Thoughts on One Year Anniversary of financial independence blog and quest for financial independence

From July 2017

Thoughts on One Year Anniversary of financial independence blog and question for financial independence – Chattanooga, TN

As fortune would have it, I have had the opportunity to return to Chattanooga, TN nearly one year to the week that I had the rebirth (see 1^st blog post) for changing my mindset, removing financial inertia and seeking financial independence. It has been amazing how quickly time has gone, how much progress I’ve made and how little progress I made. I know was sort of oxymornic. I will start with the progress made. I moved, I did something. I was so inspired by Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income podcasts that I made the decision (last year on a 95+ degree day, walking thru downtown Knoxville, TN,) to invest in myself and my entrepreneurial passions to change my financial circumstances thru a financial independent mindset. So what was accomplished?

• I researched, thought and prayed and came up with a business name
• I then decided to formalize my business by registering it with the state and going further and incorporating as a LLC. See my write-up on the seven steps I took to incorporate my business. 
• I set a goal to give at least 1 hour per day towards income generation activities in my business
• I decided to create a website / blog and in fact created two; one a highly niched site and the other to share my entrepreneurial experiences with others here.
• Of course to create any web based entity you need a web hosting company so prior to developing the sites I signed up for web hosting service with Bluehost. I’m still with Bluehost and am very pleased with the service. If you need a web-hosting service you can sign up thru my affiliate link.
• I taught myself the basics of WordPress to develop my websites (see my write-up on steps to achieve Web Presence)
• Once set up and amounts of traffic were coming thru I created Google Analytic, Google Search Console and Google Adsense accounts to understand my viewers traffic patterns and incorporating said traffic patterns into feedback about things that work well on my sites and those that do not.
• Stepping away from the Website space, I created and funded an Institutional Prosper Account (peer to peer lending) to begin to generate passive income in a different revenue stream. See my write-up on peer to peer lending for details about this opportunity.
• I created and funded an Options trading account for trading stocks and options, in particular Covered Calls for income generation and a third revenue stream. See my write-up on selling covered calls for more details about this opportunity for income generation.
• I signed up for affiliate accounts with various vendors to create a fourth potential passive income stream.
• I set up an account with Easynote for personal project management of my Entrepreneurial efforts
• I set up an account with MailChimp for email list building efforts
• I achieved 1^st page google keyword placement on a number of keywords for my niche site

A good start no doubt in a years time at a one hour per day time investment pace. So what haven’t I done that’s limited my progress?

• I have not committed to link building to improve my internet sites ranking and authority scores
• I have not committed to social network engagement to expand my reach and connect to potential viewers
• I have not been as productive as is needed to achieve faster results. I have Easynote loaded with activities but have struggled with focus to knock out those activities in a timely manner
• I have not created a third website (partially due to a better understanding of the importance of keyword competition) but also due to lack of creative thinking for ideas and analysis paralysis
• I have not connected with other entrepreneurs who share my views and vision for my financial future state and not being connected makes me vulnerable to disappointment when results are not positive
• I have not funded my business at the levels that I initially laid out last year to ensure that the maximum number of potential income sources were activated and working on my behalf
• I have not sought free course material on the web for areas where my knowledge base is weak or in corporate human performance speak, I am operating in knowledge based mode and thus inefficiently
• I have not continually thought as an entrepreneur and spotted and taken advantage of opportunities quickly enough. I am still stuck in a consumer / employee mindset even though I am a business owner

Thus as you can see, I’ve done something and moved the ball down the field so to speak however I have to become more efficient and more single purposed minded. I have to fight thru the discouragement from site traffic stats that don’t show what I want and recognize that every new piece of content I put out, if it is beneficial to someone else, has the potential to be the one to ‘drive traffic’ in the numbers I seek. I have to keep plugging away steadfastly and with purpose.

Here in TN a year later I had no awe-inspiring nostalgic moments from my reawakening last year. Perhaps that’s a good thing because it will keep me looking forward as opposed to nostalgically backward. The re-awakening wasn’t for the purpose of reliving the moment over and over but for me to create and now build a business that can be used as a vehicle to fulfill my dream of financial independence thru a financial independent mindset.