The Trena Little Business Eras Tour: The Wildest Dreams (1989) Era

Dec 8

If 2018 was the year that things got better, 2019 was the year I was ready to get SERIOUS about keeping them that way.

I had spent the previous year staying pretty comfortable with how things were going because I was working on someone else’s business (remember that part-time job I had mentioned?), but I knew that it was time to prioritize MY business — and work on my personal goals too.

I set a goal in 2019 to hit $200K by the end of 2019…and guess what?? 2019 was my first six-figure business year!! So, that’s why this era is called the Wildest Dreams Era!

January 2019

At the end of 2018, I hired a business coach. Looking back, it wasn’t the best decision for me, but it still helped me look at my business differently, which is why I then decided to invest in another mastermind, which would later change everything (more on that later, though).

I came in guns a’ blazing in 2019 with a plan to launch a membership, which, also looking back, was not a good idea.

I had been doing the YouTube Boot Camp for the last few years and I loved it, but this business coach I had hired convinced me it was time for a membership model. And because someone had totally ripped it off a few years too (logo and everything), I was open to the change. So I said, “Let’s do it!”

February 2019

By mid-February, I was taking most Fridays off and had more family activities lined up for the weekends. I also started setting some firm boundaries in place with my schedule. I only worked from 8 am to 4 pm and didn’t take any work/calls/messages after I logged off!

I was finally finding balance between work and my personal life and it felt good! Back when I was in my corporate job, I could have never imagined I could do something like that.

March 2019

2019 was also the first full year of me working in 90-day increments. I’ve found that planning a quarter at a time helped me stay focused and stick with the things I set out to accomplish. In the first 90 days of that year, I…

Prepped to launch a membership
Built a new program for my client that I had been working for part-time
Hired my assistant, Erin, who is still on my team today!
Tried to start up an old project (back when I first started my biz, I really wanted to do a mom channel on YouTube, but it never caught on and didn’t this time either, so I also gave up on that dream.)
Spoke at another event, the Alt Summit in Palm Springs (my BIGGEST speaking engagement ever!)

I ended the first quarter motivated and ready to keep pushing along now that I could see the fruits of my labor.

April 2019

That spring, I hosted my first-ever team meeting!!! What in the world!! I can’t even begin to explain how weird that felt. But I was so happy my business had reached a point where I could get some help and start to scale this thing. By now, I had 3-4 contractors.

February 2019

In February, my new membership, YouTube For Creatives, was born! I didn’t pass over 100 students that first launch (BTW that’s quite a high number for a first-run launch…what was 2019 Trena thinking??) but I made a decent enough amount of money off it to keep it going.

June 2019

Long story short, I had a month where that program’s sales dropped. Thankfully it bounced back up in June, but I was starting to realize that this roller coaster and the mess of keeping up with a membership was just not for me.

And this is when I realized that…fancy fails, simple scales.

But did I turn around and make it simple? Nope! Sure didn’t.

I thought I needed to add a ton of fancy layers so I could hit an arbitrary amount someone else was telling me I should be getting ($200K, BTW). And so, my membership continued to be a thorn in my side for the rest of the year.

August 2019

Summer is always a time for me to pause and reflect, and I get to do this because I’m planning in advance. I always make sure I have the time to go on vacation, or fully enjoy things like going to the Creative at Heart conference again! Because of that planning, I got to be fully present and enjoy the company of so many of my favorite people.

After this little refresh period, I joined that mastermind I had talked about earlier.

Going through this program, I was able to launch a brand new course — The Video Multiplier Formula — in just six weeks and made over $16K in the first launch! This course ended up making me over $50K in my business without needing to spend a single dime on paid ads.

2019 Trena felt like she was living her wildest dream!

november 2019

Then, because of the confidence I had gained from the mastermind that had led me to create the course, I decided to create my first SLO — The YouTube Workflow Blueprint — for $47 a pop…which brought my business $20K! Now, we call it the P.R.E.P System…pretty cool huh??

These smaller ticket offers are what started to bring in consistent revenue for my business, and I’m so glad I joined that mastermind in 2019…my business is forever changed because of it!

Coming up next: 2020 — The Look What You Made Me Do Era

One of the biggest lessons I learned in 2019 was that a successful business has diverse income streams. I had spent a lot of time feeling burnt out with client work and I was tired of pushing the same big-ticket offer (that circus of a membership). I didn’t realize until after launching those smaller offers that those are what we're getting people in the door and interested in the big offers.

2019 was the year I bounced back and felt confident to explore new places in my business. I thought 2020 was going to be my year.

And then we met it — what a nightmare dressed like a daydream.

Coming up next — The Look What You Made Me Do (2020) Era. 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!