What I Actually Made in 2025 (And What It Really Cost Me)

I almost didn’t share this.

There’s something deeply uncomfortable about opening your books and letting people see the whole story. Once you put the numbers out there, you can’t reshape them, soften them, or hide behind vague language. And while a lot of business owners talk openly about how much they “made,” very few talk about what they actually spent to make it. Even fewer talk about how they lived while earning it.

For me, income only matters in context. I don’t run a business just to grow revenue. I run a business to support a life. That means being able to volunteer at my kids’ school. It means taking Fridays off. It means booking a two-week beach vacation without panicking about whether sales will disappear while I’m gone. If I’m going to talk about what I earned in 2025, I need to talk about the full picture. The revenue, the expenses, the slow months, the unexpected wins, and the lifestyle choices that shaped it all.

Before I walk through the numbers month by month, it’s important to understand the structure of the business I chose to run in 2025.

The Business Model I Committed To

Last year, I made a decision that changed everything. I simplified.

My entire business ran on one core offer: the YouTube Coaching Experience. I stopped stacking additional programs on top of it. I stopped experimenting with new offers every time I felt a revenue dip. I committed to one.

My content strategy centered on one YouTube video per week. My conversion strategy was one weekly live webinar. Twice a year, I hosted a virtual conference that functioned as a launch event. That was the full system.

One offer. One platform. One conversion engine.

It sounds almost too simple, especially in an online space that constantly encourages expansion, diversification, and scaling through more complexity. But in 2025, simplicity was the strategy.

On the expense side, I wasn’t operating as a solo minimalist. I had a Facebook ads manager running campaigns. I had a video editor so that I could protect my time and keep Fridays free. I brought in bonus coaches inside my program to support my clients. I paid myself a salary every month. I paid my full-time employee every other week. I also invested in coaching for myself throughout the year, including a mastermind and private VIP days. I believe in coaching deeply enough that I’m unwilling to preach it without participating in it.

With that structure in place, here’s what unfolded.

The Reality of the First Quarter

January began with a launch. We generated just over $57,000 in revenue that month. At a glance, that sounds strong. But revenue alone doesn’t tell the story. We spent approximately $53,000 in January. That left a very slim margin.

On paper, it looked risky. But the expenses were intentional. I had hired a contractor to rebuild and refine funnels to support the simplified strategy I was committing to. That investment was around $15,000. We also ran roughly $15,000 in ads during the launch period. Between those contractor expenses, ad spend, payroll, and coaching investments, January was heavy.

The difference compared to the previous year was that we still ended in the green. It wasn’t dramatic, but it mattered. In 2024, there were months where we didn’t.

February slowed down, as it typically does after a launch. However, recurring revenue from payment plans continued to come in. We generated around $31,600 that month while expenses dropped to approximately $28,000. The absence of major contractor fees and heavy launch ads gave us breathing room.

March followed a similar pattern. I introduced a one-time offer to my email list without turning it into a full-scale launch. Revenue reached roughly $37,000 while expenses hovered around $32,000. The margins weren’t massive, but they were steady.

This is often the part of the year where panic sets in for business owners. When revenue drops from a launch high, it’s easy to assume something is broken. I’ve been guilty of reacting to that fear in the past by pivoting too quickly. In 2025, I made a conscious decision not to.

The Shift That Changed Everything

April marked the start of a virtual conference launch. I sold tickets at a low entry price point and offered a higher-tier upsell experience. When the doors opened for the YouTube Coaching Experience at the end of the event, revenue began to spike. On April 30 alone, we brought in over $47,000.

The momentum carried into May. Between ongoing sales from the launch and the introduction of something new, a weekly live webinar, May crossed $61,000 in revenue. Expenses remained around $32,000 due to continued ad testing.

The webinar was the true game-changer. Every Monday, I showed up live for about ninety minutes. That consistent conversion opportunity stabilized revenue in a way I hadn’t previously experienced. Instead of depending solely on large launch months, I created a rhythm.

Summer and the Lifestyle Piece

June was my lowest revenue month at just under $25,000. And yet, it was also one of my favorite months.

I took two full weeks off at the beach. I worked roughly twelve hours per week. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, both my employee and I stopped working Fridays entirely. Most days during summer break, I logged off around late morning so I could spend time with my kids.

In July, the refinements to the weekly webinar began to pay off. Revenue climbed back over $54,000 while I was still working limited hours. The system was functioning without constant input from me.

August dipped again, which is common as families transition back to school routines. I also invested in a VIP strategy day and design support for the upcoming fall launch. We technically lost money that month. But because we had built cash reserves earlier in the year, the investment felt strategic rather than stressful.

The Compounding Effect in Action

September began to ramp up in preparation for the fall virtual conference. I continued running the weekly webinar while also selling conference tickets. Revenue rose to around $42,000.

October was the breakout month. The virtual conference launch generated over $167,000 in revenue, with more than $100,000 collected in cash during the launch window. After expenses, net income for the month was $115,000.

What matters most about October is that it wasn’t accidental. It was the result of consistent execution from January through September. The weekly YouTube videos. The weekly webinars. The consistent communication. The decision not to pivot when months felt slow.

That consistency built trust and anticipation, which compounded when enrollment opened.

Closing the Year

November required an unexpected pause. Enrollment had exceeded expectations, and onboarding demand was high enough that I temporarily closed the doors. I traveled to Disney and took additional time off for Thanksgiving. Even without active selling, revenue reached $39,000.

In December, before stepping away mid-month for the holidays, I scheduled emails announcing a price increase for the following year. Those automated emails generated over $81,000 in sales. December closed at roughly $84,800.

Because the year had been strong, I invested significantly before year-end. I upgraded equipment, prepaid coaching for 2026, joined a mastermind, and contributed over $10,000 to my employee’s retirement fund, along with a matching contribution to my own.

The Final Numbers

Total revenue for 2025 was $690,000.

After accounting for ad spend, payment processing fees, contractor costs, payroll, coaching investments, and all operating expenses, my personal take-home was $157,119.

That is the real number.

And I share it not as a boast, but as context. Because the lifestyle attached to that number matters more to me than the headline revenue.

I worked twenty to twenty-five hours per week. I took over eight weeks of vacation. I began starting my mornings at Pilates instead of logging in immediately after the school bus left. I built financial stability without running myself into the ground.

That, to me, is a lifestyle-first business.

What This Year Taught Me

There is a lot of noise right now about million-dollar businesses. But what 2025 reinforced for me is that compounding beats chaos. A single focused offer, supported by consistent visibility and one primary conversion mechanism, can create stability over time.

The difference between a business that spikes and a business that builds often comes down to patience. It comes down to whether you can stay consistent long enough to let results stack instead of chasing immediate relief.

If you feel like you’re working harder than ever just to maintain sales, the answer may not be to do more. It may be to simplify more deeply.

Because the goal isn’t just revenue.

The goal is a business that supports your life, instead of consuming it.