💌 What’s happening this week:

• February gross vs. net revenue

• Journaling prompt: future gratitudes

• On repeat this week (it’s a throwback!)

• Weekly prep action step: ‘me time’

I say this humbly but also with much pride… and that is…

I AM FINALLY STARTING TO MAKE MONEY AGAIN 😭🤑🙏

I’m celebrating this because, in 2022, I ended the year bringing in 110K€ in revenue through my business (The Quirky Pineapple Studio). That was THE MOST money I’ve ever made in my career and through my own business… 

With that huge success and milestone reached, I planned to scale the business and hire 2 more contractors to join our team in 2023.

Then in 2023, business started to rapidly decline. We lost half of our clients by April and then the other half by July… that’s a HUGE loss for a business with a small team and recurring business expenses. I was a bit delusional then and thought if I hung on, business would pick back up again even though I was seeing a fast-changing business and marketing landscape.

My partner who was doing our bookkeeping at the time saw the numbers and told me he needed to leave the business and look for a full-time job to bring some sort of financial stability for us… me, still being delusional, I kept thinking it wasn’t necessary. By the end of 2023, we only had 3 clients on retainer.

In 2024 I took an (accidental) sabbatical turned adult gap year and barely worked 😅 My partner offered to support me (by this time he had a full-time job) while I was trying to figure out WHAT I wanted to do with my life. I pulled from business savings with minimum client work to keep me afloat. I barely made any money in 2024 and honestly started to question if I even knew ‘how to do my job’ or ‘make money’ in general.

After an adult gap year filled with travel, seeing family, processing grief, creative hobbies, and healing from burnout… this year I started to put myself back out there and sell my services, as well as post online again.

And… it’s working. I’m certainly not bringing in the same amount of money (yet) as I was the past 3-4 years but I AM making money in ways that creatively fulfill me while also rebuilding my savings. To document this entire journey, I started making a “Money Diaries 💸” series on Instagram to share my monthly revenue and the streams that got me there.

Buuuut, I wanna get more transparent with you all in case others want to see what it’s like to build a business online and as a Creator - so while I will share my Money Diaries 💸 on IG, y’all get the full breakdown in this newsletter (hehe 🤭)

February’s Gross vs. Net Revenue

*Just a reminder that gross is before taxes and expenses and net is what I get to keep!

GROSS REVENUE = 5210,88€

• In-Person Event (journaling event I hosted in Toledo) → 45€

• Brand Sponsorship (late payment) → 45,88

• Education (new role as a professor & marketing group) → 1020€

• Marketing consulting (2 contracts) → 4100€

Where my clients came from:

• Repeat clients

• In-person connection made 7 years ago (remembered me thanks to sharing content on LinkedIn, brand positioning, and network connections)

• Ads on Instagram

• Referral (original referrer found me via LinkedIn)

• Pitching (this is for the brand sponsorship)

FEBRUARY EXPENSES = 711,63€

• Instagram boosted ads

• Materials & venue rental for my journaling workshop

• Accounting fees

• Freelancer registration fees in Spain

• Income tax (I usually set aside 20% from each month just in case)

• Cloud storage

• Internet & phone

• Canva

• A marketing membership

NET REVENUE = 4499,25€

Just want to add a disclaimer here that not all the cash has come in during February - revenue takes into account cash flow and sales. While I sold a few great packages in February, that cash will be coming in during March and other months because clients can choose a payment plan. This also doesn’t take into account how much I pay myself, this is strictly just for the business.

The goal for March is to grow the education arm of my business with my Plans to Progress Lounge membership 😍 and sell 2 more spots to the Signature Brand & Website Design + Copywriting Package I have with my friend Gaby.

I hope I did the math right for all of this 😂 sometimes I confuse myself reviewing numbers! Anywaaaay, I hope that this transparent breakdown helps give you a peek into what it’s like to come out of an adult gap year and start making money again and how important it is to set monthly money dates with yourself to review the numbers, especially if you’re freelancing or running your own business.

Honestly, this is what I would call practical self-care 💖

✍️ THIS WEEK’S JOURNALING PROMPT

Pick one of your goals for the next 30 days and write about how grateful you are to have achieved it and what life looks like now - write in the present tense (like it’s already happened) and be as detailed as possible.

💻 THINGS THAT STUCK OUT TO ME ON THE INTERNET

• CURRENTLY ON REPEAT: A huuuuge throwback to middle school, this song by Paramore has been on repeat the last few days!

• STATE OF THE UNION BREAKDOWN: I love this under 5min video from V of Under the Desk News which breaks down the State of the Union from the USA in very easy-to-follow terms and lots of fact-checking.

• SIMPLIFY NOTION WITH MY NOTION TEMPLATE: I finally put together a ‘what I call simple’ (😬) Notion Hub Template that houses all the main dashboards and hubs I use. You can duplicate it for yourself here!

🗓 PREPARING FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

🌻 GOODIES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

2025 NOTION SETUP 💻✨ how I use notion to organize my entire life (+ free template!)

I’m SO excited to share my 2025 simple Notion planning setup of my ‘Life Hub’! We’ve got a whole tour of my Notion set up and the pages that I use most often - from weekly tidy checklists, a business and marketing dashboard, my 2025 goals dashboard, and even how I keep track of the people in my life and stay intentional with maintaining friendships.

🤝 HOW TO WORK TOGETHER

Want to work together to create time and space for intentional connections? Here are a few ways to do that through marketing support, journaling, and education.

• ⭐ SIGNATURE BRAND & WEBSITE DESIGN + COPYWRITING PACKAGE: Get 2 brand strategists on your team to elevate your brand visuals, website, and messaging. We have 2 spots open in March to start. Learn more and apply here.

• 👀 WEBSITE AUDIT: DIYed your website copy and want to get an expert’s feedback and edits? Book a Website Audit and get feedback on what’s working and where to improve in just 2 weeks.

• 📓 PLANS TO PROGRESS MEMBERSHIP: Launching on 24th March!! A quarterly membership for big dreamers to intentionally plan each month with the accountability to transform your ideas into actionable steps and projects. (REPLY TO THIS EMAIL if you’d like to be added to the waitlist!)

March is kicking off to be a very packed month, my fault and doing but I love the energy this month brings! It’s Pisces Season, we’re about to start Spring, I celebrate my birthday all month long…

What’s not to love about this month?!

I’ll see you next week for another check-in. I hope the week ahead is joyful, creative, and sunny.

Until then…

💖 #stayfierce,
Cassandra