I’ve just started to square away 2022’s numbers, and before we get too far into 2023, I wanted to share my yearly review and give you a transparent look at some of the numbers I’m celebrating in my business as well as some context around what they really mean.
Because as much as I LOVE that our industry normalizes talking about money and encourages owning it, numbers also get thrown around all the time in the online space and don’t mean much for your business unless you understand why they matter and how you can apply that information to your business. Otherwise, it’s really just numbers on a screen.
For example, I can celebrate a million in business and that could mean yearly revenue, lifetime revenue, revenue in four years, yearly sales, sales in a year, yearly profit and take home pay, projected revenue and sales. This might mean I took home $700k or $200k depending on my expenses. It's all celebration-worthy, and context makes a difference.
My hope is this breakdown will be permission-giving, normalizing, and also help you tap into what’s possible and more for you so you can go out and make your own six, multi-six, and seven-figures your way.
This is a long one, but it felt important to write and share with you, so bookmark this link if you want to come back to it or read it in sections.
A look behind-the-scenes at 2022’s numbers and what they *actually* mean:
A million revenue in just under four years, $700k revenue in two years, AND -$35k, a slight yearly revenue decrease from 2021, closing out the year at about $330k, all from a 1:1 coaching model and zero ad spend = various revenue numbers from 2022
I have SO much to say here, and I’ll be going live next week to celebrate my lowest income month with you from last year (again) to dig into this more. For this conversation, suffice to say, I’m celebrating the sh*t out of ALL of these numbers - yes, even the -$35k, especially the -$35k! (more on this below).
I want you to see how a business can celebrate big revenue milestones while simultaneously celebrating a slightly lower year or month. Revenue is a continuum, and lower months and years are a PART of what makes up those bigger numbers.
While I don’t feel a need to prove or justify my revenue (I’d pick a different business model and marketing strategy if so, lol), I do think this is important to share, give context around, and celebrate. Our industry and space often glorifies the big numbers, often without context, and it’s so freaking important to understand the variations of how business works over the long-term and what allows you to be able to brag on a million in timeframes that get shorter and shorter.
The context you can’t see in this revenue “dip” is that this was intentional and from working significantly less client hours in 2022. I don’t bill hourly, nor is my work valued on an hourly basis, but for the sake of this conversation, this means I made more per working hour last year than the year before. And, while the revenue is overall less, this number also represents a substantial increase in revenue share revenue - which is passive revenue and a representation of the new revenue my clients under this model brought in.
I accidentally overbooked myself in 2021, and while I get that’s such a “good problem” to have, it was still a capacity problem to address. I served my clients fully during that time, but that meant I didn’t have as much to give back to myself.
One of my biggest goals in 2022 wasn’t to increase income, but to solve for my capacity and tighten up my team and support to help this. If you’re a client of mine, you know I’m often talking about how you need different kinds of space to be able to expand and scale, literal space, mental space, and energetic space.
The slight shift in revenue is a representation of a substantial shift in spaciousness and capacity. I believe we freed up between 25-35 client call hours per month along with the additional hours not accounted for here that I spend between sessions (depending on which months you compare to)!
This also means, I was able to slowly open up limited capacity again on my roster and onboard new revenue share clients (revenue share is the revenue sharing model I adopted, where I’m paid a base rate and 10% of new revenue a client generates while working together), and start to see an increase in cash flow from this while serving fewer people.
AKA I successfully scaled my 1:1 model and will continue to do so with this foundation. Because scaling isn’t only about making more money - I knew how to do that in 2021 - it’s about making more money without working more, and THAT is a huge win under the win for me on so many levels that’s a representation of self-trust, CEO decisions and leadership, and a lot of mindset work and EMDR around working hard patterns (on-going work for me, and evidence for you that you’ll always have growth edges you’re leaning into - this is a part of being a human running a business instead of a robot doing the same).
At the beginning of 2022, I shared my goal was to open up capacity, increase revenue share, and tighten up my business backend and team support, and I shared with my coach this was so important for the long-term sustainability that I was willing to make less.
