Letters from Lori

No laptop for 7 days, but 1,000+ new subscribers and sales kept rolling in.

Hi friends,

Last week I spent seven days on an Alaska cruise with my siblings.

No laptop on my lap. No filming. No editing. No scrambling to post.

And while I was watching glaciers float by, my business kept working.

I came home to more than 1,000 new YouTube subscribers, hundreds of new Substack readers, ebook sales, new coaching members, and emails from people I'd never met before.

That was the result of building systems instead of depending on motivation.

That's the solo creator business I have now. One that supports my life instead of replacing it.

Here's what happened this week...

What I Published

✍️ On Substack​
My Substack earned $5,218 in the first half of this year. Paid subscriptions, collected. Real. In that same six months, my business pulled in over $214,000.

​Read the Article​

🎥 On YouTube​
In this video, I’ll share how I, a solo creator, am earning over $450,000 a year through smart strategies and diversification—no employees, just passion and proven methods.

​Watch the video​

📝 The Academy​
Just before I left for Alaska, I held a 2-hour Paid Newsletter masterclass. It was a hit! I showed the viewers how I became a best seller on Substack, and added five figures in annualized revenue just this year.

It is a pay per view for non-coaching clients but includes the Substack 101 guide, the two-hour video, and my notes.

​Get the masterclass​

Partner Pick of the Week

What I'm Testing

I'm using Claude to edit my videos in Descript. I find video editing to be very clunky, and time consuming. I don't love it. And since I'm following my joy, I don't want to do things that I don't love. I also don't love hiring people anymore, so I'm not hiring an editor.

Instead, I upload a video to Descript, and I tell Claude what I want the outcome to be, clips, shorts, title cards, transitions, disclaimers etc. - and it edits for me.

Yes, there is a learning curve with training Claude so it doesn't eat up all of your tokens, but it's worth the first couple of rounds to get it right. Then, save it as a skill, and you'll be set.

I pay for descript, but I do have an affiliate link if you'd like to check it out. affiliate Links benefit me at no extra cost to you.

​Try Descript​

Worth Sharing

My new obsessions is simplification. How can I do less and make more. I've gotten good at saying no to a lot of things. In order to stay a solopreneur, and not manage people (which I've done my entire adult life), I need to simplify.

I've separated my creator income streams into 3 buckets:
​
1. Affiliate Marketing

2. Publishing

3. Coaching

If it doesn't fall into one of those 3 buckets, I say no. Affiliate marketing and coaching, are each 6-figures, while publishing is only a 3rd of that. It's new, however, and it's my fastest growing income (and might even be my favorite!).

Publishing allows me to stay behind the camera instead of in front of it. And as I age, I may want more time behind it.

We'll see. 😉

On a Personal Note

Alaska was breathtaking, spiritual, and relaxing. It was my 6th cruise to Alaska.

I went in 2017 following my divorce. I needed to heal. I borrowed the money to go.

I told my 13-year old that we didn't have the money for a lot of "extras", but that we'd have fun on the ship.

I did. She did. We did. We healed.

I knew I had to come back.

Since then, I've taken multiple family members over the years in different combinations.

This year, it was my siblings. My sister had never been on a cruise, and this was the first time that our siblings were altogether alone since we were kids. And all 4 of us were single even!

We laughed, we cried, we played, we bonded.

We healed.

And for the first time ever, I never pulled out my computer to work. Not once.

Real Estate Business

Some of you have followed me for years because of the education I have provided to real estate agents. I took a bit of a hiatus to work on my content creator and coaching business, but am excited to report that I'm back, working on my real estate website.

Before I went to Alaska, I discovered that I could use Claude Co-work to build out all of my IDX widgets. Those are the small pieces of code that create the "homes for sale" pages.

In 10-minutes, I batched what I needed for community pages, that would have taken me hours.

I will be teaching more of this, but I wanted to share how amazing that one find was already!

If you need a website, real estate or other, reach out to my brothers at Ballen Brands.​

note: i do have affiliate relationship with Jeff & Paul that benefits me at no extra cost to you. I founded the company, but they own and operate it today.

Ballen Academy

On our last coaching call, we talked about how to stop creating more work for yourself and start building a real creator business: picking the right platform, narrowing your audience, using AI without losing your voice, turning one coaching call into content, and figuring out what your own income data is telling you to do next. If you feel scattered, unsure what to post, or like you’re working hard without gaining traction.

You can watch the playback by joining today, or logging in as a member at BallenAcademy.com.​

From the Library