I'm writing this from my yacht in Houston, and before you roll your eyes, let me tell you what this boat actually represents: freedom.
Not the Instagram kind. The real kind.
The kind where I wake up excited to check if someone bought my books because... yes, I'm going full Sally Field here... "they love me, they really, really love me!" That dopamine hit when a sale comes through? That's not shallow. That's the entire point of entrepreneurship.
Here's The Truth Nobody Tells You About 7-Figure Businesses
I built one. I've coached dozens of entrepreneurs to build theirs. And here's what I learned: it's not about how much you work or how much you sell. It's about what's actually in your pocket at the end of the day.
The rest? That's just a slog.
Do you get up in the morning excited to do what you're doing? If not, it's time to change that.
The Amanda Reality Check
My daughter-in-law Amanda (who's also my business partner) keeps saying we need financial goals for 2026. And I'm saying all the right things while secretly thinking: "We're in the services business. Clients come and go. We get referrals because people love us. How do you predict that?"
Sound familiar?
Then I caught myself doing the same thing I've been telling my clients NOT to do: working without a plan, falling into last-minute ideas, doing everything frantically instead of strategically.
I work with some incredible entrepreneurs who are still genuinely excited about growing their businesses. They're not burnt out... they're ready to scale. And that got me thinking about what actually separates businesses that break through from businesses that just break down.
It's not working more hours to get more sales. It's working smarter to get more sales.
2025: The Year AI Sprinted Into Our Lives
Let's be honest... AI didn't stroll into 2025. It sprinted. And for those of us who've been building eCommerce businesses the "hard way," it took a minute to figure out how this works FOR us instead of just... existing at us.
This week, I did something I should've done months ago: I took my complete eCommerce Business Planner and restructured it into 7 strategic PDF workbooks with corresponding deep-dive articles.
Not because I was bored. Because I kept seeing the same pattern:
Talented entrepreneurs setting goals based on hope instead of strategy.
Hope doesn't scale. Systems do.
The 7-Series Planner: Your 2026 Strategic Roadmap
Here's what I built for you (and honestly, for me too):
1. Business Foundation Audit
Are you actually ready to scale, or are you just ready to be busier?
2. Revenue Reality Check
Where's your money actually coming from (and where's it going)?
3. Customer Journey Mapping
From stranger to superfan... do you even have a system?
4. Product & Offer Architecture
What you're selling vs. what you SHOULD be selling
5. Marketing & Traffic Blueprint
Multi-channel strategy that doesn't require cloning yourself
6. Operations & Automation
The systems that work while you sleep (finally)
7. 2026 Growth Roadmap
Your actual plan, not your wishlist
I've also created a complete Table of Contents with all 7 articles in one master blog.
But Here's The Catch...
You have to sign up to get it.
I know, I know. But I wouldn't be a very good business coach if I just gave away the strategic framework that took me years of international expansion, tax nightmares, platform migrations, and 7-figure mistakes to figure out, would I?
The truth is: Free advice gets filed away. Invested-in strategies get implemented.
And I'd rather you actually USE this than just collect it.
So Here's My Challenge to You
If 2025 felt like you were drowning... working harder but not getting ahead, making sales but not making profit, growing revenue but not growing freedom... then 2026 needs to look different.
Not because you're going to work more hours.
Because you're finally going to work on the right things.
Because entrepreneurship without excitement is just a well-paid prison.
And you didn't leave your 9-to-5 for that.
Real talk. Real systems. Zero gatekeeping.
