May 2023 Income At-A-Glance
Gross Income for May: $173,293
Total Expenses for May: $19,065
Total Net Profit for May: $154,228
Difference b/t May & April: -$11,465
% of net profit to overall gross revenue: 89%
Why We Publish An Income Report
This monthly income report is created for you, Fire Nation!
By documenting the struggles we encounter and the successes we celebrate as entrepreneurs every single month, we’re able to provide you with support – and a single resource – where we share what’s working, what’s not, and what’s possible.
There’s a lot of hard work that goes into learning and growing as an entrepreneur, especially when you’re just starting out. The most important part of the equation is that you’re able to pass on what you learn to others through teaching, which is what we aim to do here.
Check out all of our monthly income reports – from the very beginning!
Let’s IGNITE!
**We’ll receive a commission on the affiliate links below. If you click on my affiliate link and sign up for the products and services I trust and recommend, then I will earn a commission.
Ron Parisi’s Monthly Tax Tip
Hello, Fire Nation! Ron Parisi from CPA On Fire here with our May 2023 Tax and Accounting tip.
At CPA On Fire, we specialize in working with entrepreneurs to minimize their tax liability while keeping them in line with the ever-changing tax laws.
Our firm has been working with JLD & Kate at Entrepreneurs On Fire for years now, and they’ve included me in these monthly income reports with unlimited access to all their accounts so I can verify that what they report here is complete and accurate.
And because they believe in delivering an insane amount of value to you, my job doesn’t stop at the verification level; I also provide a new tax and accounting tip every month!
Ron’s May Tax Tip: The “Home Office” tax deduction for business owners
Today, I’m taking it home to avoid you – the business owner – paying too much in taxes.
We are focusing on the “Home Office” tax deduction for business owners.
In evaluating this deduction with your tax professional, there are a few key “buzzwords” with which you need to be familiar.
- “Exclusively”,
- “Regularly”, and
- “Principal Place of Business”
If these buzzwords do apply to your home space, then the last part of my tip focuses on some types of expenses that could be used for this deduction.
“Home Office” Buzzword Definitions
1. Exclusively
The area can only be used for your trade or business. It does not need to be partitioned off, but it does need to be exclusive use.
For example, using your kitchen table for some business related tasks is likely NOT exclusive.
However, if you use a particular desk and filing cabinet area only for your business, you may be able to calculate a home office deduction based on the related square footage, even if located in a multi-purpose room.
2. Regularly
This means more than occasionally or incidentally.
For example, you likely qualify if you use a space every day or certain days of the week for work.
3. Principal Place of Business
This could also be your principal place to meet clients, patients or customers in the normal course.
This criteria is dependent on time spent and relative importance of the business functions performed at the location.
NOTE: The structure can be a separate structure (i.e., not attached to your home) if the usage otherwise qualifies.
What are Typical Types of “Home Office” Expenses and How Much is Deductible?
Common Types of Qualifying Expenses
- Rent
- Mortgage Interest
- Property Taxes
- Homeowners’ Insurance
- Utilities
- Repairs & maintenance
- Snow Removal
- Lawn care
How Much is Deductible?
Proportionate size of business space is key.
As with all things tax and accounting related, documentation is your ally.
Having documentation that supports the proportionate size of your business space is important for accurate calculation and your peace of mind.
Again, this is Ron Parisi, from CPA on Fire, always wonderful to be with you, Fire Nation. Until next month, go out there and crush it!
Those of you in Fire Nation who are entrepreneurs and business owners and are looking to upgrade your financial operations in 2023, check out our website: CPAOnFire.com!
We’ve been able to get our clients amazing results and would love to help you out as well. Book a call through our website and let us show you how we can help your business grow.
David Lizerbram’s May Legal Tip
How to Avoid a Descriptive or Generic Trademark
What’s up Fire Nation! David Lizerbram here, and I’m excited to be back with another legal tip for you!
I’ve been practicing law for 21 years and have loads of free content over at LizerbramLaw.com. This month’s legal tip is all about avoiding descriptive or generic trademarks.
The best way to establish a strong trademark is to create a brand name that is neither generic nor “merely descriptive”. In this legal tip, I’ll explain what those terms mean and provide some tips on how to avoid running into these issues.
The Perks of a Powerful Trademark
Before diving into the details of avoiding descriptive or generic trademarks, let’s first explore the benefits of having a strong trademark.
A robust trademark can serve as a powerful tool for businesses to stand out in the competitive marketplace and protect their brand identity.