I also knew this was something I had to be willing to let go of to make space for some of these changes. Be careful what you wish for 
but, jokes aside, these adjustments will serve the future decades of this business and allow for that “cost” and investment to be returned over and over monetarily AND in quality of life, which is also what it’s about IMO.
I share this number first and very transparently because I know there’s a push to make a million in a minute online. I’m HERE for that, and very much have the abundance mindset, belief, receptivity, and can see practically that I’m running a business model that can and will generate a million dollars per year.
And, I think it can be toxic when these goals are met at the expense of your wellbeing, in ways that are out of alignment, or without the infrastructure that will allow you to HOLD and SUSTAIN that kind of revenue and success year after year…and, I KNOW there are narratives that would consider this a “bad money mindset”, and I personally question the scarcity and fear that drives that notion and belief because I find it to be very trusting and abundant.
And, as hard to believe as this might sound, I actually FELT like I made more money and FELT richer last year. Likely because I had the spaciousness to enjoy and have more FUN with my money.
I’ve also supported enough million dollar+ per year business owners to know your day-to-day life doesn’t change that much, and have had enough clients come to me stuck in golden handcuffs chaining them to a business they secretly want to burn to the ground.
Meaning, I’m locked in on a milly, I know it’s mine, I’m not in a rush, and I’m very clear on the tradeoffs I am and am not willing to make because I know not all that much will change in my daily experience, so I better enjoy the way I’m making that money, because more cash in the bank will only amplify what’s already there.
I also KNOW creating the various forms of spaciousness and having a rock solid foundation under and behind me makes it that much easier to make, hold, sustain, and scale any amount of money for the long term. I plan to be around longer than the latest tiktok trending audio, and I imagine you do, too.
I hope this number and context will be normalizing and permission-giving to you if you’re finding yourself at the start of a year that might be asking you to be willing to trade in big income growth for sustainability behind-the-scenes (and, of course, it can be both). It’s not as sexy to post about online, but I can tell you, it FEELS so sexy and so good IRL where it matters.
$0 - $2 million revenue = the range of clients’ businesses who hired me in 2022
Again, context matters, this does not mean I helped take a client from $0 to $2 million last year. What this does represent is the range and different stages of business the clients who hired me last year were at and the range of challenges I support clients with.
I share these numbers for a few reasons.
For one, frankly, I’m proud of all of my clients, their genius, and what they bring to the table. I feel honored to partner with them and support them. I value the work with ALL of my clients and see EVERY stage of business and revenue as important - it’s the starting phase when your business is making $0 that’s the MOST important and challenging after all, and what allows you to become who you need to be to build a $2 million business.
I’m also proud of being a damn good coach who’s able to support clients deeply at every level and stage of business. I LOVE that I get to work with brand new business owners and help them create processes that fit them and work for them, navigate the mindset hurdles that are left and right at this stage, and watch them grow faster than I did. I also feel in my power and genius putting on my thought partner, strategy, visionary, creative-problem solving, and no-BS hat to stretch my seasoned entrepreneurs.
I also don’t believe my revenue is all that relevant to my clients’ outside of representing in one way some of my experience. I often say, you shouldn’t hire me because of what I make - and this is true whether you’re making less or more than me.
You should hire me because I’m really good at what I do, because our values are aligned, because we have coaching chemistry and you feel like I “get” you and your business, and because I know how to help YOU get rich and build wealth, on your terms, in a way that doesn’t leave you wanting to light a match to your business (or support you in the transition if you already do so you don’t catch yourself on fire in the process).
multi-five-figures cash = our monthly recurring revenue from a 1:1 coaching model…without raising my rates, ads, any big launches, complicated strategy, or viral content
After almost seven years in business, you know what feels even better than a record-breaking income month? Solid, recurring revenue EVERY month of the year without adding on additional expenses or complications and knowing I can pay myself really well.
What you don’t always see when people share income wins are the very normal revenue fluctuations that happen month-to-month or because the number you see is due to a pay-in-full or launch that month (note: still very celebration-worthy!).
Recurring revenue isn’t about doing one thing one time, or getting one pay in full (again, here for those as well), and is where some of the sustainability and stability in your business can be found.
