The Trena Little Business Eras Tour: The State of Grace (Red) Era

Dec 7

After a tough two years, things were finally starting to look up in 2018. During my third year in business, things changed a lot. In fact, by the end of the year, there would be a MAJOR plot twist none of us saw coming…only to TWIST again!

But remember…this was my State of Grace Era…so you know these plot twists were some of the best decisions I could have made for my business. Without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

January 2018

This was the first year I truly invested in myself and my business. I joined a year-long mastermind and went to my first-ever business event, and I think going helped set the more positive tone year three of business had (as compared to the rough first two).

In 2018, I saw my confidence growing because I was working with YouTube channels that had millions of subscribers. Building plans for them gave me a lot of experience and exposure I hadn’t had in previous years.

This was the tale of the mindset work that helped take my business to where it is today.

August 2018

While I still deal with imposter syndrome, it wasn’t crippling me anymore — which is a good thing because 2018 was the year I started speaking on stage. I was even PAID to do it

Throughout the year, I joined stages like ALWEP in Alabama and Together in Portland. 2018 Trena was literally going places!

This was also the year that for the first time, I was making consistent enough income to take a two-week beach vacation! When I tell you that pre-business owner Trena couldn’t have ever imagined this life, I really mean it.

I finally felt like I could walk away from work for a few days without worrying about what would happen to my income because I PLANNED for the vacations I took. I learned that getting ahead of schedule is so important, and thus, the infamous 90-day planning at TLHQ was born. It was a total game-changer for me!

february 2018

When I look back at my planners from 2018, I don’t see as many launches as I did in 2016 and 2017. But the good news is…I still made about $77K (and brought home $40K) without them! And I know it’s because I finally hired some help.

I needed help editing client videos so I hired a local friend of mine. I knew Pinterest was also going to be a huge source of traffic for me, so I hired some help to manage that (and Vanessa is STILL with me to this day!).

And I also started to train a VA…but unfortunately, it didn’t work out because I wasn’t ready. I still think about it today and wish I had done things differently, but I can tell you what I learned from it — if you aren’t ready to train somebody and do the work it takes to bring them onto your team….DON’T DO IT. It’s just a waste of your time and theirs.

So at this point in my business, I was spending about $600-$800 on contractors and making about $5k per month consistently.

October 2018

In October, I went to the VidSummit and Creative at Heart, which is where I met clients in real life for the first time ever! Talk about a pinch-me moment. I’m glad it happened then too, and not a year before because I was finally confident enough to start showing up in those spaces and find my footing as a business owner.

This was the time that TubeBuddy also asked me to be a streamer on their YouTube channel. What!!! Just one year before, I didn’t even know if I would still have a business, so it really felt like quite the jump for me.

December 2018

Are you ready for the major plot twists?

Someone wanted to buy my business.

I was at a tipping point. I was tired and didn’t feel like I had the energy to do all of the things my business needed me to do at that time. So, I actually considered it….a lot.

And even though I was ready to sign on the dotted line, I didn’t go through with it thanks to a friend of mine. We talked about it, and when we did, I thought I already had my mind made up, but they framed it in a totally new light for me.

Basically, they told me that my business wasn't worth anything to the buyer and I would essentially be getting a sign-on bonus to working for someone else full-time. All that blood, sweat, and tears…just to be of no value to a buyer.

I wasn’t going to let that happen.

The second plot twist? I said no. Even though there was a lot of money on the line.

So…I went all out and got trenalittle.com up and running. I wanted to make my business valuable. As I wrapped up 2018, I was ready to do whatever it took to prove everyone wrong about my “no value” business.

Coming up next: 2019 — The Wildest Dreams Era

Overall, 2018 was much kinder to me than the previous two years. And fortunately, things kept getting better — which is why 2019 is getting dubbed the Wildest Dreams (1989) Era. If you want to find out what went down…stay tuned over on my YouTube channel, where I’ll be dropping the rest of the Trena Business Eras Tour videos!

Check out the video below!