Some advantages of a strong trademark are:
- Enhanced brand recognition
- Greater legal protection
- Higher valuation for your company, should you want to sell the business, obtain a loan, or bring in a partner
Now that we’ve explored the benefits of having a strong trademark, let’s delve into the specifics of how to avoid descriptive or generic trademarks to ensure your brand name is both distinctive and legally protectable.
Trademarks and the Branding Battlefield
Imagine you’re starting a business, and you’ve just come up with the perfect name for your product or service. You’ve invested time and money into developing your brand name, and now you want to protect it with a trademark.
But what if your brand name is deemed “merely descriptive” or generic by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”)?
This outcome may prevent you from being able to legally register your trademark and enjoy the protection that comes along with registration. This means that your competitors may be able to use the same or a similar brand name, and you may not be able to stop them from doing so.
A trademark is anything that identifies your products or services and distinguishes them from those of others. A strong trademark can be a valuable asset, as it helps customers recognize and trust your brand. However, not all trademarks are created equal.
Some are weak and vulnerable to challenges, especially those that are merely descriptive or generic.
The USPTO and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) are responsible for determining the eligibility of trademarks, and they have specific criteria to determine if a trademark is too descriptive or generic.
The Slippery Slope of “Merely Descriptive”
A “merely descriptive” trademark is one that merely describes a characteristic, feature, quality, or function of the goods or services it represents. It’s not distinctive enough to be granted full trademark protection.
For instance, a company selling apples under the brand name “Crunchy Apples” would be considered merely descriptive. Such trademarks fail to distinguish the company’s products from others in the market.
One real-life example of a merely descriptive trademark refusal involves the case of In re TriVita, Inc., where a company tried to register the mark “NOPALEA” as a trademark for dietary supplements containing nopal juice.
The USPTO found the mark to be merely descriptive, as “nopal” is a type of cactus, and “nopalea” is a genus of cacti from which nopal juice, the product at issue, is derived. As a result, the court held that “NOPALEA” simply described the primary ingredient of the product, and the application was refused.
The “Generic Trademark” Dilemma
A “generic trademark” refers to a term that the relevant purchasing public understands primarily as a common name for the goods or services, rather than a brand identifier. In fact, one shouldn’t refer to a generic term as a trademark at all.
An example would be someone using the term “Bicycle Shop” for a store selling bikes. Generic terms can never acquire trademark protection, as they don’t distinguish one company’s products or services from those of others.
Someone can open a bike shop across the street and also call their store “Bicycle Shop”, and neither competitor can do anything about the other one’s name.
A classic example of a term that was determined to be generic, and therefore not entitled to trademark protection, is the case of Kellogg Co. v. National Biscuit Co., in which the term “shredded wheat” was deemed to be generic.
The court decided that the term was merely the way to identify the product itself – a type of cereal made from shredded wheat – and was not a brand identifier.
So both Nabisco and Kellogg were able to sell their products using the term “Shredded Wheat”.
Steering Clear of Descriptive and Generic Pitfalls
To avoid having your USPTO trademark application refused or challenged, you should strive to create a distinctive and unique brand name.
This can be done by using suggestive, arbitrary, or fanciful terms.
- Suggestive trademarks hint at the product’s characteristics but require some imagination to make the connection, like “Netflix” for a streaming service.
- Arbitrary trademarks have no connection to the goods or services they represent, such as “Apple” for a technology company.
- Fanciful trademarks are made-up words with no meaning, like “Kodak” for cameras.
Remember that the USPTO examines trademark applications on a case-by-case basis. You can conduct preliminary research using the USPTO’s Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) to check if there are any similar or potentially conflicting trademarks already registered or pending. However, this is just a first step, as a TESS search won’t tell you if there are any other parties using an identical or similar brand name in the marketplace who haven’t applied for formal trademark protection.
Consulting with an experienced trademark attorney is the best way to ensure that your chosen brand name is distinctive, strong, and unlikely to face any legal hurdles.
Conclusion: Navigating the Trademark Terrain
Avoiding a merely descriptive or generic trademark is essential for the long-term success and protection of your brand name.
By choosing a distinctive and unique brand name, conducting preliminary research, and consulting with a trademark attorney, you can ensure that your trademark is strong and defensible.
Armed with this knowledge, you’re now better prepared to navigate the complex world of trademarks and protect your brand from the pitfalls of merely descriptive or generic marks.