A thousand, a million plus, and collective millions = the range of revenue my clients have made in a year while working with me, and the sum of the revenue all my clients made in 2022
This is SO important to see for a few reasons. First, I want you to see that range so you can stop making yourself wrong wherever you’re at.
My clients are epic, do incredible work, and they’re all at different places on their business journey. They also run very different businesses, business models, strategies, and have varied lifestyles from being in their 20s and single to parents with kids at home or their own parents they’re caring for and supporting.
They’re also all at the right place for them, and that’s so important to acknowledge because that $1k milestone is JUST as celebration-worthy and JUST as big a deal as that million-dollar mark.
I’d argue it’s the most work mindset-wise to overcome yourself and business foundation-building-wise to book those first clients and make that first $1k. I’ve seen through my clients and my experience, it truly does get easier as you grow and scale past the first $100k mark to make more money and add on an additional six or seven figures because the clarity, mindset, strategy, and action are in place, and it becomes about refinement and rinsing and repeating.
One place isn’t better than the other. They’re simply different spots on the journey. PLEASE stop making yourself wrong for where you’re at in your journey by comparing yourself to someone at a different place in theirs; this isn’t serving to anyone, and only keeps you stuck.
Business success isn’t a race, and I promise, you’ll get ‘there’ faster when you stop making where you’re at wrong.
4.5 going on 5 = the number of years I’ve worked with and invested in my current coach. I just celebrated resigning to continue for another 6 months
I’ve worked with a coach or been in a coaching container of some kind since I started coach training and my business, which is almost 9 years ago coaching, and 7 years in business on March 1, 2023.
This number feels important to share for a few reasons. First, I believe in coaching, so I invest in it.
I’m also not an island and creating business success on my own, I invest in and receive A LOT of support. This feels essential to normalize.
Aside from my coach, I have a team of five (more specifics on my team below), I’m also in two masterminds (one with my coach, one peer), work with an EMDR therapist, and I get a ton of support at home from my husband.
I also often get asked why I *still* work with a coach at this level. Usually I joke back that I still need a mirror and can’t spot the spinach in my own teeth.
Seriously, though, I wonder why I’d stop investing in the very support that’s helped me change my whole life, love myself, create business and financial success on my terms, and have healthy relationships - like my marriage, as well continue to deepen my mastery in the very craft I believe in and offer.
I’ll also offer that I find this support just as, if not MORE, valuable at this level and stage of the game. It’s my job to show up “clean” for my clients so I can best support them, and it’s my commitment to myself and my business to do the real work - which is mostly mindset work (!) to continue to grow as a person, coach, mentor, leader, and business owner, and upper limiting is a very real thing, friend. I personally like to stay out of my own way.
What also feels relevant to share about this number for you, is that I also didn’t get massive income results right out the gate with my coach. NOT because she isn’t brilliant at what she does. She’s one of the best in the industry, and she’s just as epic a coach now as I make consistent multi-five-figure cash months as she was when I was struggling to book free calls, get fully booked, and I was making thousands per month.
My coach and her level of support haven’t changed, I’ve simply grown and changed within the container.
I’m SO grateful to my past self for doubling down and continuing to bet on myself and invest in my business to get the support I needed instead of deciding coaching doesn’t work for me, or my business doesn’t work, or now it’s time to go solo because I wasn’t seeing the income results the way I wanted right away.
I share this with you because I think our space can sometimes get fixated on the quick-fix, overnight success and millions in a minute. But the truth-truth is most businesses take time to grow and scale (and, yes, it’s also possible and we’re also available for fast income growth). Most humans take time to heal, grow, and expand. It’s all doing it right, not wrong.
And, it turns out, sticking with investing in support and with the plan even when it didn’t visibly look like it was working - worked out - over a million in revenue in under four years later from a 1:1 coaching model, that didn’t look like it was “working” at all that first 6 months.
I also share this because I think sometimes coaching and the responsibility for the work and results gets confused - and can unintentionally take your power away.
