May 2025 Retro: I Lost $1,142 But Found My True Direction
I’m going to share the actual numbers from my business in May 2025. Not curated highlights. Not vague “six-figure” claims. The real thing.
The Numbers
Revenue: $3,738 from cohort coaching.
Expenses: Kajabi ($2,100/year, so roughly $175/month), Descript, Notion, a few other tools. Plus contractor costs for video editing and virtual assistant hours.
Net: -$1,142.
I lost money in May. That’s the headline. A guy with 650K+ followers across platforms, years of experience coaching, real testimonials from real students, and I lost $1,142.
I could spin this. I could talk about “investing in growth” or “planting seeds.” But the truth is simpler. My business model wasn’t working, and I was finally honest about why.
The Niche Trap
Everyone says to niche down. Pick one thing. Own it. Become the go-to person for that one specific topic.
So I did. I became a communication coach. Specifically, I helped professionals organize their thoughts and speak confidently on the spot. Good niche. Real demand. Clear positioning.
But here’s what happened over time. I felt boxed in.
My actual interests are way broader than “how to not ramble in meetings.” I’m obsessed with AI workflows. I’m constantly building automations. I’m fascinated by content strategy across platforms. I have strong opinions about career navigation, business building, personal systems. And I was stuffing all of that into a drawer because it didn’t fit the “communication coach” brand.
I’d record a TikTok about AI productivity and then not post it because it didn’t match my niche. I’d have an idea for a newsletter about building a creator business and shelve it because my audience expected speaking tips.
The niche was protecting me and suffocating me at the same time.
The Actual Vision
I spent a lot of time in May thinking about what I actually want to build.
And the answer isn’t “the world’s best communication coaching business.” The answer is a personal brand with real leverage. Something closer to what Ali Abdaal or Dan Koe have built, where they talk about what genuinely interests them and build multiple revenue streams around that authenticity.
I want to talk about communication AND AI AND building businesses AND content strategy AND automation AND whatever else I’m genuinely experimenting with.
Not because I want to be scattered. Because all of these things connect in my life, and pretending they don’t was making the work feel hollow.
Enter Stacking Days
In May, I launched the Stacking Days newsletter. The whole premise is documenting what I’m actually building, not just what I’m teaching.
Every issue covers real experiments. What I’m automating. What’s working in my content. What’s failing in my business. The actual numbers, like the ones above.
The name comes from this idea I keep returning to: you don’t build something meaningful in one dramatic leap. You stack days. Small, consistent effort over time. That’s how everything I’ve built has actually worked.
And something unexpected happened when I started writing about all of this honestly. Growth accelerated. Not just on the newsletter, but across all my platforms. Turns out, people are more interested in watching someone build in real time than they are in consuming polished advice from a “coach.”
My TikTok engagement went up. YouTube subscribers increased. Newsletter open rates were the highest I’ve ever had. Paradoxically, being less focused made the whole thing more magnetic.
What Went Right In May
The newsletter launch. 100% the highlight. Writing about what I’m actually building instead of just what I’m teaching felt like I finally took the parking brake off.
I also started building out AI automations for my content workflow. Early stages, but promising. More on that in future issues.
What Went Wrong In May
Cohort enrollment underperformed. I expected 25-30 students. I got fewer. That’s the main driver behind the net loss.
I also spent too much time on Kajabi configuration and not enough on content creation. Classic trap of optimizing the machine instead of feeding it.
June Goals
Five things I’m focused on:
Bi-weekly YouTube uploads. I’ve been inconsistent. Two videos a month is the floor.
Daily newsletter for Stacking Days. I want to build the writing habit and give the audience a reason to check in regularly.
Launch the self-serve course to my 150-person waitlist. The cohort model isn’t sustainable. The self-serve course is the path forward.
Build at least two new AI automations for my content pipeline.
Attend the Kit conference. Networking with other creators has been the single most valuable thing for my business, and I’m doubling down on it.
The Bigger Picture
Losing $1,142 in a month stings. But I’d rather lose money while moving toward the right business than make money running one that’s slowly burning me out.
May was the month I stopped pretending I was just a communication coach. It was the month I started building the thing I actually want to build.
The numbers will catch up. They always do when the direction is right.
Preston