Keanu Never Steers Us Wrong

Today I remixed a Reel on Instagram that may or may not be a video of Keanu Reeves giving advice. I say “may” because there are some signs the voice at the very least has been created or altered using AI. What a time to be alive, amiright?

Regardless of who made the video or whether it is actually Reeves speaking I shared it because the advice is spot on. What he’s saying is, “walk through every open door”, or, take any opportunity that’s open to you. Don’t try beating on the closed doors but maximize the potential of the open doors. Click here to listen to Keanu's advice.

Recently I participated in a poll of entrepreneurs who were asked what is the most valuable trait an entrepreneur can have (and I would argue anyone, not just entrepreneurs). The answer according to the poll was “creativity”. I’m sorry, but that’s just bullsh*t. One of the possible answers and the correct answer in my opinion was “flexibility” and that is really tied with “perseverence”.

Creativity is great, don’t get me wrong. I’m very creative. However, it’s a double-edged sword. I am a little too creative… I get caught up in my love of creating things I want to make and sometimes forget to pay attention to the main objective for any business, which is offering things other people want and need. 

This can be an issue because other people frequently change their minds about what they want and need and also don’t answer honestly when asked about it. Looking back at last year,  I polled my audience as instructed by my business coaches about whether they would rather participate in a live challenge where I either demonstrated doll repair or one where I showed ways to quickly make money and start a business. The business challenge was the overwhelming favorite in the polls. So, I recorded a challenge and put together a course and… crickets. Exactly one person signed up for the challenge and they never participated. The course was a complete flop. I sold zero of them.

The idea of the challenges was to either get a doll repaired by Christmas or to make a bunch of money with side hustles to get a business started by Christmas. Since there was so little interest in the Christmas Cash Challenge I quickly pivoted and out together a doll challenge. 

The doll challenge was well-received and attended and I had enough sales to make it worth my time to the extent that it is now the Heirloom Doll Challenge and runs all year. The lesson I learned from this is, no matter what people say they want, I need to look at their actions to see what they really want and act accordingly. And if something’s not working out I need to quickly stop trying to break down that closed door and walk through the open door.

Of course, this can be hard to balance with another really important aspect of life, which is what you actually want to do. When you’re only reacting to what other people want you can quickly become enmeshed in a lifestyle or business you hate. This happened to me last year as well.

If you read this blog you know a couple years ago I learned about manifestation and living more intentionally and it changed my life in myriad ways. I read a book called The Silva Method and then joined MindValley and started a daily meditation practice. Not only was I able to get a diagnosis and treatment for the mysterious illness that plagued me for more than 20 years (Hashimoto’s Disease) but I started to find business and financial opportunities flowing to me in unexpected ways.

One of these was a French company who hired me to sell fashion on their new online live-selling platform called Jamble. Not only did they pay me but I could keep all the money I made during the sales! I signed up immediately and bought a tripod and dress rack and decorated my office so it would look pretty. Then I started doing the shows…

And I hated it. Nothing is wrong with Jamble; it’s a good platform; I just found out I hated live selling. It’s frantic and exhausting. The shows would last for hours and I would lose my voice and get all sweaty under the bright lights. Once the show starts sellers can’t change the pricing but even though I would warn viewers about that a thousand times and ask if they were ready for me to start the show, someone would always gum up the works demanding price changes in the chat after it started and argue with me when I said I couldn’t do it. I had to haul all my inventory out and iron everything and it messed up my catalog system so I have trouble finding things to this day. And frankly, fashion just doesn’t sell for very much money so you have to do a huge volume of sales to make it worthwhile. I tried another platform, Whatnot, that allows things other than fashion and did some doll shows but I hated that too and the sales weren’t worth the effort. Some people report making all kinds of money from live selling but it was the complete opposite of the hands-off business I’ve been working towards. Plus, my customers hated me even mentioning live sales. Every time I would send an email or post about an upcoming sale I would hemorrhage subscribers and followers. 

So I went back to the drawing board with my manifestations. I sat down and really focused my meditation on the lifestyle I want. And just a little while later I got a secret-shopper type offer that pays me for basically just existing and reporting my preferences. That’s all I can say about it because it’s secret! I also created some digital products and recently have been selling those. 

I posted a while back about how I make $25 on average every time I post a Reel on Instagram (and then more income forever as people watch older videos). Now that it’s 4th Quarter that’s creeping up toward $100 and about a third of that has been from digital products ~ considered “passive” income because you create them once and sell them on repeat with no further work. It should really be called residual income because you do have the work of marketing your products through Reels and other social media, but it’s still much easier than live selling, at least for me.

I’ve been thinking about creating a manifestation journal to teach my method, because it’s been really effective. Please let me know if that would interest you (but only if it would really interest you). You can also get my mindset training as part of my Digital Profits Genius course that teaches how to make and sell digital products for passive income. 

If dolls are your interest get my Doll University and Midcentury Doll books to learn doll repair.

I may also bring back my Fast Cash Fundamentals course, which teaches exactly how you can make money quickly and turn it into a business just as I did back in 1998. Drop me a line to let me know if that’s something you’d like (but again only if you actually want it!).

The main thing is to get crystal clear on your intentions and then look for the opportunities open to you. Don’t say “I want to make money”; say “I want to make $100 a day or $36,000 a year on a side hustle that doesn’t take away from my family or full-time job and that I enjoy”. Then keep your eyes open for ways you could do that.

Good ol’ Keanu has been giving us great advice ever since he told us to “Be excellent to each other”, which is honestly still the best advice for happiness I can think of!