Eleven years ago Reader, right around this date:

• I quit my prestigious law job and moved into my best friend's spare bedroom in Hollywood.
• I went from a $250K/year salary to.... nothing. No income, no jobs lined up, no plans.
• I had $100K saved up... and I owed $120K in studentloans.

I didn't know exactly what I wanted... I just knew that I couldn't do THAT life anymore... the one where I felt stuck and helpless, where I would always be answering to someone else's unreasonable demands, spending my vast creativity and intelligence on shit that didn't matter.

In today's email,

• 1️⃣ I'm summarizing my eleven-year journey (it's pretty epic) and
• 2️⃣ sharing a new podcast about the creative business decisions that allowed me to re-build a richer, more beautiful life.

1️⃣My 11-Year Journey

• 😴 In 2014 - I was depressed a lot. I took a lot of art classes. I did some contract work for my old law firm. I slept.

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• 🧶 In 2015 - I talked to a lot of people who had their own businesses. It started to feel vaguely possible. I tried a blog, then a knitting business and quickly realized those weren't going to work for me.

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• ✍️ In 2016 - I took a calligraphy workshop and the instructor told me she was making six figures from her business. This felt impossible but hey, she was sitting right in front of me, so maybe it WAS possible? I started Crooked Calligraphy, worked my butt off and made $0 profit.

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• 😃 In 2017 - I said yes to every calligraphy job that came my way. I made a profit of $25K that year. I worked two other jobs to make ends meet.

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• 👩🏻‍🏫 In 2018 - I launched my first calligraphy course. I continued showing up each day on Instagram and building my email list. I made six figures in revenue that year.

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• 😎 In 2019 - I invested $15,000 into a program that taught me to market and sell my online courses in a much more sophisticated way. That $15K investment led directly to over $200K in revenue that year.

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• 👩🏻‍💼 In 2020 - I invested $30K into a mastermind and leaned hard into scaling up my business. I hired employees, spent tens of thousands on facebook ads, welcomed thousands of new students into my calligraphy courses. We made almost $900K in revenue.

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• 😪 In 2021 - I invested $40K into coaching & consultants, to keep growing my business. I had to learn how to cope with the exponential growth, the increased exposure, the employees I was now responsible for. We did another $900K in revenue... but I felt off-kilter the whole time. Like I had built something I didn't quite want.

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• ❌ In 2022 - I did a final sale of my calligraphy courses and walked away from my business. Indefinitely. No plans to return. I took 8 months to sleep and play video games and do creative projects and binge-watch epic TV shows.

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• 🌟 In 2023 - 2024 - I decided to come back to my business, but in a different way. In the past two years, I've tested out new freebies, products, and ways of selling almost every single month... with the attitude of "let's try it and see". I've brought in $16K in revenue per month, doing things in a messy, organic, and experimental way. No programs or teachers telling me what to do. Just me figuring shit out. It's been hard and magical and I've grown incredibly as a person.

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❓Maybe you noticed the patterns?

1. I only started a business when other people showed me that success was possible.
2. I only grew when I invested in myself.
3. And to create a life where I get to grow closer and closer to my true self... I HAD TO TAKE RISKS.

This is the years of experience, the countless mistakes, the hundreds of thousands of dollars in business education that I pour into my Calligraphy Biz Course students.

✨🎉 That Course is $100 OFF right now - and if you enroll by this Sunday Oct 20, you get an invitation to join my "Holiday Sales Bootcamp" absolutely free.

This is a once-a-year opportunity to start your calligraphy business, with direct help from me and all of my business wisdom.

​💵 INVEST IN YOUR GROWTH​

.....start learning business from me, FOR FREE.. with this week's podcast episode👇

2️⃣ PODCAST: 3 Biz Mistakes I Made (so you don't have to!)

If I had understood these three things a little better. ... that would have saved me so much time, energy and money early in my biz.

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Together, they're a masterclass in business basics:

• Mistake #1: Thinking about myself more than my customer
• Mistake #2: Trying to do everything (w/o understanding WHY)
• Mistake #3: Almost giving up because it felt “harder” than I expected (spoiler alert: it's supposed to be hard, that's why it's so rewarding!)

I promise, if you work towards understanding these three principles, your business will succeed (without you losing your sanity)

​🎧🔴 LISTEN ON APPLE PODCAST​

​🎧🟢 LISTEN ON SPOTIFY​

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My whole mission is to help you believe that there is MORE out there. MORE that you are capable of. MORE opportunity. MORE than the little box we're taught to live in.

Take a step towards MORE today.

Shinah💕

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