What I’ve seen to be true from both sides: NO ONE has the answers for you or the magic pill, and that’s not what coaching is about - and expecting secrets, someone to “fix” things for you, or quick results will leave you very disappointed in your investment and have you miss out on the actual magic that coaching can facilitate and the inevitable results you put into motion when you take your power back like six, multi-six, and seven-figures on any timeline.
Coaching isn’t meant to erase your discomfort, in fact it’s often very challenging and confronting. There are many times my ego and comfort zone would rather just stop getting coached or hire someone who I can get my BS past .
But, it will give you the support of someone who’s willing to show you what’s actually holding you back, sit with you in your muck until you clear it out, and to partner with you to tap into *your* answers so you can put them into action.
Coaching also isn’t an atm that spits out dollar bills the second you invest. Again, of course, that DOES happen, I’ve had clients blow their own minds and get booked out in weeks, replace their corporate salary in three months, and scale to a million in a year.
And, coaching asks you to take personal responsibility for your shit, to do the inner work, to co-create, to show up and actually implement, and to keep taking your own power back so YOU know how to and can go out there and create results you’re able to feel safe enough to hold onto instead of sabotage away.
I’ve experienced coaching as life changing magic, and one of the biggest gifts that’s changed my entire business and life in every.single.way. It’s the best investment I’ve ever made and continue to make.
I also want you to see the benefit of reinvesting in yourself and your business when you find the right support. Personally, I think it’s costly in many ways to bounce around.
I strategically choose to keep reinvesting in the same coaching partnership because not only do I work with one of the best coaches in the industry, I’ve poured time into our relationship as a client, the same way I do with all of the support I invest in. I know the more I invest in the same coaching relationship (as well as others), the more my coach gets to know me, my patterns, my business, and can support me at a higher level with more shorthand.
She’s aware of my “stuff”, and I can’t try to trick her with my brain’s BS. She also knows ME and my vision.
This saves me time, so I don’t have to look for and reteach someone new who I am, go through a learning curve with them, rework what’s already working, or worse, fuck up what’s working to adjust to someone else’s program. No, thank you.
I take this same mindset with my team and believe in investing in long-term relationships because those will serve you and your business as your team, coaches, and other support get to know you (and your patterns, likes, dislikes, etc) and your business better, which allows for ease, efficiency, and compound results over time.
5 = the number of people on my team This number doesn’t include my coach, therapist, masterminds, accountant, or people we hire for individual projects (like design, website updates/coding, photography, etc)
This number is important to share because this is a HUGE part of how I’m able to support a very full roster of incredible clients. This is also how we were able to do so much on the backend of my business while I continued to show up fully for all of my clients and for you daily through my content.
My team is also a big part of how I was able to rework my capacity so I can now slowly add on some more client spots without being overbooked or worked.
I’m NOT running this business solo or doing any of this alone.
I would NOT be able to serve 20+ clients a month deeply on calls and between sessions in Basecamp, put out the level and quality of content we do, take care of myself and do things like go to the gym and nap in the middle of the day, and have a marriage, relationship with my step son, and life I’m proud of without my team.
And, in terms of profit margin and what I actually take home and pay myself, my team and my coach are the majority of my expenses and absolutely worth every penny.
A massive shout out and thank you to my team: my right hand, strategic thought partner, and OBM who makes everything run smoothly, feel easy, manages my team, helps me think through the “right problem to solve”, and has helped me to hand over more and more, Katrina Cobb.
Rest in alphabetical order because they’re all equally amazing and valued:
My podcast editor who’s been with me since episode ONE, and is always there for a last minute clip in, and knows how to keep me sounding like me while editing out the distracting NYC soundtrack and lip smacks, Rachele Chavez.
My witty and tech-smart VA who schedules all of my social and web content, somehow also makes graphics, and acts as my wordsmith, branding eye, sounding board, and catches my misses all the time, Maggie Dillon.
My talented copywriter, who pulls all of my words from every podcast episode to give you detailed episode descriptions and an interesting takeaway every week, Kailan Kalina.
My brilliant VA and proofreader, who checks all my long-form content for Kimisms that aren’t actually words 
and grammar, and also handles scheduling all of my emails, landing pages, engagement, and things I don’t even realize are being done, Brooke Shoevlin.
