I know why I’m unhappy. Do you?

A short story about sacrifice.

The first step is to recognise you *are* unhappy.

Very few people will admit to themselves that they’re not happy.

And almost NO-ONE wants to tell other people they’re unhappy.

And isn’t this a blog about making money online and ChatGPT?

“Sounds pretty un-emotional, bro. Surely hard-nosed business is the vibe???”

It can be…but one thing I’ve learned?

“Scared of success” is b.s. 

Makes no sense to sacrifice everything you like in life, make less money than a normal job, and take on a lot more stress, and then to be “scared” of doing the thing you’re working for.

I believe “Scared of success” has been popularised by guru’s selling “a feeling”

Unlike a fitness, dating, or business coach, where results are pretty black and white (e.g. did you lose weight, go on dates, improve metrics such as followers or revenue), guru’s selling “a feeling” can sell you a $10,000 mastermind retreat to tell you “you don’t have to ask permission, go for it”

(Great work if you can get it!)

But, alas, once you’ve recovered from the jet lag after the retreat, the same problems tend to come back, as the underlying issues aren’t dealt with.

It takes great courage to explore who you are, what you want, and what you’re willing to do to get it.

(I know you all want me to talk about why I’m unhappy, and I’ve made you wait 14 lines before I get to the big payoff…I need that dwell time on my posts for Substack algorithm boost!) (joking)

So, yah, I’m unhappy.

In the hard/stressed times, it sucks.

I’m not doing what I would want “in an ideal world”.

“In an ideal world” is a lazy phrase.

The solution is: Stop moaning and make your world ideal.

Hard to do, but, as ever, make hard choices and you’ll have an easy life…make easy choices and you’ll have a hard life.

So, why am I unhappy?

Unhappiness is dangerously close to “pleasure”, and pleasure can quickly become a life spent eating sugar, or other addictions.

I know that a life lived entirely in the present, serving pleasure, will not help me achieve my dreams.

I know that sacrifice is the most important element in achieving big things.

Go study anyone, ANYONE who has ever achieved big things- in music, business, athletics - insane work ethic and sacrifice.

If you’re reading this thinking “sure but I’m not trying to be a millionaire, I just want to quit my job and work from home, or do a side hustle and make a little extra money” the same principle applies:

It’s hard work.

I’d make way more money “selling a dream” like most guru’s do, “two hours per week seven figure business” etc etc

One of the most dangerous statements I hear newbie entrepreneurs say (normally when I’m telling them how hard growing a business is) is “I don’t wanna make millions, I just want passive income”)

I’m telling ya - passive income comes after SERIOUS WORK

(Yes, even part time/side hustle-probably even more so)

The easy money is taken.

So it’s gonna take hours (yes, even with the magic ChatGPT machine)

So make your choice:

Are you prepared to be unhappy for a short while, in order to have less stress and be VERY happy later.

It’s not about choosing to wake up unhappy.

You should love what you do.

For instance, I love writing, so have decided to go all in on this Substack.

Writing makes me happy

BUT

Writing is only half of the business.

The other half is everything needed to:

A) Make sure people see my posts, and

B) Create a financial model so I can get paid from writing (and..make passive income lol)

This past week, I’ve been preparing everything I need to do to make this Substack successful.

I’m gonna write entire articles on how I grew my Substack, but if writing is my happy place, here’s my “unhappy” column:

THINGS THAT HAD TO BE DONE TO MAKE THIS SUBSTACK A SUCCESS

1. Hours of research

I researched *every single* business Substack that was bigger than mine when I decided to go “all in” on this Substack.

Fun fact: When I decided to go in, I was the 439th “biggest” (🤣🤣🤣) publication on Substack, so this was a lot of work to be done.

Listen to me: I subscribed to over 200 DIFFERENT SUBSTACKS.

If they were helping people make money online, I knew about it!

I studied the tabs the top Substack had across the top of the page, what they said or didn’t say in their “hello” email, the titles of their articles, and just about everything else, before I even wrote the first article in my substack relaunch.

Fun fact: It’s okay to have no ideas. Just study everyone who’s doing better than you. Then grab that data and feed it into ChatGPT to give you similar ideas.

1. Conversion Rate Optimisation
   

 Using ChatGPT to optimise every single piece of column on my Substack - Page name, quick bio when asking people to subscribe, about page, hello email for free subscribers, hello email for paid subscribers, create logo’s

1. Getting traffic to my Substack

I created a masterplan of 10 different channels to bring free and paid subscribers to this blog.

Once I created the traffic flows I had to order them by priority, find money for the paid ones, and find time to try out the free ones (once they work can hand to a virtual assistant to perform)

1. Premium offering

Use ChatGPT to come up with everything people get when they subscribe to my paid plan to make it an essential subscription. (As an example, here’s what you get when you signup to my paid plan which, you can do HERE)

By paying $15, you receive instant access to 15 potentially life-changing bonuses:

2 premium Communities with other paid subscription members:

1. Entrance to a private WhatsApp accountability group

2. Facebook group “ChatGPT masters” community (launching in 30 days)

4 free ebooks:

ChatGPT Personal Branding

ChatGPT How to get Clients

ChatGPT-powered Facebook famous

ChatGPT-powered “How to build a Facebook group”

4 Monthly newsletters included in paid:

1)

Rumours, rants & secret opportunities: Everything that I’m hearing is making money this month (using ChatGPT or otherwise)

2)

Clone my businesses: 1 monthly template for one of my businesses or side-hustles which made at least $100,000. Includes templates, vendors, pitfalls, things I got wrong, how you could make money doing it today.

3)

“Roasting my premium members” You send in your ChatGPT prompts, funnels, ad copy, landing pages, and social media pages, me and my team write short, useful, feedback to help you make money faster

4)

1 new paid subscriber-only post

3 ChatGPT-products

The 20 Mega-prompts to build an entire business from start to finish

1500 prompts

500 prompts

2 bonus packs:

1. cheatsheets for audience growth/monetisation on all 8 social platforms - FB, IG, X, YT, Linkedin, Tiktok,  

2. “The vault” including a 5-hour marketing video course and 8 Bonus ebooks

Signup here if you want to decrease my unhappiness by $15 (or $97 for a year upfront and a big smile on my face) LINK

—

So, yah, there is a LOT that I do that doesn’t makes me “happy.”

But I do it.

I believe in the future I’m creating.

I accept the unhappiness.

I tell the devil on my shoulder all the pleasures in the world will always be there for me to enjoy.

Right now it’s time to get serious.

Do you agree with my idea here?

Are you happy?

Comment below - will gift a months’ free premium subscription to my favourite comment after 24 hours.