If you have legal questions about trademarks, feel free to be in touch with me. I’m always happy to talk with members of Fire Nation!
What Went Down In May
Interview of the Month
The Ideal Anti-Inflammatory Diet with Stephen Cabral
3 Value Bombs
- No matter what health issue you are dealing with, someone just like you has overcome that.
- Inflammation is one of the body’s defense mechanisms. It turns on because it sees something foreign in the body, like a bacteria or virus.
- Optimizing inflammation: you have to discover the true underlying root causes that are creating the symptoms that you feel.
The Rain Barrel Effect – Get Stephen Cabral’s book on Amazon – it’s a game-changer!
Gift for Fire Nation – Get a free inflammation lab test!
Exciting news: We’re expecting!
In case you missed the email we sent out, we have a huge surprise to share with you!…
On March 5 of this year – days after returning from our trip to Japan – Kate and I found out we’re expecting!!
We could not be more excited to share the news with you!
Starting a family is something we’ve been talking about since the early days of our relationship (for anyone keeping track, it started nearly 12 years ago!).
Luckily, we’ve always been on the same page about the timing of it all…
Early on we committed to putting our focus and energy into building a strong foundation for our relationship.
Then, we dove in to the incredible journey of starting our own business, which as you know, also requires a lot of focus and energy.
As we began to grow the business, we were able to put focus and energy towards what we wanted our lives to look like.
We asked ourselves questions like:
- Do we want to hire a big team?
- Do we want to scale our business and launch more things?
- Do we want to work 50+ hours / week, or 20?
- We made the decision to focus on our lifestyle.
The ultimate goal for both of us: financial, lifestyle, and location freedom.
Around that same timeframe we made the decision to move to Puerto Rico, which was a big change and required…
You guessed it: a lot of focus and energy.
A couple of years ago on a walk around our community we broached the subject of starting a family again.
We’ve accomplished a lot in our lives up to this point, and we’ve been lucky to have a lot of amazing experiences.
We both agreed on that walk that starting a family was something we both really wanted… and soon.
Within a couple of months, I proposed to Kate, and after a year-long engagement, we tied the knot!
We’ve had beautiful experiences as individuals, which have helped shape who we are today.
We’ve had incredible experiences together, which have taught us how to love, care for, and support each other in the best way possible.
And we’ve had a whole range of awesome experiences running our business together, which has helped us become very clear on how we want to live our life together.
I know everyone says there’s never a right time to start a family, but to be honest, Kate and I feel like this is the perfect time.
Our due date is 11.11.23, and we’re so excited to welcome our newest family member into the world!
Thank you for joining us on this incredible journey and for helping us celebrate this massive milestone in our lives with us!
So… What do you think? Is it a boy or a girl?!
Watch our gender reveal video to find out!
Gus is very excited, too!
Our 23-day River Cruise!
In our last income report we shared our steps for prepping to be away from the business, and this system has helped us massively when it comes to our ability to travel the world – without skipping a beat in the studio.
So… Did our prep serve us well this time around?
YES!
The trip was excellent from start to finish; truly a once in a lifetime opportunity to set sail on the Danube and Rhine and visit places in Europe we very likely wouldn’t have seen otherwise.
We’ve been planning this trip for a LONG time – actually since 2019! Originally we were supposed to set sail in May 2020, which was promptly canceled when COVID hit.
Fast-forward to 2022 when things started opening up again, and we were excited to rebook the cruise. The May 2023 sail date with Viking Cruises was the first available that would be possible for us, so we booked it – and invited some of our friends to join us!
Thankfully our timing was impeccable with baby Dumas: the day we arrived in Bucharest was the start of my 2nd trimester, known as the best time to travel because it’s when most women feel their best during pregnancy. Compared to my 1st trimester, it was definitely a relief to not be feeling sick all day anymore!
Here are some of the highlights from our 23 days
Our journey began with 7 other couples from Palmas Del Mar (our community here in Puerto Rico) in Bucharest, Romania, and for the first several days we were sailing through and around Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia.
On Day 5 we had our first of three “scenic sailing days”, which was such a treat. Up to this point we were sailing by marsh land and forests – all very beautiful – but there weren’t any landmarks or towns to watch as we passed by.
During our scenic sailing day we saw plenty of awesome sights, including this massive rock carving:
That same afternoon once we reached the port we set off on a hike to the Vistas of the Iron Gates.
The hike, while not a very challenging one, was very beautiful.
This was also a fun tour because our entire group had booked it together!