6.75, 7 on March 1, 2023 = the number of years I’ve been in business
I share this number to help you see the time that’s allowed for consistency to compound and for the business (and myself) to create some of these metrics, grow a team, and lead to the ease and predictability I feel running this business today.
I’ve loved and celebrated every year. And, the first years and first $100k were the most challenging. In my experience, it gets MUCH easier after that. Truly, the better it gets, the better it gets, and the more easeful it gets, the more easeful it gets.
These are a highlight of some of the numbers from 2022 and what they represent in my business journey, which are VERY different from the numbers from my first year in business, and I assume will be very different from where I’m at on my path in five more years.
I debated sharing numbers like my profit margin, which improved slightly last year. But this is already the world’s longest post, lol, and those numbers are so specific to my business and model. So, I’m really not sure they’d be very beneficial for you, and there’s a lot of nuance to profit margin and how it changes as your business grows and scales in any model.
I hope these numbers help normalize business and what goes into results behind-the-scenes.
More importantly, I hope they give some context around what numbers being talked about *actually* mean and also help you get your focus back in your lane and give yourself permission to do things your way. Because at the end of the day, that’s what matters and will ultimately allow you to sustain and scale to any income level.
And, if you’re ready to make six, multi-six, or seven figures your way this year, here are my key takeaways from 2022’s numbers for you:
- Business foundations matter. Build a solid foundation, and from this you get to build, grow, and scale your business *your* way. The more you reinforce your foundation and follow your path, the faster and easier the numbers you want will roll in.
- Making money is amazing, knowing how to make money is better, and knowing you can do that again and again is the best and freeing.
- You need space - mental, literal/physical, and energetic - to allow in more of anything. Notice where you’re at capacity and be willing to temporarily let go of some of what you have to allow for more money and goodness to come in long term.
- At a certain point, making more money doesn’t change much more than the numbers in your bank account. Make those numbers worth it by making your money in a way you want to keep waking up for and showing up for - for decades - that you might even keep doing if you didn’t have to work.
- Mind what you do with your money: how you hold, spend, circulate, leverage, and give your money also matters and will affect you longer than a high or low income month will.
- Business is a journey. Celebrate where you’ve come from instead of looking at the chasm between you and where you want to go. There’s always more room to grow; don’t let that opportunity for next-level growth become the way you get stuck. “There” isn’t better than “here”, it’s simply a different dot in your journey. Stop making yourself wrong for where you are, and you’ll find you actually enjoy the process and get “there” a whole lot faster.
- Focus on goals in your business that aren’t only about the money. These will solidify your foundation, service and delivery, systems, and processes, and those are all directly linked to your revenue for years and years to come.
- Just because everyone else isn’t doing it, doesn’t mean you can’t. And, just because everyone else IS doing it, doesn’t mean you should, too (do I sound like your mom?). And, just because people tell you that’s not how it’s done, doesn’t mean you can’t. As the kids say, “You do you, boo”, and then do the work -the clarity, mindset, strategy, and action work- to create *your* version of business and financial success. We’ve flown people to the moon and back multiple times, communicate through handheld computers, and there’s AI that can do wild things, so I’m pretty sure you can figure out how to make money any damn way you want to.
- No one does it alone. No one is creating epic success and wild amounts of money in any industry without support. Stop trying to be a business island: Invest in support - before you’ve made money and after you’ve made money. Ask for help. Be open to receive support. Allow people to do their jobs. Quiet your ego and resistance and allow someone else to help you get what you want. And, take your power back and remember your personal responsibility in the equation with the support you invest in.
- Oh, and do your mindset work. It’s 95% of all of this and your first or next six or seven figures.
Wishing you your version of success!
P.S. Ready to invest in 1:1 support to help you build a solid business foundation and stay focused on your path so you can make this the year you get fully booked, successfully bring on team support, or sell out your first or next launch?
Book a free coaching consultation here to talk about how I can help you with the clarity, mindset and emotional regulation, simple strategy (messaging, marketing, sales, leadership, team), and action that goes into making six, multi-six, or seven-figures on your terms.
