7 Month Check-In (Day 1)

How is a 7 month check-in Day 1? This sounds like math from someone who hasn’t been working in a while.

True.

But here we are and in month 6 and subsequent posts, I discussed my re-focus from exploration to doubling down on Radio Chatter and that is what I have been working on. So today is Day 1. Stolen Jeff Bezos reference to Day 1, which if you are not aware is something he wrote about in his 1997 shareholder letter and referenced most years after that. 

So how was Day 1 (well, Month 1)? In short, it was great. I feel like I have a true purpose and something to work toward. As fun as all the various things were that I was doing previously, having something structured like this that I can put a plan together for and execute is great. What is better though, as arrogant as this may sound, is that I am in control of not only the plan but the execution and how that is done on a daily basis. This month I finished the book Company of One and started the book Profit First and both have similar themes: running your business small and lean to support the life you want to live. So these books and this decision have been quite liberating for me in building the life I want, while still contributing to the overall financial wellbeing of our family. Well, one day contributing!

But to get here, part of saying yes to Radio Chatter has meant I have had to say no to other things, most notably my partnership with Consortium Business Group, who I was working with on business acquisition. It started with letting my partners know that I was no longer interested in the business we were still working with, as exciting as it was and as much as I still think about it. Then it was declining a meeting with another group who offered acquisition-related services, something we were considering moving into. Then it ended with a full exit from our partnership agreement. This meant we had to settle all our finances and make sure everyone was squared up in terms of what they had invested this year. I had to transfer ownership of the LinkedIn page and Google Workspace, etc. It felt very final, but it was what was best for me so I could focus on what I needed to do without the distraction (I love to learn things and find it hard to say no to the things we were working on together). But also best for them so they could continue focusing on acquisition without me being a distraction or a challenge with my competing priorities.

There is a lot to be said about partnerships and before going into our formal partnership, I did a lot of reading about pros and cons. When I decided in 2024 that I was going to go into business acquisition, I had not planned on doing it with partners. That did not come until 2025 when my to-be partners learned of my plans. In my situation though, and I covered some of this in my 6 month summary post, I learned exponentially more with my partners than I would have learned on my own. And while it did not lead to an acquisition, it no doubt helped me get to my final realization much faster and cheaper than if I would have potentially done this on my own. You definitely don't want to go into the acquisitions space, make a purchase, and then realize that it was not actually what you wanted. Expensive mistake.

While the acquisition space was the biggest thing I had to say no to, other things I said no to included some other apps I was working on, one of which my wife Bethany was really excited about. I have indirectly said no to other things by not seeking them out either, such as not going to networking meetings or other events I had been going to previously. Saying no can be a very challenging thing. You may feel like you are letting people down but you may also feel like you are missing out. But saying no means you are saying yes to something else and providing more time and mental capacity to that thing.

So overall, where was the time spent with this change? It was still a transition month, but here is what transpired:

I suspect Radio Chatter will be closer to 65 percent with Personal going to 20 percent and MSO being about 5 percent with a 10 percent flex going forward. There are some things I still put under project exploration because they do not really fall under another bucket.

October started in Virginia at Overland Expo East. This trip also really weighed into my decision (or really confirmed I should say) that focusing on Radio Chatter is what I need and want to do. For starters, I caught up with a long-time partner of our product who said they now have repeat customers coming back to them telling them how much they love the game. This claim was made by two other people independently that weekend from the same company. It was very reassuring. Someone there also gave me an idea to go around and place a single card from our deck on people's windshields as an advertisement. So I did that, with a sticker, and passed out about 40 of them. I targeted vehicles parked that clearly had a radio where they would use our product.

Starting a business is a hustle.

My purpose originally at this event was my work with Mountain State Overland (MSO). I had no booth for Radio Chatter. But the two things overlap since we use our Radio Chatter product on guided MSO trips and the events often have themes of both guided trips and physical products. I had my vehicle in the Toyo Tire booth, who is one of our sponsors, and they had two showcase vehicles to show prospective customers their tire products in use. MSO also had a video premiere of our upcoming Hammer Down Season 6. As I was working the MSO booth, I had our cards out there to sell with our MSO merch. Jason, the owner of MSO, has always been a supporter of ours and has always welcomed us using his platform and events to show and sell Radio Chatter. I only had the game out but he encouraged me to put out all our clothing and really push our product and merch too. Not wanting to undercut his clothing, I price-matched ours (which I honestly just wanted to clean out for new inventory coming next year) and with his encouragement to really sell our products, we nearly sold out of all our shirts and games that I had with me.