We ended this epic day with a stop at Golubac Fortress, which was just immediately next to where our ship was docked and waiting for us. This Fortress was so impressive!!
The Fortress tour was quite strenuous.
We walked up about 100 steps (some slick, some huge, some small, and some uneven) to the top of the Fortress. I was so impressed by some of the people who were making their way up to the top (on average we were traveling with a boat full of folks in their 70’s and 80’s!).
The view was so worth it (that’s our ship you can see down below us):
Moving right along, days 9 and 10 brought us our first 2-day visit: Budapest!
John and I visited Budapest during our 90-day Euro adventure in 2018, and we were very excited to be coming back to this absolutely stunning city.
We spent day 9 on the Buda side and started out strong with a hike to the top of Gellert Hill.
After a walk down the hill we continued to Buda Castle, which brought us to lunchtime (and another epic viewing spot).
After lunch we hit Castle Hill, another great lookout point with photo ops around every corner. Within the square we rounded out our tour of Buda with Mattias Church and the Fisherman’s Bastion.
Our last activity for the day: an evening boat cruise down the river.
This was top of our list last time we visited Budapest. There’s nothing like seeing this city lit up from the water!
So we rented a private boat for 2 hours for our entire group to enjoy some epic views, starting with the sunset.
Our second day in Budapest, day 10 of the cruise, we spent exploring Margaret Island and the Pest side of the city.
We started with a long walk down to Margaret Island and enjoyed a 7-stop tour.
While the cruise included excursions at every port, we opted to do our own tours most days. Many of the included ones involved buses and large groups, which isn’t really our favorite way to travel.
Lucky for us, with a little bit of research and the help of great resources like Rick Steves Audio Europe app and GPS My City, we were able to see and do so much!
Margaret Island is so impressive: it’s about 2.5 km of green space, gardens, a zoo, swimming pools, recreation areas, medieval ruins, a Japanese Garden, and several fountains.
After leaving Margaret Island we made our way back into Pest. From here, we stopped at 8 sights, ending at Great Market Hall, just beside our awaiting boat.
Our Pest tour included stops at the Parliament building:
St Stephen’s Basilica, right in the heart of the old town walking area:
Vaci street: a pedestrian street that stretches for 15 blocks and is filled with shops, restaurants, cafes, and more (so cute!!)
And finally, Great Market Hall, Budapest’s central market (and the largest and oldest in the city).
The Market is spread over 3 floors and covers 10,000 square meters of space!… That’s a lot of stalls. Everything from meat, to cheese, to fruits and vegetables, to chocolate, restaurants, and souvenirs. It was the perfect last stop of the day.
I was lucky enough to spot one of my favorite European desserts just before heading into the market, which we originally discovered in Prague (I think it’s called a funnel pastry, or something similar). It’s a flaky bread with cinnamon sugar around the outside – yum! Also, first baby bump sighting below :)
Right on the heels of our overnight stay in Budapest we visited our second (and final) 2-stop port of the trip: Vienna!
We didn’t arrive until 7pm, so we really only had 1 FULL day, but we definitely maximized our time.
We were lucky enough to have a friend – and fellow online entrepreneur – living in Vienna, Amel Derragui, and so we had reached out to her in advance to see if she could spend some time with us and show us a side of Vienna we haven’t seen before (John and I spent 3 days doing all the typical sights in 2018 and absolutely loved it).
She said yes!
So upon arrival in Vienna our experience started pretty much immediately.
We met with Amel at 7pm and she took us on a short subway ride to JazzLand, a 51 year old jazz bar situated in the basement of a cathedral, to meet up with her husband Michael and his father (both of whom are massive jazz aficionados).
For anyone else out there who is really into jazz, it just so happened that Rhode Island native Scott Hamilton (living in Italy) was performing that evening.
According to Michael and his father, Scott is one of the best jazz saxophone players of our time!
Ok, so it doesn’t look like much from the outside (and we obviously wouldn’t have ever ‘stumbled upon this’ on our own), but wow… we had an awesome evening here!
After walking down a few flights of stairs and into the basement we met Michael and his father, ordered a very traditional Viennese meal (I had spicy bean goulash and John had some type of potato dumpling dish), and settled in for the 9pm show.
The place was pretty small, so you’re almost guaranteed great seats (if you can find a seat, that is… We were lucky Michael and his father went early to secure our seats.)
Here’s a clip of Scott and his crew jazzin’ out so you can get a bit of the experience and sound.
