

All I can do in 2 hours a week is write a post, make a video, and run FB Ads to distribute the content. There’s no time left for:

• strategic thinking about what offerings I might create
• connecting 1-1 with fans
• researching what else they’ve bought (to give me ideas to create or improve my offerings)
• ... and certainly no time to actually have appointments with clients!

The reality is that my plate is full, and so is my heart. I’m grateful and privileged to be able to earn a good living, doing what I love, with my current business (GeorgeKao.com).

Therefore, no sufficient motivation, time, and energy exists to turn my spiritual side project into a business anytime soon.

If I were in a job I didn’t love, or didn’t have a stable income, I might have the motivation to make the time and energy.

Yet, too much financial pressure would also reduce the authenticity of a business.

Where I’m landing with my decision now is this: I need to commit an additional hour or two per week to this project.

I’m also re-committing to my original project: to see if I could build a spiritual business from scratch, which is much harder than building a marketing-training business, because many people are still unaccustomed (or entirely opposed) to paying money for spiritual advice or help. But since many of my marketing clients are trying to develop spiritual businesses, I figure I should try as well, to experience it first hand.

In the next 6 months, I will be applying my marketing methodologies step by step to my spiritual side project, including:

• Authentic content writing
• Facebook ads
• Conducting fan interviews
• Doing market research
• Creating a framework and curriculum
• Networking and collaborations

...and I will be teaching these things in my online courses for the rest of this year.

And I must not forget to celebrate the progress I have made:

• Consistent writing and videos have allowed me to think more deeply and widely about the topics
• As a result I now have enough content that could be turned into a short book (which I will this year)
• Consistent distribution of my weekly content via FB Ads has built an initial audience of people who regularly read and watch

I’ve proven to myself that I have plenty to say about spiritual topics. I believe all of us have unlimited ideas we can create on the topics of our interest.
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