Couch to $500K By cover art

Couch to $500K

By: Caleb Wojcik
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  • Summary

  • Hey, I'm Caleb Wojcik, a solopreneur building multiple businesses through video content creation, physical products, serving clients on retainer, and more. If you're a video content creator or creative entrepreneur, follow along as I share what I've learned running my one person business for 10+ years. Each week I'll share how I am using content, email marketing, digital courses, and social media to grow my online business to $500,000 in annual revenue. Watch the video version at YouTube.com/calebwojcik.
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Episodes
  • Finding Clarity After Burnout: My 9 Year Entrepreneurial Story

    Finding Clarity After Burnout: My 9 Year Entrepreneurial Story
    May 24 2024

    I get real about my burnout after finally achieving what I had worked for over the past decade. I had a family with three kids, paid off all my debt, and was running multiple successful businesses, but hit a wall.

    My story starts five years ago with the launch of SwitchPod on Kickstarter, where we raised over $400,000. Despite this success, personal challenges arose, like expecting our first child and balancing business with family life. The pandemic also hit and I had to quickly pivot my businesses without being able to travel.

    I talk about the craziness of 2022, juggling my biggest client project to date and the demands of a growing family, including newborn twins. Even though things were headed in the right direction professionally, a fallout with a major client led to a big loss of planned income, which also felt like a huge betrayal.

    During this time, I also faced personal setbacks, like a failed house purchase. With savings but no clear direction, I drifted and eventually sought therapy to process my emotions and past experiences. Therapy was transformative, helping me gain clarity and closure.

    After a year of reflection and support, I’ll share how I recovered from burnout and I hope this episode encourages you if you’re currently stuck in a velvet rut like I was.

    0:00 - It felt like a finish line
    1:05 - Let's go back to 2019
    4:34 - My busiest year ever in 2022
    6:56 - Client & subcontractor drama
    8:56 - What was I going to do next?
    10:36 - Drifting & procrastination
    11:11 - Seeking escape & therapy
    13:02 - Solid inner tube metaphor
    14:19 - Figuring out what was next
    16:03 - Anti-famous
    17:14 - Teasing the next episodes
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    20 mins
  • What to Expect from Couch to $500K

    What to Expect from Couch to $500K
    May 15 2024

    I'm excited to be back behind the microphone again after a long hiatus. The show will start with just me solo for a bit, but I plan to bring guests in from time to time too. I'll tell stories of failure and success. I will share real numbers and statistics. I'll laugh, but try not to cry.

    Next week, I’ll share my story of burning out and how I ended up on the hypothetical “couch” that I’m alluding to with the title of the show.

    But for now, here's a bit of behind the scenes on why I took a break from podcasting and why I'm back at it.

    0:00 - Shifting Towards Documenting
    4:09 - My History with Podcasting
    8:50 - What to Expect from this Podcast
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    11 mins
  • 2020 Annual Review

    2020 Annual Review
    Mar 11 2021
    #101 - At the end of every year I do an annual review and usually publish them too (like I did in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2018).And yes, I'm finally publishing this review in March because I took time off during Christmas break and played Playstation. That's the honest truth.The year before last, 2019, ended up being one of the biggest years of change or growth I’ve had since I started working for myself full-time because of SwitchPod’s Kickstarter launch and having our first child, but I didn’t make the time to create a public annual review. I could blame it having a two month old baby with colic, but really I was just taking any extra downtime then to catch up on sleep or urgent work after starting to ship SwitchPod worldwide just two months earlier.But 2020 was a YEAR. Actually it felt two to three years long.What started off as a normal year with plans to continue traveling for my video client work turned into basically staying home for 10 months straight. My wife and I took the pandemic and our potential exposure very seriously (because of her past cancer surgeries and her parents living nearby) and thankfully we haven't lost anyone we know to COVID-19, but it has majorly disrupted the lives of many, us included.“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”I’ll try not to mention any of the major world events from 2019 like the pandemic, the U.S. election, racial injustice, and more but it was definitely a harder year to stay focused on work and different events did impact my year financially, socially, mentally, and more.It makes me think back to 2008 and how in a way I took that economic downturn as a sign that I needed to choose myself to take care of myself, not rely on a company or economy to make sure I have a job or be in control of my income. I worked hard in college to get a job when I graduated with my two bachelor's degrees in May 2008 right before the recession.A few months into being a full-time employee I saw friends, coworkers, and family lose jobs, never land jobs, and be financially stunted. I also saw the company I worked for (Boeing) announce they were laying off up to 10,000 people. This made me start learning about entrepreneurship, how to make money online, and personal finance. It pushed to get my MBA right away. And overall, it made me not just trust that a large company would take care of me for 40 years and pay me a pension at the end.Because I took the risk and left my day job with solid pay and cushy benefits in 2011, I was able to build up the skills, connections, and multiple income streams that let me survive and even thrive financially in 2020 when the world was completely upended by coronavirus.If last year was rough for you and you felt out of control, try to use that as a wake up call for taking control back in your own life from whoever you've given it up to.Okay, I think that's enough preamble. Let's dive in.What I "Do" for WorkRight now I am running three different businesses day to day.A physical product business (SwitchPod)A client service business (Caleb Wojcik Films)A digital teaching business (online courses, YouTube, podcast, etc.).1. SwitchPodLet's start with SwitchPod since that has been the biggest change to my work lately. Since launching the Kickstarter campaign in January 2019, I'd estimate SwitchPod has taken up 50% or more of my time spent working. Some weeks more like 80%.2020 had some major projects for SwitchPod:Launched our 2nd & 3rd products, ball head and phone adapterCreated new stylized product photographyCompletely redesigned the Shopify website to be faster & more mobile friendly.Other than those larger projects, I spent my time reaching out to land more retailers to stock SwitchPod, fulfilling orders to Amazon and other existing retailers, marketing through social media, partnering with creators and companies on promotion, working on the less exciting admin bits (finances, taxes, legal, etc.), and handling customer support.It really isn't the type of business that I can let go more than a day or two without working on because systems will start to fall apart, customers and retailers will get upset by response time, etc.I think of it more like a garden I have to check in on every day. Some days I'm just pulling weeds or watering some things quickly. Other days I have to completely till the soil or plant a bunch of seeds which takes all day.I'm really proud of where the business is at. Could we be selling more units? Always. But the business is lean, very profitable, and has a lot of potential to grow. More numbers later.2. Client Services BusinessIn 2018 and 2019, my main client Smart Passive Income (run by Pat Flynn who is also my business partner on SwitchPod) accounted for about 50% of my service based business. The other half ...
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    1 hr and 32 mins
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