The next morning we met up with Amel and Michael for a surprise day in Vienna. They graciously planned everything, and WOW, did we ever have an incredible day!
Here’s how it went…
A walk through several small towns, through neighborhoods, and for a long walk along the water, which brought us to the start of our hike up to the vineyards for lunch.
There were vineyards for as far as you can see, which made me wonder why I’ve never seen Austrian wine – like ever.
Turns out nearly 75% of the wine produced here, stays here!
After a delicious lunch (and incredible view)…
…We made our way back down the mountain and into the main part of the city for a nice afternoon cafe stop (Amel took us to her favorite spot: Cafe Museum; very cute!)
We strolled through the park, where a wine and food festival happened to be taking place, and enjoyed people watching and meandering through the stalls.
This brought us to our final destination for the day: the open air market. There had to have been 50+ stalls with all kinds of goodies, including some paprika almonds and basil cashews we couldn’t pass up.
Our dinner spot: Neptunes, which is one of Amel and Michael’s favorite fish restaurants at the market. The dinner was delicious!
Skipping ahead a day or two, we found ourselves leaving Austria and heading into Germany!
First stop: Passau, which is such a beautiful city.
Our Passau tour included stops at:
- St Stephen’s Cathedral (a lot of refurbishment going on, unfortunately, so we missed out on the full experience)
- Veste Oberhaus (a fortress on the hill – stunning views!) We also stopped here for a delicious lunch
- The three rivers confluence (The Danube, The Inn, and The Ilz all meet)
- A pedestrian shopping street
- The Glass Villa
Here’s the view on the way up to Veste Oberhaus…
The Three River Confluence was really pretty, too, but because of the water levels we couldn’t see much of the “confluence”… The sidewalk was underwater!
Our other stops in Germany included Regensburg, Kelheim (Liberation Hall was a great stop on our way through!), Nuremberg, Bamberg, Wurzburg, Wertheim, Koblenz, and Cologne.
I was excited for our time in Germany because we’ve only ever spent time in Berlin prior to this cruise.
Germany did not disappoint! So many beautiful scenes and places to check out…
Liberation Hall in Kelheim:
Our hike up to Bamberg Castle:
The bridges in Nuremberg:
Our visit to Wurzburg Palace, the gardens, and the famous wine bridge:
Our bike tour in Wertheim:
The views from Koblenz Castle:
And finally, our last stop in Germany: Cologne, where we got to meet up with another fellow online entrepreneur and friend, Christine Schlonski!
We started at Cologne’s most popular landmark: the Cologne Cathedral. WOW.
Did we walk up to the very top of the tower? Of course!
We then hit the Heumarkt and Alter Markets, passed by St Martin Church, had an incredible lunch on the water, visited the Lindt Chocolate Factory, stopped into the House of Fragrances (the original cologne store), and then made our way to meet up with the crew for happy hour at WineBANK and then dinner.
Our time in Cologne was excellent, and it was so nice seeing and getting to spend some time with Christine!
Our FINAL stop of the cruise and where we parted ways with the boat – and our crew – was in Amsterdam.
John and I decided to extend our stay for 2 days even though we’ve already been to Amsterdam, and I’m so glad we did!
We got to do some epic walks around the city, visit the Madame Tussauds museum (highly recommend!), and had some amazing, mouth-watering Indian food.
With 21 different stops we’d be here for a week recapping every detail! But we hope you enjoyed joining us for some of the highlights throughout our 23-day European river cruise!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 2023 Income Breakdown*
Product/Service Income: $168,554
TOTAL Journal Sales: $2,399 | Total Journals Sold: 73
The Freedom Journal: Accomplish your #1 goal in 100 days!
- Total: $1,786 (52 Freedom Journals + 5 Digital Packs sold)
The Mastery Journal: Master Productivity, Discipline and Focus in 100 days!
- Total: $293 (6 Mastery Journals + 2 Digital Packs sold)
The Podcast Journal: Idea to Launch in 50 Days!
- Total: $320 (8 Digital Packs sold)
Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 Podcasting community in the world!
- Recurring: $5,358 (53 recurring)
- New members: $4,388 (4 new member)
- Total: $9,746
Real Revenue: Turn your BIG IDEA into Real Revenue
- Total: $150
Podcast Sponsorships: $156,220
Podcast Launch: Audiobook: $32 | eBook: $7
Free Courses that contribute to the above revenue:
Your Big Idea: Discover your big idea in under an hour!
