What 40 Days of Showing Up Taught Me About Growth, Consistency + Making Money Online

What happens when you commit to showing up online for 40 days—even when you’re busy, tired, uninspired, or convinced a post isn’t going to work?

I just wrapped a 40-day content challenge with Jessi Jean, and I’m sharing what actually happened: 400+ new followers, nearly $3K in revenue, new brand opportunities, viral-ish posts…and some much bigger lessons about consistency, community, experimentation, and getting over the fear of being seen.

If you’re building something online or you simply need a little push to keep showing up—this episode is for you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, welcome to What's the Word. I'm your host, Jamie McFadden. I'm so excited to have you here. This podcast is all about faith, self-care, and the journey of parenthood. I will be interviewing some of the most inspirational people I know. So join me and let's grow together on What's the Word.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

I just posted every single day for 40 days, and I can't wait to share the results with you of what actually happened. Grab your shoes, lace them up, and let's hit the road. Welcome back to What's the Word. I'm your host, Jamie McFadden. What a gift and an honor it is to be here with you on this quick walk around the block type of podcast. Of course, if you are at the office or driving, you can listen to it anywhere. But I invite you to always try to get some movement when you can. So here is the deal. I decided to make a podcast about this because it's just been such a blessing, but also such a beautiful experiment. And I have been feeling the nudge for so long. I've been feeling this nudge of get laser focused, get laser focused in all areas of life. I've been feeling this very clear and direct signal message in conversation with God of like get it together, get it together, clear out what's under the bed. And in all areas of life, one by one, dial it in, get laser focused. And so I decided to join this challenge. I started doing a 60-day self-care challenge over 40 days ago. And it led me into this 40-day yap challenge that popped up and was everywhere all over social media. And I thought to myself, hmm, I'm curious, I'm interested, I'm intrigued. Well, I decided to jump right in and I posted every single day for 40 days. I want to share all the different things that I learned, but I also want to let you know that I walked away after these 40 days with a renewed set of eyes. And it's really important to share. When I went into this, I went into it knowing, okay, I am going to do everything I can to be accountable, to build community, to show up every day and put the work in, put the reps in, make the most out of every single bit. So I've been creating content, by the way, for years. I have taught, I've spoken, I've podcasted, I've built businesses and brands. I'm definitely not new to being on camera. So someone might say, like, why did you pay to join a challenge about posting? And it's amazing because sometimes the experience that we have can make us overcomplicate things. That's a huge lesson that I learned. And I too, just like probably you and everyone I've ever worked with, I wanted structure. I wanted accountability. I wanted to learn some new tools. I also wanted to have some fun and get out of my own way. And so I'm going to share with you the five lessons that I learned in a little more detail than I shared on social media. So, number one, the lesson I learned is posting is research. And you can use this actually in any area of your life where you're working on something and you're working on growing and building and learning. Posting is the research. This is probably the most practical business lesson that I learned. You could sit around and map out your goals, write out your pillars, your perfect hook, your ideal audience, go over and learn every algorithm strategy. There's so many techniques and tactics and all sorts of stuff out there. And you can also just post because every post that you make becomes information. Now, I'm not saying just post, you know, your coffee and what you're eating every day. I mean, if that's what you want to post, that's what you want to post. But I think it comes down to a little bit deeper. So I knew for me, what's most important for my audience and the people I want to connect with, because this is a business for me, is moms, women in business, brands that are aligned with faith and family, food, fun, travel, pets, like anything in that sphere is a world that I live in. And I think that if we can remember, all your posts become information. You start to track and look at the data, what gets shared, what goes into your DMs, what brings over the people that you actually are looking to connect with. So in this challenge, I gained over 400 followers, and most of them are moms and women in business. So it's not surprising because I knew going into it, okay, the things that I'm most interested in and the things that I want to share, and the things that I have the most experience and knowledge in are these subjects: motherhood, wellness, travel, all the things I just shared, faith, like this podcast. And so I thought, okay, let's just go all in. And that became much more meaningful to me than gaining a bunch of thousands of random followers that aren't really associated with any of that. So this helped me with less guessing and collecting more data. So that's my first one. Number two, this one almost everyone I know can't stand this. I don't mind it at all because I don't mind putting myself out there. But climbing cringe mountain, we hear it, we've probably you've probably heard that. Climb cringe mountain. What does that really mean? Well, if you want to be seen, you got to put yourself out there. And sometimes putting yourself out there can be incredibly uncomfortable. Being someone who's been posting for over a decade, it doesn't make you immune to that feeling of cringe. Trying something new can actually make you feel ridiculous, whether it's, you know, working on a different type of post, different style, whether it's talking directly to camera, whether it's singing, whether it's whatever it is, trying something new can make you feel a certain kind of way. And also many of us worry about, oh, our family didn't like, I hear this all the time. Our family didn't like our posts. Or I don't really rely on that. I look at it as I know my family cares about me and loves me, but they're not the ones buying my products. So it is very different. And I think it's really important to try something new, even if it makes you feel a little bit silly. And just be honest. Instead of just following the newest hooks or the newest trends, try talking directly to the camera as if it's you and me having a conversation or you and your best friend. Say that thing that you really actually believe in. So it's not just some prompt that someone told you to share about. Ask people to join you. Be direct. And every time that you do this, you're putting in another rep. So just like at the gym, if you're wanting to make changes in your life and you're exercising and changing your lifestyle habits, you're not going to necessarily notice the results tomorrow. But in a few