It just confirmed again that we have something that people desire and we need to lean into that.

Another big milestone is we got our Android app officially on the Google Play store. I am now working on a try-before-you-buy version to launch that allows people to play a very limited version of the game (5 standard cards and 3 create your own) just so they can get a feel for the app before purchasing. Right now it is a straight download without being able to see the app except for screenshots in the app listing. I did some research and found that there is an increased purchase rate for apps that allow you to download and try first. I think ours is a great model for this because the fee is quite small for the value you get.

Some other things that I did this past month include joining an online group focused on founders of companies in the outdoors space. I was invited by someone who owns another company that I frequently speak to who is a member. It is amazing the startup companies in the outdoor space and what they are coming up with!

I hired a marketing consultant who specializes in the off-road and overland space and also came as a referral. We are going to work over the next three months or so to develop a Meta ad strategy focused on Instagram and Facebook since our product is very much a compulsive purchase type product. No one is looking for an overlanding conversation starter game out of the blue. Shocking, I know.

Even though financially we are not where I wanted to be after 7 months in terms of my income, the learnings have been priceless, to be cliché. I did complete a large personal financial audit and our net worth is up 9 percent since I left my W2 and we are one month ahead of where I expected us to be in terms of drawing down our savings. This means we have spent over the last 7 months the equivalent of six - kind of like buy six, get one free. So this technically extends our runway by one month. This was a little surprising given we had an air conditioner give out and I did some major vehicle upgrades to our overland truck.

I also had a meeting with an old college friend that I have not directly spoken to (maybe text or social media a few times) in over 15 years. One of my last posts talking about a mini-retirement really spoke to him so we connected about my experience and what he was looking to accomplish. He is not the only one I heard from this month. I still get email and LinkedIn messages from people talking about their desire to do the same thing.

If there is a way I can help you on your journey to entrepreneurship, please let me know!

Another thing that has happened is about the flexibility that I desired when going into entrepreneurship. As I mentioned in my six month reflection, I had the realization that even though I wanted to be an entrepreneur and I wanted to own many businesses and acquiring some was a way I was interested in doing this, it was not just ownership that I was looking for, but the freedom to spend time doing what I wanted to do. Sometimes that means I am directly working on things to make money (Radio Chatter) or sometimes it is not. Bethany had to remind me of this month when something came up and I mentioned that I had a lot of work to do and wasn't sure if I could get to it. She reminded me that this lifestyle change we made was also to provide us as a family more flexibility. So some of what I need to change mentally is that not every day is a 9 to 5, with an eight hour "working day." And because I do not work with a ton of people and I rarely have meetings, some of that work can be done at odd times. I have worked between 5 and 7 a.m. now, after my son goes to bed at 8 p.m., and on the weekends.

I also took advantage of this flexibility, not only to go fishing last month with my brother, brother-in-law, and father, but to play disc golf with a friend who is impacted by the current government shutdown. I also had my son skip his after-school latchkey program for a full week to see how we liked it (we pay about $350 a month for this service). It was a good experiment but he is still in the program, partially for the flexibility it still provides Bethany and I and partially because he enjoys the extra time with his friends.

Some small things I did too included volunteering two half days in a row at my son's school, went to my parents' house for a four day weekend since my son was off of school but Bethany was not off of work, and I continued grocery shopping in the middle of the day so that our weekends and evenings can be as much family time as possible. Let me tell you, Costco during the week is great. Less people and no blocked aisles with free samples. Side note, if you are a fan of Costco too, this podcast is worth the long listen. 

So as my priorities transition, so will my posts. I want to continue to focus on making the transition from a corporate role to entrepreneurship as I think it is something that resonates with so many people. I will also dig into what it is like running a small business still in the day in the life format. The feedback has been strong that people enjoy the transparency and insight into what the transition has been like so I suspect those that desire to be an entrepreneur will appreciate the same transparency of running a business.

For that reason, I have been tracking much more detail of my time of what I am doing within the business and will use that in an upcoming post highlighting where I spend my time when it comes to working on Radio Chatter. More to come.

Cheers.