Free Podcast Course: Create and launch your own podcast!
Funnel On Fire: Create a funnel that converts!
Affiliate Income: $4,739
*Affiliate links below – if you click on my affiliate link and sign up for the products and services I trust and recommend, then I will earn a commission.
Resources for Entrepreneurs: $4,337
- Audible: $23
- Bluehost: $0
- Click Funnels: $4,285
- CovertKit: $29
- Coaching referrals: $0 (email me for an introduction to a mentor for overall online business or a Podcast focused mentor!)
Resources for Podcasters: $134
- Podcasting Press: $0
- Splasheo: $60
- Fusebox: $0
- Libsyn: $150 (Use promo code FIRE for the rest of this month & next free!)
- Repurpose House: $53
- UDemy Podcasting Course: $21
Other Resources: $268
- Amazon Associates: $53
- Other: $215
Total Gross Income in May: $173,293
Business Expenses: $14,505
- Advertising: $79
- Affiliate Commissions (Paradise): $23
- Cost of goods sold (Journals): $265
- Fulfillment: $0
- Consulting: $142
- Design & Branding: $0
- Dues & Subscriptions: $119
- Legal & Professional: $319
- Meals & Entertainment: $738
- Merchant / bank fees: $1,256
- Amazon fees: $1,843
- PayPal fees: $147
- Office expenses: $2,185
- Community Refunds: $794
- Promotional: $0
- Travel: $2,645
- Virtual Assistant Fees: $3,875
- Website Fees: $75
Recurring, Subscription-based Expenses: $4,560
- Adobe Creative Cloud: $110
- Accounting: $1,475
- Boomerang: $90 (team package)
- Business Insider: $13
- Authorize.net: $36
- Google: $60
- Cell Phone: $183
- CookieYes: $10
- Internet: $68
- eVoice: $12
- Infusionsoft (Keap) CRM: $232
- Insurance: $669
- Libsyn: $226
- Linktree: $6
- Taxes & Licenses: $523
- Patreon: $40
- Shopify: $36
- Thinkific: $701 (annual fee)
- Xero: $70
Total Expenses in May: $19,065
Payroll to John & Kate: $15,900
In our May 2014 Income Report and our June 2016 Income Report, Josh focuses on how to pay yourself as an entrepreneur. Check them out!
Wondering what we do with all of our net revenue? We share all in our April 2017 Income Report :)
Total Net Profit for May 2023: $154,228
Biggest Lesson Learned
Being OK with Not Knowing
The combination of being pregnant and embarking on a 23-day river cruise has me all thrown into a space of not knowing.
This isn’t usually a place that I sit for very long.
With the river cruise – well, I’d never been on a river cruise before.
The ship was a 180-passenger ship with not a ton of space.
The cruises I’ve been on before are 2,000 – 4,000 passengers ships with loads of space!
I’d never cruised for 23 days before – that’s by far the longest I’ve been on a boat.
There were a lot of unknowns with this trip, and investing that kind of time and money when you don’t really know what to expect is a bit uncomfortable.
With finding out I’m pregnant: well, we were trying, so it wasn’t a completely surprise. But still, I’ve never been pregnant before, so this is all brand new to me.
I can listen to all the podcasts on pregnancy (two of my favorites are the 40 Weeks Podcast and the Pregnancy Podcast), and read all of the articles and books, and ask my doctor all of my questions, but none of that can truly prepare me for what it feels like or the actual experience of growing a human.
So being very much of a preparer, a planner, an organizer, and a ‘let’s figure this out’ type of person, these two things back-to-back have been a new kind of challenge for me.
And I know this next chapter in our lives is going to challenge us both in a number of ways that we’ve never been challenged before. So I’m grateful that early on I’m realizing it’s time to let go of knowing.
I’ll continue to prepare and plan and organize and figure out the things that are within my control. But I’m completely open and ready for the many things I won’t be able to prepare for, plan out, organize, or figure out until I’m in it.
I think this is a good lesson in business, too.
Sometimes you have to experience it in order to understand it. Fail in order to figure out the best next step. Take action – even if you’re not sure whether what you’re doing is the right thing – because you know that’s the best way to learn.
So if anyone cares to join me, I’ll be over here working on being OK with not knowing.
Until next month, keep your FIRE burning!
~ Kate & John
Note: we report our income figures as accurately as possible, but in using reports from a combo of Infusionsoft & Xero to track our product and total income / expenses, they suggest the possibility of a 3 – 5% margin of error.