tomorrows, you will start noticing and you will feel more comfortable and it will feel better. So the goal isn't to never be cringe. I would say the goal is to stop letting cringe make any kind of decision for you. I think being cringe is kind of cool. I've come to that realization many years ago, just being somebody that has always felt a little bit different. On that note, and when I say a little bit different, let's call it a little bit more colorful. That's how my therapist back in the day said, you're very colorful. It'd be so weird if you started just being more black and white. Next one is number three, simple can beat perfect. Done over perfect is another way I like to say this. This one, I will admit, on this challenge, it humbled me a little bit. I had two simple posts that neither one of them took me more than 10 minutes to make. One of them had over three or four hundred shares, and the other one had over 26,000 views. And then there were some that I spent a lot more time learning how to edit, add different sound effects, and this, that, and they were flops. Why? Because I don't know, but it just didn't resonate as much. So instead of feeling one kind of way about it, I just decided to try more things and see what sticks. And this is a very different way for me to create. It is authentic and honest, but it's also tapping into my creativity and letting that part of me just go and run with something instead of trying to fit in some sort of a box that maybe seems like it's, you know, what's trending or even the things that I learned in the challenge, like creating a series. I wanted to make sure I was posting every day. So I created this seven-day series. I think it's great, but I know the lighting wasn't perfect. The kids were banging on the door at one point, but I did spend time editing and I look back and I think, okay, that makes a lot of sense. Another one, last but not least, that I want you to think about. Well, not last but not least, two more. Discipline really did create freedom. This is something I hope that you will understand because this is every area of our lives. This is what I teach. This is the wave system. Discipline is freedom. Many of us think discipline means more pressure, but discipline is helping to reduce our own mental load. So things like setting a timer, make the thing, post the thing, make it revolve around your current lifestyle. And that really helped me. I don't want to be a lot of the times when I wanted to make yap videos, it just didn't work. It's summer. I have two kids and I didn't want to be on the phone the whole time. So I used a lot of B roll during the challenge, which was different than I intended. And now I'm excited to, as school starts, to get back on and do more of those things. And then just remember, let things go, move on, bless and release. As a mom building a business, I know myself, I cannot let one reel consume even one hour, quite frankly, and really keep showing up. The decision fatigue will usually start disappearing once we put the reps in enough. And the discipline will take away that daily negotiation of this or that. Do I post this? Do I do that? Do I hit send? Do I it just it helps very much? So freedom to experiment, freedom to just not be great at it, freedom to have fun, freedom to be present with my family instead of obsessing over trying to make something perfect. And then last but not least, secret sauce. And this is the same secret sauce that I use in everything I teach and everything that I do and everything that I believe, the ethos of not just my brand, but how I do my best to live my life is community, the village. That's the secret sauce. I definitely do not think that I would have had the same experience if I didn't immediately start building community in this last 40 days. So I'm gonna share exactly what I did with you because it was incredibly helpful. I am a behavior change specialist and I build community. So what did I do the minute that we were able to have access? There was no actual community in this program, but we had access to connect for a 24-hour period with one another. So what did I do? Jamie immediately started a group chat on Instagram. And I invited anyone that saw it to join the chat. And that became an accountability. And then I took that a step farther because we ended up having over 200 people in this one group and there were never as many groups started. And I decided to create a Monday momentum call. And that Monday momentum call has been so incredible. There have been laughter, dancing, tears, just so many beautiful moments, connections, collaborations. In fact, somebody from the challenge, Shelby, she posted this thing that made me baw my eyes out yesterday. And that was totally unexpected. But it just goes to show we don't know who is seeing and feeling the ripple effect of what we're putting out there. So I want to definitely say we can do hard things alone, but it doesn't mean that we have to where we're supposed to. So I think it's much better to connect with people, whatever you're doing today, connect with someone, be part of the village, be the village member that you want to see more of. And this was such a huge yes, heck yes, it was worth every bit of the investment. I want to give a huge shout out to Jesse Jean. If you don't know who she is, I would go follow her right now. She's a mom, she's pregnant with her second baby, she's a sweetheart. She has poured her heart and soul into this. She generated a massive launch, and it's just, it goes to show what is possible. And so for moms like me, it's really beautiful. So I also personally had some tangible ROIs that were really great. I got a couple new brand deals. I made a little extra cash. Uh, definitely an investment that I would happily make again. So I want to hear from you. I want to hear what you're working on in your life and how I can support you. And hopefully you can join the Monday Momentum call, 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. Check your time zone, please. And uh reach out to me. Hopefully, this reminds you if there's a challenge you've been looking at joining, whether it's a fitness or content, building a business. Um, there's actually, I'm gonna share with you, I have another challenge that I just joined because I'm now I'm in the zone and I want to keep it going. So on that note, thank you again for being a part of what's the word. Today, I am going to say our word, it is not from scripture, but the word challenge. Challenge yourself to make change in your life. Challenge yourself to be the change that you want to see. It takes effort, it takes patience, it takes discipline, it takes community. But when we show up and when we do that, we can embody the change that we wish to see. So thank you for listening. Thank you for being a part of this podcast. I, every single listener, I would love to hear from you so that I can personally get to know you. All right, have a beautiful day, and I'll talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Thank you for joining me here at What's the Word. Follow us on social media with the links on the screen. And don't forget to like and share with your friend. Your support helps us grow and continue to make inspirational content. See you next time on What's the Word.